The reason WM has been such a failure is because clueless management refused to recognize that iPhone was radically changing the smart phone business. Microsoft was really one of the first players in the smartphone market, going back to the WinCE PDA days. For most of its history, the business was entirely about selling to business people at large companies. iPhone changed all of that rather quickly in the summer of 2007. People like Pieter Knook (SVP of mobile up to that point) refused to change the direction of the product towards the rapidly growing consumer market. Eventually, upper management cleaned house by firing Knook et al and brought in new leadership (Terry Myerson and Andy Lees, in particular) to completely turn Windows Mobile around. The plans for the next version were substantially reset, massive reorgs happened--basically house was cleaned. Only now are the results of that being seen with the new Windows Phone 7 stuff.
Ballots, while anonymous, are generally public records that can be examined by anybody. For example, here's a link to a letter from the Florida attorney general answering a question about ballots in that state being public record. Here's another one in Ohio. Including ballots as part of public records means that outside individuals or groups are free to verify that ballots were counted correctly. In fact, I think several newspapers did just that in Florida for the 2000 Presidential election. Ruling that petitions are confidential would make them less open than actual votes.
Who would decide whose marriages are "in the best interest of society" and what criteria would be used?
It would be hard to nail down fair, clear criteria unless it was something very simple like couples can only be married if they are currently raising minor children. Study after study (http://www.apa.org/pi/parent.html) has shown that kids raised by 2 gay parents fare about as well as those raised by 2 straight parents. The more significant component seems to be having two actively involved parents raising a child, rather than their specific gender or sexual orientation. Even then, there are plenty of single parents who do a much better job of raising their children than many couples, even married couples who are the biological parents of the child.
Most importantly though, it's undeniable that people (straight, gay, single, coupled) are going to continue having children regardless of their ability to marry. Don't those children deserve the protections conferred by the parents raising them being able to marry?
Even taking children out of the equation, there is a clear case to be made for supporting marriage. I mean, nobody's ever worked hard to ban or dissolve the marriages of people who either could not have or chose not to have children, right? Married people tend to fare better than those who are single with regard to happiness, longevity and health.
Actually, an intern position cannot even be hired unless there's sufficient full-time headcount available when the student is supposed to graduate. After completing an internship, the question becomes "do we want to keep this person?" because the position had to be available in case the intern was a keeper. Hiring interns is really nothing more than a "try before you buy" way of hiring.
A condominium, or condo, is the form of housing tenure and other real property where a specified part of a piece of real estate (usually of an apartment house) is individually owned while use of and access to common facilities in the piece such as hallways, heating system, elevators, exterior areas is executed under legal rights associated with the individual ownership and controlled by the association of owners that jointly represent ownership of the whole piece. Colloquially, the term is often used to refer to the unit itself in place of the word "apartment". A condominium may be simply defined as an "apartment" that the tenant "owns" as opposed to rents.
The difference between a condominium and an apartment is purely legal: there is no way to know a condo from an apartment simply by looking at or visiting the building. What defines a condominium is the form of ownership. The same building developed as a condominium (and sold as individual units to different owners) could actually be built someplace else as an apartment building (the developers would retain onwnership and rent individual units to different tenants).
"Condo" really refers to the legal arrangement, although it has taken on a meaning of "apartment that you own" in recent years. Condominium laws didn't even come into effect in the US until the 60s really. In cities with older dense urban housing stock, older apartment buildings are still often owned through a cooperative instead.
They're not restricting sales to US Citizens. They're restricting sales to US residents (presumably people who have an account with a credit card billing address in the US).
As somebody who grew up and learned to drive in southern California but who now lives in Seattle, this is the best depiction I've ever seen of how people drive in Seattle. Still, one of the best things about Seattle compared to LA is that you at least can live a life without being completely dependent on your car.
I have to call bullshit on this. Microsoft has a very relaxed alcohol policy which basically boils down to don't let alcohol adversely affect the way you do your job. Alcohol is frequently provided at official and unofficial events on and off campus.
There just aren't a lot of jobs out there doing core operating system or compiler design work. I'd say most software jobs fall into the vague category of business applications--programs for performing HR/sales/inventory tasks, either completely custom or extending some sort of existing product. There's a lot of web oriented stuff out there today too--ASP.NET, PHP, J2EE, AJAX, etc.
Not that most slashdotters are interested in hearing it, but Microsoft is one of the few places that still hires people to develop complex platforms. Windows (kernel, APIs like DirectX), compilers (VB, C#, C++, IronPython, Powershell), SQL Server come to mind.
In Vista (and presumably Windows 7), I don't think updates are done through the browser like they were in XP. When you navigate to the update site, it'll scan your system then tell you to open "Windows Update" from the control panel.
I don't think the physical presence aspect is affected by this legislation at all. Previously, digital downloads were just not applicable to sales tax in Wisconsin, much like food or medical supplies are not taxable in certain states. If Apple or Amazon don't have a business presence in the state, their stores will probably remain sales tax free.
I'm not sure why these articles are such news. We've been paying sales tax on digital downloads in Washington for as long as I can remember. We have both an Apple (via Apple Stores) and Amazon (headquarters and all) presence too.
One of the more unexpected consequences of term limits in California has been a shift in power from individual politicians to political parties. When elected officials can only stay in office for a short while, you end up with a bunch of amateurs. In the Assembly, a member can only serve for 4 years total. That holds for all members, including the Speaker and other high ranking officials.
However, parties can keep their leadership as long as they like. Because the parties are where the experienced people are, more of the real decisions on platforms, legislative priorities, etc. are made at that level.
How much foreign students have to pay varies tremendously by country. In Germany, foreign students pay the same very low fees as domestic students (well below the $1K you mention) while in the Netherlands, fees can go beyond $10K per year. Of course, there's also the issues of being eligible to enroll. In many countries, a US high school education is not considered adequate preparation for matriculation. Most non-English speaking countries will also require proof of language proficiency.
Actually, most Hondas and Toyotas sold in the US are assembled in non-union factories in the US or Canada. It's been this way since this 90s, when it became more economical to assemble the cars here than in Japan. Also, VW makes most of its cars for the US market in Mexico, because it's cheaper due to lower labor costs and NAFTA.
The situation isn't really all that different in the States and it still got passed here. In Canada, basically you can't give more than $1000 per year to a candidate. In the US, the amount is $2300 per election (primary and general are separate). In both countries, contributions by corporations and unions are not allowed. In the US they can form PACs from their employees/members, but I'm not sure if something similar exists in Canada.
In the end though, I think it has little to do with direct bribing and more to do with ignorance. Media companies lobby both governments about how these laws need to be passed to reign in copyright infringement so that their revenues (and the gov't tax revenues) can stay high.
That reminds me of the time I was on a college recruiting trip for Microsoft.
Around the corner at the college fair from our table was the one for Department of Justice Antitrust Division. One of the guys I was working the table with walked over there for fun to see what they were up to. I think he grabbed some literature and awkward smirks were exchanged when they saw his name tag.
Directly across from our table was the table for Philip-Morris. This wasn't Altria Group recruiting lawyers or payroll specialists or whatever. This was the part of the company that still went by Philip Morris that sold cigarettes and they were looking for regional sales representatives. Towards the end of the night, the guy from that table came over to our table to schmooze with us. He said something like "Well, we both work for evil companies, right?". All I could think was "WTF? Windows and Microsoft may have their issues, but at least we aren't marketing cigarettes to kids."
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The reason WM has been such a failure is because clueless management refused to recognize that iPhone was radically changing the smart phone business. Microsoft was really one of the first players in the smartphone market, going back to the WinCE PDA days. For most of its history, the business was entirely about selling to business people at large companies. iPhone changed all of that rather quickly in the summer of 2007. People like Pieter Knook (SVP of mobile up to that point) refused to change the direction of the product towards the rapidly growing consumer market. Eventually, upper management cleaned house by firing Knook et al and brought in new leadership (Terry Myerson and Andy Lees, in particular) to completely turn Windows Mobile around. The plans for the next version were substantially reset, massive reorgs happened--basically house was cleaned. Only now are the results of that being seen with the new Windows Phone 7 stuff.
Ballots, while anonymous, are generally public records that can be examined by anybody. For example, here's a link to a letter from the Florida attorney general answering a question about ballots in that state being public record. Here's another one in Ohio. Including ballots as part of public records means that outside individuals or groups are free to verify that ballots were counted correctly. In fact, I think several newspapers did just that in Florida for the 2000 Presidential election. Ruling that petitions are confidential would make them less open than actual votes.
Who would decide whose marriages are "in the best interest of society" and what criteria would be used?
It would be hard to nail down fair, clear criteria unless it was something very simple like couples can only be married if they are currently raising minor children. Study after study (http://www.apa.org/pi/parent.html) has shown that kids raised by 2 gay parents fare about as well as those raised by 2 straight parents. The more significant component seems to be having two actively involved parents raising a child, rather than their specific gender or sexual orientation. Even then, there are plenty of single parents who do a much better job of raising their children than many couples, even married couples who are the biological parents of the child.
Most importantly though, it's undeniable that people (straight, gay, single, coupled) are going to continue having children regardless of their ability to marry. Don't those children deserve the protections conferred by the parents raising them being able to marry?
Even taking children out of the equation, there is a clear case to be made for supporting marriage. I mean, nobody's ever worked hard to ban or dissolve the marriages of people who either could not have or chose not to have children, right? Married people tend to fare better than those who are single with regard to happiness, longevity and health.
Compared to other developed countries, it is.
Actually, an intern position cannot even be hired unless there's sufficient full-time headcount available when the student is supposed to graduate. After completing an internship, the question becomes "do we want to keep this person?" because the position had to be available in case the intern was a keeper. Hiring interns is really nothing more than a "try before you buy" way of hiring.
Then when you interned, you were a sucker.
"Condo" really refers to the legal arrangement, although it has taken on a meaning of "apartment that you own" in recent years. Condominium laws didn't even come into effect in the US until the 60s really. In cities with older dense urban housing stock, older apartment buildings are still often owned through a cooperative instead.
They're not restricting sales to US Citizens. They're restricting sales to US residents (presumably people who have an account with a credit card billing address in the US).
As somebody who grew up and learned to drive in southern California but who now lives in Seattle, this is the best depiction I've ever seen of how people drive in Seattle. Still, one of the best things about Seattle compared to LA is that you at least can live a life without being completely dependent on your car.
I have to call bullshit on this. Microsoft has a very relaxed alcohol policy which basically boils down to don't let alcohol adversely affect the way you do your job. Alcohol is frequently provided at official and unofficial events on and off campus.
Also, Washington is the least religious and least churched state in America.
Maybe we'll have it by 2030. That is if we don't follow the typical Puget Sound political process of voting on it a half dozen times before it gets killed.
There just aren't a lot of jobs out there doing core operating system or compiler design work. I'd say most software jobs fall into the vague category of business applications--programs for performing HR/sales/inventory tasks, either completely custom or extending some sort of existing product. There's a lot of web oriented stuff out there today too--ASP.NET, PHP, J2EE, AJAX, etc. Not that most slashdotters are interested in hearing it, but Microsoft is one of the few places that still hires people to develop complex platforms. Windows (kernel, APIs like DirectX), compilers (VB, C#, C++, IronPython, Powershell), SQL Server come to mind.
In Vista (and presumably Windows 7), I don't think updates are done through the browser like they were in XP. When you navigate to the update site, it'll scan your system then tell you to open "Windows Update" from the control panel.
I don't think the physical presence aspect is affected by this legislation at all. Previously, digital downloads were just not applicable to sales tax in Wisconsin, much like food or medical supplies are not taxable in certain states. If Apple or Amazon don't have a business presence in the state, their stores will probably remain sales tax free.
I'm not sure why these articles are such news. We've been paying sales tax on digital downloads in Washington for as long as I can remember. We have both an Apple (via Apple Stores) and Amazon (headquarters and all) presence too.
One of the more unexpected consequences of term limits in California has been a shift in power from individual politicians to political parties. When elected officials can only stay in office for a short while, you end up with a bunch of amateurs. In the Assembly, a member can only serve for 4 years total. That holds for all members, including the Speaker and other high ranking officials. However, parties can keep their leadership as long as they like. Because the parties are where the experienced people are, more of the real decisions on platforms, legislative priorities, etc. are made at that level.
How much foreign students have to pay varies tremendously by country. In Germany, foreign students pay the same very low fees as domestic students (well below the $1K you mention) while in the Netherlands, fees can go beyond $10K per year. Of course, there's also the issues of being eligible to enroll. In many countries, a US high school education is not considered adequate preparation for matriculation. Most non-English speaking countries will also require proof of language proficiency.
Too bad both proven reserves and production have been on the decline in Alaska for years.
Actually, most Hondas and Toyotas sold in the US are assembled in non-union factories in the US or Canada. It's been this way since this 90s, when it became more economical to assemble the cars here than in Japan. Also, VW makes most of its cars for the US market in Mexico, because it's cheaper due to lower labor costs and NAFTA.
The situation isn't really all that different in the States and it still got passed here. In Canada, basically you can't give more than $1000 per year to a candidate. In the US, the amount is $2300 per election (primary and general are separate). In both countries, contributions by corporations and unions are not allowed. In the US they can form PACs from their employees/members, but I'm not sure if something similar exists in Canada.
In the end though, I think it has little to do with direct bribing and more to do with ignorance. Media companies lobby both governments about how these laws need to be passed to reign in copyright infringement so that their revenues (and the gov't tax revenues) can stay high.
That reminds me of the time I was on a college recruiting trip for Microsoft.
Around the corner at the college fair from our table was the one for Department of Justice Antitrust Division. One of the guys I was working the table with walked over there for fun to see what they were up to. I think he grabbed some literature and awkward smirks were exchanged when they saw his name tag.
Directly across from our table was the table for Philip-Morris. This wasn't Altria Group recruiting lawyers or payroll specialists or whatever. This was the part of the company that still went by Philip Morris that sold cigarettes and they were looking for regional sales representatives. Towards the end of the night, the guy from that table came over to our table to schmooze with us. He said something like "Well, we both work for evil companies, right?". All I could think was "WTF? Windows and Microsoft may have their issues, but at least we aren't marketing cigarettes to kids."
Massachusetts is not a Right to Work State. It does have "At-will" employment laws though.
USD and CAD have been at parity with one another more or less for a while now. Actually, the USD is worth a little bit more than the CAD right now.