Actually, this is a pretty cool idea -- there's not a chance anyone's going to say anything less interesting than stuff that would come from the Gov't. So hey, keep it coming!
Unless those people were carefully selected, vetted, and choreographed by the government to be the blandest, most politically correct, most non-offensive Swedish people in all of Sweden (In that case, all bets are off, and you'll probably just want to kill yourself after five minutes of exposure to their feed).
And in a tit-for-tat retaliatory move, since India may be blocking large for-profit campaign-contributing US corporations, the US (either through treaty or through an executive order) will start imposing economic sanctions back on India and will start blocking the phone lines and the ip addresses (from the US) of the more influential non-US corporations that are based in India.
In all probability, homeless people will follow the same distribution curve as everyone else. That would imply that 2% of all homeless people have an IQ of 148 or above (UK's IQ scale, use your local Mensa entry requirement to figure out what's equal to that) and that 30.9% would be able to complete a degree program if given the opportunity.
That's a big assumption you're making. Homeless people may be high school drop outs, mentally ill, alcoholics, drug-addicts, criminals on the run, illegal immigrants, and some of them may already be college graduates.
Now, the median income of people with a bachelor's degree was 40K in 2009. That's the 25% tax bracket. So, the government is losing 10K per year per person who could have a degree but doesn't, which works out to $6.18 billion just from lost income tax revenue.
Do we really have shortage of college graduates? Most jobs out there (the non-technical ones at least) can be done by kids no older than 15 years old. Most employers require college degrees as a way to weed out the pile of resumes. If we make sure everybody gets a bachelor degree, then won't the college degree itself become worthless?
Learn to write in one year through a free interactive web site, and get a job at CNN. That's what I did!! Even billionaire-politician Michael Bloomberg, my hero, is learning his letters as we speak. Rumor has it, he'll become a proficient Bloomberg journalist by next week. - Rushkoff
And now Microsoft is trying to do the same, but totally wrong way. As they get second glass idea for GUI (Metro) and what was designed for smartphone (does not work so well when starting to add more functions and applications... the Zune interface does not work and Metro start screen is hard to understand) and they slaps it to desktop computers and tablets....
To be fair to Metro, even Microsoft is not abiding by its own Metro guidelines.
If it were, the company brand names and the icons wouldn't have taken over the Metro icons or the Metro actions. It's like the people that came up with Windows Metro started out with some really great ideas about usability, but then were all suddenly killed and replaced by the marketing and the branding people.
It's like the 'Program files' folder interface all over again, but this time it''s just on smaller phone screen real estate.
Your proof-by-denial viewpoint is a bit slanted. Windows PCs have always had fragmentation, but was this ever a problem in their case?
And what about the other problem, that the development cycle of iOS is just too damn slow versus the development cycle of Android? As a consumer, I much prefer having access to the latest technology early (assuming I'm willing to pay for it), than having to wait for Apple to ensure that no one is left behind (even their latest iPhone 4S is already far behind because of that).
There is nothing new in the article, simply attributing the same (largely imaginary) "diseases" to a different activity.
I don't know anything about other diseases and I admit that the "testicular heating" you mentioned sounds made up (although, I don't know anything about that one either), but are you saying that the carpal tunnel syndrome (which is one of those "repeated motion injuries") is also one of those imaginary diseases? If you do, please provide one link from anyone who believes carpal tunnel syndrome is made up. I'm not asking you for multiple sources, or even a reliable source, I'm asking you to provide a single link to someone that even questions this (aside from yourself). It can even be a non-doctor if you like. I just did a quick search on google and didn't find anyone myself.
Fifteen years ago, I also started experiencing the beginning symptoms of carpal tunnel syndrome in my right hand, and no I didn't even have insurance or worker's comp at the time (I had just gotten out of school and I was working as a temporary admin employee), but luckily I was able to reverse the symptoms completely by changing all my habits and all my computer accessories (both at work and at home, plus I also switched to using the left hand for a few months). I've also had known several people that had been in excruciating pain because of carpal tunnel syndrome and that had to have surgery (so the fact that I saw them go through this process made me very cautious not to be caught in the same thing). And I'm not a doctor, but perhaps the inflammation created in the wrist could be verifiable by a third party through X-ray or something (may be a Doctor or a nurse on slashdot could chime in???).
In any case, right now fifteen years later, I'm an independent mobile developer, I own several phones and several tablets, and I also started getting cramps in my hands and fatigue in some of my joints because of all the touchscreens I've repeatedly been using (it didn't get as bad as fifteen years ago and it did not affect my wrist, but I could easily see how something like this could worsen). Thankfully, this was just the result of all the games I've been playing and all the manga I've been reading, not of the actual work I've been doing, so it was fairly easy for me to just quit doing those things, and all of it just went away. But please do not take my own examples the wrong way. As someone as cautious as I am and as free as I am to customize my environment the way I want (even when I was a temp), my circumstances are going to be vastly different from someone who works in a factory setting, or a low level worker who works constantly with a touchscreen for data input (with a proprietary device that can not really be changed), or even someone who doesn't know any better about modifying his/her habits as soon as potential symptoms show up.
So for me, I wholeheartedly believe that some of those diseases are not made up, and that those articles repeating the same thing can be just plain good old preventative medicine. And if you still don't believe me, try to ask a doctor, or try to speak with actual people that have been affected by this. I'll bet you anything that you'll be able to find some people that didn't have insurance or workers comp, or anything else that would help, and that really couldn't benefit from having such a condition in the first place.
And then the taxing part is plain and simply dumb. You can't control corporations, but that the government actively deters local production? That's like shooting yourself in the foot and wondering why it hurts.
The UK and the West as a whole (I'm entirely sure that the UK is not a special case here) should be ashamed.
I'm don't know much about taxes, so please someone correct me I'm saying something completely stupid, but I always thought that the VAT (Value Added Tax) that many European countries have would disfavor small businesses in favor of very large businesses.
After all the VAT is a compounding tax, and if a large business owns a big chunk of its own supply chain, that means it can probably avoid paying that tax dozens of times (if not hundreds of times) for every step it can refine its product without having to go through a third party.
Doesn't anyone know if my hunch is correct? or if I'm missing something?
Has any single PC vendor ever controlled that much of the Windows market?
May be near the beginning? With Android, we're still just at its beginning as well. Just wait for the Chinese low-cost manufacturers to get in the fray. They're just starting to. And let's not forget the carriers, if any more money is to be made, the carriers will want a piece of it, and in that sense, the carriers have a lot more power than the manufacturers -- they're the ones who control the distribution channel.
But with books, music, software... It can be copied the day it's released. And every copy is an exact perfect duplicate. My copy is just as good as another persons copy.
That's not exactly true.
When given a choice, people usually try to get the work from the original source. It's far more likely to be up-to-date and unaltered that way. It's far more likely that the original creator will answer their questions or clarifications that way. For software, it's far more likely to be more up-to-date, contain less bugs, and work in a networked fashion (since many times, the server-side can be made an intrinsic part of the application itself).
Also, people prefer to go the concerts of the original musicians who created the work. They'll hire the original authors who wrote a particular computer programming book. And generally speaking, whether it is for self-interest or for moral reasons, they'll try to support financially the original source (instead of trying to support the guys who just did the copying without any value-added).
The Android tablets with both pen touch and capacitive touch are slowly coming out.
Those are by no means perfect yet, and they can't replace the keyboard completely, but the early adopters that use them seem to be successfully using them for taking notes. I predict that those types of tablets will have a huge impact on the mobile tablet market.
I'm frankly surprised that you can still type in thepiratebay.org in the U.S. and still get anything other than "Sorry, this site has been blocked by your ISP due to legal requirements." Hell, I'm surprised it's still even legal to show it in a search engine.
You can thank the US Supreme court for that. They're the ones that explicitly ruled against this practice. At the time, it was a tracker that was placed on trial for linking to torrent files, but the tracker won the case, to the US Supreme court, linking is considered free speech. Although, this didn't prevent the US government from pressuring foreign States to do internet blocking in the mean time (through various treaties and executive orders).
TV maker Vizio is famous for undercutting competitors' prices on LCD TVs...
Is Vizio famous for that? Is Vizio famous for anything (other than chart creation software)? On Best Buy, they seem to be listed for a DVD about the Rose Bowl, a single blue-ray player, and a single TV remote control, all at average (or above average) prices.
It seems a/. editor has just been fooled by a Press Release.
Two weeks ago it was the iPad, today it's gamification. I wonder what it is going to be tomorrow?
Colleges and Universities have survived and adapted to the introduction of the Guttenberg press, the public library, the personal computer, and even the Internet, but now that the concept of gamification is around -- their days are numbered? This claim doesn't make a lot of sense.
This statement implies that (1) colleges and universities can not copy/adapt the practice themselves, (2) that the online concept of badges can not be cheated or gamed, (3) that the concept of gamification is going to be equally effective in all areas of education and on all web sites, and (4) that gamification is so freaking effective and disruptive -- it's probably even more disruptive than the printing press itself -- it's going to take over the World !!
To all of that, I say BS.
Colleges and universities are indeed in an existential crisis right now (which no doubt will shape them in different ways), but this was the case long before youtube or gamification even came along.
Mr. Mitchell was not; 1. "deported" His job ended so he probably no longer had a valid work visa
His job didn't just end. He was fired (and wasn't allowed to finish the month).
And yes, that's what "deported" means, that your visa suddenly gets invalidated and that your'e no longer welcome in the country. I'm not sure why your'e even bringing up this circular argument.
And yes, you can still be "deported", even if you have to drive yourself unescored to the airport. Just like you can still go to a prison you were sentenced to, even if you have to drive yourself (or have a friend drive you) unescorted to that prison. Coercive force doesn't have to be direct. It only needs to be implied.
2. "forced to flee" [...] He could have refused and stayed until he something happened.
The guy had just videotaped a police man shoot a peaceful protester in the back (unless you don't believe that part either). This is not to mention what happened to some of the non-teaching staff members who were rounded up at the school and then taken to an undisclosed location that following day (and who the hell knows what happened to them after that).
For such a guy who's just been fired and advised to leave the country as soon as possible, and seen some of his colleagues disappear already, it really doesn't get more coercive than that. This isn't Hollywood, you do not play lawyer with a country who doesn't have due process and you do not try to play chicken with people who do not value human lives.
How about a little truth in reporting. The issue is bad enough as it is without throwing falsehoods on top.
That's your interpretation, not mine. Is that the only two falsehoods you've detected so far?
His favorite was always Apple. Pixar was his second favorite. His actual daughter came a distant third. His daughter should consider herself lucky if she got a 1GB iPod shuffle from the estate.
I think they were referring to this (and you're right, disconnection does not mean blocking)
Disconnection, in particular, is very unpopular, with only 16% in favor and 72% of Americans opposed. Among that 16%, most (58%) would drop their support if it meant disconnecting households rather than individuals—which it does. Informed support for disconnection, accordingly, is under 10%.
But I'm not sure how you could describe the language below as harsh? Isn't this what SOPA is about? Large-scale blocking?
What if efforts to block infringing files and links to infringing content also result in the blocking of some legal content (as has been the case with all large-scale efforts to blacklist sites or filter content to date)? In this case, support for blocking infringing materials drops sharply. Overall, 57% oppose blocking in this case; 36% support it.
Slashdot Mirror
Actually, this is a pretty cool idea -- there's not a chance anyone's going to say anything less interesting than stuff that would come from the Gov't. So hey, keep it coming!
Unless those people were carefully selected, vetted, and choreographed by the government to be the blandest, most politically correct, most non-offensive Swedish people in all of Sweden (In that case, all bets are off, and you'll probably just want to kill yourself after five minutes of exposure to their feed).
And in a tit-for-tat retaliatory move, since India may be blocking large for-profit campaign-contributing US corporations, the US (either through treaty or through an executive order) will start imposing economic sanctions back on India and will start blocking the phone lines and the ip addresses (from the US) of the more influential non-US corporations that are based in India.
In all probability, homeless people will follow the same distribution curve as everyone else. That would imply that 2% of all homeless people have an IQ of 148 or above (UK's IQ scale, use your local Mensa entry requirement to figure out what's equal to that) and that 30.9% would be able to complete a degree program if given the opportunity.
That's a big assumption you're making. Homeless people may be high school drop outs, mentally ill, alcoholics, drug-addicts, criminals on the run, illegal immigrants, and some of them may already be college graduates.
Now, the median income of people with a bachelor's degree was 40K in 2009. That's the 25% tax bracket. So, the government is losing 10K per year per person who could have a degree but doesn't, which works out to $6.18 billion just from lost income tax revenue.
Do we really have shortage of college graduates? Most jobs out there (the non-technical ones at least) can be done by kids no older than 15 years old. Most employers require college degrees as a way to weed out the pile of resumes. If we make sure everybody gets a bachelor degree, then won't the college degree itself become worthless?
And the risk involved in doing something like that and releasing it all as source code makes even less sense.
If you believe in security through obscurity, then yes that would make no sense to you.
Learn to write in one year through a free interactive web site, and get a job at CNN. That's what I did!! Even billionaire-politician Michael Bloomberg, my hero, is learning his letters as we speak. Rumor has it, he'll become a proficient Bloomberg journalist by next week.
- Rushkoff
Lean to spel, get a job as a slasdot editor!
I smell a marketing campaign targeted against Google. Yahoo is powered by Bing. DuckduckGoo also powered by Bing.
Technically, DuckDuckGo is powered by 32 different search engines (not just one).
And Bing is powered by Google, so it's coming full circle.
And now Microsoft is trying to do the same, but totally wrong way. As they get second glass idea for GUI (Metro) and what was designed for smartphone (does not work so well when starting to add more functions and applications... the Zune interface does not work and Metro start screen is hard to understand) and they slaps it to desktop computers and tablets....
To be fair to Metro, even Microsoft is not abiding by its own Metro guidelines.
If it were, the company brand names and the icons wouldn't have taken over the Metro icons or the Metro actions. It's like the people that came up with Windows Metro started out with some really great ideas about usability, but then were all suddenly killed and replaced by the marketing and the branding people.
It's like the 'Program files' folder interface all over again, but this time it''s just on smaller phone screen real estate.
Your proof-by-denial viewpoint is a bit slanted. Windows PCs have always had fragmentation, but was this ever a problem in their case?
And what about the other problem, that the development cycle of iOS is just too damn slow versus the development cycle of Android? As a consumer, I much prefer having access to the latest technology early (assuming I'm willing to pay for it), than having to wait for Apple to ensure that no one is left behind (even their latest iPhone 4S is already far behind because of that).
Cool. Thank you, and thanks to everyone else who also answered my question. That cleared it up for me.
There is nothing new in the article, simply attributing the same (largely imaginary) "diseases" to a different activity.
I don't know anything about other diseases and I admit that the "testicular heating" you mentioned sounds made up (although, I don't know anything about that one either), but are you saying that the carpal tunnel syndrome (which is one of those "repeated motion injuries") is also one of those imaginary diseases? If you do, please provide one link from anyone who believes carpal tunnel syndrome is made up. I'm not asking you for multiple sources, or even a reliable source, I'm asking you to provide a single link to someone that even questions this (aside from yourself). It can even be a non-doctor if you like. I just did a quick search on google and didn't find anyone myself.
Fifteen years ago, I also started experiencing the beginning symptoms of carpal tunnel syndrome in my right hand, and no I didn't even have insurance or worker's comp at the time (I had just gotten out of school and I was working as a temporary admin employee), but luckily I was able to reverse the symptoms completely by changing all my habits and all my computer accessories (both at work and at home, plus I also switched to using the left hand for a few months). I've also had known several people that had been in excruciating pain because of carpal tunnel syndrome and that had to have surgery (so the fact that I saw them go through this process made me very cautious not to be caught in the same thing). And I'm not a doctor, but perhaps the inflammation created in the wrist could be verifiable by a third party through X-ray or something (may be a Doctor or a nurse on slashdot could chime in???).
In any case, right now fifteen years later, I'm an independent mobile developer, I own several phones and several tablets, and I also started getting cramps in my hands and fatigue in some of my joints because of all the touchscreens I've repeatedly been using (it didn't get as bad as fifteen years ago and it did not affect my wrist, but I could easily see how something like this could worsen). Thankfully, this was just the result of all the games I've been playing and all the manga I've been reading, not of the actual work I've been doing, so it was fairly easy for me to just quit doing those things, and all of it just went away. But please do not take my own examples the wrong way. As someone as cautious as I am and as free as I am to customize my environment the way I want (even when I was a temp), my circumstances are going to be vastly different from someone who works in a factory setting, or a low level worker who works constantly with a touchscreen for data input (with a proprietary device that can not really be changed), or even someone who doesn't know any better about modifying his/her habits as soon as potential symptoms show up.
So for me, I wholeheartedly believe that some of those diseases are not made up, and that those articles repeating the same thing can be just plain good old preventative medicine. And if you still don't believe me, try to ask a doctor, or try to speak with actual people that have been affected by this. I'll bet you anything that you'll be able to find some people that didn't have insurance or workers comp, or anything else that would help, and that really couldn't benefit from having such a condition in the first place.
And then the taxing part is plain and simply dumb. You can't control corporations, but that the government actively deters local production? That's like shooting yourself in the foot and wondering why it hurts.
The UK and the West as a whole (I'm entirely sure that the UK is not a special case here) should be ashamed.
I'm don't know much about taxes, so please someone correct me I'm saying something completely stupid, but I always thought that the VAT (Value Added Tax) that many European countries have would disfavor small businesses in favor of very large businesses.
After all the VAT is a compounding tax, and if a large business owns a big chunk of its own supply chain, that means it can probably avoid paying that tax dozens of times (if not hundreds of times) for every step it can refine its product without having to go through a third party.
Doesn't anyone know if my hunch is correct? or if I'm missing something?
Has any single PC vendor ever controlled that much of the Windows market?
May be near the beginning? With Android, we're still just at its beginning as well. Just wait for the Chinese low-cost manufacturers to get in the fray. They're just starting to. And let's not forget the carriers, if any more money is to be made, the carriers will want a piece of it, and in that sense, the carriers have a lot more power than the manufacturers -- they're the ones who control the distribution channel.
But with books, music, software... It can be copied the day it's released. And every copy is an exact perfect duplicate. My copy is just as good as another persons copy.
That's not exactly true.
When given a choice, people usually try to get the work from the original source. It's far more likely to be up-to-date and unaltered that way. It's far more likely that the original creator will answer their questions or clarifications that way. For software, it's far more likely to be more up-to-date, contain less bugs, and work in a networked fashion (since many times, the server-side can be made an intrinsic part of the application itself).
Also, people prefer to go the concerts of the original musicians who created the work. They'll hire the original authors who wrote a particular computer programming book. And generally speaking, whether it is for self-interest or for moral reasons, they'll try to support financially the original source (instead of trying to support the guys who just did the copying without any value-added).
The Android tablets with both pen touch and capacitive touch are slowly coming out.
Those are by no means perfect yet, and they can't replace the keyboard completely, but the early adopters that use them seem to be successfully using them for taking notes. I predict that those types of tablets will have a huge impact on the mobile tablet market.
I'm frankly surprised that you can still type in thepiratebay.org in the U.S. and still get anything other than "Sorry, this site has been blocked by your ISP due to legal requirements." Hell, I'm surprised it's still even legal to show it in a search engine.
You can thank the US Supreme court for that. They're the ones that explicitly ruled against this practice. At the time, it was a tracker that was placed on trial for linking to torrent files, but the tracker won the case, to the US Supreme court, linking is considered free speech. Although, this didn't prevent the US government from pressuring foreign States to do internet blocking in the mean time (through various treaties and executive orders).
...and some government bean-counter pulled the dirty-rag hypothesis straight out of their derriere so they could sign off on this one and go home.
You mean, he went with suggesting this specific error, because he didn't want to blame anyone else than Lockheed Martin.
Finally, they've perfected the giant iPad with a keyboard, and a bunch of accessories, without any wires whatsoever (not even for electricity).
TV maker Vizio is famous for undercutting competitors' prices on LCD TVs...
Is Vizio famous for that? Is Vizio famous for anything (other than chart creation software)? On Best Buy, they seem to be listed for a DVD about the Rose Bowl, a single blue-ray player, and a single TV remote control, all at average (or above average) prices.
It seems a /. editor has just been fooled by a Press Release.
Two weeks ago it was the iPad, today it's gamification. I wonder what it is going to be tomorrow?
Colleges and Universities have survived and adapted to the introduction of the Guttenberg press, the public library, the personal computer, and even the Internet, but now that the concept of gamification is around -- their days are numbered? This claim doesn't make a lot of sense.
This statement implies that (1) colleges and universities can not copy/adapt the practice themselves, (2) that the online concept of badges can not be cheated or gamed, (3) that the concept of gamification is going to be equally effective in all areas of education and on all web sites, and (4) that gamification is so freaking effective and disruptive -- it's probably even more disruptive than the printing press itself -- it's going to take over the World !!
To all of that, I say BS.
Colleges and universities are indeed in an existential crisis right now (which no doubt will shape them in different ways), but this was the case long before youtube or gamification even came along.
Mr. Mitchell was not;
1. "deported" His job ended so he probably no longer had a valid work visa
His job didn't just end. He was fired (and wasn't allowed to finish the month).
And yes, that's what "deported" means, that your visa suddenly gets invalidated and that your'e no longer welcome in the country. I'm not sure why your'e even bringing up this circular argument.
And yes, you can still be "deported", even if you have to drive yourself unescored to the airport. Just like you can still go to a prison you were sentenced to, even if you have to drive yourself (or have a friend drive you) unescorted to that prison. Coercive force doesn't have to be direct. It only needs to be implied.
2. "forced to flee" [...] He could have refused and stayed until he something happened.
The guy had just videotaped a police man shoot a peaceful protester in the back (unless you don't believe that part either). This is not to mention what happened to some of the non-teaching staff members who were rounded up at the school and then taken to an undisclosed location that following day (and who the hell knows what happened to them after that).
For such a guy who's just been fired and advised to leave the country as soon as possible, and seen some of his colleagues disappear already, it really doesn't get more coercive than that. This isn't Hollywood, you do not play lawyer with a country who doesn't have due process and you do not try to play chicken with people who do not value human lives.
How about a little truth in reporting. The issue is bad enough as it is without throwing falsehoods on top.
That's your interpretation, not mine. Is that the only two falsehoods you've detected so far?
They should be able to sell those dolls in the US, as long as the doll is seen as some kind of parody of Steve Jobs and of his latest biography.
His favorite was always Apple. Pixar was his second favorite. His actual daughter came a distant third. His daughter should consider herself lucky if she got a 1GB iPod shuffle from the estate.
I think you're confusing their pay-per-view movie rental service with their youtube service.
I think they were referring to this (and you're right, disconnection does not mean blocking)
Disconnection, in particular, is very unpopular, with only 16% in favor and
72% of Americans opposed. Among that 16%, most (58%) would drop their
support if it meant disconnecting households rather than individuals—which it
does. Informed support for disconnection, accordingly, is under 10%.
But I'm not sure how you could describe the language below as harsh? Isn't this what SOPA is about? Large-scale blocking?
What if efforts to block infringing files and links to infringing content also result in
the blocking of some legal content (as has been the case with all large-scale efforts
to blacklist sites or filter content to date)? In this case, support for blocking
infringing materials drops sharply. Overall, 57% oppose blocking in this case; 36%
support it.