Sys-Con gets money from readers very indirectly. The business model is "selling eyeballs to advertisers" not providing "news" to you. (apologies for the insult to news articles for grouping MoGs junk with them)
Do visit the page and note the ads. Then e-mail your comments on the article and what reaction it elicits in you directly to the advertiser's public relations or media relations department, indicating clearly how the article reflects on the advertiser's image.
One letter to Sys-con from an advertiser suggesting that they may no longer be interested in continuing to advertise there, that will have much more impact than a thousand complaints sent to Sys-con.
Even with hybrids, worst mileage is undoubtedly stop-and go traffic jams.
When will the corresponding authorities get a simple cost equation? (I guess it already exists, but it needs to get its way into the decisionmaking process). Maybe that will help prevent some of the traditional short-sightedness (lower budgets, at the expense of everyone spending more):
Maintenance and road cleaning work at peak or near-peak hours instead of late night, because salaries are cheaper (and by late night I mean when the roads are mostly empty, not the LIE at 10 p.m., hint: if there is still a several miles long traffic jam, try waiting a couple more hours)
Not paying quick-completion bonuses for road construction, roadworks taking a year to complete
Not increasing road capacity because construction is too expensive
That this obscenity is being celebrated during spring break and elementary schoolers are not being force-fed today videos of how "evil" is IP violation
Fill up forms and mail - 5 min Photocopy everything and set up reminders in Outlook - 5 min Check doesn't come, dig info - 5 min Call the claims line multiple times until successful - 30 ~ 45 min Deposit check at the bank - 10 min
Now I prefer to go to eBay a week later and for $5 or $10 more than the "after rebate" price I can get one of those "new in box, barcode has been removed for [insert excuse] purposes"
...the Bottled Water Lobby has ben found to be the funding source for the revolutionary report that claimed that water fountains in parks are un-American, anticompetitive and unfair to bottled water companies.
This report was prepared by the same firm that months ago produced a report on the tremendous gains that could be achieved by augmenting legal protection of Intellectual Property, extending it in the terms of the protection, the lenght of the protection period and the scope of property entitled to protection.
This research firm is also preparing a new report where they will explain why free air is also anticompetitive when considering the huge gains that could be realized if the current system of free breathable air were to be replaced by bottled air that can be purchased at supermarkets and convenience stores. When asked if the Bottled Air Lobby was behind all this they declined to comment.
The U.S. Congress and Senate are actively writing new legislation based on these reports.
Hehe, at some point I thought that the name linuxinsider came from trying to do an "inside job" (although, they didn't really seem to be inside anywhere:P)
IEEE's P1583 team has been working to define voting system standards, and is preparing to issue a second draft.
This is what you can do
1-Sign up for IEEE membership (a good idea anyway if you're an engineer or computer professional) 2-Sign up for membership in the IEEE Standards Association 3-Sign up for balloting P1583
And then you'll really be able to influence e-Voting standards.
(Note: You don't need to be a US citizen for any of this. The IEEE is an international standards body. The need for clean elections is not limited to the USA, it applies to citizens in any country that is using or may consider e-Voting any time in the future.)
I have to admit that sometimes reading on a TabletPC can be worse than reading on a smaller PalmPilot type of device. The reason is that a tablet runs XP and programs are usually designed for mainstream XP machines. PalmPilots however, they use PalmPilot specific software that does take into account the smaller screen. The OQO runs XP as well, I would expect similar problems in this respect as the Tablets
I got a TC1000 Compaq Tablet at ebay for sub-$1000. The specs are not that different (e.g., same disappointingly slow Transmeta CPU). The OQO is smaller and more portable but the TC1000 already feels "slightly below the minimum" with regards to comfortably reading webpages. It will be interesting to watch if this form factor succeeds but, for now, I'm staying with what I have.
IIRC, regional pricing schemes are against international commerce treaties signed by the US
Also, IIRC, international treaties signed by the US automatically become laws in the US
Connect the dots with how contracts with illegal clauses lose enforceability and actually the MPAA may be shooting itself in the foot big time with this lawsuit
With the transmeta long-run utility set to max savings, low display brightnes and no wireless I was reading an e-book during a transatlantic flight and it still had a significant amount of spare juice in the battery at the end of the flight (well, it wasn't exactly the entire flight, I did power it down during takeoff and landing ':)
This machine doesn't have a dvd-drive so I can't comment on that (I guess I could get a decrypter and copy a movie to the hard disk but I haven't tried that)
They're very lightweight and you can find them on ebay at reasonable prices
Application startup performance is quite bad though:(
I now do almost half of my reading on ebooks. The key factor was when I got a slate-type tablet PC. It is something I can read with reasonable comfort while in bed, in an airplane or in the restroom.
Pros:
Replace the need for shelf storage space with the need for hard drive space (Big plus for me! Most of my shelves have books behind books...).
Plenty of classic literature available for free (e.g., I don't need Disney's version of Snow White for reading to my son when I can have Grimm's version)
Easy to read in low light situations (e.g., in bed while my wife is asleep)
Easy to carry around, I don't need to think which book to take for a trip. I just take them all.
Cons:
Expensive, getting a TPC only for books may not be very reasonable. A side effect of it being expensive is that theft is a concern, e.g., I would take a book to read at a public swimming pool and leave it on the chair while swimming, I just can't think about leaving my TPC the same way.
Contrast is not as good (in bright sunlight it becomes a problem)
I can imagine it being very useful for students. The ability to easily carry a lot of books in easily searchable formats would have been very beneficial for me when I was studying. Also, updating books would be a breeze and the low self-publishing costs for ebooks could be quite helpful for releasing some of the stranglehold from academic publishers.
>So, people in fact love when the machine works in a way resembling behaviour of real-life objects
Who figured this out? An academic researcher? Some corporate R&D person? This is blatant failure to use common sense. Most people love when machines work in a way that is easier than the behaviour of real-life objects. (Hint: think deeply about why do people want machines?...)
Most of the time, people don't sort drawer contents because it is a chore (it is just easier to throw it in unsorted). I would love to have physical drawers where I throw a piece of clothing and it neatly sorts itself (and I strongly doubt I'm the only one who would like such a wondrous device -- btw: wifes/moms don't count as these "devices", they have way too many side effects)
In very few cases I want a specific arrangement (because a specific arrangement implicitly carries the obbligation to manually arrange items every time). Those few cases perhaps justify having the spatial interface as a choice for specific folders.
Otherwise, designing the inefficiencies of the real world into our machines too, it is outright masochistic (or sadistic, depending which side of user/designer you're on).
Gnome designers, if you keep doing this, I'll hire a PI and expose you in leathers and whips for the world to see:P
That also explains why n-up printing is more efficient with DIN ratios, a 2-up printing will fill its 2 half-pages better than a 2-up printing of Letter size.
Dear colleagues of the "Americans for waste" league, let's lobby for not going metric:P
Better than revert to the classic theme: Disable the "Themes" service. In addition to de-uglifying your desktop you'll get back some memory and cpu cycles. Even if you have plenty of both, it is one less process that can potentially crash/be hacked.
There is one selfish reason for supporting local production: A portion of it comes back in taxes. By supporting a stronger local economy, you'll have better schools, better roads and so forth.
It is selfish but that doesn't make it evil or against freedom. I call this the freedom to use my money as I see fit, if I want to charitably support something I'l do it for the causes that I find worth it, not for causes imposed by others. I don't believe that the rest of the world owes me anything neither I believe in a supremacy received from God or anything of that sort.
I simply dislike shortsightedness (whether it is a CEO scratching pennies for the next quarter or politician populism for winning the next election). I think it is the voters who bear responsibility for keeping in check the longer term (whether it is political votes or voting with your wallet). This message needs to be transmitted to politicians and CEOs
First, the politicians better figure it out quickly: By giving high-value-added production away to other regions, the will see fewer tax dollars and they will have less power.
Talk words that they'll understand. Next time that you write to your congressperson about outsourcing, make sure that this messages is loud and clear: Mr. Politician, be very careful with offshore outsourcing or you will end up with less power and less money.
For the CEOs, an important concern should be the loss of safety over the company's high-added-value assets. For example, the risk/reward ratio for theft of trade secrets in the US makes it an unlikely event. In China, the ethics and the legal system are very different and makes theft of trade secrets more likely to happen. E.g., I remember reading not long ago that General Motors was having problems because Chinese companies were copying the parts for their prototypes and building nearly identical cars even before GM had marketed them. There was little GM could do (don't get me wrong, I'm not saying that the Chinese are evil, all I'm saying is that they have different beliefs and laws)
If you own shares in a company, submit shareholder proposals, point out the risks that the company is running by placing significant assets under a different legal system and the costs when confidentiality breaches occur. When you get to vote and somebody has submitted one of these proposals, vote for them.
When your pension fund gets to vote in one of a proposal to limit offshoring, call the fund administrators and remind them that your goal is a comfortable retirement, future social security depends on future taxes and you don't want that compromised.
Of course there will still be many, many instances where offshoring makes good sense. You need to evaluate what and how much is it reasonable to offshore. I do not advocate isolationism.
In summary, instead of a narrow, short-term view, try to look for the global long-term perspective. Then, take constructive actions and you'll have a chance to achieve results
Companies compete aggresively to squish their competitors, anybody surprised? (not me)
Monopoly control laws try to prevent abuse when a company is too large. Before that, aggressive competition is more or less regular business.
1990 is the time of DOS 4 and the launching of Windows 3.0. There was a considerable variety of machines and operating systems (Macs, Amigas, DR-DOS, IBM's "home-remade" PC-DOS4, Coherent, etc). Microsoft was large but I honestly don't think that they were a monopoly back then.
Actually, this doc is probably genuine, knowing SCO, they would have announced legal action already if it were falsified.
On the other hand, reading the doc without ESR's comments (or with the coments at the end) would have been more enjoyable. Could it be that the "self proclaimed ambassador" is attention-starved?...
Thank you for sharing your response to SCO with the world.
If you would be so kind, other people receiving similar letters would be able to respond in identical terms if you attach a permission to copy (probably it is a good idea to indicate that such permission excludes your name and company identification)
Slashdot Mirror
Sys-Con gets money from readers very indirectly. The business model is "selling eyeballs to advertisers" not providing "news" to you. (apologies for the insult to news articles for grouping MoGs junk with them)
Do visit the page and note the ads. Then e-mail your comments on the article and what reaction it elicits in you directly to the advertiser's public relations or media relations department, indicating clearly how the article reflects on the advertiser's image.
One letter to Sys-con from an advertiser suggesting that they may no longer be interested in continuing to advertise there, that will have much more impact than a thousand complaints sent to Sys-con.
Even with hybrids, worst mileage is undoubtedly stop-and go traffic jams.
When will the corresponding authorities get a simple cost equation? (I guess it already exists, but it needs to get its way into the decisionmaking process). Maybe that will help prevent some of the traditional short-sightedness (lower budgets, at the expense of everyone spending more):
That this obscenity is being celebrated during spring break and elementary schoolers are not being force-fed today videos of how "evil" is IP violation
OK, the lesson is loud and clear: Donate no money to political candidates or parties.
Considering the usual level of farsightedness, this should come as no surprise...
This is how it used to be for me
Fill up forms and mail - 5 min
Photocopy everything and set up reminders in Outlook - 5 min
Check doesn't come, dig info - 5 min
Call the claims line multiple times until successful - 30 ~ 45 min
Deposit check at the bank - 10 min
Now I prefer to go to eBay a week later and for $5 or $10 more than the "after rebate" price I can get one of those "new in box, barcode has been removed for [insert excuse] purposes"
It's a win-win ':)
This report was prepared by the same firm that months ago produced a report on the tremendous gains that could be achieved by augmenting legal protection of Intellectual Property, extending it in the terms of the protection, the lenght of the protection period and the scope of property entitled to protection.
This research firm is also preparing a new report where they will explain why free air is also anticompetitive when considering the huge gains that could be realized if the current system of free breathable air were to be replaced by bottled air that can be purchased at supermarkets and convenience stores. When asked if the Bottled Air Lobby was behind all this they declined to comment. The U.S. Congress and Senate are actively writing new legislation based on these reports.
Hehe, at some point I thought that the name linuxinsider came from trying to do an "inside job" (although, they didn't really seem to be inside anywhere :P)
IEEE's P1583 team has been working to define voting system standards, and is preparing to issue a second draft.
This is what you can do
1-Sign up for IEEE membership (a good idea anyway if you're an engineer or computer professional)
2-Sign up for membership in the IEEE Standards Association
3-Sign up for balloting P1583
And then you'll really be able to influence e-Voting standards.
(Note: You don't need to be a US citizen for any of this. The IEEE is an international standards body. The need for clean elections is not limited to the USA, it applies to citizens in any country that is using or may consider e-Voting any time in the future.)
Your guess is 100% correct :)
I have to admit that sometimes reading on a TabletPC can be worse than reading on a smaller PalmPilot type of device. The reason is that a tablet runs XP and programs are usually designed for mainstream XP machines. PalmPilots however, they use PalmPilot specific software that does take into account the smaller screen. The OQO runs XP as well, I would expect similar problems in this respect as the Tablets
I got a TC1000 Compaq Tablet at ebay for sub-$1000. The specs are not that different (e.g., same disappointingly slow Transmeta CPU). The OQO is smaller and more portable but the TC1000 already feels "slightly below the minimum" with regards to comfortably reading webpages. It will be interesting to watch if this form factor succeeds but, for now, I'm staying with what I have.
Bid now for anything ending tomorrow that still has a low price today, the last-minute squad won't be able to grab it tomorrow :P
IIRC, regional pricing schemes are against international commerce treaties signed by the US
Also, IIRC, international treaties signed by the US automatically become laws in the US
Connect the dots with how contracts with illegal clauses lose enforceability and actually the MPAA may be shooting itself in the foot big time with this lawsuit
Windows XP Service Pack 2 has been Released To Manufacturing
With the transmeta long-run utility set to max savings, low display brightnes and no wireless I was reading an e-book during a transatlantic flight and it still had a significant amount of spare juice in the battery at the end of the flight (well, it wasn't exactly the entire flight, I did power it down during takeoff and landing ':)
This machine doesn't have a dvd-drive so I can't comment on that (I guess I could get a decrypter and copy a movie to the hard disk but I haven't tried that)
They're very lightweight and you can find them on ebay at reasonable prices
Application startup performance is quite bad though :(
Pros:
- Replace the need for shelf storage space with the need for hard drive space (Big plus for me! Most of my shelves have books behind books...).
- Plenty of classic literature available for free (e.g., I don't need Disney's version of Snow White for reading to my son when I can have Grimm's version)
- Easy to read in low light situations (e.g., in bed while my wife is asleep)
- Easy to carry around, I don't need to think which book to take for a trip. I just take them all.
Cons:- Expensive, getting a TPC only for books may not be very reasonable. A side effect of it being expensive is that theft is a concern, e.g., I would take a book to read at a public swimming pool and leave it on the chair while swimming, I just can't think about leaving my TPC the same way.
- Contrast is not as good (in bright sunlight it becomes a problem)
I can imagine it being very useful for students. The ability to easily carry a lot of books in easily searchable formats would have been very beneficial for me when I was studying. Also, updating books would be a breeze and the low self-publishing costs for ebooks could be quite helpful for releasing some of the stranglehold from academic publishers.Who figured this out? An academic researcher? Some corporate R&D person? This is blatant failure to use common sense. Most people love when machines work in a way that is easier than the behaviour of real-life objects. (Hint: think deeply about why do people want machines?...)
Most of the time, people don't sort drawer contents because it is a chore (it is just easier to throw it in unsorted). I would love to have physical drawers where I throw a piece of clothing and it neatly sorts itself (and I strongly doubt I'm the only one who would like such a wondrous device -- btw: wifes/moms don't count as these "devices", they have way too many side effects)
In very few cases I want a specific arrangement (because a specific arrangement implicitly carries the obbligation to manually arrange items every time). Those few cases perhaps justify having the spatial interface as a choice for specific folders.
Otherwise, designing the inefficiencies of the real world into our machines too, it is outright masochistic (or sadistic, depending which side of user/designer you're on).
Gnome designers, if you keep doing this, I'll hire a PI and expose you in leathers and whips for the world to see :P
Please, please, please! don't give these kind of ideas to Brannon&Braga
The return of Whoopi Goldberg to Star Trek, now, THAT would be a major disaster
Dear colleagues of the "Americans for waste" league, let's lobby for not going metric :P
Better than revert to the classic theme: Disable the "Themes" service. In addition to de-uglifying your desktop you'll get back some memory and cpu cycles. Even if you have plenty of both, it is one less process that can potentially crash/be hacked.
There is one selfish reason for supporting local production: A portion of it comes back in taxes. By supporting a stronger local economy, you'll have better schools, better roads and so forth.
It is selfish but that doesn't make it evil or against freedom. I call this the freedom to use my money as I see fit, if I want to charitably support something I'l do it for the causes that I find worth it, not for causes imposed by others. I don't believe that the rest of the world owes me anything neither I believe in a supremacy received from God or anything of that sort.
I simply dislike shortsightedness (whether it is a CEO scratching pennies for the next quarter or politician populism for winning the next election). I think it is the voters who bear responsibility for keeping in check the longer term (whether it is political votes or voting with your wallet). This message needs to be transmitted to politicians and CEOs
First, the politicians better figure it out quickly: By giving high-value-added production away to other regions, the will see fewer tax dollars and they will have less power.
Talk words that they'll understand. Next time that you write to your congressperson about outsourcing, make sure that this messages is loud and clear: Mr. Politician, be very careful with offshore outsourcing or you will end up with less power and less money.
For the CEOs, an important concern should be the loss of safety over the company's high-added-value assets. For example, the risk/reward ratio for theft of trade secrets in the US makes it an unlikely event. In China, the ethics and the legal system are very different and makes theft of trade secrets more likely to happen. E.g., I remember reading not long ago that General Motors was having problems because Chinese companies were copying the parts for their prototypes and building nearly identical cars even before GM had marketed them. There was little GM could do (don't get me wrong, I'm not saying that the Chinese are evil, all I'm saying is that they have different beliefs and laws)
If you own shares in a company, submit shareholder proposals, point out the risks that the company is running by placing significant assets under a different legal system and the costs when confidentiality breaches occur. When you get to vote and somebody has submitted one of these proposals, vote for them.
When your pension fund gets to vote in one of a proposal to limit offshoring, call the fund administrators and remind them that your goal is a comfortable retirement, future social security depends on future taxes and you don't want that compromised.
Of course there will still be many, many instances where offshoring makes good sense. You need to evaluate what and how much is it reasonable to offshore. I do not advocate isolationism.
In summary, instead of a narrow, short-term view, try to look for the global long-term perspective. Then, take constructive actions and you'll have a chance to achieve results
...Cerebro failed to nail this new one
Looking forward to Yahoo and Hotmail stepping up to the plate and prividing gig-mail too, (maybe 5G, to better compete?) :)~
Companies compete aggresively to squish their competitors, anybody surprised? (not me)
Monopoly control laws try to prevent abuse when a company is too large. Before that, aggressive competition is more or less regular business.
1990 is the time of DOS 4 and the launching of Windows 3.0. There was a considerable variety of machines and operating systems (Macs, Amigas, DR-DOS, IBM's "home-remade" PC-DOS4, Coherent, etc). Microsoft was large but I honestly don't think that they were a monopoly back then.
On the other hand, reading the doc without ESR's comments (or with the coments at the end) would have been more enjoyable. Could it be that the "self proclaimed ambassador" is attention-starved?...
Dear Mr. Roy,
Thank you for sharing your response to SCO with the world.
If you would be so kind, other people receiving similar letters would be able to respond in identical terms if you attach a permission to copy (probably it is a good idea to indicate that such permission excludes your name and company identification)
<polite>
Give those B&st4rd5 what they deserve!