Assuming you had one through, say, a good six years in the Marine Corps Reserve, along with an associate's degree in computer programming, what jobs might be available?
I don't think the EU has the authority to do what almost happened in the U.S. - company breakup. Placing a set tax on the company would have to be high enough to hurt *and* come with a stipulation to keep the company from raising prices to subsidize the loss. Releasing the code for public use would do good, but I'm not sure if that's enough to affect Microsoft. Ordering the product removed from EU nations wouldn't hold up to even *my* scrutiny, let alone a European court. Order European representatives of Microsoft thrown in jail until conditions are met?
In the end, I had do decide what was best for competition and consumers in Europe. I believe they will be better served with a decision that creates a strong precedent.
It is essential to have a precedent which will establish clear principles for the future conduct of a company with such a strong dominant position in the market.
In short: You will be made an example.
OUCH.
First off, I'd like to thank Wired News for linking me a couple of days back regarding this, and Why War? for providing a way for me to get at these files.
Now, then, from a January 2002 memo titled, Nearterm AVTS 4.x roadmap, discussing the classification of a major update as a bugfix:
What good are rules unless you can bend them now and again.
These are just the sort of people I want in charge of the machines that people vote on in my election. No, really. [/sarcasm]
See, the lobbyists' money allows the candidate to get larger and more powerful advertising out to the masses, which brings in a number of votes. This is weighed by the savvy (read: greedy, corrupt) politician against the loss of votes due to voters' disagreement with his choices on policy matters. So, ax - bx = c, where a is voters influenced by political ads, b is voters influenced by decisions on policy issues, x is the amount of leaning towards the lobbyists, and c is the net votes gained or lost by the policy decision. Add other factors, like the opposing candidate, other notable practices, party affiliation and affinity with the voting district, etc., etc., etc., and you come up with why Joe Senator decides not to vote like you told him to.
To reduce the effectiveness of lobbyists, therefore, simply increase b and reduce a.
Well, okay - seeing as it means educating voters and reducing apathy, it's not all that simple, but it's our only hope for a democracy that works. VOTE!
I would need to appreciate the coolness factor of uploading/downloading to and from a PDA with a wireless connection, when the computer's right there.
Yes, it's nice to investigate the technology, and there may be benefits if you're talking about downloading stuff from two or three different comptuers in the room. For the moment, though, this technology isn't useful enough to warrant my time, so the lawyers involved have my personal permission to haggle as long as their paychecks permit.
Microsoft, as much as I hate them, is everywhere. The agressive approach to converting people to Linux - forcing them onto Linux computers - isn't going to work all that well. People need to get over their fears of the alien OS, and, to do that, we need to co-exist, side-by-side, until that fateful moment when the M$ system crashes and we're the only one left running.
Seriously, Linux needs to be there in front of the common end-users' eyes for a while for them to start wanting to use it. That means Linux has to be able to work in Windows environments, and it will be graded based on how well it works with other Windows machines and server setups.
...to the link at the bottom of the editorial - http://eldred.cc - where a campaign to petition Congress to effectively add registration to patents over fifty years old is underway.
Granted, if they want to mess with anything below fifty years, they are on seriously shaky ground - a $1.00 tax isn't enough to be considered more than a formality, in my opinion. Still, just imagine how much stuff Disney will find itself dealing with on a yearly basis to keep all of its creations and movies locked from the public domain - even if they're a large enough corporation to deal with it.
To be completely honest, they've been doing a good job of tracking us anyway over the past decade. Of course, this is a bad thing, so it's nice to know that we won't have an electronic bulls' eye stuck on our package of Sam's Peanut Butter Cups for the time being.
Still, keep in mind that everything we buy with that special discount card from your local grocery store is linked to your name, address, telephone number, date of birth, annual salary, previous purchases, purchase trends, purchase times, and favorite cashiers. I would mind heavily if they didn't pay me for mine - of course, that's because I work at Meijer for mine, and I now have an associates' degree, so the tracking can be more easily rectified by finding a new job and leaving the 10% discount behind.
I would recommend finding tinfoil bags for your groceries soon, however.
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Assuming you had one through, say, a good six years in the Marine Corps Reserve, along with an associate's degree in computer programming, what jobs might be available?
...and you know what, folks? We are all *SO THERE*. ^____^
...Exhibit A: X-COM.
Sounds good to me.
So, then, the big, big, question:
I don't think the EU has the authority to do what almost happened in the U.S. - company breakup. Placing a set tax on the company would have to be high enough to hurt *and* come with a stipulation to keep the company from raising prices to subsidize the loss. Releasing the code for public use would do good, but I'm not sure if that's enough to affect Microsoft. Ordering the product removed from EU nations wouldn't hold up to even *my* scrutiny, let alone a European court. Order European representatives of Microsoft thrown in jail until conditions are met?
...okay, that one would be interesting....
In the end, I had do decide what was best for competition and consumers in Europe. I believe they will be better served with a decision that creates a strong precedent. It is essential to have a precedent which will establish clear principles for the future conduct of a company with such a strong dominant position in the market. In short: You will be made an example. OUCH.
Talk to Capcom about this one. They had this sweet, sweet game called, "Biohazard." Unfortunately, there was a rock band by the same name in the U.S.
So, here in the U.S., it was called, "Resident Evil." History was made.
First off, I'd like to thank Wired News for linking me a couple of days back regarding this, and Why War? for providing a way for me to get at these files.
Now, then, from a January 2002 memo titled, Nearterm AVTS 4.x roadmap, discussing the classification of a major update as a bugfix:
These are just the sort of people I want in charge of the machines that people vote on in my election. No, really. [/sarcasm]
See, the lobbyists' money allows the candidate to get larger and more powerful advertising out to the masses, which brings in a number of votes. This is weighed by the savvy (read: greedy, corrupt) politician against the loss of votes due to voters' disagreement with his choices on policy matters. So, ax - bx = c, where a is voters influenced by political ads, b is voters influenced by decisions on policy issues, x is the amount of leaning towards the lobbyists, and c is the net votes gained or lost by the policy decision. Add other factors, like the opposing candidate, other notable practices, party affiliation and affinity with the voting district, etc., etc., etc., and you come up with why Joe Senator decides not to vote like you told him to.
To reduce the effectiveness of lobbyists, therefore, simply increase b and reduce a.
Well, okay - seeing as it means educating voters and reducing apathy, it's not all that simple, but it's our only hope for a democracy that works. VOTE!
Personally, to make it relevant to myself:
Yes, it's nice to investigate the technology, and there may be benefits if you're talking about downloading stuff from two or three different comptuers in the room. For the moment, though, this technology isn't useful enough to warrant my time, so the lawyers involved have my personal permission to haggle as long as their paychecks permit.
I kinda wish that existed.
Microsoft, as much as I hate them, is everywhere. The agressive approach to converting people to Linux - forcing them onto Linux computers - isn't going to work all that well. People need to get over their fears of the alien OS, and, to do that, we need to co-exist, side-by-side, until that fateful moment when the M$ system crashes and we're the only one left running.
Seriously, Linux needs to be there in front of the common end-users' eyes for a while for them to start wanting to use it. That means Linux has to be able to work in Windows environments, and it will be graded based on how well it works with other Windows machines and server setups.
...to the link at the bottom of the editorial - http://eldred.cc - where a campaign to petition Congress to effectively add registration to patents over fifty years old is underway.
Granted, if they want to mess with anything below fifty years, they are on seriously shaky ground - a $1.00 tax isn't enough to be considered more than a formality, in my opinion. Still, just imagine how much stuff Disney will find itself dealing with on a yearly basis to keep all of its creations and movies locked from the public domain - even if they're a large enough corporation to deal with it.
To be completely honest, they've been doing a good job of tracking us anyway over the past decade. Of course, this is a bad thing, so it's nice to know that we won't have an electronic bulls' eye stuck on our package of Sam's Peanut Butter Cups for the time being.
Still, keep in mind that everything we buy with that special discount card from your local grocery store is linked to your name, address, telephone number, date of birth, annual salary, previous purchases, purchase trends, purchase times, and favorite cashiers. I would mind heavily if they didn't pay me for mine - of course, that's because I work at Meijer for mine, and I now have an associates' degree, so the tracking can be more easily rectified by finding a new job and leaving the 10% discount behind.
I would recommend finding tinfoil bags for your groceries soon, however.