1,408 karma · joined June 4, 2011
With automation increasingly replacing many jobs, creativity remains the last area left where mankind can be successful in capitalism.
If creativity has no worth as well then we are descending into a reality where nothing has value – including individuality itself.
It didn't hurt their auto manufacturing industry. Japan has moved some manufacturing to America and their cars still remain at the top of any car site list just as they have always been.
>Complaints of unfair trade eventually forced Japan to open their domestic market to overseas competition.
The complaints were true just as the ones leveraged against China now.
While you may have given a very detailed response, the truth was that Japanese never cared about as much about software as they should have.
The situation has become so dire in Japan that Sony is making phones, at least on par with Samsung, but cannot sell them in their own country due to perception. It's a consequence of a reputation that has been degrading for a decade.
I'd argue that Japanese culture has changed dramatically in the "Nintendo" era. It's one that left behind the tradition of their own culture to adopt Western values while many Western tech companies today base their values upon that same tradition.
However, my concerns lie with the majority who aren't creative because they weren't taught this at home or by the school system when this is becoming more and more important in an economy that is difficult to find a job. It's difficult to teach anyone to be creative past the time they graduate college. They become too set in whatever ideology they believe in.
I watched (and loved) Siskel & Ebert when I was a kid living in NY. When I saw it, it came on late at nite on a Sunday after The Twilight Zone or Tales from the Darkside which always scared me.
I'll still never forgive Ebert for giving a lukewarm (possibly thumbs down) for Heat after all these years. Don't get me wrong. I love the guy because he loves arts but I just won't ever forget.
Every time I loved a movie Ebert would piss all over it while Siskel loved it. Needless to say, you can tell which fan I am of the two. With that said, the greatest thing about him is that he overcame any obstacle presented before him. Maybe it's the love of a good woman that allows this.
I'm always the student but I can't figure out how to be as great as he was.
I can point to scientific theses about how it will occur in the future. Are you willing to bet against 95% of the scientific community?
>why a human killing elephants to feed his family is somehow invalid, whereas if lions do the same thing, it's OK.
Are lions wiping out a species?
The curve is on an upward climb while available resources have been declining.
>Finally, yet another bad assumption you're making is that we should limit population growth through draconian measures like… well murdering people, or allowing them to die unnecessarily.
I never said murder anyone. Nature's been doing that for a very long time.
Ever been to Africa? Do you think that the tribes care about education.
If the world had enough jobs to support everyone, then Western countries would have low job rates. Maybe you should have read my replies to similar comments.
If you'd like to be arrogant about it then that's fine. However, we revolve around and are dependent on animals, insects and plants to provide us life.
>We evolved to expand; we're machines to replicate DNA.
You can expand as much as you want. Nature will fight back like it has with adaptive viruses and the Ice Age.
>You may want to save the environment so you can continue to live, but poaching elephants doesn't harm human survivability.
My comment dealt with saving humanity from humans. If you think it's fine to kill elephants while they hold a funeral then you've lost your humanity. Some already have. A bunch of 6 year-olds just got killed and NRA subscriptions went up during that span before any legislation.
>Educated societies have far fewer children than non, to the point that some first world countries are losing population.
You're citing statistics without understanding the reason why. Education means a higher household income which has become less so during the recent economic crisis. The traditional reasoning, while crude, of why poor people have more kids is because they have less money. What they can do is have more sex because they don't have the money to do anything else.
We are at the point now where college grads have a hard time finding a job. How is more college grads going to solve the problem?
The gap has been widening in the US between the rich and middle class ever since Reagan. The same is happening for other Western countries as well.
I respect Bill Gates and think his cause is noble but they are partly childish because of the idealism and the hopes to cure disease. ilaksh's post on this thread is part of the reason why though I wanted to reply to your post instead of doing so to his. It will be far more controversial though.
David Attenborough recently said that human beings are a plague on Earth.
I'll present you with three stories:
http://www.theverge.com/2013/1/23/3906520/planet-earth-narra...
Peter Beard, in an interview with Alec Baldwin on 'Here's the Thing', said that AIDS was a good thing in Africa because of overpopulation and it caused quite a stir.
I listened to an All Things Considered story where, not only was there a slaughter of elephants for their ivory tusks, but they would wait until more elephants would come back to mourn the slain and the poachers would kill them too. When asked, off the record, the poacher said he had to feed his family. The natural question I asked is "Why are you having kids you can't afford?" The question wasn't asked during the piece and it's something that isn't asked worldwide.
There are numerous examples of mankind ruining the environment. As the most intelligent life on this planet, we are to be the custodians and not expand like a virus.
Even if you took the approach of mankind over everything else we are now destroying the soil which we rely on and food shortages continue as the price for food continues to rise.
The answers don't come easy in this world. The best ones are the most difficult to make. I suspect Western countries will have to do the same in the coming years to limit population growth.
I will say that social networks like Facebook have introduced some interesting dynamics and engagement that could have not existed otherwise such as Caine's Arcade.
I think we're all waiting for the social network we all want and pay the $10-$12/year for privacy, transparency and complete ownership over our data.
There's no question Gates was as much of a skilled tactician more than a coder (which he was great at when he did it) but, while I'm sure he still loves MS, he is a man in the real world looking for a cause to drive him. MS is in the past.
I can't blame him. A good woman changes you and that's what Melinda did.
There are other apps for personal use or collaboration such as Wunderlist, Omnifocus (Mac, not PC) and Any.Do (only available natively for iPhone and Android.)
I love Evernote but I don't use it for to-do's or projects. There are plenty of other alternatives that work well in sharing personal projects as well.
You also don't get sales by shipping a product too early. The Playbook proved this. There are inherent design flaws within RT that has also plagued W8 usability that MS did not give proper consideration of before release.
The story that comes across to me is of a CEO that knows he's not doing a good enough job transitioning MS into a new era. His insecurity gets the better of him and he fires anyone who is conceived, by the media, of being a potential threat while losing major talent in the process.
If that is the argument then MS will fail. This isn't 20 years ago where corporate could dictate what tech you used.
As it is, half of these arguments in this article are flawed. The Surface isn't as good as what was offered by OEMs or Apple. .
How does the Surface weigh more than an iPad 3 when the iPad 3 had a high-res display and was already considered to heavy? Why does the Surface have a kickstand that is useless on your lap when typing? This is what hardware design is about.
Other Win RT tablets cost more because of the lack of cash that MS has where they can pay for pre-production costs and, at the same time, they don't have to pay licensing fees for the OS
It should be irrelevant to MS if MS is competing with other OEMs. Their goal was to increase revenue.
I'm sure MS will get better at hardware and software but they should learn patience first instead of being so quick in attempting to jump both Apple and Google in product development.
I just want to get the story straight to know where I stand.
For half of their tenure Congress is preparing for re-election. Much of the other time left is meeting with lobbyists who pay enough to their campaign to represent one side of the issue.
There are other issues that exist at Apple which are far more important.
I could say the same for any tech company but I expect more from those who pretended to be above it all.
In fact, Apple has better The Streets for most of the past six years.
>I think the right answer is that Apple just fails to pass the gut test for most people.
This is no surprise. Apple holds no significant monopoly so AAPL is volatile. The stock is ripe for manipulation with a P/E that is far lower than many other tech companies while almost one-third of the company's value is in cash on hand.
The bigger issue for me is why this story has been so well covered by Daring Fireball, The Loop, MG Siegler and the rest of the Apple blogosphere? Do they really believe that they will affect general opinion of the stock or force an investigation?
What screams out to me is that this is about favoritismm but coming from intelligent people whom can deny it in a way that sounds reasonable to the average person.
I saw a story on Techmeme yesterday where the husband of the attorney supposedly said a plea was offered of six months. I'm not sure if the story was true but, if it was, it would put the story in a different light.
The most famous story is of the Clutter family written about by Truman Capote. I'm not sure if they had a gun but the family was home and were intended to be murdered at the time of the robbery.
#3 is possible but, with what has happened so far, conservative bosses have threatened to decline their workforce if Obama won the election. Nothing has been shown to the opposite.
I'm sure it's nice to know for robbers as well if they knew you didn't have one. The info was always available but now the ones who don't make an honest living know this.