I thought that we're all supposed to be geeks here? You know, people who understand numbers and stuff.
So why isn't anyone else bothering to drop Albini's numbers into a spreadsheet and examine them? Wake up people, the band members made approximately $50,000 each, even according to Albini's own numbers. He's just doing accounting tricks to make it look like the band members got screwed.
As an extention to Mark Twain's famous saying:
There are lies, damn lies, statitics and balance sheets.
You can tell that Steve Albini is a music industry insider. He uses accounting tricks to make it look like the band members didn't make anything when in fact, according to his own numbers, they made about $50,000 each assuming there were 5 band members.
Just a pre-comment note: I ran all his numbers in a spreadsheet just to
check, it actually comes out to -$12,375.00, after deducting the
advance. Many of the items in his table include other items.
It would be easier to read if/. supported tables in user
comments, hint, hint.
Steve Albini doesn't know how to do math. The band members got a
$250,000 advance on royalties. That means if there were 5 band members
then they took home $50,000 each at the beginning of the contract.
After deducting the $250,000 advance and expences they are $14,000 in
the hole. Let's say that the "5" band members pay off that $14,000.
That means that each of the "5" band members took home $47,200.
If there were only 4 band members than they would have taken home
$59,000 each, that's after paying off the $14,000 royalty deficit.
How does Steve get that each member only made $4,031.25?
Advance: $250,000.00 $250,000.00
Manager's cut: $37,500.00
-$37,500.00
Legal fees: $10,000.00 -$10,000.00
Recording Budget: $150,000.00
-$150,000.00
Producer's advance: $50,000.00
Studio fee: $52,500.00
Drum Amp, Mic and Phase "Doctors":
$3,000.00
Recording tape: $8,000.00
Equipment rental: $5,000.00
Cartage and Transportation:
$5,000.00
Lodgings while in studio:
$10,000.00
Catering: $3,000.00
Mastering: $10,000.00
Tape copies, reference CDs, shipping tapes, misc. expenses:
$2,000.00
Video budget: $30,000.00
-$30,000.00
Cameras: $8,000.00
Crew: $5,000.00
Processing and transfers:
$3,000.00
Off-line: $2,000.00
On-line editing: $3,000.00
Catering: $1,000.00
Stage and construction: $3,000.00
Copies, couriers, transportation:
$2,000.00
Director's fee: $3,000.00
Album Artwork: $5,000.00 -$5,000.00
Promotional photo shoot and duplication:
$2,000.00 -$2,000.00
Band fund: $15,000.00 -$15,000.00
New fancy professional drum kit:
$5,000.00 -$5,000.00
New fancy professional guitars [2]:
$3,000.00 -$3,000.00
New fancy professional guitar amp rigs [2]:
$4,000.00 -$4,000.00
New fancy potato-shaped bass guitar:
$1,000.00 -$1,000.00
New fancy rack of lights bass amp:
$1,000.00 -$1,000.00
Rehearsal space rental: $500.00
-$500.00
Big blowout party for their friends:
$500.00 -$500.00
Tour expense [5 weeks]: $50,875.00
-$50,875.00
Bus: $25,000.00
Crew [3]: $7,500.00
Food and per diems: $7,875.00
Fuel: $3,000.00
Consumable supplies: $3,500.00
Wardrobe: $1,000.00
Promotion: $3,000.00
Tour gross income: $50,000.00
$50,000.00
Agent's cut: $7,500.00 -$7,500.00
Manager's cut: $7,500.00 -$7,500.00
Merchandising advance: $20,000.00
$20,000.00
Manager's cut: $3,000.00 -$3,000.00
Lawyer's fee: $1,000.00 -$1,000.00
Publishing advance: $20,000.00
$20,000.00
Manager's cut: $3,000.00 -$3,000.00
Lawyer's fee: $1,000.00 -$1,000.00
Record sales: 250,000 @ $12 = $3,000,000
Gross retail revenue Royalty: [13% of 90% of
retail]: $ 351,000 $351,000.00
Less advance: $250,000.00
-$250,000.00
Producer's points: [3% less $50,000 advance]: $
40,000 -$40,000.00
Promotional budget: $25,000.00
-$25,000.00
Recoupable buyout from previous label:
$50,000.00 -$50,000.00
-$12,375.00
but Linus Torvalds, for example, would probably be the best president we've had for half a century.
Hate to rain on your parade, but only people who where born in the US are eligible to be President. It would take a constitutional amendment to change that.
Aren't there any OSes about at the moment that are like all redundant and correctness-proven and stuff, like with NASA-like failure margins? Wouldn't it be better to be using those instead?
Yeah, right! If it was done by
NASA, the operator would tell it to drill 2 millimeters and it would go 2 inches instead!
OOOPPPS! He wasn't using that side of his brain anyways... He won't notice.
but in my mind its inability to transfer files between computers is a crippling issue.
If you want an mp3 player that can also be used to transfer files, try the
Nex IIe. There was a
review and an
slashback article about it on/. awhile back. Takes up to the largest compact flash or IBM microdrive you can find (about 1 GB currently). You just dump raw mp3s on to it and whatever other files you want and off you go.
Ever since he got klez because of Outlook (Partially his fault, yadda yadda yadda..) he believes that Mozilla Mail is greater since he now doesn't worry (for the most part) about mail viruses.
That's probably the best thing to emphasize to people. Use Mozilla Mail, don't ever get an e-mail virus again. I use it, my office uses it and my girlfriend uses it. We've all gotten plenty of virii in the e-mail, but never been infected.
The Mozilla Mail/News client, on the other hand, has not been so successful, in my opinion. For example, the last time I tried to use it, it would do strange things when I tried to insert blank lines between quoted lines in a reply.
Am I the only one who's noticed that mozmail doesn't seem to ever delete anything? My trash folder in moz is supposedly empty, but for some reason is 70MB! All the files in my mail folder just keep getting bigger and bigger no matter how much I "delete".
Re:Credible? - You didn't look very hard...
on
Tai Chi Robots
·
· Score: 2
I've looked on Google, Yahoo!, and even tried to find the
information from other sites containing news from the source AFP
[afp.com] (which the site credits the information from) and there is
literally no other even mention of this robot on the web. I can't help
but wonder about the credibility of this article.
Not my trademark. I was posting from the
Windows Commander homepage. Windows/Total Commander is made by Christian Ghisler, not me. I must not have made it clear enough in my posting.
Re:It's Microsoft, what did you think would happen
on
Lindows Legal Challenge
·
· Score: 3, Informative
What are you talking about? The article is about trademark law. Back in the day, Microsoft was granted a trademark on the name Windows.
Uhhh, back in the day? According to the article Microsoft first applied for a trademark in 1993 and was rejected. Borland had some pending trademarks on names which included Windows. Microsoft bought those pending trademarks, and in 1995 was issued a trademark on "Windows." Hardly back in the day.;-)
Re:Microsoft Forced Windows Commander to change...
on
Lindows Legal Challenge
·
· Score: 3, Interesting
Windows Commander is now Total Commander!
Why this name change? In Summer 2002, we received a letter from attorneys representing the owner of the trademark Windows. In this letter they expressed concerns that our usage of the name could lead to confusion with their own products. In particular, people could think that our program could be from their company. We were indirectly asked to change the name of our software.
We can only speculate why the owner of the name 'Windows' has become active just now (after 9 years).
Who want's to bet that the reason he got asked to change his product's name after 9 years is because of the Lindows case? What's ironic is that this guy started using the name Windows Commander in 1993 and the article states that Microsoft had a trademark application rejected in 1993. Microsoft was only issued a trademark 2 years after this guy started using the name.
Microsoft Forced Windows Commander to change...
on
Lindows Legal Challenge
·
· Score: 5, Interesting
Why this name change? In Summer 2002, we received a letter from attorneys representing the owner of the trademark
Windows. In this letter they expressed concerns that our usage of the name could lead to confusion with their own products. In particular, people could think that our program could be from their company. We were indirectly asked
to change the name of our software.
Because Windows is registered as a trademark, we didn't want to risk a lawsuit, and decided to change the name. It's important to mention that we have been treated in a very fair way:
There have never been any legal threats, and we could negotiate a transitional period until the end of the year. We ask you to consider this, and not to make any negative comments - especially in the forum. Because we are legally
responsible for its contents, it could bring us into deep legal troubles. Please also do not contact us because of the new name. As a small company, we couldn't handle the big amount of messages. We will not give more information about the
name change anyway.
The original name Windows Commander was chosen more by coincidence. There were already many Commander-style programs for DOS (e.g. DOS Command Center, DOS Controller,
and the Norton Commander), but hardly any for Windows. The word Commander was standing already at this time - 9 years ago - for a whole class of file managers with 2 windows side by side. Windows
Commander was one of the very first such programs for Windows, therefore the chosen name was quite logical.
The new name Total Commander was chosen together with a trademark attorney. Total Commander was
also registered as a trademark. Thanks to the new name, we now also have new possibilities to offer similar products for other platforms, e.g. for PocketPC or Linux. The name should stand for the fact that the program puts you in total
command over your files. It allows you to see what is really saved on the harddisk, and helps you to manipulate all files directly.
We can only speculate why the owner of the name 'Windows' has become active just now (after 9 years).
On one side, they have been put under pressure by the usage of their (slightly changed) name by the Linux community. There have been reproaches that they wouldn't be actively defending their name, and losing their trademark this way. On the
other side, someone else had just registered the domain www.windowscommander.com (which we own ourselves in the meantime). The company may have noticed us because of this registration.
I don't know where this came from - I first saw it a few years ago on the late and much lamented Canopus forum on Compuserve run by Will Zachman back when he was independent. He's now taken Meta Group's shilling and made it to Vice President. If the author of this is ever found, credit will be given:
Many years ago, before I finally connected with my present employer, I found myself 'between jobs' with a family to support. I found a temporary job as a laborer at a local Landscape-Nursery and quickly found myself very involved with Landscape work in this area--it was March, and the winter had been very long and hard.
It happened that at that time the Aerospace Industry in this area was going through hard times and had laid off a lot of very highly educated people. Some of them decided to work at the same Nursery where I was working.
It also happened at that time that the Nursery did a lot of drainage system work for individual homes in the area. For those who have never done this work, this is most likely the dirtiest possible type of work a human being can do. Lacking large equipment, we needed to manually dig trenches through various layers and types of soils and gravels, sloping it properly, refilling with drainage materials, and so forth. Then we replaced the sod and supposedly it looked like we had never been there. We worked mostly in an area that has clay soil, and we could not be clean working in clay soil levels filled with undrained water.
Now to set the scene. One rainy day, because I had been in the Nursery Business approximately one month, and because I had been on crews which had installed maybe five drainage systems, I was given a small raise and put in charge of a crew of my own. Three guys, laid-off AeroSpace Engineers all, were to work for me! Two of them had Ph.Ds, and the third a Master's Degree. Together we were going to install a drainage system at a large private home in the worst-drainage part of this area-- worst-drainage due to the clay soil.
Aside from the weather, which was terrible, it was a very nice day. These guys were easy and pleasant to work with, and they were there to work. We finished the back yard in good time, had gotten ourselves unbelieveably filthy in the process, and we were pretty well along with the front yard, all of us together in the trench, when a well-dressed young woman with a young boy in tow stopped to watch us for a while. We continued mucking and rooting around in the trench, not presenting a very pretty picture, and the woman with the little boy just continued to stand there and watch.
After about fifteen minutes we heard the woman say to the little boy: "If you don't study hard in school, this is what you will be doing when you grow up."
At that point four grown men collapsed in the muddy trench and started roaring with laughter. I'm sure the lady never knew why.
For years, the NRA has been fighting gun registration. Guess what, they just lost and it did not even require a vote. If I can record every electronic transaction, then the legal purchase you just made at Walmart was recorded and we know who bought the gun, where you live, etc... Now before you hit reply with "maybe we should know.." maybe we should. But, it should be explained to people that way, no usurped.
Well, you're only partially correct. People forget that it's still possible to pay for things with cash. Everything you pay for via credit card or check is trackable, but it's already been that way since the introduction of those methods of payment. The real issue hear isn't the electronic transaction, which can be avoided with cash - it's the laws requiring a police background check. Probably justified, but also potentially abusable by government.
Re:Hard to defend a logical morality?
on
Google vs. Evil
·
· Score: 2
If you belong to group #2, it's hard to come up with a reason that
porn is immoral. For porn to be immoral there must be something immoral
with sex... I suppose one could argue that rampant sex could spread
disease and hurt a society in the long run... but I don't really see
how that applies to porn.
I'm going to play devil's advocate and try and give you a view that
you've probably not heard.
First off, there's no logic to your statement that for porn to be
immoral sex must somehow be immoral. Many secular left wing women's
groups oppose porn on grounds that have nothing to do with religion.
For instance, members of the secular left wing (and many feel
anti-religious) Meretz party voted last year to ban porn broadcasts
from Israeli cable and satelite channels. Their arguement was that
porn objectifies, humiliates and promotes violence against women. Now,
I don't know if that can be objectively substantiated, but their
objection to porn obviously had nothing to do with sex being immoral or
with religious dictates.
Another example of the lack of connection between pron being considered
immoral and sex being immoral is in Judaism. Religious Jews in
general consider porn to be immoral, yet Judaism very strongly promotes
recreational sex between husband and wife on a regular basis. A
person's sexual energy should be focused on their life-partner and not
on some other person.
Anyway, the point is that there are many secular and religious
arguements against porn which have nothing to do with sex being immoral.
Rational Software Up 3% On Rumors Of Second Bidder
By DONNA FUSCALDO
Of DOW JONES NEWSWIRES
NEW YORK -- Shares of Rational Software Corp. (RATL) saw heavy volume Wednesday after rumors spread on the Internet that a second company could make a bid for the software maker.
The stock recently was up 30 cents, or 3%, to $10.59 on volume of 21.5 million shares. Average daily volume is 5.6 million.
International Business Machines Corp. (IBM) said Friday it would buy the software tools maker for $2.1 billion, or $10.50 a share.
Following news of the pending acquisition, some Wall Street pundits said IBM was getting Rational on the cheap, which sparked speculation that another bidder would step in. On Wednesday rumors abounded that Microsoft Corp. (MSFT) could be that second bidder.
Officials at Microsoft, Rational Software and IBM declined to comment.
While investors traded up shares of Rational on the rumor, some analysts discounted the veracity of the speculation.
Gary Abott, an analyst at RTX Securities, said the chances of a second bidder emerging are highly unlikely.
There is a constituency out there that believes IBM has stolen this on the cheap, said the analyst. I do not count myself among that group.
According to the analyst, who does not own shares of Rational, Microsoft is an unlikely suitor.
Microsoft is an intelligent and formidable company and paying a premium to this price doesn't appear to a make a lot of sense to me or anybody, he said. RTX Securities does not have an investment banking relationship with Rational.
The rumor was also reported on CNBC.
Kevin Buttigieg, an analyst at Kaufman Brothers, agreed a counter offer from Microsoft is unlikely.
He noted that IBM included a clause in the agreement, which basically said that if a competitor purchases Rational, the software tool maker's source code would still be disclosed to IBM.
Buttigieg does not own shares of Rational and Kaufman Brothers doesn't have any investment-banking ties with Rational.
Still that didn't stop investors from betting that another suitor may step up to the plate.
After reaching a high of $10.72, Rational's shares swapped hands recently at $10.59, up 30 cents. That's a slight premium to IBM's all-cash offer of $10.50 a share, signaling that some investors expect a higher bid.
Rational's trade volume, at nearly 26 million shares, was nearly five times its average daily trade volume of 5.5 million shares.
The stock is certainly acting like people expect a higher offer, said one arbitrage analyst.
The analyst said the acquisition would make sense for both Microsoft and IBM. It's a small deal, he said. IBM can write the check and so could Microsoft.
IBM is hoping to close the deal in the first quarter. If there is a bidding war it will have to happen soon.
-By Donna Fuscaldo, Dow Jones Newswires; 201-938-5253; donna.fuscaldo@dowjones.com
(Janet Whitman in New York contributed to this report.)
Cited references and note
1. SPAM is a registered trademark of Hormel Food Corporation,
referring to a family of ham-like products. The use of the
word "spam" to refer to unwanted e-mail is of obscure origin,
but may have something to do with a comedy sketch by the
Monty Python group depicting a restaurant in which every dish
contains spam.
"First, the least reliable signals must be weeded out in a process called "data integrity check", and those that are most likely the result of detection or computer error are eliminated."
This just proves the conspiracy to hide alien life from us!
As an FYI, I'm running the described ATA RAID 5 setup with 120GB WD
Caviars with 8MB buffer, a dual port 3com teaming NIC, 512MB RAM, and
an Athlon XP processor as a highly utilized file server. Runs like a
champ. No issues and the boss is incredibly happy with the price tag.
$2,800 to build the whole server. It's rackmounted under our incredibly
expensive Compaq Proliant ML530 which is just doing SQL. If a drive
goes out, I'll get an email notification. I simply remove the dead
drive, replace it, and rebuild. No rebooting needed.
I was just looking at the homepage for the
SuperTrak
SX6000, but I'm having trouble seeing whether or not Linux is fully
supported. While in the datasheet
they provide, it claims Linux support, I can't really tell if that's
full support including the management tools running on linux, or if they just mean it's
possible to run the card under linux with the management software running remotely on a M$ box.
Actually, your best bet as far as price/performance goes is probably the GeForce4 TI 4200 64MB which is going for $109 on
pricewatch.com, as compared to the GeForce4 TI 4600 which is going for $210 dollars yet only gives you an
extra 15% gaming performance.
If you're really interested in exact numbers, the cpu spec page at
chipgeek shows the Thoroughbred-B core
2800+ putting out 74.3 watts and the Updated Northwood core 2800 putting out 68.4. It's hard to imagine that going to 3000 would bring the number up to 100 watts. I wonder how they got the 100 watt number? I mean, what did they use to measure it?
Slashdot Mirror
So why isn't anyone else bothering to drop Albini's numbers into a spreadsheet and examine them? Wake up people, the band members made approximately $50,000 each, even according to Albini's own numbers. He's just doing accounting tricks to make it look like the band members got screwed.
As an extention to Mark Twain's famous saying:
There are lies, damn lies, statitics and balance sheets.
You can tell that Steve Albini is a music industry insider. He uses accounting tricks to make it look like the band members didn't make anything when in fact, according to his own numbers, they made about $50,000 each assuming there were 5 band members.
Steve Albini doesn't know how to do math. The band members got a $250,000 advance on royalties. That means if there were 5 band members then they took home $50,000 each at the beginning of the contract. After deducting the $250,000 advance and expences they are $14,000 in the hole. Let's say that the "5" band members pay off that $14,000.
That means that each of the "5" band members took home $47,200. If there were only 4 band members than they would have taken home $59,000 each, that's after paying off the $14,000 royalty deficit.
How does Steve get that each member only made $4,031.25?
Advance: $250,000.00 $250,000.00
Manager's cut: $37,500.00 -$37,500.00
Legal fees: $10,000.00 -$10,000.00
Recording Budget: $150,000.00 -$150,000.00
Producer's advance: $50,000.00
Studio fee: $52,500.00
Drum Amp, Mic and Phase "Doctors": $3,000.00
Recording tape: $8,000.00
Equipment rental: $5,000.00
Cartage and Transportation: $5,000.00
Lodgings while in studio: $10,000.00
Catering: $3,000.00
Mastering: $10,000.00
Tape copies, reference CDs, shipping tapes, misc. expenses: $2,000.00
Video budget: $30,000.00 -$30,000.00
Cameras: $8,000.00
Crew: $5,000.00
Processing and transfers: $3,000.00
Off-line: $2,000.00
On-line editing: $3,000.00
Catering: $1,000.00
Stage and construction: $3,000.00
Copies, couriers, transportation: $2,000.00
Director's fee: $3,000.00
Album Artwork: $5,000.00 -$5,000.00
Promotional photo shoot and duplication: $2,000.00 -$2,000.00
Band fund: $15,000.00 -$15,000.00
New fancy professional drum kit: $5,000.00 -$5,000.00
New fancy professional guitars [2]: $3,000.00 -$3,000.00
New fancy professional guitar amp rigs [2]: $4,000.00 -$4,000.00
New fancy potato-shaped bass guitar: $1,000.00 -$1,000.00
New fancy rack of lights bass amp: $1,000.00 -$1,000.00
Rehearsal space rental: $500.00 -$500.00
Big blowout party for their friends: $500.00 -$500.00
Tour expense [5 weeks]: $50,875.00 -$50,875.00
Bus: $25,000.00
Crew [3]: $7,500.00
Food and per diems: $7,875.00
Fuel: $3,000.00
Consumable supplies: $3,500.00
Wardrobe: $1,000.00
Promotion: $3,000.00
Tour gross income: $50,000.00 $50,000.00
Agent's cut: $7,500.00 -$7,500.00
Manager's cut: $7,500.00 -$7,500.00
Merchandising advance: $20,000.00 $20,000.00
Manager's cut: $3,000.00 -$3,000.00
Lawyer's fee: $1,000.00 -$1,000.00
Publishing advance: $20,000.00 $20,000.00
Manager's cut: $3,000.00 -$3,000.00
Lawyer's fee: $1,000.00 -$1,000.00
Record sales: 250,000 @ $12 = $3,000,000
Gross retail revenue Royalty: [13% of 90% of retail]: $ 351,000 $351,000.00
Less advance: $250,000.00 -$250,000.00
Producer's points: [3% less $50,000 advance]: $ 40,000 -$40,000.00
Promotional budget: $25,000.00 -$25,000.00
Recoupable buyout from previous label: $50,000.00 -$50,000.00
-$12,375.00
Hate to rain on your parade, but only people who where born in the US are eligible to be President. It would take a constitutional amendment to change that.
Yeah, right! If it was done by NASA, the operator would tell it to drill 2 millimeters and it would go 2 inches instead!
OOOPPPS! He wasn't using that side of his brain anyways... He won't notice.
If you want an mp3 player that can also be used to transfer files, try the Nex IIe. There was a review and an slashback article about it on /. awhile back. Takes up to the largest compact flash or IBM microdrive you can find (about 1 GB currently). You just dump raw mp3s on to it and whatever other files you want and off you go.
That's probably the best thing to emphasize to people. Use Mozilla Mail, don't ever get an e-mail virus again. I use it, my office uses it and my girlfriend uses it. We've all gotten plenty of virii in the e-mail, but never been infected.
Am I the only one who's noticed that mozmail doesn't seem to ever delete anything? My trash folder in moz is supposedly empty, but for some reason is 70MB! All the files in my mail folder just keep getting bigger and bigger no matter how much I "delete".
You must not have looked very hard:
China builds tai chi-playing robot (same article, different site)
Un robot imitant la boxe chinoise (from google cache)
Article in Chinese with PICTURE
Another Picture
China construye un robot que practica el taichi (Spanish, I think)
Chinese invent martial arts ready robot It can also surf the Internet, maybe
New Robot Developed in China (with Picture)
I am the clit.exe commander!
Not my trademark. I was posting from the Windows Commander homepage. Windows/Total Commander is made by Christian Ghisler, not me. I must not have made it clear enough in my posting.
Uhhh, back in the day? According to the article Microsoft first applied for a trademark in 1993 and was rejected. Borland had some pending trademarks on names which included Windows. Microsoft bought those pending trademarks, and in 1995 was issued a trademark on "Windows." Hardly back in the day. ;-)
Why this name change? In Summer 2002, we received a letter from attorneys representing the owner of the trademark Windows. In this letter they expressed concerns that our usage of the name could lead to confusion with their own products. In particular, people could think that our program could be from their company. We were indirectly asked to change the name of our software.
We can only speculate why the owner of the name 'Windows' has become active just now (after 9 years).
Who want's to bet that the reason he got asked to change his product's name after 9 years is because of the Lindows case? What's ironic is that this guy started using the name Windows Commander in 1993 and the article states that Microsoft had a trademark application rejected in 1993. Microsoft was only issued a trademark 2 years after this guy started using the name.
Windows Commander is now Total Commander!
Why this name change? In Summer 2002, we received a letter from attorneys representing the owner of the trademark Windows. In this letter they expressed concerns that our usage of the name could lead to confusion with their own products. In particular, people could think that our program could be from their company. We were indirectly asked to change the name of our software.
Because Windows is registered as a trademark, we didn't want to risk a lawsuit, and decided to change the name. It's important to mention that we have been treated in a very fair way: There have never been any legal threats, and we could negotiate a transitional period until the end of the year. We ask you to consider this, and not to make any negative comments - especially in the forum. Because we are legally responsible for its contents, it could bring us into deep legal troubles. Please also do not contact us because of the new name. As a small company, we couldn't handle the big amount of messages. We will not give more information about the name change anyway.
The original name Windows Commander was chosen more by coincidence. There were already many Commander-style programs for DOS (e.g. DOS Command Center, DOS Controller, and the Norton Commander), but hardly any for Windows. The word Commander was standing already at this time - 9 years ago - for a whole class of file managers with 2 windows side by side. Windows Commander was one of the very first such programs for Windows, therefore the chosen name was quite logical.
The new name Total Commander was chosen together with a trademark attorney. Total Commander was also registered as a trademark. Thanks to the new name, we now also have new possibilities to offer similar products for other platforms, e.g. for PocketPC or Linux. The name should stand for the fact that the program puts you in total command over your files. It allows you to see what is really saved on the harddisk, and helps you to manipulate all files directly.
We can only speculate why the owner of the name 'Windows' has become active just now (after 9 years). On one side, they have been put under pressure by the usage of their (slightly changed) name by the Linux community. There have been reproaches that they wouldn't be actively defending their name, and losing their trademark this way. On the other side, someone else had just registered the domain www.windowscommander.com (which we own ourselves in the meantime). The company may have noticed us because of this registration.
I don't know where this came from - I first saw it a few years ago on the late and much lamented Canopus forum on Compuserve run by Will Zachman back when he was independent. He's now taken Meta Group's shilling and made it to Vice President. If the author of this is ever found, credit will be given:
Many years ago, before I finally connected with my present employer, I found myself 'between jobs' with a family to support. I found a temporary job as a laborer at a local Landscape-Nursery and quickly found myself very involved with Landscape work in this area--it was March, and the winter had been very long and hard.
It happened that at that time the Aerospace Industry in this area was going through hard times and had laid off a lot of very highly educated people. Some of them decided to work at the same Nursery where I was working.
It also happened at that time that the Nursery did a lot of drainage system work for individual homes in the area. For those who have never done this work, this is most likely the dirtiest possible type of work a human being can do. Lacking large equipment, we needed to manually dig trenches through various layers and types of soils and gravels, sloping it properly, refilling with drainage materials, and so forth. Then we replaced the sod and supposedly it looked like we had never been there. We worked mostly in an area that has clay soil, and we could not be clean working in clay soil levels filled with undrained water.
Now to set the scene. One rainy day, because I had been in the Nursery Business approximately one month, and because I had been on crews which had installed maybe five drainage systems, I was given a small raise and put in charge of a crew of my own. Three guys, laid-off AeroSpace Engineers all, were to work for me! Two of them had Ph.Ds, and the third a Master's Degree. Together we were going to install a drainage system at a large private home in the worst-drainage part of this area-- worst-drainage due to the clay soil.
Aside from the weather, which was terrible, it was a very nice day. These guys were easy and pleasant to work with, and they were there to work. We finished the back yard in good time, had gotten ourselves unbelieveably filthy in the process, and we were pretty well along with the front yard, all of us together in the trench, when a well-dressed young woman with a young boy in tow stopped to watch us for a while. We continued mucking and rooting around in the trench, not presenting a very pretty picture, and the woman with the little boy just continued to stand there and watch.
After about fifteen minutes we heard the woman say to the little boy: "If you don't study hard in school, this is what you will be doing when you grow up."
At that point four grown men collapsed in the muddy trench and started roaring with laughter. I'm sure the lady never knew why.
isham-research
Well, you're only partially correct. People forget that it's still possible to pay for things with cash. Everything you pay for via credit card or check is trackable, but it's already been that way since the introduction of those methods of payment. The real issue hear isn't the electronic transaction, which can be avoided with cash - it's the laws requiring a police background check. Probably justified, but also potentially abusable by government.
I'm going to play devil's advocate and try and give you a view that you've probably not heard.
First off, there's no logic to your statement that for porn to be immoral sex must somehow be immoral. Many secular left wing women's groups oppose porn on grounds that have nothing to do with religion.
For instance, members of the secular left wing (and many feel anti-religious) Meretz party voted last year to ban porn broadcasts from Israeli cable and satelite channels. Their arguement was that porn objectifies, humiliates and promotes violence against women. Now, I don't know if that can be objectively substantiated, but their objection to porn obviously had nothing to do with sex being immoral or with religious dictates.
Another example of the lack of connection between pron being considered immoral and sex being immoral is in Judaism. Religious Jews in general consider porn to be immoral, yet Judaism very strongly promotes recreational sex between husband and wife on a regular basis. A person's sexual energy should be focused on their life-partner and not on some other person.
Anyway, the point is that there are many secular and religious arguements against porn which have nothing to do with sex being immoral.
Rational Software Up 3% On Rumors Of Second Bidder
By DONNA FUSCALDO
Of DOW JONES NEWSWIRESNEW YORK -- Shares of Rational Software Corp. (RATL) saw heavy volume Wednesday after rumors spread on the Internet that a second company could make a bid for the software maker.
The stock recently was up 30 cents, or 3%, to $10.59 on volume of 21.5 million shares. Average daily volume is 5.6 million.
International Business Machines Corp. (IBM) said Friday it would buy the software tools maker for $2.1 billion, or $10.50 a share.
Following news of the pending acquisition, some Wall Street pundits said IBM was getting Rational on the cheap, which sparked speculation that another bidder would step in. On Wednesday rumors abounded that Microsoft Corp. (MSFT) could be that second bidder.
Officials at Microsoft, Rational Software and IBM declined to comment.
While investors traded up shares of Rational on the rumor, some analysts discounted the veracity of the speculation.
Gary Abott, an analyst at RTX Securities, said the chances of a second bidder emerging are highly unlikely.
There is a constituency out there that believes IBM has stolen this on the cheap, said the analyst. I do not count myself among that group.
According to the analyst, who does not own shares of Rational, Microsoft is an unlikely suitor.
Microsoft is an intelligent and formidable company and paying a premium to this price doesn't appear to a make a lot of sense to me or anybody, he said. RTX Securities does not have an investment banking relationship with Rational.
The rumor was also reported on CNBC.
Kevin Buttigieg, an analyst at Kaufman Brothers, agreed a counter offer from Microsoft is unlikely.
He noted that IBM included a clause in the agreement, which basically said that if a competitor purchases Rational, the software tool maker's source code would still be disclosed to IBM.
Buttigieg does not own shares of Rational and Kaufman Brothers doesn't have any investment-banking ties with Rational.
Still that didn't stop investors from betting that another suitor may step up to the plate.
After reaching a high of $10.72, Rational's shares swapped hands recently at $10.59, up 30 cents. That's a slight premium to IBM's all-cash offer of $10.50 a share, signaling that some investors expect a higher bid.
Rational's trade volume, at nearly 26 million shares, was nearly five times its average daily trade volume of 5.5 million shares.
The stock is certainly acting like people expect a higher offer, said one arbitrage analyst.
The analyst said the acquisition would make sense for both Microsoft and IBM. It's a small deal, he said. IBM can write the check and so could Microsoft.
IBM is hoping to close the deal in the first quarter. If there is a bidding war it will have to happen soon.
-By Donna Fuscaldo, Dow Jones Newswires; 201-938-5253; donna.fuscaldo@dowjones.com
(Janet Whitman in New York contributed to this report.)
Updated December 11, 2002 3:20 p.m. EST
Cited references and note
1. SPAM is a registered trademark of Hormel Food Corporation,
referring to a family of ham-like products. The use of the
word "spam" to refer to unwanted e-mail is of obscure origin,
but may have something to do with a comedy sketch by the
Monty Python group depicting a restaurant in which every dish
contains spam.
This just proves the conspiracy to hide alien life from us!
I was just looking at the homepage for the SuperTrak SX6000, but I'm having trouble seeing whether or not Linux is fully supported. While in the datasheet they provide, it claims Linux support, I can't really tell if that's full support including the management tools running on linux, or if they just mean it's possible to run the card under linux with the management software running remotely on a M$ box.
Where did you find your numbers? I've been looking around a bit and couldn't find anything showing that the Proton launches payload for $2600/kilo.
Is there a windoze util that will allow someone to d/l these damn asf mss streams and the annoying quicktime ones also?
Actually, your best bet as far as price/performance goes is probably the GeForce4 TI 4200 64MB which is going for $109 on pricewatch.com, as compared to the GeForce4 TI 4600 which is going for $210 dollars yet only gives you an extra 15% gaming performance.
If you're really interested in exact numbers, the cpu spec page at chipgeek shows the Thoroughbred-B core 2800+ putting out 74.3 watts and the Updated Northwood core 2800 putting out 68.4. It's hard to imagine that going to 3000 would bring the number up to 100 watts. I wonder how they got the 100 watt number? I mean, what did they use to measure it?