If marginal cost goes below average cost, a company cannot charge the marginal cost and still make money.
True. Which is why traditional proprietary software has been and will continue to decrease in importance. Look at everything that's free today that wasn't 10 years ago: web browsers, web servers, office suites, compilers, databases, etc. Open source keeps expanding, and proprietary software has to perpetually stay ahead in order to have a market, which will be a decreasing percentage of the entire software market. Neil Stephenson (at least I think it was him) had an essay that explains this much better, but I can't seem to find it.
Why are you posting this anonymously? That might tell you something up front as most of us have an innate sense of right and wrong and have no problem posting in the clear.
Ok, I'll post in the clear: I don't think what they did was particularly bad. Illegal, probably, but I just can't see where anyone was harmed here, and even in your hypothetical scenario the only harm is to the student himself.
While CBS does lean slightly conservative, it's nowhere near as conservative as typical U.S. media.
The methodology in your link is about as accurate as counting the number of security flaws reported against Windows versus Linux to determine which is superior.
one can almost even forgive them for "mistating" facts to pretend that Social Security will have financial problems sooner than it will (parroting administration lies)
Um, their analysis refers to 2 reports regarding Social Security's insolvency; one says it happens in 2042, the other 2052. I see no evidence that one is the gospel truth and the other is a "lie". In fact, since the "trust fund" is nothing but an IOU from the government to itself, the real fun begins in 20 years or so when it has to be "redeemed".
I don't know why people forget that there are businesses in his country that also pay taxes.
Of course, "businesses" don't pay taxes, only people do. Corporate taxes must necessarily be paid by some combination of increased prices to consumers, decreased wages to employees, or lower returns to shareholders.
I think a small % of the country would agree with you, mostly blue states.
Most of the posters on this Free Republic thread are strongly opposed to this attempt at censorship. On the other hand, I'd bet many Democratic-leaning soccer moms would be in favor of it.
As long as piracy exists, consumers have that additional choice; take a measured legal risk plus a theoretically greater risk of getting a defective/incomplete duplicate, and get the free copy rather than paying for the legal one.
Exactly. And thanks to DRM, the pirated copy is usually *more* valuable than the legitimate copy.
For instance, I am strongly opposed to this "paper receipts" idea.
Agreed. Somewhere I recall reading about a voting framework where you can verify that your vote was recorded correctly, but can't prove who you voted for to anyone else. That would be ideal if it were practical.
Patents are good things.
In principle, I agree. In practice, when somebody can get a patent on a "!=" operator, it turns into a rent-seeking game where the winner is whoever has the most lawyers. A good system of software patents would probably be better than no system, but what we have now is worse.
Ditto DRM. As a creator of content, I'm desperate for a sound technological solution to piracy.
And I want a perpetual motion machine, but that's irrelevant. You fundamentally cannot implement effective DRM without shredding fair use.
Again, go ahead and argue with me if you want; I won't even bother reading it.
i works just fine for a simple loop. But then you get someone using i, j, ii and jj inside a bunch of nested loops.
Multiply nested loops can be confusing no matter what you name the indexes, and are often a sign that you're trying to do too much in one place. i and j are fine, and maybe k in unusual circumstances. Beyond that, I'd look at refactoring more than just the variable names.
Not as long as they have no problem with their complete and utter lack of accountability of any type, and the vicious, one-sided partisan nature designed solely to incite vitriol in their groupthink audiences.
As opposed to paragons of journalistic integrity like Dan Rather?
But many, particularly political blogs, have no regard for anything but the furtherance of their own agendas, taking things wildly out of context, and going on vindictive missions to build a one-sided case to paint the target of their ire in the worst possible light, without any consideration for any other motivations or other sides of the stories.
Hmm, sounds like our legal system, which more or less works. The thing is, when you read Little Green Footballs or Daily Kos, you *know* they're biased and that they're going to spin the facts towards their points of view. That's arguably better than entities who insist they're impartial when they clearly aren't.
The surplus funds are in a trust fund, that is invested in US government securities to be paid out when the boomers retire.
In other words, it's a loan from one branch of the government to another, which has a net value of exactly zero. I can't fund my retirement by writing myself an IOU, and neither can the government.
As for how to sell it, Social Security has always been an insurance plan. It's poverty insurance for the elderly.
No, if it were then it would make sense. Insurance only pays out when the event you're insuring against actually happens, but Bill Gates will be eligible for Social Security benefits. Here's my 2-point reform plan:
1. End the (regressive) payroll tax. Fund benefits out of general revenue, raising other taxes as needed. 2. Means-test the benefits so SS actually becomes insurance and not a psuedo-retirement program with a terrible rate of return.
Both these changes make the system more progressive, so I expect liberals to be lining up in support (yeah right).
Then, they went to the FCC, and Michael Powell was more than willing to bend over for big business. But, that seems to be standard operating procedure for the current administration.
I hate to interrupt a Bush-bashing session with facts, but Powell was appointed by the previous administration, the same one that gave us the DMCA and tried to inflict the CDA and Clipper chip.
As much as I hate to play devil's advocate, the rampant adoption of PVRs has left television in a sad state. Advertisers are no longer willing to pay top dollar for airtime out of fear that their commercials will not be watched
One word: tough. More words:
There has grown in the minds of certain groups in this country the idea that just because a man or corporation has made a profit out of the public for a number of years, the government and the courts are charged with guaranteeing such profit in the future, even in the face of changing circumstances and contrary to public interest. This strange doctrine is supported by neither statue or common law. Neither corporations or individuals have the right to come into court and ask that the clock of history be stopped, or turned back.
You either have to roll over completley or get ready for a long hard battle that you will win.
Bingo. And rolling over isn't an option because that's what the cable companies are doing, and they have tremendous infrastructure advantages. That leaves standing up for customers' rights as the only viable strategy, and it may be too late for that.
Two hundred thousand years with the same years and we manage to fuck it up in three hundred.
Yes, damn those modern creations like penicillin and indoor plumbing. If only we could live in harmony with nature like our ancestors, it would be a paradise. Aside from most of us dying by 40 from diseases or bear attacks, of course.
The more you consume, the more you damage the future of your children.
That is far from clear. Consumption has increased substantially over the last few centuries, and personally I'd much rather live in today's world than in 1805.
But then, it comes down to "what do we spend our tax money on? will we improve broadband connectivity for our citizens or will we interfere with other countries' business and pretend it is for a good cause"?
Or possibly even let people keep more of the money they earn and decide for themselves whether they want to spend it on broadband or something else.
The US and its allies may have spies working covertly in foreign rogue nations. Presumably, any intelligence or orders passed between them may involve internet-routed signals. A supercomputer would allow rogue states to brute-force crack the key and compromise the agent's mission.
Not if the algorithm is good. Time and energy for a brute-force crack increases exponentially with key length; the energy output of the Sun over its entire lifetime isn't enough to even count to 2^256, let alone crack a 256-bit key (see Bruce Schneier's Applied Cryptography).
"The terrorists cannot intercept our transmissions! We use encryption!" vs "The terrorists cannot blow up the WTC! We have airport security!"
True. Although I've always thought airport security was a joke, both pre and post 9/11.
The best part was including that amount in the next year's taxes. How's that for a slap in the face?
Not true. If got the rebate check, you then paid the old tax rate the next year instead of the new reduced rate. You come out ahead either way, the plan was just to encourage spending by sending the rebate checks out early.
Installing a GPS tracking device in each vehicle is a sure violation of privacy.
Which is no doubt a feature to many of the supporters. Reminds me of a Norm Macdonald SNL Weekend Update bit:
Bell Atlantic has announced a new service that will allow anyone to get the address to any listed phone number. Opponents say it is an invasion of privacy. Proponents say it will help to invade people's privacy.
My advice...stay away from credit cards except for absolute emergencies. Accepting a credit card these days is like shackling yourself and giving them the key.
Or you can just pay off your balance every month, which means you don't pay interest, but do get some level of fraud protection and often cash back.
Slashdot Mirror
If marginal cost goes below average cost, a company cannot charge the marginal cost and still make money.
True. Which is why traditional proprietary software has been and will continue to decrease in importance. Look at everything that's free today that wasn't 10 years ago: web browsers, web servers, office suites, compilers, databases, etc. Open source keeps expanding, and proprietary software has to perpetually stay ahead in order to have a market, which will be a decreasing percentage of the entire software market. Neil Stephenson (at least I think it was him) had an essay that explains this much better, but I can't seem to find it.
Why are you posting this anonymously? That might tell you something up front as most of us have an innate sense of right and wrong and have no problem posting in the clear.
Ok, I'll post in the clear: I don't think what they did was particularly bad. Illegal, probably, but I just can't see where anyone was harmed here, and even in your hypothetical scenario the only harm is to the student himself.
While CBS does lean slightly conservative, it's nowhere near as conservative as typical U.S. media.
The methodology in your link is about as accurate as counting the number of security flaws reported against Windows versus Linux to determine which is superior.
one can almost even forgive them for "mistating" facts to pretend that Social Security will have financial problems sooner than it will (parroting administration lies)
Um, their analysis refers to 2 reports regarding Social Security's insolvency; one says it happens in 2042, the other 2052. I see no evidence that one is the gospel truth and the other is a "lie". In fact, since the "trust fund" is nothing but an IOU from the government to itself, the real fun begins in 20 years or so when it has to be "redeemed".
I don't know why people forget that there are businesses in his country that also pay taxes.
Of course, "businesses" don't pay taxes, only people do. Corporate taxes must necessarily be paid by some combination of increased prices to consumers, decreased wages to employees, or lower returns to shareholders.
Don't Freepers lean Libertarian?
Many do, but there are probably more social conservatives. Lots of fireworks on the drug war threads...
Only Democrats, who are nothing more than godless gay-loving atheists, want free speech.
Yeah, right. Remember the CDA? Both parties will happily demagogue any issue "for the children" if it will get them votes.
I think a small % of the country would agree with you, mostly blue states.
Most of the posters on this Free Republic thread are strongly opposed to this attempt at censorship. On the other hand, I'd bet many Democratic-leaning soccer moms would be in favor of it.
As long as piracy exists, consumers have that additional choice; take a measured legal risk plus a theoretically greater risk of getting a defective/incomplete duplicate, and get the free copy rather than paying for the legal one.
Exactly. And thanks to DRM, the pirated copy is usually *more* valuable than the legitimate copy.
For instance, I am strongly opposed to this "paper receipts" idea.
Agreed. Somewhere I recall reading about a voting framework where you can verify that your vote was recorded correctly, but can't prove who you voted for to anyone else. That would be ideal if it were practical.
Patents are good things.
In principle, I agree. In practice, when somebody can get a patent on a "!=" operator, it turns into a rent-seeking game where the winner is whoever has the most lawyers. A good system of software patents would probably be better than no system, but what we have now is worse.
Ditto DRM. As a creator of content, I'm desperate for a sound technological solution to piracy.
And I want a perpetual motion machine, but that's irrelevant. You fundamentally cannot implement effective DRM without shredding fair use.
Again, go ahead and argue with me if you want; I won't even bother reading it.
That's just childish.
yep, the compiler understood that the resulting value would be 129
That is pretty darn cool. I just tried with gcc 3.3 on Mac OS X, and it does the same thing (with -O3).
i works just fine for a simple loop. But then you get someone using i, j, ii and jj inside a bunch of nested loops.
Multiply nested loops can be confusing no matter what you name the indexes, and are often a sign that you're trying to do too much in one place. i and j are fine, and maybe k in unusual circumstances. Beyond that, I'd look at refactoring more than just the variable names.
Not as long as they have no problem with their complete and utter lack of accountability of any type, and the vicious, one-sided partisan nature designed solely to incite vitriol in their groupthink audiences.
As opposed to paragons of journalistic integrity like Dan Rather?
But many, particularly political blogs, have no regard for anything but the furtherance of their own agendas, taking things wildly out of context, and going on vindictive missions to build a one-sided case to paint the target of their ire in the worst possible light, without any consideration for any other motivations or other sides of the stories.
Hmm, sounds like our legal system, which more or less works. The thing is, when you read Little Green Footballs or Daily Kos, you *know* they're biased and that they're going to spin the facts towards their points of view. That's arguably better than entities who insist they're impartial when they clearly aren't.
Someone who is working with 30+ windows open most likely has mostly terminals, web pages and text editors open, with maybe a few 3D apps.
Doesn't matter. The window server (Quartz in my case) treats all of them as texture-mapped polygons, where the "texture" is their actual content.
social security is a beautiful program that has been incredibly successful. whats not working with it?
Are you actually serious? I can design a program that looks "beautiful" too if you let me borrow $10 trillion or so from future taxpayers.
The surplus funds are in a trust fund, that is invested in US government securities to be paid out when the boomers retire.
In other words, it's a loan from one branch of the government to another, which has a net value of exactly zero. I can't fund my retirement by writing myself an IOU, and neither can the government.
As for how to sell it, Social Security has always been an insurance plan. It's poverty insurance for the elderly.
No, if it were then it would make sense. Insurance only pays out when the event you're insuring against actually happens, but Bill Gates will be eligible for Social Security benefits. Here's my 2-point reform plan:
1. End the (regressive) payroll tax. Fund benefits out of general revenue, raising other taxes as needed.
2. Means-test the benefits so SS actually becomes insurance and not a psuedo-retirement program with a terrible rate of return.
Both these changes make the system more progressive, so I expect liberals to be lining up in support (yeah right).
Then, they went to the FCC, and Michael Powell was more than willing to bend over for big business. But, that seems to be standard operating procedure for the current administration.
I hate to interrupt a Bush-bashing session with facts, but Powell was appointed by the previous administration, the same one that gave us the DMCA and tried to inflict the CDA and Clipper chip.
One word: tough. More words:
You either have to roll over completley or get ready for a long hard battle that you will win.
Bingo. And rolling over isn't an option because that's what the cable companies are doing, and they have tremendous infrastructure advantages. That leaves standing up for customers' rights as the only viable strategy, and it may be too late for that.
It's on my signature, just like everybody else who has a signmature.
Yes, and your signature is a *spam*. Not exactly rocket science here.
But I guess some people are less enterprising than others
Indeed. Some people actually go out and do honest work in order to afford stuff they want, while others attempt to sucker people into pyramid schemes.
Two hundred thousand years with the same years and we manage to fuck it up in three hundred.
Yes, damn those modern creations like penicillin and indoor plumbing. If only we could live in harmony with nature like our ancestors, it would be a paradise. Aside from most of us dying by 40 from diseases or bear attacks, of course.
The more you consume, the more you damage the future of your children.
That is far from clear. Consumption has increased substantially over the last few centuries, and personally I'd much rather live in today's world than in 1805.
But then, it comes down to "what do we spend our tax money on? will we improve broadband connectivity for our citizens or will we interfere with other countries' business and pretend it is for a good cause"?
Or possibly even let people keep more of the money they earn and decide for themselves whether they want to spend it on broadband or something else.
The US and its allies may have spies working covertly in foreign rogue nations. Presumably, any intelligence or orders passed between them may involve internet-routed signals. A supercomputer would allow rogue states to brute-force crack the key and compromise the agent's mission.
Not if the algorithm is good. Time and energy for a brute-force crack increases exponentially with key length; the energy output of the Sun over its entire lifetime isn't enough to even count to 2^256, let alone crack a 256-bit key (see Bruce Schneier's Applied Cryptography).
"The terrorists cannot intercept our transmissions! We use encryption!" vs "The terrorists cannot blow up the WTC! We have airport security!"
True. Although I've always thought airport security was a joke, both pre and post 9/11.
The best part was including that amount in the next year's taxes. How's that for a slap in the face?
Not true. If got the rebate check, you then paid the old tax rate the next year instead of the new reduced rate. You come out ahead either way, the plan was just to encourage spending by sending the rebate checks out early.
Which is no doubt a feature to many of the supporters. Reminds me of a Norm Macdonald SNL Weekend Update bit:
My advice...stay away from credit cards except for absolute emergencies. Accepting a credit card these days is like shackling yourself and giving them the key.
Or you can just pay off your balance every month, which means you don't pay interest, but do get some level of fraud protection and often cash back.