Most of the people screaming "socialism" and fighting for tax cuts for the wealthy are precisely the sort of underskilled underemployed laborers that are being left behind by the new corporate mentality. Ironically they are the ones that need a little "socialism" to help pick up the slack.
I can just see them all defending the Soylent Corporation.
Some of my favorite colleagues have been H1-B's but they had real talent. They weren't just IT scabs. They made less than I did despite the fact that they were clearly more qualified. They were in a weak bargaining position with a company willing to take advantage of them.
Even "after the apocalypse" tribes like the Comanche made moving westward or northward (if you are Mexican) difficult. It took a fairly industrialized US Army to dislodge some of the tribes in the interior regardless of what other apocalypse scenarios were going on.
Also, plagues tend to hit "civilized" societies hardest. Densely populated urban areas are much more likely to be impacted. You still see this today with Africa and malaria.
If they are valuable enough to import for their skills, then they are valuable enough to be granted citizenship on the spot. Otherwise, don't bother.
H1-B is an abomination.
Genuine talent should not be effectively enslaved to some American employer. At the very least a proper guest worker deserves an immediate green card and the right to work for any employer they choose. They should be on equal footing as any citizen.
No talent scabs should not even be allowed in the country.
It may be a suboptimal result but it is at least a demonstrable result.
People like to whine about rote learning and facts, but before you start applying "more sophisticated thinking" you have to have a solid grasp of the facts.
I can already play interesting 3D games with the current blob driver from nvidia. Cheaper cards do well enough. I don't really need "ideological purity". It doesn't really make sense anyway if my objective is to successfully run yet another proprietary blob.
You're seeking to "contaminate" the system regardless.
On either alternate platform, and even on Windows the big problem will be what particular hardware you have. Will it be new enough? Will it be powerful enough? Will the particular GPU vendor even be supported at all?
This is a problem with Macs and PCs already. Some kit just isn't cut out for gaming. You're going to be "ignored like a Linux user" even if you're running XP or Win7.
Indie games tend to be a lot less problematic in that regard across the board.
> I'm curious how they'll integrate with the numerous distros > and numerous desktop environments, or sadly, more likely > not integrate at all.
What exactly do you need to "integrate with numerous desktop environments". Try to be precise and not just engage in vague mindless FUD.
It could probably just operate as an alternate package manager and ignore the underlying distribution for the most part. This would annoy a vanishingly small (but noisy) number of "purists" but would likely be very effective.
It's probably a lot easier when you aren't trying to fail.
> Get back to me when non-tech people replace Windows with Linux, without the urging, or help, of tech people.
Macs are no different.
Windows being entrenched is the problem. 30 years of FUD and "legacy" apps have been quite effective at making people believe there aren't any other options out there.
Apple "took the gold"? What gold? It's still an "also ran" just like Linux. It is in exactly the same position with it's user base getting equally excited at the prospect of an Indie game or a Steam port.
When the "app store" gets as robust or as comprehensive as yum or apt-get, then you can start talking.
I can take a dedicated myth backend box and put it under heavy load by recording a lot of things concurrently, then commflagging those recordings, and then even transcoding those recordings. I can further complicate matters by doing a lot of this across the network to other machines on the same LAN.
Under THOSE conditions, a MythTV frontend MIGHT start to hiccup.
THAT is NOTHING like what iTunes does or has to deal with as a trivial sort of media server with no features to speak of.
It's just a simple program doing nothing strenuous running on a box that is likely idle.
All of that stuff is meaningless. Crap accumulates and cycles through so fast on Facebook that there is really no value in any "legacy" data. So you don't have to "migrate" anything. All you have to migrate is the people.
Once people start posting their inane nonsense on the next site du jour, that's all the "migration" that's needed.
Facebook's destroyer just needs to manage to get users. Once it can start accumulating users, it can steal all of Facebook's mindshare.
Old pictures and post are well... old.
It's like saying you need to migrate old Slashdot posts to one of it's rivals.
I know someone that can barely deal with Windows well enough to get onto the web and still manages to be paranoid about privacy on Facebook. You don't have to be a Slashdot geek to understand that exposing yourself to the world is perhaps not such a great idea.
I have an account but I barely use it anymore. Plenty of my "friends" are the same. At least half of the accounts that aren't duplicates are likely mostly inactive.
That makes "network effects" a little more difficult to pull off.
Doesn't make it impossible though and those of us with something resembling a clue should resist any attempt to give Facebook some sort of communications monopoly.
He needs to be making DirecTV boxes, then envy of the industry. Geeks on tech boards should cream themselves when a new model is announced. He needs to create the same kind of buzz that Apple gets or at least have his kit regarded as comparable.
He's also got to realize that "supplmental" services accessed via the web will not harm his bottom line. So he has nothing to fear from assimilating Roku like features.
He needs to make it look like his company is not a dinosaur.
Fanboys have been trying to whip up some hype about some mythical transformative Apple Television for a number of months now. It's been hard to miss really.
DirecTV has problems with marginal increases that impact all of their legacy rivals equally. They don't have to worry about being completely shut out like Apple or having prices go up 10x or 100x like Netflix.
Slashdot Mirror
Most of the people screaming "socialism" and fighting for tax cuts for the wealthy are precisely the sort of underskilled underemployed laborers that are being left behind by the new corporate mentality. Ironically they are the ones that need a little "socialism" to help pick up the slack.
I can just see them all defending the Soylent Corporation.
Some of my favorite colleagues have been H1-B's but they had real talent. They weren't just IT scabs. They made less than I did despite the fact that they were clearly more qualified. They were in a weak bargaining position with a company willing to take advantage of them.
Many people screw it up.
A lot of that money is fees.
Plus, the Feds will gladly take your money even if your paperwork is crap. So it pays to do it right the first time.
It's not quite all "those evil lawyers are gouging" us.
Even "after the apocalypse" tribes like the Comanche made moving westward or northward (if you are Mexican) difficult. It took a fairly industrialized US Army to dislodge some of the tribes in the interior regardless of what other apocalypse scenarios were going on.
Also, plagues tend to hit "civilized" societies hardest. Densely populated urban areas are much more likely to be impacted. You still see this today with Africa and malaria.
If they are valuable enough to import for their skills, then they are valuable enough to be granted citizenship on the spot. Otherwise, don't bother.
H1-B is an abomination.
Genuine talent should not be effectively enslaved to some American employer. At the very least a proper guest worker deserves an immediate green card and the right to work for any employer they choose. They should be on equal footing as any citizen.
No talent scabs should not even be allowed in the country.
Oracle is not "good". They are the victim.
Justice should prevail so that the victim is not punished.
The rules apply to everyone.
It may be a suboptimal result but it is at least a demonstrable result.
People like to whine about rote learning and facts, but before you start applying "more sophisticated thinking" you have to have a solid grasp of the facts.
You have to have something that can be measured.
Clearly this idea scares a lot of people.
ppppfffttt
I can already play interesting 3D games with the current blob driver from nvidia. Cheaper cards do well enough. I don't really need "ideological purity". It doesn't really make sense anyway if my objective is to successfully run yet another proprietary blob.
You're seeking to "contaminate" the system regardless.
On either alternate platform, and even on Windows the big problem will be what particular hardware you have. Will it be new enough? Will it be powerful enough? Will the particular GPU vendor even be supported at all?
This is a problem with Macs and PCs already. Some kit just isn't cut out for gaming. You're going to be "ignored like a Linux user" even if you're running XP or Win7.
Indie games tend to be a lot less problematic in that regard across the board.
> I'm curious how they'll integrate with the numerous distros
> and numerous desktop environments, or sadly, more likely
> not integrate at all.
What exactly do you need to "integrate with numerous desktop environments". Try to be precise and not just engage in vague mindless FUD.
It could probably just operate as an alternate package manager and ignore the underlying distribution for the most part. This would annoy a vanishingly small (but noisy) number of "purists" but would likely be very effective.
It's probably a lot easier when you aren't trying to fail.
Fortunately, real game developers don't seem to be dominated by the sort of people that post anonymously on Slashdot.
So what "you would never do" is probably pretty damn meaningless.
...so it acts like apt-get for games.
> Get back to me when non-tech people replace Windows with Linux, without the urging, or help, of tech people.
Macs are no different.
Windows being entrenched is the problem. 30 years of FUD and "legacy" apps have been quite effective at making people believe there aren't any other options out there.
Apple "took the gold"? What gold? It's still an "also ran" just like Linux. It is in exactly the same position with it's user base getting equally excited at the prospect of an Indie game or a Steam port.
When the "app store" gets as robust or as comprehensive as yum or apt-get, then you can start talking.
I can take a dedicated myth backend box and put it under heavy load by recording a lot of things concurrently, then commflagging those recordings, and then even transcoding those recordings. I can further complicate matters by doing a lot of this across the network to other machines on the same LAN.
Under THOSE conditions, a MythTV frontend MIGHT start to hiccup.
THAT is NOTHING like what iTunes does or has to deal with as a trivial sort of media server with no features to speak of.
It's just a simple program doing nothing strenuous running on a box that is likely idle.
That's Apple "quality" there for you.
Yes. That was my thought.
Get the right 1% of people onto your Facebook competitor and Facebook is done.
All of that stuff is meaningless. Crap accumulates and cycles through so fast on Facebook that there is really no value in any "legacy" data. So you don't have to "migrate" anything. All you have to migrate is the people.
Once people start posting their inane nonsense on the next site du jour, that's all the "migration" that's needed.
Facebook's destroyer just needs to manage to get users. Once it can start accumulating users, it can steal all of Facebook's mindshare.
Old pictures and post are well... old.
It's like saying you need to migrate old Slashdot posts to one of it's rivals.
I know someone that can barely deal with Windows well enough to get onto the web and still manages to be paranoid about privacy on Facebook. You don't have to be a Slashdot geek to understand that exposing yourself to the world is perhaps not such a great idea.
I have an account but I barely use it anymore. Plenty of my "friends" are the same. At least half of the accounts that aren't duplicates are likely mostly inactive.
That makes "network effects" a little more difficult to pull off.
Doesn't make it impossible though and those of us with something resembling a clue should resist any attempt to give Facebook some sort of communications monopoly.
A desktop is perfectly capable of being a "server".
This is the idea behind Plex, or MythTV, or even MCE. It can be done and it can be done reliably. If Apple can't do it then that's their problem.
Adding another slower network into the mix isn't really going to help things.
When I can actually replace DirecTV with iTunes, I will buy into that idea and not a moment sooner.
He needs to be making a better box.
He needs to be making DirecTV boxes, then envy of the industry. Geeks on tech boards should cream themselves when a new model is announced. He needs to create the same kind of buzz that Apple gets or at least have his kit regarded as comparable.
He's also got to realize that "supplmental" services accessed via the web will not harm his bottom line. So he has nothing to fear from assimilating Roku like features.
He needs to make it look like his company is not a dinosaur.
Fanboys have been trying to whip up some hype about some mythical transformative Apple Television for a number of months now. It's been hard to miss really.
You are talking about one heavily subsidized comm device versus another one.
I bet you like to whine about how "Android devices are cheap" too.
People generally do not pay full price for phones and there is no one to subsidize the cost of a TV.
DirecTV has problems with marginal increases that impact all of their legacy rivals equally. They don't have to worry about being completely shut out like Apple or having prices go up 10x or 100x like Netflix.