Oops, logging in first would have been wise; I claim the above... karma punishment or reward as appropriate.

Clearly I 'don't know' very much myself!
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jak.

Mostly true, but digital devices almost certainly would not suffer inattentional blindness/deafness; so are more trustworthy when any chance of having an invisible gorilla moment is unacceptable.

Just my $0.02,
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D.

The conundrum:

Current government is incredibly totalitarian in its data retention and censorship policies, but is funding the rollout of a national fibre broadband network... making the task of achieving their former policies definately non trivial and probably impossible...

Other side is lead by a foaming at the mouth christian but we dont quite know where they sit on censorship and data retention (although we can perhaps add one and one there...), but they will cancel the funding of the national broadband network... making sure we get stuck wandering around with out pants around our ankles as the former state owned monopoly continue to monopolise telecommunications and, coincidentally, make sure it is slightly less impossible to implement a totalitarian information dictatorship.

The real question; is a giant cluster of fat glass pipes enough sugar to make me eat a guaranteed dose of big brother or risk a possible dose of bush scale christian extremism along with the bigbrotherness that accompanies it... or are there other issues to decide this election on (we haven't seen them roll out this terms big wedge issue yet, although there are a few hints).

Perhaps we could use a third party?? No, USA, we dont want to borrow Nader!
Damn democracy, pity all the alternatives are even crapper!
just my $0.02.
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jak.

Indeed... If a person placed a note under my door threatening my family in the middle of the night would be cause for concern regarding the behavior of deranged and possibly violent people who stalk my house. I just do not see what this has to do with gamers. I can't think of any way in which the alleged commission of any crime can be caused by your enjoying video games.

I mean, they arrested a shotgun wielding bandit in Adelaide recently and he had a drivers license and lived in a house... so are we to be scared of drivers and people who aren't homeless now because they will all shoot us in the face with a shotgun??? or should we perhaps reserve that particular fear for shotgun wielding bandits regardless of their hobbies?

It is a gross overstatement to tar all people who share a hobby with the acts of a single individual who claims to share that hobby but cannot prove it.

I could go on to discuss the base rate fallacy in this context but I feel my point is made.
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jak.

Simply listing ALL software that is used, the vendor and the cost. This is then not an endorsement, simply informing the public.

If it happens that alot of the software is open source and cheap, then that is just fact; not endorsement.

Just my $0.02
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jak.

Spot on... if the form factor of the netbook is much larger than my moleskin then I cant carry them both in the same hand and will have to start encumbering myself with bags and crap. 9" is ideal, 10" is acceptable... 12" is approaching the size of my huge arse slate... just not readily portable unaided and regular notebooks already well serve this portion of the marketplace.

just my $0.02
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jak.

Actually, it is as excess agricultural production increases labour is freed up from the demands of subsistence and can now be deployed to other activities. This eventually leads to the creation of 'wealth' by trading that excess labour created by excess food. The rest, health care, sanitation etc; these are just engineering solutions to maximising the effectiveness of urbanisation.

Well, that is a gross simplification; still... economies have grown on this basis for at least 3,000 years.

The problem is we don't have another paradigm... and if climate change (man made or otherwise), population growth (well, this has to be man made) or some other factor starts to reduce the excess agricultural production; well, then, those of us who aren't farmers will no longer be able to get the food required to keep us off the farm and being useful in other areas...

Scary, neh?
Just my $0.02
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jak.

...the map is not the landscape.

This is a compelling model in that it significantly differs from the form of modelling used in Macro economic forecasting, which makes it useful for debate.

This is still, however, a process model that grossly simplifies the system and is therefore subject to the same limitations as all models; that they are not reality. You can use them to determine relative weightings between different situations but cannot use them to predict the future.

I applaud the concept of introducing different modelling techniques into economic (indeed any) debate; but do not make the mistake of drawing long term conclusions from the results of any one technique, no matter how appealing.

The sad thing is that Academic publication is so insular that a paper such as this did not get play in economic journals... in the same way that an economists take on super symmetry would never get published in a physics journal. The mono-disciplinary goggles that most journals apply is the real danger to progress in almost every field of science. It is more important that we consider the merits of the views and arguments of those who disagree with us than wrap ourselves in a comforting blanket of people who agree with us completely, as they do not inform us.

Just my $0.02.
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jak.