Libraries could die and my tax return wouldn't change a bit.
While this is probably a sad reality, this kind of thinking is definitely part of the problem with our modern tax system. Our tax returns, sales tax bills we pay on every purchase, gas tax, etc... are all impacted by thousands of government projects that don't seem to add up to that much individually. I have nothing against libraries, but if all this information could be available electronically, why are we putting tax dollars into supporting the buildings and staff to store the information in book form? Doesn't make sense to keep libraries around just for posterity. Billions of dollars each year are put into libraries, if they are underused and no longer a viable model for public service, why not just eliminate the concept? If we did enough of that, it would change our tax returns.
Libraries don't have to lend out one copy at a time. They can lend out multiple copies of the same book as long as they own multiple copies. Most libraries just don't have the resources, or room, to have multiple copies of a single book on the shelf. Digital copies solves the space issue, but not the licensing issue. Until all Intellectual Property laws are repealed, this isn't going to change.
The scratched music CDs are another matter. You would think the Library would be within fair use regulations to keep a backup copy. Seems like they could work a deal where they could have official duplicates, and only lend out dupes in the same numbers as the originals they own.
I guess delaying for another year and releasing it in better shape would have been a smarter move.
Having worked in the software industry, I know sometimes you have to bite the bullet, ship the product and deal with the fallout. Would it have been better to wait? Maybe. Would the product have been better after another year of development? Maybe not, it's been over a year and they can't get the 1st service pack out.
It's probably a testament to the tenacity of Microsoft that Vista was ever released at all. Vista could have been the end of Microsoft as a company. Now the product is out and they have, at least at some level, made money on it. Now all they have to do is put some lipstick on the pig - something they have been very good at over the years.
What the article doesn't seem to mention, or remember, is all the bad press Microsoft was getting for having the DNF of Operating Systems. They were getting annual vaporware nominations, and basically looking like a bunch of idiots that couldn't get a product out the door.
There was tremendous pressure from all sides to release Vista. Don't think you can really place the blame on Valentine or Amazon for this one.
That's an awful waste of resources not to mention what happens if someone is transmitting a signal when the balloon in your area pops? How much does all this constant launching and recovering cost compared to just putting in a tower despite the remoteness?
I can see using these balloons for limited times, such as emergencies, or battlefield conditions where there are no cell towers (as the article intimates) but for every day use? I don't think so.
Well, let's speculate on costs a bit.
It's safe to assume that these cost more than $100, or it wouldn't be worth paying a $100 reward for their return, so let's assume $200 per balloon.
One every 8-12 hours is about 2.5/day.
2.5/day * $200 * 365 days = $182,500/year
High altitude balloons should be able to cover significantly more territory than a ground based cell tower. I have no idea of exact range, but let's be conservative and say a balloon could cover the territory of 10 towers.
Looks like there are no good numbers for costs on towers, but some estimates I found say 250K to put one up and around $700/month to lease a piece of property in a rural area.
In the same 1 year time frame 10 towers would cost $250,000 * 10 + $700 * 12 * 10 = $2,584,000
Over 10 years, the cost of the towers, assuming no equipment upgrades, would be $250,000 * 10 + $700 * 12 * 10 * 10 = $3,340,000 or $334,000/year
Of course, this is all speculation, but it is quite possible the weather balloon idea is significantly cheaper than building and maintaining a large number of cell towers.
The truth is somewhere in between. Being a sound tech, like being a musician, is about 80% talent and maybe 20% mastery of technical skills. This is why so many indie bands are huge, and sound so great, right now. The technology has allowed the artists to mix their own music. They know what they want it to sound like, and they can create that sound themselves. Many of the professional production techs seem to only know how to create music that the suits and the radio stations want to hear. This does not equal good music.
A great example is the formerly independent band Single File. They signed to a label and went into a studio with some hot shot producer. Their song Zombies Ate My Neighbors was a great song, good dynamics, an awesome bridge in the middle that really worked for the song. It could have used some polish, but the overall sound was great and got a lot of local air play. They re-recorded it, and the new version sounds contrived and lost much of it's original appeal. Nothing against the band, but I just don't think the addition of a professional sound technician added much to their music.
All this goes out the window when it comes to a live gig. You can't beat a professional tech when it comes to a live show, but the gp is right about studio work. If you have the ear for the music technology makes it easy to mix some great tunes.
That's a great point. I find it interesting how many video tape collections I've seen on garage sales in the last few years since DVDs became commonplace. People are trying to sell their pirated VHS tapes.
It's actually funny how much things change. I remember back in high school in the 80s when it was a big deal to get a bootlegged concert tape. You could get in SERIOUS trouble for bringing a tape recorder to a concert. These days many artists promote it and even have websites where fans can share their bootlegs.
I think you are correct. If Congress passes a law specifically to penalize this patent holder the courts are not going to be happy. If they make a more general retroactive law change, such as eliminating software patents, the courts will be swamped for decades.
I'm guessing even the proposed eminent domain purchase of the patent will probably end up in the supreme court.
Many of us have been clamoring for patent reform for years. Congress has ignored the problem, and now it's a national crisis. They made their bed, they have to lie in it. Looks to me like the only way out is to introduce some patent reform now so this doesn't happen again.
Can somebody help me? I'm trying to complete the quiz, but I'm having trouble installing this sliverlight stuff on my Linux box and getting the site to work under Firefox.
If I could just finish the quiz I might ditch Slackware and move to Vista!
I used to work for a software development company. My boss, who's living was made by selling software, was understandably adamant about following software licensing both for our customers, and for us internally.
As IT manager, I followed company policy. I did not allow any unlicensed software in the office - and caught heat about it from the other managers. Problem was, even though the boss didn't want any unlicensed software in the office, he was also to cheap to purchase the licenses we needed. This resulted in some creative manouevering on my my part. Uninstalling and re-installing. (mis)Interpreting licensing requirements in ways that were advantageous to the company. Finding Open Source alternatives (which wasn't really a bad thing).
It's interesting what a fine ethical line we had to walk. The company was all about being ethical, but at the same time wouldn't spend the appropriate money so the staff had to find creative ways to get our work done.
You may be correct, but I believe this is exactly what Greenspan was after. The lack of regulations of the bank allowed capitalism to work properly. What most people don't understand is the amount of responsibility that is required to live in a capitalist society.
The subprime loans allowed many of us to purchase home that otherwise wouldn't have been able to. Unfortunately many made bad decisions, both lenders and borrowers. Those people should now have to pay the price of their poor decisions rather than being bailed out by the federal government. No one forced lenders to make all of these loans - their greed did that and now they are reaping the price of their greed. I think many advocates of laissez-faire capitalism think the only way out of our debt ridden society is to let the whole thing collapse and hope people learn their lesson.
This might be an OK idea for cars, but what happens when I need to fill my lawn mower, a gas can, an ATV on a trailer, motorcycle, etc...
Seems like there are a large number of situations when this wouldn't work. Will the robot replace all pumps? Will there be special pumps for when the robot doesn't work? Will gas for my lawn mower get more expensive since I have to drive across town to find a station that can actually put gas in a can?
That's not quite accurate. Under the law a Coporation is an entity. It is capable of owning property, and thus being taxed.
A sole proprietorship or a partnership works as you describe, all profits/losses must be distributed out to the individuals owning the business. Corporate taxes are lower than individual taxes, it's really just a mechanism to tax the money that is left in the corporation at the end of the year. Without corporate taxes, a company like Microsoft, that until the last few years left all of their profits within the corporation as cash reserves wouldn't pay tax on that income.
So, bottom line is the bank blamed the trader for the $7bn loss when they actually created it themselves. The newbie trader was smarter than they guys that went in to clean up after him.
Sounds to me like they deserved to lose that money.
Or maybe by miles drivien per week, number of days the car is driven or number of people in the car.
That pious Prius owner that drives 100 miles to work every day would have to pay more, the soccer mom with 6 kids in the suburban taking them to practice twice a week could pay less.
As far as being Evil, this isn't much different than what Apple used to do back when I was a kid in the 80s.
Don't know how bad their training classes are, but weaseling your way into schools is a time tested marketing strategy. It's probably the only thing that kept Apple going for years.
I have to play it off in realtime and I can't watch anything else while I'm doing it,
Never had a DVD recorder, but if this is the only way they work, I can't watch anything else, and my Tivo might potentially miss one of the shows it's set to record? No wonder they didn't take off here, who has time for that.
Slashdot Mirror
Libraries could die and my tax return wouldn't change a bit.
While this is probably a sad reality, this kind of thinking is definitely part of the problem with our modern tax system. Our tax returns, sales tax bills we pay on every purchase, gas tax, etc... are all impacted by thousands of government projects that don't seem to add up to that much individually. I have nothing against libraries, but if all this information could be available electronically, why are we putting tax dollars into supporting the buildings and staff to store the information in book form? Doesn't make sense to keep libraries around just for posterity. Billions of dollars each year are put into libraries, if they are underused and no longer a viable model for public service, why not just eliminate the concept? If we did enough of that, it would change our tax returns.
Libraries don't have to lend out one copy at a time. They can lend out multiple copies of the same book as long as they own multiple copies. Most libraries just don't have the resources, or room, to have multiple copies of a single book on the shelf. Digital copies solves the space issue, but not the licensing issue. Until all Intellectual Property laws are repealed, this isn't going to change.
The scratched music CDs are another matter. You would think the Library would be within fair use regulations to keep a backup copy. Seems like they could work a deal where they could have official duplicates, and only lend out dupes in the same numbers as the originals they own.
Having worked in the software industry, I know sometimes you have to bite the bullet, ship the product and deal with the fallout. Would it have been better to wait? Maybe. Would the product have been better after another year of development? Maybe not, it's been over a year and they can't get the 1st service pack out.
It's probably a testament to the tenacity of Microsoft that Vista was ever released at all. Vista could have been the end of Microsoft as a company. Now the product is out and they have, at least at some level, made money on it. Now all they have to do is put some lipstick on the pig - something they have been very good at over the years.
What the article doesn't seem to mention, or remember, is all the bad press Microsoft was getting for having the DNF of Operating Systems. They were getting annual vaporware nominations, and basically looking like a bunch of idiots that couldn't get a product out the door.
There was tremendous pressure from all sides to release Vista. Don't think you can really place the blame on Valentine or Amazon for this one.
It's safe to assume that these cost more than $100, or it wouldn't be worth paying a $100 reward for their return, so let's assume $200 per balloon.
One every 8-12 hours is about 2.5/day.
2.5/day * $200 * 365 days = $182,500/year
High altitude balloons should be able to cover significantly more territory than a ground based cell tower. I have no idea of exact range, but let's be conservative and say a balloon could cover the territory of 10 towers.
Looks like there are no good numbers for costs on towers, but some estimates I found say 250K to put one up and around $700/month to lease a piece of property in a rural area.
In the same 1 year time frame 10 towers would cost $250,000 * 10 + $700 * 12 * 10 = $2,584,000
Over 10 years, the cost of the towers, assuming no equipment upgrades, would be $250,000 * 10 + $700 * 12 * 10 * 10 = $3,340,000 or $334,000/year
Of course, this is all speculation, but it is quite possible the weather balloon idea is significantly cheaper than building and maintaining a large number of cell towers.
Wow, I don't think there is a state of drunkenness makes Linus look 'hot'. Not by any reasonable definition of the term anyway.
The truth is somewhere in between. Being a sound tech, like being a musician, is about 80% talent and maybe 20% mastery of technical skills. This is why so many indie bands are huge, and sound so great, right now. The technology has allowed the artists to mix their own music. They know what they want it to sound like, and they can create that sound themselves. Many of the professional production techs seem to only know how to create music that the suits and the radio stations want to hear. This does not equal good music.
A great example is the formerly independent band Single File. They signed to a label and went into a studio with some hot shot producer. Their song Zombies Ate My Neighbors was a great song, good dynamics, an awesome bridge in the middle that really worked for the song. It could have used some polish, but the overall sound was great and got a lot of local air play. They re-recorded it, and the new version sounds contrived and lost much of it's original appeal. Nothing against the band, but I just don't think the addition of a professional sound technician added much to their music.
All this goes out the window when it comes to a live gig. You can't beat a professional tech when it comes to a live show, but the gp is right about studio work. If you have the ear for the music technology makes it easy to mix some great tunes.
That's a great point. I find it interesting how many video tape collections I've seen on garage sales in the last few years since DVDs became commonplace. People are trying to sell their pirated VHS tapes.
It's actually funny how much things change. I remember back in high school in the 80s when it was a big deal to get a bootlegged concert tape. You could get in SERIOUS trouble for bringing a tape recorder to a concert. These days many artists promote it and even have websites where fans can share their bootlegs.
I think you are correct. If Congress passes a law specifically to penalize this patent holder the courts are not going to be happy. If they make a more general retroactive law change, such as eliminating software patents, the courts will be swamped for decades.
I'm guessing even the proposed eminent domain purchase of the patent will probably end up in the supreme court.
Many of us have been clamoring for patent reform for years. Congress has ignored the problem, and now it's a national crisis. They made their bed, they have to lie in it. Looks to me like the only way out is to introduce some patent reform now so this doesn't happen again.
Can somebody help me? I'm trying to complete the quiz, but I'm having trouble installing this sliverlight stuff on my Linux box and getting the site to work under Firefox.
If I could just finish the quiz I might ditch Slackware and move to Vista!
I'm cringing. There is NO WAY I'm wearing nuclear clothes.
Obviously that is the first choice, but now that the writer's strike is over I can't sit on the porch all night with the 12 gauge. I have TV to watch.
Interesting. Do you have any references for properly lighting your home for maximum crime deterrence?
I have a streetlight right in front of my house, but have still had a couple minor criminal incidents.
I used to work for a software development company. My boss, who's living was made by selling software, was understandably adamant about following software licensing both for our customers, and for us internally. As IT manager, I followed company policy. I did not allow any unlicensed software in the office - and caught heat about it from the other managers. Problem was, even though the boss didn't want any unlicensed software in the office, he was also to cheap to purchase the licenses we needed. This resulted in some creative manouevering on my my part. Uninstalling and re-installing. (mis)Interpreting licensing requirements in ways that were advantageous to the company. Finding Open Source alternatives (which wasn't really a bad thing). It's interesting what a fine ethical line we had to walk. The company was all about being ethical, but at the same time wouldn't spend the appropriate money so the staff had to find creative ways to get our work done.
You may be correct, but I believe this is exactly what Greenspan was after. The lack of regulations of the bank allowed capitalism to work properly. What most people don't understand is the amount of responsibility that is required to live in a capitalist society.
The subprime loans allowed many of us to purchase home that otherwise wouldn't have been able to. Unfortunately many made bad decisions, both lenders and borrowers. Those people should now have to pay the price of their poor decisions rather than being bailed out by the federal government. No one forced lenders to make all of these loans - their greed did that and now they are reaping the price of their greed. I think many advocates of laissez-faire capitalism think the only way out of our debt ridden society is to let the whole thing collapse and hope people learn their lesson.
Haven't you heard?
P2P is for porn.
This might be an OK idea for cars, but what happens when I need to fill my lawn mower, a gas can, an ATV on a trailer, motorcycle, etc...
Seems like there are a large number of situations when this wouldn't work. Will the robot replace all pumps? Will there be special pumps for when the robot doesn't work? Will gas for my lawn mower get more expensive since I have to drive across town to find a station that can actually put gas in a can?
That's not quite accurate. Under the law a Coporation is an entity. It is capable of owning property, and thus being taxed.
A sole proprietorship or a partnership works as you describe, all profits/losses must be distributed out to the individuals owning the business. Corporate taxes are lower than individual taxes, it's really just a mechanism to tax the money that is left in the corporation at the end of the year. Without corporate taxes, a company like Microsoft, that until the last few years left all of their profits within the corporation as cash reserves wouldn't pay tax on that income.
So, bottom line is the bank blamed the trader for the $7bn loss when they actually created it themselves. The newbie trader was smarter than they guys that went in to clean up after him.
Sounds to me like they deserved to lose that money.
Good knews is they aren't going to be spending this money any time soon.
I'm pretty sure McCain is a direct relative of the Slowskys
Or maybe by miles drivien per week, number of days the car is driven or number of people in the car.
That pious Prius owner that drives 100 miles to work every day would have to pay more, the soccer mom with 6 kids in the suburban taking them to practice twice a week could pay less.
So was it Evil when Jobs did it?
As far as being Evil, this isn't much different than what Apple used to do back when I was a kid in the 80s.
Don't know how bad their training classes are, but weaseling your way into schools is a time tested marketing strategy. It's probably the only thing that kept Apple going for years.
Isn't it supposed to be
Film at 11
I have to play it off in realtime and I can't watch anything else while I'm doing it, Never had a DVD recorder, but if this is the only way they work, I can't watch anything else, and my Tivo might potentially miss one of the shows it's set to record? No wonder they didn't take off here, who has time for that.