I just meticulously checked the memory in my PDA... it's still all there, it's still college-ruled. The nice thing is that it's persistent, and though WORM technology and limited to 90 pages, once that runs out you just buy another spiral notebook...
I'm not sure if this is still in effect, but Trinidad & Tobago, the country where my father grew up, started encouraging the computer literacy of its citizens in 1999 by
Dropping sales tax on tech equipment
Dropping import duty on tech equipment
Giving low-interest loans of up to US$1000 to citizens to help them purchase cpus.
I'm not sure what that country's attitude is towards foreign tech workers, but I wouldn't be surprised if they encouraged outside brains helping their economy. Trinidad is the last island in the Caribbean chain, and its economy was devastated after big oil companies (Texaco) drained its resources in the late 70s without regard to the country's long-term well-being. In my view, when a skilled CS or other tech worker goes into such a country, she is performing a service to that country similar to a volunteer in the Peace Corps.
Unfortunately, I can envision some problems with living/working in such a country. Your salary, unadjusted for cost of living, will be much lower than in the US. However, you can live quite comfortably in Trinidad on a significantly lower budget (maybe 20-50% less than in the US?). At the same time, you are surrounded by economic squalor. I can see how this would be depressing. Another problem would be interacting with the government. It is common knowledge in Trinidad that to get any kind of interaction with government inspectors, officials, etc, involves bribing your way into a permit, contract, etc. For instance, if you get pulled over for speeding, you take the cop down to the local rum shop for a few beers. Literally. In fact, corrupt government officials are largely responsible for the decay of Trinidad's economy and infrastructure. If you don't want to play by this country's dirty rules, it might not be the place for you. On the other hand, one might view this as an philanthropic opportunity: it's probably much easier for one person, company or organization to change the political or economic climate of a nation such as Trinidad (pop: ~1.5 million) than it is to become influential in a North American or European country.
I wouldn't be surprised if these comments apply to other small countries as well? Just some thoughts...
It seems strange to me that the FTC chose to accuse these particular ad campaigns as being misleading. What makes these ads any more misleading than the hundreds of others with which we are accosted every day? Most vexing to me is this "concern":
Details about restrictions were either missing from the ads or printed in miniscule type.
Lack of Details? Miniscule Type? Anyone who has ever watched any TV commercial is used to these sins....credit cards, automobiles, cigarettes, alcohol, weight loss programs, just about every product or service that can be sold... vast amounts of advertising lies hide behind indecipherably-sized "qualifications" of the adverted claims, qualifications which often amount to "What we just said was true iff you ignore all of these ugly details" or "The results we just claimed occur only in exceedingly rare cases." We are merely seeing examples of such qualification in the other objectionable parts of the "Free PC" ads cited by the FTC.
I'm not saying that the FTC's accusations are wrong. What is wrong is that when the FTC picks on only certain companies or ad campaigns. The FTC should either address the greater problem of almost universal deception in advertising, or abandon the issue altogether.
Say, have you ever orchestrated a successful DOS attack against a major content provider? Could you? Gee, I know I can't
Seems like if you wanted to choose a derogatory term to prefer to call them, you could have come up with something more appropriate than "retarded little shits." Misanthropically or not, people like this have attacked a problem and found a (usually complex) solution.
Corel has been showing impressive support for Linux lately. As a company that is presumably motivated by profit, I'm trying to understand how freely distributing a product (which they sell on other platforms) fits in with this motivation.
It seems clear that Corel wishes to bolster the usage of Linux. Given equivalent versions of Canvas 7, it is not hard to imagine users of the program running Linux, with its superior price/stability/performance, in more traditional business environments.
As the user base grows, Corel would be able to spend more time developing for Linux. Linux could be a better platform to develop on: aside from the obvious wins, Corel could develop products that compete with, say, Microsoft, without Microsoft screwing with the OS to hinder that competition.
And when the user base is large, and major development efforst are levied on Linux, does Corel abandon free-as-in-beer distribution and charge for its software like it used to on other OSes?. Kind of like a crack dealer, giving out the first few tries for free?
Slashdot Mirror
I just meticulously checked the memory in my PDA... it's still all there, it's still college-ruled. The nice thing is that it's persistent, and though WORM technology and limited to 90 pages, once that runs out you just buy another spiral notebook...
I'm not sure what that country's attitude is towards foreign tech workers, but I wouldn't be surprised if they encouraged outside brains helping their economy. Trinidad is the last island in the Caribbean chain, and its economy was devastated after big oil companies (Texaco) drained its resources in the late 70s without regard to the country's long-term well-being. In my view, when a skilled CS or other tech worker goes into such a country, she is performing a service to that country similar to a volunteer in the Peace Corps.
Unfortunately, I can envision some problems with living/working in such a country. Your salary, unadjusted for cost of living, will be much lower than in the US. However, you can live quite comfortably in Trinidad on a significantly lower budget (maybe 20-50% less than in the US?). At the same time, you are surrounded by economic squalor. I can see how this would be depressing. Another problem would be interacting with the government. It is common knowledge in Trinidad that to get any kind of interaction with government inspectors, officials, etc, involves bribing your way into a permit, contract, etc. For instance, if you get pulled over for speeding, you take the cop down to the local rum shop for a few beers. Literally. In fact, corrupt government officials are largely responsible for the decay of Trinidad's economy and infrastructure. If you don't want to play by this country's dirty rules, it might not be the place for you. On the other hand, one might view this as an philanthropic opportunity: it's probably much easier for one person, company or organization to change the political or economic climate of a nation such as Trinidad (pop: ~1.5 million) than it is to become influential in a North American or European country.
I wouldn't be surprised if these comments apply to other small countries as well? Just some thoughts...
Details about restrictions were either missing from the ads or printed in miniscule type.
Lack of Details? Miniscule Type? Anyone who has ever watched any TV commercial is used to these sins. ...credit cards, automobiles, cigarettes, alcohol, weight loss programs, just about every product or service that can be sold... vast amounts of advertising lies hide behind indecipherably-sized "qualifications" of the adverted claims, qualifications which often amount to "What we just said was true iff you ignore all of these ugly details" or "The results we just claimed occur only in exceedingly rare cases." We are merely seeing examples of such qualification in the other objectionable parts of the "Free PC" ads cited by the FTC.
I'm not saying that the FTC's accusations are wrong. What is wrong is that when the FTC picks on only certain companies or ad campaigns. The FTC should either address the greater problem of almost universal deception in advertising, or abandon the issue altogether.
Seems like if you wanted to choose a derogatory term to prefer to call them, you could have come up with something more appropriate than "retarded little shits." Misanthropically or not, people like this have attacked a problem and found a (usually complex) solution.
Corel has been showing impressive support for Linux lately. As a company that is presumably motivated by profit, I'm trying to understand how freely distributing a product (which they sell on other platforms) fits in with this motivation.
It seems clear that Corel wishes to bolster the usage of Linux. Given equivalent versions of Canvas 7, it is not hard to imagine users of the program running Linux, with its superior price/stability/performance, in more traditional business environments.
As the user base grows, Corel would be able to spend more time developing for Linux. Linux could be a better platform to develop on: aside from the obvious wins, Corel could develop products that compete with, say, Microsoft, without Microsoft screwing with the OS to hinder that competition.
And when the user base is large, and major development efforst are levied on Linux, does Corel abandon free-as-in-beer distribution and charge for its software like it used to on other OSes?. Kind of like a crack dealer, giving out the first few tries for free?
just a thought.
Here's the link.
too bad it was a hoax.