A strong minority vote at the shareholder's meeting, binding or not, can provoke greater scrutiny and perhaps lead to bonuses more in line with long term performance of the company and the value thus created for shareholders who are in fact the owners of the business.
It is called shareholder activism. It has been used to some effect here in Australia by Stephen Mayne, but it is hard to break the old boys club.
Acorns? I think the term you're looking for is epicormic bud.
Or just gumnut.
Most apps are not even remotely well behaved and shove junk into all sorts of places in the registry.
I'd disagree.
Well, I've repackaged maybe 1500 applications for various windows environments. Almost all software write to HKLM\Software\Vendor. Problems are usually that the vendor and application names have changed so many times that you can't find it based upon what it happens to be called today. Another issue is apps writing machine config to the current user hive and vice versa. I think most developers are admin, so hey, if they can write it anywhere, then everyone can right?
Ok, so it does seem to validate what you said, but I'll just say that registry config is easier to manage than ini files, a lot easier than xml and the worst of course is some undocumented binary blob.
Ironically, the last one there is very useful on application servers if you have any programs that run as servers but are not a real service. I have one server scripted to auto login as administrator, and then a few shortcuts in the program menus "startup" folder, prefixed with numbers to provide an order. The very last icon in the startup folder is named "9999-Lock" which is the above shortcut.
On boot up, the server auto logs in, runs the crap software, and locks the terminal. This all happens in a few seconds, so anyone local at the console would not have any chance to do much before it locked on them. You still need the password to unlock just the same as login, so its pretty secure if your servers are locked away in a server room.
I'd suggest using a service wrapper. There are a few free ones out there. Some applications need a user context though and not all wrappers will handle that well.
If dell distribute Windows with a pc can I make copies of Windows as long as dell doesn't mind?
Good example. Yes you can make a copy of Windows for transferring to another computer you own if it was a fully licensed version of Windows. (The user can freely view the transmission on Free To Air TV and record for personal viewing later)
Now, I take my Dell laptop in to the repair shop (Optus) and ask them to transfer my OS to my new Asus laptop. (ignoring OEM licensing restrictions which don't apply to the FTA TV rights). The repairman is allowed to charge a fee for the service and no copyright has been broken.
A rival repair shop (Telstra) has a problem because they've paid lots of money to MS (the AFL) to have a badge that says authorised Windows copiers. To bad for them that you don't (and shouldn't) need to have it copied by an authorised copier.
If the AFL wants to stop this, they could move to pay TV only. Fat chance of that happening.
good cops often choose to cover up for bad cops. Why, I'm not sure - any good cops want to weigh in on that problem?
Doesn't that by definition make them bad cops?
Private can work fine providing there is sufficient competition.
Absolutely. Often forgotten when people cry out for laissez faire economies.
Internet access, like other utilities, is a natural monopoly
Almost. Not internet access but fixed line telecommunications. It isn't quite a natural monopoly, but so damn close as not to matter much. Internet access is further up the chain, which is the brilliance of the NBN in my opinion. They allow the competitive environment for IPTV, internet access, and anything else involving high speed and reliable telecoms.
Back on topic, I like Turnbull's idea. Of course this isn't that revolutionary and was part of the justification for the NBN, cost savings for government services. Standardisation of the communications would be fantastic. Perhaps with secure email from certified organisations as the system in Denmark mentioned by irp below. Although, I can't see how you could get spam unless it is just a standard email address which makes the whole thing pointless.
He who has but four and spends five has no need for a wallet.
