Yes. In Canada healthcare is provided by the provinces, based on federal grants on a yearly basis. Public opinion polls regularly show it to be the strongest supported social benefit provided in Canada. Unfortunately we're trying to provide health care in CAD $ but based on US technology, so our dollar exchange is hurting our adoption of new technology. Also, we've had problems in the past of high quality surgeons fleeing to the US since their rates are capped by the federal government since they're guaranteed salary.
Some things are not covered, like optional surgey, medications, and some quality-of-life coverage. However, other social agencies can provide support to those truly in need (although even these a struggling).
I believe national health coverage is our biggest expense, even coming ahead of defense, education, and infrastructure.
Lots of national debate on allowing privitisation of some sectors. People are afraid that this will result in 2-tier health care. Other ideas are charging nominal service fees to curb abuse (e.g. $5 a doctor's visit). For people with wealth, they have the option of going to the US to short-cut long lines for specialised service, especially relating to cancer therapy. In some cases as a Canadian citizen you are eligible for some compensation.
By no means a perfect system, but I prefer it to alternatives in other countries such as England and the US. I'd rather spend 30% of our GDP on healthcare than on a military budget.
Okay, I'm contributing to the random anti-MS FUD here, but I am seriously worried. Standardisation can provide lots of benefits, agreed. However, how many footholds does Microsoft have into the standards space right now. I can see the requirements..."We absolutely MUST have MS Office...and it only runs on Windows"...or "Outlook has the largest enterprise deployments as an e-mail infrastructure in the world, so we should start with that as a base".
So by starting with something inocuous, it can really snowball. We've all been on projects where the MS rep directly sells his wares to the business, and then you're caught having to integrate the stuff. How hardcore do you think they, or their hardware shills (HP) will market this stuff?
For an organisation as unwieldy as a government military institution, how much due diligence do you think will take place? How will total cost of ownership be factored in? What metrics for "secure" would actually exist?
Whoops...did I accidentally reconfigure our company's performance testing environment load generators to point outbound to the internet instead of inbound? I hope somebody can sustain 2000 additional user sessions per minute...:)
Oh yeah, well i have the Infinite Gauntlet, so there! Actually, no, wait, I'm the Anti-Monitor so there! No, wait a sec -- no, actually, I'm Dr Manhattan...
The problem with comic book universes is that they're always trying to one-up the past and come up with the REAL ultimate threat. Take a took at the X-Men. Magneto was the real badass mutant...but hold on, if you think HE was bad, just wait until you tangle with the Hellfire Club. Whoops, never mind...those Sentinels are even WORSE...except, well, for that Mutant Massacre thingy with Mr Sinister.
Once there is a digital copy on a PC, whatever timebomb exists to limit viewing to 24 hours can be stripped. It might take some time for hackers to develop something, but it will happen. The risk here is that $3.99 is a reasonable price compared to DVD/VHS rentals, but is it really enough to cover the bandwidth/hosting costs for a popular title from a service provider perspective? 700 mb in the 1mbit bit cap world (e.g. any high speed in canada now it seems) will take some time to download, also, from a consumer perpsective. This sounds like a really good option, but I'm still skeptical if it's got the right price point/features to be successful... also, all it needs to be is hacked once and then kazaa/bearshare/limewire/etc will get you all the free copies you need.
With all due respect, it sounds more like an Ebay problem more than anything else. Paypal is just the money handler...they're no better or worse than a bank or a credit card company in this case. The negative feedback to the company will add up over time...eBay is most effective since it manages itself via the herd mentality. Still doesn't mean you got burned on a good deal, though.
..carried out on a Delorean? Seriously, there's the obvious Back to the Future refernece, this experiment, and I remember several early solar powered car experiments being conducted with Deloreans. The car hasn't been built in *years*...surely it's easier to grab a 2nd hand Honda Civic than find some vintage 80s sportscar and retrofit it. Maybe it's the "coolness" factor...plus they can't afford Ferraris.
I would rather read here on Slashdot that there is a hack "in the wild", so that I can educate myself and defend myself. The chances that a script-kiddie would learn of this via google or astalavista or newsgroups before I do -- since they have an active interest -- is much more likely. If i didn't read about it here, the next chance I would have would probably be a) mainstream media discovery (unlikely), or b) via the next set of patches released via Windows Update or identified by CNET's catchup utility. And we all know how responsive MS is to security breaches...
A rough estimate that keeps getting repeated to me is that an employee costs the company 3x his salary. This includes his salary, corporate tax, rent on space, facilities, HR people to support him, benefits, managerial oversight, pension contributions, etc etc. So if you figure an average developer is getting paid $50k a year, and that is costing the company $150k in total costs, are you really saving that much money if you buy WordPerfect office suite for $500/seat instead of MS Office Professional for $1000 or $1500?
Also, capital costs (such as software) can be depreciated over time to realise tax savings for a company whereas an employee is a cost centre -- he costs the same each month and will until he leaves. Most of the new economy ideas were bunk, but the concept that the people are important is true...they end up costing the company much more long term.
Finally, say you're buying a large enterprise product like Peoplesoft or a portal or MS exhcange for 10,000 users. How many people, no matter how efficient the product is, are going to be required to support that product throughout a year? How much consulting time? Even after a $10 million web platform deployment at my company, I can comfortably say that by end-of-life that we will have paid much more in labour costs to support it than the physical or software costs in total.
I never really understood the value of Mountain Dew, despite it's popularity on the internet for late night hackers/gamers etc. Then, reading the Caffeine FAQ, I realise that in Canada Mountain Dew does not contain any caffeine! In the US it's one of the most caffeinated beverages available, here it's one of the least. Oh, BTW, a cup of coffee still has 3x the caffeine of a can of pop, and there is no difference between a cup of expresso and a cup of coffee.
I'm lazy. Goto CNET.com and download the catchup utility. It will scan your drives and files and identify reuqired updates and security patches. Oh, and provide you with the links to the microsoft support site too so you don't have to go looking for them.:)
If OS/X is as good as people are saying, then it appears to be light-years ahead of Linux as far as a desktop OS goes. Here's my question -- how difficult would it be to port a version over to the Intel platform? There is obviously a much bigger hardware base to tap, and with the backing of Mac it may just be the alternative to Windows that we all crave. True, it's a closed system and strongly regulated by Mac, but I trust Apple at this point much more than Microsoft. I won't go and buy a new Macintosh, but I would consider experimenting (and buying!) an alternative OS if it is as good as everyone says.
I'm glad I'm not the only one who noticed this. Their continual lack of focus on Linux is ridiculous. "We're the industry standard trade paper, but with this hot new technology coming out we're going to ignore it for the most part because it seems immature and challenges the status quo." What type of trade paper could normally survive ignoring the latest/greatest technology? Think 1995 -- "we're not going to cover DVDs since 95% of the market consists of VHS tapes". I felt particularly dirty once they started giving OS/X favourable reviews...years after slagging Macs, but coincidentally shortly after Microsoft "blessed" the platform as the only viable alternative to Windows. Ignoring software, consider these OSes: OS/2, AmigaOS, Linux, Windows9x/NT. Which of these is worst for stability, cost, and compatibility?
Sounds like Y2k. Now THAT was a serious threat, but by the time the event came there had been enough publicity that every company did their due-dilligence. If Win95 was running traffic lights, pacemakers, etc there would be enough homogenity and flaky code to make me a bit nervous, but otherwise...i have a perpetual motion engine to sell you.
You missed the point. The question was about foreign jurisdiction was between American and Italian law. The question posed was role-reversal, Americans circumventing Italian law. Your point would be more valid if this was a France - Canada argument and someone jumped in with an opinion of Americans.
I interpreted the article as the AGPx8 port would be integrated and used by the onboard graphics chipset. I don't think it will be coming with an open AGP slot, but then again it's just a motherboard spec so I guess it can be modified by other manufacturers. Of course, what would be the point...hence my joke..
Why do I feel like i'm in a state of chronic historisis? Dr Who is going to be revived...no its not...it's coming back...not its not...Fox has optioned a series....no its not...
Slashdot Mirror
Yes. In Canada healthcare is provided by the provinces, based on federal grants on a yearly basis. Public opinion polls regularly show it to be the strongest supported social benefit provided in Canada. Unfortunately we're trying to provide health care in CAD $ but based on US technology, so our dollar exchange is hurting our adoption of new technology. Also, we've had problems in the past of high quality surgeons fleeing to the US since their rates are capped by the federal government since they're guaranteed salary.
Some things are not covered, like optional surgey, medications, and some quality-of-life coverage. However, other social agencies can provide support to those truly in need (although even these a struggling).
I believe national health coverage is our biggest expense, even coming ahead of defense, education, and infrastructure.
Lots of national debate on allowing privitisation of some sectors. People are afraid that this will result in 2-tier health care. Other ideas are charging nominal service fees to curb abuse (e.g. $5 a doctor's visit). For people with wealth, they have the option of going to the US to short-cut long lines for specialised service, especially relating to cancer therapy. In some cases as a Canadian citizen you are eligible for some compensation.
By no means a perfect system, but I prefer it to alternatives in other countries such as England and the US. I'd rather spend 30% of our GDP on healthcare than on a military budget.
Okay, I'm contributing to the random anti-MS FUD here, but I am seriously worried. Standardisation can provide lots of benefits, agreed. However, how many footholds does Microsoft have into the standards space right now. I can see the requirements..."We absolutely MUST have MS Office...and it only runs on Windows"...or "Outlook has the largest enterprise deployments as an e-mail infrastructure in the world, so we should start with that as a base".
So by starting with something inocuous, it can really snowball. We've all been on projects where the MS rep directly sells his wares to the business, and then you're caught having to integrate the stuff. How hardcore do you think they, or their hardware shills (HP) will market this stuff?
For an organisation as unwieldy as a government military institution, how much due diligence do you think will take place? How will total cost of ownership be factored in? What metrics for "secure" would actually exist?
I believe the following are already taken: - "Kilroy was here" - "Frodo lives" - "Eternity" "WAREZ HERE" though is still available.
Whoops...did I accidentally reconfigure our company's performance testing environment load generators to point outbound to the internet instead of inbound? I hope somebody can sustain 2000 additional user sessions per minute... :)
This has to be a slashdot first -- a string of 4 post, 3 direct replies, all modded 3+.
Never thought I'd see a score of 3 to a post of "Blaaah! Blaah! Blululululululu badoo boo! BOO!"
Yes, but it was only a piece of fantasy movie making at best. Remember, Brad Pitt's character said "Hey hey hey, how is this Legal!?!!".
Oh yeah, well i have the Infinite Gauntlet, so there! Actually, no, wait, I'm the Anti-Monitor so there! No, wait a sec -- no, actually, I'm Dr Manhattan...
The problem with comic book universes is that they're always trying to one-up the past and come up with the REAL ultimate threat. Take a took at the X-Men. Magneto was the real badass mutant...but hold on, if you think HE was bad, just wait until you tangle with the Hellfire Club. Whoops, never mind...those Sentinels are even WORSE...except, well, for that Mutant Massacre thingy with Mr Sinister.
Once there is a digital copy on a PC, whatever timebomb exists to limit viewing to 24 hours can be stripped. It might take some time for hackers to develop something, but it will happen. The risk here is that $3.99 is a reasonable price compared to DVD/VHS rentals, but is it really enough to cover the bandwidth/hosting costs for a popular title from a service provider perspective? 700 mb in the 1mbit bit cap world (e.g. any high speed in canada now it seems) will take some time to download, also, from a consumer perpsective. This sounds like a really good option, but I'm still skeptical if it's got the right price point/features to be successful... also, all it needs to be is hacked once and then kazaa/bearshare/limewire/etc will get you all the free copies you need.
With all due respect, it sounds more like an Ebay problem more than anything else. Paypal is just the money handler...they're no better or worse than a bank or a credit card company in this case. The negative feedback to the company will add up over time...eBay is most effective since it manages itself via the herd mentality. Still doesn't mean you got burned on a good deal, though.
..carried out on a Delorean? Seriously, there's the obvious Back to the Future refernece, this experiment, and I remember several early solar powered car experiments being conducted with Deloreans. The car hasn't been built in *years*...surely it's easier to grab a 2nd hand Honda Civic than find some vintage 80s sportscar and retrofit it. Maybe it's the "coolness" factor...plus they can't afford Ferraris.
I went for a low-tech version of this event.
Knock knock
"Anybody home?"
Try door.
"This one's locked, next house!"
Nicky nicky nine doors is fun...except for the old codger sitting on his front porch on a rocker with a shotgun full of rock salt...
I would rather read here on Slashdot that there is a hack "in the wild", so that I can educate myself and defend myself. The chances that a script-kiddie would learn of this via google or astalavista or newsgroups before I do -- since they have an active interest -- is much more likely. If i didn't read about it here, the next chance I would have would probably be a) mainstream media discovery (unlikely), or b) via the next set of patches released via Windows Update or identified by CNET's catchup utility. And we all know how responsive MS is to security breaches...
1st rule of entertainment: Always leave them wanting for more.
e.g. Well executed: Monty Python, The Beatles, Led Zeppelin, Bill Watterson, Gary Larson
e.g. Poorly executed: The X-Files, AC/DC, Metallica, Charles Shultz, Microsoft
A rough estimate that keeps getting repeated to me is that an employee costs the company 3x his salary. This includes his salary, corporate tax, rent on space, facilities, HR people to support him, benefits, managerial oversight, pension contributions, etc etc. So if you figure an average developer is getting paid $50k a year, and that is costing the company $150k in total costs, are you really saving that much money if you buy WordPerfect office suite for $500/seat instead of MS Office Professional for $1000 or $1500?
Also, capital costs (such as software) can be depreciated over time to realise tax savings for a company whereas an employee is a cost centre -- he costs the same each month and will until he leaves. Most of the new economy ideas were bunk, but the concept that the people are important is true...they end up costing the company much more long term.
Finally, say you're buying a large enterprise product like Peoplesoft or a portal or MS exhcange for 10,000 users. How many people, no matter how efficient the product is, are going to be required to support that product throughout a year? How much consulting time? Even after a $10 million web platform deployment at my company, I can comfortably say that by end-of-life that we will have paid much more in labour costs to support it than the physical or software costs in total.
I never really understood the value of Mountain Dew, despite it's popularity on the internet for late night hackers/gamers etc. Then, reading the Caffeine FAQ, I realise that in Canada Mountain Dew does not contain any caffeine! In the US it's one of the most caffeinated beverages available, here it's one of the least. Oh, BTW, a cup of coffee still has 3x the caffeine of a can of pop, and there is no difference between a cup of expresso and a cup of coffee.
I'm lazy. Goto CNET.com and download the catchup utility. It will scan your drives and files and identify reuqired updates and security patches. Oh, and provide you with the links to the microsoft support site too so you don't have to go looking for them. :)
If OS/X is as good as people are saying, then it appears to be light-years ahead of Linux as far as a desktop OS goes. Here's my question -- how difficult would it be to port a version over to the Intel platform? There is obviously a much bigger hardware base to tap, and with the backing of Mac it may just be the alternative to Windows that we all crave. True, it's a closed system and strongly regulated by Mac, but I trust Apple at this point much more than Microsoft. I won't go and buy a new Macintosh, but I would consider experimenting (and buying!) an alternative OS if it is as good as everyone says.
I'm glad I'm not the only one who noticed this. Their continual lack of focus on Linux is ridiculous. "We're the industry standard trade paper, but with this hot new technology coming out we're going to ignore it for the most part because it seems immature and challenges the status quo." What type of trade paper could normally survive ignoring the latest/greatest technology? Think 1995 -- "we're not going to cover DVDs since 95% of the market consists of VHS tapes". I felt particularly dirty once they started giving OS/X favourable reviews...years after slagging Macs, but coincidentally shortly after Microsoft "blessed" the platform as the only viable alternative to Windows. Ignoring software, consider these OSes: OS/2, AmigaOS, Linux, Windows9x/NT. Which of these is worst for stability, cost, and compatibility?
Sounds like Y2k. Now THAT was a serious threat, but by the time the event came there had been enough publicity that every company did their due-dilligence. If Win95 was running traffic lights, pacemakers, etc there would be enough homogenity and flaky code to make me a bit nervous, but otherwise...i have a perpetual motion engine to sell you.
You missed the point. The question was about foreign jurisdiction was between American and Italian law. The question posed was role-reversal, Americans circumventing Italian law. Your point would be more valid if this was a France - Canada argument and someone jumped in with an opinion of Americans.
I interpreted the article as the AGPx8 port would be integrated and used by the onboard graphics chipset. I don't think it will be coming with an open AGP slot, but then again it's just a motherboard spec so I guess it can be modified by other manufacturers. Of course, what would be the point...hence my joke..
What? No open AGPx4 (or x8) port for my ATI 8500? ;)
Why does it sound like California's energy plan is some crazed mixture of Sim City and an RTS?
:)
"Quick Bob, move those two engines to San Jose quick."
"No, wait, power outage in Anahiem. Undo, undo!"
"I can't move it fast enough!"
"Lasso all the Amtracks and use your hotkeys!!!!"
Look at all of the valuable life skills computer games teach us!
Why do I feel like i'm in a state of chronic historisis? Dr Who is going to be revived...no its not...it's coming back...not its not...Fox has optioned a series....no its not...
Check out my favorite list: http://update.windows.com Obvious, yes, but as all good comedians say "know your audience"... :)