It's too bad you don't have the courage to vote your conscience. If you did, we might get a candidate that you actually want, instead of the second-most-objectionable candidate.
Or you get the first-most-objectionable candidate.
By rallying around the second-most-objectionable candidate, you at least have a shot at keeping the first-most-objectionable candidate out of power.
This happens in Canada all the time. It OFTEN the case that
Conservatives get 34% of a vote Liberals get 32% of a vote NDP gets 25% of a vote Green gets 7% of a vote other parties get 2% a vote ------------------ Conservative candidate is elected
Your average green party voter ranks the candidates as follows: green > ndp > liberal > conservative or green > liberal > ndp > conservative
If the green candidate withdrew from the race, the liberal and ndp would pick up the majority of those extra votes, and the liberal candidate would win, which would make the vast majority of the green party candidates happier than the first outcome.
Same applies to NDP voters. The majority of them would be happier with a liberal candidate winning than conservative, and if the NDP withdrew the liberal candidate would almost certainly win, which again would make them happier than the first outcome.
Vote splitting is a HUGE problem. Far too often the least desirable candidate wins.
Yes... 99.9999...% would be stupid, but 100% isn't better.
He should have just dropped the percentage quantification entirely then knowing that rounding up 'almost certain' to 'certain' glosses over a very important distinction. He could have just simply reported that he is "almost certain the planet will be found to have life" and left it at that.
Have you ever needed to take a photo of something on-site and send it to a client or someone back at the office? I have. It's a useful feature.
You bet, but its not really an enterprise feature. At best its a universal feature. Of course the website shows the BB taking pictures of kids and babies...
Tag line.. "Act on Inspiration" Um... I guess that enterprisey right?
Top billing: maximized multimedia - pinch & zoom, enhanced music player for the enterprise user who needs to zoom in on his album artwork?
Second billng: 5 megapixel camera for the enterprise user who needs to capture those precious spontaneous moments?
Third billing: Integrated social feeds (facebook leads the list) For the enterprise user who... I give up.... lets try the next one one
http://na.blackberry.com/eng/devices/blackberrypearl3G/ Tagline - "Carry your friends in your pocket"
Yeah... we're done here.
For what its worth I agree blackberry is still a top contender in the enterprise space and has a lot of features aimed specifically at their needs. But I think you are going too far trying to claim they "go out of their way to discourage" the whole fun side of things.
Consider this: a law that requires new cars to include bluetooth speakerphones that automatically connect when the car is turned on (yes, it requires the driver to pair a bluetooth-capable phone, but who wouldn't?).
a) Lots of people wouldn't. I've tried BT hands free car kits and headsets and both drive me insane. b) Lots more people don't have new cars.
Another law idea (complementary or stand-alone): accidents caused by driver negligence due to texting have harsher penalties... make it the same as DUI. No reason not to also put cellphone handset issues here too. Note that this will be difficult to "prove" in court, but I think it's a start.
Meanwhile putting on your eyeliner and reading the newspaper is still just a petty moving violation...
Except I pay both the mechanic and the plumber by the hour, or even a fixed job rate. This correlates much closer with the time it will take them to complete the job than than with an "amount of man-hours they have saved humanity".
So by this logic, if he wants to have a stable income, he should produce a really shit program that will save nobody any time, but that he can "continuously improve" for the rest of his life, and get paid $100 for every hour he works, resulting in something much more approaching a "net zero" for humanity?
Why would anyone continue paying him to improve it for the rest of his life? If you hire a contractor to build a bathroom in your mom's basement and he does a shitty job, do you pay him more to fix it continually for the rest of his life? Or do you fire his ass and hire someone competent? I guess that pretty much blows your 'stable income by producing shit' theory out of the water.
And on that note, once you've hired a competent contractor do you compute the man hours you will save by not having to go upstairs (and perhaps even wait in line) to use the bathroom there over the course of owning the home? Or do you just pay him for his time/materials to to build the bathroom?
In your idealized society, you think he should be paid based on... how many hours he worked? Your hybrid economic system removes both the altruistic motive of communism and the reward motive of capitalism.
So you've invented the worst economic system possible. Congrats!
Hmm. So when a plumber comes to fix the hot water tank, I should pay him based on how many hours he saves me heating water manually on the stove over the course of owning my home?
When a mechanic replaces a snapped timing belt he should be paid based on how many man hours he saves me walking to and from work over the next several years?
If you don't give a shit if your spouse finds out, even if your spouse would care a lot about it themselves, there is no leverage to blackmail.
If you didn't give a shit you wouldn't be keeping it a secret in the first place. The fact that you are keeping it secret indicates that you put some value in it being a secret.
But I agree that 'how much value' you put into it remaining a secret is a personal valuation, that isn't directly tied to how upset they will be.... but if you value your spouse highly, and you firmly believe that if they found out they would leave, then you will value the secret highly.
The point I made originally is that blackmail is not founded on a simple question of 'shame' but one of consequences.
That's not what we're talking about here. We aren't talking about a highly public figure.
Right, so my comments about political career misses the mark a bit in this context, but the spouse/family aspect is still right on target.
We're talking about an employee who might want to keep something secret, like porn preferences.
Not really. Unless the porn preferences are illegal its not going to matter all that much to most people. I doubt anyone has ever really been successfully blackmailed with the fact that they like redheads in bondage porn.
Revelations of infidelity and bisexuality/homosexuality will still be effective blackmail though, because they can still trash your marriage / family / personal relationships - whether you are ashamed or not.
And illegal porn will of course be effective blackmail, along with any other blackmail involving crime.
We all have gotten together with people we didn't want people to know.
Infidelity and other sexual indiscretions can easily damage or even ruin marriages and political careers. It doesn't really matter whether or not YOU are ashamed of what YOU did. What matters is what EVERYONE else thinks.
Blackmail will continue to work as long as your spouse and/or the voters care about what YOU have been up to.
Its great news. If I get my neighbour's internet connections taken out my download speeds should shoot right up.
Nevermind your neighbor... suppose I give you this box... if you push the button your internet speeds will shoot right up. But be forewarned... someone you don't know will be cut off the internet forever. Do you push the button?;)
"half the things you need to do require you to be connected to the internet." "rule 62. It has been cracked and pirated. No exceptions."
And when you are running this stuff on your home computer in your basement that's just peachy. Although, you probably don't need to run an industrial robotic manufacturing assembly line in your mom's basement.
It doesn't work so well in the business world; a lot of this stuff has real contracts (not just eula's), real license audits, and getting the support / service you are paying top dollar is part of the deal. You don't 'crack and pirate' the software. It would be pointless and silly.
Even if you need to download patches, etc, you simply download them to a box that is on the internet, put it on removable media, scan the media for viruses, remove it and connect to the stand-alone network. Really not that big a deal.
Unless you've bought into the whole SAAS model, and half the things you need to do require you to be connected to the internet. Or a software vendor you are dealing with requires internet access for license validation/activation. Or you've outsourced 9/10ths of your IT to a company that provides via remote access solutions like teamviewer/logmeinrescue/redmote desktop or even good old ssh... or they've bought into remote online backups...
Air-gapping systems from the internet can be a lot more complicated than you imagine.
I can't speak to military or utility requirements. But in common scenarious like medical systems in hospitals, or industrial manufacturing its often not very practical.
I dunno about "billionaires". I bet many of their better software engineers are making close to that much
a) I bet very few of them make close to that much. The average rate for software engineers is not 6 figures. Most don't make 100k. Some small fraction make 6 figures. And some tiny fraction clear $200k. If anyone is doing significantly better than that its likely from 2ndary income from investments that are paying off... rental income on the condo, stock options, etc.
b) I don't know tax options at all in the US, but around here one can usually qualify for several tax deductions before calculating tax rates. There is often a substantial difference between gross income and "net taxable income". I would expect a person making $220k gross income could likely easily have a taxable income down at $190k, and still not pay this tax.
At $250k, suppose you get it down to $230k, and then have to pay this 5% tax on income over 200k. Oh noes you make a quarter million dollars, and a tax bill of $1500 is going to send you packing.
and many of them in 2-income families (I assume the threshold there is higher but still present).
Doubled so not relevant as you noted yourself in a follow up.
That marginal rate is half of California's. And unlike Seattle, Silicon Valley has pleasant weather.
Right. Move to california, the bankrupt state. I'm sure they won't raise taxes any time soon. Meanwhile you can enjoy a myriad of other things like electricy that costs twice as much...
All of a sudden Seattle is going to look a little less attractive, and a little less competitive a location to do business.
Good riddance. I'm sure the people who stay behind will be happy to pay a couple thousand bucks in taxes and fill all those piles of 250k/year software engineering jobs that get left vacant.;)
Did I read that right, that they can get the site yanked,
They do have to actually convince a judge there is a legitimate reason first. Its not a rubber stamp process... or at least it shouldn't be. In any case would you be happier if they could yank your site without a court order?
and then you have to get to work to prove your innocence before you can have your site back up?
That is how all injunctions work.
There is nothing inherently wrong with the "idea" of this legislation. How abuseable / abused it will be is an entirely different question.
Slashdot Mirror
It's too bad you don't have the courage to vote your conscience. If you did, we might get a candidate that you actually want, instead of the second-most-objectionable candidate.
Or you get the first-most-objectionable candidate.
By rallying around the second-most-objectionable candidate, you at least have a shot at keeping the first-most-objectionable candidate out of power.
This happens in Canada all the time. It OFTEN the case that
Conservatives get 34% of a vote
Liberals get 32% of a vote
NDP gets 25% of a vote
Green gets 7% of a vote
other parties get 2% a vote
------------------
Conservative candidate is elected
Your average green party voter ranks the candidates as follows:
green > ndp > liberal > conservative
or
green > liberal > ndp > conservative
If the green candidate withdrew from the race, the liberal and ndp would pick up the majority of those extra votes, and the liberal candidate would win, which would make the vast majority of the green party candidates happier than the first outcome.
Same applies to NDP voters. The majority of them would be happier with a liberal candidate winning than conservative, and if the NDP withdrew the liberal candidate would almost certainly win, which again would make them happier than the first outcome.
Vote splitting is a HUGE problem. Far too often the least desirable candidate wins.
Yes... 99.9999...% would be stupid, but 100% isn't better.
He should have just dropped the percentage quantification entirely then knowing that rounding up 'almost certain' to 'certain' glosses over a very important distinction. He could have just simply reported that he is "almost certain the planet will be found to have life" and left it at that.
Have you ever needed to take a photo of something on-site and send it to a client or someone back at the office? I have. It's a useful feature.
You bet, but its not really an enterprise feature. At best its a universal feature. Of course the website shows the BB taking pictures of kids and babies...
RIM goes out of their way to discourage the whole "ZOMG MY PHONE IS FUN!!" vibe that defines the non-enterprise market
http://na.blackberry.com/devices/blackberrytorch/
Tag line.. "Act on Inspiration"
Um... I guess that enterprisey right?
Top billing: maximized multimedia - pinch & zoom, enhanced music player
for the enterprise user who needs to zoom in on his album artwork?
Second billng: 5 megapixel camera
for the enterprise user who needs to capture those precious spontaneous moments?
Third billing: Integrated social feeds (facebook leads the list) ... lets try the next one one
For the enterprise user who... I give up.
http://na.blackberry.com/eng/devices/blackberrypearl3G/
Tagline - "Carry your friends in your pocket"
Yeah... we're done here.
For what its worth I agree blackberry is still a top contender in the enterprise space and has a lot of features aimed specifically at their needs. But I think you are going too far trying to claim they "go out of their way to discourage" the whole fun side of things.
Consider this: a law that requires new cars to include bluetooth speakerphones that automatically connect when the car is turned on (yes, it requires the driver to pair a bluetooth-capable phone, but who wouldn't?).
a) Lots of people wouldn't. I've tried BT hands free car kits and headsets and both drive me insane.
b) Lots more people don't have new cars.
Another law idea (complementary or stand-alone): accidents caused by driver negligence due to texting have harsher penalties ... make it the same as DUI. No reason not to also put cellphone handset issues here too. Note that this will be difficult to "prove" in court, but I think it's a start.
Meanwhile putting on your eyeliner and reading the newspaper is still just a petty moving violation...
Right back at ya.
What's the difference between production and service again?
There isn't really one.
Except I pay both the mechanic and the plumber by the hour, or even a fixed job rate. This correlates much closer with the time it will take them to complete the job than than with an "amount of man-hours they have saved humanity".
So by this logic, if he wants to have a stable income, he should produce a really shit program that will save nobody any time, but that he can "continuously improve" for the rest of his life, and get paid $100 for every hour he works, resulting in something much more approaching a "net zero" for humanity?
Why would anyone continue paying him to improve it for the rest of his life? If you hire a contractor to build a bathroom in your mom's basement and he does a shitty job, do you pay him more to fix it continually for the rest of his life? Or do you fire his ass and hire someone competent? I guess that pretty much blows your 'stable income by producing shit' theory out of the water.
And on that note, once you've hired a competent contractor do you compute the man hours you will save by not having to go upstairs (and perhaps even wait in line) to use the bathroom there over the course of owning the home? Or do you just pay him for his time/materials to to build the bathroom?
In your idealized society, you think he should be paid based on... how many hours he worked? Your hybrid economic system removes both the altruistic motive of communism and the reward motive of capitalism.
So you've invented the worst economic system possible. Congrats!
Hmm. So when a plumber comes to fix the hot water tank, I should pay him based on how many hours he saves me heating water manually on the stove over the course of owning my home?
When a mechanic replaces a snapped timing belt he should be paid based on how many man hours he saves me walking to and from work over the next several years?
Fascinating world you want to live in.
So weather you are ashamed or not can make a big difference.
Whether its a secret or not is what makes the big difference.
Shame is one reason it might be a secret, but its not the only reason. You can be comfortable with who you are and still be keeping it a secret.
If you don't give a shit if your spouse finds out, even if your spouse would care a lot about it themselves, there is no leverage to blackmail.
If you didn't give a shit you wouldn't be keeping it a secret in the first place.
The fact that you are keeping it secret indicates that you put some value in it being a secret.
But I agree that 'how much value' you put into it remaining a secret is a personal valuation, that isn't directly tied to how upset they will be. ... but if you value your spouse highly, and you firmly believe that if they found out they would leave, then you will value the secret highly.
The point I made originally is that blackmail is not founded on a simple question of 'shame' but one of consequences.
That's not what we're talking about here. We aren't talking about a highly public figure.
Right, so my comments about political career misses the mark a bit in this context, but the spouse/family aspect is still right on target.
We're talking about an employee who might want to keep something secret, like porn preferences.
Not really. Unless the porn preferences are illegal its not going to matter all that much to most people. I doubt anyone has ever really been successfully blackmailed with the fact that they like redheads in bondage porn.
Revelations of infidelity and bisexuality/homosexuality will still be effective blackmail though, because they can still trash your marriage / family / personal relationships - whether you are ashamed or not.
And illegal porn will of course be effective blackmail, along with any other blackmail involving crime.
We all have gotten together with people we didn't want people to know.
Infidelity and other sexual indiscretions can easily damage or even ruin marriages and political careers. It doesn't really matter whether or not YOU are ashamed of what YOU did. What matters is what EVERYONE else thinks.
Blackmail will continue to work as long as your spouse and/or the voters care about what YOU have been up to.
Would be *much* more relevant if it disconnected somebody you DO know.
The followup is actually more poignant: "Tomorrow I ask someone =you= don't know whether they'll push the button."
Cool. Tomorrow I'll ask someone =you= don't know the same question... ;)
Paraphrased from a weak movie (The Box) loosely based on a better short story (Button, Button).
Its great news. If I get my neighbour's internet connections taken out my download speeds should shoot right up.
Nevermind your neighbor... suppose I give you this box... if you push the button your internet speeds will shoot right up. But be forewarned... someone you don't know will be cut off the internet forever. Do you push the button? ;)
"half the things you need to do require you to be connected to the internet." "rule 62. It has been cracked and pirated. No exceptions."
And when you are running this stuff on your home computer in your basement that's just peachy. Although, you probably don't need to run an industrial robotic manufacturing assembly line in your mom's basement.
It doesn't work so well in the business world; a lot of this stuff has real contracts (not just eula's), real license audits, and getting the support / service you are paying top dollar is part of the deal. You don't 'crack and pirate' the software. It would be pointless and silly.
Even if you need to download patches, etc, you simply download them to a box that is on the internet, put it on removable media, scan the media for viruses, remove it and connect to the stand-alone network. Really not that big a deal.
Unless you've bought into the whole SAAS model, and half the things you need to do require you to be connected to the internet. Or a software vendor you are dealing with requires internet access for license validation/activation. Or you've outsourced 9/10ths of your IT to a company that provides via remote access solutions like teamviewer/logmeinrescue/redmote desktop or even good old ssh... or they've bought into remote online backups...
Air-gapping systems from the internet can be a lot more complicated than you imagine.
I can't speak to military or utility requirements. But in common scenarious like medical systems in hospitals, or industrial manufacturing its often not very practical.
Most components of playing music (amp, speakers, etc) haven't changed much.
But home theatre has. And if you want to something simple like play movies on your laptop with hdmi out through your tv and stereo... its a pita.
This would be akin to running blind sql injection on websites, and using that as a defense when you got caught.
Little Bobby Tables strikes again. ;)
http://xkcd.com/327/
5 months ago it didn't have data for the first six months of 2010. ;)
I dunno about "billionaires". I bet many of their better software engineers are making close to that much
a) I bet very few of them make close to that much. The average rate for software engineers is not 6 figures. Most don't make 100k. Some small fraction make 6 figures. And some tiny fraction clear $200k. If anyone is doing significantly better than that its likely from 2ndary income from investments that are paying off... rental income on the condo, stock options, etc.
b) I don't know tax options at all in the US, but around here one can usually qualify for several tax deductions before calculating tax rates. There is often a substantial difference between gross income and "net taxable income". I would expect a person making $220k gross income could likely easily have a taxable income down at $190k, and still not pay this tax.
At $250k, suppose you get it down to $230k, and then have to pay this 5% tax on income over 200k. Oh noes you make a quarter million dollars, and a tax bill of $1500 is going to send you packing.
and many of them in 2-income families (I assume the threshold there is higher but still present).
Doubled so not relevant as you noted yourself in a follow up.
That marginal rate is half of California's. And unlike Seattle, Silicon Valley has pleasant weather.
Right. Move to california, the bankrupt state. I'm sure they won't raise taxes any time soon. Meanwhile you can enjoy a myriad of other things like electricy that costs twice as much...
All of a sudden Seattle is going to look a little less attractive, and a little less competitive a location to do business.
Good riddance. I'm sure the people who stay behind will be happy to pay a couple thousand bucks in taxes and fill all those piles of 250k/year software engineering jobs that get left vacant. ;)
321 Studios for one.
How about companies that aren't the poster boys for doing precisely activity that the DMCA was created to combat?
321 studios isn't innocent 'collateral' damage of the DMCA. It was the bloody target.
Did I read that right, that they can get the site yanked,
They do have to actually convince a judge there is a legitimate reason first. Its not a rubber stamp process... or at least it shouldn't be. In any case would you be happier if they could yank your site without a court order?
and then you have to get to work to prove your innocence before you can have your site back up?
That is how all injunctions work.
There is nothing inherently wrong with the "idea" of this legislation. How abuseable / abused it will be is an entirely different question.