Under "pure" capitializm, people decide what their time/skills are worth and sell an amount of time/skill for a price. There is no sacrifice, it is a choice and a transaction. Our current system is distorted and skewed by laws, taxes, and regulations. Not all are bad but ANY tax (and everthing the government does buy definition is a tax) will distort a free market.
I understand what you are saying but think about this:
Democracy is the worst form of government, except for all the others.
Capitalism is the worst way of allocating resources, except for all the others.
There will always be a bell curve. Some people-corporation-government-country will always have more than another.
Pure capitalism is the only form of government/society that acknowledges that people, at a fundamental level will operate in their own best, self-interest. All governments do is interfere with you and I agreeing on the price for something that one has and the other wants.
I do acknowledge that the modern corporate/special interest structure can create "evil" but I believe that for the most part, the current cure (more government) is worse than the disease!
Consider this: If we did not have 2X the tax burdan our previous generation had, would both parents have to work to maintain the same standard of living the parent had? Is the 50% effective tax rate wer have(taxes, fees, licenses, permits, etc., etc.) made your life better or worse than 25 years ago?
But I agree, most of it is repetitive. Every time I start a new project, I think, "Oh crap, I have to do this AGAIN!?!?" How is that different from the p0rn?
I put a 750GB in my TivoHD not so much for the power savings but the noise reduction. I cannot hear the drive from 1'. It is fast enough for two HD streams. the power savings is nice as it is running 24x7 in the living room. My only complaint is they are only a 3-year warranty whereas Seagate is 5-year. I put it on my AMEX so I get one extra year. Drive was inexpensive at $150 from NewEgg.
Oops, I stand corrected. the iPhone does have WiFi. I can't have one because of work contracts and I don't want multiple phones. I did not research the details on the iPhone.
I prematurely elaborated... sorry...
I still want both Bluetooth and Wifi in my non-iPhone, non-Touch, non crippled PDA device.
I have done my homework and read countless reviews. That is why I have not bought either an iPhone or Touch.
That is also why if Stevie boy wants to sell me a true PDA for $300-500 he needs to have the features I listed to have me as a customer. I know what the size of a Touch and iPhone is, and I know that the iPhone does not have WiFi and the Touch does. I know the iPhone has bluetooth and the touch doesn't. I want both, is that ok with you? The Newton had a PCMCIA slot, why should this new device not have one. Maybe Apple should lock down the "Macintosh Experience" also...
I don't want a locked down device, if it runs OSX I want third party apps. I want stock charts via WiFi from prophet.net, that requires Java. I was a PDF reader from Adobe. I want to be able to write a Python or Java or JPython or Common Lisp or whatever app myself. I want a microphone to record my brilliant thoughts or maybe make a Skype phone call.
I don't need Apple to define my experiences, I have the government for that! Thanks for your Fanboi explanation though, I'm sure you know better than me about everything!
I was trying to have my wife's Vista Home Premium back up to my XP machine (RAIDed). The share is available for read/write but the Vista backup program wants an account, I have tried "Administrator" as well as a new backup group account on the XP machine but no joy. This is just a workgroup environment, no domain.
The article mentions a new design for a concentrator that only uses two motors. To quote the article -
"Then, in a weekend flash of inspiration, a young Caltech physics grad named Kevin Hickerson figured out how to reduce the number of motors needed to move 25 mirrors independently, a major cost factor. Instead of two motors for each mirror - the traditional approach - Hickerson's solution requires only two motors for any number of mirrors. The key is a mathematical curve known as the conchoid of Nicomedes (named for the ancient Greek mathematician, who discovered it). A grid of ball bearings arrayed to match the conchoid is attached to a frame inside the Sunflower. As the motors move the frame, the bearings control each mirror's position individually."
I have been unable to locate a more detailed explanation of the system and I'm not sure if this basic math is patentable. My advanced math skills are very rusty and I'm not quite sure where to start to understand this. I have an idea that this technique might be useful and I want to understand how to design such a frame. I did look at the concentrator page here: http://www.sandia.gov/pv/docs/PVFarraysConcentrato r_Collectors.htm but it was not much help.
These articles as well also have some implications for the benefits of a simple energy source:
I want to understand how to make a spreadsheet or something that would allow me to input number mirrors, focal length, size and it tell me shape, size a location of pivots. Can you explain it to someone who hasn't touched calculus in 18 years? I want to build a cheap one on my roof!
WASHINGTON, DC - Congress is considering sweeping legislation, which provides new benefits for many Americans. The Americans With No Abilities Act (AWNAA) is being hailed as a major legislation by advocates of the millions of Americans who lack any real skills or ambition.
"Roughly 50 percent of Americans do not possess the competence and drive necessary to carve out a meaningful role for themselves in society," said Senator Barbara Boxer. "We can no longer stand by and allow these non-abled people to be ridiculed and passed over. With this legislation, employers will no longer be able to grant special favors to a small group of workers simply because they do a better job, or have some idea of what they are doing".
Boxer pointed to the success of the US Postal Service, which has a long- standing policy of providing opportunity without regard to performance.
Approximately 74 percent of postal employees lack job skills, making this agency the single largest US employer of non-abled persons.
Private sector industries with good records of nondiscrimination against the non-abled include retail sales (72%), the airline industry (68%), and home improvement "warehouse" stores (65%). Boxer noted that the DMV of her home state of California also has a great record of hiring Persons of Inability (63%).
Under the Americans With No Abilities Act, more than 25 million "middle man" positions will be created, with important-sounding titles but little real responsibility, thus providing an illusory sense of purpose and performance for the Non-abled.
Mandatory non-performance-based raises and promotions will be given, to guarantee upward mobility for even the most unremarkable employees. The legislation provides substantial tax breaks to corporations which maintain a significant level of non-abled persons in middle positions, and gives a tax credit to small and medium businesses that agree to hire at least one clueless worker for every two talented hires.
Finally, the AWNA ACT contains tough new measures to make it more difficult to discriminate against the non-abled, banning discriminatory interview questions such as "Do you have any goals for the future?" or "Do you have any skills or experience which relate to this job?"
"As a non-abled person, I can't be expected to keep up with people who have something going for them," said Mary Lou Gertz, who lost her position (as a lug-nut twister at the GM plant in Flint, MI) due to her lack of notable job skills. "This new law should really help people like me." With the passage of this bill, Gertz and millions of other untalented citizens can finally see a light at the end of the tunnel.
Added Senator Ted Kennedy, "It is our duty as lawmakers to provide each and every American citizen, regardless of his or her adequacy, with some sort of space to take up in this great nation."
Disclaimer - I used to work for Philips. I'm still using a Series 1 Tivo that has been seriously upgraded. I own some Tivo stock.
Tivo has been compared to the VCR and with that logic, does not deserve patent protection. I disagree and believe that Tivo did innovate and does deserve patent protection.
What Tivo did first:
1) Downloadable program guide - Before Tivo, the only automated way to record was VCR+. It was lame and with TV Guide print deadlines 3-4 week before publish date it was shaky.
2) Digital recording - Though I agree that substituting a hard disk for a tape (media) may not deserve a patent, Tivo was the first successful use of mass market MPEG-2 recording. My tivo was 20 hours at first, this was an exponential leap. Tivo took open-source code (Linux), developed proprietary code and hardware, a dial-up infrastructure and made it work. They also, to the best of my knowledge, have honored the GPL and released their GPL tainted code back.
3) User interface - don't even try to tell me this is derivative of any VCR interface that exists today. Tivo's GUI is 6 years old and it still works well.
4) 30-sec skip, wish lists, filters, etc. might be considered standard now but when Tivo implemented them, they were revolutionary to the TV market and pre-digital TV.
I ABOLUTELY do not believe in patent protection where prior art exists or where it's basic physics or biology, etc. that someone is trying to patent. That said, I believe that Tivo innovated, took risk, and is trying to defend its investment and true intellectual property. This is what the patent system and at a more basic level, property rights are all about.
The real issue and problem is not Echostar, it is Hollywood and the MPAA. Tivo is the ultimate fair-use device. They deserve protection for their ideas and the right to survive in a FAIR market on their own ideas.
Yea, that's working out really well for GM and Ford these days. Their pay and conditions are going to be so "improved" that there will not be an American owned auto industry soon.
I do understand that unions broke some of the most egregious management practices years back and that was a good thing. Now most unions are just another bureaucracy that helps no one but the union leaders and politicians.
The solution is simple, don't like the conditions or management, vote with your own feet. Don't create another corrupt power structure.
The free market economy is the most unfair form of organization to distribute wealth and resources except for all the others...
Man#1 (Michael Palin) Aye! Very fussable, eh? Very fussable bit, that? eh?
Man#2 (Graham Chapman): Grand meal, that was, eh?
Others: Yes, wonderful, yes very good..
Man#2: Nothing like a good glass of Chateau le Shlasseler, eh, Guissay?
Man#3 (Terry Jones): Oh, you're right there, Robidaier.
Man#4 (Eric Idle): Who'd 'ave thought, thirty year ago, we'd all be
sitting here drinking Chateau de Shlasseler, eh?
Man#1: Aye, in them days we was glad to have the price of a cup of tea!
Man#2: Aye, a cup of cold tea!
Man#4: Without milk or sugar!
Man#3: Or tea!
Man#1: Aye, in a cracked cup and all!
Man#4: Oh, we never had a cup. We used to have to drink out of a
rolled-up newspaper!
Man#2: Aye, the best we could manage in those days was to suck on a piece
of damp cloth!
Man#3: Aye, but we were happy in those days, though we were poor.
Man#1: Because we were poor! My old dad used to say to me: Money
doesn't buy you happiness!
Man#4: Aye, he was right, I was happier then and I had nothing. We
used to live in this tiny old house with great big holes in the
roof.
Man#2: House! You were lucky to live in a house! We had to all live
in one room, all twenty-six of us, no furniture, half the floor
was missing, and were all huddled together in a corner for
fear of falling!
Man#3: You were lucky to have a room! We used to 'ave to live in a corridor!
Man#1: Oh, we used to DREAM of living in a corridor. It would have
been a palace to us. We used to have to live in an old
water tank in a rubbish pit. We got woke up every morning
by having a load of rotting fish dumped all over us!
House! Huh!
Man#4: Well, when I say house, it was only a hole in the ground
covered by a sheet of tarpaulin, but it was a house to us!
Man#2: We were evicted from our hole in the ground. We had to go and
live in a lake!
Man#3: You were lucky to have a lake! There were a hundred and fifty
of us, living in a shoebox in the middle of the road!
Man#1: Cardboard box?
Man#3: Aye!
Man#1: You were lucky. We lived for three months in a paper bag in
a septic tank. We used to have to get up at six in the
morning, clean the paper bag, eat a crust of stale bread,
go to work down at the mill, fourteen hours a day, week in, week
out, for sixpence a week, and when we got home, our dad would
thrash us to sleep with his belt.
(slight pause)
Man#2: Luxury. We used to have to get out of the lake at six o'clock
in the morning, clean the lake, eat a handful of damp gravel,
work a twenty-hour
Slashdot Mirror
Under "pure" capitializm, people decide what their time/skills are worth and sell an amount of time/skill for a price. There is no sacrifice, it is a choice and a transaction. Our current system is distorted and skewed by laws, taxes, and regulations. Not all are bad but ANY tax (and everthing the government does buy definition is a tax) will distort a free market.
I understand what you are saying but think about this:
Democracy is the worst form of government, except for all the others.
Capitalism is the worst way of allocating resources, except for all the others.
There will always be a bell curve. Some people-corporation-government-country will always have more than another.
Pure capitalism is the only form of government/society that acknowledges that people, at a fundamental level will operate in their own best, self-interest. All governments do is interfere with you and I agreeing on the price for something that one has and the other wants.
I do acknowledge that the modern corporate/special interest structure can create "evil" but I believe that for the most part, the current cure (more government) is worse than the disease!
Consider this: If we did not have 2X the tax burdan our previous generation had, would both parents have to work to maintain the same standard of living the parent had? Is the 50% effective tax rate wer have(taxes, fees, licenses, permits, etc., etc.) made your life better or worse than 25 years ago?
May I suggest:
http://www.smith-wesson.com/
http://www.colt.com/
http://www.remington.com/
http://www.glock.com/
http://www.sigsauer.com/ (personal favorite!)
http://www.hk-usa.com/
http://www.uzi.com/
This article invoked my +12 gaydar of seeing.
I put a 750GB in my TivoHD not so much for the power savings but the noise reduction. I cannot hear the drive from 1'. It is fast enough for two HD streams. the power savings is nice as it is running 24x7 in the living room. My only complaint is they are only a 3-year warranty whereas Seagate is 5-year. I put it on my AMEX so I get one extra year. Drive was inexpensive at $150 from NewEgg.
I really have no complaints.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/E911
http://pcworld.about.com/magazine/1909p034id55986.htm
Oops, I stand corrected. the iPhone does have WiFi. I can't have one because of work contracts and I don't want multiple phones. I did not research the details on the iPhone.
I prematurely elaborated... sorry...
I still want both Bluetooth and Wifi in my non-iPhone, non-Touch, non crippled PDA device.
I have done my homework and read countless reviews. That is why I have not bought either an iPhone or Touch.
That is also why if Stevie boy wants to sell me a true PDA for $300-500 he needs to have the features I listed to have me as a customer. I know what the size of a Touch and iPhone is, and I know that the iPhone does not have WiFi and the Touch does. I know the iPhone has bluetooth and the touch doesn't. I want both, is that ok with you? The Newton had a PCMCIA slot, why should this new device not have one. Maybe Apple should lock down the "Macintosh Experience" also...
I don't want a locked down device, if it runs OSX I want third party apps. I want stock charts via WiFi from prophet.net, that requires Java. I was a PDF reader from Adobe. I want to be able to write a Python or Java or JPython or Common Lisp or whatever app myself. I want a microphone to record my brilliant thoughts or maybe make a Skype phone call.
I don't need Apple to define my experiences, I have the government for that! Thanks for your Fanboi explanation though, I'm sure you know better than me about everything!
I can very close to buying a Touch but it is still crippled. No BT, no calendar edit, no mic, etc.
Here is what I want:
No bigger than the iPhone
Bluetooth
HWR
SD Slot
WiFi
Java
Microphone
32GB Flash
8 Hr Battery
What about "Every Sperm is Sacred"? It doesn't exactly flow off the the tongue (so to speak) but it is reverent to Monty Python...
I was trying to have my wife's Vista Home Premium back up to my XP machine (RAIDed). The share is available for read/write but the Vista backup program wants an account, I have tried "Administrator" as well as a new backup group account on the XP machine but no joy. This is just a workgroup environment, no domain.
Anyone played this game and won?
Thanks,
Bod
I recently read an article about solar power in Wired magazine: http://www.wired.com/wired/archive/13.07/solar.htm l
c hoid_of_nic.html
o r_Collectors.htm but it was not much help.
1 2/1621204&tid=126&tid=14
, 1101299,00.html
r y?id=46765
The article mentions a new design for a concentrator that only uses two motors. To quote the article -
"Then, in a weekend flash of inspiration, a young Caltech physics grad named Kevin Hickerson figured out how to reduce the number of motors needed to move 25 mirrors independently, a major cost factor. Instead of two motors for each mirror - the traditional approach - Hickerson's solution requires only two motors for any number of mirrors. The key is a mathematical curve known as the conchoid of Nicomedes (named for the ancient Greek mathematician, who discovered it). A grid of ball bearings arrayed to match the conchoid is attached to a frame inside the Sunflower. As the motors move the frame, the bearings control each mirror's position individually."
I have found this but it is not helping me much:
http://nvizx.typepad.com/nvizx_weblog/2005/08/con
I have been unable to locate a more detailed explanation of the system and I'm not sure if this basic math is patentable. My advanced math skills are very rusty and I'm not quite sure where to start to understand this. I have an idea that this technique might be useful and I want to understand how to design such a frame. I did look at the concentrator page here: http://www.sandia.gov/pv/docs/PVFarraysConcentrat
These articles as well also have some implications for the benefits of a simple energy source:
http://science.slashdot.org/article.pl?sid=05/09/
http://www.time.com/time/magazine/printout/0,8816
Also, this today triggered my interest again:
http://www.renewableenergyaccess.com/rea/news/sto
I want to understand how to make a spreadsheet or something that would allow me to input number mirrors, focal length, size and it tell me shape, size a location of pivots. Can you explain it to someone who hasn't touched calculus in 18 years? I want to build a cheap one on my roof!
In related news:
WASHINGTON, DC - Congress is considering sweeping legislation, which provides new benefits for many Americans. The Americans With No Abilities Act (AWNAA) is being hailed as a major legislation by advocates of the millions of Americans who lack any real skills or ambition.
"Roughly 50 percent of Americans do not possess the competence and drive necessary to carve out a meaningful role for themselves in society," said Senator Barbara Boxer. "We can no longer stand by and allow these non-abled people to be ridiculed and passed over. With this legislation, employers will no longer be able to grant special favors to a small group of workers simply because they do a better job, or have some idea of what they are doing".
Boxer pointed to the success of the US Postal Service, which has a long- standing policy of providing opportunity without regard to performance.
Approximately 74 percent of postal employees lack job skills, making this agency the single largest US employer of non-abled persons.
Private sector industries with good records of nondiscrimination against the non-abled include retail sales (72%), the airline industry (68%), and home improvement "warehouse" stores (65%). Boxer noted that the DMV of her home state of California also has a great record of hiring Persons of Inability (63%).
Under the Americans With No Abilities Act, more than 25 million "middle man" positions will be created, with important-sounding titles but little real responsibility, thus providing an illusory sense of purpose and performance for the Non-abled.
Mandatory non-performance-based raises and promotions will be given, to guarantee upward mobility for even the most unremarkable employees. The legislation provides substantial tax breaks to corporations which maintain a significant level of non-abled persons in middle positions, and gives a tax credit to small and medium businesses that agree to hire at least one clueless worker for every two talented hires.
Finally, the AWNA ACT contains tough new measures to make it more difficult to discriminate against the non-abled, banning discriminatory interview questions such as "Do you have any goals for the future?" or "Do you have any skills or experience which relate to this job?"
"As a non-abled person, I can't be expected to keep up with people who have something going for them," said Mary Lou Gertz, who lost her position (as a lug-nut twister at the GM plant in Flint, MI) due to her lack of notable job skills. "This new law should really help people like me." With the passage of this bill, Gertz and millions of other untalented citizens can finally see a light at the end of the tunnel.
Added Senator Ted Kennedy, "It is our duty as lawmakers to provide each and every American citizen, regardless of his or her adequacy, with some sort of space to take up in this great nation."
You can make yourself Slipstreamed XP Install disks with SP2 so you don't get infected. See2 _slipstream.asp or http://www.theeldergeek.com/slipstreamed_xpsp2_cd. htm. It is well worth the time. Make a disk for next time.
http://www.winsupersite.com/showcase/windowsxp_sp
"The flux capacitor started throbing first."
There is "Serious" Sam forchristsakes!!!
Yss, but they used the 30-sec skip through the American Idol spot and the Katie Couric announcment...
Oh yea, 5) they acutally filed and payed for the patents. Now they are paying to defend them.
Disclaimer - I used to work for Philips. I'm still using a Series 1 Tivo that has been seriously upgraded. I own some Tivo stock.
Tivo has been compared to the VCR and with that logic, does not deserve patent protection. I disagree and believe that Tivo did innovate and does deserve patent protection.
What Tivo did first:
1) Downloadable program guide - Before Tivo, the only automated way to record was VCR+. It was lame and with TV Guide print deadlines 3-4 week before publish date it was shaky.
2) Digital recording - Though I agree that substituting a hard disk for a tape (media) may not deserve a patent, Tivo was the first successful use of mass market MPEG-2 recording. My tivo was 20 hours at first, this was an exponential leap. Tivo took open-source code (Linux), developed proprietary code and hardware, a dial-up infrastructure and made it work. They also, to the best of my knowledge, have honored the GPL and released their GPL tainted code back.
3) User interface - don't even try to tell me this is derivative of any VCR interface that exists today. Tivo's GUI is 6 years old and it still works well.
4) 30-sec skip, wish lists, filters, etc. might be considered standard now but when Tivo implemented them, they were revolutionary to the TV market and pre-digital TV.
I ABOLUTELY do not believe in patent protection where prior art exists or where it's basic physics or biology, etc. that someone is trying to patent. That said, I believe that Tivo innovated, took risk, and is trying to defend its investment and true intellectual property. This is what the patent system and at a more basic level, property rights are all about.
The real issue and problem is not Echostar, it is Hollywood and the MPAA. Tivo is the ultimate fair-use device. They deserve protection for their ideas and the right to survive in a FAIR market on their own ideas.
Yea, that's working out really well for GM and Ford these days. Their pay and conditions are going to be so "improved" that there will not be an American owned auto industry soon.
I do understand that unions broke some of the most egregious management practices years back and that was a good thing. Now most unions are just another bureaucracy that helps no one but the union leaders and politicians.
The solution is simple, don't like the conditions or management, vote with your own feet. Don't create another corrupt power structure.
The free market economy is the most unfair form of organization to distribute wealth and resources except for all the others...
I agree, I would buy one, maybe even tomorrow!
Shit, you mean the steps you laid out are not the game?
Guess I need to RTFM...
(Hawaiian music)
Man#1 (Michael Palin) Aye! Very fussable, eh? Very fussable bit, that? eh?
Man#2 (Graham Chapman): Grand meal, that was, eh?
Others: Yes, wonderful, yes very good..
Man#2: Nothing like a good glass of Chateau le Shlasseler, eh, Guissay?
Man#3 (Terry Jones): Oh, you're right there, Robidaier.
Man#4 (Eric Idle): Who'd 'ave thought, thirty year ago, we'd all be
sitting here drinking Chateau de Shlasseler, eh?
Man#1: Aye, in them days we was glad to have the price of a cup of tea!
Man#2: Aye, a cup of cold tea!
Man#4: Without milk or sugar!
Man#3: Or tea!
Man#1: Aye, in a cracked cup and all!
Man#4: Oh, we never had a cup. We used to have to drink out of a
rolled-up newspaper!
Man#2: Aye, the best we could manage in those days was to suck on a piece
of damp cloth!
Man#3: Aye, but we were happy in those days, though we were poor.
Man#1: Because we were poor! My old dad used to say to me: Money
doesn't buy you happiness!
Man#4: Aye, he was right, I was happier then and I had nothing. We
used to live in this tiny old house with great big holes in the
roof.
Man#2: House! You were lucky to live in a house! We had to all live
in one room, all twenty-six of us, no furniture, half the floor
was missing, and were all huddled together in a corner for
fear of falling!
Man#3: You were lucky to have a room! We used to 'ave to live in a corridor!
Man#1: Oh, we used to DREAM of living in a corridor. It would have
been a palace to us. We used to have to live in an old
water tank in a rubbish pit. We got woke up every morning
by having a load of rotting fish dumped all over us!
House! Huh!
Man#4: Well, when I say house, it was only a hole in the ground
covered by a sheet of tarpaulin, but it was a house to us!
Man#2: We were evicted from our hole in the ground. We had to go and
live in a lake!
Man#3: You were lucky to have a lake! There were a hundred and fifty
of us, living in a shoebox in the middle of the road!
Man#1: Cardboard box?
Man#3: Aye!
Man#1: You were lucky. We lived for three months in a paper bag in
a septic tank. We used to have to get up at six in the
morning, clean the paper bag, eat a crust of stale bread,
go to work down at the mill, fourteen hours a day, week in, week
out, for sixpence a week, and when we got home, our dad would
thrash us to sleep with his belt.
(slight pause)
Man#2: Luxury. We used to have to get out of the lake at six o'clock
in the morning, clean the lake, eat a handful of damp gravel,
work a twenty-hour
There is also a positive aspect to liberation from a death camp. Try reading Man's Search For Meaning by Viktor E. Frankl.
It is a little more positive spin on what is right with the world.
You were not using the sword correctly....
l ler/onimusha_3_sword_controller/controller.htm
http://www.gamestech.com/playstation2_info/contro