I always love when people think that writing or calling their elected official makes a hill of beans of difference. For me, all it generally did was give me a nice elated feeling when I received a signed letter in the mail thanking me for my opinion, and then writing a paragraph about why their decisions would never change.
I've lately become a firm believer in wasting the time of the company that has used the power of government against me -- in this case, the content and distribution cartels (RIAA, MPAA). Instead of calling your elected official, call the companies themselves and keep moving up the ladder with the fact that you have a general complaint about their products. Don't accept the underlings and don't tell them exactly what it is you're mad about. If that doesn't work, call up their sales department and work your way up the ladder there requesting information about their services.
The slashdot effect is great on the Internet, but it is even more powerful on the phones. Each and every server request you make costs any one company very little. Each and every phone call you make gets heard, at least in the bottom line.
I'm not telling people to do anything illegal -- don't hassle, don't spam, don't swear, don't threaten -- just call. Call and tell them you don't appreciate their actions, you don't appreciate their products, and you don't appreciate their lobbying to creatre a more powerful Congress.
I know my phone calls don't make a difference -- yet. But over time, as more people realize that voting with their dollars and voting with how they spend their time, we'll see change being made through a free market of motivations.
To stay a bit on topic: I recently spent quite a bit of time researching the Swedes, and I'm very surprised at the amounts of freedoms they had in a country that has typically been considered socialist. I think they'd be a dream country for most Progressives (which means it would be a nightmare for me), but it surprises me how many rights they still retain that we gave up in the US a long, long time ago. The freedom to do what you want with products you physically own is a great freedom, in fact I believe it is the basis for freedom. The freedom to do what you want with your labor and your mind is included in that freedom, and that is why I am against intellectual property rights in every way.
I've always told my employees about my political beliefs and my attitudes about what was my property. I also told them that if they didn't agree with me, they were free to get work elsewhere. The same is true at Home Depot, and is one of the wonders of free market capitalism: employees who work at and customers who shop at, Home Depot either (A) Agree with the drug policy or (B) Don't care either way. I always figured the best way to "fight drugs" is to allow businesses, employees, and customers to make these decisions instead of big bad government.
Sure, some employees likely get hurt by the loss of one customer, but how many MORE customers choose Home Depot over other stores BECAUSE of the drug policy? Probably more than choose not to shop.
I actually once passed on a decent contract because of the drug policy of the company I'd have to send my employees into. I told the business owner that he was making a really bad decision as I have never had any problems with any employee who drinks, does drugs, gambles, cheats on his wife or speeds -- in fact I've found that some of my best workers have their party device of choice. We're all sinners, I like to say.
Re:Mod down parent - Answer to his question is...
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Cocaine Biosensor
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· Score: 3, Interesting
Actually, the answer to my question was not conductivity -- as the other repliers to my initial question show. Copper seems to be a better conductor in terms of actual conductivity.
The answer I was looking for was why gold specifically for this application and medical applications in general, above and beyond the typical electronic applications.
Thanks, that's the answer I was looking for. The common answer -- conductivity -- is knowledgeable to all and I appreciate those comments, but I was wondering why gold over others and you pointed me in the direction I needed to head in with my research. Much appreciated.
I'm aware of those aspects, and I've always assumed that's the reason for use in medicine, but I was wondering if there were other reasons for it beyond the electrical and anti-corrosive properties.
One thing though -- I was often told that gold is not as good of a conductor as copper, but the reason it is considered better is strictly because copper corrodes so quickly, and can then reduce the effectiveness of copper over gold.
I agree with you completely. While I, as a strict property rights supporter, strongly believe it is the employer's right to set whatever standards they want (even including outright prejudice of any kind), I also believe in the right of a customer to not give money to those who frown on casual drug use.
I'm not a drug user by any means (other than tobacco on rare occasions and good quality liquor infrequently), but I also don't shop at stores with an open no-drug policy. Home Depot doesn't get my business anymore, and I openly let them know that I think their policy is ridiculous.
That being said, I have penalized employees for coming to work still drunk or high. I haven't fired anyone, but I have openly reprimanded them as business IS affected if you're a mess. On the other hand, I had an employee once come to work high on Xanax or some other anti-depressent, and I was stuck as to what to do about it. Lucky for me we found her a better job elsewhere and that was off my back completely.
I'm a known gold bug and I've been very interested in the industrial applications of gold (partially to gauge demand issues for future supply). In recent months I've found gold being useful for medicine (possibly as a cancer detector most recently). Now it seems it is useful in finding drugs (although I'm sure this would be only for a police purpose, in a free market the same device might be useful in finding the best drugs).
What are the reasons for gold being used in these situations? I'm very familiar with gold's uniqueness, but it surprises me that it is becoming such a popular metal again -- even beyond the computer and audio industry. Is it really unique for these applications, or is it just a great way for the manufacturers to pad their bottom lines?
You run retail stores, which you apparently shut down to spite the IRS, despite claimed "record sales",
No, actually my retail stores were shut down by the local taxing agent over fouled paperwork filings. We had record sales for the industry at the retail level, and everyone at the taxing body was shocked that we were forced to close for 2 weeks as we were one of the top earners in our field, for the state. After that closure I lost faith in the ability to continue earning, and voluntarily left the retail market forever so I'd never have to charge sales tax again. All retail I'll do now will be e-commerce oriented, outside of my state.
a record studio
Which isn't opened yet and is is not really a business as it will run at a loss for me. The studio is a need of mine personally to advance my political goals through capitalism, not force, and I have received financing from private donators who also want to see it succeed. Of course, without it being open, I can't prove anything, and I'm having problems opening it due to licensing problems at the local level, so we're looking for other locations. Funny how government keeps me from proving that I don't need government.
IT
My IT business has been around since 1987 provably, coming directly from my BBS which hundreds if not thousands of users have memory of (as well as proof on the various BBS archives). The Melting Point was a favorite of Chicago BBS users for years, and it was directly the reason I entered the IT field and continue to do so today. Plus the fact that I'm quoted in various contracting magazines as an IT consultant (just Google my name for at least 2-3 quotes in various contracting magazines).
while all the time writing multiple books which no one else seems to have read or heard of,
One which was published under a nom de plume and which will be republished this year under my real name after being edited, and one which was a self-published book outside normal distribution which I am currently converting to a free e-book to be published in April. See my blog where I am re-developing it as a Q&A book. Sadly, selling a few thousand copies over 10 years doesn't make one famous. Happily, those who own a copy or have read it have the knowledge the needed to add value to their lives.
multiple blogs and newsletters
Which are updated almost daily, not including the two print newsletters which are updated monthly.
and posting and engaging in numerous long running slashdot debates
Which I do 100% on-the-road in between projects. I am currently at a church right now working on a contract to do their signage and bulletins and checked my e-mail (and slashdot) before I close up the laptop and head home.
yet only making enough to have a rundown, I believe camary(sp?).
I previously drove a Land Rover and was a huge Subaru geek (had 3 Subarus at one time), yet I learned that I can't preach living a downsized life unless I did it myself. I actually love my Corolla (96 Toyota Corolla with 50,000 miles or so) as I save almost $2000 a month in gas and maintenance over my Land Rover Disco2. Do I miss my truck? Often. Am I happy that I was able to work $30,000 ($24,000+taxes) a year less and still have the same amount of income? Absolutely. I highly recommend to anyone who is trying to keep-up-with-the-Joneses.
As those who know me in person, I sold all my property and all my cars, moved into a nice trailer home and found myself with more time and a better standard of living before. In fact, it was specifically because I downsized my life that I am able to write, travel (at least once a month if not more) locally and internationally, and help others to find stability and peace in their lives without the need for forcing others to do things against their will.
You don't have to believe me, admire me, or even agree with my opinions. All I ask is that you contemplate your premises and look at what you consider a
Voting can't and will never work again in the country. Unconstitutional violations of our freedom of speech (such as the McCain-Feingold incumbent reelection reform law) keep authoritarians in power and prevent the ability of anyone outside of the authoritarian parties from having a chance. Even if a "libertarian" got elected, the taste of power would quickly destroy any freedom desires they'd have.
That's the reality -- Congress and the Federal government have gone out of control. The framers intended the federal government to be very tiny -- so tiny they could do their job in weeks instead of all year long. The intent of the Constitution is to keep big laws like this one in the hands of the individual states and even just in the hands of the people. By keeping the biggest laws at the state level, people like me could vote with our feet -- the ultimate vote of freedom.
Sure, you can say "just move if you don't like it" but the idea is we're supposed to be free in this country, and 95% of slashdot readers don't want that -- they want an all powerful federal government instead of an all powerful state government that competes with an all-freedom-loving state government. The socialists can live in one state, the fascists in another, the Christians in a third, the green-lovers in a fourth -- the idea of the Republic was to give people the ability to congregate with others like themselves instead of trying to force the entire nation to be exactly the same.
Voting is worthless as the power of the Fed is too big, too strong, and too tempting.
Education has nothing to do with income -- I barely graduated high school and I do fairly well considering most people in my fields have MBAs or Master's Degrees and I never attended college.
Employment "rights" have been slowly destroyed by the law, not made better. Minimum wage laws have made it very hard for the young, the uneducated and the minorities to find entry level work that teaches them responsible work ethics as well as a trade. The Americans with Disability Act has made it much harder for the disabled to get jobs, and it has made it much harder on employers to even interview someone with a disability. Business licensing and regulations have made it difficult for the common man to start a business -- just trying opening a restaurant or a small retail store today. In the past you could open either with very little income compared to what you need to pay today just to get an occupancy permit.
Housing prices have been put out of reach of millions by government currency inflation (which is the sole cause of housing and consumer price increases in the past 20-30 years). On top of this, the housing and rental market is made more expensive by ridiculous property tax increases which make it near impossible for the poor, elderly and uneducated to live near opportunities to make good money.
Medicine was available to almost every poor person until the HMO Act of 1974, which created a trap for those without insurance. Up until the early 70s doctors made housecalls and charged very little -- once insurance was nearly mandated by government (either as a required benefit or used to circumvent tax laws for employers), the price of medicine skyrocketed. It is directly the fault of government that health care is outrageously expensive.
Government is to blame for each and every situation you laid out above. I just returned from a tour of Europe and Asia -- I visited some of the most impoverished areas. What did I see? People trying to make a living by entering the business market themselves. Sure, I saw a lot of low quality businesses, but they were backed up by a real drive and a desire to do well for themselves. In the U.S., the average person has to get a 9-5 job because doing anything else requires too much money to overcome the costs government has enacted and enforced and continues to increase.
This sounds like a good idea from the perspective of trying to protect the gamer's "rights" but in the end it will do nothing for the average gamer and everything for those who seek to control gamers. Lobbying groups and voting groups only have power as a minority unless they have the money to get real attention from Congress. This group won't raise anywhere near what is required to move Congress to act.
When Congress does act, it will always act in ways to make itself powerful. Laws that seem to help the masses really only help a select few, with the masses losing more of their rights. I'm a firm believer that the interstate commerce clause was written to give power to Congress to just keep the states in line in not usurping the rights of the people. Nowadays, most people think the clause gives Congress the power to do anything it wants to do.
If you really believe we're supposed to live freely, you have to leave the gaming market to the competitive market -- developers aren't going to make games that people don't want to play. If even 5% of the entire nation decides to buy a game, that's stil 15 million people. Yet 15 million people is a minority in voting -- if 95% of the nation is against a particular game, why should 15 million people be shut out?
I'm also anti-voting as I feel voting is what causes the minority decision to be criminalized. The best voting is voting done with your dollars -- each and every action you make to buy something or to refuse to buy something creates the rules of the market. These are rules that change every day as the buying decisions change to reflect what consumers want.
The end result will be more rights lost as the voting group gives up a little bit in order to gain a little bit. The problem is that no one gains anything when it comes to Congress, except for the preferred few. What you really think you're gaining is something you had a right to all along, until you decided to give up some of those rights in exchange for protecting some other rights that never really needed protecting. In the long run, the slippery slope rule says you'll lose all the rights as those in power taste more and more of that power.
Actually, I prefer it. The e-mail address is a very private one -- usually only for emergencies and customer needs. My main address (gmail) doesn't get polled, but it is usually nothing important anyway.
I figure I could set my PDA to poll (via EDGE via my phone) every few minutes, but nothing is that important. The SMS through T-Mobile is very fast, and I have a massive SMS allotment each month as I'm grandfathered into a very old T-Mobile (maybe Voicestream even) phone plan.
Good question -- I don't think that McDonald's has WiFi actually. I'll have to check the next time I'm in the area.
In Windows XP (which I have to use because of 2 of my programs that I run my businesses from), selecting a preferred network is fairly easy, it just takes 3 clicks or so.
Haha, I keep my own napkins in the car at all times (I'm a complete and total mess when it comes to attempting to eat and drive). As for condiments: I stay away from the sugars and the corn syrups;)
I think the photos work now, for some strange reason my FTP client had to reconnect about 50 times to upload the photos -- bad host errors, time to switch from GoDaddy to a real host I guess.
I am sitting in my car, right now, as I type this. I had to check my e-mail (T-Mobile sends an SMS to my phone when it detects new mail on my POP3 server). I am currently using an EDGE connection (Laptop -> Bluetooth Modem of my T-Mobile Samsung t809 cell) to connect. While I am sitting here (McDonalds parking lot), my laptop detected and picked an open WiFi access point from the Popeye's Restaurant across the street, overriding the T-Mobile EDGE connection.
It all works flawlessly from my standpoint, and this isn't even T-Mobile's entire network. I'm amazed at the speed of the EDGE connection (consistent 150kbps download in most of Chicagoland), and even more amazed at the amount of restaurants with open WiFi connections. I may run over to Popeye's right now and buy a way overpriced soda just to thank them financially for the connection.
Both words (dame and lady) are part of my vernacular and also words I'd like to see more in the common vocabulary of tomorrow. I also use the term "broad" (which she prefers actually), but I usually get flogged for it here and elsewhere, although I have noticed more people using the term.
I remember using the word "crony" either here or another forum years back and some people in other parts of the country had no idea what that meant. Looking it up in the dictionary showed me it was usually a Midwest term (Chicago), but now it seems everyone knows the word -- and I used it for years with people saying it wasn't really a word.
You're right, and I'm not disagreeing that the iPod interface isn't the king of the hill right now. I just think there is another interface waiting to be found that might work better, faster, and more intuitively rather than a scroll-list.
I was thinking maybe there is a way to add letters to the scroll wheel -- sort of like T9. If you scroll the wheel, it enters scroll mode. But if your fingers slightly tape the various locations of the letters, it enters a text entry mode -- not T9, per se, but a predictive text entry based 100% on the songs, artists, albums, whatever you already have.
In fact, this is my current "solution" to making the iPod better -- allowing the click wheel to do more than just scroll and "play/pause/fast forward." One click left might be next song, but clicking quickly top, top, top-left, top might enter "ACDC" if the timing was right.
I don't have the answer, but I know the question is yet to be answered in the way best suited to both power users and mainstream users.
I agree -- the iPod interface is way better than anything else out there now. I still feel there is room for improvement, unfortunately I have no idea what that improvement would be or how to go about inventing it. If I did, I'd be very wealthy:)
I've been thinking about the iPod interface for weeks now, trying to think of interesting ways to get from A to B to X to Y faster. No solution has come to me yet, but serendipity is an amazing thing.
Will someone come out with a better interface? I have no idea. It might just be Apple, it could be Google, it could be some kid in garage, it might never happen. Maybe I'm spinning why wheels "complaining" about something that millions like. I just happen to be one of those people who can tell when something needs improvement, I guess.
The 3 reasons for the iPod's rule
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iPod Video Dissection
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· Score: 3, Interesting
I've looked at numerous MP3 players, including my t809 cell phone and a multitude of PDAs I've used over the years. The iPod has a decent interface, but I feel it is lacking for me as I have a huge volume of music and the iPod doesn't give me a very quick way to access various songs on-the-fly. I'd love to see a manufacturer come out with a new way to navigate very quickly -- AI like. I'm thinking we a need invention: something like what T9 did to SMS messaging.
Of all the MP3 players, I've seen numerous ones that I liked, but the iPod won out mostly because the dame of the house prefers the interface. She has two.
The three reasons for the iPod rule, from what I've been able to deciper, are:
There has not been a bigger marketing campaign of any device, and in the long run I think it is marketing that helps to win the battle when everything else is equal. Yes, the de-geeked factor was a big reason for success with the girlfriends, parents and even grandparents, but I don't think it is the main reason for success.
Apple took huge risks to earn this reward, but that's how business is: those who risk the most earn the most rewards, if they earn at all.
Side note: Has it really been over 10 years since I first downloaded an MP3?
On top of what was said above, I have always considered items I couldn't patent that could easily be copied, but required real work to copy.
I ran retail stores for years -- nothing prevented anyone from opening up across the street selling the same products for lower prices. Why shouldn't we have government-protected business plans? In India, I recently found out that they do have an anti-competition board that does exactly this. The end result: guess who runs businesses?
Thinking about this further, I guess we do have government "patents" on businesses -- they're called licensing requirements.
I'm anti-patent in every way (even for the drug companies). Patents were initially meant to help the individual invent. Instead, we see it being used as device used to create new legal force where none existed before -- and it is never used to protect an individual.
Look at any average device patented today -- cell phones, TV remotes, even your fob for your remote keyless entry. How many of these patents really protects something completely unique that was invented without using a previous invention as a source? How quickly do other companies use the exact same technique with a slight change to work around the patents of others, and then patent this technique with the change?
Patents can not work to help the individual -- there is no ability to fix this system. In the long run, this will work counter the original intent: instead of protecting individuals, it has created a cartel of patent attorneys who will be happy to help the ultrawealthy find ways to keep the average inventor out of the market.
Patents create incredible high costs to enter any market nowadays. When I sold paintball markets ("guns") at retail, I was amazed at the amount of lawsuits between various manufacturers all protecting the same basic idea. Do a search for "Smart Parts Patent" to see the most ridiculous patent around -- the electric switch.
Want to level the playing field? Just give up the patent schemes entirely. Let people admit that their inventions are based on the prior inventions of others. Making something better doesn't create a marketable product: the invention itself is only a small part of bringing something to the consumer. I believe the patent process is the reason we see fewer inventors and less research and development. $1 for R&D means $5 for the patent attorneys.
I've been running MCE flawlessly for almost a year now, and it generally works great for me. But the ugliness of Microsoft's usual suspects is starting to rear its ugly face: MCE doesn't scale well.
I'm on the verge of trying MythTV for the 5th time in a year over just 2 basic problems with MCE: the more stuff I save, the slower things go. More memory and processor speed have done little to combat this problem, and the broad is getting frustrated with having to wait between clicks.
The other problem is also performance related: accessing data stored over the network is terribly slow and inefficient. It likely has to do with my bad WiFi router performance combined with Window's overall inefficiency in handling large files over a network.
I'm a big pro-MCE guy, and my home media network is MUCH larger than most people would care to use (I combine not just video and audio but financial market clips and personal video clips as well). For now, MCE is working, but it is quickly becoming unusable just because I can no longer scale it beyond the current amount of data I'm storing.
Anyone use MythTV or the Mac Mini to store terabytes of video and audio, successfully?
The price fixing issue isn't a concern to me as I don't really believe in the idea of price fixing. Memory is a very high cost-to-entry market, and the idea that cartel form to fix prices is just a fact of the market. In fact, I prefer that these cartels not get penalized or fined as it leaves the market open to others finding ways to get into the market to eventually bring the price down again.
Over time, anyone who tries to fix prices moves in one of two directions:
1. Someone else eventually competes with them, bringing prices down 2. Government subsidizes the price fixing, making it legal, and forming a real barrier to entry
Slashdot Mirror
I always love when people think that writing or calling their elected official makes a hill of beans of difference. For me, all it generally did was give me a nice elated feeling when I received a signed letter in the mail thanking me for my opinion, and then writing a paragraph about why their decisions would never change.
I've lately become a firm believer in wasting the time of the company that has used the power of government against me -- in this case, the content and distribution cartels (RIAA, MPAA). Instead of calling your elected official, call the companies themselves and keep moving up the ladder with the fact that you have a general complaint about their products. Don't accept the underlings and don't tell them exactly what it is you're mad about. If that doesn't work, call up their sales department and work your way up the ladder there requesting information about their services.
The slashdot effect is great on the Internet, but it is even more powerful on the phones. Each and every server request you make costs any one company very little. Each and every phone call you make gets heard, at least in the bottom line.
I'm not telling people to do anything illegal -- don't hassle, don't spam, don't swear, don't threaten -- just call. Call and tell them you don't appreciate their actions, you don't appreciate their products, and you don't appreciate their lobbying to creatre a more powerful Congress.
I know my phone calls don't make a difference -- yet. But over time, as more people realize that voting with their dollars and voting with how they spend their time, we'll see change being made through a free market of motivations.
To stay a bit on topic: I recently spent quite a bit of time researching the Swedes, and I'm very surprised at the amounts of freedoms they had in a country that has typically been considered socialist. I think they'd be a dream country for most Progressives (which means it would be a nightmare for me), but it surprises me how many rights they still retain that we gave up in the US a long, long time ago. The freedom to do what you want with products you physically own is a great freedom, in fact I believe it is the basis for freedom. The freedom to do what you want with your labor and your mind is included in that freedom, and that is why I am against intellectual property rights in every way.
Go TPB!
I've always told my employees about my political beliefs and my attitudes about what was my property. I also told them that if they didn't agree with me, they were free to get work elsewhere. The same is true at Home Depot, and is one of the wonders of free market capitalism: employees who work at and customers who shop at, Home Depot either (A) Agree with the drug policy or (B) Don't care either way. I always figured the best way to "fight drugs" is to allow businesses, employees, and customers to make these decisions instead of big bad government.
Sure, some employees likely get hurt by the loss of one customer, but how many MORE customers choose Home Depot over other stores BECAUSE of the drug policy? Probably more than choose not to shop.
I actually once passed on a decent contract because of the drug policy of the company I'd have to send my employees into. I told the business owner that he was making a really bad decision as I have never had any problems with any employee who drinks, does drugs, gambles, cheats on his wife or speeds -- in fact I've found that some of my best workers have their party device of choice. We're all sinners, I like to say.
Actually, the answer to my question was not conductivity -- as the other repliers to my initial question show. Copper seems to be a better conductor in terms of actual conductivity.
The answer I was looking for was why gold specifically for this application and medical applications in general, above and beyond the typical electronic applications.
Thanks, that's the answer I was looking for. The common answer -- conductivity -- is knowledgeable to all and I appreciate those comments, but I was wondering why gold over others and you pointed me in the direction I needed to head in with my research. Much appreciated.
I'm aware of those aspects, and I've always assumed that's the reason for use in medicine, but I was wondering if there were other reasons for it beyond the electrical and anti-corrosive properties.
One thing though -- I was often told that gold is not as good of a conductor as copper, but the reason it is considered better is strictly because copper corrodes so quickly, and can then reduce the effectiveness of copper over gold.
I agree with you completely. While I, as a strict property rights supporter, strongly believe it is the employer's right to set whatever standards they want (even including outright prejudice of any kind), I also believe in the right of a customer to not give money to those who frown on casual drug use.
I'm not a drug user by any means (other than tobacco on rare occasions and good quality liquor infrequently), but I also don't shop at stores with an open no-drug policy. Home Depot doesn't get my business anymore, and I openly let them know that I think their policy is ridiculous.
That being said, I have penalized employees for coming to work still drunk or high. I haven't fired anyone, but I have openly reprimanded them as business IS affected if you're a mess. On the other hand, I had an employee once come to work high on Xanax or some other anti-depressent, and I was stuck as to what to do about it. Lucky for me we found her a better job elsewhere and that was off my back completely.
I'm a known gold bug and I've been very interested in the industrial applications of gold (partially to gauge demand issues for future supply). In recent months I've found gold being useful for medicine (possibly as a cancer detector most recently). Now it seems it is useful in finding drugs (although I'm sure this would be only for a police purpose, in a free market the same device might be useful in finding the best drugs).
What are the reasons for gold being used in these situations? I'm very familiar with gold's uniqueness, but it surprises me that it is becoming such a popular metal again -- even beyond the computer and audio industry. Is it really unique for these applications, or is it just a great way for the manufacturers to pad their bottom lines?
You run retail stores, which you apparently shut down to spite the IRS, despite claimed "record sales",
No, actually my retail stores were shut down by the local taxing agent over fouled paperwork filings. We had record sales for the industry at the retail level, and everyone at the taxing body was shocked that we were forced to close for 2 weeks as we were one of the top earners in our field, for the state. After that closure I lost faith in the ability to continue earning, and voluntarily left the retail market forever so I'd never have to charge sales tax again. All retail I'll do now will be e-commerce oriented, outside of my state.
a record studio
Which isn't opened yet and is is not really a business as it will run at a loss for me. The studio is a need of mine personally to advance my political goals through capitalism, not force, and I have received financing from private donators who also want to see it succeed. Of course, without it being open, I can't prove anything, and I'm having problems opening it due to licensing problems at the local level, so we're looking for other locations. Funny how government keeps me from proving that I don't need government.
IT
My IT business has been around since 1987 provably, coming directly from my BBS which hundreds if not thousands of users have memory of (as well as proof on the various BBS archives). The Melting Point was a favorite of Chicago BBS users for years, and it was directly the reason I entered the IT field and continue to do so today. Plus the fact that I'm quoted in various contracting magazines as an IT consultant (just Google my name for at least 2-3 quotes in various contracting magazines).
while all the time writing multiple books which no one else seems to have read or heard of,
One which was published under a nom de plume and which will be republished this year under my real name after being edited, and one which was a self-published book outside normal distribution which I am currently converting to a free e-book to be published in April. See my blog where I am re-developing it as a Q&A book. Sadly, selling a few thousand copies over 10 years doesn't make one famous. Happily, those who own a copy or have read it have the knowledge the needed to add value to their lives.
multiple blogs and newsletters
Which are updated almost daily, not including the two print newsletters which are updated monthly.
and posting and engaging in numerous long running slashdot debates
Which I do 100% on-the-road in between projects. I am currently at a church right now working on a contract to do their signage and bulletins and checked my e-mail (and slashdot) before I close up the laptop and head home.
yet only making enough to have a rundown, I believe camary(sp?).
I previously drove a Land Rover and was a huge Subaru geek (had 3 Subarus at one time), yet I learned that I can't preach living a downsized life unless I did it myself. I actually love my Corolla (96 Toyota Corolla with 50,000 miles or so) as I save almost $2000 a month in gas and maintenance over my Land Rover Disco2. Do I miss my truck? Often. Am I happy that I was able to work $30,000 ($24,000+taxes) a year less and still have the same amount of income? Absolutely. I highly recommend to anyone who is trying to keep-up-with-the-Joneses.
As those who know me in person, I sold all my property and all my cars, moved into a nice trailer home and found myself with more time and a better standard of living before. In fact, it was specifically because I downsized my life that I am able to write, travel (at least once a month if not more) locally and internationally, and help others to find stability and peace in their lives without the need for forcing others to do things against their will.
You don't have to believe me, admire me, or even agree with my opinions. All I ask is that you contemplate your premises and look at what you consider a
Voting can't and will never work again in the country. Unconstitutional violations of our freedom of speech (such as the McCain-Feingold incumbent reelection reform law) keep authoritarians in power and prevent the ability of anyone outside of the authoritarian parties from having a chance. Even if a "libertarian" got elected, the taste of power would quickly destroy any freedom desires they'd have.
That's the reality -- Congress and the Federal government have gone out of control. The framers intended the federal government to be very tiny -- so tiny they could do their job in weeks instead of all year long. The intent of the Constitution is to keep big laws like this one in the hands of the individual states and even just in the hands of the people. By keeping the biggest laws at the state level, people like me could vote with our feet -- the ultimate vote of freedom.
Sure, you can say "just move if you don't like it" but the idea is we're supposed to be free in this country, and 95% of slashdot readers don't want that -- they want an all powerful federal government instead of an all powerful state government that competes with an all-freedom-loving state government. The socialists can live in one state, the fascists in another, the Christians in a third, the green-lovers in a fourth -- the idea of the Republic was to give people the ability to congregate with others like themselves instead of trying to force the entire nation to be exactly the same.
Voting is worthless as the power of the Fed is too big, too strong, and too tempting.
Education has nothing to do with income -- I barely graduated high school and I do fairly well considering most people in my fields have MBAs or Master's Degrees and I never attended college.
Employment "rights" have been slowly destroyed by the law, not made better. Minimum wage laws have made it very hard for the young, the uneducated and the minorities to find entry level work that teaches them responsible work ethics as well as a trade. The Americans with Disability Act has made it much harder for the disabled to get jobs, and it has made it much harder on employers to even interview someone with a disability. Business licensing and regulations have made it difficult for the common man to start a business -- just trying opening a restaurant or a small retail store today. In the past you could open either with very little income compared to what you need to pay today just to get an occupancy permit.
Housing prices have been put out of reach of millions by government currency inflation (which is the sole cause of housing and consumer price increases in the past 20-30 years). On top of this, the housing and rental market is made more expensive by ridiculous property tax increases which make it near impossible for the poor, elderly and uneducated to live near opportunities to make good money.
Medicine was available to almost every poor person until the HMO Act of 1974, which created a trap for those without insurance. Up until the early 70s doctors made housecalls and charged very little -- once insurance was nearly mandated by government (either as a required benefit or used to circumvent tax laws for employers), the price of medicine skyrocketed. It is directly the fault of government that health care is outrageously expensive.
Government is to blame for each and every situation you laid out above. I just returned from a tour of Europe and Asia -- I visited some of the most impoverished areas. What did I see? People trying to make a living by entering the business market themselves. Sure, I saw a lot of low quality businesses, but they were backed up by a real drive and a desire to do well for themselves. In the U.S., the average person has to get a 9-5 job because doing anything else requires too much money to overcome the costs government has enacted and enforced and continues to increase.
Voting with your dollars, is still voting.
Voting with your dollars is using voluntary cooperation to make changes.
Voting at the polls is using coercion via force to make changes.
Only one is peaceful and freedom-loving, the other is called government.
This sounds like a good idea from the perspective of trying to protect the gamer's "rights" but in the end it will do nothing for the average gamer and everything for those who seek to control gamers. Lobbying groups and voting groups only have power as a minority unless they have the money to get real attention from Congress. This group won't raise anywhere near what is required to move Congress to act.
When Congress does act, it will always act in ways to make itself powerful. Laws that seem to help the masses really only help a select few, with the masses losing more of their rights. I'm a firm believer that the interstate commerce clause was written to give power to Congress to just keep the states in line in not usurping the rights of the people. Nowadays, most people think the clause gives Congress the power to do anything it wants to do.
If you really believe we're supposed to live freely, you have to leave the gaming market to the competitive market -- developers aren't going to make games that people don't want to play. If even 5% of the entire nation decides to buy a game, that's stil 15 million people. Yet 15 million people is a minority in voting -- if 95% of the nation is against a particular game, why should 15 million people be shut out?
I'm also anti-voting as I feel voting is what causes the minority decision to be criminalized. The best voting is voting done with your dollars -- each and every action you make to buy something or to refuse to buy something creates the rules of the market. These are rules that change every day as the buying decisions change to reflect what consumers want.
The end result will be more rights lost as the voting group gives up a little bit in order to gain a little bit. The problem is that no one gains anything when it comes to Congress, except for the preferred few. What you really think you're gaining is something you had a right to all along, until you decided to give up some of those rights in exchange for protecting some other rights that never really needed protecting. In the long run, the slippery slope rule says you'll lose all the rights as those in power taste more and more of that power.
Actually, I prefer it. The e-mail address is a very private one -- usually only for emergencies and customer needs. My main address (gmail) doesn't get polled, but it is usually nothing important anyway.
I figure I could set my PDA to poll (via EDGE via my phone) every few minutes, but nothing is that important. The SMS through T-Mobile is very fast, and I have a massive SMS allotment each month as I'm grandfathered into a very old T-Mobile (maybe Voicestream even) phone plan.
My paintball business is gone completely -- the car was stickered by some old reps and I never removed them :)
Firstcall is a good shop -- one of the few that I see making it through the next few years while the industry shakes down all the flack.
Good question -- I don't think that McDonald's has WiFi actually. I'll have to check the next time I'm in the area.
In Windows XP (which I have to use because of 2 of my programs that I run my businesses from), selecting a preferred network is fairly easy, it just takes 3 clicks or so.
Haha, I keep my own napkins in the car at all times (I'm a complete and total mess when it comes to attempting to eat and drive). As for condiments: I stay away from the sugars and the corn syrups ;)
I think the photos work now, for some strange reason my FTP client had to reconnect about 50 times to upload the photos -- bad host errors, time to switch from GoDaddy to a real host I guess.
I am sitting in my car, right now, as I type this. I had to check my e-mail (T-Mobile sends an SMS to my phone when it detects new mail on my POP3 server). I am currently using an EDGE connection (Laptop -> Bluetooth Modem of my T-Mobile Samsung t809 cell) to connect. While I am sitting here (McDonalds parking lot), my laptop detected and picked an open WiFi access point from the Popeye's Restaurant across the street, overriding the T-Mobile EDGE connection.
It all works flawlessly from my standpoint, and this isn't even T-Mobile's entire network. I'm amazed at the speed of the EDGE connection (consistent 150kbps download in most of Chicagoland), and even more amazed at the amount of restaurants with open WiFi connections. I may run over to Popeye's right now and buy a way overpriced soda just to thank them financially for the connection.
I just ftp'd two photos of where I'm at right now to prove my story. Check http://www.unanimocracy.com/photos/popeyes1.jpg and http://www.unanimocracy.com/photos/popeyes2.jpg in a few minutes. I love technology.
Both words (dame and lady) are part of my vernacular and also words I'd like to see more in the common vocabulary of tomorrow. I also use the term "broad" (which she prefers actually), but I usually get flogged for it here and elsewhere, although I have noticed more people using the term.
I remember using the word "crony" either here or another forum years back and some people in other parts of the country had no idea what that meant. Looking it up in the dictionary showed me it was usually a Midwest term (Chicago), but now it seems everyone knows the word -- and I used it for years with people saying it wasn't really a word.
You're right, and I'm not disagreeing that the iPod interface isn't the king of the hill right now. I just think there is another interface waiting to be found that might work better, faster, and more intuitively rather than a scroll-list.
I was thinking maybe there is a way to add letters to the scroll wheel -- sort of like T9. If you scroll the wheel, it enters scroll mode. But if your fingers slightly tape the various locations of the letters, it enters a text entry mode -- not T9, per se, but a predictive text entry based 100% on the songs, artists, albums, whatever you already have.
In fact, this is my current "solution" to making the iPod better -- allowing the click wheel to do more than just scroll and "play/pause/fast forward." One click left might be next song, but clicking quickly top, top, top-left, top might enter "ACDC" if the timing was right.
I don't have the answer, but I know the question is yet to be answered in the way best suited to both power users and mainstream users.
I agree -- the iPod interface is way better than anything else out there now. I still feel there is room for improvement, unfortunately I have no idea what that improvement would be or how to go about inventing it. If I did, I'd be very wealthy :)
I've been thinking about the iPod interface for weeks now, trying to think of interesting ways to get from A to B to X to Y faster. No solution has come to me yet, but serendipity is an amazing thing.
Will someone come out with a better interface? I have no idea. It might just be Apple, it could be Google, it could be some kid in garage, it might never happen. Maybe I'm spinning why wheels "complaining" about something that millions like. I just happen to be one of those people who can tell when something needs improvement, I guess.
I've looked at numerous MP3 players, including my t809 cell phone and a multitude of PDAs I've used over the years. The iPod has a decent interface, but I feel it is lacking for me as I have a huge volume of music and the iPod doesn't give me a very quick way to access various songs on-the-fly. I'd love to see a manufacturer come out with a new way to navigate very quickly -- AI like. I'm thinking we a need invention: something like what T9 did to SMS messaging.
Of all the MP3 players, I've seen numerous ones that I liked, but the iPod won out mostly because the dame of the house prefers the interface. She has two.
The three reasons for the iPod rule, from what I've been able to deciper, are:
1. Marketing -- massive marketing
2. De-geeked interface (including copying songs)
3. Marketing
There has not been a bigger marketing campaign of any device, and in the long run I think it is marketing that helps to win the battle when everything else is equal. Yes, the de-geeked factor was a big reason for success with the girlfriends, parents and even grandparents, but I don't think it is the main reason for success.
Apple took huge risks to earn this reward, but that's how business is: those who risk the most earn the most rewards, if they earn at all.
Side note: Has it really been over 10 years since I first downloaded an MP3?
Great reply, good insight.
On top of what was said above, I have always considered items I couldn't patent that could easily be copied, but required real work to copy.
I ran retail stores for years -- nothing prevented anyone from opening up across the street selling the same products for lower prices. Why shouldn't we have government-protected business plans? In India, I recently found out that they do have an anti-competition board that does exactly this. The end result: guess who runs businesses?
Thinking about this further, I guess we do have government "patents" on businesses -- they're called licensing requirements.
I'm anti-patent in every way (even for the drug companies). Patents were initially meant to help the individual invent. Instead, we see it being used as device used to create new legal force where none existed before -- and it is never used to protect an individual.
Look at any average device patented today -- cell phones, TV remotes, even your fob for your remote keyless entry. How many of these patents really protects something completely unique that was invented without using a previous invention as a source? How quickly do other companies use the exact same technique with a slight change to work around the patents of others, and then patent this technique with the change?
Patents can not work to help the individual -- there is no ability to fix this system. In the long run, this will work counter the original intent: instead of protecting individuals, it has created a cartel of patent attorneys who will be happy to help the ultrawealthy find ways to keep the average inventor out of the market.
Patents create incredible high costs to enter any market nowadays. When I sold paintball markets ("guns") at retail, I was amazed at the amount of lawsuits between various manufacturers all protecting the same basic idea. Do a search for "Smart Parts Patent" to see the most ridiculous patent around -- the electric switch.
Want to level the playing field? Just give up the patent schemes entirely. Let people admit that their inventions are based on the prior inventions of others. Making something better doesn't create a marketable product: the invention itself is only a small part of bringing something to the consumer. I believe the patent process is the reason we see fewer inventors and less research and development. $1 for R&D means $5 for the patent attorneys.
I've been running MCE flawlessly for almost a year now, and it generally works great for me. But the ugliness of Microsoft's usual suspects is starting to rear its ugly face: MCE doesn't scale well.
I'm on the verge of trying MythTV for the 5th time in a year over just 2 basic problems with MCE: the more stuff I save, the slower things go. More memory and processor speed have done little to combat this problem, and the broad is getting frustrated with having to wait between clicks.
The other problem is also performance related: accessing data stored over the network is terribly slow and inefficient. It likely has to do with my bad WiFi router performance combined with Window's overall inefficiency in handling large files over a network.
I'm a big pro-MCE guy, and my home media network is MUCH larger than most people would care to use (I combine not just video and audio but financial market clips and personal video clips as well). For now, MCE is working, but it is quickly becoming unusable just because I can no longer scale it beyond the current amount of data I'm storing.
Anyone use MythTV or the Mac Mini to store terabytes of video and audio, successfully?
The price fixing issue isn't a concern to me as I don't really believe in the idea of price fixing. Memory is a very high cost-to-entry market, and the idea that cartel form to fix prices is just a fact of the market. In fact, I prefer that these cartels not get penalized or fined as it leaves the market open to others finding ways to get into the market to eventually bring the price down again.
Over time, anyone who tries to fix prices moves in one of two directions:
1. Someone else eventually competes with them, bringing prices down
2. Government subsidizes the price fixing, making it legal, and forming a real barrier to entry