Yes, the way software industry is going this days, this will revitalize Microsoft's stagnant revenues by putting them on equal footing with every other competing product in Operating System, word processing and web publishing sectors. After all, there is much more money to be made by having the best expertise to address needs of a 100000 large scale customers than by charging $15 OEM fees for a generic, unremarkable product for which many free alternatives are available.
So would you say that vinyl and casette tapes are dead?
Hardly, and they are designed for the same purpose as mp3 players. Each have unique properties that attract enough users to make continued production profitable. Much less weird to replace one home stereo with another than the concept of taking out, turning on and looking at your phone to check time.
Yet it's perfectly fine for you to operate an exhaust-belching motor vehicle in the same confined street areas, poisoning those around you with your harmful fumes.
Car exhaust used to kill a whole lot of people, until national and state governments passed laws to fix that. There were cries of murder from auto manufacturers, but in the end they did just fine and people got healthier. Go visit China if you want to experience how things used to be. But generally speaking today's cars don't stink much unless they are malfunctioning. Mine even turns itself off when it stops on your congested street corner. I think they should make that a law someday.
I am also all for allowing smokers with a catalytic convertor enclosing their nose, mouth and cigarette access to all public spaces and guaranteed warranty from Apple. But practically speaking, there are many more convinient ways to achieve the same goal.
At the very least, petition our government to classify tobacco as a controlled substance and let the FDA regulate it just like they do every other addictive dangerous drug.
Wow. You would prefer for both of your parents to be locked up in prison and for yourself to grow up on the street or in an orphanage? To have no food to eat because all the money went on cigs smuggled from Columbia? For a mafia guy to break your leg as you were walking to school because your dad didn't pay up?
I agree that government should treat tobacco like any other addictive drug. Like offering a maintenance amount to addicts for fixed price to take the profit away from cartels that would otherwise recruit children and other new users. Or setting up places where one can get high without harming others. But this doesn't seem like the right job for FDA/DEA/etc. Maybe government of some European countries.
More than thinking about it, I assure you. I fully support banning smoking in bars and restaurants, but sidewalk bans are going too far.
Isn't this completely backwards? If there is a smoking bar, I can avoid it. Sidewalk smokers puff their crap in my face no matter where I am and especially when I am dining outside in a non-smoking restaurant.
What we need is a limited number of permits for smoking vs non-smoking bars so that people have a chance to visit or work in a smoke-free establishment. Also, a prominent sign on the door and a highway billboard so that I can avoid making unproductive stops and I guess smokers can get their fix.
Our whole family just had H1N1 and yet none of us could get a vaccine beforehand, not even our 2 year old daughter. If vaccine was available, all of us would have gotten it. To top the confusion, the doctor is still asking us to get the shot when it becomes available. Give me a frigging break.
Now what amazes me is that our daughter coughed for 2 days and then she was fine, while we are still sick after 3 weeks. Daycares must create some kind of mutant immune systems that put interspecies viruses to shame.
Games already contain situations that resemble real emergencies and commonly contain simulated alerts where some government official type tells you what is happening. There a possibility of the alert being ignored because people think it's just part of the game. But far worse is children getting scared or taking unsafe actions to evade perceived hazards because they really believe there is a nuclear attack in progress or that mom and dad turned into blood-sucking zombies. After all they have been taught that they can be alerted to an emergency through a game.
Socialism is a set of economic rules, dictatorship is a set of political rules. It is possible have socialist democracy, capitalist dictatorship and Soviet Union certainly had socialist dictatorship and socialist oligarchy at different times. Most develop countries can be described as hybrid capitalist/socialist constitutional republics.
Wow you really think a government can be morally correct? Like the inquisition? Like Agent Orange?
Thankfully I never experienced those personally. However, when my sister-in-laws garage caught fire, firefighters arrived in 2 minutes and put it out. When I saw a bizarre-active person wondering on the street, I called the police and they picked her up for investigation. So if government is responsible for health care and I have a heart attack, I am reasonably sure that they will help me. After all that's how it works in most other countries.
Even if you like Obama and think he really is the savior do you really trust every other politician including his successors to run your life?
At least I have some input into who his successors will be, which is more than I can say about insurance CEOs. Maybe health care should be managed by my state or city government with federal grants so that I have even more input.
Who is saying anything about telling other people how to build space launchers or paying them money for that purpose. But if they just happen to develop the technology themselves, why not cooperate on scientific research that doesn't have immediate military use. Whom are they going to blow up with Hubble?
As this stands we will have the government decide when we die instead of a private company gee I feel sooooo much better.
I don't know, if my town is hit by terrorists, I would feel better if government decides weather to deploy troops rather than Halliburton ditching me because I had a pre-existing terrorist threat or finding some hole in my contract to get out of deploying messionaries. Same if I am in danger of dying because of fire, crime or natural disaster - I kind of like that, if service sucks, at least I get to vote and get idiot FEMA guys or idiot presidents replaced. So why should things be different if the danger to my life is health-related? Either way, if my treatment (or fire/police/hurricane rescue) is going to cost $10M, I am dead. The least I can hope for is some democratic oversight and judgement that is in some measure based on moral rather than profit.
Space missions are non-contraversial, expensive and a perfect way for a country to show off its might without killing anyone in the process. It's a perfect case to cooperate with any country, friendly or hostile, that has the resources to contribute. Soviet-US joint missions were pretty much the norm during cold war. I don't see any reason to leave out China, Iran or North Korea if they are willing to contribute money and talent.
It would make sense to waive sales tax for businesses registered in state or that employ majority of their total workforce in state. These already result in corporate and individual income taxes collected as well as benefiting state's residents. Out of state businesses without physical presence should certainly be charged full sales tax as they are not charged anything else.
That would be a step up from insurance industry panels in private health care systems that hold meetings to decide if they can interpret some small print in the contract to exclude your medical procedure, or dump your coverage because you didn't disclose ache that you had as a teenager. I mean, when there is a finite pool of money, rationing is inevitable. Giving record bonuses to CEOs while letting patients die on the other hand is pretty sleazy.
What indeed? Games are for entertainment and doing precisely the kind of things that would be a bad idea in real life. If you want to blow away Russians, Americans or Iranians, your government has no business keeping you from buying the game. In fact, as a Russian, my curiosity is now piqued. Although I would prefer a politically incorrect title to the tune of Leisure Suite Larry or Duke Nukem.
These kind of sentiments have been advanced by closed source vendors for ages - just listen to Apple and AT&T about how giving me access to iPhone is too dangerous for my own good. Yet two scenarios keep occurring - either manufacturer goes out of business or the software doesn't work for my specific need and I am not enough of a target market to bother fixing it. These cases and use of open source/user upgradability is MORE important for life critical applications. I can always buy a new cell phone, but a new heart may be kind of problematic.
Just like people will stop you if you plan to jump from the roof of a 3-story building to try and hit a trampoline on the ground floor.
If the building is burning and fire department is nowhere in sight? I know such people, many in the highest positions of US government, but don't care much about this philosophy.
So, to repair the engine in a car you wound normally go to a repair shop. However you may not want to go to the dealer and you want the repair shop to have access to and ability to reset diagnostic codes to identify and fix the problem. In the same way, I don't expect patients to normally have pacemaker programmers at home. However you should be able to see a licensed doctor not directly associated with the equipment manufacturer and have him/her update the firmware.
As for nutcases who buy a programmer on e-bay and download firmware from Internet, it is NOT illegal to perform medical procedures on oneself, just on other people. There are people who pull out their own teeth or try to seal wounds with staplers. It's just plain dump for most people.
If your life, health and well being depends on being able to tune the device, having DRMed firmware would suck pretty badly. If some doctor tunes the pacemaker to enable short burst higher rates so that, for example, I can climb a flight of stairs comfortably, I should have a right to install the update.
Encryption really is so much like weaponry, that your statement -- and its accuracy -- are the same as "If guns are outlawed, only outlaws will have guns." Does not stop the politicians from trying, though...
If even 10% of encryption software owners use the product to kill defenseless civilians, or if accidents with a 5 year old boy finding a PGP CD-ROM in dad's drawer and accidentally killing his 3 year old system are widespread, I would certainly support strict licensing requirements and usage restrictions on encryption.
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Yes, the way software industry is going this days, this will revitalize Microsoft's stagnant revenues by putting them on equal footing with every other competing product in Operating System, word processing and web publishing sectors. After all, there is much more money to be made by having the best expertise to address needs of a 100000 large scale customers than by charging $15 OEM fees for a generic, unremarkable product for which many free alternatives are available.
Takes you to places in space AND time all with great gas millage. I hear a crew flew back to 2000 to save Republicans from extinction.
So would you say that vinyl and casette tapes are dead?
Hardly, and they are designed for the same purpose as mp3 players. Each have unique properties that attract enough users to make continued production profitable. Much less weird to replace one home stereo with another than the concept of taking out, turning on and looking at your phone to check time.
Yet it's perfectly fine for you to operate an exhaust-belching motor vehicle in the same confined street areas, poisoning those around you with your harmful fumes.
Car exhaust used to kill a whole lot of people, until national and state governments passed laws to fix that. There were cries of murder from auto manufacturers, but in the end they did just fine and people got healthier. Go visit China if you want to experience how things used to be. But generally speaking today's cars don't stink much unless they are malfunctioning. Mine even turns itself off when it stops on your congested street corner. I think they should make that a law someday.
I am also all for allowing smokers with a catalytic convertor enclosing their nose, mouth and cigarette access to all public spaces and guaranteed warranty from Apple. But practically speaking, there are many more convinient ways to achieve the same goal.
At the very least, petition our government to classify tobacco as a controlled substance and let the FDA regulate it just like they do every other addictive dangerous drug.
Wow. You would prefer for both of your parents to be locked up in prison and for yourself to grow up on the street or in an orphanage? To have no food to eat because all the money went on cigs smuggled from Columbia? For a mafia guy to break your leg as you were walking to school because your dad didn't pay up?
I agree that government should treat tobacco like any other addictive drug. Like offering a maintenance amount to addicts for fixed price to take the profit away from cartels that would otherwise recruit children and other new users. Or setting up places where one can get high without harming others. But this doesn't seem like the right job for FDA/DEA/etc. Maybe government of some European countries.
More than thinking about it, I assure you. I fully support banning smoking in bars and restaurants, but sidewalk bans are going too far.
Isn't this completely backwards? If there is a smoking bar, I can avoid it. Sidewalk smokers puff their crap in my face no matter where I am and especially when I am dining outside in a non-smoking restaurant.
What we need is a limited number of permits for smoking vs non-smoking bars so that people have a chance to visit or work in a smoke-free establishment. Also, a prominent sign on the door and a highway billboard so that I can avoid making unproductive stops and I guess smokers can get their fix.
Our whole family just had H1N1 and yet none of us could get a vaccine beforehand, not even our 2 year old daughter. If vaccine was available, all of us would have gotten it. To top the confusion, the doctor is still asking us to get the shot when it becomes available. Give me a frigging break.
Now what amazes me is that our daughter coughed for 2 days and then she was fine, while we are still sick after 3 weeks. Daycares must create some kind of mutant immune systems that put interspecies viruses to shame.
Games already contain situations that resemble real emergencies and commonly contain simulated alerts where some government official type tells you what is happening. There a possibility of the alert being ignored because people think it's just part of the game. But far worse is children getting scared or taking unsafe actions to evade perceived hazards because they really believe there is a nuclear attack in progress or that mom and dad turned into blood-sucking zombies. After all they have been taught that they can be alerted to an emergency through a game.
That would be a clowder of those, you insensitive clod!
Socialism is a set of economic rules, dictatorship is a set of political rules. It is possible have socialist democracy, capitalist dictatorship and Soviet Union certainly had socialist dictatorship and socialist oligarchy at different times. Most develop countries can be described as hybrid capitalist/socialist constitutional republics.
That's because Obama's money comes out of your magic stash.
Wow you really think a government can be morally correct? Like the inquisition? Like Agent Orange?
Thankfully I never experienced those personally. However, when my sister-in-laws garage caught fire, firefighters arrived in 2 minutes and put it out. When I saw a bizarre-active person wondering on the street, I called the police and they picked her up for investigation. So if government is responsible for health care and I have a heart attack, I am reasonably sure that they will help me. After all that's how it works in most other countries.
Even if you like Obama and think he really is the savior do you really trust every other politician including his successors to run your life?
At least I have some input into who his successors will be, which is more than I can say about insurance CEOs. Maybe health care should be managed by my state or city government with federal grants so that I have even more input.
Who is saying anything about telling other people how to build space launchers or paying them money for that purpose. But if they just happen to develop the technology themselves, why not cooperate on scientific research that doesn't have immediate military use. Whom are they going to blow up with Hubble?
As this stands we will have the government decide when we die instead of a private company gee I feel sooooo much better.
I don't know, if my town is hit by terrorists, I would feel better if government decides weather to deploy troops rather than Halliburton ditching me because I had a pre-existing terrorist threat or finding some hole in my contract to get out of deploying messionaries. Same if I am in danger of dying because of fire, crime or natural disaster - I kind of like that, if service sucks, at least I get to vote and get idiot FEMA guys or idiot presidents replaced. So why should things be different if the danger to my life is health-related? Either way, if my treatment (or fire/police/hurricane rescue) is going to cost $10M, I am dead. The least I can hope for is some democratic oversight and judgement that is in some measure based on moral rather than profit.
Space missions are non-contraversial, expensive and a perfect way for a country to show off its might without killing anyone in the process. It's a perfect case to cooperate with any country, friendly or hostile, that has the resources to contribute. Soviet-US joint missions were pretty much the norm during cold war. I don't see any reason to leave out China, Iran or North Korea if they are willing to contribute money and talent.
It would make sense to waive sales tax for businesses registered in state or that employ majority of their total workforce in state. These already result in corporate and individual income taxes collected as well as benefiting state's residents. Out of state businesses without physical presence should certainly be charged full sales tax as they are not charged anything else.
That would be a step up from insurance industry panels in private health care systems that hold meetings to decide if they can interpret some small print in the contract to exclude your medical procedure, or dump your coverage because you didn't disclose ache that you had as a teenager. I mean, when there is a finite pool of money, rationing is inevitable. Giving record bonuses to CEOs while letting patients die on the other hand is pretty sleazy.
What does this have to do with history?
What indeed? Games are for entertainment and doing precisely the kind of things that would be a bad idea in real life. If you want to blow away Russians, Americans or Iranians, your government has no business keeping you from buying the game. In fact, as a Russian, my curiosity is now piqued. Although I would prefer a politically incorrect title to the tune of Leisure Suite Larry or Duke Nukem.
These kind of sentiments have been advanced by closed source vendors for ages - just listen to Apple and AT&T about how giving me access to iPhone is too dangerous for my own good. Yet two scenarios keep occurring - either manufacturer goes out of business or the software doesn't work for my specific need and I am not enough of a target market to bother fixing it. These cases and use of open source/user upgradability is MORE important for life critical applications. I can always buy a new cell phone, but a new heart may be kind of problematic.
Just like people will stop you if you plan to jump from the roof of a 3-story building to try and hit a trampoline on the ground floor.
If the building is burning and fire department is nowhere in sight? I know such people, many in the highest positions of US government, but don't care much about this philosophy.
Well, it's my life to risk and my informed decision to make. What if the bug which is killing me is in the original firmware?
So, to repair the engine in a car you wound normally go to a repair shop. However you may not want to go to the dealer and you want the repair shop to have access to and ability to reset diagnostic codes to identify and fix the problem. In the same way, I don't expect patients to normally have pacemaker programmers at home. However you should be able to see a licensed doctor not directly associated with the equipment manufacturer and have him/her update the firmware.
As for nutcases who buy a programmer on e-bay and download firmware from Internet, it is NOT illegal to perform medical procedures on oneself, just on other people. There are people who pull out their own teeth or try to seal wounds with staplers. It's just plain dump for most people.
If your life, health and well being depends on being able to tune the device, having DRMed firmware would suck pretty badly. If some doctor tunes the pacemaker to enable short burst higher rates so that, for example, I can climb a flight of stairs comfortably, I should have a right to install the update.
So can you support the same 0.01% number regarding guns? I seldom use a gun while banking or shopping, but I guess your millage may vary.
Yeah, almost as bad as killing off business of all the vendors that have been relying on WiFi to process credit cards.
Encryption really is so much like weaponry, that your statement -- and its accuracy -- are the same as "If guns are outlawed, only outlaws will have guns." Does not stop the politicians from trying, though...
If even 10% of encryption software owners use the product to kill defenseless civilians, or if accidents with a 5 year old boy finding a PGP CD-ROM in dad's drawer and accidentally killing his 3 year old system are widespread, I would certainly support strict licensing requirements and usage restrictions on encryption.