As everything else that turned evil (Big Brother, Apartheid, international law, stocks), the original idea was dutch. Octroois were designed to make a design public, registered to the owner, so others could implement it AND pay for it. The idea was NOT to give a company a monopoly on an idea, the goal was the EXACT opposite. That the idea of ONE man could be used by anyone BUT they had to pay for it.
It started because people invented novel ways for water management were it was obvious the ideas belonged to one person but were of use to everyone, so it made sense to allow everyone to implement a new pump yet still reward the original inventor. It was the FRAND idea taken even further and core to the system.
This system ALSO insured something else, an octrooi HAD to be a real design. After all, the idea of pumping water was hardly new. You would ONLY play to use a new octrooi if it gave you the full design to build a new pump. Patents ARE supposed to be the same, a patent application should include all the details needed for a master in the craft to build the item. You CANNOT patent merely an idea or a business plan because there is nothing there that a CRAFTSMAN (NOT AN INVENTOR) can use to build. Collect all the patents related to the internal combustion engine, and you can build one. Collect the patents on a Apple patent, and you can build nothing but a legal case in a bought court.
It doesn't mean ALL patents are useless but a lot are. There is also a practice as done by Lego of patenting EVERYTHING you can think off just to stop someone else from doing anything. Lego made claims for all the alternative ideas they could think of to make building blocks so nobody could make anything even remotely similar. That there are patents for eternal motion machines should tell you enough, how can a craftsman skilled in the trade possibly make an eternal motion machine? Patents don't even have to work, so why not patent all your failed research just to prevent someone else from making it work?
The entire patent system lost its original goal. It was designed to SPREAD inventions while the original inventor was compensated and instead is used to limit the spread of inventions, stifle new invenstions and keep the rich rich.
But hey, good luck getting it to change. When you do, why not reform wallstreet at the same time to get the stock market to be about investment instead of speculation again? Oh and that UN thing to be about peace rather then self interests? That would be nice to if you are out fixing the world.
It is the GBA without back lighting, the GBA game saves that consisted of writing down a long string, the inability to turn music off in many Nintendo games.
It not just being behind on tech it seems there efforts are just plain lazy. A 4 hour window? It reminds me of when I was working on a ISP portal in the last century were they wanted porn because it was the only thing that actually sold but only during late night hours. NOBODY bothers with that kind of stuff anymore because it just don't make sense.
For instance, once the game has been bought, it is fully available. The games can still be bought through regular shops and lets face it a Nintendo game is so tame anyway that only the most puritan countries have issues with it (Britain and Germany). The only thing Nintendo is showing with this, is that it is still the console for little kiddies. The lousily managed console for little kiddies.
What has been an interesting excersise, going insane?
WHAT does MY personal computer located in my house NEED from a public space in order to search my LOCAL files?
THERE IS NO NEED! Why should a search for "taxform 2012" go to amazon? If I want to buy a book about taxes, I can GOOGLE it MYSELF! I AM NOT LOOKING FOR A BOOK ON TAXES, I am looking for MY OWN data. Not amazons or anybody elses, MINE on MY hardware.
Even if am looking for music, anyone with more then two brain cells (Americans, you can stop reading here) knows that if you can't find a song in your private library, you have to either do without or find a way to download or buy it. I do NOT need Amazon to know when I am in the mood for a piece of music I already bought.
This move by Ubuntu is an INSANE leap into an amount of privacy invasion that is practically unheard off. This is not even CLOSE to what Facebook has pulled, at least when I am on facebook I KNOW I am on SOMEONE elses system where the most common goal is to share information.
I have NO such expectation when I am searching my own harddisk. I don't WANT to share my file searches, I have no need for it, it gives me no benefit it only is a massive privacy invasion.
I am perfectly okay with the bank knowing who I pay money to via a bank transfer, I got little to hide but THIS move by Ubuntu would be your bank installing a camera in your wallet to register every cash payment you make anywhere and see if there is something they can sell you because of it.
NO
The entire argument of the parent poster that your personal computer has somehow become public property because your BROWSER can be used to connect to other computers so search in a FILE EXPLORER should be send to other computers as well is such a leap of insanity I fear for the posters long term health, I fear he might keep it and continue to vote. It is an insane idea. What next, my car goes on the public road so my car is a public road? I go into public spaces so I am a public space?
The parent poster is probably someone who has used the word "cyberspace" and meant it. Sorry kid, my computer is a simple tool and it is MY property and I don't want data I don't want to go out to be send out especially when it doesn't serve my interests. My PC, Laptop, Tablet, Phone are NOT public terminals.
I wonder if the parent poster even ever heard of the concept of a firewall. Even Windows nowaday asks whether you want to allow a program to send data to the outside world. Granted, windows firewall is far from perfect but at least it tries. Ubuntu doesn't. And that is really really bad.
And all those who think it is worth for the ONE time they searched for a file and wanted to find a book they wanted to buy but only through amazon... please, try for a Darwin Award. It is something to tell your kids about...promise!
Ideology is a dream not a fact. You can DREAM privatization will result in better trains with better service and lower prices and it is no different then if you prayed for it instead, Ideology is faith, not fact. You can DREAM completely different cultures will just happily live together but that is Ideology, faith, not FACT.
Parties need to evolve beyond their ideology to at least get a glimpse of the real world and learn to accept that ideologies no matter how noble often just don't work in the real world. The republicans failed so badly at this, that 2 leading right wing financial news papers reluctantly supported Obama instead because they thought Romney's plans were impossible. Not just bad but plain impossible as in trying to fit a gallon in a liter container.
Your attention span just... never mind, he wandered off.
This is science kid, leave it for people who can read a full paragraph without needing a red bull. For once the article tells the complete story instead of being some butchered blog summary of a blog summary of a tweet of a snippet and the kiddies are up in arms because they actually have to use the reading skills they never mastered.
Politicians are not just corrupt, politicians have been raised, grown up, got their experience in a system where the truth is told, more or less. In the real world, we know evil exist but politicians are shielded from the real world pretty early on. They are in a rare world where meetings and negotiation "work". As you learn the world of politics in high school and university were your adversary are at worst teachers or fellow students and then ONLY those students who are interested in politics. They are surrounded and protected by people who share the same world view, not just left or right wing but the idea and knowledge that money is never an issue, you can always find another job, multiple at the same time, hard work is having a long meeting and there is always a deal to be made with the other side and the other side is never ever really just out to screw you over.
In Holland, when the rail system was privatized, a contract was drawn up that allowed the rail company to do its own customer survey reports and ignore user reviews that scored to low. Choose its own lines to ignore for judging its punctuality, not have to count canceled trains as delayed and a lot more stuff that any sane person would NEVER have allowed in a performance contract. So... were the people who signed it bought off? To stupid to be allowed to live?
Yes... and not exactly. The parties responsible BELIEVE in privatization, all their models, all their advisers say it must work and surely business wouldn't lie to them because they don't lie, they just present facts that exist in their mind and not in the real world. Their was a parliamentary investigation on whether privatization in the last two decades had a positive effect and the answer was NO and the two parties (CDA VVD) STILL said what was needed was MORE privatization.
They can't do anything else because it has become their identity, it is what they are, their faith, their gospel. And any evidence to the contrary isn't going to shake a faith they grew up on. The left isn't much better, the multi cultural society is falling apart and the best the left can manage is "we shouldn't want that"... Groen Links (Green Left) was decimated in Holland when it became clear the party had lost all touch with reality in supporting several right wing measures, forgettin they were supposed to be a LEFT wing party. CDA has been recudeced to a fraction of itself and still doesn't know why. SP scored big in the polls but lost it all during the actual election and still is wondering what happened.
The arstechnica article expresses suprise at this move because it thought the republican party was trying to appeal young voters. WRONG. Oh it wants to attract more voters but it is NOT going to change itself, it can't. It is what it is. To change itself, it would first have to admit it was wrong, ALL if it, ALL of them, ALL they ever believed to be true. WRONG. People don't do that. Especially people who live in an ivory towers removed from all reality. Romney wasn't a particular evil guy, he just really believed his fantasy land, the made up world of Fox News.
And people living in made up worlds are easily manipulated by people good at telling stories. The Lobbyist know how to bend the world of make believe to reflect their wishes. The ordinary voter doesn't. Not only is the average voter barely coherent but everyone one of them has an endless amount of conflicting wishes so any politician who tries to actually listen will quickly realise that if you can't please them all, why bother. In the mean time, the lobbyist gives a clear simple and therefor sensible and achievable story.
Basically, we are screwed. We need more REAL people in politics but the only way to get anywhere in politics is to grow up in it and become part of the system. Any real person will either quit in disgust, be torn apart by the pack for daring to rock the boat (any outcast public figure like Assange) or become part of the system.
You could try an experiment if you got the time. Write down your
DotCom rocks the boat and conservatives don't like that. Not for any reason. Most people don't. Rock the boat even to stop people from drowning and the very people who are drowning will complain the loudest about being saved. People want a quiet life. They REALLY don't like someone who makes them think or do anything. Not even if they agree. Oh you might THINK you are left or right wing but as soon as someone starts hinting you actually do something about it, you start to resent that person. It happens to all of us to a greater or lesser degree. We LOVE pragmatist and hate idealist where pragmatist stands for: what you are doing goes against everything you believe but hey, it is the easy way out so as long as you don't feel 100% happy about doing wrong, it is okay to do wrong. An idealist is an extremist who dares to suggest that if you believe something to be wrong maybe you should consider doing just the tiniest bit less of it. RADICAL EXTREMISTS!
Julian Assange, Kim DotCom, Richard Stallman, they are all hated because they don't just say on accasion we do wrong but actually expect us to change, claim that if we keep doing X there are consequences! Linus Torvald is loved because he has no opinion and just lets us do what ever we were doing.
We love environmentalists just as long as we don't have to anything about, love opensource just as long as we can keep paying companies to lock us into walled gardens and Kim DotCom reminds us to much that filesharing is not just about copying a file from your friend but a huge economic battle between two ways we can run our economy in the future. Thinking about the effects of this battle going either way would do us good but thinking hurts and the Simpsons are on, a show that for a quarter of a century hasn't changed ANYTHING. We like that. It is safe.
Considering the judge ALREADY ruled against the GCSB, I think it is safe to assume she IS smart enough to see through this.
A kiwi sheep fucker might want to correct me but isn't this a case of the right hand not knowing what the left is doing and the right hand now trying to get the left hand back under control?
You would be surprised how much of a country is run by underlings thinking they are doing the best thing and what their masters want and then the masters find out and go "you did WHAT!?!"
It must be said that so far AFTER the case came to light, the NZ powers that be have reacted better then expected in trying to get things in the clear. That this court case is even happening and going this way shows NZ is not as totally morally corrupt as the US. Yet.
Kid, you are just showing your ignorance. ANYTHING can do 20fps with World of Warcraft. That is one of its strong selling points. If you don't know the difference between WoW and ANY of the Crysis games, then you just don't know what you are talking about. And as I said earlier, you are not in market segment for this game. Go ask your daddy for a raise. Or get a real job and not one that pays in peanuts.
No, they don't want you as a customer because if that is all you can afford a normal PC, you can't afford PC games. It is actually a pretty common comment on piracy forums,"I downloaded this but it doesn't run". Turns out some kid is trying to run a bleeding edge game on a decade old dell he got from his daddy.
That is what consoles are for. And then you get to pay the money you save on your PC on the 10-20 dollar console fee instead.
Crysis does want customers, it just wants customers who actually got money to spend. Silly of them really, going for a market segment that can actually buy their game and is willing to spend cash on gaming.
No indeed, it just claims the US president wasn't born in the US, that aliens crashed and are kept at Area 51 and that 9/11 was an inside job.
I actually watched a Discovery "documentary" which claimed that helicopters can not have ejection seats. A surprise to the Russian helicopter pilots.
The US TV/News/Media has done such a thorough job of lying they don't need insane claims, they don't work anyway. Remember, the master of propaganda, Himmler, favored a movie that had a Jew as the hero to spread the nazi parties message. Subtle does the trick, outrageous claims fool no-one they just receive applause from people who know to clap for the emperor no matter how naked he is.
The subtle stuff, that gets people to BELIEVE the emperor is finely dressed. And indeed, I seen the claim that helicopters can't have ejection seats repeated often.
Just ask a US citizen whether they believe any other country can actually be first with a tech and that the US isn't always best regardless. When you prove them wrong with facts from the CIA own data, I even had Americans claim the CIA was a UN agency setup to reduce American power...
Subtle works best, just see how often a tech site like this publishes Fox and Daily Mail "stories" and worst, that obvious hoax of a plastic necklace found on mars.
The pay the increase and keep telling yourself, the whipping feels good and helps you lead a more productive life.
I have no use for the opinions of a slave or cow myself. Go sell your story to a MS rep, you might get a special discount if he can tell it to other cows.
Enterprise is MS cash cow and cows are milked and cows that protest to loudly are killed for fun, meat and an example to other cows.
The farmer does not care what the cow thinks of him, the opinion of cattle is worthless. Their enterprise customer have shown over decades to be completely incapable of independent thought so why should they change now? Oh, this price increase is the straw that broke the camels back? Breaking a back only works in animals that have a back bone. Cattle does not. The reason you can overwork donkeys and cows and dogs is because they are dumb animals that are easily domesticated. A smart animal would resist long before you overload it. Enterprise customers have not resisted. In fact, they resist every which way they can to any attempt to set themselves free or at least not be under complete and total control of their Microsoft master. Just go ahead, ask for a Linux desktop at a large Enterprise business like say Shell just to come up with a name. Can't be done. These slaves don't just accept the whip, they buy it for their master, oil it so it gives optimal whipping power and turn in anyone who tries to set them free or introduce laws trying to limit the amount of whipping that can be done.
And you think these Enterprise customers can be alienated? Same with the OEM's. They could have EASILY done a Linux machine by now. They didn't. And nothing MS will do will change that. They are OEM's, not Apple or a (the old) Nokia, they sell cheap clones with a generic OS and make their money from crapware. They don't have the willpower, brains, imagination to do anything else. Oh they might protest a bit, just like a cow might kick and kill a farmer but just as the cow will then just stand there and wait to be killed, the OEM's will throw a hissy fit and then assume the position again to be shafted by their beloved master.
Ballmer is a lot of things but one thing he really is, is a good sales manager. He knows just how much to squeeze the market for. And don't worry, any Enterprise that balks about a 400% price increase will get a special discount, just for them of say a 10% discount, now ain't you a special little cow! Any MS rep gives their big customers massive discounts. Just all big Enterprises give their loyal customers a big discount and NONE of them ever figure out that if THEY only give discounts that are less then the previous price increase, someone else might do the same to them.
Don't visit any Muslim country, EVER! For that matter, never ever visit any country where the local laws and your history and lifestyle conflict. Don't drink in an alcohol free country. Not even if it is offered.
Don't smuggle or use Drugs in the US of A not even if some states now allow it. As a foreigner, no local senator is going to burn his fingers on you to get you free from the federal government.
Don't take "teen" porn into a nation that has higher age limits for porn. Don't take manga/anime into such countries either, the laws might not be enforced always but you don't want to be the exception to the rule.
Yes it sucks but a foreign nation doesn't owe you anything. Right now in Saudi Arabia, a young foreign girl is in jail for life NOT because the COURT wants her to be in jail but because under Sharia law, until the parents of the baby she supervised when it died (at no fault of her) forgive her, she remains in jail. The police, medical examiners and court have said she is not to blame but Sharia law rules otherwise and if you go to such a backward place, you agree to be bound by it. So. DON'T.
And it ain't even hard stuff, do you know that on the whole it is not a good idea to "argue" with an American cop. In Holland it is perfectly normal. In the US? NO! And you might get away with it in a tourist trap but in a southern state?
99% of the time, nothing will happen and then it does and you get caned for dropping chewing gum on the sidewalk.
It is one of the things you got to consider really carefully when considering a job in another country, does that country legal system and culture conflict with yours? Both the US and Holland for instance got stoners but Dutch stoners don't risk jail with every joint. You might be going to work in an industry where drug use is considered normal but will that cop searching your car feel the same? Hell, even ordinary smokers better consider the smoking laws in a foreign country.
If you are one of those people who needs a beer at the end of the day, is a Muslim controlled country really worth it? If you want to wash your car on sundays better stay out of bible belt areas.
Are you gay, a liberal or have a brain? Stay out of the South, you are not welcome. Don't think New York, Philidelpia and LA are all of the US, some parts are as dangerous as the most backwards Muslim nations and worse. Because at least most Muslim nations are ruled by dictators who usually don't want trouble (Arab Spring so far has only made the Arab nations less liberal and less secular) and whose police (Turkey's military used to heavy handedly enforce its secular system as set up by Ata Turk, the democractic system so far is shifting the country to be a pure Muslim state instead) might not like your liberal arse but have strict orders not to allow stuff to happen unless someone in power needs an incident. No such protection exists in the deep South.
For that matter, any southern republican thinking about leaving for Australia because a black man is in the white house and you just hate that socialist Obamacare? Ooops, Australia is far more to the left then any part of the USA. For that matter, all western countries are. A redneck won't be at home anywhere else. Better realize that Philadelphia is redneck heaven before taking a job in Europe. Or you won't last long.
Be wary when travelling, you are entering an other countries legal system and culture and you don't want to be an example to other travellers.
The Wii U seems intresting but consoles have to last half a decade. In 5 years, this thing will be so obsolete it just won't be funny anymore. Lets not forget that Nintendo started losing money because their GAME sales per console are low. They do sell a LOT of consoles but fewer games per console then their competitors. And consoles are like printers, the real money is the ink/games.
The problem is that the rest of the industry is moving on, I have seen multiple reviews by xbox friendly gaming sites that roundly admit Far Cry 3 is best on the PC.
Claiming that the Wii U will win because it is cheap forgets that PC games are cheaper and tablet/phone games are even cheaper. Going for the budget market means competing with games that cost $0 to 5 dollars. Going for the budget market competing with games with 2048x1440 screens with something like 800xXXX which is what the Wii U remote has... that is insane. EVEN cheap drugstore Android tablets have a higher resolution. And they are a LOT cheaper. And so are their games.
That is the problem with aiming for the bottom, there is always someone willing to go even lower. How are you going to sell expensive games to an audience that buys their console hardware because it is the cheapest? Especially since it ain't the cheapest...
One of the things that made the 3DS such a disappointment was that frankly is just looked hopelessly obsolete. And that is okay, if you make brilliant games but... well, evenyone knows the 3DS line-up was poor. And the Wii U? Zombie U reviews are to mixed to tell and the rest is the type of game that is bought at christmas and then no other games are bought for the entire year.
Yes, Nintendo makes a profit after selling just one game but that just means they are dying a little more slowly, in business, you can only survive on tiny profits if you are certain they keep coming. You ain't certain of that in the game industry so you need to big winners to compensate for the slow times.
The Wii-U is an interesting idea but Sony can do the same thing with the PSP and or a tablet and the same goes for MS. And then the Wii-U remote will rapidly look very old fashioned indeed.
Plastics don't form in nature. Certainly not in beads. For plastics to be found so readily and easily on Mars would be GIGANTIC news far bigger in fact then "discovering life" in the form of actually living cells. Since the FAKE article claims they are plastic beads as found on cheap necklaces, even if that is an artist interpretation of this FAKE news, it would lead NOT to speculation of life on Mars but on speculation of INTELLIGENT life on Mars capable of plastic production. That would NOT be announced through a press release on a web page but during a "we interrupt this broadcast" moment with an announcement the President would soon make a statement.
And Samzenpus who should know by know Slashdot is NEVER the first with any news, even about slashdot itself, ran the story without even bothering to check other news sources for this earth shattering news.
Extra ordinary claims in science need extra ordinary evidence. And extra ordinary news needs more then one source.
The only answer for Samzenpus is to add a new moderation option so we can BAN people who took this news serious without first bothering to check some real news sites to see if any of them had picked it up. I only saw this story after just visiting several news sites and was immediately suspicious that such a huge thing would not have been on any real news site already.
Even more suspicious, the story was posted so quickly the usual inane editor comment is missing.
Nice work Samzenpus. But we all know you are a lousy editor, the real shame is on all the readers who react with anything else then scorn at this obvious fake and are taking this as a real story.
If high wages are such a problem, how come Costco can do it?
Wallstreet doesn't like it, they want Costco to lower the wages to the minimum to maximize short-term profits because just growing and making a decent profit ain't enough for shareholders... except Costco shares have gone up despite warnings from Wallstreet.
Wallstreet loves to squeeze everything to generate the max profit for shareholders this quarter... next quarter? They will will find another company to squeeze.
IBM can well outsource all the work but what happens to the knowledge? What stops an Indian company hiring IBM workers and creating Indian Business Machines? That is after all what Japan did with car production? First you make the parts, then you put the parts together and then you make your own parts and put them together and how is Detroit doing again?
Americans love blaming unions but North-West european countries (UK does not count) have strong unions and no problems with them. The Dutch Polder model was widely praised until right-wing POLITICIANS destroyed it, much to the chagrin of the supposed right wing business owners who just want to make a deal they can count them even if it costs a bit because uncertainty is WORSE for business then knowing a deal is going to cost you a fraction of a percent more in salaries.
The US needs to get over its love for Wallstreet, it is a leech and NOT a job creator.
You know the really funny thing? In Season 22 of the Simpsons we learn that he makes 70k a year... yet he is often shown in the series as a "poor" man who can't afford health care... 70k that is what its writers consider a low wage on which you can barely survive and are always struggling.
It shows you just how big the divide is. Wallmart workers make 24k a year if they are lucky. Costco make 50k. Both companies turn a profit. Which one do you shop at?
I heard that if you buy a Mac, Ballmer comes to your house and dances the Developer dance in your garden. If you install linux, he dances naked.
Please think of your neighbors, install Windows.
On a more serious note, this was a MS project, MS is not going to install linux... well except for when they need a reliable stable server platform to host a project.
"right leaning fiscally and left leaning socially"
Translated: You want the homeless taken care off but you don't want to pay for it.
And people wonder why politicians don't listen to the voters. Same reason parents don't listen to toddlers who want to stay up as they are falling asleep standing up.
I presume balanced in your mind means having your cake and eating it to. Yes, such forums do exist. Go an environmentalist site that uses power but doesn't want ANY kind of power plant build anywhere. Or bleeding heart conservatives who don't want to pay taxes but also want all their benefits increased.
That is it, Ballmer has gone insane. The guy was a clown before but now he has REALLY lost it.
You see, people who pay for updates expect improvements. MS can barely fix an OS in its lifetime, let alone improve it. You bought XP that is what you kept for half a decade and more. USB support was for Windows a fucking major update, not a point update for free as with Linux but something you just didn't get unless you paid for a new release.
And MS, even with payed for, expensive updates barely adds anything worthwhile. What is there in Windows 8 that is worth actually paying for? A tiny articially restricted update to DirectX and a UI nobody wants.
MS already has enough trouble getting people off XP when Windows 8 is out. They want to have people run major incompatible updates each year?
Or is this just another attempt to charge for service packs? Which are NOT upgrades but merely bug fixes packaged together.
MS upgrade path so far has been "you got to buy our latest version because we do our best to make sure new software doesn't work on old windows any more". It has never had to SELL an upgrade on new functionality.
This is going to fracture windows even more badly in different versions because you can be sure MS will do its level best to make only the latest version capable of running software but users will be doing their level best not to upgrade under any circumstance. Except now that dance won't be done every 5 years or so but every year. YAHOO!
The Corruptman in question is against Net Neutrality. To force net neutrality, laws are needed. This guy wants to stop that. He wants unbridled and unchecked market forces to regulate the Internet.
We know who the market it is, HINT: it ain't you and we know the market wants to destroy net neutrality. This corruptman isn't proposing a freeze, he is proposing government do nothing while business gets to do everything it wants.
If you want to see if this is a good idea, fellow republican corruptmen forced the government to step aside and let the financial industry do whatever it wants... how is that economy going US of A?
People say that democracy is the worst form of government except all the others. Well, tight government control is the worst of all systems to regulate markets. Except for all the other methods.
Always follow the money. Who is paying this guys salary? No, not you you silly voter. His election campaign fat cat jobs once he retires. YOU don't factor into his decision making, never have, never will.
One line the bleeding hearts have been using is that the Greeks ain't lazy work shy tax dodgers, they work MORE hours then people in Northern Europe (UK does not count), the part of Europe that isn't having an economic melt-down.
Yes, indeed, Greeks do put in more hours at the office... they just ain't productive. Especially the tax collectors. They got a lot of them they just don't do anything.
It is the old "2 dollars for the tap on the engine and 100 dollars for knowing were to tap it". Productivity is NOT how many hours you work but how much work you get done in an hour.
But it is rare for management to have an understanding of true productivity. For instance who is more productive, someone who writers a new routine in two hours OR the person who needs two weeks to get it to actually work? I have had to fix code, slowly, were it completely failed if the user put in a wrong value... that is called happy path testing, you only test if things work if the user does EVERYTHING exactly right. That is less then useful even if you can train all the users. But in customer facing applications? It is just WRONG. And FIXING bad code is harder then writing bad code.
90% of the work takes 10% of the time and 10% of the work takes 90% of the time. But try getting managers to accept this.
When I freelanced (stopped because I hate accounting) I improved the quality of clients a LOT by first examining their existing projects, I could easily tell if they valued quality by looking at whether they had quality already. I also increased my rates to be "holy shit, you charge HOW MUCH!" and that helped me work fewer hours for more money! Web development is a sector where quality often goes to die and it is the young who continue this as they have not yet learned that any incomplete feature will result in endless bug reports, hack jobs and finally bug fixing with hacks on hacks. Then anyone with experience leaves and the code is left to fester with the young who can barely keep up with the crises let alone ever update the software.
One of the things to look out for in an employer is in how much time they spend on cutting costs by just looking at salaries. The CEO of Costco is in the news for paying high wages. He runs a succesful growing business but managers at wallstreet know better, max this quarters profits by cutting wages, next year you are down because of increased theft, increased training costs because of increased churn rate and your employees spend half their time on the phone looking for a better job instead of doing their work.
If you freelance, the moment a customer starts about your rates, politely decline. They are CERTAIN to want to discuss your fee again, usually before paying.
If a company needs young cheap employees, it is because they are squeezing the last percentage of profit out of the company before collapsing and their managers can't handle anyone who has an opinion and dares to voice it.
The summary is wonderful in its simplicity and one-sidedness. Red light drivers KILL pedestrians, cyclist and other drivers. Now the same people are rear ended. So? Assholes get hurt instead of assholes hurting others. The only way you hit someone who breaks suddenly for a red light is if you are to close and you yourself were ignoring the orange light.
And the only way you get suddenly stopping for a red light is if you don't slow down on orange.
The only issue here is that some people shouldn't be driving cars.
Slashdot Mirror
As everything else that turned evil (Big Brother, Apartheid, international law, stocks), the original idea was dutch. Octroois were designed to make a design public, registered to the owner, so others could implement it AND pay for it. The idea was NOT to give a company a monopoly on an idea, the goal was the EXACT opposite. That the idea of ONE man could be used by anyone BUT they had to pay for it.
It started because people invented novel ways for water management were it was obvious the ideas belonged to one person but were of use to everyone, so it made sense to allow everyone to implement a new pump yet still reward the original inventor. It was the FRAND idea taken even further and core to the system.
This system ALSO insured something else, an octrooi HAD to be a real design. After all, the idea of pumping water was hardly new. You would ONLY play to use a new octrooi if it gave you the full design to build a new pump. Patents ARE supposed to be the same, a patent application should include all the details needed for a master in the craft to build the item. You CANNOT patent merely an idea or a business plan because there is nothing there that a CRAFTSMAN (NOT AN INVENTOR) can use to build. Collect all the patents related to the internal combustion engine, and you can build one. Collect the patents on a Apple patent, and you can build nothing but a legal case in a bought court.
It doesn't mean ALL patents are useless but a lot are. There is also a practice as done by Lego of patenting EVERYTHING you can think off just to stop someone else from doing anything. Lego made claims for all the alternative ideas they could think of to make building blocks so nobody could make anything even remotely similar. That there are patents for eternal motion machines should tell you enough, how can a craftsman skilled in the trade possibly make an eternal motion machine? Patents don't even have to work, so why not patent all your failed research just to prevent someone else from making it work?
The entire patent system lost its original goal. It was designed to SPREAD inventions while the original inventor was compensated and instead is used to limit the spread of inventions, stifle new invenstions and keep the rich rich.
But hey, good luck getting it to change. When you do, why not reform wallstreet at the same time to get the stock market to be about investment instead of speculation again? Oh and that UN thing to be about peace rather then self interests? That would be nice to if you are out fixing the world.
It is the GBA without back lighting, the GBA game saves that consisted of writing down a long string, the inability to turn music off in many Nintendo games.
It not just being behind on tech it seems there efforts are just plain lazy. A 4 hour window? It reminds me of when I was working on a ISP portal in the last century were they wanted porn because it was the only thing that actually sold but only during late night hours. NOBODY bothers with that kind of stuff anymore because it just don't make sense.
For instance, once the game has been bought, it is fully available. The games can still be bought through regular shops and lets face it a Nintendo game is so tame anyway that only the most puritan countries have issues with it (Britain and Germany). The only thing Nintendo is showing with this, is that it is still the console for little kiddies. The lousily managed console for little kiddies.
What has been an interesting excersise, going insane?
WHAT does MY personal computer located in my house NEED from a public space in order to search my LOCAL files?
THERE IS NO NEED! Why should a search for "taxform 2012" go to amazon? If I want to buy a book about taxes, I can GOOGLE it MYSELF! I AM NOT LOOKING FOR A BOOK ON TAXES, I am looking for MY OWN data. Not amazons or anybody elses, MINE on MY hardware.
Even if am looking for music, anyone with more then two brain cells (Americans, you can stop reading here) knows that if you can't find a song in your private library, you have to either do without or find a way to download or buy it. I do NOT need Amazon to know when I am in the mood for a piece of music I already bought.
This move by Ubuntu is an INSANE leap into an amount of privacy invasion that is practically unheard off. This is not even CLOSE to what Facebook has pulled, at least when I am on facebook I KNOW I am on SOMEONE elses system where the most common goal is to share information.
I have NO such expectation when I am searching my own harddisk. I don't WANT to share my file searches, I have no need for it, it gives me no benefit it only is a massive privacy invasion.
I am perfectly okay with the bank knowing who I pay money to via a bank transfer, I got little to hide but THIS move by Ubuntu would be your bank installing a camera in your wallet to register every cash payment you make anywhere and see if there is something they can sell you because of it.
NO
The entire argument of the parent poster that your personal computer has somehow become public property because your BROWSER can be used to connect to other computers so search in a FILE EXPLORER should be send to other computers as well is such a leap of insanity I fear for the posters long term health, I fear he might keep it and continue to vote. It is an insane idea. What next, my car goes on the public road so my car is a public road? I go into public spaces so I am a public space?
The parent poster is probably someone who has used the word "cyberspace" and meant it. Sorry kid, my computer is a simple tool and it is MY property and I don't want data I don't want to go out to be send out especially when it doesn't serve my interests. My PC, Laptop, Tablet, Phone are NOT public terminals.
I wonder if the parent poster even ever heard of the concept of a firewall. Even Windows nowaday asks whether you want to allow a program to send data to the outside world. Granted, windows firewall is far from perfect but at least it tries. Ubuntu doesn't. And that is really really bad.
And all those who think it is worth for the ONE time they searched for a file and wanted to find a book they wanted to buy but only through amazon... please, try for a Darwin Award. It is something to tell your kids about...promise!
Ideology is a dream not a fact. You can DREAM privatization will result in better trains with better service and lower prices and it is no different then if you prayed for it instead, Ideology is faith, not fact. You can DREAM completely different cultures will just happily live together but that is Ideology, faith, not FACT.
Parties need to evolve beyond their ideology to at least get a glimpse of the real world and learn to accept that ideologies no matter how noble often just don't work in the real world. The republicans failed so badly at this, that 2 leading right wing financial news papers reluctantly supported Obama instead because they thought Romney's plans were impossible. Not just bad but plain impossible as in trying to fit a gallon in a liter container.
Your attention span just... never mind, he wandered off.
This is science kid, leave it for people who can read a full paragraph without needing a red bull. For once the article tells the complete story instead of being some butchered blog summary of a blog summary of a tweet of a snippet and the kiddies are up in arms because they actually have to use the reading skills they never mastered.
Politicians are not just corrupt, politicians have been raised, grown up, got their experience in a system where the truth is told, more or less. In the real world, we know evil exist but politicians are shielded from the real world pretty early on. They are in a rare world where meetings and negotiation "work". As you learn the world of politics in high school and university were your adversary are at worst teachers or fellow students and then ONLY those students who are interested in politics. They are surrounded and protected by people who share the same world view, not just left or right wing but the idea and knowledge that money is never an issue, you can always find another job, multiple at the same time, hard work is having a long meeting and there is always a deal to be made with the other side and the other side is never ever really just out to screw you over.
In Holland, when the rail system was privatized, a contract was drawn up that allowed the rail company to do its own customer survey reports and ignore user reviews that scored to low. Choose its own lines to ignore for judging its punctuality, not have to count canceled trains as delayed and a lot more stuff that any sane person would NEVER have allowed in a performance contract. So... were the people who signed it bought off? To stupid to be allowed to live?
Yes... and not exactly. The parties responsible BELIEVE in privatization, all their models, all their advisers say it must work and surely business wouldn't lie to them because they don't lie, they just present facts that exist in their mind and not in the real world. Their was a parliamentary investigation on whether privatization in the last two decades had a positive effect and the answer was NO and the two parties (CDA VVD) STILL said what was needed was MORE privatization.
They can't do anything else because it has become their identity, it is what they are, their faith, their gospel. And any evidence to the contrary isn't going to shake a faith they grew up on. The left isn't much better, the multi cultural society is falling apart and the best the left can manage is "we shouldn't want that"... Groen Links (Green Left) was decimated in Holland when it became clear the party had lost all touch with reality in supporting several right wing measures, forgettin they were supposed to be a LEFT wing party. CDA has been recudeced to a fraction of itself and still doesn't know why. SP scored big in the polls but lost it all during the actual election and still is wondering what happened.
The arstechnica article expresses suprise at this move because it thought the republican party was trying to appeal young voters. WRONG. Oh it wants to attract more voters but it is NOT going to change itself, it can't. It is what it is. To change itself, it would first have to admit it was wrong, ALL if it, ALL of them, ALL they ever believed to be true. WRONG. People don't do that. Especially people who live in an ivory towers removed from all reality. Romney wasn't a particular evil guy, he just really believed his fantasy land, the made up world of Fox News.
And people living in made up worlds are easily manipulated by people good at telling stories. The Lobbyist know how to bend the world of make believe to reflect their wishes. The ordinary voter doesn't. Not only is the average voter barely coherent but everyone one of them has an endless amount of conflicting wishes so any politician who tries to actually listen will quickly realise that if you can't please them all, why bother. In the mean time, the lobbyist gives a clear simple and therefor sensible and achievable story.
Basically, we are screwed. We need more REAL people in politics but the only way to get anywhere in politics is to grow up in it and become part of the system. Any real person will either quit in disgust, be torn apart by the pack for daring to rock the boat (any outcast public figure like Assange) or become part of the system.
You could try an experiment if you got the time. Write down your
DotCom rocks the boat and conservatives don't like that. Not for any reason. Most people don't. Rock the boat even to stop people from drowning and the very people who are drowning will complain the loudest about being saved. People want a quiet life. They REALLY don't like someone who makes them think or do anything. Not even if they agree. Oh you might THINK you are left or right wing but as soon as someone starts hinting you actually do something about it, you start to resent that person. It happens to all of us to a greater or lesser degree. We LOVE pragmatist and hate idealist where pragmatist stands for: what you are doing goes against everything you believe but hey, it is the easy way out so as long as you don't feel 100% happy about doing wrong, it is okay to do wrong. An idealist is an extremist who dares to suggest that if you believe something to be wrong maybe you should consider doing just the tiniest bit less of it. RADICAL EXTREMISTS!
Julian Assange, Kim DotCom, Richard Stallman, they are all hated because they don't just say on accasion we do wrong but actually expect us to change, claim that if we keep doing X there are consequences! Linus Torvald is loved because he has no opinion and just lets us do what ever we were doing.
We love environmentalists just as long as we don't have to anything about, love opensource just as long as we can keep paying companies to lock us into walled gardens and Kim DotCom reminds us to much that filesharing is not just about copying a file from your friend but a huge economic battle between two ways we can run our economy in the future. Thinking about the effects of this battle going either way would do us good but thinking hurts and the Simpsons are on, a show that for a quarter of a century hasn't changed ANYTHING. We like that. It is safe.
Considering the judge ALREADY ruled against the GCSB, I think it is safe to assume she IS smart enough to see through this.
A kiwi sheep fucker might want to correct me but isn't this a case of the right hand not knowing what the left is doing and the right hand now trying to get the left hand back under control?
You would be surprised how much of a country is run by underlings thinking they are doing the best thing and what their masters want and then the masters find out and go "you did WHAT!?!"
It must be said that so far AFTER the case came to light, the NZ powers that be have reacted better then expected in trying to get things in the clear. That this court case is even happening and going this way shows NZ is not as totally morally corrupt as the US. Yet.
Kid, you are just showing your ignorance. ANYTHING can do 20fps with World of Warcraft. That is one of its strong selling points. If you don't know the difference between WoW and ANY of the Crysis games, then you just don't know what you are talking about. And as I said earlier, you are not in market segment for this game. Go ask your daddy for a raise. Or get a real job and not one that pays in peanuts.
Seriously, WoW as a graphic benchmark...
What next, Doom?
No, they don't want you as a customer because if that is all you can afford a normal PC, you can't afford PC games. It is actually a pretty common comment on piracy forums,"I downloaded this but it doesn't run". Turns out some kid is trying to run a bleeding edge game on a decade old dell he got from his daddy.
That is what consoles are for. And then you get to pay the money you save on your PC on the 10-20 dollar console fee instead.
Crysis does want customers, it just wants customers who actually got money to spend. Silly of them really, going for a market segment that can actually buy their game and is willing to spend cash on gaming.
No indeed, it just claims the US president wasn't born in the US, that aliens crashed and are kept at Area 51 and that 9/11 was an inside job.
I actually watched a Discovery "documentary" which claimed that helicopters can not have ejection seats. A surprise to the Russian helicopter pilots.
The US TV/News/Media has done such a thorough job of lying they don't need insane claims, they don't work anyway. Remember, the master of propaganda, Himmler, favored a movie that had a Jew as the hero to spread the nazi parties message. Subtle does the trick, outrageous claims fool no-one they just receive applause from people who know to clap for the emperor no matter how naked he is.
The subtle stuff, that gets people to BELIEVE the emperor is finely dressed. And indeed, I seen the claim that helicopters can't have ejection seats repeated often.
Just ask a US citizen whether they believe any other country can actually be first with a tech and that the US isn't always best regardless. When you prove them wrong with facts from the CIA own data, I even had Americans claim the CIA was a UN agency setup to reduce American power...
Subtle works best, just see how often a tech site like this publishes Fox and Daily Mail "stories" and worst, that obvious hoax of a plastic necklace found on mars.
The pay the increase and keep telling yourself, the whipping feels good and helps you lead a more productive life.
I have no use for the opinions of a slave or cow myself. Go sell your story to a MS rep, you might get a special discount if he can tell it to other cows.
Enterprise is MS cash cow and cows are milked and cows that protest to loudly are killed for fun, meat and an example to other cows.
The farmer does not care what the cow thinks of him, the opinion of cattle is worthless. Their enterprise customer have shown over decades to be completely incapable of independent thought so why should they change now? Oh, this price increase is the straw that broke the camels back? Breaking a back only works in animals that have a back bone. Cattle does not. The reason you can overwork donkeys and cows and dogs is because they are dumb animals that are easily domesticated. A smart animal would resist long before you overload it. Enterprise customers have not resisted. In fact, they resist every which way they can to any attempt to set themselves free or at least not be under complete and total control of their Microsoft master. Just go ahead, ask for a Linux desktop at a large Enterprise business like say Shell just to come up with a name. Can't be done. These slaves don't just accept the whip, they buy it for their master, oil it so it gives optimal whipping power and turn in anyone who tries to set them free or introduce laws trying to limit the amount of whipping that can be done.
And you think these Enterprise customers can be alienated? Same with the OEM's. They could have EASILY done a Linux machine by now. They didn't. And nothing MS will do will change that. They are OEM's, not Apple or a (the old) Nokia, they sell cheap clones with a generic OS and make their money from crapware. They don't have the willpower, brains, imagination to do anything else. Oh they might protest a bit, just like a cow might kick and kill a farmer but just as the cow will then just stand there and wait to be killed, the OEM's will throw a hissy fit and then assume the position again to be shafted by their beloved master.
Ballmer is a lot of things but one thing he really is, is a good sales manager. He knows just how much to squeeze the market for. And don't worry, any Enterprise that balks about a 400% price increase will get a special discount, just for them of say a 10% discount, now ain't you a special little cow! Any MS rep gives their big customers massive discounts. Just all big Enterprises give their loyal customers a big discount and NONE of them ever figure out that if THEY only give discounts that are less then the previous price increase, someone else might do the same to them.
Don't visit any Muslim country, EVER! For that matter, never ever visit any country where the local laws and your history and lifestyle conflict. Don't drink in an alcohol free country. Not even if it is offered.
Don't smuggle or use Drugs in the US of A not even if some states now allow it. As a foreigner, no local senator is going to burn his fingers on you to get you free from the federal government.
Don't take "teen" porn into a nation that has higher age limits for porn. Don't take manga/anime into such countries either, the laws might not be enforced always but you don't want to be the exception to the rule.
Yes it sucks but a foreign nation doesn't owe you anything. Right now in Saudi Arabia, a young foreign girl is in jail for life NOT because the COURT wants her to be in jail but because under Sharia law, until the parents of the baby she supervised when it died (at no fault of her) forgive her, she remains in jail. The police, medical examiners and court have said she is not to blame but Sharia law rules otherwise and if you go to such a backward place, you agree to be bound by it. So. DON'T.
And it ain't even hard stuff, do you know that on the whole it is not a good idea to "argue" with an American cop. In Holland it is perfectly normal. In the US? NO! And you might get away with it in a tourist trap but in a southern state?
99% of the time, nothing will happen and then it does and you get caned for dropping chewing gum on the sidewalk.
It is one of the things you got to consider really carefully when considering a job in another country, does that country legal system and culture conflict with yours? Both the US and Holland for instance got stoners but Dutch stoners don't risk jail with every joint. You might be going to work in an industry where drug use is considered normal but will that cop searching your car feel the same? Hell, even ordinary smokers better consider the smoking laws in a foreign country.
If you are one of those people who needs a beer at the end of the day, is a Muslim controlled country really worth it? If you want to wash your car on sundays better stay out of bible belt areas.
See this video: http://www.dailymotion.com/video/xh4tqg_top-gear-take-on-the-us-pt-2-close-call-crossing-alabama_auto
Are you gay, a liberal or have a brain? Stay out of the South, you are not welcome. Don't think New York, Philidelpia and LA are all of the US, some parts are as dangerous as the most backwards Muslim nations and worse. Because at least most Muslim nations are ruled by dictators who usually don't want trouble (Arab Spring so far has only made the Arab nations less liberal and less secular) and whose police (Turkey's military used to heavy handedly enforce its secular system as set up by Ata Turk, the democractic system so far is shifting the country to be a pure Muslim state instead) might not like your liberal arse but have strict orders not to allow stuff to happen unless someone in power needs an incident. No such protection exists in the deep South.
For that matter, any southern republican thinking about leaving for Australia because a black man is in the white house and you just hate that socialist Obamacare? Ooops, Australia is far more to the left then any part of the USA. For that matter, all western countries are. A redneck won't be at home anywhere else. Better realize that Philadelphia is redneck heaven before taking a job in Europe. Or you won't last long.
Be wary when travelling, you are entering an other countries legal system and culture and you don't want to be an example to other travellers.
The Wii U seems intresting but consoles have to last half a decade. In 5 years, this thing will be so obsolete it just won't be funny anymore. Lets not forget that Nintendo started losing money because their GAME sales per console are low. They do sell a LOT of consoles but fewer games per console then their competitors. And consoles are like printers, the real money is the ink/games.
The problem is that the rest of the industry is moving on, I have seen multiple reviews by xbox friendly gaming sites that roundly admit Far Cry 3 is best on the PC.
Claiming that the Wii U will win because it is cheap forgets that PC games are cheaper and tablet/phone games are even cheaper. Going for the budget market means competing with games that cost $0 to 5 dollars. Going for the budget market competing with games with 2048x1440 screens with something like 800xXXX which is what the Wii U remote has... that is insane. EVEN cheap drugstore Android tablets have a higher resolution. And they are a LOT cheaper. And so are their games.
That is the problem with aiming for the bottom, there is always someone willing to go even lower. How are you going to sell expensive games to an audience that buys their console hardware because it is the cheapest? Especially since it ain't the cheapest...
One of the things that made the 3DS such a disappointment was that frankly is just looked hopelessly obsolete. And that is okay, if you make brilliant games but... well, evenyone knows the 3DS line-up was poor. And the Wii U? Zombie U reviews are to mixed to tell and the rest is the type of game that is bought at christmas and then no other games are bought for the entire year.
Yes, Nintendo makes a profit after selling just one game but that just means they are dying a little more slowly, in business, you can only survive on tiny profits if you are certain they keep coming. You ain't certain of that in the game industry so you need to big winners to compensate for the slow times.
The Wii-U is an interesting idea but Sony can do the same thing with the PSP and or a tablet and the same goes for MS. And then the Wii-U remote will rapidly look very old fashioned indeed.
Just imagine, a girl with all the bits labeled with barcodes so you can scan them and google the manual for it! And easily order replacement parts.
NOBODY ELSE IS REPORTING IT!
Plastics don't form in nature. Certainly not in beads. For plastics to be found so readily and easily on Mars would be GIGANTIC news far bigger in fact then "discovering life" in the form of actually living cells. Since the FAKE article claims they are plastic beads as found on cheap necklaces, even if that is an artist interpretation of this FAKE news, it would lead NOT to speculation of life on Mars but on speculation of INTELLIGENT life on Mars capable of plastic production. That would NOT be announced through a press release on a web page but during a "we interrupt this broadcast" moment with an announcement the President would soon make a statement.
And Samzenpus who should know by know Slashdot is NEVER the first with any news, even about slashdot itself, ran the story without even bothering to check other news sources for this earth shattering news.
Extra ordinary claims in science need extra ordinary evidence. And extra ordinary news needs more then one source.
The only answer for Samzenpus is to add a new moderation option so we can BAN people who took this news serious without first bothering to check some real news sites to see if any of them had picked it up. I only saw this story after just visiting several news sites and was immediately suspicious that such a huge thing would not have been on any real news site already.
Even more suspicious, the story was posted so quickly the usual inane editor comment is missing.
Nice work Samzenpus. But we all know you are a lousy editor, the real shame is on all the readers who react with anything else then scorn at this obvious fake and are taking this as a real story.
hsthompson69 for instance below. For shame!
If high wages are such a problem, how come Costco can do it?
Wallstreet doesn't like it, they want Costco to lower the wages to the minimum to maximize short-term profits because just growing and making a decent profit ain't enough for shareholders... except Costco shares have gone up despite warnings from Wallstreet.
Wallstreet loves to squeeze everything to generate the max profit for shareholders this quarter... next quarter? They will will find another company to squeeze.
IBM can well outsource all the work but what happens to the knowledge? What stops an Indian company hiring IBM workers and creating Indian Business Machines? That is after all what Japan did with car production? First you make the parts, then you put the parts together and then you make your own parts and put them together and how is Detroit doing again?
Americans love blaming unions but North-West european countries (UK does not count) have strong unions and no problems with them. The Dutch Polder model was widely praised until right-wing POLITICIANS destroyed it, much to the chagrin of the supposed right wing business owners who just want to make a deal they can count them even if it costs a bit because uncertainty is WORSE for business then knowing a deal is going to cost you a fraction of a percent more in salaries.
The US needs to get over its love for Wallstreet, it is a leech and NOT a job creator.
You know the really funny thing? In Season 22 of the Simpsons we learn that he makes 70k a year... yet he is often shown in the series as a "poor" man who can't afford health care... 70k that is what its writers consider a low wage on which you can barely survive and are always struggling.
It shows you just how big the divide is. Wallmart workers make 24k a year if they are lucky. Costco make 50k. Both companies turn a profit. Which one do you shop at?
I heard that if you buy a Mac, Ballmer comes to your house and dances the Developer dance in your garden. If you install linux, he dances naked.
Please think of your neighbors, install Windows.
On a more serious note, this was a MS project, MS is not going to install linux... well except for when they need a reliable stable server platform to host a project.
"right leaning fiscally and left leaning socially"
Translated: You want the homeless taken care off but you don't want to pay for it.
And people wonder why politicians don't listen to the voters. Same reason parents don't listen to toddlers who want to stay up as they are falling asleep standing up.
I presume balanced in your mind means having your cake and eating it to. Yes, such forums do exist. Go an environmentalist site that uses power but doesn't want ANY kind of power plant build anywhere. Or bleeding heart conservatives who don't want to pay taxes but also want all their benefits increased.
That is it, Ballmer has gone insane. The guy was a clown before but now he has REALLY lost it.
You see, people who pay for updates expect improvements. MS can barely fix an OS in its lifetime, let alone improve it. You bought XP that is what you kept for half a decade and more. USB support was for Windows a fucking major update, not a point update for free as with Linux but something you just didn't get unless you paid for a new release.
And MS, even with payed for, expensive updates barely adds anything worthwhile. What is there in Windows 8 that is worth actually paying for? A tiny articially restricted update to DirectX and a UI nobody wants.
MS already has enough trouble getting people off XP when Windows 8 is out. They want to have people run major incompatible updates each year?
Or is this just another attempt to charge for service packs? Which are NOT upgrades but merely bug fixes packaged together.
MS upgrade path so far has been "you got to buy our latest version because we do our best to make sure new software doesn't work on old windows any more". It has never had to SELL an upgrade on new functionality.
This is going to fracture windows even more badly in different versions because you can be sure MS will do its level best to make only the latest version capable of running software but users will be doing their level best not to upgrade under any circumstance. Except now that dance won't be done every 5 years or so but every year. YAHOO!
The Corruptman in question is against Net Neutrality. To force net neutrality, laws are needed. This guy wants to stop that. He wants unbridled and unchecked market forces to regulate the Internet.
We know who the market it is, HINT: it ain't you and we know the market wants to destroy net neutrality. This corruptman isn't proposing a freeze, he is proposing government do nothing while business gets to do everything it wants.
If you want to see if this is a good idea, fellow republican corruptmen forced the government to step aside and let the financial industry do whatever it wants... how is that economy going US of A?
People say that democracy is the worst form of government except all the others. Well, tight government control is the worst of all systems to regulate markets. Except for all the other methods.
Always follow the money. Who is paying this guys salary? No, not you you silly voter. His election campaign fat cat jobs once he retires. YOU don't factor into his decision making, never have, never will.
One line the bleeding hearts have been using is that the Greeks ain't lazy work shy tax dodgers, they work MORE hours then people in Northern Europe (UK does not count), the part of Europe that isn't having an economic melt-down.
Yes, indeed, Greeks do put in more hours at the office... they just ain't productive. Especially the tax collectors. They got a lot of them they just don't do anything.
It is the old "2 dollars for the tap on the engine and 100 dollars for knowing were to tap it". Productivity is NOT how many hours you work but how much work you get done in an hour.
But it is rare for management to have an understanding of true productivity. For instance who is more productive, someone who writers a new routine in two hours OR the person who needs two weeks to get it to actually work? I have had to fix code, slowly, were it completely failed if the user put in a wrong value... that is called happy path testing, you only test if things work if the user does EVERYTHING exactly right. That is less then useful even if you can train all the users. But in customer facing applications? It is just WRONG. And FIXING bad code is harder then writing bad code.
90% of the work takes 10% of the time and 10% of the work takes 90% of the time. But try getting managers to accept this.
When I freelanced (stopped because I hate accounting) I improved the quality of clients a LOT by first examining their existing projects, I could easily tell if they valued quality by looking at whether they had quality already. I also increased my rates to be "holy shit, you charge HOW MUCH!" and that helped me work fewer hours for more money! Web development is a sector where quality often goes to die and it is the young who continue this as they have not yet learned that any incomplete feature will result in endless bug reports, hack jobs and finally bug fixing with hacks on hacks. Then anyone with experience leaves and the code is left to fester with the young who can barely keep up with the crises let alone ever update the software.
One of the things to look out for in an employer is in how much time they spend on cutting costs by just looking at salaries. The CEO of Costco is in the news for paying high wages. He runs a succesful growing business but managers at wallstreet know better, max this quarters profits by cutting wages, next year you are down because of increased theft, increased training costs because of increased churn rate and your employees spend half their time on the phone looking for a better job instead of doing their work.
If you freelance, the moment a customer starts about your rates, politely decline. They are CERTAIN to want to discuss your fee again, usually before paying.
If a company needs young cheap employees, it is because they are squeezing the last percentage of profit out of the company before collapsing and their managers can't handle anyone who has an opinion and dares to voice it.
That is just eerie! Anyone else who was ten years younger ten years ago? Would be spooky!
The summary is wonderful in its simplicity and one-sidedness. Red light drivers KILL pedestrians, cyclist and other drivers. Now the same people are rear ended. So? Assholes get hurt instead of assholes hurting others. The only way you hit someone who breaks suddenly for a red light is if you are to close and you yourself were ignoring the orange light.
And the only way you get suddenly stopping for a red light is if you don't slow down on orange.
The only issue here is that some people shouldn't be driving cars.