Think about it. The least restricted areas are always the most productive, whether by area we're talking about a neighborhood, a country, or an industrial sector. The polities that most thouroughly purge libertarian principles - the soviet union being a prominent example - collapse under their own inability to work.
Then why do you assume that it's easy enough and should have been done by now?
It's not simply lets write some software, it's a hardware issue, which is much more complicated. What constitutes ergonomic and easy-to-read? The size of a PDA? The size of a sheet of paper? Of a standard paper-back book? Color or black and white? Fixed form factor or something that rolls up to make it easy to store.
Look at the eInk stuff, it's cutting edge, just out, not yet perfected, yet you assume that there should be enough consumer demand and manufacturing capacity for it to be used in a $100 product?
With few exceptions (Taxes are the only thing that comes to mind), I can get all of my statements paper free. This includes Credit Card, Cable, Phone, Gas, Electricity. In fact, they would prefer (and push) the electronic methods of receiving your bill. Some people (me included) just prefer paper bills. An easy to store and reference method of your account history.
As I posted above in reply to somebody else, it could just be the whole "razor" theory where you sell the razor for cheap, and make your money (hopefully) on the blades. Same has been done in the Inkjet market where the printers are cheap, and they hope to make the profits on ink. I don't know if that is what Sony is doing, but it's possible.
Just look at the whole razor argument. Sell the razor cheap, make the money on the cartridges. Same with consumer printers. The printers are cheap, the ink is expensive. Now, I wouldn't call a $600 video game console cheap (I'm still waiting for used Gamecubes to come down in price), but it's the same theory.
You're more or less right, but there is a difference. If you invest in stock you get something, stock. You made a purchase that may or may not increase in value. When Sony loses money selling consoles they don't have anything.
Politicians are having their dirty laundry aired to the world and they are complaining. What a suprise.
It's my opinion that this is why we don't have better politicians running. Why would a good person who cares about their family put them through the hell that a public campaign is? The allegations don't have to be true, there can be no evidence, just some woman willing to say you cheated on your wife. That's it. Not only do you have to convince the public that it's not true, now you have to talk to your kids about what the woman said, and why she's lying.
The unfortunate truth is that there is very little benefit for an honest person in today's politics. If you run a clean campaign and are ahead, wham, here come the negative attack ads and the 527s. Like I said above, the allegations don't even have to be true, but within a day you will be labeled whatever it is that the opposing side wants.
While it makes sense to calculate the true cost and look at what your opportunity costs are before paying cash for a car or taking a loan, there are some problems with your scenario described.
This bank is selling 5 year CDs at 8.50%, with a $25,000 payment.
That bank is not located in the United States. That bank is not subject to US laws. That bank is not FDIC insured. That CD is not liquid at all. From the website you linked to: For the investor who is looking for an alternative to the low rates offered by most domestic banks, is looking for a guaranteed rate of return to avoid market fluctuations, and is willing to relinquish the option to redeem their investment prior to maturity in exchange for a higher yield, Millennium Bank offers Premium Certificates of Deposit.
Now it doesn't talk about penalties for cashing in early, but use of the term "relinquish" would imply that it is not possible to do, period. So if you are willing to lock up that much money for that long with no liquidity, then it's an option, but most people don't have that option.
Is your friend going to end up paying over an 8.50% APR? He shouldn't, not with reputable companies like Honda & Ford offering 0-2% financing.
Generally the low interest rates are in lieu of a cash rebate on the same vehicle. For instance, on an Escape I recently purchased the 0% financing was only offered if you forego the $2500 cash rebate. So there is a calculation that needs to be made, it simply isn't 0% is less than 5%.
Buying all of your assets "cash" is nothing to be proud of; frankly, it is only one step less irresponsible than using credit recklessly. Once you total up all the money you would have made (saved) by utilizing safe banking/investing, you'll be shocked.
Safe banking and investing earns you next to nothing. It earns you the prime rate, and generally a little less. Anything that isn't guarenteed, isn't safe investing. Now you can make better than that with smart investing. But this takes some knowledge and risk is involved. Most people can't invest their 401k's properly, and just look at the average day trader when that was hot, while some made some money over a short period of time, most lost over longer terms, because they didn't understand how the markets work.
In summary, yes, it is always good to look at all of the options, look at your opportunity costs, and isn't good to be afraid of debt, when used properly. But there are always downsides to it as well.
Well, in all fairness. DVD players and VCRs manufactured at the same time are about as crappy as each other. The older VCRs (when they were still pretty pricey) were much more rugged than the current ones. People wanted cheap, and cheap is what they got.
You must be buying different tapes than me then. My VHS tapes tended to get really crappy after just a few recordings. With all the times I would forget to record a program, or forget to load the tape, the VCR basically sat unused under my TV for the past three years.
Then I found a great deal on a Tivo (80-hour unit and a year of service for $125). It's great, easy enough for my wife to use and not ask directions, and it records the shows every time they are on.
I've definately come around and become a Tivo fan.
Well, considering that spectrum and capital costs are expensive, it's unlikely for the networks to be opened anytime soon. It's not like landline phones where a company was granted a monopoly and required right-of-way to lay down copper/coax/fiber/etc. The cellular companies are required to go out, locate and lease property for towers and antennae. Why should they be forced to open this up? They aren't being granted this land by the gov't for the "common good" they are investing in infrastructure to grow thier business.
I recently tried out VZNavigator on my new Verizon phone and was pleasantly surprised. Not as accurate as Hertz Neverlost is, but sitting in the center console of my car, it kept my position pretty well. It's all implementation. A quality antenna, and decent processing are required to do it right.
It's friday night, you're downtown, and low and behold your friend is in the bar down the street from you. I wouldn't pay extra for it, but it might be nice to have.
Well, define work? So lets say I walk into a bar, and lose sat coverage. The phone will still know it's last location where it had coverage, so it keeps my position as that. My friend is at another bar down the street and sees that I'm a block away, walks to the position and is in front of a bar. Chances are he's gonna know that I'm insid the bar.
Is it 100% accurate 100% of the time. No, but that's not the point. If you're out on a friday night bar hopping, you might run into a friend.
Do you actually own, and, charge, a secondary battery for your cellphone?
On my previous phone I owned, charged, and used a second battery. On my current, I do not.
Did you actually read the link you sent? Talk about propoganda. For one thing, it's written by John Stossel. The man's an idiot, but he is on TV, so I guess that gives him credibility. Second, there is one piece of anecdotal evidence in the story. Everything else is the opinion of one person. Even in the little blurb about how bad it is, they can't put real numbers to it only "hundreds of teachers". Generally if you can't place a precise number on a group that small, you're exagerating.
Ok, now onto the cute little PDF file.
Everything in the tan boxes, shouldn't be on there (irrelevant, but then of course, it wouldn't look as bad).
Most steps that an unbiased person would lump as one are drawn out to be much longer (9 steps to say "A hearing will be held", another 9 steps to say "A pre-hearing conference will be held").
That story is udder crap. It's not easy, but it's not as hard as that link would like you to believe.
Throwing money at education problems has consistently failed to produce results.
You are right, throwing money doesn't do anything. Proper spending (maybe the current amount, maybe less, maybe more) is important. It's also important to realize that children need support outside of school to learn too. If the parents aren't helping their children read or do homework, then no amount of money is going to fix the situation.
Private schools do more with less money.
Private schools do different things than public schools. Private schools are not required to educate everybody, they are allowed to discriminate. Private schools are allowed to hand of poorly behaving, poor performing, and special needs children to the public schools. Private schools are not required to comply with local education standards, nor are they required to show performance. If private schools are so much better at educating, why aren't they having their students take the same standardized tests and prove it?
Also, you may remember the recent DoE study that was swept under the rug which found that if you place the same demographic of students in private schools, they do no better than their private school counterparts.
I recently spoke to someone who said that the school that their child is enrolled in has flat out stated that 2/3 of the school year is spend prepping the students for the yearly standardized tests and the rest of the time is spent with regular teaching. Does this sound like a problem to you? It does to me!
And who is responsible for this problem? The same people who want to do away with public education. Do you think it's a coincidence that when Bush wants to push through vouchers, he also places additional restrictions on public schools (NCLB), while private schools have no such restrictions? It's easy to show a difference when you rig the results.
-dave
Re:But what about the battery?
on
The Zune Cometh
·
· Score: 1
For something that only needs to be done every couple years or so, this really isn't a big deal.
Yet on my cellphone, all I need to do is open the battery compartment (no tool required) and put in the extra battery.
It's not silly. If you are always able to recharge your battery, it's not an issue. But if you can't, or you forget, Apple makes it more difficult than needed, to replace the battery.
If you were to settle into one area, and your wife took one teaching job, it she would have her lesson plan stable.
Yes and no, it would be more stable, but not stable. The lesson plans need to change some every year, maybe not completely, but if you look at the new material being forced down from above (NCLB - written by a bunch of folks who don't send their kids to public school), it is not stable.
Teaching is not the only career that you are expected to work overtime without additional compensation. Take a look into research, IT, or programming, for example, and you see the same thing.
You are absolutely right, which is why this whole comment about 2/3rds of a years work is bull.
Those careers don't give you 20 holidays and two to four months off a year, either.
And neither does teaching. Most days that students have off are professional development days, which means the teachers must be at the school and must participate in what it is that the district decides to do for that day. She does not receive 20 holidays a year. In addition she receives two months off in summer (not 4, I know of no state that has four months off in the summer). Some of this time is required to take additional coursework that varies from state to state. Like I said above, if you total my wifes hours for a year, they exceed the average workers by a fair bit.
In addition, teachers are restricted as to when they can use vacation or personnal time. Union contracts require that the days before and after a break for instance, cannot be taken off. Last time I checked, most people in research, IT or programming were able to take vacation when they wanted.
You keep calling things lies.
I'm sorry, they aren't lies, they are more like great perversions of the truth that critics like to crow about because it helps their cause.
I've personally read teacher contract; I've personally watched tactics used by their unions, and personally seen the budgets involved. I know the waste the occurs, and the horrible methods that are used to prop it up.
You are right, there are bad tactics used by their unions. But guess what, those are the minority. Do you know why when a teacher's union goes on strike or has a sick-out it makes national news? It's because it's so rare. Another post somewhere in this article had the numbers, 0.09% of teachers unions strike in a year. Because one union uses tactics you don't like, doesn't mean that that is the norm. I'll give you an anecdotal example. The town I live in currently has an expired teacher's contract. The union has agreed that the teachers will continue working at the current wages and benefits until a new contract is agreed upon. At that time, the contract will become retroactive to the date of the previous contract expiration. Some tactic huh? That's downright reasonable.
Yes, there are bad teachers and there are bad unions. But they are the minority. Although I must say I am truly curious as to whether I live in the same world as a lot of people who crow in the media and here on slashdot about the declines in our public schools. Every public school I have attended and every district in which I have lived, have been highly achieving, well run schools. Yet from reading here, I must just have had more luck than anybody else.
What I was trying to say is that teachers can be paid what they deserve, but between incompetent administration, ignorant voters, and unfair union practices, it doesn't happen. More money assigned to school systems will not fix it, because the amount of money is not the problem; the allocation of that money is. I want to see teachers get paid what they deserve, too, but other things have to get fixed before "give school money so we can pay teachers more" will ever work.
I agree with you here. Though I think the problem is in the order of: ignorant voters, incompetent administration and lastly the union practices. B
Slashdot Mirror
So in other words, once you take out all the negative effects of libertarianism, it's working well. There's some good logic for you.
-dave
The article: http://www.wired.com/news/technology/0,71115-0.htm l?tw=rss.index
/ 09/1731249
The Slashdot discussion: http://politics.slashdot.org/article.pl?sid=06/06
-dave
Think about it. The least restricted areas are always the most productive, whether by area we're talking about a neighborhood, a country, or an industrial sector. The polities that most thouroughly purge libertarian principles - the soviet union being a prominent example - collapse under their own inability to work.
And just how is Somalia working out?
-dave
Because that's not what I, or others, envision as the perfect eBook.
-dave
Then why do you assume that it's easy enough and should have been done by now?
It's not simply lets write some software, it's a hardware issue, which is much more complicated. What constitutes ergonomic and easy-to-read? The size of a PDA? The size of a sheet of paper? Of a standard paper-back book? Color or black and white? Fixed form factor or something that rolls up to make it easy to store.
Look at the eInk stuff, it's cutting edge, just out, not yet perfected, yet you assume that there should be enough consumer demand and manufacturing capacity for it to be used in a $100 product?
-dave
So go do it rather than complain about it.
-dave
With few exceptions (Taxes are the only thing that comes to mind), I can get all of my statements paper free. This includes Credit Card, Cable, Phone, Gas, Electricity. In fact, they would prefer (and push) the electronic methods of receiving your bill. Some people (me included) just prefer paper bills. An easy to store and reference method of your account history.
-dave
Yes, but how many people are going to spend $600 on a console to only use on one game?
Slashdot loves to ridicule the decisions of a lot of companies, yet these companies keep earning profits, go figure.
-dave
As I posted above in reply to somebody else, it could just be the whole "razor" theory where you sell the razor for cheap, and make your money (hopefully) on the blades. Same has been done in the Inkjet market where the printers are cheap, and they hope to make the profits on ink. I don't know if that is what Sony is doing, but it's possible.
-dave
Just look at the whole razor argument. Sell the razor cheap, make the money on the cartridges. Same with consumer printers. The printers are cheap, the ink is expensive. Now, I wouldn't call a $600 video game console cheap (I'm still waiting for used Gamecubes to come down in price), but it's the same theory.
-dave
Because msnbc is most definitely THE source of unbiased news about the PS3. No question about that.
Do you have any evidence of bias? Just because there is a potential conflict of interest doesn't mean that it is acted upon.
-dave
You're more or less right, but there is a difference. If you invest in stock you get something, stock. You made a purchase that may or may not increase in value. When Sony loses money selling consoles they don't have anything.
Sony bought a customer.
-dave
Politicians are having their dirty laundry aired to the world and they are complaining. What a suprise.
It's my opinion that this is why we don't have better politicians running. Why would a good person who cares about their family put them through the hell that a public campaign is? The allegations don't have to be true, there can be no evidence, just some woman willing to say you cheated on your wife. That's it. Not only do you have to convince the public that it's not true, now you have to talk to your kids about what the woman said, and why she's lying.
The unfortunate truth is that there is very little benefit for an honest person in today's politics. If you run a clean campaign and are ahead, wham, here come the negative attack ads and the 527s. Like I said above, the allegations don't even have to be true, but within a day you will be labeled whatever it is that the opposing side wants.
-dave
While it makes sense to calculate the true cost and look at what your opportunity costs are before paying cash for a car or taking a loan, there are some problems with your scenario described.
This bank is selling 5 year CDs at 8.50%, with a $25,000 payment.
That bank is not located in the United States. That bank is not subject to US laws. That bank is not FDIC insured. That CD is not liquid at all. From the website you linked to:
For the investor who is looking for an alternative to the low rates offered by most domestic banks, is looking for a guaranteed rate of return to avoid market fluctuations, and is willing to relinquish the option to redeem their investment prior to maturity in exchange for a higher yield, Millennium Bank offers Premium Certificates of Deposit.
Now it doesn't talk about penalties for cashing in early, but use of the term "relinquish" would imply that it is not possible to do, period. So if you are willing to lock up that much money for that long with no liquidity, then it's an option, but most people don't have that option.
Is your friend going to end up paying over an 8.50% APR? He shouldn't, not with reputable companies like Honda & Ford offering 0-2% financing.
Generally the low interest rates are in lieu of a cash rebate on the same vehicle. For instance, on an Escape I recently purchased the 0% financing was only offered if you forego the $2500 cash rebate. So there is a calculation that needs to be made, it simply isn't 0% is less than 5%.
Buying all of your assets "cash" is nothing to be proud of; frankly, it is only one step less irresponsible than using credit recklessly. Once you total up all the money you would have made (saved) by utilizing safe banking/investing, you'll be shocked.
Safe banking and investing earns you next to nothing. It earns you the prime rate, and generally a little less. Anything that isn't guarenteed, isn't safe investing. Now you can make better than that with smart investing. But this takes some knowledge and risk is involved. Most people can't invest their 401k's properly, and just look at the average day trader when that was hot, while some made some money over a short period of time, most lost over longer terms, because they didn't understand how the markets work.
In summary, yes, it is always good to look at all of the options, look at your opportunity costs, and isn't good to be afraid of debt, when used properly. But there are always downsides to it as well.
-dave
Well, in all fairness. DVD players and VCRs manufactured at the same time are about as crappy as each other. The older VCRs (when they were still pretty pricey) were much more rugged than the current ones. People wanted cheap, and cheap is what they got.
-dave
You must be buying different tapes than me then. My VHS tapes tended to get really crappy after just a few recordings. With all the times I would forget to record a program, or forget to load the tape, the VCR basically sat unused under my TV for the past three years.
Then I found a great deal on a Tivo (80-hour unit and a year of service for $125). It's great, easy enough for my wife to use and not ask directions, and it records the shows every time they are on.
I've definately come around and become a Tivo fan.
-dave
Well, considering that spectrum and capital costs are expensive, it's unlikely for the networks to be opened anytime soon. It's not like landline phones where a company was granted a monopoly and required right-of-way to lay down copper/coax/fiber/etc. The cellular companies are required to go out, locate and lease property for towers and antennae. Why should they be forced to open this up? They aren't being granted this land by the gov't for the "common good" they are investing in infrastructure to grow thier business.
-dave
I recently tried out VZNavigator on my new Verizon phone and was pleasantly surprised. Not as accurate as Hertz Neverlost is, but sitting in the center console of my car, it kept my position pretty well. It's all implementation. A quality antenna, and decent processing are required to do it right.
-dave
It's friday night, you're downtown, and low and behold your friend is in the bar down the street from you. I wouldn't pay extra for it, but it might be nice to have.
-dave
Well, define work? So lets say I walk into a bar, and lose sat coverage. The phone will still know it's last location where it had coverage, so it keeps my position as that. My friend is at another bar down the street and sees that I'm a block away, walks to the position and is in front of a bar. Chances are he's gonna know that I'm insid the bar.
Is it 100% accurate 100% of the time. No, but that's not the point. If you're out on a friday night bar hopping, you might run into a friend.
-dave
Do you actually own, and, charge, a secondary battery for your cellphone?
On my previous phone I owned, charged, and used a second battery. On my current, I do not.
-dave
Did you actually read the link you sent? Talk about propoganda. For one thing, it's written by John Stossel. The man's an idiot, but he is on TV, so I guess that gives him credibility. Second, there is one piece of anecdotal evidence in the story. Everything else is the opinion of one person. Even in the little blurb about how bad it is, they can't put real numbers to it only "hundreds of teachers". Generally if you can't place a precise number on a group that small, you're exagerating.
Ok, now onto the cute little PDF file.
Everything in the tan boxes, shouldn't be on there (irrelevant, but then of course, it wouldn't look as bad).
Most steps that an unbiased person would lump as one are drawn out to be much longer (9 steps to say "A hearing will be held", another 9 steps to say "A pre-hearing conference will be held").
That story is udder crap. It's not easy, but it's not as hard as that link would like you to believe.
-dave
Throwing money at education problems has consistently failed to produce results.
You are right, throwing money doesn't do anything. Proper spending (maybe the current amount, maybe less, maybe more) is important. It's also important to realize that children need support outside of school to learn too. If the parents aren't helping their children read or do homework, then no amount of money is going to fix the situation.
Private schools do more with less money.
Private schools do different things than public schools. Private schools are not required to educate everybody, they are allowed to discriminate. Private schools are allowed to hand of poorly behaving, poor performing, and special needs children to the public schools. Private schools are not required to comply with local education standards, nor are they required to show performance. If private schools are so much better at educating, why aren't they having their students take the same standardized tests and prove it?
Also, you may remember the recent DoE study that was swept under the rug which found that if you place the same demographic of students in private schools, they do no better than their private school counterparts.
I recently spoke to someone who said that the school that their child is enrolled in has flat out stated that 2/3 of the school year is spend prepping the students for the yearly standardized tests and the rest of the time is spent with regular teaching. Does this sound like a problem to you? It does to me!
And who is responsible for this problem? The same people who want to do away with public education. Do you think it's a coincidence that when Bush wants to push through vouchers, he also places additional restrictions on public schools (NCLB), while private schools have no such restrictions? It's easy to show a difference when you rig the results.
-dave
For something that only needs to be done every couple years or so, this really isn't a big deal.
Yet on my cellphone, all I need to do is open the battery compartment (no tool required) and put in the extra battery.
It's not silly. If you are always able to recharge your battery, it's not an issue. But if you can't, or you forget, Apple makes it more difficult than needed, to replace the battery.
-dave
If you were to settle into one area, and your wife took one teaching job, it she would have her lesson plan stable.
Yes and no, it would be more stable, but not stable. The lesson plans need to change some every year, maybe not completely, but if you look at the new material being forced down from above (NCLB - written by a bunch of folks who don't send their kids to public school), it is not stable.
Teaching is not the only career that you are expected to work overtime without additional compensation. Take a look into research, IT, or programming, for example, and you see the same thing.
You are absolutely right, which is why this whole comment about 2/3rds of a years work is bull.
Those careers don't give you 20 holidays and two to four months off a year, either.
And neither does teaching. Most days that students have off are professional development days, which means the teachers must be at the school and must participate in what it is that the district decides to do for that day. She does not receive 20 holidays a year. In addition she receives two months off in summer (not 4, I know of no state that has four months off in the summer). Some of this time is required to take additional coursework that varies from state to state. Like I said above, if you total my wifes hours for a year, they exceed the average workers by a fair bit.
In addition, teachers are restricted as to when they can use vacation or personnal time. Union contracts require that the days before and after a break for instance, cannot be taken off. Last time I checked, most people in research, IT or programming were able to take vacation when they wanted.
You keep calling things lies.
I'm sorry, they aren't lies, they are more like great perversions of the truth that critics like to crow about because it helps their cause.
I've personally read teacher contract; I've personally watched tactics used by their unions, and personally seen the budgets involved. I know the waste the occurs, and the horrible methods that are used to prop it up.
You are right, there are bad tactics used by their unions. But guess what, those are the minority. Do you know why when a teacher's union goes on strike or has a sick-out it makes national news? It's because it's so rare. Another post somewhere in this article had the numbers, 0.09% of teachers unions strike in a year. Because one union uses tactics you don't like, doesn't mean that that is the norm. I'll give you an anecdotal example. The town I live in currently has an expired teacher's contract. The union has agreed that the teachers will continue working at the current wages and benefits until a new contract is agreed upon. At that time, the contract will become retroactive to the date of the previous contract expiration. Some tactic huh? That's downright reasonable.
Yes, there are bad teachers and there are bad unions. But they are the minority. Although I must say I am truly curious as to whether I live in the same world as a lot of people who crow in the media and here on slashdot about the declines in our public schools. Every public school I have attended and every district in which I have lived, have been highly achieving, well run schools. Yet from reading here, I must just have had more luck than anybody else.
What I was trying to say is that teachers can be paid what they deserve, but between incompetent administration, ignorant voters, and unfair union practices, it doesn't happen. More money assigned to school systems will not fix it, because the amount of money is not the problem; the allocation of that money is. I want to see teachers get paid what they deserve, too, but other things have to get fixed before "give school money so we can pay teachers more" will ever work.
I agree with you here. Though I think the problem is in the order of: ignorant voters, incompetent administration and lastly the union practices. B