Jesse Jackson Jr has missed the point. It's doesn't matter where the iPad is made. The iPad is a success because Americans have the ability to purchase an IPad. If we didn't, China would have a glut of iPads. He's obviously playing to his home crowd and getting ready for a re-election bid.
Why is the solution to every problem of the Information Age a benevolent Google dictatorship?
Because in the 30s, the universal solution was a benevolent Federal dictatorship. The corporations evolved and took control of this dictatorship. Now these new college created corporations came online and are changing things again. The question is, will the old corporations evolve again to take control of the new dictatorship?
Before you start crying, remember this funds the military pension system. No retired vets don't have an independent pension fund like other federal employees. Expect this to stay high after the troops come home from Afghanistan. You'll see why in a minute.
We purchase a lot with our military: 1. Freedom of Navigation. 2. "Show the flag" operations (parking a carrier battle group off someone's coast) has a huge impact on geopolitics. We opened Japan with Teddy Roosevelt's Great White Fleet. 3. Humanitarian relief - The US military has more airlift, sea lift, and medical personnel under its command than the entirety of several modern nations, and this capability is assumed by our allies and organizations like the UN and NATO. All of this spending creates and maintains millions of high paying jobs around the nation. Ask anyone in California who went though the draw down in the early 90s how much the Bush/Clinton Peace Dividend impacted this state's economy.
See why we spend so much on our military? In a single department we stimulate the economy (with war), create (war) jobs, and get generate good will for our country. I think you'll find bi-partisan support for this going at least as far back as Woodrow Wilson.
Health Care, Job and Family Security, and Education and Job Training are all designed to reshape the United States. This is the Great Society/Welfare State, and the total percentage is 51%. Are we getting our money's worth? Anyone who grew up watching 20/20 would disagree.
Entitlement spending. Add Social Security (7%), Medicate (about 3%), Health Care (24.3%), Veterans Benefits (4.1%) and you get 45.8% of all payroll taxes. I'm probably leaving a few things out. Oh Defense spending is 26% of income taxes or 10% of all payroll taxes, and we have the most powerful and the most capable military on Earth.
Science, Space, and Technology is 1.2%. Health Research and Food Safety is 1.5%. Disease Control is 1%. So hard science that is largely free of politics is 3.7%. I don't expect this to change. Even corporations are moving research and development overseas.
Agriculture.8% Why we're pretending that small farmers still exist is beyond me. Last time I checked the was the growing Farmers Market movement, not federal subsidy that was turning the tide on GM Foods and the food industry that's feeding us processed bone meal as cheap chicken patties. Watch Jamie Oliver's show on ABC or Hulu for proof. If anything, the mega corps that run most of the nation are the ones collecting most of this subsidy as the independent farmers either quit, sold out, or were forced out when I was in Jr High.
Response to Natural Disasters - in no way does this cover what we spend on clean up. Most of what we spend to rebuild people's homes on flood plains comes from "emergency spending." It comes from debt. Ignore this figure.
Net interest. This is what we pay on all non-social security public debt. Those federal Savings Bonds you got when you were 7? Yeah this is the cost. We're also paying interest on loans we obtained from other countries to pay for things we want but can't afford. Right now that's the wars in the middle east and baby boomer entitlements. The first we can retard or limit, but not without impacting millions of private sector jobs. The latter we're powerless to change as the gray and blue haired citizens are the largest voting block and they wants what they were promised not matter the long term cost.
We've had confirmations for years. I still say this is the cheapest way to keep our true tech level a secret from the rest of the world. This is a self-feeding conspiracy theory.
If M$ plans to ditch the current interface and Windows Phone-ize the interface, it will be the most disruptive change in the business world since the adoption of the GUI.
Attractive as a cross platform OS might be, this isn't an OS that scales well. M$ has made a few mistakes in the past - Vista, ME, etc - let's hope M$ doesn't go the wrong way again. What will happen to the PC gaming industry?
Would you want some grizzled-too-early looking guy writing your code? Not me!
Now seriously, doesn't it make more sense to do some research before plunking down your cash? Use the best tool for the job. My Mac is aces for video editing and processing. The *nix core lets me use scripting where Windoze requires an application. Linux makes the best server, a darn fine phone OS, and has utilities that are just a pain in the neck to assemble on any other machine. Windoze will always be great for gaming and general purpose computing.
If you program, your machine type depends on which platform you program for. Linux for Linux. OSX for OSX. Windows for Windows. Seriously, who among us owns the one machine? When was the last time you held you digital life on a single hard drive? Were you wondering why you never saw Alanis Morissette's face in her videos?
Personally, I think the dude's article is kinda humorous.
I grew up watching the occasional Dr Who on PBS...the original BBC America. I think it would be hard to watch the low production values today. Stick with the current series starting with Christopher Eccleston in 2004. The production values are much, much higher and the stories aren't serialized. When I was a kid, you'd need an entire afternoon to get though three major plot points. Now, you get a story you can enjoy then move on with your life.
Watch this series before trying out Torchwood. Things will make a lot more sense if you do. Torchwood is a spin off of the 2004 re-launch.
I have a different proposal. Let the Fed switch to IPv6, thus encouraging others to follow along. The President could issue an executive order to the Executive Branch mandating IPv6 support without getting approval from Congress. What does Congress care if the equipment uses IPv6, IPv4, IPX, etc? Most of these old people can barely type. I'm sure they will investigate, but what's a Congress without dozens of pointless, televised witch hunts?
Yes, the cost is huge. Here's how to blunt the expense: implement by targeting obsolete equipment. Run it on a few non-public facing networks as a pilot (12 months) then use your lessons learned to deploy on all other federal networks. By a simple matter of capitalist inertia, these initial equipment purchases drive down the cost of IPv6 hardware. Give it a 5 year implementation schedule (politicians like those). By then the world will have caught up.
As for consumer gear, there are three requirements. 1. Write candy-coated open firmware web interfaces for the less technically inclined. 2. Get retailers to sponsor a few "recycle the planet" events. 3. Hand out DVDs showing people how to install open firmware gear. Use slightly above average looking presenters.
I know Slahdot readers use open firmware capable hardware whenever possible so the transition will be easy for us.
Did you ask your ISP why they blocked port 25? What does your service agreement say about hosting your own servers?
It's time for engagement with your provider, rather than trying to find a hack to bypass their security. Look up what port your ISP is using for POP access. Assuming it's port 25, ask them why they didn't block port 25 on themselves.
Buy cross platform compatible hardware, but they do have a point.
I do wonder about the "lack of functionality, usability, and interoperability" claims. If you phase in the back end items: databases, web servers, file sharing, and LDAP then implement standards compliant replacement information stores and better looking front end client applications most users will scarcely notice the change. You could even keep Windows on the desktop. Microsoft Office is still king, and Open Office lacks the click-for-click interface cloning that stymies the average user.
1. We don't have year round school. I grew up hearing a lot of techer complains, one of them being that kids loose so much on summer vacation. Everyone else works 12 months out of the year, why shouldn't teachers? You'll have higher pay and kids won't come back in September with an empty and unused brain.
2. Our nation is content to "get by." From Social Security to highways, we're a nation that loves to squeak by. National defense gets a bigger slice of the federal pie because defense spending creates millions of civilian jobs and is an important progressive foreign policy tool.
3. Fear. Who want's to take the risk that goes with dangerous subjects like chemistry, or shop class?
4. Politics. We've always had some kind of set cirrculum. Standarized tests are what is currently en vogue. Europeans have all kinds of standardized tests. A few European nations don't bother education kids past the age of 14 - your butt is shipped off to an apperticeship or trade school. Oh, and they're kicking our butts.
5. Institutional bitching. Another frequent complaint from my childhood was "oh Fairfax county gets all the grants because they hire people to write grants." Bullshit. My high school's drafting teacher was nearly fired for writing his own grant to modernize his classroom after being refused formal permission by the school board several times. Maybe your school sucks because the institution wants it to suck. Maybe your teachers expect everything handed to them by the system. Either way, it's a corporate attitude that has to end.
6. Lowest common denominator. Rember the "bell curve?" Well it's the product of a system that on the one hand needs a child's butt in the classroom to obtain funding, and on the other hand is pressured to move that child through the system regardless of how well that child performs in the classroom. It created a system that neither motivates the child or compells the teacher to reach out to the child that isn't skilled at rote learning.
7. Unrealistic expectations. Standardized tests grew out of a desire to obtain accountability over how taxpayer dollars are spent on compulsory education. Teaching is the only profession where accountability is treated as an insult to the profession. You shouldn't expect better schools or better pay when the taxpayer has little motivation to give you the funding.
8. Politicans. Our leaders enjoy nearly unlimited power over out lives because we are poorly educated. Starting in the 19th century, compulsory schooling was invented to train kids from the farm to work in factories. This created the "factory school model," and it's largely the same model we use in modern schools. The biggest change being the inclusion of teams in the classroom. So it's the "cubicle school model." The desired result is the same: an adult who has a bare minimum of skills needed to be a compliant worker, tax payer, and voter.
Know what's even sadder? The fact that the same people use Social Security as a "cookie jar" as the same people we're supposed to trust with health care reform.
If science has become about "good enough" statistical analysis then many of our scientific truths are actually scientific "truths."
We have far to many politically motivated scientific "research" and paid for "reports" and "studies" that amount to Photoshop Science. Shouldn't we demand more from scientists so we can discredit the "scientists?"
My last two cell phones used micro-USB. What I want is a non-special cable multi device USB charging solution! Why should I pay extra for cables when I have perfectly good and generic Male USB-A to Male Micro USB-B format cable that I can buy in several retail stores?
Slashdot Mirror
It will be the greatest system ever devised!
Provided it doesn't cost too much, or impact jobs.
Jesse Jackson Jr has missed the point. It's doesn't matter where the iPad is made. The iPad is a success because Americans have the ability to purchase an IPad. If we didn't, China would have a glut of iPads. He's obviously playing to his home crowd and getting ready for a re-election bid.
Imagine what this project could become if every LibreOffice fan and user gave the project $100 to develop this platform.
Why is the solution to every problem of the Information Age a benevolent Google dictatorship?
Because in the 30s, the universal solution was a benevolent Federal dictatorship. The corporations evolved and took control of this dictatorship. Now these new college created corporations came online and are changing things again. The question is, will the old corporations evolve again to take control of the new dictatorship?
Here's how things really break down:
26.3% on National Defense.
Before you start crying, remember this funds the military pension system. No retired vets don't have an independent pension fund like other federal employees. Expect this to stay high after the troops come home from Afghanistan. You'll see why in a minute.
We purchase a lot with our military: 1. Freedom of Navigation. 2. "Show the flag" operations (parking a carrier battle group off someone's coast) has a huge impact on geopolitics. We opened Japan with Teddy Roosevelt's Great White Fleet. 3. Humanitarian relief - The US military has more airlift, sea lift, and medical personnel under its command than the entirety of several modern nations, and this capability is assumed by our allies and organizations like the UN and NATO. All of this spending creates and maintains millions of high paying jobs around the nation. Ask anyone in California who went though the draw down in the early 90s how much the Bush/Clinton Peace Dividend impacted this state's economy.
See why we spend so much on our military? In a single department we stimulate the economy (with war), create (war) jobs, and get generate good will for our country. I think you'll find bi-partisan support for this going at least as far back as Woodrow Wilson.
Health Care, Job and Family Security, and Education and Job Training are all designed to reshape the United States. This is the Great Society/Welfare State, and the total percentage is 51%. Are we getting our money's worth? Anyone who grew up watching 20/20 would disagree.
Entitlement spending. Add Social Security (7%), Medicate (about 3%), Health Care (24.3%), Veterans Benefits (4.1%) and you get 45.8% of all payroll taxes. I'm probably leaving a few things out. Oh Defense spending is 26% of income taxes or 10% of all payroll taxes, and we have the most powerful and the most capable military on Earth.
Science, Space, and Technology is 1.2%. Health Research and Food Safety is 1.5%. Disease Control is 1%. So hard science that is largely free of politics is 3.7%. I don't expect this to change. Even corporations are moving research and development overseas.
Agriculture .8% Why we're pretending that small farmers still exist is beyond me. Last time I checked the was the growing Farmers Market movement, not federal subsidy that was turning the tide on GM Foods and the food industry that's feeding us processed bone meal as cheap chicken patties. Watch Jamie Oliver's show on ABC or Hulu for proof. If anything, the mega corps that run most of the nation are the ones collecting most of this subsidy as the independent farmers either quit, sold out, or were forced out when I was in Jr High.
Response to Natural Disasters - in no way does this cover what we spend on clean up. Most of what we spend to rebuild people's homes on flood plains comes from "emergency spending." It comes from debt. Ignore this figure.
Net interest. This is what we pay on all non-social security public debt. Those federal Savings Bonds you got when you were 7? Yeah this is the cost. We're also paying interest on loans we obtained from other countries to pay for things we want but can't afford. Right now that's the wars in the middle east and baby boomer entitlements. The first we can retard or limit, but not without impacting millions of private sector jobs. The latter we're powerless to change as the gray and blue haired citizens are the largest voting block and they wants what they were promised not matter the long term cost.
Just think, we'll be ready for the first alien invasion as the first planet bombs hit the Earth.
link
We've had confirmations for years. I still say this is the cheapest way to keep our true tech level a secret from the rest of the world. This is a self-feeding conspiracy theory.
Until there's a wave detonation engine powered car Jeremy Clarkson can talk crap about, I won't believe it.
What a shame. Groklaw is one of the few places you could go for unbiased news on our industry, and the patent trolls that plague it.
So Groklaw is dead. Long live a new groklaw anyone?
If M$ plans to ditch the current interface and Windows Phone-ize the interface, it will be the most disruptive change in the business world since the adoption of the GUI.
Attractive as a cross platform OS might be, this isn't an OS that scales well. M$ has made a few mistakes in the past - Vista, ME, etc - let's hope M$ doesn't go the wrong way again. What will happen to the PC gaming industry?
I bought a cheapie netbook. I'm trying this out now with Ubuntu Alternate. Should be interesting on the Atom based piggie.
Would you want some grizzled-too-early looking guy writing your code? Not me!
Now seriously, doesn't it make more sense to do some research before plunking down your cash? Use the best tool for the job. My Mac is aces for video editing and processing. The *nix core lets me use scripting where Windoze requires an application. Linux makes the best server, a darn fine phone OS, and has utilities that are just a pain in the neck to assemble on any other machine. Windoze will always be great for gaming and general purpose computing.
If you program, your machine type depends on which platform you program for. Linux for Linux. OSX for OSX. Windows for Windows. Seriously, who among us owns the one machine? When was the last time you held you digital life on a single hard drive? Were you wondering why you never saw Alanis Morissette's face in her videos?
Personally, I think the dude's article is kinda humorous.
I grew up watching the occasional Dr Who on PBS...the original BBC America. I think it would be hard to watch the low production values today. Stick with the current series starting with Christopher Eccleston in 2004. The production values are much, much higher and the stories aren't serialized. When I was a kid, you'd need an entire afternoon to get though three major plot points. Now, you get a story you can enjoy then move on with your life.
Watch this series before trying out Torchwood. Things will make a lot more sense if you do. Torchwood is a spin off of the 2004 re-launch.
They must be SO embarrassed!
I went Debian, then Ubuntu years ago and I've never been happier.
If you believe the transformers new movie, the cybertronians crash landed there centuries ago.
I think we'll find undead vampire zombies myself!
I have a different proposal. Let the Fed switch to IPv6, thus encouraging others to follow along. The President could issue an executive order to the Executive Branch mandating IPv6 support without getting approval from Congress. What does Congress care if the equipment uses IPv6, IPv4, IPX, etc? Most of these old people can barely type. I'm sure they will investigate, but what's a Congress without dozens of pointless, televised witch hunts?
Yes, the cost is huge. Here's how to blunt the expense: implement by targeting obsolete equipment. Run it on a few non-public facing networks as a pilot (12 months) then use your lessons learned to deploy on all other federal networks. By a simple matter of capitalist inertia, these initial equipment purchases drive down the cost of IPv6 hardware. Give it a 5 year implementation schedule (politicians like those). By then the world will have caught up.
As for consumer gear, there are three requirements. 1. Write candy-coated open firmware web interfaces for the less technically inclined. 2. Get retailers to sponsor a few "recycle the planet" events. 3. Hand out DVDs showing people how to install open firmware gear. Use slightly above average looking presenters.
I know Slahdot readers use open firmware capable hardware whenever possible so the transition will be easy for us.
Did you ask your ISP why they blocked port 25? What does your service agreement say about hosting your own servers?
It's time for engagement with your provider, rather than trying to find a hack to bypass their security. Look up what port your ISP is using for POP access. Assuming it's port 25, ask them why they didn't block port 25 on themselves.
Buy cross platform compatible hardware, but they do have a point.
I do wonder about the "lack of functionality, usability, and interoperability" claims. If you phase in the back end items: databases, web servers, file sharing, and LDAP then implement standards compliant replacement information stores and better looking front end client applications most users will scarcely notice the change. You could even keep Windows on the desktop. Microsoft Office is still king, and Open Office lacks the click-for-click interface cloning that stymies the average user.
1. We don't have year round school. I grew up hearing a lot of techer complains, one of them being that kids loose so much on summer vacation. Everyone else works 12 months out of the year, why shouldn't teachers? You'll have higher pay and kids won't come back in September with an empty and unused brain.
2. Our nation is content to "get by." From Social Security to highways, we're a nation that loves to squeak by. National defense gets a bigger slice of the federal pie because defense spending creates millions of civilian jobs and is an important progressive foreign policy tool.
3. Fear. Who want's to take the risk that goes with dangerous subjects like chemistry, or shop class?
4. Politics. We've always had some kind of set cirrculum. Standarized tests are what is currently en vogue. Europeans have all kinds of standardized tests. A few European nations don't bother education kids past the age of 14 - your butt is shipped off to an apperticeship or trade school. Oh, and they're kicking our butts.
5. Institutional bitching. Another frequent complaint from my childhood was "oh Fairfax county gets all the grants because they hire people to write grants." Bullshit. My high school's drafting teacher was nearly fired for writing his own grant to modernize his classroom after being refused formal permission by the school board several times. Maybe your school sucks because the institution wants it to suck. Maybe your teachers expect everything handed to them by the system. Either way, it's a corporate attitude that has to end.
6. Lowest common denominator. Rember the "bell curve?" Well it's the product of a system that on the one hand needs a child's butt in the classroom to obtain funding, and on the other hand is pressured to move that child through the system regardless of how well that child performs in the classroom. It created a system that neither motivates the child or compells the teacher to reach out to the child that isn't skilled at rote learning.
7. Unrealistic expectations. Standardized tests grew out of a desire to obtain accountability over how taxpayer dollars are spent on compulsory education. Teaching is the only profession where accountability is treated as an insult to the profession. You shouldn't expect better schools or better pay when the taxpayer has little motivation to give you the funding.
8. Politicans. Our leaders enjoy nearly unlimited power over out lives because we are poorly educated. Starting in the 19th century, compulsory schooling was invented to train kids from the farm to work in factories. This created the "factory school model," and it's largely the same model we use in modern schools. The biggest change being the inclusion of teams in the classroom. So it's the "cubicle school model." The desired result is the same: an adult who has a bare minimum of skills needed to be a compliant worker, tax payer, and voter.
Know what's even sadder? The fact that the same people use Social Security as a "cookie jar" as the same people we're supposed to trust with health care reform.
Take a look at the "about us" page: UNXIS - About Us
M.I.C.K.E.Y. M.O.U.S.E. - who want's to sing along?
If science has become about "good enough" statistical analysis then many of our scientific truths are actually scientific "truths."
We have far to many politically motivated scientific "research" and paid for "reports" and "studies" that amount to Photoshop Science. Shouldn't we demand more from scientists so we can discredit the "scientists?"
My last two cell phones used micro-USB. What I want is a non-special cable multi device USB charging solution! Why should I pay extra for cables when I have perfectly good and generic Male USB-A to Male Micro USB-B format cable that I can buy in several retail stores?
Well we've been using it for a while in Sweden and it's pretty cold up here. No problems so far.
But how is your heater powered? If it's electric, okay. If it's form the engine's cooling system, maybe not.