Taxes are how we transfer wealth away from the wealthy and give entitlements to those deemed deserving.
Taxes are somewhat redistributive, but the biggest ticket items (Social Security and Medicare) are mostly just forced savings!
Yes, I know people will dispute this, since the entitlement is in the form of a promise of future payments instead of a dollar or some other promissory note. But the net effect is about the same.
As for cellphone taxes, whether they are "archaic" or "duplicated" is beside the point, as is whether "this" money pays for "that" service. What matters is the size of the tax burden and how it is distributed, and the quantity and quality of government services, and how they are distributed. The rest is semantic games.
I wonder what SSD has done to sales of "high-performance" disk drives like VelociRaptors? Who would pay a premium for a faster version of a technology that is inherently slow?
But if they're successful in thwarting the Microsoft takeover, then what? Arrive late at the Android party? Sell dumbphones for $14.99 at Target? Everybody criticises companies like Silicon Graphics for sticking with the old strategy too long, but also for jumping on the bandwagon (such as SGI taking a stab on NT).
Being outmoded is an extremely difficult position to be in.
However, at its heart, this is simply an exercise in in data storage, lookup, and statistical probabilities in determining a likely answer. It does not involve any artificial intelligence or machine intelligence at all
As if your own intelligence were from some different astral plane.
Hard links are just multiple names for a file, so nothing special happens when you change any of the names. But you have a point that if a single file were moved to a different filesystem, it would lose its 'tags' (all its other names). Technically, this is preventable if you use a tool that understands directory structure and links to copy or move the file (e.g. tar), but admittedly that is a lot to ask.
I use links to organize my music, but for photos I simply put the date and names of people and places (tags, effectively) into the filename. This makes it extremely simple to find them using tools like 'find', 'grep,' and file globbing (or Windows "search" button for that matter). I'll take automated tagging such as exif tags when I can get it, of course.
You're right, but I think any tagging system is complex enough to create similar issues. Say you divorce "Joan" and decide late one night to delete all pictures tagged with "Joan." Whoops, lots of those pictures had your kids in them, too. Whereas if you put the photo in a directory for each person in the photo (using links, or plain old "copy" on filesystem with data de-duplication), the picture wouldn't be erased unless you deleted the directories for every person in it, which is kind of cool.
My personal method of keeping it straight is having one directory under which all of my (e.g.) music lives, then other directories with different subsets - one for each family member's mp3 player, then one with my "favorite 8gb" of music, etc. But the "all" directory is the authoritative one... I wouldn't buy an mp3 album and save it to an mp3 player directory just because I want to listen to it there first; instead I file it under "all", then make a link under the directory for my mp3 player, then sync the player.
For photos, just name them by date plus the names of the people or places in them, thus packing multiple "tags" into one filename. It works fine.
Imagine a system where everything is stored in tags and where folders become obsolete or used far less often.
It bothers me when people think tags are fundamentally different from folders (directories) in the first place. I'm going to re-introduce directories as "hierarchial tags" and blow everybody's mind.
Maybe it's because people think of directory membership as exclusive? But it isn't. You can link a file into as many directories as you like with the 'ln' command. If that hasn't caught on, and if Windows Folders don't even really support that, it's because most people just don't bother... and the same is/will be true of tags by any other name.
I agree, his structure appeared to be for only 1 person. The top level of organization, really, is/home/username, with permissions set so people can't accidentally mis-file things under others' directory. I've still found that useful on my home computers even though there's no concept of enforced 'security' between users (they could all sudo to each other without a password, though they don't know it). This is because I have one desktop with a submenu for each person that launches their apps in their home directory as them. Trying to make them log in and out to run each program would never work, too much hassle, besides it would kill all the previous person's programs which they usually just leave running.
Of course, sharing is where it gets complicated. The music for my wife and I is in one directory structure. I used to just dump kid stuff under a "kids" subdirectory, but as they're developing individual tastes that doesn't really work either.
"Know better" than to land in google's penalty box, almost invisible in search results, like Penny's currently is.
That said, yes, everybody acknowledges this is just business. If you search for an example from the article (Samsonite carry on luggage), Penny's is no longer on the first page of search results. Yet their paid advertisement appears (with several others) before the very first search result!
You are certainly entitled to your own opinion about any piece of art, yes. Whether you are qualified as an "art critic" is something for the audience of your criticism to decide. Do you have any insight that others have found worthy of listening to and/or paying for?
It's plain stupid. Now he has no choice but to stare at people behind him all day long.
That is the whole point. If he just wore it like a backwards headlamp, he could take it off at his convenience, which would defeat the purpose of committing to live with it as if it were natural. Even if he had the discipline to never take it off, his audience couldn't be sure. That does matter in an art project.
I can't imagine the oil companies in those countries wanting to do that, nor can I imagine the governments, who profit from it as well, cutting themselves off at the knees just so you can get cheap prices at the pump.
You can either see that as equalizing citizens' access to the naturally-occurring resources of their own nations, or as government subsidies that distort markets (thus thwarting the rights of the rich to disproportionate use of those resources). In relatively wealthy oil-importing nations such as the US, we tend to take the latter interpretation:)
So without the Bible, culture would have been homogeneous throughout the world? That's obviously false. Clearly there were differences before it was written, which is why it's different than far-eastern texts in the first place. I agree it helped solidify what we call "western culture," then again without it something similar might have gained traction and filled that role. There's no way to know, because counter-factual histories are just as uncertain as the future is.
My point isn't that nothing has any effect, only that it's hard to quantify. But I do think we simplify history by overstating the importance of certain people and events, neglecting the fact that circumstances were bound to lead to similar events. And that is central to the functions of story-telling and myth-making. (It's a big part of what we now call "controlling the narrative.")
How can we tell what affect it had? I think without the Bible, mankind would still exhibit the same tendencies and sentiments, but with a little different branding. Nothing would be very different.
I always wonder how North America would have turned out differently if some or all of the "founding fathers" hadn't formed a movement when they did. What if there hadn't been a revolutionary war? All of Britain's other far-flung colonies reached independence one way or another, sooner or later (Canada, Australia, India...) and many turned out fairly similarly, so the revolution(s) in the American colonies were clearly part of a much larger trend. But probably the American revolution hastened the others by weakening the Empire? And so on.
This wouldn't need to be NEARLY as good as a commercial ISP to be very useful to people with nothing. For example, let's say you only get service for 5 minutes twice per day, with 2 second latency, and a daily cap of 10 KB.
There's a lot you could do with that! You could stay in pretty good touch with the world, just with that. It would still be quicker to send a letter to anybody on earth than ANY mail service before the telegram. I would find it fascinating to have correspondence with somebody in North Korea, just on that basis.
What about Morse code? You can use a single frequency, and convey information by simply switching it on and off.
OK, how often do you want to switch in on or off? If you go too slow, you won't be able to send many characters each second, but if you go too fast, even the slightest distortion to the signal (e.g. passing through a wall) will blur out the signal.
Also, what if somebody else wants to send morse code too? How will the receiver know whose dots and dashes they're hearing? I guess maybe you could switch at different speeds to distinguish them. Although if you go at speeds too close together, it will become difficult to tell which is which.
Oh, wait, this is starting to sound a lot like where we started by transmitting on different "frequencies."
Well, sort of... it's very crippled. Look at all the reviews in the link you posted - the average score is only 2/5, because it does NOT simply output what's on your screen - only certain apps output certain things, and even some videos from iTunes will NOT go out. (Even though it's just analog VGA out in the first place!) I don't see the point paying for a shockingly overpriced $30 pigtail when there's no indication of when it will or won't work.
Maybe AirPlay isn't hobbled by all the restrictions, although somehow I doubt it.
Fraud inversely mirrors retail sales - The Javelin study found an interesting correlation between retail sales and fraud incidence, with the amount of fraud almost perfectly inversely mirroring retail sales over the past seven years. When retail sales have increased, fraud has decreased, which points to economic hardships as an overall contributor to fraudsters committing identity crimes.
On top of the safety issues, I can't imagine anybody operating the Shuttle at a justifiable cost for space tourism. That would be like trying to operate a taxi service based on the M1 battle tank. If the shuttle is financially viable for anything (which I doubt), it would only be for when you need a manned heavy-lift capability.
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And WalMart could eliminate shoplifting by building their stores without doors.
Taxes are somewhat redistributive, but the biggest ticket items (Social Security and Medicare) are mostly just forced savings!
Yes, I know people will dispute this, since the entitlement is in the form of a promise of future payments instead of a dollar or some other promissory note. But the net effect is about the same.
As for cellphone taxes, whether they are "archaic" or "duplicated" is beside the point, as is whether "this" money pays for "that" service. What matters is the size of the tax burden and how it is distributed, and the quantity and quality of government services, and how they are distributed. The rest is semantic games.
I wonder what SSD has done to sales of "high-performance" disk drives like VelociRaptors? Who would pay a premium for a faster version of a technology that is inherently slow?
Being outmoded is an extremely difficult position to be in.
As if your own intelligence were from some different astral plane.
What did you think intelligence was?
I use links to organize my music, but for photos I simply put the date and names of people and places (tags, effectively) into the filename. This makes it extremely simple to find them using tools like 'find', 'grep,' and file globbing (or Windows "search" button for that matter). I'll take automated tagging such as exif tags when I can get it, of course.
They do have their own accounts. It's just more convenient for everybody to let their programs run side by side (as them), but without any switching.
My personal method of keeping it straight is having one directory under which all of my (e.g.) music lives, then other directories with different subsets - one for each family member's mp3 player, then one with my "favorite 8gb" of music, etc. But the "all" directory is the authoritative one... I wouldn't buy an mp3 album and save it to an mp3 player directory just because I want to listen to it there first; instead I file it under "all", then make a link under the directory for my mp3 player, then sync the player.
For photos, just name them by date plus the names of the people or places in them, thus packing multiple "tags" into one filename. It works fine.
It bothers me when people think tags are fundamentally different from folders (directories) in the first place. I'm going to re-introduce directories as "hierarchial tags" and blow everybody's mind.
Maybe it's because people think of directory membership as exclusive? But it isn't. You can link a file into as many directories as you like with the 'ln' command. If that hasn't caught on, and if Windows Folders don't even really support that, it's because most people just don't bother... and the same is/will be true of tags by any other name.
Of course, sharing is where it gets complicated. The music for my wife and I is in one directory structure. I used to just dump kid stuff under a "kids" subdirectory, but as they're developing individual tastes that doesn't really work either.
Anonymous' reputation for quality has been sullied, eroding its brand equity! Heads will roll at its corporate headquarters!
That said, yes, everybody acknowledges this is just business. If you search for an example from the article (Samsonite carry on luggage), Penny's is no longer on the first page of search results. Yet their paid advertisement appears (with several others) before the very first search result!
Eeks, were they wearing dosimeters?
You are certainly entitled to your own opinion about any piece of art, yes. Whether you are qualified as an "art critic" is something for the audience of your criticism to decide. Do you have any insight that others have found worthy of listening to and/or paying for?
That is the whole point. If he just wore it like a backwards headlamp, he could take it off at his convenience, which would defeat the purpose of committing to live with it as if it were natural. Even if he had the discipline to never take it off, his audience couldn't be sure. That does matter in an art project.
Actually, "Many oil-producing countries keep domestic prices below free market levels."
You can either see that as equalizing citizens' access to the naturally-occurring resources of their own nations, or as government subsidies that distort markets (thus thwarting the rights of the rich to disproportionate use of those resources). In relatively wealthy oil-importing nations such as the US, we tend to take the latter interpretation :)
My point isn't that nothing has any effect, only that it's hard to quantify. But I do think we simplify history by overstating the importance of certain people and events, neglecting the fact that circumstances were bound to lead to similar events. And that is central to the functions of story-telling and myth-making. (It's a big part of what we now call "controlling the narrative.")
I always wonder how North America would have turned out differently if some or all of the "founding fathers" hadn't formed a movement when they did. What if there hadn't been a revolutionary war? All of Britain's other far-flung colonies reached independence one way or another, sooner or later (Canada, Australia, India...) and many turned out fairly similarly, so the revolution(s) in the American colonies were clearly part of a much larger trend. But probably the American revolution hastened the others by weakening the Empire? And so on.
There's a lot you could do with that! You could stay in pretty good touch with the world, just with that. It would still be quicker to send a letter to anybody on earth than ANY mail service before the telegram. I would find it fascinating to have correspondence with somebody in North Korea, just on that basis.
OK, how often do you want to switch in on or off? If you go too slow, you won't be able to send many characters each second, but if you go too fast, even the slightest distortion to the signal (e.g. passing through a wall) will blur out the signal.
Also, what if somebody else wants to send morse code too? How will the receiver know whose dots and dashes they're hearing? I guess maybe you could switch at different speeds to distinguish them. Although if you go at speeds too close together, it will become difficult to tell which is which.
Oh, wait, this is starting to sound a lot like where we started by transmitting on different "frequencies."
Well, sort of... it's very crippled. Look at all the reviews in the link you posted - the average score is only 2/5, because it does NOT simply output what's on your screen - only certain apps output certain things, and even some videos from iTunes will NOT go out. (Even though it's just analog VGA out in the first place!) I don't see the point paying for a shockingly overpriced $30 pigtail when there's no indication of when it will or won't work.
Maybe AirPlay isn't hobbled by all the restrictions, although somehow I doubt it.
That's right. Due to this oppressive legal ruling, you can no longer fire your boss for sharing their negative opinion of you online.
Globalization means you can't not invest in China. For example, GM now sells more cars and trucks in China than the US. The Asia-Pacific region has been Caterpillar's fastest-growing geographic market in recent years. GE's China sales are rising at about 20 percent annually. And IBM is a partner in this new datacenter project.
On top of the safety issues, I can't imagine anybody operating the Shuttle at a justifiable cost for space tourism. That would be like trying to operate a taxi service based on the M1 battle tank. If the shuttle is financially viable for anything (which I doubt), it would only be for when you need a manned heavy-lift capability.