I am always amused by those who think that the U.S. has no natural comparative advantages in trade (a la Ricardo theory). We're still the most innovative economy on the planet. We'll find something else to do besides growing corn, if it comes to that.
A few years back, at the time I signed up for Speakeasy DSL, they were the only decent ISP who would serve me. Verizon said I was too far from the CO (mechanized loopback test said 17000 feet) and they weren't eager to build new infrastructure in a zip where the median age of residents is 60-something. Comcast didn't have the capacity in my neighborhood development, although their flyer route drivers didn't seem to know that. Speakeasy said "sure" and I got 1.2 Mbps down and the line was clean. I have 2 static IPs, one on a FC5 box and one shared on a wireless router amongst 2 (and sometimes more) Windows boxes, and all for $42 a month. I was on the verge of getting rid of my Verizon POTS, even though it would push up the DSL cost $15. But the main reason I stayed with Speakeasy was the cheap static IPs, no complaints about what services I run, and knowledgeable tech support. I swore I would never ever give Comcast another dime of my money for any service, and I really don't care for Verizon support. But if Speakeasy goes the way of Geek Squad, or in any way resembles Best Buy customer service practices, I might just give up completely.
Anybody know any other independent ISPs left who might not treat home techies like criminals for running something besides Windows?
Oh yeah, I'd want to work for you. Clearly you favor employees who meekly accept "straw man" broadside character attacks disguised as intelligent debate.
I'm not military, but for what it's worth, the vets I've seen and worked with in the civilian workforce have always been more professional and dedicated to their work than the rest of the slacker lunkheads you usually see in IT.
Yes, if your ethics demand that you do whatever is in your power to change the situation. The alternative to this? Security by obscurity... and we all on Slashdot know how well that works...
You've made a compelling argument, but more so against closed-source development than against component based architectures. Every scenario you described would at least be addressible if the components were OSS.
Killing projects early for the Right Reasons is simply good management but the need to do this is usually an indication that there is something wrong in the organization itself. If you are part of an organization that does this frequently, the governance process or the development process is broken or both. Flee with all due speed.
I disagree. A place that engages in the creative process will naturally come up with some dud ideas. Sometimes you don't know that an idea is a dud before the project starts. But if new ideas are squelched so much that only "sure fire" projects are engaged, then the only thing that's "sure fire" is the fact that said company will eventually wither away and die.
If the vast majority of domestic air travel doesn't constitute interstate commerce, I don't know what does. That's pretty much the raison d'etre of airlines in the US.
Despite the unemployment figures you see, the US labor market is very heavily tilted in favor of the employee. Don't like your job? Quit and get another. The only thing stopping you from getting another job is your preference for jobs you will do, and your ambition in attaining the appropriate skills and training, not your ability to get one.
From an economic perspective, we are fully employed. Hell, we have so many jobs, we employ half of Mexico too!
I could blow it all in one day.... by buying a major sports franchise. in fact, that might not even be enough to buy a whole franchise. but I would be happy nonetheless!
Except you didn't really create any value, you only captured some of the value that wasn't already present in the stock price.
It was a fine and nuanced explanation, but it confuses the price of the equity with its intrinsic value, which muddles the argument somewhat.
I was at a friend's house who didn't have easily accessible Internet, but her neighbor did, an unprotected Linksys 802.11b router. I got online, did what I had to do, and got off. I suppose the moral equivalent would be walking into the unlocked front door of a house, watching their tv and sitting on their couch for a while, then leaving without taking anything. It is hard to argue stealing if they are not actually deprived of anything. Maybe their connection ran a wee bit slower for a few minutes because it was being shared. I can't imagine that in the house/tv situation, after being arrested and brought before a magistrate, that I'd get much more than a slap on the wrist. I would expect the judge to admonish the homeowner to lock their door as well.
You're assuming that AOL is going to lose net revenue or operating income on the deal. In fact, AOL may have calculated that the loss of customers will not completely offset the significant gain in revenue per customer. So they could end up serving less customers (which means a reduction in overhead, most likely), with more revenue per customer, and the same or even higher net income. Such a scenario isn't unlikely.
Of course, that all rests on certain assumptions they would have to make in doing the analysis. But I trust their assumptions more than yours.
Also, a consideration of their current dial-up customer base may lead one to consider that the switching costs for remaining customers are too high, even when the added dialup costs is considered... either they can't get broadband or don't want to figure it out, or they're wedded to their AOL email address and don't want to bear the pain of switching, or some other scenario I haven't considered.
Hmm, guess I'd better take a closer look at PHP5. I've used PHP 3 and 4 for small to medium sized database-driven web apps, and I've used Java and J2EE for medium to large to enterprise scale web apps, and I would not have agreed with your statement had it been about PHP 3 or 4. I do appreciate the facility the language gives for some simple things (at the expense of type safety), but I can't imagine working in a large team environment with PHP... there's not really a lot of good ways (that I know of) to enforce coding standards.
Just ask the guy who was against the Iraq war in a red state; just because it's not written into the law but enforced by your neighbours (who'll beat you up for wearing anti-bush t-shirts), it's still censorship.
Free speech has never been about protecting the speaker from the consequences of his speech. Not that I condone beating up people just for the shirt they are wearing (it smacks of middle school), but chances are, an asshole will get what's coming to him, law or no law.
This sounds similar to some ideas in The Physics of Immortality : Modern Cosmology, God and the Resurrection of the Dead by Frank J. Tipler (a prof. of mathematical physics at Tulane U.), which takes this idea even further into something called the Omega Point theory. While portions of the book are so wildly speculative and optimistic as to sound crackpot-ish, the basic ideas and themes underpinning the discussion are serious and merit further discussion.
While it doesn't take down my system, it DOES crash quite a bit lately. I am running 1.0.7 on Win2K. I wonder sometimes if it is a plugin that is causing the issue, but I have the same version and same plugin set on a WinXP laptop, and I don't see the issue there. I always know when it is going to coredump, because opening new tabs takes much longer than it should.
Slashdot Mirror
Wouldn't that be agnosticism?
Assuming you meant "sugar" where you said "everything", we could always export all our corn to Mexico.
I am always amused by those who think that the U.S. has no natural comparative advantages in trade (a la Ricardo theory). We're still the most innovative economy on the planet. We'll find something else to do besides growing corn, if it comes to that.
I thought time began on January 1st, 1970?
A few years back, at the time I signed up for Speakeasy DSL, they were the only decent ISP who would serve me. Verizon said I was too far from the CO (mechanized loopback test said 17000 feet) and they weren't eager to build new infrastructure in a zip where the median age of residents is 60-something. Comcast didn't have the capacity in my neighborhood development, although their flyer route drivers didn't seem to know that. Speakeasy said "sure" and I got 1.2 Mbps down and the line was clean. I have 2 static IPs, one on a FC5 box and one shared on a wireless router amongst 2 (and sometimes more) Windows boxes, and all for $42 a month. I was on the verge of getting rid of my Verizon POTS, even though it would push up the DSL cost $15. But the main reason I stayed with Speakeasy was the cheap static IPs, no complaints about what services I run, and knowledgeable tech support. I swore I would never ever give Comcast another dime of my money for any service, and I really don't care for Verizon support. But if Speakeasy goes the way of Geek Squad, or in any way resembles Best Buy customer service practices, I might just give up completely.
Anybody know any other independent ISPs left who might not treat home techies like criminals for running something besides Windows?
It's called the Chinese room argument, as concocted by John Searle.
Oh yeah, I'd want to work for you. Clearly you favor employees who meekly accept "straw man" broadside character attacks disguised as intelligent debate. I'm not military, but for what it's worth, the vets I've seen and worked with in the civilian workforce have always been more professional and dedicated to their work than the rest of the slacker lunkheads you usually see in IT.
Since when does Congress exercising its constitutionally mandated oversight duties constitute grandstanding?
Substitute "dumb corporate laptop user" or "dumb government laptop user" for "dumb home user" and you still have the same issue.
Granted, a corporate enterprise will be more likely to have some backup facilities in place, but how many of them actually back up laptop contents?
Yes, if your ethics demand that you do whatever is in your power to change the situation. The alternative to this? Security by obscurity... and we all on Slashdot know how well that works...
Grumble, grumble. Next you'll be complaining about how the Enterprise-D has no bathrooms.
You've made a compelling argument, but more so against closed-source development than against component based architectures. Every scenario you described would at least be addressible if the components were OSS.
Killing projects early for the Right Reasons is simply good management but the need to do this is usually an indication that there is something wrong in the organization itself. If you are part of an organization that does this frequently, the governance process or the development process is broken or both. Flee with all due speed.
I disagree. A place that engages in the creative process will naturally come up with some dud ideas. Sometimes you don't know that an idea is a dud before the project starts. But if new ideas are squelched so much that only "sure fire" projects are engaged, then the only thing that's "sure fire" is the fact that said company will eventually wither away and die.
If the vast majority of domestic air travel doesn't constitute interstate commerce, I don't know what does. That's pretty much the raison d'etre of airlines in the US.
Despite the unemployment figures you see, the US labor market is very heavily tilted in favor of the employee. Don't like your job? Quit and get another. The only thing stopping you from getting another job is your preference for jobs you will do, and your ambition in attaining the appropriate skills and training, not your ability to get one.
From an economic perspective, we are fully employed. Hell, we have so many jobs, we employ half of Mexico too!
OCTOR (sOft robotiC manipulaTORs)
Flexible Appendage for Robotic Manipulation?
Soft Tentacle Appendage for Remote Reconnaissance?
Prehensile Extension for Natural Intelligence System?
ok, maybe I'm not so good at this...
I could blow it all in one day.... by buying a major sports franchise. in fact, that might not even be enough to buy a whole franchise. but I would be happy nonetheless!
Except you didn't really create any value, you only captured some of the value that wasn't already present in the stock price. It was a fine and nuanced explanation, but it confuses the price of the equity with its intrinsic value, which muddles the argument somewhat.
I was at a friend's house who didn't have easily accessible Internet, but her neighbor did, an unprotected Linksys 802.11b router. I got online, did what I had to do, and got off. I suppose the moral equivalent would be walking into the unlocked front door of a house, watching their tv and sitting on their couch for a while, then leaving without taking anything. It is hard to argue stealing if they are not actually deprived of anything. Maybe their connection ran a wee bit slower for a few minutes because it was being shared. I can't imagine that in the house/tv situation, after being arrested and brought before a magistrate, that I'd get much more than a slap on the wrist. I would expect the judge to admonish the homeowner to lock their door as well.
You're assuming that AOL is going to lose net revenue or operating income on the deal. In fact, AOL may have calculated that the loss of customers will not completely offset the significant gain in revenue per customer. So they could end up serving less customers (which means a reduction in overhead, most likely), with more revenue per customer, and the same or even higher net income. Such a scenario isn't unlikely.
Of course, that all rests on certain assumptions they would have to make in doing the analysis. But I trust their assumptions more than yours.
Also, a consideration of their current dial-up customer base may lead one to consider that the switching costs for remaining customers are too high, even when the added dialup costs is considered... either they can't get broadband or don't want to figure it out, or they're wedded to their AOL email address and don't want to bear the pain of switching, or some other scenario I haven't considered.
fine hairsplitting this, but porn stars are paid to compensate for the recording, not for the acts performed while recording.
although I have a fair idea that if they get all set up and there is no performance, there won't be any paychecks either.
Hmm, guess I'd better take a closer look at PHP5. I've used PHP 3 and 4 for small to medium sized database-driven web apps, and I've used Java and J2EE for medium to large to enterprise scale web apps, and I would not have agreed with your statement had it been about PHP 3 or 4. I do appreciate the facility the language gives for some simple things (at the expense of type safety), but I can't imagine working in a large team environment with PHP... there's not really a lot of good ways (that I know of) to enforce coding standards.
Think of these jokes as the compulsory part of the competition.... freestyle joking commences later in the thread.
Just ask the guy who was against the Iraq war in a red state; just because it's not written into the law but enforced by your neighbours (who'll beat you up for wearing anti-bush t-shirts), it's still censorship.
Free speech has never been about protecting the speaker from the consequences of his speech. Not that I condone beating up people just for the shirt they are wearing (it smacks of middle school), but chances are, an asshole will get what's coming to him, law or no law.
This sounds similar to some ideas in The Physics of Immortality : Modern Cosmology, God and the Resurrection of the Dead by Frank J. Tipler (a prof. of mathematical physics at Tulane U.), which takes this idea even further into something called the Omega Point theory. While portions of the book are so wildly speculative and optimistic as to sound crackpot-ish, the basic ideas and themes underpinning the discussion are serious and merit further discussion.
While it doesn't take down my system, it DOES crash quite a bit lately. I am running 1.0.7 on Win2K. I wonder sometimes if it is a plugin that is causing the issue, but I have the same version and same plugin set on a WinXP laptop, and I don't see the issue there. I always know when it is going to coredump, because opening new tabs takes much longer than it should.