This is a nice theory but history has shown that it rarely works this way. Usually what happens is that "large corporation" copies the idea and tells the inventor to take a hike. Small inventor doesn't have money to sue so takes a hike. The only time you see patent trials are when two large companies are battling it out. Small inventors usually get screwed if they can't sell out to large corporation.
I don't think that patents were ever about "inspiring creativity". They were always about protecting your "invention" from competition. I really don't think patents serve any socially useful purpose. They are just create monopolies on ideas which are exploited by corporations. The result is that the consumer has less choice and higher costs (and companies higher profits). Anything that can be copied just by looking at it is "obvious" by definition and shouldn't be eligible for a patent. Things such as industrial processes which are less obvious and more complex can be (and usually are) considered trade secrets.
The ER isn't free. Ever. If you don't have insurance, you will be charged the hospital's highest "rack rate" (much higher than those with insurance). They will then hound you with professional bill collectors until you pay up. They even have bill collectors stalking patients in the hospital. The ER isn't free. Ever.
Hospitals don't pay attention to IT security for the same reason most large organizations don't do it... it's hard and confusing and costs money and we haven't got caught yet.
The poster didn't say first. Microsoft has been last in most of these fields. Being first does not guarantee success but being last is a rocky road to failure.
Yeah... Just try putting it in the microwave and see how well it works! (I recommend "High" for 3 minutes... or if you want extended fireworks try the "Defrost" setting)
I agree that many fewer models should be sufficient. I am still using my HP LaserJet 4L (in my SOHO) which just passed its 20th birthday. Refill cartridges for it are cheap now ($10) since they have been cloned. I don't print much anyway.
iPhones seem to suck at being cameras. We know that they have sucked at being actual phones for a long time. The newest ones also suck at maps and directions. Does anyone think this will keep any fanboi from purchasing one?
I don't think it's the soldiers who are the big expense in the military budget. I think it's the "military-industrial complex" which sells lots of obscenely overpriced kit to the military. If it were possible to cut back the military budget (unlikely), you would see a few unemployed engineers (who could probably easily find civilian jobs). You'd also see a drop in profits for all of the military contractors.
I'd rather have government dictating charity spending than random individuals with odd agendas. When the government dictates charity, it is (ideally) done in an open consensus process. When an individual dictates charity, it is done with their own personal bias of who/ what should receive benefit and this is not necessarily something the rest of society would agree on. In the case of churches, I don't think the government (i.e. me as a taxpayer) should subsidize any religion... the whole separation of church and state thing... and a tax exemption for churches means that I am subsidizing everyone's religion.
I'm not sure that I would want to subsidize private charity giving at all. This subsidy tends to support all kinds of odd causes many of which are of dubious social value. I'd rather the government collect that money instead and decide what "good causes" to support.
I don't want to subsidize anyone's religious beliefs. Support your own church (or non-church) at your own expense. Religions are not charity, they are "fraternal organizations" (although some religions do some charity work).
I don't like the idea of subsidizing the Mormon church (or any other church). When people get a deduction for church contributions, then everyone else has to pay more taxes. You are welcome to contribute to any church you want. Just don't ask me to subsidize your giving.
This country is group of islands and all Internet comes through satellite links. Skype tells me the roundtrip is 800 ms which is huge. There is a lag in the conversation but the voice quality is excellent. I can't imagine it could get much worse than the conditions here and these are quite usable.
I assume you are being cynical (with good cause). However, Skype calls (better quality than standard voice channels) actually use about 0.5 MByte of data per minute. Where I am now (traveling in a developing country), they charge about US$0.14 per megabyte (2 minute call) and the same per minute for local calls. Of course, with Skype, you can call anywhere for the same cost so yes, data calls are cheaper.
Most professors don't write their own textbooks. A few do. I think that in my entire time in college and graduate school, I only had two professors with their own books. One of these was a workbook and was cheap. My wife is a college professor and constantly whinges about the high cost of textbooks. She would love to have free textbooks (and so would everyone in her department... none of them have written textbooks.
Did you even try to read the article? This gives publicly available information on poling places and elected official contact information plus the election contests that an address is able to vote in. Nothing about individual votes before or after an election.
And it still puts the menu for every window at the top of one monitor... often a long distance from the window itself. Why don't they fix this? Now that Steve has gone, can we challenge some of his idiosyncrasies?
This is a contract between a greedy corporation and a greedy power supplier. Contracts can have any terms that they negotiate. They are both greedy. They both negotiated the terms that they thought would work out best for them. Microsoft ended up on the short end of the deal. Sometimes it works out that way.
Do you mean that your customers can't read any docx or xlsx files they receive from anyone? I really find that hard to believe. For at least the last 5 years, everyone has been sending around these new file formats... your customers must be flying blind...
I cited a scientific article, not anecdotes. It's clear that you are not a doctor and don't have the training necessary to research this topic and understand the results. That is fine. There are people who have spent many years studying medicine. We call them scientific experts. Medicine is complicated. I don't have time to explain years of medical training in a few words on slashdot. You may find more understandable information oriented to lay people here: http://www.drgreene.com/whiteout And here is an interesting related article which popped up today: http://opinionator.blogs.nytimes.com/2012/09/25/bittman-is-alzheimers-type-3-diabetes/#more-134495
Don't usually reply to ACs who don't know how to use Google but here's one for a start:
Sun Q, Spiegelman D, van Dam RM, Holmes MD, Malik VS, Willett WC, and Hu FB. “White Rice, Brown Rice, and Risk of Type 2 Diabetes in US Men and Women. Archives of Internal Medicine. June 2010; 170(11):961-969.
There is good evidence that food preferences starts with the first solid food. Most infants (at least in the US) are started on white rice cereal and this has been shown to lead to a preference for high glycemic index foods (simple sugars and starches) leading to obesity. They have found that brown rice (low glycemic index) is much better. Much better to start with low glycemic index foods (and stay with them for life).
The USPS loses money because Congress won't let them raise rates because Congress is controlled by the corporations who benefit from cheap rates. Postal rates in the US are much lower than most of the rest of the developed world.
Slashdot Mirror
This is a nice theory but history has shown that it rarely works this way.
Usually what happens is that "large corporation" copies the idea and tells the inventor to take a hike. Small inventor doesn't have money to sue so takes a hike.
The only time you see patent trials are when two large companies are battling it out. Small inventors usually get screwed if they can't sell out to large corporation.
I don't think that patents were ever about "inspiring creativity". They were always about protecting your "invention" from competition.
I really don't think patents serve any socially useful purpose. They are just create monopolies on ideas which are exploited by corporations. The result is that the consumer has less choice and higher costs (and companies higher profits).
Anything that can be copied just by looking at it is "obvious" by definition and shouldn't be eligible for a patent. Things such as industrial processes which are less obvious and more complex can be (and usually are) considered trade secrets.
The ER isn't free. Ever.
If you don't have insurance, you will be charged the hospital's highest "rack rate" (much higher than those with insurance).
They will then hound you with professional bill collectors until you pay up. They even have bill collectors stalking patients in the hospital.
The ER isn't free. Ever.
Hospitals don't pay attention to IT security for the same reason most large organizations don't do it... it's hard and confusing and costs money and we haven't got caught yet.
The poster didn't say first. Microsoft has been last in most of these fields.
Being first does not guarantee success but being last is a rocky road to failure.
Yeah... Just try putting it in the microwave and see how well it works! (I recommend "High" for 3 minutes... or if you want extended fireworks try the "Defrost" setting)
I agree that many fewer models should be sufficient.
I am still using my HP LaserJet 4L (in my SOHO) which just passed its 20th birthday.
Refill cartridges for it are cheap now ($10) since they have been cloned.
I don't print much anyway.
iPhones seem to suck at being cameras.
We know that they have sucked at being actual phones for a long time.
The newest ones also suck at maps and directions.
Does anyone think this will keep any fanboi from purchasing one?
I don't think it's the soldiers who are the big expense in the military budget.
I think it's the "military-industrial complex" which sells lots of obscenely overpriced kit to the military.
If it were possible to cut back the military budget (unlikely), you would see a few unemployed engineers (who could probably easily find civilian jobs). You'd also see a drop in profits for all of the military contractors.
I'd rather have government dictating charity spending than random individuals with odd agendas. When the government dictates charity, it is (ideally) done in an open consensus process. When an individual dictates charity, it is done with their own personal bias of who/ what should receive benefit and this is not necessarily something the rest of society would agree on. In the case of churches, I don't think the government (i.e. me as a taxpayer) should subsidize any religion... the whole separation of church and state thing... and a tax exemption for churches means that I am subsidizing everyone's religion.
I'm not sure that I would want to subsidize private charity giving at all. This subsidy tends to support all kinds of odd causes many of which are of dubious social value. I'd rather the government collect that money instead and decide what "good causes" to support.
I don't want to subsidize anyone's religious beliefs.
Support your own church (or non-church) at your own expense.
Religions are not charity, they are "fraternal organizations" (although some religions do some charity work).
I don't like the idea of subsidizing the Mormon church (or any other church). When people get a deduction for church contributions, then everyone else has to pay more taxes.
You are welcome to contribute to any church you want. Just don't ask me to subsidize your giving.
This country is group of islands and all Internet comes through satellite links.
Skype tells me the roundtrip is 800 ms which is huge.
There is a lag in the conversation but the voice quality is excellent.
I can't imagine it could get much worse than the conditions here and these are quite usable.
I assume you are being cynical (with good cause).
However, Skype calls (better quality than standard voice channels) actually use about 0.5 MByte of data per minute.
Where I am now (traveling in a developing country), they charge about US$0.14 per megabyte (2 minute call) and the same per minute for local calls. Of course, with Skype, you can call anywhere for the same cost so yes, data calls are cheaper.
Most professors don't write their own textbooks. A few do.
I think that in my entire time in college and graduate school, I only had two professors with their own books. One of these was a workbook and was cheap.
My wife is a college professor and constantly whinges about the high cost of textbooks. She would love to have free textbooks (and so would everyone in her department... none of them have written textbooks.
Did you even try to read the article?
This gives publicly available information on poling places and elected official contact information plus the election contests that an address is able to vote in.
Nothing about individual votes before or after an election.
It's kind of like the Yellow Brick Road.
And it still puts the menu for every window at the top of one monitor... often a long distance from the window itself.
Why don't they fix this? Now that Steve has gone, can we challenge some of his idiosyncrasies?
Since you are a somewhat resistant learner...
Sorry, I can't be bothered, do your own research.
This is a contract between a greedy corporation and a greedy power supplier.
Contracts can have any terms that they negotiate.
They are both greedy.
They both negotiated the terms that they thought would work out best for them.
Microsoft ended up on the short end of the deal.
Sometimes it works out that way.
Do you mean that your customers can't read any docx or xlsx files they receive from anyone?
I really find that hard to believe. For at least the last 5 years, everyone has been sending around these new file formats... your customers must be flying blind...
I cited a scientific article, not anecdotes.
It's clear that you are not a doctor and don't have the training necessary to research this topic and understand the results. That is fine. There are people who have spent many years studying medicine. We call them scientific experts. Medicine is complicated. I don't have time to explain years of medical training in a few words on slashdot.
You may find more understandable information oriented to lay people here:
http://www.drgreene.com/whiteout
And here is an interesting related article which popped up today:
http://opinionator.blogs.nytimes.com/2012/09/25/bittman-is-alzheimers-type-3-diabetes/#more-134495
Don't usually reply to ACs who don't know how to use Google but here's one for a start:
Sun Q, Spiegelman D, van Dam RM, Holmes MD, Malik VS, Willett WC, and Hu FB. “White Rice, Brown Rice, and Risk of Type 2 Diabetes in US Men and Women. Archives of Internal Medicine. June 2010; 170(11):961-969.
There is good evidence that food preferences starts with the first solid food. Most infants (at least in the US) are started on white rice cereal and this has been shown to lead to a preference for high glycemic index foods (simple sugars and starches) leading to obesity. They have found that brown rice (low glycemic index) is much better.
Much better to start with low glycemic index foods (and stay with them for life).
The USPS loses money because Congress won't let them raise rates because Congress is controlled by the corporations who benefit from cheap rates. Postal rates in the US are much lower than most of the rest of the developed world.