The capitalist economic system, with all its little trappings, is about war. That's why Sun Tzus book is one of the top selling books for executives.
What you are confusing is the Adam Smith style capitalism with the Monopolist practices of modern upper managment.
Capitalism isn't war, it's more like a race. Even though you are trying to win, there must be other competetors for there to be a race. Imagine Lance Armstrong tried to have a bike race where he was the only entrant. What would be the point?
That said, reading Sun Tzu would help you play the game of "Risk", but no-one would confuse a game with a real war.
We don't live in a Democracy, but we realize that Democracy is a good idea. (I'm talking about the US's Federalism) We don't live in a truely Capitalist system, but we realize Capitalism is a good idea.
As far as dropping out, go for it. Read Don Lancaster's "Incredible Secret Money Machine" for a method of dropping out while staying in the system, read old issues of "The Mother Earth News" for descriptions of people who have truely gone off grid and "dropped out".
Talk to you sales people first. They might decide to let a given account slide, just so they'll be able to sell version 1.1 or a completely new product that works with the old one.
Even a friendly reminder could make life difficult in the future for your sales people.
I work for a company that pays 90K a year for support for a product that is licenced on 7 machines for 5000 people. When we install it on a test server preparing for an upgrade, or the 5001th person uses the software, the company that sells that software doesn't care, because their sales people are always trying to make the next sale.
The problem is that *any* contact with the customer that might seem negative might get the accounting people looking into whether they really need the product at all, or whether a competitor's product might do the same job for less.
The sales folks are generally not very honest themselves. They have zero interest in keeping the clients honest, as long as they can extract the maximum amount of money from them. Ask yourself, do you want honest customers or high paying customers? The two might be mutually exclusive.
So, what Sony should do, is take $200,000,000 in small unmarked bills, throw it up in the air. All the money that God keeps would be payment for using His images, all the money that falls back to earth should be given back to Sony.
Interesting senerio: Imagine a world where she was guilty, and had to pay a fine. Every gift would come with fine print, and everytime two humans exchanged *anything*, they'd have to thumbstamp a contract. That's a plot right out of a "If this goes on" type of Science Fiction novel. We'd each have to carry an AI lawyer around, and rich people would trick others into signing away there organs. "I have 6 kidneys, 3 hearts and an extra spleen!" Society would grind to a halt, and eventually the last woman on earth (women live longer), wouldn't have anyone left to sign a contract with.
Better check the record books. I'm sure that this is the first heavier-than-air craft to do this. Unmanned ballons have stayed up for much longer and I sure a remote controlled Zepplin could stay up much longer.
The article says that it landed 54 hours later, but didn't specify where. If this thing doesn't have enough power to keep up with the winds above a city, it won't be much use as a satellite replacement. However if it can keep up and fly in circles above the weather it'd make an ideal replacement for communications satellites. If these can be made cheaply enough, they'd be the end-all of last mile broadband for rural areas.
Mr. Beckerman would be the expert here, but you are correct. Law is about 90% facts and 10% lottery. If you're being sued, and you're not 100% in the right, go for the Jury Trial. If you're a criminal, Jury Trial, definately. If you're completely in the right, and your lawyer knows the Judge is a good Judge, skip the jury, because it's easier to convince one knowledgable person than 12.
The Singularity refers to the creation of smarter-than-human intelligence beyond which the future becomes unpredictable.
As opposed to right now, when the future is really predictable...
With 99% certainty, tomorrow the sun will rise, I'll get out of bed and go to work. Even the possible changes to my routine, like death, nuclear war, being layed off, going on holiday, etc. are within certain narrow boundries. After the singularity, all bets are off. Death might be cured, some kid might create a superbug in his home laboratory that kill 99% of the human population, a robot might run for and win election to the Presidency, or we might all go insane things and will get really bad.
The point is "The Future" is usually easy to predict, that's why we have mutual funds, insurance, and fire departments. We know things will happen. It's hard to get specific, but after S-time, you won't even know what species you will be tomorrow.
Issac Asimov wrote almost as many Science books as Science Fiction. Among the best are "Asimov on Chemistry" and "Asimov and the realm of Algebra". The 2nd is so good that paperback versions sometimes sell for > $50 on eBay. (It's out of print) I read it in 8th grade at the beginning of
Algebra class and sailed through the rest of the year.
Wow, where have all the real geeks gone? Most of the replies are for Windows software. If you want bloat free stuff, look at grep, sed, tr, ls, true, false and their companions.
Surely you see the conflict of interest here. The rebate operation has no business with you, the customer, except that they have to mail you part of their lump sum if you mail in your goodies.
The solution to this is easy. Instead of outlawing rebates, congress should pass a Sarbanes-Oxley like law that makes it very expensive to do the acounting for rebates. The processing company should be criminally liable for not honoring rebates, and the original company should be on the hook if the outsourcer they hired goes bankrupt. Also, if a form isn't filled out correctly, they should use their dime to get the right information. A simple law like that would end all but the most expensive rebates.
(As a side note, look at automotive rebates. The last & only time I had one, I didn't have to fill out and send in anything, the dealership handled it. Why do the offer them then, you ask? Because they don't want to devalue their cars. Using a rebate you can sell the customer a $30,000 car for only $25,000 and the customer can still think he's driving a $30,000 car. If supply dries up, the car company can quietly reduce or end the rebate program, and make $30,000 on each car.
The finding lends promise to the idea that stem cells could one day be used to heal spinal cord injuries in humans, helping thousands of Canadians to walk again.
Is there something about Canadians that makes them more like rats than the rest of us? (or more likely to walk after this treatment?)
I was thinking the exact same thing, using something like a gamma knife. Gamma rays have a wavelength much smaller than cells, so you could use several beams to target individual cells. Each beam wouldn't be lethal, but when combined, they would kill the cell.
There are techniques using femto-second lasers to release the laser energy at a specific depth. Now, all you need is a femto-second gamma ray laser...
With old heavy duty, or alkaline batteries, the worst that could happen was usually a leak.
I've seen a case where a walki-talki had 8 new alkaline AA's and got wet. The short resulting from the moisture produced enough heat to melt the plastic battery comparment. It's not too far from there to imagine a short causing a fire.
The > 1 farad supercaps usually have an internal resistance that is enough to keep them from blowing up, but any high energy storage device should have a current limiter or fuse.
E.g, an even worse case was when in 1937 a pharma company offered a liquid antibiotic where the actual antibiotic wasn't solluble in water, but someone found out it was solluble in diethylene glycol [fda.gov], a deadly poison.
Interesting side note. In the movie "It's a Wonderful Life", George prevents the pharmacist from accidentally mixing a perscription with poison instead of the intended medicine. People often ask, "Why did a pharmacist keep poison on the shelf?" The answer might have been that the poison was intended for vermin, but in those days it was common to use poisonous substances to mix products that wouldn't normally mix. The dosage of the poison was supposed to be low enough that it wouldn't hurt the patient, but as we've found out, some people are more sensitive to poisons than others, or there may be long term consquences even thought you don't just drop dead. (Lead, Mercury and Arsenic poisoning are like this)
We all have our areas of ignorance. Ask any magician, or James Randi specifically, and he'll tell you that scientists are often the most easier people to fool, but young children are the most difficult. Most magic relies on the viewer expecting a particular outcome. The more intelligent you are, the more biased you are.
Regular myths, like poison in Halloween candy, or getting AIDS by *giving* blood, are easily dismissed by intelligent, thoughful people, but if there are even more intelligent people behind the myths, perpetuating them, then whole societies can get caught up in the myths. (That's why advertising works so well)
When Ken Thompson and Dennis Ritchie received the 1983 Turing Award, after their respective acceptance speeches, someone in the audience asked Ken what he would do differently with Unix if he were to do it all over again. He said, "I'd spell 'creat' with an 'e'."
Hear, Hear. One of the best classes I took at University was EE265/266, Digital Circuits, and the teacher, Dr. Dave Meyer wrote the textbook. The book was published through the Purdue publications and cost about $7.00 (yes, seven dollars) The book, "Little Bits of Digital Wisdom", was loose leaf binder type paper and was half done. During class, he would put up a slide of each page and fill int the rest of the information in a manner similar to what you describe in your post.
I worked with a contractor who was in the Air Force in the 1950's. While he was stationed in France the US put on an Air Show for Soviet Generals and Diplomats. He was complaining that we were showing them Top Secret stuff that would get him thrown in the brig or shot for divulging. The thing is, we were giving them controlled access to the capablities of our hardware so that the deterant would be effective. A nuclear deterance does no good if the other side is completly in the dark about what you have. They have to know what could happen to them if they were to attack first.
Another twist of the cold war was that the KGB was telling the politicians what they wanted to hear rather than the truth. Kruchev was told the US was on the brink of a military coup during the Cuban Missle Crisis, which was why he backed down. He was afraid the US Military would take over and really start WWIII.
Thank-you, well said. I've heard a few musicians say that 'perfect' pitch is actually a curse - due to equal temperament and the fact that concert pitch is a variable concept, those with that gift are likely to hear most of the music they listen to as out of tune.
It's much worse than that. As you age, your ears shift your pitch perception. This doesn't affect people with relative pitch, (good or bad), but for people with perfect pitch, it can make *everything* off pitch. One of the articles said that young people tested better at identifying pitches, if they studied the mistakes they should find some people who were perfectly wrong the same amount all the time.*
*IANAA. (I am not a Audiologist, but I used to work for one.)
Is it a new rule on/. that EVERY article has to include a comment featuring the tired, stale "overlords" joke?
Yes. What slashdot should do is have a link to the auto-joke creation page, where it takes the subject and automatically creates the Overlord, Beowolf, and in Soviet Russia jokes. Once those are taken care of by an AI, people won't feel the need to repeat them.
I for one welcome our Auto-Joke Creation Overlords, but imagine a Beowolf cluster of them. In Soviet Russia, the auto-joke creates you!!!
Slashdot Mirror
More importantly, even though the plot rotated around the MacGuffin (sometimes McGuffin or Maguffin), it has little other relevance to the story.
What you are confusing is the Adam Smith style capitalism with the Monopolist practices of modern upper managment.
Capitalism isn't war, it's more like a race. Even though you are trying to win, there must be other competetors for there to be a race. Imagine Lance Armstrong tried to have a bike race where he was the only entrant. What would be the point?
That said, reading Sun Tzu would help you play the game of "Risk", but no-one would confuse a game with a real war.
We don't live in a Democracy, but we realize that Democracy is a good idea. (I'm talking about the US's Federalism) We don't live in a truely Capitalist system, but we realize Capitalism is a good idea.
As far as dropping out, go for it. Read Don Lancaster's "Incredible Secret Money Machine" for a method of dropping out while staying in the system, read old issues of "The Mother Earth News" for descriptions of people who have truely gone off grid and "dropped out".
Talk to you sales people first. They might decide to let a given account slide, just so they'll be able to sell version 1.1 or a completely new product that works with the old one.
Even a friendly reminder could make life difficult in the future for your sales people.
I work for a company that pays 90K a year for support for a product that is licenced on 7 machines for 5000 people. When we install it on a test server preparing for an upgrade, or the 5001th person uses the software, the company that sells that software doesn't care, because their sales people are always trying to make the next sale.
The problem is that *any* contact with the customer that might seem negative might get the accounting people looking into whether they really need the product at all, or whether a competitor's product might do the same job for less.
The sales folks are generally not very honest themselves. They have zero interest in keeping the clients honest, as long as they can extract the maximum amount of money from them. Ask yourself, do you want honest customers or high paying customers? The two might be mutually exclusive.
So, what Sony should do, is take $200,000,000 in small unmarked bills, throw it up in the air. All the money that God keeps would be payment for using His images, all the money that falls back to earth should be given back to Sony.
Interesting senerio: Imagine a world where she was guilty, and had to pay a fine. Every gift would come with fine print, and everytime two humans exchanged *anything*, they'd have to thumbstamp a contract. That's a plot right out of a "If this goes on" type of Science Fiction novel. We'd each have to carry an AI lawyer around, and rich people would trick others into signing away there organs. "I have 6 kidneys, 3 hearts and an extra spleen!" Society would grind to a halt, and eventually the last woman on earth (women live longer), wouldn't have anyone left to sign a contract with.
Better check the record books. I'm sure that this is the first heavier-than-air craft to do this. Unmanned ballons have stayed up for much longer and I sure a remote controlled Zepplin could stay up much longer.
The article says that it landed 54 hours later, but didn't specify where. If this thing doesn't have enough power to keep up with the winds above a city, it won't be much use as a satellite replacement. However if it can keep up and fly in circles above the weather it'd make an ideal replacement for communications satellites. If these can be made cheaply enough, they'd be the end-all of last mile broadband for rural areas.
There are many futures and only one status quo. That is why conservatives mostly agree and radicals always argue.
--13 June, p. 133
From the book "Brian Eno, A Year, with Swollen Appendices (diary and ruminations)"
This is some slashdotter's signature, and it's never been more appropriate.
Mr. Beckerman would be the expert here, but you are correct. Law is about 90% facts and 10% lottery. If you're being sued, and you're not 100% in the right, go for the Jury Trial. If you're a criminal, Jury Trial, definately. If you're completely in the right, and your lawyer knows the Judge is a good Judge, skip the jury, because it's easier to convince one knowledgable person than 12.
The point is "The Future" is usually easy to predict, that's why we have mutual funds, insurance, and fire departments. We know things will happen. It's hard to get specific, but after S-time, you won't even know what species you will be tomorrow.
Issac Asimov wrote almost as many Science books as Science Fiction. Among the best are "Asimov on Chemistry" and "Asimov and the realm of Algebra". The 2nd is so good that paperback versions sometimes sell for > $50 on eBay. (It's out of print) I read it in 8th grade at the beginning of Algebra class and sailed through the rest of the year.
Wow, where have all the real geeks gone? Most of the replies are for Windows software. If you want bloat free stuff, look at grep, sed, tr, ls, true, false and their companions.
haven't been able to use it in awhile, but I miss being able to grep individual files for what I want.
I was thinking the exact same thing, using something like a gamma knife. Gamma rays have a wavelength much smaller than cells, so you could use several beams to target individual cells. Each beam wouldn't be lethal, but when combined, they would kill the cell. There are techniques using femto-second lasers to release the laser energy at a specific depth. Now, all you need is a femto-second gamma ray laser...
The > 1 farad supercaps usually have an internal resistance that is enough to keep them from blowing up, but any high energy storage device should have a current limiter or fuse.
We all have our areas of ignorance. Ask any magician, or James Randi specifically, and he'll tell you that scientists are often the most easier people to fool, but young children are the most difficult. Most magic relies on the viewer expecting a particular outcome. The more intelligent you are, the more biased you are.
Regular myths, like poison in Halloween candy, or getting AIDS by *giving* blood, are easily dismissed by intelligent, thoughful people, but if there are even more intelligent people behind the myths, perpetuating them, then whole societies can get caught up in the myths. (That's why advertising works so well)
Hear, Hear. One of the best classes I took at University was EE265/266, Digital Circuits, and the teacher, Dr. Dave Meyer wrote the textbook. The book was published through the Purdue publications and cost about $7.00 (yes, seven dollars) The book, "Little Bits of Digital Wisdom", was loose leaf binder type paper and was half done. During class, he would put up a slide of each page and fill int the rest of the information in a manner similar to what you describe in your post.
I worked with a contractor who was in the Air Force in the 1950's. While he was stationed in France the US put on an Air Show for Soviet Generals and Diplomats. He was complaining that we were showing them Top Secret stuff that would get him thrown in the brig or shot for divulging. The thing is, we were giving them controlled access to the capablities of our hardware so that the deterant would be effective. A nuclear deterance does no good if the other side is completly in the dark about what you have. They have to know what could happen to them if they were to attack first.
Another twist of the cold war was that the KGB was telling the politicians what they wanted to hear rather than the truth. Kruchev was told the US was on the brink of a military coup during the Cuban Missle Crisis, which was why he backed down. He was afraid the US Military would take over and really start WWIII.
Scene: The advancing Chinese Army.
A US general stands, shaking his fist: "Sun Tzu, you SOB, I've read your book!"
Ok, now back to our regularly scheduled non sequiturs.
Wow, 240 comments about spelling and programming and no-one's mentioned the famous Ken Thompson quote:
"If I had to do it over again? Hmm... I guess I'd spell 'creat' with an 'e'."
*IANAA. (I am not a Audiologist, but I used to work for one.)
I for one welcome our Auto-Joke Creation Overlords, but imagine a Beowolf cluster of them. In Soviet Russia, the auto-joke creates you!!!