She was actually leaving the country, on her way to Canada, when she found out that her Visa, had expired two days beforehand. Actually exact same thing happened to my roomate's sister (Asian American) in Italy. She decided to take extra classes over the summer and her visa had expired. She was interrogated, and held for 1.5 days (though made to believe she would be there longer) She was little shaken up, though I can understand how your friend would have been moreso since her daughter was taken away. The prosecutor lied. He pled guilty, and he wasn't extradited. Same thing has happened in Mexico to drunks in Tijuana. Americans really fear Mexican prison so they get told if they make a deal they will go back to US, end up being lied to by prosecutors and spending the time in Mexico. And I know people who got in trouble for crossing the road Yeah Jaywalking is a misdemenor, kinda a stupid law most people ignore and never get caught, unless the cop just wants to fine you. Was funny once in high school we get dropped off by the bus across the street, friend of mine crosses the road, with the green light, but unlike most of the rest of us crosses outside the crosswalk. He got a ticket, and we teased him all day about how he was a criminal. I don't like the current administration, but one thing to remember is law enforcement is done primarily by the individual states. I don't think it has changed much over the last 15 years.
Just don't carry a passport, get a driver's license and just have an attitude, you'll blend right in. Or just claim you are a student in grad school (most people in engineering with me were foreigners). Have an accent? So does half the country:) Just avoid the midwest, there's nothing to see there anyways. I'm intrigued by what sorts of things your friends had happen to them in US. Maybe there is a foreign parinoia, like in the US we hear about the dangers of "los Federales" and Mexican prison, the caning of people in Singapore, "disappearances" in China, beatings in Eastern Europe. Then when you actually travel to those places you realize it's all hyped up.
But in the shipping details I said will ship to US only:) Suddenly, somebody from France extradites you for attempting to sell "military munitions to civil personnel" Somebody from France doesn't extradite you, somebody from France asks for extridition. They have to provide evidence you were breaking their laws, and then the US decides whether or not to extradite you. Because of the "grey" area in the law, there will be negotiations and backroom deals, so get a good lawyer. I agree with you, the web has made a mess of the legal system with respect to jurisdictions.
Which brings a problem: if company A discovered the thing and then completely independently companies B and C and D did, how come only A is the "owner"? The system isn't perfect, but I prefer it to information hoarding which is what would happen. If B, C, and D are all stumped on a problem, with an open system, they can't just copy A, but they will get alot of learning from A You put far too much credence in the company driven for-profit research and far too little in the for-knowledge-and-recognition accademic one. I recognize that corporations have alot of money, and smart people who can contribute to the entire body of information, and I prefer a system that encourages them to share. Noone is making any new chemicals, merely generating new sequences which alter the ratios of existing chemicals in the cells They are publishing how chemicals work, and how to make them, which is just as important. Like the example I gave, if you can't figure out how to synthesize something knowing the chemicals is useless. Like I said I don't agree with some of the decisions on IP applications. A company can own non-naturally occuring DNA, but they can't own the DNA in my body. IP was for human creations, not discovering natural occurrances. Again like in my example, the patent is on a specific chemical that changes sarotonin levels, not on the discovery that sarotonin affects depression Just think how slowly it would advance if it were not for the "intelectual property" law! Good thing IBM shared the info, otherwise we would only have had 1 computer manufacturer, like we only have 1 manufacturer for hard drives, LCDs, CD-ROMs, and all the other computer parts. Companies can and will get around patents. Your example shows the importance of publicly sharing information rather than hoarding it.
No it is not. At least not in the same terms as physical objects. Economics applies to anything that is limited but widely wanted. It might not be exactly the same, but like I said, there will be backroom deals, artificial scarcity (ie companies funding only in-house research rather than university research) So yes, you can get paid to keep your mouth shut, but that is only a delaying tactics, because information can be independently discovered and also deduced from someone's elses actions (product) One of the things with information is that it is very difficult to come up with the first instance. You can go generations without somebody being able to come up with the same idea. True it's a delaying tactic, but it is very possible it can last for a long time, during which society would have 0 benifit. Meanwhile, if the information is released the public can quickly figure out little ways around the protections.
Untill 1 month later a first reverse-engineered knock-off is out Ah, but that only applies to things that get out to the public in the final product. Most information is methods "how to make things" you cannot reverse engineer processes. It's easy to reverse engineer a medication, a CPU gate, but you can't reverse engineer the steps to make those things, especially on large scales at an acceptable price But because final both final products and steps on producing are public, through publications, its alot easier to create knockoffs. You can spend years and millions of dollars trying to synthesize a compound on a large scale. With the current system we can't use Fluoxetine Hydrochloride (Prozac), but we know how it works, how it's made its easy to come up with an alternative drug Paroxetine Hydrochlorde (Celexa). And we also know how some of the steps in creating the general family of chemicals so the creation process is simplified. In your way of doing things we would be still paying for IBM ATs $10k a pop since IBM would be the only maker with the "Intellectual Property" for it. No, it would be in the public by now anyways, that is the importance of limited protections. but a logical progression of that approach is to treat DNA sequences as "property" and demand royalties on one's offspring That is not a logical progression. The logical progression is that chemical xyz that works on certain DNA sequence is protected, not that DNA sequence alone. Like I said the modern application of intellectual property is flawed and has changed from the original concepts which were not flawed.
Information is subject to economics (capitalism/communism/etc). Because we don't know everything, information is a limited resource. It would be naive to think that information wouldn't be brokered or sold, except without legal protections, it would happen in backrooms, rather than in public. If I come up with a way to make televisions cheaper, I might approach a company to pay for that information. Company gives me an incentive to keep my mouth closed to anybody else (tie me in directly to their profits by stock or %). Only 1 company would benifit, possibly for eternity, or until somebody else "discovers" the same thing. Rather than with a patent, where everybody will know the process, can derive alternatives, and the original method is only protected for a limited time.
What do you think is more benificial to society as a whole, lots of companies with secrets (that may never be found), or having provisions for limited protection given that you disclose everything. Companies will try to "own" information by not letting it get released. "Known to public but not usable" is preferrable to "Unknown to public" It is far easier to develop alternatives than to make an initial discovery. The concept of intellectual property isn't flawed (its worked well for 200 years), some of the latest interpretations and applications are (ie software patents)
The truth is that the alternative is academia and public/foundation sponsored research I don't think the ideas are mutually exclusive. As the aritcle states, public/foundation sponsored research should be free, but corporate research IMHO should have protections, otherwise all the important science they do wouldn't get out into the public. Anything that adds to the body of information in the public I think helps. Even if those specific items are protected, ideas can be derived from those learnings.
They take what was built up by countless others before them and lock it down as their property. The thing is that they can only lock things down by publishing (releasing to the public) and they are only able to lock down for a limited period. The alternative is that corporate funded research wouldn't be published hoping that nobody else discovers what they have done. That is the only way that the company could hope to get some return on their investment without protections. By publishing research, important ideas of how things work is shared and other companies can devise alternatives around patents and other IP, which is much easier than the initial discovery.
Doom I think was where modding really started picking up. Wolfenstein 3D had mod tools available, but it was not as popular as doom mods. Barney Doom and others were available on BBSs in the early days. I think what made Deer Hunter a milestone was that it made people realize how pervasive gaming had become. The people interested in computer games weren't just pale overweight nerds, it was also the beer drinkin' gun shootin' blue collar man.
Ironicly this is posted labor day weekend... why do we have labor day in september? Because the goverment felt we needed a token holiday during the 3 month period between 4th of July and Columbus day (which I think most places besides federal goverment ignore) The US may have the most "stuff" but we pay for it with our health. We buy a $5000 plasma TV to get our minds off the stress of all the work we need to do to afford a $5000 plasma TV.
If you read the 2K5 message boards, there are similar issues, the "DT exploit" where with a shift of the D-line you can get one of your DT through untouched, and the "QB scramble" issue, where the AI isn't able to cope well with scrambling QBs I think with the increased complexity and addition of internet multiplayer to console games, they might have to go to "patches" since AI issues and other problems are more likely to be exploited. You'll get your ass kicked if you exploit against your friends in the dorm (so it has been a police yourselves kind of environment), there isn't retribution if you exploit against strangers on the internet.
As long as something is used to back the currency The only reason to have tangible backing is to have the trust of people to use it. People accept fiat currency, "In God we Trust", they trust the dollar is limited and that they can freely exchange it. When you tie currency to gold, silver, or something else, then there is less control of the money supply. The value of the currency will fluxuate with the resource. You've taken control out of the hands of goverment (which answers to voters) and put it into the hands of business (which answers to shareholders). Tie it to gold, and now those businesses that own gold mines also control the value of your currency.
The system IS broken when a typical worker is having to work twice as long to pay for the $10 shoes as their grandfather had to work to pay for the 10 cent shoes. Why do you think two-income families have become essential these days, when they used to be almost unheard of? Two income families are a seperate issue from inflation. That is more an issue of the relative value of labor vs goods & services. Inflation would hit both these the same Without gold or silver to back it (as MANDATED by the Constitution!), the dollar is nothing more than a fiat currency, backed only by the confidence of those who use it that it will maintain its value. Why is gold and silver the magic answer? They suffer from the same issue as fiat currency, they only have value when people accept it for exchange. There is nothing intrinsicly valuable about precious metals. A strong dollar is not always a good thing, what is more important is a stable dollar value relative to other currencies. Right now we are still seeing the market stabalization for the euro (it has been only 5 years). What makes the euro attractive is that business can be done with more countries cheaply. I agree with you though that the goverment should do a better job of deficit spending and spending policy.
This inflationary monetary policy has had the net result of reducing the buying power of the dollar to only a tiny fraction of what it once was, and in the long run is unsustainable Why is it unsustainable? Just because it costs $10 for shoes that used to cost 10 cents doesn't mean the system is broken. If the price of everything goes up, then nothing has really changed. Inflationary monetary policy encourages money to move, which encourages exchange of goods & services If the goverment didn't increase the money supply things would be worse. A limited supply of money, with increased demand (growing population & more goods/services being exchanged as the economy grows) = deflation. This would discourage investment, spending, and damage the economy. Why would the bank loan you money for to start a company, when they could increase the value of their money just letting it sit in a vault with no risk. Why buy a new TV today, when it will cost less in a month.
I know real networking is a tough job. I don't think I could handle it, my brother does networking for a school district, most of the stuff he talks about flies over my head. I was talking about the.com era networking people who didn't know anything, yet demanded 80k because they could setup a windows machine for a local network (no security knowledge, and no real knowledge of how to setup a good network). They didn't have any interest in the business except for $$. Same goes with the HTML folks, a roomate of mine in Silicon Valley made $60k a year doing web MAINTAINANCE... just making sure the stupid links were working! Total stoner job literally. Now he lives with his parents, hmm I wonder why. Sorry didn't mean to offend with that network engineer comment.
wonder if the price of the software came down because of competition, rather than it being cheaper to make? One of things we will see is increased competition because software is cheaper to make. Because it requires less capital and there is excess labor, new companies can enter the market. To give an example, big corps may still buy the brand name Oracle database software, but there is a market for lower end database software for small companies. Maybe a 50 person company can't afford $50k for an Oracle database, but they can afford $5k for an alternative, and there will be a small company that will fill that niche. If there is money to be had somebody will take advantage of it. You do make a good point about brand name companies being able to take advantage of cheap labor solely for profit margins. Look at computers, Sony can still charge $2500 for a Vaio. But the important thing is I have the option to buy a $300 eMachine that is similar. Same with shoes, I have the option for $100 Nikes or $5 shoes. The overall industry selling price drops (average selling price for a computer has dropped), though there are a few companies that maintain profit margins solely through marketing. The important thing is it's all up to the consumer, unlike now where there are so few options, especially for business software, you pay what the companies ask whether you like it or not. If you look at past history when the price of capital goods (goods used to create other goods/services) it has been an overall boon for the economy. I don't think all the IT jobs will comeback, but there will be more jobs overall for the economy in complementary and value added type activities. I'm in a semiconductor manufacturing R&D type job, which are limited in the states because most stuff is outsourced. The best part as being a worker in an outsourced industry is the people you work with are doing it for the love, not because of the $$$. Hopefully in IT all those "I want $80k for being able to plug two computers together" networking people will get weeded out. Thanks for the information, I always enjoy reading posts that make me think and that I can learn from.
A probability curve contains all information until it is sampled (so it exists in all states until the wave is collapsed). This is the reason it is called a paradox. An example is photons interefering with themselves, double slit experiment where photons are let through one at a time. Even though the photon can pass through either slit A or slit B, the pattern you get is as if it passes through both slit A & B.
It costs the same to make 1 wafer with 1000 chips as it does to make 1 wafer with 5 chips. So by shrinking the size you can put more chips on a wafer, and reduce manufacturing costs (per chip).
The biggest key to Schroedinger's equation is the description as a wave function. The wave function contains information of all states until the wave function is collapsed. So it is both pissed off and calm at the same time. If it's anything like my roomate's cat, when you collapse the wave function it will be pissed.
After all, this false logic which says the software prices will fall, is like expecting Nike prices to fall just because they are made for $1 in Indonesian and Thai sweathouse factories Actually the industry price for shoes HAS fallen because of the sweatshops. Seen any cobblers around? It used to be the cost for shoes (relative to what people made) was higher, hence, the need for repairs rather than buying a new pair. You can buy a decent pair of shoes for $5, heck even $2 when payless has a sale. The only reason Nike can charge $100 is because of name recognition (the marketing guys are good for something). The price of business software has been falling between 2-5% each year. Some software (ie microsoft stuff) hasn't fallen because of their market dominance (same reason Nike can charge such outrageous sums), but most other business software has dropped. An example of jobs being created from cheap software is open source. Now that businesses can get Linux at no cost, they can have their programmers customize it for their particular needs. Overall jobs aren't destroyed, they are just changed to further enhance the value of cheap software.
I don't think developers are forced to choose, turn-based vs real-time. There is a spectrum of time control: Traditional turn based (pause during every turn) - Final Fantasy, UFO Turn-based with user defined pauses - KOTOR, Baldur's Gate Turn Based with no pause - Everquest, most MMORPGs Real time w/ speed control - Most RTSs Real Time - FPSs, Flight/Space Sims I think only the first one is becoming objectionable for publishers trying to cater to the MTV generation. I do love my Civilization and Empire Deluxe games though:)
I don't find running out of power to be the problem, its the added weight. I think years of gaming have gotten me used to a certain weight of mouse, when I tried the MX700 my wrist began to get sore, because I wasn't used to moving the added weight around. I exchanged for an MX510 which was a little heavier than my old mouse, but I was able to get used to it. I have similar problem at work where my mouse just doesn't feel as responsive (cheaper optical mouse). It's amazing how such minor differences in equipment can cause major annoyances.
Just look at this other piece of museum quality art. It's actually rev 2 since the janitor threw out the original by mistake. The microsoft mouse looks interesting, but not special, and I wonder how it holds up in the whole ergonomic department, maybe it can come with a matching wrist brace.
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She was actually leaving the country, on her way to Canada, when she found out that her Visa, had expired two days beforehand.
Actually exact same thing happened to my roomate's sister (Asian American) in Italy. She decided to take extra classes over the summer and her visa had expired. She was interrogated, and held for 1.5 days (though made to believe she would be there longer) She was little shaken up, though I can understand how your friend would have been moreso since her daughter was taken away.
The prosecutor lied. He pled guilty, and he wasn't extradited.
Same thing has happened in Mexico to drunks in Tijuana. Americans really fear Mexican prison so they get told if they make a deal they will go back to US, end up being lied to by prosecutors and spending the time in Mexico.
And I know people who got in trouble for crossing the road
Yeah Jaywalking is a misdemenor, kinda a stupid law most people ignore and never get caught, unless the cop just wants to fine you. Was funny once in high school we get dropped off by the bus across the street, friend of mine crosses the road, with the green light, but unlike most of the rest of us crosses outside the crosswalk. He got a ticket, and we teased him all day about how he was a criminal.
I don't like the current administration, but one thing to remember is law enforcement is done primarily by the individual states. I don't think it has changed much over the last 15 years.
Just don't carry a passport, get a driver's license and just have an attitude, you'll blend right in. Or just claim you are a student in grad school (most people in engineering with me were foreigners). Have an accent? So does half the country :) Just avoid the midwest, there's nothing to see there anyways.
I'm intrigued by what sorts of things your friends had happen to them in US. Maybe there is a foreign parinoia, like in the US we hear about the dangers of "los Federales" and Mexican prison, the caning of people in Singapore, "disappearances" in China, beatings in Eastern Europe.
Then when you actually travel to those places you realize it's all hyped up.
But in the shipping details I said will ship to US only :)
Suddenly, somebody from France extradites you for attempting to sell "military munitions to civil personnel"
Somebody from France doesn't extradite you, somebody from France asks for extridition. They have to provide evidence you were breaking their laws, and then the US decides whether or not to extradite you. Because of the "grey" area in the law, there will be negotiations and backroom deals, so get a good lawyer.
I agree with you, the web has made a mess of the legal system with respect to jurisdictions.
Which brings a problem: if company A discovered the thing and then completely independently companies B and C and D did, how come only A is the "owner"?
The system isn't perfect, but I prefer it to information hoarding which is what would happen. If B, C, and D are all stumped on a problem, with an open system, they can't just copy A, but they will get alot of learning from A
You put far too much credence in the company driven for-profit research and far too little in the for-knowledge-and-recognition accademic one.
I recognize that corporations have alot of money, and smart people who can contribute to the entire body of information, and I prefer a system that encourages them to share.
Noone is making any new chemicals, merely generating new sequences which alter the ratios of existing chemicals in the cells
They are publishing how chemicals work, and how to make them, which is just as important. Like the example I gave, if you can't figure out how to synthesize something knowing the chemicals is useless. Like I said I don't agree with some of the decisions on IP applications. A company can own non-naturally occuring DNA, but they can't own the DNA in my body. IP was for human creations, not discovering natural occurrances. Again like in my example, the patent is on a specific chemical that changes sarotonin levels, not on the discovery that sarotonin affects depression
Just think how slowly it would advance if it were not for the "intelectual property" law!
Good thing IBM shared the info, otherwise we would only have had 1 computer manufacturer, like we only have 1 manufacturer for hard drives, LCDs, CD-ROMs, and all the other computer parts. Companies can and will get around patents. Your example shows the importance of publicly sharing information rather than hoarding it.
No it is not. At least not in the same terms as physical objects.
Economics applies to anything that is limited but widely wanted. It might not be exactly the same, but like I said, there will be backroom deals, artificial scarcity (ie companies funding only in-house research rather than university research)
So yes, you can get paid to keep your mouth shut, but that is only a delaying tactics, because information can be independently discovered and also deduced from someone's elses actions (product)
One of the things with information is that it is very difficult to come up with the first instance. You can go generations without somebody being able to come up with the same idea. True it's a delaying tactic, but it is very possible it can last for a long time, during which society would have 0 benifit. Meanwhile, if the information is released the public can quickly figure out little ways around the protections.
Untill 1 month later a first reverse-engineered knock-off is out
Ah, but that only applies to things that get out to the public in the final product. Most information is methods "how to make things" you cannot reverse engineer processes. It's easy to reverse engineer a medication, a CPU gate, but you can't reverse engineer the steps to make those things, especially on large scales at an acceptable price
But because final both final products and steps on producing are public, through publications, its alot easier to create knockoffs. You can spend years and millions of dollars trying to synthesize a compound on a large scale.
With the current system we can't use Fluoxetine Hydrochloride (Prozac), but we know how it works, how it's made its easy to come up with an alternative drug Paroxetine Hydrochlorde (Celexa). And we also know how some of the steps in creating the general family of chemicals so the creation process is simplified.
In your way of doing things we would be still paying for IBM ATs $10k a pop since IBM would be the only maker with the "Intellectual Property" for it.
No, it would be in the public by now anyways, that is the importance of limited protections.
but a logical progression of that approach is to treat DNA sequences as "property" and demand royalties on one's offspring
That is not a logical progression. The logical progression is that chemical xyz that works on certain DNA sequence is protected, not that DNA sequence alone. Like I said the modern application of intellectual property is flawed and has changed from the original concepts which were not flawed.
Information is subject to economics (capitalism/communism/etc). Because we don't know everything, information is a limited resource. It would be naive to think that information wouldn't be brokered or sold, except without legal protections, it would happen in backrooms, rather than in public.
If I come up with a way to make televisions cheaper, I might approach a company to pay for that information. Company gives me an incentive to keep my mouth closed to anybody else (tie me in directly to their profits by stock or %). Only 1 company would benifit, possibly for eternity, or until somebody else "discovers" the same thing. Rather than with a patent, where everybody will know the process, can derive alternatives, and the original method is only protected for a limited time.
What do you think is more benificial to society as a whole, lots of companies with secrets (that may never be found), or having provisions for limited protection given that you disclose everything. Companies will try to "own" information by not letting it get released. "Known to public but not usable" is preferrable to "Unknown to public" It is far easier to develop alternatives than to make an initial discovery.
The concept of intellectual property isn't flawed (its worked well for 200 years), some of the latest interpretations and applications are (ie software patents)
The truth is that the alternative is academia and public/foundation sponsored research
I don't think the ideas are mutually exclusive. As the aritcle states, public/foundation sponsored research should be free, but corporate research IMHO should have protections, otherwise all the important science they do wouldn't get out into the public.
Anything that adds to the body of information in the public I think helps. Even if those specific items are protected, ideas can be derived from those learnings.
They take what was built up by countless others before them and lock it down as their property.
The thing is that they can only lock things down by publishing (releasing to the public) and they are only able to lock down for a limited period. The alternative is that corporate funded research wouldn't be published hoping that nobody else discovers what they have done. That is the only way that the company could hope to get some return on their investment without protections.
By publishing research, important ideas of how things work is shared and other companies can devise alternatives around patents and other IP, which is much easier than the initial discovery.
This post is brought to you by a grant from the Chubb corporation, and viewers like you.
Doom I think was where modding really started picking up. Wolfenstein 3D had mod tools available, but it was not as popular as doom mods. Barney Doom and others were available on BBSs in the early days.
I think what made Deer Hunter a milestone was that it made people realize how pervasive gaming had become. The people interested in computer games weren't just pale overweight nerds, it was also the beer drinkin' gun shootin' blue collar man.
Ironicly this is posted labor day weekend... why do we have labor day in september? Because the goverment felt we needed a token holiday during the 3 month period between 4th of July and Columbus day (which I think most places besides federal goverment ignore)
The US may have the most "stuff" but we pay for it with our health. We buy a $5000 plasma TV to get our minds off the stress of all the work we need to do to afford a $5000 plasma TV.
If you read the 2K5 message boards, there are similar issues, the "DT exploit" where with a shift of the D-line you can get one of your DT through untouched, and the "QB scramble" issue, where the AI isn't able to cope well with scrambling QBs
I think with the increased complexity and addition of internet multiplayer to console games, they might have to go to "patches" since AI issues and other problems are more likely to be exploited. You'll get your ass kicked if you exploit against your friends in the dorm (so it has been a police yourselves kind of environment), there isn't retribution if you exploit against strangers on the internet.
As long as something is used to back the currency
The only reason to have tangible backing is to have the trust of people to use it. People accept fiat currency, "In God we Trust", they trust the dollar is limited and that they can freely exchange it.
When you tie currency to gold, silver, or something else, then there is less control of the money supply. The value of the currency will fluxuate with the resource. You've taken control out of the hands of goverment (which answers to voters) and put it into the hands of business (which answers to shareholders). Tie it to gold, and now those businesses that own gold mines also control the value of your currency.
The system IS broken when a typical worker is having to work twice as long to pay for the $10 shoes as their grandfather had to work to pay for the 10 cent shoes. Why do you think two-income families have become essential these days, when they used to be almost unheard of?
Two income families are a seperate issue from inflation. That is more an issue of the relative value of labor vs goods & services. Inflation would hit both these the same
Without gold or silver to back it (as MANDATED by the Constitution!), the dollar is nothing more than a fiat currency, backed only by the confidence of those who use it that it will maintain its value.
Why is gold and silver the magic answer? They suffer from the same issue as fiat currency, they only have value when people accept it for exchange. There is nothing intrinsicly valuable about precious metals.
A strong dollar is not always a good thing, what is more important is a stable dollar value relative to other currencies. Right now we are still seeing the market stabalization for the euro (it has been only 5 years). What makes the euro attractive is that business can be done with more countries cheaply.
I agree with you though that the goverment should do a better job of deficit spending and spending policy.
This inflationary monetary policy has had the net result of reducing the buying power of the dollar to only a tiny fraction of what it once was, and in the long run is unsustainable
Why is it unsustainable? Just because it costs $10 for shoes that used to cost 10 cents doesn't mean the system is broken. If the price of everything goes up, then nothing has really changed. Inflationary monetary policy encourages money to move, which encourages exchange of goods & services
If the goverment didn't increase the money supply things would be worse. A limited supply of money, with increased demand (growing population & more goods/services being exchanged as the economy grows) = deflation. This would discourage investment, spending, and damage the economy.
Why would the bank loan you money for to start a company, when they could increase the value of their money just letting it sit in a vault with no risk. Why buy a new TV today, when it will cost less in a month.
I know real networking is a tough job. I don't think I could handle it, my brother does networking for a school district, most of the stuff he talks about flies over my head. .com era networking people who didn't know anything, yet demanded 80k because they could setup a windows machine for a local network (no security knowledge, and no real knowledge of how to setup a good network). They didn't have any interest in the business except for $$.
I was talking about the
Same goes with the HTML folks, a roomate of mine in Silicon Valley made $60k a year doing web MAINTAINANCE... just making sure the stupid links were working! Total stoner job literally. Now he lives with his parents, hmm I wonder why.
Sorry didn't mean to offend with that network engineer comment.
wonder if the price of the software came down because of competition, rather than it being cheaper to make?
One of things we will see is increased competition because software is cheaper to make. Because it requires less capital and there is excess labor, new companies can enter the market.
To give an example, big corps may still buy the brand name Oracle database software, but there is a market for lower end database software for small companies. Maybe a 50 person company can't afford $50k for an Oracle database, but they can afford $5k for an alternative, and there will be a small company that will fill that niche. If there is money to be had somebody will take advantage of it.
You do make a good point about brand name companies being able to take advantage of cheap labor solely for profit margins. Look at computers, Sony can still charge $2500 for a Vaio. But the important thing is I have the option to buy a $300 eMachine that is similar. Same with shoes, I have the option for $100 Nikes or $5 shoes. The overall industry selling price drops (average selling price for a computer has dropped), though there are a few companies that maintain profit margins solely through marketing. The important thing is it's all up to the consumer, unlike now where there are so few options, especially for business software, you pay what the companies ask whether you like it or not.
If you look at past history when the price of capital goods (goods used to create other goods/services) it has been an overall boon for the economy. I don't think all the IT jobs will comeback, but there will be more jobs overall for the economy in complementary and value added type activities.
I'm in a semiconductor manufacturing R&D type job, which are limited in the states because most stuff is outsourced. The best part as being a worker in an outsourced industry is the people you work with are doing it for the love, not because of the $$$. Hopefully in IT all those "I want $80k for being able to plug two computers together" networking people will get weeded out.
Thanks for the information, I always enjoy reading posts that make me think and that I can learn from.
A probability curve contains all information until it is sampled (so it exists in all states until the wave is collapsed). This is the reason it is called a paradox.
An example is photons interefering with themselves, double slit experiment where photons are let through one at a time. Even though the photon can pass through either slit A or slit B, the pattern you get is as if it passes through both slit A & B.
It costs the same to make 1 wafer with 1000 chips as it does to make 1 wafer with 5 chips. So by shrinking the size you can put more chips on a wafer, and reduce manufacturing costs (per chip).
The biggest key to Schroedinger's equation is the description as a wave function. The wave function contains information of all states until the wave function is collapsed. So it is both pissed off and calm at the same time. If it's anything like my roomate's cat, when you collapse the wave function it will be pissed.
After all, this false logic which says the software prices will fall, is like expecting Nike prices to fall just because they are made for $1 in Indonesian and Thai sweathouse factories
Actually the industry price for shoes HAS fallen because of the sweatshops. Seen any cobblers around? It used to be the cost for shoes (relative to what people made) was higher, hence, the need for repairs rather than buying a new pair. You can buy a decent pair of shoes for $5, heck even $2 when payless has a sale. The only reason Nike can charge $100 is because of name recognition (the marketing guys are good for something).
The price of business software has been falling between 2-5% each year. Some software (ie microsoft stuff) hasn't fallen because of their market dominance (same reason Nike can charge such outrageous sums), but most other business software has dropped.
An example of jobs being created from cheap software is open source. Now that businesses can get Linux at no cost, they can have their programmers customize it for their particular needs. Overall jobs aren't destroyed, they are just changed to further enhance the value of cheap software.
I don't know what any of that meant, but I think Schroedinger's Cat is gonna be pissed. Or not...
Actually both
I don't think developers are forced to choose, turn-based vs real-time. There is a spectrum of time control: :)
Traditional turn based (pause during every turn) - Final Fantasy, UFO
Turn-based with user defined pauses - KOTOR, Baldur's Gate
Turn Based with no pause - Everquest, most MMORPGs
Real time w/ speed control - Most RTSs
Real Time - FPSs, Flight/Space Sims
I think only the first one is becoming objectionable for publishers trying to cater to the MTV generation. I do love my Civilization and Empire Deluxe games though
I don't find running out of power to be the problem, its the added weight. I think years of gaming have gotten me used to a certain weight of mouse, when I tried the MX700 my wrist began to get sore, because I wasn't used to moving the added weight around. I exchanged for an MX510 which was a little heavier than my old mouse, but I was able to get used to it.
I have similar problem at work where my mouse just doesn't feel as responsive (cheaper optical mouse). It's amazing how such minor differences in equipment can cause major annoyances.
Just look at this other piece of museum quality art. It's actually rev 2 since the janitor threw out the original by mistake.
The microsoft mouse looks interesting, but not special, and I wonder how it holds up in the whole ergonomic department, maybe it can come with a matching wrist brace.