One thing that kinda sucks about the article is the fact that it says that the minimum requirements for all the games is Windows.
However their game of the year ("GISH") supports both Mac and Linux. Would have been nice to list put the real system requirements--not everyone runs Windows.
The reson why it is in Bellingham is because it was originally started by the Bellingham Linux Users Group, this is the fourth one.
The reason it is still in Bellingham is because most of the folks that have been the most active in organizing it are in Bellingham, and we're familiar with the facilities. I wouldn't be suprised it if moves next year to a more accessible location.
You're underestimating quite a few things. Dell components tend to be a bit better then the bargain basement prices you're quoting--$100 monitor? Seems like you're advocating using the cheapest quality components--yeah that really saves you a lot of time and money, pain, etc. in the long term.
And I'd be shocked to see you put together the entire computer, including software and drivers together in
You're also discounting issues such as incompatibilities between software, drivers, etc. Dell actually tests their stuff before they ship it out (although not as well as HP or Compaq).
And I also don't want to deal with tech support issues, period. I'm not going to call up Dell's tech support likely. However, I want the system to have a high level of quality. Every minute I have to fuck around with the computer costs me real dollars, and it adds up fast.
Putting it together, say it takes a conservative 2 hours (although on a one-off system I think 3 is more realistic...). To me, that is $200-$300 of lost revenue (yes, really). Suddenly its not a good deal anymore. Then add in the likelyhood of a beta driver or something being flakey (say like the driver for your $10 sound card), and it starts to get real expensive.
Basically the cost difference is this. If you're in a job where you support or put computers together for a living, then it sorta makes sense. If you're a professional (that perhaps used to build/support computers) that simply uses computers to build other products/services (think developer, etc.), it is not cost effective.
This is what burns me about Stallman. He thinks that the name Linux is about giving credit to Linus, and GNU/Linux is about giving credit to GNU.
The name Linux is a brand, not a credit
And part of the issue is that Linux actually has brand equity, whereas GNU really has none or very little. RMS is trying to piggyback GNU on Linux's brand equity, plain and simple.
Obviously RMS has quite a bit of experience as an engineer, but is mighty niave when it comes to marketing. The name "GNU" is indication of his lack of marketing experience. Ever explained what GNU is? "GNU stands for GNU's Not Unix. Get it? Its a recursive acronym. Clever huh?" Any time you have to explain an acronym, you're in trouble.
Then RMS is trying to essentially weaken the Linux brand... which is a mistake. It doesn't matter what it is called as long as it is an established and positive brand. It could have been named after a empty vessel (think Xerox, Kleenex, Viagra) as it happened it is based on Linus's name.
I also don't think it is cool that RMS only proposed changing the name *after* Linux as a brand became valuable. I don't remember hearing these arguments til probably 1998 or so, well after the brand was established.
Still didn't answer the question, which is "Why education only?". Why not build a machine that is focused on education market, and let anyone purchase them... why limit who you can sell it to?
I remember back in the day the G3 All-in-one was an 'education' only product. Way cool machine, almost like the iMac, only slightly bigger. I think that people would have prefered to purchase that over a lot of the other options at the time, but nobody even knew about them, let alone were 'allowed' to purchase them. Don't really understand the mentality behind it.
"Should an intellectual activity such as programming be taxed in the same way as manufacturing is?"
I think the question should be "Should manufacturing be taxed in teh same way manufacturing is?".
Reminds me of story I read a while back that was a collection of letters to the editor in Moscow, Russia. A lady complained that government mandated size of a flat per number of residences was rediculous. And then rather then say that the whole concept of only allowing a flat to be sized based on the number of people that lived there was rediculous, she went on to argue that instead of 30 sq feet per person it should be 40 sq feet per person (or whatever numbers). It was a case of not thinking about the overall situation, making assumptions and thinking in the paradigm they are used to.
I think the question asked here "Should software be taxed like manufacturing" points to a bigger question of taxing manufacturing. We're so used to taxes that we consider it just when perhaps it may not be.
These Mac guys are getting all excited about after the fact (albiet somewhat clever) 'document shredding' precautions in case someone ever steals their computers.
Howabout do something that preserves the content, yet renders it useless/unreadable to crooks? I'm of course talking about using encryption, either file level or file system level.
Of course there is a saying, "If all you have is a hammer, everything starts looking like nails.". I say "If all you know is Applescript, start learning about other more widely used solutions."
-k
World Rally Championship Recap on Speedvision
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New Years Marathons
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· Score: 1
I know I'll be watching a full day of World Rally Championship on Speedvision on New Year's Day.
You guys should check it out. 'Identifiable' (meaning full chassis, glass windows, etc.) cars, that you'd normally drive on streets, going over a hundred miles per hour over terrain that you'd hesitate to take your SUV. Mud, snow, gravel, sand. Its crazy.
I just started reading the entire series this week. Am about half way through the first one, and have enjoyed it very much. My condolences to the family.
For example, us drivers in hydroelectric rich British Columbia (Motto: Keeping California's Lights Burning) would be able to enjoy guilt-free driving right now.
I'm proponent of alternative engergy sources, and high performance automobiles.
Efficiency is certainly an issue, but electric cars do just move polution from the roadways to the power plants.
In the example you provided--hydroelectic power plant--is definatley a low polution power plant. However, it is not without serious consequences.
If you don't beleive me, try to go salmon fishing on the Columbia River. Sockeye salmon have been on the endangered species list for almost 10 years. Steelhead for the past few. Why would, over the course of only 50 years or so, the Columbia river go from being one of the biggest sources of Salmon to having hardly any? You're so-called guilt free hydro-electic dams.
The only low-impact electric power plants are Wind and Solar, to varring degrees. Niether of which are providing the amount of power that hydroelectrical plants are. So if you are advocating electric cars, you're advocating coal plants, killing salmon and nuclear plants. Suddently doesn't sound like a great idea anymore.
I don't buy from companies that offer rebate promotions, because it is pretty much a scam. The longer they have your money, the more money they make. There is no incentive to give your money back in a timely manner, if at all.
After all the fallout for the Iomega rebate stuff, which really was the start of popularizing the use of rebates, I steered clear.
The only way to not get burned is to not participate--meaning don't buy one that has a rebate. If you buy one that has a rebate and don't participate with their rebate program, you are just helping reinforce the perceived effectiveness of the program (the ratio of people that request the rebate to those that don't).
If you still want to buy from people that do rebates, then for christ sake, don't include the rebate in the price of the item. Just because a $50.00 item is $10.00 AFTER REBATE doesn't mean the item is $10.00. The item is actually $50.00, plus a chance that it could be less, only if you jump through a bunch of hoops and complain enough, then add the cost of money (interest, etc.). If you value your time and your cash flow, its not a good deal.
Your recent proposal to Amazon.com worries me greatly as a consumer.
The Author's Guild is requesting to Amazon that they limit my right to buy and sell used books on Amazon's marketplace. This would therefore hurt competition in a free market and therefore hurt consumers.
The Argument that the author/publisher doesn't get any of the profits from the sale is correct--only because such profits have already been paid.
To take your stance on this issue to the extreme, as a consumer I could potentially use the rights to sell all kinds of published personal property such as CDs, movies, and video games. Is the Author's Guild also proposing that Amazon discontinue secondary market sales on these items?
Amazon doesn't need to make precautions regarding 'review/promotional' copies. Correct me if I'm wrong, but these copies are the same as pirated ones, and will be treated accordingly by law enforcement.
There are a few solutions I can come up, beyond the 'simple compromise'. The first is that perhaps the Author's Guild should perhaps adopt digital methods of distributing books, and make it cost effective enough for a consumer to purchase a book first-hand, essentially eliminating the secondary market. The second solution is even more obvious: compete. This is a free market economy. If new book sales are losing market share to used books, then it means competition is healthy and that publishers and authors need to compete even with themselves. Lowering new prices and adding value (increasing quality of paper, etc.) are valid ways to compete with the secondary market.
Sincerely,
Kris Dahl
Re:Punchcards == Computers
on
eLection '04
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· Score: 2
It seems to me it is necessary that people shuld still physically visit the polls.
I was trying to keep my mouth closed a bit with all this... but this is the type of comment that sets me off. Who are you to tell me that I 'should' still visit the polling station? I agree it should be an option, but not required. It isn't required now.
Even though I am fully capable to make it to the polling stations, I have chosen to vote exclusively via absentee balot. I don't have to worry about getting places on time, and am able to make my decisions while reading the voters papmlets or the Internet. I don't have to memorize positions on obscure reforendums.
ANd a couple other things about absentee balots, etc.: I have never even needed to provide ID to request absentee ballots... I simply registered to vote and then filled out a form at the back of the voter pamphlet and mailed it in. I have always voted via absentee and let me tell you that there is a lot of room in the traditional system for fraud, etc. Authentication is one problem. Another is interception--they come in a obvious envelope and go out in one... tampering and elimination of absentee ballots is a trivial matter. I also never receive confirmation of receipt (except the time I forgot to send one without signing it, and they mailed me a photocopy to sign for their records). So who the hell knows. Using cryptography, digital signatures, etc. would be vastly superior to the micky mouse, po-dunk systems we use now.
Its funny how when things go digital, people start getting 'serious' about security, regardless of the current method. Credit card # are transmitted in plain text over phone, mail, yet as soon as it is the Internet, nothing weaker than 128 bit is acceptable. Yet when on the Internet the data actually flows through probably less people than the traditional methods. Same with the votign system. The double standard should stop--and I tend to lean in favor of the stricter requirements that Internet seems to require.
The ballots in Miami-Dade county should stand by law because all challenges to the ballot format must be made before the first vote is cast and ALL voters and campaigns in that county received an instructional copy of the ballot weeks before the election. That leaves outright fraud( forged absentee ballots, dead people voting, etc ) and the suppression of republican voters in the west(due to the early miscall of Florida going to Gore) as the most likely challenges.
I agree completely. The Ballot designs were approved before the 7th. You can NOT take the results what people legally voted for, decide that something is fishy, and then demand a revote. The results would be brutally skewed.
If there isn't a decisive winner, I think the ONLY fair thing to do, and this may rise to the level of a decision by the Supreme Court, would be to throw out the ENTIRE 25 electoral votes in Florida as if they had gone to a different candidate. Because neither man received a majority of the electoral votes(270), the Constitution says it is up to the newly elected House of Representatives to select the President. It seems the only way to ensure the rule of law is obeyed.
IANAL. I am not even an expert on constitutional law. But I don't think you can throw away anyone's votes or electoral votes like that (although it seems like the only reasonable solution).
The thing that scares me most about this is that if we let them come in, which at the moment is the last option on the list. what else will they see?
Auditing by the SPA or various software vendors happens on a regular basis. I am concerned that none of you guys have ever heard about it before. Auditing and then billing is how companies like Autodesk (who have a high amount of piracy) for one example makes a good portion of of their revenues. I am aware of one company around here who ended up having to shell out several million dollars for software that wasn't intentionally pirated, just that the IT department didn't get a good grip on making SURE it wasn't pirated. If you are working as an IT manager and you weren't aware of the consequences of poor management of your licenses, you should be looking for a new job--because you'll need one when someone comes and audits your company.
see if we can find more companies in the area and start a class action suit against them.
Again, this is not a new thing. If they want to come in an do an audit, they can. It is in your EULAs and if you have ever registered any software, they know that you have the software. YOu can try to do a class-action lawsuit, but you'll find that it will get thrown out immediately. This is an established system, like it or not.
SUre this is a major problem with proprietary software--one more reason to go opensource. But it is NOT a new problem, and you reap what you sow.
It is the time of year where we review the Linux operating system's position again, so I thought I would sit down and pass on my thoughts for this year.
Does anyone think that Microsoft, every year, evaulates the position of Linux in the marketplace? I would be suprised to hear if they did this evaluation in any smaller period than once a month. This industry moves too fast to do an annual evaluation.
We leave the actually muddying to others, like Mindcraft.
There is no way that Gates would say this, even internally. This is just not a comment one would make.
That's my "Halloween document" for 2000. Nothing to worry about. And for crying out loud, don't leak this memo this year. We all remember what happened to Vinod, right?
You've got to be kidding. This is the nail in the coffin as far as I am concerned. There is no way that Gates would bring up the previous document, and then egg someone on to leak this one. Just wouldn't happen.
I found that DARE was, as a program, an utter failure.
Now I am not against the idea of "Drug Abuse Education" the idea. Just the program was ill fated.
If they focused on teaching the side effects of various drugs and their effects that it'll have on your life it'd be one thing. A guy earlier said that pot had no downsides--I disagree pot will make you stupid and unmotivated when you use it (a decided disadvantage, I would say). So actually showing what cocaine will do to you vs. pot, etc.
They also spent a lot of time (wasted) on teaching about self esteem and what it is. That was a big waste of time.
The problem with DARE is that it encouraged as much as discouraged drug experimentation. It is the standard Pandora's box. They really pique people's curiosity with DARE. And because it is rebellious kids do that stuff. Notice how kids tend to experiment with drugs during their 'rebelious' stage? It is a human nature issue.
But the fact of the matter is, if America is still waging the war on drugs, DARE will be destined to fail. I actually think that DARE may become more successful if drugs are legalized--naturally it would no longer be the police and what-not or called DARE. But an actual drug education system wouldn't be a bad idea.
IMHO the only reason why DARE has been around for 10 or so years now is because it is fashionable for businesses to sponsor DARE related stuff. I.e. businesses and prominent community leaders get press and what not for supporting DARE (via painting one of their fleet vehicles with DARE logos, having a DARE pizza party for the local kids, speaking at a DARE graduation ceremony, etc.). The public I don't even think CARES if DARE works--but it's good publicity so they support it.
This is a problem I imagine we'll be dealing with until some of the older generations are no longer in power and we have more Libertarians in government. Hopefully it will become socially acceptable to support ending the war on drugs THEN it will start to swing the other way.
I wouldn't want to vote for any of them over Bush, or even Gore (though I wouldn't vote for him either). If you were to include McCain and Ventura, I'd still vote for Bush, but McCain would be my second choice.
You realize that Ventura is a Libertarian? As far as I know he became disenchanted with the reform party some time ago.
Ventura and Browne agree on like 99% of the things. Every Libertarian position can be summarized in one sentance: Leave it up to the individual, not the government. It isn't very abiguous. That is the whole point... there isn't abiguity in the Consititution, it has simply been added by socialists and liberals over the years.
BTW, one of the major advantages of the Libertarian platform is that it is 100% comatible with other ideologies. You can be a socialist under a Libertarian goverment--hell you can be whatever you want to be.
Cobalt, as many people have already stated, now use the x86 platform for their servers. From Cobalts history and reputation of not really being big on supporting older products (or any product really, after they have bee released) I doubt they would retrofit say the Qube 2700s, Qube 2's, Raqs, Raq2s, NasRaq and CacheRaq (all Mips products) with Solaris. I mean why would they make that investment?
The Raq3, and now the Raq4 are the most popular models that Cobalt has. They are both running fairly lame AMD chips. All evidence suggest they will continue to use x86 chips in the future. So I imagine the Raq5, or whatever they end up calling the next ones (Netra Raq perhaps?) would be capable of using Solaris for Intel.
And honestly this would fit in with Cobalt's business model fairly well. Currently they have a really good profit margin--leading the industry apparently. Paying for a license for the OS would be no big deal. And Cobalt hasn't really contributed much to the Open Source community--for example ChiliSoft was recently purchased by Cobalt and their ChiliSoft ASP product is still closed source. While the engineers tend to embrace Open Source stuff, I have a feeling that the upper management may not--the CEO tends, IMHO, to actually go out of his way to have the company adopt propreitary software. So I guess I wouldn't be surprised.
An HP Pavilion HDD has a "tatoo" in a section of the hard drive that can only
be reached by debug scripts and the like. FDISK can't touch it. "Recovery"
disks look for the HDD tatoo & and the BIOS tatoo and if they don't find it,
they will not install. This means if you have one of these types of systems,
you need to take your system to an OEM-approved "service center" and
they will run the script to make your new hard drive able to function with the
recovery disk should you buy a new hard drive.
This is not true. I was (and probably still am) HP Authorized for warranty and other repair on pretty much all current HP computers--Netservers, Kayaks, Brios, Vectras, Omnibooks, and the mentioned Pavillion. There is no tattoo partition, and certainly is no script. I have used third party hard drives in all of the HP models, from the Netserver down to the lowly pavillion and never needed to run this phantom script.
Some OEM's (notably HP) used to foist this travesty on consumers in return
for cheaper licensing for their protection payments to Microsoft for
Windows. Now, this is REQUIRED by M$ on all new system.
Partially true. MS doesn't allow OEMs to ship Windows CDs anymore, only recover disks. According to Dell (whom I had to discuss this with) because I wanted to use the Windows 2000 license that came with the machine in VMWare (i.e. use Linux, but also use windows, only in a Virtual Machine). Not possible. Becuase the recovery CD detects the BIOS type, and perhaps other methods and so it *won't* work with VMWare.
I don't see why this is a big deal. The ratings are there for a reason aren't
they? Just like movie ratings, why shouldn't game ratings be enforced by
those retailers who want to?
The problem that I have is that we all take for granted the MPAA guidelines for movies? Why? Do you realize how important these so-called 'guidelines' are to the sucess of a movie? R movies have a strike against them from the beginning--if your movie gets an NC-17 'rating' then it is doomed to commercial failure. Who gives the MPAA the right to do this? Certainly not the consumer, although this sort of apathy certainly has let them survive this long. The point is that we as consumers do not get to choose the ratings system--there is no competition and the retailers (movie theaters, kmart, etc.) blindly follow the guideline cartel. That is power I don't think anyone should have--government or 'independant' organizations alike.
Nobody should have control of your buying decisions--weather it be movies, games, porn or guns. Bottom line.
I worry that if too many highly
intelligent people skip school to join the workforce they will not have
sufficient breadth of education to fully understand the impacts of what they
are doing. This school was founded just after WWII so the reason for that
mantra is clear. Brilliant people are great but if they can't consider the
broader implications of their work they can be very dangerous*.
While I understand your logic, I disagree with your conclusion. It seems to me that you are implying that if more Germens, or American Scientists (!) & Military leaders went to college we wouldn't have had such a problem with WWII and Nuclear Weapons? Both demographics: Scientists, military leaders, etc., either have a doctorate degree in most cases (scientists) or went to west point at least or equivalent (military leaders).
College != enlightenment College != education, either
Education comes from within. I believe that college is a good experince but is not something that will prevent world wars or nuclear holocost.
Further I don't understand why people think that College is the way to gain greater breadth of education. Reading, and a thirst for knowledge is what gives you a better education. College is simply an environment (sans girls and beer) that is designed for that purpose. Other environments are sufficient if not as good or better for 'enlightenment'.
Slashdot Mirror
One thing that kinda sucks about the article is the fact that it says that the minimum requirements for all the games is Windows.
However their game of the year ("GISH") supports both Mac and Linux. Would have been nice to list put the real system requirements--not everyone runs Windows.
Okay, well noone is chiming in that they have first hand experience with this product. How can that be if this is a legit product?
I think it has to be a hoax at this point.
I'll try to tape some footage and maybe post it, but don't really have the time to engineer a live stream.
The reson why it is in Bellingham is because it was originally started by the Bellingham Linux Users Group, this is the fourth one.
The reason it is still in Bellingham is because most of the folks that have been the most active in organizing it are in Bellingham, and we're familiar with the facilities. I wouldn't be suprised it if moves next year to a more accessible location.
You're underestimating quite a few things. Dell components tend to be a bit better then the bargain basement prices you're quoting--$100 monitor? Seems like you're advocating using the cheapest quality components--yeah that really saves you a lot of time and money, pain, etc. in the long term.
And I'd be shocked to see you put together the entire computer, including software and drivers together in
You're also discounting issues such as incompatibilities between software, drivers, etc. Dell actually tests their stuff before they ship it out (although not as well as HP or Compaq).
And I also don't want to deal with tech support issues, period. I'm not going to call up Dell's tech support likely. However, I want the system to have a high level of quality. Every minute I have to fuck around with the computer costs me real dollars, and it adds up fast.
Putting it together, say it takes a conservative 2 hours (although on a one-off system I think 3 is more realistic...). To me, that is $200-$300 of lost revenue (yes, really). Suddenly its not a good deal anymore. Then add in the likelyhood of a beta driver or something being flakey (say like the driver for your $10 sound card), and it starts to get real expensive.
Basically the cost difference is this. If you're in a job where you support or put computers together for a living, then it sorta makes sense. If you're a professional (that perhaps used to build/support computers) that simply uses computers to build other products/services (think developer, etc.), it is not cost effective.
This is what burns me about Stallman. He thinks that the name Linux is about giving credit to Linus, and GNU/Linux is about giving credit to GNU.
The name Linux is a brand, not a credit
And part of the issue is that Linux actually has brand equity, whereas GNU really has none or very little. RMS is trying to piggyback GNU on Linux's brand equity, plain and simple.
Obviously RMS has quite a bit of experience as an engineer, but is mighty niave when it comes to marketing. The name "GNU" is indication of his lack of marketing experience. Ever explained what GNU is? "GNU stands for GNU's Not Unix. Get it? Its a recursive acronym. Clever huh?" Any time you have to explain an acronym, you're in trouble.
Then RMS is trying to essentially weaken the Linux brand... which is a mistake. It doesn't matter what it is called as long as it is an established and positive brand. It could have been named after a empty vessel (think Xerox, Kleenex, Viagra) as it happened it is based on Linus's name.
I also don't think it is cool that RMS only proposed changing the name *after* Linux as a brand became valuable. I don't remember hearing these arguments til probably 1998 or so, well after the brand was established.
-k
Still didn't answer the question, which is "Why education only?". Why not build a machine that is focused on education market, and let anyone purchase them... why limit who you can sell it to?
I remember back in the day the G3 All-in-one was an 'education' only product. Way cool machine, almost like the iMac, only slightly bigger. I think that people would have prefered to purchase that over a lot of the other options at the time, but nobody even knew about them, let alone were 'allowed' to purchase them. Don't really understand the mentality behind it.
"Should an intellectual activity such as programming be taxed in the same way as manufacturing is?"
I think the question should be "Should manufacturing be taxed in teh same way manufacturing is?".
Reminds me of story I read a while back that was a collection of letters to the editor in Moscow, Russia. A lady complained that government mandated size of a flat per number of residences was rediculous. And then rather then say that the whole concept of only allowing a flat to be sized based on the number of people that lived there was rediculous, she went on to argue that instead of 30 sq feet per person it should be 40 sq feet per person (or whatever numbers). It was a case of not thinking about the overall situation, making assumptions and thinking in the paradigm they are used to.
I think the question asked here "Should software be taxed like manufacturing" points to a bigger question of taxing manufacturing. We're so used to taxes that we consider it just when perhaps it may not be.
These Mac guys are getting all excited about after the fact (albiet somewhat clever) 'document shredding' precautions in case someone ever steals their computers.
Howabout do something that preserves the content, yet renders it useless/unreadable to crooks? I'm of course talking about using encryption, either file level or file system level.
Of course there is a saying, "If all you have is a hammer, everything starts looking like nails.". I say "If all you know is Applescript, start learning about other more widely used solutions."
-k
I know I'll be watching a full day of World Rally Championship on Speedvision on New Year's Day.
You guys should check it out. 'Identifiable' (meaning full chassis, glass windows, etc.) cars, that you'd normally drive on streets, going over a hundred miles per hour over terrain that you'd hesitate to take your SUV. Mud, snow, gravel, sand. Its crazy.
Check it out.
-k
updated article.
I just started reading the entire series this week. Am about half way through the first one, and have enjoyed it very much. My condolences to the family.
For example, us drivers in hydroelectric rich British Columbia (Motto: Keeping California's Lights Burning) would be able to enjoy guilt-free driving right now.
I'm proponent of alternative engergy sources, and high performance automobiles.
Efficiency is certainly an issue, but electric cars do just move polution from the roadways to the power plants.
In the example you provided--hydroelectic power plant--is definatley a low polution power plant. However, it is not without serious consequences.
If you don't beleive me, try to go salmon fishing on the Columbia River. Sockeye salmon have been on the endangered species list for almost 10 years. Steelhead for the past few. Why would, over the course of only 50 years or so, the Columbia river go from being one of the biggest sources of Salmon to having hardly any? You're so-called guilt free hydro-electic dams.
The only low-impact electric power plants are Wind and Solar, to varring degrees. Niether of which are providing the amount of power that hydroelectrical plants are. So if you are advocating electric cars, you're advocating coal plants, killing salmon and nuclear plants. Suddently doesn't sound like a great idea anymore.
I don't buy from companies that offer rebate promotions, because it is pretty much a scam. The longer they have your money, the more money they make. There is no incentive to give your money back in a timely manner, if at all.
After all the fallout for the Iomega rebate stuff, which really was the start of popularizing the use of rebates, I steered clear.
The only way to not get burned is to not participate--meaning don't buy one that has a rebate. If you buy one that has a rebate and don't participate with their rebate program, you are just helping reinforce the perceived effectiveness of the program (the ratio of people that request the rebate to those that don't).
If you still want to buy from people that do rebates, then for christ sake, don't include the rebate in the price of the item. Just because a $50.00 item is $10.00 AFTER REBATE doesn't mean the item is $10.00. The item is actually $50.00, plus a chance that it could be less, only if you jump through a bunch of hoops and complain enough, then add the cost of money (interest, etc.). If you value your time and your cash flow, its not a good deal.
-k
Your recent proposal to Amazon.com worries me greatly as a consumer.
The Author's Guild is requesting to Amazon that they limit my right to buy and sell used books on Amazon's marketplace. This would therefore hurt competition in a free market and therefore hurt consumers.
The Argument that the author/publisher doesn't get any of the profits from the sale is correct--only because such profits have already been paid.
To take your stance on this issue to the extreme, as a consumer I could potentially use the rights to sell all kinds of published personal property such as CDs, movies, and video games. Is the Author's Guild also proposing that Amazon discontinue secondary market sales on these items?
Amazon doesn't need to make precautions regarding 'review/promotional' copies. Correct me if I'm wrong, but these copies are the same as pirated ones, and will be treated accordingly by law enforcement.
There are a few solutions I can come up, beyond the 'simple compromise'. The first is that perhaps the Author's Guild should perhaps adopt digital methods of distributing books, and make it cost effective enough for a consumer to purchase a book first-hand, essentially eliminating the secondary market. The second solution is even more obvious: compete. This is a free market economy. If new book sales are losing market share to used books, then it means competition is healthy and that publishers and authors need to compete even with themselves. Lowering new prices and adding value (increasing quality of paper, etc.) are valid ways to compete with the secondary market.
Sincerely,
Kris Dahl
It seems to me it is necessary that people shuld still physically visit the polls.
I was trying to keep my mouth closed a bit with all this... but this is the type of comment that sets me off. Who are you to tell me that I 'should' still visit the polling station? I agree it should be an option, but not required. It isn't required now.
Even though I am fully capable to make it to the polling stations, I have chosen to vote exclusively via absentee balot. I don't have to worry about getting places on time, and am able to make my decisions while reading the voters papmlets or the Internet. I don't have to memorize positions on obscure reforendums.
ANd a couple other things about absentee balots, etc.: I have never even needed to provide ID to request absentee ballots... I simply registered to vote and then filled out a form at the back of the voter pamphlet and mailed it in. I have always voted via absentee and let me tell you that there is a lot of room in the traditional system for fraud, etc. Authentication is one problem. Another is interception--they come in a obvious envelope and go out in one... tampering and elimination of absentee ballots is a trivial matter. I also never receive confirmation of receipt (except the time I forgot to send one without signing it, and they mailed me a photocopy to sign for their records). So who the hell knows. Using cryptography, digital signatures, etc. would be vastly superior to the micky mouse, po-dunk systems we use now.
Its funny how when things go digital, people start getting 'serious' about security, regardless of the current method. Credit card # are transmitted in plain text over phone, mail, yet as soon as it is the Internet, nothing weaker than 128 bit is acceptable. Yet when on the Internet the data actually flows through probably less people than the traditional methods. Same with the votign system. The double standard should stop--and I tend to lean in favor of the stricter requirements that Internet seems to require.
-k
The ballots in Miami-Dade county should stand by law because all challenges to the ballot format must be made before the first vote is cast and ALL voters and campaigns in that county received an instructional copy of the ballot weeks before the election. That leaves outright fraud( forged absentee ballots, dead people voting, etc ) and the suppression of republican voters in the west(due to the early miscall of Florida going to Gore) as the most likely challenges.
I agree completely. The Ballot designs were approved before the 7th. You can NOT take the results what people legally voted for, decide that something is fishy, and then demand a revote. The results would be brutally skewed.
If there isn't a decisive winner, I think the ONLY fair thing to do, and this may rise to the level of a decision by the Supreme Court, would be to throw out the ENTIRE 25 electoral votes in Florida as if they had gone to a different candidate. Because neither man received a majority of the electoral votes(270), the Constitution says it is up to the newly elected House of Representatives to select the President. It seems the only way to ensure the rule of law is obeyed.
IANAL. I am not even an expert on constitutional law. But I don't think you can throw away anyone's votes or electoral votes like that (although it seems like the only reasonable solution).
The thing that scares me most about this is that if we let them come in, which at the moment is the last option on the list. what else will they see?
Auditing by the SPA or various software vendors happens on a regular basis. I am concerned that none of you guys have ever heard about it before. Auditing and then billing is how companies like Autodesk (who have a high amount of piracy) for one example makes a good portion of of their revenues. I am aware of one company around here who ended up having to shell out several million dollars for software that wasn't intentionally pirated, just that the IT department didn't get a good grip on making SURE it wasn't pirated. If you are working as an IT manager and you weren't aware of the consequences of poor management of your licenses, you should be looking for a new job--because you'll need one when someone comes and audits your company.
see if we can find more companies in the area and start a class action suit against them.
Again, this is not a new thing. If they want to come in an do an audit, they can. It is in your EULAs and if you have ever registered any software, they know that you have the software. YOu can try to do a class-action lawsuit, but you'll find that it will get thrown out immediately. This is an established system, like it or not.
SUre this is a major problem with proprietary software--one more reason to go opensource. But it is NOT a new problem, and you reap what you sow.
cheers,
-k
This is letter is a complete hoax.
It is the time of year where we review the Linux operating system's position again, so I thought I would sit down and pass on my thoughts for this year.
Does anyone think that Microsoft, every year, evaulates the position of Linux in the marketplace? I would be suprised to hear if they did this evaluation in any smaller period than once a month. This industry moves too fast to do an annual evaluation.
We leave the actually muddying to others, like Mindcraft.
There is no way that Gates would say this, even internally. This is just not a comment one would make.
That's my "Halloween document" for 2000. Nothing to worry about. And for crying out loud, don't leak this memo this year. We all remember what happened to Vinod, right?
You've got to be kidding. This is the nail in the coffin as far as I am concerned. There is no way that Gates would bring up the previous document, and then egg someone on to leak this one. Just wouldn't happen.
-k
I found that DARE was, as a program, an utter failure.
Now I am not against the idea of "Drug Abuse Education" the idea. Just the program was ill fated.
If they focused on teaching the side effects of various drugs and their effects that it'll have on your life it'd be one thing. A guy earlier said that pot had no downsides--I disagree pot will make you stupid and unmotivated when you use it (a decided disadvantage, I would say). So actually showing what cocaine will do to you vs. pot, etc.
They also spent a lot of time (wasted) on teaching about self esteem and what it is. That was a big waste of time.
The problem with DARE is that it encouraged as much as discouraged drug experimentation. It is the standard Pandora's box. They really pique people's curiosity with DARE. And because it is rebellious kids do that stuff. Notice how kids tend to experiment with drugs during their 'rebelious' stage? It is a human nature issue.
But the fact of the matter is, if America is still waging the war on drugs, DARE will be destined to fail. I actually think that DARE may become more successful if drugs are legalized--naturally it would no longer be the police and what-not or called DARE. But an actual drug education system wouldn't be a bad idea.
IMHO the only reason why DARE has been around for 10 or so years now is because it is fashionable for businesses to sponsor DARE related stuff. I.e. businesses and prominent community leaders get press and what not for supporting DARE (via painting one of their fleet vehicles with DARE logos, having a DARE pizza party for the local kids, speaking at a DARE graduation ceremony, etc.). The public I don't even think CARES if DARE works--but it's good publicity so they support it.
This is a problem I imagine we'll be dealing with until some of the older generations are no longer in power and we have more Libertarians in government. Hopefully it will become socially acceptable to support ending the war on drugs THEN it will start to swing the other way.
-k
I wouldn't want to vote for any of them over Bush, or even Gore (though I wouldn't vote for him either). If you were to include McCain and Ventura, I'd still vote for Bush, but McCain would be my second choice.
You realize that Ventura is a Libertarian? As far as I know he became disenchanted with the reform party some time ago.
Ventura and Browne agree on like 99% of the things. Every Libertarian position can be summarized in one sentance: Leave it up to the individual, not the government. It isn't very abiguous. That is the whole point... there isn't abiguity in the Consititution, it has simply been added by socialists and liberals over the years.
BTW, one of the major advantages of the Libertarian platform is that it is 100% comatible with other ideologies. You can be a socialist under a Libertarian goverment--hell you can be whatever you want to be.
-k
Cobalt, as many people have already stated, now use the x86 platform for their servers. From Cobalts history and reputation of not really being big on supporting older products (or any product really, after they have bee released) I doubt they would retrofit say the Qube 2700s, Qube 2's, Raqs, Raq2s, NasRaq and CacheRaq (all Mips products) with Solaris. I mean why would they make that investment?
The Raq3, and now the Raq4 are the most popular models that Cobalt has. They are both running fairly lame AMD chips. All evidence suggest they will continue to use x86 chips in the future. So I imagine the Raq5, or whatever they end up calling the next ones (Netra Raq perhaps?) would be capable of using Solaris for Intel.
And honestly this would fit in with Cobalt's business model fairly well. Currently they have a really good profit margin--leading the industry apparently. Paying for a license for the OS would be no big deal. And Cobalt hasn't really contributed much to the Open Source community--for example ChiliSoft was recently purchased by Cobalt and their ChiliSoft ASP product is still closed source. While the engineers tend to embrace Open Source stuff, I have a feeling that the upper management may not--the CEO tends, IMHO, to actually go out of his way to have the company adopt propreitary software. So I guess I wouldn't be surprised.
In any case,
-k
An HP Pavilion HDD has a "tatoo" in a section of the hard drive that can only be reached by debug scripts and the like. FDISK can't touch it. "Recovery" disks look for the HDD tatoo & and the BIOS tatoo and if they don't find it, they will not install. This means if you have one of these types of systems, you need to take your system to an OEM-approved "service center" and they will run the script to make your new hard drive able to function with the recovery disk should you buy a new hard drive.
This is not true. I was (and probably still am) HP Authorized for warranty and other repair on pretty much all current HP computers--Netservers, Kayaks, Brios, Vectras, Omnibooks, and the mentioned Pavillion. There is no tattoo partition, and certainly is no script. I have used third party hard drives in all of the HP models, from the Netserver down to the lowly pavillion and never needed to run this phantom script.
Some OEM's (notably HP) used to foist this travesty on consumers in return for cheaper licensing for their protection payments to Microsoft for Windows. Now, this is REQUIRED by M$ on all new system.
Partially true. MS doesn't allow OEMs to ship Windows CDs anymore, only recover disks. According to Dell (whom I had to discuss this with) because I wanted to use the Windows 2000 license that came with the machine in VMWare (i.e. use Linux, but also use windows, only in a Virtual Machine). Not possible. Becuase the recovery CD detects the BIOS type, and perhaps other methods and so it *won't* work with VMWare.
But again, there is no hard drive tattoo.
-k
I don't see why this is a big deal. The ratings are there for a reason aren't they? Just like movie ratings, why shouldn't game ratings be enforced by those retailers who want to?
The problem that I have is that we all take for granted the MPAA guidelines for movies? Why? Do you realize how important these so-called 'guidelines' are to the sucess of a movie? R movies have a strike against them from the beginning--if your movie gets an NC-17 'rating' then it is doomed to commercial failure. Who gives the MPAA the right to do this? Certainly not the consumer, although this sort of apathy certainly has let them survive this long. The point is that we as consumers do not get to choose the ratings system--there is no competition and the retailers (movie theaters, kmart, etc.) blindly follow the guideline cartel. That is power I don't think anyone should have--government or 'independant' organizations alike.
Nobody should have control of your buying decisions--weather it be movies, games, porn or guns. Bottom line.
-k
I worry that if too many highly intelligent people skip school to join the workforce they will not have sufficient breadth of education to fully understand the impacts of what they are doing. This school was founded just after WWII so the reason for that mantra is clear. Brilliant people are great but if they can't consider the broader implications of their work they can be very dangerous*.
While I understand your logic, I disagree with your conclusion.
It seems to me that you are implying that if more Germens, or American Scientists (!) & Military leaders went to college we wouldn't have had such a problem with WWII and Nuclear Weapons? Both demographics: Scientists, military leaders, etc., either have a doctorate degree in most cases (scientists) or went to west point at least or equivalent (military leaders).
College != enlightenment
College != education, either
Education comes from within. I believe that college is a good experince but is not something that will prevent world wars or nuclear holocost.
Further I don't understand why people think that College is the way to gain greater breadth of education. Reading, and a thirst for knowledge is what gives you a better education. College is simply an environment (sans girls and beer) that is designed for that purpose. Other environments are sufficient if not as good or better for 'enlightenment'.
-k