All of the bureaucratic red tape exists to be able to say "we can account for your money" to the tax payer, but what the tax payer really wants is just to get the damn job done cost-effectively.
At least until there's some scandal. Then those same taxpayers start yelling about "why wasn't there anybody to check this stuff out?"
Keep in mind that the bureaucracy didn't just appear out of thin air. It came about because of scandals. We taxpayers want our tax dollars to not end up in some political crony's pocket, so there has to be lawyers to make sure this doesn't happen. There have to be accountants who track the money and make sure that it goes where it's supposed to go. There have to be auditors who make sure that the government is getting what it paid for.
It's really easy to have the knee-jerk reaction--"WHAT!? $100,000 to develop an app that I could probably write in a weekend?!" And I agree wholeheartedly with that reaction. The question is, would you rather pay $100,000 to make sure that the app appears on the other side or would you rather just write a check for x dollars and not have any idea what happened to that money? Nope, sorry, you can't have both.
And fewer companies in the marketplace means more competition! Yeah, baby!
No, fewer companies in the marketplace does not mean more competition. It means more innovation. Because now the few remaining telcos will have more money to be able to provide innovative services like...I dunno...TV! Yeah! That's it!
You could argue that the bakery as a company is a professional business and has no excuse - on the other hand you don't expect bakeries to be masters of internet marketing either. It would make you legally correct and a jerk.
No, I don't expect bakeries to be masters of Internet marketing. However, I am in control of my business. If I don't understand something, I either read up on it or I don't do it.
I don't buy the whole, "It's not my fault that someone took advantage of me!" attitude. Yes, Groupon uses high-pressure sales tactics. If you don't like it, walk away. If the deal doesn't seem good, don't take it. Make sure you're covered. If the salesperson doesn't like that, TFB.
The problem, of course, is that you end up adding weight with all that redundancy. The added weight makes it more difficult to land, making it less likely the mission will succeed.
Personally, I'd just build more than one rover. While I can believe that building one cost $2.5 billion, I tend to doubt building a second one would cost another 2.5 billion. And, if everything works as planned, having two rovers wouldn't be a bad thing.
I have a Garmin Edge bike computer, which I got back in 2006. I can create courses on this and have it notify me of important things along the route (eg, "slow down", "right turn"). This seems like it's the same concept. Even though it has nothing to do with milk, could this be shown as prior art?
Heck, I would think any Navigation application could be shown as prior art, as it reminds you to turn right or left.
...assuming the recovery partition doesn't get hosed and assuming you never want to upgrade the hardware inside your computer.
Don't get me wrong, I agree. The only thing I use my laptop's DVD drive for is for ripping movies and music, mostly because I dislike the DRM used on downloaded movies and I still occasionally buy music on CD.
I could get by without an optical drive, but I would be dependent on Apple for all of the movies and music that I would want to watch.
The federal government has shown it cannot manage hurricane relief, which is something that was forecast and for which they supposedly train constantly.
Don't be deliberately obtuse. Images of and links to a company's own products, inline on its own website do NOT count as ads.
Ah, my mistake.
Microsoft advertising Office on their website: Bad. Apple advertising iPod on their website: good.
I went to Apple's website and clicked on the iPod touch link and it took me to an area of Apple's website to tell me more about the iPod touch. When I clicked on the picture of Microsoft Office, I got info about Microsoft Office. I'm not sure I see the difference.
Actually, if Microsoft is getting money showing ads for their products on their own website, that sounds like a pretty clever idea.
AirPlay is available for device manufacturers to license [...]
And, gee, it's not our fault that all these other companies use DLNA, which provides essentially the same capability and was available years before Apple came up with AirPlay.
Also, Apple is a big believer in interoperability when they're behind. Remember back when iTunes supported third-party music players? They come out with the iPod and *poof*, exit third-party player support.
Apple's own website is devoid of ads (can't say the same for Microsoft--bottom of their homepage was a banner ad for MS Office 2010. Yes, served from an ad farm).
Really? I just looked at Apple's web site and it had two ads trying to sell me an iPod touch, an iPod 2, and the biggest ad was for the iPhone 4S.
Of course, now you can say things like, "Boy, I'd love to hear some driving songs" or "Driving songs would sound good right about now." See? There's less of the "command" protocol and more like you're speaking to an actual person!
Of course, the person you're talking to is a little slow. But that's better than having to use some specific syntax, right?
No, actually, it's when Siri says, "I'm sorry, I can't access the network."
Also, Siri does a poor job of searching your actual phone. I had a note that I put in the notepad and Siri of my iPhone and Siri was unable to find it. If I went to the search screen and used the "speech to text" option, it found it no problem.
TSA's job is to prevent passengers from bringing weapons onto the airplane. They have some successes and notable failures in doing this. Apple's job is to prevent malicious code from running on our iPhones and iPads and I'm sure they have some successes and failures.
What you're saying is that it's okay that the TSA might fail every now and again because the passengers will spot the malicious person and prevent him from performing his dastardly task. Of course, passengerstendtogeneratemorefalse positives because they are not trained in security.
But if you want to go with this analogy, Android would be a better secure environment than iOS. Android has various tools that smart people can use to find malicious software So, to carry this into your analogy, using Android is like flying on airplane with a group of passengers who understand security and can spot the evildoer and warn others. iOS is like flying on an airplane where everybody says, "Oh, they made it through the TSA checkpoint. They must be okay."
Take the TSA as an analogy. One of their many jobs is to detect things like knives, guns, explosives and other nasty things being brought aboard airplanes. And they are pretty successful when people have forgotten that they have one of the forbidden items in their luggage. But if you make a bit of an effort to hide these things, they seem to have a poor success rate for detecting them.
Generally, most people have a pretty low opinion of the TSA's "Security Theater." It doesn't really make you any safer, but it looks and sounds impressive.
The App Store is basically the same thing. It probably does an decent job of keeping the blatantly obvious threats out (eg, some Apple employee says, "Why does your game call Address Book APIs?" rather than expecting the user installing the game to do it).
"The U.S. government has no evidence that any life exists outside our planet, or that an extraterrestrial presence has contacted or engaged any member of the human race."
Keep in mind that the original petition demanded that the government disclose contacts with alien races and such. So, within context, the statement refers to "intelligent" life that might actually be able to contact us.
Slashdot Mirror
All of the bureaucratic red tape exists to be able to say "we can account for your money" to the tax payer, but what the tax payer really wants is just to get the damn job done cost-effectively.
At least until there's some scandal. Then those same taxpayers start yelling about "why wasn't there anybody to check this stuff out?"
Keep in mind that the bureaucracy didn't just appear out of thin air. It came about because of scandals. We taxpayers want our tax dollars to not end up in some political crony's pocket, so there has to be lawyers to make sure this doesn't happen. There have to be accountants who track the money and make sure that it goes where it's supposed to go. There have to be auditors who make sure that the government is getting what it paid for.
It's really easy to have the knee-jerk reaction--"WHAT!? $100,000 to develop an app that I could probably write in a weekend?!" And I agree wholeheartedly with that reaction. The question is, would you rather pay $100,000 to make sure that the app appears on the other side or would you rather just write a check for x dollars and not have any idea what happened to that money? Nope, sorry, you can't have both.
And fewer companies in the marketplace means more competition! Yeah, baby!
No, fewer companies in the marketplace does not mean more competition. It means more innovation. Because now the few remaining telcos will have more money to be able to provide innovative services like...I dunno...TV! Yeah! That's it!
Of course, who determines what is related and what isn't?
"Many ISPs have cables that run close to roads. Therefore, these regulations should certainly be part of this highway spending bill..."
You could argue that the bakery as a company is a professional business and has no excuse - on the other hand you don't expect bakeries to be masters of internet marketing either. It would make you legally correct and a jerk.
No, I don't expect bakeries to be masters of Internet marketing. However, I am in control of my business. If I don't understand something, I either read up on it or I don't do it.
I don't buy the whole, "It's not my fault that someone took advantage of me!" attitude. Yes, Groupon uses high-pressure sales tactics. If you don't like it, walk away. If the deal doesn't seem good, don't take it. Make sure you're covered. If the salesperson doesn't like that, TFB.
The problem, of course, is that you end up adding weight with all that redundancy. The added weight makes it more difficult to land, making it less likely the mission will succeed.
Personally, I'd just build more than one rover. While I can believe that building one cost $2.5 billion, I tend to doubt building a second one would cost another 2.5 billion. And, if everything works as planned, having two rovers wouldn't be a bad thing.
The problem is, MSL has a frickin' laser beam attached to it's head as well as nuclear power.
If we ever do go to Mars, we may have to worry about the reception we'll receive...
Anyone else find it disturbing that we are putting lasers on robots now?
Nope. C'mon, it's cool! Robot probes with frickin' lasers beams attached to their heads!
If you screw up a fact, you post a correction. It seems News Organizations owe us the same courtesy.
They do. You usually find it, in the printed editions, on page 67B right next to the obituaries.
One of the things that has me curious...
I have a Garmin Edge bike computer, which I got back in 2006. I can create courses on this and have it notify me of important things along the route (eg, "slow down", "right turn"). This seems like it's the same concept. Even though it has nothing to do with milk, could this be shown as prior art?
Heck, I would think any Navigation application could be shown as prior art, as it reminds you to turn right or left.
...assuming the recovery partition doesn't get hosed and assuming you never want to upgrade the hardware inside your computer.
Don't get me wrong, I agree. The only thing I use my laptop's DVD drive for is for ripping movies and music, mostly because I dislike the DRM used on downloaded movies and I still occasionally buy music on CD.
I could get by without an optical drive, but I would be dependent on Apple for all of the movies and music that I would want to watch.
I get it now! The heads of the school are colluding with Hasbro!
"Since we've banned all these balls, our phys-ed department needs to go buy newer safer ones for the children."
...and after the film is released, I can watch it on my watch, thus negating the need for the first watch to begin with!
In their defense, you could have said the same thing back in the late 70s about PCs.
Those companies aren't going to take the risk. They'll let somebody else do it and, if those people are successful, they'll buy them out.
The federal government has shown it cannot manage hurricane relief, which is something that was forecast and for which they supposedly train constantly.
Unfortunately, the training budget was cut.
Don't be deliberately obtuse. Images of and links to a company's own products, inline on its own website do NOT count as ads.
Ah, my mistake.
Microsoft advertising Office on their website: Bad. Apple advertising iPod on their website: good.
I went to Apple's website and clicked on the iPod touch link and it took me to an area of Apple's website to tell me more about the iPod touch. When I clicked on the picture of Microsoft Office, I got info about Microsoft Office. I'm not sure I see the difference.
Actually, if Microsoft is getting money showing ads for their products on their own website, that sounds like a pretty clever idea.
AirPlay is available for device manufacturers to license [...]
And, gee, it's not our fault that all these other companies use DLNA, which provides essentially the same capability and was available years before Apple came up with AirPlay.
Also, Apple is a big believer in interoperability when they're behind. Remember back when iTunes supported third-party music players? They come out with the iPod and *poof*, exit third-party player support.
Apple's own website is devoid of ads (can't say the same for Microsoft--bottom of their homepage was a banner ad for MS Office 2010. Yes, served from an ad farm).
Really? I just looked at Apple's web site and it had two ads trying to sell me an iPod touch, an iPod 2, and the biggest ad was for the iPhone 4S.
Which site are you looking at?
Of course, now you can say things like, "Boy, I'd love to hear some driving songs" or "Driving songs would sound good right about now." See? There's less of the "command" protocol and more like you're speaking to an actual person!
Of course, the person you're talking to is a little slow. But that's better than having to use some specific syntax, right?
(The above is sarcasm.)
No, actually, it's when Siri says, "I'm sorry, I can't access the network."
Also, Siri does a poor job of searching your actual phone. I had a note that I put in the notepad and Siri of my iPhone and Siri was unable to find it. If I went to the search screen and used the "speech to text" option, it found it no problem.
...and they're bringing down the score. We were tied, but it looks like this puts Mars up by one.
[...] but it is far easier to get an epub or PDF onto an iPad (and into the Apple iBooks) than it is to do the same on a Kindle device.
Isn't it handy when you control the device that you get to do things that third-parties aren't allowed to do?
...assuming everything goes well. I agree--keep them both running. It'll keep everybody honest.
I'm not sure I see the flaw.
TSA's job is to prevent passengers from bringing weapons onto the airplane. They have some successes and notable failures in doing this. Apple's job is to prevent malicious code from running on our iPhones and iPads and I'm sure they have some successes and failures.
What you're saying is that it's okay that the TSA might fail every now and again because the passengers will spot the malicious person and prevent him from performing his dastardly task. Of course, passengers tend to generate more false positives because they are not trained in security.
But if you want to go with this analogy, Android would be a better secure environment than iOS. Android has various tools that smart people can use to find malicious software So, to carry this into your analogy, using Android is like flying on airplane with a group of passengers who understand security and can spot the evildoer and warn others. iOS is like flying on an airplane where everybody says, "Oh, they made it through the TSA checkpoint. They must be okay."
Well, that depends.
Take the TSA as an analogy. One of their many jobs is to detect things like knives, guns, explosives and other nasty things being brought aboard airplanes. And they are pretty successful when people have forgotten that they have one of the forbidden items in their luggage. But if you make a bit of an effort to hide these things, they seem to have a poor success rate for detecting them.
Generally, most people have a pretty low opinion of the TSA's "Security Theater." It doesn't really make you any safer, but it looks and sounds impressive.
The App Store is basically the same thing. It probably does an decent job of keeping the blatantly obvious threats out (eg, some Apple employee says, "Why does your game call Address Book APIs?" rather than expecting the user installing the game to do it).
The full quote, FTFA, is:
"The U.S. government has no evidence that any life exists outside our planet, or that an extraterrestrial presence has contacted or engaged any member of the human race."
Keep in mind that the original petition demanded that the government disclose contacts with alien races and such. So, within context, the statement refers to "intelligent" life that might actually be able to contact us.