"Well, you don't understand a sodding bit about Brasil's taxes. The government charges the greatest taxes in the world in imported technology, that being software, hardware, iPods and such."
Well... That's quite a surprise, since I live here.
"What I'm saying is that for microsoft to have the same profit here and in the US, they have to charge higher prices."
They could slash their prices all they want. They employ just a bunch of marketroids here. All their developers are at MSC. I bet their profits per employee here are among their highest.
I doubt the prices MS practices are the government's fault. Their products are little boxes with CDs or DVDs inside that can be printed just about anywhere and cost a couple dollars each. Most of their OS sales are through the OEM channel and cost little compared to the boxes.
If Microsoft wanted to keep prices low, they could.
It's pure greed. And, since they can blame the government, they get away with it.
It's already weird to bill someone for the search, but to demand payment for a job that was not done (they searched, but, IIRC, they never found him) is outrageous.
It's economics and monopoly abuse. It's not civil rights just yet, but, if you let companies get too powerful, you start to see them interfering with both the law and its application.
Some may interpret Microsoft's unnusually bland punishment on the DoJ monopoly abuse investigation as a bad start.
Luckily, the EU seems more determined to take a stand against the abuse and may even succeed to change its behaviour.
No. It's not about my personal software choice. It's about economics: You should never empower a convicted monopoly abuser. As far as I am concerned, you could run FreeBSD or OSX or OS/2 or BeOS and that would be perfectly fine.
In the end, it's about the preservation of your own freedom of choice, assuming you will not stick to Windows forever and may want, someday, to switch to something else. If you empower your favorite monopolist too much, you will eventually find out the hard way you no longer have a choice.
Now, to stick with the original theme, by loading an educational tool with a black-box software system, some of the learning potential is lost - the kid (or teen, more likely) will not be able to study the machine's inner workings and will hit a impenetrable wall as soon as the students explore beyond the set of tools bestowed upon them. It goes against the very idea of teaching independence.
Also, it's quite weird to teach the virtues of sharing knowledge and cooperating using a tool based on secret knowledge made under a business model where keeping your fellow human ignorant on its inner workings is the rule.
But you don't get it, you don't want to get it and no amount of explanation will ever enlighten you. I am sorry for you. Really.
The problem with this specific freedom is that by empowering a convicted monopolist you are helping it destroy the freedoms of others by making harder for them to function with their own choices.
If Microsoft became a responsible corporate citizen, I would have no trouble with people using and advocating for the use of Windows, but, as it is now, it's like advocating for the freedom to purchase drugs from drug-and-miscellaneous-crime cartels.
"There was at least one F-15 that had a mid-air and lost a wing! That plane made it home!"
Losing a wing seems pretty much fatal accident. I don't doubt it made home as long as it was directly above it, but the rate of descent would certainly be a concern and most definitely seems unsurvivable.
Please remember that brave and slightly insane man survived 45G for a tiny fraction of a second. Any longer they would have problems separating him from the rest of the rocket sled.
8G during reentry is bad enough for me, thanks. It must feel like quite a beating.
I think they will start aggressively promoting Windows to teachers so they pressure their IT folks to install it (or just do it covertly, Microsoft won't care).
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Wish I could still mod you up...
"Well, you don't understand a sodding bit about Brasil's taxes. The government charges the greatest taxes in the world in imported technology, that being software, hardware, iPods and such."
Well... That's quite a surprise, since I live here.
"What I'm saying is that for microsoft to have the same profit here and in the US, they have to charge higher prices."
They could slash their prices all they want. They employ just a bunch of marketroids here. All their developers are at MSC. I bet their profits per employee here are among their highest.
I doubt the prices MS practices are the government's fault. Their products are little boxes with CDs or DVDs inside that can be printed just about anywhere and cost a couple dollars each. Most of their OS sales are through the OEM channel and cost little compared to the boxes.
If Microsoft wanted to keep prices low, they could.
It's pure greed. And, since they can blame the government, they get away with it.
All my books bought at Amazon have zero import tax. That's policy with book imports.
I don know what Intel is doing wrong, but it must be something big. If Amazon books come through a loophole, it's a very big one.
I doubt you can work drinking caipirinhas all the time. ;-)
And why is GP saying it's a backwards place to live? I quite like it here.
I really wonder if there is anything Microsoft touches that doesn't get corrupted to its core.
OLPC was about empowering children. Now it seems poised to be about giving flashy black-boxes to kids.
Either that or all bookstores in Utah belong to SCO ;-)
At least did they find him?
It's already weird to bill someone for the search, but to demand payment for a job that was not done (they searched, but, IIRC, they never found him) is outrageous.
Why are they sorting the emails? How much could it cost just to keep all the messages?
"Upgrading our Lotus Notes with Microsoft Exchange allowed White House staff to cut jail time by more than 83%."
You know... IIRC, there are drugs that can cause Alzheimer's.
But no, I think his disease was genuine.
Anyway, we should pay attention to who gets sick with what diseases as soon as this gang leaves office. I predict a statistical anomaly.
I think the goal is to reverse that. There seems to be quite advanced malice at work disguising itself as incompetence.
Malice and incompetence should not be distinguishable under law.
Wouldn't the failure to keep proper records somewhat a crime?
Shouldn't someone face jail time for this?
No. By isolating them we will make them non-viable and, when they die, we will reclaim the block.
For now, I have blocked it in my firewalls.
I remember something about her being into BDSM. I have seen stranger things.
A Honda CRX is hardly any measurement of success... Not to say love was involved, but, certainly, his success would not stand the lightest scrutiny.
It's economics and monopoly abuse. It's not civil rights just yet, but, if you let companies get too powerful, you start to see them interfering with both the law and its application.
Some may interpret Microsoft's unnusually bland punishment on the DoJ monopoly abuse investigation as a bad start.
Luckily, the EU seems more determined to take a stand against the abuse and may even succeed to change its behaviour.
No. It's not about my personal software choice. It's about economics: You should never empower a convicted monopoly abuser. As far as I am concerned, you could run FreeBSD or OSX or OS/2 or BeOS and that would be perfectly fine.
In the end, it's about the preservation of your own freedom of choice, assuming you will not stick to Windows forever and may want, someday, to switch to something else. If you empower your favorite monopolist too much, you will eventually find out the hard way you no longer have a choice.
Now, to stick with the original theme, by loading an educational tool with a black-box software system, some of the learning potential is lost - the kid (or teen, more likely) will not be able to study the machine's inner workings and will hit a impenetrable wall as soon as the students explore beyond the set of tools bestowed upon them. It goes against the very idea of teaching independence.
Also, it's quite weird to teach the virtues of sharing knowledge and cooperating using a tool based on secret knowledge made under a business model where keeping your fellow human ignorant on its inner workings is the rule.
But you don't get it, you don't want to get it and no amount of explanation will ever enlighten you. I am sorry for you. Really.
The problem with this specific freedom is that by empowering a convicted monopolist you are helping it destroy the freedoms of others by making harder for them to function with their own choices.
If Microsoft became a responsible corporate citizen, I would have no trouble with people using and advocating for the use of Windows, but, as it is now, it's like advocating for the freedom to purchase drugs from drug-and-miscellaneous-crime cartels.
Anyway, there are jurisdictions where this restriction is illegal and thus unenforceable.
"The Constellation Program? Ugh. It's going to be to space vehicles what Vista is to operating systems."
Sorry. That would be the shuttle. Constellation is going to be the Windows 7 of space transportation systems
"There was at least one F-15 that had a mid-air and lost a wing! That plane made it home!"
Losing a wing seems pretty much fatal accident. I don't doubt it made home as long as it was directly above it, but the rate of descent would certainly be a concern and most definitely seems unsurvivable.
Please remember that brave and slightly insane man survived 45G for a tiny fraction of a second. Any longer they would have problems separating him from the rest of the rocket sled.
8G during reentry is bad enough for me, thanks. It must feel like quite a beating.
Oh no... 6.10 was not nearly as bad as you make it.
When I meant 6.06 was unremarkable, I was talking about 6.10. And unremarkable it was, for the good and for the bad.
I could as well have skipped it.
I think they will start aggressively promoting Windows to teachers so they pressure their IT folks to install it (or just do it covertly, Microsoft won't care).