Maybe we could find a way to make buying CDs uncool.
You're as behind the times as the RIAA is, bro. It already is more cool for 12 year olds to rip MP3's than it is to buy CD's.
That's why the RIAA is so terrified: They don't understand the technology, and so all they know how to do is to banish it.
But if they banish it, they'll only drive it further underground.
I imagine that the RIAA/MPAA's "war on piracy" will be slightly less successful than, say, the "war on drugs." Hmmm, let's see, yes, I can still get any drugs I want to as easily as I can go buy good tomatoes at the grocery store. Yup.
The problem with government is that it only has the power that people give it. How do people give the government power? Through ignorance and apathy.
People are largely ignorant of technical issues, and few of those who know care.
If you haven't written a congressperson or senator about this issue yet, you are part of the problem. If you do not vote in elections, you are part of the problem. If you do not participate in a party's Primary, you are part of the problem. If you don't write letters to the editor of your local paper, you are part of the problem. If you do not support organizations like the EFF in one way or the other, you are part of the problem.
I'm not saying you have to become a full-time activist to do this. I'm working 60-hour weeks and have a girlfriend and others I need to take care of right now, but I'm MAKING time to take care of this and I MADE time to vote because Democracy is not a spectator sport.
Use the power and rights you've been given, before they are taken away.
What about a plea bargain? What about a reduced sentence for good behavior and cooperating with the court and authorities? There's ALWAYS a way out, especially with the US legal system. This kid may have thrown out any prayer of those alternatives with his behavior today.
I hope he enjoys being his cellmate's "wife". Maybe a few years in prison will knock some sense and reality into his skull. But I'm not counting on it.
Not only does the picture look like something out of anime, but there's also the issue of the gravity-defying D-cup breasts in the picture, long a staple of anime SF. This artist watched too much Bubblegum Crisis or Ghost in the Shell.
But it brings up an interesting thought sort of in-line with the last line of the C|Net article. Imagine having a troop of women wearing these things dealing with issues in the Middle East, where women are second-class citizens. "Tell me to be subservient now, willya?" blam blam blam... It's no big thing for a woman to be a good fighter to Westerners, but in the Middle East, talk about adding insult to injury... You're not only getting killed, but you're getting killed by seemingly invicible warriors protected by armor and endowed with superhuman abilities, but by squads of seemingly invincible, armored, superhuman women.
I don't think Bill's saying, "I never said that." I think that what he's saying is, "That was taken out of context." Perhaps what Bill G. said was, "640k should be enough for anyone... for now." Which is pretty much what I always figured had happened.
Disclaimer: I think Microsoft sucks donkey balls, and the sooner they stop being a monopoly, the sooner the world will be a much better place.
"If you want to make a hit, do a show that is connected to the present, that shows the fruits of out labors and dreams, not the failure of them."
If you'd actually READ THE ARTICLE, maybe you'd read that this is precisely what JMS is doing. He points to how people thought that after the Black Death, the world would end. it didn't; in fact, the Renaissance followed on its heels.
He wants to show how, after this "Big Death," people discover a chance to re-mold the world into a way that maybe is more of a utopia.
Take the whole world apart piece by piece, look at the lessons learned from the past, and try to put it all back together the right way. That's what JMS says he's after. That's not depressing... that is hopeful.
The law and common sense typically have nothing to do with each other.
A while back, I worked for a defense contractor, and we were given a lecture about import/export restrictions (ITAR). The message was the following: Ask the in-house expert about anything.
They went to great lengths to explain, "If you don't know exactly what the precise wording and meaning of the law to your exact situation is, you should ask." And most importantly, NEVER ASSUME THAT WHAT MAKES SENSE IS WHAT THE LAW SAYS. The law is not written according to common sense.
He was right, of course. Laws do not make sense, common or otherwise. Fortunately, we can see to it that they're changed. Unfortunately, we have to get a majority to agree to change it first.:)
There's another good thing for those of us who've been following the story. The manner in which the media has covered this case has changed dramatically. The DMCA is now "Controversial." Sklyarov is no longer a "pirate," but an "employee." And where there used to be more time spent on Adobe and the FBI, the press is starting to cover Elcomsoft's point of view.
The irony -- that a Russian company would be suing for freedom of speech in America -- is a much better story, and an easier sell, than the old "hacker accused of wrongdoing" nonsense that they originally reported this story as.
Yes, we ARE glad that competition is keeping everyone on their toes. Imagine what, say, the browser market would be like if there were competition there? For one thing, I'd imagine every browser out there would have the option to shut off pop-ups, not just the odd Konqueror or Opera browser here and there.
It's not just that DDR is a mature tech for AMD but not so much for Intel. It's that the two memory types work very differently, and how the processor expects data to arrive is going to be affected by the memory. P4's are designed to expect the higher bandwidth and latency of Rambus -- they expect to wait longer, and to get more in one chunk.
So no, I think that this would skew results in AMD's favor. I actually think that a fair comparison would require Rambus on the P4 system, and DDR on the AMD system.
Microsoft has built a massive Great Wall of Control around the software industry, and they guard the portcullis. To all who would pass through, these bandits put forth the following edict: No Innovation Shall Pass That Is Not Microsoft's. And all who pass through must pay a fee to the gang who runs it.
The settlement offer maintains this Great Wall of Control. The settlement offer ensures that Microsoft alone decides what technology the people will be allowed to use. The settlement offer ensures that the software industry in America is not free.
The leader of the people of the land made a stand against the bandits, and defeated it -- yet rather than destroy the Great Wall of Control, assuring freedom and prosperity for his citizens, will he now offer a truce to these bandits? These thieves? These self-appointed censors of ideas?
More is at stake here than the jobs of American citizens. America's ability to compete with the rest of the world in software is at stake; because if we do not allow our own citizens to innovate, some other country will. And such steps are clearly beginning in Europe and Japan.
This settlement harms industry. This settlement harms individuals. This settlement harms America. We have already lost so many good ideas due to the Microsoft Bandits; how many more can we afford to lose?
Man, it started way earlier than the 1900s. As long as there have been corporations, there's been out-and-out warfare between them. And as for the poster who said, "Too bad they can't fight with real weapons," well, sometimes they do. In fact, the vast majority of warfare is fought primarily over economic concerns.
You have the occasional religious anomaly, such as the crusades. But most is based on one group raiding and sacking another for its resources: Germany under Hitler, France under Napoleon, Iraq's invasion of Kuwait, the Goths/Visigoths/Vandals raiding Rome, the Spanish conquest of the Incas and Aztecs.
And even revolutions and civil wars are primarily over economic concerns. The American Revolution was founded primarily in the disagreement between England and the USA as to what business opportunities should be available -- the colonists wanted to trade with everyone; the crown thought the colonies only existed to benefit England. In fact, that's the story with just about every colony revolt. The American civil war was fought over slavery, which had nothing to do with race and everything to do with the Southern Plantation owners' need for cheap labor. And then of course, there are the numerous Communist revolutions, attempts by the working class to eliminate the ruling class, which only succeed in creating a new ruling class.
One could easily go so far as to say that even wars supposedly started over religion really had nothing to do with religion and everything to do with economics: The Catholic Church was seeking to extend its power and influence into new areas, to have more resources to draw upon and more power. The fighting in Israel is about land, not belief. And Islamic terrorists fight because they have nothing to lose; when there is an economic downside to terrorism, people abandon their zealotry quickly.
I'd go as far as to say that all wars have been corporate wars, and all struggles are struggles based on limited resources.
I wholeheartedly agree. It's good for us to work to improve the system we have, or replace it with a better one. My comments are not directed to the many throngs of people who appreciate its benefits, but to the peculiar hardcore individuals who are blind to its benefits, or who somehow think that a return to centralized control (e.g., Communism) is somehow NOT a return to the pure imperialistic "good ole boy network" that exists as the primary form of advancement outside of the United States.
You definitely benefit from networking in the United States, but who you know is not the be-all end-all method for success like it is elsewhere.
I've got moderator access right now, and I wish I could moderate this up to +6, because it appears to me that most people have missed what really happened. A lot of people are saying, "Serves Microsoft right," or that Microsoft got their just desserts or something. That's not what's going on.
This is not about Microsoft.
The PRC doesn't give a rat's ass about what Microsoft said about them.
What's going on here is exactly what the article has said. China is a shoddy business opportunity -- very much unlike the USA. Here, we have 300 million eager consumers, and the government is usually more than willing to let whoever wants to sell whatever they want to try to do so.
China's different. Corporations drool over the nearly 2 billion "consumers," but this is not (yet) a free market economy. And few companies that try to move into China to take advantage of the market ever make money, because the Chinese government is determined to make more money.
This is then made doubly difficult by the fact that in China, the state is religion, and the system is really an imperial system, just like the one Mao supposedly overthrew and every dynasty before it. And in systems like this, success is based solely on who you know. It's not like here in the United States where people value you on your ability to work hard and benefit the company.
People piss on "corporatists" on this board all the time. But that corporate system, with a few exceptions, is what allows immigrants to come to this country with nothing but what they could fit in a pair of suitcases and become the CEOs of their own corporations. It's what allows the children of blue-collar workers the ability to become wealthy and respected white-collar workers. I've met immigrants from China, Vietnam, Egypt, Iran, and all over the place, and they love the fact that in this country, if they work hard, they CAN make a good living.
In China, and most of the rest of the world, you are not valued for the quality of your product or for how hard you work. You're valued for "who you are" -- the son of a famous general, the brother of a diplomat, the cousin of the President.
This is not about Microsoft. This is about China. Only Western arrogance would assume otherwise.
What worries me most about such crazes are not the many kids who don't have a disorder who are diagnosed with it, but rather the few who actually suffer from it who might be then ignored in the backlash to the fad later on.
Autism's one of those things that you can have varying degrees of -- from none at all, to full-on autism, to anything in the middle. It's not "on" or "off" so much. Because of this, just about everyone can be diagnosed with Asperger's, depending on how it's defined.
But meanwhile, it's clear to me that what's happening in Silicon Valley and elsewhere is very real, and not just a bunch of parents freaking out. How they deal with it -- therapy and specialists and other bizarre behavior -- is very different from how I'd deal with it, but there's little doubt in my mind that this is not purely the result of the "disease of the month" syndrome.
The reason people work on OSS is really quite simple: It's the only place where you can escape Microsoft's dominance. OSS is primarily a non-Microsoft phenomenon; there are few major (emphasis on "major") OSS apps that originated and are primarily Windows-centric, usually because Microsoft typically already has solutions for such things.
One of the effects of a monopoly is that innovation in that particular industry ceases. Microsoft has no real drive to do true innovation. As a result, people who want to do things that are interesting flock to OSS.
It's simply about wanting to do cool things. You can't do them and make money as long as Microsoft has a monopoly; thus, OSS flourishes.
I'm willing to wager that the end of the Microsoft monopoly (inevitable, IMHO, but that's another topic) will also bring about the end of the OSS development explosion we see right now. Because people will HAVE an alternative where they can do innovative things AND make money.
But right now, you can't really do both on the desktop. You're either pushing the envelope, XOR making money.
If I recall correctly, EA was the savior of Origin Systems, bailing Origin out of its own mismanagement. An AC above said, "Who cares, everything past Ultima 6 sucked." Well, in my opinion, it's because Garriott was more involved with running the company at that point than he was with designing games. His gifts lie with the latter, not the former.
I would assume you have not yet travelled outside of the United States...
You assume wrongly. I have visited Mexico, many states in the Caribbean, England, Scotland, Germany, Austria, Hungary, Canada, and Switzerland.
If the United States is so homogenized, perhaps you could inform me where I could find good barbecue here in San Diego. Or where I can hear blues rock, like I used to get all the time in Austin. Or perhaps you could point out to me why people around here say "I'm so stoked about this," and what the heck it means? And why don't these people say "y'all" when they're referring to the second person plural? Have you been able to find 3-l soda bottles? How about dried red chile peppers, or better yet, a ristra?
Homogenized, my ass.
If this country was homogenized, maybe I could find a decent chicken fried steak around here!
Good grief. I once saw BBQ that had pineapple on it, for chrissakes. PINEAPPLE!!!! What kind of a loon puts pineapple on BBQ ribs? The only fruit that goes on BBQ is RAW ONION!!! And maybe pickles.
Or tacos. These people put LOBSTER in their tacos! And FISH!!! Spewwww, aunt slappy. And instead of shredded lettuce, they have shredded cabbage.
Homogenized, my ass!
What about music? THERE ISN'T ONE HALFWAY DECENT COUNTRY MUSIC STATION ON THE ENTIRE FM DIAL. Not a single one.
Oh, and get this... in California, the state actually taxes your income. That's right, there's a state income tax here. What kind of leftist stupidity is this? As if their sales and property taxes weren't bad enough.
Southern Californians talk funny. They wouldn't know a good steak if it bit 'em on the ass. And the don't know who Roger Miller is. If I wasn't out here waiting for my baby to graduate, I'd have been gone back to Texas a long time ago.:)
(Although I must admit, I do like good sushi...can't get that back in Texas...)
Now I'll bet you a buck that if there are folks reading this, they're going to look at what I'm saying here and they're going to make flames. They're going to talk about differences between SoCal and Texas, and between those two places and wherever they may live in the United States.
Because the cultures of the various populated areas here are vastly different.
The thing that really scares me about globalization is the homogenization that follows.
What homogenization?
Texas has no fewer than five separate subcultures: West Texas, South Texas, Dallas and the Panhandle, Central Texas, and East Texas all have very different cultures, styles, and even accents. (People keep asking me why I don't "sound like a Texan" -- well, I DO sound like someone from Amarillo, so get over it!)
Or California, which has the almost polar opposite cultures of reactionary Orange County and kooky-liberal Berkeley.
And if anyone from any of these areas were to move to Kansas, they'd experience culture shock. After adjusting, they could move to Georgia, upstate New York, New York City, the Garden State, or Green Bay and find entirely different accents, food, religious beliefs, political beliefs, and social customs.
Take pizza for example. Here in San Diego, Papa John's and Pizza Hut are about as good as it gets. But if you go to New York City, every mom-n-pop pizza joint has pizza ten thousand times better than that. If you go visit Chicago, you find pizza that's better than home and completely different from the stuff you ate in the Big Apple.
This country is as "globalized" as any -- so where's the homogenization?
Even McDonald's is different in each city. In New Mexico, you can have green chile added to your Quarter Pounder. Some places have McRib as a regular menu item, others don't. And in the shadow of the Arch in St. Louis, there's this amazing riverboat McD's that has Happy Meals that float.
In other words, there is no homogenization. So you have nothing to be afraid of.
It comes down to senior management, and most execs are non-techie. Much microsoft advocacy is down from a primarily business perspective, much nix advocacy (especially Linux) is done from a primarily technical perspective; until nix vendors do a better job fighting Windows on the finance, marketing and media battlefield they'll keep losing ground to Microsoft, irrespective of the technical merits of the products involved.
Well, the business advocacy is very simple: Why pay for something you can get for free?
Linux service contracts are cheaper than Microsoft service contracts. Linux licenses cost nothing. Better security in Linux will mean less downtime, meaning more income. Linux also runs faster than Windows and has fewer hardware requirements. In short, Windows means substantially more cost in the short term and the long term, for substantially less revenue. If you want to gain and keep a competitive edge, you MUST use Linux. Otherwise, competitors who use it will drive you into the ground -- especially with the economy the way it is, who can afford to waste money on Windows?
Just because RoadRunner does not support Windows XP today does not rule it out tomorrow. Remember that a lot of people have Macintoshes, and I don't think that RoadRunner directly supports them either.
Actually, they do directly support Macintoshes, and have since its introduction.
I also understand that a big reason why they ditched their "login" program was to make life easier for Linux users.
Slashdot Mirror
Maybe we could find a way to make buying CDs uncool.
You're as behind the times as the RIAA is, bro. It already is more cool for 12 year olds to rip MP3's than it is to buy CD's.
That's why the RIAA is so terrified: They don't understand the technology, and so all they know how to do is to banish it.
But if they banish it, they'll only drive it further underground.
I imagine that the RIAA/MPAA's "war on piracy" will be slightly less successful than, say, the "war on drugs." Hmmm, let's see, yes, I can still get any drugs I want to as easily as I can go buy good tomatoes at the grocery store. Yup.
The problem with government is that it only has the power that people give it. How do people give the government power? Through ignorance and apathy.
People are largely ignorant of technical issues, and few of those who know care.
If you haven't written a congressperson or senator about this issue yet, you are part of the problem. If you do not vote in elections, you are part of the problem. If you do not participate in a party's Primary, you are part of the problem. If you don't write letters to the editor of your local paper, you are part of the problem. If you do not support organizations like the EFF in one way or the other, you are part of the problem.
I'm not saying you have to become a full-time activist to do this. I'm working 60-hour weeks and have a girlfriend and others I need to take care of right now, but I'm MAKING time to take care of this and I MADE time to vote because Democracy is not a spectator sport.
Use the power and rights you've been given, before they are taken away.
Now is the time. Not "tomorrow."
Make time to care.
What about a plea bargain? What about a reduced sentence for good behavior and cooperating with the court and authorities? There's ALWAYS a way out, especially with the US legal system. This kid may have thrown out any prayer of those alternatives with his behavior today.
I hope he enjoys being his cellmate's "wife". Maybe a few years in prison will knock some sense and reality into his skull. But I'm not counting on it.
It's called a "free market," a thing that no longer exists in the closed-source world. It's actually a good thing.
Not only does the picture look like something out of anime, but there's also the issue of the gravity-defying D-cup breasts in the picture, long a staple of anime SF. This artist watched too much Bubblegum Crisis or Ghost in the Shell.
But it brings up an interesting thought sort of in-line with the last line of the C|Net article. Imagine having a troop of women wearing these things dealing with issues in the Middle East, where women are second-class citizens. "Tell me to be subservient now, willya?" blam blam blam... It's no big thing for a woman to be a good fighter to Westerners, but in the Middle East, talk about adding insult to injury... You're not only getting killed, but you're getting killed by seemingly invicible warriors protected by armor and endowed with superhuman abilities, but by squads of seemingly invincible, armored, superhuman women.
Too awesome.
I don't think Bill's saying, "I never said that." I think that what he's saying is, "That was taken out of context." Perhaps what Bill G. said was, "640k should be enough for anyone ... for now." Which is pretty much what I always figured had happened.
Disclaimer: I think Microsoft sucks donkey balls, and the sooner they stop being a monopoly, the sooner the world will be a much better place.
"If you want to make a hit, do a show that is connected to the present, that shows the fruits of out labors and dreams, not the failure of them."
If you'd actually READ THE ARTICLE, maybe you'd read that this is precisely what JMS is doing. He points to how people thought that after the Black Death, the world would end. it didn't; in fact, the Renaissance followed on its heels.
He wants to show how, after this "Big Death," people discover a chance to re-mold the world into a way that maybe is more of a utopia.
Take the whole world apart piece by piece, look at the lessons learned from the past, and try to put it all back together the right way. That's what JMS says he's after. That's not depressing... that is hopeful.
That's basically what they'll say.
:)
The law and common sense typically have nothing to do with each other.
A while back, I worked for a defense contractor, and we were given a lecture about import/export restrictions (ITAR). The message was the following: Ask the in-house expert about anything.
They went to great lengths to explain, "If you don't know exactly what the precise wording and meaning of the law to your exact situation is, you should ask." And most importantly, NEVER ASSUME THAT WHAT MAKES SENSE IS WHAT THE LAW SAYS. The law is not written according to common sense.
He was right, of course. Laws do not make sense, common or otherwise. Fortunately, we can see to it that they're changed. Unfortunately, we have to get a majority to agree to change it first.
There's another good thing for those of us who've been following the story. The manner in which the media has covered this case has changed dramatically. The DMCA is now "Controversial." Sklyarov is no longer a "pirate," but an "employee." And where there used to be more time spent on Adobe and the FBI, the press is starting to cover Elcomsoft's point of view.
The irony -- that a Russian company would be suing for freedom of speech in America -- is a much better story, and an easier sell, than the old "hacker accused of wrongdoing" nonsense that they originally reported this story as.
Here's to the fickle press!
I've heard this exact same thing. And I realized it was true when I bought my g/f a Powerbook Titanium for $2300 or so...
:)
It still needs:
1. external CDRW (+ cables)
2. 802.11b
3. Photoshop
4. Illustrator
I betcha if you sum those together, you get $3k
Yes, we ARE glad that competition is keeping everyone on their toes. Imagine what, say, the browser market would be like if there were competition there? For one thing, I'd imagine every browser out there would have the option to shut off pop-ups, not just the odd Konqueror or Opera browser here and there.
Yes, competition is good.
It's not just that DDR is a mature tech for AMD but not so much for Intel. It's that the two memory types work very differently, and how the processor expects data to arrive is going to be affected by the memory. P4's are designed to expect the higher bandwidth and latency of Rambus -- they expect to wait longer, and to get more in one chunk.
So no, I think that this would skew results in AMD's favor. I actually think that a fair comparison would require Rambus on the P4 system, and DDR on the AMD system.
To whom it may concern:
The settlement offer is awful.
Microsoft has built a massive Great Wall of Control around the software industry, and they guard the portcullis. To all who would pass through, these bandits put forth the following edict: No Innovation Shall Pass That Is Not Microsoft's. And all who pass through must pay a fee to the gang who runs it.
The settlement offer maintains this Great Wall of Control. The settlement offer ensures that Microsoft alone decides what technology the people will be allowed to use. The settlement offer ensures that the software industry in America is not free.
The leader of the people of the land made a stand against the bandits, and defeated it -- yet rather than destroy the Great Wall of Control, assuring freedom and prosperity for his citizens, will he now offer a truce to these bandits? These thieves? These self-appointed censors of ideas?
More is at stake here than the jobs of American citizens. America's ability to compete with the rest of the world in software is at stake; because if we do not allow our own citizens to innovate, some other country will. And such steps are clearly beginning in Europe and Japan.
This settlement harms industry. This settlement harms individuals. This settlement harms America. We have already lost so many good ideas due to the Microsoft Bandits; how many more can we afford to lose?
Man, it started way earlier than the 1900s. As long as there have been corporations, there's been out-and-out warfare between them. And as for the poster who said, "Too bad they can't fight with real weapons," well, sometimes they do. In fact, the vast majority of warfare is fought primarily over economic concerns.
You have the occasional religious anomaly, such as the crusades. But most is based on one group raiding and sacking another for its resources: Germany under Hitler, France under Napoleon, Iraq's invasion of Kuwait, the Goths/Visigoths/Vandals raiding Rome, the Spanish conquest of the Incas and Aztecs.
And even revolutions and civil wars are primarily over economic concerns. The American Revolution was founded primarily in the disagreement between England and the USA as to what business opportunities should be available -- the colonists wanted to trade with everyone; the crown thought the colonies only existed to benefit England. In fact, that's the story with just about every colony revolt. The American civil war was fought over slavery, which had nothing to do with race and everything to do with the Southern Plantation owners' need for cheap labor. And then of course, there are the numerous Communist revolutions, attempts by the working class to eliminate the ruling class, which only succeed in creating a new ruling class.
One could easily go so far as to say that even wars supposedly started over religion really had nothing to do with religion and everything to do with economics: The Catholic Church was seeking to extend its power and influence into new areas, to have more resources to draw upon and more power. The fighting in Israel is about land, not belief. And Islamic terrorists fight because they have nothing to lose; when there is an economic downside to terrorism, people abandon their zealotry quickly.
I'd go as far as to say that all wars have been corporate wars, and all struggles are struggles based on limited resources.
The bennifits do not invalidate the criticisms.
I wholeheartedly agree. It's good for us to work to improve the system we have, or replace it with a better one. My comments are not directed to the many throngs of people who appreciate its benefits, but to the peculiar hardcore individuals who are blind to its benefits, or who somehow think that a return to centralized control (e.g., Communism) is somehow NOT a return to the pure imperialistic "good ole boy network" that exists as the primary form of advancement outside of the United States.
You definitely benefit from networking in the United States, but who you know is not the be-all end-all method for success like it is elsewhere.
I've got moderator access right now, and I wish I could moderate this up to +6, because it appears to me that most people have missed what really happened. A lot of people are saying, "Serves Microsoft right," or that Microsoft got their just desserts or something. That's not what's going on.
This is not about Microsoft.
The PRC doesn't give a rat's ass about what Microsoft said about them.
What's going on here is exactly what the article has said. China is a shoddy business opportunity -- very much unlike the USA. Here, we have 300 million eager consumers, and the government is usually more than willing to let whoever wants to sell whatever they want to try to do so.
China's different. Corporations drool over the nearly 2 billion "consumers," but this is not (yet) a free market economy. And few companies that try to move into China to take advantage of the market ever make money, because the Chinese government is determined to make more money.
This is then made doubly difficult by the fact that in China, the state is religion, and the system is really an imperial system, just like the one Mao supposedly overthrew and every dynasty before it. And in systems like this, success is based solely on who you know. It's not like here in the United States where people value you on your ability to work hard and benefit the company.
People piss on "corporatists" on this board all the time. But that corporate system, with a few exceptions, is what allows immigrants to come to this country with nothing but what they could fit in a pair of suitcases and become the CEOs of their own corporations. It's what allows the children of blue-collar workers the ability to become wealthy and respected white-collar workers. I've met immigrants from China, Vietnam, Egypt, Iran, and all over the place, and they love the fact that in this country, if they work hard, they CAN make a good living.
In China, and most of the rest of the world, you are not valued for the quality of your product or for how hard you work. You're valued for "who you are" -- the son of a famous general, the brother of a diplomat, the cousin of the President.
This is not about Microsoft. This is about China. Only Western arrogance would assume otherwise.
"At least The Clue Is Out There."
:)
Quote of the fuckin' year. I love it.
Another day, another meme...
What worries me most about such crazes are not the many kids who don't have a disorder who are diagnosed with it, but rather the few who actually suffer from it who might be then ignored in the backlash to the fad later on.
Autism's one of those things that you can have varying degrees of -- from none at all, to full-on autism, to anything in the middle. It's not "on" or "off" so much. Because of this, just about everyone can be diagnosed with Asperger's, depending on how it's defined.
But meanwhile, it's clear to me that what's happening in Silicon Valley and elsewhere is very real, and not just a bunch of parents freaking out. How they deal with it -- therapy and specialists and other bizarre behavior -- is very different from how I'd deal with it, but there's little doubt in my mind that this is not purely the result of the "disease of the month" syndrome.
you know, this guy has a real class act employer.
Agreed. We all should be so lucky. We should all be so supportive of our own co-workers.
The reason people work on OSS is really quite simple: It's the only place where you can escape Microsoft's dominance. OSS is primarily a non-Microsoft phenomenon; there are few major (emphasis on "major") OSS apps that originated and are primarily Windows-centric, usually because Microsoft typically already has solutions for such things.
One of the effects of a monopoly is that innovation in that particular industry ceases. Microsoft has no real drive to do true innovation. As a result, people who want to do things that are interesting flock to OSS.
It's simply about wanting to do cool things. You can't do them and make money as long as Microsoft has a monopoly; thus, OSS flourishes.
I'm willing to wager that the end of the Microsoft monopoly (inevitable, IMHO, but that's another topic) will also bring about the end of the OSS development explosion we see right now. Because people will HAVE an alternative where they can do innovative things AND make money.
But right now, you can't really do both on the desktop. You're either pushing the envelope, XOR making money.
If I recall correctly, EA was the savior of Origin Systems, bailing Origin out of its own mismanagement. An AC above said, "Who cares, everything past Ultima 6 sucked." Well, in my opinion, it's because Garriott was more involved with running the company at that point than he was with designing games. His gifts lie with the latter, not the former.
I would assume you have not yet travelled outside of the United States...
:)
You assume wrongly. I have visited Mexico, many states in the Caribbean, England, Scotland, Germany, Austria, Hungary, Canada, and Switzerland.
If the United States is so homogenized, perhaps you could inform me where I could find good barbecue here in San Diego. Or where I can hear blues rock, like I used to get all the time in Austin. Or perhaps you could point out to me why people around here say "I'm so stoked about this," and what the heck it means? And why don't these people say "y'all" when they're referring to the second person plural? Have you been able to find 3-l soda bottles? How about dried red chile peppers, or better yet, a ristra?
Homogenized, my ass.
If this country was homogenized, maybe I could find a decent chicken fried steak around here!
Good grief. I once saw BBQ that had pineapple on it, for chrissakes. PINEAPPLE!!!! What kind of a loon puts pineapple on BBQ ribs? The only fruit that goes on BBQ is RAW ONION!!! And maybe pickles.
Or tacos. These people put LOBSTER in their tacos! And FISH!!! Spewwww, aunt slappy. And instead of shredded lettuce, they have shredded cabbage.
Homogenized, my ass!
What about music? THERE ISN'T ONE HALFWAY DECENT COUNTRY MUSIC STATION ON THE ENTIRE FM DIAL. Not a single one.
Oh, and get this... in California, the state actually taxes your income. That's right, there's a state income tax here. What kind of leftist stupidity is this? As if their sales and property taxes weren't bad enough.
Southern Californians talk funny. They wouldn't know a good steak if it bit 'em on the ass. And the don't know who Roger Miller is. If I wasn't out here waiting for my baby to graduate, I'd have been gone back to Texas a long time ago.
(Although I must admit, I do like good sushi...can't get that back in Texas...)
Now I'll bet you a buck that if there are folks reading this, they're going to look at what I'm saying here and they're going to make flames. They're going to talk about differences between SoCal and Texas, and between those two places and wherever they may live in the United States.
Because the cultures of the various populated areas here are vastly different.
Homogenized, my ass!
The thing that really scares me about globalization is the homogenization that follows.
What homogenization?
Texas has no fewer than five separate subcultures: West Texas, South Texas, Dallas and the Panhandle, Central Texas, and East Texas all have very different cultures, styles, and even accents. (People keep asking me why I don't "sound like a Texan" -- well, I DO sound like someone from Amarillo, so get over it!)
Or California, which has the almost polar opposite cultures of reactionary Orange County and kooky-liberal Berkeley.
And if anyone from any of these areas were to move to Kansas, they'd experience culture shock. After adjusting, they could move to Georgia, upstate New York, New York City, the Garden State, or Green Bay and find entirely different accents, food, religious beliefs, political beliefs, and social customs.
Take pizza for example. Here in San Diego, Papa John's and Pizza Hut are about as good as it gets. But if you go to New York City, every mom-n-pop pizza joint has pizza ten thousand times better than that. If you go visit Chicago, you find pizza that's better than home and completely different from the stuff you ate in the Big Apple.
This country is as "globalized" as any -- so where's the homogenization?
Even McDonald's is different in each city. In New Mexico, you can have green chile added to your Quarter Pounder. Some places have McRib as a regular menu item, others don't. And in the shadow of the Arch in St. Louis, there's this amazing riverboat McD's that has Happy Meals that float.
In other words, there is no homogenization. So you have nothing to be afraid of.
It comes down to senior management, and most execs are non-techie. Much microsoft advocacy is down from a primarily business perspective, much nix advocacy (especially Linux) is done from a primarily technical perspective; until nix vendors do a better job fighting Windows on the finance, marketing and media battlefield they'll keep losing ground to Microsoft, irrespective of the technical merits of the products involved.
Well, the business advocacy is very simple: Why pay for something you can get for free?
Linux service contracts are cheaper than Microsoft service contracts. Linux licenses cost nothing. Better security in Linux will mean less downtime, meaning more income. Linux also runs faster than Windows and has fewer hardware requirements. In short, Windows means substantially more cost in the short term and the long term, for substantially less revenue. If you want to gain and keep a competitive edge, you MUST use Linux. Otherwise, competitors who use it will drive you into the ground -- especially with the economy the way it is, who can afford to waste money on Windows?
Just because RoadRunner does not support Windows XP today does not rule it out tomorrow. Remember that a lot of people have Macintoshes, and I don't think that RoadRunner directly supports them either.
Actually, they do directly support Macintoshes, and have since its introduction.
I also understand that a big reason why they ditched their "login" program was to make life easier for Linux users.