All the quarters spent in the arcade was really an investment in a space fighter pilot training program. Humanity will thank me when I show off my real comet busting mojo!
Why should people who had the dumb luck to be born in some shithole country be blessed with lower-priced medicine?
Because in Soviet Russia^W^W^H Capitalist America, you can increase profits that way. And that's encouraged. In a market where you're free to not trade, any trade you do is good for the people who trade (according to simplistic Econ 101 principles, and discounting negative externalities, and...).
Whether selling cheap medicine in poor countries is a good thing in practice is another question.
That's an attempt at an answer to your question. I want to add to that the following:
I find it strange that you say people are lucky to live in (er, be born in) a shithole; the two don't add up. Even if you isolate their luck to the case of medicine prices, what they have to pay might upset their budget more (or less, could as well be) than you paying what you have to pay where you live.
Spending $AMOUNT $CURRENCY on medicine means you forgo the option of spending $AMOUNT $CURRENCY on something else. How bad that is for you depend on what else you could have gotten and how much you want it. That varies between cultures depending on their shitholiness.
Despite the name, [unstable]'s not where totally crazy experimental stuff that is more-likely-broken-than-not happens. There's a separate area, aptly named "experimental"
One thing I've been thinking about just now: we on slashdot shame Microsoft for releasing buggy code and letting the public do the beta testing.
It seems to me that Debian is doing something similar: releasing software to the public, letting the public use and test it, and using the feedback and bug reports to polish the software.
We like Debian and dislike Microsoft. Besides Debian being free (as defined by the Holy Katana Warrior), what's the difference?
Is it that Microsoft's offerings are sold as stable when they're not as well tested as we would like?
Whether the copyright-infringing act is itself commercial in nature doesn't change (as far as I'm aware) whether it's legal.
As part of a fair use defense, you can argue that your actions don't decrease the commercial viability of selling the copyrighted thing (or licenses to consume or use it, whatever).
But when the law clearly says "no redistribution", the fact that people aren't paid for seeding bootleg torrents doesn't make it legal.
(whether what TPB does is legal or not depends; I guess a jury will decide that)
But then, the government might ask for a separate round of bids for providing support services for the software, which open-source vendors could provide.
Think about what this means. I may be reading too much into the word "separate" here, but hear me out.
If the government first buys software, then buys support, then the ability of open-source vendors to make a real bid is constrained by the choice of software made in round one.
If open-source vendors compete to support the same platform, then advocating the use of that platform in round one is basically being the pioneer with the arrows in the back: you bear the cost of enabling both your own business and the business of your competitors. I see some incentive problems lurking in the shadows there.
I think it would make more sense to have a single bidding round where every party offers solutions consisting of software and support. That's the thing the customer really wants, and that would make everyone compete without screwed up incentives.
Am I talking crack, or do you think I'm on to something?
In a different study of avid gamers, a group of 39 males who were, on average, 19.5 years old and played video games for 7.5 hours a week were asked to play the game The House of the Dead III with a low violence or high violence setting. [...] As before, violence did not affect playersâ(TM) enjoyment of the games.
Even if we're talking about males-only, and the fairly young variety, violence seems to not matter.
Chipping in with my own anecdote: my (by far) most violent wii game, Mortal Kombat Armageddon, is the one I find the least fun. The one with no violence at all, Guitar Hero III, is the one I find the most fun. The second-most violent is probably Twilight Princess, almost-tied with GH3 for fun. So there's no clear relationship. By the way, I'm male and 25.5 years old on average;-)
In other words, twenty years ago, people had a reasonable expecation that their number would not give away their identity even if they were listed in the phone book
But it doesn't really require any special smarts to understand that if you buy a "black box" computer [...]
Really? Does your mother know this? Do you think she would understand if you explained it to her?
I won't make any claims as to exactly what brings that understanding about, but I will say that having written code definitely makes it a lot easier to get, and I know (or at least am of the opinion) that it's really hard to get, on a gut level, that not everybody knows what you know.
Slashdot Mirror
It is a scam and a waste of time.
At the danger of being wooshed, what the fuck are you doing talking about a waste of time on slashdot? ^_^
I knew it all along.
All the quarters spent in the arcade was really an investment in a space fighter pilot training program. Humanity will thank me when I show off my real comet busting mojo!
Just what are the "other" impact hazards?
Mutalisks.
The female [...] aren't what they appear to be. Don't meet offline
Especially if their boob size matches the one in the game :(
Why should people who had the dumb luck to be born in some shithole country be blessed with lower-priced medicine?
Because in Soviet Russia^W^W^H Capitalist America, you can increase profits that way. And that's encouraged. In a market where you're free to not trade, any trade you do is good for the people who trade (according to simplistic Econ 101 principles, and discounting negative externalities, and ...).
Whether selling cheap medicine in poor countries is a good thing in practice is another question.
That's an attempt at an answer to your question. I want to add to that the following:
I find it strange that you say people are lucky to live in (er, be born in) a shithole; the two don't add up. Even if you isolate their luck to the case of medicine prices, what they have to pay might upset their budget more (or less, could as well be) than you paying what you have to pay where you live.
Spending $AMOUNT $CURRENCY on medicine means you forgo the option of spending $AMOUNT $CURRENCY on something else. How bad that is for you depend on what else you could have gotten and how much you want it. That varies between cultures depending on their shitholiness.
[with hookers]. In fact forget the internet
You really don't know why the internet was built, do you?
Here's a hint: http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=5430343841227974645
As a side benefit, no IRC weenies are going to ask you for your A/S/L
Don't worry. We still have Fox News.
Because if they do the malware writers will be cranking out "Happy screensaver.scr.sh"
Of course, you'd have to first ./configure; make; make install ;-)
It actually tended to come at a frame rate penalty vs. software renderers except on the fastest machines.
Could you please explain this?
It sounds like you're saying that the hardware is slower than the software, except when the software is really really fast.
"This is Chewbacca, [wookie, endor] [...] this does not. make. sense!"
Despite the name, [unstable]'s not where totally crazy experimental stuff that is more-likely-broken-than-not happens. There's a separate area, aptly named "experimental"
One thing I've been thinking about just now: we on slashdot shame Microsoft for releasing buggy code and letting the public do the beta testing.
It seems to me that Debian is doing something similar: releasing software to the public, letting the public use and test it, and using the feedback and bug reports to polish the software.
We like Debian and dislike Microsoft. Besides Debian being free (as defined by the Holy Katana Warrior), what's the difference?
Is it that Microsoft's offerings are sold as stable when they're not as well tested as we would like?
Or am I just talking out my arse again?
Since most of the torrents on TPB have nothing to do with buccaneers
See also http://news.slashdot.org/comments.pl?sid=1128381&cid=26861831 ;-)
Whether the copyright-infringing act is itself commercial in nature doesn't change (as far as I'm aware) whether it's legal.
As part of a fair use defense, you can argue that your actions don't decrease the commercial viability of selling the copyrighted thing (or licenses to consume or use it, whatever).
But when the law clearly says "no redistribution", the fact that people aren't paid for seeding bootleg torrents doesn't make it legal.
(whether what TPB does is legal or not depends; I guess a jury will decide that)
[you're] an accessory to a crime if you knowingly aid it.
Copyright infringement is typically a civil rather than criminal matter.
(your point may still stand, though)
Please add spoiler warnings next time! :(
Read the summary closely:
But then, the government might ask for a separate round of bids for providing support services for the software, which open-source vendors could provide.
Think about what this means. I may be reading too much into the word "separate" here, but hear me out.
If the government first buys software, then buys support, then the ability of open-source vendors to make a real bid is constrained by the choice of software made in round one.
If open-source vendors compete to support the same platform, then advocating the use of that platform in round one is basically being the pioneer with the arrows in the back: you bear the cost of enabling both your own business and the business of your competitors. I see some incentive problems lurking in the shadows there.
I think it would make more sense to have a single bidding round where every party offers solutions consisting of software and support. That's the thing the customer really wants, and that would make everyone compete without screwed up incentives.
Am I talking crack, or do you think I'm on to something?
Stage 1 complete.
Doh! Parent was obviously talking about installing Gentoo ;-)
Stage 1 complete.
I'd say Microsoft is well past ignoring Linux; at least well past completely ignoring Linux.
They're well into fighting it, and ridiculing it as part of the fight. And ignoring it in fewer and fewer places.
FTFA:
In a different study of avid gamers, a group of 39 males who were, on average, 19.5 years old and played video games for 7.5 hours a week were asked to play the game The House of the Dead III with a low violence or high violence setting. [...] As before, violence did not affect playersâ(TM) enjoyment of the games.
Even if we're talking about males-only, and the fairly young variety, violence seems to not matter.
Chipping in with my own anecdote: my (by far) most violent wii game, Mortal Kombat Armageddon, is the one I find the least fun. The one with no violence at all, Guitar Hero III, is the one I find the most fun. The second-most violent is probably Twilight Princess, almost-tied with GH3 for fun. So there's no clear relationship. By the way, I'm male and 25.5 years old on average ;-)
All of the machines on lenovo.com make it very clear which operating system they have installed.
Unlike somewhere else where you can buy Ubuntu by mistake ;-)
Every single time the earth's mean temperature has been rising steadily over 400 years, pirates have died out. That's a 100%!
In other words, twenty years ago, people had a reasonable expecation that their number would not give away their identity even if they were listed in the phone book
You've never watched Rain Man, have you?
So true, he shoulda added the -shit.
Cornell researchers found that autism spiked when cable TV became more widespread.
News just in: pirates prefer cool weather.
But it doesn't really require any special smarts to understand that if you buy a "black box" computer [...]
Really? Does your mother know this? Do you think she would understand if you explained it to her?
I won't make any claims as to exactly what brings that understanding about, but I will say that having written code definitely makes it a lot easier to get, and I know (or at least am of the opinion) that it's really hard to get, on a gut level, that not everybody knows what you know.