Comment That's ironic or absurd (Score 5, Insightful) 1239
After all, if the ratings agencies had done their jobs a few years ago, we wouldn't be in a lot of this mess.
Comment Re:Two word : infinite regress (Score 2, Insightful) 631
Many Americans are confused and think the Bible is the basis of American law or that we are a Christian nation. Which is amazing, since everyone should learn/have learned in history class in school that we are founded on a secular constitution that specifies that religion must not be used for law making or as a test for holding any office.
Comment Re:Still doing that? (Score 1) 631
Sadly, in the US it's still the other way around. Most atheists here are still in the closet due to peer pressure or simply think of them as agnostics and don't realize or care that the world around them is still controlled by religion. If we banded together to form political groups as Richard Dawkins suggest, we could have a very powerful lobby with many millions of members.
Comment Re:Not bloody likely... (Score 1) 631
The other problem in the US is that advertisers can basically say anything. You can make an ad stating that you run a network of psychics, that your political opponent is a child molester, just about anything at all. The only retribution may be that people will complain after the fact, but that doesn't stop you from getting complete bullshit on the air. Many people will believe anything said or shown on TV as facts.
Comment Re:Phelps is a hero! (Score 5, Insightful) 631
Just imagine how much less national debt we would have if religions had to pay taxes. Why do we continue to give religion special status that they earned when belief was compulsory and religion controlled politics? Oh wait, in the US, religion still does control politics. Any politician who is willing to demonstrate that he is a reasonable thinking person by publicly professing non-belief in the supernatural will likely lose elections.
Comment The same people who buy 8 tracks and casettes? (Score 1) 558
And those that insist I send them faxes instead of emails in 2010?
Comment Another browser? (Score 1) 464
You mean I can stop using Mosaic now?
Microsoft Cuts Vista Price In 70 Countries 257
dforristall alerts us to an odd move by Microsoft: cutting the price of retail boxes of Vista in many markets. Analysts didn't see this one coming, and they are scratching their heads a bit over it; one called it "very unheard of." The price cuts vary by country — they're largest in the developing world where piracy levels are high — and they don't apply to OEM copies of Vista, which account for 90% of sales. "Gartner analyst Michael Silver said the move... is puzzling... [He] noted that the market for such upgrades is fairly limited. Those who bought XP in the fourth quarter of 2006 got a coupon for a free Vista upgrade, while most of those who have bought systems since then have gotten Vista. Machines purchased prior to 2006 probably aren't all that attractive as candidates for a Vista upgrade... 'The whole notion of upgrading PCs has sort of fallen by the wayside.'"
Time To Abolish Software Patents? 259
gnujoshua writes "Has the time come to abolish software patents? Fortune columnist Roger Parloff reports on a new campaign called End Software Patents, which he views as 'attempting to ride a wave of corporate and judicial disenchantment with aspects of the current patent system.' Ryan Paul of Ars Technica writes that the purpose of the campaign is to 'educate the public and encourage grass-roots patent reform activism in order to promote effective legislative solutions to the software patent problem.' The campaign site is informative and targets many types of readers, and it includes a scholarship contest with a top prize of $10,000.00. We've recently discussed the potential legal re-examination of software patents."
