Thursday, December 08, 2005

Random absurdity, Why is it that?

Why is it that:

  • Someone can rob a store or bank for $10,000 and be sent to jail for like 5 years.
    • If he's black, it'll be on COPS.
yet...
    • A bigwig CEO exec can steal like $300M from a falling company, and yet not be put on trial for 5 years, and when he is, gets only a few years?
  • WinAmp plays .wmv files better than media player, yet .wmv is a Microsoft format?
  • Adobe Acrobot, a relatively simple, well developed program, yet..
    • is the buggiest software I've used yet, bar none.
    • Photoshop is much more complex, and yet has never crashed on me.

  • Many of the people who get paid the most in the world, do the least amount of work? (edit- I know the answer to this one- people get paid for responsibility, not work).

  • Computer software constantly and crucially depends on the ability to freely and quickly reuse, combine and evolve previous techniques.
    • Yet many people want to make everything, including software, patentable.
    • (OK, answer here is greed, and lawyers wanting to butt in where they aren't needed :)
    • I quote: "If patent law had been applied to novels in the 1880s, great books would not have been written"

  • Feminists fight for equality, and yet some want the good but not bad aspects of equality?
    • The answer here is groups, including unions, go to far after a while,like most groups.

  • I may miss the point a lot, but take this case:
    • a local CAW representative threatened city council with "no longer giving/helping out charities" if his demands weren't met
  • hasn't this guy missed the point of charity, that you do it because it's right?
  • A form of accounting, which allowed future theoretical profits (even 10 years in advance) to be booked for the current fiscal year, was allowed to be used by Corporations. This led to the Enron scandal, as well as the DotCom boom/bust. In my opinion, this would never had occurred without this most ludicrous method.
    • I hope to God this type of "accounting" isn't allowed anymore.

  • In the US, Corporations are allowed to "invest" the money they take from employees for a retirement plan into their own company. Thus, if X company goes bankrupt, all their employees and retirees lose their company pensions.
    • Thank God this is illegal in Canada. Shouldn't it be illegal everywhere?

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