How much did the dispassionate professionals at Fidelity lose to the dot bomb?
The problem is they would have lost more by not participating in the bubble. Companies feeding the bubble were making extremely high rates of return for their investors, if any investment company didn't participate their customers would have withdrawn their money and gone somewhere else. The experts knew the bubble was going to burst, the problem was the short term risk of not participating in the bubble was too high.
1) See interstate commerce clause
2) See Necessary and Proper clause
3) The air you breathe is less scarce than the airwaves. A better analogy would be land, which the government can and does in fact manage and sell the rights to.
There are serious supply issues facing a lot of the materials we rely on today as well as materials we're thinking of relying on tomorrow.
Exactly, I was looking for somebody to mention Indium supply issues also, it's gone from $85/kg to over $1000/kg in the past 5 years! Not to mention Copper which has had a price increase and gallium which isn't that abundant either. LCD manufacturing which has been eating up a lot of the Indium supply isn't expected to shrink, so maybe they can make a $1/watt solar panel now, but it will be more expensive in the future.
And that's a valid reason for a bloated government subsidy to a very small special interest? Let the market decide if NASA's way of doing things is the best. Being that it's a government program the likelihood is not.
The function of NASA isn't necessarily about just putting stuff in space. It exists for strategic needs in national defense, infrastructure building, and propaganda; all hiding behind the innocuous veil of science. Sputnik for example proved to be an enormous propaganda boon for the Soviet Union, as well as demonstrating in a peaceful fashion they had the ability to nuke the US with ballistic missiles. There are strategic reasons why we want to continue exploring space. Resources on earth are limited, and getting more difficult to access. Being first to access extraterrestrial resources will prove a distinct economic and political advantage. The groundwork needs to be laid to enable private business interests to pursue space based resource gathering. Think of it like building the interstate system, the internet, or the sponsorship of Louis & Clark expeditions.
If they had used their signal, I could have proceeded.
I learned in traffic school, a turn signal just means the light is working. At best they can let you know what the person might do, who hasn't left a turn signal on for a few blocks?
You'd be hard pressed to have freedom without privacy in reality.
Go out and have a march to protest something, that is freedom in the absence of privacy. You can hide behind the veil of anonymity, but to truly earn your freedom you must be willing to go out and accept the reprocussions of what you believe in.
Yes, but this sounds more like a case of a locksmith who has to open your garage door and then finds a body under your master bed. While we do not know all the facts on this, it sounds like the tech went looking for it. Of course, anohter question is, did he or somebody else at the store plant it?
What if the locksmith was poking around looking for the fusebox which might be one of the reasons the garage door wasn't opening. Without the details we don't know whether or not the tech did something wrong; though, at the end of the day it doesn't matter how he found the files, he found them and was obligated to report them.
As software engineer for the past quarter century (and as a consultant for most of that) I was privy to a vast quantity of corporate information that, had I been unscrupulous, could have been used to cause a lot of damage. So you learn, very quickly, to keep your mitts off anything that doesn't directly involve the task you're being paid to do. It's not your concern, and they're trusting you to do the right thing. In fact, that's what it all comes down to: trust. What those technicians did, regardless of what they found, is just wrong. You can bet your bottom dollar that Circuit City just lost a lot of their customers' trust over this.
What the techs did was wrong, but they can't just ignore what they saw. The techs should be fired and perhaps prosecuted depending on how egregious their unauthorized use was. That still doesn't mean they can't report or that the evidence is can't be used. As you mentioned, the lesson is if you do poke around other people's files, you could be in for more than you bargained for.
And yes sometimes there was porn (typical 18+ stuff), but even if I had found child porn I would stay out of this affair. It's really none of my bussiness of how he got it or what the circumstances are. It his is private property and I have no right to help myself into his files, that's an illegal search, and I would never want it done to myself by someone else.
As soon as you see it, it becomes your business. You can be questioned about what you saw when repairing the computer, and then you will be prosecuted as an accomplice. Whether or not you had the right to see those files, you in fact saw them and have the responsibility to act.
So why couldn't private industry take over from NASA?
Because at the moment the investment required and risks are too high. We are at the beginning of commercial space flight, but at the moment the technology isn't mature enough to make it cost effective.
The question is whether it would be popular. One of the attractions to sport is that fans have the illusion of relating to the athletes. If the athelete is so different that such relation cannot be established, the fan enjoyment will deminish.
I was just going to say that entire societies and civilizations have fought with blood to free themselves from being slaves by tagging them, and here you have some ignorant fools WISHING it upon themselves
The tagging in itself is not a problem, it's how such tags are used.
Also, if the buy it later, the cost to produce a Wii might have come down, and Nintendo may end up making more profit per unit. That could yield them even more money in the end.
But alternatively the money they receive now could be invested and yield more than any cost savings.
The mother of a friend of mine was a top executive at Dow Chemical, at the time the company's highest-paid woman. She always flew Concorde when she could because the company was paying her salary during her flight..
This applies not just for jetting around executives, but any situation where money is less important than time. Like if you need an expert to fix a production line potentially costing tens of thousands of dollars per hour. You also can have productivity gains, for example an international business trip can take 1 day, rather than 3 days, two of which are wasted in the airport.
Who wants to be an American? Why is my feedback any less important then an Americans feedback?
Depends on the scope of their marketing analysis. If they are looking into the habits of users in the U.S. market and/or selling the data they collect to companies interested in American users, then yes your feedback would be less important.
If one wanted to compare a command economic system with a capitalist one, why not do so in the same country? The US, as history tells us, largely functioned on the basis of a command economy during the last World War (ration cards, heavy gov't R&D funding, etc). With major inventions like general purpose computers, the atomic bomb, and radar all being invented within 5ish years (through gov't funded programs like the Manhattan Project -- and cooperation with the command economy of Britain), I'd say command economies don't do so badly -- with the right commander.
Anytime you can get an entire population working towards a single goal you will see massive progress. The problem is such progress is not sustainable. The economy during WWII didn't really expand, everything was built on massive debt, and people get weary of sacrificing. You can mobilize a population to a single goal for a short period, but long term people will revert to "me first."
No, because it hurts! But seriously it is the same reason we have SEC, insider trading, and banking laws and regulation. Just because you know how to do it, doesn't mean its ok to do it.
This isn't healthcare, housing, or any other human need, this is reselling a toy. The problem isn't the resellers, it's the parents trying to buy love and teaching their children that if you want something you'll pay whatever it costs to get it now.
Wait, so if you sold this mythical Wii you would have made $100-$150 profit, yet are calling them greedy because they would be able to make $100 profit? Besides they are providing a service to the end customer for that $100. Whoever they sell to either doesn't have the knowledge or time to scour the internet, classifieds, wait in line at stores, etc. to get a Wii themselves, so they are willing to pay somebody who can. Ultimately the "fault" lies with the end customer because for some reason they must have something as unneccessary as a Wii and so are willing pay far more than retail.
And you don't make a freaking mecha game where you play the mechanic!...Maybe the problem with Star Wars was not that everyone wanted to play a Jedi but that the designers of the game didn't let them have their wish. I mean, honestly, who signs up for a Star Wars game and thinks, "Oh gosh! You can play a dancer? Ooh, ooh! I was so signing up to haul freight around the Star Wars universe, but dancing in a cantina is soooo much more compelling!"
You do realize there are many people who play RPGs to, you know, roleplay. There are many ways to enjoy an MMO, some people prefer the social aspect so were attracted to the idea of playing a dancer. You don't need the biggest baddest lewt to "win," fame and fortune provide a compelling goal for many roleplayers. Why would I want to be just another in the crowd of mech jocks, when I can be the rich & famous mechanic that all the top mech pilots come to for uber gear and repairs.
Honestly though, why should Congress get to decide that? NASA's main purpose is space exploration, I think that covers going to Mars
The president is commander-in-chief, and the military's main purpose is war... why should congress decide how to fund the war in Iraq? Control of the purse strings provides oversight. All the legislation does is prevent funding of Human Mars Mission programs with no other application. Such a mission could be seen as more a special interest goal at this point than real space research.
Whether an engineer is self-employed or on someone else's payroll, he fulfills the same responsibilities. Starting a business only makes sense when there is a need to be satisfied. A million master's graduates may well create a million business, but the market will only bear as many as are needed and the rest will fail. More importantly, the ones that fail have wasted time and money that would have been better spent elsewhere.
The problem is nobody can properly identify the market needs. Luckily we didn't limit the number of opportunities in computers to follow the famous prediction - "there may be a world market for maybe five computers." A person denied the opportunity to study and becomes a laborer will most likely just do the labor. A person who has education and becomes a laborer will have a larger set of tools and perspectives to create new opportunities. It isn't just about creating new opportunities, having more people with expertise in an area can improve the overall quality. 10 years ago the market already was saturated and had a dominant search engine, should we have stopped the founders of Google from pursuing PhD research on search engines?
If we ever find (or create) someone or something that can run a system without cheating or favoritism, it doesn't matter which government model we choose, it will be far more efficient than anything we've ever tried.
It isn't just about cheating and favoritism, it is about innate limitations on getting large groups of people to agree on any subject. Resources are limited, and even honest intelligent people can disagree on the best way to use those resources.
Slashdot Mirror
Because "common sense" doesn't always work in the business world.
The experts knew the bubble was going to burst, the problem was the short term risk of not participating in the bubble was too high.
1) See interstate commerce clause
2) See Necessary and Proper clause
3) The air you breathe is less scarce than the airwaves. A better analogy would be land, which the government can and does in fact manage and sell the rights to.
LCD manufacturing which has been eating up a lot of the Indium supply isn't expected to shrink, so maybe they can make a $1/watt solar panel now, but it will be more expensive in the future.
There are strategic reasons why we want to continue exploring space. Resources on earth are limited, and getting more difficult to access. Being first to access extraterrestrial resources will prove a distinct economic and political advantage. The groundwork needs to be laid to enable private business interests to pursue space based resource gathering. Think of it like building the interstate system, the internet, or the sponsorship of Louis & Clark expeditions.
You can hide behind the veil of anonymity, but to truly earn your freedom you must be willing to go out and accept the reprocussions of what you believe in.
Without the details we don't know whether or not the tech did something wrong; though, at the end of the day it doesn't matter how he found the files, he found them and was obligated to report them.
As you mentioned, the lesson is if you do poke around other people's files, you could be in for more than you bargained for.
Lost in the Bureaucracy
The question is whether it would be popular.
One of the attractions to sport is that fans have the illusion of relating to the athletes. If the athelete is so different that such relation cannot be established, the fan enjoyment will deminish.
The problem isn't the resellers, it's the parents trying to buy love and teaching their children that if you want something you'll pay whatever it costs to get it now.
Besides they are providing a service to the end customer for that $100. Whoever they sell to either doesn't have the knowledge or time to scour the internet, classifieds, wait in line at stores, etc. to get a Wii themselves, so they are willing to pay somebody who can. Ultimately the "fault" lies with the end customer because for some reason they must have something as unneccessary as a Wii and so are willing pay far more than retail.
There are many ways to enjoy an MMO, some people prefer the social aspect so were attracted to the idea of playing a dancer. You don't need the biggest baddest lewt to "win," fame and fortune provide a compelling goal for many roleplayers.
Why would I want to be just another in the crowd of mech jocks, when I can be the rich & famous mechanic that all the top mech pilots come to for uber gear and repairs.
Control of the purse strings provides oversight. All the legislation does is prevent funding of Human Mars Mission programs with no other application. Such a mission could be seen as more a special interest goal at this point than real space research.
QQ
A person denied the opportunity to study and becomes a laborer will most likely just do the labor. A person who has education and becomes a laborer will have a larger set of tools and perspectives to create new opportunities.
It isn't just about creating new opportunities, having more people with expertise in an area can improve the overall quality. 10 years ago the market already was saturated and had a dominant search engine, should we have stopped the founders of Google from pursuing PhD research on search engines?
It isn't just about cheating and favoritism, it is about innate limitations on getting large groups of people to agree on any subject. Resources are limited, and even honest intelligent people can disagree on the best way to use those resources.