Posts by Sean Ryan

US, EU tech trade row gets serious

America's "Unfair Tariffs'

@jeremy

Isn't it true that because of the way America's Tax laws interact with VAT, most of the rest of the world effectively has a fairly high tariff against American goods? American products factors are effectively taxed in America (through income taxes mostly) and both the consuming country, but VAT exporting countries don't have that problem because they primarily tax consumption. That's why when you buy an American game (or car, heaven forbid) it's so darn expensive, but there's no real price differential for non-American games to be bought here.

So criticize America's trade policy if you will (there's plenty to criticize), but watch the hypocrisy.

Actually

Americans (certainly I and the folks around me) tend to criticize our own government as much as anyone. Perhaps Obama can provide a more sensible foreign policy... why do we spend so much to police the world when the world doesn't want it? (Um, don't answer that). But America is far from a monolithic entity.

There's a lot of American policy that's been held hostage to hubris and to Wall Street. I think America's trade deficit stands testimony to that: even this is probably is a case of some American MNCs trying to resell Chinese-made equipment to Europe cheaper. If we ever get anyone in Washington with any real vision, a lot will change to the better, but I'm not sure bashing the American people is the right response: we don't have a presentation of great choices.

Apple grants Windows PCs the right to run Safari for Windows

Neither own nor control

At the risk of seeming a troll, I must add that with my new Vista system, I feel like I neither own nor control it. But it can at least be persuaded to run the apps that my Ubuntu machine with wine can't hack.

Golf and Intel Inside China threaten life as we know it

If they buy Intel, I quit.

Even if it means I have to give up working in processor design.

Red hair bullying cases could end up in court

You're in the wrong country

I hesitate to repeat this in a public forum, but what the heck. There's a joke I heard in College:

The mating call of a blonde: "I'm drunk."

The mating call of a brunette: "I'm SOOO drunk!"

The mating call of a redhead: "Next."

I suppose you could gather from this that redheads have "loose moral fibre", but I always just assumed the joke referred to general popularity. In any case, redheads tend to be favored in the U.S.

Negroponte slams Intel over OLPC competition

The whole thing is sour grapes

Am I alone in not seeing what Intel is doing wrong here? Negroponte wants cheap laptops for kids, and they're going to happen if Intel puts money behind it. Hooray for the world. He's just upset that they're not using his product.

If he's going to use Intel's competitor's products in his scheme, he should be neither surprised nor upset at Intel for offering a competing product. If you're worried about the fact that he didn't get compensated for the innovative value of the OLPC project, he should have patented the darn thing.

Plus, Negroponte is right: the sales numbers on this are too big, and there's a good chance this will drive down PC costs for everyone. Intel really has no choice but to do this, or they will get seriously toasted. You might not mind that, but from Intel's perspective, what else could they do?

I just don't get the "Big Bad Intel" angle on this thing.