I have first hand experience of seeing criminals caught because of CCTV and I have actually been the responder to an injury spotted by cameras,
At the hospital where I work, car theft and vandalism has almost disappeared since cameras were introduced in the car parks. I have also heard drunks warn each other to behave because there were cameras in A&E. I have also seen where someone was given a watertight alibi where they had been accused of a major crime. Yes, they also catch criminals. That does not worry me either.
I don't know if they have much effect on gun crime. This is the UK and we don't have your problems with that. The last time I heard gunfire not on TV, I was in army uniform and carrying one myself.
What industry offers consumers a perfect combination of freedom of choice and customer service?
Pretty much any that doesn't involve government-enforced monopolies.
That was a very politically limited statement. "Limited how?" people might wonder. So I will expand. It is first limited to the USA which contains 4% of the human race. Inside the USA, it is limited to a subset of opinion.
Among the 96%, there are some people who feel that corporations are the only things that give you free choice. The people are not only conservatives the but they are also foolish and uninformed too. Corporations are the opposite of free choice. They are big and successful because they sell a lot of the same thing. Your choice is take it or leave it.
State regulation is what keeps corporations honest. It prevents fraud, and cartels for a start. Just imagine what the banking industry would get up to if some idiots deregulated everything...
I work in IT in hospital. The day I "just decided" to do things like that to somewhere else would be the one before the day when I started trying to find out about unemployment benefits.
This will not be actual workers doing this by choice. It will be caused by someone whose job activities do not actually include IT. Their main job functions will be attending planning meetings and wearing a suit.
The thing to do would be to meet up with the people who actually do the work there. You should be doing this on occasion anyway. The first meeting will doubtless have the boss there as well but as soon as you start talking about IT, they will loose interest and find reasons not to be at future meetings. They don't like their underlings being reminded that the boss knows less about IT than the average 12 year old.
They will probably have to continue with some sort of "tests" because that is what the arts major at the top has decreed. You should be able to find out what is going on though. You never know, you might even find ways to make your systems more secure!
Does that mean they have the sole power?
Are they obliged to exercise that power? Because I understand the the US government gave its rights to do that away 100 years ago.
I am just not keen on the idea of the US government being the one to do it.
Is Bitcoin restricted to the US only? In that case, it would be up to the US to look after its own.
The problem is that the US government regularly shows that it has as much idea about "international" as I have about gynaecology. It's complicated, do do with other people and it really helps if you actually know where the patient is.
You can tell the suitability of someone to have any say in something trans national if you find out how they feel about it being regulated by a UN body.Yes the UN contains corruption but so does every government in the world and the US one is well known to be in corporate pockets to an impressive degree.
Sure Congress can identify Bitcoin use as gambling or something and that will keep it under control of the Mafia where it belongs but fortunately, the remaining 96% of humanity can ignore their veniality.
Given the birth rate difference between atheists versus religious people, how exactly do you atheists hope to prevent a complete Christian takeover in 20 years or so ?
Look outside your country. Consider Italy, where the RC Church is based, They have the lowest birthrate in W.Eeurope. It's not just about religion. Education comes in there too. Your "Christians" like to keep people in ignorance. This is not so much the case on Earth.
Does an n-core, n-processor, or n-whatever computer running for 1 hour count as 1 compute-hour or n? Or some other number altogether?
Do faster cores, processors, or whatever count as "more" than slower ones?
The usual phrase "computer hours" says it all. X computers times Y hours gives Z computer hours.
As you have indicated, the phrase is pretty meaningless. Then there is the question are these Macs, Windows, Linux or what?
The world needs to use an agreed benchmark and we can all work out conversions to the OS we prefer.
As I can't think of such a standard, I suggest we define it as a " Windows Hour - WHr" but we would need to set the standard on a particular spec of H/W and S/W. Suggestions please...
What if someone from outside the USA goes into space? The FCC has less than no authority over them.
For those of you wondering how this bizarre state of affairs could come about, just ask yourself who is actually taking bookings right now.
Virgin Galactic is part of Sir Richard Bransons empire and although he is content to fly from somewhere in New Mexico, that may only be because that is where the money is. You can try and prevent things moving but maybe someone has got developers in Europe or Australia working in it.
Your bureaucracies have no say on anything outside your territorial limits. If outer space is to be used, there will be either a free for all or treaties. I prefer the idea of traties and an international body to regulate things. To upset conservatives in your and my countries, I propose the UN as the final authority in the matter.
Whether the doctor wants you to be allowed to see them or not, it is not appropriate that they can hide them.
One place you listed was England, where I am. I wonder if doctors in the rest of the country (UK) feel the same. Whether they do or not, it does not matter. We have rules about this and the law generally allows people to see their medical records. This has ended those cryptic comments allegedly once found in patient notes -
TTFO - Told to f*** *ff
PP - Pumpkin Positive
BB - Big B****
GA - Great *ss
and even more obvious comments like
hypochondriac
smells
gorgeous
and so on
All that should be in patient notes are a record of events, examinations, results and so on. They do not need some juvinile comments about what the patient looks like or stupid personal remarks. I would be interested to hear someone try and justify not letting anyone see their records. I am sure that there will be valid reasons for individuals, mental health comes to mind, but they have to be the rare exception.
The "copying" that really bugs Apple (and Apple fans) is the kind where Samsung (for example)
I have a Samsung GS2 and both my teenage kids have iPhones so I know what they look like. I am not sure what copying you are referring to.
Some differences
My phone has a larger surface area. It is thinner (although I don't see that as any benefit), The default home screen if mine is totally different and I have changed it further to fit my use. The user interfaces are vastly different although, again, I have changed mine.
Some similarities
They are both suitably sized to fir into a shirt pocket. They are both suitably sized to be used one handed. They have glass on the front and at least one button (the buttons are dissimilar). They have a camera on each side and the one on the back is higher resolution. They both make telephone calls. They can both have the ringtones changed. As they are both smartphones, they can both have additional applications added. and they can both do this although the Android one seems not to have so much need of an actual computer. They can both play music and the owner can buy more online. Does the iPhone store its music online and cache it like Android or does it get it only when it synchs with iTunes?
I do not see any visual resemblance apart from those rounded corners which we both agree is silly. iPhones are rather blocky and the metal round the sides makes them look a bit dated - not similar.
Good ideas are a good thing for consumers. I did not object when Apple brought out the iPad mini even though I already had a 7" tablet. If they are going to stick with Apple, users need a choice too. If this had happened in the opposite order, would Apple have sued Android 7" tablet manufacturers though? Judging on past behaviour it seems likely if they felt that there was a threat to their market share.
Nobody can rationally claim that Apple hasn#t improved things. That is what they are good at. For that, it is quite reasonable that they make a profit. To improve, they must be doing R&D. This is good.
What I object to are uninformed people saying that someone has "stolen" Apples ideas. That is not how it works and we have Apple to thank for that. They adopted the business practice of taking somebodies idea (most famously the GUI) and improving it and putting it in their own products. Their attitude seems to be "We can do that but you can't."
That is not invention but if an etymologist from the Oxford English Dictionary Committee says that the word "innovation" covers that, I would have to agree.
As that hasn't happened yet, I will continue to say that Apples main strengths are enhancement and marketing.
That is what I am thinking about. Saving 15 seconds at boot time is where SSDs show. I suppose that there will be someone out there who runs MS SQL Server on their laptop but why would most people want to do anything like that?
"We can't gouge the customer enough if we give them 3 options.
At the moment, there is cheap and low performance, not cheap and good performance and finally hugely overpriced and theoretically even better performance with an added cool factor.
Yes, SSDs are faster but there are other bottlenecks in the system so the difference is not always apparent to users.
The theory is that if they take away the middle option, people will choose the option with higher margins. Hopefully, the practice will be that they get their 7200 drives from a different manufacturer.
It is frustrating to see so many of them still on IE 7, XP, and Office 2003,
Not half as fraustrating as it the people doing it.. And why is this still happening?
1. Microsoft spent a lot of time pushing tools that made such poor code that it will not work on modern browsers.
2. For years they relied that there was "no alternative" to what they had persuaded professional suit wearers was the only option.
3. Not every version of Windows is worth upgrading to.
And so on. I am sure people here can think of lots of other reasons they have not upgraded to Office 2007 or Vista and are still actually in nice stable dead end of XP and Office 2003. "If it works, don't fix it."
For tech writers out there, everything was invented either by Apple or Google.
As a tech user, I know that nearly nothing technical was invented by Apple. (Off the top of my head, I can't think of anything but I would like to give them the benefit of the doubt,)
They have improved some things a lot but their top activity is marketing. They have no doubts 'invented' some business models but their most active practice is to sell above average devices at premium prices and some car manufacturers have been doing that for decades,
Some of us are lucky enough to work for something worthwhile.
I work for a hospital in the UK. This means it is part of the NHS. This is a universal health care system funded by taxation. Someone told me that I could make a bit more doing IT support in what he called the "Real" world. Maybe true but I like what I do and where I do it.
Is selling these above average smartphones at premium prices. You may get it "free" with your contract but you pay extra on your contract.
You might even get a contract for the same price for a Galaxy3 or an iPhone5. The iPhone buyer is being ripped off in that exampleif the Galaxy user gets a fair price.
Slashdot Mirror
We are unlikely to do such a stupid thing.
I have first hand experience of seeing criminals caught because of CCTV and I have actually been the responder to an injury spotted by cameras,
At the hospital where I work, car theft and vandalism has almost disappeared since cameras were introduced in the car parks. I have also heard drunks warn each other to behave because there were cameras in A&E. I have also seen where someone was given a watertight alibi where they had been accused of a major crime. Yes, they also catch criminals. That does not worry me either.
I don't know if they have much effect on gun crime. This is the UK and we don't have your problems with that. The last time I heard gunfire not on TV, I was in army uniform and carrying one myself.
What industry offers consumers a perfect combination of freedom of choice and customer service?
Pretty much any that doesn't involve government-enforced monopolies.
That was a very politically limited statement. "Limited how?" people might wonder. So I will expand. It is first limited to the USA which contains 4% of the human race. Inside the USA, it is limited to a subset of opinion.
Among the 96%, there are some people who feel that corporations are the only things that give you free choice. The people are not only conservatives the but they are also foolish and uninformed too. Corporations are the opposite of free choice. They are big and successful because they sell a lot of the same thing. Your choice is take it or leave it.
State regulation is what keeps corporations honest. It prevents fraud, and cartels for a start. Just imagine what the banking industry would get up to if some idiots deregulated everything...
I work in IT in hospital. The day I "just decided" to do things like that to somewhere else would be the one before the day when I started trying to find out about unemployment benefits.
This will not be actual workers doing this by choice. It will be caused by someone whose job activities do not actually include IT. Their main job functions will be attending planning meetings and wearing a suit.
The thing to do would be to meet up with the people who actually do the work there. You should be doing this on occasion anyway. The first meeting will doubtless have the boss there as well but as soon as you start talking about IT, they will loose interest and find reasons not to be at future meetings. They don't like their underlings being reminded that the boss knows less about IT than the average 12 year old.
They will probably have to continue with some sort of "tests" because that is what the arts major at the top has decreed. You should be able to find out what is going on though. You never know, you might even find ways to make your systems more secure!
The Congress shall have Power... ...
To coin Money
Does that mean they have the sole power?
Are they obliged to exercise that power? Because I understand the the US government gave its rights to do that away 100 years ago.
I am just not keen on the idea of the US government being the one to do it.
Is Bitcoin restricted to the US only? In that case, it would be up to the US to look after its own.
The problem is that the US government regularly shows that it has as much idea about "international" as I have about gynaecology. It's complicated, do do with other people and it really helps if you actually know where the patient is.
You can tell the suitability of someone to have any say in something trans national if you find out how they feel about it being regulated by a UN body.Yes the UN contains corruption but so does every government in the world and the US one is well known to be in corporate pockets to an impressive degree.
Sure Congress can identify Bitcoin use as gambling or something and that will keep it under control of the Mafia where it belongs but fortunately, the remaining 96% of humanity can ignore their veniality.
You seem to have picked up an extra R along the way.
It says compute-hours, not computer-hours
I said computer hours because the content of a compute varies depending upon the computer.
Given the birth rate difference between atheists versus religious people, how exactly do you atheists hope to prevent a complete Christian takeover in 20 years or so ?
Look outside your country. Consider Italy, where the RC Church is based, They have the lowest birthrate in W.Eeurope. It's not just about religion. Education comes in there too. Your "Christians" like to keep people in ignorance. This is not so much the case on Earth.
Does an n-core, n-processor, or n-whatever computer running for 1 hour count as 1 compute-hour or n? Or some other number altogether?
Do faster cores, processors, or whatever count as "more" than slower ones?
The usual phrase "computer hours" says it all. X computers times Y hours gives Z computer hours.
As you have indicated, the phrase is pretty meaningless. Then there is the question are these Macs, Windows, Linux or what?
The world needs to use an agreed benchmark and we can all work out conversions to the OS we prefer.
As I can't think of such a standard, I suggest we define it as a " Windows Hour - WHr" but we would need to set the standard on a particular spec of H/W and S/W. Suggestions please...
In Europe, consumers have more rights than US consumers.
In the US companies have more rights than European companies do
So it is better for businesses in the US but worse for actual human beings
How's that constitution doing for you then?
What if someone from outside the USA goes into space? The FCC has less than no authority over them.
For those of you wondering how this bizarre state of affairs could come about, just ask yourself who is actually taking bookings right now.
Virgin Galactic is part of Sir Richard Bransons empire and although he is content to fly from somewhere in New Mexico, that may only be because that is where the money is. You can try and prevent things moving but maybe someone has got developers in Europe or Australia working in it.
Your bureaucracies have no say on anything outside your territorial limits. If outer space is to be used, there will be either a free for all or treaties. I prefer the idea of traties and an international body to regulate things. To upset conservatives in your and my countries, I propose the UN as the final authority in the matter.
The point is valid all the same.
Whether the doctor wants you to be allowed to see them or not, it is not appropriate that they can hide them.
One place you listed was England, where I am. I wonder if doctors in the rest of the country (UK) feel the same. Whether they do or not, it does not matter. We have rules about this and the law generally allows people to see their medical records. This has ended those cryptic comments allegedly once found in patient notes -
TTFO - Told to f*** *ff
PP - Pumpkin Positive
BB - Big B****
GA - Great *ss
and even more obvious comments like
hypochondriac
smells
gorgeous
and so on
All that should be in patient notes are a record of events, examinations, results and so on. They do not need some juvinile comments about what the patient looks like or stupid personal remarks. I would be interested to hear someone try and justify not letting anyone see their records. I am sure that there will be valid reasons for individuals, mental health comes to mind, but they have to be the rare exception.
Don't conflate compensation/earnings with salary/wages. They aren't the same.
Salary/wages is a particular type of compensation. Do not make false dichotomies.
The difference is that I have accepted my place in life,
and ye shall forever be downtrodden as a result.
Just remember, the Sermon on the mount does not say
"Blessed are the doormats, for they shal be walked upon."
It says "Blessed are the meek for they shall inherit the earth."
The person who said that is known to loose his cool at financial misbehaviour. Perhaps we should too.
The "copying" that really bugs Apple (and Apple fans) is the kind where Samsung (for example)
I have a Samsung GS2 and both my teenage kids have iPhones so I know what they look like. I am not sure what copying you are referring to.
Some differences
My phone has a larger surface area. It is thinner (although I don't see that as any benefit), The default home screen if mine is totally different and I have changed it further to fit my use. The user interfaces are vastly different although, again, I have changed mine.
Some similarities
They are both suitably sized to fir into a shirt pocket. They are both suitably sized to be used one handed. They have glass on the front and at least one button (the buttons are dissimilar). They have a camera on each side and the one on the back is higher resolution. They both make telephone calls. They can both have the ringtones changed. As they are both smartphones, they can both have additional applications added. and they can both do this although the Android one seems not to have so much need of an actual computer. They can both play music and the owner can buy more online. Does the iPhone store its music online and cache it like Android or does it get it only when it synchs with iTunes?
I do not see any visual resemblance apart from those rounded corners which we both agree is silly. iPhones are rather blocky and the metal round the sides makes them look a bit dated - not similar.
Good ideas are a good thing for consumers. I did not object when Apple brought out the iPad mini even though I already had a 7" tablet. If they are going to stick with Apple, users need a choice too. If this had happened in the opposite order, would Apple have sued Android 7" tablet manufacturers though? Judging on past behaviour it seems likely if they felt that there was a threat to their market share.
Nobody can rationally claim that Apple hasn#t improved things. That is what they are good at. For that, it is quite reasonable that they make a profit. To improve, they must be doing R&D. This is good.
What I object to are uninformed people saying that someone has "stolen" Apples ideas. That is not how it works and we have Apple to thank for that. They adopted the business practice of taking somebodies idea (most famously the GUI) and improving it and putting it in their own products. Their attitude seems to be "We can do that but you can't."
That is not invention but if an etymologist from the Oxford English Dictionary Committee says that the word "innovation" covers that, I would have to agree.
As that hasn't happened yet, I will continue to say that Apples main strengths are enhancement and marketing.
That is what I am thinking about. Saving 15 seconds at boot time is where SSDs show. I suppose that there will be someone out there who runs MS SQL Server on their laptop but why would most people want to do anything like that?
"We can't gouge the customer enough if we give them 3 options.
At the moment, there is cheap and low performance, not cheap and good performance and finally hugely overpriced and theoretically even better performance with an added cool factor.
Yes, SSDs are faster but there are other bottlenecks in the system so the difference is not always apparent to users.
The theory is that if they take away the middle option, people will choose the option with higher margins. Hopefully, the practice will be that they get their 7200 drives from a different manufacturer.
It is frustrating to see so many of them still on IE 7, XP, and Office 2003,
Not half as fraustrating as it the people doing it.. And why is this still happening?
1. Microsoft spent a lot of time pushing tools that made such poor code that it will not work on modern browsers.
2. For years they relied that there was "no alternative" to what they had persuaded professional suit wearers was the only option.
3. Not every version of Windows is worth upgrading to.
And so on. I am sure people here can think of lots of other reasons they have not upgraded to Office 2007 or Vista and are still actually in nice stable dead end of XP and Office 2003. "If it works, don't fix it."
For tech writers out there, everything was invented either by Apple or Google.
As a tech user, I know that nearly nothing technical was invented by Apple. (Off the top of my head, I can't think of anything but I would like to give them the benefit of the doubt,)
They have improved some things a lot but their top activity is marketing. They have no doubts 'invented' some business models but their most active practice is to sell above average devices at premium prices and some car manufacturers have been doing that for decades,
Some of us are lucky enough to work for something worthwhile.
I work for a hospital in the UK. This means it is part of the NHS. This is a universal health care system funded by taxation. Someone told me that I could make a bit more doing IT support in what he called the "Real" world. Maybe true but I like what I do and where I do it.
Kettles can, however, sing. Google it. They have Scottish accents.
No. She paid money to an extortionist.
If people buy things worse manufacturers pay protection money like that, they are finding extortion. Is it legal to fund crime like that?
Is selling these above average smartphones at premium prices. You may get it "free" with your contract but you pay extra on your contract.
You might even get a contract for the same price for a Galaxy3 or an iPhone5. The iPhone buyer is being ripped off in that exampleif the Galaxy user gets a fair price.