Discussions

2 days ago, Bas wrote

Consumers are not okay with this, and will vote with their wallets. Just look at Steam, it would have been a huge success if only people were able to resell their games.

Bas has a point here (assuming this is sarcasm). Partly why Stream works IMO is because stuff can't be easily resold. When I mean "Steam working", I mean the firesale deals that Steam is famous for. Because they can't be resold, they are less likely to cannibalize future sales of the game. Selling the game that low generates a lot of buzz for the game, and when the sale is over it goes back to the normal price and people who didn't get in miss out, and might buy it at the normal price. Because of this a game developer that might put a game at 80% off for a weekend might be reluctant to do the same if it meant thousands of copies of the game would go up on eBay a week later.

I think the somewhat archaic function signature syntax he uses is still valid C to this day (I also remember seeing it in some recent GNU stuff too). Apparently the auto keyword is still valid also but pretty much a no-op. Interesting stuff fanbaby.

http://www.mono-project.com/Mono:Runtime

As you see Mono supports many mainstream platforms (using JIT), and pretty much any platform gcc runs on (using an interpreter). Obviously not surprising because .NET compiles to a high level bytecode (CIL).

I'm sure .NET could be equally portable but it is just that Microsoft isn't going to port .NET to architectures that a Microsoft kernel doesn't run on.

11 minutes ago, Proton2 wrote

*snip*

 

This was tried on luxury boats and it destroyed the luxury boat business, putting a lot of people out of work.

http://www.nytimes.com/1991/07/21/nyregion/new-luxury-tax-trimming-boat-sales.html

 

I feel like that's a bit like the broken window fallacy.

10 seconds ago, Kental2 wrote

*snip*

I actually agree with this, but I think most people feel that "big evil corporations" need to "pay their fair share" which means if they make more than 1% profit they aren't being taxed enough

The corporation itself is just a group of natural people bound by some legal documents. Any time a natural person benefits from the success of a corporation they get taxed. Dividends, capital gains from selling stock, and salaries and bonuses are all taxed.

IMO increase taxes on luxury goods (yachts, multiple expensive cars, jet planes, etc.) and on big houses and private airports to discourage conspicuous consumption amongst rich people. Sales and property taxes also have the benefit of being a lot harder to get around.

The whole idea of a "corporate income tax" is silly to begin with. Corporations should pay taxes on real assets (real estate, etc.) but the idea of income only really makes sense for natural persons.

@algorith:

Meh, my Xbox 360 works well enough.

@cbae:

You can also use the package manager to install any UI you want, but Mint is a bit more than that.  I mean why even use Ubuntu? You build everything from scratch (good way to learn how stuff is put together IMO) if you want.. but not everyone has the time for that, that's what distros mainly exist to alleviate.

Also I don't really think any of the "Windows 7 stuff on 8" is anything more than a written from scratch imitation since Microsoft didn't release the source code to the start menu. Better than nothing I guess.

I'm not convinced that a truly "all road" "all conditions" self-driving car can be simplified beyond the general AI problem. Which either means the Google car won't come out, or it will come out shortly before Google SkyNet subjugates all of humanity. Just my take.

58 minutes ago, brian.​shapiro wrote

@Bas:

*snip*

What are you going to do to enjoy your time? Post on Channel9? Play Angry Birds? My larger point was what most people would do to pass time in a car ride is just as much a waste of time as driving -- although some people would use it productively. 

Don't make me get all existentialist.