And that is only installation support. They don't give free technical trouble support anymore unless your call leads to a bug being filed, in which case, they'll credit your credit card.
And how is that any different from Pfizer or any other pharmaceutical manufacturers charging you $30 a pop for cancer meds? Pay, or die. No insurance, mortgage your house. No house, sell your car and stocks. No car or stocks? Die.
I see no difference. It's the fact that by donating effectively worthless goods (Software), they're conning the U.S. taxpayers out of tax revenue. If they were donating cash, I'd not be so incensed about the whole thing.
First off, that $12,000 you spent equals approximately $60 for Microsoft.
So if Microsoft spent donated $12,000 worth of software, they would have bilked the American taxpayers out of $11,940 dollars. Hmm... you'd have been better off buying a $50 box of SuSE, and deploying that instead, then you really do SAVE $11,950 american taxpayer dollars.
Funny how that works, huh? That tax money has to come out of the big IRS pool somehow.
No, I don't think it'd get ridiculed. If Microsoft offered $1billion dollars cash, no strings attached, to the NIH or the NSF or PBS or the Jimmy Fund, I don't think a single person would complain (except the trolls).
The problem is, they're not donating cash with no strings attached. Their donating software, which has a very SMALL marginal cost to them, and getting magnitudes more in deductions in return. That is really THEFT, from the American people, but since hundreds of other companies do it, why shouldn't we let them? Because no one else donates billions of dollars of "software" that's really CD's worth $2 apiece, but charged as $200 software packages. Nevermind the money they make on Support (you REALLY think that's free?).
There is no such law. In fact, doing something to make the most profit will many times entail doing something illegal.
But nothing can deter some shareholder from trying to win a class-action lawsuit contesting the leadership in said corporation. If that was so, then all those dot-bombers who lost billions in the crash could have made it back in lawsuits against the officers and board members of said corporations.
A corporation has a DUTY to make profit and propogate itself. Not necessarily to extract the most profit, although that is the natural evolution of commerce.
While fusion is arguably as good as it's ever going to get, I think the OP was attempting to conjure up some mystical near-perfect matter-energy conversion mechanism, akin to matter-antimatter collision. Which I would claim is a bigger step technologically and realistically than large-scale space construction. Fusion, I'll give you, since we are on the cusp (It'll happen sooner or later) and we're nowhere near capable of building a Dyson sphere at this point.
Well, if a star a million miles in diameter peters out after 8-10 billion years, there is an upper limit on the amount of energy that you can conveniently harness from each pound of matter. There's a limit on the amount of energy that you can harness from 30,000 gallons of water. There's no explicit limit on how long the human race is going to last.
Physically it'd be possible to build a dyson sphere. I mean, that's a SMALL step in the engineering/physical sciences ladder compared to turning water into pure energy. One is a logistical nightmare of ungodly proportions, the other requires us to invent totally new physical processes and science.
Which do you think any specific race is going to do first? Cover their star in a dyson sphere and survive for billions of years on infrared energy, or somehow figure out how to transubstantiate themselves into pure energy? Because *ANY* race who figures that out, probably turned it into a weapon at the first opportunity.
4-5 years of martial arts coupled with another 2 or 3 years of Iaido or kendo. Then when you run out of bullets during armageddon, you can forge your rifle into a katana and keep on surviving.:-)
I'm sorry you didn't have a grammy who sewed like she was a reincarnated loom, and a grandpappy who'd only let you touch the rifle after you mended a few dozen pairs of socks and pants. It was a conspiracy, I tell you!
I can tie a slip knot and a square knot, and that's about it. It sucks.:-/
I think you should have prefixed "Climbers" with "Experienced". It's like parachute making, or making hang-gliders, or kit planes. A beginner would be committing suicide to try these things out without seeing how other working ones are made, or experimenting a lot with plastic jugs, but an experienced chute-rigger should know how to patch, fix, and make a chute if their lives depended on it.
Same with climbers. At some point, you know what's going to work, and what's not. Same with SCUBA. Making some gear for my setup, I had a lot of good help from learning a few basics about what to avoid, snap bolts instead of gate clips (carabiners)... and experience. Now today, starting over, I'd buy completely different kit, because that which I did get doesn't match my new minimalist diving mentality.:-/
You think that, right up until you start playing D&D with 4 people on a 12 foot diagonal screen, and you hear a kick ass onkyo+cambridge soundworks speaker system kick out "Welcome to the D&D world!!!", as you slaughter wave after wave goblins, gnolls, trolls beholders, dragons and dark elves.
Then tell me that MAME isn't up to par with the original. I honestly think MAME makes the whole experience better. Stop using a keyboard with mame and get a good joystick, and get a big-screen, and you'll change your tune.:-)
Unless you buy books/magazines laminated in plastics. Those things ought to last a good 1000 years before degrading to the point of no return. I have some paperbacks from the late 80's that are getting brittle, but none of my D&D books has degraded one bit, thanks to that lamination.
Who's bright idea was it to put the Smithsonian and Library of Congress in Washington, D.C.? Perhaps the single biggest terrorist and nuclear target that ever existed?
Before I die, I'd like to cultivate and pass on to my grandkids the skills THEY need to go out into the woods for 3 years, and end up with a lathe/milling machine... a foot powered lathe/milling machine, maybe, but a machine nonetheless. Cuz with a good lathe, you can make rifled gun barrels, and that makes you valuable ANYWHERE, ANYTIME.
My biggest problem right now is being able to walk around and figure out what's flint, what makes good pig-iron, etc. At 26 years old, I shouldn't have been learning how to make fire, but I felt it absolutely necessary. Now I want to know how to gather and smelt iron to make simple knives and tools. From there to foot-powered milling machines.
Except I hate bottling, so I'm going to Cornelius kegs instead, or 32oz growlers. Never again will I put beer in 12oz or 16oz bottles. But I agree, bottle conditioned. It's the purist's way!
Oh how I miss making my own bolts.:-) Back when I had full unrestricted access to my grand-pappy's workshop, tapping and making our own bolts from 1/4, 1/2, or 1" stock on the lathe saved us quite a bit of time having to run down to the local shop to get JUST the right bolt in JUST the right length...
Simple tinkering with cars stopped when you started needing $1000 computers just to help adjust the fscking timing sequence on the damn injectors, or adjust the fuel/air mix ratios. Or just to reboot the fucking thing.
THAT's why I don't fix my car own anymore. The first 3 cars I owned, I did EVERYTHING short of replacing the destroyed transmissions and rebuilding the engines. My time is just worth too much now, and I've got better warranties.:-D
Slashdot Mirror
Nope, we downloaded 100Kb-700kb .DOC files (ASCII text, not Word docs).
General computing hasn't really changed much in the past 10 years. Except HTML mail. That sucks. A lot.
And that is only installation support. They don't give free technical trouble support anymore unless your call leads to a bug being filed, in which case, they'll credit your credit card.
And how is that any different from Pfizer or any other pharmaceutical manufacturers charging you $30 a pop for cancer meds? Pay, or die. No insurance, mortgage your house. No house, sell your car and stocks. No car or stocks? Die.
I see no difference. It's the fact that by donating effectively worthless goods (Software), they're conning the U.S. taxpayers out of tax revenue. If they were donating cash, I'd not be so incensed about the whole thing.
First off, that $12,000 you spent equals approximately $60 for Microsoft.
So if Microsoft spent donated $12,000 worth of software, they would have bilked the American taxpayers out of $11,940 dollars. Hmm... you'd have been better off buying a $50 box of SuSE, and deploying that instead, then you really do SAVE $11,950 american taxpayer dollars.
Funny how that works, huh? That tax money has to come out of the big IRS pool somehow.
-Chris
Deriliction of duty? Are you serious?
.bombs got sued for negligence and deriliction of duty?
How many of those
No, I don't think it'd get ridiculed. If Microsoft offered $1billion dollars cash, no strings attached, to the NIH or the NSF or PBS or the Jimmy Fund, I don't think a single person would complain (except the trolls).
The problem is, they're not donating cash with no strings attached. Their donating software, which has a very SMALL marginal cost to them, and getting magnitudes more in deductions in return. That is really THEFT, from the American people, but since hundreds of other companies do it, why shouldn't we let them? Because no one else donates billions of dollars of "software" that's really CD's worth $2 apiece, but charged as $200 software packages. Nevermind the money they make on Support (you REALLY think that's free?).
There is no such law. In fact, doing something to make the most profit will many times entail doing something illegal.
But nothing can deter some shareholder from trying to win a class-action lawsuit contesting the leadership in said corporation. If that was so, then all those dot-bombers who lost billions in the crash could have made it back in lawsuits against the officers and board members of said corporations.
A corporation has a DUTY to make profit and propogate itself. Not necessarily to extract the most profit, although that is the natural evolution of commerce.
Except those 70-odd F-14s and that Anthrax.
While fusion is arguably as good as it's ever going to get, I think the OP was attempting to conjure up some mystical near-perfect matter-energy conversion mechanism, akin to matter-antimatter collision. Which I would claim is a bigger step technologically and realistically than large-scale space construction. Fusion, I'll give you, since we are on the cusp (It'll happen sooner or later) and we're nowhere near capable of building a Dyson sphere at this point.
Well, if a star a million miles in diameter peters out after 8-10 billion years, there is an upper limit on the amount of energy that you can conveniently harness from each pound of matter.
There's a limit on the amount of energy that you can harness from 30,000 gallons of water. There's no explicit limit on how long the human race is going to last.
Physically it'd be possible to build a dyson sphere. I mean, that's a SMALL step in the engineering/physical sciences ladder compared to turning water into pure energy. One is a logistical nightmare of ungodly proportions, the other requires us to invent totally new physical processes and science.
Which do you think any specific race is going to do first? Cover their star in a dyson sphere and survive for billions of years on infrared energy, or somehow figure out how to transubstantiate themselves into pure energy? Because *ANY* race who figures that out, probably turned it into a weapon at the first opportunity.
Oh wait, have I been trolled?
That's good to know. See, I learned something today. :-)
I know, I was being pedantic. :-) Thanks for the clarification, though!
4-5 years of martial arts coupled with another 2 or 3 years of Iaido or kendo. Then when you run out of bullets during armageddon, you can forge your rifle into a katana and keep on surviving. :-)
I'm sorry you didn't have a grammy who sewed like she was a reincarnated loom, and a grandpappy who'd only let you touch the rifle after you mended a few dozen pairs of socks and pants. It was a conspiracy, I tell you!
:-/
I can tie a slip knot and a square knot, and that's about it. It sucks.
I think you should have prefixed "Climbers" with "Experienced". It's like parachute making, or making hang-gliders, or kit planes. A beginner would be committing suicide to try these things out without seeing how other working ones are made, or experimenting a lot with plastic jugs, but an experienced chute-rigger should know how to patch, fix, and make a chute if their lives depended on it.
:-/
Same with climbers. At some point, you know what's going to work, and what's not. Same with SCUBA. Making some gear for my setup, I had a lot of good help from learning a few basics about what to avoid, snap bolts instead of gate clips (carabiners)... and experience. Now today, starting over, I'd buy completely different kit, because that which I did get doesn't match my new minimalist diving mentality.
Yup, but my passion is photography, which I'm starting to think I need to temper with a bit of painting or drawing to really appreciate the skills.
You think that, right up until you start playing D&D with 4 people on a 12 foot diagonal screen, and you hear a kick ass onkyo+cambridge soundworks speaker system kick out "Welcome to the D&D world!!!", as you slaughter wave after wave goblins, gnolls, trolls beholders, dragons and dark elves.
:-)
Then tell me that MAME isn't up to par with the original. I honestly think MAME makes the whole experience better. Stop using a keyboard with mame and get a good joystick, and get a big-screen, and you'll change your tune.
Unless you buy books/magazines laminated in plastics. Those things ought to last a good 1000 years before degrading to the point of no return. I have some paperbacks from the late 80's that are getting brittle, but none of my D&D books has degraded one bit, thanks to that lamination.
Who's bright idea was it to put the Smithsonian and Library of Congress in Washington, D.C.? Perhaps the single biggest terrorist and nuclear target that ever existed?
Before I die, I'd like to cultivate and pass on to my grandkids the skills THEY need to go out into the woods for 3 years, and end up with a lathe/milling machine... a foot powered lathe/milling machine, maybe, but a machine nonetheless. Cuz with a good lathe, you can make rifled gun barrels, and that makes you valuable ANYWHERE, ANYTIME.
My biggest problem right now is being able to walk around and figure out what's flint, what makes good pig-iron, etc. At 26 years old, I shouldn't have been learning how to make fire, but I felt it absolutely necessary. Now I want to know how to gather and smelt iron to make simple knives and tools. From there to foot-powered milling machines.
And the GRAND PRIZE for making it operable via a WAP-enabled cellphone from someplace in Eastern Europe. :-)
(what's this obsession I have with tele-operated bread and beer-making equipment today?)
I contend you're comparing apples and apples.
Nah dude, gotta make it web-enabled so that I can constantly check the temperature of my beer from California on my WAP-enabled cellphone. :-)
If only I wasn't trying to build an 8x10 monorail camera, I might have a play at duplicating your efforts.
Except I hate bottling, so I'm going to Cornelius kegs instead, or 32oz growlers. Never again will I put beer in 12oz or 16oz bottles. But I agree, bottle conditioned. It's the purist's way!
Oh how I miss making my own bolts. :-) Back when I had full unrestricted access to my grand-pappy's workshop, tapping and making our own bolts from 1/4, 1/2, or 1" stock on the lathe saved us quite a bit of time having to run down to the local shop to get JUST the right bolt in JUST the right length...
:-/
Oh I miss my tapping set.
Simple tinkering with cars stopped when you started needing $1000 computers just to help adjust the fscking timing sequence on the damn injectors, or adjust the fuel/air mix ratios. Or just to reboot the fucking thing.
:-D
THAT's why I don't fix my car own anymore. The first 3 cars I owned, I did EVERYTHING short of replacing the destroyed transmissions and rebuilding the engines. My time is just worth too much now, and I've got better warranties.