Agreed. But you might want to check recent developments introduced by outcasts.
Steve Keen's research, in particular, is by no means pseudo-science. He teaches finance in Sydney, and he's mostly known throughout the profession for his book, titled "Debunking Economics". His reasoning and methodology are mostly impeccable (my understanding is he was an engineering before he looked into economics).
He has a YouTube channel where he posted his lectures from earlier this year. Highly recommended if you've a few evenings to spare. The first 6 or 7 are about why economics is shite; the later ones are about building new models from the ground up.
Svensmark is the scientist whose controversial ideas ultimately led CERN to conduct its CLOUD experiment. The gist of his idea was: cosmic particle presence (more clouds, due to more substrate) and solar magnetic activity (less clouds, due to repelled particles) are amongst the driving factors --perhaps the primary one-- of climate volatility on Earth, because they control overall cloud cover.
CERN's conclusion? Svensmark was basically spot on with respect to cloud formation.
Make no mistake here. Clouds excersice materially high positive and negative feedback loops on climate. Whether it is overwhelmingly superior or merely predominant to carbon dioxide et al is the only point of contention.
In light of this, is any Slashdot reader surprised that proximity of supernovae, aka amount of cosmic particles, accepting the evidence that the latter have an impact on cloud cover and thus on climate, might have an impact on how life in thriving on Earth?
Oh, don't take it personally... competing with a hobbyist who doesn't care much that isn't an issue. They fall behind in UX, maintenance, etc.
The trouble makers are that special breed of hobbyists who seem to have some kind of David vs Goliath point to make. It's to their credit, in a sense, and I don't mind it at all when they've a business model -- they're in business to stay and good for them if they're good at what they do.
But most don't have such a business plan. They learn the hard way that it's a lot easier to cut your price than it is to increase it. When these happen to be good coders (you know, the kind that delivers bug-free software faster than a whole team of normal coders...), they hurt. They invest all of their free time and more into their code, and promote it on top. They smash your revenue with an equivalent or occasionally superior (credit to them) product... And then, out of nowhere, they reach a tipping point and abandon it because they're overwhelmed by their success. By then you might be out of business, and the customer ends up losing.
So here's a fitness function: if you're a good coder *and* you've figure out a way to fund your going from lone-wolf to a 10-person business, then release anything and everything. If not, then please, we know you're good, you know you're good, point taken; yes, you're that good; but be so kind to not contribute additional job losses in the US or elsewhere in the name of satisfying your ego.
There's more than one utility function. For example, if wrote an app I would not expect to profit, it would be for fun. Thus I'd give it away for free or a dollar. Someone else might be hoping to make a living at it. too bad.
Too bad? If you're not meaning for the customer/end-user, I'd wager you never wrote any such app; or any OSS app, for that matter. And that those who tagged you as insightful haven't either.
In the real world, app development is just the beginning. Unless you decide to accept no feedback whatsoever, which is a losing proposition, you're in for a lot more feedback, emails and/or forum posts than you ever wish you'll ever read in your entire lifetime if you're even remotely successful. It's absolutely insane. Your success will destroy you unless you've an adequate means to scale -- whether monetization or extra funding.
So here you are, quacking that you'd happily share an app. For free. You'll keep your day job as you do. Someone out there actually wants to make a living off of a similar app. But he or she will get less or no business because you released that -- soon to be unsupported -- app at in an inadequately low price point.
Look... It's one thing to be competing with a Chinese team who can field $500/month coders to support their app, or with crap hobbyists who only have a slight clue of what they're doing. Those are mostly manageable in practice. It's an entirely different thing to compete with hobbyists who distribute good products without any interest in having a sustainable business.
Think of it this way: for every $100/month "cool, I got some pocket money I barely couldn't care about" app out there, an actual person who does care might be losing his job. So please do yourself a favor, do that guy a favor, and -- most importantly, in the long term -- do the customer a favor, and don't release it unless you work out your business model first. Else you're just building a mine field for those who do care.
The real question is, how long does a Kindle 4 need to last before it has the same "footprint" (from manufacturing to recycling) as daily newspapers? You'd need to set a size of newspaper (dimensions of the pages, number of pages, type of paper, type of inks, etc). It's a really complex question.
That's kind of a straw man. With a Kindle, you get to read thousands of additional books without needing to print any. If you upgrade to an iPad, you also get to play Cut the Rope. (Heh, good luck with keeping kids busy in a car by handing them a newspaper instead.)
The Green Party didn't have a lot of acumen either when they started, not all that long ago, but these days they're a serious political party with members in various parliaments across Europe.
It's a 2-3% party in France, though, if upcoming elections are anything to go by. Maybe they'll do better in parliament a few weeks later, but I've my doubts. I've no figures at hand, but I suspect the greens don't fare much better in the UK or in the Czech Republic.
The thing to keep in mind is that EU parliament is a proportional election in a number of (all?) countries. This favors small parties, who they end up over represented. This can then give the wrong impression, especially to non-EU political commentators -- they invariably overrate the importance of the EU parliament.
(The EU strategic decision making actually goes on at the European Council; the details are worked out by its lapdog institution, the European Commission. At the very best, the Parliament is tossed a bone to argue about every now and then. When they vote "wrong" they're served the same text with a word changed here and there, until they vote "right". Much like EU citizens when they reject the EU treaties.)
Meh... What I'd want to know is, by how much do you decrease a site's power consumption when you strip out:
1. Needlessly complex HTML. (sidebars, header, footer, occasionally content...) 2. Scripts, CSS files and cookies from all over the place (I'm looking at you, ads)
Or to put it another way: Give me what Safari Reader gives me, plus a few nav links, and I'll be happy.
Shareholders were told, not consulted, that a year's worth of earnings had been invested in a company with 30M+ users, nearly all Facebook users, and zero revenue...
I suspect that Zuck needs to work on investor relations somewhat...
I've met my fair share of VCs and business angels who systematically rejected NDAs as a matter of principle. On grounds that ideas are worthless without execution and a proper business plan. They arguably were more business savvy than average.
Some rare species of NDAs are fair, actually. The fair ones clearly state that both parties know what they know, explicitly highlight what they know, explicit what belongs to who (including ideas to be discussed), explicitly name the employees who get and are responsible for protecting the information (complete with sig, for upper-management CYA'ing), and explicitly mention that everything else is assumed to be neithers' property at the time the NDA is signed.
But you're right in a sense. Those kinds of things only ever get signed on the other side of the pond -- and even there, I've only ever signed a handful of such.
I'd wager that a number of these 100M+ users don't use iCloud irrespective of their having an account.
Personally, I created an account the day iOS 5 came out. I stopped using it when I identified iCloud and notifications as the reasons my 1st gen iPad became slow, unresponsive and (in apps such as Safari) prone to out-of-memory-related crashing.
I suppose this issue only affects older devices (those with low RAM), and thus would only count more recent device owners in Apple's figures.
Assuming you agree that a virus is alive -- which is debatable --, creating life from scratch is old news. A few years ago scientists copied a virus based on an existing virus.
If I may, you've a slight misunderstanding of anarchist theories. The underlying question behind them is this, more or less: On what grounds should a group mandate conformity? Best I know, there are no rational grounds.
"The government's job is (...) Military, Police, and Courts."
There is no such thing as an intrinsic State mission. Anarcho-capitalist theorists such as Murray Rothbard suggest to privatize military, police and courts.
In a nation, the authority's job is whatever the people decide it is. This can be as little or as much as they want. It is a mere matter of taste.
Slashdot Mirror
Nobel prize in economics.
that's Nobel prize in pseudo-science.
Agreed. But you might want to check recent developments introduced by outcasts.
Steve Keen's research, in particular, is by no means pseudo-science. He teaches finance in Sydney, and he's mostly known throughout the profession for his book, titled "Debunking Economics". His reasoning and methodology are mostly impeccable (my understanding is he was an engineering before he looked into economics).
He has a YouTube channel where he posted his lectures from earlier this year. Highly recommended if you've a few evenings to spare. The first 6 or 7 are about why economics is shite; the later ones are about building new models from the ground up.
http://youtube.com/profstevekeen
And a blog:
http://debtdeflation.com/blogs/
Math is logically consistent in itself.
*Cough*
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hilbert's_second_problem
Svensmark is the scientist whose controversial ideas ultimately led CERN to conduct its CLOUD experiment. The gist of his idea was: cosmic particle presence (more clouds, due to more substrate) and solar magnetic activity (less clouds, due to repelled particles) are amongst the driving factors --perhaps the primary one-- of climate volatility on Earth, because they control overall cloud cover.
CERN's conclusion? Svensmark was basically spot on with respect to cloud formation.
Make no mistake here. Clouds excersice materially high positive and negative feedback loops on climate. Whether it is overwhelmingly superior or merely predominant to carbon dioxide et al is the only point of contention.
In light of this, is any Slashdot reader surprised that proximity of supernovae, aka amount of cosmic particles, accepting the evidence that the latter have an impact on cloud cover and thus on climate, might have an impact on how life in thriving on Earth?
Alternatively, you can read the C++ FQA:
http://yosefk.com/c++fqa/
Oh, don't take it personally... competing with a hobbyist who doesn't care much that isn't an issue. They fall behind in UX, maintenance, etc.
The trouble makers are that special breed of hobbyists who seem to have some kind of David vs Goliath point to make. It's to their credit, in a sense, and I don't mind it at all when they've a business model -- they're in business to stay and good for them if they're good at what they do.
But most don't have such a business plan. They learn the hard way that it's a lot easier to cut your price than it is to increase it. When these happen to be good coders (you know, the kind that delivers bug-free software faster than a whole team of normal coders...), they hurt. They invest all of their free time and more into their code, and promote it on top. They smash your revenue with an equivalent or occasionally superior (credit to them) product... And then, out of nowhere, they reach a tipping point and abandon it because they're overwhelmed by their success. By then you might be out of business, and the customer ends up losing.
So here's a fitness function: if you're a good coder *and* you've figure out a way to fund your going from lone-wolf to a 10-person business, then release anything and everything. If not, then please, we know you're good, you know you're good, point taken; yes, you're that good; but be so kind to not contribute additional job losses in the US or elsewhere in the name of satisfying your ego.
There's more than one utility function. For example, if wrote an app I would not expect to profit, it would be for fun. Thus I'd give it away for free or a dollar. Someone else might be hoping to make a living at it. too bad.
Too bad? If you're not meaning for the customer/end-user, I'd wager you never wrote any such app; or any OSS app, for that matter. And that those who tagged you as insightful haven't either.
In the real world, app development is just the beginning. Unless you decide to accept no feedback whatsoever, which is a losing proposition, you're in for a lot more feedback, emails and/or forum posts than you ever wish you'll ever read in your entire lifetime if you're even remotely successful. It's absolutely insane. Your success will destroy you unless you've an adequate means to scale -- whether monetization or extra funding.
So here you are, quacking that you'd happily share an app. For free. You'll keep your day job as you do. Someone out there actually wants to make a living off of a similar app. But he or she will get less or no business because you released that -- soon to be unsupported -- app at in an inadequately low price point.
Look... It's one thing to be competing with a Chinese team who can field $500/month coders to support their app, or with crap hobbyists who only have a slight clue of what they're doing. Those are mostly manageable in practice. It's an entirely different thing to compete with hobbyists who distribute good products without any interest in having a sustainable business.
Think of it this way: for every $100/month "cool, I got some pocket money I barely couldn't care about" app out there, an actual person who does care might be losing his job. So please do yourself a favor, do that guy a favor, and -- most importantly, in the long term -- do the customer a favor, and don't release it unless you work out your business model first. Else you're just building a mine field for those who do care.
The real question is, how long does a Kindle 4 need to last before it has the same "footprint" (from manufacturing to recycling) as daily newspapers? You'd need to set a size of newspaper (dimensions of the pages, number of pages, type of paper, type of inks, etc). It's a really complex question.
That's kind of a straw man. With a Kindle, you get to read thousands of additional books without needing to print any. If you upgrade to an iPad, you also get to play Cut the Rope. (Heh, good luck with keeping kids busy in a car by handing them a newspaper instead.)
What are property rights for asteroids? If you bring an asteroid to orbit around the moon, are you now the owner of the asteroid?
Not according to existing treaties:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Extraterrestrial_real_estate#Legal_issues
But give them enough time to lobby...
Just wait until either drill a few boreholes:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Criticism_of_Coca-Cola#Water_use
The Green Party didn't have a lot of acumen either when they started, not all that long ago, but these days they're a serious political party with members in various parliaments across Europe.
It's a 2-3% party in France, though, if upcoming elections are anything to go by. Maybe they'll do better in parliament a few weeks later, but I've my doubts. I've no figures at hand, but I suspect the greens don't fare much better in the UK or in the Czech Republic.
The thing to keep in mind is that EU parliament is a proportional election in a number of (all?) countries. This favors small parties, who they end up over represented. This can then give the wrong impression, especially to non-EU political commentators -- they invariably overrate the importance of the EU parliament.
(The EU strategic decision making actually goes on at the European Council; the details are worked out by its lapdog institution, the European Commission. At the very best, the Parliament is tossed a bone to argue about every now and then. When they vote "wrong" they're served the same text with a word changed here and there, until they vote "right". Much like EU citizens when they reject the EU treaties.)
Maybe the US is becoming the new China?
It also applies to Canada and Mexico. The US gets your data if you travel to either from the EU, regardless of whether you fly over the US or not.
Meh... What I'd want to know is, by how much do you decrease a site's power consumption when you strip out:
1. Needlessly complex HTML. (sidebars, header, footer, occasionally content...)
2. Scripts, CSS files and cookies from all over the place (I'm looking at you, ads)
Or to put it another way: Give me what Safari Reader gives me, plus a few nav links, and I'll be happy.
Sorry for my poor English. I thought that, in the US anyway, earnings = profits != revenue.
But I might be wrong, obviously, being a non-US native...
Might also be wrong about their making $1bn profits last year, too... But I more or less recall reading that figure at some point.
Shareholders were told, not consulted, that a year's worth of earnings had been invested in a company with 30M+ users, nearly all Facebook users, and zero revenue...
I suspect that Zuck needs to work on investor relations somewhat...
It requires 15mph wind at least, and the up to likely depends on air humidity (which is plentiful in coastal places like Dubai).
I've met my fair share of VCs and business angels who systematically rejected NDAs as a matter of principle. On grounds that ideas are worthless without execution and a proper business plan. They arguably were more business savvy than average.
Monkeys have higher moral standards than the typical person you seem to be living around.
http://www.ted.com/talks/frans_de_waal_do_animals_have_morals.html
Some rare species of NDAs are fair, actually. The fair ones clearly state that both parties know what they know, explicitly highlight what they know, explicit what belongs to who (including ideas to be discussed), explicitly name the employees who get and are responsible for protecting the information (complete with sig, for upper-management CYA'ing), and explicitly mention that everything else is assumed to be neithers' property at the time the NDA is signed.
But you're right in a sense. Those kinds of things only ever get signed on the other side of the pond -- and even there, I've only ever signed a handful of such.
I'd wager that a number of these 100M+ users don't use iCloud irrespective of their having an account.
Personally, I created an account the day iOS 5 came out. I stopped using it when I identified iCloud and notifications as the reasons my 1st gen iPad became slow, unresponsive and (in apps such as Safari) prone to out-of-memory-related crashing.
I suppose this issue only affects older devices (those with low RAM), and thus would only count more recent device owners in Apple's figures.
Here's a more fun version: Write some English, tell the translator that it is German, and ask for an English transation.
Assuming you agree that a virus is alive -- which is debatable --, creating life from scratch is old news. A few years ago scientists copied a virus based on an existing virus.
e w-life-usat_x.htm
http://www.usatoday.com/news/science/2003-11-13-n
And unless I am mistaking, another team created a virus from scratch (as in without a model) earlier this year.
doh... so *that* is why nerds eventually find themselves a girl friend.
If I may, you've a slight misunderstanding of anarchist theories. The underlying question behind them is this, more or less: On what grounds should a group mandate conformity? Best I know, there are no rational grounds.
"The government's job is (...) Military, Police, and Courts."
There is no such thing as an intrinsic State mission. Anarcho-capitalist theorists such as Murray Rothbard suggest to privatize military, police and courts.
In a nation, the authority's job is whatever the people decide it is. This can be as little or as much as they want. It is a mere matter of taste.