For god's sake, someone mod this up. I just spat out a mouthful of rather expensive scotch laughing at it -- please don't let my sacrifice be in vain...
I've often wondered if it would be cheaper to give every wheelchair-bound person one of Kamen's fancy IBOT stair-climbing chairs rather than install access ramps, elevators (right next to escalators), curb cuts in sidewalks, etc.
In the video, the reporter is pressing the TOP of the button, which is right next to the button above. You can easily see how the screen could register the wrong vote because the voter's finger is right on the borderline between the buttons.
The UI design fails to account for the voter's behavior: the voter is not pressing the center of the button -- he's pressing the NAME OF THE CANDIDATE, which is right at the top. If the name were in the center of the button, we'd see far fewer of these complaints.
"Just the place for a Snark! I have said it twice: That alone should encourage the crew. Just the place for a Snark! I have said it thrice: What i tell you three times is true."
This is the sort of forward thinking with which the Labour government has always distinguished itself. Clearly we need more regulations to stop future movie-related menaces:
Licences required for any forging of Rings of Power
All city-sized flying saucers must obtain registration certificates before entering Earth's atmosphere
Research into rage-producing micro-organisms to be strictly controlled; all such research to be conducted in calm, soothing environments, with pastel colored walls and soft lilac scents throughout
Yes, but that was only because Kirk told the flight computer that "everything I tell you is a lie, including this". Typical. If I ever see him boarding my plane, I'm switching to Klingon Air.
Will I be able to kill Clippy? Can I equip my avatar with a massive pair of bolt cutters? Will he always respawn at the same location, so I can camp out and catch him just as he appears, and with one swift SNIP bisect him end his miserable existence, if only for a few moments?? Will he scream in a tinny little voice, "Hello! It looks like you're trying to OH GOD NO NOT THE BOLT CUT...."
Searches of laptops at border crossings for information, not explosives, are no myth, according to this "story". Business travelers are taking precautions to avoid interference with the conduct of their business because of this situation.
Perhaps that's the sort of thing the GP was referring to.
Listen to the words of the oracle of Omaha, Warren Buffett, from the Berkshire-Hathaway 2005 Annual report:
Too often, executive compensation in the U.S. is ridiculously out of line with performance. That won't change, moreover, because the deck is stacked against investors when it comes to the CEO's pay. The upshot is that a mediocre-or-worse CEO - aided by his handpicked VP of human relations and a consultant from the ever-accommodating firm of Ratchet, Ratchet and Bingo - all too often receives gobs of money from an ill-designed compensation arrangement.
Take, for instance, ten year, fixed-price options (and who wouldn't?). If Fred Futile, CEO of Stagnant, Inc., receives a bundle of these - let's say enough to give him an option on 1% of the company - his self-interest is clear: He should skip dividends entirely and instead use all of the company's earnings to repurchase stock.
Let's assume that under Fred's leadership Stagnant lives up to its name. In each of the ten years after the option grant, it earns $1 billion on $10 billion of net worth, which initially comes to $10 per share on the 100 million shares then outstanding. Fred eschews dividends and regularly uses all earnings to repurchase shares. If the stock constantly sells at ten times earnings per share, it will have appreciated 158% by the end of the option period. That's because repurchases would reduce the number of shares to 38.7 million by that time, and earnings per share would thereby increase to $25.80. Simply by withholding earnings from owners, Fred gets very rich, making a cool $158 million, despite the business itself improving not at all. Astonishingly, Fred could have made more than $100 million if Stagnant's earnings had declined by 20% during the ten-year period.
Fred can also get a splendid result for himself by paying no dividends and deploying the earnings he withholds from shareholders into a variety of disappointing projects and acquisitions. Even if these initiatives deliver a paltry 5% return, Fred will still make a bundle. Specifically - with Stagnant's p/e ratio remaining unchanged at ten - Fred's option will deliver him $63 million. Meanwhile, his shareholders will wonder what happened to the "alignment of interests" that was supposed to occur when Fred was issued options.
A "normal" dividend policy, of course - one-third of earnings paid out, for example - produces less extreme results but still can provide lush rewards for managers who achieve nothing. CEOs understand this math and know that every dime paid out in dividends reduces the value of all outstanding options. I've never, however, seen this manager-owner conflict referenced in proxy materials that request approval of a fixed-priced option plan. Though CEOs invariably preach internally that capital comes at a cost, they somehow forget to tell shareholders that fixed-price options give them capital that is free.
It doesn't have to be this way: It's child's play for a board to design options that give effect to the automatic build-up in value that occurs when earnings are retained. But - surprise, surprise - options of that kind are almost never issued. Indeed, the very thought of options with strike prices that are adjusted for retained earnings seems foreign to compensation "experts," who are nevertheless encyclopedic about every management-friendly plan that exists. ("Whose bread I eat, his song I sing.")
Getting fired can produce a particularly bountiful payday for a CEO. Indeed, he can "earn" more in that single day, while cleaning out his desk, than an American worker earns in a lifetime of cleaning toilets. Forget the old maxim about nothing succeeding like success: Today, in the executive suite, the alltoo- prevalent rule is that nothing succeeds like failure.
According to TFA, the questions did not identify party affiliation, but rather social attitudes. For example:
Subjects who had expressed a high level of support for policies "protecting the social unit" showed a much larger change in skin conductance in response to alarming photos than those who didn't support such policies.
They then went on to suggest that the "fearful" reactions aligned with what we regard as "conservative" social attitudes.
Even the authors don't conclude that this means Republicans are more fearful than Democrats, only that the study suggests a genetic predisposition to a political viewpoint.
These parties would happily change their platforms if it netted them more votes
True. An excellent example is the attitude of the two parties toward civil rights, which were originally championed by the Republican party and opposed by the Democrats during the Civil War and Reconstruction; by the 1960's the Dems made civil rights a central part of their platform, and Republicans took the opposite tack to win white votes in southern states, by supporting "states rights".
Remember the old "Schoolhouse Rock" classic, How a Bill Becomes a Law"? It really needs to be updated to show how the process works today, with a little animated lobbyist going out for drinks with a little animated congressman, and passing little animated bundles of cash under the table, etc.
Anyone out there with good Flash skills want to take this on?
Slashdot Mirror
Well, it's like how the maginot line was the best defensive structure ever.
It was. That's why the Germans went around it instead of through it. :)
For god's sake, someone mod this up. I just spat out a mouthful of rather expensive scotch laughing at it -- please don't let my sacrifice be in vain...
Hey it's not the system's fault if the pilot can't remember the password to unlock the joystick. It's supposed to be secure, after all.
Unlikely.
You only need one. But you have to replace it every 2.5 milliseconds.
Agent Smith: How can you scream if you don't have a mouth?
Steve Ballmer: Mmmph! Mmphmmph!!
Delicious.
I've often wondered if it would be cheaper to give every wheelchair-bound person one of Kamen's fancy IBOT stair-climbing chairs rather than install access ramps, elevators (right next to escalators), curb cuts in sidewalks, etc.
microShiva to be accurate. Shiva is the destroyer, Brahma the creator, Vishnu the preserver.
Or to put it in Slashdot-friendly terms:
Brahma writes the code
Vishnu maintains the code
Shiva accidently overwrites the project folder with pr0n
In the video, the reporter is pressing the TOP of the button, which is right next to the button above. You can easily see how the screen could register the wrong vote because the voter's finger is right on the borderline between the buttons.
The UI design fails to account for the voter's behavior: the voter is not pressing the center of the button -- he's pressing the NAME OF THE CANDIDATE, which is right at the top. If the name were in the center of the button, we'd see far fewer of these complaints.
Yeah, screw those guys! I'll make my own PHP -- with blackjack! and hookers!
Ah yes, the classic mistake ... cowrelation does not imply cowsation.
I don't mind the normal velociraptors, but I do try to avoid the crazy ones.
For the record, Heinlein was making an allusion to Lewis Carroll's The Hunting of the Snark:
Damn straight! I hear they are rewriting Duke Nukem Forever to run on Silverlight! Right in your browser!
This is the sort of forward thinking with which the Labour government has always distinguished itself. Clearly we need more regulations to stop future movie-related menaces:
(*) It will assist terrorists in their goal of spreading fear
We have always been at war with $enemy.
Yes, but that was only because Kirk told the flight computer that "everything I tell you is a lie, including this". Typical. If I ever see him boarding my plane, I'm switching to Klingon Air.
Will I be able to kill Clippy? Can I equip my avatar with a massive pair of bolt cutters? Will he always respawn at the same location, so I can camp out and catch him just as he appears, and with one swift SNIP bisect him end his miserable existence, if only for a few moments?? Will he scream in a tinny little voice, "Hello! It looks like you're trying to OH GOD NO NOT THE BOLT CUT...."
If so, sign me up!
Searches of laptops at border crossings for information, not explosives, are no myth, according to this "story". Business travelers are taking precautions to avoid interference with the conduct of their business because of this situation.
Perhaps that's the sort of thing the GP was referring to.
Steven Seagal is... Number 1 With a Ballot
And how about George W. Bush starring in a remake of Seagal's first movie? The title certainly fits: Above the Law
Never fear, this is a minor setback for him. I hear he's already writing a book about what he will do in the next act of his career.
Title: "My Sequel"
Listen to the words of the oracle of Omaha, Warren Buffett, from the Berkshire-Hathaway 2005 Annual report:
According to TFA, the questions did not identify party affiliation, but rather social attitudes. For example:
They then went on to suggest that the "fearful" reactions aligned with what we regard as "conservative" social attitudes.
Even the authors don't conclude that this means Republicans are more fearful than Democrats, only that the study suggests a genetic predisposition to a political viewpoint.
These parties would happily change their platforms if it netted them more votes
True. An excellent example is the attitude of the two parties toward civil rights, which were originally championed by the Republican party and opposed by the Democrats during the Civil War and Reconstruction; by the 1960's the Dems made civil rights a central part of their platform, and Republicans took the opposite tack to win white votes in southern states, by supporting "states rights".
Remember the old "Schoolhouse Rock" classic, How a Bill Becomes a Law"? It really needs to be updated to show how the process works today, with a little animated lobbyist going out for drinks with a little animated congressman, and passing little animated bundles of cash under the table, etc.
Anyone out there with good Flash skills want to take this on?