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Comment Re:Obligatory Mana... (Score 1) 291

There is good greed and there is bad greed. Good greed provides the driving force, the battery voltage, needed to motivate people to risk everything to start a new business, to mortgage the house to make payroll, to borrow money from friends and family to buy parts for a new gadget. The desire to succeed, to attain wealth, is the force behind going to college, behind learning a trade. Without good greed, very little would get done in the world, and you probably wouldn’t have the phones and tablets and computers to enjoy.

There is also bad greed, which provides the same motivation as good greed, but is utilized by evil persons such that they will do anything to attain their goals no matter who they or what damage to attain those goals.

Capitalism has been the force behind society’s advancement since time immemorial. Probably since before recorded history. The desire to have things, to take care of family, to succeed at a profession are all based in capitalism.

Without Capitalism, there would be little or no motivation or drive to invent all of the things that are required to have what we call "AI" today - the internet, massive banks of servers housing massive banks of AI-related chips, and a reason to spend money on those things.

Comment Re:Its 1990s apple all over again (Score 3, Interesting) 73

Microsoft’s investment in Apple wasn’t all that large, and didn’t materially change the cash balance at Apple. What it did was signal to the business world that Apple was viable. Microsoft also promised to keep Office alive and support it more vigorously. It was a strategic masterstroke, indeed, to leverage such a small amount of money into the turnaround that then occurred.

Microsoft didn’t do it out of the goodness of their heart, either. This investment was part of a settlement between Apple and Microsoft on a long-running lawsuit that Microsoft was probably going to loose.

Comment Re:Well then (Score 2) 46

Please note that being so successful that you have a virtual monopoly (like Microsoft, Google, and Amazon) is not illegal. Apple does not have a monopoly in any business in which it competes, but it is clearly successful and huge.

The thing that *is* illegal is leveraging your monopoly such that people *have* to do business with you, or using anti-competitive practices (not clearly defined) to be successful. Just being really good at what you do is not illegal and is not anti-competitive.

Comment Re:monarchy (Score 2, Insightful) 483

It isn’t the fact that Biden pulled out of Afghanistan that was so bad, it was the way he did it, with no preparation, leaving the billions in equipment behind that is so bad. He seemed to be running from ISIS as fast as he could, dropping weapons behind as he went - kind of like when the Afghans faced ISIS.

Comment Re:The Navy isn't private industry (Score 5, Informative) 250

If a nuclear accident had occurred on a Navy vessel, do you expect that the Navy would have a) transparently published all information and allowed even Greenpeace to inspect the site, or b) swept everything under the rug?

You can't seriously expect the US military (any military) to disclose their safety record. If nothing else, it would be releasing sensitive information about the reliability of one of their most prized assets.

A "sterling safety record" is as suspicious as a used car with a shiny engine and a new set of pedals.

Yeah, I do. I was in the nuclear navy on a submarine. I’m pretty sure we know what happened on the Thresher. I damn well know what happened on my boat. I was there. I know a lot of other submariners and we do talk to each other. On the other hand, you just make stuff up because that’s what you believe.

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