Comment So the lesson is... (Score 2, Insightful) 158
If you artificially prop up prices for the benefit of a few, then competition and innovation that would benefit the broader consumer market can suffer.
Comment Licensing can protect -- or defeat -- bias (Score 1) 265
It'll be interesting to see how they license the content.
An example of why licensing matters: ProPublica is another new investigative journalism operation, funded as a nonprofit and dedicated to doing deep investigative journalism at a time when many daily newspapers can no longer afford it. They make their content free (as in beer) to newspapers and online sites.
Sounds great, right? The problem is, their Creative Commons license does not allow for editing of the stories. On a day-to-day basis, that means newspapers and other content users can't localize the piece directly -- they'd have to write a sidebar. What's more troubling is that the license also means local editors can't legally alter the story if they find factual errors or want to add additional facts.
That's why licensing matters. It'll be interesting to see the approach HuffPo takes.
Outliers, The Story Of Success 357
TechForensics writes "Outliers, by Malcolm Gladwell, is subtitled "the story of success." It is a book that purports to explain why some people succeed far more than others. It suggests that a success like Bill Gates is more attributable to external factors than anything within the man. Even his birth date turns out to play a role of profound importance in the success of Bill Gates and Microsoft Corporation." Look below for the rest of Leon's review.
Comment Re:News. (Score 1) 207
Or is this just the first instinct?
If they're managers of a publicly held concern, their first instinct is probably to do whatever supports shareholder investment. Because if they don't, the shareholders will put them out on the street.
If they manage a privately held firm, that doesn't mean there are no shareholders -- just that the owners have a bit more privacy and, sometimes, can afford to take the longer view.
In either scenario, the job of management is to run the company in such a way that it meets (or at least attempts to meet) the shareholders' objectives. It is not to protect employees, not to necessarily "try things like cutting unnecessary expenses" first and not to promote a social good.
If that sounds unfair, that's because it's not about fair -- it's about risk and reward. You want to weather the storm? Put up some capital, take some risk and start a going concern with a payroll to meet.
Comment Re:Sounds like fun (Score 1) 504
My wife and I cruise 1-2 times a year and, like the parent poster, we own our own business -- being 100% disconnected is not an option.
In addition to what the parent post stated, I've noticed that the larger ships have RJ-45 jacks in the walls, some of them in isolated spots where no one's really going to see you if you jack in.
Because they're there for things like photo-sales kiosks, etc., I'm gonna take a guess and say the network is DHCP enabled. Does that mean internet access-enabled? Dunno - but I'm on a ship in northern Europe for a dozen days in May, and plan to find out.
