Unions are a good thing even in todays econnomy.
Basicly labor workers can not speak for themselfs indivudually. They have to pay rent and the employeer can pay them as little as they like knowing the employee will have to take what ever they give.
Unions enable a workforce to leave when the employeer isn't being reasonable or changes are needed.
I'm an advocate for smaller unions.. not lagger ones.. in the big ones the heads really don't know when the feet are cold. The larg unions invent problems and end up nuking perks.
However info-workers are not in this same fix. They aren't trapped...
I mean when are they gona form a CEOs Union or a Union for elected officals.. hmmm?
There are some jobs that don't need protection... and some that do..
And Unions really really really do themselfs a discredit when they attempt to push themselfs into areas where Unions aren't needed.
The problem info-workers have is not the same as labor workers...
In labor the worker depends on that job but the employeer can get rid of him at any time.
In high skill labor the worker can leave and the employeer is stranded...
As such you have NDAs and other such agreements.
Experence is a commodity... if you have an employee who stays with you for 10 years your lucky... and you'll work to keep him...
Unions in high skill labor have been known to trash ideal work conditions...
They can only shoot for just above reasonable. When you allready have that a Union is a sereous problem.
Unions are a solution to a problem... However Unions have extended themselfs so far they try to insert themselfs when they are NOT nessisary. The inherent problem with Unions is they can wreck ideal working conditions.
Ask yourself... Can you leave at a moments notice and tell your boss "Go stuff it"?
Ask yourself is your boss working with you?
If you can answer no to both then you should consider a Union..
Look at the tech industy today. Attempts are made to lock employees in. Skilled workers are very valuable.
Unions will NOT prevent the insain work contracts that give away your work to the company. They will not protect your rights. And while they are at it they'll nuke your perks.
At the bargoning table everything can go. Unions are known for trading off better pay for other stuff and managment will just fork it over so they can own everything you code.. and add additional rules like you can't have a personal computer of your own.. You can't have your own website.. you can't go shopping on-line..
If you can quit at a moments notice you allready have more bargonning power than any Union can bring you.
The only power a Union has is for one guy (who really dosn't know what your problems are) to pull your entire work force.
It's a very blut tool and this isn't a blunt problem...
No I don't want to sign away my rights to my code or be locked out of work for a year. I'll work some place else if nessisary. But I won't sign.
Hell I don't even sign NDAs.. and they aren't that bad.. but I can chouse not to..
With a Union it's all or nothing... most of you will sign reasonable NDAs.. Would you like to lose your friday pizza so that "I".. the only idiot who wants this... dosn't have to sign an NDA? Do I want to be forced to accept an NDA becose NOBODY ELSE cares? See the problem?
It's for major issues... like my freaking life is in danger becouse I'm working next to a lithazic acid poison cannister that is breathing into the work space.. That level of stuff..
It may not be so blatent.. made to work when sick.. not given a proper amount of days off so working hard when not quite awake.. dangerous work conditions becouse fellow employee running fork lift was working 12 hours non-stop...
Unions are a good thing. Security guards, Supper market staff, oil refinerys...
Thies people are far to easy to replace.. Individually they can be thrown away.. as a group,... a union.. they get decent working conditions and decent pay...
But the tech industry is getting far better than decent working conditions with far better than decent pay..
This isn't an industry that needs a Union... It's an industry that needs less managment.. not more...
The original Hero and Tobor didn't have functional hands. Tobor had posable hands Hero had none.
What did make Hero worth it was Hero was a kit.. You could wire in stuff. So at first Heros not that great but add a few things.. maybe an arm or two.. and Hero can do things..
Hero vs Aibo.. well Aibo has a faster and more powerful onboard computer. Aibo has AI to let it mimic being a pet Hero has AI to keep it from running into walls. So basicly Aibo can do more.
In a fight Hero would probably just run... eventually fall down a flight of stairs or something and be nocked off it's wheels...
But Hero could win... sence Hero is a kit.. add a lazer.. add a cutting lazer not an optic lazer.. The optic is more commen..
The cutting lazer will take a lot of energy so add a new power system etc to the Hero... it's own batterys etc.. so Hero dosn't get drainned by the lazer.
However.. Aibo can still dodge.. and Hero isn't a fast aim...
Forget tampering with the insides...
Create a simple external disabler..
This box filters out the signial for disabling the higher quality...
Such a box would be cheap.. maybe $5 a unit.. simple.. easy to build in any home.. sold illegally at flee markets and on-line outside the united states (where they are legal).. to those inside the united states (where it is illegal)..
> - Microsoft's innovations. Feel free to knock their OS'es, but their language experience is great. They built a wickedly fast (albeit nonstandard) JVM way before anyone else could.
It's easy to make a fast JVM when you ignore the standards..
In reality I suspect the reason Microsoft broke with Java standard is to gain speed (not to push Microsoft Java)..
I suspect they accually believed that Sun would let them force thies changes and Sun would just addopt them into Java...
This would give Microsoft an advantage over Linux and Solarus in java...
However Sun wants Solarus to have the advantage not Windows or Linux so they stand fast instead of allowing Microsoft to push them around.
As for Microsofts language experence...
Microsoft wrote Microsoft basic for the first kit computers.. WAY BACK... When compiler languages were in demand.. Microsoft basic comiler... When structured languages were in demand QuickBasic...
Think about this.. Basic is not given to being a compiler or structured language.. it rebells against it.. But Microsoft did it anyway...
Thats pritty dang impressive.
Basic is old.. obsolete.. and would be dead if not for Visual Basic... If Microsofts legacy is any mesure I suspect this is probably an object orented basic.. However I wouldn't know becouse I never used it...
Yeah Microsoft has some pritty insain experence with programming languages...
But I doupt Sun would have ever taken advantage of this and Microsoft isn't very good about working with other companys...
The issue in web develupment is simple. You need to support IE. If IE dosn't support Java then nither can you.
But occasionally you have to ignore compatability to get a feature working. IE won't do it but Netscape will..
This is a major boost for Netscape becouse websites won't be able to throw away Java overnight.
This is a boost for Linux sence we don't have IE to run MsJava and are pritty much stuck with SunJava and Netscape Java (Sun Java is used by Konquer)
This is an injury not a death..
But now Microsoft must try to kill Java to continue to push IE.. Sun must kill IE to continue to push Java...
Eather way Netscape gains levrage.. and we gain levrage...
It's not a death... not yet... Java is alive... IE is alive... And now the real battle begins...
Anyway.. I thought I read "Clean water" and "clean food" and so on...
You are still off...
Water level won't drop much (due to evaperation) and may rise (Snow melt off.. or lack of snow to start with..)
Tropical diseases are a non issue. You can cure them with proper medical resorces.
Anyway.. I think being able to breath and eat is far more impressive to me than the posability that one day I won't need to dress warmly...
Your right however thies are not due to global warmming but the polition that caused it.
The point is valid.. Global warmming isn't really the biggest issue when it comes to polition. That air food and water thing is way higher on my priority list than umm the world getting warmmer.
We could do well by global warmming.. assuming we don't die from toxic poisoning first...
While most people have a teacher they can point to that encurraged them to learn by intoducing them to some new science or something.
I had one who tryed to discurrage me. This was messed up. She was busy telling me I could never learn basic math let alone computer programming.
She went so far as to tell my mother that my intrests in computers should be discurraged.
To make a long story short.. all she did was cement the image in my mind of her being an insult to the teaching profession.
Such people are very rare but somehow they avoid being fired.
I had one such person as a teacher...
Teachers are in a position to encurrage kids to go on to great things. They are also in a position to distory lifes.
I've had bad teachers.. over worked, dealing with local system politics, one on the verge of a nervous breakdown. But they all wanted to be great teachers. Most of my teachers were great, insperations of some sort.
I couldn't single one teacher out and say "the best" most were great...
I can single one out as the worst...
>Whoaaa, that's the dumbest thing I've heared for a long time. That's like Ford hiring a contract product designer to work on their new car and requiring that the product designer drive a Ford.
This sort of thing dose happen and makes perfictly good managment sence.
An employee using a compeating product is both an endorcment of the product and an emberrisment to the employer.
A fast food ad once ran showing an employee of one fast food place eating at a compleating fast food outlet.
This is much worse when you have Linux advocates making logos using Windows...
Linux has very good graphics software and unless people are willing to spring for $2,000 profesional rendering pacages you are not likely to get much better results on other platforms.
But people won't normally consider using Linux for graphic arts so this limitation is a very good idea.
>Anyone have any ideas for an alternative to bake-off?
How about "cooking the DB"..
I even have a spokesperson for it.. a carrtcier on Strenua Inertia Mr.DB
IANAL.. But I read books by Nolo press (Writen by legal experts to explain the law.. think "Law for Idiots")
This is well outside the function of trademarking. It is to protect product and company identity a "mark"..
I am aware however that nothing in IP law requires the protection be used as intended....
However this is flying in the face of the way language works.. English is the "worst" offender of language mutation...
But language mutates as needed... Need a term for testing protocals.. Why not "Bake off"? And how about "Beta testing".. Are we testing a Betamax? Often "Beta testing" is the PRIMARY test.. ("It's only a beta" should be answered with "What the hell happend to the alpha?")
Thankfully insect sprays haven't patented "killing bugs" or we'd be sued for fixing software defects... (Yeah yeah even Microsoft would get sued.. don't go there.. I hate them but stay on topic even if I can't)
So who do we sue next?
BTW the artical botched it... Klenex, Xerox and other trademarks have nearly gone into public domain but they did save the day..
The artical avoids a real comparison.. "Spam" where "Spam" refers to marketting bombardment in e-mail and usenet... the term was in use for years before Hormel sued Cyberpromo for using the term..
Linux is basicly hacker Os and MacOs Newbe Os..
Before anyone is offended or gets the wrong idea.. MacOs makes a very good hacker os and Linux makes a very good newbie os...
But in the end MacOs is a better os for the "Human" interface and Linux a better os for the "Machine" interface... They just cover the other side so well that when an application needs both they do both...
But as the rule is "try being all things to everyone" and you end up being Windows...
MacOs isn't trying to be a HackerOs it just covers that area becouse it's needed...
Linux isn't trying to be a newbie os it just covers that area becouse it's needed..
So with MacOs becomming MacOs X.. A Unix system.. it complements Linux even better..
Some applications are more Human and need Mac and some are more automation and need Linux...
TiVO is more automation... Linux...
CADing is more human.. MacOs...
But as you should know by now.. while MacOs was favored for Cading in the 1980s and Linux runs TiVOs...
Newbies use TiVOs and experts do CADing..
In any case... the application favors Linux or MacOs...
"See MacOs makes a horrable TiVO... so use Windows for your web browsing etc" Some companys (not exclusivly Microsoft) will do whatever it takes to hurt a quality compeditor...
Your right on your comment about the market just one comment that I'd want to correct...
>there is a HUGE majority of kids who believe in free stuff, for whom Linux is "leet" (or is it 31337?)and never pay for anything.
Being I've been doing the "free software" thing sence the 1970s (when it was called Public Domain not open source.. the author had no protections and the code wasn't allways available and would usually find it's way into a comertal product some times stiffing the author by clamming ownership) I was one of those "kids"...
It's not leet or even 31337.. It's just "Neat". Not a whole lot diffrent than a Nintendo GameBoy or a Christmas present. It's just Christmas all year long.
leet kinda puts a sinister tone on it like "Wow I run Linux therefor I am cool"... You'll hear "I have a gameboy therefor I am cool" and so on.. They think somehow owning cool stuff makes them cool. Installing Linux confers the same sort of psudo "Coolness" but it's the same cool you get from "I have a Nintendo"...
But the vast majority of "Kids" in free software just want free stuff... They aren't looking to be cool.. They are looking to be cheap.
The kids looking to be "cool" are willing to buy "Linux Dog poopoo" as long as it's cool dog poopoo...
But the vast majority of kids aren't looking to be "cool" they are looking to be able to download free games. They are looking to use Gimp.. They are looking for freebes... "Free software"...
Some are even willing to steal software... But that was a long time ago when free software was hard to find...
Thies jobs share a commen thread.. they are hummiliating..
Let me give you an example of a low tech job that sucks.. mine... I'm a night watchmen at a recycling center (I'm available for employment BTW).
Basicly people get angry at me for doing exactly what my boss tells me to do. I get insulted, threatoned and lied to.
But it dosn't happen that often. Usually people just don't show up... It's pritty rare that I have any problems.
When there are problems my boss backs me up 100%..
Thats my job...
Now... tech support... Now maybe nobody is threatoning the tech with phisical violence but they do scream yell and whine a lot. And while I deal with a person maybe once a month.. if I'm unlucky.. a phone tech gets a whinny person once a day if he is lucky...
My job I do nothing for days.. pritty much.. So I get a jerk every now and then.. I can deal...
BTW: My boss is basicly making my job difficult lately and won't even admit it. Small issues.. but enough for me to quit...
> By way of analogy, how many of you have Linux "supported" on your laptop? By your ISP? Or do they merely happen to work with certain Linux configurations, with or without official support?
By way of irrony.. I had to replace a "Linux Supported" modem with a "Windows only" modem becouse the first didn't work with Linux while the second worked perfictly...
Back on topic.... sort-of... "Supported" really means "If it works horray for you if it dosn't don't call"...
If you want assurences that it will work then look for "Supported"... It purely means "It should work and as far as we know it dose work" (Linux excluded due to hype factor)..
And a final sence of Irony...
I have a scanner that supports Windows 3.11 and Dos.. (I'm getting ready to write a Linux driver).. a hack makes it work on Windows 95 and it takes moving hell and earth (write a whole new driver) to make it work in 98...
Becouse it's a Dos generation scanner it's fully documented so that dos apps can support it...
[Makes my life MUCH easyer]
Couldn't someone file a sute clamming this is filed in defience of the wishes of the "class" in this class action lawsite?
Could investors legally side with VA and join VAs site of the legal battle?
Could investors who disagree with this lawsute something to terminate, oppose or in some way registure the fact that this lawsite is not in prepresentation of there own intrests?
It would be my guess that something could and should be done by VA supporting investors to oppose this...
Ideally Linux IPO investors are Linux advocates and many would not want such a lawsute on the behalf of themselfs...
1. CmdrTaco admitting he is bies..
2. A link to an oposing view with out first in some way slamming same...
3. Anything showing a weakness in any Linux or Slashdot affiliated companys..
No thies things will never be seen on Slashdot... Never... ever.. umm what?
>most companies that drop that far are usually hit by lawsuits from shark's masquearading as lawyers and it's actually a surprise that it took this long.
Back in the 1980s I insisted that my busness (it went under in 1992) NEVER take on an investor...
I've been questioned as to why... obveously I could have used the help.. But from 1983 to 1992 I made my position clear...
I felt that invesntment was a real catch 22...
If you don't produce quick returns your investors will try to grab the wheel or otherwise mess over the busness...
If you do produce quick returns you didn't need the investors to begin with...
There are rare occasions where investors are an asset but usually they are a problem...
[When you need money today to lock in larg proffits tomarow... It's been known to happen... One example is a company who produces equipment.. the demand outstrips the supply.. solution is invest in larg scale mass production... This will probably mean investors sence the small company is unlikely to have that kind of money on hand when the crisis hits...]
Some investors are babys and sadly the biggest babys have the biggest budgets...
If someone believes they know more about your busness than you do the last thing you need is to have that person as an investor...
Investors have every right to say what is going on (They invested the cash) however some quickly forget who is doing the daily work and try to play puppet master...
I guess what I'm saying is... the problem investor is one in a million... and you have a potental 20 million investors.... and it only takes one to sue you into oblivion....
Accually Carla of TheSync pushed the wrong buttons:)
This happend to me too.. I'd download it and waha got the whole file... it ends abruptly.. WOPS!!
Download again... this one accually ends...
What happend? I guess Carla did a bad file copy or something and so we only had part of the file..
or the file was still being generated as we were downloading it...
Or maybe it was the Krull... Ohh Maybe the Sync finally got it's funding....
Well you see the Krull missed a payment so I'm not going to post yet annother "Slashdot Conspericy"..
Sorry guys.. I guess they are busy bring down Napster and MyMP3..
In the mean time Transmeta, Microsoft and Coke are bidding for who will get to dictate my next conspericy... but they are all bidding so low I may just junk the whole thing...
Note to Microsoft a ham sandwitch is NOT a good bid.. and I'm alergic to ham...
Coke at least had something intresting in offering a case of coke....
Transmeta could have at least offered a laptop instead they offered a t-shirt....
You know guys... the Krull was paying me really good... that Pizza was a side deal... the $5,000 per-conspericy is what had my intrest...
Yes I cought this and submitted it:)
Ok no fair call... It should be posted correctly..
Anyway I probably wasn't the first...
All those Slashdot eppisodes where Taco said "You guys submitted it like a thousand times.. we HAD to post it" well... I think GiS was probably submitted a thousand times:)
Slashdot Mirror
Unions are a good thing even in todays econnomy.
Basicly labor workers can not speak for themselfs indivudually. They have to pay rent and the employeer can pay them as little as they like knowing the employee will have to take what ever they give.
Unions enable a workforce to leave when the employeer isn't being reasonable or changes are needed.
I'm an advocate for smaller unions.. not lagger ones.. in the big ones the heads really don't know when the feet are cold. The larg unions invent problems and end up nuking perks.
However info-workers are not in this same fix. They aren't trapped...
I mean when are they gona form a CEOs Union or a Union for elected officals.. hmmm?
There are some jobs that don't need protection... and some that do..
And Unions really really really do themselfs a discredit when they attempt to push themselfs into areas where Unions aren't needed.
The problem info-workers have is not the same as labor workers...
In labor the worker depends on that job but the employeer can get rid of him at any time.
In high skill labor the worker can leave and the employeer is stranded...
As such you have NDAs and other such agreements.
Experence is a commodity... if you have an employee who stays with you for 10 years your lucky... and you'll work to keep him...
Unions in high skill labor have been known to trash ideal work conditions...
They can only shoot for just above reasonable. When you allready have that a Union is a sereous problem.
Unions are a solution to a problem... However Unions have extended themselfs so far they try to insert themselfs when they are NOT nessisary. The inherent problem with Unions is they can wreck ideal working conditions.
Ask yourself... Can you leave at a moments notice and tell your boss "Go stuff it"?
Ask yourself is your boss working with you?
If you can answer no to both then you should consider a Union..
Look at the tech industy today. Attempts are made to lock employees in. Skilled workers are very valuable.
Unions will NOT prevent the insain work contracts that give away your work to the company. They will not protect your rights. And while they are at it they'll nuke your perks.
At the bargoning table everything can go. Unions are known for trading off better pay for other stuff and managment will just fork it over so they can own everything you code.. and add additional rules like you can't have a personal computer of your own.. You can't have your own website.. you can't go shopping on-line..
If you can quit at a moments notice you allready have more bargonning power than any Union can bring you.
The only power a Union has is for one guy (who really dosn't know what your problems are) to pull your entire work force.
It's a very blut tool and this isn't a blunt problem...
No I don't want to sign away my rights to my code or be locked out of work for a year. I'll work some place else if nessisary. But I won't sign.
Hell I don't even sign NDAs.. and they aren't that bad.. but I can chouse not to..
With a Union it's all or nothing... most of you will sign reasonable NDAs.. Would you like to lose your friday pizza so that "I".. the only idiot who wants this... dosn't have to sign an NDA? Do I want to be forced to accept an NDA becose NOBODY ELSE cares? See the problem?
It's for major issues... like my freaking life is in danger becouse I'm working next to a lithazic acid poison cannister that is breathing into the work space.. That level of stuff..
It may not be so blatent.. made to work when sick.. not given a proper amount of days off so working hard when not quite awake.. dangerous work conditions becouse fellow employee running fork lift was working 12 hours non-stop...
Unions are a good thing. Security guards, Supper market staff, oil refinerys...
Thies people are far to easy to replace.. Individually they can be thrown away.. as a group,... a union.. they get decent working conditions and decent pay...
But the tech industry is getting far better than decent working conditions with far better than decent pay..
This isn't an industry that needs a Union... It's an industry that needs less managment.. not more...
Tobor and Hero were more intresting...
The original Hero and Tobor didn't have functional hands. Tobor had posable hands Hero had none.
What did make Hero worth it was Hero was a kit.. You could wire in stuff. So at first Heros not that great but add a few things.. maybe an arm or two.. and Hero can do things..
Hero vs Aibo.. well Aibo has a faster and more powerful onboard computer. Aibo has AI to let it mimic being a pet Hero has AI to keep it from running into walls. So basicly Aibo can do more.
In a fight Hero would probably just run... eventually fall down a flight of stairs or something and be nocked off it's wheels...
But Hero could win... sence Hero is a kit.. add a lazer.. add a cutting lazer not an optic lazer.. The optic is more commen..
The cutting lazer will take a lot of energy so add a new power system etc to the Hero... it's own batterys etc.. so Hero dosn't get drainned by the lazer.
However.. Aibo can still dodge.. and Hero isn't a fast aim...
Forget tampering with the insides...
Create a simple external disabler..
This box filters out the signial for disabling the higher quality...
Such a box would be cheap.. maybe $5 a unit.. simple.. easy to build in any home.. sold illegally at flee markets and on-line outside the united states (where they are legal).. to those inside the united states (where it is illegal)..
They really can't use this as DirecTV must compeate with Cable...
:)
I can't think up a good anolog...
But theres a flawed one..
If Ford were to design a car that could disable the heater when ever they felt like it.. You'd buy a diffrent car wouldn't you?
Admittedly this switch is in the HDTV not in DirecTV however.. If say Ford built such a switch and then never used it... you'd never know...
Ehhh :) It's not inaccurate and not abnormal..
The only thing I can think of is how could someone be on-line and read this artical and not know who Microsoft is...
Sun maybe less so but any investor worth his salt (Yahoo.. news for investors.. stuff that makes money) should allready know who Sun is...
> - Microsoft's innovations. Feel free to knock their OS'es, but their language experience is great. They built a wickedly fast (albeit nonstandard) JVM way before anyone else could.
It's easy to make a fast JVM when you ignore the standards..
In reality I suspect the reason Microsoft broke with Java standard is to gain speed (not to push Microsoft Java)..
I suspect they accually believed that Sun would let them force thies changes and Sun would just addopt them into Java...
This would give Microsoft an advantage over Linux and Solarus in java...
However Sun wants Solarus to have the advantage not Windows or Linux so they stand fast instead of allowing Microsoft to push them around.
As for Microsofts language experence...
Microsoft wrote Microsoft basic for the first kit computers.. WAY BACK... When compiler languages were in demand.. Microsoft basic comiler... When structured languages were in demand QuickBasic...
Think about this.. Basic is not given to being a compiler or structured language.. it rebells against it.. But Microsoft did it anyway...
Thats pritty dang impressive.
Basic is old.. obsolete.. and would be dead if not for Visual Basic... If Microsofts legacy is any mesure I suspect this is probably an object orented basic.. However I wouldn't know becouse I never used it...
Yeah Microsoft has some pritty insain experence with programming languages...
But I doupt Sun would have ever taken advantage of this and Microsoft isn't very good about working with other companys...
The issue in web develupment is simple. You need to support IE. If IE dosn't support Java then nither can you.
But occasionally you have to ignore compatability to get a feature working. IE won't do it but Netscape will..
This is a major boost for Netscape becouse websites won't be able to throw away Java overnight.
This is a boost for Linux sence we don't have IE to run MsJava and are pritty much stuck with SunJava and Netscape Java (Sun Java is used by Konquer)
This is an injury not a death..
But now Microsoft must try to kill Java to continue to push IE.. Sun must kill IE to continue to push Java...
Eather way Netscape gains levrage.. and we gain levrage...
It's not a death... not yet... Java is alive... IE is alive... And now the real battle begins...
Stupid me.. I missread... (Stupid speed.. reading stupid me.. Suphid suphid suphid [Obscure Sluggy Freelance refrence])
Anyway.. I thought I read "Clean water" and "clean food" and so on...
You are still off...
Water level won't drop much (due to evaperation) and may rise (Snow melt off.. or lack of snow to start with..)
Tropical diseases are a non issue. You can cure them with proper medical resorces.
Anyway.. I think being able to breath and eat is far more impressive to me than the posability that one day I won't need to dress warmly...
I like breathing even more than I like warmth
Your right however thies are not due to global warmming but the polition that caused it.
The point is valid.. Global warmming isn't really the biggest issue when it comes to polition. That air food and water thing is way higher on my priority list than umm the world getting warmmer.
We could do well by global warmming.. assuming we don't die from toxic poisoning first...
While most people have a teacher they can point to that encurraged them to learn by intoducing them to some new science or something.
I had one who tryed to discurrage me. This was messed up. She was busy telling me I could never learn basic math let alone computer programming.
She went so far as to tell my mother that my intrests in computers should be discurraged.
To make a long story short.. all she did was cement the image in my mind of her being an insult to the teaching profession.
Such people are very rare but somehow they avoid being fired.
I had one such person as a teacher...
Teachers are in a position to encurrage kids to go on to great things. They are also in a position to distory lifes.
I've had bad teachers.. over worked, dealing with local system politics, one on the verge of a nervous breakdown. But they all wanted to be great teachers. Most of my teachers were great, insperations of some sort.
I couldn't single one teacher out and say "the best" most were great...
I can single one out as the worst...
>Whoaaa, that's the dumbest thing I've heared for a long time. That's like Ford hiring a contract product designer to work on their new car and requiring that the product designer drive a Ford.
This sort of thing dose happen and makes perfictly good managment sence.
An employee using a compeating product is both an endorcment of the product and an emberrisment to the employer.
A fast food ad once ran showing an employee of one fast food place eating at a compleating fast food outlet.
This is much worse when you have Linux advocates making logos using Windows...
Linux has very good graphics software and unless people are willing to spring for $2,000 profesional rendering pacages you are not likely to get much better results on other platforms.
But people won't normally consider using Linux for graphic arts so this limitation is a very good idea.
>Anyone have any ideas for an alternative to bake-off?
How about "cooking the DB"..
I even have a spokesperson for it.. a carrtcier on Strenua Inertia Mr.DB
IANAL.. But I read books by Nolo press (Writen by legal experts to explain the law.. think "Law for Idiots")
This is well outside the function of trademarking. It is to protect product and company identity a "mark"..
I am aware however that nothing in IP law requires the protection be used as intended....
However this is flying in the face of the way language works.. English is the "worst" offender of language mutation...
But language mutates as needed... Need a term for testing protocals.. Why not "Bake off"? And how about "Beta testing".. Are we testing a Betamax? Often "Beta testing" is the PRIMARY test.. ("It's only a beta" should be answered with "What the hell happend to the alpha?")
Thankfully insect sprays haven't patented "killing bugs" or we'd be sued for fixing software defects... (Yeah yeah even Microsoft would get sued.. don't go there.. I hate them but stay on topic even if I can't)
So who do we sue next?
BTW the artical botched it... Klenex, Xerox and other trademarks have nearly gone into public domain but they did save the day..
The artical avoids a real comparison.. "Spam" where "Spam" refers to marketting bombardment in e-mail and usenet... the term was in use for years before Hormel sued Cyberpromo for using the term..
Linux is machine side MacOs is human side..
Linux is basicly hacker Os and MacOs Newbe Os..
Before anyone is offended or gets the wrong idea.. MacOs makes a very good hacker os and Linux makes a very good newbie os...
But in the end MacOs is a better os for the "Human" interface and Linux a better os for the "Machine" interface... They just cover the other side so well that when an application needs both they do both...
But as the rule is "try being all things to everyone" and you end up being Windows...
MacOs isn't trying to be a HackerOs it just covers that area becouse it's needed...
Linux isn't trying to be a newbie os it just covers that area becouse it's needed..
So with MacOs becomming MacOs X.. A Unix system.. it complements Linux even better..
Some applications are more Human and need Mac and some are more automation and need Linux...
TiVO is more automation... Linux...
CADing is more human.. MacOs...
But as you should know by now.. while MacOs was favored for Cading in the 1980s and Linux runs TiVOs...
Newbies use TiVOs and experts do CADing..
In any case... the application favors Linux or MacOs...
"See MacOs makes a horrable TiVO... so use Windows for your web browsing etc" Some companys (not exclusivly Microsoft) will do whatever it takes to hurt a quality compeditor...
Your right on your comment about the market just one comment that I'd want to correct...
>there is a HUGE majority of kids who believe in free stuff, for whom Linux is "leet" (or is it 31337?)and never pay for anything.
Being I've been doing the "free software" thing sence the 1970s (when it was called Public Domain not open source.. the author had no protections and the code wasn't allways available and would usually find it's way into a comertal product some times stiffing the author by clamming ownership) I was one of those "kids"...
It's not leet or even 31337.. It's just "Neat". Not a whole lot diffrent than a Nintendo GameBoy or a Christmas present. It's just Christmas all year long.
leet kinda puts a sinister tone on it like "Wow I run Linux therefor I am cool"... You'll hear "I have a gameboy therefor I am cool" and so on.. They think somehow owning cool stuff makes them cool. Installing Linux confers the same sort of psudo "Coolness" but it's the same cool you get from "I have a Nintendo"...
But the vast majority of "Kids" in free software just want free stuff... They aren't looking to be cool.. They are looking to be cheap.
The kids looking to be "cool" are willing to buy "Linux Dog poopoo" as long as it's cool dog poopoo...
But the vast majority of kids aren't looking to be "cool" they are looking to be able to download free games. They are looking to use Gimp.. They are looking for freebes... "Free software"...
Some are even willing to steal software... But that was a long time ago when free software was hard to find...
Thies jobs share a commen thread.. they are hummiliating..
Let me give you an example of a low tech job that sucks.. mine... I'm a night watchmen at a recycling center (I'm available for employment BTW).
Basicly people get angry at me for doing exactly what my boss tells me to do. I get insulted, threatoned and lied to.
But it dosn't happen that often. Usually people just don't show up... It's pritty rare that I have any problems.
When there are problems my boss backs me up 100%..
Thats my job...
Now... tech support... Now maybe nobody is threatoning the tech with phisical violence but they do scream yell and whine a lot. And while I deal with a person maybe once a month.. if I'm unlucky.. a phone tech gets a whinny person once a day if he is lucky...
My job I do nothing for days.. pritty much.. So I get a jerk every now and then.. I can deal...
BTW: My boss is basicly making my job difficult lately and won't even admit it. Small issues.. but enough for me to quit...
> By way of analogy, how many of you have Linux "supported" on your laptop? By your ISP? Or do they merely happen to work with certain Linux configurations, with or without official support?
By way of irrony.. I had to replace a "Linux Supported" modem with a "Windows only" modem becouse the first didn't work with Linux while the second worked perfictly...
Back on topic.... sort-of... "Supported" really means "If it works horray for you if it dosn't don't call"...
If you want assurences that it will work then look for "Supported"... It purely means "It should work and as far as we know it dose work" (Linux excluded due to hype factor)..
And a final sence of Irony...
I have a scanner that supports Windows 3.11 and Dos.. (I'm getting ready to write a Linux driver).. a hack makes it work on Windows 95 and it takes moving hell and earth (write a whole new driver) to make it work in 98...
Becouse it's a Dos generation scanner it's fully documented so that dos apps can support it...
[Makes my life MUCH easyer]
Couldn't someone file a sute clamming this is filed in defience of the wishes of the "class" in this class action lawsite?
Could investors legally side with VA and join VAs site of the legal battle?
Could investors who disagree with this lawsute something to terminate, oppose or in some way registure the fact that this lawsite is not in prepresentation of there own intrests?
It would be my guess that something could and should be done by VA supporting investors to oppose this...
Ideally Linux IPO investors are Linux advocates and many would not want such a lawsute on the behalf of themselfs...
1. CmdrTaco admitting he is bies..
2. A link to an oposing view with out first in some way slamming same...
3. Anything showing a weakness in any Linux or Slashdot affiliated companys..
No thies things will never be seen on Slashdot... Never... ever.. umm what?
>most companies that drop that far are usually hit by lawsuits from shark's masquearading as lawyers and it's actually a surprise that it took this long.
Back in the 1980s I insisted that my busness (it went under in 1992) NEVER take on an investor...
I've been questioned as to why... obveously I could have used the help.. But from 1983 to 1992 I made my position clear...
I felt that invesntment was a real catch 22...
If you don't produce quick returns your investors will try to grab the wheel or otherwise mess over the busness...
If you do produce quick returns you didn't need the investors to begin with...
There are rare occasions where investors are an asset but usually they are a problem...
[When you need money today to lock in larg proffits tomarow... It's been known to happen... One example is a company who produces equipment.. the demand outstrips the supply.. solution is invest in larg scale mass production... This will probably mean investors sence the small company is unlikely to have that kind of money on hand when the crisis hits...]
Some investors are babys and sadly the biggest babys have the biggest budgets...
If someone believes they know more about your busness than you do the last thing you need is to have that person as an investor...
Investors have every right to say what is going on (They invested the cash) however some quickly forget who is doing the daily work and try to play puppet master...
I guess what I'm saying is... the problem investor is one in a million... and you have a potental 20 million investors.... and it only takes one to sue you into oblivion....
Accually Carla of TheSync pushed the wrong buttons :)
This happend to me too.. I'd download it and waha got the whole file... it ends abruptly.. WOPS!!
Download again... this one accually ends...
What happend? I guess Carla did a bad file copy or something and so we only had part of the file..
or the file was still being generated as we were downloading it...
Or maybe it was the Krull... Ohh Maybe the Sync finally got it's funding....
Well you see the Krull missed a payment so I'm not going to post yet annother "Slashdot Conspericy"..
Sorry guys.. I guess they are busy bring down Napster and MyMP3..
In the mean time Transmeta, Microsoft and Coke are bidding for who will get to dictate my next conspericy... but they are all bidding so low I may just junk the whole thing...
Note to Microsoft a ham sandwitch is NOT a good bid.. and I'm alergic to ham...
Coke at least had something intresting in offering a case of coke....
Transmeta could have at least offered a laptop instead they offered a t-shirt....
You know guys... the Krull was paying me really good... that Pizza was a side deal... the $5,000 per-conspericy is what had my intrest...
Ug... people think they can buy me cheaply...
Yes I cought this and submitted it :)
:)
Ok no fair call... It should be posted correctly..
Anyway I probably wasn't the first...
All those Slashdot eppisodes where Taco said "You guys submitted it like a thousand times.. we HAD to post it" well... I think GiS was probably submitted a thousand times