Well the thing is China and India are both developing countries without a comprehensive technical infrastructure; they're trying to become programming powerhouses because they have very few options. South Korea's a fully modernized country with a diverse economy; they don't have the same impetus to do so. Plus, their higher standard of living would make them unable to offer the dirt-cheap contracting that India and China can offer.
This should have raised a lot of red flags...I mean, 2 months after the xbox is released would they really have something? Look how long it took to get Wine to even work partially...
From my admittedly limited experience very few schools bought Macs back then; Apple IIs were a lot more common. Man, that brings back memories...anyone else play a lot of Voyage of the Mimi in elementary school on the Apple IIe?
Actually I always thought the correct usage on slashdot would be to use the teletype font to denote a typed command. After a quick bit of research I discovered that single quotation marks (') should be used in place of regular quotation marks when the word or phrase you're enclosing is in another set of regular quotation marks (i.e. "His exact words were, 'I used apt-get to install that package'")
It can also be used when referring to words in an unusual context, so I guess if you don't use teletype the single quotation marks are the way to go.
You're making some really big jumps in logic here.
First of all, they were talking about giving software to schools that probably wouldn't be able to afford it on their own. You suggest that half the "people" being given the software would have otherwise bought it, which is patently ridiculous; if these schools could afford the software licenses, it's doubtful that they'd qualify for receiving it in the first place.
And that "hope you learned something" was entirely unnecessary, immature, and condescending. Why not simply debate the issue without resorting to that sort of thing?
Once you eliminate the fake losses that Microsoft would claim, many of the other costs start to disappear. Microsoft makes up for its R&D costs on the retail market; if giving away software to schools doesn't dilute that market, then the R&D costs just don't come into consideration. They conduct R&D for the retail market, and they cover their costs from products sold there.
As for the hardware costs, you'll note that in my post I didn't mention hardware at all. Yes, the costs could be quite substantial, and I have no objection to Microsoft doing so as part of the settlement. I simply reject entirely that they should be able to claim that their software donations cost involve anything other than logistics costs.
And that final line about "hoped you learned something" was condescending, immature, and unnecessary. Why not simply debate the issue without using those sort of cheap rhetorical devices?
U.S. District Court Judge J. Frederick Motz said he could not endorse the settlement even though it would have committed Microsoft to spend hundreds of millions of dollars on software and computers for poor schools.
Like the software costs them anything beyond the manufacturing cost (what is it, a small fraction of a penny for each CD pressed?)
Well unless he wasted the millions he made on something, they should be pretty well off. I get the feeling this is driven by over-enthusiastic fans who absolutely, positively must read something else by DNA, and a publisher who is willing to cater to them. It's not like DNA hasn't left us with an utterly brilliant body of work; while it would be nice to have had more stuff from him, I'd rather keep what we have instead of adding some unfinished work of less quality.
Wasn't DNA unsatisfied with the progress he was making on the book? I don't really like the idea of them rushing out an incomplete book that the author abandoned.
Hear hear. I am so sick of the incredible lack of choice you find in the sf section these days. Only place I find a decent amount of interesting sf is at used bookstores, and there you usually have to go back 20 years to find anything worthwhile.
I think the poster has a perfectly valid point. Unless the e-mail address is intended for receiving huge amounts of e-mail, it IS inconsiderate to post it on the front page of a news site that gets several hundred thousand viewers a day.
But you lose that old-school vi flavor when you start using vim. That's one of the reasons I use vi, I don't want to use a more functional one; it would be like installing a modern engine in a beautifully restored 1936 Aston-Martin. Yeah, it'll go faster, but you're not driving it for the speed...
No, a democracy is a much broader term than that; it simply means government by the people, through majority opinion, whether that's through direct vote or through representation. A republic can often be used synonymously, but is usually somewhat more specific, referring to a state run by an elected official. You can check any print or online dictionary (here, here, and here for example.
I'm not sure why so many people on slashdot set such narrow definitions for these two words.
Slashdot Mirror
Well, maybe (and I say this as an American) other countries would start standing up to the US government on trade matters that would be prevented...
Irrelevant. Monopolies are defined as dominating a specific market; Korea and the US represent two different markets.
If they're not too far to the right, you can paint linux as being a move away from capitalism, leading us to a less money-driven culture.
Well the thing is China and India are both developing countries without a comprehensive technical infrastructure; they're trying to become programming powerhouses because they have very few options. South Korea's a fully modernized country with a diverse economy; they don't have the same impetus to do so. Plus, their higher standard of living would make them unable to offer the dirt-cheap contracting that India and China can offer.
What's next?
Cold fusion reality!
Brooklyn Bridge for Sale
Evolution's lazy, and typically crawls towards the minimum that works.
This should have raised a lot of red flags...I mean, 2 months after the xbox is released would they really have something? Look how long it took to get Wine to even work partially...
Errr, that should read "Maybe someone should suggest they put in and ".
From my admittedly limited experience very few schools bought Macs back then; Apple IIs were a lot more common. Man, that brings back memories...anyone else play a lot of Voyage of the Mimi in elementary school on the Apple IIe?
Well, I was being slashdot-specific. Maybe someone should suggest that they put in and ; the gods know we talk about commands enough...
I wouldn't really trust libertarian propaganda sites for well-reasoned "analysis".
Errr, accidently pasted that redundant part at the end. Ignore it (I thought I typed it twice, didn't see where I put the first one though)
Actually I always thought the correct usage on slashdot would be to use the teletype font to denote a typed command. After a quick bit of research I discovered that single quotation marks (') should be used in place of regular quotation marks when the word or phrase you're enclosing is in another set of regular quotation marks (i.e. "His exact words were, 'I used apt-get to install that package'")
It can also be used when referring to words in an unusual context, so I guess if you don't use teletype the single quotation marks are the way to go.
Maybe we need a Slashdot Manual of Style.
You're making some really big jumps in logic here.
First of all, they were talking about giving software to schools that probably wouldn't be able to afford it on their own. You suggest that half the "people" being given the software would have otherwise bought it, which is patently ridiculous; if these schools could afford the software licenses, it's doubtful that they'd qualify for receiving it in the first place.
And that "hope you learned something" was entirely unnecessary, immature, and condescending. Why not simply debate the issue without resorting to that sort of thing?
Once you eliminate the fake losses that Microsoft would claim, many of the other costs start to disappear. Microsoft makes up for its R&D costs on the retail market; if giving away software to schools doesn't dilute that market, then the R&D costs just don't come into consideration. They conduct R&D for the retail market, and they cover their costs from products sold there.
As for the hardware costs, you'll note that in my post I didn't mention hardware at all. Yes, the costs could be quite substantial, and I have no objection to Microsoft doing so as part of the settlement. I simply reject entirely that they should be able to claim that their software donations cost involve anything other than logistics costs.
And that final line about "hoped you learned something" was condescending, immature, and unnecessary. Why not simply debate the issue without using those sort of cheap rhetorical devices?
U.S. District Court Judge J. Frederick Motz said he could not endorse the settlement even though it would have committed Microsoft to spend hundreds of millions of dollars on software and computers for poor schools.
Like the software costs them anything beyond the manufacturing cost (what is it, a small fraction of a penny for each CD pressed?)
Well unless he wasted the millions he made on something, they should be pretty well off. I get the feeling this is driven by over-enthusiastic fans who absolutely, positively must read something else by DNA, and a publisher who is willing to cater to them. It's not like DNA hasn't left us with an utterly brilliant body of work; while it would be nice to have had more stuff from him, I'd rather keep what we have instead of adding some unfinished work of less quality.
'Why' are "we" talking 'like' this?
Wasn't DNA unsatisfied with the progress he was making on the book? I don't really like the idea of them rushing out an incomplete book that the author abandoned.
Hear hear. I am so sick of the incredible lack of choice you find in the sf section these days. Only place I find a decent amount of interesting sf is at used bookstores, and there you usually have to go back 20 years to find anything worthwhile.
So let them sell their PCs and get food. Still a positive thing.
I think the poster has a perfectly valid point. Unless the e-mail address is intended for receiving huge amounts of e-mail, it IS inconsiderate to post it on the front page of a news site that gets several hundred thousand viewers a day.
But you lose that old-school vi flavor when you start using vim. That's one of the reasons I use vi, I don't want to use a more functional one; it would be like installing a modern engine in a beautifully restored 1936 Aston-Martin. Yeah, it'll go faster, but you're not driving it for the speed...
There's no evidence that anyone was paid,
Bad enough they have to work at Microsoft, now they don't get paid for it?
Actually, I believe the idea is that they're trying to make the message available to even the most basic of intelligent life
I know about some marketing executives they could test it on...
No, a democracy is a much broader term than that; it simply means government by the people, through majority opinion, whether that's through direct vote or through representation. A republic can often be used synonymously, but is usually somewhat more specific, referring to a state run by an elected official. You can check any print or online dictionary (here, here, and here for example.
I'm not sure why so many people on slashdot set such narrow definitions for these two words.