Buying a bottle of water: You pay X amount of dollars for Y amount of water.
Getting water out of the tap (municipal water system): You are billed X amount of dollars for Y gallons of water you use.
Getting water out of a well: You pay W dollars for drilling, X dollars for the pump and Z amount of dollars for filration/treatment for Y amount of water....and let's not forget E amount of dollars for the power required to operate the pump....or the possibility that the well may either a) run dry or b) require multiple holes to be drilled before a good "tap" is found.
It doesn't matter whether you pay at the time of usage (bottle), after a set period of time for usage (municipal water system), or up front (well)....you are still paying.
Look city boy, we don't all pay for our water. My family has a 75 foot deep hole in the front yard with a pump on it. We get our water from that. It's called a WELL. We didn't pay for that water in any way, shape, or form.
Soooooo.....who did you steal the pump from?
Oh, and by the way...please let me know who's going around surveying and drilling wells for free. I'm sure a lot of refined country folks like yourself would love to make use of such a service.
From looking at the list prices on Metallica's albumns, I would think that the consumer is the one whose really being stolen from
Well, aside from the obvious glaring fact that the production houses and record chains set those prices and earn most of the profit....how exactly is the consumer "stolen from"?
I don't seem to recall being in a music store and suddenly finding my wallet missing after passing through the Rock section.
I've never found a Waxie Maxie employee holding a gun to my head, screaming "BUY THIS N'SYNC ALBUM! NOW!" (and thank God for that)
BOTTOM LINE: The CDs cost what the public is willing to pay. You said this yourself. If the price is outrageous, then they won't sell and the distributor loses money.
If you're pissed because the price of music CDs are too steep for your pocketbook, blame your friends, your coworkers, your family and yourself for purchasing them.
Artists make most of they money off of their concert tours, not their albums, anyway.
Oh, I'm sorry. I guess I should have said sportspersonlike so I can cater to those individuals who cannot differentiate between a sexist remark and an attempt to use a commonly-accepted gender-neutral term for the sake of brevity. Online gaming for motivated, sportsmanlike players: www.steelmaelstrom.org.
Did you know that for every dollar of govenment funding that Cancer Reasearch gets from the US Govenment, AIDS gets $20?
That's quite a disgrace, seeing that AIDS is so much more preventable.
Maybe you read the MicroBerto Expanded Post that the rest of us didn't have access to. I don't recall mention of Limbaugh or use of the word "faggot".
It's sad, that people allow passion to cloud their ability to reason. While staying Anonymous, no less.
Imagine a slightly less-rapid virus, more rapid than HIV, but not constrained to sexual contact, and the possibilities are terrifying.
Imagine how much I'd be willing to donate to research it. Then remember we're in the land of hypothetical viruses, while cancer and AIDS are real and kill daily.
I stand by my original post, and I suspect that if we want to really find out what MicroBerto really thinks about cancer and AIDS, we should wait for any follow-up posts by him before resorting to hypothetical discussion about the Right Wing Boogeyman.
...and that's the development and release of nanites designed to kill people.
Not quickly, of course...unless the hapless victim(s) ingested scores at once without noticing a grainy consistancy to their food.
Maybe these killer nanites could be designed to block arteries with cholesterol, or dissolve platelets to prevent the stop of bleeding on the battlefield, or change the chemical structure of certain food items to slowly poison a victim. How about severing optic nerves to cause blindness, or causing spinal cord injuries to cause paralysis?
This is a dangerous sub-thread to jump into, but I felt compelled to add my two cents.
I agree with MicroBerto that AIDS is more preventable than Cancer. Sex, however, is not the sole method of AIDS (rather, HIV) transmission....needle-sharing is also a major vector, and it's on the rise in developed countries.
Cancer can also be prevented: don't smoke, don't chew, avoid tanning, etc. Unfortunately cancer's causes are legion whereas HIV/AIDS may be contracted in a limited number of fashions such as unprotected sex, IV drug use and unscreened blood transfusions.
Both maladies have claimed victims who avoided dangerous and/or hedonistic lifestyles which might have put them at higher risk.
I take the side of cancer research: pancreatic, lung and breast cancer have claimed the lives of three members of my immediate family. HIV/AIDS has not.
While I sympathize with those who have lost loved ones to AIDS and neither desire to trivialize their losses nor lobby for reduced AIDS research donations, I cannot ignore that which has struck closer to home.
I think Jackson will do well. He's a real Tolkien fan, and not just a guy who thinks this will make a cool movie. I think the casting alone reflects this. Online gaming for motivated, sportsmanlike players: www.steelmaelstrom.org.
I'm glad somebody else mentioned this. Makes you wonder what the hell changed in Lucas' mind in reference to Solo.
I shudder to think what Lucas would have done to the Tolkien trilogy. While I doubt a Jar-Jar type of character would have been created, I envison a hell of a lot more cutsiness than Jackson (or any LOTR purist) would allow. And action figures. And McDonald's promotions.
Of course, a Disney treatment would be even worse. Can you imagine the songs? Online gaming for motivated, sportsmanlike players: www.steelmaelstrom.org.
Refit Mir to be an orbiting data library, free of any national jurisdiction. Utilize the abandoned Iridium satellites so users worldwide can access it. Charge for Iridium-based net access, use profits to pay Mir operating expenses. Online gaming for motivated, sportsmanlike players: www.steelmaelstrom.org.
Ok, perhaps I didn't make my example extreme enough. How's this:
So Redmond churns out "Office 2002 for Linux". It's 1GB, costs $1200 and only runs under Red Hat. How is this a good thing?
My point here is this: forcing MS to build apps for other platforms is a poor remedy. Although in such a case they could be forced to implement the same features for each platform, it would be highly doubtful that they would be forced to charge the same amount or ship each flavor at the same time.
Sure, commercial Linux users would benefit. IF they could convince the guy who writes the check to spend X more on the Linux version as opposed to getting a bargain-basement PC and a much cheaper Win32 version.
This would be like forcing pre-breakup AT&T to make payphones that not only accept pennies, but Canadian coins as well. Online gaming for motivated, sportsmanlike players: www.steelmaelstrom.org.
Yes Jon, bring that movie to their attention. I'd love to hear about their reaction! Online gaming for motivated, sportsmanlike players: www.steelmaelstrom.org.
Are listed here. I was amused to note the duplication of "Has unlawful possession and use of firearms.". I guess that's thrown in there twice for the kids with poor reading comprehension.:)
More disturbing was "Conveys violence in writings and/or drawings." Lot of room there. I guess kids shouldn't draw battles or scenes from their favorite movies; God knows what will be reported about them.
While still capable of being misinterpreted, I think the Imminent Warning Signs they list are a bit more on-target.
Totally worthless, IMHO, is the Why Call The WAVE Line page and it's purpose. It urges newly-hatched WAVE drones to call the line if they wish to anonymously report drug/alcohol abuse, vandalism and suicide threats -- valid cases I suppose -- along with aggressive behavior, harassment, intolerant attitudes and "Anything Else Harmful to You or Your School".
Gee, could I call the WAVE line to report that WAVE is harmful to me and my school?
Any of you high-school gratuates out there remember not experiencing some kind of agressive behavior, harassment or intolerant atttudes during those years?
I'm so damn glad my school days are long past; high school was stressful enough without worrying about the Stasi looking over my shoulder every minute. Online gaming for motivated, sportsmanlike players: www.steelmaelstrom.org.
First, Microsoft would be required to provide full applications support for all competitive platforms (anything with approximately 3% of the total market or more). This would include Macintosh and Linux. I see two problems with this:
How do you determine "total market"? That may be fairly easy to do with Macintosh since Apple is the only source...but what about an open-source platform such as (but not necessarily) Linux? We've seen Microsoft's spinmasters at work, and I doubt that it would take much number-juggling to turn a 3% market share into 2.8% or the like.
Ok, so Redmond churns out "Office 2002 for Linux". It's 600Mb and costs $500. How is this a good thing?
Second, require Microsoft to open up all the core API's (programming interfaces) of Windows and Office, and to publicly publish all file formats to their applications.
I agree with you here. Combine this with a Baby Bill Breakup and I think you have an effective punishment.
Fourth, appoint a judge to oversee this with the authority to intervene at any time, rather than making them wait until a suit is filed.
Just because accused was found guilty doesn't mean he should be tortured. Microsoft the corporation still has rights, and appointing a judge who can act with total authority whenever MS does something somebody else doesn't like scares the hell out of me. Hello? Due Process? Online gaming for motivated, sportsmanlike players: www.steelmaelstrom.org.
Well, I'd like to see some kind of "press" confirming your Voyager 1 story. Titan is still an enigma, and the probe in question didn't even enter orbit: it merely shot around Saturn.
I had always heard that due to Voyager 1's trajectory and earlier launch, NASA could not achieve the same flight path that Voyager 2 took because the celestial mechanics were not right at the time.
As I recall, Voyager 2 (like it's sister craft Voyager 1) was only designed to explore Jupiter and Saturn.
Due to some very smart guys (hey, they're rocket scientists, after all) and a convenient alignment of the planets, Voyager 2 was able to continue on past Saturn and go to Uranus and Neptune.
And it's still functioning (in a limited capacity), assisting in the research of the outer solar system -- solar wind, trans-Pluto objects, etc.
An interesting idea, but wouldn't it be cheaper (and faster, considering it took Galileo ~6 years to get to Jupiter) to build a new one from scratch, using lessons learned?
To retool it, they'd end up ripping out all the 1980s-era electronics. They'd also have to test the probe housing to ensure it could stand another voyage.
Another question: was/is Galileo nuclear-powered? The treehuggers would have a coniption if it came into orbit.
And how would you get it back down to Earth? Obviously there is no re-entry capability built in, so you'd have to rely on a shuttle mission. That's not cheap.
All this, assuming Galileo could break out of Jupiter's gravity at this point, given its fuel reserves.
* [...] In fact, it could provide quite good leverage in getting countrys to stop human rights abuses.
I must respectfully disagree. I cite China and the WTO. Weak-willed politicians will always let greed (for money or power) dictate their actions.
Of course, this only works if you trust the UN. And while I do, I get the feeling that many USAers do not. Am I right in saying this?
You may not be far off the mark. To me, the UN appears to be an ineffectual organization when it comes to anything besides issuing "condemnations" and sponsoring food distribution and immunization programs. I've watched with disgust how the UN had been unable to effectively deal with rogue states such as Iraq, Serbia, Libya and North Korea.
In all fairness, however, my country is awfully damn slow in paying the UN....something not widely reported here.
IMO, if we ever have a single global currency we won't have it ready to roll by 2035 and I think that's due (in part) to a lack of something you mentioned: a universal government.
A universal government could certainly enforce the creation and use of a global currency (well, at least at the commercial level) but barring a massive planetary conflict or sudden outbreak of unification fever, I don't think 35 years is enough time for this.
I don't necessarily agree that you do need a universal government to establish a universal currency. Although my knowledge of European affairs isn't vast, I'm still pretty sure there are individual countries therein which have agreed upon using the Euro.:)
Establishing a global currency in a multi-nation world would take time. Just look at the various multinational treaties languishing in the various parliaments and congresses around the world, awaiting ratification. The "globo" could happen, but again I don't think it would happen by 2035. I think a lot of countries outside of Europe would want to study the Euro's long-term effects on countries that use it before implementing a much larger version.
Slashdot Mirror
A few helpful sites:
Online gaming for motivated, sportsmanlike players: www.steelmaelstrom.org.
- Buying a bottle of water: You pay X amount of dollars for Y amount of water.
- Getting water out of the tap (municipal water system): You are billed X amount of dollars for Y gallons of water you use.
- Getting water out of a well: You pay W dollars for drilling, X dollars for the pump and Z amount of dollars for filration/treatment for Y amount of water....and let's not forget E amount of dollars for the power required to operate the pump....or the possibility that the well may either a) run dry or b) require multiple holes to be drilled before a good "tap" is found.
It doesn't matter whether you pay at the time of usage (bottle), after a set period of time for usage (municipal water system), or up front (well)....you are still paying.And that, my Anonymous friend, was my point.
Online gaming for motivated, sportsmanlike players: www.steelmaelstrom.org.
Feel free to remind your employer of this on Monday.
Online gaming for motivated, sportsmanlike players: www.steelmaelstrom.org.
How soon we forget......
Online gaming for motivated, sportsmanlike players: www.steelmaelstrom.org.
Soooooo.....who did you steal the pump from?
Oh, and by the way...please let me know who's going around surveying and drilling wells for free. I'm sure a lot of refined country folks like yourself would love to make use of such a service.
Online gaming for motivated, sportsmanlike players: www.steelmaelstrom.org.
Well, aside from the obvious glaring fact that the production houses and record chains set those prices and earn most of the profit....how exactly is the consumer "stolen from"?
I don't seem to recall being in a music store and suddenly finding my wallet missing after passing through the Rock section.
I've never found a Waxie Maxie employee holding a gun to my head, screaming "BUY THIS N'SYNC ALBUM! NOW!" (and thank God for that)
BOTTOM LINE: The CDs cost what the public is willing to pay. You said this yourself. If the price is outrageous, then they won't sell and the distributor loses money.
If you're pissed because the price of music CDs are too steep for your pocketbook, blame your friends, your coworkers, your family and yourself for purchasing them.
Artists make most of they money off of their concert tours, not their albums, anyway.
Online gaming for motivated, sportsmanlike players: www.steelmaelstrom.org.
Oh, I'm sorry. I guess I should have said sportspersonlike so I can cater to those individuals who cannot differentiate between a sexist remark and an attempt to use a commonly-accepted gender-neutral term for the sake of brevity.
Online gaming for motivated, sportsmanlike players: www.steelmaelstrom.org.
It's sad, that people allow passion to cloud their ability to reason. While staying Anonymous, no less.
Imagine a slightly less-rapid virus, more rapid than HIV, but not constrained to sexual contact, and the possibilities are terrifying.
Imagine how much I'd be willing to donate to research it. Then remember we're in the land of hypothetical viruses, while cancer and AIDS are real and kill daily.
I stand by my original post, and I suspect that if we want to really find out what MicroBerto really thinks about cancer and AIDS, we should wait for any follow-up posts by him before resorting to hypothetical discussion about the Right Wing Boogeyman.
Online gaming for motivated, sportsmanlike players: www.steelmaelstrom.org.
Not quickly, of course...unless the hapless victim(s) ingested scores at once without noticing a grainy consistancy to their food.
Maybe these killer nanites could be designed to block arteries with cholesterol, or dissolve platelets to prevent the stop of bleeding on the battlefield, or change the chemical structure of certain food items to slowly poison a victim. How about severing optic nerves to cause blindness, or causing spinal cord injuries to cause paralysis?
Online gaming for motivated, sportsmanlike players: www.steelmaelstrom.org.
I agree with MicroBerto that AIDS is more preventable than Cancer. Sex, however, is not the sole method of AIDS (rather, HIV) transmission....needle-sharing is also a major vector, and it's on the rise in developed countries.
Cancer can also be prevented: don't smoke, don't chew, avoid tanning, etc. Unfortunately cancer's causes are legion whereas HIV/AIDS may be contracted in a limited number of fashions such as unprotected sex, IV drug use and unscreened blood transfusions.
Both maladies have claimed victims who avoided dangerous and/or hedonistic lifestyles which might have put them at higher risk.
I take the side of cancer research: pancreatic, lung and breast cancer have claimed the lives of three members of my immediate family. HIV/AIDS has not.
While I sympathize with those who have lost loved ones to AIDS and neither desire to trivialize their losses nor lobby for reduced AIDS research donations, I cannot ignore that which has struck closer to home.
Online gaming for motivated, sportsmanlike players: www.steelmaelstrom.org.
I think Jackson will do well. He's a real Tolkien fan, and not just a guy who thinks this will make a cool movie. I think the casting alone reflects this.
Online gaming for motivated, sportsmanlike players: www.steelmaelstrom.org.
I shudder to think what Lucas would have done to the Tolkien trilogy. While I doubt a Jar-Jar type of character would have been created, I envison a hell of a lot more cutsiness than Jackson (or any LOTR purist) would allow. And action figures. And McDonald's promotions.
Of course, a Disney treatment would be even worse. Can you imagine the songs?
Online gaming for motivated, sportsmanlike players: www.steelmaelstrom.org.
How about a science fiction writer with nutty religious opinions?
Oh wait...that's already been done.
Online gaming for motivated, sportsmanlike players: www.steelmaelstrom.org.
Online gaming for motivated, sportsmanlike players: www.steelmaelstrom.org.
Refit Mir to be an orbiting data library, free of any national jurisdiction. Utilize the abandoned Iridium satellites so users worldwide can access it. Charge for Iridium-based net access, use profits to pay Mir operating expenses.
Online gaming for motivated, sportsmanlike players: www.steelmaelstrom.org.
So Redmond churns out "Office 2002 for Linux". It's 1GB, costs $1200 and only runs under Red Hat. How is this a good thing?
My point here is this: forcing MS to build apps for other platforms is a poor remedy. Although in such a case they could be forced to implement the same features for each platform, it would be highly doubtful that they would be forced to charge the same amount or ship each flavor at the same time.
Sure, commercial Linux users would benefit. IF they could convince the guy who writes the check to spend X more on the Linux version as opposed to getting a bargain-basement PC and a much cheaper Win32 version.
This would be like forcing pre-breakup AT&T to make payphones that not only accept pennies, but Canadian coins as well.
Online gaming for motivated, sportsmanlike players: www.steelmaelstrom.org.
Yes Jon, bring that movie to their attention. I'd love to hear about their reaction!
Online gaming for motivated, sportsmanlike players: www.steelmaelstrom.org.
More disturbing was "Conveys violence in writings and/or drawings." Lot of room there. I guess kids shouldn't draw battles or scenes from their favorite movies; God knows what will be reported about them.
While still capable of being misinterpreted, I think the Imminent Warning Signs they list are a bit more on-target.
Totally worthless, IMHO, is the Why Call The WAVE Line page and it's purpose. It urges newly-hatched WAVE drones to call the line if they wish to anonymously report drug/alcohol abuse, vandalism and suicide threats -- valid cases I suppose -- along with aggressive behavior, harassment, intolerant attitudes and "Anything Else Harmful to You or Your School".
Gee, could I call the WAVE line to report that WAVE is harmful to me and my school?
Any of you high-school gratuates out there remember not experiencing some kind of agressive behavior, harassment or intolerant atttudes during those years?
I'm so damn glad my school days are long past; high school was stressful enough without worrying about the Stasi looking over my shoulder every minute.
Online gaming for motivated, sportsmanlike players: www.steelmaelstrom.org.
- How do you determine "total market"? That may be fairly easy to do with Macintosh since Apple is the only source...but what about an open-source platform such as (but not necessarily) Linux? We've seen Microsoft's spinmasters at work, and I doubt that it would take much number-juggling to turn a 3% market share into 2.8% or the like.
- Ok, so Redmond churns out "Office 2002 for Linux". It's 600Mb and costs $500. How is this a good thing?
Second, require Microsoft to open up all the core API's (programming interfaces) of Windows and Office, and to publicly publish all file formats to their applications.I agree with you here. Combine this with a Baby Bill Breakup and I think you have an effective punishment.
Fourth, appoint a judge to oversee this with the authority to intervene at any time, rather than making them wait until a suit is filed.
Just because accused was found guilty doesn't mean he should be tortured. Microsoft the corporation still has rights, and appointing a judge who can act with total authority whenever MS does something somebody else doesn't like scares the hell out of me. Hello? Due Process?
Online gaming for motivated, sportsmanlike players: www.steelmaelstrom.org.
I had always heard that due to Voyager 1's trajectory and earlier launch, NASA could not achieve the same flight path that Voyager 2 took because the celestial mechanics were not right at the time.
Online gaming for motivated, sportsmanlike players: www.steelmaelstrom.org.
God knows what you'd find.....
Online gaming for motivated, sportsmanlike players: www.steelmaelstrom.org.
Due to some very smart guys (hey, they're rocket scientists, after all) and a convenient alignment of the planets, Voyager 2 was able to continue on past Saturn and go to Uranus and Neptune.
And it's still functioning (in a limited capacity), assisting in the research of the outer solar system -- solar wind, trans-Pluto objects, etc.
Online gaming for motivated, sportsmanlike players: www.steelmaelstrom.org.
To retool it, they'd end up ripping out all the 1980s-era electronics. They'd also have to test the probe housing to ensure it could stand another voyage.
Another question: was/is Galileo nuclear-powered? The treehuggers would have a coniption if it came into orbit.
And how would you get it back down to Earth? Obviously there is no re-entry capability built in, so you'd have to rely on a shuttle mission. That's not cheap.
All this, assuming Galileo could break out of Jupiter's gravity at this point, given its fuel reserves.
Online gaming for motivated, sportsmanlike players: www.steelmaelstrom.org.
I must respectfully disagree. I cite China and the WTO. Weak-willed politicians will always let greed (for money or power) dictate their actions.
Of course, this only works if you trust the UN. And while I do, I get the feeling that many USAers do not. Am I right in saying this?
You may not be far off the mark. To me, the UN appears to be an ineffectual organization when it comes to anything besides issuing "condemnations" and sponsoring food distribution and immunization programs. I've watched with disgust how the UN had been unable to effectively deal with rogue states such as Iraq, Serbia, Libya and North Korea.
In all fairness, however, my country is awfully damn slow in paying the UN....something not widely reported here.
Online gaming for motivated, sportsmanlike players: www.steelmaelstrom.org.
A universal government could certainly enforce the creation and use of a global currency (well, at least at the commercial level) but barring a massive planetary conflict or sudden outbreak of unification fever, I don't think 35 years is enough time for this.
I don't necessarily agree that you do need a universal government to establish a universal currency. Although my knowledge of European affairs isn't vast, I'm still pretty sure there are individual countries therein which have agreed upon using the Euro. :)
Establishing a global currency in a multi-nation world would take time. Just look at the various multinational treaties languishing in the various parliaments and congresses around the world, awaiting ratification. The "globo" could happen, but again I don't think it would happen by 2035. I think a lot of countries outside of Europe would want to study the Euro's long-term effects on countries that use it before implementing a much larger version.
Online gaming for motivated, sportsmanlike players: www.steelmaelstrom.org.