Microsoft brought desktop computing to the home user.
That's a major contender for the overstatement of the decade. Desktop computing came to the home user from Apple, Atari, Commodore, IBM, Texas Instruments, Tandy, HP, and many, many other vendors. Microsoft was the OS vendor left standing after the big shakeout, and they gained their current position by catching IBM's fumble. Crediting them with creating the market is a bit of a stretch.
Anytime an activity is funded involuntarily, it's going to be a political issue. This is the case whether we're talking about whether or not to fund medical research, or whether to teach science or religion in public schools.
The moral question here isn't whether stem cell research will lead to life-saving cures or whether it's killing babies, the question is whether it's OK for the federal government to take money from us forcibly, and then spend it on any activity that's not within its enumerated powers that we granted to it in the constitution.
Isn't there some kind of common-sense law which prohibits especially large amounts like this to be handed down to individuals?
There's language in the bill of rights that prohibits "excessive fines". This is a civil action though, so it's back to court to figure out whether an excessive award in a civil case is also prohibited.
It seems that I touched a nerve, anonymous spinbot. No fewer than five ACs jumped on my comment to try to distance Andersen Consulting from Enron, trying to gloss over the fact that the auditors and the IT consultants both did quite a bit of work at Enron over the years before that train wreck became apparent. So, you dodged the bullet: congratulations. I still wouldn't trust you to write an accounting system for a burger stand, let alone a major stock exchange.
They actually had to fire some people because they discovered they were never at their desk, but produced code. It was discovered they contracted their own jobs out to someone in India to do.
The people in India were probably better coders than the AA clowns.
I wouldn't trust them as far as I could throw Steve Ballmer. They were a separate company by the time Enron got busted. That doesn't mean they're clean.
It's unclear whether self-replicating "nanobots" are even possible to engineer, let alone possible to engineer in the next 50 years
Well, there is the existence proof of bacteria and other microbes. Whether we can make equivalent machines remains to be seen, but there's no physical law preventing it.
Except that's exactly what main-stream economists are saying is what needs to be done.
Yes, those would be the geniuses who not only failed to predict the collapse, but are prescribing precisely the same failed policies that didn't work for the USA in the 1930s or Japan in the 1980s. Hell, Krugman actually advocated a housing bubble to avoid the effects of the internet bubble. The so-called "mainstream economists" of today are like the mainstream of the medical profession in the 1700s, when they routinely bled a patient to death to try to treat tuberculosis or pneumonia.
Go and read up on Ludwig Von Mises' theory of the business cycle. What the government is doing now is precisely the worst thing they can do; they're interfering with the necessary liquidation of failed businesses and reallocation of resources to productive uses. This current crisis could be over as quickly as the crash of 1920, or it could get turned into a decades-long depression like the crash of 1929 did. So far, Obama and the congress are following the Hoover-Roosevelt playbook exactly.
Heh.. I've had a few people try to get me to sign crap like that, and the only argument they could make is "but it's the standard contract! Everyone here signed it!"
As President, Obama has been neutered, by the Yellow Dogs.
Say what?
Obama's neutered all right, but it's not by any constituency in the party. He's bought and paid for by the lobbyists, just like he was as a senator. That's why he's all about handing out hundreds of billions of dollars in corporate welfare schemes.
Rassumussen reports the relationship of positive to negate opinions. When disapproval exceeds approval, the person in question is in the negative range.
Somehow the United States will adjust to equitably assigning the monetary cost of pollution to the products people consume.
You're funny. Cap-and-trade, if it passes, will be yet another patchwork of privileges and exemptions that the congress will slice and dice for bribes from lobbyists, just like any other part of the Internal Revenue Code.
The economic crisis was the product of brain-dead management practices driven by short-term greed and insufficient regulation to prevent it.
Do the words "Federal Reserve" mean anything to you? We have no shortage of regulation; we were regulated right into this mess, the same way the Soviets regulated their economy into the collapse of their empire.
it has become his responsibility to try and revive the American economy.
Really? Where does it say that in the constitution? I don't see "managing the economy" among the enumerated powers granted to the executive.
It could take years before we can really get a good idea of whether it was the right decision or not
Not at all. We're at the end of a bubble, and Obama's only idea is to try to re-inflate it. That only delays and worsens the correction. You can't solve a debt crisis with more debt.
I could talk about a few other areas where Obama is making a difference - e.g. Foreign policy.
Guess again. Better rhetoric, same or worse actions. Increases in the military budget, more troops in Afghanistan, backpedalling like crazy on troop reductions in Iraq, and of course he wants to keep doling out taxpayer money to bribe other countries to do what he says. It's the same old policy.
Slashdot Mirror
I use Keynote. It saved my life. If I'd had to do one more WWDC presentation with Powerpoint, I'd have shot myself.
-jcr
Microsoft brought desktop computing to the home user.
That's a major contender for the overstatement of the decade. Desktop computing came to the home user from Apple, Atari, Commodore, IBM, Texas Instruments, Tandy, HP, and many, many other vendors. Microsoft was the OS vendor left standing after the big shakeout, and they gained their current position by catching IBM's fumble. Crediting them with creating the market is a bit of a stretch.
-jcr
Try reading it. There are 17 enumerated powers. Controlling medical research and turning our lives into political issues isn't among them.
-jcr
Anytime an activity is funded involuntarily, it's going to be a political issue. This is the case whether we're talking about whether or not to fund medical research, or whether to teach science or religion in public schools.
The moral question here isn't whether stem cell research will lead to life-saving cures or whether it's killing babies, the question is whether it's OK for the federal government to take money from us forcibly, and then spend it on any activity that's not within its enumerated powers that we granted to it in the constitution.
-jcr
Isn't there some kind of common-sense law which prohibits especially large amounts like this to be handed down to individuals?
There's language in the bill of rights that prohibits "excessive fines". This is a civil action though, so it's back to court to figure out whether an excessive award in a civil case is also prohibited.
-jcr
I'm sure Enron employed consultants from several other companies aswell.
The difference is that those other companies weren't managed by former partners of the AA crooks.
Like I said, congratulations on dodging the bullet, but it's still bloody stupid to trust you.
-jcr
It seems that I touched a nerve, anonymous spinbot. No fewer than five ACs jumped on my comment to try to distance Andersen Consulting from Enron, trying to gloss over the fact that the auditors and the IT consultants both did quite a bit of work at Enron over the years before that train wreck became apparent. So, you dodged the bullet: congratulations. I still wouldn't trust you to write an accounting system for a burger stand, let alone a major stock exchange.
-jcr
They actually had to fire some people because they discovered they were never at their desk, but produced code. It was discovered they contracted their own jobs out to someone in India to do.
The people in India were probably better coders than the AA clowns.
-jcr
I wouldn't trust them as far as I could throw Steve Ballmer. They were a separate company by the time Enron got busted. That doesn't mean they're clean.
-jcr
We've got a contract with Accenture at work
What company is that? I want to short your stock.
-jcr
; the application was developed in joint by Accenture AND Microsoft.
"Accenture"? You mean Andersen Consulting? The people that you'd have to be a complete idiot to do business with after the Enron disaster?
-jcr
It's unclear whether self-replicating "nanobots" are even possible to engineer, let alone possible to engineer in the next 50 years
Well, there is the existence proof of bacteria and other microbes. Whether we can make equivalent machines remains to be seen, but there's no physical law preventing it.
-jcr
Extracting oxygen's all well and good, but even if we do that, would there be enough atmosphere on Mars to make it livable?
-jcr
I would if you deserved any better.
-jcr
It is bald stupidity or complete intellectual dishonesty
How do you walk with that stick up your ass?
-jcr
Will there be people who copy the fiction and commit murder? Sure. They're mentally unstable and would find some other reason to do it anyway.
Got that right. "Hey, let's play Abraham and Isaac! I'll tie you up, and god will stay my hand just before I cut your throat!"
-jcr
Kids pointing their fingers at each other and yelling "bang!" are simulating murder. So what?
Hundreds of millions of kids play cops and robbers or cowboys and indians, and never hurt anyone at all.
-jcr
Except that's exactly what main-stream economists are saying is what needs to be done.
Yes, those would be the geniuses who not only failed to predict the collapse, but are prescribing precisely the same failed policies that didn't work for the USA in the 1930s or Japan in the 1980s. Hell, Krugman actually advocated a housing bubble to avoid the effects of the internet bubble. The so-called "mainstream economists" of today are like the mainstream of the medical profession in the 1700s, when they routinely bled a patient to death to try to treat tuberculosis or pneumonia.
Go and read up on Ludwig Von Mises' theory of the business cycle. What the government is doing now is precisely the worst thing they can do; they're interfering with the necessary liquidation of failed businesses and reallocation of resources to productive uses. This current crisis could be over as quickly as the crash of 1920, or it could get turned into a decades-long depression like the crash of 1929 did. So far, Obama and the congress are following the Hoover-Roosevelt playbook exactly.
-jcr
Heh.. I've had a few people try to get me to sign crap like that, and the only argument they could make is "but it's the standard contract! Everyone here signed it!"
-jcr
Ok, that makes electric cars a whole lot more interesting. It might even make manned electric aircraft feasible.
-jcr
As President, Obama has been neutered, by the Yellow Dogs.
Say what?
Obama's neutered all right, but it's not by any constituency in the party. He's bought and paid for by the lobbyists, just like he was as a senator. That's why he's all about handing out hundreds of billions of dollars in corporate welfare schemes.
-jcr
How does an approval rating go negative?
Rassumussen reports the relationship of positive to negate opinions. When disapproval exceeds approval, the person in question is in the negative range.
-jcr
Somehow the United States will adjust to equitably assigning the monetary cost of pollution to the products people consume.
You're funny. Cap-and-trade, if it passes, will be yet another patchwork of privileges and exemptions that the congress will slice and dice for bribes from lobbyists, just like any other part of the Internal Revenue Code.
-jcr
Wow. That information doesn't surprise me, but it's a bit of a jolt to see it laid out in such detail.
-jcr
The economic crisis was the product of brain-dead management practices driven by short-term greed and insufficient regulation to prevent it.
Do the words "Federal Reserve" mean anything to you? We have no shortage of regulation; we were regulated right into this mess, the same way the Soviets regulated their economy into the collapse of their empire.
it has become his responsibility to try and revive the American economy.
Really? Where does it say that in the constitution? I don't see "managing the economy" among the enumerated powers granted to the executive.
It could take years before we can really get a good idea of whether it was the right decision or not
Not at all. We're at the end of a bubble, and Obama's only idea is to try to re-inflate it. That only delays and worsens the correction. You can't solve a debt crisis with more debt.
I could talk about a few other areas where Obama is making a difference - e.g. Foreign policy.
Guess again. Better rhetoric, same or worse actions. Increases in the military budget, more troops in Afghanistan, backpedalling like crazy on troop reductions in Iraq, and of course he wants to keep doling out taxpayer money to bribe other countries to do what he says. It's the same old policy.
-jcr