I said this already on digg but I suppose I should say it again.
Ok terrorists. You have have really won and you didn't even had to attack us. All you had to do is say "BOO!" a few years ago with that one attack and our reaction is to shoot ourselves in the head with our own gun from here and to eternity.
Fuck it. We might as well submit to Sharia law now because we are are so damn afraid of you that we take take a fucking joke anymore and we throw artists into jails.
America was once the land of the free and the brave... What it is a shame that hundreds of thousand died to keep our land free, but only a handful of people make the rest of us that live cowardly little animals afraid to even stand up for what we believe in... Freedom and the pursuit of happiness.
You pansies are more likely to die in a traffic accident and heart disease than you are be remotely even be scratched or know someone who was hurt by an terrorist attack*
*unless of course you have family or friends serving in Iraq or Afghanistan, but those fellows and gals at least have the balls to be in a war zone were terrorists attacks are a daily occurrence and not be sniveling cowards like those of us at home.
Maybe when you say "bad" in German it literally translates to "very evil!!!!" Ever see a German say "I love you" to another German? I'm not sure but it always looks like the couple wants to tear each others throats out when they say it.
Seriously, sometimes you can act like a barbarian and force your way in with the correct leverage battering ram. As you know the RIAA/MPAA has no qualms getting the DoJ and various other governmental agencies put pressure on Chinese authorities to comply with copyrights.
Why can't other businesses do the same with more altruistic purposes?
Sadly, maybe human rights doesn't earn stock holders or lobbyists enough money?
And you suddenly know why most people just don't buy Macs. Mac marketing makes impression of being really really desparate.
To be fair, the majority of people who own PCs don't buy Windows either.
Maybe they should try some of their iPod concepts for advertising the Mac? This could work better. Show people having fun with a Mac, show Mac being used.
To be fair, I want to vomit and curse violently when I see the Zune commercials with the happy couples using their squirt feature while the dancing hipsters on the iPod commercials just make me want to punch a few kids at the local mall.
Personally... I'm ok with punching people. The love shit I can't handle.
Almost all of that lead is vitrified in the glass, just the same way that leaded crystal drinking glasses are chock full of lead. If the lead is immobilized enough to drink out of, it wouldn't seem that monitor glass would pose a major threat.
If the monitors were crushed in the trash compacting process the glass may become shatter and/or more powder like. Most land fill companies don't really sort monitors or at least the curbside trash pickup guys mostly don't. There might be a group down the line that attempt to remove as much metal as possible for the scrap heap but their high power magnets might not pick up monitors and tv etc.
Moreover, monitors would generally end up in a landfill with some kind of containment system.
Which is the key problem. Since not all land fills follow hard line specs depending on which state you live in.
I think the flip phone design would be best. I was thinking like the DS only smaller.
The only way the nGage would ever succeed is if they:
1. Alow and foster homebrew (aka Mame games). 2. Have a touch screen. (Dual screen in your suggested flip design would be nice) 3. Have the ability to read SD flash cards for memory (same ones you can put in your cameras) 4. Have a USB port (well this one isn't 100% needed if they comply with #3) 5. Make game development really easy (see 1) 6. No tie in with any Cell phone provider.
But seeing no company has the balls for #1 the device is doomed to failure...
Although the persons create said technology are questionable, the technology is possible. I can't seem to find any information on it but there were structures created in medieval times by Muslims during the height of their technology (before the Crusades and Mongol invasions) that would collect water due to condensation.
For the life of me I can't find a link though... I would be happy if someone could point me in the right direction since I might have been thinking of the wrong civilization or time period.
This is the second time I've heard this figure cited on Slashdot and I have no idea where it's coming from....I call bullshit. This is a 3.4GHz single-core P4 system (with HyperThreading, hence the two CPU meters), with 2GB RAM and an nVidia 6600 with 256MB
What about a P4 2.8 GHz without hyper threating with 512mb of ram and a ATI Radeon with 128 video ram?;)
Your system isn't Uber compared to many high end rigs, but it is far from average with the low end systems. In fact I will be eventually running vista with those specs I gave you since that is the average Dell setup at this office unless they are feeling generous when it comes new computer time.
No. Apparently this sort of device hasn't been invented yet, or surely they would have saved James Kim.
I tried to get a job at a company that actually had something working. (Didn't pan out) Basically, their technology could use two or more cell phone towers to track the callers location. Mostly for the 911 people, but the problem is that you had to have two or more cell phone towers and the equipment has to be installed at the tower.
Seeing that if you are in the middle of no where you are lucky enough to get one cell phone tower to pick you up.
Now if you had a satellite phone then of course they can track you well enough to drop a bomb on you. I don't like the outdoors or going adventuring, but if I did I'd carry a GPS unit and a satellite phone.
Only places those don't work are usually the southern hemisphere or Antarctica...
Or military zones like Chechnya or Afghanistan due to certain issues *coughs*.
You'd get on my case if I complained someone stole my cell phone out of my car when I didn't lock it.
Depending on your insurance company (you should check this is you are concerned) it is your fault if you fail to take precaution.
Some home insurance policies (like my own if you read the fine print) for fire and theft won't cover certain things if you either A.) Fail to have your alarm turned on and B.) Fail to lock your door.
That said it is pretty easy to claim on B.) since they have to take your word *cough* and you could break a window as well, but if A.) fails to fire then it is hard to claim theft loss in your house because your alarm is supposed to automatically call the cops. (Now I suppose you could somehow cut the phone lines but I digress).
In fact many people who have been victim of RDIF key hack thefts of new vehicles often can't get their insurance companies to pay up because the insurance companies believe that is impossible for someone to by pass the security feature of those keyless cars although it has been demonstrated that you can.
So yeah... Most of the time in the eyes of the corporate world it is your fault you left your car unlocked, but most cell phone insurance policies cover loss as well so it is a moot point.
Not that I agree with the insurance companies policies of the world, but it is a hard fact of life.
And on an aside...
While I'm legally responsible, they DO NOT have the same rights as adults.
My main problem is that the government will often try minors as adults and there are so many laws that are bipolar on the legal responsibility of a child. If a child murders someone they don't charge the parent for the crime as well. Not to mention a child can have a fucked up credit record before they are 18 (due to parents negligence and using their social security number to get credit cards etc... had a relative that did that to their kid).
Again... I disagree with a great deal of the government and corporate polices but it doesn't make it not so.
It should be "Microsoft to Get Tough on Paying Customers"
Seriously, with all the Windows Verification in force we are lucky to be able to swap a network card without having to call Microsoft to get re-authorized.
We are paying tax money through subsidies for something that's not going to be a long term solution. It's a waste of money and resources that could be spent elsewhere.
There is no such thing as a long term solution. Only transitional solutions.
Even all our sources of uranium will be depleted so day in the next few hundred years.
(Of course to be even more fair we will have to leave the planet to find more sources of hydrogen for fusion in tens of thousand of years, but perhaps it will be a moot point)
That said... We are faced with a short term problem of running out of petroleum oil or at least to a point where it is more expensive to extract it in less than 50 years.
The boat is sinking and even though getting on a rubber raft is not a long term solution, it is better than just jumping in the water feet first because we haven't got a real boat to get into.
and your point about sticking to a 19th century business model is moot - everyone complains about the business model but no one offers a viable alternative that won't result in a significant contraction/reshuffling of the industry.
Because alternatives are strictly prohibited through an industry monopoly and government regulation.
Unless you have millions of dollars for production of your own content or licensing of existing and a friend at the FCC, your alternative venture will die a horrible death.
The physically contoured 3 button wheel mouse looks hideously complex compared to all of Apple's designs which have ranged from the "hockey puck" iMac mouse, to the multiple single-button ultra symmetrical designs they've come up with. But truth be told -- I use a 3rd party logitech mouse because its just plain superior in terms of interface.
Hrm... I was about to point out the fact that you can plug up any USB mouse to a Mac and still have 100% of its functionality but you appeared to have found the same conclusion.
But the point is that if you are a developer for OS X you can pretty much assume that all of your users are going to have a one button mouse (except those few of us who dare to plug our own 3rd party mouses). Whereas windows users tend to have 2 button, but you can't guarantee that because there are so many OEMs out there.
I think the nice thing about Mac products is that it forces developers to create a UI that assumes that the user will only be able to do things on his screen without context menus. (I hate context menus) but still gives us the options to usually have right click functionality in most products (especially for FPS gaming on the mac) if you go out and buy your own custom hardware.
The key thing is here if you don't like the mouse you can still get your own.
I know a band that had petitioned GoDaddy to take action against a Russian website selling their MP3s illegally (not all of mp3 but a small fish like Muza something.com) but no actions was taken. I guess you have to be a big dog like MySpace to pull something like this off.
We are looking at a lot of people being out of work as a result. Not the "stars" but the studio grunts and the folks in the promotions and marketing departments.
Really? Even if there were no copyright laws and the US basically had piracy like China there would still be multi-million dollar movies made because they still make more money than not making movies.
Come to think of it... There have been a great deal of large scale movies coming out of China/Hong Kong lately. Like "The Promise" and that other that I can't remember its name right now but was made by the same group that did Crouching Tiger Hidden Dragon.
And I think a lot of societies today agree with this or should come around to realizing that you can't let people murder each other. Justice & the truth are the only answers.
The problem is that justice and truth is relative to the observer. If you were a well standing German in 1942 you would believe the war that you were involved in was the right thing to do. If you were a crusader in Jerusalem killing every single person alive in the city in 1098 AD, you felt that was the right thing to do. If you owned slaves in 1840s in South Carolina, you felt this was the right thing to do.
Not only that but you entire society, family, and religious authorities agreed with you on this was the right thing to do.
And who is to say the common activities of what we are doing today that we feel are the right thing to do will not be seen as an evil in a hundred years from now.
That said... There is no truth in right or wrong because both are opinions of whoever attempt to justify them. Truth is fact one can say that certain actions causes human suffering. Whether or not that suffering is justifiable is completely up to the observable which can label such actions are evil or good.
Even then you cannot measure suffering as something that is tangible that can be compared to every single person as the same feeling.
Thus, I accept what I feel to be right and wrong may be not the same as others and that there may not be a universal truth other than I exist and life is an illusion and suffering is universal (aka Buddhism) and that I can help others not suffer.
But I understand where you are coming from and this is more of a philosophy argument. I think the grandparent was arguing the truth that if given these weapons as tools that people would use them in such a manner regardless of if it was right or wrong in context.
Look at is this way... Had Germany had robot killing machines they would have used them to an efficient method to exterminate undesirables. Seeing that it wouldn't matter how many they were to kill, there would be no moral consequences with the robot soldiers. The robots don't care either way. They are not good or evil. They are simply tools told what to do.
You know. That made me chuckle but I think that went over everyone's head.
I only know what Hangul text is because I had to trouble shoot an Outlook issue once with a client receiving email from Korea. I had to look it up to find ways to test the foreign language packs.
Chinese do not appear to be Communist, Marxist, or even remotely Stalinist or Maoist anymore in ideology or economics.
It is more on the lines with National Socialism economically and a bit Italian Fascist government policy wise (without any central Il Duce figure).
I say this because China is highly nationalist rather than ideologist.
If you published an article today about Tibet/Taiwan is not China would be akin to publishing an article in 1939 Germany that Danzig is not Germany.
Sure you have the ability to do so like any semi-independent but national Pride or fear of nationalist sentiment against you would make you most likely not do so. (Or fear of jail if your shame wasn't enough)
It isn't because Marxism or political ideology that you can't talk about Tinamen Square or Tibet, but Chinese Nationalism.
Remember the riots that targeted Japanese stores even though they were owned by Chinese? These things get out of hand.
Would you rather own your home, or rent it? Would you rather rent a car or own it?
Those are bad analogies because that is apples and oranges comparisons. By default if given the choice you should own a home (even though the bank still owns it for the next 30 years) because house prices increase whereas you car price decreases.
This is what makes leasing attractive to some, but that is almost the same as owning.
By what you really mean would be would you rather take public transportation to work or own your own car to work.
The traveling to work is not the end result of your actually work and not even an actual process of it other than getting your feet to it. Given the choice of maintainece you most likely can't fix your own car anyways so if it breaks you have to hand it off to a 3rd party.
If public transportation breaks, you'll see a delay but you won't actually have to pay for it directly and chances are they will route a new bus to your pickup.
But you can't add your own custom products to the public system and you can't make it go to exact places at any given time like your normal car. So both have their benefits and detractors.
Except that if you rely on luck for your stock picking, you really need to get out of the market. No, really. Day traders and the ignorant make the jobs of real investors much more difficult. Not impossible, and really not even less profitable, just more difficult.
Except that is how the market works now. Apple's stock just dropped like a rock right after they announced their quarterly earnings and they have the highest earning yet. What gives!
Of course... Apple tends to follow a general pattern in which it spikes right after Steve gives a keynote, but what if Steve dies or gets booted from the company?
I'm sure it would devastate the stock price and that is pure luck of the matter unless you happen to be in the know of Steve's condition.
Sure it sucks for long term investors, but the vampires are out in force on the stock market with pump and dump schemes and hardly anyone holds on to long term investments anymore in the technology center.*
*Except for Google and Oil companies.... My suggestion for long term is to buy IRBT when the robot bubble hits around 2010;)
Slashdot Mirror
I said this already on digg but I suppose I should say it again.
Ok terrorists. You have have really won and you didn't even had to attack us. All you had to do is say "BOO!" a few years ago with that one attack and our reaction is to shoot ourselves in the head with our own gun from here and to eternity.
Fuck it. We might as well submit to Sharia law now because we are are so damn afraid of you that we take take a fucking joke anymore and we throw artists into jails.
America was once the land of the free and the brave... What it is a shame that hundreds of thousand died to keep our land free, but only a handful of people make the rest of us that live cowardly little animals afraid to even stand up for what we believe in... Freedom and the pursuit of happiness.
You pansies are more likely to die in a traffic accident and heart disease than you are be remotely even be scratched or know someone who was hurt by an terrorist attack*
*unless of course you have family or friends serving in Iraq or Afghanistan, but those fellows and gals at least have the balls to be in a war zone were terrorists attacks are a daily occurrence and not be sniveling cowards like those of us at home.
Saying 'very evil' is a bit of a strech.
Maybe when you say "bad" in German it literally translates to "very evil!!!!" Ever see a German say "I love you" to another German? I'm not sure but it always looks like the couple wants to tear each others throats out when they say it.
When in Rome....
;)
Act like a Visigoth and burn it down?
Seriously, sometimes you can act like a barbarian and force your way in with the correct leverage battering ram. As you know the RIAA/MPAA has no qualms getting the DoJ and various other governmental agencies put pressure on Chinese authorities to comply with copyrights.
Why can't other businesses do the same with more altruistic purposes?
Sadly, maybe human rights doesn't earn stock holders or lobbyists enough money?
And you suddenly know why most people just don't buy Macs. Mac marketing makes impression of being really really desparate.
To be fair, the majority of people who own PCs don't buy Windows either.
Maybe they should try some of their iPod concepts for advertising the Mac? This could work better. Show people having fun with a Mac, show Mac being used.
To be fair, I want to vomit and curse violently when I see the Zune commercials with the happy couples using their squirt feature while the dancing hipsters on the iPod commercials just make me want to punch a few kids at the local mall.
Personally... I'm ok with punching people. The love shit I can't handle.
Almost all of that lead is vitrified in the glass, just the same way that leaded crystal drinking glasses are chock full of lead. If the lead is immobilized enough to drink out of, it wouldn't seem that monitor glass would pose a major threat.
If the monitors were crushed in the trash compacting process the glass may become shatter and/or more powder like. Most land fill companies don't really sort monitors or at least the curbside trash pickup guys mostly don't. There might be a group down the line that attempt to remove as much metal as possible for the scrap heap but their high power magnets might not pick up monitors and tv etc.
Moreover, monitors would generally end up in a landfill with some kind of containment system.
Which is the key problem. Since not all land fills follow hard line specs depending on which state you live in.
I think the flip phone design would be best. I was thinking like the DS only smaller.
The only way the nGage would ever succeed is if they:
1. Alow and foster homebrew (aka Mame games).
2. Have a touch screen. (Dual screen in your suggested flip design would be nice)
3. Have the ability to read SD flash cards for memory (same ones you can put in your cameras)
4. Have a USB port (well this one isn't 100% needed if they comply with #3)
5. Make game development really easy (see 1)
6. No tie in with any Cell phone provider.
But seeing no company has the balls for #1 the device is doomed to failure...
Why should we think this is anythign but a scam?
Although the persons create said technology are questionable, the technology is possible. I can't seem to find any information on it but there were structures created in medieval times by Muslims during the height of their technology (before the Crusades and Mongol invasions) that would collect water due to condensation.
For the life of me I can't find a link though... I would be happy if someone could point me in the right direction since I might have been thinking of the wrong civilization or time period.
This is the second time I've heard this figure cited on Slashdot and I have no idea where it's coming from....I call bullshit. This is a 3.4GHz single-core P4 system (with HyperThreading, hence the two CPU meters), with 2GB RAM and an nVidia 6600 with 256MB
;)
What about a P4 2.8 GHz without hyper threating with 512mb of ram and a ATI Radeon with 128 video ram?
Your system isn't Uber compared to many high end rigs, but it is far from average with the low end systems. In fact I will be eventually running vista with those specs I gave you since that is the average Dell setup at this office unless they are feeling generous when it comes new computer time.
No. Apparently this sort of device hasn't been invented yet, or surely they would have saved James Kim.
I tried to get a job at a company that actually had something working. (Didn't pan out) Basically, their technology could use two or more cell phone towers to track the callers location. Mostly for the 911 people, but the problem is that you had to have two or more cell phone towers and the equipment has to be installed at the tower.
Seeing that if you are in the middle of no where you are lucky enough to get one cell phone tower to pick you up.
Now if you had a satellite phone then of course they can track you well enough to drop a bomb on you. I don't like the outdoors or going adventuring, but if I did I'd carry a GPS unit and a satellite phone.
Only places those don't work are usually the southern hemisphere or Antarctica...
Or military zones like Chechnya or Afghanistan due to certain issues *coughs*.
You'd get on my case if I complained someone stole my cell phone out of my car when I didn't lock it.
Depending on your insurance company (you should check this is you are concerned) it is your fault if you fail to take precaution.
Some home insurance policies (like my own if you read the fine print) for fire and theft won't cover certain things if you either A.) Fail to have your alarm turned on and B.) Fail to lock your door.
That said it is pretty easy to claim on B.) since they have to take your word *cough* and you could break a window as well, but if A.) fails to fire then it is hard to claim theft loss in your house because your alarm is supposed to automatically call the cops. (Now I suppose you could somehow cut the phone lines but I digress).
In fact many people who have been victim of RDIF key hack thefts of new vehicles often can't get their insurance companies to pay up because the insurance companies believe that is impossible for someone to by pass the security feature of those keyless cars although it has been demonstrated that you can.
So yeah... Most of the time in the eyes of the corporate world it is your fault you left your car unlocked, but most cell phone insurance policies cover loss as well so it is a moot point.
Not that I agree with the insurance companies policies of the world, but it is a hard fact of life.
And on an aside...
While I'm legally responsible, they DO NOT have the same rights as adults.
My main problem is that the government will often try minors as adults and there are so many laws that are bipolar on the legal responsibility of a child. If a child murders someone they don't charge the parent for the crime as well. Not to mention a child can have a fucked up credit record before they are 18 (due to parents negligence and using their social security number to get credit cards etc... had a relative that did that to their kid).
Again... I disagree with a great deal of the government and corporate polices but it doesn't make it not so.
Hrm... I think the editor made a mistake.
It should be "Microsoft to Get Tough on Paying Customers"
Seriously, with all the Windows Verification in force we are lucky to be able to swap a network card without having to call Microsoft to get re-authorized.
so whats the point in a convention?
Alcohol and nerd sex.
Scary as it sounds, it is the only reason I kind of go to a con.
But it usually only involves the former instead of the latter, but maybe this year.
We are paying tax money through subsidies for something that's not going to be a long term solution. It's a waste of money and resources that could be spent elsewhere.
There is no such thing as a long term solution. Only transitional solutions.
Even all our sources of uranium will be depleted so day in the next few hundred years.
(Of course to be even more fair we will have to leave the planet to find more sources of hydrogen for fusion in tens of thousand of years, but perhaps it will be a moot point)
That said... We are faced with a short term problem of running out of petroleum oil or at least to a point where it is more expensive to extract it in less than 50 years.
The boat is sinking and even though getting on a rubber raft is not a long term solution, it is better than just jumping in the water feet first because we haven't got a real boat to get into.
Same with oil and ethanol.
and your point about sticking to a 19th century business model is moot - everyone complains about the business model but no one offers a viable alternative that won't result in a significant contraction/reshuffling of the industry.
Because alternatives are strictly prohibited through an industry monopoly and government regulation.
Unless you have millions of dollars for production of your own content or licensing of existing and a friend at the FCC, your alternative venture will die a horrible death.
The physically contoured 3 button wheel mouse looks hideously complex compared to all of Apple's
designs which have ranged from the "hockey puck" iMac mouse, to the multiple single-button
ultra symmetrical designs they've come up with. But truth be told -- I use a 3rd party
logitech mouse because its just plain superior in terms of interface.
Hrm... I was about to point out the fact that you can plug up any USB mouse to a Mac and still have 100% of its functionality but you appeared to have found the same conclusion.
But the point is that if you are a developer for OS X you can pretty much assume that all of your users are going to have a one button mouse (except those few of us who dare to plug our own 3rd party mouses). Whereas windows users tend to have 2 button, but you can't guarantee that because there are so many OEMs out there.
I think the nice thing about Mac products is that it forces developers to create a UI that assumes that the user will only be able to do things on his screen without context menus. (I hate context menus) but still gives us the options to usually have right click functionality in most products (especially for FPS gaming on the mac) if you go out and buy your own custom hardware.
The key thing is here if you don't like the mouse you can still get your own.
I know a band that had petitioned GoDaddy to take action against a Russian website selling their MP3s illegally (not all of mp3 but a small fish like Muza something.com) but no actions was taken. I guess you have to be a big dog like MySpace to pull something like this off.
Other countries have a national standard ID card and have yet to become fascist police states;
Yet.
But to be fair many people will argue that there nations have or at least become a complete nanny state.
Given the choice of empowering federal government or limiting its power... One should always side with limiting.
We are looking at a lot of people being out of work as a result. Not the "stars" but the studio grunts and the folks in the promotions and marketing departments.
Really? Even if there were no copyright laws and the US basically had piracy like China there would still be multi-million dollar movies made because they still make more money than not making movies.
Come to think of it... There have been a great deal of large scale movies coming out of China/Hong Kong lately. Like "The Promise" and that other that I can't remember its name right now but was made by the same group that did Crouching Tiger Hidden Dragon.
And I think a lot of societies today agree with this or should come around to realizing that you can't let people murder each other. Justice & the truth are the only answers.
The problem is that justice and truth is relative to the observer. If you were a well standing German in 1942 you would believe the war that you were involved in was the right thing to do. If you were a crusader in Jerusalem killing every single person alive in the city in 1098 AD, you felt that was the right thing to do. If you owned slaves in 1840s in South Carolina, you felt this was the right thing to do.
Not only that but you entire society, family, and religious authorities agreed with you on this was the right thing to do.
And who is to say the common activities of what we are doing today that we feel are the right thing to do will not be seen as an evil in a hundred years from now.
That said... There is no truth in right or wrong because both are opinions of whoever attempt to justify them. Truth is fact one can say that certain actions causes human suffering. Whether or not that suffering is justifiable is completely up to the observable which can label such actions are evil or good.
Even then you cannot measure suffering as something that is tangible that can be compared to every single person as the same feeling.
Thus, I accept what I feel to be right and wrong may be not the same as others and that there may not be a universal truth other than I exist and life is an illusion and suffering is universal (aka Buddhism) and that I can help others not suffer.
But I understand where you are coming from and this is more of a philosophy argument. I think the grandparent was arguing the truth that if given these weapons as tools that people would use them in such a manner regardless of if it was right or wrong in context.
Look at is this way... Had Germany had robot killing machines they would have used them to an efficient method to exterminate undesirables. Seeing that it wouldn't matter how many they were to kill, there would be no moral consequences with the robot soldiers. The robots don't care either way. They are not good or evil. They are simply tools told what to do.
You know. That made me chuckle but I think that went over everyone's head.
I only know what Hangul text is because I had to trouble shoot an Outlook issue once with a client receiving email from Korea. I had to look it up to find ways to test the foreign language packs.
I don't speak Korean though.
Chinese do not appear to be Communist, Marxist, or even remotely Stalinist or Maoist anymore in ideology or economics.
It is more on the lines with National Socialism economically and a bit Italian Fascist government policy wise (without any central Il Duce figure).
I say this because China is highly nationalist rather than ideologist.
If you published an article today about Tibet/Taiwan is not China would be akin to publishing an article in 1939 Germany that Danzig is not Germany.
Sure you have the ability to do so like any semi-independent but national Pride or fear of nationalist sentiment against you would make you most likely not do so. (Or fear of jail if your shame wasn't enough)
It isn't because Marxism or political ideology that you can't talk about Tinamen Square or Tibet, but Chinese Nationalism.
Remember the riots that targeted Japanese stores even though they were owned by Chinese? These things get out of hand.
Would you rather own your home, or rent it? Would you rather rent a car or own it?
Those are bad analogies because that is apples and oranges comparisons.
By default if given the choice you should own a home (even though the bank still owns it for the next 30 years) because house prices increase whereas you car price decreases.
This is what makes leasing attractive to some, but that is almost the same as owning.
By what you really mean would be would you rather take public transportation to work or own your own car to work.
The traveling to work is not the end result of your actually work and not even an actual process of it other than getting your feet to it. Given the choice of maintainece you most likely can't fix your own car anyways so if it breaks you have to hand it off to a 3rd party.
If public transportation breaks, you'll see a delay but you won't actually have to pay for it directly and chances are they will route a new bus to your pickup.
But you can't add your own custom products to the public system and you can't make it go to exact places at any given time like your normal car. So both have their benefits and detractors.
Right, I will make sure to email you when I'm sick and need groceries, or to look after my kid when I need to go out a bit.
To be fair, I wouldn't trust my current neighbors with either task (although I don't have a kid).
Of course when you live in the ghetto, you learn to not bother each other.
As in... I don't answer the door unless I'm expecting someone and even then we don't open the door until we have confirmed who it is.
But I think the point of the matter is that in 20 years, having personal relationships will be a moot point. Or even having kids...
Except that if you rely on luck for your stock picking, you really need to get out of the market. No, really. Day traders and the ignorant make the jobs of real investors much more difficult. Not impossible, and really not even less profitable, just more difficult.
;)
Except that is how the market works now. Apple's stock just dropped like a rock right after they announced their quarterly earnings and they have the highest earning yet. What gives!
Of course... Apple tends to follow a general pattern in which it spikes right after Steve gives a keynote, but what if Steve dies or gets booted from the company?
I'm sure it would devastate the stock price and that is pure luck of the matter unless you happen to be in the know of Steve's condition.
Sure it sucks for long term investors, but the vampires are out in force on the stock market with pump and dump schemes and hardly anyone holds on to long term investments anymore in the technology center.*
*Except for Google and Oil companies.... My suggestion for long term is to buy IRBT when the robot bubble hits around 2010
To be fair... 100% of Windows Installs has stolen code from BSD.
Oh wait...