Germany's 82m people (fn1) do about $1.4t in exports, or $17,000 in exports per capita.
The US has 307m people and $1.3t in exports: $4200 per capita. Of course, we decided to trade our manufacturing base for burger flipping skills over the past 25 years, and now view it as a given that it costs too much to make things here. In reality, there is no rational basis to think that products can't be built in a first world country with first world standards of living. The fact that Germany kicks our ass on this point proves it.
We really do need to do something, because the debt we're accumulating can only be paid off by creating wealth (making stuff people want). Service jobs just move wealth around and allow the government to take a cut on each transaction, but in no way create lasting value.
Of course it is psychopathic. Opportunistic behavior can include psychopathic behavior, but it doesn't imply the same thing. A psychopath would have no feelings of guilt. An opportunistic person might feel guilt, but would let avarice overcome that predisposition. Finally, it is simply not true that typical human nature is psychopathic. Most people would refuse to do this deed, even for very large sums of money, without a moment's hesitation because they wouldn't be able to live with their guilty conscience. Don't compare the things we see from politicians, heads of major companies/ponzi schemes, or the top echelons of the entertainment industry -- psychopaths are probably overly represented at those levels. Almost all regular people would never sink toxic ships and doing so is simply not an example of broad "human nature".
$1000 cheaper? This "unlimited" plan would have to be $200/yr (AT&T is roughly $85-100/month). That IS a good deal... so I check Sprint's website, $99/mo plus tax. How is this cheaper?
I never said electricity was cheaper than gas. Still, it will depend on locality, usage, and a host of factors. For me, gas is over $3/gal but electricity is a dime a kWhr. Some other poster pays alomst 20 cents per kWhr -- if gas is $2.50 for him, electricity is not likely very rational.
It is really important to do the math as you are doing and include the increased cost of the car. I've been very interested in a VW diesel for a long time, but with my 5 mile commute, it would take me forever to earn back the engine cost in fuel savings -- something like 10 years if I recall correctly from the time I put everything together in a spreadsheet and then gave up on the idea. I've also recently learned that doing a 5 mile commute in a diesel would bad for the engine and probably wouldn't actually get me much in savings because they don't get efficient until warmed up, and my drive time is too short.
Anyway, this whole electric v. gas is stupid anyway considering that for ages, we could have been using Japanese mini-cars with all the bells and whistles, quite zippy, that get 60-70 mpg. It isn't uncommon in Japan for a family to have a mini-car for the small around errands, and a larger car for travel. The problem is that we want our cake and to eat it too -- trying to get that efficiency from a 3500 pound beast just isn't happening anytime soon. It would be very nice to have a little super-efficient grocery getter, and a larger car for road trips or trips with more than two people. This stuff exists right now, we just don't have access to it. Google "kei car" for examples: http://images.google.com/images?hl=en&q=kei+car
A check is only valid for a couple months after it has been written.
I don't think this is true unless something on the check face says so. At my bank, I can put a stop payment order on a check for six months at a cost of $18. Then the stop payment order expires. The check itself becomes stale at six months and depending on the laws of the state in which the check is negotiated, the laws in effect in the state your bank is located in, and both banks' rules, it might or might not be honored.
To avoid the whole problem, my check writing software prints an expiration date on the check that is 120 days after the print date for the check -- it expressly states "VOID after $FutureDate". That way, if the check is lost and I have to re-issue the check, the six month stop payment order on the original check will last beyond the expiration date of that check. If it is negotiated after the expiration date, it is a bank error and I'm going to get reimbursed. But, not all checks are written this way -- if there is no void date, either expressly stated or stated as "90 days from the date of this check" or something like that, there is no way to know for certain that the check won't be negotiated even years in the future.
As an end user on linux, I can't use iTunes. So much for commerce.... That's $500,000 gross, which might only be something like $10,000 net for Apple. But how much would a port of iTunes to Linux cost? Maybe $100,000.
Clearly Apple sucks at math.
Are you really saying that spending 100k to earn 10k is smart and Apple is stupid for not jumping at the chance?
I always hated monopoly, and find it incredibly boring to play.
You never learned to play properly. First, it is about business, i.e., anything you can cheat without getting caught is legal. I must say, the sweetest $6 to be made in the game is when a person lands on a property he/she already owns, and I convince them to pay __me__ the rental value. That is pure joy but very hard. First, you have to be dead serious and matter-of-fact when asking for the money, and secondly, you have to hold your laughter till the game ends when the owner of the property pays rent. Part two is actually the more difficult part. To be really successful, you must not even reveal your dastardly deed at all because then that person is forever on guard against your tactics. That is the hardest part of all.
So you see, Monopoly game play can be quite nuanced. Unless you play a digital version and are forced to play fair. Then it is boring as sin... er, boring as goodness. Sin is way fun.
I don't think it is just marketing. My wife has an iPhone and the hardware feels nice, the UI is dead easy to figure out, and there are a lot of apps out there. For example, for $7 I bought her a nautical charting application that works with GPS features of the phone. Set some waypoints and now we can go straight to crab traps without hunting around at all.
Fooling around with the myphone or whatever Tmobile is calling the 2nd gen phone didn't result in any nautical charting software in the marketplace. The myphone (or whatever it is called) felt pretty good physically, but not quite as nice as an iphone, though its dimensions were better -- I still think the iPhone seems kind of wide.
If it wasn't for AT&T, I'd probably get one myself, and not because of marketing (I don't see TV anyway), but because the hardware is very nice and the app store has enough breadth that even niches are filled with quality apps.
With respect to security questions, I'm more concerned about companies gathering needlessly private info about me. So I make up answers and record those along with my username and password in my encrypted password list.
While you can buy a replica at Big5, Kirkland is in Western Washington where any random person you meet is more likely to live a vegan lifestyle than own a firearm. In Eastern Washington, the guy with the replica would have been swarmed with requests for information regarding caliber, accuracy, and where to get one.
Congrats if it gives you enough extra time to do an update, though yeah, it should have been done immediately. Of course, immediate backups don't always happen even if you are conscientious, e.g. you're on vacation, a worm comes out, a quick fix comes out, but your laying in the sand in some wifi-less slashdot-less world.
I don't know, 102+170 is easier and faster for me personally. Of course, I have always suffered some kind of mental slow down whenever I add 7 and 6, 7 and 5, or 8 and 5, so your example has a built in stumbling block for me. I don't know what it is about these number pairs, but my entire life I've been compelled to stop to double check my results.
I've never been a math whiz, but aren't you impliedly multiplying by ten here? You indicate 1 decimal place plus one decimal place = two, but what you are doing is multiplying 1.5*10 initially, adding it together 8 times, then dividing by 100 at the end. This doesn't look like pure addition to me.
So, I ask, what am I getting for Free or a flate rate that cloud companies are going to make me pay through the nose for?
Office suites. You can get perfectly functional word processors/spreadsheets free (open office, abiword, and probably dozens of others I'm not aware of) or for money (MS Word, and probably dozens of others I'm not aware of). Without local competition, how long do you think remote options will remain free?
There are lots of ways to spend money, and lots of ways to point out that certain ways to spend money are not cost effective. I didn't read anywhere in TFA however, where it was suggested that the government provide cloud service free to everyone. I don't know what made you make that leap, but it wasn't anything related to the article's content.
What was pointed out was that it makes sense in certain situations, usually highly intense processing, storage, or bandwidth related circumstances and the occasional time when people might want to collaborate on a document (I would note however that for most people, emailing the document back and forth is perfectly adequate). For most people, it makes more sense to buy a cheap computer because first and foremost, it is cheaper in the long run, faster, more private, and not subject to connectivity issues.
I recently test drove a Buell Ulysses thinking it might make a sweet bike for touring a mix of smooth and rough roads (Buells use HD engines but don't conform to the cruiser styling of Harleys). The suspension was great -- but it felt like I was riding a jackhammer. I left the dealer quite disappointed. It might ride the roads nicely, but I'd be numb after 30 minutes.
300 year supply of on-shore oil in the lower 48? If you mean a 300 year inadequate supply, I'll grant you that. If you mean 300 years at our current and future consumption levels, for that, I want a citation. And don't say Bakken because that isn't the panacea you think it is -- it is hard to get, uses a lot of energy to get, the wells are slow producers, and they go into decline very fast. Bakken has been known for 60 years -- it hasn't been developed because it oil prices haven't been high enough -- in other words, if you think it will provide cheap oil, think again. It will provide expensive oil at volumes too low to supply the US for 300 years.
We may be making debt payments, but is that "interest+principal" or is it "pay the minimum amount of interest here and open another line of credit there"?
I think we all know the answer to that. Besides, it isn't much reason for praise if an entity pays off 10% of their debt and then takes out debt valuing twice what they paid off. In the same vein, I have no sympathy for SS recipients who think they deserve the money because they paid into the system -- they also spent every nickel of surplus on other government programs at the same time. It's like saying "I save 10% of my income per month", and then withdrawing the money from savings every month to spend on booze and prostitutes.
"We", meaning the US no matter how you define it (Government, people, or business) is not going to produce 1m jobs because nobody has any incentive to do that. It is easier to export the jobs and lend money to Americans. It is easier for government to just raise taxes or print/borrow money for its pet projects. As for people, it is much more difficult to convince joe six pack that some egghead schmuck should get $150k per year and "not do shit" -- seriously, JSP can plumb a house in a day for 1/1000 of that amount so he's thinking the smart guy is pretty dumb if he can't make anything in 10 years... not a good way to think about science, but that is how large swaths of the population think.
The whole point of the article was that no group has the incentives necessary to make what needs to happen, happen. Relying on the free market is simply going to mean that some other player with either low wages or a willingness to fund research... or both (China perhaps)... is destined to become the most powerful economy and ultimately, the most powerful.
Slashdot Mirror
Gasoline comes most directly from refineries. Sure refineries buy oil, but problems with production or distribution will affect fuel prices.
Right on. What is really sad is that slave labor isn't actually necessary to be a major exporter. According to The Economist, Germany comes in first: http://www.economist.com/markets/indicators/displaystory.cfm?story_id=13375970
Germany's 82m people (fn1) do about $1.4t in exports, or $17,000 in exports per capita.
The US has 307m people and $1.3t in exports: $4200 per capita. Of course, we decided to trade our manufacturing base for burger flipping skills over the past 25 years, and now view it as a given that it costs too much to make things here. In reality, there is no rational basis to think that products can't be built in a first world country with first world standards of living. The fact that Germany kicks our ass on this point proves it.
We really do need to do something, because the debt we're accumulating can only be paid off by creating wealth (making stuff people want). Service jobs just move wealth around and allow the government to take a cut on each transaction, but in no way create lasting value.
fn1 http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_countries_by_population
Of course it is psychopathic. Opportunistic behavior can include psychopathic behavior, but it doesn't imply the same thing. A psychopath would have no feelings of guilt. An opportunistic person might feel guilt, but would let avarice overcome that predisposition. Finally, it is simply not true that typical human nature is psychopathic. Most people would refuse to do this deed, even for very large sums of money, without a moment's hesitation because they wouldn't be able to live with their guilty conscience. Don't compare the things we see from politicians, heads of major companies/ponzi schemes, or the top echelons of the entertainment industry -- psychopaths are probably overly represented at those levels. Almost all regular people would never sink toxic ships and doing so is simply not an example of broad "human nature".
$1000 cheaper? This "unlimited" plan would have to be $200/yr (AT&T is roughly $85-100/month). That IS a good deal ... so I check Sprint's website, $99/mo plus tax. How is this cheaper?
Not positive. I could google the answer but what a waste of bandwidth. There are things that aren't worth knowing.
The aluminum case will give you away still. Get some black spray paint, and if you want to be super cool, see if you can get beige.
I never said electricity was cheaper than gas. Still, it will depend on locality, usage, and a host of factors. For me, gas is over $3/gal but electricity is a dime a kWhr. Some other poster pays alomst 20 cents per kWhr -- if gas is $2.50 for him, electricity is not likely very rational.
It is really important to do the math as you are doing and include the increased cost of the car. I've been very interested in a VW diesel for a long time, but with my 5 mile commute, it would take me forever to earn back the engine cost in fuel savings -- something like 10 years if I recall correctly from the time I put everything together in a spreadsheet and then gave up on the idea. I've also recently learned that doing a 5 mile commute in a diesel would bad for the engine and probably wouldn't actually get me much in savings because they don't get efficient until warmed up, and my drive time is too short.
Anyway, this whole electric v. gas is stupid anyway considering that for ages, we could have been using Japanese mini-cars with all the bells and whistles, quite zippy, that get 60-70 mpg. It isn't uncommon in Japan for a family to have a mini-car for the small around errands, and a larger car for travel. The problem is that we want our cake and to eat it too -- trying to get that efficiency from a 3500 pound beast just isn't happening anytime soon. It would be very nice to have a little super-efficient grocery getter, and a larger car for road trips or trips with more than two people. This stuff exists right now, we just don't have access to it. Google "kei car" for examples: http://images.google.com/images?hl=en&q=kei+car
So cut the drive time in half and multiply by a dime. That would be $30. $30 isn't nothing ... for a small car, it's a full tank of gas right now.
I don't think this is true unless something on the check face says so. At my bank, I can put a stop payment order on a check for six months at a cost of $18. Then the stop payment order expires. The check itself becomes stale at six months and depending on the laws of the state in which the check is negotiated, the laws in effect in the state your bank is located in, and both banks' rules, it might or might not be honored.
To avoid the whole problem, my check writing software prints an expiration date on the check that is 120 days after the print date for the check -- it expressly states "VOID after $FutureDate". That way, if the check is lost and I have to re-issue the check, the six month stop payment order on the original check will last beyond the expiration date of that check. If it is negotiated after the expiration date, it is a bank error and I'm going to get reimbursed. But, not all checks are written this way -- if there is no void date, either expressly stated or stated as "90 days from the date of this check" or something like that, there is no way to know for certain that the check won't be negotiated even years in the future.
Well that's easy enough. Just enable library sharing. If you don't have macs, and if iTunes for windows doesn't already do the trick (I don't know the answer to this), look at netatalk on linux: http://www.macosxhints.com/article.php?story=20070424081346722
Are you really saying that spending 100k to earn 10k is smart and Apple is stupid for not jumping at the chance?
You never learned to play properly. First, it is about business, i.e., anything you can cheat without getting caught is legal. I must say, the sweetest $6 to be made in the game is when a person lands on a property he/she already owns, and I convince them to pay __me__ the rental value. That is pure joy but very hard. First, you have to be dead serious and matter-of-fact when asking for the money, and secondly, you have to hold your laughter till the game ends when the owner of the property pays rent. Part two is actually the more difficult part. To be really successful, you must not even reveal your dastardly deed at all because then that person is forever on guard against your tactics. That is the hardest part of all.
... er, boring as goodness. Sin is way fun.
So you see, Monopoly game play can be quite nuanced. Unless you play a digital version and are forced to play fair. Then it is boring as sin
I don't think it is just marketing. My wife has an iPhone and the hardware feels nice, the UI is dead easy to figure out, and there are a lot of apps out there. For example, for $7 I bought her a nautical charting application that works with GPS features of the phone. Set some waypoints and now we can go straight to crab traps without hunting around at all.
Fooling around with the myphone or whatever Tmobile is calling the 2nd gen phone didn't result in any nautical charting software in the marketplace. The myphone (or whatever it is called) felt pretty good physically, but not quite as nice as an iphone, though its dimensions were better -- I still think the iPhone seems kind of wide.
If it wasn't for AT&T, I'd probably get one myself, and not because of marketing (I don't see TV anyway), but because the hardware is very nice and the app store has enough breadth that even niches are filled with quality apps.
With respect to security questions, I'm more concerned about companies gathering needlessly private info about me. So I make up answers and record those along with my username and password in my encrypted password list.
While you can buy a replica at Big5, Kirkland is in Western Washington where any random person you meet is more likely to live a vegan lifestyle than own a firearm. In Eastern Washington, the guy with the replica would have been swarmed with requests for information regarding caliber, accuracy, and where to get one.
s/backups/updates/
s/your/you\'re/
Congrats if it gives you enough extra time to do an update, though yeah, it should have been done immediately. Of course, immediate backups don't always happen even if you are conscientious, e.g. you're on vacation, a worm comes out, a quick fix comes out, but your laying in the sand in some wifi-less slashdot-less world.
I don't know, 102+170 is easier and faster for me personally. Of course, I have always suffered some kind of mental slow down whenever I add 7 and 6, 7 and 5, or 8 and 5, so your example has a built in stumbling block for me. I don't know what it is about these number pairs, but my entire life I've been compelled to stop to double check my results.
I've never been a math whiz, but aren't you impliedly multiplying by ten here? You indicate 1 decimal place plus one decimal place = two, but what you are doing is multiplying 1.5*10 initially, adding it together 8 times, then dividing by 100 at the end. This doesn't look like pure addition to me.
Office suites. You can get perfectly functional word processors/spreadsheets free (open office, abiword, and probably dozens of others I'm not aware of) or for money (MS Word, and probably dozens of others I'm not aware of). Without local competition, how long do you think remote options will remain free?
There are lots of ways to spend money, and lots of ways to point out that certain ways to spend money are not cost effective. I didn't read anywhere in TFA however, where it was suggested that the government provide cloud service free to everyone. I don't know what made you make that leap, but it wasn't anything related to the article's content.
What was pointed out was that it makes sense in certain situations, usually highly intense processing, storage, or bandwidth related circumstances and the occasional time when people might want to collaborate on a document (I would note however that for most people, emailing the document back and forth is perfectly adequate). For most people, it makes more sense to buy a cheap computer because first and foremost, it is cheaper in the long run, faster, more private, and not subject to connectivity issues.
I recently test drove a Buell Ulysses thinking it might make a sweet bike for touring a mix of smooth and rough roads (Buells use HD engines but don't conform to the cruiser styling of Harleys). The suspension was great -- but it felt like I was riding a jackhammer. I left the dealer quite disappointed. It might ride the roads nicely, but I'd be numb after 30 minutes.
300 year supply of on-shore oil in the lower 48? If you mean a 300 year inadequate supply, I'll grant you that. If you mean 300 years at our current and future consumption levels, for that, I want a citation. And don't say Bakken because that isn't the panacea you think it is -- it is hard to get, uses a lot of energy to get, the wells are slow producers, and they go into decline very fast. Bakken has been known for 60 years -- it hasn't been developed because it oil prices haven't been high enough -- in other words, if you think it will provide cheap oil, think again. It will provide expensive oil at volumes too low to supply the US for 300 years.
We may be making debt payments, but is that "interest+principal" or is it "pay the minimum amount of interest here and open another line of credit there"?
I think we all know the answer to that. Besides, it isn't much reason for praise if an entity pays off 10% of their debt and then takes out debt valuing twice what they paid off. In the same vein, I have no sympathy for SS recipients who think they deserve the money because they paid into the system -- they also spent every nickel of surplus on other government programs at the same time. It's like saying "I save 10% of my income per month", and then withdrawing the money from savings every month to spend on booze and prostitutes.
"We", meaning the US no matter how you define it (Government, people, or business) is not going to produce 1m jobs because nobody has any incentive to do that. It is easier to export the jobs and lend money to Americans. It is easier for government to just raise taxes or print/borrow money for its pet projects. As for people, it is much more difficult to convince joe six pack that some egghead schmuck should get $150k per year and "not do shit" -- seriously, JSP can plumb a house in a day for 1/1000 of that amount so he's thinking the smart guy is pretty dumb if he can't make anything in 10 years ... not a good way to think about science, but that is how large swaths of the population think.
... or both (China perhaps) ... is destined to become the most powerful economy and ultimately, the most powerful.
The whole point of the article was that no group has the incentives necessary to make what needs to happen, happen. Relying on the free market is simply going to mean that some other player with either low wages or a willingness to fund research