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Slashback: Wal-Modem, Culpability, Misquotes
There must be some mistake; this is what I wanted. Masem writes: "The review of the OS-less PCs sold through Wal-Mart brought out a lot of comments on the inclusion of a WinModem, effectively requiring Windows to make the computer work correctly. However, NewsForge reports that shortly after that posting, Microtel, the makers of these computers, wrote back to the reviewer and indicated that new versions of the systems will ship with Linux-friendly modems from now on. Nice to see a company that knows its target audience and how to make them happy."
Thanks, Microtel!
Next: ethernet cable manufacturers. cpt kangarooski writes: "For those tuning in late, Harlan Ellison sued AOL (among others) for having the temerity to permit users to upload copies of his copyrighted works across their networks on the Usenet. As it turns out, AOL was in the right, and got a summary judgment against Ellison.
The opinion by Judge Cooper is located here in PDF format Given his reputation, Ellison will likely appeal."
Welcome to Ix, please take off your shoes. cayle clark writes "A few months back I asked slashdot about shopping in the Akihabara, Tokyo's famous "electric town," and got lots of good advice. Well, now I been and went there, took some pictures, and posted an illustrated account here. Netting it out, it's a keen place to wander, and prices are in some (but only some) cases lower than in the USA."
Hacking at the ties that bind Following up on the new venture in wireless from the LinuxCare crew, Dave Sifry writes "802.11b Networking News wrote up a summary of the new Sputnik Gateway release today, codenamed Stagecoach. The Community Gateway code runs from CD and turns a computer with an ethernet card and Prism 802.11b card into a secure authenticating firewalled 802.11b Access Point. New features of this release include support for desktop cards, like the Linksys WMP11 PCI card, which means that you can turn your old 486 in a closet into a cheap secure wireless router."
I'd rather they save Futurama, but gift horse, teeth, etc. Remik writes "Yahoo News is carrying this story letting Simpsons creator Matt Groening set the record straight that the Simpsons isn't winding down and that it isn't on the ropes. He claims he was misquoted and misunderstood in a Financial Times of London article that came out earlier this week and that he does indeed has stories for years and years. What if Marge became a robot? Hmm..."
Has anyone detected the envelope with the winner's name yet? SoundGuy666 writes "Looks like SETI made it past that 500 million milestone - wonder who won the $500 prize..."
When did it jump? I think I know, but everyone agrees it's happened already.
As soon as I saw the episode where Marge is
kidnapped by a biker gang, I said "This is so
incredibly forced and predictable. They're not
trying any more. I bet this show ends soon."
I got 2 out of 3.
Austin is more fun than Dallas.
globalization...third world labor
Gosh break out the moral dilemna rags!
Good grief. Globalization itself is not evil, no more than capitalism or socialism is evil.
And what the heck is wrong with employing third world labor? You mean they should go without jobs?
Hey buddy, my truck was built in Indiana and North Carolina by a Japanese company. Should I refuse to buy any truck not built within 50 miles of where I live, and not built by locals?
Get a grip. Nothing is local any more. Any Wal Mart driving out inefficient mom-and-pop stores, well, too bad, but that's how progress works. The downside is the newly unemployed have to find a new job. The upside is costs drop, and society finds other uses for previously inefficient workers. They have been fred upt o do something NEW. Got a problem with that?
Yeh, let's all go back so damn far that everyone is employed locally, say, all the way back to when everyone had their own garden, made their own clothes, and so on.
I personally dislike Wal-Mart for their extreme penny puinching attitude, I always feel like they are squeezing the last penny out of every thing, and like I should go shower after leaving the place. I don't shop there much. But they have done a hell of a lot of good in keeping prices low for the great unwashed majority. I say Go Wal-Mart!
Infuriate left and right
Amen to that. Ironically, however, the path to that happy state almost certainly lies in increased involvement in the world economy, and that at first is going to come through Western companies. So it's OK to pressure Wal-Mart, Nike, or whomever, but recognize the irony... Here in the industrial West, we reached more human working conditions through strife and struggle; it's unlikely to happen smoothly anywhere else. The worst thing is, the transnationals seemed to have learned a lot of lessons about stopping the process, but we are not transmitting the right lessons about moving it forward.
The Mongrel Dogs Who Teach
Globalization is definately NOT evil. Yes, the U.S. does lose blue collar jobs to "third-world countries" but that is not necessarlly a bad thing. The reason that labor is so cheap in undeveloped nations in that it is very unproductive. If an employee wasn't working in a textile mill, making $1 a day, they would be without a job entirely. Sure, that wage is low according to our standards but when your next-best option is no job and starving, which would you pick? As the workforce becomes more skilled and educated, the price of labor becomes more expensive. Look at Japan: following World War II, they were an underdeveloped nation and labor was cheap. Now, as the country has developed, the price of labor in Japan is near that in the US. Take Germany: highly skilled labor is, in fact, more expensive than in the U.S. but is used to produce finer-quality products (luxary vehicles are one).
It would be exploiting a worker in the United States or other simarlly industrialized nation where the standard of living was high to pay a very low wage. So what happens? Ideally, the price of the imported goods are cheaper than they would be if they were made domestically. The aggregate savings that society relizes can be used to reeducate the workforce that would have been manufacturing the imported good to perform work that requires more education or skills and then the standard of living for ALL Americans can increase. At the same time, underdeveloped countries will develop more and increase the standard of living in those countries.
So, while globalization might force change, it is a change for the better. We get cheaper goods and a better standard of living. The foreign countries get meaningful jobs, the workforce and economy develops, and their standard of living increases. Global society as a whole is better off then it was before.
I don't shop at Wal-Mart because of their illegal actions towards the attempted organization of their employees, among other reasons. But the fact that they sell foreign-made goods is not one of them.
That's nothing. Last year he was ranting about how it should be illegal to write software like gnutella. Not "use for illegal purposes". Write.
I think Ellison is gradually transitioning from his traditional role as the "outspoken grumpy curmudgeon" of the SF world, to being the "crazy homeless man shouting at the parking meter" of the SF world.
Cry me a river. I myself have spent some time living in the Peruvian Andes in a village that didn't have running water or electricity and that relied on human (and to a small extent animal) power for everything, and I wouldn't wish that existence on anyone. Even the worst sweatshops in Lima have better living conditions than those of the typical Andean subsistance farmer. Not too mention the fact that the workers in Lima are far less likely to be harrassed by terrorists, drug-lords, or government soldiers.
The low end of the technology ladder is a crappy place to be. I don't see you giving up your car, your computer, and all the other trappings of civilized life to go live in the bush. Why should it surprise you that third world folk want to live like you do?
[switching to hardware modems] may not seem like it's very significant, but it is. Consider this: One of the world's largest retailers has decided that the Open Source community may be a viable marketplace. Wal-Mart has promoted products aimed at us. And that has opened the door for us to be heard, not as techies, but as consumers.
All true, and it also occurred to me that changing to a Linux-friendly modem is a very, very smart move on the part of Microtel.
If Microsoft were to sue Microtel and Walmart under some theory of contributory copyright infringement -- inducing people to buy computers for the purpose of pirating Windows, it would be difficult for Microtel or Walmart to make the argument that those computers were intended for Linux use, if they contained hardware that is designed to only work under Windows.