And there has been those times I wanted to release a new tool I created to open source, because others may have found it useful and they weren't part of the core business. And I was denied. And what can you do? As someone already stated, they are paying for the code, so it's their call.
And then there is the Grace Hopper approach to things. Do that at your own risk. lol
Tracking is becoming more insidious every day. Now, Hotspots will record the probe requests your cellphones send out looking for a WiFi to connect to, and will include your MAC address for technical reasons (can probe faster that way). Many are storing that MAC and sending up to a central server for analysis.
Imagine as you drive around a city your MAC address is being used to trace your movements. If you go to a posh mall and afterwards go to pick up your kids from day care, that can be used to profile you. And if your own WiFi router is also phoning this info back somewhere... well, you see where this is going.
And in case you haven't noticed, the title here is a paraphrase of a title of a chapter of a story (or film) of another Great that, too, is no longer with us. Let's see if you recognize it.
It is sad that brilliant minds die. But it happens. And may you fall into an infinite trench of Fractal wonders.
Mandelbrot has inspired many, and has inspired me to create Gravity Set Fractals.
http://www.fredmitchell.net/fractals/index.html
Long Live Self-Similarity!!!
Isn't that a bit of a tautology?
More importantly, just how are you supposed to know what you can trust or not? If an app zips your private info off to a server somewhere, you'd never know it. Even if you sniff the packets, it could still be encrypted or stenographized.
Google should give the user finer control and log what private info has been requested by what app.
The Military sucks up a HUGE portion of the national budget. If you got rid of that alone, we'd probably be OK.
Surprisingly, the military is a more or less fixed cost, and can be dealt with in various ways, by increasing revenue or cutting spending. As you can see from this graph, we've been cutting military spending for a long time
On the graph it states that spending in Iraq and Afghanistan was "mostly" excluded, so we're not looking at a complete picture.
(and replacing it with social programs), and Robert Gates seems to be doing a capable job of continuing that trend. I'm also going to suggest it would be unwise to completely cut military spending (and indeed, we couldn't immediately because a large portion of military spending goes to things like pensions). The biggest problem with the national budget is actually medicare (there are a number of ways to fix social security, it's just a matter of choosing one and fixing it). As you can see from this graph, medicare will eventually push out all other non-obligatory spending, and actually the problem has gotten worse since that graph was made. I'm ok with cutting military spending, but let's address the root of the problem.
Yes, entitlements will eat the US alive. It was not sustainable to begin with. Something will have to give, and to "fix" the problem means either raising taxes, which would be devestaving, or cutting the entitlements, which will impact those who have the expectation of getting them.
My retirement plans do NOT include entitlements of any sort. They simply will not be solvent by that time, or will pay so little it'll be a joke.
This is the government's Ponzi at Gunpoint Scheme that it forces us all to "buy" into, but will leave us much worse than high and dry.
The Military sucks up a HUGE portion of the national budget. If you got rid of that alone, we'd probably be OK. Or at least not as bad off as we are.
But what's wrong with being cash positive rather than cash negative? Continuous borrowing is always a loosing proposition, both for the borrower and the creditor.
I know you're trolling but I'll bite.
I'm not trolling, actually, but that's besides the point.
The US is no longer on the Gold standard because Gold is worthless.
Worthless? Really? Can I have your gold then? I watch the financial markets nearly every day and gold is anything but worthless.
What is valuable is debt aka IOUs or promissory notes aka US Dollars otherwise known as Government issued Reserve Notes. Debt is backed by labor or goods and services which have real intrinsic value.
Ah, see, you are proving my point already, but let's continue.
Gold is only useful in niche electronic components and fashion jewelry.
FYI Reserve Notes are backed by Birth Certificates which have an economic value of ~$750000 - $1000000 for the lifetime of the individual, which is how much that Citizen is expected to contribute to the national economy in their lifetime in labor, services, intellectual property, etc.
So us human citizens are being used as collateral for the debt! Ah, therein lies the rub! Unless you have infinite growth, this model fails. The planet is only so big, and there are only so many resources, places to live, farmland, etc. Population growth cannot continue to grow indefinitely -- it's mathematically impossible.
So now what happens when your assumptions of infinite growth are dashed to the hills? You have enslaved all of your citizens into paying off this debt, and you have to use force to "exact tribute " -- the IRS -- but now the bottom falls out because you hit zero population growth, or perhaps population begins to decline.
So now your creditors become restless and may wish to call back in the loan in full. Or drop you as a basis. Hello, what has China been doing recently? Making lots of noise about switching from the USD to some other standard for world currency -- like GOLD!
Why don't you explain to China and India how "worthless" gold is. Go ahead. I dare ya.
So to summarize we exchanged an economy backed by a semi-rare earth mineral for an economy backed by a population of contributing citizens and abstracted into a commodity by the vehicle of debt and debt reserve notes ( US Dollars).
To rephrase what you've just stated, "we" -- really the US government, not us -- took us off a solid standard with builtin accountability, sold us all out and decided to use you and me as collateral for a debt they keep running up, higher and deeper.
The wars fought today have nothing to do with "National Security" and everything to do with control of resources to keep the illusion going that the debt model will continue indefinitely -- which it will not.
You may love a world of debt servitude, but I do not. You and I did not choose to become debt slaves -- we were signed up for it at birth, and you fully admit it.
So thank you for making my point for me. I couldn't have said it better myself!!!!!
The debt model that the US has been operating under for the many decades is simply not sustainable.
AND it's paying for your enormous deficit, which is likely to bankrupt US pretty soon..
Ok, you've got two unwinnable wars, then what?
The US went bankrupt many years ago. Why do you think all the gold was confiscated back in 1933
http://www.the-privateer.com/1933-gold-confiscation.html
and Nixon took the USD completely off the gold standard?
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nixon_Shock
You only resort to these extreme measures if you have a negative ROI. If you have sustained negative ROI, that's actually worse than actual bankruptcy, which is an admission that you failed and promise to restructure. Nope, the rampant spending continues, and the fiat money flows. The broken system becomes even more broken, as fiscal fantasy becomes even more out of line with fiscal reality.
That party cannot continue forever, I don't think.
The original intent of the patent was to give the lone inventor a monopoly over his invention in order to spur innovation. And it may have served that purpose once. But today, patents have taken on a completely different use -- the leverage for big deep-pocket corporations to beat up on other corporations and obliterate any possible competition from "the little guy", who could not possibly afford patent litigation.
So, it is my view that patents no longer serve it original intended purpose, and thus should be eliminated. Monsanto patents organisms and genes and uses that to force small farmers to buy their GMO seeds; Microsoft may use patents to beat down startups they deem as a threat, and so on.
Today, people will innovate whether or not patents exist. And most innovations don't ever see a patent, I think. It's just too expensive to procure a patent -- $5,000 to $10,000 -- and if ever someone -- even another little guy -- violated your patent "rights", you could not afford the litigation, anyway.
So let's abolish all patents and close down the USPTO!
"Conversion, fastidious Goddess, loves blood better than brick, and feasts most subtly on the human will." -- Virginia Woolf, "Mrs. Dalloway"