Profit is revenue in excess of expenses. If a business has revenue sufficient to pay its expenses, but no more, then there is no profit. I.e., it has made not money. If a business makes no money, it can support no one.
The more common case is that in which revenue is not sufficient to meet expenses. Not only is there no profit in that case, the only way the business will survive is if someone or something adds some money to its revenue stream. This is the opposite of proft. Instead of the business supporting someone, they're supporting the business.
And, yes, you can have a successful non-profir organization. But even they must find enough revenue to meet their expenses, which include any salaried employees. So, in the case of non-profits, their employees make a living only because someone else funds the organization via donations. Those donations are possible because the donors made a profit in their business.
If you want to make a living by running a business, the business must make a profit. Simple as that.
Wouldn't it be more useful for the long-term commercial viability of Linux to develop applications that meet needs Microsoft doesn't, rather than working to make Linux "as good as, but no better" than Windows?
He's liable because he committed the criminal act that harmed others. Absent that, no damage and no crime. It may be unwise to run an insecure PC, but it isn't illegal.
Using your logic, we might as well arrest victims of drive-by-shootings for providing targets.
So, presumably, the Council of Minister are not elected positions? I understand that the Presidency is not, but simply rotates among members.
What's wrong is that the EU is not sufficiently democratic. Apparently, the decisions of the EU Parliament can be overturned by the unelected members of the Presidency or Council.
From an American perspective, it seems this state of affairs will continue until the European countries abandon their notions of individual sovereignty, accept roles equating to those of American states, and permit the creation of a single European federal parliament, court, and executive.
Is the European Parliament sovereign in these matters?
From an American point of view, the European Parliament always sounds like another version of the Articles of Confederation, 200 hundred years later. The Articles didn't work because they were written by people who thought it was more important to be, say, a Virginian than an American. The European Parliament always sounds to me as if it was constructed by people who wanted to be called European, but didn't want to give up being French, or German, or whatever.
Democracy means you get to vote for your leaders. Don't like these guys? Vote for someone else. If you lose, don't rant about the failure of democracy. Rant about the failure of your powers of persuasion.
It's "intuitive" in the sense that Xandros is marketing to current Windows users. If you know how to use the Windows interface, you won't stare at Xandros and wonder what you're supposed to do next.
Similar reasoning lies behind KDE, Gnome, etc.
Interface designers do not live and work in a vacuum. The Windows interface exists and establishes the skills and expectations of most computer users. It would be foolish to design a commercial interface that ignores that.
MS should detect update attempts from pirated software and offer the opportunity to: 1) pay a fee and obtain a retroactive license; 2) get a code to access and apply the updates; 3) receive an effective amnesty for the piracy.
So, Slashdot and OSDN just throw all that registration data away?
Why are people so paranoid about a website knowing that you've been there? Do you all wear disguises and use phony identities when you shop, buy gas, write a check, get a mortgage....
To correct your implication, you can read the NYT's headlines quite well without registering. Registration is required to read the text.
Since you asked, I wouldn't object to registering to read Slashdot headlines. That would equate to registering to even see the site. I wouldn't pay for anything published on Slashdot, registration or no.
Why is every story Slashdot steals from the New York Times prefaced with the same smarmy parenthetical dig about registration? Why no similar slaps at Slashdot's very own registration?
I registered with the NYT a long time ago. Guess what? Nothing bad happened.
All dsitributions draw from the same pool of software. If a company writes something unique, it either relaseses it under the GPL, making it available to every other distribution, or it doesn't, and gets pilloried by the True Believers.
Since what's inside the package is all the same, the only thing to be done is to adjust the wrapping. Hence, we get dozens of packaging and updating schemes and dozens of cute installation routines. Some folks tweak the kernel. Some folks compile for a specific platform.
I've no reason to doubt your experience with Windows Update. Update seems intended for singleton desktop machines, which is how I use it these days. The fault with all updating schemes is that they must make a set of basic assumptions about the machine they will be upgrading. As soon as you deviate from that base, you're probably in trouble. The amount of software running on Windows is so large that MS cannot test against all of it before releasing an update.
Arguing about whether humans or machines do science in space better is missing the point.
Human space travel is just that: h-u-m-a-n space travel. It's about going from Here to There.
Space travel offers a wonderful venue to pursue science. Likewise, much science needs to be done to support human space travel. But those are secondary motivations.
We didn't populate the Earth because we wanted to "do" science. Ditto the rest of the place.
I don't use a Windows machine from the adminstrator account. When I need to run Update, I switch over and do it as the administrator. I read before I install, and I don't install nonapplicable updates. I don't trust anyone's automagic updaters.
When I've used Gentoo, it's been as a desktop machine. I've installed it 3, maybe 4, times, always building from the minimal install (the one that takes a day and a night, and most of the second day...). I don't much about and I don't install "foreign" software. Every time I've used Gentoo, it goes belly up after I've installed some update or another.
Gentoo may have an excellent packaging system, but I don't have time or energy or purpose to become an expert on one more proprietary packaging and updating scheme.
Linux touts "choice" all the time, and rightly so. But the fact is that having a plethora of distribution-specific packaging schemes is a major pain that limits choice.
So long as the Linux community fails to agree to, implement, and use a single packaging and updating scheme, Linux will be a nonstarter outside the geek and corporate worlds.
I suppose if the Loony Brigade is getting exicited about RFIDs, the next thing we'll see is a piece of legisltation attempting to ban cameras. After all, what better way to invade someone's privacy than by taking a picture?
Slashdot would be better off to stick to technology and not bother itself with juvenile Luddite ranting.
Not only is my machine too noisy, it sees double duty as a very expensive space heater. All the heat those noisy fans are removing has gotta go somewhere.
...the PC revolution would have been a lot less revolutionary, if it happened at all.
The simple, limited, but comprehensible BASIC found in all those Apples, Commodores, Ataris, TI's, etc., showed people that even they could control a computer.
BASIC is about putting ordinary people in charge of their computers, not corporations...or crusading free software elitists whose idea of "ordinary people" are 1982 MIT graduates.
The point isn't to identify every innocent person who drives by. The point is to find a car bearing a known tag as soon as possible. There aren't many cops on the streets looking for that car, so this is all to the good. A license plate is, in fact, a method of ID, so this fits within your rather odd paramaters.
Or, do you think cops chasing criminals is just a cute little game?
Slashdot Mirror
Profit is revenue in excess of expenses. If a business has revenue sufficient to pay its expenses, but no more, then there is no profit. I.e., it has made not money. If a business makes no money, it can support no one.
The more common case is that in which revenue is not sufficient to meet expenses. Not only is there no profit in that case, the only way the business will survive is if someone or something adds some money to its revenue stream. This is the opposite of proft. Instead of the business supporting someone, they're supporting the business.
And, yes, you can have a successful non-profir organization. But even they must find enough revenue to meet their expenses, which include any salaried employees. So, in the case of non-profits, their employees make a living only because someone else funds the organization via donations. Those donations are possible because the donors made a profit in their business.
If you want to make a living by running a business, the business must make a profit. Simple as that.
...from a business that doesn't make a profit?
If, at best, you bring in revenue sufficient to pay expenses, the company stays afloat but you have nothing left to spend.
A business with no profit can survive only by drawing revenue from somewhere else. It won't make a living for anyone.
Wouldn't it be more useful for the long-term commercial viability of Linux to develop applications that meet needs Microsoft doesn't, rather than working to make Linux "as good as, but no better" than Windows?
He's liable because he committed the criminal act that harmed others. Absent that, no damage and no crime. It may be unwise to run an insecure PC, but it isn't illegal.
Using your logic, we might as well arrest victims of drive-by-shootings for providing targets.
So, presumably, the Council of Minister are not elected positions? I understand that the Presidency is not, but simply rotates among members.
What's wrong is that the EU is not sufficiently democratic. Apparently, the decisions of the EU Parliament can be overturned by the unelected members of the Presidency or Council.
From an American perspective, it seems this state of affairs will continue until the European countries abandon their notions of individual sovereignty, accept roles equating to those of American states, and permit the creation of a single European federal parliament, court, and executive.
Is the European Parliament sovereign in these matters?
From an American point of view, the European Parliament always sounds like another version of the Articles of Confederation, 200 hundred years later. The Articles didn't work because they were written by people who thought it was more important to be, say, a Virginian than an American. The European Parliament always sounds to me as if it was constructed by people who wanted to be called European, but didn't want to give up being French, or German, or whatever.
...with democracy?
Democracy means you get to vote for your leaders. Don't like these guys? Vote for someone else. If you lose, don't rant about the failure of democracy. Rant about the failure of your powers of persuasion.
It's "intuitive" in the sense that Xandros is marketing to current Windows users. If you know how to use the Windows interface, you won't stare at Xandros and wonder what you're supposed to do next.
Similar reasoning lies behind KDE, Gnome, etc.
Interface designers do not live and work in a vacuum. The Windows interface exists and establishes the skills and expectations of most computer users. It would be foolish to design a commercial interface that ignores that.
MS should detect update attempts from pirated software and offer the opportunity to: 1) pay a fee and obtain a retroactive license; 2) get a code to access and apply the updates; 3) receive an effective amnesty for the piracy.
Typical anti-Semitic moron. Thanks for showing your true colors. Better go shave your head and polish your boots.
So, Slashdot and OSDN just throw all that registration data away?
Why are people so paranoid about a website knowing that you've been there? Do you all wear disguises and use phony identities when you shop, buy gas, write a check, get a mortgage....
To correct your implication, you can read the NYT's headlines quite well without registering. Registration is required to read the text.
Since you asked, I wouldn't object to registering to read Slashdot headlines. That would equate to registering to even see the site. I wouldn't pay for anything published on Slashdot, registration or no.
>>"....(free soul-sucking registration required)"
Why is every story Slashdot steals from the New York Times prefaced with the same smarmy parenthetical dig about registration? Why no similar slaps at Slashdot's very own registration?
I registered with the NYT a long time ago. Guess what? Nothing bad happened.
Face it, they're all the same.
All dsitributions draw from the same pool of software. If a company writes something unique, it either relaseses it under the GPL, making it available to every other distribution, or it doesn't, and gets pilloried by the True Believers.
Since what's inside the package is all the same, the only thing to be done is to adjust the wrapping. Hence, we get dozens of packaging and updating schemes and dozens of cute installation routines. Some folks tweak the kernel. Some folks compile for a specific platform.
But, that's it. A rose is a rose is a rose...
But why pay more than necessary for good quality?
>> Need some help with Gentoo?
Uh, no. If a distribution breaks during routine and normal maintenance, I stop using it.
I've no reason to doubt your experience with Windows Update. Update seems intended for singleton desktop machines, which is how I use it these days. The fault with all updating schemes is that they must make a set of basic assumptions about the machine they will be upgrading. As soon as you deviate from that base, you're probably in trouble. The amount of software running on Windows is so large that MS cannot test against all of it before releasing an update.
Arguing about whether humans or machines do science in space better is missing the point.
Human space travel is just that: h-u-m-a-n space travel. It's about going from Here to There.
Space travel offers a wonderful venue to pursue science. Likewise, much science needs to be done to support human space travel. But those are secondary motivations.
We didn't populate the Earth because we wanted to "do" science. Ditto the rest of the place.
Well, as they say, YMMV.
I don't use a Windows machine from the adminstrator account. When I need to run Update, I switch over and do it as the administrator. I read before I install, and I don't install nonapplicable updates. I don't trust anyone's automagic updaters.
When I've used Gentoo, it's been as a desktop machine. I've installed it 3, maybe 4, times, always building from the minimal install (the one that takes a day and a night, and most of the second day...). I don't much about and I don't install "foreign" software. Every time I've used Gentoo, it goes belly up after I've installed some update or another.
Gentoo may have an excellent packaging system, but I don't have time or energy or purpose to become an expert on one more proprietary packaging and updating scheme.
Linux touts "choice" all the time, and rightly so. But the fact is that having a plethora of distribution-specific packaging schemes is a major pain that limits choice.
So long as the Linux community fails to agree to, implement, and use a single packaging and updating scheme, Linux will be a nonstarter outside the geek and corporate worlds.
Used what enough? Gentoo? Does it fix itself after it breaks itself?
I've never had Windows Update break a machine.
All that "emerge" stuff breaks Gentoo, sooner or later, every time I've tried it.
I suppose if the Loony Brigade is getting exicited about RFIDs, the next thing we'll see is a piece of legisltation attempting to ban cameras. After all, what better way to invade someone's privacy than by taking a picture?
Slashdot would be better off to stick to technology and not bother itself with juvenile Luddite ranting.
Not only is my machine too noisy, it sees double duty as a very expensive space heater. All the heat those noisy fans are removing has gotta go somewhere.
...the PC revolution would have been a lot less revolutionary, if it happened at all.
The simple, limited, but comprehensible BASIC found in all those Apples, Commodores, Ataris, TI's, etc., showed people that even they could control a computer.
BASIC is about putting ordinary people in charge of their computers, not corporations...or crusading free software elitists whose idea of "ordinary people" are 1982 MIT graduates.
The point isn't to identify every innocent person who drives by. The point is to find a car bearing a known tag as soon as possible. There aren't many cops on the streets looking for that car, so this is all to the good. A license plate is, in fact, a method of ID, so this fits within your rather odd paramaters.
Or, do you think cops chasing criminals is just a cute little game?