Human evolution is already under our own control. Bio-mechanical extensions of our abilities, like cell phones and PDAs, "wearable computers", will become increasingly smaller and more integrated into our bodies. We will be able to interface with computer networks and each other just by mumbling inaudibly, or by thinking. Artificial replacements for body parts with enhanced capabilities, from eyes to limbs to breasts, are already becoming commonplace, or at least imaginable. Genetic selection in the womb is already occuring as parents discard damaged embryos, or embryos of the wrong gender. Or they pick and choose ova and sperm with the qualities they value from a donor bank. Soon "repaired" or modified human genomes will be available. And otherwise increasingly sophisticated drugs can provide us with the characteristics (height, weight, mental "health") we desire.
Step aside mother nature, we don't need you any more.
Since this won't allow them to make any more money on the Intel units, it won't double their business, and will cost a lot more in support, there is no money to be made here.
It wouldn't necessarily cost a lot more in support. If Dell gets 1.7 support calls for each 10 units sold then they will still have that many support calls if some of their units use a different CPU. The only extra costs are one-time costs such as paying the guy who writes the call center scripts to add a screen for AMD-specific problems (how many ways can there be to reboot?) updating the web site, adding a new assembly chart for the assebly-line monkeys to follow, etc. Even a small number of incremental sales can pay for that. But Intel is probably giving away the store to prevent it....
Should you pay for something extra that you don't want that if you didn't get you would have to pay several extra hundred dollars more for.
Cost has nothing to do with sale price in a market economy. Well, maybe it defines minimum price. But other than that, price is set according to supply and demand. You have no natural "right" to pay less for something that costs less.
In the case of the MS-less consumer laptop, demand is effectively zero (on Dell's scale), so the item is unavailable at any price. To buy this item, you need to go to a niche marketer, and then you'll pay a higher price anyway because of the lack of economies of scale.
The Bill of Rights was added after the fact because many people wanted "insurance" that the limitations of government would be clear and indesputable. But they are theoretically unnecessary, and routinely ignored anyway.
The constitution is about what the GOVERNMENT can't do, not about what I can't do.
The constitution of the US is about what the government CAN do. This is supposed to be a carefully limited set of powers, and everything else is "reserved to the states, or the people."
The road sounds like it's intended to be the Mississippi River or Transcontinental Railroad of the future. Texas wants to be the nations land port. But with more and more trade coming from China instead of Mexico maybe they should build it east-west instead.
You are oversimplifying the system. How it works is: When you have the money, just endebt the politicians to you (with camaign contributions of course), who will then avoid appointing judges unsympathetic to your causes. It's the american way.
Fine, send me a plane ticket and a few hundred bucks. What? You'd rather have a preview of what I sound like? Well I'll need a recording studio and a distribution channel. You'd rather just send me 99 cents online? How do I know you'll be willing to pay me directly when you won't even buy a CD?
Ripping off artists directly instead of indirectly ain't any fairer.
South Africa does not have a sterling history when it comes to legal systems. Mass arrests without formal charges, elections where the minority rules, oppression of political dissent....
uh.... sounds like another former colony these days, doesn't it?
Yup. In the future TV listings will list release times, not broadcast times. You'll be able to watch whatever you want after it's released just by doot dooting it up on your remote. Video on demand is what the market has always wanted, and it's what we will ultimately get.
Re:Blame windows it already looks like Gnome
on
Gnome.org Compromised?
·
· Score: 0, Flamebait
The other difference is your windows PC came full of adware and spyware and crippleware.
Investors are worried either way, unfortunately. It's up to lawyers and accountants to decide which path is least expensive. But I expect Google to take the high road.
The point is that $1,000 is a lot less than what Google would have to pay in the ("Bob"-willing) unlikely event of a SCO victory in court.
No, the point is $1,000 is a lot less than what Google would have to pay in the likely event of a Google victory. Such a victory would cost not only many thousands in legal fees but could cost millions if it scares investors away from Google's impending IPO.
You will be ill for one or two weeks. Revel in it. Use it as an excuse to tell off everyone you know. Later you can blame it on quitting caffeine. Be as selfish, crabby, and bitchy as you've always wanted to be.
That's what I did when I quit smoking seven years ago, and any day now I'll start behaving again.
Cell phones are a necessity in today's world, many many people would be bound to desks, landlines, and offices without the *freedom* to take their life on the road.
They are more than that. Cell phones are a bio-mechanical extension of our human bodies, the first step toward telepathy, extended memory (through accessed central databases), and full-time on-demand personal communication and network services.
We humans are taking control of our own evolution.
Given this, cell phone use can indeed be thought of as a right, a right to the use of our own bodies and our own "networks." The power to interfere with these new abilities has draconian potential indeed.
P.S. I don't have one of the damn things and never will.
It isn't necessary for 100% of users to look at the code in order to test its safety. If only 10% or 1% of the community do, then it's still better than closed-source. The rest of us just have to listen to the gurus.
After all, you don't expect 100% of users to write their own code do you?
A hundred years from now hoity-toity real-estate agents in Nantucket will be touting the scenic view of the picturesque Nantucket Sound wind-mill farm in their hoity-toity brochures.
Slashdot Mirror
Somebody patent this!
Human evolution is already under our own control. Bio-mechanical extensions of our abilities, like cell phones and PDAs, "wearable computers", will become increasingly smaller and more integrated into our bodies. We will be able to interface with computer networks and each other just by mumbling inaudibly, or by thinking. Artificial replacements for body parts with enhanced capabilities, from eyes to limbs to breasts, are already becoming commonplace, or at least imaginable. Genetic selection in the womb is already occuring as parents discard damaged embryos, or embryos of the wrong gender. Or they pick and choose ova and sperm with the qualities they value from a donor bank. Soon "repaired" or modified human genomes will be available. And otherwise increasingly sophisticated drugs can provide us with the characteristics (height, weight, mental "health") we desire.
Step aside mother nature, we don't need you any more.
Since this won't allow them to make any more money on the Intel units, it won't double their business, and will cost a lot more in support, there is no money to be made here.
It wouldn't necessarily cost a lot more in support. If Dell gets 1.7 support calls for each 10 units sold then they will still have that many support calls if some of their units use a different CPU. The only extra costs are one-time costs such as paying the guy who writes the call center scripts to add a screen for AMD-specific problems (how many ways can there be to reboot?) updating the web site, adding a new assembly chart for the assebly-line monkeys to follow, etc. Even a small number of incremental sales can pay for that. But Intel is probably giving away the store to prevent it....
Should you pay for something extra that you don't want that if you didn't get you would have to pay several extra hundred dollars more for.
Cost has nothing to do with sale price in a market economy. Well, maybe it defines minimum price. But other than that, price is set according to supply and demand. You have no natural "right" to pay less for something that costs less.
In the case of the MS-less consumer laptop, demand is effectively zero (on Dell's scale), so the item is unavailable at any price. To buy this item, you need to go to a niche marketer, and then you'll pay a higher price anyway because of the lack of economies of scale.
The Bill of Rights was added after the fact because many people wanted "insurance" that the limitations of government would be clear and indesputable. But they are theoretically unnecessary, and routinely ignored anyway.
The constitution is about what the GOVERNMENT can't do, not about what I can't do.
The constitution of the US is about what the government CAN do. This is supposed to be a carefully limited set of powers, and everything else is "reserved to the states, or the people."
The road sounds like it's intended to be the Mississippi River or Transcontinental Railroad of the future. Texas wants to be the nations land port. But with more and more trade coming from China instead of Mexico maybe they should build it east-west instead.
Sort of just kidding.
You are oversimplifying the system. How it works is: When you have the money, just endebt the politicians to you (with camaign contributions of course), who will then avoid appointing judges unsympathetic to your causes. It's the american way.
If the reversal was scheduled to occur anyway, then Occam's Razor would suggest that the concurrence was a coincidence.
Fine, send me a plane ticket and a few hundred bucks. What? You'd rather have a preview of what I sound like? Well I'll need a recording studio and a distribution channel. You'd rather just send me 99 cents online? How do I know you'll be willing to pay me directly when you won't even buy a CD?
Ripping off artists directly instead of indirectly ain't any fairer.
Don't worry, Bill can afford it.
South Africa does not have a sterling history when it comes to legal systems. Mass arrests without formal charges, elections where the minority rules, oppression of political dissent....
uh.... sounds like another former colony these days, doesn't it?
That's because there are lots of former British colonies everywhere.
Nigeria, for example
Yup. In the future TV listings will list release times, not broadcast times. You'll be able to watch whatever you want after it's released just by doot dooting it up on your remote. Video on demand is what the market has always wanted, and it's what we will ultimately get.
The other difference is your windows PC came full of adware and spyware and crippleware.
Investors are worried either way, unfortunately. It's up to lawyers and accountants to decide which path is least expensive. But I expect Google to take the high road.
The point is that $1,000 is a lot less than what Google would have to pay in the ("Bob"-willing) unlikely event of a SCO victory in court.
No, the point is $1,000 is a lot less than what Google would have to pay in the likely event of a Google victory. Such a victory would cost not only many thousands in legal fees but could cost millions if it scares investors away from Google's impending IPO.
You will be ill for one or two weeks. Revel in it. Use it as an excuse to tell off everyone you know. Later you can blame it on quitting caffeine. Be as selfish, crabby, and bitchy as you've always wanted to be. That's what I did when I quit smoking seven years ago, and any day now I'll start behaving again.
Cell phones are a necessity in today's world, many many people would be bound to desks, landlines, and offices without the *freedom* to take their life on the road.
They are more than that. Cell phones are a bio-mechanical extension of our human bodies, the first step toward telepathy, extended memory (through accessed central databases), and full-time on-demand personal communication and network services.
We humans are taking control of our own evolution.
Given this, cell phone use can indeed be thought of as a right, a right to the use of our own bodies and our own "networks." The power to interfere with these new abilities has draconian potential indeed.
P.S. I don't have one of the damn things and never will.
And if you do blurt some flase, please clean it up yourself.
It isn't necessary for 100% of users to look at the code in order to test its safety. If only 10% or 1% of the community do, then it's still better than closed-source. The rest of us just have to listen to the gurus. After all, you don't expect 100% of users to write their own code do you?
Is delegate more work to the people below me who are getting paid to do it. If you don't have that authority then you shouldn't be salary anyway.
A hundred years from now hoity-toity real-estate agents in Nantucket will be touting the scenic view of the picturesque Nantucket Sound wind-mill farm in their hoity-toity brochures.
Religion does not necesarily equal morality. I'd rather not have Jerry Falwell/Pat Robertson have a say in what happens to MY genes.
Will using Microsoft's TP violate their IP?