Where do you live? I can't believe it is anywhere near a large metropolitan area like Boston, Philly, New York, LA, or SF.
The cost of living where I live precludes living comfortably (at least my idea of comfort, which is of course, a subjective measure) on $27K take home. For instance:
$1,000 (minimum) for a 2BR apt.
$250 for a car payment
$100 for car insurance
$100 for gas (I drive alot)
$200 for student loans (I don't have them, but many do)
$350 for groceries and various sundries
----------
$2,000 per month
That leaves you with about $250 for savings and/or rainy day money. I could live comfortably on $27K when I was 27, not so at 37.
I just hope you always have your $27K to count on because if GW gets elected and you lose your job or become disabled, you won't be living so comfortably on what the post-tax-cut-for-the-rich government will provide you.
And incidentally I seldom go out to eat, as if that has anything to do with the price of tea in china.
I always get so mad when people posit that the rich are being disproportinately and unfairly taxed. Maybe the poor are unfairly kept poor.
I am among the wealthiest 1% of Americans. I am single, don't own a home (my choice) and don't have kids. I pay the highest tax rate of anyone at my income level. You know what? I don't complain about the taxes I am paying. I could survive (quite well) on half my current income. The thought that I would make twice my current income and pay less taxes is preposterous.
I don't mind giving back to the country that has allowed me (the son of teachers) to do better than my parents did, largely through the availability of reasonably cheap higher education (one of the benefits of the taxes my parents paid when I was growing up). I also served in the military (reserves) without complaining about the paltry stipend I was paid for devoting some of my free time to serve my country.
Let's face it. If a person making $1 million per year has to pay $500,000 in taxes, they still have $500,000 left. They can live a very nice life on that much money. On the other hand, a person making $30,000 who has to pay $3,000 in taxes only has $27,000 left. They can survive, but not comfortably.
I will vote for Al Gore because I am not selfish and can live well and help the people less fortunate than myself move up in the diamond and compete with me. This is the way it should be!
In a similar experiment, scientists put Monica Lewinsky and President Clinton's legacy at seperate exits to a maze. In multiple tries, Clinton chose Lewinsky each time, proving once again that not all slime is intelligent.
Ever seen political polls on the net:
I will vote for:
- George Dubya Bush
- Al "The Stiff" Gore
umm...where's Ralph Nader? Where's Pat Buchanan? Where's David McReynolds?
Well, other than David McReynolds, you would see Pat and Ralph in most political polls.
Most mainstream political polls do track candidates that have a statistically trackable percentage of voters (usually 1 percent or so). They might ask the question a couple of different ways, like "In a two way race, who would you choose, Dubya or The Stiff?" Another question might be "Who are you likely to vote for if the election were held today?"
In any case, polling outfits like Gallup go through painstaking efforts to be as accurate as possible, because their reps are on the line.
Polls about OS use, on the other hand, are probably not conducted with the same attention to detail.
As with any statistics, be aware that they are just that. Numbers that try to apply the opinions of a small group of people (the sample), to the entire population.
For instance, I saw a poll on Vote.com about the NY Senate race debate. 91% (when I last looked) said Rick Lazio won the debate. Politcal ideology aside, do you think that poll was accurate?
Furthermore, does the result of this poll accurately reflect what might happen in the actual election? Absolutely not. Unless the poll was restricted to people likely to vote in the election, it is pretty much meaningless. In other words, who cares if a bunch of militia members from Montana think Rick Lazio won the debate?
This whole subject could have it's own web site, so the above is just an excerpt of why Internet polls are useless.
Huh? This "EULA" just says that you can't distribute the book other than in its original form. Standard copyright law, I believe. What's wrong with that? It doesn't say you can't lend someone the book, or re-sell it, just that you can't copy it and sell it.
Most early computers had no OS. They were single puprose machines that were hard wired to perform a specific calculation. Systems like Colussus and ENIAC were used for military purposes, and hard wired to break codes or compute ballistics.
Check out this link for an interesting look at early electronic computers.
"Military contractors such as Boeing, Lockheed Martin, Raytheon, Siemens, and Trimble are beginning to look seriously at Linux for a variety of COTS applications such as aircraft, spacecraft, satellite, navigation, radar and sonar systems where an advanced operating system is required."
This says Military Contractors, who are not government agenecies. As a former member of the Military Intelligence (please no cracks about it being an oxymoron) community, I found there was a big difference between what the government would use itself to get its work done and what it would let its contractors use.
In the SCIF (Sensitive Compartmented Information Facility) fixed hard disks weren't allowed, only removable hard disks. These were locked up after each use in a safe. The military is very paranoid about the computers (and OS) it uses for itself, not to mention the fact that replacing the Windows systems with Linux would have required the retraining of support staff to keep Linux running.
Unfortunately, I failed to read the last couple of paragraphs of your post before I replied. I guess I agree with you. Just because you are technologically savvy, does not mean you will vote.
Most people think the most powerful lobby in the U.S. is the Christian Coalition or the NRA or the Unions. They're wrong. It's the AARP. It's hard for politicians to ignore the AARP as they represent the largest block of citizens that actually vote. In Florida and Arizona it is essential to have the AARP's endorsement. Without it you don't stand a chance of winning an election. Elsewhere, though not essential, their endorsement can be a big help.
The last time I went to vote I didn't see anyone in the 18-25 demographic at the polling place. It seems the youngsters are long on rhetoric and short on action.
If we are counting on the "younsters" to save the world then we are in deep, deep trouble. I was interested in politics when I was 18 even making it a point to ask John Anderson (the original third party candidate) a question during a press conference in 1984.
I have only become more interested in politics as I have grown older, not less interested. I know I will get jumped on for saying this, but the young people of today do themselves and their causes no good by staging pointless protests with no clear agenda. They seem to be protesting for the hell of it.
In Philadelphia where I live, there were two kinds of protests during the GOP convention. Disorganized protests that were calculated to disrupt the city and gain TV coverage and something called the Unity 2000 march. Unity 2000 brought together smaller groups of people with similar interests, including welfare rights activists, unions, gay and lesbian rights activists and many others. They marched down Broad Street en masse making their point and went home. They had a lot more real impact than the anarchists who disrupted the city, prompting people to think about the issues.
I didn't get the impression that these people were overly technically inclined, but they are still dedicated to the causes they beleive in.
I think it is a big stretch to characterize the generation of kids who have grown up with the Internet as being any more politically savvy (or active) then the rest of the sheep who believe what they are told by the major parties via big production value TV commercials.
Certainly they have the know how to use the Internet as a tool for making informed political decisions, but will they?
My opinions of the younger generation are probably as jaded as their opinions of me. Only time will tell whether the tremendous gift (the Internet) that children and young adults have been given will be used to advantage, or squandered on frivilous pursuits.
Until now I have seen Linus as just another "Linux crackpot", high on their ideals, but without much pargmatism.
This interview was a real eye opener for me. I am happy to see Linus acknowledging that Linux is not perfect, that, in some cases, Windows is preffered to Linux, and using these facts to drive him to improve Linux, not to shout down any and all opposing viewpoints.
If the whole Linux community followed Linus' suit, the movement would gain much more credibility in the eyes of the IT establishment.
I think you are better off standing on a street corner holding up a sign saying "Nike Exploits Children" than trying to get an ad run in any traditional venue.
I think protest messages belong in protests. Look at the sixties anti-war protesters. They clearly couldn't afford an ad on network TV, but gather 100,000 of them on the Mall and, bingo, TV coverage for free.
Your points are well taken, but will there ever be an economical way of "advertising" non-consumer messages? I don't think so, but that doesn't mean we shouldn't try.
This is fine unless you consider that not all Americans have access to the Internet. This form of "campaigning" would still favor the rich and educated.
When we have true universal access to the Internet, then this could work, but not until then.
I am all for democracy, but I am not sure it belongs in advertising.
As an individual I might want to get a message out, something like "I Love You, Carolyn. Bob.", but I'm not sure that advertising is the right vehicle for that. If I want to sponsor the local HS marching band, I will just give them money. I see no need to get something in return.
Democracy is for governments, advertising is for corporations. Let's not confuse the two.
P.S.
Although I do admit that the line between governments and corporations is blurring!
The VAX was the very first non-personal computer (don't read as PC) that I programmed on. When I was going to school for CS we had VAXen all over the place. 750s, 780s, 8600s, you name it, my university had it.
I don't know whether it was the VAX I was attached to, or VMS. In either case, that was real computing! Shareable high segments, Macro32, ti was great! I wish I still had the code for the Forth interpreter that I built for an independent study course. I might port it to Linux.
When I started in technology journalism, I wrote for a DEC market mag, so I got to play with all of the new stuff. My favorite was the 4000 that came in a stylish dark wood enclosure with forest green metal trim. It was supposed to fit into the office environment.
They don't make computers like that anymore. The only thing sadder than the VAX going away was Compaq buying Digital. That was sad and tragic.
Boy, the poster who said that alot of people would wax nostalgic about the VAX was right. I'll stop now.
I can understand any ISP not wanting you to be the VPN server using residential service, but it is quite unreasonable for them to preclude VPN client use.
Also, prohibiting the connection of LANs to the residential service is bogus. Most people I know doing this (including me) are not doing it to have multiple concurrent access to the broadband connection, but to avoid having to move ethernet cables between systems. This is only outgoing connections from a "LAN", not incoming connections.
If they are concerned about bandwidth being eaten up, maybe they should stop people from downloading pr0n, which eats up far more bandwidth than your average telecommuter connection!
These people should be more concerned with customer service and less concerned with limiting peoples access to the 'net.
The quick answer is yes. 30GB is not an overly large db. In fact it is puny compared to some I have seen, mainly an IBM customer test database that spanned 6 large AS/400's and totalled 6TB, or 200 times the size in question. So, a reasonably hefty x86 system, say 4xPIII 850MHz with 2GB memory and enough disk should do, and not be that expensive.
The db software is your problem and I'm not sure mySQL on Linux could handle it, but Oracle could, or you could use Solaris on x86 where db products are much farther along.
Now I am really getting mad! I could almost see when a domain was taken away where there was a clear violation of trademark, but this is ridiculous.
I don't think anyone should be able to take a domain name as generic as Corinthians.com away from the original owner, as long as they are using it and not cybersquatting.
It seems to me that the whole idea of the Internet and "Open Media" (whatever that is) is that everyone gets to voice an opinion. Previously, only the rich and powerful had a venue to disseminate their opinions, and thus, the masses were swayed by what the establishment wanted them to hear.
The only problem is this. The Internet is not an egalitarian medium. It is the medium of the intellectuals (look where it started, i.e. ARPANet), it is the medium of the rich (how many open media sites are started by 13 year old kids from backwoods Appalachia), it is the medium of the literate (just because you can voice an opinion on the Internet doesn't mean that the opinion is well spoken).
Let's not divide this "Open Media" debate along generational lines, let's divide it along the lines that it, and almost everything else, divides along: economics.
The opinions you see on "Open Media" sites are not those of the young masses, they are the opinions of the mostly well-to-do "Digerati".
Keep this in mind when you read anything on Slashdot or any other "Open Media" site.
I think it's Orinn Hatch coming to spank us that we should all be afraid of! Forget DMCA or FBI e-mail eavesdropping. Orinn is one serious mofo when he's pissed.
Transcript of Senate Hearing:
Record Industry Exec I'm sorry, Senator Hatch, I'll get right on that electronic distribution thing. Just don't spank me!
Senator Hatch Bend over, baby, it's judgement day!
Senator Lott Give it to 'im good, Orinn. They've been REALLY bad!
Record Industry Exec Ouch! I'll never do that again.
Senator Hatch Bring me Bill Gates. He needs a serious ass whupping.
Your right, by the book, PETA can not be considered terrorists.
I ask you to think of this: do you consider the KKK (old KKK, not current KKK) to be terrorists? Certainly they advocate violence to further their agenda, but more importantly, they use other non-violent methods to instill terror in their targets. Two examples come to mind.
First, the robes and hoods. They are not meant to merely disguise the KKK members, they are meant to frighten their victims and potential victims.
Second, Cross burnings. Certainly not violent, but it sends a message, just the same way PETA sends a message when one of their members walks up to an innocent bystander wearing a fur coat, calls them a murderer and throws paint or blood on them.
Terror comes in more ways than you can think of. For a black person in the south, a group of people wearing hoods and robes, carrying torches and moving towards them probably provokes terror.
Just because you can do something with a general purpose computer doesn't mean you should. An outfit call AudioReQuest has released a home stereo component MP3 player. Really high-end and really expensive, but it can store up to 300 hours of music inside and it has a built-in CD (also doubles as CD player) for encoding off of Cds. It also has the ability to connect to your computer for downloading MP3 files. It has a TV interface for controlling it (or you can use the LCD display).
The price sits at $799 right now and if it comes down to $699, I'm buying one. It has all the feature I want and integrated with my stereo. Way cool IMHO.
Slashdot Mirror
The cost of living where I live precludes living comfortably (at least my idea of comfort, which is of course, a subjective measure) on $27K take home. For instance:
- $1,000 (minimum) for a 2BR apt.
- $250 for a car payment
- $100 for car insurance
- $100 for gas (I drive alot)
- $200 for student loans (I don't have them, but many do)
- $350 for groceries and various sundries
----------$2,000 per month
That leaves you with about $250 for savings and/or rainy day money. I could live comfortably on $27K when I was 27, not so at 37.
I just hope you always have your $27K to count on because if GW gets elected and you lose your job or become disabled, you won't be living so comfortably on what the post-tax-cut-for-the-rich government will provide you.
And incidentally I seldom go out to eat, as if that has anything to do with the price of tea in china.
I am among the wealthiest 1% of Americans. I am single, don't own a home (my choice) and don't have kids. I pay the highest tax rate of anyone at my income level. You know what? I don't complain about the taxes I am paying. I could survive (quite well) on half my current income. The thought that I would make twice my current income and pay less taxes is preposterous.
I don't mind giving back to the country that has allowed me (the son of teachers) to do better than my parents did, largely through the availability of reasonably cheap higher education (one of the benefits of the taxes my parents paid when I was growing up). I also served in the military (reserves) without complaining about the paltry stipend I was paid for devoting some of my free time to serve my country.
Let's face it. If a person making $1 million per year has to pay $500,000 in taxes, they still have $500,000 left. They can live a very nice life on that much money. On the other hand, a person making $30,000 who has to pay $3,000 in taxes only has $27,000 left. They can survive, but not comfortably.
I will vote for Al Gore because I am not selfish and can live well and help the people less fortunate than myself move up in the diamond and compete with me. This is the way it should be!
Anyway, slamming is the practice of switching a persons ld service without their knowledge.
As for Al Gore inventing the Internet, he never said that. See this Salon article&l t;/a> for a good run down of what he did say and how he has a decent claim of being instrumental in creating the Internet (or ARPAnet as it was called at the time.)
In a similar experiment, scientists put Monica Lewinsky and President Clinton's legacy at seperate exits to a maze. In multiple tries, Clinton chose Lewinsky each time, proving once again that not all slime is intelligent.
Well, other than David McReynolds, you would see Pat and Ralph in most political polls.
Most mainstream political polls do track candidates that have a statistically trackable percentage of voters (usually 1 percent or so). They might ask the question a couple of different ways, like "In a two way race, who would you choose, Dubya or The Stiff?" Another question might be "Who are you likely to vote for if the election were held today?"
In any case, polling outfits like Gallup go through painstaking efforts to be as accurate as possible, because their reps are on the line.
Polls about OS use, on the other hand, are probably not conducted with the same attention to detail.
As with any statistics, be aware that they are just that. Numbers that try to apply the opinions of a small group of people (the sample), to the entire population.
For instance, I saw a poll on Vote.com about the NY Senate race debate. 91% (when I last looked) said Rick Lazio won the debate. Politcal ideology aside, do you think that poll was accurate?
Furthermore, does the result of this poll accurately reflect what might happen in the actual election? Absolutely not. Unless the poll was restricted to people likely to vote in the election, it is pretty much meaningless. In other words, who cares if a bunch of militia members from Montana think Rick Lazio won the debate?
This whole subject could have it's own web site, so the above is just an excerpt of why Internet polls are useless.
Huh? This "EULA" just says that you can't distribute the book other than in its original form. Standard copyright law, I believe. What's wrong with that? It doesn't say you can't lend someone the book, or re-sell it, just that you can't copy it and sell it.
Check out this link for an interesting look at early electronic computers.
This says Military Contractors, who are not government agenecies. As a former member of the Military Intelligence (please no cracks about it being an oxymoron) community, I found there was a big difference between what the government would use itself to get its work done and what it would let its contractors use.
In the SCIF (Sensitive Compartmented Information Facility) fixed hard disks weren't allowed, only removable hard disks. These were locked up after each use in a safe. The military is very paranoid about the computers (and OS) it uses for itself, not to mention the fact that replacing the Windows systems with Linux would have required the retraining of support staff to keep Linux running.
Most people think the most powerful lobby in the U.S. is the Christian Coalition or the NRA or the Unions. They're wrong. It's the AARP. It's hard for politicians to ignore the AARP as they represent the largest block of citizens that actually vote. In Florida and Arizona it is essential to have the AARP's endorsement. Without it you don't stand a chance of winning an election. Elsewhere, though not essential, their endorsement can be a big help.
The last time I went to vote I didn't see anyone in the 18-25 demographic at the polling place. It seems the youngsters are long on rhetoric and short on action.
I have only become more interested in politics as I have grown older, not less interested. I know I will get jumped on for saying this, but the young people of today do themselves and their causes no good by staging pointless protests with no clear agenda. They seem to be protesting for the hell of it.
In Philadelphia where I live, there were two kinds of protests during the GOP convention. Disorganized protests that were calculated to disrupt the city and gain TV coverage and something called the Unity 2000 march. Unity 2000 brought together smaller groups of people with similar interests, including welfare rights activists, unions, gay and lesbian rights activists and many others. They marched down Broad Street en masse making their point and went home. They had a lot more real impact than the anarchists who disrupted the city, prompting people to think about the issues.
I didn't get the impression that these people were overly technically inclined, but they are still dedicated to the causes they beleive in.
I think it is a big stretch to characterize the generation of kids who have grown up with the Internet as being any more politically savvy (or active) then the rest of the sheep who believe what they are told by the major parties via big production value TV commercials.
Certainly they have the know how to use the Internet as a tool for making informed political decisions, but will they?
My opinions of the younger generation are probably as jaded as their opinions of me. Only time will tell whether the tremendous gift (the Internet) that children and young adults have been given will be used to advantage, or squandered on frivilous pursuits.
Is this really the best use of censorship? Assuming there is a good use of censorship, this certainly isn't it.
Let's have a contest to find out how many legitimate names would be blocked by censorware crap like this.
Here are a few entries:
I think you get the idea.
This interview was a real eye opener for me. I am happy to see Linus acknowledging that Linux is not perfect, that, in some cases, Windows is preffered to Linux, and using these facts to drive him to improve Linux, not to shout down any and all opposing viewpoints.
If the whole Linux community followed Linus' suit, the movement would gain much more credibility in the eyes of the IT establishment.
I think protest messages belong in protests. Look at the sixties anti-war protesters. They clearly couldn't afford an ad on network TV, but gather 100,000 of them on the Mall and, bingo, TV coverage for free.
Your points are well taken, but will there ever be an economical way of "advertising" non-consumer messages? I don't think so, but that doesn't mean we shouldn't try.
When we have true universal access to the Internet, then this could work, but not until then.
As an individual I might want to get a message out, something like "I Love You, Carolyn. Bob.", but I'm not sure that advertising is the right vehicle for that. If I want to sponsor the local HS marching band, I will just give them money. I see no need to get something in return.
Democracy is for governments, advertising is for corporations. Let's not confuse the two. P.S. Although I do admit that the line between governments and corporations is blurring!
The VAX was the very first non-personal computer (don't read as PC) that I programmed on. When I was going to school for CS we had VAXen all over the place. 750s, 780s, 8600s, you name it, my university had it.
I don't know whether it was the VAX I was attached to, or VMS. In either case, that was real computing! Shareable high segments, Macro32, ti was great! I wish I still had the code for the Forth interpreter that I built for an independent study course. I might port it to Linux.
When I started in technology journalism, I wrote for a DEC market mag, so I got to play with all of the new stuff. My favorite was the 4000 that came in a stylish dark wood enclosure with forest green metal trim. It was supposed to fit into the office environment.
They don't make computers like that anymore. The only thing sadder than the VAX going away was Compaq buying Digital. That was sad and tragic.
Boy, the poster who said that alot of people would wax nostalgic about the VAX was right. I'll stop now.
I can understand any ISP not wanting you to be the VPN server using residential service, but it is quite unreasonable for them to preclude VPN client use.
Also, prohibiting the connection of LANs to the residential service is bogus. Most people I know doing this (including me) are not doing it to have multiple concurrent access to the broadband connection, but to avoid having to move ethernet cables between systems. This is only outgoing connections from a "LAN", not incoming connections.
If they are concerned about bandwidth being eaten up, maybe they should stop people from downloading pr0n, which eats up far more bandwidth than your average telecommuter connection!
These people should be more concerned with customer service and less concerned with limiting peoples access to the 'net.
[end outrage]
Maybe the person wasn't accessing the machine via IP. They could have been coming in through Netbeui/Netbios or, god forbid, IPX/SPX.
The db software is your problem and I'm not sure mySQL on Linux could handle it, but Oracle could, or you could use Solaris on x86 where db products are much farther along.
I don't think anyone should be able to take a domain name as generic as Corinthians.com away from the original owner, as long as they are using it and not cybersquatting.
The only problem is this. The Internet is not an egalitarian medium. It is the medium of the intellectuals (look where it started, i.e. ARPANet), it is the medium of the rich (how many open media sites are started by 13 year old kids from backwoods Appalachia), it is the medium of the literate (just because you can voice an opinion on the Internet doesn't mean that the opinion is well spoken).
Let's not divide this "Open Media" debate along generational lines, let's divide it along the lines that it, and almost everything else, divides along: economics.
The opinions you see on "Open Media" sites are not those of the young masses, they are the opinions of the mostly well-to-do "Digerati".
Keep this in mind when you read anything on Slashdot or any other "Open Media" site.
Check out this article at BBSpot for another way to protect your copyright against evil Napster users.
Transcript of Senate Hearing:
Record Industry Exec I'm sorry, Senator Hatch, I'll get right on that electronic distribution thing. Just don't spank me!
Senator Hatch Bend over, baby, it's judgement day!
Senator Lott Give it to 'im good, Orinn. They've been REALLY bad!
Record Industry Exec Ouch! I'll never do that again.
Senator Hatch Bring me Bill Gates. He needs a serious ass whupping.
I ask you to think of this: do you consider the KKK (old KKK, not current KKK) to be terrorists? Certainly they advocate violence to further their agenda, but more importantly, they use other non-violent methods to instill terror in their targets. Two examples come to mind.
First, the robes and hoods. They are not meant to merely disguise the KKK members, they are meant to frighten their victims and potential victims.
Second, Cross burnings. Certainly not violent, but it sends a message, just the same way PETA sends a message when one of their members walks up to an innocent bystander wearing a fur coat, calls them a murderer and throws paint or blood on them.
Terror comes in more ways than you can think of. For a black person in the south, a group of people wearing hoods and robes, carrying torches and moving towards them probably provokes terror.
Don't you be stupid.
The price sits at $799 right now and if it comes down to $699, I'm buying one. It has all the feature I want and integrated with my stereo. Way cool IMHO.