None of this explains how this absolves them of guilt. The same could be said of Nazi prison camp guards. They were told the jews and other political prisoners were dangerous and were destroying German society.
It's not sufficient to be willing to die following orders. You must also be willing to die for disobeying immoral orders. Otherwise you're just a mercenary.
Too little, too late. Every time I have been to CC (which, I admit, hasn't been more than once a year since the DivX fiasco), buying anything frequently took five-ten minutes, even with only one or two other people in line. There was no good reason for it to go so slow. There would be one person at the registers with tons of other people walking around trying to harass people into buying stuff. It was an experience in frustration.
For CC to continue even though they were such a poorly run company would have really made me wonder about the mechanics of capitalism.
Montalban always reminds me of the character Victor (pronounced "Bictor") from Futurama who was pretty obviously modeled after his soft Corinthian leather days:
VICTOR:
The luxurious seats are stuffed with
eagle down and the dashboard inlaid
with the beaks of a thousand eagles.
Also, there are some eagles under the
floorboards.
As a non-Georgia resident, I agree. The whole justification for continuing penalties on sex offenders is at odds with letting them back out. "You're a dangerous sexual predator, but we'll keep you in check by having your name on a list."
I don't understand where you're making the distinction. Isn't the bank acting like a third party billing service, too? That's my understanding of the bill pay services offered by banks.
Actually, about a month ago I would have thought this, too. I use mycheckfree (got a little shock at first when the article said checkfree) to pay several utilities. They don't take credit cards, and I wanted to rack up cashback by putting the utility on the card (which I always pay on time).
So I went to the utility's website and clicked to sign up to their own payment system. They give me a screen saying something like "We see you're already signed up with another bill paying service to pay our bill. Clicking the signup button will cancel that and assign us as your bill paying service."
Apparently there is some kind of registration/linkage behind the scenes. So yeah, it's completely plausible that if you sign up with an independent bill pay company, your utility will stop sending paper bills.
Of course, the original reason this was brought up is a bit silly. Just set a reminder on a calendar to check on your bills. It's not like most bills have random due dates that change every month.
I know I will catch some flak for saying this, but non-garbage collected languages will soon be relegated to a COBOL-like existence.
I pray you are right. The only thing keeping me from learning COBOL and getting a lucrative job working on the large codebase still out there is the hideousness of the environment. I could definitely stand a high paying niche job working on today's non-GC languages.
Isn't the only reason you can't put a young kid up front because of the airbag? Don't most airbags have a disable function these days, even in cheaper cars?
I'm trying not to be too sarcastic, but why didn't you actually try this before posting? If you did, you'd see the first returned result was a posting in alt.religion.scientology that has nothing to do with microsoft.public.access.
From just looking at the picture, it appears that the device is anchored to the crotch. And from the prominence of that guys package being crunched and the expression on his face, I don't mean that in a GOOD way.
Of course it's complete speculation. What do you think they do when they loan you money? They speculate on the odds that you'll pay it back.
Never said I was using anything for collateral.
And that's precisely the problem. You're trying to say that it's wise for people to loan you money based solely on your job and credit history. It's simply not true in a bad economy, because that's when jobs become very easy to lose. All loaning money to you at 20% interest will do is make it much more likely that you will default before the lender is able to make back their original investment.
As for the high interest rate in the 80s - what do you actually think that represents? I'll tell you - a sharp decline in mortgage lending. Those two things operate in tandem, feeding off one another. Double digit mortgage rates don't make bankers giddy, as you described. They are simply a sign that they will have a much higher default rate and therefore have to charge a higher interest rate in order by possibly break even. They're much happier lending money at LOW rates because their ability to do so means that there is much less risk and they are more likely to get their money back with profit. And they also represent the fact that people stop investing in risky mortgages and take their money to other sectors of the economy that are less risky. Hence the "credit crunch" you've been hearing so much about.
Basic economic principles say that an investor wants to get back their money, plus some profit. Paying 20% interest on a $100k loan means you are probably not very good with money and will be much more likely to default. And lets say you use something for collateral like your home. With home prices doing nothing but falling, that collateral becomes smaller and smaller each day. Collateral is part of what gives you a stake in working hard to pay off your debts.
It's foolish to invest your money in someone who is desperate and will take terms that are clearly unfavorable. If people had paid attention to these more conservative principles, they wouldn't find themselves holding a bunch of worthless ARM mortgages that their borrowers decide to walk away from when home prices dropped.
When I did I say GPL=just giving it away for free? Here's what I said:
He wrote some software to control model trains and gave it away free. Not only that, he took the copyright that the law gives him for such software and gave up any ability to make money off it by releasing it as GPL.
Don't you see the phrase "not only that"? First point: he gave it away for free. Second point: he released it under the GPL, giving up any ability to make money off it.
I don't see where you're getting mixed up. He doesn't have to provide free copies of binaries or anything like that. But the fact that someone could get the code and post it for free really does effectively destroy his ability to make money off it. Nothing I wrote in any way contradicts this.
I think you're missing my point. Ability is not the same thing as right. Ability means are you able to accomplish something or perform some task. Once he released the code as GPL and others got it, they could easily post free versions on the web. The way people in the community would find his software would be through the web. It would be highly unlikely that they would pay for his software when the same software was available for free. It's not that he doesn't have the legal right to sell his software, it's just that the competition makes him unable to do so.
I didn't say he was giving up his right to sell it, I said he was giving up his ability to sell it. The free version would effectively drive his price to zero. He might be able to sell a few copies, but in this day and age people wouldn't even pay the price of the media for something they can download for free. He would need to add value and make money on that. He's not going to make money off this.
I am fully aware of the terms of the GPL. Are you fully aware of the terms of reality? If you give away the software and make it available for free on various websites, you are in effect giving up your ability to make money by selling the software. You can add value to it, through support and extensions. But you're making the money on THAT, not on the software.
Once you've set up a two-headed machine, you will never go back. Even if it means you have to buy your own to use on your work machine. It helps that much.
Meh, not really. I had a two-headed machine. Two 19-inch LCD monitors. It was kind of neat, but I didn't actually see the use of it. I can only look at one thing at a time and I know how to alt-tab. I got rid of the other monitor and never asked for a second one again. And in case you're wondering, I am a coder.
The open source author's assertion of copyright is a form of greed as well.
That's the most ridiculous thing I've heard all morning, and that includes finding out that this guy tried to invoice the original author.
You seem to have redefined the word greed. Let me give you a few of the actual definitions:
"excessive or rapacious desire, esp. for wealth or possessions."
"An excessive desire to acquire or possess more than what one needs or deserves, especially with respect to material wealth"
"1. excessive desire to acquire or possess more (especially more material wealth) than one needs or deserves 2. reprehensible acquisitiveness; insatiable desire for wealth (personified as one of the deadly sins)"
Note the bolded words. The whole point of greed is that it is an extreme. Jacobsen is a model train hobbyist. He wrote some software to control model trains and gave it away free. Not only that, he took the copyright that the law gives him for such software and gave up any ability to make money off it by releasing it as GPL. In addition to that, he's not acquiring money. That's like saying that someone pointing and saying "see that free mural? I painted that" is greed. That you could someone reinterpret this as greed is mind boggling. The only reason I wouldn't say you deserve Jacobsen an apology is that he probably never read your comment.
Slashdot Mirror
Though it's a moot point, since they were all corrupt in the first place.
Before. You may not like it, but this is what we as a society have decided.
These videos are state property. As such, they are public property.
None of this explains how this absolves them of guilt. The same could be said of Nazi prison camp guards. They were told the jews and other political prisoners were dangerous and were destroying German society.
It's not sufficient to be willing to die following orders. You must also be willing to die for disobeying immoral orders. Otherwise you're just a mercenary.
The company started to revise its checkout system
Too little, too late. Every time I have been to CC (which, I admit, hasn't been more than once a year since the DivX fiasco), buying anything frequently took five-ten minutes, even with only one or two other people in line. There was no good reason for it to go so slow. There would be one person at the registers with tons of other people walking around trying to harass people into buying stuff. It was an experience in frustration.
For CC to continue even though they were such a poorly run company would have really made me wonder about the mechanics of capitalism.
Montalban always reminds me of the character Victor (pronounced "Bictor") from Futurama who was pretty obviously modeled after his soft Corinthian leather days:
VICTOR:
The luxurious seats are stuffed with
eagle down and the dashboard inlaid
with the beaks of a thousand eagles.
Also, there are some eagles under the
floorboards.
As a non-Georgia resident, I agree. The whole justification for continuing penalties on sex offenders is at odds with letting them back out. "You're a dangerous sexual predator, but we'll keep you in check by having your name on a list."
Basically he thought he could throw up a slash installation and that a community would magically form around it
To be fair, that's pretty much what slashdot did.
Let's just hope it was "fast fossilized."
I don't understand where you're making the distinction. Isn't the bank acting like a third party billing service, too? That's my understanding of the bill pay services offered by banks.
Actually, about a month ago I would have thought this, too. I use mycheckfree (got a little shock at first when the article said checkfree) to pay several utilities. They don't take credit cards, and I wanted to rack up cashback by putting the utility on the card (which I always pay on time).
So I went to the utility's website and clicked to sign up to their own payment system. They give me a screen saying something like "We see you're already signed up with another bill paying service to pay our bill. Clicking the signup button will cancel that and assign us as your bill paying service."
Apparently there is some kind of registration/linkage behind the scenes. So yeah, it's completely plausible that if you sign up with an independent bill pay company, your utility will stop sending paper bills.
Of course, the original reason this was brought up is a bit silly. Just set a reminder on a calendar to check on your bills. It's not like most bills have random due dates that change every month.
Great news. I need new glasses and it would be nice not to have to make a separate trip.
I know I will catch some flak for saying this, but non-garbage collected languages will soon be relegated to a COBOL-like existence.
I pray you are right. The only thing keeping me from learning COBOL and getting a lucrative job working on the large codebase still out there is the hideousness of the environment. I could definitely stand a high paying niche job working on today's non-GC languages.
Isn't the only reason you can't put a young kid up front because of the airbag? Don't most airbags have a disable function these days, even in cheaper cars?
And this is the third (for database group:microsoft.public.access):
Re: starting up database
microsoft.public.sqlserver.server
It was not crossposted to microsoft.public.access.
If you keep going, you'll see results from frontpage, informix and sybase groups.
The scientology one I posted was from "searchterm group:microsoft.public.access". I just literally searched what you posted.
Here's another for you:
erase group:microsoft.public.access
Not a single m.p.a hit on the first page. Plenty of other crap, though.
No, they broke it.
I'm trying not to be too sarcastic, but why didn't you actually try this before posting? If you did, you'd see the first returned result was a posting in alt.religion.scientology that has nothing to do with microsoft.public.access.
From just looking at the picture, it appears that the device is anchored to the crotch. And from the prominence of that guys package being crunched and the expression on his face, I don't mean that in a GOOD way.
Complete speculation on your part.
Of course it's complete speculation. What do you think they do when they loan you money? They speculate on the odds that you'll pay it back.
Never said I was using anything for collateral.
And that's precisely the problem. You're trying to say that it's wise for people to loan you money based solely on your job and credit history. It's simply not true in a bad economy, because that's when jobs become very easy to lose. All loaning money to you at 20% interest will do is make it much more likely that you will default before the lender is able to make back their original investment.
As for the high interest rate in the 80s - what do you actually think that represents? I'll tell you - a sharp decline in mortgage lending. Those two things operate in tandem, feeding off one another. Double digit mortgage rates don't make bankers giddy, as you described. They are simply a sign that they will have a much higher default rate and therefore have to charge a higher interest rate in order by possibly break even. They're much happier lending money at LOW rates because their ability to do so means that there is much less risk and they are more likely to get their money back with profit. And they also represent the fact that people stop investing in risky mortgages and take their money to other sectors of the economy that are less risky. Hence the "credit crunch" you've been hearing so much about.
Basic economic principles say that an investor wants to get back their money, plus some profit. Paying 20% interest on a $100k loan means you are probably not very good with money and will be much more likely to default. And lets say you use something for collateral like your home. With home prices doing nothing but falling, that collateral becomes smaller and smaller each day. Collateral is part of what gives you a stake in working hard to pay off your debts.
It's foolish to invest your money in someone who is desperate and will take terms that are clearly unfavorable. If people had paid attention to these more conservative principles, they wouldn't find themselves holding a bunch of worthless ARM mortgages that their borrowers decide to walk away from when home prices dropped.
When I did I say GPL=just giving it away for free? Here's what I said:
He wrote some software to control model trains and gave it away free. Not only that, he took the copyright that the law gives him for such software and gave up any ability to make money off it by releasing it as GPL.
Don't you see the phrase "not only that"? First point: he gave it away for free. Second point: he released it under the GPL, giving up any ability to make money off it.
I don't see where you're getting mixed up. He doesn't have to provide free copies of binaries or anything like that. But the fact that someone could get the code and post it for free really does effectively destroy his ability to make money off it. Nothing I wrote in any way contradicts this.
I think you're missing my point. Ability is not the same thing as right. Ability means are you able to accomplish something or perform some task. Once he released the code as GPL and others got it, they could easily post free versions on the web. The way people in the community would find his software would be through the web. It would be highly unlikely that they would pay for his software when the same software was available for free. It's not that he doesn't have the legal right to sell his software, it's just that the competition makes him unable to do so.
It's GPL. I dug through the site to find it. But before you reply about the terms of the GPL, please read my other responses.
I didn't say he was giving up his right to sell it, I said he was giving up his ability to sell it. The free version would effectively drive his price to zero. He might be able to sell a few copies, but in this day and age people wouldn't even pay the price of the media for something they can download for free. He would need to add value and make money on that. He's not going to make money off this.
I am fully aware of the terms of the GPL. Are you fully aware of the terms of reality? If you give away the software and make it available for free on various websites, you are in effect giving up your ability to make money by selling the software. You can add value to it, through support and extensions. But you're making the money on THAT, not on the software.
Once you've set up a two-headed machine, you will never go back. Even if it means you have to buy your own to use on your work machine. It helps that much.
Meh, not really. I had a two-headed machine. Two 19-inch LCD monitors. It was kind of neat, but I didn't actually see the use of it. I can only look at one thing at a time and I know how to alt-tab. I got rid of the other monitor and never asked for a second one again. And in case you're wondering, I am a coder.
The open source author's assertion of copyright is a form of greed as well.
That's the most ridiculous thing I've heard all morning, and that includes finding out that this guy tried to invoice the original author.
You seem to have redefined the word greed. Let me give you a few of the actual definitions:
"excessive or rapacious desire, esp. for wealth or possessions."
"An excessive desire to acquire or possess more than what one needs or deserves, especially with respect to material wealth"
"1. excessive desire to acquire or possess more (especially more material wealth) than one needs or deserves
2. reprehensible acquisitiveness; insatiable desire for wealth (personified as one of the deadly sins)"
Note the bolded words. The whole point of greed is that it is an extreme. Jacobsen is a model train hobbyist. He wrote some software to control model trains and gave it away free. Not only that, he took the copyright that the law gives him for such software and gave up any ability to make money off it by releasing it as GPL. In addition to that, he's not acquiring money. That's like saying that someone pointing and saying "see that free mural? I painted that" is greed. That you could someone reinterpret this as greed is mind boggling. The only reason I wouldn't say you deserve Jacobsen an apology is that he probably never read your comment.