Bad example: I'm a white guy that finds himself in the middle of harlem late at night. I'm about to get mugged. Does a taxi cab driver have a responsibility to pick me up and drive me out of their for free?
Very bad example. You assume that just because you're white you're going to get mugged in Harlem. That's not just a bad example, it's stupid, ignorant, and maybe racist.
since when do drug campanies have a responsibility to short-change themselves (and thereby their investors) in order to save people that are sometimes too stupid to save themselves?
No one, least of all Tina Rosenberg in her article, is suggesting that drug companies ought not make money. She suggested that, perhaps, given the amazing amount of money those companies spend on advertising, and given the fact that some of the drugs they market were pretty much given them, that their excuse that the high cost of research is to blame for the high cost of the drugs they sell may not be on the up and up.
One big difference between tv advertising and advertising built into my program: I can get up and pee, make a snack, check email, etc. during the commercials on tv.
Ads on my browser will still be there after my break.
If you hate animated gifs in banner ads as much as I do, then I doubt you'll ever want your programs to run ads.
Two things I 'd like to see in future versions of Linux:
1. I'd just like to emphasize your point that Linux needs to make printer setup and printing much easier than it currently is. I know I'd like to see that happen. And
2. Fonts. It should not be so difficult to install truetype fonts. It would be nice, too, if printing truetypes was automatic.
Ignore the above wish list if you don't want Linux to be a desktop operating system.
People have been saying we all pay for such care through insurance and gov't programs. The inference seems to be that in a free market that wouldn't be so.
But even in situation where you only get what you pay for, we all would pay for the care of the disabled. How? If you are rich and can afford to hire the care your disabled child needs, the care you've hired can't be used for other things. If I can't get to a doctor/nurse/practitioner because he or she is busy taking care of someone else, I pay too.
How we use our resources, who gets what and why are perennial, questions.
I wonder about the argument that people need guns for protection or self defense. Anecdotal arguments don't work here. The fact that you may once have used a gun to protect yourself proves as much as the fact that I have never needed one.
But what if the argument is true? I'm not sure I want to live in a place like that. And if I do live there, I think it would be worth my time to help change things so that needing a gun was no longer necessary.
And what if the argument isn't so? Then I guess I'd have to think about the kind of mentality that insists that people need guns to protect themselves and wonder what kind of world they are seeing.
We have plenty of "blame the guns" bozos over here, mind you. We just slow them down a little. But they'll try the same stupid, matriarchal, knee-jerk, emotional "solutions" here; it's just a matter of time.
It's people who own guns and who make arguments like this that worry me. Matriarchy? I wasn't aware that the Matriarchy had a position on gun control. Do you have an URL? Or maybe instead you could explain your guns/matriarchy opposition. It suggests that on some level you're equating guns and patriarchy or, perhaps, guns and manliness.
None of us who advocate for tighter gun control laws is claiming that such laws "solve" the problems that lead to school shootings. Nor are we trying to diminish individual responsibility. The only claim is that with tighter laws, those problems wouldn't have led to shootings.
may mean that I no longer have to make sure my pages pass the lynx test, something anyone who writes web pages ought to do. That will give me a little more design leeway. (I'm not using style sheets yet.) The $149 price tag may mean that more blind people and institutions will be able to afford the reader. Screen readers and the pwWebSpeak program have been pretty expensive, I think. I'm looking forward to trying the program.
If you've got a product you want people to use, and you're not helpful to all the people who may want to give it a chance, then you're going to lose them. It's that simple.
This is linux's situation now. It doesn't matter whether the gurus get paid for answering questions on comp.os.linux.whatever. Though I understand that it might matter to the gurus. Still that doesn't change the basic situation. The newsgroups are probably the first call newbies make for help(=customer service). And as word continues to spread about linux, the newsgroups will see an ever increasing number of newbies asking an ever diminishing number of interesting questions.
This may break the newsgroups. As I understand it, they were originally a forum for committed hobbyists and pros to share info and probably work best that way. Still, the principal doesn't change. Treat a new customer badly and you won't have one.
There's a chance here to build a new online models for providing customer service and some people are trying different things out. Take a look at Linux Support Services.
You might want to look at things from a customer service perspective. If you loose your customers because you won't answer their questions, or if you answer your customers questions in a surly manner, you won't be in business very long. Unless, of course, you're running a monopoly.
It doesn't matter how stupid you think the question is. It doesn't matter that the answer to the question a newbie is asking is right under his nose. He has asked a question. If you want to keep him as a customer, then you had better answer.
If any of you went into a store, asked what time the store was closing and were told to read the hours posted by the entrance (= RTFM), you would be pissed off, and rightly so.
Slashdot Mirror
Ironix should acknowledge that his post is taken from Rick Mercer's CBC show This Hour Has 22 Minutes.
As for Anonymous Coward, well as a United States citizen, I can only apologize.
Seth
Bad example: I'm a white guy that finds himself in the middle of harlem late at night. I'm about to get mugged. Does a taxi cab driver have a responsibility to pick me up and drive me out of their for free?
Very bad example. You assume that just because you're white you're going to get mugged in Harlem. That's not just a bad example, it's stupid, ignorant, and maybe racist.
since when do drug campanies have a responsibility to short-change themselves (and thereby their investors) in order to save people that are sometimes too stupid to save themselves?
No one, least of all Tina Rosenberg in her article, is suggesting that drug companies ought not make money. She suggested that, perhaps, given the amazing amount of money those companies spend on advertising, and given the fact that some of the drugs they market were pretty much given them, that their excuse that the high cost of research is to blame for the high cost of the drugs they sell may not be on the up and up.
Seth
Now we have Dynamic Positioning
But we really don't have that yet, and we won't until most people are using browsers that support it.
Seth
One big difference between tv advertising and advertising built into my program: I can get up and pee, make a snack, check email, etc. during the commercials on tv.
Ads on my browser will still be there after my break.
If you hate animated gifs in banner ads as much as I do, then I doubt you'll ever want your programs to run ads.
Seth
Two things I 'd like to see in future versions of Linux:
1. I'd just like to emphasize your point that Linux needs to make printer setup and printing much easier than it currently is. I know I'd like to see that happen. And
2. Fonts. It should not be so difficult to install truetype fonts. It would be nice, too, if printing truetypes was automatic.
Ignore the above wish list if you don't want Linux to be a desktop operating system.
Seth
Pizza delivery is very difficult without phones or phone lines.
Seth
People have been saying we all pay for such care through insurance and gov't programs. The inference seems to be that in a free market that wouldn't be so.
But even in situation where you only get what you pay for, we all would pay for the care of the disabled. How? If you are rich and can afford to hire the care your disabled child needs, the care you've hired can't be used for other things. If I can't get to a doctor/nurse/practitioner because he or she is busy taking care of someone else, I pay too.
How we use our resources, who gets what and why are perennial, questions.
Seth
I wonder about the argument that people need guns for protection or self defense. Anecdotal arguments don't work here. The fact that you may once have used a gun to protect yourself proves as much as the fact that I have never needed one.
But what if the argument is true? I'm not sure I want to live in a place like that. And if I do live there, I think it would be worth my time to help change things so that needing a gun was no longer necessary.
And what if the argument isn't so? Then I guess I'd have to think about the kind of mentality that insists that people need guns to protect themselves and wonder what kind of world they are seeing.
Signing off from the U.S.
Seth
VMWare isolates programs from the host machine, WINE programs can interact with programs on the host machine.
You can cut and paste between linux programs and programs running in a win 98 virtual machine.
SethWe have plenty of "blame the guns" bozos over here, mind you. We just slow them down a little. But they'll try the same stupid, matriarchal, knee-jerk, emotional "solutions" here; it's just a matter of time.
It's people who own guns and who make arguments like this that worry me. Matriarchy? I wasn't aware that the Matriarchy had a position on gun control. Do you have an URL? Or maybe instead you could explain your guns/matriarchy opposition. It suggests that on some level you're equating guns and patriarchy or, perhaps, guns and manliness.
None of us who advocate for tighter gun control laws is claiming that such laws "solve" the problems that lead to school shootings. Nor are we trying to diminish individual responsibility. The only claim is that with tighter laws, those problems wouldn't have led to shootings.
Seth
may mean that I no longer have to make sure my pages pass the lynx test, something anyone who writes web pages ought to do. That will give me a little more design leeway. (I'm not using style sheets yet.) The $149 price tag may mean that more blind people and institutions will be able to afford the reader. Screen readers and the pwWebSpeak program have been pretty expensive, I think. I'm looking forward to trying the program.
Seth
If you've got a product you want people to use, and you're not helpful to all the people who may want to give it a chance, then you're going to lose them. It's that simple.
This is linux's situation now. It doesn't matter whether the gurus get paid for answering questions on comp.os.linux.whatever. Though I understand that it might matter to the gurus. Still that doesn't change the basic situation. The newsgroups are probably the first call newbies make for help(=customer service). And as word continues to spread about linux, the newsgroups will see an ever increasing number of newbies asking an ever diminishing number of interesting questions.
This may break the newsgroups. As I understand it, they were originally a forum for committed hobbyists and pros to share info and probably work best that way. Still, the principal doesn't change. Treat a new customer badly and you won't have one.
There's a chance here to build a new online models for providing customer service and some people are trying different things out. Take a look at Linux Support Services.
Hope this helps.
Seth
You might want to look at things from a customer service perspective. If you loose your customers because you won't answer their questions, or if you answer your customers questions in a surly manner, you won't be in business very long. Unless, of course, you're running a monopoly.
It doesn't matter how stupid you think the question is. It doesn't matter that the answer to the question a newbie is asking is right under his nose. He has asked a question. If you want to keep him as a customer, then you had better answer.
Seth
You said it.
If any of you went into a store, asked what time the store was closing and were told to read the hours posted by the entrance (= RTFM), you would be pissed off, and rightly so.
Look for imwheel at www.freshmeat.net I'm using it for a microsoft intellimouse and the README claims it also works for your mouse also.