Wow, somebody mod that parent up - I can't imagine that paid-for mod points would be used recklessly, so it should definitely be considered. Heck, if they can't figure out the recommended price, they could always put up a block of 50 on eBay and let the market set the price.
While this obviously won't stop all attacks, it should make a huge difference. It is suspected that he and his supporters were using their massive hordes of cash to finance assaults and hire mercenaries, and along with Saddaam they found some of that cash.
This, and many other reviews are referring to RotK as the best of the three films. Yeow, that's high praise all by itself.
Can I assume that the battle at the Black Gate is left out, and that portion tightened up into the siege of Minas Tirith? I could see how that could make for another couple hours easily...
Are people really grabbing a product off the shelf, walking up to the register, and ONLY AS THEY'RE PULLING THEIR CREDIT CARD OUT start thinking, "gee, can I afford this?" If so, then I say fleece the morons for all they are worth. RFID in this instance provides a quicker transaction, and is thus a very very good thing.
As for the concerns about fraud, the credit card banks addressed this a couple years back by exposing most cardholders to only $50 liability in the event of false chargers, and many cards have taken that down to zero on many accounts.
First of all, I wasn't referring to deficits - only the revenue side of the equation. Analysis from here and here would indicate that the US is not taxed so highly that we're on the far side of the Laffer Curve, i.e. that reducing taxes would lead to increased revenues. It makes for a nice story, but it just simply isn't true.
if rates are very high and you cut them, here is what happens: lower taxes = better economy, cause people have more money to spend on goods and services = more jobs = MORE TAX REVENUE.
What you're referring to is the Laffer Curve, but the tricky part of applying that to the US is that nobody really knows where the tipping point is, where a reduction in rates actually generates more revenue. This argument was popular during the Reagan years, but the tax cuts of that time didn't increase revenues. Among the developed nations, the US has a relatively low tax rate, so you'd be better off looking for that effect in some place like Germany or France...
I wish people would stop blaming politicians, and point the finger squarely at the American public. People seem to gravitate mindlessly to tax-cutting messages, without considering the impact. Nobody wants to pay taxes, but they all want good schools, safe and well-maintained streets, etc. If the public got behind the idea of a space port or moon landing, the politicians would follow. It does indeed happen, even in these cynical times.
I remember a friend of mine a few years ago seriously comparing the internet to CB radios, and how it would all fizzle out in a couple years...
Re:Sad state of affairs...
on
Stealth Inflation
·
· Score: 1, Insightful
Comparing a computer tech to a doctor? It's not even close...
It takes much more intensive training to be a doctor, there's much more at stake for the customer, and the equipment is quite a bit more expensive. That machine that goes "Ping!" costs more than half your data center, laddie!
One huge, thorny part of the health care problem is that providers have to make up for what they lose on indigent patients. Throw in the fact that Medicaid and Medicare reimbursement rates are usually substandard as well, and the end result is that costs just get pushed off onto others.
Lest you think that these patients are just a small portion of the total, you're right, but they also tend to be the ones who go to the emergency room every time someone has a fever, which is horribly expensive...
Once you read the article, you see there's surprisingly little insight at all, really. The only conjecture on the nanotechnology-driven economy is that there will likely be a scarcity of workers with the necessary skillset, enabling them to earn major $$$ unless the pool of talent increases through either domestic or international education and training.
I would also argue that much of his point regarding the displacement of current workers is well underway. Miniature, communicative sensors already enable industrial equipment to constantly optimize its own performance, reducing the need for manual maintenance and repair work. Warehouse technology is already available to minimize the number of workers needed to move product, especially with the coming of RFID.
In short, I think the more interesting area for discussion lies in which types of products are likely to be displaced by oncoming nanotech, and which are likely to become more in demand (such as the rise in the price of titanium, driven by a wave of Tiger Woods-inspired golf newbies). Hopefully we'll see some followup on those points...
Certain hardware is included - since you apparently can't follow the link...
Microsoft offers a commercially reasonable, nonexclusive license so that other companies can use the FAT file system in their own products. Currently, Microsoft offers two specific types of licenses:
A license for removable solid state media manufacturers to preformat the media, such as compact flash memory cards, to the Microsoft FAT file system format, and to preload data onto such preformatted media using the Microsoft FAT file system format. Pricing for this license is US$0.25 per unit with a cap on total royalties of $250,000 per manufacturer.
A license for manufacturers of certain consumer electronics devices. Pricing for this license is US$0.25 per unit for each of the following types of devices that use removable solid state media to store data: portable digital still cameras; portable digital video cameras; portable digital still/video cameras; portable digital audio players; portable digital video players; portable digital audio/video players; multifunction printers; electronic photo frames; electronic musical instruments; and standard televisions. Pricing for this license is US$0.25 per unit with a cap on total royalties of $250,000 per licensee. Pricing for other device types can be negotiated with Microsoft.
I agree, though, that this might be a way to nudge industry away from FAT over time, presumably to another niftier (and pricier) Microsoft-supplied alternative. Just thinking out loud here, but if you think of Windows PC's interfacing with consumer electronics gear using FAT, would it make life simpler for Microsoft to have them using NTFS or, in the distant future, the Longhorn equivalent?
Re:It's not really all THAT odd...
on
NYT on Game Mods
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· Score: 5, Insightful
The point of the article isn't to list every significant modding community out there - heck, you could toss sports games into the mix as well. The story is that the relationship between game developers and players has changed significantly over the last few years. Whether one game is used as the example over another is trivial...
Presumably so - they are using the FAT technology, and hence would need to license the IP. It's not that bad, actually - if you follow the link, you'll see that the license fee is only $0.25 per unit, up to a max of $250,000 per licensee. Rather than a lucrative money grab, this looks like they're establishing a precedent for other licensing opportunities, such as (perhaps) 3rd party hardware/software that uses Microsoft file formats.
That would take a whole lotta mining to have any effect on the tides. I suspect any mining efforts would focus on the most valuable materials by weight/volume, since transportation would be kinda expensive...
Then again, if you look at the numbers, you realize that this article is way overblown. A potential threat 5 years down the road that might result in a 4-10% drop in ad revenue? That's hardly a revolutionary factor in the TV business. Variations over the course of a normal business cycle are larger than that. Besides, with plenty of alternatives to the traditional 30-second commercial (product placement, logos displayed during the course of a program, etc.), I doubt that DVR's will have a disastrous effect on the TV business...
First off, I'd love to have a kind of computer 450 of which cost just short of 1M$ -- that would be almost 2K$/computer. Not exactly a budget cut type of purchase, if you ask me.
The thing people are missing is that in many school districts, you have a separate funds pool for capital expenditures (i.e. computers) as opposed to the general operating budget (i.e. teacher salaries). Often, state lottery revenues (which can grow even during poor economic times) are piped directly into the capital fund, while the operating budget comes from the state's general fund - thus in a state budget crisis teachers are getting cut while new laptops are being handed out to kids.
That sounds like my older relatives who think we shouldn't see reports on the news about potential terrorist threats, because "it might give the bad guys ideas." As unpopular as SCO might be right now, they certainly would know who the big Linux users are out there...
Slashdot Mirror
Wow, somebody mod that parent up - I can't imagine that paid-for mod points would be used recklessly, so it should definitely be considered. Heck, if they can't figure out the recommended price, they could always put up a block of 50 on eBay and let the market set the price.
While this obviously won't stop all attacks, it should make a huge difference. It is suspected that he and his supporters were using their massive hordes of cash to finance assaults and hire mercenaries, and along with Saddaam they found some of that cash.
This, and many other reviews are referring to RotK as the best of the three films. Yeow, that's high praise all by itself.
Can I assume that the battle at the Black Gate is left out, and that portion tightened up into the siege of Minas Tirith? I could see how that could make for another couple hours easily...
Are people really grabbing a product off the shelf, walking up to the register, and ONLY AS THEY'RE PULLING THEIR CREDIT CARD OUT start thinking, "gee, can I afford this?" If so, then I say fleece the morons for all they are worth. RFID in this instance provides a quicker transaction, and is thus a very very good thing.
As for the concerns about fraud, the credit card banks addressed this a couple years back by exposing most cardholders to only $50 liability in the event of false chargers, and many cards have taken that down to zero on many accounts.
How "carefully reasoned" can a piece be by a guy called maddog???
Since he didn't provide a link, I assume you went searching for it?
Fool... you got what you deserved...
Given the way that AP reports have taken over for original reporting in huge portions of many newspapers, that's not just Funny, it's Insightful...
First of all, I wasn't referring to deficits - only the revenue side of the equation. Analysis from here and here would indicate that the US is not taxed so highly that we're on the far side of the Laffer Curve, i.e. that reducing taxes would lead to increased revenues. It makes for a nice story, but it just simply isn't true.
if rates are very high and you cut them, here is what happens: lower taxes = better economy, cause people have more money to spend on goods and services = more jobs = MORE TAX REVENUE.
What you're referring to is the Laffer Curve, but the tricky part of applying that to the US is that nobody really knows where the tipping point is, where a reduction in rates actually generates more revenue. This argument was popular during the Reagan years, but the tax cuts of that time didn't increase revenues. Among the developed nations, the US has a relatively low tax rate, so you'd be better off looking for that effect in some place like Germany or France...
I wish people would stop blaming politicians, and point the finger squarely at the American public. People seem to gravitate mindlessly to tax-cutting messages, without considering the impact. Nobody wants to pay taxes, but they all want good schools, safe and well-maintained streets, etc. If the public got behind the idea of a space port or moon landing, the politicians would follow. It does indeed happen, even in these cynical times.
Agreed. I think they should just close down the site now...
This Internet thing is a fad.
I remember a friend of mine a few years ago seriously comparing the internet to CB radios, and how it would all fizzle out in a couple years...
Comparing a computer tech to a doctor? It's not even close...
It takes much more intensive training to be a doctor, there's much more at stake for the customer, and the equipment is quite a bit more expensive. That machine that goes "Ping!" costs more than half your data center, laddie!
One huge, thorny part of the health care problem is that providers have to make up for what they lose on indigent patients. Throw in the fact that Medicaid and Medicare reimbursement rates are usually substandard as well, and the end result is that costs just get pushed off onto others.
Lest you think that these patients are just a small portion of the total, you're right, but they also tend to be the ones who go to the emergency room every time someone has a fever, which is horribly expensive...
Oh, that's ok then, as long as we get to see tits being squashed together in crappy lycra suits!
You're right - if they're going to go the boobs & lycra route, they should find a better show to bring back...
Once you read the article, you see there's surprisingly little insight at all, really. The only conjecture on the nanotechnology-driven economy is that there will likely be a scarcity of workers with the necessary skillset, enabling them to earn major $$$ unless the pool of talent increases through either domestic or international education and training.
I would also argue that much of his point regarding the displacement of current workers is well underway. Miniature, communicative sensors already enable industrial equipment to constantly optimize its own performance, reducing the need for manual maintenance and repair work. Warehouse technology is already available to minimize the number of workers needed to move product, especially with the coming of RFID.
In short, I think the more interesting area for discussion lies in which types of products are likely to be displaced by oncoming nanotech, and which are likely to become more in demand (such as the rise in the price of titanium, driven by a wave of Tiger Woods-inspired golf newbies). Hopefully we'll see some followup on those points...
I agree, though, that this might be a way to nudge industry away from FAT over time, presumably to another niftier (and pricier) Microsoft-supplied alternative. Just thinking out loud here, but if you think of Windows PC's interfacing with consumer electronics gear using FAT, would it make life simpler for Microsoft to have them using NTFS or, in the distant future, the Longhorn equivalent?
The point of the article isn't to list every significant modding community out there - heck, you could toss sports games into the mix as well. The story is that the relationship between game developers and players has changed significantly over the last few years. Whether one game is used as the example over another is trivial...
Presumably so - they are using the FAT technology, and hence would need to license the IP. It's not that bad, actually - if you follow the link, you'll see that the license fee is only $0.25 per unit, up to a max of $250,000 per licensee. Rather than a lucrative money grab, this looks like they're establishing a precedent for other licensing opportunities, such as (perhaps) 3rd party hardware/software that uses Microsoft file formats.
That would take a whole lotta mining to have any effect on the tides. I suspect any mining efforts would focus on the most valuable materials by weight/volume, since transportation would be kinda expensive...
Then again, if you look at the numbers, you realize that this article is way overblown. A potential threat 5 years down the road that might result in a 4-10% drop in ad revenue? That's hardly a revolutionary factor in the TV business. Variations over the course of a normal business cycle are larger than that. Besides, with plenty of alternatives to the traditional 30-second commercial (product placement, logos displayed during the course of a program, etc.), I doubt that DVR's will have a disastrous effect on the TV business...
First off, I'd love to have a kind of computer 450 of which cost just short of 1M$ -- that would be almost 2K$/computer. Not exactly a budget cut type of purchase, if you ask me.
The thing people are missing is that in many school districts, you have a separate funds pool for capital expenditures (i.e. computers) as opposed to the general operating budget (i.e. teacher salaries). Often, state lottery revenues (which can grow even during poor economic times) are piped directly into the capital fund, while the operating budget comes from the state's general fund - thus in a state budget crisis teachers are getting cut while new laptops are being handed out to kids.
It's right there in the link from the article... I know, I RTFA, what am I doing???
Why is this situation any different from new Windows exploits, which are shouted from the rooftops at the earliest opportunity?
I'm not trolling here, just genuinely wondering...
That sounds like my older relatives who think we shouldn't see reports on the news about potential terrorist threats, because "it might give the bad guys ideas." As unpopular as SCO might be right now, they certainly would know who the big Linux users are out there...