I have 100gigs of drive space.. about 95% used.. very little of it holding easy to restore stuff like installed programs.. backing up on Zip or cd-r isn't really an option with so much data. I really need a couple hundred more gigs of space so I can backup data and have a lil more breathing room on the drives to work.. maybe a broadband line so I could mirror all my data on FreeNet.:)
I have all Western Digital IDE drives and they have put up with really heavy usage/abuse. I bought the last 60gigger at Sams Club for like $170. So far I've been very satisfied.
If companies had half a brain they'd figure out that ad banners don't work very well because nobody wants to see their stupid product and we're annoyed at their ads. I dunno about everyone else but I know how to find things when I want them and I don't have to keep hitting reload to find the right ad to get me there. If they must show ad banners then I think making them as tightly targeted as possible is the real key. I do click ad banners on Slashdot more than any other site just because they often lead places I know I like such as ThinkGeek and AnimeFu. The ThinkGeek banners that show off their new products are probably the most effective ads for me because that is exactly the sort of things I'm interested in buying. If a company like Amazon could target ad banners for book/music/movie types I usually like that'd be effective on me too. Ads for things I don't want to see and I don't buy annoy me and cost the company placing them money. Googles very targeted itty bitty side ads are probably among my favorite types of ads. They are non-offensive and they tell me things I want to know. However I think they need to charge per-click rather than per-view because a lot of people just don't click ads. I'd be willing to pay a lot more to place my ads per click than per view because I know that person is actually going to my site. That is what I want.
I usda use pgp a lot but then it got confussing enough with who owned what and what the licenses were and everything that when gpg came out I gladly switched. I have to wonder how the US expects to remove old copies of pgp, gpg, and similar programs from the Net outside the US not to mention things like books and the knowledge in peoples heads. I think blaming people or trying to put the encryption genie back into the bottle is a bit misguided. We should let these emotions pass before we start passing a lot of laws. Lets not do anything we'll regret later. Lets punish terrorist and not programmers/pilots/etc for whats happened.
Well I was all for bringing the hammer down on that guy but in light of the way you just described things I stop to rethink that idea. Frameworks shouldn't be copyrightable anyway so if all he stole was a framework then it's really not the same thing as stealing the real code is it?
Or does someone have to pay a royalty everytime they decide to burn a cd with 15 tracks and a slight pause after the 7th track?:) Seriously people who think HTML frameworks are copyrighted are missing a few bolts. I've yet to see a website I couldn't copy and improve upon just by looking at it and I've never seen one that was very unique that didn't suck (users find unique sites confussing).
As for headers though I guess it all comes down to just how much was the same in both versions and how much of those parts require a certain data structure to work with the device in question. Some structures are just very obvious and are usually shared by a lot of programmers. If the guy did do so much reverse engineering to code those BSD drivers RedHat should hire him and put HIM on the job.:)
How many plugins can you name that don't suck? All plugins manage to do is make websites a pain to program and a pain to use as you have to make sure the user has the right plugins which of course means you have to figure out if the plugin is installed, is it the right version, does the plugin exist for XYZ OS/platform, what do you do if it doesn't, etc.
Not really a very good system. Java or one of the languages it copied was supposed to fix all that but it obviously never made much impact in real life (most good Java I've seen was server-side). Embedded scripting languages such as Javascript help and having a few more choices such as Python and client-side PHP/SQL would be nifty but it still doesn't really address all the issues.
A client-side multimedia-oriented scripting language would be really cool and would handle what most plugins do. Maybe one of these XML'ized mutlimedia standards or Shockwave or something could fit this bill if used right. Anyone know?:)
Semi-related question.. why don't DVD's use XHTML plus some built-in scripting languages rather than using Windows-only extented shit and butt ugly menus? A good multimedia scripting language would kickass on such a platform.:)
IMO it is quite impressive to crank out 3x the performance from any program on-the-fly when you had no idea you were about to need to do so. To handle all the stress of the day and do their jobs so well is amazing. CNN has more experience in having sudden runs on their site as people look for news in bursts of interest. Slashdot I'd imagine is more stable usually because well it's geek stuff and none of the content disappears anytime soon after it's posted.:)
Re:"Use Squid?" Answered in the article
on
Handling the Loads
·
· Score: 2
I think this is a good example of why all users on the Net should consider using a proxy server to cut down on how we're hammering sites. Even my home LAN uses Squid and it makes it possible for several users to browse the web in comfort even over a 56K line. Any business or ISP absolutely should be using proxy servers. For those of you who are unfamiliar with proxy servers it basiclly acts a lot like your browsers cache but it in general is far more effecient and is shared aong many users. If you turn off your browser cache and use just the proxy server the browser tends to crash less often too.:)
I think in the book 'The Hacker and the Ants' there is a quote along the line of programming being like building out of toothpicks carefully glued together and if just one toothpick is out of place the whole thing comes crumbling down. I always liked that.. it seems very truthful. I might add that programmers are usually encouraged by those they work for to forget careful design and implementation and just duct tape parts together as quickly as they can make it work 'most of the time'.
I like to write beautiful code.. as I imagine most real programmers do.. us geeks that live, breath, and dream in code.. but in real life there usually is not enough time or resources given to manage to write really well planned out code. This is why Microsoft sucks and a popular motto is "When it's done!" among the truely geeky programming houses and why open source will eventually kill most commercial software.
With commercial software if it's ugly you aren't likely to get a second chance to really make it beautiful. With open source software it may start out ugly but over time can gradually become beautiful as people clean and fix it. The code is visible and so is everyone elses. You can help each other and learn from each other.
Look around the Net a bit. I have links to most those things in my bookmarks and they are all sites I found through Google w/ little effort. Most of it isn't being sold yet so you'd have to be able to take the plans and manufacture the parts yourself which is probably not likely. However most of them are compatible with common drivers that already work under Linux. The point isn't so much that you'd be better off building a computer from these parts but that companies are better off not trying to lock Linux out of the hardware because they aren't the only ones who know how to make the hardware.
There are some nice boards based on the StrongArm processor that I'm sure run Linux..look for the LART project. Join their mailing list to locate more information on open hardware.
So write the software and make it opensource and give it away. If teachers start letting be known what they need those of us who program will try to get it in their hands. As I haven't children yet I am somewhat limited in experience when it comes to educating them so I need very well defined wish lists to get things done.:)
I've suggested before that Mozilla have a filtering technology built-in that lets the web be filtered by content-on-the-page, url/filename, image size, etc and all these be able to be specified in XML files on the web so you could subscribe at choice to one or more filters that'd block/modify your web experience. My main reason is to have easy ad-blocking but it'd work just as well to block porn.
An example would be that I happen to have a web site I wrote that collects images viewed through my web proxy and lets users vote on categories those images belong in.. including ratings on nudity and content.. so w/ such a filtering technology in the browser you could subscribe to my website and let other users moderate what images were acceptable.
It is democratic so at least it is reasonably fair (unlike company controlled software) and extensible and you could choose to block any kind of image you wanted.. you could block out images in the 'Al Gore' category if that was the one thing that you wanted to protect your children from.
So is the law that it is okay to see what you were looking for 1 out of 10 times or okay for us to pervert the minds of children by letting them see smut 1 out of 10 times? Does this seem to be getting highly silly to anyone else?
Tell your kid, "If you see pornography turn it off!" and turn off Java/Javascript to protect from popup lockin and just let the kids watch out for themselves. If they are really young they should have adults helping them anyway. If your kid really sees something that troubles them get off your ass and have a family discussion about the topic. A computer is not smart enough to be a good parent.
I was very happy w/ my @Home service until I had to move outside their service range meaning I had to close my account. Since that time they've been billing me $100+/month for unknown reasons. I've of course refused to pay but am afraid it isn't going to help my credit report any.
Not a problem.. simply design and manufacture your own hardware. It's already happening. Most parts of a computer exist in open sourced plans these days. Eventually open hardware will be where open software is today.
I'm not sure how useful it is to tech students on laptops they don't have total access too. I know when I was a student I would have hacked mine. If you give the units to the students as their property that they can use as they will then they will take better care of them. A new laptop in 7th grade could be expected to last them throughout highschool. I'd offer all graduating seniors new laptops to carry them into their college years too.
Having well designed interactive education is a great way to take an overworked teacher and allow them to get more done.
Myself I'd load Linux on all the laptops but would allow students to dual boot if they installed the other OS themself. I'd even give classes on how to do so.
Putting laptops in the hands of every student is a great way to close the so called digital divide and cure fear of technology. The first generation that grows up this way will be among the most elite generation ever I'd imagine.
Even though I'm a big 'free software' freak.. the kind that thinks 'open source' is a shortcut that'll eventually bite us in the ass.. I think RMS can and does go over the top a bit. I understand why he feels the right and the need to put GNU in front of Linux but lets get real and just realize it isn't going to happen. Even though open source is mistaken in their backing down from the sharp edged rules of GNU they are doing our community a lot of good and creating tension between the two factions is foolish and at least as short sighted as going open source rather than GNU in the first place. Certainly it is foolish to do anything as hasty as try to make a landgrab of our own developers work. The best way to win a idealistic war is to be charasmatic. That is why Linus does at least as much for the free software movement as RMS even though he's been involved for a lot less time.
Myself I plan to hack an assembler into my body along with some kind of computer and Net connection and then I'll be able to fabricate anything anywhere anytime just by absorbing the needed molecules and downloading the plans into my head from Nano Napster.
People who fail to grasp how dangerous IP laws are will suffer their shortsighted approach when nanotech becomes common.It may take 5 years or it may take 50 but nano is coming and it will change everything.
The economy will go nuts worldwide as suddenly anyone can make anything for themselves.. but will it matter as nobody will be starving or in need of shelter. You'll have weird things like opensource toasters, opensource pizza, opensource sport cars, etc. We'll eventually move towards some sort of trust economy I'd imagine to help balance out non-material economic needs like services and R&D.
It should be highly interesting to see how they try to govern such changes. Once someone invents something then everyone will have total access to it. Groovy eh?:)
How do they expect to respond to things such as Freenet? Sitting on a DSL or cable modem line w/ my Freenet server and several dozen gigs of space given to it I hafta wonder how they expect to police such things. Are they going to shut off everyone they think might be using Freenet?
How would they prove I had intent to break copyright laws? As a routine matter I like to download random files off filesharing servers and Usenet and then repost them on Freenet under a naming scheme where you have the files mime type followed by it's md5sum. Something along the lines of image.jpeg.0f8432 and so forth. That means that my database only needs to keep track of relationships between file details and the files mime and md5sum's to make a match but it'd be rather hard to prove I knew any of the files were there since an automated script gets them from public sites and works with them without a human ever being involved. Hook an IM into Freenet and someone could effectively transfer any of these files just by telling the person on the other end the md5sum of the file they want. Jabber would even make this pretty easy to add I think and since it is one of the runners for IM standardized format they'd be hard pressed to cut off all Jabber service for their ISP without a lot of eventual whiplash.
I always take this time to remember why when you are fighting a big fire you burn little fires to make a fire break.. it uses up all the fuel a big fire could use to cause mass destruction and helps steer it away from the important things. All these little hacks, viruses, and so forth are responsible for most the security improvements made and are offering at least some protection against massive netwar attacks and various other nasties.
The fact that many companies refuse to protect themselves even after many threats just goes to show how stupid they are and how much they deserve to be the grass that burns to protect the others. I never feel sorry for such idiots.
In the decade or more I've been online I've only had one machine catch a virus and that is because I had the urge to install a few thousand on one pc and see how they'd effect each other. In all the time I've been running networks only once did I have one get cracked and that was due to the companies refusal to change their method of doing things in order to be more secure.
You don't need a dime to back it up. Make it really cheap and easy for both businesses and consumers (credit cards are a pain for both.. especially to get signed up for small businesses and people w/ bad credit) and just let them pay you to create net money for them in your db.. call them digital gift certificates or something if you like.. usable at any excepting online store and transferable between users.. charge a 1% tax and everyone will think your way better than credit cards and you'll still make a nice profit.:) I've been considering setting up my own server and trying it. I'm probably security paranoid enough to do it well.:)
Come live in my lil village. Artists and geeks are welcome to free housing and food as long as all their works are released open to the public. You won't live in a mansion but I'd make sure you had a better life than most people in this world.:)
I just add a new large drive every 6 months or so.. my last one was 60Gb and cost $175.. am about ready to add a new one again and am thinking of adding an 80gb drive.. am not overly worried about the problem at this time.:)
I guess I think 'Adobe Illustrator' is just fine as a name for a program and a program named 'k adobe illustrator' would obviously be in the wrong. However the term 'illustrator' is very generic and is a term that is very obvious in that it describes the purpose of the program. This seems to me to be more along the lines that both Corel and Microsoft have an Office Suite. One isn't an Office Box of Programs.. because that would be confussing. Both are office suites and each is made by it's prospective owner and it's rather difficult to confuse the two unless your a complete idiot. In similar manner you can have Pacific Light & Power and Atlantic Light & Power and despite the name simularities it's easy to tell the difference and because of the simularites you know what each is supposed to be. Generic terms should not be allowed to be trademarked because they make it easier for people to understand a product.
They did this to me with Byte. I think they have a major problem with it. An apology letter and a free subscription of my choice would earn my forgiveness but they were rude and unhelpful as could be every time I talked to them.
Yes and I'd jsut renewed my subscription which they offered to replace with Windows magazine. When I refused they refused to send me anything or refund my money. For that reason I want to kill someone over at CMP to this very day. Not only did they kill one of my favorite magazines but they insulted my intellgience and stole from me.:P
Slashdot Mirror
I have 100gigs of drive space.. about 95% used.. very little of it holding easy to restore stuff like installed programs.. backing up on Zip or cd-r isn't really an option with so much data. I really need a couple hundred more gigs of space so I can backup data and have a lil more breathing room on the drives to work.. maybe a broadband line so I could mirror all my data on FreeNet. :)
I have all Western Digital IDE drives and they have put up with really heavy usage/abuse. I bought the last 60gigger at Sams Club for like $170. So far I've been very satisfied.
If companies had half a brain they'd figure out that ad banners don't work very well because nobody wants to see their stupid product and we're annoyed at their ads. I dunno about everyone else but I know how to find things when I want them and I don't have to keep hitting reload to find the right ad to get me there. If they must show ad banners then I think making them as tightly targeted as possible is the real key. I do click ad banners on Slashdot more than any other site just because they often lead places I know I like such as ThinkGeek and AnimeFu. The ThinkGeek banners that show off their new products are probably the most effective ads for me because that is exactly the sort of things I'm interested in buying. If a company like Amazon could target ad banners for book/music/movie types I usually like that'd be effective on me too. Ads for things I don't want to see and I don't buy annoy me and cost the company placing them money. Googles very targeted itty bitty side ads are probably among my favorite types of ads. They are non-offensive and they tell me things I want to know. However I think they need to charge per-click rather than per-view because a lot of people just don't click ads. I'd be willing to pay a lot more to place my ads per click than per view because I know that person is actually going to my site. That is what I want.
I usda use pgp a lot but then it got confussing enough with who owned what and what the licenses were and everything that when gpg came out I gladly switched. I have to wonder how the US expects to remove old copies of pgp, gpg, and similar programs from the Net outside the US not to mention things like books and the knowledge in peoples heads. I think blaming people or trying to put the encryption genie back into the bottle is a bit misguided. We should let these emotions pass before we start passing a lot of laws. Lets not do anything we'll regret later. Lets punish terrorist and not programmers/pilots/etc for whats happened.
Well I was all for bringing the hammer down on that guy but in light of the way you just described things I stop to rethink that idea. Frameworks shouldn't be copyrightable anyway so if all he stole was a framework then it's really not the same thing as stealing the real code is it?
:) Seriously people who think HTML frameworks are copyrighted are missing a few bolts. I've yet to see a website I couldn't copy and improve upon just by looking at it and I've never seen one that was very unique that didn't suck (users find unique sites confussing).
:)
Or does someone have to pay a royalty everytime they decide to burn a cd with 15 tracks and a slight pause after the 7th track?
As for headers though I guess it all comes down to just how much was the same in both versions and how much of those parts require a certain data structure to work with the device in question. Some structures are just very obvious and are usually shared by a lot of programmers. If the guy did do so much reverse engineering to code those BSD drivers RedHat should hire him and put HIM on the job.
How many plugins can you name that don't suck? All plugins manage to do is make websites a pain to program and a pain to use as you have to make sure the user has the right plugins which of course means you have to figure out if the plugin is installed, is it the right version, does the plugin exist for XYZ OS/platform, what do you do if it doesn't, etc.
:)
:)
Not really a very good system. Java or one of the languages it copied was supposed to fix all that but it obviously never made much impact in real life (most good Java I've seen was server-side). Embedded scripting languages such as Javascript help and having a few more choices such as Python and client-side PHP/SQL would be nifty but it still doesn't really address all the issues.
A client-side multimedia-oriented scripting language would be really cool and would handle what most plugins do. Maybe one of these XML'ized mutlimedia standards or Shockwave or something could fit this bill if used right. Anyone know?
Semi-related question.. why don't DVD's use XHTML plus some built-in scripting languages rather than using Windows-only extented shit and butt ugly menus? A good multimedia scripting language would kickass on such a platform.
IMO it is quite impressive to crank out 3x the performance from any program on-the-fly when you had no idea you were about to need to do so. To handle all the stress of the day and do their jobs so well is amazing. CNN has more experience in having sudden runs on their site as people look for news in bursts of interest. Slashdot I'd imagine is more stable usually because well it's geek stuff and none of the content disappears anytime soon after it's posted. :)
I think this is a good example of why all users on the Net should consider using a proxy server to cut down on how we're hammering sites. Even my home LAN uses Squid and it makes it possible for several users to browse the web in comfort even over a 56K line. Any business or ISP absolutely should be using proxy servers. For those of you who are unfamiliar with proxy servers it basiclly acts a lot like your browsers cache but it in general is far more effecient and is shared aong many users. If you turn off your browser cache and use just the proxy server the browser tends to crash less often too. :)
I think in the book 'The Hacker and the Ants' there is a quote along the line of programming being like building out of toothpicks carefully glued together and if just one toothpick is out of place the whole thing comes crumbling down. I always liked that.. it seems very truthful. I might add that programmers are usually encouraged by those they work for to forget careful design and implementation and just duct tape parts together as quickly as they can make it work 'most of the time'.
I like to write beautiful code.. as I imagine most real programmers do.. us geeks that live, breath, and dream in code.. but in real life there usually is not enough time or resources given to manage to write really well planned out code. This is why Microsoft sucks and a popular motto is "When it's done!" among the truely geeky programming houses and why open source will eventually kill most commercial software.
With commercial software if it's ugly you aren't likely to get a second chance to really make it beautiful. With open source software it may start out ugly but over time can gradually become beautiful as people clean and fix it. The code is visible and so is everyone elses. You can help each other and learn from each other.
Look around the Net a bit. I have links to most those things in my bookmarks and they are all sites I found through Google w/ little effort. Most of it isn't being sold yet so you'd have to be able to take the plans and manufacture the parts yourself which is probably not likely. However most of them are compatible with common drivers that already work under Linux. The point isn't so much that you'd be better off building a computer from these parts but that companies are better off not trying to lock Linux out of the hardware because they aren't the only ones who know how to make the hardware.
There are some nice boards based on the StrongArm processor that I'm sure run Linux..look for the LART project. Join their mailing list to locate more information on open hardware.
So write the software and make it opensource and give it away. If teachers start letting be known what they need those of us who program will try to get it in their hands. As I haven't children yet I am somewhat limited in experience when it comes to educating them so I need very well defined wish lists to get things done. :)
I've suggested before that Mozilla have a filtering technology built-in that lets the web be filtered by content-on-the-page, url/filename, image size, etc and all these be able to be specified in XML files on the web so you could subscribe at choice to one or more filters that'd block/modify your web experience. My main reason is to have easy ad-blocking but it'd work just as well to block porn.
An example would be that I happen to have a web site I wrote that collects images viewed through my web proxy and lets users vote on categories those images belong in.. including ratings on nudity and content.. so w/ such a filtering technology in the browser you could subscribe to my website and let other users moderate what images were acceptable.
It is democratic so at least it is reasonably fair (unlike company controlled software) and extensible and you could choose to block any kind of image you wanted.. you could block out images in the 'Al Gore' category if that was the one thing that you wanted to protect your children from.
So is the law that it is okay to see what you were looking for 1 out of 10 times or okay for us to pervert the minds of children by letting them see smut 1 out of 10 times? Does this seem to be getting highly silly to anyone else?
Tell your kid, "If you see pornography turn it off!" and turn off Java/Javascript to protect from popup lockin and just let the kids watch out for themselves. If they are really young they should have adults helping them anyway. If your kid really sees something that troubles them get off your ass and have a family discussion about the topic. A computer is not smart enough to be a good parent.
I was very happy w/ my @Home service until I had to move outside their service range meaning I had to close my account. Since that time they've been billing me $100+/month for unknown reasons. I've of course refused to pay but am afraid it isn't going to help my credit report any.
Not a problem.. simply design and manufacture your own hardware. It's already happening. Most parts of a computer exist in open sourced plans these days. Eventually open hardware will be where open software is today.
I'm not sure how useful it is to tech students on laptops they don't have total access too. I know when I was a student I would have hacked mine. If you give the units to the students as their property that they can use as they will then they will take better care of them. A new laptop in 7th grade could be expected to last them throughout highschool. I'd offer all graduating seniors new laptops to carry them into their college years too.
Having well designed interactive education is a great way to take an overworked teacher and allow them to get more done.
Myself I'd load Linux on all the laptops but would allow students to dual boot if they installed the other OS themself. I'd even give classes on how to do so.
Putting laptops in the hands of every student is a great way to close the so called digital divide and cure fear of technology. The first generation that grows up this way will be among the most elite generation ever I'd imagine.
Even though I'm a big 'free software' freak.. the kind that thinks 'open source' is a shortcut that'll eventually bite us in the ass.. I think RMS can and does go over the top a bit. I understand why he feels the right and the need to put GNU in front of Linux but lets get real and just realize it isn't going to happen. Even though open source is mistaken in their backing down from the sharp edged rules of GNU they are doing our community a lot of good and creating tension between the two factions is foolish and at least as short sighted as going open source rather than GNU in the first place. Certainly it is foolish to do anything as hasty as try to make a landgrab of our own developers work. The best way to win a idealistic war is to be charasmatic. That is why Linus does at least as much for the free software movement as RMS even though he's been involved for a lot less time.
Myself I plan to hack an assembler into my body along with some kind of computer and Net connection and then I'll be able to fabricate anything anywhere anytime just by absorbing the needed molecules and downloading the plans into my head from Nano Napster.
:)
People who fail to grasp how dangerous IP laws are will suffer their shortsighted approach when nanotech becomes common.It may take 5 years or it may take 50 but nano is coming and it will change everything.
The economy will go nuts worldwide as suddenly anyone can make anything for themselves.. but will it matter as nobody will be starving or in need of shelter. You'll have weird things like opensource toasters, opensource pizza, opensource sport cars, etc. We'll eventually move towards some sort of trust economy I'd imagine to help balance out non-material economic needs like services and R&D.
It should be highly interesting to see how they try to govern such changes. Once someone invents something then everyone will have total access to it. Groovy eh?
How do they expect to respond to things such as Freenet? Sitting on a DSL or cable modem line w/ my Freenet server and several dozen gigs of space given to it I hafta wonder how they expect to police such things. Are they going to shut off everyone they think might be using Freenet?
How would they prove I had intent to break copyright laws? As a routine matter I like to download random files off filesharing servers and Usenet and then repost them on Freenet under a naming scheme where you have the files mime type followed by it's md5sum. Something along the lines of image.jpeg.0f8432 and so forth. That means that my database only needs to keep track of relationships between file details and the files mime and md5sum's to make a match but it'd be rather hard to prove I knew any of the files were there since an automated script gets them from public sites and works with them without a human ever being involved. Hook an IM into Freenet and someone could effectively transfer any of these files just by telling the person on the other end the md5sum of the file they want. Jabber would even make this pretty easy to add I think and since it is one of the runners for IM standardized format they'd be hard pressed to cut off all Jabber service for their ISP without a lot of eventual whiplash.
I always take this time to remember why when you are fighting a big fire you burn little fires to make a fire break.. it uses up all the fuel a big fire could use to cause mass destruction and helps steer it away from the important things. All these little hacks, viruses, and so forth are responsible for most the security improvements made and are offering at least some protection against massive netwar attacks and various other nasties.
The fact that many companies refuse to protect themselves even after many threats just goes to show how stupid they are and how much they deserve to be the grass that burns to protect the others. I never feel sorry for such idiots.
In the decade or more I've been online I've only had one machine catch a virus and that is because I had the urge to install a few thousand on one pc and see how they'd effect each other. In all the time I've been running networks only once did I have one get cracked and that was due to the companies refusal to change their method of doing things in order to be more secure.
You don't need a dime to back it up. Make it really cheap and easy for both businesses and consumers (credit cards are a pain for both.. especially to get signed up for small businesses and people w/ bad credit) and just let them pay you to create net money for them in your db.. call them digital gift certificates or something if you like.. usable at any excepting online store and transferable between users.. charge a 1% tax and everyone will think your way better than credit cards and you'll still make a nice profit. :) I've been considering setting up my own server and trying it. I'm probably security paranoid enough to do it well. :)
Come live in my lil village. Artists and geeks are welcome to free housing and food as long as all their works are released open to the public. You won't live in a mansion but I'd make sure you had a better life than most people in this world. :)
I just add a new large drive every 6 months or so.. my last one was 60Gb and cost $175.. am about ready to add a new one again and am thinking of adding an 80gb drive.. am not overly worried about the problem at this time. :)
I guess I think 'Adobe Illustrator' is just fine as a name for a program and a program named 'k adobe illustrator' would obviously be in the wrong. However the term 'illustrator' is very generic and is a term that is very obvious in that it describes the purpose of the program. This seems to me to be more along the lines that both Corel and Microsoft have an Office Suite. One isn't an Office Box of Programs.. because that would be confussing. Both are office suites and each is made by it's prospective owner and it's rather difficult to confuse the two unless your a complete idiot. In similar manner you can have Pacific Light & Power and Atlantic Light & Power and despite the name simularities it's easy to tell the difference and because of the simularites you know what each is supposed to be. Generic terms should not be allowed to be trademarked because they make it easier for people to understand a product.
They did this to me with Byte. I think they have a major problem with it. An apology letter and a free subscription of my choice would earn my forgiveness but they were rude and unhelpful as could be every time I talked to them.
Yes and I'd jsut renewed my subscription which they offered to replace with Windows magazine. When I refused they refused to send me anything or refund my money. For that reason I want to kill someone over at CMP to this very day. Not only did they kill one of my favorite magazines but they insulted my intellgience and stole from me. :P