A once-successful company is permitted to get sloppy in design and manufacturing because it is protected from foreign competition.
and:
This is a situation that directly pits U.S. economic strength against the cheap, tariff-protected workers in the Asian economies, a losing proposition for the U.S,
I don't see anything "insightful" about taking opposing views of the benefits of protectionism in the same message. Bah!
There are 3 different prices a business can charge:
1. Less than the competition : dumping, unfair competition, predatory pricing 2. Same as the competition : collusion, price fixing 3. More than the competition : gouging, profiteering
Yeah, they patented the idea that examining the text on the card for "birthday" allows their amazingly innovative and advanced software to deduce that the recipient of the card and gift is having a birthday on that day.
So why is it a "crisis"? All drugs patented prior to 1987 are not covered by patents anymore. Was there a "crisis" then?
Drugs cost hundreds of millions of dollars to develop. If the government gets in the habit of stealing the patent rights, then why should investors pony up the $$$ to develop new drugs?
killer feature - accelerated playback
on
TiVo to Offer SDK
·
· Score: 1
If tivo wants a new killer feature, this is one I seriously desire. I've read about a technology where one can playback speech at higher speed without the pitch shift. Drop a frame now and then, and you have a capability that some TV stations use to shorten a show so they can add more commercials. Do it a bit and nobody notices.
I, however, would like to see this as a capability of tivo, with a variable speed acceleration throttle. I'd like to watch talk shows and news shows at higher speed. It'll be a big time saver for me. I'd pay extra for such a feature.
As recently as 45 years ago it was the social norm in America that middle-class women did not express an opinion to their husbands.
What nonsense. Of course women expressed opinions to their husbands. Talk to anyone over that age.
Nancy Hopkins, a professor of biology at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology who walked out midway through Dr Summers's remarks, said: "This kind of bias makes me physically ill. Let's not forget that people used to say that women couldn't drive an automobile."
For good reason - cars used to be physically demanding to drive. This included not only hand-cranking the engine, but heavy manual steering and brakes that required a lot of force to get good results from. That's all changed now with electric starters, power steering and power brakes, but let's not forget what cars used to be like.
You know this for a fact, eh? Why don't you look at some annual reports and tell us just how much in percentage terms executive compensation takes away from shareholder value?
I think Americans underestimate, for example, how much of their healthcare spending goes into executive compensation, which is worse in that industry than most others.
I wager you have no idea how much this actually is.
"But if they could do this, why not outlaw all guns and rifles in the US! I mean, couldn't THESE be used on approaching and departing airliners? A 460 Weatherby Magnum rifle could do some serious damage...maybe bust open a fuel tank if aimed with any degree of accuracy"
There's a reason why fighter aircraft are armed with high rate machine cannons. There's a reason why antiaircraft weapons are cannons. A handheld popgun isn't going to bring down an aircraft, even if it manages to poke a small hole in one of the multiple separate fuel tanks. No way. Nevertheless, anyone attempting to do such should be hammered good and hard by the justice system.
are always interesting to high school kids. (And us old geezers, too!) Hot rodding is a fantastic way to learn about technology - mechanical, electrical, and computer. And the results work or they don't, there's no hiding.
An even better way is to just reduce patents from 17 years to 5. This reduces the incentive for patenting trivialities, and if they do get patented, it becomes a more reasonable strategy to just wait it out.
Businesses make such agreements all the time - they have no choice. They cannot force you to work for them or to continue to work for them. You can quit at any time for any reason. Furthermore, AOL's customers can quit at any time too. Nobody can force you to continue to subscribe to AOL. AOL doesn't have guaranteed revenue. And if they go bankrupt, the same thing happens to them that happens to you if you go bankrupt.
Re:Did AOL sign those mortgage papers too?
on
Massive Layoffs At AOL
·
· Score: 2, Insightful
Why is AOL on the hook for what you irresponsibly did?
Because the BANK wanted to see the PAYCHECK from AOL as proof they could make the PAYMENTS.
That's between you and the bank, AOL had nothing to do with it. When you get a mortgage, you also must sign a piece of paper saying you read all the documents and understand them. There's nothing in those documents that says that AOL is responsible for the mortgage. YOU are.
So the employee gets fired and...
AOL saves money
The bank gets the house
The employee gets SHIT
That's called unfair.
Nobody failed to live up to their agreements, except the employee. Why is that unfair to the employee? What would be unfair is AOL being forced to pick up the slack for an employee's irresponsibility.
The employee did nothing except show up and do a good job.
The employee should try reading and comprehending the contracts he signs. This wasn't a case of fine print or trickery.
When you buy a mortgage, most financial advisors recommend that you save up at least 6 months of expenses first. That way, you can survive temporary interruptions in your income, or at least it will give you time to sell the house properly. At the very least, such minimal prudence won't leave you in a bad bargaining position. If you can't do that, don't buy a mortgage.
Once they are hired, the company is responsible for those people unless the company is going out of business.
The company is responsible for living up to their end of the employment contract they signed with you. You are responsible for holding up your end of what you signed. If lifetime employment is not part of that agreement, it's quite unreasonable for you to impose it later on. After all, you aren't obliged to work for them for life, either.
The best programmers I know of have degrees in Physics, not CS. Learning physics teaches you how to think. I'd load up on physics and calculus courses in college, they'll serve you well throughout your career.
You're not going to pick up calculus on the job. Get it in college.
Yeah, but I've had a lot of trouble with poor quality VHS. I have a copy of "Tess" on VHS that has a horizontal bar that appears 1/3 the way down the screen about halfway through and lasts to the end of the tape. There's a lot of jitter from the tapes. Sometimes I hear a crinkling sound from the VHS deck, and I know that the tape has wrapped itself around the guts of the machine, and it'll be a bitch to get it out. More than once I've had to physically take the deck apart to get the jammed tape out. And, of course, rewinding is slow and sucky. VHS, begone.
Slashdot Mirror
What bunk. I have a high IQ, and a degree from a top university. The more I understand things, the *more* I enjoy them.
A once-successful company is permitted to get sloppy in design and manufacturing because it is protected from foreign competition.
and:
This is a situation that directly pits U.S. economic strength against the cheap, tariff-protected workers in the Asian economies, a losing proposition for the U.S,
I don't see anything "insightful" about taking opposing views of the benefits of protectionism in the same message. Bah!
Not only that, I discovered I cannot even turn the DVD player off while it is playing the adverts!
There are 3 different prices a business can charge:
1. Less than the competition : dumping, unfair competition, predatory pricing
2. Same as the competition : collusion, price fixing
3. More than the competition : gouging, profiteering
A little black electrical tape will solve that problem.
Or you can put a dab of nail polish over the led to dim it down.
Yeah, they patented the idea that examining the text on the card for "birthday" allows their amazingly innovative and advanced software to deduce that the recipient of the card and gift is having a birthday on that day.
Next, they'll patent the english language
Drugs cost hundreds of millions of dollars to develop. If the government gets in the habit of stealing the patent rights, then why should investors pony up the $$$ to develop new drugs?
Tivo is already connected to the internet, why can't it web browse?
Non-obvious and novel? No. Radix-50 encoding is very similar.
I, however, would like to see this as a capability of tivo, with a variable speed acceleration throttle. I'd like to watch talk shows and news shows at higher speed. It'll be a big time saver for me. I'd pay extra for such a feature.
What nonsense. Of course women expressed opinions to their husbands. Talk to anyone over that age.
Nancy Hopkins, a professor of biology at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology who walked out midway through Dr Summers's remarks, said: "This kind of bias makes me physically ill. Let's not forget that people used to say that women couldn't drive an automobile."
For good reason - cars used to be physically demanding to drive. This included not only hand-cranking the engine, but heavy manual steering and brakes that required a lot of force to get good results from. That's all changed now with electric starters, power steering and power brakes, but let's not forget what cars used to be like.
I think Americans underestimate, for example, how much of their healthcare spending goes into executive compensation, which is worse in that industry than most others.
I wager you have no idea how much this actually is.
Oh come on. There's an enormous difference between it being unsafe at 5 feet and unsafe from a couple miles away.
Not likely for several reasons:
There's a reason why fighter aircraft are armed with high rate machine cannons. There's a reason why antiaircraft weapons are cannons. A handheld popgun isn't going to bring down an aircraft, even if it manages to poke a small hole in one of the multiple separate fuel tanks. No way. Nevertheless, anyone attempting to do such should be hammered good and hard by the justice system.
are always interesting to high school kids. (And us old geezers, too!) Hot rodding is a fantastic way to learn about technology - mechanical, electrical, and computer. And the results work or they don't, there's no hiding.
An even better way is to just reduce patents from 17 years to 5. This reduces the incentive for patenting trivialities, and if they do get patented, it becomes a more reasonable strategy to just wait it out.
Businesses make such agreements all the time - they have no choice. They cannot force you to work for them or to continue to work for them. You can quit at any time for any reason. Furthermore, AOL's customers can quit at any time too. Nobody can force you to continue to subscribe to AOL. AOL doesn't have guaranteed revenue. And if they go bankrupt, the same thing happens to them that happens to you if you go bankrupt.
Because the BANK wanted to see the PAYCHECK from AOL as proof they could make the PAYMENTS.
That's between you and the bank, AOL had nothing to do with it. When you get a mortgage, you also must sign a piece of paper saying you read all the documents and understand them. There's nothing in those documents that says that AOL is responsible for the mortgage. YOU are.
So the employee gets fired and... AOL saves money The bank gets the house The employee gets SHIT That's called unfair.
Nobody failed to live up to their agreements, except the employee. Why is that unfair to the employee? What would be unfair is AOL being forced to pick up the slack for an employee's irresponsibility.
The employee did nothing except show up and do a good job.
The employee should try reading and comprehending the contracts he signs. This wasn't a case of fine print or trickery. When you buy a mortgage, most financial advisors recommend that you save up at least 6 months of expenses first. That way, you can survive temporary interruptions in your income, or at least it will give you time to sell the house properly. At the very least, such minimal prudence won't leave you in a bad bargaining position. If you can't do that, don't buy a mortgage.
The company is responsible for living up to their end of the employment contract they signed with you. You are responsible for holding up your end of what you signed. If lifetime employment is not part of that agreement, it's quite unreasonable for you to impose it later on. After all, you aren't obliged to work for them for life, either.
Did you want AOL to provide "make work" employment for these people?
Better than throwing them into the street after mortgages were signed.
Hey, AOL didn't sign your mortgage papers. You did. Why is AOL on the hook for what you irresponsibly did?
In other news, kids who are driven to school are less physically fit.
You're not going to pick up calculus on the job. Get it in college.
Wil -
What is the airspeed velocity of an unladen swallow?
Yeah, but I've had a lot of trouble with poor quality VHS. I have a copy of "Tess" on VHS that has a horizontal bar that appears 1/3 the way down the screen about halfway through and lasts to the end of the tape. There's a lot of jitter from the tapes. Sometimes I hear a crinkling sound from the VHS deck, and I know that the tape has wrapped itself around the guts of the machine, and it'll be a bitch to get it out. More than once I've had to physically take the deck apart to get the jammed tape out. And, of course, rewinding is slow and sucky. VHS, begone.