I generally disagree with it. One can design pretty close to needs if given enough time to study the problem.
I have to disagree with your disagreement. The main problem is (at least in my experience) that the customer doesn't want what he told you he wants, but he won't realize that until you show him what he asked for. I'm not advocating XP (pair programming would drive me insane), but it's critical to be able to alter the design even after lots of implementation work has been done, because you *will* be told to.
I'd rather have 4 years of trying to clean it up, rather than 4 more years to make it worse.
So would I, but that wasn't an option, because Kerry wanted to spend even more than Bush. Neither party cares about fiscal responsibility anymore, just like neither cares about civil liberties. (The minority party may pretend to care as a means of attacking the majority, but once they get into power their attitude swiftly changes).
How about the counties with electronic voting are wealthier which often means they are more likely to vote republican.
Yeah, what he said. This is silly. Almost every poll up to the day of the election showed Bush with a slight lead. The exit polls showed Kerry with a moderate lead, and the actual votes ended up with Bush in a slight lead. The outlier isn't the final vote count, it's the exit polls.
No it doesn't. It's completely illogical, because it has no advantages over just raising the existing gas tax. (Assuming for the moment that they actually do need more money).
Now, to reduce the regressive nature of the sales tax, were it me, I would eliminate *all* sales taxes on life-necessities: food, any health/medical supplies (including prescriptions), and possibly housing (but not land; the property tax should definitely stay, so as to prevent people from hoarding land).
The FairTax has no exemptions, but provides a universal rebate to cover the costs of all purchases up to roughly the poverty level, so poor people pay zero or negative taxes. I like this better than exempting "necessities", because it avoids rent-seeking lobbyists trying to get their products on the list.
You know, a national sales tax ought to appeal to the leftie anti-consumerist, anti-materialist mentality which says that "Americans consume too much! Ach, it makes me sick that all people do is buy stuff! Waaahh!" Funny that they've been silent on the issue.
Indeed. They're also oddly silent on the regressive payroll tax, because they have to maintain the fiction that Social Security is a retirement program and not a Ponzi scheme.
(Come soon or come late, there's only so much of it out there. Given that demand keeps going up, simple logic tells us that it's going to run out some time in the not-so-distant future.)
Logic also tells us that as supplies dwindle, the price will rise (gradually, not abruptly), encouraging both conservation and alternative energy sources. Capitalism handles scarcity just fine. There may be a place for taxes or other government action to combat negative externalities of fossil fuels.
The classic Slashdot argument. Just because somebody charges (either money or time) for something that you happen to want for free, you think you have the right to take it anyway and blame it on their "business model".
Bull. Broadcasters are not charging me anything. They are *hoping* that I actually will watch the commercials, but their desire imposes no legal or moral obligation on me. Just like my credit card company hopes that I won't pay off my balance every month; I suppose I'm stealing from them when I do?
Yes, and if the grandparent poster had looked at the vote distribution, he'd also realize that 90% of those votes came from born-again sheep-fucking redneck wackos
It's always nice to see liberal tolerance in action.
Bull. You want to talk racist; how about setting up a "retirement" program where the age at which you receive benefits is greater than the average life expectancy of black males. How about doing the NEA's bidding by blocking anything that would let poor families in the inner cities get their kids out of the horrible public schools. How about insisting on affirmative action policies that let students into colleges where they aren't qualified, resulting in high dropout rates when they could have succeeded elsewhere. Democrats depend on a near-monolithic black vote, and will do everything in their power to keep them dependent on government rather than helping them to become self-sufficient.
No, what you are saying is that it's not worth 20M to prevent the over 200,000 kids that will go through OPS in the next 20 years from getting a crappy education.
And what you're saying is that more federal money will magically fix the problems, which is contradicted by several decades of evidence.
They can prove that every line of code written by every engineer wasn't improperly taken from somewhere else? Very doubtful.
Does Linux?
To the extent that question has meaning ("Linux" is not a single entity), no, by the same reasoning above. However, Linux is *less* likely to contain tainted code because it's all in plain view, so anyone whose code was misappropriated has a much greater chance of noticing it (and getting it removed) in Linux than Windows.
I don't entirely get why the hell in usa those mail in rebates are even used.. except the 'maybe the customer will forget to send these!
That's it exactly. Something like half of rebates either aren't claimed or are rejected based on technicalities (e.g. sending a copy of the receipt instead of the original). And the extra float they earn sitting on your rebate check doesn't hurt either. (What on earth can possibly take 4 weeks to process?)
Don't go to someone else's store and demand they have to offer the same. An intelligent person should realize that these different operations have different overheads, and different business plans. These are not intelligent shoppers, these are assholes.
Um, if a store promises to match another store's price, how exactly is holding them to their word being an asshole? If that's unethical, then so is taking advantage of loss leaders. (Of which going to the bathroom during commercials is an example).
Why were the exit polls the exact opposite of the vote count?
Because the exit polls don't have close to a representative sample. For example, the early ones today that showed Kerry doing better than expected had 59% women.
The CIA trained Osama bin Laden and other Arabs in the techniques of terrorism.
Yes, and the US also helped the mass-murdering dictator Stalin. Sometimes the enemy of your enemy is your friend. And yes, sometimes that causes problems down the road that you have to fix. Life is complicated.
Are you familiar with this part of the Constitution: "...Promote The General Welfare"?
Yes. It's part of the preamble, and assigns no actual powers to any branch of government. Are you familiar with this part: "nor shall private property be taken for public use without just compensation"?
Too many brainwashed bots running around not able to think rationally enough, and to go to socialism and make it work, you need a populace well educated and really more rational than we have anywhere on earth, really, at the time
Ok, I'm in your wonderful socislist state. Explain to me why it's rational for me to find a job and do something useful rather than collecting your generous welfare checks.
Of all the many times possible solutions have been mentioned on tv news shows, there are only two possible solutions ever listed: raise the age of retirement, and reduce benefits. Gee, what about all the other possible solutions? What about raising the ceiling on the payroll tax?
Actually I'm for eliminating the regressive payroll tax altogether, thereby disposing of the fiction that SS is some sort of retirement plan. You like welfare, so lets admit that SS is a giant welfare program. Means-test the benefits (why does Warren Buffett need to get anything?), and fund it out of general revenue, raising taxes as needed.
Would John Q public buy a mac to play the newest games. The answer would be no
The several comments made of this nature are missing the point. True, for the forseeable future nobody will be buying Macs specifically to play games. But there are many potential customers who like OS X and the iApps, but for whom the lack of games is a dealbreaker. The suggestion isn't that Apple should make the Mac platform as good as Windows for gaming (which isn't remotely feasible), but that they should make it *good enough* so that potential switchers can accept it.
Badnarik has some nutty idea's I don't aggree with. He is the worst Libertarian canidate in some time.
Quite true. But since there's no way he can win, I figure I'm voting for the party rather than the man. And not even the party really, but the principles of limited goverment and individual freedom which are sorely lacking in both major parties.
That last clause is widely considered to be a ban on civil unions
No it isn't. There was another version that added that "no federal or state law" could be construed in that manner, and that would probably have banned civil unions. But as written, it just means that judges would be forbidden from interpreting state constitutions to find that they require civil unions. States could still allow them via their own laws. It's still a stupid amendment, but not quite as bad as you think.
Slashdot Mirror
I generally disagree with it. One can design pretty close to needs if given enough time to study the problem.
I have to disagree with your disagreement. The main problem is (at least in my experience) that the customer doesn't want what he told you he wants, but he won't realize that until you show him what he asked for. I'm not advocating XP (pair programming would drive me insane), but it's critical to be able to alter the design even after lots of implementation work has been done, because you *will* be told to.
I'd rather have 4 years of trying to clean it up, rather than 4 more years to make it worse.
So would I, but that wasn't an option, because Kerry wanted to spend even more than Bush. Neither party cares about fiscal responsibility anymore, just like neither cares about civil liberties. (The minority party may pretend to care as a means of attacking the majority, but once they get into power their attitude swiftly changes).
How about the counties with electronic voting are wealthier which often means they are more likely to vote republican.
Yeah, what he said. This is silly. Almost every poll up to the day of the election showed Bush with a slight lead. The exit polls showed Kerry with a moderate lead, and the actual votes ended up with Bush in a slight lead. The outlier isn't the final vote count, it's the exit polls.
The plan seems logical enough
No it doesn't. It's completely illogical, because it has no advantages over just raising the existing gas tax. (Assuming for the moment that they actually do need more money).
but what about the obvious privacy concerns?
To the government that's a feature, not a bug.
Now, to reduce the regressive nature of the sales tax, were it me, I would eliminate *all* sales taxes on life-necessities: food, any health/medical supplies (including prescriptions), and possibly housing (but not land; the property tax should definitely stay, so as to prevent people from hoarding land).
The FairTax has no exemptions, but provides a universal rebate to cover the costs of all purchases up to roughly the poverty level, so poor people pay zero or negative taxes. I like this better than exempting "necessities", because it avoids rent-seeking lobbyists trying to get their products on the list.
You know, a national sales tax ought to appeal to the leftie anti-consumerist, anti-materialist mentality which says that "Americans consume too much! Ach, it makes me sick that all people do is buy stuff! Waaahh!" Funny that they've been silent on the issue.
Indeed. They're also oddly silent on the regressive payroll tax, because they have to maintain the fiction that Social Security is a retirement program and not a Ponzi scheme.
(Come soon or come late, there's only so much of it out there. Given that demand keeps going up, simple logic tells us that it's going to run out some time in the not-so-distant future.)
Logic also tells us that as supplies dwindle, the price will rise (gradually, not abruptly), encouraging both conservation and alternative energy sources. Capitalism handles scarcity just fine. There may be a place for taxes or other government action to combat negative externalities of fossil fuels.
The classic Slashdot argument. Just because somebody charges (either money or time) for something that you happen to want for free, you think you have the right to take it anyway and blame it on their "business model".
Bull. Broadcasters are not charging me anything. They are *hoping* that I actually will watch the commercials, but their desire imposes no legal or moral obligation on me. Just like my credit card company hopes that I won't pay off my balance every month; I suppose I'm stealing from them when I do?
Yes, and if the grandparent poster had looked at the vote distribution, he'd also realize that 90% of those votes came from born-again sheep-fucking redneck wackos
It's always nice to see liberal tolerance in action.
Perspective sure has a hefty influence on whether people committing acts of violence are good or bad, doesn't it?
Oh good, more inane moral relativism. Show me where George Washington sent suicide bombers to murder British children, and maybe you'd have a point.
4 years in the deeply racist Republican party
Bull. You want to talk racist; how about setting up a "retirement" program where the age at which you receive benefits is greater than the average life expectancy of black males. How about doing the NEA's bidding by blocking anything that would let poor families in the inner cities get their kids out of the horrible public schools. How about insisting on affirmative action policies that let students into colleges where they aren't qualified, resulting in high dropout rates when they could have succeeded elsewhere. Democrats depend on a near-monolithic black vote, and will do everything in their power to keep them dependent on government rather than helping them to become self-sufficient.
No, what you are saying is that it's not worth 20M to prevent the over 200,000 kids that will go through OPS in the next 20 years from getting a crappy education.
And what you're saying is that more federal money will magically fix the problems, which is contradicted by several decades of evidence.
MSFT knows the source of their "source."
They can prove that every line of code written by every engineer wasn't improperly taken from somewhere else? Very doubtful.
Does Linux?
To the extent that question has meaning ("Linux" is not a single entity), no, by the same reasoning above. However, Linux is *less* likely to contain tainted code because it's all in plain view, so anyone whose code was misappropriated has a much greater chance of noticing it (and getting it removed) in Linux than Windows.
I don't entirely get why the hell in usa those mail in rebates are even used.. except the 'maybe the customer will forget to send these!
That's it exactly. Something like half of rebates either aren't claimed or are rejected based on technicalities (e.g. sending a copy of the receipt instead of the original). And the extra float they earn sitting on your rebate check doesn't hurt either. (What on earth can possibly take 4 weeks to process?)
Don't go to someone else's store and demand they have to offer the same. An intelligent person should realize that these different operations have different overheads, and different business plans. These are not intelligent shoppers, these are assholes.
Um, if a store promises to match another store's price, how exactly is holding them to their word being an asshole? If that's unethical, then so is taking advantage of loss leaders. (Of which going to the bathroom during commercials is an example).
especially because GTA began its life on the PC.
And Halo began life on the Mac...
Why were the exit polls the exact opposite of the vote count?
Because the exit polls don't have close to a representative sample. For example, the early ones today that showed Kerry doing better than expected had 59% women.
The CIA trained Osama bin Laden and other Arabs in the techniques of terrorism.
Yes, and the US also helped the mass-murdering dictator Stalin. Sometimes the enemy of your enemy is your friend. And yes, sometimes that causes problems down the road that you have to fix. Life is complicated.
Vote for a Free America on 11-2-2004!
In that case your choices are Libertarian, or arguably Green. Kerry and the Democrats in general are not fans of civil liberties either; see my sig.
Are you familiar with this part of the Constitution: "...Promote The General Welfare"?
Yes. It's part of the preamble, and assigns no actual powers to any branch of government. Are you familiar with this part: "nor shall private property be taken for public use without just compensation"?
Too many brainwashed bots running around not able to think rationally enough, and to go to socialism and make it work, you need a populace well educated and really more rational than we have anywhere on earth, really, at the time
Ok, I'm in your wonderful socislist state. Explain to me why it's rational for me to find a job and do something useful rather than collecting your generous welfare checks.
Of all the many times possible solutions have been mentioned on tv news shows, there are only two possible solutions ever listed: raise the age of retirement, and reduce benefits. Gee, what about all the other possible solutions? What about raising the ceiling on the payroll tax?
Actually I'm for eliminating the regressive payroll tax altogether, thereby disposing of the fiction that SS is some sort of retirement plan. You like welfare, so lets admit that SS is a giant welfare program. Means-test the benefits (why does Warren Buffett need to get anything?), and fund it out of general revenue, raising taxes as needed.
E.g. what looking for ghosts drove them away? What if testing God caused Him to ignore one?
Such theories are unfalsifiable and thus outside the realm of science.
Would John Q public buy a mac to play the newest games. The answer would be no
The several comments made of this nature are missing the point. True, for the forseeable future nobody will be buying Macs specifically to play games. But there are many potential customers who like OS X and the iApps, but for whom the lack of games is a dealbreaker. The suggestion isn't that Apple should make the Mac platform as good as Windows for gaming (which isn't remotely feasible), but that they should make it *good enough* so that potential switchers can accept it.
Halo was originally developed SOLELY for the Mac
I'm pretty sure Bungie intended to do a simultaneous Mac/PC release until MS bought them.
Badnarik has some nutty idea's I don't aggree with. He is the worst Libertarian canidate in some time.
Quite true. But since there's no way he can win, I figure I'm voting for the party rather than the man. And not even the party really, but the principles of limited goverment and individual freedom which are sorely lacking in both major parties.
That last clause is widely considered to be a ban on civil unions
No it isn't. There was another version that added that "no federal or state law" could be construed in that manner, and that would probably have banned civil unions. But as written, it just means that judges would be forbidden from interpreting state constitutions to find that they require civil unions. States could still allow them via their own laws. It's still a stupid amendment, but not quite as bad as you think.