To me, the most critical thing in the hobby market right now is the lack of good software courses, books and software itself. Without good software and an owner who understands programming, a hobby computer is wasted. Will quality software be written for the hobby market?
Almost a year ago, Paul Allen and myself, expecting the hobby market to expand, hired Monte Davidoff and developed Altair BASIC. Though the initial work took only two mont
From: "How to Become As Rich As Bill Gates" http://philip.greenspun.com/bg/ [greenspun.com] """ William Henry Gates III made his best decision on October 28, 1955, the night he was born. He chose J.W. Maxwell as his great-grandfather. Maxwell founded Seattle's National City Bank in 1906. His son, James Willard Maxwell was also a banker and established a million-dollar trust fund for William (Bill) Henry Gates III. In some of the later lessons, you will be encouraged to take entrepreneurial risks.
Bill Gate's could have spent his lifetime writing free software. That being born a multi-millionaire was not enough for him is a sign of an illness that causes "financial obesity", not something to be emulated. But, in the end, it is not Bill Gates who has destroyed our society as much as all the people who want to be the next Bill Gates and support regressive social policies they hope to benefit from someday.
It's a poor, twisted soul that even thinks to call wealth 'financial obesity', or refer to it as an
Uh... no criticism of initiative, creativity, or risk taking inherent in achieving individual goals implicit... but do please explain why we currently record the largest gap in incomes since the founding of the republic. How do you make sure everyone has access to a candle instead of a platitude about a candle?
Uh... no criticism of initiative, creativity, or risk taking inherent in achieving individual goals implicit... but do please explain why we currently record the largest gap in incomes since the founding of the republic.
The evidence of a wealth gap in and of itself is not a moral problem, unless you're operating out of a spirit of envy.
The wealth another man has or controls is irrelevant if his posession of such does not prevent me from generating enough wealth to meet my needs.
"The wealth another man has or controls is irrelevant if his posession of such does not prevent me from generating enough wealth to meet my needs."
It's called political campaign donations. It's called monopoly and cartels. It's called comparative advantage. It's called out-bidding. It's called privately funded education and private tutoring. It's called back room deals. It's called buying advertising. It's called getting lots of tries to get it right. It's called keeping the others desperately poor so they
Re: Competition: The winning and losing involved in competition is not a permanent, one-time state. The person who loses today may better themselves and win tommorow. In denigrating competition, you miss this vital point.
They don't help out people who don't have any. Many cheap-labor conservatives don't want to help out the destitute at all. They say government assistance to people will make them "dependent". They say it breeds "inefficiency" and "laziness".
One anecdote about a person on welfare (possibly burned out or damaged from the current economic system or schooling) does not a case make.
You said previously that another person's vast wealth does not bother you unless it affected your ability to make a living. I then gave a list of things from campaign donations through advertising and getting multiple chances that suggests a vast wealth disparity would impact your ability to make money. And that's even without considering how many workers can be replaced by increasing automation (including robots and AI) and better design. Then you changed the subject.:-)
In an age of robots, an "L-Curve" society can't function if the only reason people have a right to consume is having a job. http://www.lcurve.org/ [lcurve.org]
The global economy has just crashed (or rather, is *starting* to crash in a big way). You are suggesting the same mainstream economists who defended it's current structure know how to fix it? Give examples of these people who are so effective at governing countries? The USA is second from last in child wellbeing of industrialized countries, and that is only because the UK is last as (it's said) a poor version of the USA. So, how about, say, Iceland as a model, a big neo-conservative poster child for a time as a well run economy? Markets have a lot of good points, but they often fail at dealing with positive and negative externalities, managing systemic risk of market failure, and equitable distribution of market production if the economic wealth distribution is very unequal. I stuck in "humane" is "markets need a wide spread of wealth to function humanely", but the fact is more like, they need a broad distribution of wealth to function at all (as we are seeing now). Why did the USA have so much economic growth when top tax rates were around 94%? Because it spread the wealth around. There is a law of diminishing return on great wealth, where it just becomes easier to park your wealth in Treasury bills and finance wars than actually run businesses.
From Marshall Brain's "Manna": http://www.marshallbrain.com/manna1.htm [marshallbrain.com] "As the robots took over in the workplace, the number of welfare recipients grew rapidly. Manna replaced tens of millions of minimum wage workers with robots, and terrafoam housing became the warehouse of choice for them. Terrafoam buildings were not pretty, but they were incredibly inexpensive to build and were designed for maximum occupancy. They clustered the buildings on trash land well away from urban centers so no one had to look at them. It was a lot like an old-style college dorm. Each person got a 5 foot by 10 foot room with a bed and a TV -- the world's best pacifier. During the day the bed was a couch and people sat on the bedspread, which also served as a sheet and the blanket. At night the bed was a bed. When I arrived they had just started putting in bunk beds to double the number of people in each building. Burt was not excited to see me when I arrived -- he had had a private room for 10 years, and my arrival was the end of that. At least he was polite about it."
Bill Gates wrote to me for money in 1976 (Score:5, Interesting)
By William Henry Gates III
February 3, 1976
An Open Letter to Hobbyists
To me, the most critical thing in the hobby market right now is the lack of good software courses, books and software itself. Without good software and an owner who understands programming, a hobby computer is wasted. Will quality software be written for the hobby market?
Almost a year ago, Paul Allen and myself, expecting the hobby market to expand, hired Monte Davidoff and developed Altair BASIC. Though the initial work took only two mont
Re: (Score:2, Interesting)
From:
"How to Become As Rich As Bill Gates"
http://philip.greenspun.com/bg/ [greenspun.com]
"""
William Henry Gates III made his best decision on October 28, 1955, the night he was born. He chose J.W. Maxwell as his great-grandfather. Maxwell founded Seattle's National City Bank in 1906. His son, James Willard Maxwell was also a banker and established a million-dollar trust fund for William (Bill) Henry Gates III. In some of the later lessons, you will be encouraged to take entrepreneurial risks.
financial obesity? illness? What gall! (Score:3, Insightful)
Bill Gate's could have spent his lifetime writing free software. That being born a multi-millionaire was not enough for him is a sign of an illness that causes "financial obesity", not something to be emulated. But, in the end, it is not Bill Gates who has destroyed our society as much as all the people who want to be the next Bill Gates and support regressive social policies they hope to benefit from someday.
It's a poor, twisted soul that even thinks to call wealth 'financial obesity', or refer to it as an
Re: (Score:0)
Uh... no criticism of initiative, creativity, or risk taking inherent in achieving individual goals implicit ... but do please explain why we currently record the largest gap in incomes since the founding of the republic. How do you make sure everyone has access to a candle instead of a platitude about a candle?
Re: (Score:2)
Uh... no criticism of initiative, creativity, or risk taking inherent in achieving individual goals implicit ... but do please explain why we currently record the largest gap in incomes since the founding of the republic.
The evidence of a wealth gap in and of itself is not a moral problem, unless you're operating out of a spirit of envy.
The wealth another man has or controls is irrelevant if his posession of such does not prevent me from generating enough wealth to meet my needs.
I have no need to explain it
Re: (Score:0, Troll)
"The wealth another man has or controls is irrelevant if his posession of such does not prevent me from generating enough wealth to meet my needs."
It's called political campaign donations. It's called monopoly and cartels. It's called comparative advantage. It's called out-bidding. It's called privately funded education and private tutoring. It's called back room deals. It's called buying advertising. It's called getting lots of tries to get it right. It's called keeping the others desperately poor so they
Re: (Score:2)
Re: Competition: The winning and losing involved in competition is not a permanent, one-time state. The person who loses today may better themselves and win tommorow. In denigrating competition, you miss this vital point.
They don't help out people who don't have any. Many cheap-labor conservatives don't want to help out the destitute at all. They say government assistance to people will make them "dependent". They say it breeds "inefficiency" and "laziness".
Do you actually know anyone on government assist
Re:financial obesity? illness? What gall! (Score:2, Insightful)
One anecdote about a person on welfare (possibly burned out or damaged from the current economic system or schooling) does not a case make.
You said previously that another person's vast wealth does not bother you unless it affected your ability to make a living. I then gave a list of things from campaign donations through advertising and getting multiple chances that suggests a vast wealth disparity would impact your ability to make money. And that's even without considering how many workers can be replaced by increasing automation (including robots and AI) and better design. Then you changed the subject. :-)
In an age of robots, an "L-Curve" society can't function if the only reason people have a right to consume is having a job.
http://www.lcurve.org/ [lcurve.org]
The global economy has just crashed (or rather, is *starting* to crash in a big way). You are suggesting the same mainstream economists who defended it's current structure know how to fix it? Give examples of these people who are so effective at governing countries? The USA is second from last in child wellbeing of industrialized countries, and that is only because the UK is last as (it's said) a poor version of the USA. So, how about, say, Iceland as a model, a big neo-conservative poster child for a time as a well run economy? Markets have a lot of good points, but they often fail at dealing with positive and negative externalities, managing systemic risk of market failure, and equitable distribution of market production if the economic wealth distribution is very unequal. I stuck in "humane" is "markets need a wide spread of wealth to function humanely", but the fact is more like, they need a broad distribution of wealth to function at all (as we are seeing now). Why did the USA have so much economic growth when top tax rates were around 94%? Because it spread the wealth around. There is a law of diminishing return on great wealth, where it just becomes easier to park your wealth in Treasury bills and finance wars than actually run businesses.
From Marshall Brain's "Manna":
http://www.marshallbrain.com/manna1.htm [marshallbrain.com]
"As the robots took over in the workplace, the number of welfare recipients grew rapidly. Manna replaced tens of millions of minimum wage workers with robots, and terrafoam housing became the warehouse of choice for them. Terrafoam buildings were not pretty, but they were incredibly inexpensive to build and were designed for maximum occupancy. They clustered the buildings on trash land well away from urban centers so no one had to look at them. It was a lot like an old-style college dorm. Each person got a 5 foot by 10 foot room with a bed and a TV -- the world's best pacifier. During the day the bed was a couch and people sat on the bedspread, which also served as a sheet and the blanket. At night the bed was a bed. When I arrived they had just started putting in bunk beds to double the number of people in each building. Burt was not excited to see me when I arrived -- he had had a private room for 10 years, and my arrival was the end of that. At least he was polite about it."
Re: (Score:2)