Not much to say, except that I basically agree with you...
I write as well and finally I found a publisher I like....
I was annoyed by the musicians whining constantly about this, that or the other thing. They should live the life of a writer sometime and see how it is! Poor mostly!
1) The copyright may be in the name of the author, but if you look at the contracts the publisher has exclusive rights to print and dictate how the book is printed. A writer can buy the plates and then do what they may. The writer has NO flexibility. I give you an example. I know a writer who used to write for WROX. WROX went belly up and his rights to his books went belly up as well. Result? Other companies scooped up the books and can print the titles without paying a DAMM cent to the writer? Why because bankruptcy law allows it.
2) I was comparing apples with oranges. The 12 cents was calculated on the dollar. A writer does not typically calculate on the dollar, but on the amounts that the publishing house receives. Therefore subtracting from the article the amount that the seller and middle person receives you get about 20% to 30% royality rate for the artist.
When I saw those stats the artist is not that badly off!
Ok I am going to say that artists actually get half decent deals.
First getting 12 cents on the dollar is not bad when you consider the going rate for book authors. Authors traditionally get anywhere 5% to 20% from what the publishers get, which is traditionally 40% to 60% of the retail price. And guess what happens to royalities to foreign countries and book clubs... You guessed it, DOWN THE TUBES.
In other words artists get about 20% to 30% royalities. So if you do not mind, I am going to cry some crodile tears right now!
Everything is wrong with that if you preach "FREE TRADE". This is the hypocriscy of the current administration. On the one hand they talk free trade, but on the other hand they talk tarriffs.
IT DOES NOT WORK THAT WAY. Either you have free trade or you do not! Doing otherwise is the rhetoric that this administration loves!
Interesting, once "national" interests come into play then free trade goes out the window...
Is that how I should view things? Because if that is what you are saying it is extremely two faced! Other countries are saying the same thing btw. However to the American politicians they are viewed as "isolationist", etc..
You know that is what trade is about. Specializing in specific tasks that the other one cannot do as efficiently. But I suppose it only applies until "national interests" come into play...
This is the problem of the current administration. They are two faced and see things using only one perspective. It is going to get them burned...
Ok now that makes sense in SCO's little world of Alice in Wonderland.
But I am guessing what you are saying makes sense. BUT and here is my BIG BUT....
I think there is a conspiracy here. You are throwing the dice and think that you have a case. The case hits IBM and it hits Linux. Take that company out and Linux falls flat on its face. What I find especially telling is that he keeps hitting Linux. AND I find his arguments especially telling because that is what MS has been harping all the time. They ALWAYS harp about IP. Well guess who gets a license a few weeks later, MS? What I also find funny is that MS in the space of a couple of weeks forks over x million. Unless things have changed I have never known a company to be trigger happy to fork over x million on something that they might never use. Naaa, I smell a rat here....
Maybe this is why IBM is keeping silent. Maybe the lawyers from IBM are saying, "Are they that stupid? They could not be that stupid? Could they?" And in those cases it is better to shutup than say anything...
It is a brand new plane. In Business Week they were saying that this will be the world's first entirely composite plane. There will be no aluminum whatsoever. THIS IS HIGH RISK boys and girls. But it might also pay amazing dividends....
Honestly? Bullshit! He does not have a valid argument.
Consider it as follows. Lets say you go to the movies. You end up getting a seat with a great view. Why, because the seat in front of you has nobody sitting in it. Then along comes a person who decides to sit in that seat because he wants to watch the movie as well. The person behind is screwed because they have a lesser view. Who's fault is it? The person sitting behind.
Why? Because if he wanted a better view then he should have gotten the seat in front. And if the seat in front is more expensive, well tough! That is how life works.
In the case of the beachhouse, here is the question. Can a house be built on it? If so then his argument does not stand a chance. Just because nobody has been building a house on the property for the past fifty years means nothing.
He should have looked at the conditions of his property and made a more intelligent buy...
You see I happen to live in Europe and I am European. The highschool killings is not unique to America. In fact if you want to get specific in details then it is Canada that exported that problem. Why? In 1989 a guy went on a killing spree within a University and killing 16 female engineers. He set the prototype and showed that it was possible. Why do we constantly think it is an "American" problem? Hmmm, media maybe?
Now about the kids arming themselves? Well I think again we should go back in history. It started out in the America, yes. But it started about 150 to 200 years ago. And do you know who started it? Irish and Italian gangs. LO AND BEHOLD, these are Europeans that exported a problem from the "old country" to the new country.
So again while America has issues and problems, the Europeans are not holier than thou. And I know I am a European who lives in Europe....
Actually I did say to her that it was pretty callous. Then my comment was, "Hey what the hell is that kind of attitude. You are just propagating sterotype that should never have existed in the first place".
You have pinpointed the fundenmental problem. I was in the same boat as you. Result? I partially shifted careers. I do not do programming anymore, but I write technical books. Granted the money is not what it used to be. But the upside is that once I get going the royalities should start adding up.
Luckily I have always written, but these days people are asking me to write it pays...
But it does suck, let me tell you. Went from wanted by ooodles of companies to "Who are you?"
My wife who like me is a GenX'r is now a manager in charge of hiring programmers, etc.
Well when the topic of GenX's who cannot get work came up in SlashDot I talked this over with my wife. She yeah she hires young programmers. I asked how come? She said that they learn quicker and are more flexible.
I looked at her with amazement and said HUH? Are you bs'ing me? I said you are just as bad as those other managers. Promptly I pointed out that I can learn very quickly, etc, etc. She said, but fine that is you, but not me. I have problems learning these days in contrast to previous years. And GenX's demand too much.
What I learned from this is as follows:
1) Managers suck! They look at their own perspective and think the rest of world must be like that.
2) People like to validate sterotypes. ONLY young people can learn new technologies and are flexible.
I saw that pigs aspect as well. And my first thought was the same. Yeah right, NEVER has anyone thought of smoking the stuff. Especially among strict religious people who would "know" better.
Hmmm, was it not monks who invent beer and wine? Hmmm, why? Oh yeah to kill the boredom!
But here is another question. Calfs when milk fed makes for good meat. What happens when pigs are fed regular amounts of weed? Do you get high like those cookies with weed? I mean it could be a great export item for Bhutan?
"Had a rough day, want to unwind? Eat Bhutan pork. Fills you up and lightens your day"
Bhutan says it was TV that destroyed their country.
I ask, was it? Or was it that now problems have surfaced? Seriously when a society opens problems are publicized. This means maybe, just maybe these problems existed already. But nobody knew because there was no media.
So I ask is this better or worse? I personally think better.
Now about society and Americanization != progress. Ask yourself, which society would you rather live in if you had the choice. I am almost willing bet you would say America instead of Bhutan.
America and American's have flaws. BUT and this what people have to realize. Many of those flaws are hyped media stuff. Just like maybe what is going on in Bhutan.
There are 260 million people in the US and 375 million in Europe. When bad things happen in the US, people say, oh look how bad America is. But those bad things happen in Europe as well. Does anybody say oh look how the Europeans are? Not usually. Why because those bad things are spread out over Europe and simply does not make for interesting media which is spread too thinly...
I do not mind using the TrackPoint thingy. But the problem is that the fingers that are hurt are the same ones using the TrackPoint. So after a while, my fingers really hurt....
I work regularly on a notebook keyboard and love having the trackball really close. When I move to a desktop box, man is that trackball far away. These days I search for a compact keyboard....
I had to switch to a trackball because a mouse and its clicks ruined two of my fingers.
To minimize any further injury I do not play video games or other repetitive type programs.
But these days if I write quite a bit (am a professional technical author) I can get it after about two or three weeks of solid writing.
If the study looked at Europeans, of course it would make sense. Europeans actually have to work at the computer to get any type of injury!;) Seriously though Europeans tend not to use the computer as much as North Americans.... I know I have lived in Europe for the past ten years.
Well it is dumping. Because a specific person gets the price for a specific reason.
1) Fair value and what it is is left up to debate. The problem of the Windows XP price tag is that it is given to the end consumer for 50 USD. What Dell pays is irrelevant because Dell is a corporation that sells XP and gets VOLUME discounts. This is the difference between CostCo and Walmart. In Canada with CostCo you need to own a business. Otherwise CostCo would be doing price dumping. And 50 USD in the context of a competitor is blatent price dumping. Because no consumer under any circumstance could ever get Windows XP for 50 USD!
2) Dumping is not just in comparison to your home country because otherwise BMW would be accused of dumping. If you do the math you find that BMW's are more expensive in Germany than they are in Europe.
3) Yes in the context of a competitor outdoing another competitor it is below marginal cost, but not cost of production! Often that is confused with costs of production because dumping has traditionally being applied to corporations that produce products such as cars, memory chips, etc.
Price dumping is not selling at a loss. Dumping is defined as follows URL ( http://pacific.commerce.ubc.ca/john/baim503/dum p.h tm)
Dumping is the act of charging a price to the export market that is less than the normal (fair) value. The dumping margin is the percentage difference between normal value and the export price.
In other words you are not charging a fair price. Well in terms of MS charging only 50US for an OS in contrast to the regular 299 USD is definitely price dumping.
Price dumping applies to everybody and not just monopolists.
Yeah things can get primitive. Just to point things out. Things can get downright primitive in Canada and the US as well. (Outhouse, no electricity) You just need to go into the boonies.
[sarcasm] About the food and living off the land? Well there are those folks too in the US, but oddly they seem to gathering in places like Northern California;) I think people call them tree-huggers!;) [/sarcasm]
Nope that is one of the things they tried to get through, but it never REALLY made it. (Thankfully) And the next constitution is moving away from a federal Europe to more a Europe where we are one family with unique identities.
Slashdot Mirror
Not much to say, except that I basically agree with you...
I write as well and finally I found a publisher I like....
I was annoyed by the musicians whining constantly about this, that or the other thing. They should live the life of a writer sometime and see how it is! Poor mostly!
1) The copyright may be in the name of the author, but if you look at the contracts the publisher has exclusive rights to print and dictate how the book is printed. A writer can buy the plates and then do what they may. The writer has NO flexibility. I give you an example. I know a writer who used to write for WROX. WROX went belly up and his rights to his books went belly up as well. Result? Other companies scooped up the books and can print the titles without paying a DAMM cent to the writer? Why because bankruptcy law allows it.
2) I was comparing apples with oranges. The 12 cents was calculated on the dollar. A writer does not typically calculate on the dollar, but on the amounts that the publishing house receives. Therefore subtracting from the article the amount that the seller and middle person receives you get about 20% to 30% royality rate for the artist.
When I saw those stats the artist is not that badly off!
Ok I am going to say that artists actually get half decent deals.
First getting 12 cents on the dollar is not bad when you consider the going rate for book authors. Authors traditionally get anywhere 5% to 20% from what the publishers get, which is traditionally 40% to 60% of the retail price. And guess what happens to royalities to foreign countries and book clubs... You guessed it, DOWN THE TUBES.
In other words artists get about 20% to 30% royalities. So if you do not mind, I am going to cry some crodile tears right now!
Everything is wrong with that if you preach "FREE TRADE". This is the hypocriscy of the current administration. On the one hand they talk free trade, but on the other hand they talk tarriffs.
IT DOES NOT WORK THAT WAY. Either you have free trade or you do not! Doing otherwise is the rhetoric that this administration loves!
Interesting, once "national" interests come into play then free trade goes out the window...
Is that how I should view things? Because if that is what you are saying it is extremely two faced! Other countries are saying the same thing btw. However to the American politicians they are viewed as "isolationist", etc..
You know that is what trade is about. Specializing in specific tasks that the other one cannot do as efficiently. But I suppose it only applies until "national interests" come into play...
This is the problem of the current administration. They are two faced and see things using only one perspective. It is going to get them burned...
Here is a better piece of advice. Leave the damm country while the getting is good. Do not become the DMCA poster boy would be my thoughts right now.
Is it not sad how a country turns funny when because of a bunch of lawyers running the asylum.
One thing is for sure, the more stuff like this goes on in the US the less attractive the US will become... Sad, really sad...
Ok I could buy that. But I do smell a rat somewhere here.
You know when things do not add up there is more than meets the eye...
Ok now that makes sense in SCO's little world of Alice in Wonderland.
But I am guessing what you are saying makes sense. BUT and here is my BIG BUT....
I think there is a conspiracy here. You are throwing the dice and think that you have a case. The case hits IBM and it hits Linux. Take that company out and Linux falls flat on its face. What I find especially telling is that he keeps hitting Linux. AND I find his arguments especially telling because that is what MS has been harping all the time. They ALWAYS harp about IP. Well guess who gets a license a few weeks later, MS? What I also find funny is that MS in the space of a couple of weeks forks over x million. Unless things have changed I have never known a company to be trigger happy to fork over x million on something that they might never use. Naaa, I smell a rat here....
Maybe this is why IBM is keeping silent. Maybe the lawyers from IBM are saying, "Are they that stupid? They could not be that stupid? Could they?" And in those cases it is better to shutup than say anything...
It is a brand new plane. In Business Week they were saying that this will be the world's first entirely composite plane. There will be no aluminum whatsoever. THIS IS HIGH RISK boys and girls. But it might also pay amazing dividends....
Who knows....
Yes that is right. They had composites. But you think Boeing is better?
Come on, there was a time when Boeing planes kept falling out of the sky for one reason or another (about five years I think).
The point I am trying to make is that both Boeing and AirBus have it hard. Each tries to one up the other and tries different ideas.
Honestly? Bullshit! He does not have a valid argument.
Consider it as follows. Lets say you go to the movies. You end up getting a seat with a great view. Why, because the seat in front of you has nobody sitting in it. Then along comes a person who decides to sit in that seat because he wants to watch the movie as well. The person behind is screwed because they have a lesser view. Who's fault is it? The person sitting behind.
Why? Because if he wanted a better view then he should have gotten the seat in front. And if the seat in front is more expensive, well tough! That is how life works.
In the case of the beachhouse, here is the question. Can a house be built on it? If so then his argument does not stand a chance. Just because nobody has been building a house on the property for the past fifty years means nothing.
He should have looked at the conditions of his property and made a more intelligent buy...
Oh give me a break....
You see I happen to live in Europe and I am European. The highschool killings is not unique to America. In fact if you want to get specific in details then it is Canada that exported that problem. Why? In 1989 a guy went on a killing spree within a University and killing 16 female engineers. He set the prototype and showed that it was possible. Why do we constantly think it is an "American" problem? Hmmm, media maybe?
Now about the kids arming themselves? Well I think again we should go back in history. It started out in the America, yes. But it started about 150 to 200 years ago. And do you know who started it? Irish and Italian gangs. LO AND BEHOLD, these are Europeans that exported a problem from the "old country" to the new country.
So again while America has issues and problems, the Europeans are not holier than thou. And I know I am a European who lives in Europe....
Fair enough...
BTW I am not a Canadian. Just have a Canadian email address.... Some legacy....
Actually I did say to her that it was pretty callous. Then my comment was, "Hey what the hell is that kind of attitude. You are just propagating sterotype that should never have existed in the first place".
But getting a new wife? NAAAA...
You have pinpointed the fundenmental problem. I was in the same boat as you. Result? I partially shifted careers. I do not do programming anymore, but I write technical books. Granted the money is not what it used to be. But the upside is that once I get going the royalities should start adding up.
Luckily I have always written, but these days people are asking me to write it pays...
But it does suck, let me tell you. Went from wanted by ooodles of companies to "Who are you?"
My wife who like me is a GenX'r is now a manager in charge of hiring programmers, etc.
Well when the topic of GenX's who cannot get work came up in SlashDot I talked this over with my wife. She yeah she hires young programmers. I asked how come? She said that they learn quicker and are more flexible.
I looked at her with amazement and said HUH? Are you bs'ing me? I said you are just as bad as those other managers. Promptly I pointed out that I can learn very quickly, etc, etc. She said, but fine that is you, but not me. I have problems learning these days in contrast to previous years. And GenX's demand too much.
What I learned from this is as follows:
1) Managers suck! They look at their own perspective and think the rest of world must be like that.
2) People like to validate sterotypes. ONLY young people can learn new technologies and are flexible.
3) GenX's are screwed!
I saw that pigs aspect as well. And my first thought was the same. Yeah right, NEVER has anyone thought of smoking the stuff. Especially among strict religious people who would "know" better.
Hmmm, was it not monks who invent beer and wine? Hmmm, why? Oh yeah to kill the boredom!
But here is another question. Calfs when milk fed makes for good meat. What happens when pigs are fed regular amounts of weed? Do you get high like those cookies with weed? I mean it could be a great export item for Bhutan?
"Had a rough day, want to unwind? Eat Bhutan pork. Fills you up and lightens your day"
Hmmmm.....
Bhutan says it was TV that destroyed their country.
I ask, was it? Or was it that now problems have surfaced? Seriously when a society opens problems are publicized. This means maybe, just maybe these problems existed already. But nobody knew because there was no media.
So I ask is this better or worse? I personally think better.
Now about society and Americanization != progress. Ask yourself, which society would you rather live in if you had the choice. I am almost willing bet you would say America instead of Bhutan.
America and American's have flaws. BUT and this what people have to realize. Many of those flaws are hyped media stuff. Just like maybe what is going on in Bhutan.
There are 260 million people in the US and 375 million in Europe. When bad things happen in the US, people say, oh look how bad America is. But those bad things happen in Europe as well. Does anybody say oh look how the Europeans are? Not usually. Why because those bad things are spread out over Europe and simply does not make for interesting media which is spread too thinly...
I do not mind using the TrackPoint thingy. But the problem is that the fingers that are hurt are the same ones using the TrackPoint. So after a while, my fingers really hurt....
I work regularly on a notebook keyboard and love having the trackball really close. When I move to a desktop box, man is that trackball far away. These days I search for a compact keyboard....
I had to switch to a trackball because a mouse and its clicks ruined two of my fingers.
;) Seriously though Europeans tend not to use the computer as much as North Americans.... I know I have lived in Europe for the past ten years.
To minimize any further injury I do not play video games or other repetitive type programs.
But these days if I write quite a bit (am a professional technical author) I can get it after about two or three weeks of solid writing.
If the study looked at Europeans, of course it would make sense. Europeans actually have to work at the computer to get any type of injury!
Well it is dumping. Because a specific person gets the price for a specific reason.
1) Fair value and what it is is left up to debate. The problem of the Windows XP price tag is that it is given to the end consumer for 50 USD. What Dell pays is irrelevant because Dell is a corporation that sells XP and gets VOLUME discounts. This is the difference between CostCo and Walmart. In Canada with CostCo you need to own a business. Otherwise CostCo would be doing price dumping. And 50 USD in the context of a competitor is blatent price dumping. Because no consumer under any circumstance could ever get Windows XP for 50 USD!
2) Dumping is not just in comparison to your home country because otherwise BMW would be accused of dumping. If you do the math you find that BMW's are more expensive in Germany than they are in Europe.
3) Yes in the context of a competitor outdoing another competitor it is below marginal cost, but not cost of production! Often that is confused with costs of production because dumping has traditionally being applied to corporations that produce products such as cars, memory chips, etc.
Price dumping is not selling at a loss. Dumping is defined as follows URL (m p.h tm)
http://pacific.commerce.ubc.ca/john/baim503/du
Dumping is the act of charging a price to the export market that is less than the normal (fair) value. The dumping margin is the percentage difference between normal value and the export price.
In other words you are not charging a fair price. Well in terms of MS charging only 50US for an OS in contrast to the regular 299 USD is definitely price dumping.
Price dumping applies to everybody and not just monopolists.
IF and it is a BIG IF, if this is true then what happened to the Anti-Monopoly laws?
Interesting that in all of their supreme intelligence the DOJ and judge thought that their measures would tame the beast.
AND IF and again it is a BIG IF. It it is true. MS should be split right then and there into multiple companies... Sometimes the buck has to stop!
Yeah things can get primitive. Just to point things out. Things can get downright primitive in Canada and the US as well. (Outhouse, no electricity) You just need to go into the boonies.
;) I think people call them tree-huggers! ;)
[sarcasm]
About the food and living off the land? Well there are those folks too in the US, but oddly they seem to gathering in places like Northern California
[/sarcasm]
Nope that is one of the things they tried to get through, but it never REALLY made it. (Thankfully) And the next constitution is moving away from a federal Europe to more a Europe where we are one family with unique identities.
The main "issue" with Turkey is its human rights.