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Comment Re:STOP KILLING OPERATING SYSTEMS (Score 1) 96

Windows 11 is malware. Not supporting the old version is fine. Pushing that hot garbage is evil. I, too will be running Linux. It will be sad to no longer get to play my games (no, steam and wine are not reasonable substitutes despite what you've heard) but I stopped Windows 10 halfway through their deployment cycle when they pushed the first unavoidable spyware, and I'm sticking to it.

Comment Transparency (Score 5, Insightful) 107

One reason for quarterly reporting is that it gives greater transparency and insight into how a business actually works. Many businesses are seasonal. Most obviously, virtually all retail has its best quarter at the end of the calendar year. But many other types of businesses have key cycles each year that are tied to, for example, the buying habits of their largest customers. Suppliers matter, too; if farms have a bad quarter due to weather or other factors, for example, you're going to want to watch how that impacts food producers somewhere down the line.

Comment Wagie, wagie (Score 2) 52

Wagie, wagie, get in cagie,
Put on the specs, obey the pagie.
Glowing screens before your eyes,
Voices whisper hums and lies.

Parcels beep their numbered fate,
The pace is timed, your path ornate.
The chains are soft, the leash is sleek,
A velvet yoke upon the meek.

Ten thousand doors, ten thousand gates,
But none are yours; you shift the weights.
The lenses gleam, the data streams,
Efficiency devours dreams.

Yet somewhere past that tinted glass,
A question flickers, sharp as brass:
If power shrinks to fit a lens,
Who truly drives, where will it end?

Comment Re:Makes sense (Score 1) 112

Cash is essential to liberty. When ALL dollars can be tracked (and the war on cash is getting us there) any individual or group can be selectively removed from the economy, punished individually with inescapable fines, soft punished through social credit schemes and otherwise abused. Which is exactly what the notorious They want. I'm not joking even a little bit. As evading money tracking is punished over and over by money laundering laws, which don't punish any other crime, we approach the day the tree of liberty needs to be watered.

Comment Life on Mars? Never! (Score 0) 22

If a little green man walked up to Curiosity and drew a dick on its chassis, they would see it not as proof of extraterrestrial intelligence so much as an anomaly to be photographed, cataloged, and subjected to endless peer review. Teams of engineers would spend months verifying that it was not dust, damage, or a prank. Entire conferences would be held to debate whether the âoegreen manâ was in fact a glitch in the roverâ(TM)s sensors, a reflection artifact, or some other failure of interpretation. Only after exhaustive testing, replication of findings, and careful wording of press releases would they dare to acknowledge even the possibility of alien life. Their fear of being wrong would delay even the most obvious revelation.

Comment Re:Distraction (Score 2) 73

Comment Only the generous survive (Score 2) 18

Strict licensing of emerging technologies is often self-defeating, slowing adoption and inviting competitors to outpace you. In early stages, value lies in network effects, developer engagement, and iterative improvement, not raw technical advantage. Licensing throttles these dynamics by limiting who can use or build on your technology, reducing the combinatorial value that comes from broad participation. This pushes others to create open alternatives, making the originator irrelevant.

Philosophically, this reflects Metcalfe's Law, which applies beyond social networks: value scales with the number of participants, whether they are devices, apps, or developers. It also illustrates Schumpeterian Creative Destruction, which argues that markets advance through waves of innovation that dismantle incumbents. When firms try to protect a fragile lead with legal barriers rather than innovation, they often create space for rivals to bypass them entirely, leapfrogging with superior, more accessible designs. History shows that "creative destruction" punishes firms that cling to scarcity and control, rewarding those who embrace iteration and openness. Open innovation theory further reinforces this, showing breakthroughs thrive in porous, collaborative environments.

History supports this:
-IBM's open PC architecture enabled widespread cloning and adoption, while Apple's closed Mac stayed niche.
-Sony's Betamax licensing drove manufacturers to adopt VHS, which dominated despite weaker specs.
-Tesla's open patents accelerated EV infrastructure and cemented its leadership.
-QWERTY vs. Dvorak demonstrates that openness and early adoption can outweigh technical merit.

Restrictive control signals scarcity thinking and isolates companies. Openness builds ecosystems, standards, and staying power, while licensing walls create space for faster, more accessible alternatives. For a firm hoping to shape a market, early openness is a strategic advantage, not a concession. Charles Strauss called it.

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