In an open marketplace, where there are a lot of competitors, cutting supply would be a commercial suicide.
But the hard drive business we have today is an oligopoly business. After the rounds of M&A there are less than 5 serious contenders in the HD manufacturing business.
Cutting supply in such scenario has become a very possible option for the oligarchs.
I do agree with you that violence is indeed an innate part of human beings.
What I need to stress is, religion (and patriotism, and all other "ism" that unify a certain portion of the human society) does channel and amplify that innate violence deep within each of us and tip it over the critical mass.
First of all, not everybody on earth can legally buy every book that he or she wants.
Depending on which country that you live in, there are restrictions imposed, prohibiting people from buying the "banned" books.
And in some countries, the "banning" has reached the cyberspace... that is, not only you can't buy the dead-tree version of the book, you can't legally buy the ebook version, either.
Some of the government even installed bots watching over people who are on the Net.
For example, there are some books - if I want them - I can't get, from the place that I am staying right now.
They are not on display in brick and mortar bookstores. I can't place an order for them either.
And if I go online and try to pay and buy an ebook version (using my credit card) the bot may spot what I do and I may be invited for a cup of tea with some religious / political officials.
People in such position have two options:
1. Move out from that goddamn country
2. Download the pirated version
Option #1 seems obvious, but in some instances, not very practical. For family, business, or for whatever reason, people may not be so easily move from one country to the other.
Option #2, it's illegal, it's immoral, but then, government bots do not often watching over connections to the pirated sites.
I hope that the collaboration can focus in one aspect of old news...... even if it is not accurate... even if Past Events Are Not Necessarily Indicative Of Future Results
What I hope they will focus in is the possibility of violence caused by religion - no matter which religion, no matter how religion is defined
What if that chip got wiped in the middle of a very critical mission?
Current crop of chips made of silicon transistors don't have that problem, unless the force of electro-magnetic interference got so great that it fries the chips.
Other than the singer/songwriter type of musicians, many so-called "musicians" are merely tool handlers - their tool may be violin, maybe piano, or their vocal chords.
Composers are like the people who key in the data into a database
Musicians are like people reading from a database and then interpreting the dataset into something else
And the so-called "Musicians" want to be paid for doing that ??
How about us, the geeky programmers, the ones who made the database engines?
We got paid ***ONCE*** for building the databse engines.
And those Musicians?
They expect to get paid every-single-time someone else looked or listen to whatever interpretation they did from the dataset they got from the database?
I have a Lytro as well. I know that currently its limitations are so severe that have rendered the Lytro cameras to nothing but a novelty.
Its limitations right now are in the computational power --- it does take a whole lot more computational power to make it useful --- and the HORRENDOUS AMOUNT OF DATA to make it any useful.
But, I still have hope in this 3D imaging thing --- I do not see it as mere toy, I see a future link, in between 3D imagine and 3D printing, and beyond.
Currently, to gather data on 3D imagery we use technologies such as MRI, which in itself not really portable.
The concept behind the Lytro 3D camera may offer us a possible alternative.
First of all, there are a lot of reputable research labs in Europe.
Second of all, Graphene can be used in A WIDE RANGE OF DIFFERENT FIELDS, --- from medical research to electronics to military to environmental science --- smartphone is just _one_ of the many.
Personally I think many other research labs are more deserving of the research grant than Nokia.
... that if WSJ was really hacked, it was hacked from the inside --- after all, routing the hack to some servers in Ukraine or China doesn't take much effort at all.
Yes, that phone unlocking law is totally ridiculous.
That law suits North Korea much better than it does in America.
But the fact that this has happened in the United States of America says a lot about how the Americans themselves have changed.
It used to be that the congress critters were afraid of their constituents.
It used to be that those living inside (and the surrounding area) of Washington D.C. have to listen to the people living outside of that area.
No more.
Nowadays we have ridiculous laws being passed, without even a single objection from the public.
Nowadays the Americans are so complacent, that the congress (and the White House) get to do anything that they want to do, because they are not afraid of their constituents anymore.
The death of Mr. Aaron Swartz should not have happened in America.
America supposed to be a country where abusive officials do not get any foothole.
In fact, the birth of the United States of America was because the British government got too abusive, so much so that the people rose up and chased out the Brits.
I used to live in America in the 1960's till early 2000's, and I've witnessed the change myself.
Americans no longer care for freedom.
Americans no longer willing to fight for liberty.
In other words, America has withered.
Can someone please change the wording of the American national anthem ?
The one about "Land of the Free", "Home of the Brave", in more ways than one, no longer apply.
Solar energy is a great alternative energy source but the current technology for photovoltaic cells include too many rare earth elements that make them expensive and limit the amount of them that can be made.
Consider the amount of energy used to dig out the soil/rock that contains those rare earth minerals from the earth, the energy used to transport all the soil to the processing plant, the energy used to extract those rare earth minerals from the soil inside the processing plant, the energy used to dispose the waste materials, the energy to transport the refined mineral earth elements to yet another plant to be made into components that can be used on the PV modules, and so on...
If we factor in all the energy that had been used manufacture the PV modules, it's not that "cost effective" energy wise to employ PV modules to generate "renewable energy".
Renewable Energy can NEVER satisfy 100% of the total energy requirement to run the current human civilization.
However, if we deconstruct the way we use energy we would find that up to 80% of the energy we are using ended up in waste heat.
No matter it's in the industrial setting or electricity generation or even the fluorescent light bulbs that we are using right now, waste heat is generated.
If, and only if, we can get our technology to improve to the level that waste heat is minimized to, let's say 10% or less, then, we will see that we do not need that much energy input anymore.
This has a ripple effect... The less energy we need, the less load on the electricity grid and the less need to construct power plant... and so on...
On the other hand, there are a lot of "arts" that I have serious doubt. Such as this "art hack".
Just because this thing uses 25,000 individually addressable LED lights, doesn't make it "artsy".
Just because the thing runs from the person's laptop doesn't make it "art", either.
What is there to stop this from turning into a pissing contests ?
Someone-else gonna come up with yet-another-project using 35,000 individually addressable LED lights, or 45,000, or 55,000... since, "bigger is better", right?
If people still asking why... ask them to look at North Korea.
Facebook is a walled garden, and the "walled" part of a walled garden is just that, WALLED.
Which means, FB can do whatever it likes in its domain, just like the North Korean government can do whatever it likes within the sovereignty of North Korea.
They are accountable to nobody, and they do not have to answer to anything.
The country of North Korea does serve as an example to all freedom loving people that, when good people do nothing, evil triumphs.
What is happening now in North Korea could happen anywhere, and I mean, anywhere, including the US of A, if the Americans keep on giving up their God given rights in exchange for "peaceful society".
Slashdot Mirror
To say that only the blacks suffer from racism is ridiculous
And to say that because the blacks suffering from racism they can't be perpetrators of racism themselves is equally ridiculous
Not if you cut supply.
In an open marketplace, where there are a lot of competitors, cutting supply would be a commercial suicide.
But the hard drive business we have today is an oligopoly business. After the rounds of M&A there are less than 5 serious contenders in the HD manufacturing business.
Cutting supply in such scenario has become a very possible option for the oligarchs.
I do agree with you that violence is indeed an innate part of human beings.
What I need to stress is, religion (and patriotism, and all other "ism" that unify a certain portion of the human society) does channel and amplify that innate violence deep within each of us and tip it over the critical mass.
First of all, not everybody on earth can legally buy every book that he or she wants.
Depending on which country that you live in, there are restrictions imposed, prohibiting people from buying the "banned" books.
And in some countries, the "banning" has reached the cyberspace ... that is, not only you can't buy the dead-tree version of the book, you can't legally buy the ebook version, either.
Some of the government even installed bots watching over people who are on the Net.
For example, there are some books - if I want them - I can't get, from the place that I am staying right now.
They are not on display in brick and mortar bookstores. I can't place an order for them either.
And if I go online and try to pay and buy an ebook version (using my credit card) the bot may spot what I do and I may be invited for a cup of tea with some religious / political officials.
People in such position have two options:
1. Move out from that goddamn country
2. Download the pirated version
Option #1 seems obvious, but in some instances, not very practical. For family, business, or for whatever reason, people may not be so easily move from one country to the other.
Option #2, it's illegal, it's immoral, but then, government bots do not often watching over connections to the pirated sites.
I hope that the collaboration can focus in one aspect of old news ... ... even if it is not accurate ... even if Past Events Are Not Necessarily Indicative Of Future Results
What I hope they will focus in is the possibility of violence caused by religion - no matter which religion, no matter how religion is defined
I'm sure it will do mankind a lot of good ...
What if that chip got wiped in the middle of a very critical mission?
Current crop of chips made of silicon transistors don't have that problem, unless the force of electro-magnetic interference got so great that it fries the chips.
Composers create something out of nothing.
Musicians ?
Other than the singer/songwriter type of musicians, many so-called "musicians" are merely tool handlers - their tool may be violin, maybe piano, or their vocal chords.
Please remember, the data speed between the Chinese satellite and the ground stations is 20kbps or less.
I think the Chinese needs more time to download more data before they themselves can digest what exactly transpired during the flyby.
Unfortunately, geeks will remain as geeks, and geeks, to the critters on Congressional Hill, are like disposable diapers, and Dr. Chu is no exception.
No matter how much geeks have contributed to the society, the politicians will end up getting all the glory
Here is how I see it ...
Music sheet is like a database
Composers are like the people who key in the data into a database
Musicians are like people reading from a database and then interpreting the dataset into something else
And the so-called "Musicians" want to be paid for doing that ??
How about us, the geeky programmers, the ones who made the database engines?
We got paid ***ONCE*** for building the databse engines.
And those Musicians?
They expect to get paid every-single-time someone else looked or listen to whatever interpretation they did from the dataset they got from the database?
I have a Lytro as well. I know that currently its limitations are so severe that have rendered the Lytro cameras to nothing but a novelty.
Its limitations right now are in the computational power --- it does take a whole lot more computational power to make it useful --- and the HORRENDOUS AMOUNT OF DATA to make it any useful.
But, I still have hope in this 3D imaging thing --- I do not see it as mere toy, I see a future link, in between 3D imagine and 3D printing, and beyond.
Currently, to gather data on 3D imagery we use technologies such as MRI, which in itself not really portable.
The concept behind the Lytro 3D camera may offer us a possible alternative.
Why Nokia ?
First of all, there are a lot of reputable research labs in Europe.
Second of all, Graphene can be used in A WIDE RANGE OF DIFFERENT FIELDS, --- from medical research to electronics to military to environmental science --- smartphone is just _one_ of the many.
Personally I think many other research labs are more deserving of the research grant than Nokia.
Judge Koh knew that she has seriously fcuked up in the original trial.
This second round ruling - that Samsung does not "willfully" infringe on Apple's patents - is nothing less than a face saving move.
No matter where that cloud is stationed, putting stuffs that are sensitive in nature is never a good idea.
... that if WSJ was really hacked, it was hacked from the inside --- after all, routing the hack to some servers in Ukraine or China doesn't take much effort at all.
Yes, that phone unlocking law is totally ridiculous.
That law suits North Korea much better than it does in America.
But the fact that this has happened in the United States of America says a lot about how the Americans themselves have changed.
It used to be that the congress critters were afraid of their constituents.
It used to be that those living inside (and the surrounding area) of Washington D.C. have to listen to the people living outside of that area.
No more.
Nowadays we have ridiculous laws being passed, without even a single objection from the public.
Nowadays the Americans are so complacent, that the congress (and the White House) get to do anything that they want to do, because they are not afraid of their constituents anymore.
The death of Mr. Aaron Swartz should not have happened in America.
America supposed to be a country where abusive officials do not get any foothole.
In fact, the birth of the United States of America was because the British government got too abusive, so much so that the people rose up and chased out the Brits.
I used to live in America in the 1960's till early 2000's, and I've witnessed the change myself.
Americans no longer care for freedom.
Americans no longer willing to fight for liberty.
In other words, America has withered.
Can someone please change the wording of the American national anthem ?
The one about "Land of the Free", "Home of the Brave", in more ways than one, no longer apply.
Solar energy is a great alternative energy source but the current technology for photovoltaic cells include too many rare earth elements that make them expensive and limit the amount of them that can be made.
Consider the amount of energy used to dig out the soil/rock that contains those rare earth minerals from the earth, the energy used to transport all the soil to the processing plant, the energy used to extract those rare earth minerals from the soil inside the processing plant, the energy used to dispose the waste materials, the energy to transport the refined mineral earth elements to yet another plant to be made into components that can be used on the PV modules, and so on ...
If we factor in all the energy that had been used manufacture the PV modules, it's not that "cost effective" energy wise to employ PV modules to generate "renewable energy".
but here goes: all energy goes into heat. 100%.
That goes without saying.
But if you read what I wrote, you will see that word waste in front of the word heat.
For example, let us look at this link: http://www.asme.org/kb/news---articles/articles/automotive/using-waste-engine-heat-in-automobile-engines
Currently, up to 65% of the heat energy produced in internal combustion engines, whether gasoline or diesel, is wasted.
And this link: http://www.ehow.com/facts_5854602_heat-vs_-incandescent-light-bulbs.html
... about 30 percent of the energy powering a fluorescent light is wasted in heat
... and this link: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Waste_heat#Power_generation
The electrical efficiency of thermal power plants is defined as the ratio between the input and output energy. It is typically only 30%
There are a lot more similar figures that you can obtained from the Net.
Renewable Energy can NEVER satisfy 100% of the total energy requirement to run the current human civilization.
However, if we deconstruct the way we use energy we would find that up to 80% of the energy we are using ended up in waste heat.
No matter it's in the industrial setting or electricity generation or even the fluorescent light bulbs that we are using right now, waste heat is generated.
If, and only if, we can get our technology to improve to the level that waste heat is minimized to, let's say 10% or less, then, we will see that we do not need that much energy input anymore.
This has a ripple effect ... The less energy we need, the less load on the electricity grid and the less need to construct power plant ... and so on ...
I appreciate arts.
I appreciate arts that are meaningful.
Good music. Nice paintings. Beautiful sculptures.
Those are arts.
On the other hand, there are a lot of "arts" that I have serious doubt. Such as this "art hack".
Just because this thing uses 25,000 individually addressable LED lights, doesn't make it "artsy".
Just because the thing runs from the person's laptop doesn't make it "art", either.
What is there to stop this from turning into a pissing contests ?
Someone-else gonna come up with yet-another-project using 35,000 individually addressable LED lights, or 45,000, or 55,000 ... since, "bigger is better", right?
If FB was a simple website hosting some data, I'd agree. But it is the meeting place of 1 billion people, and we should have a say on what affects us.
You don't get no say.
Officially, you are a product that FB sells to their advertisers.
They need to heavily promote their devices to CEO ...
... it'll only work if the CEO doesn't already own an Apple iPhone and/or Samsung Galaxy
If people still asking why ... ask them to look at North Korea.
Facebook is a walled garden, and the "walled" part of a walled garden is just that, WALLED.
Which means, FB can do whatever it likes in its domain, just like the North Korean government can do whatever it likes within the sovereignty of North Korea.
They are accountable to nobody, and they do not have to answer to anything.
The country of North Korea does serve as an example to all freedom loving people that, when good people do nothing, evil triumphs.
What is happening now in North Korea could happen anywhere, and I mean, anywhere, including the US of A, if the Americans keep on giving up their God given rights in exchange for "peaceful society".
The Chinese are out to get us
If I were you, I'll be more worried about Uncle Sam