The protoss can build all weapons using Dark Archons to mind control the builder units of other races. They can then build all the units of that species. Obviously we cannot allow this in the real world. We will likely get a BC, goon, guardian combo rush that will wipe us out no matter how much vespene we throw at them.
Eventually the underground malicious hackers and spammer hackers will get this info eventually. Why not get it out in the open so everyone can fix their stuff. These companies unfortunately are in a catch 22 situation. They can get embarrassed by having their exploits published or they can suffer failures of their products when they get infected with viruses. They gain nothing with this lawsuit except to publicize the fact that they aren't livng up to their word.
I am not against Excel being used as a database. I am against people doing stupid stuff that wastes my time. If they use Excel, that is fine with me, just don't make a pile of interlinked crap topped off with incomprehensible organization and bass ackward file management. People need to create an office standard so that anyone can pick up a job without 2 years of training to learn how some moron organized an excel database when they could be have been doing work.
You are right on. I work with spread sheets from time to time and Autocad. They both have a similar problem when you get a complicated project. Without a clear normalized data structure you end up making a mess. People end up linking documents in ways that are incomprehensible to anyone but the original author. In the end, sometimes even the original author has problems. Finding errors is impossible. This may work for small projects, but for large team based projects it is a nightmare. People don't think of it as a database, if they did it would probably be more organized. Often times people manhandle a quick fix, but that just makes matters worse in the end. It is a huge waste of time and leads to shoddy quality. The biggest Excel error I have seen was made by a contractor for a cool $1 million. What do you say to that? OOOPs, my bad!
Assume you are the Canopy group accountant, would you rather see SCO end this, or bleed all your remaining cash. At some point this lawsuit will become counterproductive to SCO. Even petty greed has limits. If the Canopy Group made $100 million off of this it would be stupid to spend $100 of their own money to fight IBM, and soon this is going to start coming out of their pocket. The pump and dump has already been executed, there is no reason to drag this out. Stick a fork in em, they're done!
You seem blinded by their claims and unwilling to delve into their dubious accomplishments.
How have you personally been harmed by the WTO. I would wager you don't go hungry, corporations probably aren't forcing you to work 18 hr days, you probably have health care, you probably have a decent education or access to one. Who are you speaking for other than yourself? Are you speaking for the poorest people in the world? Are you speaking for working people of the world? I don't think you do, I don't think you see the big picture. There are severe localized dislocations that result from free trade as our economy strips away jobs that can be better done in other countries, and the same thing happens around the world. That is extremely painful, and those effects can cause severe harm if not properly managed. The benefit we all gain by going through that process is that each community is then able to fully devote its resources to what it does best. In that scheme everyones output goes up dramatically, everyone is wealthier. In extremely poor countries that wealth provides for essential items which are literally a matter of life and death. The WTO has played an integral role in lowering trade barriers, a role no other nation or organization can carry out. Without the WTO we are left to only bilateral agreements, which have spotty and inconsistent results. We had an inconsistent patchwork of rules that favored some while severely penalizing others. The WTO levels that all out, making working across borders much easier, and trade rules much more reliable. It has take over 30 years to negotiate the WTO, it is as good a compromise as we can get. Since China joined the WTO their economy has grown about 10x, that is good for them, and it has been good for us in the big picture. Their dirt farmers making $2 a day now make $20 making shoes, and we get can buy shoes for half the cost. They are also much less likely to go to war with us and have incentives to work peacfully. Fifty years ago in Korea we were killing each other. The WTO is not perfect but it works. It is not a secret organization, they publish what they do, and it is open for anyone to read and the organization is run by member states similarly to the UN. UN delegates aren't elected either, they are appointed by each nation. The WTO does nothing to eforce wages or give advice on social organization it is purely a trade organization, nothing more.
As far as the IMF, you seem to be misinformed about its purpose. It is popular for white, privilidged, upper class, college educated kids to put on masks and get tear gassed and burn cars and smash windows, it is all an adventure to them to protest the IMF. I don't see very many poor people protesting the IMF, only rich white kids. The IMF was formed to take advantage of the power of international banking in order to alleviate poverty by giving loans to modernize infrastructure and to create economic capacity. They fund the building of roads, dams, bridges, power lines, hospitals, schools et cetera, all the things a poor country needs to take care of its people. They also give loans to keep economies from collapsing. An example of a collapsed economy is in Sierra Leone, Afghanistan or the Congo. The IMF has helped countries like the Phillipines, Korea, Malaysia, Brazil, Chile and many other countries and these countries are in better shape today than they were 50 years ago because of that. The IMF records are not secret, they are open.
Your comments sound great as buzz words, but if your ideas were put into practice the world economy would be harmed. If the world economy ceases to grow, people will starve, they will die of disease and there will be wars over resources. That is the bottom line reason we have to grow the world economy, it is a matter of necessity, not choice. There are a lot of harsh facts that most people in the world have to deal with, I don't accept your view that these organizations were designed to hurt people, they were designed with humanitarian purposes in mind.
What if you were to imagine software code as geometry instead of language from the start. Geometry can represent binary code just as well as written instructions in a theoretical sense. If you had a way to geometrically describe computer processes, diagrams which perform the actual processes rather than linguistic metaphors for for those processes, you could build software rather than write it. It is much easier to look at certain kinds of pictures to find things that do not match, than it is to look at lines of code which require you to retain in your memory the entire logical structure needed for that code to work. The geometry could be matched to an error handler and a benchmark program that could add color and texture so you could quickly see choke points, inneficiencies and stresses on the system. Programming could be like drawing a whirlygig or pocket watch mechanism with proportional levers, wheels, sprockets and springs that you could visually see the working mechanisms.
I don't misunderstand you, I disagree with you. What about the people who used to live on $1 or $2 a day who now earn $20 a day. A utopian democratic vision doesn't feed that persons kids. For many people the economy is a matter of life and death...literally. There are hundreds of millions of people in places like India, Vietnam, the Phillipines that have benefitted. They can afford rudimentary health care, basic education and nutritious food now. That is a major accomplishment. This is not an all or nothing situations where the IMF is 'evil incarnate' as opposed to some former glorious past where these things you decry never existed. Labor and environmental problems were far worse before the IMF and WTO were invented and life expectancy was shorter. There are problems for sure, but turning back the clock would be cruel to millions of people.
When they drop the price with games it means one of three things.
A). It sucks
B). It has run its course, it is outdated and a newer and better version should be coming out.
C). If it is too cheap it must not be worth buying.
The WTO is not a conspiracy. The WTO overall has been a positive influence and has been an effective force for opening up trade. Free trade has raised the incomes of billions of people. From textile workers in Vietnam to bankers on Wall Street, everyone makes a lot more money. Truly open markets allow the poorest people in the world to have more economic oportunities (something we do not have right now, we lock out most of the 3rd World). If we are unable to grow the world economy to meet population demands we are looking at a starvation and deprivation for millions of people on an unimaginable scale. I don't disagree that the farmers in Mexico and other people are being hurt and we need to help these people, but on the whole the world is better off with free trade.
Every country gets their say in the WTO, just like the UN, but its purpose isn't to make laws or be a government, its purpose is to lower trade barriers. I am sorry you feel the way you do about the WTO, I think you are wrong. We are in the middle of an economic revolution similar in some ways to the Industrial Revolution, I don't think it is fair to blame all the globalization problems of the world on the WTO, this is the natural result from radical and unstoppable shifts in the world economy do to technology advances.
I have never thought that hard core gambling was a good thing for society. The lottery isn't too bad, but Vegas style games have a powerful dark side. I used to live in St. Louis when they brought in Riverboat gambling. Soon after they made it legal, many of its loudest supporters changed their minds because the results weren't what they expected. The entire cultural scene was starved for cash because it all went to gambling. The jobs created were pathetic, and addicted gamblers replaced productive citizens. Gambling should stay in Vegas where it belongs. I don't think the WTO has a right to enforce selling gambling to the US, it is like selling alchohol to a Muslim country, it is a cultural practice and shouldn't be forced on us. For the record, I am not a Bush supporter, I am a Democrat. This WTO needs to be smarter, this isn't a winning issue for them.
The US military budget is greater than the next ten largest military budgets combined.
CORRECTION: Once you include the cost for Iraq, the US military budget is greater than all the worlds military budgets combined. The USA=$399 Billion plus the $75 to $100 billion in Iraq is to be determined; versus the rest of the world with at $463 billion.
IANAN (I am not a neurologist) but from what I know of the brain, it is a very adaptable organ and does the same thing in a number of different ways. These kinds of devices are not that much different from TV when you think about it. The only difference being you have a chance to interact and use your brainpower to move a virtual appendage, you can make a choice and you can act, unlike TV where it is pre-programmed. This will be like Pong for the brave new world we are all about to enter.
The downside of all of this...siezures. I've seen Johhny Mnemonic, I know what happens when people get too much digital stimulation.
Market share of what? All computers sold in a year? Follow that logic, if M$ has a slight decline in server market share that would mean they are dead! Don't get me wrong, market share is important, but not as important as making $$$$$. Also, Apple has a very strong and cool brand that many companies would kill for. It is way cooler to have an Apple product than a M$ product. Apple has a much better design ethic and produce much better products. M$ may be able to crank out technically workable gear but they got no sizzle, no funk...and therefore they suck.
As far as the ipod being a failure...what crack smoking fool thought that one up! It is the hottest player out there. It may well be true that the margins are not the same as other players, but being the best rarely means you crank out cheap crap you sell for a high price, it usually means you have the best goods.
This sounds like M$ FUD to me. They are all freaked out because Mac is taking over the music business, giving them an edge in the home user market. That threatens the M$ music and video technology. This all makes M$ look like a loser and nobody likes a loser. Apple makes M$ look bad.
For the most part, the insurance industry is highly competitive. Anyone who charges too high a rate gets dumped for a cheaper alternative. A mature insurance industry can accurately price risk. This will be a good way to protect yourself and for skittish management types this is an effective way to allay their fears for a reasonable cost. Should any IP issues arise, you know you are covered and the insurance company will pay out to fix your problems.
I imagine this kind of insurance will force higher standards and better copyright management of code. They won't insure anything unless it is as safe as possible. I wonder if this will force a consolidation among Linux distributions and much more extensive record keeping?
Nintendo is weak. I bet they could use support from the open source community to hold their own with X-Box and Playstation. If they went over to Linux, then you could have your game system with many popular titles on a single hardware package (no need for confusing installs), an outlet for open source game input, a cheap Linux entertainment center which could have basic home office download your digital picture potential and Tivo potential all rolled into a $199 box. Why fight the system when you can own the system.
Games couldn't hurt. Linux adoption is only held back on the desktop by a few factors. One is a lack of titles or home user applications. Another factor is user familiarity. A game platform can make people comfortable with Linux and knowledgeable about how it works. What if Nintendo were to switch to Linux? They could cut development costs to a fraction and harness opensource power. It could be a win win situation.
Slashdot Mirror
No...I don't have a sense of humor.
The original post should be modded (-10 TROLL) or perhaps (-5 Flamebait). It is a question designed to provoke a ridiculous response.
The protoss can build all weapons using Dark Archons to mind control the builder units of other races. They can then build all the units of that species. Obviously we cannot allow this in the real world. We will likely get a BC, goon, guardian combo rush that will wipe us out no matter how much vespene we throw at them.
Eventually the underground malicious hackers and spammer hackers will get this info eventually. Why not get it out in the open so everyone can fix their stuff. These companies unfortunately are in a catch 22 situation. They can get embarrassed by having their exploits published or they can suffer failures of their products when they get infected with viruses. They gain nothing with this lawsuit except to publicize the fact that they aren't livng up to their word.
I am not against Excel being used as a database. I am against people doing stupid stuff that wastes my time. If they use Excel, that is fine with me, just don't make a pile of interlinked crap topped off with incomprehensible organization and bass ackward file management. People need to create an office standard so that anyone can pick up a job without 2 years of training to learn how some moron organized an excel database when they could be have been doing work.
You are right on. I work with spread sheets from time to time and Autocad. They both have a similar problem when you get a complicated project. Without a clear normalized data structure you end up making a mess. People end up linking documents in ways that are incomprehensible to anyone but the original author. In the end, sometimes even the original author has problems. Finding errors is impossible. This may work for small projects, but for large team based projects it is a nightmare. People don't think of it as a database, if they did it would probably be more organized. Often times people manhandle a quick fix, but that just makes matters worse in the end. It is a huge waste of time and leads to shoddy quality. The biggest Excel error I have seen was made by a contractor for a cool $1 million. What do you say to that? OOOPs, my bad!
Assume you are the Canopy group accountant, would you rather see SCO end this, or bleed all your remaining cash. At some point this lawsuit will become counterproductive to SCO. Even petty greed has limits. If the Canopy Group made $100 million off of this it would be stupid to spend $100 of their own money to fight IBM, and soon this is going to start coming out of their pocket. The pump and dump has already been executed, there is no reason to drag this out. Stick a fork in em, they're done!
"the enemy of my enemy is my friend"
And don't fight a land war in Asia or a two front war...oops, been there done that.
You seem blinded by their claims and unwilling to delve into their dubious accomplishments.
How have you personally been harmed by the WTO. I would wager you don't go hungry, corporations probably aren't forcing you to work 18 hr days, you probably have health care, you probably have a decent education or access to one. Who are you speaking for other than yourself? Are you speaking for the poorest people in the world? Are you speaking for working people of the world? I don't think you do, I don't think you see the big picture. There are severe localized dislocations that result from free trade as our economy strips away jobs that can be better done in other countries, and the same thing happens around the world. That is extremely painful, and those effects can cause severe harm if not properly managed. The benefit we all gain by going through that process is that each community is then able to fully devote its resources to what it does best. In that scheme everyones output goes up dramatically, everyone is wealthier. In extremely poor countries that wealth provides for essential items which are literally a matter of life and death. The WTO has played an integral role in lowering trade barriers, a role no other nation or organization can carry out. Without the WTO we are left to only bilateral agreements, which have spotty and inconsistent results. We had an inconsistent patchwork of rules that favored some while severely penalizing others. The WTO levels that all out, making working across borders much easier, and trade rules much more reliable. It has take over 30 years to negotiate the WTO, it is as good a compromise as we can get. Since China joined the WTO their economy has grown about 10x, that is good for them, and it has been good for us in the big picture. Their dirt farmers making $2 a day now make $20 making shoes, and we get can buy shoes for half the cost. They are also much less likely to go to war with us and have incentives to work peacfully. Fifty years ago in Korea we were killing each other. The WTO is not perfect but it works. It is not a secret organization, they publish what they do, and it is open for anyone to read and the organization is run by member states similarly to the UN. UN delegates aren't elected either, they are appointed by each nation. The WTO does nothing to eforce wages or give advice on social organization it is purely a trade organization, nothing more.
As far as the IMF, you seem to be misinformed about its purpose. It is popular for white, privilidged, upper class, college educated kids to put on masks and get tear gassed and burn cars and smash windows, it is all an adventure to them to protest the IMF. I don't see very many poor people protesting the IMF, only rich white kids. The IMF was formed to take advantage of the power of international banking in order to alleviate poverty by giving loans to modernize infrastructure and to create economic capacity. They fund the building of roads, dams, bridges, power lines, hospitals, schools et cetera, all the things a poor country needs to take care of its people. They also give loans to keep economies from collapsing. An example of a collapsed economy is in Sierra Leone, Afghanistan or the Congo. The IMF has helped countries like the Phillipines, Korea, Malaysia, Brazil, Chile and many other countries and these countries are in better shape today than they were 50 years ago because of that. The IMF records are not secret, they are open.
Your comments sound great as buzz words, but if your ideas were put into practice the world economy would be harmed. If the world economy ceases to grow, people will starve, they will die of disease and there will be wars over resources. That is the bottom line reason we have to grow the world economy, it is a matter of necessity, not choice. There are a lot of harsh facts that most people in the world have to deal with, I don't accept your view that these organizations were designed to hurt people, they were designed with humanitarian purposes in mind.
What if you were to imagine software code as geometry instead of language from the start. Geometry can represent binary code just as well as written instructions in a theoretical sense. If you had a way to geometrically describe computer processes, diagrams which perform the actual processes rather than linguistic metaphors for for those processes, you could build software rather than write it. It is much easier to look at certain kinds of pictures to find things that do not match, than it is to look at lines of code which require you to retain in your memory the entire logical structure needed for that code to work. The geometry could be matched to an error handler and a benchmark program that could add color and texture so you could quickly see choke points, inneficiencies and stresses on the system. Programming could be like drawing a whirlygig or pocket watch mechanism with proportional levers, wheels, sprockets and springs that you could visually see the working mechanisms.
I don't misunderstand you, I disagree with you. What about the people who used to live on $1 or $2 a day who now earn $20 a day. A utopian democratic vision doesn't feed that persons kids. For many people the economy is a matter of life and death...literally. There are hundreds of millions of people in places like India, Vietnam, the Phillipines that have benefitted. They can afford rudimentary health care, basic education and nutritious food now. That is a major accomplishment. This is not an all or nothing situations where the IMF is 'evil incarnate' as opposed to some former glorious past where these things you decry never existed. Labor and environmental problems were far worse before the IMF and WTO were invented and life expectancy was shorter. There are problems for sure, but turning back the clock would be cruel to millions of people.
When they drop the price with games it means one of three things.
A). It sucks
B). It has run its course, it is outdated and a newer and better version should be coming out.
C). If it is too cheap it must not be worth buying.
Statistically, I will die dozens of times before even having the slimmest of a slightest chance of winning a state lottery
That is true. But until I got my going at work IRA that was my investment plan. Somebody has to win, it might as well be me!
It should be illegal to call a tax something other than a tax,
You are right, it is a tax, it is the 'Stupid Tax'.
The WTO is not a conspiracy. The WTO overall has been a positive influence and has been an effective force for opening up trade. Free trade has raised the incomes of billions of people. From textile workers in Vietnam to bankers on Wall Street, everyone makes a lot more money. Truly open markets allow the poorest people in the world to have more economic oportunities (something we do not have right now, we lock out most of the 3rd World). If we are unable to grow the world economy to meet population demands we are looking at a starvation and deprivation for millions of people on an unimaginable scale. I don't disagree that the farmers in Mexico and other people are being hurt and we need to help these people, but on the whole the world is better off with free trade.
Every country gets their say in the WTO, just like the UN, but its purpose isn't to make laws or be a government, its purpose is to lower trade barriers. I am sorry you feel the way you do about the WTO, I think you are wrong. We are in the middle of an economic revolution similar in some ways to the Industrial Revolution, I don't think it is fair to blame all the globalization problems of the world on the WTO, this is the natural result from radical and unstoppable shifts in the world economy do to technology advances.
When it gets up to $100 million I am one of those people paying 'the stupid tax' AKA, buying lottery tickets.
I have never thought that hard core gambling was a good thing for society. The lottery isn't too bad, but Vegas style games have a powerful dark side. I used to live in St. Louis when they brought in Riverboat gambling. Soon after they made it legal, many of its loudest supporters changed their minds because the results weren't what they expected. The entire cultural scene was starved for cash because it all went to gambling. The jobs created were pathetic, and addicted gamblers replaced productive citizens. Gambling should stay in Vegas where it belongs. I don't think the WTO has a right to enforce selling gambling to the US, it is like selling alchohol to a Muslim country, it is a cultural practice and shouldn't be forced on us. For the record, I am not a Bush supporter, I am a Democrat. This WTO needs to be smarter, this isn't a winning issue for them.
You have been exposed to "Charmed" and "Dawsons Creek"? You are the victims of weapons of mass destruction! My sympathies to you all.
The US military budget is greater than the next ten largest military budgets combined.
CORRECTION: Once you include the cost for Iraq, the US military budget is greater than all the worlds military budgets combined. The USA=$399 Billion plus the $75 to $100 billion in Iraq is to be determined; versus the rest of the world with at $463 billion.
IANAN (I am not a neurologist) but from what I know of the brain, it is a very adaptable organ and does the same thing in a number of different ways. These kinds of devices are not that much different from TV when you think about it. The only difference being you have a chance to interact and use your brainpower to move a virtual appendage, you can make a choice and you can act, unlike TV where it is pre-programmed. This will be like Pong for the brave new world we are all about to enter.
The downside of all of this...siezures. I've seen Johhny Mnemonic, I know what happens when people get too much digital stimulation.
Market share of what? All computers sold in a year? Follow that logic, if M$ has a slight decline in server market share that would mean they are dead! Don't get me wrong, market share is important, but not as important as making $$$$$. Also, Apple has a very strong and cool brand that many companies would kill for. It is way cooler to have an Apple product than a M$ product. Apple has a much better design ethic and produce much better products. M$ may be able to crank out technically workable gear but they got no sizzle, no funk...and therefore they suck.
As far as the ipod being a failure...what crack smoking fool thought that one up! It is the hottest player out there. It may well be true that the margins are not the same as other players, but being the best rarely means you crank out cheap crap you sell for a high price, it usually means you have the best goods.
This sounds like M$ FUD to me. They are all freaked out because Mac is taking over the music business, giving them an edge in the home user market. That threatens the M$ music and video technology. This all makes M$ look like a loser and nobody likes a loser. Apple makes M$ look bad.
For the most part, the insurance industry is highly competitive. Anyone who charges too high a rate gets dumped for a cheaper alternative. A mature insurance industry can accurately price risk. This will be a good way to protect yourself and for skittish management types this is an effective way to allay their fears for a reasonable cost. Should any IP issues arise, you know you are covered and the insurance company will pay out to fix your problems.
I imagine this kind of insurance will force higher standards and better copyright management of code. They won't insure anything unless it is as safe as possible. I wonder if this will force a consolidation among Linux distributions and much more extensive record keeping?
Nintendo is weak. I bet they could use support from the open source community to hold their own with X-Box and Playstation. If they went over to Linux, then you could have your game system with many popular titles on a single hardware package (no need for confusing installs), an outlet for open source game input, a cheap Linux entertainment center which could have basic home office download your digital picture potential and Tivo potential all rolled into a $199 box. Why fight the system when you can own the system.
It seems to me like those reasons apply to much more than gaming. Perhaps more standardization in general is needed.
They are developing for multiple platforms already. PC, Playstation, X-Box, Nintendo...why not add Linux.
Games couldn't hurt. Linux adoption is only held back on the desktop by a few factors. One is a lack of titles or home user applications. Another factor is user familiarity. A game platform can make people comfortable with Linux and knowledgeable about how it works. What if Nintendo were to switch to Linux? They could cut development costs to a fraction and harness opensource power. It could be a win win situation.