Oil prices are everyone's base. If feedstocks are going up, you pass the cost in your produced product and get away with it. Trucking companies do this and make out well.
Wrong. When your feedstocks are going up you make less money. Sometimes you can raise your prices enough to partially offset this, but usually you cannot. Our feedstocks are double what they were a couple of years ago. We can't double our prices, and none of our competitors have been able to do this either.
Higher oil prices only benefit producers of crude. Everyone else gets squeezed. The fact that you think trucking companies are doing well proves you don't know what you're talking about.
That's exactly my point. If some faceless bureaucracy is likely to deny my care why am I paying more than anyone else on this planet for health care? Why pay extra for imaginary freedom? I want to pay less. Crap healthcare shouldn't cost so much.
People have this idea that US healthcare is great, that US healthcare gives you choices, that US healthcare is a good value. Those are all demonstrably false. We pay the most, get mediocre results, and God help you if the insurance companies decide you aren't covered.
I'm still OK personally since I have no chronic conditions, but several of my friends and millions of Americans have been hit with crippling uncovered charges. You can't even declare bankruptcy to get out of it. Unbelievable. I tell you, I am not looking forward to declining health as I age. Here's hoping I get instantly killed in an accident or drop dead in my sleep suddenly.
Socializing health care makes no sense as a trade off - we allow the government make life and death choices over us for a marginal increase of benefit to our pocket books.
Right now we allow private companies to make those same life-and-death choices, and they have upside-down incentives.
Once you start collecting health problems you no longer have any choices for private insurance. If your insurance decides not to cover some necessary care there is no recourse. There is no way to shop for insurance since you don't know if various insurers will cover it if and when you need it.
It seems crazy to me that I have paid into the private healthcare system for 30 years without getting much of anything back and it can all be taken away from me if there is a lapse in coverage, a mistake on an application, or the insurer just decides that my particular problem is not covered.
Hey, allofmp3 could distribute mp3s for under 5 cents a song. Why does Apple need 6X that much for the exact same service? Especially with economies of scale!
Lots of people have already sold mp3s for less than 15 cents. Allofmp3.com sold tracks for a nickel a piece and made a profit. Hopefully someone eventually will realize that high volume, low prices and a reasonable profit is pretty good and legal cheap mp3s will exist.
I disagree. Any CAPTCHA is broken before you even finish describing it. Just have people do them for money or porn. Or, if you prefer a robotic approach, come up with a crappy 1% success rate algorithm. That's plenty to ensure no noticeable drop in spam.
It isn't the implementation that is the problem, it is the concept. As long as there are people willing to work for pennies a day, or willing to solve puzzles for porn CAPTCHA is broken.
That's a great idea. I'd love to see something like the CCC do some projects. A lot of our parks need attention in addition to more mundane infrastructure improvements.
I guess it's official now that people are coming up with New Deal programs to deal with the economy. There were some problems with the WPA but that is basically your idea.
You make some very good points. It is definitely a type of limited competition and keeps prices and service from becoming completely unacceptable. If you are unhappy with any of the mainstream choices (DSL/Cable/Fiber) you could always use dialup, satellite, cellular, or roll your own if your provider raised prices excessively or had absolutely terrible service.
I keep hoping some type of wide area wireless takes off, but that sure hasn't happened yet.
I disagree. I wouldn't call it a free market if there was one brand of car, one brand of truck, and one brand of private jet available. Sure, you have a choice of 3 brands of transportation, but if you want a specific type you have no choice.
The telcos are a monolopy, the cablecos are a monopoly, and they have both absconded with taxpayer money, benefited from government protected monopolies and failed on their promises.
Compare US internet with numerous other countries and see what you get for failed monopolistic competition-in-name-only. Higher prices, lower speeds, and empty excuses.
It's true that BD have some advantages. I am moderately looking forward to having cheap higher capacity backup media. It just doesn't seem as compelling as the shift from diskettes to CDs. We went from 1.44MB to 700MB in one jump, with cheaper blank media. Now we are going from 4.5/9GB to 50GB with (so far) an increase in price.
My friends with children hated rewinding the most. The kids would scream bloody murder for the 3 minutes it took to rewind the tape. I personally never thought it was that big of a deal, but having chapters and random access is a huge advance over slow rew/ff of tape for most people.
DVD's biggest advantage over VHS was the substantially lower unit costs. A DVD can be mass produced for well under a dollar and VHS was around triple that, entirely due to material costs. VCRs had more moving parts and tricky mechanisms and cost a lot more to build. BD doesn't have the same natural cost advantage over the dominant format that DVD enjoyed and it doesn't have compelling new features like chapters, random access, no degradation with repeated viewing, etc. It's also competing with new developments in on demand streaming. It will have a harder time gaining universal acceptance than DVD ever did, and may end up being a dead end like laserdisc, minidisc, etc.
People absolutely hated rewinding tapes. The quality, especially upon repeated play, was orders of magnitude better with DVD.
The fact that it was significantly better wasn't enough to force people to change. What finally killed VHS, after many years of coexistence, was the day DVD players were cheaper than VCRs and prerecorded DVDs were cheaper than prerecorded VHS tapes.
If you like having a trial version of norton that stops updating after 30 days you are an idiot. That is the opposite of security and should be illegal.
You can select what gets removed. If you like the google toolbar, go ahead and clear that checkbox. Wordperfect? I don't see that on the list. If you are talking about the trial version of Microsoft Office that stops working after 30 days, again: Only a retard wants that.
Windows is just too big to remain ignorant about. I used to stay in my unix-only utopia, but it has helped me to try to develop a more heterodox approach.
People assume that you can help them with their windows computer because you are "in computers." Workplaces keep trying to ram windows down your throat. You end up buying a windows machine just to do a few things. Why not learn a little since it is inevitable anyway?
Back to my point, pretty much any web search for how to clean up a new pc will point you in the right direction.
There was a time, say 10 years ago, when you could usually save a lot of money by building the machine yourself. I used to help all my friends build machines - anything from a gamer box down to a simple web-and-email economy model and it was always a lot cheaper. Those days are behind us, and I NEVER want to lose sleep again over whether or not the mobo warranty will hold up when it was damaged by bad ram or whatever.
I wouldn't trust anything to help a pwnt windows box, but a fresh OEM crapware install is a different story. I've told countless people to run PC Decrapifier on their new Dells, HPs, etc. and they all rave about how there is way less clutter, faster boot times, no confusing and useless crippleware, and everything runs faster.
To be honest, nearly any machine I personally administer will get a clean install, but for my Mom's computer, I just emailed her a link to the tool to fix her new laptop.
I have an oddball HP pavilion that won't take a regular XP sp2 install, so I used the crapware OEM disks, ran PC Decrapifier, and it works perfectly.
That is only true for really high-end machines. For a commodity desktop you can often save hundreds by going with an older model HP, Dell, or whatever. Just make sure you wipe it first.
Wait a minute, that's what this entire article is about!
I have had enough trouble getting warranty support for DOA mobos, processors, power supplies, etc. that I generally don't bother building machines anymore.
For most people, it works best and costs least to buy a $300 closeout special from microcenter and if it doesn't work you can walk it back to the store.
I like Carlin's thinking on the matter. "Selling's legal, fucking's legal, why isn't selling fucking legal?" Only in Vegas.
No, NOT in Vegas. I wish people would stop making this claim. Prostitution is legal is certain counties of Nevada but it is NOT in Las Vegas.
It's easy to understand why people get confused. They go to Vegas and are handed dozens of flyers for "escorts" as they wander around, most of the hotels have ads for "escorts" and they are approached by numerous prostitutes offering their services.
I thought that prostitution was illegal in Las Vegas until I went there. Then I had to double-check because it seemed to have been legalized. Sure enough, still illegal - just doesn't seem that way.
Click on a google result and scroll down to their answers. There they are, all nice and helpful. Now try clicking on anything else, doing a search, etc. No answers anymore. You only get them from google search. I have even had working bookmarks stop working after a while, although a fresh google search will turn up a page with working answers.
Slashdot Mirror
Wrong. When your feedstocks are going up you make less money. Sometimes you can raise your prices enough to partially offset this, but usually you cannot. Our feedstocks are double what they were a couple of years ago. We can't double our prices, and none of our competitors have been able to do this either.
Higher oil prices only benefit producers of crude. Everyone else gets squeezed. The fact that you think trucking companies are doing well proves you don't know what you're talking about.
That's exactly my point. If some faceless bureaucracy is likely to deny my care why am I paying more than anyone else on this planet for health care? Why pay extra for imaginary freedom? I want to pay less. Crap healthcare shouldn't cost so much.
People have this idea that US healthcare is great, that US healthcare gives you choices, that US healthcare is a good value. Those are all demonstrably false. We pay the most, get mediocre results, and God help you if the insurance companies decide you aren't covered.
I'm still OK personally since I have no chronic conditions, but several of my friends and millions of Americans have been hit with crippling uncovered charges. You can't even declare bankruptcy to get out of it. Unbelievable. I tell you, I am not looking forward to declining health as I age. Here's hoping I get instantly killed in an accident or drop dead in my sleep suddenly.
Right now we allow private companies to make those same life-and-death choices, and they have upside-down incentives.
Once you start collecting health problems you no longer have any choices for private insurance. If your insurance decides not to cover some necessary care there is no recourse. There is no way to shop for insurance since you don't know if various insurers will cover it if and when you need it.
It seems crazy to me that I have paid into the private healthcare system for 30 years without getting much of anything back and it can all be taken away from me if there is a lapse in coverage, a mistake on an application, or the insurer just decides that my particular problem is not covered.
Hey, allofmp3 could distribute mp3s for under 5 cents a song. Why does Apple need 6X that much for the exact same service? Especially with economies of scale!
Lots of people have already sold mp3s for less than 15 cents. Allofmp3.com sold tracks for a nickel a piece and made a profit. Hopefully someone eventually will realize that high volume, low prices and a reasonable profit is pretty good and legal cheap mp3s will exist.
I disagree. Any CAPTCHA is broken before you even finish describing it. Just have people do them for money or porn. Or, if you prefer a robotic approach, come up with a crappy 1% success rate algorithm. That's plenty to ensure no noticeable drop in spam.
It isn't the implementation that is the problem, it is the concept. As long as there are people willing to work for pennies a day, or willing to solve puzzles for porn CAPTCHA is broken.
That's a great idea. I'd love to see something like the CCC do some projects. A lot of our parks need attention in addition to more mundane infrastructure improvements.
I guess it's official now that people are coming up with New Deal programs to deal with the economy. There were some problems with the WPA but that is basically your idea.
You make some very good points. It is definitely a type of limited competition and keeps prices and service from becoming completely unacceptable. If you are unhappy with any of the mainstream choices (DSL/Cable/Fiber) you could always use dialup, satellite, cellular, or roll your own if your provider raised prices excessively or had absolutely terrible service.
I keep hoping some type of wide area wireless takes off, but that sure hasn't happened yet.
I disagree. I wouldn't call it a free market if there was one brand of car, one brand of truck, and one brand of private jet available. Sure, you have a choice of 3 brands of transportation, but if you want a specific type you have no choice.
The telcos are a monolopy, the cablecos are a monopoly, and they have both absconded with taxpayer money, benefited from government protected monopolies and failed on their promises.
Compare US internet with numerous other countries and see what you get for failed monopolistic competition-in-name-only. Higher prices, lower speeds, and empty excuses.
I must not have read that properly. Did you just say that telcos and cable companies are free market?
It's true that BD have some advantages. I am moderately looking forward to having cheap higher capacity backup media. It just doesn't seem as compelling as the shift from diskettes to CDs. We went from 1.44MB to 700MB in one jump, with cheaper blank media. Now we are going from 4.5/9GB to 50GB with (so far) an increase in price.
My friends with children hated rewinding the most. The kids would scream bloody murder for the 3 minutes it took to rewind the tape. I personally never thought it was that big of a deal, but having chapters and random access is a huge advance over slow rew/ff of tape for most people.
DVD's biggest advantage over VHS was the substantially lower unit costs. A DVD can be mass produced for well under a dollar and VHS was around triple that, entirely due to material costs. VCRs had more moving parts and tricky mechanisms and cost a lot more to build. BD doesn't have the same natural cost advantage over the dominant format that DVD enjoyed and it doesn't have compelling new features like chapters, random access, no degradation with repeated viewing, etc. It's also competing with new developments in on demand streaming. It will have a harder time gaining universal acceptance than DVD ever did, and may end up being a dead end like laserdisc, minidisc, etc.
People absolutely hated rewinding tapes. The quality, especially upon repeated play, was orders of magnitude better with DVD.
The fact that it was significantly better wasn't enough to force people to change. What finally killed VHS, after many years of coexistence, was the day DVD players were cheaper than VCRs and prerecorded DVDs were cheaper than prerecorded VHS tapes.
Bad example. You can sell a cd/dvd or lend it to a friend or watch it in your car.
Un mono en la mano vale dos en el arbusto.
A monkey in the hand is worth two in the bush.
I have a lexar jumpdrive mp3 player. It uses an oddly small thumbdrive and other thumbdrives may not fit in the player.
The user interface sucks but it runs for 10 hours on a rechargable AAA bat. It's also cheap enough that I don't care if it gets lost or broken.
"Lloyds is pants" was a customers password at Lloyds bank. Lloyds changed it against his will. There was a story about it on slashdot a few days ago.
Expect to see everything being pants for a while. Maybe forever, this is slashdot.
If you like having a trial version of norton that stops updating after 30 days you are an idiot. That is the opposite of security and should be illegal.
You can select what gets removed. If you like the google toolbar, go ahead and clear that checkbox. Wordperfect? I don't see that on the list. If you are talking about the trial version of Microsoft Office that stops working after 30 days, again: Only a retard wants that.
Windows is just too big to remain ignorant about. I used to stay in my unix-only utopia, but it has helped me to try to develop a more heterodox approach.
People assume that you can help them with their windows computer because you are "in computers." Workplaces keep trying to ram windows down your throat. You end up buying a windows machine just to do a few things. Why not learn a little since it is inevitable anyway?
Back to my point, pretty much any web search for how to clean up a new pc will point you in the right direction.
I'm the same way. I upgrade parts here and there.
There was a time, say 10 years ago, when you could usually save a lot of money by building the machine yourself. I used to help all my friends build machines - anything from a gamer box down to a simple web-and-email economy model and it was always a lot cheaper. Those days are behind us, and I NEVER want to lose sleep again over whether or not the mobo warranty will hold up when it was damaged by bad ram or whatever.
I wouldn't trust anything to help a pwnt windows box, but a fresh OEM crapware install is a different story. I've told countless people to run PC Decrapifier on their new Dells, HPs, etc. and they all rave about how there is way less clutter, faster boot times, no confusing and useless crippleware, and everything runs faster.
To be honest, nearly any machine I personally administer will get a clean install, but for my Mom's computer, I just emailed her a link to the tool to fix her new laptop.
I have an oddball HP pavilion that won't take a regular XP sp2 install, so I used the crapware OEM disks, ran PC Decrapifier, and it works perfectly.
I call shenanigans. An IT guy that has never heard of the PC Decrapifier
That is only true for really high-end machines. For a commodity desktop you can often save hundreds by going with an older model HP, Dell, or whatever. Just make sure you wipe it first.
Wait a minute, that's what this entire article is about!
I have had enough trouble getting warranty support for DOA mobos, processors, power supplies, etc. that I generally don't bother building machines anymore.
For most people, it works best and costs least to buy a $300 closeout special from microcenter and if it doesn't work you can walk it back to the store.
It's easy to understand why people get confused. They go to Vegas and are handed dozens of flyers for "escorts" as they wander around, most of the hotels have ads for "escorts" and they are approached by numerous prostitutes offering their services.
I thought that prostitution was illegal in Las Vegas until I went there. Then I had to double-check because it seemed to have been legalized. Sure enough, still illegal - just doesn't seem that way.
Click on a google result and scroll down to their answers. There they are, all nice and helpful. Now try clicking on anything else, doing a search, etc. No answers anymore. You only get them from google search. I have even had working bookmarks stop working after a while, although a fresh google search will turn up a page with working answers.