just as a point, America's first Prime Minister, Mr. Newt Gingrich, believed in psychohistory...
Say what you will about that villified individual, but he was dynamic and had a few interesting ideas... its too bad we don't have more politicians like him on both ends of the political spectrum...
"OK, that's a bit strong. But read Foundation's Edge and Foundation and Earth."
Uhm, Psychohistory wasn't a sham in the Asimov universe. Psychohistory was predicated on *human* behavior as a society. The Mule disrupted it because he was a *mutant*, a radical in the equation that threw everything off like a Visual Basic script-kiddy. However, the Second Foundation defeated him and returned the galaxy upon the Seldon course... Its like if Nostradamus had a powerful cult that policed our planet ensuring everything happened as he predicted...
Besides, the later Foundation books should be considered heretical anyways...a lot of that stuff came from his [Asimov] wife. And it of course, wasn't as good as the original stuff. The Gaia stuff was stupid.
and since uk has had the crazy system with nobles and shit i can't really blame them for not thinking that their vote doesn't matter
How can you claim the British system is crazy when its governing structure has lasted a good 800 years? Compare that with France which since 1789 has had 5 1/2 Republics, 2 Monarchist Regimes, and 2 Dictatorship/Empires? Just because someone was born a noble does not make them crazy or less fitting to sit in the House of Lords. Were there crazy Lords? There were some. But can you demonstrate that the percentage was larger than in the House of Commons who are elected outright? Nope. Tony Blair eliminated the hereditary peers not based upon principle but for political gain. Had the hereditary peers been mostly affiliated with the Labour Party and not the Conservatives, he wouldn't have eliminated them. How is giving someone a life term (peerage) in an unelected chamber of parliament any different than granting someone a hereditary right? They are both unelected.
Since Tony Blair's tinkering with the British system, the House of Lords is now demanding a larger role in Parliament. Beforehand, the Lords rubberstamped the will of the Commons and debated the finer points of the *unwritten* British Constitution. There is only one case (up until today) where the noble house bucked the will of the Commons, and that was prior to World War I when they reversed the will for Irish Home Rule (which all of Ireland would probably still be *British* had they had the foresight to grant it). So I do not see how the Lords had demonstrated a lack of legitimacy in the modern era (except for that one case) when it largely consisted of hereditary peers.
Now why is an American (me) defending the British system here? Where are the true Brit voices in this forum?
"Sorry, I didnt quite get that you were refering to the Finacial Times. So forget the wild guessing part of my reply, sorry. But then the answer is: No, you are not to believe the Finacial Times...;)"
No prob there, my virtual friend. I cannot quote which day the story ran back in 2000, but it seemed like the article was implying that British participation in EU Parliamentry elections were incredibly low and that is why members of the Conservative Party (I believe their European counterpart is the "European People's Party" or something like that in the EU Parliament) were so heavily represented amongst British MEPs. Similar to how Republican Party members tend to do better in elections in the United States when voter participation slides because there generally is more unity amongst that party than say the Democratic Party when it comes to "getting the vote out", although that does not apply here in California. I personally would think it was funny if the Monster Raving Loony Party were able to capture a lot of British MEP seats...
UK turnout has been between 24% and 36% in the last 5 elections, which is not at or below the 10% threshhold. EU average had been between 49.4% and 63%
Well, using Britain as my example for the 10% score and the Member State I'd want to run in, the 10% score is closer to the proported voter participation statistic of 24% in comparison with the EU average which you quote as being between 49.4% and 63%. An American holding dual citizenship with Britain would probably favor a better chance of being elected than an American with German citizenship trying to run in Germany.
The EU's pandering to Germany and France is the very cause for concern about the Euro's longterm stability and only feeds into politicians and groups with an anti-EU bend. How can someone sell the merits of fiscal union in a place like Britain when France and Germany break their own treaty obligations whenever convenient? So instead of a currency with sound financial footing with something backing it up, it reduces the Euro's strength in faith in the currency. That is dangerous. The reason why us in the U.S. have been able to do that for so long with the Dollar is because we've had an economy that kept growing, mainly due to productivity gains as well as foreign investors who felt the U.S. was the only safe investment. Had the Euro had the credibility, we would've seen a strong impact on the Dollar and forced our government into some fiscal reforms of our own. As it stands now, there won't be serious reform in the EU until France and Germany are outnumbered by the new members and sacred cows such as the CAP are stripped bare. Norway and Iceland need to be actual members but until France and Germany are humbled a bit, that isn't going to happen. The Eurocracy needs to get to work with improving the continental economy and stop scheming to create a Federal Government above the wishes of the majority of its collective citizenry. The strategy should be wide integration, not deep integration.
"That's because in Belgium voting isn't a right but a duty. If you don't turn up during elections you can get fined (although judges have been very easy going on people who don't turn up to vote during the last couple of elections)."
I envy your country (Member State) then... Australia does that as well (or is it New Zealand?). Unfortunately here in the U.S., we do not require people to vote (although you have to sometimes question the intelligence of some voters, especially ones in Florida who voted for Pat Buchanon thinking they were voting for Gore back in 2000 but I digress). In California, we had an attempt through a proposition (a ballot iniative, plebiscite, etc.) a few years ago to include the voting selection of "None of the Above" as a choice for each item to vote on. The purpose was to spoil any candidate's chance of claiming a voter mandate when they failed to gain a 51% majority of the vote. A more radical version of the proposition would've invalidated any candidate who failed to gain a clear majority of the vote and called for a new election. However, a majority of the voters considered this too radical and cynical and defeated the proposition. Had it been passed, then a few years down the road, it would've been ethical to pass a law requiring voter participation because the proposition would've invalidated the argument that there was a lack of choice which is generally a reason why people fail to vote in the U.S. The Green Party also tried to secure a proposition to create a limited form of proportional representation in our crippled Legislature here in California but I don't think it ever received enough signatures to qualify for the ballot.
"I think the parent was implying that one does not program in BASIC (the act of creating BASIC programs can hardly be called "programming", perhaps "procrastinating" approaches it more closely)."
Wait, are you suggesting someone who *programs* using Visual Basic is not an actual programmer? Next thing you'll be suggesting is an MCSE is not really an engineer...err, wait a minute...:)
30. Run for governor without even bothering to wait until the last one's term is up 40. PROPHET!!!
Hey, I like Arnold too and will vote for him, but that does not mean I think he's a Prophet! That title belongs to people like Ezekiel, Isaiah (sic), John the Baptist, Jesus, Mohammed, and Nostradamus... I think you meant "profit." But that's not much profit. The elected position of Governor of the 5th (soon to be 4th) Largest Economy in the World is not much more than a Member of the European Parliament...someone please check that figure...:)
*Perhaps you would like to explain: "Gain EU Citizenship through the liberal citizenry laws in the Republic of Ireland." I think there are quite a few people who would disagree with you on that one.*
Certainly I will. The Republic of Ireland is very "liberal" (IMHO) in terms of granting citizenship to descendents of people who were born in Ireland, whether it be from the North (the Ulster province, aka "Northern Ireland" which is part of the U.K.) or what is today the Republic (Erie, Southern Ireland, the Celtic Tiger, etc.). Ireland will grant citizenship to someone if they can prove that a great-grandparent of theirs was born in Ireland. Someone can correct me if this is incorrect, but I think Italy will only grant that to people who can prove their grandparent was born in Italy. Or, for an even more conservative example, look at British citizenship. The U.K. will grant someone British citizenship if their parent was British. I found this out when I inquired about applying for British citizenship because I am proud of my English, Scottish, and Cornish ancestry. However, that goes back much further than my great-grandparent since my ancestor came over to the New World in 1635. I do have a great-great-grandparent who hailed from Northern Ireland so to get EU citizenship, I'd have to get my father to apply for Irish citizenship and then I myself would have to apply after he received his.
Ergo, Ireland has a much more liberal standard for granting citizenship to descendents of people born there than Britain does...
"It's entirely possible that HP is making a calculated gamble that they can steal IBM's potential Linux customers out from under them by offering indemnification, even if they aren't 100% sure they have a defensible position."
Good theory, but you have fingered the wrong company. HP is going after DELL customers (and potential defectors), not IBM'ers. DELL is HP's greatest threat and the company they are always comparing themselves to.
"less than 10%???? wtf? most votes would be deemed illeagal under such a low turnout. and yeah i do live in eu, and yeah the partys(that i vote regularly) representive isn't in favor of software patents."
Which EU *Member State* do you live in? If I am to believe what the Financial Times reports, the turnout for EU Parliament elections in the U.K. are frequently at or below the 10% threshhold. I would also imagine that in other EU Member States that have a low regard for the Eurocracy also poll quite low as well (Sweden perhaps?)...
While it is completely off-topic, I would have to agree that had the EC and the Central Bank came down hard on France and Germany for breaking their currency treaty requirements, the Swedish voters would've endorsed adopting the Euro... As it stands, the Euro is in danger of becoming funny money in the long term if France and Germany are not forced to meet their treaty obligations...
As for the other thing you said:
"it certainly isn't "easy" to get elected as there are no shortage of candidates(if not for any other reason then because they get nice pay)."
So in essence, critics of the California Recall should look to European elections before claiming it has no legitimacy due to the large number of candidates for the same elected position. I personally think we'd be better off in a parliamentry system myself...
That's not true. We were just provided with some html templates and only need to mimic the "look and feel." I recoded them completely because they were too table-heavy.
And what about converting any coding done in other programs back to Frontpage for the servers? That's what our IT people claim they have to do, and that is their *canned* excuse why they won't use DreamWeaver because it supposedly doubles their workload.
What does coding it in Front Page have to do with how it looks? Or were they forced to use a canned Front Page layout or template?
They were given templates, but if you want to build anything with any program other than Frontpage, you have to *convert* it over for the servers since all the servers are using Microsoft product(s). That's what our IT person told me when I asked why they [the IT person(s)] didn't use DreamWeaver from the start.
The irony of this is apparently the burden of enforcing this law falls upon the California Department of Consumer Affairs. Why is this ironic? Well, because the State of California is attempting to lay off 20,000 or more employees to cut expenses and close the budget deficit. So on one hand, you have the State goverment trying to shed jobs while on the other, it is trying to take on more costly responsibilities, however noble (or not) it might be...
You can find the California Dept. of Consumer Affairs website at the following location:
http://www.dca.ca.gov/
I have found no mention of this law on the webpage (or the Governor's webpage either), but then again, departments within the State are rather slow with their updates.
The website of Governor Davis can be found here:
http://www.governor.ca.gov/state/govsite/gov_hom ep age.jsp
If non-California residents (legal or illegal) find it interesting that almost all California government websites look similar, it is no coincidence. All webpages are supposed to be coded using Frontpage (even while the State Attorney General's Office was persuing the antitrust case with Microsoft)...
Bad election practices such as these were common in parts of England until the nineteenth century. "Rotten boroughs" with small numbers of eligible voters could be used to ensure a candidate got into parliament.
You didn't mention that in one particular case, one of the "Rotten Boroughs" was actually under water yet there was an MP sitting in the House of Commons representing the submerged town. However, had I been the MP, I would've retorted that the underwater town was populated by Basques and thus the town was known as the "little Atlantis" of the English coast.
...from that cylinder shaped object that a Russian probe detected back in the early/mid 90s that was orbiting the planet [Jupiter] nearby? Supposedly the object measured out to 25km in length (which would be the size of the fictional Super Star Destroyer Executor, aka "Darth Vader's Star Destroyer"). When the Russian scientists sent the command to the probe to take a closer look, they then lost contact with the probe. Now back then, a lot of people laughed at Soviet/Russian technology as being backward to Western tech, but we know now that Russian aerospace equipment was/is pretty tough and reliable. I'm also open to the possibility that Fox's *Sightings* program made the whole incident up, but I'd love to have more info either way...
PS: You can't imagine how upset I am that the yacht-builders , makers of things that can only be used as rich peoples' toys, had some economic problems.
Are you speaking about the Yacht building companies or their middle-class employees who actually built the ships? I'm speaking about those middle-class employees who had their careers destroyed by that *stupid* tax that was only brought about to make George H.W. Bush look weak on economic issues. And that is my point about any talk about "taxing the rich." I don't trust anyone who claims to be a liberal and goes after the rich when they themselves write loop-holes into the tax code so they can keep their own money. Furthermore, if the Congresspersons and Senators from the *Big D* party are so concerned about Social Security, perhaps they should cancel their exemption from paying into that very system...
Add on keyboards like the Microsoft one are great examples, because they all contain both USB *and* PS/2 circuitry. So there's no cost savings. Not to mention the margin on 'deluxe' input devices is ridiculous.
Not all keyboards and mice are "both". Most retail mice are USB based and come with the dongle adapter to convert them over to PS/2.
It all comes down to my original point about Intel taking the initiative of getting rid of legacy stuff like PS/2 ports on their reference board design and chipsets. If they would take a stand, then the PC builders would follow suit because they'd have no other choice (unless VIA or ATi chose to offer PS/2 and legacy support in their chipsets)...
Perhaps Sun meant, "We're not working on an OS X version of Star Office because we know Apple is close to fielding Appleworks 7, and we see no profit in competing with it." And that would be perfectly fair--particularly if Appleworks 7 just happens to be full of Open Office code.
Is this a known and substantial rumor? I just don't see Apple trying to launch a major competing software suite against Microsoft. It would be an extreme example of hubris or a dramatic suicide attempt. Unless Jobs wants to push Gates's buttons with a renewed antitrust issue, but again, I don't see that happening. At least with Safari, Apple could easily claim Microsoft was not keeping software development on IE at pace with its competitors on both the Windows and Mac platform; and IE was a dog under OS X. However, this would not work when it came to Office because it is a native OS X application and it runs well, so well that a great deal of people consider it superior to Office2000 and OfficeXP on the Windows platform...
"The point is that the extra cost of the USB devices is more than the cost of having PS/2 interfaces in the computer, so it overall costs less to include PS/2 interfaces and use cheaper devices than to not have the PS/2 ports and therefore have to pay more for the devices. See?"
Yes, I understand that. However, that figure will switch places soon enough when all keyboards and mice ship natively in USB vs. PS/2. And then prices for PS/2 hadware devices in relation to USB devices will be like buying SIMM chips today versus their DIMM counterparts. And guess what? If Intel and the others moved directly to legacy free, the price changes would happen even faster. Furthermore, this argument is moot if a company like Dell offers to sell something like Microsoft Natural Keyboards with their machines. You'd have to demonstrate Microsoft charges more for a USB model over a PS/2 model if they actually made separate editions. And then, in that case, the PS/2 ports on the PC itself becomes an unnecessary expense. Kinda like Dell and the floppy drive...
"Bush's economic team is on record as saying, and I believe this is an exact quote, that they needed to 'shift the tax burden down the income spectrum'. I.e., the rich should pay less in taxes and the middle class pay more. You may agree with this, and that's your perogative, but if you claim it's not happening you're either being blind or you're deliberately trying to make it easier for the administration."
As my father used to say, "A poor man never gave me a job." Everytime there is a populist surge (in modern politics) against the rich, guess who ends up with the proverbial screw? Is it the rich? Nope. Its the middle-class and they deserved it each time for falling for the idiocy of slogans from a particular left-leaning party in the US. It happened in 1990 with the "soak the rich" mantra that permeated in the Senate. They went out to slap the luxury tax on cars above $30k and they also went after yachts. But did the rich get hurt? Nope. Quality automobiles quickly reached the $30k threshold so it had to be repealed. Unfortunately, the stupid law destroyed the New England Yacht Industry because, get this, instead of paying the tax by purchasing the yachts in the United States, the "rich" went down to the Caribbean and purchased their yachts and avoided the tax entirely. Way to go, Big D Party!
And as for our high-tech industry, it is the key to growth for our economy. Guess what? Silicon Valley received a large amount of R&D tax credits from the Reagan Administration, so that great bubble economy of prosperity Clinton liked to claim success for was owed to all the hard working people at those companies that received Reagan era tax breaks.
As for getting out of a recession, it isn't wise to try to gouge the rich. The rich move the markets, and when you try to attack their wealth, they shift it off-shore, just like all the corporations shifting jobs overseas to cut out overhead.
You also mentioned the following:
"(Large increases in spending/purchasing are a much better economic stimulus than large increases in investment with no increases in spending, which is what these tax cuts give us. Ask any rational economist.)"
Spending is short-term stimuli. Ask any decent economist and they will indicate the importance of investment in a healthy economy. So-called "liberal" economists like Thorough (sic) at MIT's Sloan School of Business preached that all throughout the 80s and the 90s...
What horrid casting - they guy looks nothing like Vader.
Sabalon, go to www.theforce.net
They ran a side-by-side picture comparison of Anakin with ROTJ era Luke Skywalker. There is quite a resemblance between Hayden (Anakin) and Mark Hamill (Luke)...
Apparently, they took it down (probably legally requested by LucasFilm to do so)...
our efforts to get "The Star Wars Kid" into the film have failed?
Nah, he could still be the digital beast Obi-Wan rides on in the big chase scene with the other villain of Ep. III.
According to the leaks from the Ep. III SpyCam sessions, the new villain looks like a cross between a CloneTrooper and Darth Vader, all in white. He is neither a Sith or a Jedi traitor, but he brandishes two lightsabers.
Slashdot Mirror
just as a point, America's first Prime Minister, Mr. Newt Gingrich, believed in psychohistory...
Say what you will about that villified individual, but he was dynamic and had a few interesting ideas... its too bad we don't have more politicians like him on both ends of the political spectrum...
And please, nobody tag him as "The Mule", okay?
"OK, that's a bit strong. But read Foundation's Edge and Foundation and Earth."
Uhm, Psychohistory wasn't a sham in the Asimov universe. Psychohistory was predicated on *human* behavior as a society. The Mule disrupted it because he was a *mutant*, a radical in the equation that threw everything off like a Visual Basic script-kiddy. However, the Second Foundation defeated him and returned the galaxy upon the Seldon course... Its like if Nostradamus had a powerful cult that policed our planet ensuring everything happened as he predicted...
Besides, the later Foundation books should be considered heretical anyways...a lot of that stuff came from his [Asimov] wife. And it of course, wasn't as good as the original stuff. The Gaia stuff was stupid.
and since uk has had the crazy system with nobles and shit i can't really blame them for not thinking that their vote doesn't matter
How can you claim the British system is crazy when its governing structure has lasted a good 800 years? Compare that with France which since 1789 has had 5 1/2 Republics, 2 Monarchist Regimes, and 2 Dictatorship/Empires? Just because someone was born a noble does not make them crazy or less fitting to sit in the House of Lords. Were there crazy Lords? There were some. But can you demonstrate that the percentage was larger than in the House of Commons who are elected outright? Nope. Tony Blair eliminated the hereditary peers not based upon principle but for political gain. Had the hereditary peers been mostly affiliated with the Labour Party and not the Conservatives, he wouldn't have eliminated them. How is giving someone a life term (peerage) in an unelected chamber of parliament any different than granting someone a hereditary right? They are both unelected.
Since Tony Blair's tinkering with the British system, the House of Lords is now demanding a larger role in Parliament. Beforehand, the Lords rubberstamped the will of the Commons and debated the finer points of the *unwritten* British Constitution. There is only one case (up until today) where the noble house bucked the will of the Commons, and that was prior to World War I when they reversed the will for Irish Home Rule (which all of Ireland would probably still be *British* had they had the foresight to grant it). So I do not see how the Lords had demonstrated a lack of legitimacy in the modern era (except for that one case) when it largely consisted of hereditary peers.
Now why is an American (me) defending the British system here? Where are the true Brit voices in this forum?
"Sorry, I didnt quite get that you were refering to the Finacial Times. So forget the wild guessing part of my reply, sorry. But then the answer is: No, you are not to believe the Finacial Times... ;)"
No prob there, my virtual friend. I cannot quote which day the story ran back in 2000, but it seemed like the article was implying that British participation in EU Parliamentry elections were incredibly low and that is why members of the Conservative Party (I believe their European counterpart is the "European People's Party" or something like that in the EU Parliament) were so heavily represented amongst British MEPs. Similar to how Republican Party members tend to do better in elections in the United States when voter participation slides because there generally is more unity amongst that party than say the Democratic Party when it comes to "getting the vote out", although that does not apply here in California. I personally would think it was funny if the Monster Raving Loony Party were able to capture a lot of British MEP seats...
UK turnout has been between 24% and 36% in the last 5 elections, which is not at or below the 10% threshhold.
EU average had been between 49.4% and 63%
Well, using Britain as my example for the 10% score and the Member State I'd want to run in, the 10% score is closer to the proported voter participation statistic of 24% in comparison with the EU average which you quote as being between 49.4% and 63%. An American holding dual citizenship with Britain would probably favor a better chance of being elected than an American with German citizenship trying to run in Germany.
The EU's pandering to Germany and France is the very cause for concern about the Euro's longterm stability and only feeds into politicians and groups with an anti-EU bend. How can someone sell the merits of fiscal union in a place like Britain when France and Germany break their own treaty obligations whenever convenient? So instead of a currency with sound financial footing with something backing it up, it reduces the Euro's strength in faith in the currency. That is dangerous. The reason why us in the U.S. have been able to do that for so long with the Dollar is because we've had an economy that kept growing, mainly due to productivity gains as well as foreign investors who felt the U.S. was the only safe investment. Had the Euro had the credibility, we would've seen a strong impact on the Dollar and forced our government into some fiscal reforms of our own. As it stands now, there won't be serious reform in the EU until France and Germany are outnumbered by the new members and sacred cows such as the CAP are stripped bare. Norway and Iceland need to be actual members but until France and Germany are humbled a bit, that isn't going to happen. The Eurocracy needs to get to work with improving the continental economy and stop scheming to create a Federal Government above the wishes of the majority of its collective citizenry. The strategy should be wide integration, not deep integration.
Of course, this is opinionated.
"That's because in Belgium voting isn't a right but a duty. If you don't turn up during elections you can get fined (although judges have been very easy going on people who don't turn up to vote during the last couple of elections)."
I envy your country (Member State) then... Australia does that as well (or is it New Zealand?). Unfortunately here in the U.S., we do not require people to vote (although you have to sometimes question the intelligence of some voters, especially ones in Florida who voted for Pat Buchanon thinking they were voting for Gore back in 2000 but I digress). In California, we had an attempt through a proposition (a ballot iniative, plebiscite, etc.) a few years ago to include the voting selection of "None of the Above" as a choice for each item to vote on. The purpose was to spoil any candidate's chance of claiming a voter mandate when they failed to gain a 51% majority of the vote. A more radical version of the proposition would've invalidated any candidate who failed to gain a clear majority of the vote and called for a new election. However, a majority of the voters considered this too radical and cynical and defeated the proposition. Had it been passed, then a few years down the road, it would've been ethical to pass a law requiring voter participation because the proposition would've invalidated the argument that there was a lack of choice which is generally a reason why people fail to vote in the U.S. The Green Party also tried to secure a proposition to create a limited form of proportional representation in our crippled Legislature here in California but I don't think it ever received enough signatures to qualify for the ballot.
"I think the parent was implying that one does not program in BASIC (the act of creating BASIC programs can hardly be called "programming", perhaps "procrastinating" approaches it more closely)."
:)
Wait, are you suggesting someone who *programs* using Visual Basic is not an actual programmer? Next thing you'll be suggesting is an MCSE is not really an engineer...err, wait a minute...
30. Run for governor without even bothering to wait until the last one's term is up
:)
40. PROPHET!!!
Hey, I like Arnold too and will vote for him, but that does not mean I think he's a Prophet! That title belongs to people like Ezekiel, Isaiah (sic), John the Baptist, Jesus, Mohammed, and Nostradamus... I think you meant "profit." But that's not much profit. The elected position of Governor of the 5th (soon to be 4th) Largest Economy in the World is not much more than a Member of the European Parliament...someone please check that figure...
*Perhaps you would like to explain: "Gain EU Citizenship through the liberal citizenry laws in the Republic of Ireland."
I think there are quite a few people who would disagree with you on that one.*
Certainly I will. The Republic of Ireland is very "liberal" (IMHO) in terms of granting citizenship to descendents of people who were born in Ireland, whether it be from the North (the Ulster province, aka "Northern Ireland" which is part of the U.K.) or what is today the Republic (Erie, Southern Ireland, the Celtic Tiger, etc.). Ireland will grant citizenship to someone if they can prove that a great-grandparent of theirs was born in Ireland. Someone can correct me if this is incorrect, but I think Italy will only grant that to people who can prove their grandparent was born in Italy. Or, for an even more conservative example, look at British citizenship. The U.K. will grant someone British citizenship if their parent was British. I found this out when I inquired about applying for British citizenship because I am proud of my English, Scottish, and Cornish ancestry. However, that goes back much further than my great-grandparent since my ancestor came over to the New World in 1635. I do have a great-great-grandparent who hailed from Northern Ireland so to get EU citizenship, I'd have to get my father to apply for Irish citizenship and then I myself would have to apply after he received his.
Ergo, Ireland has a much more liberal standard for granting citizenship to descendents of people born there than Britain does...
"It's entirely possible that HP is making a calculated gamble that they can steal IBM's potential Linux customers out from under them by offering indemnification, even if they aren't 100% sure they have a defensible position."
Good theory, but you have fingered the wrong company. HP is going after DELL customers (and potential defectors), not IBM'ers. DELL is HP's greatest threat and the company they are always comparing themselves to.
"less than 10%????
wtf?
most votes would be deemed illeagal under such a low turnout.
and yeah i do live in eu, and yeah the partys(that i vote regularly) representive isn't in favor of software patents."
Which EU *Member State* do you live in? If I am to believe what the Financial Times reports, the turnout for EU Parliament elections in the U.K. are frequently at or below the 10% threshhold. I would also imagine that in other EU Member States that have a low regard for the Eurocracy also poll quite low as well (Sweden perhaps?)...
While it is completely off-topic, I would have to agree that had the EC and the Central Bank came down hard on France and Germany for breaking their currency treaty requirements, the Swedish voters would've endorsed adopting the Euro... As it stands, the Euro is in danger of becoming funny money in the long term if France and Germany are not forced to meet their treaty obligations...
As for the other thing you said:
"it certainly isn't "easy" to get elected as there are no shortage of candidates(if not for any other reason then because they get nice pay)."
So in essence, critics of the California Recall should look to European elections before claiming it has no legitimacy due to the large number of candidates for the same elected position. I personally think we'd be better off in a parliamentry system myself...
If I were an EU citizen, I'd certainly run for office. How can you not win a constituency when less than 10% of people turn out for the voting?
10. Gain EU Citizenship through the liberal citizenry laws in the Republic of Ireland.
20. Move to an EU country, err, excuse me, "Member State."
30. Run for the EU Parliament. Have 2 people vote for me and I win my seat!
40. PROFIT!!!
That's not true. We were just provided with some html templates and only need to mimic the "look and feel." I recoded them completely because they were too table-heavy.
And what about converting any coding done in other programs back to Frontpage for the servers? That's what our IT people claim they have to do, and that is their *canned* excuse why they won't use DreamWeaver because it supposedly doubles their workload.
What does coding it in Front Page have to do with how it looks? Or were they forced to use a canned Front Page layout or template?
They were given templates, but if you want to build anything with any program other than Frontpage, you have to *convert* it over for the servers since all the servers are using Microsoft product(s). That's what our IT person told me when I asked why they [the IT person(s)] didn't use DreamWeaver from the start.
The irony of this is apparently the burden of enforcing this law falls upon the California Department of Consumer Affairs. Why is this ironic? Well, because the State of California is attempting to lay off 20,000 or more employees to cut expenses and close the budget deficit. So on one hand, you have the State goverment trying to shed jobs while on the other, it is trying to take on more costly responsibilities, however noble (or not) it might be...
m ep age.jsp
You can find the California Dept. of Consumer Affairs website at the following location:
http://www.dca.ca.gov/
I have found no mention of this law on the webpage (or the Governor's webpage either), but then again, departments within the State are rather slow with their updates.
The website of Governor Davis can be found here:
http://www.governor.ca.gov/state/govsite/gov_ho
If non-California residents (legal or illegal) find it interesting that almost all California government websites look similar, it is no coincidence. All webpages are supposed to be coded using Frontpage (even while the State Attorney General's Office was persuing the antitrust case with Microsoft)...
Bad election practices such as these were common in parts of England until the nineteenth century. "Rotten boroughs" with small numbers of eligible voters could be used to ensure a candidate got into parliament.
You didn't mention that in one particular case, one of the "Rotten Boroughs" was actually under water yet there was an MP sitting in the House of Commons representing the submerged town. However, had I been the MP, I would've retorted that the underwater town was populated by Basques and thus the town was known as the "little Atlantis" of the English coast.
...from that cylinder shaped object that a Russian probe detected back in the early/mid 90s that was orbiting the planet [Jupiter] nearby? Supposedly the object measured out to 25km in length (which would be the size of the fictional Super Star Destroyer Executor, aka "Darth Vader's Star Destroyer"). When the Russian scientists sent the command to the probe to take a closer look, they then lost contact with the probe. Now back then, a lot of people laughed at Soviet/Russian technology as being backward to Western tech, but we know now that Russian aerospace equipment was/is pretty tough and reliable. I'm also open to the possibility that Fox's *Sightings* program made the whole incident up, but I'd love to have more info either way...
SCO will be claiming the Dewey Decimal Code wound up in the Linux kernal by way of some programmer at SGI...
:)
Yeah, I know, obligatory SCO reference...
PS: You can't imagine how upset I am that the yacht-builders , makers of things that can only be used as rich peoples' toys, had some economic problems.
Are you speaking about the Yacht building companies or their middle-class employees who actually built the ships? I'm speaking about those middle-class employees who had their careers destroyed by that *stupid* tax that was only brought about to make George H.W. Bush look weak on economic issues. And that is my point about any talk about "taxing the rich." I don't trust anyone who claims to be a liberal and goes after the rich when they themselves write loop-holes into the tax code so they can keep their own money. Furthermore, if the Congresspersons and Senators from the *Big D* party are so concerned about Social Security, perhaps they should cancel their exemption from paying into that very system...
Add on keyboards like the Microsoft one are great examples, because they all contain both USB *and* PS/2 circuitry. So there's no cost savings. Not to mention the margin on 'deluxe' input devices is ridiculous.
Not all keyboards and mice are "both". Most retail mice are USB based and come with the dongle adapter to convert them over to PS/2.
It all comes down to my original point about Intel taking the initiative of getting rid of legacy stuff like PS/2 ports on their reference board design and chipsets. If they would take a stand, then the PC builders would follow suit because they'd have no other choice (unless VIA or ATi chose to offer PS/2 and legacy support in their chipsets)...
Perhaps Sun meant, "We're not working on an OS X version of Star Office because we know Apple is close to fielding Appleworks 7, and we see no profit in competing with it." And that would be perfectly fair--particularly if Appleworks 7 just happens to be full of Open Office code.
Is this a known and substantial rumor? I just don't see Apple trying to launch a major competing software suite against Microsoft. It would be an extreme example of hubris or a dramatic suicide attempt. Unless Jobs wants to push Gates's buttons with a renewed antitrust issue, but again, I don't see that happening. At least with Safari, Apple could easily claim Microsoft was not keeping software development on IE at pace with its competitors on both the Windows and Mac platform; and IE was a dog under OS X. However, this would not work when it came to Office because it is a native OS X application and it runs well, so well that a great deal of people consider it superior to Office2000 and OfficeXP on the Windows platform...
"The point is that the extra cost of the USB devices is more than the cost of having PS/2 interfaces in the computer, so it overall costs less to include PS/2 interfaces and use cheaper devices than to not have the PS/2 ports and therefore have to pay more for the devices.
See?"
Yes, I understand that. However, that figure will switch places soon enough when all keyboards and mice ship natively in USB vs. PS/2. And then prices for PS/2 hadware devices in relation to USB devices will be like buying SIMM chips today versus their DIMM counterparts. And guess what? If Intel and the others moved directly to legacy free, the price changes would happen even faster. Furthermore, this argument is moot if a company like Dell offers to sell something like Microsoft Natural Keyboards with their machines. You'd have to demonstrate Microsoft charges more for a USB model over a PS/2 model if they actually made separate editions. And then, in that case, the PS/2 ports on the PC itself becomes an unnecessary expense. Kinda like Dell and the floppy drive...
"Bush's economic team is on record as saying, and I believe this is an exact quote, that they needed to 'shift the tax burden down the income spectrum'. I.e., the rich should pay less in taxes and the middle class pay more. You may agree with this, and that's your perogative, but if you claim it's not happening you're either being blind or you're deliberately trying to make it easier for the administration."
As my father used to say, "A poor man never gave me a job." Everytime there is a populist surge (in modern politics) against the rich, guess who ends up with the proverbial screw? Is it the rich? Nope. Its the middle-class and they deserved it each time for falling for the idiocy of slogans from a particular left-leaning party in the US. It happened in 1990 with the "soak the rich" mantra that permeated in the Senate. They went out to slap the luxury tax on cars above $30k and they also went after yachts. But did the rich get hurt? Nope. Quality automobiles quickly reached the $30k threshold so it had to be repealed. Unfortunately, the stupid law destroyed the New England Yacht Industry because, get this, instead of paying the tax by purchasing the yachts in the United States, the "rich" went down to the Caribbean and purchased their yachts and avoided the tax entirely. Way to go, Big D Party!
And as for our high-tech industry, it is the key to growth for our economy. Guess what? Silicon Valley received a large amount of R&D tax credits from the Reagan Administration, so that great bubble economy of prosperity Clinton liked to claim success for was owed to all the hard working people at those companies that received Reagan era tax breaks.
As for getting out of a recession, it isn't wise to try to gouge the rich. The rich move the markets, and when you try to attack their wealth, they shift it off-shore, just like all the corporations shifting jobs overseas to cut out overhead.
You also mentioned the following:
"(Large increases in spending/purchasing are a much better economic stimulus than large increases in investment with no increases in spending, which is what these tax cuts give us. Ask any rational economist.)"
Spending is short-term stimuli. Ask any decent economist and they will indicate the importance of investment in a healthy economy. So-called "liberal" economists like Thorough (sic) at MIT's Sloan School of Business preached that all throughout the 80s and the 90s...
What horrid casting - they guy looks nothing like Vader.
e =e pisode3/newspics/luke_anakin_comparison.jpg
Sabalon, go to www.theforce.net
They ran a side-by-side picture comparison of Anakin with ROTJ era Luke Skywalker. There is quite a resemblance between Hayden (Anakin) and Mark Hamill (Luke)...
Apparently, they took it down (probably legally requested by LucasFilm to do so)...
It was here:
http://cgi.theforce.net/theforce/image.cgi?Imag
You can probably find it on the net somewhere...
our efforts to get "The Star Wars Kid" into the film have failed?
Nah, he could still be the digital beast Obi-Wan rides on in the big chase scene with the other villain of Ep. III.
According to the leaks from the Ep. III SpyCam sessions, the new villain looks like a cross between a CloneTrooper and Darth Vader, all in white. He is neither a Sith or a Jedi traitor, but he brandishes two lightsabers.