It's also worth mentioning that Intel's and AMD's sales are reported to have gone up significantly in volume this quarter, and Apple's profits (though not volume) have increased. Those are all hardware companies, and I'm no economist, and even their predictions are wrong as often as not, but I don't consider the possibility unlikely.
I can't even remember my first computer... I've been using them since I was born. It was some kind of IBM, I think, but that could just as easily be completely wrong. This year I'll graduate with a degree in computer science.
More I remember playing SimCity 2000, King's Quest V and VI on my first "multimedia" system, though I could just as easily be wrong there. Those might have been two different systems.
This might make an interesting "Ask Slashdot" article. It's not advice, but it's part of the site culture.
I realize in the overall topic, this is off-topic, but I'm a CS Senior, which would make me a newcomer. Would you recommend any resources for writing usable code, or is it something that you have to learn from experience?
Not really. A network externality is where there's an advantage caused by a larger quantity of people using a particular service. For instance, if someone buys a bag of flour, that doesn't benefit me in any way. If there's only one flour-maker in town, that's not a net benefit.
With some things, types of communication especially, a new user benefits the current users. In the case of communications (telephones, chat networks, et cetera), another member benefits the current members, since that's another person to talk with. Slashdot, though not a monopoly, gains benefit from network externalities. How boring would this site be if there were no comments?
Frequently, bills are introduced to Congress to test the waters, or distract attention from bills that are likely to passed to more outrageous bills, that will not be passed. While there is an outcry over the decoy bill, the actual bill, while not as bad, is still preposterous, is slid in quietly; on its own or as a rider. (Of course, in some instances the decoy bill actually does get passed, which is what appears to have happened with the PATRIOT Act; in part due to the name).
Quite frankly, I think this is a decoy bill. Where's the real one?
You're making the big assumption that ALL people who use P2P actually care about this law, realize it's going to happen, and for that matter, have the ability to vote for/against these people.
Even if they do care, if this bill passes, they'll be felons; and as felons, lose the legal right to vote.
I know that this is stretching their intent, but this law is horribly written and seems to lack a fundamental understanding of how the Internet works.
As far as I can tell, politicians have no idea how computers work to any degree. Likely they also have no idea how factories work, how cars work, or how restaurants work; at the same level. It's just "how the Internet/a computer works" that Slashdot readers notice, since that's what they're most familiar with.
(Being that Australia was originally a British penal colony, and the extimated population of Australia is 19,896,826; according to this article there are 57 million US P2P users, by this article, so maybe the coast part of Australia isn't large enough, anyway.)
57 million. Unbelievable. That's just a little short of half the people who voted last Presidential election.
I checked the site, and I couldn't find any mention of handwriting recognition. Does anyone have any idea what the quality of the Lycoris' (or another Linux distro for tablet PCs) handwriting recognition quality is?
Also, where could I buy this, and what would it cost?
IANAL, but don't trademarks have to be defended on a regular basis in order to win in court? Since they haven't been defending their trademark for quite some time, what's the likelihood of them winning any cases?
You've hinted at something I wanted to mention, so I'll reply to your post. This is primarily opinion, but I'm reasonably confident that fact would back it up if I bothered to do any research.
For a long time (at least back to 1901, if not much farther), the main export of the US hasn't been cars, refrigerators, microwaves, drugs, televisions, computers, weapons or indeed anything physical. The primary export has been new creations that no one has ever done before. The product that the US will primarily develop and produce after the next ten years but before the next twenty doesn't exist yet. No one knows what it is, and if they did, they'd have started the patent process.
Isn't a new business process its own reward? You're only going to use it if that makes you more money than it does before. The first one to use it will be the only one to be able to use it for a period of time, not because of a government-sanctioned monopoly, but because it takes time to add a new procedure. In the meantime, your new, better process (because why would you use a worse process?) is increasing your profitability.
This does not apply to traditional patents, where a new type of object is created. In this case, building it costs money, rather than saving it, so without that monopoly you're likely to make less money (possibly for a net negative profit) when someone else copies it; assuming that you're selling the object and not using it in your brand new business process.
The entire userbase of Slashdot (including me) said that there was no legally guaranteed "right to profit" and that if they couldn't make it in the "New Economy", they should get a different business model.
They could have an even larger problem on their hands, if that business model is patented.
As a knee-jerk reaction, I'd have to go with eliminating taxes for those under the voting age, since the vast majority make such a negligible amount to begin with. This may, however, open up another method of money laundering.
Slashdot Mirror
not been drunk/stoned at the time
It's my understanding that if you're either of those two things, you can't enter into a legally binding contract.
It's also worth mentioning that Intel's and AMD's sales are reported to have gone up significantly in volume this quarter, and Apple's profits (though not volume) have increased. Those are all hardware companies, and I'm no economist, and even their predictions are wrong as often as not, but I don't consider the possibility unlikely.
I can't even remember my first computer... I've been using them since I was born. It was some kind of IBM, I think, but that could just as easily be completely wrong. This year I'll graduate with a degree in computer science.
More I remember playing SimCity 2000, King's Quest V and VI on my first "multimedia" system, though I could just as easily be wrong there. Those might have been two different systems.
This might make an interesting "Ask Slashdot" article. It's not advice, but it's part of the site culture.
And that would be why MS is so big.
I think it's more the other way around. Microsoft can give round-the-world 8-hour shifts because they're enormous.
Microsoft may make lousy software, but they know how to make a profit.
That 24/7 thing is actually very, very, very innovative.
It's also something I remember someone mentioning Microsoft doing a number of years ago.
Wouldn't it make more sense to call those kilobucks?
Are you not telling us not to use negatives when it's not possible?
I realize in the overall topic, this is off-topic, but I'm a CS Senior, which would make me a newcomer. Would you recommend any resources for writing usable code, or is it something that you have to learn from experience?
Not really. A network externality is where there's an advantage caused by a larger quantity of people using a particular service. For instance, if someone buys a bag of flour, that doesn't benefit me in any way. If there's only one flour-maker in town, that's not a net benefit.
With some things, types of communication especially, a new user benefits the current users. In the case of communications (telephones, chat networks, et cetera), another member benefits the current members, since that's another person to talk with. Slashdot, though not a monopoly, gains benefit from network externalities. How boring would this site be if there were no comments?
RIAA makes available a list of their members.
Frequently, bills are introduced to Congress to test the waters, or distract attention from bills that are likely to passed to more outrageous bills, that will not be passed. While there is an outcry over the decoy bill, the actual bill, while not as bad, is still preposterous, is slid in quietly; on its own or as a rider. (Of course, in some instances the decoy bill actually does get passed, which is what appears to have happened with the PATRIOT Act; in part due to the name).
Quite frankly, I think this is a decoy bill. Where's the real one?
You're making the big assumption that ALL people who use P2P actually care about this law, realize it's going to happen, and for that matter, have the ability to vote for/against these people.
Even if they do care, if this bill passes, they'll be felons; and as felons, lose the legal right to vote.
I know that this is stretching their intent, but this law is horribly written and seems to lack a fundamental understanding of how the Internet works.
As far as I can tell, politicians have no idea how computers work to any degree. Likely they also have no idea how factories work, how cars work, or how restaurants work; at the same level. It's just "how the Internet/a computer works" that Slashdot readers notice, since that's what they're most familiar with.
Australia?
(Being that Australia was originally a British penal colony, and the extimated population of Australia is 19,896,826; according to this article there are 57 million US P2P users, by this article, so maybe the coast part of Australia isn't large enough, anyway.)
57 million. Unbelievable. That's just a little short of half the people who voted last Presidential election.
Okay, I went off on a bit of a tangent there.
And I bet you don't see a penny of the profits.
I checked the site, and I couldn't find any mention of handwriting recognition. Does anyone have any idea what the quality of the Lycoris' (or another Linux distro for tablet PCs) handwriting recognition quality is?
Also, where could I buy this, and what would it cost?
Remember nobody MAKES you pay bills.
You know I never really liked paying bills, I don't think I'm going to do that any more.
Or even better, a strategy guide.
My guess is they'll use a similar system to the FAFSA web site, which I haven't had any problems using from in Linux (using Mozilla).
IANAL, but don't trademarks have to be defended on a regular basis in order to win in court? Since they haven't been defending their trademark for quite some time, what's the likelihood of them winning any cases?
You've hinted at something I wanted to mention, so I'll reply to your post. This is primarily opinion, but I'm reasonably confident that fact would back it up if I bothered to do any research.
For a long time (at least back to 1901, if not much farther), the main export of the US hasn't been cars, refrigerators, microwaves, drugs, televisions, computers, weapons or indeed anything physical. The primary export has been new creations that no one has ever done before. The product that the US will primarily develop and produce after the next ten years but before the next twenty doesn't exist yet. No one knows what it is, and if they did, they'd have started the patent process.
In order to avoid patent infringement, just avoid programming ethics into your AI.
Isn't a new business process its own reward? You're only going to use it if that makes you more money than it does before. The first one to use it will be the only one to be able to use it for a period of time, not because of a government-sanctioned monopoly, but because it takes time to add a new procedure. In the meantime, your new, better process (because why would you use a worse process?) is increasing your profitability.
This does not apply to traditional patents, where a new type of object is created. In this case, building it costs money, rather than saving it, so without that monopoly you're likely to make less money (possibly for a net negative profit) when someone else copies it; assuming that you're selling the object and not using it in your brand new business process.
The entire userbase of Slashdot (including me) said that there was no legally guaranteed "right to profit" and that if they couldn't make it in the "New Economy", they should get a different business model.
They could have an even larger problem on their hands, if that business model is patented.
As a knee-jerk reaction, I'd have to go with eliminating taxes for those under the voting age, since the vast majority make such a negligible amount to begin with. This may, however, open up another method of money laundering.