I disagree. I ban all email from China to my server explicitly. If you can figure out which few countries spammers are operating out of you can easily block all traffic from that country until they crack down.
"The class action lawsuit does not specify anything about advertisements (see section "III")
Yes, section III specifically states the advertising:
Michael Zurakov ("Plaintiff") filed a lawsuit (the "Lawsuit") based on Register.com's past practice of initially pointing newly registered domain names to a "Coming Soon" Page, which informs Internet users that the domain name has been recently registered by Register.com and provides hyperlinks to some of Register.com's services...
Register.com is advertising its own services on the registrants site, without consent.
Not if they let their customers know that the page would be placed when the customer bought the domain and that it included adverstising. All you have to do is let people know and have them sign off on it. Register.com didn't provide any notification or get any consent.
Its not stupid at all. Basically the guy paid for a domain name. Register.com put up a 'coming soon' page with their own advertising on it and didn't pay the guy for it. Register.com had no right to the domain name, before or after the sale. They can put up a nice page so you don't get a 404, but they shouldn't have been able to advertise on the page, even if its only for 24 hours, without the owner's consent. That was their own fault and they deserve to get sued for trying to get free advertising. How hard would it have been to put in some fine print on their site when you buy a domain letting you know you're going to have an advertisement page on your domain while you wait for DNS?
It actually makes sense. Basically Register.com agreed to settle with all its registrants in the ammount of $5 off future domain renewals. If you don't like that settlement and want to sue them yourself, you have to opt out of the settlement (which includes language to the effect that you won't sue them over the issue on your own). Basically the announcement I got from Register.com says that they recognize the issue and are willing to settle with me for the $5 if I agree that I won't sue them over the issue. Probably better to sue them, but then you've gotta hire your own lawyer, etc.
The lawsuit wasn't over the 'Coming Soon' page, but over links to Register.com services on the coming soon page. Basically, I register madirish.net with register.com, don't put up a page for a month, but during that time Register.com gets free advertising for the services linked on their 'Coming Soon' page off my domain without paying me for it. Thats what the lawsuit is over. Its legit to put up a 'Coming Soon' page, you just can't include links to the registration provider's services on that page.
1991 - AT&T and NCR signed a definitive merger agreement in May, and the merger was completed on September 19. Product introductions included: the NCR 3600, the most powerful general-purpose computer on the market; NCR Document Management System, a general-purpose imaging system based on microprocessor technology and open, scalable systems; the NCR 3120, a notebook computer designed for mobile professionals who want feature-rich computing both in and outside the office; the NCR 3125, an advanced pen-based notepad that is the first mobile automation tool with true handwriting-recognition capabilities; and NCR Fourth Generation Self-Service Systems, which offer retail banks an unprecedented availability level of up to 99.9 percent. Charles E. Exley retired and Gilbert P. Williamson assumed the position of chairman and chief executive officer. R. Elton White was named president.
1992 - Teradata merged with AT&T on February 28 and was functionally integrated into NCR. Groundbreaking on a new development facility for massively parallel computing takes place in San Diego. NCR and AT&T recognize one-year anniversary of successful high-tech merger. 1992 Democratic National Convention delegates vote using NCR 7054 Integrated Touch Screen Systems. Product introductions included: the NCR 3170, successor to the Safari notebook computer; the 3130 NotePad computer; the System 7000 family of MIPS RISC-based symmetric multiprocessing systems running UNIX System V 4.0; the 5688 drive-up ATM; and new ATMs capable of reading AT&T smart cards.
LOL, or you can read the 'README', configure, make, -oh no wait- what were all those errors that falshed by in the configure? Crud, I have an older package, ok, well I'll just update it --- damn, it is dependant on 3 other packages that I have to upgrade, ok, start with number one, crap, the newer version isn't supported by my kernel. Ok, I'll just recompile and retry #1.. (wasn't there a 'make install' somewhere in this process?).
You get the picture. I've never run into this type of problem using windows. I love linux, but I have to admit if I didn't love computers I would have ditched it in a heartbeat. Microsoft has a corner on the market because of their clickety-reboot mentality. The OS has lots of flaws, but as an end user, most of the operation is really simple.
I think the 'browser wars' are far from over. I'm a windows user at work and after using Mozilla 1.0 at home I decided to try it at work. I was really impressed at how well it worked on Windows. Not only did it render cleanly, but it supported all sorts of Java and Flash that I thought would be lost. Add to that all the great features in Mozilla (blocking doubleclick.net images, pop-up ads, etc.) I decided to use it as my default browser. Several co-workers asked about it, and I've recommended they also use Mozilla as a default browser. Not only that, I've recommended it on to clients. I think compared side by side Mozilla is a better browser than IE, it lets people do more of what they want, more easily, on the web. I think Mozilla presents a pretty big threat to the IE market, even without the AOL adaptation of Mozilla. I'm not sure many people have seriously considered that Mozilla is simply a better browser and might gain a large share of the browsers out there simply on its own merits.
I would like to comment on this papers addressing of 'documentation' of open source versus proprietary software. I would like to point out that when I bought a copy of Microsoft Windows 2000 Server, there was no documentation at all provided. I had to blindly figure out how to use the product, and eventually had to invest over $200 in outside books and materials (or alternatively I could have paid $1000 for training classes). I purchased Mandrake 8.2 and got a huge book of documentation. I also found online documentation for all of the packages included (apache, sendmail, php, etc.) that was absolutely free. I think open source documentation is some of the best in the world, with code examples and tutorials available all over the internet. Closed source software, by contrast, since it is proprietary, sports very few code examples or complete documentation. Try finding an active server pages version of PHP Nuke for example... Just my $.02. Thank you for your time.
Thanks for your letter; you're not the only person to comment on the
lack of documentation for MS software. I was unaware of the
documentation situation because I've never actually used MS software
to any great extent. A few years back, I briefly (4 months) developed
under Windows and became totally frustrated, not by the lack of
documentation, but by the fact that a lot of it was inaccurate.
It is interesting to watch the knee jerk response that these recorders have caused in the advertising industry. The first impulse was to simply lobby to make them illegal. Now it seems advertisers are finally realizing that digital technology is going to let people personalize thier content. Just as the web has made advertisers struggle with placement, traditional TV commercials are probably long overdue for an overhaul. I just hope advertisers and TV execs don't make viewers suffer with some sort of pop-under ad equivelant on television. Who knows what the next wave will be, making you watch 2 minutes of commercials to get access to a TV feed? Personally I think television is a waste, there usually isn't much worth watching, and what is worth watching is usually available on DVD at some point. I have to admit though, if I could watch a 30 minute program without the 15+ minutes of commercials I might find it a more valuable investment of my time.
I think the problem with online chat and kids is that they can log on and talk to virtually anyone and there is no control or confirmation over whom they are conversing with. On the one hand this is great, on the other it is like picking up the phone and randomly dialing away to find people to talk to. The advantage with the phone though is that parents get a bill and they can monitor to whom and when a child is making a call. I think the above post about not letting young kids have PC's in their bedroom withhout supervision. It is too easy for kids to log on and get access to all sorts of crap that they may or may not be prepared to deal with. Chat is right up there with online porn, its so easy for kids to access potentially dangerous stuff without parents even being aware if they're not in the room. Netnanny isn't going to block everything. Parental supervision is obviously the #1 way to stop dangerous behavior, but being able to monitor a childs computer use is the only way you're going to be sure. Putting the computer in the family room is a pretty good start.
When was the last time you compared the price of RH with other distros? Ten bucks is a pretty sorry incentive for what ammounts to little less than pretty red packaging and some stickers:(
You can kill anyone in GTA3. Most of the pedestrians are smart enough to jump out of the way though if they see you gunning for them in a car. Much more effective to hop out and blast them with the shotgun (you can get one for free by entering a patrol car, either parked or one whose occupants have already been killed)>
School sucks, and I'm happy to say that most of what you're doing in class is probably going to have next to nothing to do with what you're going to do on the job. I say this because I never got a degree in computer science or any tech related field (I have a master's in colonial american history) but I taught myself programming and work as a programmer and network admin. I'd have to say that talking to my friends in and out of school that what they learn(ed) has very little to do with day to day IT jobs. They learn(ed) the fundamentals, but very little of what was taught in class seems applicable to their jobs. Granted, I don't know a lot of background material for what I do, but it doesn't really seem to hamper my job performance or promotion opportunities. If you're burned out from school I'd just look forward to a welcome change in the real world. In the end, undergraduate degrees are next to worthless. You learn how to think in college, its not a vocational training program. College will prepare you to tackle problems in the right way. Anyways, thats my two cents.
um, civil disobedience was what? wrong? Ghandi didn't obey the law, civil rights workers didn't obey state law in the 60's in the South, draft dodgers didn't obey the law. I think there are perfectly justifiable reasons to DISOBEY the law. Republishing the DeCSS was against the law but tons of people did it. Law isn't always right. It used to be against the law for women to vote. Law is an evolutionary thing, and sometimes it takes some judicious law breaking to get things right.
" It was odd how cool and natural all of the reporters and anchors were. Everybody said they were shocked, but nobody seemed to be"
I saw several news reporters break down, I saw several pundits have to stop what they were saying. I don't think you can characterize anyone in the US as being unaffected. I didn't feel anyting but scared on the 11th, and showed very little emotion, but I broked down and cried several times in the next few days. Don't be too harsh just because people aren't showing the emotions you deem to be appropriate.
I think its important to note that many of the Israeli attacks against the Palastinians are provoked. Palastenian terrorists have been carrying out a campaign against Israel for a long time now. I feel bad for the innocent Palestinians who are being hurt and killed in the Israeli counter-offensive (if you will) but after seeing the pictures of little Palastenian kids cheering at the tragedy in the US I'm in no mood to sympathize with them. I think we have to realize that the situation in the Middle East has two sides, its not just about Palastenian kids killed by Israeli tanks, its also about Israeli citizens blown up by Palastenian suicide bombers. Further, I think if there are Palastenians being hurt and killed, its not Israel's fault, its the Palastenian Authority's fault. If they were doing their job and curbing criminal terrorists in thier area of authority, arresting, or even just preventing the near daily drive by shootings of Israeli citizens by Palastenians, then I think the Israeli's would probably be exercising a lot more restraint. You have to see the situation from the Israeli point of view, there's these nests of terrorists lurking on their border and the supposed government of Palestine won't do anything about it for fear of losing popular support. What would you do in their situation? Especially if you watched pictures of your cities getting blown up daily and you knew who did it? If we knew which, if any country, was behind the 9-11 tragedy we sure as hell would send the tanks in, and I don't think people would shed many tears for the kids who got killed along the way. If the Palastinian government had been doing its job and keeping law and order (in much the same way the Taliban should be doing) there wouldn't be such an escalating situation.
I'd have to agree. You can't deny that Usenet is probably used more for porn than anything else, and its a good source for that stuff. Yes, you get the sick stuff with it, but that's pretty much always the way with porn content. Saying usenet is all porn though is to miss a lot. I don't know if any of you have read a good 'Learning Linux' book recently, but for troubleshooting they always suggest checking the distribution specific usenet group. You don't get a whole lot of spam on alt.linux.mandrake or whichever specific usenet you're looking at. Yes, 80% of the material on alt.binaries.erotica.schoolgirls is going to be useless crap, but when was the last time your read a specific newsgroup? I'd hate to see usenet die, as it grows old the users tend to filter down to the old school geeks. I think as usenet grows older, the population of posters may get better, espicially because many new computer users turn to the web rather than usenet.
Whoa! I thought I was all alone in my longing for a wall sized white board. Where can you get one of those? White boards are the best work productivity tool I have outside of my computer. I can map networks, programs, and keep a list of to-do's all in one space, and next week wipe it all away and start over. Sooo much more convenient than post-it notes!
[snip]
>Puleeeze tell me you aren't really going out of business? Hopefully all the
>people from Slashdot who bought games over the last hours will make some
>sort of difference?
[snip]
Thank you for your interest!
Please don't confuse this with a Chapter 7 liquidation, where you
close the doors and sell off the assets. That is not what we have done.
We filed a Chapter 11 reorganization. This will allows us to deal with
our creditors fairly and equitably and at the same time continue to
operate the company. We are still shipping products and porting new games
and expect to be doing so for a long time.
Last night was certainly our best night for web orders,
and that is very motivating.:-)
I just bought an IBM a21e, for $999. I installed Mandrake 8.0 without any problems although I had to buy a USB mouse since Linux doesn't support the touchpoint mouse. I did, however, manage to find drivers easily and install them for the WinModem on the laptop (www.linmodems.org). All in all a great machine for the money, and I'm the only one in the office that has EVER gotten X to run on a laptop:)
Obviously this person has never supported a network of Windows users. I think generational gaps make no difference among computer users. Did you know that most universities require computers with Windows on them for thier students? The reason Linux isn't catching on to the main stream isn't because older persons can't find the on switch. It is because Linux is at its heart a multiuser network operating system. Windows 9x/Me will always be the choice of the masses for the same reasons home users don't choose NT/2000. It has a simple GUI, simple operation, simple software installs, simple hardware 'Plug-n-Play', etc. And the reality of the situation is that Linux developers don't have any motivation to provide these sorts of services for the Linux OS. If anyone can save Linux and pass it on to the average user its going to be the large firms (Red Hat, Mandrake, Suse, etc.) because they have a vested interest, and money to be made, in providing Linux as a viable easy-to-use alternative.
One reason junk faxing was outlawed was that it cost the end users money to recieve the junk faxes. I'm sure laws of this nature will set a precedent for spam over pagers or wireless messenging.
Slashdot Mirror
I disagree. I ban all email from China to my server explicitly. If you can figure out which few countries spammers are operating out of you can easily block all traffic from that country until they crack down.
Yes, section III specifically states the advertising:
Register.com is advertising its own services on the registrants site, without consent.
Not if they let their customers know that the page would be placed when the customer bought the domain and that it included adverstising. All you have to do is let people know and have them sign off on it. Register.com didn't provide any notification or get any consent.
Its not stupid at all. Basically the guy paid for a domain name. Register.com put up a 'coming soon' page with their own advertising on it and didn't pay the guy for it. Register.com had no right to the domain name, before or after the sale. They can put up a nice page so you don't get a 404, but they shouldn't have been able to advertise on the page, even if its only for 24 hours, without the owner's consent. That was their own fault and they deserve to get sued for trying to get free advertising. How hard would it have been to put in some fine print on their site when you buy a domain letting you know you're going to have an advertisement page on your domain while you wait for DNS?
It actually makes sense. Basically Register.com agreed to settle with all its registrants in the ammount of $5 off future domain renewals. If you don't like that settlement and want to sue them yourself, you have to opt out of the settlement (which includes language to the effect that you won't sue them over the issue on your own). Basically the announcement I got from Register.com says that they recognize the issue and are willing to settle with me for the $5 if I agree that I won't sue them over the issue. Probably better to sue them, but then you've gotta hire your own lawyer, etc.
The lawsuit wasn't over the 'Coming Soon' page, but over links to Register.com services on the coming soon page. Basically, I register madirish.net with register.com, don't put up a page for a month, but during that time Register.com gets free advertising for the services linked on their 'Coming Soon' page off my domain without paying me for it. Thats what the lawsuit is over. Its legit to put up a 'Coming Soon' page, you just can't include links to the registration provider's services on that page.
1991 - AT&T and NCR signed a definitive merger agreement in May, and the merger was completed on September 19. Product introductions included: the NCR 3600, the most powerful general-purpose computer on the market; NCR Document Management System, a general-purpose imaging system based on microprocessor technology and open, scalable systems; the NCR 3120, a notebook computer designed for mobile professionals who want feature-rich computing both in and outside the office; the NCR 3125, an advanced pen-based notepad that is the first mobile automation tool with true handwriting-recognition capabilities; and NCR Fourth Generation Self-Service Systems, which offer retail banks an unprecedented availability level of up to 99.9 percent. Charles E. Exley retired and Gilbert P. Williamson assumed the position of chairman and chief executive officer. R. Elton White was named president.
1992 - Teradata merged with AT&T on February 28 and was functionally integrated into NCR. Groundbreaking on a new development facility for massively parallel computing takes place in San Diego. NCR and AT&T recognize one-year anniversary of successful high-tech merger. 1992 Democratic National Convention delegates vote using NCR 7054 Integrated Touch Screen Systems. Product introductions included: the NCR 3170, successor to the Safari notebook computer; the 3130 NotePad computer; the System 7000 family of MIPS RISC-based symmetric multiprocessing systems running UNIX System V 4.0; the 5688 drive-up ATM; and new ATMs capable of reading AT&T smart cards.
LOL, or you can read the 'README', configure, make, -oh no wait- what were all those errors that falshed by in the configure? Crud, I have an older package, ok, well I'll just update it --- damn, it is dependant on 3 other packages that I have to upgrade, ok, start with number one, crap, the newer version isn't supported by my kernel. Ok, I'll just recompile and retry #1.. (wasn't there a 'make install' somewhere in this process?).
You get the picture. I've never run into this type of problem using windows. I love linux, but I have to admit if I didn't love computers I would have ditched it in a heartbeat. Microsoft has a corner on the market because of their clickety-reboot mentality. The OS has lots of flaws, but as an end user, most of the operation is really simple.
I think the 'browser wars' are far from over. I'm a windows user at work and after using Mozilla 1.0 at home I decided to try it at work. I was really impressed at how well it worked on Windows. Not only did it render cleanly, but it supported all sorts of Java and Flash that I thought would be lost. Add to that all the great features in Mozilla (blocking doubleclick.net images, pop-up ads, etc.) I decided to use it as my default browser. Several co-workers asked about it, and I've recommended they also use Mozilla as a default browser. Not only that, I've recommended it on to clients. I think compared side by side Mozilla is a better browser than IE, it lets people do more of what they want, more easily, on the web. I think Mozilla presents a pretty big threat to the IE market, even without the AOL adaptation of Mozilla. I'm not sure many people have seriously considered that Mozilla is simply a better browser and might gain a large share of the browsers out there simply on its own merits.
I would like to comment on this papers addressing of 'documentation' of open source versus proprietary software. I would like to point out that when I bought a copy of Microsoft Windows 2000 Server, there was no documentation at all provided. I had to blindly figure out how to use the product, and eventually had to invest over $200 in outside books and materials (or alternatively I could have paid $1000 for training classes). I purchased Mandrake 8.2 and got a huge book of documentation. I also found online documentation for all of the packages included (apache, sendmail, php, etc.) that was absolutely free. I think open source documentation is some of the best in the world, with code examples and tutorials available all over the internet. Closed source software, by contrast, since it is proprietary, sports very few code examples or complete documentation. Try finding an active server pages version of PHP Nuke for example... Just my $.02. Thank you for your time.
Thanks for your letter; you're not the only person to comment on the lack of documentation for MS software. I was unaware of the documentation situation because I've never actually used MS software to any great extent. A few years back, I briefly (4 months) developed under Windows and became totally frustrated, not by the lack of documentation, but by the fact that a lot of it was inaccurate.
Regards,
David.
It is interesting to watch the knee jerk response that these recorders have caused in the advertising industry. The first impulse was to simply lobby to make them illegal. Now it seems advertisers are finally realizing that digital technology is going to let people personalize thier content. Just as the web has made advertisers struggle with placement, traditional TV commercials are probably long overdue for an overhaul. I just hope advertisers and TV execs don't make viewers suffer with some sort of pop-under ad equivelant on television. Who knows what the next wave will be, making you watch 2 minutes of commercials to get access to a TV feed? Personally I think television is a waste, there usually isn't much worth watching, and what is worth watching is usually available on DVD at some point. I have to admit though, if I could watch a 30 minute program without the 15+ minutes of commercials I might find it a more valuable investment of my time.
news.caribsurf.com, (I think, might be nntp.caribsurf.com). Enjoy :)
I think the problem with online chat and kids is that they can log on and talk to virtually anyone and there is no control or confirmation over whom they are conversing with. On the one hand this is great, on the other it is like picking up the phone and randomly dialing away to find people to talk to. The advantage with the phone though is that parents get a bill and they can monitor to whom and when a child is making a call. I think the above post about not letting young kids have PC's in their bedroom withhout supervision. It is too easy for kids to log on and get access to all sorts of crap that they may or may not be prepared to deal with. Chat is right up there with online porn, its so easy for kids to access potentially dangerous stuff without parents even being aware if they're not in the room. Netnanny isn't going to block everything. Parental supervision is obviously the #1 way to stop dangerous behavior, but being able to monitor a childs computer use is the only way you're going to be sure. Putting the computer in the family room is a pretty good start.
When was the last time you compared the price of RH with other distros? Ten bucks is a pretty sorry incentive for what ammounts to little less than pretty red packaging and some stickers :(
You can kill anyone in GTA3. Most of the pedestrians are smart enough to jump out of the way though if they see you gunning for them in a car. Much more effective to hop out and blast them with the shotgun (you can get one for free by entering a patrol car, either parked or one whose occupants have already been killed)>
School sucks, and I'm happy to say that most of what you're doing in class is probably going to have next to nothing to do with what you're going to do on the job. I say this because I never got a degree in computer science or any tech related field (I have a master's in colonial american history) but I taught myself programming and work as a programmer and network admin. I'd have to say that talking to my friends in and out of school that what they learn(ed) has very little to do with day to day IT jobs. They learn(ed) the fundamentals, but very little of what was taught in class seems applicable to their jobs. Granted, I don't know a lot of background material for what I do, but it doesn't really seem to hamper my job performance or promotion opportunities. If you're burned out from school I'd just look forward to a welcome change in the real world. In the end, undergraduate degrees are next to worthless. You learn how to think in college, its not a vocational training program. College will prepare you to tackle problems in the right way. Anyways, thats my two cents.
um, civil disobedience was what? wrong? Ghandi didn't obey the law, civil rights workers didn't obey state law in the 60's in the South, draft dodgers didn't obey the law. I think there are perfectly justifiable reasons to DISOBEY the law. Republishing the DeCSS was against the law but tons of people did it. Law isn't always right. It used to be against the law for women to vote. Law is an evolutionary thing, and sometimes it takes some judicious law breaking to get things right.
I saw several news reporters break down, I saw several pundits have to stop what they were saying. I don't think you can characterize anyone in the US as being unaffected. I didn't feel anyting but scared on the 11th, and showed very little emotion, but I broked down and cried several times in the next few days. Don't be too harsh just because people aren't showing the emotions you deem to be appropriate.
I think its important to note that many of the Israeli attacks against the Palastinians are provoked. Palastenian terrorists have been carrying out a campaign against Israel for a long time now. I feel bad for the innocent Palestinians who are being hurt and killed in the Israeli counter-offensive (if you will) but after seeing the pictures of little Palastenian kids cheering at the tragedy in the US I'm in no mood to sympathize with them. I think we have to realize that the situation in the Middle East has two sides, its not just about Palastenian kids killed by Israeli tanks, its also about Israeli citizens blown up by Palastenian suicide bombers. Further, I think if there are Palastenians being hurt and killed, its not Israel's fault, its the Palastenian Authority's fault. If they were doing their job and curbing criminal terrorists in thier area of authority, arresting, or even just preventing the near daily drive by shootings of Israeli citizens by Palastenians, then I think the Israeli's would probably be exercising a lot more restraint. You have to see the situation from the Israeli point of view, there's these nests of terrorists lurking on their border and the supposed government of Palestine won't do anything about it for fear of losing popular support. What would you do in their situation? Especially if you watched pictures of your cities getting blown up daily and you knew who did it? If we knew which, if any country, was behind the 9-11 tragedy we sure as hell would send the tanks in, and I don't think people would shed many tears for the kids who got killed along the way. If the Palastinian government had been doing its job and keeping law and order (in much the same way the Taliban should be doing) there wouldn't be such an escalating situation.
I'd have to agree. You can't deny that Usenet is probably used more for porn than anything else, and its a good source for that stuff. Yes, you get the sick stuff with it, but that's pretty much always the way with porn content. Saying usenet is all porn though is to miss a lot. I don't know if any of you have read a good 'Learning Linux' book recently, but for troubleshooting they always suggest checking the distribution specific usenet group. You don't get a whole lot of spam on alt.linux.mandrake or whichever specific usenet you're looking at. Yes, 80% of the material on alt.binaries.erotica.schoolgirls is going to be useless crap, but when was the last time your read a specific newsgroup? I'd hate to see usenet die, as it grows old the users tend to filter down to the old school geeks. I think as usenet grows older, the population of posters may get better, espicially because many new computer users turn to the web rather than usenet.
Whoa! I thought I was all alone in my longing for a wall sized white board. Where can you get one of those? White boards are the best work productivity tool I have outside of my computer. I can map networks, programs, and keep a list of to-do's all in one space, and next week wipe it all away and start over. Sooo much more convenient than post-it notes!
That y'all might find this interesting:
:-)
[snip]
>Puleeeze tell me you aren't really going out of business? Hopefully all the
>people from Slashdot who bought games over the last hours will make some
>sort of difference?
[snip]
Thank you for your interest!
Please don't confuse this with a Chapter 7 liquidation, where you
close the doors and sell off the assets. That is not what we have done.
We filed a Chapter 11 reorganization. This will allows us to deal with
our creditors fairly and equitably and at the same time continue to
operate the company. We are still shipping products and porting new games
and expect to be doing so for a long time.
Last night was certainly our best night for web orders,
and that is very motivating.
Sincerely,
--
Kayt Sorhaindo
Loki Software, Inc.
I just bought an IBM a21e, for $999. I installed Mandrake 8.0 without any problems although I had to buy a USB mouse since Linux doesn't support the touchpoint mouse. I did, however, manage to find drivers easily and install them for the WinModem on the laptop (www.linmodems.org). All in all a great machine for the money, and I'm the only one in the office that has EVER gotten X to run on a laptop :)
Obviously this person has never supported a network of Windows users. I think generational gaps make no difference among computer users. Did you know that most universities require computers with Windows on them for thier students? The reason Linux isn't catching on to the main stream isn't because older persons can't find the on switch. It is because Linux is at its heart a multiuser network operating system. Windows 9x/Me will always be the choice of the masses for the same reasons home users don't choose NT/2000. It has a simple GUI, simple operation, simple software installs, simple hardware 'Plug-n-Play', etc. And the reality of the situation is that Linux developers don't have any motivation to provide these sorts of services for the Linux OS. If anyone can save Linux and pass it on to the average user its going to be the large firms (Red Hat, Mandrake, Suse, etc.) because they have a vested interest, and money to be made, in providing Linux as a viable easy-to-use alternative.
One reason junk faxing was outlawed was that it cost the end users money to recieve the junk faxes. I'm sure laws of this nature will set a precedent for spam over pagers or wireless messenging.