Yeah, I think a lot of people thought so in the past about their own Empire.....
How was that? "Time is a cruel mistress".
M.
Re:Is there anywhere one can download SUSE?
on
SuSE 8.2 Announced
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· Score: 1
YaST2 for remote administration sucked mightily in 7.x, but is much better in 8.x. However, it is not true that YaST is not available in 7.x, I used it on my 7.3 file server frequently, only subjecting myself to the pain of text-based YaST2 on the rare occasions when I needed to do something I couldn't do in YaST or with a quick text file editing.
True but since version 8 AFAIK YAST is dead.
The other problem was that SuSE8 caused a Kernel Panic on my computer directly after the install, so I only played with it a bit at work.
I like SuSE, and maybe one day I go back to it, but for now RedHat 8 works just nicely.
Re:Is there anywhere one can download SUSE?
on
SuSE 8.2 Announced
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· Score: 1
You do know you can run it from a terminal? It also has a ncurses based interface.
Yeah I know that, but the last time I looked at YAST 2 in the terminal it first of all looked completly messed up and IMO it isn't as clean as the old one was.
Other than the U.S. most other first world countries have had terrible economnic conditions in the recent past (Japan, most of Europe). Often times this is attributed to their more socialist government. I wonder if their closer proximity to cheap labor has been a larger factor, and if this is true, if this predicts the future of the U.S. economy as physical distances become less important.
Considering that the world economy is like a wave with ups and downs in Germany's case at least it was the reunification.
At the end of the '80s Germany was trying to claw out of the same recession that the US was in, but then the reunification happened and all of the sudden Germany had to rebuild. The then government promised that this would be done in five years, the then opposing (and now ruling) party said they expect it to take twenty odd years and I think they're right.
Looking at Germany today (from a distance) Germany is still in the crapper, in part it is maybe the "social state" as there were some real mistakes made when the system was laid out (there were certain assumptions made that proved wrong), but the biggest issue in my opinion is still the rebuilding and the fact that Germany all of the sudden has a lot of people and no clue what to do with them.
Having said that though: I am pretty confident that giving more time Europe will come out stronger, out of several reasons:
1. European Union and the Euro. It will (given time) provide a stable enviroment.
2. Current US foreign policy. To think that the current behaviour is only causing attacks on US companies and installations is a bit short sighted. Sure a bomb explosion is something frightening, but the only reason people still do business with the US is the strong US$ and the fact that the US is a consumer nation. Europe seems to gain strength and in the next five to ten years could easily rival the US.
Downturns are normal. The "washout" in the industry right now is maybe not a bad thing, too many people got into the business who shouldn't have in the first place. Those who are good will tough it out and there will be a turnaround, it will just look different like it does after every recession.
I expect the FRG to come under much more fiscal stress in the near future as US force repositioning is going to leave them without US bases to cover their irresponsibility in future.
On top of all of this, the woman was complaining that she couldn't stay on maternity leave for another 1 1/2 years (3 1/2 years is the limit) until her son starts school!
This has a specific reason though: In the "old times" especially in East Germany they were supposed to do that, the state considered the upringing of the kids a full time job and as such did everything they could to support the mothers. The idea isn't that far off, it IS a full time job.
Highly paid, rigid labor markets are on full display in France and Germany. Compared to our unemployment rate, they're perenially stuck at 10% give or take, a much worse figure. The union effect is real.
Of course you are aware that statistics are very well suited to lie? The way unemployment is measured in Europe is completly different from the way it is done in the US, as such comparing those two numbers makes no sense at all.
A good start to solving the problem would be to STOP TRADING WITH SLAVE ECONOMIES SUCH AS CHINA. We would have to convince our friends in Europe and elswhere that it's in their best interest to not train and fund their future masters. Otherwise, we all lose.
I hate to tell you this but the idea with "outsourcing" is an idea that was born in the US. Why? Because the dollar is all that counts.
Most european companies still produce quite heavily within the EU, why? Because they are not quite as money grabbing as their US counter parts.
Of course this doesn't mean that jobs aren't moving east, but AMD for example built a Fab in former east germany, there must be a reason.
The problem in the US is that everybody wants to be rich (or at least have the illusion of one day maybe become rich) and thus money is all that is at the bottom line. See Medicare just as one example.
If you want to change it you would need to change the attitude of the entire Society. Good luck.
Empires rise and fall, and I honestly wonder if we aren't just seeing the beginning of the last struggle before another empire dies?
M.
Re:Is there anywhere one can download SUSE?
on
SuSE 8.2 Announced
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· Score: 1
I think SuSE rocks and is the best distro by a long way for professional users.... if you want to use redhat or pinkcoat that's your choice....
I am not so sure. I was using SuSE up until 7.2 and liked it (on the desktop) in fact my file / print / dhcp / mail server behind my firewall still is 7.2 but I haven't bothered upgrading. Why? Because it becomes bloated as a Server. As a workstation it would work out okay, but as a Server I think they overdid it. Much more so since they killed of YAST and only give you YAST2 which for remote administration (especialy over a slow connection) doesn't really make me very happy.
So now I have a RH8 workstation which surprised me positivily after other dissapointments, I trie dMandrake but couldn't get my mouse to work with it (known problem apparantly), might change it to the new Slackware when it comes out.
Maybe one day I go back to SuSE but right now I don't see any real reason, and I have used SuSE way back in '96.
Oh brother. If that's streetsmarts, I'm glad I had booksmarts instead. I may have gotten relentlessly tormented by the non-nerd kids, but at least I had some integrity.
The problem is that "smart" and "intelligent" is more than just streetsmarts or bookssmarts, it is a combination of both but let's face it there are only very few people who manage both sides successfully.
I recall that some of us took IQ tests at my school out of curiosity to see if they were accurate (they weren't). About a week later somone from a couple of years above us made some kind of silly point and justified it by telling us his IQ. One of us replied in honest amazement 'Is that all?'. It was lower than any of us had scored.
IQ Tests are pretty much useless, I was dragged into two of them and never learned my score, others did though.
But even then, what good is a number? Or more to the point: What good is it to have the tools but not knowing how to use them?
>>not to detract from your larger point, but you may be off-track with this particular statement...
I don't think so: I had a bunch of classmates who could tell you word for word what was written in the textbook but they never understood the words.
I know more than one person who (on the surface) appear to know a lot about a topic but it's just what they had read somewhere, no thinking of themselves.
Don't believe me? Think about my words the next time your manage starts bombarding you with buzzwords!
The smarter bears washed on occasion, and learned to carry on a conversation.
I think the problem is that "smart" the way it is mostly defined is "booksmart" and that is nothing that really just happens, anybody can be booksmart if they just put their mind to it.
I guess the big problem still is that people never really defined intelligence in the first place and this "The more intelligent people like us" makes me wanna puke mainly because this elitist thinking is why people do despise us as well, heck who wants to feel dumb? No one, and who wants to feel weak? Exactly no one again.
A little bit less telling yourself how great you are and a bit more admitting that even YOU are not perfect (despite your high IQ) would go a long way I would guess.
Of course that's all academic my HS time was hell as well.
Granted the blog about someones life in particular (what did they eat today etc.) is probably not very entertaining for most people.
But at the same time I think that Blogs do give us an ability to publish our thoughts better. And maybe give people ideas.
Look at Slashdot, there might be great comments hidden somewhere in the depths of a discussion but because they came in late or weren't seen by a moderator most people will never read them.
Now if they are in a blog and indexed by google and other search engines someone who looks for somethig specific might come across it, and who knows maybe inspire someone else with it.
I played around with blogger and it didn't really "get" me, though I did install Movable Type last week on my site because I wanted to have an easy way to rant away.
Will the rants be interresting to other people? I don't know and honestly I don't care either because for once they are personal but at the same time they are also a way to vent out. And who knows, some day someone might come across one of my rant, read it and get something from it. You'll never know now do you?
I'll second that I was also looking at the TiBook and then ended up buying the 12" iBook and love it, pretty light compared to my old Dell and I am seriously considering buying another Mac now as a Desktop replacement down the road.
> I can still do the same shit I was doing even before bush > was in > office or even before Patriot.
I take it you're white? Your name doesn't sound in any way shape or form like it is rooted somewhere in the far east?
>The DMCA was put in BEFORE bush and even that hasn't > affected my > life.
YET, the DMCA is something that the industry wants, they try to use it (just read the newssites, or even look at slashdot), give it another year or two and you WILL feel the effects (like when you buy your new HDTV TV).
> Have any of YOU been hauled off to jail out of the blue?
I had the "pleasure" TWICE to sit around with Immigration for quite some time, no I am not an american citizen and that was before 9/11 but I wouldn't be surprised if they would decide to question me again the next time I fly into the US. Much more so now that Germany seems to be falling into the "Axis of Evil".
> The day that ANY of these things happens to someone > that is NOT an extremely shady character to begin with, > is the day you can bitch.
Buddy of mine, Israeli, trying to visit the states from Canada, because of his "accent' they pulled him out and had 12 hours of very interresting discussions with the immigration officers. Yeah I would say that is completly harmless.
A lot of the thigns the US is discussing has been done in other countires (e.g. Germany with the national ID card).
The problem with things like the Patriot Act is that it WON'T prevent anything, it will just give you an illusion of security.
I am repeating myself here;) But at the end I say it again: There is no perfect system, it always depends on what side of the fence you are and there will always be someone who gets failed by the system. This though, doesn't make the entire system faulty. It DOES make it improvable though.
That's the sensible German in you talking:-).
Darn, can't hide my pedigree, now can I?
From what I learned it was policy to not inform patients who had no hope of treatment in Canada, or who could not afford treatment elsewhere.
Now THAT is a part of the system that should be changed ASAP. And if only to give people an option.
The bottom line is that here was a person who had the means (monies he earned over his working career) to try to save himself from a serious life-threating condition, and was denied this so that others could have basic health care. That is the state playing God, and utterly repugnant to me.
Note though that not all of his taxes go to healthcare, they cover other things as well (e.g. Education).
Many faiths (I am agnostic myself, though my wife is Baha'i), encourage a 10% tithe and 10% personal saving rates, and that I could tolerate, to help my fellows. But an unbounded government "whatever it takes" attitude leads to disaster.
And you think purely relying on companies wouldn't? I think you operate from a maybe wrong assumption, that is that our line of business (IT) even though the market is down right now, still pays a LOT better than the average job. We are part of a rather privileged group.
I would say so -- we were at the median of the Bell curve for family income. Some had two incomes instead of our one.
It's not only what you bring home but also what kind of assetts you have. A mortage would have to be counted AGAINST your assets, you don't own the house, so do car loans etc. etc.
So even if someone lives in a nice neighbourhood and "has" all the things they might not really "have" it at all. Just because it shines doesn't mean it is gold.
The point about discipline is important: in the U.S., if you are disciplined you can save the necessary funds to protect against financial disaster (i.e. loosing your job and health insurance), whereas in Canada it's moot (and you are probably taxed to the point where you can't anyway).
I think you can safe up money in Canada as well, the tax burden here isn't as high as a lot of people make it out to be. As I said I have lived in many different countries and in the meantime I have come to the conclusion that your living expenses (with some expecptions) are usually 1:1 regardless on where you are.
But, and this is a big "but", the healthcare you can get in the U.S.A is gold-plated compared to what you get in Canada: everyone gets mediocre care in Canada whereas the disciplined get top notch care in the U.S. As a disciplined I prefer the latter.
Even here in Canada there is leeway. Small example. Last year they suspected I might be growing a brain tumor, so they scheduled an MRI, you are aware of the long long waiting lists that it takes, so I was pissed after they cancelled me TWICE and I admit it, I looked south, found a company in Buffalo who could do the MRI in 3 weeks for the amount of $750 Canadian (they seem to draw a lot of customers from Ontario as they actually STATED the price in CAN$).
Long story short I called up the hospital and said more or less: Either you give me a definit date now OR you give me a referral and I go south. The next week I had my MRI done.
The interresting thing? The nurse asked me how long I had been waiting and I said: "Two months" and she was pretty astonished by that according to her the average waiting period right now is around a YEAR.
What I learned out of that episode is: You have a lot of leeway even in the Canadian system because at the end of the day they ALL want money, if I would have gotten south of the border they would have lost the money and I am sure they charged OHIP more than $750 for the MRI.
Yes, those who lack discipline or a desire to try to improve their situation will suffer for lack of a "guaranteed" safety net: they will be at the mercy of charity. I have found however, that the truely unfortunate (victims of disaster, a string of bad luck, etc.) are cared for very well by private charity -- basically, beyond meeting our own needs, most middle class Americans are extremely generous people and have the means to put that into practice. Welfare bums, are of course, hated, as the parasitic lowlife they are. So, no, you don't have the guarantees in the U.S.A. that you have in Canada, but the quality of "non-guaranteed" service you get is much better.
A while ago I had a discussion with a friend of mine, it was about public funding of the arts. He used a similar argument: Drop the taxes and let private people (charities) take care of the art funding.
His reasoning was that it can't be the governments job to support art as it is not really essential and private people would do a way better job in funding the arts anyways, as they have more money.
My counter reasoning was that if only private people fund the arts they can decide what they deem worth funding and what not, they can shape art and perception their way.
Translating that into the healthcare / charity business is the same. First of all Private charities depend on the help from outside people (like the United Way in Toronto) and of their generosity (or companies), nothing in particular wrong with it if you can live with the idea that companies can (ab)use the situation for their own marketing.
But there is a problem, what if the economy goes down? What if all of the sudden there isn't as much free cash around anymore? What if the big companies don't see any reason in funding a charity anymore? What then?
Companies are there to make a profit, not to be charitable to people.
Bottom line, some people prefer to take on the risk of greater responsibility for their lives, and reap the commensurate rewards. Such people, like myself, much prefer "the American way".
The "American Way" is that of the stronger one. That reminds me of what my current landlord told me once: "America was conquered, Canada was discovered." And I think he has a point there. The idea in Europe (and to a large part in Canada) is that people have certain RIGHTS, including but not limited to affordable Healthcare. The "each for their own" is a nice sentiment as long as you are the strong one but you better hope someone picks you up if you ever fall.
As for education, I find the public school infrastructure in Canada and instruction techniques bordering on what would be considered child abuse in many American public schools.
I haven't attended school in Canada so I can't give a first person account. But I think that the school system in Gerneral in the western world is pretty much flawed, the idea that everybody has to adhere to a certain standard (and thus measurement) is completly whacked, there should be more choice in learning than what is currently offered, but what I have noticed is that people who come out of the Canadian System seem to have a pretty good understanding of the world. They also seem to be socially engaged and they seem to have the feeling they have to do something to make the world a better place and that seems to hold on for quite some time after school as well. I guess the advantage Canada has is that people are not directly forced to work to go to school (they still do but not to the extend I know from some friends back in the US).
Let's face it, neither system is better and if you like the constant challenge and constantly want to fight off others for your piece of the pie than good for you, personally I think that conquest can only get us so far.
Or to quote John Ralston Saul:
[...]The human status conferred upon private companies has had a structural effect on all corporations, from government departments to professionell associations. I thas created the context for aggressive loyalty to the group, which has done so much damage to ethics as a daily reality.[...]
On Equilibrium
Or in my own words: Corporate Ethics (and as such Charity) is truly based on money and by handing something as essential as 'humanity' to a corporation and hoping for it to act ethically and responsible is a nice dream. If it comes down and they have to choose between money and ethics they take the money.
Can you achieve more in the US? Yes, if money is what you measure things by you can, but that is the question: What is happiness? A fat check book? Or something else. I think a lot of people never really thought about it. For me (and a lot of people I know) money ain't it.
Incidently, for germany, half of the GDP is going to the federal gov't budget. (CITE: CIA world factbook and the canadian department of finance) A 16% VAT isn't going to cover that. Any idea what is?
As I said I still laugh every paycheck on my way to the bank because the income tax in Germany is higher. As a single guy I paid roughly 38% income tax, here in Canada I pay 33% (and make more money).
I'm not sure what you mean about 'if it doesn't go to the state it goes to a company'. A company cannot coerce the fruits of my labor from me. I have the choice of whether and how much they deserve, the exact choice.
What I meant is this: If you want Healthcare and it isn't covered by the state you have to pay for it out of your own pocket (insurance company).
Great if you can afford that, let's say $100/month? But what if you all of the sudden loose your job? You are also loosing your health coverage at that point unless you can still afford the $100/month. Now in the case with the state sponsored healthcare: You're golden, they still cover you, no worries even if you get hit by a bus tomorrow morning when you try to go to a job interview.
The point I am trying to make is is this: It doesn't matter if the state or if a private company is providing you with your healthcare, one way or the other you pay. The only difference is when you CAN'T pay, the insurance company doesn't care and you are on your own. The State DOES care and you are still covered.
Slashdot Mirror
Yeah, I think a lot of people thought so in the past about their own Empire.....
How was that? "Time is a cruel mistress".
M.
YaST2 for remote administration sucked mightily in 7.x, but is much better in 8.x. However, it is not true that YaST is not available in 7.x, I used it on my 7.3 file server frequently, only subjecting myself to the pain of text-based YaST2 on the rare occasions when I needed to do something I couldn't do in YaST or with a quick text file editing.
True but since version 8 AFAIK YAST is dead.
The other problem was that SuSE8 caused a Kernel Panic on my computer directly after the install, so I only played with it a bit at work.
I like SuSE, and maybe one day I go back to it, but for now RedHat 8 works just nicely.
You do know you can run it from a terminal? It also has a ncurses based interface.
Yeah I know that, but the last time I looked at YAST 2 in the terminal it first of all looked completly messed up and IMO it isn't as clean as the old one was.
M.
Other than the U.S. most other first world countries have had terrible economnic conditions in the recent past (Japan, most of Europe). Often times this is attributed to their more socialist government. I wonder if their closer proximity to cheap labor has been a larger factor, and if this is true, if this predicts the future of the U.S. economy as physical distances become less important.
Considering that the world economy is like a wave with ups and downs in Germany's case at least it was the reunification.
At the end of the '80s Germany was trying to claw out of the same recession that the US was in, but then the reunification happened and all of the sudden Germany had to rebuild. The then government promised that this would be done in five years, the then opposing (and now ruling) party said they expect it to take twenty odd years and I think they're right.
Looking at Germany today (from a distance) Germany is still in the crapper, in part it is maybe the "social state" as there were some real mistakes made when the system was laid out (there were certain assumptions made that proved wrong), but the biggest issue in my opinion is still the rebuilding and the fact that Germany all of the sudden has a lot of people and no clue what to do with them.
Having said that though: I am pretty confident that giving more time Europe will come out stronger, out of several reasons:
1. European Union and the Euro. It will (given time) provide a stable enviroment.
2. Current US foreign policy. To think that the current behaviour is only causing attacks on US companies and installations is a bit short sighted. Sure a bomb explosion is something frightening, but the only reason people still do business with the US is the strong US$ and the fact that the US is a consumer nation. Europe seems to gain strength and in the next five to ten years could easily rival the US.
Downturns are normal. The "washout" in the industry right now is maybe not a bad thing, too many people got into the business who shouldn't have in the first place. Those who are good will tough it out and there will be a turnaround, it will just look different like it does after every recession.
M.
I expect the FRG to come under much more fiscal stress in the near future as US force repositioning is going to leave them without US bases to cover their irresponsibility in future.
Care to extrapolate on this one a bit?
On top of all of this, the woman was complaining that she couldn't stay on maternity leave for another 1 1/2 years (3 1/2 years is the limit) until her son starts school!
This has a specific reason though: In the "old times" especially in East Germany they were supposed to do that, the state considered the upringing of the kids a full time job and as such did everything they could to support the mothers. The idea isn't that far off, it IS a full time job.
M.
Highly paid, rigid labor markets are on full display in France and Germany. Compared to our unemployment rate, they're perenially stuck at 10% give or take, a much worse figure. The union effect is real.
Of course you are aware that statistics are very well suited to lie? The way unemployment is measured in Europe is completly different from the way it is done in the US, as such comparing those two numbers makes no sense at all.
A good start to solving the problem would be to STOP TRADING WITH SLAVE ECONOMIES SUCH AS CHINA. We would have to convince our friends in Europe and elswhere that it's in their best interest to not train and fund their future masters. Otherwise, we all lose.
I hate to tell you this but the idea with "outsourcing" is an idea that was born in the US. Why? Because the dollar is all that counts.
Most european companies still produce quite heavily within the EU, why? Because they are not quite as money grabbing as their US counter parts.
Of course this doesn't mean that jobs aren't moving east, but AMD for example built a Fab in former east germany, there must be a reason.
The problem in the US is that everybody wants to be rich (or at least have the illusion of one day maybe become rich) and thus money is all that is at the bottom line. See Medicare just as one example.
If you want to change it you would need to change the attitude of the entire Society. Good luck.
Empires rise and fall, and I honestly wonder if we aren't just seeing the beginning of the last struggle before another empire dies?
M.
I think SuSE rocks and is the best distro by a long way for professional users.... if you want to use redhat or pinkcoat that's your choice....
I am not so sure. I was using SuSE up until 7.2 and liked it (on the desktop) in fact my file / print / dhcp / mail server behind my firewall still is 7.2 but I haven't bothered upgrading. Why? Because it becomes bloated as a Server. As a workstation it would work out okay, but as a Server I think they overdid it. Much more so since they killed of YAST and only give you YAST2 which for remote administration (especialy over a slow connection) doesn't really make me very happy.
So now I have a RH8 workstation which surprised me positivily after other dissapointments, I trie dMandrake but couldn't get my mouse to work with it (known problem apparantly), might change it to the new Slackware when it comes out.
Maybe one day I go back to SuSE but right now I don't see any real reason, and I have used SuSE way back in '96.
I hear you, same thing here....
Not too surprised, titles are everything these days, if they are true and make sense or not doesn't matter.
Oh brother. If that's streetsmarts, I'm glad I had booksmarts instead. I may have gotten relentlessly tormented by the non-nerd kids, but at least I had some integrity.
The problem is that "smart" and "intelligent" is more than just streetsmarts or bookssmarts, it is a combination of both but let's face it there are only very few people who manage both sides successfully.
I recall that some of us took IQ tests at my school out of curiosity to see if they were accurate (they weren't). About a week later somone from a couple of years above us made some kind of silly point and justified it by telling us his IQ. One of us replied in honest amazement 'Is that all?'. It was lower than any of us had scored.
IQ Tests are pretty much useless, I was dragged into two of them and never learned my score, others did though.
But even then, what good is a number? Or more to the point: What good is it to have the tools but not knowing how to use them?
>>not to detract from your larger point, but you may be off-track with this particular statement...
I don't think so: I had a bunch of classmates who could tell you word for word what was written in the textbook but they never understood the words.
I know more than one person who (on the surface) appear to know a lot about a topic but it's just what they had read somewhere, no thinking of themselves.
Don't believe me? Think about my words the next time your manage starts bombarding you with buzzwords!
The smarter bears washed on occasion, and learned to carry on a conversation.
I think the problem is that "smart" the way it is mostly defined is "booksmart" and that is nothing that really just happens, anybody can be booksmart if they just put their mind to it.
I guess the big problem still is that people never really defined intelligence in the first place and this "The more intelligent people like us" makes me wanna puke mainly because this elitist thinking is why people do despise us as well, heck who wants to feel dumb? No one, and who wants to feel weak? Exactly no one again.
A little bit less telling yourself how great you are and a bit more admitting that even YOU are not perfect (despite your high IQ) would go a long way I would guess.
Of course that's all academic my HS time was hell as well.
Most IM systems are OS agnostic. Do you think MS will publish their protocol?
MSN Messenger is also available on Mac and if you look here you find a nice little app called "Fire" that handles a lot of different IM Systems:
http://fire.sourceforge.net
Not sure if it uses the MSN Messenger or not, but I doubt it, they don't seem to require it installed.
M.
I am not so sure.
Granted the blog about someones life in particular (what did they eat today etc.) is probably not very entertaining for most people.
But at the same time I think that Blogs do give us an ability to publish our thoughts better. And maybe give people ideas.
Look at Slashdot, there might be great comments hidden somewhere in the depths of a discussion but because they came in late or weren't seen by a moderator most people will never read them.
Now if they are in a blog and indexed by google and other search engines someone who looks for somethig specific might come across it, and who knows maybe inspire someone else with it.
I played around with blogger and it didn't really "get" me, though I did install Movable Type last week on my site because I wanted to have an easy way to rant away.
Will the rants be interresting to other people? I don't know and honestly I don't care either because for once they are personal but at the same time they are also a way to vent out. And who knows, some day someone might come across one of my rant, read it and get something from it. You'll never know now do you?
I'll second that I was also looking at the TiBook and then ended up buying the 12" iBook and love it, pretty light compared to my old Dell and I am seriously considering buying another Mac now as a Desktop replacement down the road.
M.
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Because I am paranoid.
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> I can still do the same shit I was doing even before bush > was in
> office or even before Patriot.
I take it you're white? Your name doesn't sound in any way shape or
form like it is rooted somewhere in the far east?
>The DMCA was put in BEFORE bush and even that hasn't
> affected my
> life.
YET, the DMCA is something that the industry wants, they try to use
it (just read the newssites, or even look at slashdot), give it
another year or two and you WILL feel the effects (like when you buy
your new HDTV TV).
> Have any of YOU been hauled off to jail out of the blue?
I had the "pleasure" TWICE to sit around with Immigration for quite
some time, no I am not an american citizen and that was before 9/11
but I wouldn't be surprised if they would decide to question me again
the next time I fly into the US. Much more so now that Germany seems
to be falling into the "Axis of Evil".
> The day that ANY of these things happens to someone
> that is NOT an extremely shady character to begin with,
> is the day you can bitch.
Buddy of mine, Israeli, trying to visit the states from Canada,
because of his "accent' they pulled him out and had 12 hours of very
interresting discussions with the immigration officers. Yeah I would
say that is completly harmless.
A lot of the thigns the US is discussing has been done in other
countires (e.g. Germany with the national ID card).
The problem with things like the Patriot Act is that it WON'T prevent
anything, it will just give you an illusion of security.
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I am repeating myself here ;) But at the end I say it again: There is no perfect system, it always depends on what side of the fence you are and there will always be someone who gets failed by the system. This though, doesn't make the entire system faulty. It DOES make it improvable though.
:-).
That's the sensible German in you talking
Darn, can't hide my pedigree, now can I?
From what I learned it was policy to not inform patients who had no hope of treatment in Canada, or who could not afford treatment elsewhere.
Now THAT is a part of the system that should be changed ASAP. And if only to give people an option.
The bottom line is that here was a person who had the means (monies he earned over his working career) to try to save himself from a serious life-threating condition, and was denied this so that others could have basic health care. That is the state playing God, and utterly repugnant to me.
Note though that not all of his taxes go to healthcare, they cover other things as well (e.g. Education).
Many faiths (I am agnostic myself, though my wife is Baha'i), encourage a 10% tithe and 10% personal saving rates, and that I could tolerate, to help my fellows. But an unbounded government "whatever it takes" attitude leads to disaster.
And you think purely relying on companies wouldn't? I think you operate from a maybe wrong assumption, that is that our line of business (IT) even though the market is down right now, still pays a LOT better than the average job. We are part of a rather privileged group.
I would say so -- we were at the median of the Bell curve for family income. Some had two incomes instead of our one.
It's not only what you bring home but also what kind of assetts you have. A mortage would have to be counted AGAINST your assets, you don't own the house, so do car loans etc. etc.
So even if someone lives in a nice neighbourhood and "has" all the things they might not really "have" it at all. Just because it shines doesn't mean it is gold.
The point about discipline is important: in the U.S., if you are disciplined you can save the necessary funds to protect against financial disaster (i.e. loosing your job and health insurance), whereas in Canada it's moot (and you are probably taxed to the point where you can't anyway).
I think you can safe up money in Canada as well, the tax burden here isn't as high as a lot of people make it out to be. As I said I have lived in many different countries and in the meantime I have come to the conclusion that your living expenses (with some expecptions) are usually 1:1 regardless on where you are.
But, and this is a big "but", the healthcare you can get in the U.S.A is gold-plated compared to what you get in Canada: everyone gets mediocre care in Canada whereas the disciplined get top notch care in the U.S. As a disciplined I prefer the latter.
Even here in Canada there is leeway. Small example. Last year they suspected I might be growing a brain tumor, so they scheduled an MRI, you are aware of the long long waiting lists that it takes, so I was pissed after they cancelled me TWICE and I admit it, I looked south, found a company in Buffalo who could do the MRI in 3 weeks for the amount of $750 Canadian (they seem to draw a lot of customers from Ontario as they actually STATED the price in CAN$).
Long story short I called up the hospital and said more or less: Either you give me a definit date now OR you give me a referral and I go south. The next week I had my MRI done.
The interresting thing? The nurse asked me how long I had been waiting and I said: "Two months" and she was pretty astonished by that according to her the average waiting period right now is around a YEAR.
What I learned out of that episode is: You have a lot of leeway even in the Canadian system because at the end of the day they ALL want money, if I would have gotten south of the border they would have lost the money and I am sure they charged OHIP more than $750 for the MRI.
Yes, those who lack discipline or a desire to try to improve their situation will suffer for lack of a "guaranteed" safety net: they will be at the mercy of charity. I have found however, that the truely unfortunate (victims of disaster, a string of bad luck, etc.) are cared for very well by private charity -- basically, beyond meeting our own needs, most middle class Americans are extremely generous people and have the means to put that into practice. Welfare bums, are of course, hated, as the parasitic lowlife they are. So, no, you don't have the guarantees in the U.S.A. that you have in Canada, but the quality of "non-guaranteed" service you get is much better.
A while ago I had a discussion with a friend of mine, it was about public funding of the arts. He used a similar argument: Drop the taxes and let private people (charities) take care of the art funding.
His reasoning was that it can't be the governments job to support art as it is not really essential and private people would do a way better job in funding the arts anyways, as they have more money.
My counter reasoning was that if only private people fund the arts they can decide what they deem worth funding and what not, they can shape art and perception their way.
Translating that into the healthcare / charity business is the same. First of all Private charities depend on the help from outside people (like the United Way in Toronto) and of their generosity (or companies), nothing in particular wrong with it if you can live with the idea that companies can (ab)use the situation for their own marketing.
But there is a problem, what if the economy goes down? What if all of the sudden there isn't as much free cash around anymore? What if the big companies don't see any reason in funding a charity anymore? What then?
Companies are there to make a profit, not to be charitable to people.
Bottom line, some people prefer to take on the risk of greater responsibility for their lives, and reap the commensurate rewards. Such people, like myself, much prefer "the American way".
The "American Way" is that of the stronger one. That reminds me of what my current landlord told me once: "America was conquered, Canada was discovered." And I think he has a point there. The idea in Europe (and to a large part in Canada) is that people have certain RIGHTS, including but not limited to affordable Healthcare. The "each for their own" is a nice sentiment as long as you are the strong one but you better hope someone picks you up if you ever fall.
As for education, I find the public school infrastructure in Canada and instruction techniques bordering on what would be considered child abuse in many American public schools.
I haven't attended school in Canada so I can't give a first person account. But I think that the school system in Gerneral in the western world is pretty much flawed, the idea that everybody has to adhere to a certain standard (and thus measurement) is completly whacked, there should be more choice in learning than what is currently offered, but what I have noticed is that people who come out of the Canadian System seem to have a pretty good understanding of the world. They also seem to be socially engaged and they seem to have the feeling they have to do something to make the world a better place and that seems to hold on for quite some time after school as well. I guess the advantage Canada has is that people are not directly forced to work to go to school (they still do but not to the extend I know from some friends back in the US).
Let's face it, neither system is better and if you like the constant challenge and constantly want to fight off others for your piece of the pie than good for you, personally I think that conquest can only get us so far.
Or to quote John Ralston Saul:
[...]The human status conferred upon private companies has had a structural effect on all corporations, from government departments to professionell associations. I thas created the context for aggressive loyalty to the group, which has done so much damage to ethics as a daily reality.[...]
On Equilibrium
Or in my own words: Corporate Ethics (and as such Charity) is truly based on money and by handing something as essential as 'humanity' to a corporation and hoping for it to act ethically and responsible is a nice dream. If it comes down and they have to choose between money and ethics they take the money.
Can you achieve more in the US? Yes, if money is what you measure things by you can, but that is the question: What is happiness? A fat check book? Or something else. I think a lot of people never really thought about it. For me (and a lot of people I know) money ain't it.
But with that I don't think you are the average person. Also if you have a familiy I would guess it is a lot harder to come by on 15K/ year.
I did the math too, if I really realy needed too I could condense my costs of living down to around 12K/year (in Toronto).
Right now it is roughly triple that (with rent being a big factor and the car payments making up 2/3 of it).
Nope,
I don't have the letter(s) anymore, it was back in '98 but that was the price they asked for in the DC area (I guess because of the Beltway).
Incidently, for germany, half of the GDP is going to the federal gov't budget. (CITE: CIA world factbook and the canadian department of finance) A 16% VAT isn't going to cover that. Any idea what is?
As I said I still laugh every paycheck on my way to the bank because the income tax in Germany is higher. As a single guy I paid roughly 38% income tax, here in Canada I pay 33% (and make more money).
I'm not sure what you mean about 'if it doesn't go to the state it goes to a company'. A company cannot coerce the fruits of my labor from me. I have the choice of whether and how much they deserve, the exact choice.
What I meant is this: If you want Healthcare and it isn't covered by the state you have to pay for it out of your own pocket (insurance company).
Great if you can afford that, let's say $100/month? But what if you all of the sudden loose your job? You are also loosing your health coverage at that point unless you can still afford the $100/month. Now in the case with the state sponsored healthcare: You're golden, they still cover you, no worries even if you get hit by a bus tomorrow morning when you try to go to a job interview.
The point I am trying to make is is this: It doesn't matter if the state or if a private company is providing you with your healthcare, one way or the other you pay. The only difference is when you CAN'T pay, the insurance company doesn't care and you are on your own. The State DOES care and you are still covered.
M.
What I like about Canada? People, culture, media.
:)
Thank you, that was another reason why I wouldn't want to live in the US again.
You're right about the other things though, but I still rather sit outside in the summer on Bloor Street and have a beer
M.