I'm as excited about GM's "full/strong hybrid option" as I was about their diesel implementation back in the 70s. Which is to say, "Not at all." There has to be at least one other person here who remembers those PsOS.
--
The usual disclaimers apply.
So assuming that you are 20 and retiring at 75, every dollar you invest now is about $200 at retirement (or, seen another way it is $20 per year at retirement)
Considering the state of the US economy, the demographics of the US population (hint: it's aging fast) and, perhaps most important to this discussion, this publication (warning:.pdf) by the St. Louis Federal Reserve Bank, that $200US at retirement might have the same purchasing power as that $1US now.
So, when your company handles your 401(k) and your Employee Stock Purchase Program, then urges you by incentives to put more and more of your liquid capitol into the company's sinking stock...because it's such a good deal right now... whose fault is that?
I'd say the fault is yours. AFAIK, employees in the US are not forced to participate in company retirement plans, 401(k) schemes, ESPP pyramids, annuity games, etc. If you are a responsible investor (and you are a responsible investor, right?) you perform a risk analysis for any given investment vehicle, right? Why should the payroll deduction portion of your investment portfolio be treated any differently?
Many years ago I worked for a closely held corporation. The founder's son had taken over as Chairman/President/CEO and it was well known (wink, wink, nod, nod, say no more) that he had a gambling problem, a womanizing problem and a cocaine problem. The company increased the matching percentage for participation in the corporate retirement plan, which I found curious. Being on good terms with the CFO, I inquired as to the motivation for this move. I was told that it was approved by the Board in order to motivate greater participation amongst the employees. Several weeks later it was made known to me (and a few others) that said founder's son had cashed out his own investment in the corporate plan. No details were provided on why he might do so. After a day of quiet contemplation, I also cashed out and rolled my investment over to another, private account. I lost most of my matched dollars, though. About two months later, the retirement plan was frozen. When the company went bankrupt (very soon after that), one of the issues was the 'underfunded' retirement plan. I had warned several people (incluidng my brother-in-law) to get out as well, but they thought I was crazy (a la Chicken Little). I think once the courts finished up, they got back something like a nickel for every dollar they had 'invested.'
...most companies push their own stock on employees like day-old bread, and employees for the most part are content to sit there and lap it up. There's no time or much interest in "individual investing" when companies make it so easy these days.
It is not the fault of the companies that employees don't have interest in protecting their investments. I believe the phrase is 'caveat emptor.' It applies to investments as well as used cars. If you aren't going to look after your own best interest, why should the courts, the government or anyone else?
Would a 130 hour-long podcast even fit on my iPod? I mean, I have the 60GB iPod Photo and all, but...130 hours? Did you stay awake the whole time? If so, how? I bet you could write a book, 'Secrets of the Successful Marathon Podcasting Masters!'
Man. 130 hours? That'd take me around five and a half days to listen to. And you say you've done more than one? Amazing!
This is from my work-in-progress, 'Financial Rules of Thumb That Will Make You Filthy Rich!':
Rule #62: When people you've never heard of start selling books telling you how to get filthy rich in a given market/niche/opportunity/etc., all of the good, easy money has already been made.
As an added bonus (really a naked attempt to get you to buy my forthcoming opus, 'Financial Rules of Thumb That Will Make You Filthy Rich'), I'll share this Corollary to Rule #62, with you:
Corollary to Rule #62: Frequently, there is never really any good, easy money to be made in the market/niche/opportunity/etc. addressed in the books mentioned in Rule #62. The real market/niche/opportunity/etc. is selling books about non-existant opportunities written by unknowns with tantalizingly simple, yet incomplete, methods for easily getting filthy rich. See 'Financial Rules of Thumb That Will Make You Filthy Rich.')
YMMV. HTH. HAND.
--
Ask your bookseller to stock 'Financial Rules of THumb That Will Make You Filthy Rich' today!
The only problem I see with Dvorak being the 'Internet analog of Andy Rooney' is that Andy Rooney actually seemed intelligent and, on occasion, his rants even rose to the level of 'pithy.' In my opinion, Dvorak isn't even in the same league, let alone the same ballpark. I think he's more like a 'non-legal Jack Thompson' than an 'Internet Andy Rooney.'
But this guy is a fucking blowhard. "We get a lot of complaints by non-artists that they can't get into the software easily, whilst the complexity of commercial products like Maya or Houdini is perceived as a confirmation of its "quality"." Yes that's right. If you critisize Blender you're not an "artist". Because clearly only an artist enjoys unintuitive guis that makes it extra hard to get into. Yeah and Maya clearly sucks because everyone is using it.
Out of curiosity, have you ever created anything with Blender? I'm not trying to troll or flamebait, I'm genuinely curious.
I have created with Blender, although it was many years ago (c. '99-00). At first I hated the GUI. I ranted and raved on the Blender forum. Then I quit wasting time venting about how things weren't 'standard' (by which I, and many others, meant, 'Not the same as apps in the Windows world') and started learning how the GUI actually worked. After some time climbing the fairly steep learning curve, I realized that the GUI was actually laid out fairly logically...if you worked the 'Blender way(tm)(c)(r).' If you wanted to work the 3DSMax or Maya way, you were SOL. But, maximizing productivity with one of the closed-source, Windows-based apps requires climbing a fairly steep learning curve, as well.
In my opinion, that is what Mr. Roosendaal is getting at with his statement. In the Windows world, the learning curve associated with becoming productive with Maya and Houdini (and 3DSMax, etc.) is celebrated as proof of their quality and worth. On the other hand, the learning curve associated with Blender, although really no more steep than that of the closed-source alternatives, is descried as proof of it's lack of quality; lack of 'readiness for the commercial world.'
Is Ton a fscking blowhard? I dunno. He seems to have created a fairly complex piece of software that allows the user to accomplish a certain set of tasks (once they've grown accustomed to the GUI and workflow). That's more than I've done, how about you?
--
This.sig available; 50-yr mortgage, interest only payments!
I've been running various incarnations of SuSE for the last two years on a T42 without any issues. The only hardware not supported is the Winmodem (and I'm reasonably confident I could get it working if I felt like devoting some time to it). I have VMWare Workstation running with two different XPPro guests and a Slowaris for Intel guest as well.
Your point about framebuffer acceleration under Windows is well taken. However, the only thing I really need the XP VM for is IE...some wag built the corporate intranet pages in such a way that they will only show the header graphic in Firefox (or Opera, or...). Seriously. Fubar. But, that's another story.
--
This.sig available for lease. Will type to suit.
Actually, in my half vast experience, women do know what they want. Eventually. It's a question of timing. They know what they want when they know what they want. The rest of the time, well, they don't even know that they want anything at all.
Here's an example. I know a female who owned a very nice, late model automobile. It had low miles, all the options, looked great and ran like it was brand new. She never talked about cars, let alone getting a new one.
One day, while she was out to lunch, she happened to drive past the Mercedes-Benz dealer. Two days later, she shows up in a new SLK 350. Apparently, she didn't even know she wanted a new car until she saw this one. Then it became an imperative. She didn't just want this car, she needed this car. More importantly, she deserved this car because of all the hard work she'd been doing and her diligence in maintaining her finances.
The key here is that she didn't know she wanted a new car until she wanted a new car. See?
...The US and Canada, Australia and Japan, are "bigger" than Egypts' in any sense you can think of ( budget, tax revenue, number of employees, number of laws, etc. ). However, because their representatives are elected and the government employees consider themselves servants instead of power brokers, the "big governments" in those countries aren't locking up political prisoners....
If you look at the history of the US representative government (specifically the Legislative and Administrative branches) since, say, the New Deal era, you will see that those elected representatives most certainly consider themselves anything but servants of the people who elected them and pay their salary. Instead, they peddle influence and contracts to the highest bidder (why do you think Porter Goss really retired? The current defense contract scandal/inquiry touches many of your alleged 'servants,' perhaps it even touches him?).
Big Government, Western style, is nothing more than legalized racketeering.
I can understand the 13 year olds on the forums not understanding the need for downtime for infrastructure upgrades and rework, but I'd expect a little more from the/. crowd.
Nobody ever went broke overestimating the stupidity of/.'ers. Or, uh, something like that.
(It's a joke, people, laugh a little)
--
This sig is on the Red List
Re:Wait, it's coming to me now...
on
Faking a Company
·
· Score: 1
...India, China, Japan, Korea, alot of places like that are kicking our ass because we tend towards laziness.
I don't believe Japan has kicked our ass (in the automotive and electronics industries) due to our laziness. They kick our ass because they embrace and extend...they didn't invent the automobile, but they sure as heck figured out how to make a higher quality, more reliable version for about the same price or only slightly more than the USian model.
China isn't kicking our ass because we're lazy. They're kicking our ass because they have billions more people who have a significantly lower standard of living and nothing better to do than work in sweatshops turning out low priced goods that Americans snap up as slightly higher priced goods from Wal-Mart. For Pete's sake, my in-laws gave my youngest son some candy during the recent pagan holiday celebration weekend and I looked at the back and it said, 'Made in China.' I guess based on your statement, I should conclude that American's are just too damn lazy to make jelly beans.
India isn't kicking our ass in the customer service, IT, banking and now healthcare industries because American's are lazy. Again, the workers there have a much lower standard of living and so the cost to send certain jobs overseas provides a significant boost to the bottom line on corporate balance sheets (which translates to a significant boost in executive remuneration based on 'performance').
Now, in the case of the auto industry, I suppose you could point to the Rust Belt 'union mentality' as it's portrayed in the media and claim that there is a certain amount of laziness manifesting there. But, I don't think that's the sole reason that the USian auto industry is on it's back with three out of four legs in the air (you have to admit, Diamler run Chrysler isn't faring nearly as poorly as the other two). In fact, I suspect it's a rather minor factor.
On the other hand, if you want to assert that the higher standard of living in the US, which leads to higher costs of production and service here compared to India, China, Pakistan, et al. is the result of worker 'laziness,' I would have to respectfully disagree.
Does this mean if I score a touchdown and move the remote in a writing motion, the player will autograph the football and give it to his agent in the stands? Otherwise, I don't give a crap.
No, if you do that, your avatar takes a leak all over the goal post , splashing any nearby fans (and/or photographers) in the process.
The fans then collect your 'sample' and put it up on eBay and make a killing when GoldenPalaceCasino(tm)(r)(c) bids and wins just for the publicity it brings. Of course, that happens in the background, so you don't really get to see it play out on screen. But, the reason that the game randomly locks up (just like the Xbox360 and PSP versions) is that all that background sim-sniping is using too many cycles.
On the other hand (heh), if you make rowing motions with the controller, you get a trip on a boat with a bunch of the hookers from GTA, but only if you're playing as the Vikings.
The judge, who is 53 and lists some of his hobbies as reading military history and the sinking of the Titanic...
If one of his hobbies was sinking the Titanic, there's no telling what he'll do if he decides to 'throw the book' at you! Still, how did he manage that if he's only 53 years old?
...and a driver's license. Are these my papers? Maybe they could be construed as such but I highly doubt I would be arrested should I lack any of them.
A while back I programmed my Yaesu VX-7R to scan the local 'public service' frequencies. I was surprised one evening to hear local law enforcement telling Central Dispatch that they were bringing an individual in to the jail because he had 'no identification on person.' Now, I don't know if there is a local ordinance, a State or Federal law requiring an individual to have 'identification on person,' but, I do know that someone who lacked it was being taken to jail.
On a somewhat related but totally tangential note, I do know that our municipality has a vagrancy ordinance that requires an individual to have a specified minimum amount of money on their person. If you don't have a buck (or some other amount) in your pocket, you're a vagrant. I wonder how many times that one gets used.
Slashdot Mirror
I'm as excited about GM's "full/strong hybrid option" as I was about their diesel implementation back in the 70s. Which is to say, "Not at all." There has to be at least one other person here who remembers those PsOS.
--
The usual disclaimers apply.
So assuming that you are 20 and retiring at 75, every dollar you invest now is about $200 at retirement (or, seen another way it is $20 per year at retirement)
Considering the state of the US economy, the demographics of the US population (hint: it's aging fast) and, perhaps most important to this discussion, this publication (warning: .pdf) by the St. Louis Federal Reserve Bank, that $200US at retirement might have the same purchasing power as that $1US now.
YMMV.
--The usual disclaimers apply
-- .sig intentionally left blank
This
I'd say the fault is yours. AFAIK, employees in the US are not forced to participate in company retirement plans, 401(k) schemes, ESPP pyramids, annuity games, etc. If you are a responsible investor (and you are a responsible investor, right?) you perform a risk analysis for any given investment vehicle, right? Why should the payroll deduction portion of your investment portfolio be treated any differently?
Many years ago I worked for a closely held corporation. The founder's son had taken over as Chairman/President/CEO and it was well known (wink, wink, nod, nod, say no more) that he had a gambling problem, a womanizing problem and a cocaine problem. The company increased the matching percentage for participation in the corporate retirement plan, which I found curious. Being on good terms with the CFO, I inquired as to the motivation for this move. I was told that it was approved by the Board in order to motivate greater participation amongst the employees. Several weeks later it was made known to me (and a few others) that said founder's son had cashed out his own investment in the corporate plan. No details were provided on why he might do so. After a day of quiet contemplation, I also cashed out and rolled my investment over to another, private account. I lost most of my matched dollars, though. About two months later, the retirement plan was frozen. When the company went bankrupt (very soon after that), one of the issues was the 'underfunded' retirement plan. I had warned several people (incluidng my brother-in-law) to get out as well, but they thought I was crazy (a la Chicken Little). I think once the courts finished up, they got back something like a nickel for every dollar they had 'invested.'
It is not the fault of the companies that employees don't have interest in protecting their investments. I believe the phrase is 'caveat emptor.' It applies to investments as well as used cars. If you aren't going to look after your own best interest, why should the courts, the government or anyone else?
Man. 130 hours? That'd take me around five and a half days to listen to. And you say you've done more than one? Amazing!
--
J'adoube
--
Ask your bookseller to stock 'Financial Rules of THumb That Will Make You Filthy Rich' today!
YMMV. Just my $0.02US.
--
Only filtered sigs for me, please!
Out of curiosity, have you ever created anything with Blender? I'm not trying to troll or flamebait, I'm genuinely curious.
I have created with Blender, although it was many years ago (c. '99-00). At first I hated the GUI. I ranted and raved on the Blender forum. Then I quit wasting time venting about how things weren't 'standard' (by which I, and many others, meant, 'Not the same as apps in the Windows world') and started learning how the GUI actually worked. After some time climbing the fairly steep learning curve, I realized that the GUI was actually laid out fairly logically...if you worked the 'Blender way(tm)(c)(r).' If you wanted to work the 3DSMax or Maya way, you were SOL. But, maximizing productivity with one of the closed-source, Windows-based apps requires climbing a fairly steep learning curve, as well.
In my opinion, that is what Mr. Roosendaal is getting at with his statement. In the Windows world, the learning curve associated with becoming productive with Maya and Houdini (and 3DSMax, etc.) is celebrated as proof of their quality and worth. On the other hand, the learning curve associated with Blender, although really no more steep than that of the closed-source alternatives, is descried as proof of it's lack of quality; lack of 'readiness for the commercial world.'
Is Ton a fscking blowhard? I dunno. He seems to have created a fairly complex piece of software that allows the user to accomplish a certain set of tasks (once they've grown accustomed to the GUI and workflow). That's more than I've done, how about you?
-- .sig available; 50-yr mortgage, interest only payments!
This
Your point about framebuffer acceleration under Windows is well taken. However, the only thing I really need the XP VM for is IE...some wag built the corporate intranet pages in such a way that they will only show the header graphic in Firefox (or Opera, or...). Seriously. Fubar. But, that's another story.
-- .sig available for lease. Will type to suit.
This
Actually, it's an even number. 25 million, though...that would be an odd number[1].
--
Anyone else remember the Sesame Street '12345678910' hyper counting thing?
[1] Just checking to see who's awake
--
Funky cold sig
Actually, in my half vast experience, women do know what they want. Eventually. It's a question of timing. They know what they want when they know what they want. The rest of the time, well, they don't even know that they want anything at all.
Here's an example. I know a female who owned a very nice, late model automobile. It had low miles, all the options, looked great and ran like it was brand new. She never talked about cars, let alone getting a new one.
One day, while she was out to lunch, she happened to drive past the Mercedes-Benz dealer. Two days later, she shows up in a new SLK 350. Apparently, she didn't even know she wanted a new car until she saw this one. Then it became an imperative. She didn't just want this car, she needed this car. More importantly, she deserved this car because of all the hard work she'd been doing and her diligence in maintaining her finances.
The key here is that she didn't know she wanted a new car until she wanted a new car. See?
--
High L
Or, maybe not.
--
agenda discarded : words swirling around the room : the meeting is derailed
Where's the 'breasts option?'
--
Worst. Sig. Evah.
If you look at the history of the US representative government (specifically the Legislative and Administrative branches) since, say, the New Deal era, you will see that those elected representatives most certainly consider themselves anything but servants of the people who elected them and pay their salary. Instead, they peddle influence and contracts to the highest bidder (why do you think Porter Goss really retired? The current defense contract scandal/inquiry touches many of your alleged 'servants,' perhaps it even touches him?).
Big Government, Western style, is nothing more than legalized racketeering.
YMMV. HTH. HAND.
--
This sig intentionally left blank
Nobody ever went broke overestimating the stupidity of /.'ers. Or, uh, something like that.
(It's a joke, people, laugh a little)
--
This sig is on the Red List
More accurately, it never really was.
- Set up pirate version of their own corporation
- Order parts from existing suppliers
- ???
- Profit!!
--Sig arrêt
Seriously though, if you really want your 'passthought' to be secure, you should make it something like b00b135. Nobody would ever guess that.
--
This sig intentionally left blank
I don't believe Japan has kicked our ass (in the automotive and electronics industries) due to our laziness. They kick our ass because they embrace and extend...they didn't invent the automobile, but they sure as heck figured out how to make a higher quality, more reliable version for about the same price or only slightly more than the USian model.
China isn't kicking our ass because we're lazy. They're kicking our ass because they have billions more people who have a significantly lower standard of living and nothing better to do than work in sweatshops turning out low priced goods that Americans snap up as slightly higher priced goods from Wal-Mart. For Pete's sake, my in-laws gave my youngest son some candy during the recent pagan holiday celebration weekend and I looked at the back and it said, 'Made in China.' I guess based on your statement, I should conclude that American's are just too damn lazy to make jelly beans.
India isn't kicking our ass in the customer service, IT, banking and now healthcare industries because American's are lazy. Again, the workers there have a much lower standard of living and so the cost to send certain jobs overseas provides a significant boost to the bottom line on corporate balance sheets (which translates to a significant boost in executive remuneration based on 'performance').
Now, in the case of the auto industry, I suppose you could point to the Rust Belt 'union mentality' as it's portrayed in the media and claim that there is a certain amount of laziness manifesting there. But, I don't think that's the sole reason that the USian auto industry is on it's back with three out of four legs in the air (you have to admit, Diamler run Chrysler isn't faring nearly as poorly as the other two). In fact, I suspect it's a rather minor factor.
On the other hand, if you want to assert that the higher standard of living in the US, which leads to higher costs of production and service here compared to India, China, Pakistan, et al. is the result of worker 'laziness,' I would have to respectfully disagree.
YMMV.
--
Sig nificant
No, if you do that, your avatar takes a leak all over the goal post , splashing any nearby fans (and/or photographers) in the process.
The fans then collect your 'sample' and put it up on eBay and make a killing when GoldenPalaceCasino(tm)(r)(c) bids and wins just for the publicity it brings. Of course, that happens in the background, so you don't really get to see it play out on screen. But, the reason that the game randomly locks up (just like the Xbox360 and PSP versions) is that all that background sim-sniping is using too many cycles.
On the other hand (heh), if you make rowing motions with the controller, you get a trip on a boat with a bunch of the hookers from GTA, but only if you're playing as the Vikings.
--
Worst. Sig. Evah.
If one of his hobbies was sinking the Titanic, there's no telling what he'll do if he decides to 'throw the book' at you! Still, how did he manage that if he's only 53 years old?
--
Sig monde
A while back I programmed my Yaesu VX-7R to scan the local 'public service' frequencies. I was surprised one evening to hear local law enforcement telling Central Dispatch that they were bringing an individual in to the jail because he had 'no identification on person.' Now, I don't know if there is a local ordinance, a State or Federal law requiring an individual to have 'identification on person,' but, I do know that someone who lacked it was being taken to jail.
On a somewhat related but totally tangential note, I do know that our municipality has a vagrancy ordinance that requires an individual to have a specified minimum amount of money on their person. If you don't have a buck (or some other amount) in your pocket, you're a vagrant. I wonder how many times that one gets used.
--
Sig a sog of sigs pence
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Then knowing that I have not one, but two wives will really blow your mind. Well, one is the EX model, but, it still counts right? ;)
--
Sig monde