You need to get your facts straight; you sound like one of those crazy homeless people on the street corner blathering something about aliens.
Microsoft was convincted of leveraging an existing monopoly to gain an monopoly in another area. They were not convincted of illegally maintaining a monopoly. They have never been held to have a monopoly on office productivity software.
Using revenue from one product to gain entrance into another area is also not considered leveraging a monopoly position.
You may or may not have a valid point hidden in your rant somewhere, but nobody will ever find it if you insist on basing your point on incorrect information.
Actually, you're partially wrong as well. Both throughput AND seek times are important in a game console. A new generation drive isn't going to be able to compete with the previous generation in either category.
1) The difference is one of philosophy and legality. Blue-ray attempts to prevent all copying, precluding fair use. HD-DVD attempts to preserve fair-use rights.
2) Which is one of the reasons companies are backing Blue-ray over HD-DVD.
It means that can start building a library of HD-DVDs and use them on their normal DVD player; when they upgrade to an HDTV and HD-DVD player, they'll get HD video from their existing library.
"a train that goes no where I want to go" "I'd rather keep the tax money and fund my children's education myself" "Come on... waste of my money"
There is the problem right there. You think that since you don't see a direct benefit to what your tax dollars are being used for, that there is no benefit for it.
You think that the educational system is crap, but where would society be if only the upper-middle class (or above) could afford any sort of education for their children?
You think libraries are a waste of paper now that the internet is here, but what about people who can't afford to pay for internet service? Libraries are essential educational resources for people of all ages.
You think that the sports stadium was a waste of tax dollars because you don't like sports, but what kind of income and events does that bring to the region? (stadiums aren't just used for sporting events)
You think that the monorail is a waste of money because it doesn't go where you want to go, but how much traffic does it take off of roads in the region? How much does it add to the vitality of the downtown area?
I think anyone can make the arguement that their tax dollars could be spent more effectively, but I don't think you can reasonably make the arguement that they aren't spent in a manner that benefits society.
You don't have to be a direct beneficiary for society as a whole to benefit. You do receive indirect benefits, regardless of your ability to see them or not.
Do you like the roads you drive on? How about police protection? A place to keep criminals? A functioning judicial system? Fire protection? Public education? What about parks? Sporting events? Public museums? Public libraries?
If you can make the arguement that society is better off without public funding for any of those things, then you're full of crap.
Tough shit. Taxes are used for the good of the community, regardless of opposition by some backwater dumbass. Your control over how your taxes are spent is limited to how you vote and who you help put into office.
I never said it was. Look at all of the articles talking about a tech worker shortage. They're all talking about a shortage of computer programmers.
There are many "high tech" positions that have shortages because they aren't popular. Aerospace, Mat Sci, Chem E, Optical E. etc. The tech bubble focused on EE, and CE, so other science & engineering areas experienced shortages.
BWHAHAHAHA... Aerospace shortages? Are you on crack? Aerospace is one of the hardest fields to actually find a job in! (it is also one of the hardest to get a degree in)
Almost every EE and CE I know of ended up finding work as a computer programmer, because they couldn't find any openings in their field of choice. The EE's that were able to find a job stuck around for a Master's degree, and their primary tasks revolve around writing software to solve engineering problems.
I can't speak for the remaining categories, as I wasn't friends with anyone going into those fields. Based on the size of the relevent buildings on campus and the number of people flowing in and out of them, I dare say there were more students studying those fields than EE, CE, and CS combined.
Foreign students have student visas, not green cards. They can't legally work in the US after graduation without a work visa
Fine, I'll rephrase my statement. I don't know of any foreign student who went to college in the US who was unable to obtain proper documentation to legally work in the US after graduation. My original point still stands... they aren't employed as H1Bs, so the lack of foreign students reduces the non-H1B employment pool.
In addition to points made by other posters, I'd add that it is not uncommon for companies to fund educational costs while you are employed by that company.
Science & Engineering != "high tech". This summary lumps in things such as astronomy, oceanography, psychology, economics, etc as high tech, which is absurd.
Furthermore, the only calls for "high tech workers" I've seen is for computer programmers. And hey, what do you know... enrollment in computer science declined 3% two years ago according to the linked pdf.
The poster also neglected to consider that a "shortage" merely means that there are fewer people available than positions are open -- ie: they failed to compare enrollement to changes in the number of available conditions. If enrollment had increased by 10%, but open positions increased by 30%, then there would still be a shortage.
Additionally, the pool of available workers IN the United States INCLUDES "foreign students." They've already got green cards, and don't count against the H1B quota cap.
Finally, the fact that we've got fewer foreign students reflects somewhat on the quality of education available here relative to wherever it is they're coming from -- meaning that workers here are losing some of their competative advantage relative to people educated in foreign countries.
The only thing this document does is counter the point the original poster is trying to make.
WinFS isn't going to be in Vista because it won't be done before they want to ship Vista. You can't put Beta code into release code (well, you CAN but it wouldn't be a great idea), and while they've already released a Beta it doesn't mean that they'll be ready to ship by the time Vista ships.
There is a ton of truth to what you're saying on a number of different levels.
I'd also like to point out a thing I like to call the cruft factor. Over time, as you correct more and more false assumptions and change the requirements, the clean structure and design becomes crufty. It becomes harder to follow and maintain. At a certain point, the cruft accumulates to a level where an innocuous change impacts seeminly unrelated parts of the system. At this point, when you tell your boss you're going to be making a change to this code, he doubles the amount of time scheduled to complete and test the change. At this point, a change to this code is so risky that you'll spend more time trying to figure out an way to implement the desired functionality without touching the crufty code.
Once you get to that point (assuming you're near the beginning of a dev cycle and not the end of one), it is worth considering re-designing that piece of the system. Not replacing it from scratch with something entirely new, but redesigning it. Examine the existing piece of code, identify everything it is doing (gather its requirements), and come up with a design which does it.
Once reimplemented, you're back to a clean, elegant structure with a few false assumptions. The cycle then starts over again.
You are assuming of course that it will be possible to assemble a roll-your-own device which doesn't have the annoyances you describe. As it is today, it is illegal to import a vcr that isn't "vulnerable" to macrovision. What makes you think it will be possible to purchase capture cards which are either a) usable in a roll-your-own type of enviornment or b) capable of recording a macrovisioned signal?
They're in a no-win situation. They either make macrovision happy and piss off a few people, or they lose their macrovision license and piss off customers that record content from their (digital) cable box.
You can piss and moan about it all you want, but it isn't like they had a high road to choose from in the first place.
Sure, in this case we're just dealing with flags. But the signal coming from your cable box that makes your vcr go wonky isn't a flag -- that is an encoded signal. In order to keep their license so they can record the wonky video signal, they need to respect the flags in the video signal.
The VCR was backed by large, established companies. TiVo doesn't have the resources to fight a legal battle of this sort. It would put them out of business.
There are probably some items I've missed in that list as well; I've got a more thorough plan written down at home. I've actually been reviewing it since Katrina hit, and have been finding holes here and there. It is probably not a bad idea to try and review the overall contents of a kit once every couple of years.
With respect to MREs, I would actually recommend including them in your kit if you can. They're inexpensive (about $5 per meal) and have an amazing usable shelf life (5-7 years at "indoor" temperatures). Supplement them with the other items you're already packing in your kit; if you forget to check on supplies during that 6 month cycle or it otherwise becomes contaminated while sitting there, you'll still have a few days worth of food.
On that note, I'd also stash a few 1000+ cal protein/energy bars in each location as well. They generally taste like crap, but they'll keep you going. They're also light and small, probably making them one of the better energy sources to have with you if you need to hike your way to a shelter.
Earthquakes are probably the highest danger item where I live; there was a 6.8 quake back in 2001. I don't think we're as bad off as California though. They're starting to become concerned that an 8 or 9 is on the way though. They've been observing a number of slow earthquakes recently; tremors that last for weeks and slip the fault a few inches in a direction, but without the traditional "shaking" associated with earthquakes. They're not certain if these quakes increase or relieve stress on fault-lines yet.
Volcano's are also a threat where I live, though not a probable one. A volcano is much harder to prepare for... you've got mudflows traveling at near supersonic speeds, rocks the size of trucks falling out of the sky, and enough ash to turn day into night. If an erruption occurs suddenly, I'm probably screwed. But I'm including dust masks in my kit, just in case I survive the initial catastrophy.
Brush/forest fires are possible, though my urban location makes the risk of it becomming an immediate threat to my personal saftey unlikely. The dust masks in my kits will also probably be useful if this situation should ever occur. Most man-made emergencies would probably fall into this category.
A sunami is possible in my area, but the elevation of my residence combined with its distance from bodies of water should keep me dry. Same goes for flooding. Hurricanes aren't a concern. Tornados are highly unlikely where I live. Same thing with blizzards.
Slashdot Mirror
Nope. Nobody has deployed a non-infringing solution as of yet. Just about every browser (except maybe lynx) infringes on this.
You need to get your facts straight; you sound like one of those crazy homeless people on the street corner blathering something about aliens.
Microsoft was convincted of leveraging an existing monopoly to gain an monopoly in another area. They were not convincted of illegally maintaining a monopoly. They have never been held to have a monopoly on office productivity software.
Using revenue from one product to gain entrance into another area is also not considered leveraging a monopoly position.
You may or may not have a valid point hidden in your rant somewhere, but nobody will ever find it if you insist on basing your point on incorrect information.
Last year they had a one time $30B special dividend, and bought back $30B of their own stock ... so that's $60B they spent right there ...
Whatever they did at TGS, it worked. The "consumer interest" surveys jumped from single digits to 22%.
Actually, you're partially wrong as well. Both throughput AND seek times are important in a game console. A new generation drive isn't going to be able to compete with the previous generation in either category.
Two responses:
1) The difference is one of philosophy and legality. Blue-ray attempts to prevent all copying, precluding fair use. HD-DVD attempts to preserve fair-use rights.
2) Which is one of the reasons companies are backing Blue-ray over HD-DVD.
It means that can start building a library of HD-DVDs and use them on their normal DVD player; when they upgrade to an HDTV and HD-DVD player, they'll get HD video from their existing library.
If the battalion of straw men doesn't fall over from your huffing and puffing, I don't see why I would need to.
If that weakass justification lets you sleep better at night, by all means keep telling it to yourself.
"a train that goes no where I want to go"
"I'd rather keep the tax money and fund my children's education myself"
"Come on... waste of my money"
There is the problem right there. You think that since you don't see a direct benefit to what your tax dollars are being used for, that there is no benefit for it.
You think that the educational system is crap, but where would society be if only the upper-middle class (or above) could afford any sort of education for their children?
You think libraries are a waste of paper now that the internet is here, but what about people who can't afford to pay for internet service? Libraries are essential educational resources for people of all ages.
You think that the sports stadium was a waste of tax dollars because you don't like sports, but what kind of income and events does that bring to the region? (stadiums aren't just used for sporting events)
You think that the monorail is a waste of money because it doesn't go where you want to go, but how much traffic does it take off of roads in the region? How much does it add to the vitality of the downtown area?
I think anyone can make the arguement that their tax dollars could be spent more effectively, but I don't think you can reasonably make the arguement that they aren't spent in a manner that benefits society.
You don't have to be a direct beneficiary for society as a whole to benefit. You do receive indirect benefits, regardless of your ability to see them or not.
To be fair, most employers that hire part-time employees aren't interested in their part-time employees' skillset.
Do you like the roads you drive on? How about police protection? A place to keep criminals? A functioning judicial system? Fire protection? Public education? What about parks? Sporting events? Public museums? Public libraries?
If you can make the arguement that society is better off without public funding for any of those things, then you're full of crap.
Tough shit. Taxes are used for the good of the community, regardless of opposition by some backwater dumbass. Your control over how your taxes are spent is limited to how you vote and who you help put into office.
High tech != computers only
... Aerospace shortages? Are you on crack? Aerospace is one of the hardest fields to actually find a job in! (it is also one of the hardest to get a degree in)
... they aren't employed as H1Bs, so the lack of foreign students reduces the non-H1B employment pool.
I never said it was. Look at all of the articles talking about a tech worker shortage. They're all talking about a shortage of computer programmers.
There are many "high tech" positions that have shortages because they aren't popular. Aerospace, Mat Sci, Chem E, Optical E. etc. The tech bubble focused on EE, and CE, so other science & engineering areas experienced shortages.
BWHAHAHAHA
Almost every EE and CE I know of ended up finding work as a computer programmer, because they couldn't find any openings in their field of choice. The EE's that were able to find a job stuck around for a Master's degree, and their primary tasks revolve around writing software to solve engineering problems.
I can't speak for the remaining categories, as I wasn't friends with anyone going into those fields. Based on the size of the relevent buildings on campus and the number of people flowing in and out of them, I dare say there were more students studying those fields than EE, CE, and CS combined.
Foreign students have student visas, not green cards. They can't legally work in the US after graduation without a work visa
Fine, I'll rephrase my statement. I don't know of any foreign student who went to college in the US who was unable to obtain proper documentation to legally work in the US after graduation. My original point still stands
In addition to points made by other posters, I'd add that it is not uncommon for companies to fund educational costs while you are employed by that company.
Science & Engineering != "high tech". This summary lumps in things such as astronomy, oceanography, psychology, economics, etc as high tech, which is absurd.
... enrollment in computer science declined 3% two years ago according to the linked pdf.
Furthermore, the only calls for "high tech workers" I've seen is for computer programmers. And hey, what do you know
The poster also neglected to consider that a "shortage" merely means that there are fewer people available than positions are open -- ie: they failed to compare enrollement to changes in the number of available conditions. If enrollment had increased by 10%, but open positions increased by 30%, then there would still be a shortage.
Additionally, the pool of available workers IN the United States INCLUDES "foreign students." They've already got green cards, and don't count against the H1B quota cap.
Finally, the fact that we've got fewer foreign students reflects somewhat on the quality of education available here relative to wherever it is they're coming from -- meaning that workers here are losing some of their competative advantage relative to people educated in foreign countries.
The only thing this document does is counter the point the original poster is trying to make.
WinFS isn't going to be in Vista because it won't be done before they want to ship Vista. You can't put Beta code into release code (well, you CAN but it wouldn't be a great idea), and while they've already released a Beta it doesn't mean that they'll be ready to ship by the time Vista ships.
There is a ton of truth to what you're saying on a number of different levels.
I'd also like to point out a thing I like to call the cruft factor. Over time, as you correct more and more false assumptions and change the requirements, the clean structure and design becomes crufty. It becomes harder to follow and maintain. At a certain point, the cruft accumulates to a level where an innocuous change impacts seeminly unrelated parts of the system. At this point, when you tell your boss you're going to be making a change to this code, he doubles the amount of time scheduled to complete and test the change. At this point, a change to this code is so risky that you'll spend more time trying to figure out an way to implement the desired functionality without touching the crufty code.
Once you get to that point (assuming you're near the beginning of a dev cycle and not the end of one), it is worth considering re-designing that piece of the system. Not replacing it from scratch with something entirely new, but redesigning it. Examine the existing piece of code, identify everything it is doing (gather its requirements), and come up with a design which does it.
Once reimplemented, you're back to a clean, elegant structure with a few false assumptions. The cycle then starts over again.
You are assuming of course that it will be possible to assemble a roll-your-own device which doesn't have the annoyances you describe. As it is today, it is illegal to import a vcr that isn't "vulnerable" to macrovision. What makes you think it will be possible to purchase capture cards which are either a) usable in a roll-your-own type of enviornment or b) capable of recording a macrovisioned signal?
Great. Hope you enjoy watching TV the old fashioned way, because you aren't going to find a device without this crap embedded in it.
They're in a no-win situation. They either make macrovision happy and piss off a few people, or they lose their macrovision license and piss off customers that record content from their (digital) cable box.
You can piss and moan about it all you want, but it isn't like they had a high road to choose from in the first place.
Sure, in this case we're just dealing with flags. But the signal coming from your cable box that makes your vcr go wonky isn't a flag -- that is an encoded signal. In order to keep their license so they can record the wonky video signal, they need to respect the flags in the video signal.
They gain the ability to (legally) display macrovision encoded content (so you can record shows off of premium channels for example).
The VCR was backed by large, established companies. TiVo doesn't have the resources to fight a legal battle of this sort. It would put them out of business.
There are probably some items I've missed in that list as well; I've got a more thorough plan written down at home. I've actually been reviewing it since Katrina hit, and have been finding holes here and there. It is probably not a bad idea to try and review the overall contents of a kit once every couple of years.
... you've got mudflows traveling at near supersonic speeds, rocks the size of trucks falling out of the sky, and enough ash to turn day into night. If an erruption occurs suddenly, I'm probably screwed. But I'm including dust masks in my kit, just in case I survive the initial catastrophy.
With respect to MREs, I would actually recommend including them in your kit if you can. They're inexpensive (about $5 per meal) and have an amazing usable shelf life (5-7 years at "indoor" temperatures). Supplement them with the other items you're already packing in your kit; if you forget to check on supplies during that 6 month cycle or it otherwise becomes contaminated while sitting there, you'll still have a few days worth of food.
On that note, I'd also stash a few 1000+ cal protein/energy bars in each location as well. They generally taste like crap, but they'll keep you going. They're also light and small, probably making them one of the better energy sources to have with you if you need to hike your way to a shelter.
Earthquakes are probably the highest danger item where I live; there was a 6.8 quake back in 2001. I don't think we're as bad off as California though. They're starting to become concerned that an 8 or 9 is on the way though. They've been observing a number of slow earthquakes recently; tremors that last for weeks and slip the fault a few inches in a direction, but without the traditional "shaking" associated with earthquakes. They're not certain if these quakes increase or relieve stress on fault-lines yet.
Volcano's are also a threat where I live, though not a probable one. A volcano is much harder to prepare for
Brush/forest fires are possible, though my urban location makes the risk of it becomming an immediate threat to my personal saftey unlikely. The dust masks in my kits will also probably be useful if this situation should ever occur. Most man-made emergencies would probably fall into this category.
A sunami is possible in my area, but the elevation of my residence combined with its distance from bodies of water should keep me dry. Same goes for flooding. Hurricanes aren't a concern. Tornados are highly unlikely where I live. Same thing with blizzards.
Did I miss any types of disasters?