I have nothing in principle against a one-way mission to Mars, but we have to realise that it's much more important to develop strong AI and advanced nanotech as soon as possible. When we have them, a trip to Mars would be as simple for any human as a trip to the mall is today.
Wasting money on manned space exploration when nanotech research is underfunded (and no matter how much we spend, it is still less than we should) is stupid. Of course, spending money on Iraq invasion is even more so...
I don't believe this necessarily creates consumer confusion. If I am searching for Playboy, but Penthouse wants to show me an ad - fine. They want to persuade me that their magazine is better than Playboy. Isn't that legitimate? Aren't companies supposed to be fighting for us, customers?
And if Penthouse wants to show their ad each time someone searches for Playboy, why the hell not? Trademarks were supposed to do a very simply thing - let the customer be sure that the product A is always made by the company X (unless they sell their brand or sell a division, or are acquired - suddenly nobody cares about consumer confusion, consumers be damned). This doesn't mean fucking losers own the word Playboy. They only own the exculsive right to call adult-related materials with that word. An ad for Penthouse doesn't usually confuse an adult person (unless it purposefully does), so it must be permitted.
P.S. Not that I care about any shit Playboy is pushing, whatever it is, fuck them very much.
>Most of the data was probably fake. I can see all around >that the standard of living is higher today then it was >before the fall of communism. First, to say that most data was fake is an oversimplification. Although in many cases the data was phony, rarely was it faked outright, because the consequences could be serious, and because valid data was actually necessary for the planning. Second, even the Soviet statistics of questionable quality are much better than personal anekdotes. Third, the Soviet data is largely irrelevant to our discussion. What is relevant is the modern Russian statistics, some of it collected independently from the state. And these data shows that average income, average consumption, average retail sales, pretty much any such indicator is lower today than it was in 1991 and most people would agree that in late 1980s the situation was worsening, leading to the conclusion that in 1980 it was much better than today. Quod erat demonstrandum.
You have the money, that's great. I have the money too. But I was never in need in Soviet time either. Still, it is important to realise that the majority of people in Russia (I guess, it would be the same in Ukraine - after all, the GDP per capita is half of Russian) are much poorer than me.
>To be honest, no. I think people drunk a lot more. That's the problem. You think.:) But hard data shows that consumption of alcohol in mid-nineties was 18 l per capita (more than in 1970s or 1980s) and in 2002 it was 10 l per capita, compared with 13 in 1980, 10 in 1970 and 7 in 1990 (after the anti-alcohol campaign).
I like being free too, but I realise I cannot be free if my mind is overcome with myths. I have to open my eyes to the truth - the country is fucked up, people lives are shit and it is not really changing to the better in any significant way. At the same time I live in comfort, have high-speed Internet, spend my time as I want, can choose between interesting well-paid jobs and can lead a relaxed lifestyle. But I do not deceive myself that everyone is just as well-off.
This time I should ask you to stop lying to yourself. Learn to make a distinction between your personal life and the average for your country/region/city.
Thanks, AC, now it makes more sense. But still, I am confused how they can lose something they never had in the first place.:) It's not like there was a huge market for American pop that was somehow destroyed by evil pirates. It's just that people are poor and they are not buying expensive stuff. If pirated content is available, that helps drive up penetration for players. When players are relatively widely available, people can eventually be persuaded to buy licensed media.
I mean, if you look at RIAA/MPAA figures for Russia, you would see steady growth all the way. Every year some film sets a new record for gross ticket sales (now it can be as high as $5-7 millions), DVD/CD sales are up as well.
>I really don't care if I'm rich or poor if I can't spend my >money to buy things I need. I need to wipe my ass. Now I >can walk in to supermarket and buy what I need instead of >having to spend all day searching for it. A completly Good point about spending too much time searching. But the truth is that there are many things people in the US can't buy now, like dental services. Yes, in market economy there is no apparent deficit, because when you don't have money, it's not counted as a deficit. In planned economies, prices were fixed, so sometimes deficits would occure. Inefficiencies were very real, I admit, especially in the late 1980s, when our beloved leaders were driving the economy into the ground. Still, overall according to all available data, people were better off then.
>prosaic thing like sugar or meat was almost impossible to >find back then, so you could have all the money you needed >and it would be completly useless. Now you simply don't have the money. Same result.
>And if you were to compare black market prices the "REAL >INCOMES" look a lot better today. Good point about real incomes. But the truth is that consumption of most food groups, like milk, chocolate, meat, etc. decreased in 1990s, sometimes by as much as 70%.
>If the US was just to print out money and at the same time >by means of a presidential decree freeze prices, would any >sane person claim that the people in US are richer? No. But would any sane person claim that the people in the US are poorer? It doesn't really matter how much money is there, it matters how much stuff is produced. It just happens so that today we produce less stuff per capita in Russia than we used to in the USSR.
>I don't know how your parents got all that, and with out >knowing I'm not going to pass any judgment, but most of >those things like a flat or a TV were very hard to get >without being a party member. Well, mother's parents bought her a flat. Where they got a TV, I don't remember. I just spent a few minutes and found out that every year 11 million TVs were made in the USSR. Not too bad for a 300 million country, considering that today we have 0.42 TVs per capita in Russia and in Soviet time TV was still a relatively new technology. Yes, not everyone had a TV, but it wasn't something that only party members got. And to think of it, may be we were actually better off having less TVs?:) You know, more time to read the books, have a walk, etc.
BTW, how old are you and where do you currently live?
>No, won't "stop" lying anymore then I'm going to "stop" >beating my wife or "stop" enriching uranium. Well, for a second I thought this might work.;)
I wasn't very much optimised for any system (it was Doom3 alpha that was optimised for ATI Radeon 9700). Yes, ATI cards currently run HL2 better than NVidia, but if you read my post, you would knew that even GeForce Ti4200 ran the game at 25+ FPS with 4xAA and medium-details.
Huge chunks were missing, all right, but he could see how well the very much hyped features pan out. He thought that the hype was not warranted. Please also note that the delay of the game increases our expectations. Since May 2003, when HL2 was first shown, we saw Max Payne 2, Prince of Persia, Deus Ex 2 and many other graphically cool games. Yes, HL2 will probably have great story and gameplay, but it, apparently, is not something unbelievably good we were led to believe it will be.
See my answer to GeckoX regarding inequality in present Russia. It is absolutely obvious that the situation in USSR was much much better than what we have today. I am very well informed about perks that the nomenclatura received, but you must realise that almost everyone had the perks, although less impressive. Everyone, from the last janitor to the Secretary General had access to beach homes (or resorts and sanatoriums), the difference was only in quantity and quality, but noone could own these beach homes. The elite had limos, but I could drive in almost the same car (same brand, twice as cheap, probably, not as well maintained) when I was coming home from the weekend with grandparents. And everyone could become a member of the elite. Witness our Russian Presidents - Yeltsin and Putin, both of them made their way from the very bottom all by themselves (I don't like them, but it's not like they came from a rich clan such as Kennedys, Clintons or Bushes).
Our capitalism sucks not because of communism. Actually the decades of communism are what still keeps our economy alive for the 12th year already without any significant capital expenditures on infrastructure. The depreciation of bridges, railroads, power plants, heating systems, manufacturing equipment and everything else can be as high as 50-80%. The only reason we still have power, gas, hot water, etc. is that the USSR built all that.
And finally, if you would read my original post, you would notice how I use the word "socialism". I am very well aware of the difference. And I am looking forward to a real communist society somewhere around 2015-2020 (thanks to robotics, nanotech, AI, etc.). Europe is already on its way, now the US and Asia need to catch up and then hopefully they will help the Russia, remembering that it was our country that tried to build it first.:)
Please, Gecko, put the numbers back where you took them from.:)
From here Earnings Gap: Canada - 3.7, USA - 4.6, Sweden - 2.2. It is defined as the "ratio of the top to bottom 10% (i.e. top of 9th decile to top of 1st decile of earners).
As I said before, in Moscow it is 43. Russian average is 14.6, but if you exclude Moscow from the statistics, it will probably drop to around 5-8. But 43 is simply not right, especially when you consider that Moscow has 8+ million population...
Well, that again proves that intelligence is not an inherited trait...
My father was a professor too (not sure when he became one, probably in the 1990-s) and believe me, our family lived ok under socialism. We had a decent (although small) flat and eventually bought a larger one, we at much better food than today (even though we are much richer now), we didn't have fancy clothes, but we didn't wear rags either. We didn't have a car, but taxis were more affordable then today and public transportation was quite good. We had a TV, although a computer was out of the question for obvious reasons (in 1980s they weren't so populat in the USA either).
And as I said, the REAL INCOMES (which means PPP adjusted for inflation, changes in the consumer basket, etc.) are less today than in 1991 (and in 1991 they were less than in 1980s). So an average person is worse off today, not "a lot better". The matter of 150$ is moot, because rouble was not convertible in Soviet time.
And computers arrived not because capitalism is better than socialism, but because Intel made them so much cheaper. And TVs were in most people's houses 20 years ago and even earlier. Yeah, and the lack of toilet paper does not mean everyone was poor, it simply means that with fixed prices you might have deficit. If we had a market economy at that time, the price would simply jump 10 times so that demand would equal supply, although the total amount of paper consumed would remain the same.
First of all, my comment about BestBuy was purely mathematical. To the best of my knowledge, the probability of a random piece of software sold in BestBuy containing spyware, malware or viruses is approximately the same as the probability of a random pirated CD sold in Moscow to contain the same, give or take a few percentage points.
Second, most companies explicitly disclaim all liability and while this might not help them in case of malware, it surely protects them in case of spyware and viruses. Even dialers appear to be legal.
Third, CC numbers theft is illegal and prosecuted everywhere, including Russia. If you were a pirate company selling CDs with malware, you would very soon be paid a visit from the R-department, since it's extremely easy to track a CD. Of course, individual people might attempt to disguise malware as warez, but that can no more turn pirates into criminals, than a burglar masquarading as a plumber can make all plumbers criminals.
Turning back to the real pirates (not criminals disguising as pirates), there is another reason why they don't do basty stuff. They have a business and they have a reputation. If they print a CD with malware, distributors won't trust them next time. So they will wreck their successful and profitable business for no apparent reason. Microsoft is known to regularly break the law, but that doesn't mean they are completely reckless - they won't murder Linus Torvalds, for instance, even though they are criminals. People usualy break one law - they one they are best at breaking.:) Even drug dealers would not usually murder people left and right.
First, nobody stole Valve's property, even though their PR guys jumped out of their pants to prove otherwise. Repeat after me: the delay of HL2 release is not caused by someone depriving Valve of its source code. I.e. that was not stealing. It was unauthorised access to data/information/software. And yes, hacking into someone's system is a crime in most places, so those guys probably were criminals.
But pirates are not hackers, and the hacker didn't do that to make money on stolen code. So pirates do not do anything criminal. Some of them break the copyright law, some of them don't. In some countries distributing leaked alpha is not illegal. But even if it was against the law, it is a civil offence, not a criminal one. And pirate companies are very well aware of this distinction. Most pirates in Russia play taxes (not all taxes, but then, again, noone here pays all taxes), they create jobs, they provide infrastructure for the IT economy, etc. They do not steal CC numbers, they do not spam, they do not sell drugs and they do not kill kittens... As I said, pirates are not criminals.
Yeah, you're probably right, noone is at fault here, or, rather, the whole system is at fault. But it is in our human nature to try to blame someone.:)
You are nuts! Tell me, how piracy of a leaked demo in Russia is killing sales of music labels in the US???
1) this is no more a replacement for the full game than a demo, people will still buy the final product 2) this is Russia, where 75% of the population earns less than 150$/month 3) this is a game, not music
Nobody is passing the game for the final version. Most of the salesmen would tell you outright that this is a demo/alpha/beta/not a final product, and even those who would not tell you (because they assume you already know that) would answer the direct question. And, BTW, most would also be happy to exchange the disks for anything else for a small 1$/CD fee (applies to almost all disks).
Actually the best way to live "normally" was to live normally. E.g. be a scientist, an engineer, a teacher, a worker, etc. During the 70+ years of socialism in Russia there have been many periods when average quality of life could be favourably compared with Western Europe.
And now, when we have capitalism and free market in Russia, average real incomes are lower than in 1991, 75% of people have monthly income less than 150$, a nurse in a maternity hospital gets measly 25$/month, the richest 10% in Moscow earn 43 (!!!!) time more than the poorest 10%, and you are here on Slashdot speaking about how bad communism was! Get a fucking clue!
I know you are joking (you said that yourself), but it's a myth that pirated software is likely to steal your CC numbers.
In more than a decade of buying pirated software only twice I had an infected disk and never ever had seen or heard about any spyware or malware on a pirated CD (other than Real Player or MS Windows).
Pirates are normal companies with normal distribution networks - you are just as likely to buy spyware in BestBuy as from pirates. So please, stop spreading misinformation.
There is plenty of misinformation and hearsay in regards to the sales of HL2 in Russia. The best weapon to combat the rumours are the facts, and here they are.
1) The authors of the article on GamesRadar is stupid. The game was on sale in Russia basically since October, when it was leaked. And it wasn't sold in Novosibirsk only, but pretty much everywhere.
2) The author of the page about Ukraine is a complete idiot. I don't even want to comment on all the stupidity he wrote there.
3) The game has a couple of playable levels, including textures, models, AI, everything. Of course, it doesn't yet form a coherent story, but as far as I know, it includes all demoed levels, among others.
4) Here is one of several reviews of Half-Life 2 alpha version: http://www.3dnews.ru/games/half-life2-alfa/. It's in Russian, but you can look at screenshots, or use the fish. Among other things, the reviewer says that the graphics are not revolutionary, despite the hype and cool videos. There is no per-pixel lightning and no realistic destruction physics (like in Silent Storm), e.g. indestructable boxes, etc. Water is pretty cool, though. On Athlon 2500+ with GeForce Ti4200 the game runs at 22-35FPS in 1024x768x32 with average details and 4xAA. Overall the reviewer thinks that the final version would be good, but not as good as we were led to believe.
5) The game doesn't collect your CC numbers, Mr. Fortunato. Despite what one may think, pirates are not criminals.
6) Doom3 alpha also was/is on sale pretty much everywhere in Russia. Still, nobody risks buying it believing it's a real deal, because the most sellers would always specifically warn you that it is just an alpha and everyone would say that when asked.
It's not simple. You assume that a random lawyer has more experience dealing with GPL violations then some of the slashdotters. It is probably not true.
Your advice is similar to "ask a sales clerk" in response to "what wireless card is better for Linux on G5 laptop?". He is asking for personal experience, not for legal advice.
Not to mention that lawyers cost money and are not necessarily necessary, as there are many ways to deal with the violation informally.
The accuracy is extremely low if even one such patent comes through. This is analogous to a gynaecologist missing a pregancy in a woman with a huge belly and all the rest of the symptoms. This is called a royal screw-up and should lead to a serious inquiry into how that crap could happen, and what needs to be done for it to never ever happen again.
I know this is going to sound wrong but I really hope Network Solutions and Register.com lose this and then file for bankruptcy.
Even though this group of f*ckwits tries to screw people more than NS and R.com, the patent system is even worse. And until the majority understands that it was horribly broken a long time ago, nothing will change.
We need much more stupid patent lawsuits. Bring it on!
Well, if we are to believe the decades worth of financial theory developments, the concerns of the shareholders are largely irrelevant. It has been shown that rational investors should always diversify unsystematic risk anyway and the systematic risk (how much the stock reacts to overall market fluctuations) is directly related to returns.
So what managers should do is simply invest in projects with postitive NPV. The whole American system of shareholder relations has horribly gone wrong, in my opinion.
The shareholders don't want them taking risks with their money. I had better opinion about American shareholders. I thought in the country with the most developed stock market in the world people would appreciate theories like CAPM better. If you want safe returns, buy Treasure bonds, or at least invest in index funds. If you want high returns, realise that you pay with higher risks for them. And if you want high returns with low risks, you need to find a company you believe in, where managers are excellent at identifying new attractive money making opportunities. And that means let them RISK if they know their shit!
Also, maybe you should try to be a little less mean spirited in your replies.
Good point. Though my style varies depending on how many luddite posts I read before replying.:) Still, sorry for being too harsh.
Regarding the main point, first and foremost, I don't think there is anything wrong with being a cyborg. Just think for a moment - where are you getting your cyborg-related ideas from? My bet would be on sci-fi books and movies. Am I right? If so, than you must realise that the authors had very little reason to be objective and all the reasons to be entertaining. There are very few authors who tactfully handled this issue, very few books which were nautral and matter-of-factual towards the cyborgisation. Too much attention was paid to how cyborgs would be different and too little to how they would be the same (in a good sense). So if your concerns about it are really based on fiction, better think again about the pros and cons.
Next, your partially (or overall) positive attitude towards tech doesn't mean you are not at all a luddite. The people led by Ned Ludd in early 19th century might have been extremely positive towards such exciting developments as steam locomotive, city lighting, photography, battery but would like engineers and scientists to leave the textile industry alone, thank you very much. So, excuse me, but you still look very much like a luddite, and there is no principal difference between you and christian fundamentalist opposing stem cells research. Because of your personal beliefs (cyborgs are BAD) you oppose the technological developments. I don't like that, but the worst thing is that you are doing this because you are not informed very well.:(
BTW, Dictionary.com, which I used to look up the years when luddites first appeared, had a very fitting ad:
Don't you think it would be great if we had instant access to Dictionary.com and thousands of other reference sources? Would that make us inhuman? Should we stop trying to do that? Even though some people like the idea?
Another great example not mentioned by anyone yet is the excellent Opera Internet browser. It isn't always rewritten from scratch, but overall there are enough changes in each new major version to make it almost unusable, at least to me. Every time a new version (3.0, 5.0, 6.0, 7.0) is rolled out, many little things no longer work as they did, and sometimes they are clearly and unequivocally broken.
Before I knew better, I used to download the release versions (not betas or RCs), but each and every time I ended up uninstalling the new version and switching back. It usually took more than a month and about 10 updates for a new version to reach relative maturity. Witness 3.21, 6.05, 7.20, only these versions could be considered better than their predecessors in all respects. With version 7 I succumbed at about 7.1, but next time I will really know better and not even consider Opera 8, until there have been a month without updates.:)
On a more serious note, I think there is moment of maturity in many every product's lifetime, a moment when new features could no longer justify an upgrade (other things, such as compatibility, being equal).
Slashdot Mirror
I have nothing in principle against a one-way mission to Mars, but we have to realise that it's much more important to develop strong AI and advanced nanotech as soon as possible. When we have them, a trip to Mars would be as simple for any human as a trip to the mall is today.
Wasting money on manned space exploration when nanotech research is underfunded (and no matter how much we spend, it is still less than we should) is stupid. Of course, spending money on Iraq invasion is even more so...
I don't believe this necessarily creates consumer confusion. If I am searching for Playboy, but Penthouse wants to show me an ad - fine. They want to persuade me that their magazine is better than Playboy. Isn't that legitimate? Aren't companies supposed to be fighting for us, customers?
And if Penthouse wants to show their ad each time someone searches for Playboy, why the hell not? Trademarks were supposed to do a very simply thing - let the customer be sure that the product A is always made by the company X (unless they sell their brand or sell a division, or are acquired - suddenly nobody cares about consumer confusion, consumers be damned). This doesn't mean fucking losers own the word Playboy. They only own the exculsive right to call adult-related materials with that word. An ad for Penthouse doesn't usually confuse an adult person (unless it purposefully does), so it must be permitted.
P.S. Not that I care about any shit Playboy is pushing, whatever it is, fuck them very much.
>Most of the data was probably fake. I can see all around
:) But hard data shows that consumption of alcohol in mid-nineties was 18 l per capita (more than in 1970s or 1980s) and in 2002 it was 10 l per capita, compared with 13 in 1980, 10 in 1970 and 7 in 1990 (after the anti-alcohol campaign).
>that the standard of living is higher today then it was
>before the fall of communism.
First, to say that most data was fake is an oversimplification. Although in many cases the data was phony, rarely was it faked outright, because the consequences could be serious, and because valid data was actually necessary for the planning. Second, even the Soviet statistics of questionable quality are much better than personal anekdotes. Third, the Soviet data is largely irrelevant to our discussion. What is relevant is the modern Russian statistics, some of it collected independently from the state. And these data shows that average income, average consumption, average retail sales, pretty much any such indicator is lower today than it was in 1991 and most people would agree that in late 1980s the situation was worsening, leading to the conclusion that in 1980 it was much better than today. Quod erat demonstrandum.
You have the money, that's great. I have the money too. But I was never in need in Soviet time either. Still, it is important to realise that the majority of people in Russia (I guess, it would be the same in Ukraine - after all, the GDP per capita is half of Russian) are much poorer than me.
>To be honest, no. I think people drunk a lot more.
That's the problem. You think.
I like being free too, but I realise I cannot be free if my mind is overcome with myths. I have to open my eyes to the truth - the country is fucked up, people lives are shit and it is not really changing to the better in any significant way. At the same time I live in comfort, have high-speed Internet, spend my time as I want, can choose between interesting well-paid jobs and can lead a relaxed lifestyle. But I do not deceive myself that everyone is just as well-off.
This time I should ask you to stop lying to yourself. Learn to make a distinction between your personal life and the average for your country/region/city.
Thanks, AC, now it makes more sense. But still, I am confused how they can lose something they never had in the first place. :) It's not like there was a huge market for American pop that was somehow destroyed by evil pirates. It's just that people are poor and they are not buying expensive stuff. If pirated content is available, that helps drive up penetration for players. When players are relatively widely available, people can eventually be persuaded to buy licensed media.
I mean, if you look at RIAA/MPAA figures for Russia, you would see steady growth all the way. Every year some film sets a new record for gross ticket sales (now it can be as high as $5-7 millions), DVD/CD sales are up as well.
>I really don't care if I'm rich or poor if I can't spend my
:) You know, more time to read the books, have a walk, etc.
;)
>money to buy things I need. I need to wipe my ass. Now I
>can walk in to supermarket and buy what I need instead of
>having to spend all day searching for it. A completly
Good point about spending too much time searching. But the truth is that there are many things people in the US can't buy now, like dental services. Yes, in market economy there is no apparent deficit, because when you don't have money, it's not counted as a deficit. In planned economies, prices were fixed, so sometimes deficits would occure. Inefficiencies were very real, I admit, especially in the late 1980s, when our beloved leaders were driving the economy into the ground. Still, overall according to all available data, people were better off then.
>prosaic thing like sugar or meat was almost impossible to
>find back then, so you could have all the money you needed
>and it would be completly useless.
Now you simply don't have the money. Same result.
>And if you were to compare black market prices the "REAL
>INCOMES" look a lot better today.
Good point about real incomes. But the truth is that consumption of most food groups, like milk, chocolate, meat, etc. decreased in 1990s, sometimes by as much as 70%.
>If the US was just to print out money and at the same time
>by means of a presidential decree freeze prices, would any
>sane person claim that the people in US are richer?
No. But would any sane person claim that the people in the US are poorer? It doesn't really matter how much money is there, it matters how much stuff is produced. It just happens so that today we produce less stuff per capita in Russia than we used to in the USSR.
>I don't know how your parents got all that, and with out
>knowing I'm not going to pass any judgment, but most of
>those things like a flat or a TV were very hard to get
>without being a party member.
Well, mother's parents bought her a flat. Where they got a TV, I don't remember. I just spent a few minutes and found out that every year 11 million TVs were made in the USSR. Not too bad for a 300 million country, considering that today we have 0.42 TVs per capita in Russia and in Soviet time TV was still a relatively new technology. Yes, not everyone had a TV, but it wasn't something that only party members got. And to think of it, may be we were actually better off having less TVs?
BTW, how old are you and where do you currently live?
>No, won't "stop" lying anymore then I'm going to "stop"
>beating my wife or "stop" enriching uranium.
Well, for a second I thought this might work.
I wasn't very much optimised for any system (it was Doom3 alpha that was optimised for ATI Radeon 9700). Yes, ATI cards currently run HL2 better than NVidia, but if you read my post, you would knew that even GeForce Ti4200 ran the game at 25+ FPS with 4xAA and medium-details.
Huge chunks were missing, all right, but he could see how well the very much hyped features pan out. He thought that the hype was not warranted. Please also note that the delay of the game increases our expectations. Since May 2003, when HL2 was first shown, we saw Max Payne 2, Prince of Persia, Deus Ex 2 and many other graphically cool games. Yes, HL2 will probably have great story and gameplay, but it, apparently, is not something unbelievably good we were led to believe it will be.
See my answer to GeckoX regarding inequality in present Russia. It is absolutely obvious that the situation in USSR was much much better than what we have today. I am very well informed about perks that the nomenclatura received, but you must realise that almost everyone had the perks, although less impressive. Everyone, from the last janitor to the Secretary General had access to beach homes (or resorts and sanatoriums), the difference was only in quantity and quality, but noone could own these beach homes. The elite had limos, but I could drive in almost the same car (same brand, twice as cheap, probably, not as well maintained) when I was coming home from the weekend with grandparents. And everyone could become a member of the elite. Witness our Russian Presidents - Yeltsin and Putin, both of them made their way from the very bottom all by themselves (I don't like them, but it's not like they came from a rich clan such as Kennedys, Clintons or Bushes).
:)
Our capitalism sucks not because of communism. Actually the decades of communism are what still keeps our economy alive for the 12th year already without any significant capital expenditures on infrastructure. The depreciation of bridges, railroads, power plants, heating systems, manufacturing equipment and everything else can be as high as 50-80%. The only reason we still have power, gas, hot water, etc. is that the USSR built all that.
And finally, if you would read my original post, you would notice how I use the word "socialism". I am very well aware of the difference. And I am looking forward to a real communist society somewhere around 2015-2020 (thanks to robotics, nanotech, AI, etc.). Europe is already on its way, now the US and Asia need to catch up and then hopefully they will help the Russia, remembering that it was our country that tried to build it first.
Please, Gecko, put the numbers back where you took them from. :)
From here
Earnings Gap: Canada - 3.7, USA - 4.6, Sweden - 2.2. It is defined as the "ratio of the top to bottom 10% (i.e. top of 9th decile to top of 1st decile of earners).
As I said before, in Moscow it is 43. Russian average is 14.6, but if you exclude Moscow from the statistics, it will probably drop to around 5-8. But 43 is simply not right, especially when you consider that Moscow has 8+ million population...
Well, that again proves that intelligence is not an inherited trait...
My father was a professor too (not sure when he became one, probably in the 1990-s) and believe me, our family lived ok under socialism. We had a decent (although small) flat and eventually bought a larger one, we at much better food than today (even though we are much richer now), we didn't have fancy clothes, but we didn't wear rags either. We didn't have a car, but taxis were more affordable then today and public transportation was quite good. We had a TV, although a computer was out of the question for obvious reasons (in 1980s they weren't so populat in the USA either).
And as I said, the REAL INCOMES (which means PPP adjusted for inflation, changes in the consumer basket, etc.) are less today than in 1991 (and in 1991 they were less than in 1980s). So an average person is worse off today, not "a lot better". The matter of 150$ is moot, because rouble was not convertible in Soviet time.
And computers arrived not because capitalism is better than socialism, but because Intel made them so much cheaper. And TVs were in most people's houses 20 years ago and even earlier. Yeah, and the lack of toilet paper does not mean everyone was poor, it simply means that with fixed prices you might have deficit. If we had a market economy at that time, the price would simply jump 10 times so that demand would equal supply, although the total amount of paper consumed would remain the same.
So please, would you stop lying? Thanks.
First of all, my comment about BestBuy was purely mathematical. To the best of my knowledge, the probability of a random piece of software sold in BestBuy containing spyware, malware or viruses is approximately the same as the probability of a random pirated CD sold in Moscow to contain the same, give or take a few percentage points.
:) Even drug dealers would not usually murder people left and right.
Second, most companies explicitly disclaim all liability and while this might not help them in case of malware, it surely protects them in case of spyware and viruses. Even dialers appear to be legal.
Third, CC numbers theft is illegal and prosecuted everywhere, including Russia. If you were a pirate company selling CDs with malware, you would very soon be paid a visit from the R-department, since it's extremely easy to track a CD. Of course, individual people might attempt to disguise malware as warez, but that can no more turn pirates into criminals, than a burglar masquarading as a plumber can make all plumbers criminals.
Turning back to the real pirates (not criminals disguising as pirates), there is another reason why they don't do basty stuff. They have a business and they have a reputation. If they print a CD with malware, distributors won't trust them next time. So they will wreck their successful and profitable business for no apparent reason. Microsoft is known to regularly break the law, but that doesn't mean they are completely reckless - they won't murder Linus Torvalds, for instance, even though they are criminals. People usualy break one law - they one they are best at breaking.
First, nobody stole Valve's property, even though their PR guys jumped out of their pants to prove otherwise. Repeat after me: the delay of HL2 release is not caused by someone depriving Valve of its source code. I.e. that was not stealing. It was unauthorised access to data/information/software. And yes, hacking into someone's system is a crime in most places, so those guys probably were criminals.
But pirates are not hackers, and the hacker didn't do that to make money on stolen code. So pirates do not do anything criminal. Some of them break the copyright law, some of them don't. In some countries distributing leaked alpha is not illegal. But even if it was against the law, it is a civil offence, not a criminal one. And pirate companies are very well aware of this distinction. Most pirates in Russia play taxes (not all taxes, but then, again, noone here pays all taxes), they create jobs, they provide infrastructure for the IT economy, etc. They do not steal CC numbers, they do not spam, they do not sell drugs and they do not kill kittens... As I said, pirates are not criminals.
Yeah, you're probably right, noone is at fault here, or, rather, the whole system is at fault. But it is in our human nature to try to blame someone. :)
You are nuts! Tell me, how piracy of a leaked demo in Russia is killing sales of music labels in the US???
1) this is no more a replacement for the full game than a demo, people will still buy the final product
2) this is Russia, where 75% of the population earns less than 150$/month
3) this is a game, not music
Nobody is passing the game for the final version. Most of the salesmen would tell you outright that this is a demo/alpha/beta/not a final product, and even those who would not tell you (because they assume you already know that) would answer the direct question. And, BTW, most would also be happy to exchange the disks for anything else for a small 1$/CD fee (applies to almost all disks).
Actually the best way to live "normally" was to live normally. E.g. be a scientist, an engineer, a teacher, a worker, etc. During the 70+ years of socialism in Russia there have been many periods when average quality of life could be favourably compared with Western Europe.
And now, when we have capitalism and free market in Russia, average real incomes are lower than in 1991, 75% of people have monthly income less than 150$, a nurse in a maternity hospital gets measly 25$/month, the richest 10% in Moscow earn 43 (!!!!) time more than the poorest 10%, and you are here on Slashdot speaking about how bad communism was! Get a fucking clue!
I know you are joking (you said that yourself), but it's a myth that pirated software is likely to steal your CC numbers.
In more than a decade of buying pirated software only twice I had an infected disk and never ever had seen or heard about any spyware or malware on a pirated CD (other than Real Player or MS Windows).
Pirates are normal companies with normal distribution networks - you are just as likely to buy spyware in BestBuy as from pirates. So please, stop spreading misinformation.
The original joke by Yakov Smirnoff:
e =in+soviet +russia
In Los Angeles, you can always find a party. In Soviet Russia, the Party can always find YOU!
Further reading:
http://www.everything2.com/index.pl?nod
http://www.wikipedia.org/wiki/Laugh-In
There is plenty of misinformation and hearsay in regards to the sales of HL2 in Russia. The best weapon to combat the rumours are the facts, and here they are.
1) The authors of the article on GamesRadar is stupid. The game was on sale in Russia basically since October, when it was leaked. And it wasn't sold in Novosibirsk only, but pretty much everywhere.
2) The author of the page about Ukraine is a complete idiot. I don't even want to comment on all the stupidity he wrote there.
3) The game has a couple of playable levels, including textures, models, AI, everything. Of course, it doesn't yet form a coherent story, but as far as I know, it includes all demoed levels, among others.
4) Here is one of several reviews of Half-Life 2 alpha version: http://www.3dnews.ru/games/half-life2-alfa/. It's in Russian, but you can look at screenshots, or use the fish. Among other things, the reviewer says that the graphics are not revolutionary, despite the hype and cool videos. There is no per-pixel lightning and no realistic destruction physics (like in Silent Storm), e.g. indestructable boxes, etc. Water is pretty cool, though. On Athlon 2500+ with GeForce Ti4200 the game runs at 22-35FPS in 1024x768x32 with average details and 4xAA. Overall the reviewer thinks that the final version would be good, but not as good as we were led to believe.
5) The game doesn't collect your CC numbers, Mr. Fortunato. Despite what one may think, pirates are not criminals.
6) Doom3 alpha also was/is on sale pretty much everywhere in Russia. Still, nobody risks buying it believing it's a real deal, because the most sellers would always specifically warn you that it is just an alpha and everyone would say that when asked.
It's not simple. You assume that a random lawyer has more experience dealing with GPL violations then some of the slashdotters. It is probably not true.
Your advice is similar to "ask a sales clerk" in response to "what wireless card is better for Linux on G5 laptop?". He is asking for personal experience, not for legal advice.
Not to mention that lawyers cost money and are not necessarily necessary, as there are many ways to deal with the violation informally.
The accuracy is extremely low if even one such patent comes through. This is analogous to a gynaecologist missing a pregancy in a woman with a huge belly and all the rest of the symptoms. This is called a royal screw-up and should lead to a serious inquiry into how that crap could happen, and what needs to be done for it to never ever happen again.
I know this is going to sound wrong but I really hope Network Solutions and Register.com lose this and then file for bankruptcy.
Even though this group of f*ckwits tries to screw people more than NS and R.com, the patent system is even worse. And until the majority understands that it was horribly broken a long time ago, nothing will change.
We need much more stupid patent lawsuits. Bring it on!
Well, if we are to believe the decades worth of financial theory developments, the concerns of the shareholders are largely irrelevant. It has been shown that rational investors should always diversify unsystematic risk anyway and the systematic risk (how much the stock reacts to overall market fluctuations) is directly related to returns.
So what managers should do is simply invest in projects with postitive NPV. The whole American system of shareholder relations has horribly gone wrong, in my opinion.
The shareholders don't want them taking risks with their money.
I had better opinion about American shareholders. I thought in the country with the most developed stock market in the world people would appreciate theories like CAPM better. If you want safe returns, buy Treasure bonds, or at least invest in index funds. If you want high returns, realise that you pay with higher risks for them. And if you want high returns with low risks, you need to find a company you believe in, where managers are excellent at identifying new attractive money making opportunities. And that means let them RISK if they know their shit!
Also, maybe you should try to be a little less mean spirited in your replies.
:) Still, sorry for being too harsh.
:(
Good point. Though my style varies depending on how many luddite posts I read before replying.
Regarding the main point, first and foremost, I don't think there is anything wrong with being a cyborg. Just think for a moment - where are you getting your cyborg-related ideas from? My bet would be on sci-fi books and movies. Am I right? If so, than you must realise that the authors had very little reason to be objective and all the reasons to be entertaining. There are very few authors who tactfully handled this issue, very few books which were nautral and matter-of-factual towards the cyborgisation. Too much attention was paid to how cyborgs would be different and too little to how they would be the same (in a good sense). So if your concerns about it are really based on fiction, better think again about the pros and cons.
Next, your partially (or overall) positive attitude towards tech doesn't mean you are not at all a luddite. The people led by Ned Ludd in early 19th century might have been extremely positive towards such exciting developments as steam locomotive, city lighting, photography, battery but would like engineers and scientists to leave the textile industry alone, thank you very much. So, excuse me, but you still look very much like a luddite, and there is no principal difference between you and christian fundamentalist opposing stem cells research. Because of your personal beliefs (cyborgs are BAD) you oppose the technological developments. I don't like that, but the worst thing is that you are doing this because you are not informed very well.
BTW, Dictionary.com, which I used to look up the years when luddites first appeared, had a very fitting ad:
Supersize your brain (tm)
Subscribe to Dictionary.com Premium for exclusive features & services!
Don't you think it would be great if we had instant access to Dictionary.com and thousands of other reference sources? Would that make us inhuman? Should we stop trying to do that? Even though some people like the idea?
Another great example not mentioned by anyone yet is the excellent Opera Internet browser. It isn't always rewritten from scratch, but overall there are enough changes in each new major version to make it almost unusable, at least to me. Every time a new version (3.0, 5.0, 6.0, 7.0) is rolled out, many little things no longer work as they did, and sometimes they are clearly and unequivocally broken.
:)
Before I knew better, I used to download the release versions (not betas or RCs), but each and every time I ended up uninstalling the new version and switching back. It usually took more than a month and about 10 updates for a new version to reach relative maturity. Witness 3.21, 6.05, 7.20, only these versions could be considered better than their predecessors in all respects. With version 7 I succumbed at about 7.1, but next time I will really know better and not even consider Opera 8, until there have been a month without updates.
On a more serious note, I think there is moment of maturity in many every product's lifetime, a moment when new features could no longer justify an upgrade (other things, such as compatibility, being equal).