You're both right, depending on the viewpoint. 54% is close to correct for what is considered the discretionary budget, which doesn't include many big blocks on the graphic you've shared that fade out if you click the "Hide Mandatory Spending" button.
If economics is about how people act and react to each other and their needs and wants in an environment of scarcity, you might as well want freedom from death. In fact, if guys like Kurzweil and de Grey are on to something, you have a better shot at the latter than the former.
What's wrong with Angry Birds? I run that all the time on my Droid running CyanogenMod-6.1.2 when I have a few minutes to kill and don't feel like reading, thankyouverymuch. Rooting your phone and mindless entertainment are not orthogonal activities, after all.
Actually, you can't discount a backlash if you snapped right back up to a 90% tax bracket. It didn't drop from 91% to 35% overnight, and it shouldn't go from 35 to 91 overnight either.
Also, you're wrong about it being 91 in 1980. The top bracket dropped in 1964 from 91 to 77 in 1964 and has never returned to that level since. Source: The IRS itself.
Precisely. I've always spent more time learning the business of who I'm working for than the tech, anyway. Even in my 40s, I can go from a standstill to reasonably productive (though maybe not the most efficient way) with a new tech in a week or two at most. Learning the reasons and whys and hows of the problems we're solving always took more time than the technology part ever did.
First of all, it was a joke. Lighten up a little. Second: Yes, today it's fantasy. 5 years from now? Maybe not. But as you said, under 50k. The base price of the model S (which won't start shipping until 2012) is still above your own price line by a few thousand.
While by no means an expert, yes, I do know a thing or two about electric power systems, and no I'm not in the habit of looking at websites for cars in general, and certainly not ones that make vehicles I can't afford. The half-assed solution that cost me 30k 6 months ago is worth more than the whole-assed solution years down the road that will cost me double that.
I want a spaceship that runs on my kitchen garbage that can fly to Mars in 3 hours. I want it to cost 500 bucks and generate gold and platinum as waste products.
I figured if we're going to fantasize, I might as well go for broke.
You *do* realize that there is more than one person posting on Slashdot, right? And just because a lot of people are anti-copyright doesn't mean they all are, right?
I'm an inveterate landlubber, who works in satellite remote sensing, has a deep understanding of GPS, computerized cartography, and I *adore* sextants, barometers, and compasses.
Understanding those tools make it easier to have a deeper understanding of modern navigation tools. GP clearly falls in the latter half of the two kinds of fools: "This is old and therefore good", "This is new and therefore better."
There are sometimes local co-ops and exchanges that still do this. We have at least a couple in the greater Phoenix area at which I have been known to buy some used PC games. They buy them and give you cash or trade credit.
It seems all the nationwide and big regional video game stores are out of the secondhand PC game business, though. Perhaps because they're all also into new game sales and got pressure from the publishers to stop? I don't know.
That requires careful calibration with the cost of cleaning/repairing/replacing the underlying floor when smeared with butter. Unfortunately, the cost of this floor cost calibration itself affects the floor cost making it impractical for levitation given the current state of the art.
Solutions for buttered bread/floor cost anti-gravitation field theories remain an open avenue for research.
I really don't think that multi-touch as a software interface is terribly innovative. I've thought about interfaces like that for the last decade and even sketched one out. My problem is I'm not much of a hardware guy and couldn't think up an appropriate hardware interface for it. That strikes me as a much harder problem and therefore more likely patentable, but I'm not an EE and not really qualified to judge. Anything much beyond basic TTL circuits is magic to me.:-)
Fundamentally, we're just talking about two real-time coordinates and determining a zoom level and maybe rotation based on that. That's just some basic algebra that I should be able to walk a bright 14-year-old through. My idea was a computer interface for an RTS game and not a phone, but I'm not a fan of J. Random Idea + "on a phone" = Shiny New Patent. It's clever, but if it's patentable, and such a patent can be successfully defended, then the patent system is broken, IMO.
My problem is with omnipresent DRM. I play Sins of a Solar Empire, and that's RTS DRM done right. I can't get updates without using Impulse (their decent-but-not-as-good-as-Steam app), but other than that, it doesn't phone home for single-player, or LAN play (which it has).
I praised Blizzard's new battle.net. It was very Steam-like to me (also DRM done right, IMO). LAN play may not be important to you. That's fine. But it's critical to me. You care more about the story. Great! Glad you like it. To me, it's a good, but by no means great, space opera*. For 50 bucks, I can likely buy 6 books that have a story I would prefer more.
I'm not a zealot about any of this, but I do want what I want, and you're right, I don't know what form it will actually take. But, I have to take a wait-and-see attitude to it before I commit my money (and three Starcraft fans in the house means $150 for me, not just $50, so the risks are higher, please keep in mind) to it. If there were not this question, it would've been pre-ordered already if anyone reputable is taking pre-orders. As it stands, I have to wait until I hear back from others who are willing to take the risk before I can take the plunge. And that, more than anything, really irks me, because I do want to play it, and I want to be excited, but I want to play it my way. I don't think that's asking too much. I'm not in "outrage" mode. I'm more into "cynical skeptic" mode. I don't get outraged much anymore.
As to karma, I honestly do not give a good golly damn about it. And spun libertarian? He's about as anti-libertarian as they come.;-)
Reality has nothing whatsoever to do with it. I know that Blizzard doesn't give a damn if me and a few "old people complaining" don't buy their product because they've got millions of young people out there conveniently pre-programmed to shell out their money for whatever they care to spew out, whether it tastes like ambrosia or crap.
I still play Starcraft in LAN mode 3 to 4 times a week with my wife and/or son. If SC2 just authorizes to battle.net then falls back to LAN play, I'm fine with that. If SC2 makes me route packets for the game to San Jose or Los Angeles or wherever to play with someone whose computer is 30 centimeters from mine, it's a non-starter. The internet is still not as reliable as my home LAN (100% uptime!)
I'm not trying to punish Blizzard by not buying it. But I don't spend money on things I don't want or need, and RTS games that don't allow me to play games with the people I love without having their server in the sky's approval is among them. And no, we don't pirate games. In fact I probably own twice as many SC licenses as I actually need for the number of full copies that run here.
Slashdot Mirror
Holy stuff, you have a very low /. ID number!
Does he? I hadn't noticed. ;-)
You're both right, depending on the viewpoint. 54% is close to correct for what is considered the discretionary budget, which doesn't include many big blocks on the graphic you've shared that fade out if you click the "Hide Mandatory Spending" button.
If economics is about how people act and react to each other and their needs and wants in an environment of scarcity, you might as well want freedom from death. In fact, if guys like Kurzweil and de Grey are on to something, you have a better shot at the latter than the former.
Hey, I have an ape brain, thankyouverymuch!
What's wrong with Angry Birds? I run that all the time on my Droid running CyanogenMod-6.1.2 when I have a few minutes to kill and don't feel like reading, thankyouverymuch. Rooting your phone and mindless entertainment are not orthogonal activities, after all.
If you scored that high and then dropped out to pursue a different career, it seems that New London's reasoning has at least some merit.
Actually, you can't discount a backlash if you snapped right back up to a 90% tax bracket. It didn't drop from 91% to 35% overnight, and it shouldn't go from 35 to 91 overnight either.
Also, you're wrong about it being 91 in 1980. The top bracket dropped in 1964 from 91 to 77 in 1964 and has never returned to that level since. Source: The IRS itself.
"Nobody ever went broke underestimating the intelligence of the American public." - H.L Mencken
Precisely. I've always spent more time learning the business of who I'm working for than the tech, anyway. Even in my 40s, I can go from a standstill to reasonably productive (though maybe not the most efficient way) with a new tech in a week or two at most. Learning the reasons and whys and hows of the problems we're solving always took more time than the technology part ever did.
You forgot the blackjack. Eh, that's okay. ;-)
First of all, it was a joke. Lighten up a little. Second: Yes, today it's fantasy. 5 years from now? Maybe not. But as you said, under 50k. The base price of the model S (which won't start shipping until 2012) is still above your own price line by a few thousand.
While by no means an expert, yes, I do know a thing or two about electric power systems, and no I'm not in the habit of looking at websites for cars in general, and certainly not ones that make vehicles I can't afford. The half-assed solution that cost me 30k 6 months ago is worth more than the whole-assed solution years down the road that will cost me double that.
I want a spaceship that runs on my kitchen garbage that can fly to Mars in 3 hours. I want it to cost 500 bucks and generate gold and platinum as waste products.
I figured if we're going to fantasize, I might as well go for broke.
But if a WHOIS lookup on a new customer's domain isn't in your SOP from the get-go, you're strictly amateur hour.
You *do* realize that there is more than one person posting on Slashdot, right? And just because a lot of people are anti-copyright doesn't mean they all are, right?
But...but...it's INTERDISCIPLINARY!
(Caps filter bait) And maybe, Slashdot, I *want* to yell?
I'm an inveterate landlubber, who works in satellite remote sensing, has a deep understanding of GPS, computerized cartography, and I *adore* sextants, barometers, and compasses.
Understanding those tools make it easier to have a deeper understanding of modern navigation tools. GP clearly falls in the latter half of the two kinds of fools: "This is old and therefore good", "This is new and therefore better."
There are sometimes local co-ops and exchanges that still do this. We have at least a couple in the greater Phoenix area at which I have been known to buy some used PC games. They buy them and give you cash or trade credit.
It seems all the nationwide and big regional video game stores are out of the secondhand PC game business, though. Perhaps because they're all also into new game sales and got pressure from the publishers to stop? I don't know.
That requires careful calibration with the cost of cleaning/repairing/replacing the underlying floor when smeared with butter. Unfortunately, the cost of this floor cost calibration itself affects the floor cost making it impractical for levitation given the current state of the art.
Solutions for buttered bread/floor cost anti-gravitation field theories remain an open avenue for research.
68k is alive and well in the embedded market with ColdFire and DragonBall processors.
I really don't think that multi-touch as a software interface is terribly innovative. I've thought about interfaces like that for the last decade and even sketched one out. My problem is I'm not much of a hardware guy and couldn't think up an appropriate hardware interface for it. That strikes me as a much harder problem and therefore more likely patentable, but I'm not an EE and not really qualified to judge. Anything much beyond basic TTL circuits is magic to me. :-)
Fundamentally, we're just talking about two real-time coordinates and determining a zoom level and maybe rotation based on that. That's just some basic algebra that I should be able to walk a bright 14-year-old through. My idea was a computer interface for an RTS game and not a phone, but I'm not a fan of J. Random Idea + "on a phone" = Shiny New Patent. It's clever, but if it's patentable, and such a patent can be successfully defended, then the patent system is broken, IMO.
Replying to my self like an idiot, but I forgot my footnote:
*- This may be perceived as I have something against space opera. If you saw my bookshelves you'd know that's pretty far from the truth. :-)
My problem is with omnipresent DRM. I play Sins of a Solar Empire, and that's RTS DRM done right. I can't get updates without using Impulse (their decent-but-not-as-good-as-Steam app), but other than that, it doesn't phone home for single-player, or LAN play (which it has).
I praised Blizzard's new battle.net. It was very Steam-like to me (also DRM done right, IMO). LAN play may not be important to you. That's fine. But it's critical to me. You care more about the story. Great! Glad you like it. To me, it's a good, but by no means great, space opera*. For 50 bucks, I can likely buy 6 books that have a story I would prefer more.
I'm not a zealot about any of this, but I do want what I want, and you're right, I don't know what form it will actually take. But, I have to take a wait-and-see attitude to it before I commit my money (and three Starcraft fans in the house means $150 for me, not just $50, so the risks are higher, please keep in mind) to it. If there were not this question, it would've been pre-ordered already if anyone reputable is taking pre-orders. As it stands, I have to wait until I hear back from others who are willing to take the risk before I can take the plunge. And that, more than anything, really irks me, because I do want to play it, and I want to be excited, but I want to play it my way. I don't think that's asking too much. I'm not in "outrage" mode. I'm more into "cynical skeptic" mode. I don't get outraged much anymore.
As to karma, I honestly do not give a good golly damn about it. And spun libertarian? He's about as anti-libertarian as they come. ;-)
Reality has nothing whatsoever to do with it. I know that Blizzard doesn't give a damn if me and a few "old people complaining" don't buy their product because they've got millions of young people out there conveniently pre-programmed to shell out their money for whatever they care to spew out, whether it tastes like ambrosia or crap.
I still play Starcraft in LAN mode 3 to 4 times a week with my wife and/or son. If SC2 just authorizes to battle.net then falls back to LAN play, I'm fine with that. If SC2 makes me route packets for the game to San Jose or Los Angeles or wherever to play with someone whose computer is 30 centimeters from mine, it's a non-starter. The internet is still not as reliable as my home LAN (100% uptime!)
I'm not trying to punish Blizzard by not buying it. But I don't spend money on things I don't want or need, and RTS games that don't allow me to play games with the people I love without having their server in the sky's approval is among them. And no, we don't pirate games. In fact I probably own twice as many SC licenses as I actually need for the number of full copies that run here.
Ha ha, you dumb bastard. It's not a schooner, it's a SAILBOAT.
If you're not technically sophisticated enough to find and/or set up a proxy in the US to use, Slashdot is possibly not the right web site for you.