This discussion of free-as-in-beer vs free-as-in-speech has been going on for a damn epoch and was definitely on the scene when the original developers GPL'd this software. Frankly, if they had a problem with charging for open source software, they should have thought of it before they released it with the GPL.
Previous poster that brought up the fact that Linux distributions have been onsale at Frys offer a germaine comparison. Red Hat and the rest spent time to compile all this software into distributions and marketed them, which provided value to customers.
That sounds to me to be exactly like what these XPilot App developers did. They took an app that ran on unix desktops and put it in a more convenient form: iPhone.
Priority lines at the airport bug me. First class passengers are not paying me or the airport, the airline is collecting the cash. So why should they get special treatment and make the wait worse for the rest of us? Maybe I should set up a toll booth on my street. Or go to the DMV and set up velvet ropes to one station, and sell the "right" to that quicker line for $50/head.
From this article on Oakland's introduction of CLEAR:
"[The] airport began receiving a lot of requests for it, especially from large companies whose employees did a lot of traveling, she said. 'We are responding to customer input, customers saying, 'please, please bring this.'"
In essence, this represents a gift to the business community that the airport authority (themselves generally part of the "business leadership" community at some point in the past or future) cherishes. The theory goes that if you make things easier on businesses, the benefits show up for everyone!
Obviously different folks will have different opinions about this, but this is the theory. The LA Times article linked in the article has a comment's section that has a pretty hefty pro-CLEAR tone, so you can read that view espoused 50 times if you want.
It begs the question: why bother? Which is why I am sure they are having trouble attracting customers.
I travel enough that an expedited security procedure would be helpful. However I can't see *any* value in this program. Apparently, I am not alone.
To me the bigger question is the public good provided in exchange for the line jump.
The biometric data, the retinal scanning, and the background checks or whatever they did over there seemed to be just a way to say "Hey, look at us -- we're helping prevent terrorism by collecting this data and making sure folks getting on the plane are who they say they are." In essence, it was a sham as they just went through the same security check anyway and as long as one is a first-time terrorist that knows what he's doing, it's no problem for you to make it through CLEAR.
eg. some of the September 11 hijackers managed to make it through freaking flight school in the US without a problem -- are they suggesting they couldn't make it through CLEAR? I find that hard to believe.
The CLEAR program was a way for publicly funded airports to give the opportunity to skip in front of the line in exchange for a fee paid to a third party.
Of course not. And there's no way you'll stare at Slashdot long enough to read through the deep investigative long form reporting we get here...
There is a difference between reading slashdot online and reading long news articles.
Obviously it is impossible for me to participate in an online forum with a paper copy of the Washington Post. For some things a computer is great -- like providing interactivity. But interactivity is the last thing I need when I'm reading a long article telling a story of convoluted characters.
My point is that a paper copy does that function -- long-form reporting and analysis -- better than a computer screen.
The last thing that I want to do when I get home is stare at a screen for the 40 minute it takes to read an article that is as long as this one. As a matter of fact, I'd probably print that article out if it weren't in the paper that's delivered to my house.
Say what you will about vinyl, but there is a huge difference in the experience of reading on a computer screen that sits a foot in front of you and a paper you can hold in your lap while kicking back on the couch.
The State of New Mexico did provide public funding (not just financing, but funding) to the Spaceport, so I would presume that it would be a pretty big deal to wall it off. Then again, it is not unprecedented for projects to be funded with public funds with no or limited free or cheap access to the public:
-- convention centers -- ports -- federal buildings -- city hall
I'm not saying it's wrong to not provide access, but such limitations may be difficult to defend.
The potential for misuse is absolutely incredible. I recall reading many events during which folks at the US Social Security Administration were looking up political candidates' records, where hospital employees in Los Angeles were looking up the medical records of celebrities that visited their hospital for care.
Now they want me to let the HR drones have the ability to log into my facebook, slashdot, etc accounts?
Your car does not depreciate regardless of miles. You would pay more for a used 2004 Camry with 20,000 miles than you would for a used 2004 Camry with 100,000 miles.
I wish I had mod points. This is such a good point. However, mass transit here doesn't just suck because of such people's attitudes, it sucks because it sucks.
I'm a transit enthusiast, so I take the bus. However, it is a totally cost-independent decision. Based on the cost of the monthly pass here relative to estimated variable costs to drive (depreciation, tires, gas), it is exactly the same price to drive as to take the bus the 3.5 miles to work. Oh -- it also takes 30 minutes longer to take the bus.
If I were making an intelligent decision, I would be driving to work. It doesn't have to be that way -- there are things that the transit agency here could do immediately at zero cost to make my commute easier (with the exception of printing a new schedule) but it won't even consider it for whatever reason.
Transit employees can get away with writing the schedules however they feel like it because here their ridership has no power because no one with money rides the bus because it sucks. So it sucks because it sucks.
It would only be a dummy company if it were set up to make something other than its presume primary product. You're advocating the establishment a legitimate company, FWIW.
Many argue that there can be some emissions reduction achieved by shifting to more efficient mass-generation of energy at at power plants rather at the micro-level under the hood. This emphasis on keeping the ways of travel, commuting, and lifestyle generated 60 years ago is frustrating the transition to a lifestyle that actually will be sustainable when global income improvements push energy prices to levels that make even electric vehicle travel expensive.
Why not abandon the development of expensive and environmentally-dubious approaches like electric cars, ethanol, nuclear, wind, and solar in favor of persuading people to live closer to work, school, and the other places they go?
Most cite as the key barrier to getting folks to leave the suburbs and move into the city where they work and where services and shops exist close-by the poor quality of urban schools and poor public-safety. Why not use the money that was to go into electric cars and their infrastructure to improve urban life by:
-- Improving urban schools -- Putting cops on the streets -- Building effective urban mass transit
Tell me why we can't do that. Tell me why there aren't lifecycle CO2 savings from getting people to move into walkable neighborhoods.
Hint: It's not because no one should incentivize one way of living over another, because we already does that in the form of providing trillions in freeway infrastructure, rural electrification, rural fire protection, universal service fee for telephone. Run the numbers, rural libertarians -- I subsidize your lifestyle.
The moment Toyota stops extending the battery warranty, all Prius cars of that age are then worthless. This leads to a lot of cars in the crusher, almost overnight.
Although the value of a used Prius if its battery warranty is not continually extended, it doesn't fall off a cliff. The Prius can function on its gas engine indefinitely, albeit as merely a very-efficient gas car.
Do you show the same level of skepticism when its something you already agree with?
I don't agree or disagree that seawater is more or less freezing in Alaska than it was in the past. Since I'm not like...in Alaska, I can't know whether this estimate is wrong.
It is simply not clear whether the shifts that this data shows are statistically significant.
The 3.8% was a one day change, not the total observed ice reformation. The linked article says that current coverage is back to 2005 levels.
How did they determine what the 2005 levels were? How did they determine what today's levels are?
Without that information, we do not know whether this information is credible. I suppose the question should be: how do we know the delta between today and 2005 is statistically significant?
People are arguing whether this is caused by man or not, which political candidate is going to under-respond or over-respond, but what is the point in doing that if the data is B.S. in the first place?
According to the study's website, the extent of the ice coverage is an estimate "calculated by certain algorithm."
It would be premature to suggest this as a panacea without knowing the statistics behind this estimate. Without this, we don't know if 3.8% is even statistically significant? They don't even offer a margin of error.
Even the "Data Download" offers only the bottom line estimate at a given point in time. What is the formula that feeds into that?
You can also try bricks to hold the accelerator pedal. I've found that mileage may vary, however. After all, you would need a 60 mile per hour brick, 70 mile per hour brick, etc.
This is a good point. Where are the studies suggesting which speed is most efficient? Is this not something that the EPA can add to its fuel economy tests and post on a model-by-model basis?
Additionally, this is a good time to turn the A/C on, since the power it draws will take some of the car's speed away and basically for free if the hill is steep enough and long enough.
He's not referring to engine breaking down a hill or simply allowing the engine to slow down the car in whatever gear the car is in. He's referring to those that will downshift, engage, downshift, engage all the way to a light.
Reporters for the New York Times, the Los Angeles Times, the Washington Post, and NPR are among the most well-traveled, dialed-in correspondents in society. They have seen it all.
Reporters from these four organizations are on the ground on Wall Street, Capitol Hill, on main streets across the country. They report from Moscow, Baghdad, London, Paris, Toronto, Riyadh, Mumbai. While there, they have the opportunity to sit around and think about what's going on, why it's happening, who it's happening to, and who's making it happen.
Reporters from these four organizations are usually are well educated with university degrees.
Reporters from these four organizations are criticized for their liberal bias.
Why is it that people are so afraid to take a cue from those that are well educated and informed?
Well, of course you should concentrate on career development. To develop one's career, however, one should ensure that the project on which one works keeps going so they remain working and learning.
There is nothing worse for career development than not having a project to work.
Ensuring that the business people and cost estimators are aware of hours you believes are required to complete can ensure that you're always in the work in a resource-constrained organization.
If you give the suits crap, you may put your project at risk of not being able to justify its existence.
Slashdot Mirror
This discussion of free-as-in-beer vs free-as-in-speech has been going on for a damn epoch and was definitely on the scene when the original developers GPL'd this software. Frankly, if they had a problem with charging for open source software, they should have thought of it before they released it with the GPL.
Previous poster that brought up the fact that Linux distributions have been onsale at Frys offer a germaine comparison. Red Hat and the rest spent time to compile all this software into distributions and marketed them, which provided value to customers.
That sounds to me to be exactly like what these XPilot App developers did. They took an app that ran on unix desktops and put it in a more convenient form: iPhone.
Priority lines at the airport bug me. First class passengers are not paying me or the airport, the airline is collecting the cash. So why should they get special treatment and make the wait worse for the rest of us? Maybe I should set up a toll booth on my street. Or go to the DMV and set up velvet ropes to one station, and sell the "right" to that quicker line for $50/head.
From this article on Oakland's introduction of CLEAR:
"[The] airport began receiving a lot of requests for it, especially from large companies whose employees did a lot of traveling, she said. 'We are responding to customer input, customers saying, 'please, please bring this.'"
In essence, this represents a gift to the business community that the airport authority (themselves generally part of the "business leadership" community at some point in the past or future) cherishes. The theory goes that if you make things easier on businesses, the benefits show up for everyone!
Obviously different folks will have different opinions about this, but this is the theory. The LA Times article linked in the article has a comment's section that has a pretty hefty pro-CLEAR tone, so you can read that view espoused 50 times if you want.
It begs the question: why bother? Which is why I am sure they are having trouble attracting customers.
I travel enough that an expedited security procedure would be helpful. However I can't see *any* value in this program. Apparently, I am not alone.
To me the bigger question is the public good provided in exchange for the line jump.
The biometric data, the retinal scanning, and the background checks or whatever they did over there seemed to be just a way to say "Hey, look at us -- we're helping prevent terrorism by collecting this data and making sure folks getting on the plane are who they say they are." In essence, it was a sham as they just went through the same security check anyway and as long as one is a first-time terrorist that knows what he's doing, it's no problem for you to make it through CLEAR.
eg. some of the September 11 hijackers managed to make it through freaking flight school in the US without a problem -- are they suggesting they couldn't make it through CLEAR? I find that hard to believe.
The CLEAR program was a way for publicly funded airports to give the opportunity to skip in front of the line in exchange for a fee paid to a third party.
Of course not. And there's no way you'll stare at Slashdot long enough to read through the deep investigative long form reporting we get here...
There is a difference between reading slashdot online and reading long news articles.
Obviously it is impossible for me to participate in an online forum with a paper copy of the Washington Post. For some things a computer is great -- like providing interactivity. But interactivity is the last thing I need when I'm reading a long article telling a story of convoluted characters.
My point is that a paper copy does that function -- long-form reporting and analysis -- better than a computer screen.
I stare at Excel just about all damn day.
The last thing that I want to do when I get home is stare at a screen for the 40 minute it takes to read an article that is as long as this one. As a matter of fact, I'd probably print that article out if it weren't in the paper that's delivered to my house.
Say what you will about vinyl, but there is a huge difference in the experience of reading on a computer screen that sits a foot in front of you and a paper you can hold in your lap while kicking back on the couch.
The State of New Mexico did provide public funding (not just financing, but funding) to the Spaceport, so I would presume that it would be a pretty big deal to wall it off. Then again, it is not unprecedented for projects to be funded with public funds with no or limited free or cheap access to the public:
-- convention centers
-- ports
-- federal buildings
-- city hall
I'm not saying it's wrong to not provide access, but such limitations may be difficult to defend.
The potential for misuse is absolutely incredible. I recall reading many events during which folks at the US Social Security Administration were looking up political candidates' records, where hospital employees in Los Angeles were looking up the medical records of celebrities that visited their hospital for care.
Now they want me to let the HR drones have the ability to log into my facebook, slashdot, etc accounts?
Your car does not depreciate regardless of miles. You would pay more for a used 2004 Camry with 20,000 miles than you would for a used 2004 Camry with 100,000 miles.
Do you not have a choice of where you live?
I wish I had mod points. This is such a good point. However, mass transit here doesn't just suck because of such people's attitudes, it sucks because it sucks.
I'm a transit enthusiast, so I take the bus. However, it is a totally cost-independent decision. Based on the cost of the monthly pass here relative to estimated variable costs to drive (depreciation, tires, gas), it is exactly the same price to drive as to take the bus the 3.5 miles to work. Oh -- it also takes 30 minutes longer to take the bus.
If I were making an intelligent decision, I would be driving to work. It doesn't have to be that way -- there are things that the transit agency here could do immediately at zero cost to make my commute easier (with the exception of printing a new schedule) but it won't even consider it for whatever reason.
Transit employees can get away with writing the schedules however they feel like it because here their ridership has no power because no one with money rides the bus because it sucks. So it sucks because it sucks.
It would only be a dummy company if it were set up to make something other than its presume primary product. You're advocating the establishment a legitimate company, FWIW.
Many argue that there can be some emissions reduction achieved by shifting to more efficient mass-generation of energy at at power plants rather at the micro-level under the hood. This emphasis on keeping the ways of travel, commuting, and lifestyle generated 60 years ago is frustrating the transition to a lifestyle that actually will be sustainable when global income improvements push energy prices to levels that make even electric vehicle travel expensive.
Why not abandon the development of expensive and environmentally-dubious approaches like electric cars, ethanol, nuclear, wind, and solar in favor of persuading people to live closer to work, school, and the other places they go?
Most cite as the key barrier to getting folks to leave the suburbs and move into the city where they work and where services and shops exist close-by the poor quality of urban schools and poor public-safety. Why not use the money that was to go into electric cars and their infrastructure to improve urban life by:
-- Improving urban schools
-- Putting cops on the streets
-- Building effective urban mass transit
Tell me why we can't do that. Tell me why there aren't lifecycle CO2 savings from getting people to move into walkable neighborhoods.
Hint: It's not because no one should incentivize one way of living over another, because we already does that in the form of providing trillions in freeway infrastructure, rural electrification, rural fire protection, universal service fee for telephone. Run the numbers, rural libertarians -- I subsidize your lifestyle.
The moment Toyota stops extending the battery warranty, all Prius cars of that age are then worthless. This leads to a lot of cars in the crusher, almost overnight.
Although the value of a used Prius if its battery warranty is not continually extended, it doesn't fall off a cliff. The Prius can function on its gas engine indefinitely, albeit as merely a very-efficient gas car.
Do you show the same level of skepticism when its something you already agree with?
I don't agree or disagree that seawater is more or less freezing in Alaska than it was in the past. Since I'm not like...in Alaska, I can't know whether this estimate is wrong.
It is simply not clear whether the shifts that this data shows are statistically significant.
The 3.8% was a one day change, not the total observed ice reformation. The linked article says that current coverage is back to 2005 levels.
How did they determine what the 2005 levels were?
How did they determine what today's levels are?
Without that information, we do not know whether this information is credible. I suppose the question should be: how do we know the delta between today and 2005 is statistically significant?
People are arguing whether this is caused by man or not, which political candidate is going to under-respond or over-respond, but what is the point in doing that if the data is B.S. in the first place?
According to the study's website, the extent of the ice coverage is an estimate "calculated by certain algorithm."
It would be premature to suggest this as a panacea without knowing the statistics behind this estimate. Without this, we don't know if 3.8% is even statistically significant? They don't even offer a margin of error.
Even the "Data Download" offers only the bottom line estimate at a given point in time. What is the formula that feeds into that?
You can also try bricks to hold the accelerator pedal. I've found that mileage may vary, however. After all, you would need a 60 mile per hour brick, 70 mile per hour brick, etc.
Walk back up?
Just never go back?
This is a good point. Where are the studies suggesting which speed is most efficient? Is this not something that the EPA can add to its fuel economy tests and post on a model-by-model basis?
Oh, Car and Driver reviewed those BMW tips, they found that they contradict each other.
Imagine that; a competitor to Road and Track questioning the authority of it's suggestions...
I'm inclined to agree that you're correct, but can you provide a better source?
Additionally, this is a good time to turn the A/C on, since the power it draws will take some of the car's speed away and basically for free if the hill is steep enough and long enough.
He's not referring to engine breaking down a hill or simply allowing the engine to slow down the car in whatever gear the car is in. He's referring to those that will downshift, engage, downshift, engage all the way to a light.
Reporters for the New York Times, the Los Angeles Times, the Washington Post, and NPR are among the most well-traveled, dialed-in correspondents in society. They have seen it all.
Reporters from these four organizations are on the ground on Wall Street, Capitol Hill, on main streets across the country. They report from Moscow, Baghdad, London, Paris, Toronto, Riyadh, Mumbai. While there, they have the opportunity to sit around and think about what's going on, why it's happening, who it's happening to, and who's making it happen.
Reporters from these four organizations are usually are well educated with university degrees.
Reporters from these four organizations are criticized for their liberal bias.
Why is it that people are so afraid to take a cue from those that are well educated and informed?
Well, of course you should concentrate on career development. To develop one's career, however, one should ensure that the project on which one works keeps going so they remain working and learning.
There is nothing worse for career development than not having a project to work.
Ensuring that the business people and cost estimators are aware of hours you believes are required to complete can ensure that you're always in the work in a resource-constrained organization.
If you give the suits crap, you may put your project at risk of not being able to justify its existence.