then bumbled his way to a $2 trillion dollar a year deficit
You conveniently ignore his predecessor's tenure, during which spending spiked to its highest-ever levels with two unfunded wars and more military and security spending than even at the height of the Cold War.
the U6 unemployment rate didn't spike up to 16% until after Obumbles was in office.
A delayed reaction to the financial meltdown which, again, happened on his predecessor's watch.
According to the description of said ideology as espoused by most of my friends and acquaintances who describe themselves as Libertarians, Somalia would be the end-product of the policies they advocate. Care to put your money where your mouth is and describe what you think Libertarianism means instead of anonymously casting ad hominem attacks like a pussy?
...who want to shove this stuff down the armed forces' throats. The generals and admirals themselves say they don't want the kit, but the lobbyists and aerospace companies insist on making their billions or even trillions of dollars; and the members of Congress want their kickbacks and 'campaign contributions'.
The only drawback is making the investment to bury the wires. The payback is measured in decades, not months like the Chief Financial Officers want to see. They'd rather spend money on investments with quick profits.
And if those cables are buried in concrete-covered conduit, it becomes trivial to fish new cable to replace the old at the end of its life. Underground utility burial FTW.
but during 19th century it became largest producer and exporter and thus largest creditor,
Ermmm...no. Just NO. In the 19th century, Germany had us handily beat in terms of export and pace of industrialisation (whom do you think was responsible for industrialising Japan? 'Tweren't the US!), and we were merely tied with the UK. We didn't become the largest producer and exporter until WWII (repurposing our automobile factories to pump out all of those tanks, carriers, planes and other materiel), and the largest creditor until immediately after WWII (Bretton Woods, anyone?). Stop engaging in historical revisionism to suit your warped Randian view of the world. You seriously need to pull that shit-logged copy of Atlas Shrugged from your rectum. I'm getting sick and tired of reading your Objectivist apologetics in every single fucking one of your posts.
I know I'm committing a faux pas by replying to myself, but I will also add that a big reason we have such a higher-ed bubble in the USA is our national (and atavistic) worship of college athletics. If you didn't have schools tripping over each other and spending a lot of money to attract athletes, many problems (and petty politics) would simply vanish. Do the vast majority of Division I college athletes belong in a classroom? Hell, most of them can barely sign their own names. And just for the record, I'm not talking about the top student who happens to go to school on a tennis or lacrosse scholarship to supplement any academic scholarships. I'm referring to the mouth-breathing knuckle-draggers who don't know how to do anything other than throw a leather ball around and get laid afterwards.
A better educated public is universally more efficient, more productive. IT IS ALWAYS A GOOD THING TO HAVE MORE EDUCATION.
I agree. But I have a slightly different solution. How about improving secondary education in this country? One of the factors behind degree inflation is the fact that lower tiers of education have been dumbed-down over the last few decades. Just look at how many top-tier universities (e.g., UVA) offer remedial courses in maths and English. Why should institutions of higher education be forced to clean up the mess that high schools made? Part of the solution lies with returning to a time where a high school diploma was worth something, rather than just a piece of paper saying you persisted through four years of pep-rallies and underage drinking.
In college the more conservative students are more apt to hit the books and study, while the liberal ones will party more. However the liberal students are less career minded and will more likely go directly into higher education.
Complete and utter horse-shit. When I was in school, it was the more liberal students who kept long hours in the library and hit the books, whilst the more conservative-leaning tended to join social fraternities and stay drunk. Associates of mine, regardless of whether they went to state schools or private institutions, will back me up. Your post seemed somewhat insightful until that last paragraph, with which your entire argument ran off the rails.
...this will be MS's first of many capitulations when it comes to Windows 8...
The next one will probably be a back-pedal on the Start Menu being ripped out by the roots in the Release Preview. Maybe a 'classic' mode option, after all, even if only by twiddling some registry key? I mean, many people made much of Win95's replacing Program Manager and File Manager with Explorer. However, PROGMAN.EXE was still present; it was just no longer the default shell. I think the RTM version of Windows 8 will add the Vista/7-style Start Menu back in some hidden, but still able to be activated, form.
the inefficiencies with the greatest business impact are the ones that cost dev time.
Yes and no. When those extra clock cycles are apportioned over a large external userbase, then you're absolutely correct. However, data centres change the entire equation. When you're talking about code that runs on thousands or even millions of server instances that you own or lease (think Amazon or Google), then 0.1% performance increases can translate into millions of dollars in savings, as well as the commensurate reductions in energy use.
Why has nobody mentioned a solution like Diaspora? It seems to address a lot of the submitter's objections (ownership of the data, provisions for backup) and provides a nascent platform for someone to share whatever information s/he wants.
BZZT! Wrong! 'Computer models' are mathematical models simulated using computers. And these computer models are eminently falsifiable by answering two questions: 1) Do they agree with historical data within an arbitrary margin of error? and 2) Can they predict future phenomena, again, within an arbitrary margin of error? Furthermore, these models are being refined and enhanced all the time. Back in the 1970's they were 'simplistic' -- I assure you they are quite the opposite now. Why the fuck do you think they take many sustained teraflops (and soon petaflops) to run?
I think you're missing the point. Chrome OS is not really for consumers - it's for Enterprises and Educational institutions.
Actually, I would argue that you're right and wrong concurrently.
I agree with your second assertion: this is absolutely geared towards large organisations which have a user-set whose members perform routinised and low-skilled job duties (think data entry or customer service), and can access all the tools they need from a browser.
However, you're wrong in saying consumers would find no use for this. I can think of a number of people in my life -- older baby-boomers -- who do all of their stuff online and would love a relatively hassle-free computing experience. They just want something that works -- and a Chromebook is about as close to a turn-it-on-like-a-TV computing device as we have right now. It has a real keyboard, unlike tablets and smart-phones, but you don't have to fiddle with driver updates/antivirus/security patches like with Windows or OSX. The biggest complaint I hear from people in their 50's and 60's is that those virtual keyboards give little to no tactile feedback and are too small for their arthritic fingers, so the iPad won't work for them. But a Chromebook: now there is an entirely different game.
tl;dr: Don't be so quick to discount the utility of a Chromebook for consumers.
Also if you could make a wire out of it and make it long enough you could probably achieve picoseconds ping times instead of nanosecond on the internet.
You're off by many orders of magnitude. Latencies across the 'net are measured in milli-, not nanoseconds. The best superconductors theoretically possible can't overcome the fact that nothing moves faster than light. Even if there were no latency at a given network hop, nor at either end, and photons moved at 100% the speed of light in an optical fibre (which doesn't happen), those photons would still take roughly 16 milliseconds to traverse the approximately 3000 miles from one end of the continental US to the other.
That is, you spend $70/year on computer hardware that will find its way into a landfill rapidly.
With the wealth of options for recycling or even refurbishing a PC (e.g., FreeGeek), if a PC finds itself in a landfill, that only reflects on the laziness and lack of resourcefulness of the former owner. And yes, I'm aware of the unscrupulous 'recyclers' out there, but recent field research has shown that even developing-world Africans and Asians are rather ingenious at repurposing hand-me-down electronics.*
You must not get out much. Not only have I confirmed that 'cop-out' empirically, but also anecdotally. Most of my female friends who are single go on and on about wanting a 'nice' guy but invariably fall for the Alpha Male douche. Then, when Alpha Male douche dumps them, cheats on them or just generally treats them like shit, they wonder where they went wrong. Rinse, repeat.
This is borne out with online personals. The first thing women say is they want someone nice -- as if a woman is going to admit that she wants to date a piece of shit. However, when contacted by a nice guy, she ignores him in favour of a 'bad boy' who provides a sense of danger and excitement.
NOTE: This mostly seems to apply to American women. I have found foreign women to be far more accepting of nice and/or intellectual guys. American women are mostly spoiled bitches with an overarching sense of entitlement.
Slashdot Mirror
Regardless of the circumstances, the Obama administration has added $5,000,000,000,000 in debt in FOUR YEARS
A big chunk of that debt is because the Obama administration ended the Bush-era practice of keeping the Iraq and Afghanistan wars off-budget.
then bumbled his way to a $2 trillion dollar a year deficit
You conveniently ignore his predecessor's tenure, during which spending spiked to its highest-ever levels with two unfunded wars and more military and security spending than even at the height of the Cold War.
the U6 unemployment rate didn't spike up to 16% until after Obumbles was in office.
A delayed reaction to the financial meltdown which, again, happened on his predecessor's watch.
But don't let facts get in your way.
According to the description of said ideology as espoused by most of my friends and acquaintances who describe themselves as Libertarians, Somalia would be the end-product of the policies they advocate. Care to put your money where your mouth is and describe what you think Libertarianism means instead of anonymously casting ad hominem attacks like a pussy?
Werd. Mod up.
My answer to people who want minimal/negligible government is to go to Somalia. It's a hardcore fundy libertarian's wet dream.
...who want to shove this stuff down the armed forces' throats. The generals and admirals themselves say they don't want the kit, but the lobbyists and aerospace companies insist on making their billions or even trillions of dollars; and the members of Congress want their kickbacks and 'campaign contributions'.
Who will come out with a branded smart-phone next -- Walmart? JC Penney?
The only drawback is making the investment to bury the wires. The payback is measured in decades, not months like the Chief Financial Officers want to see. They'd rather spend money on investments with quick profits.
And if those cables are buried in concrete-covered conduit, it becomes trivial to fish new cable to replace the old at the end of its life. Underground utility burial FTW.
but during 19th century it became largest producer and exporter and thus largest creditor,
Ermmm...no. Just NO. In the 19th century, Germany had us handily beat in terms of export and pace of industrialisation (whom do you think was responsible for industrialising Japan? 'Tweren't the US!), and we were merely tied with the UK. We didn't become the largest producer and exporter until WWII (repurposing our automobile factories to pump out all of those tanks, carriers, planes and other materiel), and the largest creditor until immediately after WWII (Bretton Woods, anyone?). Stop engaging in historical revisionism to suit your warped Randian view of the world. You seriously need to pull that shit-logged copy of Atlas Shrugged from your rectum. I'm getting sick and tired of reading your Objectivist apologetics in every single fucking one of your posts.
Governments don't engage in war to make sure bullets sell.
They do if they've been bought by defence industry lobbyists.
I know I'm committing a faux pas by replying to myself, but I will also add that a big reason we have such a higher-ed bubble in the USA is our national (and atavistic) worship of college athletics. If you didn't have schools tripping over each other and spending a lot of money to attract athletes, many problems (and petty politics) would simply vanish. Do the vast majority of Division I college athletes belong in a classroom? Hell, most of them can barely sign their own names. And just for the record, I'm not talking about the top student who happens to go to school on a tennis or lacrosse scholarship to supplement any academic scholarships. I'm referring to the mouth-breathing knuckle-draggers who don't know how to do anything other than throw a leather ball around and get laid afterwards.
A better educated public is universally more efficient, more productive. IT IS ALWAYS A GOOD THING TO HAVE MORE EDUCATION.
I agree. But I have a slightly different solution. How about improving secondary education in this country? One of the factors behind degree inflation is the fact that lower tiers of education have been dumbed-down over the last few decades. Just look at how many top-tier universities (e.g., UVA) offer remedial courses in maths and English. Why should institutions of higher education be forced to clean up the mess that high schools made? Part of the solution lies with returning to a time where a high school diploma was worth something, rather than just a piece of paper saying you persisted through four years of pep-rallies and underage drinking.
In college the more conservative students are more apt to hit the books and study, while the liberal ones will party more. However the liberal students are less career minded and will more likely go directly into higher education.
Complete and utter horse-shit. When I was in school, it was the more liberal students who kept long hours in the library and hit the books, whilst the more conservative-leaning tended to join social fraternities and stay drunk. Associates of mine, regardless of whether they went to state schools or private institutions, will back me up. Your post seemed somewhat insightful until that last paragraph, with which your entire argument ran off the rails.
...this will be MS's first of many capitulations when it comes to Windows 8...
The next one will probably be a back-pedal on the Start Menu being ripped out by the roots in the Release Preview. Maybe a 'classic' mode option, after all, even if only by twiddling some registry key? I mean, many people made much of Win95's replacing Program Manager and File Manager with Explorer. However, PROGMAN.EXE was still present; it was just no longer the default shell. I think the RTM version of Windows 8 will add the Vista/7-style Start Menu back in some hidden, but still able to be activated, form.
the inefficiencies with the greatest business impact are the ones that cost dev time.
Yes and no. When those extra clock cycles are apportioned over a large external userbase, then you're absolutely correct. However, data centres change the entire equation. When you're talking about code that runs on thousands or even millions of server instances that you own or lease (think Amazon or Google), then 0.1% performance increases can translate into millions of dollars in savings, as well as the commensurate reductions in energy use.
Why not purchase a Raspberry Pi?
Why has nobody mentioned a solution like Diaspora? It seems to address a lot of the submitter's objections (ownership of the data, provisions for backup) and provides a nascent platform for someone to share whatever information s/he wants.
BZZT! Wrong! 'Computer models' are mathematical models simulated using computers. And these computer models are eminently falsifiable by answering two questions: 1) Do they agree with historical data within an arbitrary margin of error? and 2) Can they predict future phenomena, again, within an arbitrary margin of error? Furthermore, these models are being refined and enhanced all the time. Back in the 1970's they were 'simplistic' -- I assure you they are quite the opposite now. Why the fuck do you think they take many sustained teraflops (and soon petaflops) to run?
This x 10e6. Agreed.
I think you're missing the point. Chrome OS is not really for consumers - it's for Enterprises and Educational institutions.
Actually, I would argue that you're right and wrong concurrently.
I agree with your second assertion: this is absolutely geared towards large organisations which have a user-set whose members perform routinised and low-skilled job duties (think data entry or customer service), and can access all the tools they need from a browser.
However, you're wrong in saying consumers would find no use for this. I can think of a number of people in my life -- older baby-boomers -- who do all of their stuff online and would love a relatively hassle-free computing experience. They just want something that works -- and a Chromebook is about as close to a turn-it-on-like-a-TV computing device as we have right now. It has a real keyboard, unlike tablets and smart-phones, but you don't have to fiddle with driver updates/antivirus/security patches like with Windows or OSX. The biggest complaint I hear from people in their 50's and 60's is that those virtual keyboards give little to no tactile feedback and are too small for their arthritic fingers, so the iPad won't work for them. But a Chromebook: now there is an entirely different game.
tl;dr: Don't be so quick to discount the utility of a Chromebook for consumers.
...they got sent home with pay. That's what always seems to happen.
Police Chief: 'Officer Dickwad, we're going to punish the hell out of you. You have to stay home for a month at 100% pay.'
Dickwad: 'C'mon, Guv! Don't make me stay home and get paid to do nothing! Oh the horror!'
Also if you could make a wire out of it and make it long enough you could probably achieve picoseconds ping times instead of nanosecond on the internet.
You're off by many orders of magnitude. Latencies across the 'net are measured in milli-, not nanoseconds. The best superconductors theoretically possible can't overcome the fact that nothing moves faster than light. Even if there were no latency at a given network hop, nor at either end, and photons moved at 100% the speed of light in an optical fibre (which doesn't happen), those photons would still take roughly 16 milliseconds to traverse the approximately 3000 miles from one end of the continental US to the other.
Is it just me, or do these 'DC in the data centre' articles seem to get posted to /. every few months?
That is, you spend $70/year on computer hardware that will find its way into a landfill rapidly.
With the wealth of options for recycling or even refurbishing a PC (e.g., FreeGeek), if a PC finds itself in a landfill, that only reflects on the laziness and lack of resourcefulness of the former owner. And yes, I'm aware of the unscrupulous 'recyclers' out there, but recent field research has shown that even developing-world Africans and Asians are rather ingenious at repurposing hand-me-down electronics.*
*For the citation-hungry: http://www.greenbiz.com/news/2009/08/07/developing-nations-may-reuse-more-electronics-thought
You must not get out much. Not only have I confirmed that 'cop-out' empirically, but also anecdotally. Most of my female friends who are single go on and on about wanting a 'nice' guy but invariably fall for the Alpha Male douche. Then, when Alpha Male douche dumps them, cheats on them or just generally treats them like shit, they wonder where they went wrong. Rinse, repeat.
This is borne out with online personals. The first thing women say is they want someone nice -- as if a woman is going to admit that she wants to date a piece of shit. However, when contacted by a nice guy, she ignores him in favour of a 'bad boy' who provides a sense of danger and excitement.
NOTE: This mostly seems to apply to American women. I have found foreign women to be far more accepting of nice and/or intellectual guys. American women are mostly spoiled bitches with an overarching sense of entitlement.
Fuck you and the ass you rode in on.