How about we let individuals and businesses decide where they're going to put their R&D money, not some ivory-tower bureaucrats who are firmly removed from reality?
Because individuals and business don't really have any reason (or the means) to do a lot of basic research. Think of CERN or the Manhattan Project. Do you think those kind of research would be done if it wasn't paid for by the government?
Gotta appreciate the lazy cowardly policemen that chose to raid a music pirate instead of dealing with serious violent/criminal offenders.
I don't approve of that kind of crap either, but you do realise that that is a false dichotomy, right?
I can't believe now we're resorting to personal attacks on
You must be new here...
Excel, Visio, Quicken, Outlook and Visual Studio aren't exactly self-explanatory.
They don't need to be; everyone already knows what they are.
No, just because you know what they are doesn't mean everybody does. In fact, I have no idea what kinds of apps visio and quicken are.
Strangely, you're also allowed to bring them on airplanes.
Stop giving them ideas. It is bad enough as it is...
I don't get watt-hours. What's wrong with Joules? Or kJ? Why have two units for energy?
Two? I wish. You forgot eV and probably a couple of others I can't think of right now. I think it was Feynmann who said "For those who want proof that physicists are human, it is in the idiocy of all the different units which they use for measuring energy."
[...] that proves that the hammer isn't to blame - your head is.
Well, actually that's not too far from the truth...
Do you see how ridiculous it is to try to argue against reasonable definitions of the word "theft"?
It would be, if the definition was actually reasonable.
However, any reasonable defintion of theft would entail that after the theft the thief has the stolen goods. In the example we are talking about, this is not the case. The "thief" does not have the sole right to produce copies, so there is no theft.
What's "stolen" is B's sole right to produce copies.
Yeah, if you use the word "theft" (or "stolen") to mean something completely different, then you can say the copyright infringement is theft. But using this method you can also claim that piracy is "robbery", "treason", "rape" and "murder". So how is "theft" different?
> I love multi-touch. I used to like having a mouse on a laptop, but now that multi-touch is here, its simply better than a mouse.
Perhaps for small notebooks, (or tablets), but realistically its simply too slow and disruptive with larger screens to be waving your entire arm around just to click a button. It also requires a very sparse interface to allow for imprecision of touch.
I'm pretty sure the gp was talking about multi-touch on his notebook's touchpad or multi-touch in general, not about touchscreens.
Linux would probably be sunk for one, as hobbyists and big business alike dig in to Windows source code. Apple would be annihilated too- theres no way they could compete with free, not if they had a 90% market share to beat.
I think you're wrong on both counts. I don't see any reason why an OS Windows would stop people from working on Linux. And there are different reasons why some people prefer Macs to Windows, but cost is definitely not one of them...
Just because I'm american and we are allowed the freedom of speech inside the US doesn't mean I can have a copy of Mein Kampf in Germany.
Bad example. It is a common misconception that Mein Kampf is illegal in Germany. You are allowed to have a copy (even though it you will probably not find a new one anywhere).
I would wager more than 65% of the population has an IQ of less than 100.
The median IQ is 100. By definition. So you'd definitely lose that wager.
New York... when civilization falls apart, remember, we were way ahead of you. - David Letterman
