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Microsoft isn't the only company pulling this kind of crap. MOST of corporate America is full of lairs and thieves, as the recent economic crisis has so patently revealed.
* BEGIN OT *
There is no economic crisis. The economy is the product of individuals consuming goods and services they need and want to live their lives. Have you ceased consuming? I have not.
There is a crisis in spending, which both government and individuals have done to such excess that the debt extends for several generations into the future. The rising debt has the effect of constricting commerce as prices rise to compensate for a devalued currency.
Want to improve the economy? End useless, unproductive government spending. Encourage future economic growth by removing unnecessary government restrictions on the growth of private industry.
There is no economic crisis. The economy is the product of individuals consuming goods and services they need and want to live their lives. Have you ceased consuming? I have not.
There is a crisis in spending, which both government and individuals have done to such excess that the debt extends for several generations into the future. The rising debt has the effect of constricting commerce as prices rise to compensate for a devalued currency.
Want to improve the economy? End useless, unproductive government spending. Encourage future economic growth by removing unnecessary government restrictions on the growth of private industry.
AIEE! POLITICS!! I HATE POLITICS!!! YOU WANNA TALK POLITICS, GO TO A BAR!!!! Oh yeah, this is a "cafe".
But, still, here we were in a nice condemnation of an undisputedly predatory corporation, run by some people that you really wouldn't want for your best friends (just ask Paul Allen), and a political discussion breaks out.
Microsoft isn't the only company pulling this kind of crap. MOST of corporate America is full of lairs and thieves, as the recent economic crisis has so patently revealed.
* BEGIN OT *
There is no economic crisis. The economy is the product of individuals consuming goods and services they need and want to live their lives. Have you ceased consuming? I have not.
There is a crisis in spending, which both government and individuals have done to such excess that the debt extends for several generations into the future. The rising debt has the effect of constricting commerce as prices rise to compensate for a devalued currency.
Want to improve the economy? End useless, unproductive government spending. Encourage future economic growth by removing unnecessary government restrictions on the growth of private industry.
Simple as that. That's how I see it anyway.
* END OT *
I wish it were that simple, Telengard. Spending is, how ever, part of the economy. It's a recession if you have a job, and a depression if you do not.
If you don't have a job you don't have a source of money to spend. When government unemployment runs out, which will be followed shortly by your savings, if you had any, you will be forced to sell your assets for money to pay rent or mortgage, existing bills, buy food, pay for utilities, gas, insurance, etc... When you have finally sold all of your sellable assets you'll then be unable to pay for gas for your car, which you kept so you would have a way to get to a job if you can find one. Then the auto insurance comes due but you can't pay it, so you begin driving illegally, hoping you won't have an accident. Then you are faced with paying electric, water, sewer, garbage but you've exhausted your friends and relatives largesse, and the pawnshop doesn't like the junk you have left.
That is an economic crisis.
If you have a job which gives you an income in excess of your needs (you have disposable income), and your job in not in jeopardy, then there is no economic crisis, for you. But, if your new job is working at China Inc (a.k.a. Walmart), FastFoods, sales clerk, etc..., it doesn't qualify because it is MINIMUM wage, is NOT full time, and doesn't offer full benefits, because the Law says an employee must work more than 37.5 hours per week to be considered full time. At $10/h or less per hour, or $20,800/yr before taxes, one cannot raise a family and meet all of its financial requirements, much less save any money.
A lot of folks talk about "Growth" like it was the panacea of economic woes. It is NOT. Quite simply, those who propose "economic growth" do NOT understand exponential growth, the population problem, and their affects on the WORLD'S environment and resources. For example, even at over $1,100 US per ounce, mining companies are having trouble finding new, exploitable sources or Gold ore to fuel the rising needs of Gold in our technical society.
For several years, from 1963 to 1966, I was an analytical chemist for Bradford Labs, a subsidiary of Calgon Corp. My job was to analyse brine water used for secondary recovery (pumping brine beneath the oil to float it out) of oil in the West Texas oil fields. I learned a overwhelming fact, the US was running out of oil. At the time, there were few wells in primary recovery (natural pressure pushing oil and gas out of the well head) and most wells were entering tertiary recovery (fracturing the bore hole to sustain production). In the early days of Oil well drilling the metric was "barrels of recoverable oil produced per foot of well drilled". That figure reached nearly 5,000 bbls/foot in the 1950s. Since then repeated measurements showed a trend: the bbls of oil produced per foot drilled would reach zero sometime around NOW. All the "low hanging fruit" has been picked. There have been NO MASSIVE oil field discoveries that are any where near the capacity of the Saudia fields, which we've been pumping at prodigious rates since 1950. The US alone is using 22 million bbls of oil per day, or nearly 8 BILLION bbls per year. The latest "massive" fields to be discovered are only in the 5 Billion barrel range, enough to last us for 1/2 a year. If you are under 50-60 years old you will live to see the exhaustion of the world's oil resources. Remember this: "Farming is just a way of using land to convert oil into food!" The current size of the world's population is DEPENDENT on the mass production of food by the use of fossil fuels.
One cannot "grow" oil to fill a need, and to say the Coal will fill our need is to admit to a failure to understand the effect of doubling times. And, despite over 50 YEARS of warnings, starting with M. King Hubbert and others, the US has made NO significant steps towards renewable energy, The only thing one hears is propaganda from oil companies, and their lackeys, pushing Congress to allow drilling in ANWAR, off shore, and other pristine places so they can maximise their short term profits with their existing technologies, just the way the cable and telcos are staying with copper wire. If we do not use our existing Oil resources to maximize our move to sustainable energy sources we will not have the necessary energy resources in the future, after oil, to do the job. Billions of people will die as a result. Millions in the US.
For a primer on exponential growth and what it means to our future consult the writing of Dr. Bartlett.
Those who want to see a video with graphs, examples, etc..., visit HERE.
A final comment: The United States has already undergone de-industrialisation. It would take a Manhattan Project to restore our industrial output capabilities so that we could mass produce green energy renewable resources before the Oil runs out. We would have to shift from an urban society dependent cars that can travel 50 miles round trip to work, which is currently twice the range of affordable electric vehicles, to one like the Europeans built, the vertical city where folks can walk from home to work and fun. I don't believe we have the will power or the willingness to believe that there even is a problem.
"A nation that is afraid to let its people judge the truth and falsehood in an open market is a nation that is afraid of its people.”
– John F. Kennedy, February 26, 1962.
But, still, here we were in a nice condemnation of an undisputedly predatory corporation, run by some people that you really wouldn't want for your best friends (just ask Paul Allen), and a political discussion breaks out.
Sorry GG, but I only skimmed your voluminous economic lesson to cherry pick the bits that seemed interesting enough to respond to. No disrespect intended, but hard left socialist propaganda just doesn't make it past my filter these days.
That's the kind of philosophy which leads one to believe forced population control to be the only solution. Do we really need government bureaucrats controlling every aspect of life right down to the cellular level? Think Soylent Green, Zero Population Growth, and Brave New World. No thanks, man.
After reading through GGs post, I didn't notice any propaganda. Though I can understand why it would make someone uncomfortable - it should.
@Jook_roberts: I think you will find kubicle's postings in this thread to be enlightening.
Jook_roberts: I just read this and can't believe it. How can M$ patent something from the 70's. Isn't there a limit on the age of prior art? I think I will patent a stone tied to a stick and call it a hammer.
I thought explained it earlier. Prior art does not come into the picture until the patent is contested. The patent office cannot, and does not, check for those aspects. They expect the courts to take care of that. Yes, in an ideal world, they would be experts and look through the literature (perhaps even spend 10 minutes with Google) and look for prior art. But then, in a perfect world, perhaps we wouldn't have software patents.
Sorry GG, but I only skimmed your voluminous economic lesson to cherry pick the bits that seemed interesting enough to respond to. No disrespect intended, but hard left socialist propaganda just doesn't make it past my filter these days.
That's the kind of philosophy which leads one to believe forced population control to be the only solution. Do we really need government bureaucrats controlling every aspect of life right down to the cellular level? Think Soylent Green, Zero Population Growth, and Brave New World. No thanks, man.
Marxist I am not, a Christian who believes in God I am. Economically and politically I am more conservative than any thing else, but where people are involved I am more liberal. My first presidential election was when Barry Goldwater ran against Linden Johnson. I was told that if I voted for Goldwater there would be war. Remember the ad with the child picking peddles off of a Daisy, which ended showing a nuclear explosion? Well, I voted for Goldwater and they were right. There was war! I was against Johnson's Great Society because it turned into a "grate society". It lowered literacy rates and increased the number of folks on welfare, besides destroying the family structure of Black families. And, it spent over $7 Trillion to achieve those miserable results. I think conservatives do a better job of running social programs than liberals, because making people dependent on Government is not a solution that works. Except for professional welfare recipients most people want a hand up, not a hand out.
My angst against corporations is because of their behaviour over the last century, and my direct experience with them in the last 40 years. Microsoft, Enron, Worldcom and Wall street banks are the dictionary examples. Corporations have spent 2.5 BILLION this year corrupting our congress and destroying one person- one vote. Corporations now have more rights than real people. They have stolen our Republic. Our Congress is too greedy to see this or they don't care. If they did, they'd OUTLAW ALL lobbying and "campaign contributions" by any corporation.
I got an email from "Americans For Prosperity" which railed against the single payer government health care. I did a whois on the website and traced it to a political group funded by banks, health insurance companies and pharmaceuticals. Imagine that. Grass roots it was not. For the health of America they are NOT.
We already have a "Brave New World", only we call it Political Correctness. There are already too many problems "discussed" at bars, and problems "solved" under the influence of alcohol are the poorest solutions one can choose.
Philosophy? An out of control population exceeding the carrying capacity of the planet will cause population control by Mother Nature, or will lead to political pressures that history has shown is relieved only by deaths due to war. . That isn't a "philosophy", it is already a fact. The preacher who married my wife was also a house painter, to help support himself. Every year for 15 years he'd save up for the whole year, along with donations from friends, and then for six weeks every January he'd go to Nigeria and head for the bush. He'd live with the people and use the OTC medicines he brought along or bought in the capital to treat the people. He'd pay for schooling for some, buy bicycles or a motorcycles for some. Every year he'd come back 20-30 lbs lighter, and he caught Malaria. People named their children after him. On his 15th trip he was murdered by Muslims, who were caught and hanged within 3 days. The people cut down one of their special trees and hand carved a casket for him. When he came back after each trip he would show slides of his trip to folks who helped support him. He told of a proud people who were victims of the effects of too many people. He grew to love the Nigerians more than Americans. Aside from rodents and insects there were no other affordable sources of protein for most people. The ground is exhausted and folks do not have the money or resources to revitalise it. Villages are a few km apart and scattered all over the country, yet there is so much "diversity" (I would call it balkanisation) that members of one village cannot speak the language of a nearby village with out the help of a translator. Darrell always had a translator with him to bridge the gap. That "diversity" was a serious problem. It created distrust and hampered solving problems which affected all of the villages. He told of visiting a hut and talking with a man. While they were talking a mouse ran by. The man quickly captured and killed it and put it in his pocket. He apologised to Darrell for the "intrusion" of the mouse. When Darrell left he went by the window and saw the man searing the fur off the rodent, the first step in cooking the creature. People captured locust and other insects and dug worms for protein. Their principal food stock was a tuber similar to a yam, and their principal drink was palm wine, because most water sources was polluted. That's what awaits 1st world countries if our population isn't brought under control.
Here is a little fact about exponential growth that your "cherry picking" probably missed: How much of a resource is required for the next doubling period in order to sustain the economic growth rate? Answer: as much as was consumed during the ENTIRE past for that resource. Dr. Bartlett illustrates that fact with graphics and examples in his video. Now, imagine how much would be required if someone recommended increasing the growth rate!
Here is a relatively neutral source about oil and its future, and what can happen if we don't create renewable energy sources ASAP.
When more and more people start fighting for fewer and fewer resources exactly when shall we decide that letting "Nature" run its course is a bad idea? It's the old problem of deciding how many have to die before we put up a stop light at the intersection.
It takes 7 times MORE energy to bring a slice of toast to your table then you get from it when you eat it. That's how much oil affects your life. If political or natural forces cut off the importation of Oil to the USA we are only ONE MONTH away from massive starvation and civil unrest that most certainly result as people get desperate and armed thugs get brazen.
"A nation that is afraid to let its people judge the truth and falsehood in an open market is a nation that is afraid of its people.”
– John F. Kennedy, February 26, 1962.
I did not call you a Marxist. IMHO your comments sound like propaganda, which every one of us is vulnerable to. Yes, some of the problems you mention are real, but propaganda is not always lies. I can't even guess who or what may have influenced you to think the way you seem to, but I admit to being shocked beyond all belief that you admit to voting for Goldwater (the standout conservative of his time.)
Just so you don't misunderstand, I am not necessarily advocating economic growth to solve society's problems. I am more concerned with the practical effect which government has in real life. IMHO, every damn thing that has been done in the name of the economy since FDR has been dead wrong. The only exceptions I can think of would be the JFK and Reagan administrations, and they weren't perfect either. To be honest, not everything Clinton did was wrong either.
IMHO the best thing the federal govt. can do to ensure prosperity for all Americans is just leave us the hell alone. Those bastards have damned few constitutional obligations, and they don't meet them. They have many constitutional constraints on their powers, and violate all of them. The more they claim to help the worse it gets for all of us.
As far as corporations go, I don't really care how large they grow as long as they are meeting the demands of the market and doing so legally. I draw the line when international super-corporations use their influence to shape national policy to their liking. So yeah, I am also embittered. I just don't believe it is worth making slaves of the entire country to exact justice on a few.
Economies grow and contract naturally, if the free market system is allowed to work as it should. Consumers themselves are the best judges of what products and services they need and want. I don't need any politician or lawyer telling me what I must or must not buy or use.
In the case of Microsoft, they did not become the dominant company in their markets by providing the best products and services at the best price. They did so through influence and deception. They also exploited an unavoidable practicality where computers are concerned: compatibility. In the early 1980s most computers were incompatible with each other. Sharing data and programs was usually difficult, and frequently impossible. Everyone yearned for standards so that data could be shared between computers. Exploiting this need in the market was one of the things contributing to Microsoft's success. Now, if you write anything professionally or for school everyone demands Microsoft formats. It isn't because MS formats are superior in any way, it is because they use market dominance to dictate standards.
In the case of software patents, I think it is the worst possible way to develop software. Anyone who ever wrote a program has used someone else's code. You can not avoid it. There are only so many ways to solve problems with software, and all of them have been discovered already. The entire industry has moved toward software modularity precisely because various forms of code re-use is the only sane way to develop software. The only thing software patents can do is constrain upcoming developers.
Again, thanks for not being offended. I like open minded people
#1) Microsoft KNOWS the complete history of SUDO. They patented a GUI form of it anyway. Only a company run by EVIL people would do that.
#2) The USTPO is bought and paid for, otherwise they'd do prior art research and kill crap like this. But, they make MONEY for each patent they register and with the encouragement of EVIL corporations they are allowing LAWSUITS to "sort" things out. Translation: Those with the most bucks end up owning everything.
And they wonder why piracy exists?
Patenting software does not promote "innovation", as this patent proves. It's only purpose is to be used as a hammer to bludgeon the poor, the less wealthy and small corporations/SOHO into the ground.
It is absolutely NO different than if a thug came to your house accompanied, by a sheriff, with a piece of paper signed by a judge which claims the thug owns your house. You get charged with theft and convicted, or are forced to pay rent to the thug for living in your own house.
Microsoft isn't the only company pulling this kind of crap. MOST of corporate America is full of lairs and thieves, as the recent economic crisis has so patently revealed.
I could say the same things about Govt. The corrupt United States Patent Office for example. I could say the thug is Nancy Pelosi and she plans on throwing me in prison if I don't purchase health care. I'm sorry but I fear Govt. far more than corporate ceo's.
The problem is corruption in Govt and I'm sorry to say as long as there is greed the problem will never go away. The question is who do you trust more? Govt. or corrupt ceo's. I will take free enterprise over prison any day of the weak.
I did not call you a Marxist. IMHO your comments sound like propaganda, which every one of us is vulnerable to. Yes, some of the problems you mention are real, but propaganda is not always lies. I can't even guess who or what may have influenced you to think the way you seem to, but I admit to being shocked beyond all belief that you admit to voting for Goldwater (the standout conservative of his time.)
Just so you don't misunderstand, I am not necessarily advocating economic growth to solve society's problems. I am more concerned with the practical effect which government has in real life. IMHO, every damn thing that has been done in the name of the economy since FDR has been dead wrong. The only exceptions I can think of would be the JFK and Reagan administrations, and they weren't perfect either. To be honest, not everything Clinton did was wrong either.
IMHO the best thing the federal govt. can do to ensure prosperity for all Americans is just leave us the hell alone. Those bastards have damned few constitutional obligations, and they don't meet them. They have many constitutional constraints on their powers, and violate all of them. The more they claim to help the worse it gets for all of us.
As far as corporations go, I don't really care how large they grow as long as they are meeting the demands of the market and doing so legally. I draw the line when international super-corporations use their influence to shape national policy to their liking. So yeah, I am also embittered. I just don't believe it is worth making slaves of the entire country to exact justice on a few.
Economies grow and contract naturally, if the free market system is allowed to work as it should. Consumers themselves are the best judges of what products and services they need and want. I don't need any politician or lawyer telling me what I must or must not buy or use.
The "free market" is a myth. It has never existed. The invisible hand of Adam Smith is more like the Bankers of Oz fiddling levers behind the curtain. It has always been manipulated by those with the most money and power. The Ponzi scheme, DYI day trading, and Madoff are just some of the example of that. Even the SEC wasn't smart enough to see Madoff's scam. It was only after the financial crash revealed it did the "experts" claim "Of course, it was easy to see, I told X about it Y years ago".
The natural born consumer is a product of our educational system, and most of our voc ed or college graduates could not pass the 1900 8th grade graduation test in math, spelling, grammar, writing, history, geography or social studies. Most can barely do basic math, have NO knowledge of practical physics or chemistry that their grandparents were taught in HS, and can barely read and write at the sixth or seventh grade level. They do not know the 1st ten amendments to the Bill of Rights, except the 1st, which they misapply more often than not. They are manipulated by ads to the point that most of them would not know the truth if it ran them down. Immigrants who cannot speak or read English are even worse off.
We have the worst plague of child and adult obesity in our history, yet no one does a thing about breakfast cereals and foods which contain over 25% by weight of sugar or HFCS? Because sugar coated Shredded Wheat animations tell them that 25% sugar is good for them and helps them "concentrate" and do a full day's work? "Little Byte" is promoted to mom and dad as just as healthful for their kids. High Fructose Corn Syrup is nothing less than a fat pill. Most consumers don't know enough to see the errors in that market pitch and you think they hold the solution to the market?
Cattle are fed progesterone to accelerate their growth rate so they can come to market quicker and burger joints have lower costs and higher profits, but no one seems to care that 13 year old boys are developing enlarged breasts, some of which would make Dolly Pardon jealous. Rates of breast cancer among men are rising unheard of rates, as are the appearance of "bitch tits". The Tetracycline fed to the cattle to further increase their growth created variations of pathogens which are immune to it. Dittos for many other antibiotics. MRSA is the result.
We Americans bought the rambling ranch home built 25 miles or more from our job site and we needed a Belchfire V8 to get us there and back at 12 mpg. No matter though, gasoline as 25c/gal. Besides, we need 4,000 lbs of vehicle to get to work. 1,000 lbs to carry us and 3,000 lbs to carry our ego. All during this time scientists were warning that the oil bucket had a limit, but they were ignored because the consumer and their elected representatives decided that a lawyer/economists who claimed that America would find all the oil it needed for the foreseeable future was telling the truth and the folks who could measure the volume of the reserves didn't know what they were doing.
EVEN IF consumers are the best judges of what products and services THEY want does that mean that their choices are the best for themselves or society as as a whole? One percent of our society is in prison on drug convictions. Coke and Meth dealers make millions and fuel the drug wars along the boarder that result in the deaths of thousands of Mexicans and Americans. The consumer's love of coke is also funding the Taliban in the MidEast.
The fact that a corporation has the right to and can create and market a device is no proof that it is good for society. When Coke was first made it had 0.5% Cocaine in it. That's 1.1 grams of Cocaine per 225 gm (8 ozs) of drink. It made your aches and pains go away and you felt good. It was put in deliberately to cause addiction and create a regular, reliable income stream. Laudanum was sold OTC and unregulated. By 1913 fully 1/3 of the country was addicted to the Cocain in one form or another before it was made illegal to dispense without a doctor's prescription. Today, Congress would accept the "Campaign contribution" (bribe) from Coke-a-Cola and let Cocaine remain in the drink because the consumer "wants" it (and they want the bribe).
In the case of Microsoft, they did not become the dominant company in their markets by providing the best products and services at the best price. They did so through influence and deception. .....
And they still continue to use that as their major method. The James Plamondon files prove that beyond a shadow of a doubt. "The Slog", the "Stacked Panel", etc... They even added a few new twists -- selling patents to trolls along with instructions on how to sue Linux distros.
In the case of software patents, I think it is the worst possible way to develop software. Anyone who ever wrote a program has used someone else's code. You can not avoid it. There are only so many ways to solve problems with software, and all of them have been discovered already. The entire industry has moved toward software modularity precisely because various forms of code re-use is the only sane way to develop software.
Exactly. I taught programming at the HS and college levels for several years. About every student I have taught "invented" the Bubble sort on their own by merely thinking about it as a problem assignment on arrays and linked lists. Head-tail, insertion sorts, double linked lists, and similar sorts pop into mind immediately without any strain or effort. Quck sorts and Shell sorts are a little trickier but I have had students come close during a test.
The only thing software patents can do is constrain upcoming developers.
That is their primary purpose. The claim that an idea is "property" is absurd. Today, the patent creates an artificial scarcity by using the law to prohibit someone from doing what ANYONE with normal intelligence could do. Patents used to require a working model in order to prove the invention worked. Since that requirement was dropped we have patents for flying saucers, for using red laser lights to exercise cats and dogs,
Patents for normal everyday activities which any normal person of average intelligence would think of and do without a moment's thought or hesitation.
Again, thanks for not being offended. I like open minded people
Me too. I never took offence at what you said. I usually resemble most remarks about me! (Old Alan Alda MASH joke).
This could go on for quite a few pages but I enjoyed the exchange.
Time to say HITLER!
"A nation that is afraid to let its people judge the truth and falsehood in an open market is a nation that is afraid of its people.”
– John F. Kennedy, February 26, 1962.
....
I could say the same things about Govt. The corrupt United States Patent Office for example. I could say the thug is Nancy Pelosi and she plans on throwing me in prison if I don't purchase health care. I'm sorry but I fear Govt. far more than corporate ceo's.
The problem is corruption in Govt and I'm sorry to say as long as there is greed the problem will never go away. The question is who do you trust more? Govt. or corrupt ceo's. I will take free enterprise over prison any day of the weak.
I agree with you. Both corporations and government are corrupt beyond belief, and changing whose on watch doesn't seem to change things.
The FTC, SEC, FDA, NIA, DOJ and most other federal agency heads have a revolving door policy with corporate America, the same corporations they were created to regulate. Foxes guarding the chickens for sure. To make matters worse, the staffs of both Congress and the Presidency have revolving door relationships with the media. Both parties.
I read this morning that $2.5 Billion was spent this year so far by 2,500+ lobbyists lobbying Congress. That money guarantees that corporations will continue to make many times that profiting off of your misfortunes in health, your accidents in transportation, your reactions to drugs, etc...
We think we have a fair one person - one vote political system. We vote ONCE at every election. Corporate America votes every day, multiple times, with each Congressmen. And they FIX their vote with a bribe. I know what it is. You know what it is. Congress knows what it is.
What we are seeing now is a political battle between the extreme left and the extreme right. The prize is America. It doesn't matter who wins. We both lose.
"A nation that is afraid to let its people judge the truth and falsehood in an open market is a nation that is afraid of its people.”
– John F. Kennedy, February 26, 1962.
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