"When the controllers of the means of production fail to keep the means of production working properly, smart people look to take over the means of production."
Smart people are always looking to take over the means of production. More than 40 years ago, The UAW took over the means of production for Autos by conspiring with management of the big three to create an effective monopoly. It took this long for the monopoly to redistribute all the wealth flowing from the huge technology lead and the capital that had been built up when we had a dynamic, competitive, innovative auto industry. Now they are looking to the taxpayers to keep the money flowing.
The rule of law and property rights is what keeps smart people from doing much more harm than good when they try to take over the means of production.
Safe2read is a whitelist based service where kids e-mail gets forwarded to you unless sender or receiver is on a whitelist you maintain. I've used it for a couple of years for my kids.
Works okay, but my teenager used it to set up a myspace account. Mail from MySpace is scrambled and you need your e-mail to close or modify the MySpace account! Safe2read tech support was totally unreasponsive, so I can't fully recommend them.
My apologies, I missed the nature of the public/private partnership. You're right, it is a troubling way to run a public facility because the city is probably still on the hook for liability if the zoo foundation doesn't have the funds.
It's not what I usually think of as privatization because it's a non-profit, but it does put the private entity in the driver's seat of a public facility. The zoo has made some good improvements since '97, but it doesn't make up for any compromises with safety or animal welfare.
I wondered why the city was handling the PR so badly. I guess it was the foundation that handled the PR badly.
I don't have time to look up the Eucalyptus (I'm out of the area now), but you're right about the zoo partnership, so you're probably up on that one too.
Ralph
I challenge your facts about privatization. The SF Zoo is a public zoo owned and operated by the City of San Francisco. As in many cities there is a zoological society that raises money and collaborates with the zoo on planning and spending the money they raise but they do not profit from zoo, own the zoo, or make final decisions on anything. The city owns the zoo, collects the zoo admission fees, budgets for the zoo.
If you know different, please provide a reference because I think your ideology is driving your facts.
Also, I lived in the bay area in 90's and I certainly don't remember anything about zoo keepers steeling branches off eucalyptus trees. Please provide a reference because I think your whole post is fictional.
Ralph
This is already implemented. Not quite as extravagant as you propose, but there are coupons for up to 2 TV's per household that will cover close to the full cost of a digital tuner. People without cable or satellite have priority for some of the coupons. The only problem is the people who need the program are the ones who won't be tuned in enough to know that things are changing until all the coupons are gone. Maybe advertising on TV will help.
A lot of speculation on eligibility for awards. The TFA has a link to the awards site that includes eligibility. Here are two excerpts:
"Work that was not produced under WGA jurisdiction may be submitted...."
"At the time the script is submitted, the credited writer(s) of the game must be, or apply to become, a member of the WGA's New Media Caucus...."
The writers work must be nominated, it sounds like typically by a writer. Since these aren't yet high profile awards, the writers who bothered to submit their games and apply for membership are the short list of nominees.
Here is the link to eligibility and submission procedures:
Attach a raised button to the left mouse button so your 3 year old can find it easily. The little "jewels" with adhesive backs work pretty well. Most educational software only uses the left mouse button and something they can feel makes it much easier to find.
Ralph
Remember its 2007, Russia supposedly has a democratic government and has broken with its Stalinist, undemocratic past.
By honoring a Stalin era spy, Putin is honoring service to Stalin's government and system as something authentically and honorably Russian. That is why this honor is troubling.
It's one thing to honor the masses of soldiers who died in WWII defending their country from German invasion while it happened to be governed by a dictator. It is another thing to honor someone who spied against an ally for the secret service organization that served the dictator. Especially when the secret service organization often acted against the interests people of Russia and the peoples of the former Soviet Empire.
Ralph
In the later part of Rife's career, Medical researchers thought they had pretty much beat communicable diseases with vaccines and antibiotics. I wouldn't be completely surprised if Rife was on to something but couldn't get funding or positive attention because vaccines and antibiotics were so successful and considered to be "the" answer.
The article about Rife in Wikipedia doesn't sound like what I think of when I hear "18th century Pseudoscience".
Microsoft, Sony, and Nintendo took 3 different approaches to the HDTV Transition.
Microsoft went with one HDTV capable machine to appeal to both markets. They discontinued the original XBOX (which was unprofitable and losing to the PSII), got out early with a machine that could handle HDTV for games but could be cut down to a low enough price point to appeal to SDTV owners.
Sony kept their old SDTV box, the top selling PSII, on the market and created an essentially HD only PSIII box. PSIII didn't compromise on the DVD technology or any other HDTV feature so it is only a good value for HDTV owners. By the numbers in this story, Sony leads Microsoft handily in units and revenue and has probably led throughout the transition based on healthy PSII numbers.
Nintendo went with a next generation SDTV box to appeal to both markets. They delayed their HDTV transition to later on down the road when demand for HD is higher and HD component prices drop. Since most of the market is still SDTV and the Wii has enough fun factor to appeal to HD owners it has been phenomenally successful. But Nintendo still doesn't have a true HDTV offering and has the technology platform transition ahead.
Sony PSIII business should benefit as the HDTV market grows because it is a no compromise box designed to appeal to HDTV market. Sony's market share looks much healthier when you combine PSII and PSIII sales and that is the fair comparison to XBOX and Wii since Microsoft and Nintendo are targeting both markets with one machine.
Mercantilism is mostly about trade policy, not domestic regulation policy. I think you are right that mercantilism is alive and well but the usual terms today are more like "managed trade" "managed capitalism" "industrial policy" "sovereign democracy" than "business friendly".
Mercantilism can be a rational policy where public policy tries to maximize goals of the state including military power and national influence rather than the wealth of the citizens of the country. China and the Soviet Union are two top mercantilist powers of the 21st century. Where the goal is maximizing the wealth of a nation, mercantilism is bad policy.
The issue in TFA is just bad domestic regulation. Good domestic regulation of monopolies is hard to achieve because the regulated monopolist has incentives and channels to influence the regulator. It's called "rent seeking" in economics. There is a profit opportunity from influencing the government, it is worth spending some part of that profit opportunity to buy influence.
Mercantalist policy creates "rent seeking" opportunities in foreign trade, so like regulated monopolies, mercantilism often leads to bad policy and corruption.
Ralph
Try over the air HDTV. Antennas still work and work great with HDTV. www.antennanweb.org will tell you what stations you can get. I didn't upgrade cable to HD when I got an HD TV, but I got an antenna and its working out great for network HDTV content. With an HD Tivo box I would have plenty of content at hand, so I wouldn't need cable's 100 stations. My kids don't want me to cancel their Nick and Disney channel, but if Comcast jacks their rates up after my 1 year trial is over cable is gone.
Ralph
Looks like both contexts are an urban legend but the budget request context does have some basis in fact with a different quote and an earlier patent commissioner. The Wikipedia entry for Charles Duell points to this article:
There is some good logic in the product lineup if you keep in mind the software/ISV transition that is going on. For example, the Mini is a very poor candidate to go first because it is aimed at mainstream PC users who would have a very low tolerance for things like running Office with Rosetta. Apple needed to get high volume products out there to force the hands of software ISV's who wait for demand to materialize before they ship products for a new architecture.
The Powerbook and iMac are high volume enough to force ISV hands. And the Powerbook and iMac are targeted at sophisticated users and Mac loyalists who will put up with the inconveniences of the software transition.
By the big "back to school" and Christmas sales seasons Apple will have their whole line transitioned and the software transition completed so no hiccups for mainstream users in those important sales seasons. They used the opportunity of high iPod sales to cushion the drop in sales this year caused by people waiting for Intel products. A white lie about the products being further off than they really were may have helped stem the drop off slightly as well. Extremely well executed architecture transition. Unheard of in the industry. Hats off to them.
Slashdot Mirror
Now that's news.
"When the controllers of the means of production fail to keep the means of production working properly, smart people look to take over the means of production."
Smart people are always looking to take over the means of production. More than 40 years ago, The UAW took over the means of production for Autos by conspiring with management of the big three to create an effective monopoly. It took this long for the monopoly to redistribute all the wealth flowing from the huge technology lead and the capital that had been built up when we had a dynamic, competitive, innovative auto industry. Now they are looking to the taxpayers to keep the money flowing.
The rule of law and property rights is what keeps smart people from doing much more harm than good when they try to take over the means of production.
My take on the Chrysler bailout is here: http://planetralph.blogspot.com/2009/05/chrysler-bankruptcy-good-liquidation.html
Safe2read is a whitelist based service where kids e-mail gets forwarded to you unless sender or receiver is on a whitelist you maintain. I've used it for a couple of years for my kids. Works okay, but my teenager used it to set up a myspace account. Mail from MySpace is scrambled and you need your e-mail to close or modify the MySpace account! Safe2read tech support was totally unreasponsive, so I can't fully recommend them.
This is news?
My apologies, I missed the nature of the public/private partnership. You're right, it is a troubling way to run a public facility because the city is probably still on the hook for liability if the zoo foundation doesn't have the funds. It's not what I usually think of as privatization because it's a non-profit, but it does put the private entity in the driver's seat of a public facility. The zoo has made some good improvements since '97, but it doesn't make up for any compromises with safety or animal welfare. I wondered why the city was handling the PR so badly. I guess it was the foundation that handled the PR badly. I don't have time to look up the Eucalyptus (I'm out of the area now), but you're right about the zoo partnership, so you're probably up on that one too. Ralph
I challenge your facts about privatization. The SF Zoo is a public zoo owned and operated by the City of San Francisco. As in many cities there is a zoological society that raises money and collaborates with the zoo on planning and spending the money they raise but they do not profit from zoo, own the zoo, or make final decisions on anything. The city owns the zoo, collects the zoo admission fees, budgets for the zoo. If you know different, please provide a reference because I think your ideology is driving your facts. Also, I lived in the bay area in 90's and I certainly don't remember anything about zoo keepers steeling branches off eucalyptus trees. Please provide a reference because I think your whole post is fictional. Ralph
This is already implemented. Not quite as extravagant as you propose, but there are coupons for up to 2 TV's per household that will cover close to the full cost of a digital tuner. People without cable or satellite have priority for some of the coupons. The only problem is the people who need the program are the ones who won't be tuned in enough to know that things are changing until all the coupons are gone. Maybe advertising on TV will help.
https://www.dtv2009.gov/
A lot of speculation on eligibility for awards. The TFA has a link to the awards site that includes eligibility. Here are two excerpts:
"Work that was not produced under WGA jurisdiction may be submitted...."
"At the time the script is submitted, the credited writer(s) of the game must be, or apply to become, a member of the WGA's New Media Caucus...."
The writers work must be nominated, it sounds like typically by a writer. Since these aren't yet high profile awards, the writers who bothered to submit their games and apply for membership are the short list of nominees.
Here is the link to eligibility and submission procedures:
http://www.wga.org/awards/awardssub.aspx?id=59Attach a raised button to the left mouse button so your 3 year old can find it easily. The little "jewels" with adhesive backs work pretty well. Most educational software only uses the left mouse button and something they can feel makes it much easier to find. Ralph
Remember its 2007, Russia supposedly has a democratic government and has broken with its Stalinist, undemocratic past. By honoring a Stalin era spy, Putin is honoring service to Stalin's government and system as something authentically and honorably Russian. That is why this honor is troubling. It's one thing to honor the masses of soldiers who died in WWII defending their country from German invasion while it happened to be governed by a dictator. It is another thing to honor someone who spied against an ally for the secret service organization that served the dictator. Especially when the secret service organization often acted against the interests people of Russia and the peoples of the former Soviet Empire. Ralph
In the later part of Rife's career, Medical researchers thought they had pretty much beat communicable diseases with vaccines and antibiotics. I wouldn't be completely surprised if Rife was on to something but couldn't get funding or positive attention because vaccines and antibiotics were so successful and considered to be "the" answer. The article about Rife in Wikipedia doesn't sound like what I think of when I hear "18th century Pseudoscience".
Federal law protects your right to put up an antenna. It explicitly over rules most HOA regulations. http://www.antennaweb.org/aw/info.aspx?page=FAQ#_R ef28770286
Ralph
Microsoft, Sony, and Nintendo took 3 different approaches to the HDTV Transition. Microsoft went with one HDTV capable machine to appeal to both markets. They discontinued the original XBOX (which was unprofitable and losing to the PSII), got out early with a machine that could handle HDTV for games but could be cut down to a low enough price point to appeal to SDTV owners. Sony kept their old SDTV box, the top selling PSII, on the market and created an essentially HD only PSIII box. PSIII didn't compromise on the DVD technology or any other HDTV feature so it is only a good value for HDTV owners. By the numbers in this story, Sony leads Microsoft handily in units and revenue and has probably led throughout the transition based on healthy PSII numbers. Nintendo went with a next generation SDTV box to appeal to both markets. They delayed their HDTV transition to later on down the road when demand for HD is higher and HD component prices drop. Since most of the market is still SDTV and the Wii has enough fun factor to appeal to HD owners it has been phenomenally successful. But Nintendo still doesn't have a true HDTV offering and has the technology platform transition ahead. Sony PSIII business should benefit as the HDTV market grows because it is a no compromise box designed to appeal to HDTV market. Sony's market share looks much healthier when you combine PSII and PSIII sales and that is the fair comparison to XBOX and Wii since Microsoft and Nintendo are targeting both markets with one machine.
Not true, according to Wikipedia Gateway sold the Amiga brand in 2000. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Amiga Ralph
Mercantilism is mostly about trade policy, not domestic regulation policy. I think you are right that mercantilism is alive and well but the usual terms today are more like "managed trade" "managed capitalism" "industrial policy" "sovereign democracy" than "business friendly". Mercantilism can be a rational policy where public policy tries to maximize goals of the state including military power and national influence rather than the wealth of the citizens of the country. China and the Soviet Union are two top mercantilist powers of the 21st century. Where the goal is maximizing the wealth of a nation, mercantilism is bad policy. The issue in TFA is just bad domestic regulation. Good domestic regulation of monopolies is hard to achieve because the regulated monopolist has incentives and channels to influence the regulator. It's called "rent seeking" in economics. There is a profit opportunity from influencing the government, it is worth spending some part of that profit opportunity to buy influence. Mercantalist policy creates "rent seeking" opportunities in foreign trade, so like regulated monopolies, mercantilism often leads to bad policy and corruption. Ralph
Try over the air HDTV. Antennas still work and work great with HDTV. www.antennanweb.org will tell you what stations you can get. I didn't upgrade cable to HD when I got an HD TV, but I got an antenna and its working out great for network HDTV content. With an HD Tivo box I would have plenty of content at hand, so I wouldn't need cable's 100 stations. My kids don't want me to cancel their Nick and Disney channel, but if Comcast jacks their rates up after my 1 year trial is over cable is gone. Ralph
Looks like both contexts are an urban legend but the budget request context does have some basis in fact with a different quote and an earlier patent commissioner. The Wikipedia entry for Charles Duell points to this article:
2 7/ai_100755224/pg_1
http://findarticles.com/p/articles/mi_m2843/is_3_
Which has a pretty good debunking of the "everything that can be invented has been invented" urban legend.
Ralph
There is some good logic in the product lineup if you keep in mind the software/ISV transition that is going on. For example, the Mini is a very poor candidate to go first because it is aimed at mainstream PC users who would have a very low tolerance for things like running Office with Rosetta. Apple needed to get high volume products out there to force the hands of software ISV's who wait for demand to materialize before they ship products for a new architecture. The Powerbook and iMac are high volume enough to force ISV hands. And the Powerbook and iMac are targeted at sophisticated users and Mac loyalists who will put up with the inconveniences of the software transition. By the big "back to school" and Christmas sales seasons Apple will have their whole line transitioned and the software transition completed so no hiccups for mainstream users in those important sales seasons. They used the opportunity of high iPod sales to cushion the drop in sales this year caused by people waiting for Intel products. A white lie about the products being further off than they really were may have helped stem the drop off slightly as well. Extremely well executed architecture transition. Unheard of in the industry. Hats off to them.