On the subject of anonymity...
on
eLection '04
·
· Score: 1
Just as an aside on the conecept of anonymity of the people that vote:
We don't have that today. In most every state I know of, the specific voter's name and address can be traced from their ballot.. For example, in Ann Arbor, Michigan (where I am), this is what I did when I voted:
1) fill out a voter application form (small) with my name and address
2) have the election people look at my application and cross my name off the list of registered voters
3) they gave me a ballot, with an ID number, and wrote that ID number on my application
4) I voted (by filling in lines with a marker, in case you care)
5) I handed my ballot (and application, with the ballot ID written on it) to the election people, who scanned it into a computer and filed it away
Moral is, they can trace my completed ballot back to my name, if they want to. I believe that most every state works this way. Moreover, I think every state SHOULD work this way.
Personally, I think that anonymity from most other people is all that is required for an election. I think it is fairly important for the election officials to be able to trace individual votes down to the individuals who cast them. This is very useful in the classic case of ballot stuffing, where someone votes for someone who died in between registering to vote and the actual election.
Anyway, just my 2 cents on the anonimity issue that is being brought up by folks..
So far, my experience with Netpliance has been one of lies and extremely questionable business behavior. Condensed sequence of events:
March 15: Order 1 i-Opener via web for $99 + $49 shipping
March 27: Order hasn't gotten here yet -- call to ask for status. Informed that the order was "cancelled", and that to continue it I have to agree to the new service agreement. I argue for a while, and affirm that I do NOT agree. They guaruntee that I won't be charged and that my order is cancelled.
March 28: I get a message from Netpliance stating that my order was not cancelled, and to call them. I do, and I get ahold of 2nd level customer care and tell them to cancel the order and send me written confirmation that I won't be charged a dime. (at this point, I just didn't want their company to get any money from me)
April 10: The unit shows up. I call netpliance, and ask if my order had been cancelled -- they say that they "tried" but that they didn't have time before it shipped. They also said that they had charged my credit card (after they expressly guarunteed they would not). They said they would refund the money once I ship the unit back. After some arguing, the rep threatens to actually charge the $499 termination fee right then. I inform her that I will be filing a complaing with the Better Business Beureau. At this point, all I want is away from the company -- argue some more, and they finally agree to call and have the shipper come pick the package up free of charge to me. They promise a callback with verification within an hour.
April 11: Have not received callback. Called them -- everyone's in a "meeting" in upper level customer care.
If this is the way they treat everyone, then I'm sure I simply want them to go out of business at this point.
This company is amazing to me -- they've screwed up completely a situation that they should have come out of smelling like a rose. All they had to do was change their model so that people who aren't interested in the service pay 150-200$ for the unit, while people who agree to X months of service pay $99. Simple.
Instead, they've managed to alienate pretty much everyone. What a waste.
Although this is historically a fairly religious issue, I think it's important because GNOME is one of the windows people look through to get a feel for "open source" software. And besides, it's been rattling around in my head ever since I first laid eyes on the GNOME source...
My question: What rationale do you have for putting a space between a function name and the open param in the function call?
eg: result = my_func (arg1, arg2) instead of result = my_func(arg1, arg2)
I've seen this used before, but no one (not even the people that do it) can give me a reason why.. I can think of many reasons not to, not the least of which is complexity with multiple function calls..
IMHO, Netpliance simply *cannot* be selling this hardware at a loss. They might be breaking even, or not making much, but they can't be losing much either. I'm basing this on the following:
1) They charge a maximum of $21/mo for the internet service. From SEC filings, we know that it costs Netpliance ~$12/mo for each account that they sell. That gives them a monthly profit from service at no more than $9.
2) The average life expecancy of this device (with its intended audience) can't be more than 2 years, and I believe that this is being extremely generous.
$9 x 24mos = $216 gross profit per buyer over the lifetime of service, assuming no time is spend with the customer on support calls, etc.
AFAIK, they don't force banner ads on folks, so theres no significant revenue there..
Add all this up, and I don't see how they can be selling the hardware as a loss leader. The LCD that they are using (the only significant piece of hardware on the whole unit) is fairly cheap in quantity, too.
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Just as an aside on the conecept of anonymity of the people that vote:
We don't have that today. In most every state I know of, the specific voter's name and address can be traced from their ballot.. For example, in Ann Arbor, Michigan (where I am), this is what I did when I voted:
1) fill out a voter application form (small) with my name and address
2) have the election people look at my application and cross my name off the list of registered voters
3) they gave me a ballot, with an ID number, and wrote that ID number on my application
4) I voted (by filling in lines with a marker, in case you care)
5) I handed my ballot (and application, with the ballot ID written on it) to the election people, who scanned it into a computer and filed it away
Moral is, they can trace my completed ballot back to my name, if they want to. I believe that most every state works this way. Moreover, I think every state SHOULD work this way.
Personally, I think that anonymity from most other people is all that is required for an election. I think it is fairly important for the election officials to be able to trace individual votes down to the individuals who cast them. This is very useful in the classic case of ballot stuffing, where someone votes for someone who died in between registering to vote and the actual election.
Anyway, just my 2 cents on the anonimity issue that is being brought up by folks..
So far, my experience with Netpliance has been one of lies and extremely questionable business behavior. Condensed sequence of events:
March 15: Order 1 i-Opener via web for $99 + $49 shipping
March 27: Order hasn't gotten here yet -- call to ask for status. Informed that the order was "cancelled", and that to continue it I have to agree to the new service agreement. I argue for a while, and affirm that I do NOT agree. They guaruntee that I won't be charged and that my order is cancelled.
March 28: I get a message from Netpliance stating that my order was not cancelled, and to call them. I do, and I get ahold of 2nd level customer care and tell them to cancel the order and send me written confirmation that I won't be charged a dime. (at this point, I just didn't want their company to get any money from me)
April 10: The unit shows up. I call netpliance, and ask if my order had been cancelled -- they say that they "tried" but that they didn't have time before it shipped. They also said that they had charged my credit card (after they expressly guarunteed they would not). They said they would refund the money once I ship the unit back. After some arguing, the rep threatens to actually charge the $499 termination fee right then. I inform her that I will be filing a complaing with the Better Business Beureau. At this point, all I want is away from the company -- argue some more, and they finally agree to call and have the shipper come pick the package up free of charge to me. They promise a callback with verification within an hour.
April 11: Have not received callback. Called them -- everyone's in a "meeting" in upper level customer care.
If this is the way they treat everyone, then I'm sure I simply want them to go out of business at this point.
This company is amazing to me -- they've screwed up completely a situation that they should have come out of smelling like a rose. All they had to do was change their model so that people who aren't interested in the service pay 150-200$ for the unit, while people who agree to X months of service pay $99. Simple.
Instead, they've managed to alienate pretty much everyone. What a waste.
Although this is historically a fairly religious issue, I think it's important because GNOME is one of the windows people look through to get a feel for "open source" software. And besides, it's been rattling around in my head ever since I first laid eyes on the GNOME source...
My question: What rationale do you have for putting a space between a function name and the open param in the function call?
eg:
result = my_func (arg1, arg2) instead of
result = my_func(arg1, arg2)
I've seen this used before, but no one (not even the people that do it) can give me a reason why.. I can think of many reasons not to, not the least of which is complexity with multiple function calls..
Can you shed some light on why you do this?
I just wanted to point out one thing:
IMHO, Netpliance simply *cannot* be selling this hardware at a loss. They might be breaking even, or not making much, but they can't be losing much either. I'm basing this on the following:
1) They charge a maximum of $21/mo for the internet service. From SEC filings, we know that it costs Netpliance ~$12/mo for each account that they sell. That gives them a monthly profit from service at no more than $9.
2) The average life expecancy of this device (with its intended audience) can't be more than 2 years, and I believe that this is being extremely generous.
$9 x 24mos = $216 gross profit per buyer over the lifetime of service, assuming no time is spend with the customer on support calls, etc.
AFAIK, they don't force banner ads on folks, so theres no significant revenue there..
Add all this up, and I don't see how they can be selling the hardware as a loss leader. The LCD that they are using (the only significant piece of hardware on the whole unit) is fairly cheap in quantity, too.
Am I wrong?