Actually something like this was tried (more or less) on the 91 freeway, east of Los Angeles. If I remember correctly, the government build 2 extra lanes on the road to help reduce the massive amount of traffic on this road. The deal was that a private for-profit company ran the road and I assume was responsible for maintaining it. After a certain number of years, the road would go back into public ownership.
The interesting thing about this road was that the toll varied depending on how much traffic was on the free lanes. Late at night, it might only cost like $0.25, but during peak hours the price would go up into the several dollar range.
Yes, actually there is a law (at least in the US) concerning this. Basically, radio stations can only take pay for play when they disclose that they are in fact being paid. They also have to say who's paying them. If I remember correctly, in the early days of radio a big scandal errupted when the public found out that payola was going on. Politicians passed disclosure laws as a result.
The first problem is that this A LOT to police. To start with there are LOTS of people involved in P2P. Next, the FBI would need to determine to reasonable extent that the material is infringing. While a lot of things on Kazaa are illegal, not everything is.
As far as I know, the FBI already investigates software piracy claims (at least in the sense of people making illegal copies available). However, they obviously have not completely stopped that (far from it really). They didn't even have a handle on it before the big P2P apps came along. Sure, it was probably never so easy as typing in "free microsoft windows" in a web search engine, but you could always find things if you knew where to look (IRC comes to mind in the days before more automated P2P). I'm skeptical that P2P enforcement would be any different. If anything, it would be harder to deal with, because of the distributed nature of lots of networks. This isn't just a matter of shutting down a warez FTP site.
Also important is that the FBI's enforcement capabilities end at US borders. Of course other governments could follow the US example and take similar steps with their law enforcement agencies. However, I just don't see countries like China or Russia really cracking down on P2P users, judging from their responses to software copyright infringement.
Maybe at first, a lot of people would get scared enough, stop using P2P, and things would go more underground. However, the available content would not drop off as dramatically, because there would still be lots of overseas nodes to draw files from.
Re:Do younger minds absorb quicker?
on
Ageism in IT?
·
· Score: 1
You might be suprised how much of a difference dying your hair can make. When I was in high school, I had this speech coach who was probably in her late 40s at the time. Apparently, she had had white hair her entire life; that was just her natural hair color. She claimed she could get the senior discount at the movies when she was in her 20s.
Well, one day in her 40s, she just decided to dye her hair brown. She was shocked that people started treating her completely differently afterwards. Her business improved, she made new friends and just in general started to have a much more enjoyable life.
Point naturally being that I doubt US will watch happily as european companies get an advantage. US is not taxing stuff sold EU->US are they?
Either US will start whining (backed with rather impressive trade war tools), or US will respond with similar system for sales from EU to US customers.
Well at least right now you don't pay any salex taxes on imports into the US. However, this is actually more complicated than it seems. First of all, there is no national sales tax or VAT or anything like it. The only things you pay to the federal government are duties to customs (which sometimes are not applied, it's hit and miss). Now, almost all states do have a sales tax, and from what I gather, most require their residents to pay the tax on items brought into the state from elsewhere. The issue here is that there is no state-level customs (states are actually prohibited from doing this by the federal constitution), so there's no easy way to determine if something has been brought over the state line. Technically though, you're supposed to report any thing you bought out of state and brought back to the government and pay the tax.
I really wonder about what these US companies (large and small) do after collecting the VAT? I guess they have to go through the hassle of making an international wire transfer probably every month (which is not reasonable priced in the US, unlike basically all EU countries), along with filling out a good deal of paperwork. It's not just simply adding 15-25% to a bill.
Speaking as an American residing in Germany (and no I'm not in the military with access to a tax-free PX), it seems like it would make a lot more sense for EU states to just enforce the current VAT laws more strictly: ie, collect VAT on all incoming packages. I'm sure this is a pain, but it costs money to collect taxes, regardless of which side of the Atlantic it's done on.
I thought similar things applied with business-business transactions, and there is a mechanism to claim back the VAT paid, even for foreign (EU) paid VAT.
My impression on how the VAT works is that only the value added at each level is taxed. For example, company X manufactures a widget at a cost of 30 euro (including the costs for materials and their VAT tax). They then sell the widget to company Y for 40 euro. They pay the full VAT on 40 euro, but they get back the VAT they paid on the 30 it cost to build the goods. Then company Y sells to an end consumer for 60 euro. Once again the consumer will pay the VAT on 60 euro, but company Y will get back the VAT it paid on the widget in the first place.
Hmmmm... Now I'm curious. What do these kids who don't know cursive do for a signature? Do they just print? Or maybe it's just a indiscernable scribble like most people's...
For me, it was the total opposite: I HAD to write in cursive from whenever I learned it (2nd grade?) until probably 7th grade or so. I hated it too, because I was never able to write the letters in the perfect "correct" way. I don't exactly remember what my grades in elementary school were, but for some reason I think I always got poor ones in "Handwriting".
The stressing of form over function really bothered me then and still bothers me now. The point of writing is to efficiently produce text for others to read. If typing, printing, or even something like cursive can achieve that purpose, then that's all that matters. The fact of the matter is that people are no longer *choosing* cursive because of some reason. Maybe it's too hard to do for little or no pay off. I don't really know, but I suspect somehow that it just no longer is the best option for fulfilling some purpose.
Personally, I don't get what these people are so upset about. Trying to read cursive handwriting is really difficult for most people, unless you're dealing with one of those people who actually writes perfectly (and was certainly getting O+'s in their handwriting in school).
I was watching some TV program a couple of years ago on how people scam Vegas casinos. Part of the program talked about what measures (technological and otherwise) the casinos take to combat the fraud. This business with the "machines playing themselves" I think is that the machines are constantly updating their random state.
For example, the simplest way of designing a computer-based slot machine would be to calculate the random values on each play. The problem with this approach is that random numbers generated algorithmically are not really random. Supposedly, if you knew enough about the machine's design and a certain number of the last outcomes, you could determine sequence of psuedo-random numbers being generated and therefore the sequence of future results. What really happens is that the machines are constantly "playing", that is generating these pseudo-random numbers. This means that knowing past results is not really so useful for predicting future results.
All in all it was an interesting program. Apparently the biggest fraud of all time involves sticking some stick with a light up the are above the pay out tray. Slots use optical methods of counting coins being payed. If you stick the light up there then it thinks the last coin it tried to dispense somehow did not come. So, it just keeps paying out until it runs out of coins.
As far as I remember, it's generally accepted that the Saxons (from what is now northern Germany) invaded what is now England around the mid 5th century AD. At that point, the same Germanic language was being spoken certainly in those two places, as those two groups of people were really the same group. Eventually, the Celtic speaking natives of adopted the Germanic tongue. Then there was that whole Norman invasion thing in 1066. To cap things off, during the Enlightenment English and German took different approaches to adding new words to their languages, with English borrowing Latin words more verbatim, while Germans translated the individual parts of the words into German parts and then reassembled them. It's amazing what 1550 years filled with invasions and cross-cultural influence can do.
Even today, someone speaking a Hamburg dialect will not really be able to understand someone speaking a Munich dialect. Even people who speak the leveled standardized German well won't necessarily understand those dialects either.
I am not sure why we americans use our silly middle-endian format. Seems to me little-to-big or big-to-little (like the Japanese with 2003-10-24) makes more sense than middle-little-big.
I think this is because we say things like,
June 7, 2003 -> 6-7-2003
I know other English speaking countries don't necessarily do it the same way, but I think it's probably because of adherence to the other more widespread standards.
I know in German, you say,
7. Juni 2003 -> 7-6-2003
So DMY makes perfect sense to German speakers. MDY seems really bizarre.
I have no fears for my freedom since, as a UK citizen, I can rest safely knowing that my government is not competent enough to implement any kind of Big Brother system.
I dunno. I think the incompetence actually scares me just as much. It's like that movie Brazil. The government's inability to run a perfect system, results in mistakes that harm innocent people. If the people running the system were perfectly competent, the system would function nearly perfectly (at least as designed), and you'd have nothing to worry about. Similarly, the less perfect the system is (which can be a result of poor design or incompetent administration), the more mistakes will be made, and the more innocent people will be harmed.
Enough people have to write to their current congressmen/senators that if they do not support a particular proposel or question a certain law, they (the people) will vote for the competitor.
... who by the way is also taking money from the same corporations and thus supporting the same laws. Nothing is going to change until campaign finance laws change.
Another interesting aspect is that far more people in eastern Europe have received formal education in technical fields than in places like Vietnam or probably even India. At the same time a lot of these skilled people are making very low wages. My impression is that this is most true in Russia. In parts of Romania (and more rural parts of Russia too) things can actually get quite primitive by western European and north American standards. We're talking about things like outhouses, no electricity, and people living off quite a lot off of the food they're growing/raising on their property.
I have to wonder if American IT companies are even concerned with the quality of their technical support anymore?
I thought it was interesting how the article addressed this issue. There was some comment about how a lot of what the tech support does is just look things up online for people who can't find it themselves. These types of jobs require decent English skills and the ability to be polite and patient to often frustrated or angry customers. It's not usually the type of position which requires advanced knowledge of the products being supported. All the information is usually already there in a computer (or in days past a large book) sitting in front of them. They are in essence trained in how to deal with customers and how to find the answers from what resources they have available. I've had some pretty bad customer service experiences with North American employee, so I'm just skeptical how much more of a problem it is for somebody from India or Romania or wherever to be doing it instead.
The specific RSA algorithm was released to the public, because the patent was about to expire. However, the code may still be using specific *copyrighted* code licensed by RSA. Still though, you're right--the code could just be replaced by something compatable with the GPL.
Countries like Germany, that didn't have the benefit of West Virginia coal, went nuclear a while ago (and haven't been Chernobyl-ing left and right as some anti-nuke FUD would tell us).
Germany is really not the poster child you're imagining in this respect. First of all, I'm currently living in the Saarland, one of Germany's historic coal and steel centers. France and Germany fought over it for years because of the economic importance of the coal. Conditions of the post WW2 re-integration of the region back into West Germany, allowed France access to coal mines here until the 80s even. Second of all, Germany has plans to shut down all of its nuclear plants within the next 20 years. See BBC article.
Perhaps you're thinking of France, which gets something like 80% of its power from nuclear sources and AFAIK has no intention of closing them down any time soon.
I have no idea if those numbers are accurate or not, but I think there's one important point missing from this whole LD50 study. These numbers are only for dying within 30 days. They say nothing about long term health effects. First, caffeine leaves your system after some finite relatively short time. Plutonium may very well end up trapped in your body since it's a heavy metal. Second, if you consume a non-lethal dose of caffeine each day for say a year, chances are you're risk of getting cancer in 10 years is probably not raised. I doubt the same is true of plutonium.
It really is amazing how many of the top-level terrorist leaders seem to be educated at Harvard, Yale, Oxford (okay, I admit, that's in England) or other Western schools of similar credentials.
Lots of people from affluent families around the world study in the US really, terrorist leaders or not. Plus, let's not forget where most Iraqi, Iranian, etc. weapons scientists studied... Hint: not in the middle east.
But at the same time, most of the suicide bombers are from financially-depressed areas and can't really think seriously about travelling out of their home country, much less going abroad for an education.
This is sorta questionable to some extent. Sure you're average poor 3rd world resident is not moving to the west to study, but a lot of people (of various economic backgrounds) still do. Remember, several of the 9/11 hijackers were in the US on student visas. I want to say several of them met, while studying at the Technical University of Harburg (non just a flight school) in Germany.
From talking to some Pakistani friends of mine, I gather that there are two extreme reactions that happen to people who study in the west. The more obvious (and idealistic one) is that they become really westernized and eventually lead a life in the west or with very close ties to the west (ie, working for a western company or something). However, the other one, is that by seeing all the debauchery and sin in the west, they tend to become more religious. Apparently, a lot of Pakistani's (and presumably anybody from any non-western place) who really are rather ambivalent about their religion, can become very devout towards it after being outside a place where it's all encompassing. To them, it only becomes clear how true the basic principles of their belief system are, after they've seen a society which doesn't follow those same values and rules. Of course, I think for most people, probably neither of the extreme reactions occur.
The real problem with Java as a first language is that there's really a lot of syntax to get in the way. Additionally, you have to know a reasonable amount (basic OOP, the String class, functions/methods) before you can really understand how even a simple program works. In contrast, ML or Scheme have very incremental learning curves being interpreted and having faily simple syntax (especially scheme).
"Am I missing something? The author mentioned function pointers, but sidestepped the fact that the standard library handles the function pointers for you and lets you use (fairly) clean syntax to express the idea of "high-order" functions. Anyone with C++ and lisp/scheme/ML experience want to elaborate?"
The term "high-order function" I think is probably referring to the property of a language, where functions are objects that are as easily passed around, created, used, etc. as any other type of data (say numbers or lists or strings). While you can essentially do things like map in C++ (even with function pointers), it's not as easy to do something like,
> (define (make-adder n)
(lambda (m) (+ m n))
> (map (make-adder 3) '(1 2 3)) (4 5 6)
at least not semantically in the same way or in so few lines. In langauges like scheme, lisp, and really even python, functions are really just another form of data that can be manipulated. Heck, in Python, functions (and methods) are even objects with their own methods.
Hearing "maths" drives me nuts actually. Mathematics is not a plural form! You wouldn't say mathematics *are* fun. You'd say mathematics *is* fun. Hence, math. QED.
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The interesting thing about this road was that the toll varied depending on how much traffic was on the free lanes. Late at night, it might only cost like $0.25, but during peak hours the price would go up into the several dollar range.
Yes, actually there is a law (at least in the US) concerning this. Basically, radio stations can only take pay for play when they disclose that they are in fact being paid. They also have to say who's paying them. If I remember correctly, in the early days of radio a big scandal errupted when the public found out that payola was going on. Politicians passed disclosure laws as a result.
As far as I know, the FBI already investigates software piracy claims (at least in the sense of people making illegal copies available). However, they obviously have not completely stopped that (far from it really). They didn't even have a handle on it before the big P2P apps came along. Sure, it was probably never so easy as typing in "free microsoft windows" in a web search engine, but you could always find things if you knew where to look (IRC comes to mind in the days before more automated P2P). I'm skeptical that P2P enforcement would be any different. If anything, it would be harder to deal with, because of the distributed nature of lots of networks. This isn't just a matter of shutting down a warez FTP site.
Also important is that the FBI's enforcement capabilities end at US borders. Of course other governments could follow the US example and take similar steps with their law enforcement agencies. However, I just don't see countries like China or Russia really cracking down on P2P users, judging from their responses to software copyright infringement.
Maybe at first, a lot of people would get scared enough, stop using P2P, and things would go more underground. However, the available content would not drop off as dramatically, because there would still be lots of overseas nodes to draw files from.
Well, one day in her 40s, she just decided to dye her hair brown. She was shocked that people started treating her completely differently afterwards. Her business improved, she made new friends and just in general started to have a much more enjoyable life.
Either US will start whining (backed with rather impressive trade war tools), or US will respond with similar system for sales from EU to US customers.
Well at least right now you don't pay any salex taxes on imports into the US. However, this is actually more complicated than it seems. First of all, there is no national sales tax or VAT or anything like it. The only things you pay to the federal government are duties to customs (which sometimes are not applied, it's hit and miss). Now, almost all states do have a sales tax, and from what I gather, most require their residents to pay the tax on items brought into the state from elsewhere. The issue here is that there is no state-level customs (states are actually prohibited from doing this by the federal constitution), so there's no easy way to determine if something has been brought over the state line. Technically though, you're supposed to report any thing you bought out of state and brought back to the government and pay the tax.
Speaking as an American residing in Germany (and no I'm not in the military with access to a tax-free PX), it seems like it would make a lot more sense for EU states to just enforce the current VAT laws more strictly: ie, collect VAT on all incoming packages. I'm sure this is a pain, but it costs money to collect taxes, regardless of which side of the Atlantic it's done on.
I thought similar things applied with business-business transactions, and there is a mechanism to claim back the VAT paid, even for foreign (EU) paid VAT.
My impression on how the VAT works is that only the value added at each level is taxed. For example, company X manufactures a widget at a cost of 30 euro (including the costs for materials and their VAT tax). They then sell the widget to company Y for 40 euro. They pay the full VAT on 40 euro, but they get back the VAT they paid on the 30 it cost to build the goods. Then company Y sells to an end consumer for 60 euro. Once again the consumer will pay the VAT on 60 euro, but company Y will get back the VAT it paid on the widget in the first place.
Hmmmm... Now I'm curious. What do these kids who don't know cursive do for a signature? Do they just print? Or maybe it's just a indiscernable scribble like most people's...
The stressing of form over function really bothered me then and still bothers me now. The point of writing is to efficiently produce text for others to read. If typing, printing, or even something like cursive can achieve that purpose, then that's all that matters. The fact of the matter is that people are no longer *choosing* cursive because of some reason. Maybe it's too hard to do for little or no pay off. I don't really know, but I suspect somehow that it just no longer is the best option for fulfilling some purpose.
Personally, I don't get what these people are so upset about. Trying to read cursive handwriting is really difficult for most people, unless you're dealing with one of those people who actually writes perfectly (and was certainly getting O+'s in their handwriting in school).
For example, the simplest way of designing a computer-based slot machine would be to calculate the random values on each play. The problem with this approach is that random numbers generated algorithmically are not really random. Supposedly, if you knew enough about the machine's design and a certain number of the last outcomes, you could determine sequence of psuedo-random numbers being generated and therefore the sequence of future results. What really happens is that the machines are constantly "playing", that is generating these pseudo-random numbers. This means that knowing past results is not really so useful for predicting future results.
All in all it was an interesting program. Apparently the biggest fraud of all time involves sticking some stick with a light up the are above the pay out tray. Slots use optical methods of counting coins being payed. If you stick the light up there then it thinks the last coin it tried to dispense somehow did not come. So, it just keeps paying out until it runs out of coins.
Even today, someone speaking a Hamburg dialect will not really be able to understand someone speaking a Munich dialect. Even people who speak the leveled standardized German well won't necessarily understand those dialects either.
I think this is because we say things like,
June 7, 2003 -> 6-7-2003
I know other English speaking countries don't necessarily do it the same way, but I think it's probably because of adherence to the other more widespread standards.
I know in German, you say,
7. Juni 2003 -> 7-6-2003
So DMY makes perfect sense to German speakers. MDY seems really bizarre.
I dunno. I think the incompetence actually scares me just as much. It's like that movie Brazil. The government's inability to run a perfect system, results in mistakes that harm innocent people. If the people running the system were perfectly competent, the system would function nearly perfectly (at least as designed), and you'd have nothing to worry about. Similarly, the less perfect the system is (which can be a result of poor design or incompetent administration), the more mistakes will be made, and the more innocent people will be harmed.
Another interesting aspect is that far more people in eastern Europe have received formal education in technical fields than in places like Vietnam or probably even India. At the same time a lot of these skilled people are making very low wages. My impression is that this is most true in Russia. In parts of Romania (and more rural parts of Russia too) things can actually get quite primitive by western European and north American standards. We're talking about things like outhouses, no electricity, and people living off quite a lot off of the food they're growing/raising on their property.
I thought it was interesting how the article addressed this issue. There was some comment about how a lot of what the tech support does is just look things up online for people who can't find it themselves. These types of jobs require decent English skills and the ability to be polite and patient to often frustrated or angry customers. It's not usually the type of position which requires advanced knowledge of the products being supported. All the information is usually already there in a computer (or in days past a large book) sitting in front of them. They are in essence trained in how to deal with customers and how to find the answers from what resources they have available. I've had some pretty bad customer service experiences with North American employee, so I'm just skeptical how much more of a problem it is for somebody from India or Romania or wherever to be doing it instead.
The specific RSA algorithm was released to the public, because the patent was about to expire. However, the code may still be using specific *copyrighted* code licensed by RSA. Still though, you're right--the code could just be replaced by something compatable with the GPL.
Germany is really not the poster child you're imagining in this respect. First of all, I'm currently living in the Saarland, one of Germany's historic coal and steel centers. France and Germany fought over it for years because of the economic importance of the coal. Conditions of the post WW2 re-integration of the region back into West Germany, allowed France access to coal mines here until the 80s even. Second of all, Germany has plans to shut down all of its nuclear plants within the next 20 years. See BBC article.
Perhaps you're thinking of France, which gets something like 80% of its power from nuclear sources and AFAIK has no intention of closing them down any time soon.
I have no idea if those numbers are accurate or not, but I think there's one important point missing from this whole LD50 study. These numbers are only for dying within 30 days. They say nothing about long term health effects. First, caffeine leaves your system after some finite relatively short time. Plutonium may very well end up trapped in your body since it's a heavy metal. Second, if you consume a non-lethal dose of caffeine each day for say a year, chances are you're risk of getting cancer in 10 years is probably not raised. I doubt the same is true of plutonium.
Lots of people from affluent families around the world study in the US really, terrorist leaders or not. Plus, let's not forget where most Iraqi, Iranian, etc. weapons scientists studied... Hint: not in the middle east.
But at the same time, most of the suicide bombers are from financially-depressed areas and can't really think seriously about travelling out of their home country, much less going abroad for an education.
This is sorta questionable to some extent. Sure you're average poor 3rd world resident is not moving to the west to study, but a lot of people (of various economic backgrounds) still do. Remember, several of the 9/11 hijackers were in the US on student visas. I want to say several of them met, while studying at the Technical University of Harburg (non just a flight school) in Germany.
From talking to some Pakistani friends of mine, I gather that there are two extreme reactions that happen to people who study in the west. The more obvious (and idealistic one) is that they become really westernized and eventually lead a life in the west or with very close ties to the west (ie, working for a western company or something). However, the other one, is that by seeing all the debauchery and sin in the west, they tend to become more religious. Apparently, a lot of Pakistani's (and presumably anybody from any non-western place) who really are rather ambivalent about their religion, can become very devout towards it after being outside a place where it's all encompassing. To them, it only becomes clear how true the basic principles of their belief system are, after they've seen a society which doesn't follow those same values and rules. Of course, I think for most people, probably neither of the extreme reactions occur.
I think these stickers started to appear a few years ago, after they got busted in some big lawsuit for selling opened products as new.
Ya, I guess I should replace interpreted with having an interactive listener loop. As far as I know, Scheme can be interpreted or compiled though.
The real problem with Java as a first language is that there's really a lot of syntax to get in the way. Additionally, you have to know a reasonable amount (basic OOP, the String class, functions/methods) before you can really understand how even a simple program works. In contrast, ML or Scheme have very incremental learning curves being interpreted and having faily simple syntax (especially scheme).
"Am I missing something? The author mentioned function pointers, but sidestepped the fact that the standard library handles the function pointers for you and lets you use (fairly) clean syntax to express the idea of "high-order" functions. Anyone with C++ and lisp/scheme/ML experience want to elaborate?"
The term "high-order function" I think is probably referring to the property of a language, where functions are objects that are as easily passed around, created, used, etc. as any other type of data (say numbers or lists or strings). While you can essentially do things like map in C++ (even with function pointers), it's not as easy to do something like,
> (define (make-adder n)
(lambda (m) (+ m n))
> (map (make-adder 3) '(1 2 3))
(4 5 6)
at least not semantically in the same way or in so few lines. In langauges like scheme, lisp, and really even python, functions are really just another form of data that can be manipulated. Heck, in Python, functions (and methods) are even objects with their own methods.
Hearing "maths" drives me nuts actually. Mathematics is not a plural form! You wouldn't say mathematics *are* fun. You'd say mathematics *is* fun. Hence, math. QED.