Your last sentence is key. Historically choice was a fiction. You did what you were born to do. In the peasant world the 'geeks' would have been those lucky enough to be guildmen.
Even then your life and livelihood was totally dependent on the whim of inbred nobility and their ability to control the mercenary companies in the region. Even the mercenaries may have been once "free men" pressed into service at one time or another.
You did what you did to survive. The notion of choice is a modern conceit.
I am not sure how this all fits in yet, but; "Have you seen any starving chefs?"
Cookbooks and recipes are exempt from all IP laws. You can not copywrite or patent a recipe. Anyone can go to a restaurant and "reverse engineer" a favorite dish. Yet, chefs, cooks, restaurant owners are not going broke.
Not to belittle my craft, but as a programmer and a one time professional cook, I do not see a lot of difference between programming and cooking. In cooking you are constrained by the ingredients and tools you have available. In programming you are constrained by the tools and OS/processor you are programming. Patterns, templates and wizards are not that much different from a recipe.
If you have not already seen it the archives are good for quite a few hours of tech related programming. American University's Kojo Nnamdi show: http://www.wamu.org/kojo/index.html
Will Quickbooks be stable and usable under any Windows emulator for Linux.
In my copious free time I do some tech support for my wife's business. Her business is small business support (book keeping, HR, payroll etc.) The only reason that her business and the great majority of her clients are not using linux (or Mac even) is Quickbooks.
Been there with the pain. It used to take all weekend for the actual pain to subside from a work week at the keyboard. My wrist's would start acting up after about an hour at work.
My solution: A Kinesis keyboard and ratpoison (the wm).
After about a month my wrists improved, I added a contour (perfit) mouse (got 2 a hamfest for $1.)
Personally, I thought 2003 was a bad year for movies, Hulk, Xmen, and League of Extraodinary Gentlemen all missed the mark; badly. Pirates and Lord and Commander were slightly above the average Hollywood fare. The final Matrix installment was a silicon etched John Wayne hit the beach movie with delusions of grandeur.
Having not seen RTOK yet -- "A Mighty Wind" would be my hands down choice as best movie of 2003. Eugene Levy and Catherine O'Hara are absolutely charming as Mitch and Mickey. While it does not have the edge of "Spinal Tap", and it's dry spells, it also has some gags that are truly lol funny.
For "Spinal Tap" fans seeing Guest, McKean and Shearer in full mock folk mode as "The Folksmen" is worth the price of admission alone.
Now Lets get this thread to really degenerate: My Top Ten All Time:
I have to disagree with at least part of your statement.
A corporation is beholden only to it's stockholders. A corporation does not
have to please the customers who buy or use a product.
We can argue on the merits of good products vs. bad products and other
strategies but the bottom line is the bottom line. Notions of morality,
ethics, freedom are abstract concepts that come into play only when they
serve the corporate purpose of maximum profitability.
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Your last sentence is key.
Historically choice was a fiction. You did what you were born to do. In the peasant world the 'geeks' would have been those lucky enough to be guildmen.
Even then your life and livelihood was totally dependent on the whim of inbred nobility and their ability to control the mercenary companies in the region. Even the mercenaries may have been once "free men" pressed into service at one time or another.
You did what you did to survive. The notion of choice is a modern conceit.
If I could choose I would choose to be king.
I am not sure how this all fits in yet, but; "Have you seen any starving chefs?"
Cookbooks and recipes are exempt from all IP laws. You can not copywrite or patent a recipe.
Anyone can go to a restaurant and "reverse engineer" a favorite dish. Yet, chefs, cooks,
restaurant owners are not going broke.
Not to belittle my craft, but as a programmer and a one time professional cook, I do not
see a lot of difference between programming and cooking. In cooking you are constrained
by the ingredients and tools you have available. In programming you are constrained by
the tools and OS/processor you are programming. Patterns, templates and wizards are
not that much different from a recipe.
If you have not already seen it the archives are good for quite a few hours of tech related programming. American University's Kojo Nnamdi show: http://www.wamu.org/kojo/index.html
Will Quickbooks be stable and usable under any Windows emulator for Linux.
In my copious free time I do some tech support for my wife's business. Her business is small business support (book keeping, HR, payroll etc.) The only reason that her business and the great majority of her clients are not using linux (or Mac even) is Quickbooks.
The killer app for small business IS Quickbooks.
Been there with the pain. It used to take all weekend for the actual pain to subside from a work week at the keyboard. My wrist's would start acting up after about an hour at work.
My solution:
A Kinesis keyboard and ratpoison (the wm).
After about a month my wrists improved, I added a contour (perfit) mouse (got 2 a hamfest for $1.)
Having not seen RTOK yet --
"A Mighty Wind" would be my hands down choice as best movie of 2003. Eugene Levy and Catherine O'Hara are absolutely charming as Mitch and Mickey. While it does not have the edge of "Spinal Tap", and it's dry spells, it also has some gags that are truly lol funny.
For "Spinal Tap" fans seeing Guest, McKean and Shearer in full mock folk mode as "The Folksmen" is worth the price of admission alone.
Now Lets get this thread to really degenerate:
My Top Ten All Time:
Humm... lots of Kubrick....
A corporation is beholden only to it's stockholders. A corporation does not have to please the customers who buy or use a product.
We can argue on the merits of good products vs. bad products and other strategies but the bottom line is the bottom line. Notions of morality, ethics, freedom are abstract concepts that come into play only when they serve the corporate purpose of maximum profitability.