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Comment Re:Good Riddance! (Score 3, Insightful) 1105

The argument is not that a corporation itself is a conscious being. An enormous number of people think that is the argument, but it's not. It's a huge straw man argument that's repeated ad nauseam, especially since Citizens United.

The *actual* argument is that corporations are *groups of people* (the shareholders) and that groups of people have the same rights as individuals. Doesn't that seem a lot more reasonable?

Your other argument is that they're not trying to ban speech, they're trying to ban the 'funding of speech'. It's the same thing. What you are saying is this: 'a group of people, in the form of shareholders, should not be allowed to pool their resources in order to get a message to the public.' Why do you want this? Because you don't want the public to be influenced by their message. You are trying to *abridge* their freedom of speech. Cutting the funding is just your *method* of preventing the speech. It's like saying "I'm not preventing your freedom of speech, I'm just duck-taping your mouth."

Comment Re:NEWS FLASH (Score 1) 298

It's not about driving quality down or even changing the products at all. It's about distribution. Neither Amazon nor mom and pop shops generally make the goods they sell. Amazon is more efficient at distributing goods, thus consumers save money and their standard of living increases without earning more money.

Comment Re:NEWS FLASH (Score 1) 298

Walmart may be on the lower end of the quality spectrum, but that's besides the point. Go with Amazon if you want higher quality (or low quality, or anything). The point is that having thousands of mom and pop shops is not an efficient way to distribute goods, and that is why large retailers like Walmart and Amazon have lower prices. That may not be good for the moms and pops, but it is good for everyone else.

Comment Re:NEWS FLASH (Score 1) 298

It does work out for the US because low prices improve our standard of living, even if our income doesn't increase. As crazy as it sounds, efficiently distributing goods through Walmart and Amazon is better than doing it inefficiently through thousands of mom and pop shops.

Comment Re:Wow... (Score 1) 491

Instead of your 4 typed keys; then hunting through the list that pops up from the search (after waiting whatever time the search took - maybe your hard drive had to spin up to read the index?)

The 4 typed keys for me are the Window key, first two letters of program, and then the enter key. Occasionally I have to type the first 3 letters of the program for a total of 5 keys. I'm not hunting through a list at all. And for me, the search has never taken longer than it takes me to type the 4-5 keys (a second or less). I know that at least some things in Windows search are constantly stored in memory and do not require the hard drive. I'd guess that the names and locations of programs make the cut, just as I assume they'd do when you click on All Programs in Windows 7's start menu.

Also; there is no guarantee that there aren't other matches for the word "Control" in your apps; and thus no guarantee that *typing* to search for something will quickly find what you want.

Honestly, how often do you think the first word in an app matches the first word in another app? Maybe 1% of the time? And even in that case, are you honestly saying it takes more time to hit window key and type 2 words than it takes to navigate your mouse to the start button, left click, navigate to All Programs, left click, look for program name in list, navigate mouse to it, and left click? .

Comment Re:Wow... (Score 1) 491

Back in the real world, if your GRAPHICAL User Interface requires you to type the name of a program to start it, it's a lousy UI.

It takes less time to type 4 keys than it does to navigate your mouse to the start button, left click, navigate to All Programs, left click, look for program name in list, navigate mouse to it, and left click.

We don't do word processing by clicking letters with our mouse, even in a GRAPHICAL User Interface.

Comment Re:Why is that "collusion"? (Score 2, Informative) 319

I think you really underestimate people. I think the general public understands that movies consume a lot of data, and I certainly think most smart phone owners do. Even if some of them didn't, people generally don't stare at their shrinking wallet as drool drips of their chin. They can learn.

Entities like youtube can adapt too. If people feel constrained by their data limits, they will demand that content providers be cognizant of this. Many content providers already are, simply because it's too fucking slow to watch hi-quality videos on a cell phone (because of people like you who use 10 GB a month!!).

AT&T is planning on putting a cap at 2GB a month. According to AT&T, 98% of their customers use less than that (and 65% use only 200 MB!). http://www.wirelessweek.com/News/2010/06/Business-ATT-Data-Use-New-Plans-Data-Services/

Comment Re:Honest question (Score 1) 319

Why does everyone think these ISPs are making so much money? They're not.

Five year average, after tax profit margin:

Verizon: 7.6%
AT&T: 10.5%
Sprint: (17.4%)

http://finapps.forbes.com/finapps/jsp/finance/compinfo/Ratios.jsp?tkr=vz
http://finapps.forbes.com/finapps/jsp/finance/compinfo/Ratios.jsp?tkr=T
http://finapps.forbes.com/finapps/jsp/finance/compinfo/Ratios.jsp?tkr=s

Comment Re:Air is not water. (Score 1) 116

What I'm saying is that the use of an economizer doesn't add much complexity to the system. If the A/C system requires precise control, then the control system will be complex whether you use an economizer or not. A data center load can easily fluctuate more than the outdoor air. Adding an economizer to an already complex system such as this does not add that much complexity. Talk to me about the issue if you want to talk. (IOW: I get really annoyed by immature dicks.)

Comment Re:Air is not water. (Score 2, Informative) 116

It's really not that tricky. All you need are temperature/humidity probes for the outdoor air and the return air and a control sequence that knows to use outdoor air instead of return air whenever the temp/humidity of the outdoor air is better. As you said, this is what an economizer does. There's nothing unusual about them, in fact they're required by code in many climates that have cool/dry air.

Comment Re:I said "Government owns everything" (Score 1) 873

I disagree. The government already has oversight and regulation, why aren't they working? You made the point that banks found loopholes in existing regulation. So what's the solution? It's not more regulation, it's better regulation. Do you seriously think the government can provide effective regulation?

You say that capitalists don't realize how imperfect the real world is. I'd say that you don't realize how imperfect the government is. Why can't we just rely on independent credit rating agencies instead of the government? I agree with you that correct information is vital for an economy, but I think you're wrong that the government needs to provide this. I think people too easily assume that their investments are safe because the government ensures that no one is doing anything wrong. If anything, that allows businesses to provide less information because people will just assume the government is getting all the right information. If we take the government out of the equation, people will absolutely demand information. Businesses will either have to provide it or not get investments. More demand for information will create more opportunities for credit agencies, increase the competition, and obtain better results.

Capitalism isn't perfect. People make incorrect speculations and bubbles happen, but the government is also run by people. It's even worse because it's run by people with less incentive to do their job. There is no perfect system, but capitalism is as good as it gets.

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