I just took a look at my Ubuntu installation and I can turn on "Assistive Technology Support" which includes a screen reader, screen magnifier, and on-screen keyboard.
Of course, these tools work with all applications in the OS, not just the office suite. But is surely works for OpenOffice, etc.
This bozo politician seems to be saying that Open Documents don't have these features but clearly they do.
We know next to nothing about how much they spend to bring each drug to market or what they spend it on. (We know that it is not $802 million, as some industry apologists have recently claimed.) Nor do we know what their gigantic "marketing and administration" budgets cover. Perhaps most important, we do not know the results of the clinical trials they sponsor--only those they choose to make public, which tend to be the most favorable findings. (The FDA is not allowed to reveal the results it has.) The industry claims all of this is "proprietary" information. Yet, unlike other businesses, drug companies are dependent on the public for a host of special favors--including the rights to NIH-funded research, long periods of market monopoly, and multiple tax breaks that almost guarantee a profit.
In spite of all of these special government granted advantages and subsidies:
Of the seventy-eight drugs approved by the FDA in 2002, only seventeen contained new active ingredients, and only seven of these were classified by the FDA as improvements over older drugs. The other seventy-one drugs approved that year were variations of old drugs or deemed no better than drugs already on the market. In other words, they were me-too drugs. - Marcia Angell
This is an industry that doesn't do much good and costs all of us a lot.
It is true that most of these projects are being run by universities and other "non-profit" type organizations and it is good to support these.
However, the drug development system is so corrupt that big pharma is able to take the results of university, non-profit, and government funded research and claim ownership of it to develop and sell drugs. This is true of just about every advance in drug therapy. In most cases, taxpayers and universities have done the basic research to make the discovery and big pharma claims the rewards by doing the drug testing.
Wow! Are all of these nifty things included in the NEW VISTA?
I mean, do they really have a "sleep mode (suspend to hibernate)"? This is really innovative. This was introduced in Win98 and actually started working (mostly) in WinXP... this is really awesome!!
Also... user based security model!! Wow, really neat! This was introduced 5 or 10 years ago in Windows. Does this mean that they think they have it actually working now?
Do you mean that it really has a WiFi networking model that remembers security settings!! Wow, dude, awesome. My current XP already does this... again, does this mean that they've added some new fancy bells and whistles to the earth-shattering innovation?
I really can't wait for "Performance Statistics". Again, we've had performance statistics for a long time but I bet Microsoft has invested million$ in giving use new improved performance statistics. (Possibly so we can watch how much our system is crippled by the new "airo" interface.)
I have a Dell 700m and it has very low power requirements. Only draws 20 watts most of the time (unless I'm compiling, etc.). Most of the time the fan doesn't even run. It gets warm but no problem using it as a laptop. Great performance (1.7 GHz Pentium M)
I don't think you need evil people to have an evil corporation.
Good people who have loyalty to "corporate ideals" are all that is necessary. Corporations are psychopathic:
A corporation has a callous unconcern for the feelings of others; an incapacity to maintain enduring relationships; a reckless disregard for the safety of others; a pattern of deceitfulness; an incapacity to experience guilt; failure to conform to social norms with respect to lawful behaviour. In sum, a corporation is, in the words of prominent investor and shareholder activist Robert Monks, "a doom machine . . . in our search for wealth and for prosperity we created a thing that is going to destroy us."
The Corporation: The Pathological Pursuit of Profit and Power By Joel Bakan
In the USA, we're sending the army to stop people crossing our southern border. This will be about as useful as Australia sending their army to stop the toads.
Idiot politicians will reap big benefits for "doing something" about the problem from the idiot voters (in case you couldn't tell, "idiot voters" are in the majority in the USA).
Bribery and corruption in the US is corporatized. You don't bribe the baggage handler at US airports (unless you want to give them a tip) but you do pay a hefty fee to the airport and airlines. It's hidden in the cost of your ticket and taxes you pay but the result is the same. Your money goes to the corporations. The same it true in telecoms, transport, health care (25% of your health care dollar goes to insurance company overhead and profit), etc.
I spend a lot of time in developing countries in Africa and Asia and I much prefer the "direct" aid that I give to local people. It goes to someone who is directly in need rather than corporate profits.
All you need to do now is strap the laptop to your head (duct tape) and go to the disco. As you dance, the motion sensors and light sensors cause the lights and sound of your Apple laptop to "dance" in time to the music and your cool moves.
We all knew that Apple users were already "way cool" and this will put them over the top. There's no way we can compete now.
I agree that this is a real threat to the Internet.
Noam Chomsky has written a lot about this subject and his books ("Media Control" and "Necessary Illusions" among others) lay out the case clearly.
Some choice quotes:
The media are a corporate monopoly. They have the same point of view. The two parties are two factions of the business party. Most of the population doesn't even bother voting because it looks meaningless. They're marginalized and properly distracted. At least that's the goal.
People have to be atomized and segregated and alone. They're not supposed to organize, because then they might be something beyond spectators of action. They might actually be participants if many people with limited resources could get together to enter the political arena. That's really threatening.
Edward Bernays, the leading figure in the public relations industry
" The people who are able to engineer consent are the ones who have the resources and the power to do it-the business community-and that's who you work for.
The University of California has ten campuses (of which Berkeley is one but you may have also heard of UCLA - Los Angeles or UCSF - San Francisco or one of the other campuses).
Of course the search engine wars will never be over. Unlike desktop operating systems where Microsoft has a monopoly that is difficult to dislodge due to the large installed base, training, etc., it is very easy to change search engines and this will keep competition healthy.
Search can always be better (as other people have pointed out). This is a good thing. Competition is good and we benefit.
(This is also why Microsoft is so threatened by the Internet... once you move everything to the Internet, the desktop OS becomes irrelevant and all you need is a browser... this can be provided quite nicely by "free" software running on minimal hardware.)
However, I do believe the references you give support my argument:
On health:
In 1987 economic reforms were causing a fundamental transformation of the rural health-care system. The decollectivization of agriculture resulted in a decreased desire on the part of the rural populations to support the collective welfare system, of which health care was a part. In 1984 surveys showed that only 40 to 45 percent of the rural population was covered by an organized cooperative medical system, as compared with 80 to 90 percent in 1979.
On education:
Rural secondary education has undergone several transformations since 1980, when county-level administrative units closed some schools and took over certain schools run by the people's communes (see Glossary). In 1982, the communes were eliminated. In 1985, educational reform legislation officially placed rural secondary schools under local administration. There was a high dropout rate among rural students in general and among secondary students
I believe that China does encourage workers to migrate (and live in dormitories) to work in factories but doesn't permit their families to come along. Urban residence permits are difficult to obtain. They need cheap workers, not families.
I guess the iPods are not cheap to the consumer... Apple benefits from cheap manufacturing costs... if they don't pass the savings on they make more profit (What's good for Apple is good for the country?)
The theory is that by allowing companies to exploit cheap labour, the state is given enough money to invest in infrastructure, publich schooling, police and other things that are needed to bring in more companies to the country, which will in turn create higher demand for labour, which will drive up the cost of labour.
This is the standard capitalist theory but the path the China has taken has reversed this logic. Last month a "Frontline" report set this all out clearly. China used to have universal education and health care but that is no longer the case. They eliminated free schooling and health care. The result is that rural workers must migrate to factories in the cities and live in dormitories to sent back their meagre wages to pay for school fees and health care.
This gives China a large pool of low wage workers and we benefit by getting cheap stuff at WalMart (and cheap iPods).
I do think that we (and US companies) do have some moral responsibility here.
When I run sudo GoogleEarthLinux.bin it tells me "command not found"...???
Really... Linux newbie here and I've no idea how to actually get the.bin file to install or run.
Google itself provides absolutely no instructions on installing or running. I guess they assume that if you know Linux, you know how to install it and don't need instructions.
I bought a Roomba and loved it until it broke after a few months. It was replaced under warranty but then broke again and I didn't bother with it anymore. It didn't do well with my oriental rugs (fringe is a problem). They're too flimsy and not reliable. It also kept getting caught under things and required too much tending.
Slashdot Mirror
I just took a look at my Ubuntu installation and I can turn on "Assistive Technology Support" which includes a screen reader, screen magnifier, and on-screen keyboard.
Of course, these tools work with all applications in the OS, not just the office suite. But is surely works for OpenOffice, etc.
This bozo politician seems to be saying that Open Documents don't have these features but clearly they do.
Looks like it's only for right-handed people with no easy way to switch for left-handed.
However, the drug development system is so corrupt that big pharma is able to take the results of university, non-profit, and government funded research and claim ownership of it to develop and sell drugs. This is true of just about every advance in drug therapy. In most cases, taxpayers and universities have done the basic research to make the discovery and big pharma claims the rewards by doing the drug testing.
I mean, do they really have a "sleep mode (suspend to hibernate)"? This is really innovative. This was introduced in Win98 and actually started working (mostly) in WinXP... this is really awesome!!
Also... user based security model!! Wow, really neat! This was introduced 5 or 10 years ago in Windows. Does this mean that they think they have it actually working now?
Do you mean that it really has a WiFi networking model that remembers security settings!! Wow, dude, awesome. My current XP already does this... again, does this mean that they've added some new fancy bells and whistles to the earth-shattering innovation?
I really can't wait for "Performance Statistics". Again, we've had performance statistics for a long time but I bet Microsoft has invested million$ in giving use new improved performance statistics. (Possibly so we can watch how much our system is crippled by the new "airo" interface.)
The SkypeOut service does connect to the POTS. You can dial any land line. Is this subject to the tax?
I have a Dell 700m and it has very low power requirements. Only draws 20 watts most of the time (unless I'm compiling, etc.). Most of the time the fan doesn't even run. It gets warm but no problem using it as a laptop. Great performance (1.7 GHz Pentium M)
Good people who have loyalty to "corporate ideals" are all that is necessary. Corporations are psychopathic:
I'm not clear about this though... in order to stem "cruelty", is the frog supposed to drink the beer before it is killed?
Idiot politicians will reap big benefits for "doing something" about the problem from the idiot voters (in case you couldn't tell, "idiot voters" are in the majority in the USA).
I spend a lot of time in developing countries in Africa and Asia and I much prefer the "direct" aid that I give to local people. It goes to someone who is directly in need rather than corporate profits.
We all knew that Apple users were already "way cool" and this will put them over the top. There's no way we can compete now.
Noam Chomsky has written a lot about this subject and his books ("Media Control" and "Necessary Illusions" among others) lay out the case clearly.
Some choice quotes:
"He" is not a "she".
The University of California has ten campuses (of which Berkeley is one but you may have also heard of UCLA - Los Angeles or UCSF - San Francisco or one of the other campuses).
http://www.universityofcalifornia.edu/
Search can always be better (as other people have pointed out). This is a good thing. Competition is good and we benefit.
(This is also why Microsoft is so threatened by the Internet... once you move everything to the Internet, the desktop OS becomes irrelevant and all you need is a browser... this can be provided quite nicely by "free" software running on minimal hardware.)
2. Saddam was responsible for 9/11.
3. Profit! (for big business, at least)
According to TFA, the data center does not show up on Google Earth.
However, I do believe the references you give support my argument:
On health:
On education: I believe that China does encourage workers to migrate (and live in dormitories) to work in factories but doesn't permit their families to come along. Urban residence permits are difficult to obtain. They need cheap workers, not families.I guess the iPods are not cheap to the consumer... Apple benefits from cheap manufacturing costs... if they don't pass the savings on they make more profit (What's good for Apple is good for the country?)
This gives China a large pool of low wage workers and we benefit by getting cheap stuff at WalMart (and cheap iPods).
I do think that we (and US companies) do have some moral responsibility here.
Works great even on an old 850 MHz AMD Duron with on-board graphics... well... maybe not "Great!" (a little jerky on pan and zoom) but it does work!
I found my house 39 deg 12'10.34 N 120 deg 05'52.06" W
Really... Linux newbie here and I've no idea how to actually get the .bin file to install or run.
Google itself provides absolutely no instructions on installing or running. I guess they assume that if you know Linux, you know how to install it and don't need instructions.
I bought a Roomba and loved it until it broke after a few months. It was replaced under warranty but then broke again and I didn't bother with it anymore. It didn't do well with my oriental rugs (fringe is a problem). They're too flimsy and not reliable. It also kept getting caught under things and required too much tending.
Boy, your Mac OS must be way kewl...