so this way they have a proxy which cannot be stopped in such fashion and which on the face of it has nothing to do with Microsoft should there be any negative repercussions from the action. I'd expect to see a lot more of this sort thing from now on.
IBM, et al. could tell Microsoft to call off its dogs or they will launch Patent Armageddon against the Microsoft mother ship.
Society is net wealthier when one extra house is built. How is society net wealthier when one extra dollar is "produced"?
I didn't say that creating more money makes us wealthier. I said that if the money supply didn't increase, we would experience deflation because the real economy normally grows (because of increased population and production efficiency). The Herd panics when it sees deflation.
Fiat paper currency is the biggest mirage bubble in history.
I'm not sure exactly what you mean by this. While fiat currency is indeed a "mirage" (and only a couple percent of the money supply is represented by pretty paper), it is very obviously not a "bubble". Any "bubble" would have collapsed decades/centuries ago.
We have many examples of currencies collapsing from hyper inflation.
When a currency collapses, it is because a society is experiencing severe problems, such as being crippled by losing a war (Germany) or being run down by a genocidal dictator (Zimbabwe), not because of anything inherent in the nature of fiat currency.
Part of the job of the Fed is to increase the money supply at an appropriate rate, since mild inflation tends to be good for the economy and deflation tends to be disastrous.
The _real_ economy also tends to increase by a few percent each year, so the money supply needs to be increased a few percent each year to compensate for this (or else there would be deflationary pressure because of real growth).
I suspect that the reason many business owners are conservative has more to do with taxation rates and regulation than cognitive differences.
I suspect they are more conservative because they have worked very hard for their money and would prefer not to give it away. Are their many liberal entrepreneurs? Also, does this experiment control for gender differences? I expect that women tend to be more liberal and men tend to be more conservative. Business owners tend to be men, because men are more willing to take career risks whereas women tend to prefer comfortable jobs.
GDP has nothing to do with corruption, for example, New Zealand is one of the least corrupt nations and has a low level of GDP compared with the USA, which is slightly more corrupt, yet has a very large GDP.
GDP conflates a number of factors, including population and corruption. While I am partial to New Zealand for being a first-world democracy, it is really just a bit player in the global economy. OTOH, China is a corrupt country, but it has a ginormous population and it is a big player in the global economy. It's hard to argue against success, though I think China would have a much higher GDP if it were less corrupt.
Poland seems like a no-op to me. The USA and Germany do need to get their shit together. All first-world democracies need to remove the opportunity for a tiny subset of an industrial space to stuff the ballot boxes of their national institutions. Despite what Slashdoters think of corporations, a broader spectrum of industry participants would have overwhelmingly rejected MSOXML.
My outrage of giving corrupt no-ops equal voting at ISO and the UN General Assembly still stands. Exactly how stupid are we?
I'm kind of surprised that Canada voted 'no'. Though I haven't heard any reports of ballot stuffing in SCC, it seems to me that the Canadian government is even further up Bill Gates' butt than the American government.
It therefore would make sense to scale each country's vote by the number of entities doing business in the area governed by the standard.
I think it makes the most sense to weigh a country's vote by its PPP GDP. This is a truer measure of a country's economic activity than its population.
In my opinion it'd take a miracle for MS-OOXML not to get passed then regardless of how many of the substantial comments the "ballot resolution meeting" manages to resolve.
Will the voting at the BRM be restricted to only those countries that participated in the first ballot, or is Microsoft free to bribe 150 more corrupt no-op countries into becoming P-level members and carrying the day with a 170 to 15 consensus? It is outrageous that a corrupt no-op like the Côte d'Ivoire can wield the same voting power as a first-world democracy. The ballots should be weighted by the GDP of the countries involved.
Semi-seriously. I'm not sure the services-dominant model is sustainable.
Hasn't the West had a services-dominant economy for the past 40 years? In Canada, Goods-producing industries: $336e9, Services-producing industries: $781e9 (Jun 2007, using 1997 CA$). If you are a university student, take a course in macroeconomics. It's very interesting stuff (unlike microeconomics).
While I agree Microsoft probably bought those countries' votes, like they admitted to doing in the Swedish vote, I would like to see a little bit of evidence before completely condemning Microsoft for it.
While I agree that the sun probably will rise tomorrow morning, like it did today, I would like to see a little bit of evidence before completely accepting it.
People will choose it simply because its the better format. OOXML will be what people use if they must interact with Microsoft office.
Translation: People will chose ODF the 3% of the time they have a free choice and OOXML will be what people use the 97% of the time they must interact with Microsoft office.
They're not hiding in the shadows on this, they're grinning like a skunk eating manure.
I think you have to admire Microsoft for the nakedness of its corruption in all of this. Microsoft didn't try to slink around; it was over-the-top and in-your-face at every step of the way. I wouldn't be surprised if either MSOXML gets rammed through right now on some technicality by bribing some ISO official or it executes another fast-track play and is even more over-the-top next time.
There's pretty good vote tracking going on here, and as of a little while ago they're calling the vote failed: too many "no" votes to get the 2/3 majority needed to pass.
It seems a bit outrageous to me that a corrupt organization can bribe a number of bullshit nothing countries into voting their way and potentially ram through a piece of junk like MSOXML. The biggest outrage to me is that bullshit nothing countries can get the same voting weight as the major industrialized countries (assuming that this is true, which it seems to be). Voting on international standards should be weighted by the PPP GDP of the countries involved. This is the weighting by which countries actually develop and use these kinds of standards to contribute to the world economy.
Slashdot Mirror
Do I get a Nobel Prize for saying "No shit, Sherlock!"?
IBM, et al. could tell Microsoft to call off its dogs or they will launch Patent Armageddon against the Microsoft mother ship.
If Steve Ballmer didn't instigate this troll attack, then he was certainly in the loop and knew that this was coming today.
Just get a dummy that you can pour warm water into. Maybe just a hot-water bottle.
I didn't say that creating more money makes us wealthier. I said that if the money supply didn't increase, we would experience deflation because the real economy normally grows (because of increased population and production efficiency). The Herd panics when it sees deflation.
I'm not sure exactly what you mean by this. While fiat currency is indeed a "mirage" (and only a couple percent of the money supply is represented by pretty paper), it is very obviously not a "bubble". Any "bubble" would have collapsed decades/centuries ago.
When a currency collapses, it is because a society is experiencing severe problems, such as being crippled by losing a war (Germany) or being run down by a genocidal dictator (Zimbabwe), not because of anything inherent in the nature of fiat currency.
The _real_ economy also tends to increase by a few percent each year, so the money supply needs to be increased a few percent each year to compensate for this (or else there would be deflationary pressure because of real growth).
I think it's quite possible. However, one must be a scientist who learns journalism. The other way doesn't work.
But evolution is impossible! The Kansas school board told me so. This must be another NASA conspiracy like the fake moon landings.
It's "math" in Canada.
I suspect they are more conservative because they have worked very hard for their money and would prefer not to give it away. Are their many liberal entrepreneurs? Also, does this experiment control for gender differences? I expect that women tend to be more liberal and men tend to be more conservative. Business owners tend to be men, because men are more willing to take career risks whereas women tend to prefer comfortable jobs.
No, that is because younger people take greater risks because they have less to lose.
They have also been known to work all night long without coming down with fuckthisshititis. They also tend not to have children.
"It only takes 20 years for a liberal to become a conservative without changing a single idea." -- Robert Anton Wilson
"Liberal" and "Conservative" are not stationary targets over the timespan of a life.
GDP conflates a number of factors, including population and corruption. While I am partial to New Zealand for being a first-world democracy, it is really just a bit player in the global economy. OTOH, China is a corrupt country, but it has a ginormous population and it is a big player in the global economy. It's hard to argue against success, though I think China would have a much higher GDP if it were less corrupt.
Poland seems like a no-op to me. The USA and Germany do need to get their shit together. All first-world democracies need to remove the opportunity for a tiny subset of an industrial space to stuff the ballot boxes of their national institutions. Despite what Slashdoters think of corporations, a broader spectrum of industry participants would have overwhelmingly rejected MSOXML.
My outrage of giving corrupt no-ops equal voting at ISO and the UN General Assembly still stands. Exactly how stupid are we?
I'm kind of surprised that Canada voted 'no'. Though I haven't heard any reports of ballot stuffing in SCC, it seems to me that the Canadian government is even further up Bill Gates' butt than the American government.
I think it makes the most sense to weigh a country's vote by its PPP GDP. This is a truer measure of a country's economic activity than its population.
Will the voting at the BRM be restricted to only those countries that participated in the first ballot, or is Microsoft free to bribe 150 more corrupt no-op countries into becoming P-level members and carrying the day with a 170 to 15 consensus? It is outrageous that a corrupt no-op like the Côte d'Ivoire can wield the same voting power as a first-world democracy. The ballots should be weighted by the GDP of the countries involved.
Hasn't the West had a services-dominant economy for the past 40 years? In Canada, Goods-producing industries: $336e9, Services-producing industries: $781e9 (Jun 2007, using 1997 CA$). If you are a university student, take a course in macroeconomics. It's very interesting stuff (unlike microeconomics).
Yeah, it's a terrible shame how Westerners are starving to death. They're all skin and bones!
While I agree that the sun probably will rise tomorrow morning, like it did today, I would like to see a little bit of evidence before completely accepting it.
Translation: People will chose ODF the 3% of the time they have a free choice and OOXML will be what people use the 97% of the time they must interact with Microsoft office.
I think you have to admire Microsoft for the nakedness of its corruption in all of this. Microsoft didn't try to slink around; it was over-the-top and in-your-face at every step of the way. I wouldn't be surprised if either MSOXML gets rammed through right now on some technicality by bribing some ISO official or it executes another fast-track play and is even more over-the-top next time.
It seems a bit outrageous to me that a corrupt organization can bribe a number of bullshit nothing countries into voting their way and potentially ram through a piece of junk like MSOXML. The biggest outrage to me is that bullshit nothing countries can get the same voting weight as the major industrialized countries (assuming that this is true, which it seems to be). Voting on international standards should be weighted by the PPP GDP of the countries involved. This is the weighting by which countries actually develop and use these kinds of standards to contribute to the world economy.
So machine languages are APL-compatible these days.
Isn't it funny how they can poll game-show audiences of hundreds in three seconds flat.