Become a fan of Slashdot on Facebook

 



Forgot your password?
typodupeerror
×
Businesses

Goodbye, California? Tim Draper Proposes a 6-Way Split 489

Daniel_Stuckey writes that venture capitalist Tim Draper has mooted a plan "to split California into six separate states, he told Tech Crunch, with Silicon Valley emerging as the richest and most powerful of all. The mockery is already pouring in. Of course a rich tech guru wants Silicon Valley to get its own government, so it can be freed from the dusty laws and regulations of California 1.0. Of course a deep undercurrent of self-aggrandizing narcissism runs through the proposal — only one other state-to-be gets an actual name, (inexplicably, 'Jefferson') and the rest are lazily affixed with topographical descriptors: West, South, Central, and North California...Yes, in shaping his doctrine, Draper has conjured the perfect blend of Seasteading's offshore tech nirvana lawlessness, boilerplate Tea Party antiestablishmentarianism, and good ol' secessionist chutzpah."

Comment Re: If it makes you sleep well at night.... (Score 1) 375

The inconsistent criteria are really rather obnoxious, I agree. Some examples that cought my eye while looking at the map and data:
I think that 976 for Austria is correct, as that's the first mention of Ostarrichi, although not as independent country. For Hungary as well, the dates are the ones that should be taken into account, as this was the time when the magyars moved into the territory of what is now Hungary.
To give 1871 as "birthdate" for Germany is of course ridiculous, that should be 843 as in the case of France.
Therefore, if we already use dates like 976 for Austria, we can only stare in disbelief at the fact that Croatia should be only 22 years old and Serbia only 7.
Turkey will certainly be interested why only the modern state after the fall of the Ottoman Empire and the following war with Greece has been given credit. I think we can safely assume at least 1453 (conquest of Constantinople), or even an older date, if we take into account that most of Anatolia had been undeer turkish rule far before that.
At last, not to get too eurocentric (I'm austrian, so Europe's what I'm most familiar with), Rwanda was a kingdom (or several closely related kingdoms) with a distinct culture and language long before becoming a (german, then belgian) colony and gaining independence in 1962.

Comment Re:Uh, duh? (Score 2) 314

Also, we should think again about whether we really need that round thingie, the wheel.
Sure, it's really useful, but considering how much harm can be wrought with it... better leave it uninvented.

Comment Re:Violence (Score 1) 151

At least in Austria, and it may well be similar in many EU countries, even the (permanent) filming, e.g. via dashboard camera, is illegal (text in German, Google translation here).
There are exceptions for, say, helmet cameras the recordings of which serve as a souvenir of some sporting activity, but in general, permanent recording is illegal at least in Austria.
I don't know about other countries of the European Union but I wouldn't be surprised if it were similar.

Comment Re:Just a pipe dream... (Score 1) 64

Are they doing business in the EU? If so, they may have to.
I can't be bothered to look it up right now, but there was a case of a student from Vienna forcing facebook to give their users full access to whatever information they had collected on them. Impossible to tell of course, whether they did fully comply.
Still, that might be funny.

Slashdot Top Deals

Living on Earth may be expensive, but it includes an annual free trip around the Sun.

Working...