Re:Our Fearless Leaders at Work
on
Juiced
·
· Score: 4, Informative
"Am I the only one who thinks Congress's priorities are completely out of whack"
That's a pretty typical criticism of these hearings, and there is no doubt that there are many important things congress should be directing their energies towards. With that said,
(1) Baseball is exempt from some anti-trust laws. For example, Major League Baseball (MLB) gets to decide how many teams there are and more importantly, where those teams are located. There are very densely populated parts of this country that have no chance in getting a baseball team because MLB says no. No one can override MLB's decision because MLB is free to run their shop and determine the economical competitiveness of their own decisions without worrying about someone else stepping in to compete. They are a congressionally protected monopoly.
(2) Tax payer dollars have subsidized something like 1/2 of the current major league stadiums. Yes it can bring revenue into the area, but MLB and team owners are the ones to most benefit from these added tax dollars because it reduces the financial burden on team owners.
Here is a nice summary article from Sports Illustrated (SI) detailing some of the times when congress has involved itself in the game of baseball:
so its hardly a new phenomena. I don't disagree that there are more pressing matters going on right now, but i'm not sure it's entirely out of whack either.
"The consultant psychiatrist wanted to treat his patients with heroin. People with a heroin addiction can lead perfectly normal lives..."
After 20+ years of providing mental health treatment, I've *never* seen anyone with an addiction, be it narcotics, other drugs, alcohol, gambling, etc... lead a "normal" life. People with addictions can certainly live and at times be successful in what they do. Nonetheless, that hardly means "normal."
The whole underlying essence of an addiction is extreme distress in the abscence of the addicted to substance or behavior. Living on the edge of addiction/withdrawal is a horrible place to be and not normal by anyone's defintion (except perhaps other addicts).
I appreciate your efforts to lobby for better mental health and admittedly treatment for mental health problems and substance abuse is far from perfect. But presuming that a heroin addict can lead a normal life provided they have access to heroin is simply wrong.
Land lines in the US are overwhelmingly crystal clear, regardless of when and where you call from. In almost all cases, bad quality is on the phone, not the phone line. I have no idea what the percentages are, but I think almost everyone has gone cordless these days and that's where you here cracks and pops, faded connections, and interference. It has nothing to do with the actual land line, at least not in 99.9999% of cases.
And I also agree with the other posts to this thread, calling in the US is about as easy as it gets. It's the same no matter where you are. The only difference lies in whether you need 10 digit dialing to make a local call. But you ought to be able to approach any phone, any where and use it just like the last phone you used.
"The.com collapse was really tragic, but it was far from unpredictable, hysterical, or preventable"
I don't think he's saying it was unpredictable, hysterical, or preventable." He's simply stating (at least in that sentence) that it was precipitated by hysteria.
And while, yes, it's a function of macro economics, the scale of the rise and fall was certainly grounded in hysteria as people rushed in with *huge* capital expenditures with little understanding of how those expenditures would result in real profit.
From there the system just fed on itself as venture capitalists cashed in on grossly inflated IPO's because of the general public's hysteria with the future of technology. The people at the very top (e.g. the investment banks) knew exactly what they were doing. It was people far down the food chain that bore the brunt of the collapse.
Could you post a link to the site? I know if appeared on Slashdot a long time ago, but I've since lost it. I wanted to check it out again and see if its worth it. I take it from your post you haven't had any problems. I'm pretty leary of this kind of overseas stuff.
Perhaps that "Idiot" was a visually impaired engineer/programmer. I suppose this could be setup as an option, or perhaps vibrate when turning it onoff, but remember that there are a number of visually impaired persons out there who rely on audio cues to let them know something is happening.
My phone (a Nokia) doesn't make a sound when it's turned on and off, but as such would not be good for a visually impaired person as there would be know way to know the phone has been turned on/off for sure.
So yes, you and I may not need the audio cue, but there are plenty of people out there who do.
just my.02, jeff
Re:Subscription Promotional Codes
on
'Make' Premier Issue
·
· Score: 2, Informative
Thx for the promo code,
I would just add that the promo code gives you a free edition above and beyond the 4 you get with a regular subscription. So it is a free issue, but it requires a full subscription, in which case you get five issues instead of four.
the shortwave community can still make this happen, and does. I live in Chicago. Using a Sony ICF 2010 shortwave reciever a couple years back I picked up a military transport over Newfoundland. The soldiers on the plane were returning from Afghanistan. They were communicating with a HAM in Iowa, who was then patching them through for 1 minute conversations to family to let them know their arrival time in Washington. Pretty neat actually, and purely accidental that I heard the transmission as i was running up and down the dial listening for interesting things.
There is a lot out there, so it's more a matter of sifting through and finding something that you're comfortable with.
take care, jeff
Re:Question for you astronomers out there....
on
A Star of Space and Film
·
· Score: 4, Informative
As a very *amateur* backyard astronomer,
I think there is nothing wrong with the question. You actually get this kind of reaction almost all the time when people peer through a telescope for the first time expecting to see the types of images that appear on telescope boxes, in books, and in the media. Fabulous images of space that look nothing like that to the naked eye. People then get very skeptical (out of dissapointment) that space isn't like they thought it was gonna be. Obviously, looking through a telescope in your backyard shows nothing like what we see in pictures like the one referenced in this article.
With that said, the technology available in light gathering (in terms of sensitivity, especially in space where there is a lot less matter to block light) and the ability to apply filters to so many different wavelengths can really enhance interstellar phenomena. And actually, even the technology available to the amateur is nothing short of amazing. Just take a look the back of Sky and Telescope or Astronomy magazine to see amateur astrophotography.
I guess the important thing to keep in mind is that these pictures are enhanced. It doesn't mean the phenomena doesn't exist. Light is shooting out from the star, and it is passing clouds of interstellar medium that reflect that light, at all different wavelengths. People then just spend a ton of time, money, and computing power to enhance those images so that people can appreciate what goes on in our own backyard.
In the end, i guess you do have to trust that the base data itself is not "manufactured" by the government, but the data is certainly enhanced once its collected.
I have not played it, but BGG is probably the definitive source for boardgaming on the internet. With a current rank of 75, i'd have to believe there is something very good about the game.
hth, jeff
Re:I guess someone at TiVo downloaded Mythtv
on
TiVo to Offer SDK
·
· Score: 3, Interesting
"Picture Gallery - Yes Music Jukebox - Yes Easy web configuration - Yes"
These are already available in the Series 2 Tivo's. I finally got around to getting a proper USB network adapter (a couple are officially supported, several are reported to work, but unfortunately most are still a no-go).
Anyway, it took 5 minutes to get my TIVO networked and start sharing photos and music files from one of my desktop p.c.s. Really nice actually, and with the TIVO wired through the home stereo, works quite nicely. There are other features I wish it had (like the ability to save and load pre-set song lists), but maybe that will come with time.
I did quite a bit of research into building my own PVR/Myth box, but it seemed that cost and time to set up just was too prohibitive, despite all the additional features that come with building you own. With Myth, my impression is that even the most tech savy have to put forth some effort to get the thing completly streamlined and working flawlessly. To TIVO's credit, it really is a very simple plug and play device. And aside from adding an additional harddrive, the cost of TIVO with the monthly fee is still quite a bit less than building a dedicated PVR/Myth box. And as another user pointed out, my wife who is not the most tech savy had Tivo figured out in no time. With the added benefit of remote programming from work, she's thrilled.
And on a somewhat related note, as a shareholder in Redhat, this is the kind of stuff where Linux is the future and gets me excited; writing custom apps for proprietary hardware. It just seems like there is so much potential there. I'm glad to see TIVO offer up an SDK to keep the features coming.
"Lastly I want to say again that all this can go away if companies start to hire the best person for the job."
In a perfect this world this would likely be true. Unfortunately, rarely is there a "best PERSON for the job." Often times, there are best PEOPLE for the job (read ties) and so the tie breaker can become things that shouldn't be tie breakers (e.g. race, gender, sexual preference, religious beliefs, etc...)
That's ultimately why protections exist, and why this guy's comments run the risk of being offensive. He is demonstrating one of his tie breaking criteria, gender.
"If a job exceeds your capabilities, ask for help. I'm still surprised at how often people don't do that"
People don't do that because its not often in a person's nature to ask for help. Further, it can make the person feel incompentant or incapable, and thus not something they often do. This happens everywhere, not just in the work place. People feel weak if they cannot solve problems on their own.
"If you cannot possibly complete all the tasks handed to you in the time you have, tell your manager"
Fine. There's the door. We'll hire someone who can... Many (if not most) workers believe they are expendable and/or easily replaceable. The last thing a worker will do is go to a supervisor and say they can't do the job they've been given. Right or wrong, it's their perception and they act on it.
"If you dislike the job, find something better within the company (our even outside it)"
Ever tried unemployment with a family? Not pretty. Forget about income. It's the health insurance (and the potential catastophic consquences if you lack health insurance). Its not like people can just up and quit one day and be working the next. While in an ideal world people could just move around and find jobs they like, that is simply not reality. At least not without very good financial planning.
It creates useable/disposable email addresses that are self-timed to destruct after a certain number of replies to the address. Very elegant solution to avoid the problems you describe.
I use it all the time when signing up for forums, ordering online, etc... with no problems.
I remember in the glory days of Napster, when it was the only player in town, you could find damn near any mp3/album you wanted. Now with so many different apps and networks out there, I find it much more hit or miss. And i don't think it has anything to do with the RIAA crackdown. The files are still out there, just spread out across a bunch of different networks. I use Shareaza, and have decent luck cause it hits a few different networks, but nothing like Napster from 2000-2001.
http://www.investopedia.com/terms/l/laffercurve. as p
And I would refer you to a nice essay in "The Night is Large" by Martin Garder explaining why the Laffer Curve is nonsense.
Its been awhile since I read it, but I found this:
http://www.flashq.org/math.pdf
which i beleive is one of the replies to the essay when it was first published. It is in response to some of the assertions Garder makes in that essay. Its not exactly on topic, but gives you some idea of what Gardner was discussing.
but working on a spinal cord unit where we see some very seriously impaired individuals, i've yet to see someone who couldn't use a computer given the adaptive technology that exists already. Motivation aside, even high level quads can do just about anything with a computer with enough training. Off the top of my head, i'm not sure how this particular technology would be a huge leap forward for disabled people.
you're probably not far off. The porn industry seems to find creative ways to spend and make money on technology.
I wouldn't be at all surprised to see the internet porn industry completely jump on board something like this. People spend significant sums of money now to chat, watch, and "participate" in internet sex. Imagine the first internet porn company to market that sells a device that you put on your genitalia, and said device is controlled from the other end using one of these glove things. Certainly whatever data is being transmitted to manipulate a screen object could just as easily be exported out to control an external device. The difference here of course is the fine level of control and detail they seem to be achieving.
Now you're talking a whole 'nother level of interaction which i think people would pay a good sum of money for, given it could be done in the privacy of their own home.
For the non-computer savy, its a bear and a bit much to really understand and use. But if you're fairly tech savy, its remarkably powerful. The manual is a good 300+ pages as the program has its own powerful scripting language for image managment. It is not made for digital editing. It's really made to handle 100,000's of images and t at $49.95 (or whatever it is), as an image mangagement tool, I'd be surprised to find one more powerful at the price point.
Plus its got a great support forum over at Yahoo where the programmer answers questions on an almost daily basis.
"Turing was also gay. This is a fact that much of the mainstream media glosses over in noting his accomplishments"
I didn't know that being gay should be considered an "accomplishment." Certainly important in an autobiographical sense but not an accomplishment. I'm not trolling or flaimbaiting, just pointing out that the tone of the parent may not be as intentioned but it's a tone that suggests an agenda nonetheless.
It's just frustrating that Gates can "forget" this kind of stuff and walk away relatively unscathed. The tin foil hat in me says he (or his staff of attorneys and advisors) knew darn well what paper work is to be filed, and simply decided to skip it in an attempt to avoid any additional attention.
Here at the VA, conventional wisdom says not to ask for permission cause its a lot easier to apologize than it is to get permission in the first place;-). It seems like the same kinda thing here, except Gates has already been under the microscope for anti-trust violations and I wish they be a little more vigilant in his case.
I haven't read the article. But, while $800,000 seems like a collosal, life changing amount of money to me, that's peanuts to Gates. It is probably 1 week's income for the guy. And I would guess that his return on this acquisition is considerably greater than the $800,000 fine. So he essentially just buys his way around the law.
In this case, instead of fining the guy, I wish there was some way to simply take away the deal and make him go back to square one. I know this would be incredibly complicated given the way share prices move based on purchases like this, but $800,000 i suspect is hardly a deterrent to the guy. It's not even a speedbump in his book.
Slashdot Mirror
"Am I the only one who thinks Congress's priorities are completely out of whack"
m lb /03/16/bc.bbo.congress.baseball.ap/
That's a pretty typical criticism of these hearings, and there is no doubt that there are many important things congress should be directing their energies towards. With that said,
(1) Baseball is exempt from some anti-trust laws. For example, Major League Baseball (MLB) gets to decide how many teams there are and more importantly, where those teams are located. There are very densely populated parts of this country that have no chance in getting a baseball team because MLB says no. No one can override MLB's decision because MLB is free to run their shop and determine the economical competitiveness of their own decisions without worrying about someone else stepping in to compete. They are a congressionally protected monopoly.
(2) Tax payer dollars have subsidized something like 1/2 of the current major league stadiums. Yes it can bring revenue into the area, but MLB and team owners are the ones to most benefit from these added tax dollars because it reduces the financial burden on team owners.
Here is a nice summary article from Sports Illustrated (SI) detailing some of the times when congress has involved itself in the game of baseball:
http://sportsillustrated.cnn.com/2005/baseball/
so its hardly a new phenomena. I don't disagree that there are more pressing matters going on right now, but i'm not sure it's entirely out of whack either.
jeff
"The consultant psychiatrist wanted to treat his patients with heroin. People with a heroin addiction can lead perfectly normal lives..."
After 20+ years of providing mental health treatment, I've *never* seen anyone with an addiction, be it narcotics, other drugs, alcohol, gambling, etc... lead a "normal" life. People with addictions can certainly live and at times be successful in what they do. Nonetheless, that hardly means "normal."
The whole underlying essence of an addiction is extreme distress in the abscence of the addicted to substance or behavior. Living on the edge of addiction/withdrawal is a horrible place to be and not normal by anyone's defintion (except perhaps other addicts).
I appreciate your efforts to lobby for better mental health and admittedly treatment for mental health problems and substance abuse is far from perfect. But presuming that a heroin addict can lead a normal life provided they have access to heroin is simply wrong.
jeff
In my experience,
Land lines in the US are overwhelmingly crystal clear, regardless of when and where you call from. In almost all cases, bad quality is on the phone, not the phone line. I have no idea what the percentages are, but I think almost everyone has gone cordless these days and that's where you here cracks and pops, faded connections, and interference. It has nothing to do with the actual land line, at least not in 99.9999% of cases.
And I also agree with the other posts to this thread, calling in the US is about as easy as it gets. It's the same no matter where you are. The only difference lies in whether you need 10 digit dialing to make a local call. But you ought to be able to approach any phone, any where and use it just like the last phone you used.
jeff
"The .com collapse was really tragic, but it was far from unpredictable, hysterical, or preventable"
.02
I don't think he's saying it was unpredictable, hysterical, or preventable." He's simply stating (at least in that sentence) that it was precipitated by hysteria.
And while, yes, it's a function of macro economics, the scale of the rise and fall was certainly grounded in hysteria as people rushed in with *huge* capital expenditures with little understanding of how those expenditures would result in real profit.
From there the system just fed on itself as venture capitalists cashed in on grossly inflated IPO's because of the general public's hysteria with the future of technology. The people at the very top (e.g. the investment banks) knew exactly what they were doing. It was people far down the food chain that bore the brunt of the collapse.
just my
jeff
Could you post a link to the site? I know if appeared on Slashdot a long time ago, but I've since lost it. I wanted to check it out again and see if its worth it. I take it from your post you haven't had any problems. I'm pretty leary of this kind of overseas stuff.
thx in advance,
jeff
Perhaps that "Idiot" was a visually impaired engineer/programmer. I suppose this could be setup as an option, or perhaps vibrate when turning it onoff, but remember that there are a number of visually impaired persons out there who rely on audio cues to let them know something is happening.
.02,
My phone (a Nokia) doesn't make a sound when it's turned on and off, but as such would not be good for a visually impaired person as there would be know way to know the phone has been turned on/off for sure.
So yes, you and I may not need the audio cue, but there are plenty of people out there who do.
just my
jeff
Thx for the promo code,
I would just add that the promo code gives you a free edition above and beyond the 4 you get with a regular subscription. So it is a free issue, but it requires a full subscription, in which case you get five issues instead of four.
but useful info nonetheless, thx.
jeff
None of these URLs seem to work. Could you please re-post actual working URLs?
thx,
jeff
Actually,
the shortwave community can still make this happen, and does. I live in Chicago. Using a Sony ICF 2010 shortwave reciever a couple years back I picked up a military transport over Newfoundland. The soldiers on the plane were returning from Afghanistan. They were communicating with a HAM in Iowa, who was then patching them through for 1 minute conversations to family to let them know their arrival time in Washington. Pretty neat actually, and purely accidental that I heard the transmission as i was running up and down the dial listening for interesting things.
jeff
This will get you started.
s in g_and_data_analysis/
s tr onomy/index.shtml
http://www.ozskywatch.com/software/image_proces
http://linux.tucows.com/preview/9002.html
http://www.linuxlinks.com/Software/Scientific/A
There is a lot out there, so it's more a matter of sifting through and finding something that you're comfortable with.
take care,
jeff
As a very *amateur* backyard astronomer,
I think there is nothing wrong with the question. You actually get this kind of reaction almost all the time when people peer through a telescope for the first time expecting to see the types of images that appear on telescope boxes, in books, and in the media. Fabulous images of space that look nothing like that to the naked eye. People then get very skeptical (out of dissapointment) that space isn't like they thought it was gonna be. Obviously, looking through a telescope in your backyard shows nothing like what we see in pictures like the one referenced in this article.
With that said, the technology available in light gathering (in terms of sensitivity, especially in space where there is a lot less matter to block light) and the ability to apply filters to so many different wavelengths can really enhance interstellar phenomena. And actually, even the technology available to the amateur is nothing short of amazing. Just take a look the back of Sky and Telescope or Astronomy magazine to see amateur astrophotography.
I guess the important thing to keep in mind is that these pictures are enhanced. It doesn't mean the phenomena doesn't exist. Light is shooting out from the star, and it is passing clouds of interstellar medium that reflect that light, at all different wavelengths. People then just spend a ton of time, money, and computing power to enhance those images so that people can appreciate what goes on in our own backyard.
In the end, i guess you do have to trust that the base data itself is not "manufactured" by the government, but the data is certainly enhanced once its collected.
jeff
You can find a nice summary here:
http://www.boardgamegeek.com/game/10640
I have not played it, but BGG is probably the definitive source for boardgaming on the internet. With a current rank of 75, i'd have to believe there is something very good about the game.
hth,
jeff
"Picture Gallery - Yes
Music Jukebox - Yes
Easy web configuration - Yes"
These are already available in the Series 2 Tivo's. I finally got around to getting a proper USB network adapter (a couple are officially supported, several are reported to work, but unfortunately most are still a no-go).
Anyway, it took 5 minutes to get my TIVO networked and start sharing photos and music files from one of my desktop p.c.s. Really nice actually, and with the TIVO wired through the home stereo, works quite nicely. There are other features I wish it had (like the ability to save and load pre-set song lists), but maybe that will come with time.
I did quite a bit of research into building my own PVR/Myth box, but it seemed that cost and time to set up just was too prohibitive, despite all the additional features that come with building you own. With Myth, my impression is that even the most tech savy have to put forth some effort to get the thing completly streamlined and working flawlessly. To TIVO's credit, it really is a very simple plug and play device. And aside from adding an additional harddrive, the cost of TIVO with the monthly fee is still quite a bit less than building a dedicated PVR/Myth box. And as another user pointed out, my wife who is not the most tech savy had Tivo figured out in no time. With the added benefit of remote programming from work, she's thrilled.
And on a somewhat related note, as a shareholder in Redhat, this is the kind of stuff where Linux is the future and gets me excited; writing custom apps for proprietary hardware. It just seems like there is so much potential there. I'm glad to see TIVO offer up an SDK to keep the features coming.
jeff
"Lastly I want to say again that all this can go away if companies start to hire the best person for the job."
.02,
In a perfect this world this would likely be true. Unfortunately, rarely is there a "best PERSON for the job." Often times, there are best PEOPLE for the job (read ties) and so the tie breaker can become things that shouldn't be tie breakers (e.g. race, gender, sexual preference, religious beliefs, etc...)
That's ultimately why protections exist, and why this guy's comments run the risk of being offensive. He is demonstrating one of his tie breaking criteria, gender.
just me
jeff
"If a job exceeds your capabilities, ask for help. I'm still surprised at how often people don't do that"
.02
People don't do that because its not often in a person's nature to ask for help. Further, it can make the person feel incompentant or incapable, and thus not something they often do. This happens everywhere, not just in the work place. People feel weak if they cannot solve problems on their own.
"If you cannot possibly complete all the tasks handed to you in the time you have, tell your manager"
Fine. There's the door. We'll hire someone who can... Many (if not most) workers believe they are expendable and/or easily replaceable. The last thing a worker will do is go to a supervisor and say they can't do the job they've been given. Right or wrong, it's their perception and they act on it.
"If you dislike the job, find something better within the company (our even outside it)"
Ever tried unemployment with a family? Not pretty. Forget about income. It's the health insurance (and the potential catastophic consquences if you lack health insurance). Its not like people can just up and quit one day and be working the next. While in an ideal world people could just move around and find jobs they like, that is simply not reality. At least not without very good financial planning.
just my
jeff
Have you ever taken a look at Spamgourmet
http://www.spamgourmet.com
It creates useable/disposable email addresses that are self-timed to destruct after a certain number of replies to the address. Very elegant solution to avoid the problems you describe.
I use it all the time when signing up for forums, ordering online, etc... with no problems.
hth,
jeff
amen to that brother,
.02
I remember in the glory days of Napster, when it was the only player in town, you could find damn near any mp3/album you wanted. Now with so many different apps and networks out there, I find it much more hit or miss. And i don't think it has anything to do with the RIAA crackdown. The files are still out there, just spread out across a bunch of different networks. I use Shareaza, and have decent luck cause it hits a few different networks, but nothing like Napster from 2000-2001.
just my
jeff
What you're referring to is a "Laffer Curve",
. as p
http://www.investopedia.com/terms/l/laffercurve
And I would refer you to a nice essay in "The Night is Large" by Martin Garder explaining why the Laffer Curve is nonsense.
Its been awhile since I read it, but I found this:
http://www.flashq.org/math.pdf
which i beleive is one of the replies to the essay when it was first published. It is in response to some of the assertions Garder makes in that essay. Its not exactly on topic, but gives you some idea of what Gardner was discussing.
see ya,
jeff
That was my first thought also,
but working on a spinal cord unit where we see some very seriously impaired individuals, i've yet to see someone who couldn't use a computer given the adaptive technology that exists already. Motivation aside, even high level quads can do just about anything with a computer with enough training. Off the top of my head, i'm not sure how this particular technology would be a huge leap forward for disabled people.
jeff
Ya know,
you're probably not far off. The porn industry seems to find creative ways to spend and make money on technology.
I wouldn't be at all surprised to see the internet porn industry completely jump on board something like this. People spend significant sums of money now to chat, watch, and "participate" in internet sex. Imagine the first internet porn company to market that sells a device that you put on your genitalia, and said device is controlled from the other end using one of these glove things. Certainly whatever data is being transmitted to manipulate a screen object could just as easily be exported out to control an external device. The difference here of course is the fine level of control and detail they seem to be achieving.
Now you're talking a whole 'nother level of interaction which i think people would pay a good sum of money for, given it could be done in the privacy of their own home.
jeff
which no one else i know seems to enjoy ;-)
"Skeptic"
http://www.skeptic.com/
"The Skeptial Inquirer"
http://www.csicop.org/si/
-and-
"Chance"
http://www.stat.duke.edu/chance/
are my guilty pleasures.
jeff
Or check out Imatch:
http://www.photools.com/
For the non-computer savy, its a bear and a bit much to really understand and use. But if you're fairly tech savy, its remarkably powerful. The manual is a good 300+ pages as the program has its own powerful scripting language for image managment. It is not made for digital editing. It's really made to handle 100,000's of images and t at $49.95 (or whatever it is), as an image mangagement tool, I'd be surprised to find one more powerful at the price point.
Plus its got a great support forum over at Yahoo where the programmer answers questions on an almost daily basis.
hth,
jeff
I'm sorry, but:
"Turing was also gay. This is a fact that much of the mainstream media glosses over in noting his accomplishments"
I didn't know that being gay should be considered an "accomplishment." Certainly important in an autobiographical sense but not an accomplishment. I'm not trolling or flaimbaiting, just pointing out that the tone of the parent may not be as intentioned but it's a tone that suggests an agenda nonetheless.
jeff
I hear ya,
;-). It seems like the same kinda thing here, except Gates has already been under the microscope for anti-trust violations and I wish they be a little more vigilant in his case.
It's just frustrating that Gates can "forget" this kind of stuff and walk away relatively unscathed. The tin foil hat in me says he (or his staff of attorneys and advisors) knew darn well what paper work is to be filed, and simply decided to skip it in an attempt to avoid any additional attention.
Here at the VA, conventional wisdom says not to ask for permission cause its a lot easier to apologize than it is to get permission in the first place
jeff
Admittedly,
.02
I haven't read the article. But, while $800,000 seems like a collosal, life changing amount of money to me, that's peanuts to Gates. It is probably 1 week's income for the guy. And I would guess that his return on this acquisition is considerably greater than the $800,000 fine. So he essentially just buys his way around the law.
In this case, instead of fining the guy, I wish there was some way to simply take away the deal and make him go back to square one. I know this would be incredibly complicated given the way share prices move based on purchases like this, but $800,000 i suspect is hardly a deterrent to the guy. It's not even a speedbump in his book.
just my
jeff