As a matter of fact, I do run my own business. It pays my bills and keeps me from having to answer to people such as yourself, who are unwilling to acknowledge that there are other ways then theirs of accomplishing things. Liberal whining hippie? Go fuck yourself, cigar man. You don't know how much I paid in taxes last year. I have a right to say where I think it should go.
I'm not discouraging people from watching whatever pablum they can tune up on their satellite TV box, but it's important (to me, anyway) to point out that the free market is not the answer to all of life's problems. In fact, it is the cause of many of them. It is you, in fact, who are forcibly removing this sort of material from the air, by refusing to acknowledge that there is a good reason to preserve this institution.
Yes, profit is the only way to stay in business, but business is not what PBS is engaged in. The degregdation of PBS's mandate so it now must operate within a commercial environment means it is compared to businesses, but PBS itself, ideally, should not have to worry about where its money comes from.
I'll tell you why PBS is vital; because not all good programming on television can exist under our all-encompassing running-dog capitlist-pig free market system.
All the 'competing' cable channels are commercial ventures- designed to turn a profit. They sell advertising, they cross-promote, they merchandise. But, some things deserve to be produced and aired which would never, ever, in a million years, make it on any of these faux-enlightenement commercial networks.
Tell me with a straight face that I would be able to tune into the History channel on a Sunday afternoon and wach six hours of, say, 'The Civil War' or 'Connections' or 'Cosmos'. Certainly not all at once, and certainly not without having their content shot full of holes from commercial breaks every 10 minutes, or, worse yet, have the producers of such programming greased by sponsors who would demand changes to the program's content.
I can't speak for everyone, of course, and I'm probably getting ready to sound like a PBS membership drive, but this sort of in-depth stuff is what I grew up on, inspired me to not be afraid to have the big ideas, and that my big ideas don't necessarily have to be 'sponsored by Hyundai'. Commercial broadcasting is designed to sell advertisers' shit to the lowest common demoninator of the audience watching. In public broadcasting, each piece of programming is designed to be very interesting to a small segment of the population. I don't watch 'Arthur' too often, but I damn sure catch 'Frontline' when it's on. Find me a commercial network that would keep airing 'Frontline' for years and years and years.
The acts of law which orginally established the current rules for broadcasting acknowledged that the need for this sort of material existed, and mandated that each market have space in the channel spectrum reserved for such a station. Over time, of course, our corrupt goverment has been bought off and talked into believing that, like so many other issues of public interest, the market will decide.
What a bunch of goddamn red-tie republican cowardice bullshit. Another example of our whoremongering elected officials making their mortgage payments by selling off the idealistic notions of earlier generations.
I was thrust into the world of independent contract work a couple of years ago when the company I was working for fell apart. All of the other web developers were fired, and I was given the chance to finish everyone's work by myself. I decided to quit instead, and charge my former employer a discounted hourly rate to get their clients off their back. By the time all the existing work was finished, most of their clients had become my clients.
Luck was a factor, to be sure, but it took more than luck to sustain my little one-man operation after the first batch of work was finished. Even if I had gotten started differently, there was more to consider than just the actual tasks clients asked me to do.
The money, at first, seemed like a lot more than I had been getting before. But, what I discovered quickly was that my former boss wasn't lying when he told me where the company's money went. Taxes, payroll, equipment, etc. I needed, and quickly acqired, a lawyer, an accountant, and a new S-corporation. All of a sudden, in addition to being a marginally-talented web developer, I was also an entrepeneur.
My friends, upon seeing the bohemian, independent lifestyle I had made for myself, were jealous and wanted to know my secret. It was no mystery, though, because while I have extreme freedom to choose what I do, I also pay myself about a third of what my friends get on their W-2 jobs.
Why? More important than what your hourly rate is, is what your free time is worth. Working a salary job often means the time the boss wants from you isn't measured. (Hello, 70 hour weeks!) But, when you're hourly, the client expects real work for the time you charge. The 30 minutes you spend talking to your neighbor about Half-Life doesn't usually go on the time sheet. Billing 40 actual work hours isn't as easy as working a 40-hour salary week. For me, this means I rarely bill 40 hours in a week, and when I do, I pay myself so the money that generates covers the whole month's expenses.
My point here is that if you really want to be an independent, be prepared to overhaul your entire lifestyle. You can't be joe salaryman and take the the weekly dole for granted when you're signing both sides of the paycheck. You have to be billing work now and setting up work in the future all the time. You have to make sure if there's a dry spell, there's still money in the account for you and your biz expenses. And, you can't get greedy and spend the next 6 months' payroll you have saved up unless you got the whale-ass retainer check that will keep things going. Learning this discipline is what stops most people I know from doing what I do.
Don't get me wrong, I love working for myself. But now, it's like there's me the developer, and me the entrepeneur. Don't try to do the same unless you're prepared to take on those roles.
Why are corps always making up new software licenses for their 'open-source' projects? Why not just use the
proven GPL or BSD license with minor changes where necessary?
They have to do something with all those lawyers. Be thankful. We just saw a rare occurrence of a corporate entity doing something that made some kind of sense.
I could care less if they used a stock license or paid a bunch of IP lawyers to write their own open source schtick. Maybe Apple really *does* want to be as innovative with software as they have been, lately, with their hardware. It's been a long enough wait.:-)
This is taking a bit of a larger context in mind, here, so bear with me for a moment. In the last couple of years, there's been a lot of talk from people like Tom Brokaw about the 'greatest generation'- people who became adults in an age where there was a clear cause for something... for example, World War II, but including all sorts of causes and movements through the decades; up until what seems to be when you and I have spent our time growing up. I'm a bit ahead of you at age 27, but I feel we are both products of a vacant, mass-media driven, consumption-oriented culture that has inherited no clear path, mission, or movement from our society.
Lots of people would look at this as the benefit of living in a free, peaceful, prosperous part of the world (relatively speaking). I can hear them- "Be grateful, kid!" But, it seems that these are the same people who call generations prior to ours (who had their causes and ideals thrust upon them) the 'greatest generation'. Generally, they're closer in age to that generation than yours or mine.
So, my question is this: In this world where there is no clear path to follow, no absolute right or wrong, no great struggle to leap into, what do you see as the primary motivating factor in your life? For people born before us, there were battles to fight that could be universally agreed upon and used as a framework for their lives. These days, our value doesn't extend much farther than how much money we spent at the Gap last week- so for people who want to make something of themselves, that mission must be coming from within. What is that for you? Technology for its own sake? Getting rich? Finding friends and having interesting experiences? Dare I say it, to CHANGE THE WORLD? It's a difficult question that I haven't found an answer for myself yet.
I am so disappointed to see yet another movie about Mars reduced to a poorly-written action flick. Maybe this is what it takes to get the concept into the general public's collective consciousness. But still, so many people think that humanity has no imperitave to spread out from our world to others. Shitty movies like this can't help change ideas like that.
For me, my attitude changed once I read the Mars trilogy by Kim Stanley Robinson. It was one of the first set of books I had read that made me believe that we really do have a future in space, and that despite the scoffing of politicians, the reality of things is that this future can begin immediately.
Anyone who is depressed by this latest batch of Martian science fiction would be well-advised to look at these books for a pick-me-up.
These days, honestly, I want for hardly anything. The only thing I would think to be harder than coming up with a gift for myself would be a gift for most of my friends. But, gifts aren't really about what we need, are they? That being said, I like old computers. I have a Lisa, among other collectibles. What would make my collection more complete?
Ah, to be at the ground floor. What an exciting time to do the sort of work we do! We're all excited about how we can share ideas, develop software... hell, shape the future... without regard to who or where we are. Yet..
How is it that we can embrace decentralized living while still thinking that a big (centralized) city offers some sort of advantage? Sure there are lots of good things, and there's a lot of money to be made, but as a previous post said, 'at what cost?'
The way I'm living now has drastically reduced my tolerance for stress. I have very little, and it's an easy thing to become accustomed to. But, I never knew such a baseline existed before I changed where I worked. City people are like that, too. They don't even know at what horrible levels of stress they function at *all the time*.
I live & work in my apartment in the middle of Springfield, Missouri; a pissant midsize quasi-city known best as a place you go before you get to the very bottom of the cultural foodchain, Branson, MO. Springfield is cheap & relatively safe. After peristent harrassment, Southwestern Bell may actually get their asses in gear by Feb 1 for some DSL service. Some people here make a brave attempt at culture, but St. Louis and KC are only 3 or 4 hours away.
But, the sort of clients I choose don't care where I am. I do good work, I'm readily available by phone or email, and they get their money's worth. Do I care where I am? Damn straight. The same kind of money that's bargain basement entry-level most places lets you live like a king here. A fair wage? Well... if I billed a 40 hour week for half the year, I could buy a house and sit around in my underwear in it for the other 6 months. cheap, cheap, cheap.
My point is: Cities are relics of a day when you had to be close by to relate and work with people. God bless the Internet; you don't have to do that anymore! Leave Pittsburgs to the steelworkers, they still have to punch a clock. I build web apps- I can punch the clock without getting out of bed. Many of the big-city benefits have no teeth in this situation.
I hope as our economy continues towards knowledge as a commodity, the necessity of giant cities will dwindle.
Oh, and desipte what another previous message said, New York is *not* the center of the universe. What a bunch of industrial-age bullshit. I hope it burns down instead.
Slashdot Mirror
'Let them eat cake', eh?
As a matter of fact, I do run my own business. It pays my bills and keeps me from having to answer to people such as yourself, who are unwilling to acknowledge that there are other ways then theirs of accomplishing things. Liberal whining hippie? Go fuck yourself, cigar man. You don't know how much I paid in taxes last year. I have a right to say where I think it should go.
I'm not discouraging people from watching whatever pablum they can tune up on their satellite TV box, but it's important (to me, anyway) to point out that the free market is not the answer to all of life's problems. In fact, it is the cause of many of them. It is you, in fact, who are forcibly removing this sort of material from the air, by refusing to acknowledge that there is a good reason to preserve this institution.
Yes, profit is the only way to stay in business, but business is not what PBS is engaged in. The degregdation of PBS's mandate so it now must operate within a commercial environment means it is compared to businesses, but PBS itself, ideally, should not have to worry about where its money comes from.
Ah, the familiar refrain:
Why is PBS vital? Discovery, TLC, etc. etc.
I'll tell you why PBS is vital; because not all good programming on television can exist under our all-encompassing running-dog capitlist-pig free market system.
All the 'competing' cable channels are commercial ventures- designed to turn a profit. They sell advertising, they cross-promote, they merchandise. But, some things deserve to be produced and aired which would never, ever, in a million years, make it on any of these faux-enlightenement commercial networks.
Tell me with a straight face that I would be able to tune into the History channel on a Sunday afternoon and wach six hours of, say, 'The Civil War' or 'Connections' or 'Cosmos'. Certainly not all at once, and certainly not without having their content shot full of holes from commercial breaks every 10 minutes, or, worse yet, have the producers of such programming greased by sponsors who would demand changes to the program's content.
I can't speak for everyone, of course, and I'm probably getting ready to sound like a PBS membership drive, but this sort of in-depth stuff is what I grew up on, inspired me to not be afraid to have the big ideas, and that my big ideas don't necessarily have to be 'sponsored by Hyundai'. Commercial broadcasting is designed to sell advertisers' shit to the lowest common demoninator of the audience watching. In public broadcasting, each piece of programming is designed to be very interesting to a small segment of the population. I don't watch 'Arthur' too often, but I damn sure catch 'Frontline' when it's on. Find me a commercial network that would keep airing 'Frontline' for years and years and years.
The acts of law which orginally established the current rules for broadcasting acknowledged that the need for this sort of material existed, and mandated that each market have space in the channel spectrum reserved for such a station. Over time, of course, our corrupt goverment has been bought off and talked into believing that, like so many other issues of public interest, the market will decide.
What a bunch of goddamn red-tie republican cowardice bullshit. Another example of our whoremongering elected officials making their mortgage payments by selling off the idealistic notions of earlier generations.
I was thrust into the world of independent contract work a couple of years ago when the company I was working for fell apart. All of the other web developers were fired, and I was given the chance to finish everyone's work by myself. I decided to quit instead, and charge my former employer a discounted hourly rate to get their clients off their back. By the time all the existing work was finished, most of their clients had become my clients.
Luck was a factor, to be sure, but it took more than luck to sustain my little one-man operation after the first batch of work was finished. Even if I had gotten started differently, there was more to consider than just the actual tasks clients asked me to do.
The money, at first, seemed like a lot more than I had been getting before. But, what I discovered quickly was that my former boss wasn't lying when he told me where the company's money went. Taxes, payroll, equipment, etc. I needed, and quickly acqired, a lawyer, an accountant, and a new S-corporation. All of a sudden, in addition to being a marginally-talented web developer, I was also an entrepeneur.
My friends, upon seeing the bohemian, independent lifestyle I had made for myself, were jealous and wanted to know my secret. It was no mystery, though, because while I have extreme freedom to choose what I do, I also pay myself about a third of what my friends get on their W-2 jobs.
Why? More important than what your hourly rate is, is what your free time is worth. Working a salary job often means the time the boss wants from you isn't measured. (Hello, 70 hour weeks!) But, when you're hourly, the client expects real work for the time you charge. The 30 minutes you spend talking to your neighbor about Half-Life doesn't usually go on the time sheet. Billing 40 actual work hours isn't as easy as working a 40-hour salary week. For me, this means I rarely bill 40 hours in a week, and when I do, I pay myself so the money that generates covers the whole month's expenses.
My point here is that if you really want to be an independent, be prepared to overhaul your entire lifestyle. You can't be joe salaryman and take the the weekly dole for granted when you're signing both sides of the paycheck. You have to be billing work now and setting up work in the future all the time. You have to make sure if there's a dry spell, there's still money in the account for you and your biz expenses. And, you can't get greedy and spend the next 6 months' payroll you have saved up unless you got the whale-ass retainer check that will keep things going. Learning this discipline is what stops most people I know from doing what I do.
Don't get me wrong, I love working for myself. But now, it's like there's me the developer, and me the entrepeneur. Don't try to do the same unless you're prepared to take on those roles.
Why are corps always making up new software licenses for their 'open-source' projects? Why not just use the proven GPL or BSD license with minor changes where necessary?
:-)
They have to do something with all those lawyers. Be thankful. We just saw a rare occurrence of a corporate entity doing something that made some kind of sense.
I could care less if they used a stock license or paid a bunch of IP lawyers to write their own open source schtick. Maybe Apple really *does* want to be as innovative with software as they have been, lately, with their hardware. It's been a long enough wait.
This is taking a bit of a larger context in mind, here, so bear with me for a moment. In the last couple of years, there's been a lot of talk from people like Tom Brokaw about the 'greatest generation'- people who became adults in an age where there was a clear cause for something... for example, World War II, but including all sorts of causes and movements through the decades; up until what seems to be when you and I have spent our time growing up. I'm a bit ahead of you at age 27, but I feel we are both products of a vacant, mass-media driven, consumption-oriented culture that has inherited no clear path, mission, or movement from our society.
Lots of people would look at this as the benefit of living in a free, peaceful, prosperous part of the world (relatively speaking). I can hear them- "Be grateful, kid!" But, it seems that these are the same people who call generations prior to ours (who had their causes and ideals thrust upon them) the 'greatest generation'. Generally, they're closer in age to that generation than yours or mine.
So, my question is this: In this world where there is no clear path to follow, no absolute right or wrong, no great struggle to leap into, what do you see as the primary motivating factor in your life? For people born before us, there were battles to fight that could be universally agreed upon and used as a framework for their lives. These days, our value doesn't extend much farther than how much money we spent at the Gap last week- so for people who want to make something of themselves, that mission must be coming from within. What is that for you? Technology for its own sake? Getting rich? Finding friends and having interesting experiences? Dare I say it, to CHANGE THE WORLD? It's a difficult question that I haven't found an answer for myself yet.
I am so disappointed to see yet another movie about Mars reduced to a poorly-written action flick. Maybe this is what it takes to get the concept into the general public's collective consciousness. But still, so many people think that humanity has no imperitave to spread out from our world to others. Shitty movies like this can't help change ideas like that.
For me, my attitude changed once I read the Mars trilogy by Kim Stanley Robinson. It was one of the first set of books I had read that made me believe that we really do have a future in space, and that despite the scoffing of politicians, the reality of things is that this future can begin immediately.
Anyone who is depressed by this latest batch of Martian science fiction would be well-advised to look at these books for a pick-me-up.
NPR is reporting that the difference between bush and gore's popular vote is now in the neighborhood of 600 votes! Unfuckingbelievable.
Fucking fucking FUCK!!!! God damn shit cocksucking religious bastards! AHhHhhhHhhrhhRhrhrrrrrrrrr wahhhh-h-h-h-h....
These days, honestly, I want for hardly anything. The only thing I would think to be harder than coming up with a gift for myself would be a gift for most of my friends. But, gifts aren't really about what we need, are they? That being said, I like old computers. I have a Lisa, among other collectibles. What would make my collection more complete?
An original NeXT cube system.
Gimme gimme!!
Ah, to be at the ground floor. What an exciting time to do the sort of work we do! We're all excited about how we can share ideas, develop software... hell, shape the future... without regard to who or where we are. Yet..
How is it that we can embrace decentralized living while still thinking that a big (centralized) city offers some sort of advantage? Sure there are lots of good things, and there's a lot of money to be made, but as a previous post said, 'at what cost?'
The way I'm living now has drastically reduced my tolerance for stress. I have very little, and it's an easy thing to become accustomed to. But, I never knew such a baseline existed before I changed where I worked. City people are like that, too. They don't even know at what horrible levels of stress they function at *all the time*.
I live & work in my apartment in the middle of Springfield, Missouri; a pissant midsize quasi-city known best as a place you go before you get to the very bottom of the cultural foodchain, Branson, MO. Springfield is cheap & relatively safe. After peristent harrassment, Southwestern Bell may actually get their asses in gear by Feb 1 for some DSL service. Some people here make a brave attempt at culture, but St. Louis and KC are only 3 or 4 hours away.
But, the sort of clients I choose don't care where I am. I do good work, I'm readily available by phone or email, and they get their money's worth. Do I care where I am? Damn straight. The same kind of money that's bargain basement entry-level most places lets you live like a king here. A fair wage? Well... if I billed a 40 hour week for half the year, I could buy a house and sit around in my underwear in it for the other 6 months. cheap, cheap, cheap.
My point is: Cities are relics of a day when you had to be close by to relate and work with people. God bless the Internet; you don't have to do that anymore! Leave Pittsburgs to the steelworkers, they still have to punch a clock. I build web apps- I can punch the clock without getting out of bed. Many of the big-city benefits have no teeth in this situation.
I hope as our economy continues towards knowledge as a commodity, the necessity of giant cities will dwindle.
Oh, and desipte what another previous message said, New York is *not* the center of the universe. What a bunch of industrial-age bullshit. I hope it burns down instead.