We tried for 2 years to offer services to the home users. I will never go that way again. The minute a customer asks me for home PC advice, I send them to Best Buy and the Geek Squad.
Frankly, just because, your company didn't have the expertise, locations or willingness to service the home market, does it mean the the home market isn't 'worth' it. Using your own very solution, Best Buy doesn't think that way. Sure the large corporate market is 'juicy', but the small company, and home market does present itself with the potential of large profits, just look at Dell, it started with the 'average' consumer, and built itself into a blockbuster of a company, even now selling to your favorite market. Many people forget that the average corporate leader is also a member of the 'average' home consumer, and a reputation derived from consumer satisfaction, will allow the Geek Squad (for example, if they don't F*ck it up) to expand into small and then large business.
BTW, I wouldn't expect to keep the business accounts of the people who 'force' you to service their home PCs (if my guess is correct and that is how they do it).
Yet that is the wonder of the free market: we learn from our mistakes even when we don't want to make changes.
The 'free market' has hurt and killed many innocent people. Fire codes, building codes, labor laws, securities laws, health codes, etc, etc, etc, have all been created due to failures of the free market, why should GM crops be any different?
Serious regulation will come to GM crops eventually (even in the U.S.), however I fear that it will be the result of a major crop failure. Don't get me wrong, GM crops do hold a lot of promise for mankind, but like atomic power there is a serious 'downside'.
It'll be the only team sport where a airplane crash would take out both teams, the officials, and staff. Seriously, does anyone know how safe these fights are?
Considering that the linked slashdot article was about a rumor, and the article uses lots of 'moles'. I offer continuing proof that any situation could be mocked with an well placed Simpson's quote...
Homer:
Get out. Who told you that?
Bart:
Nelson.
Homer:
Hmmm. That's the kind of dirt that belongs on my web page.
Lisa:
You can't post that on the Internet. You don't even know if it's true!
Homer:
Nelson has never steered me wrong, honey. Nelson is gold.
Bart:
You know, it might have been Jimbo.
Homer:
Beautiful, we have confirmation. [Lisa sighs in
exasperation]
So, they expect the system to sell out, like that never happens...
The GPL is only one way which a copyright holder may expose his work. If it's all your own original work, you can publish the interfaces under a less restrictive license, while still doing the GPL for the 'base' code.
If you're a busy designer, sometimes you just have to take the pragmatic route rather that waste hours or days trying to make a pure CSS layout work across all the common browsers (none of which implement CSS 100% correctly anyway).
As long as you use the 'strict' delcaration on you pages, it's fairly easy to create a good looking page accross browser implementations. The real issue is that news sites don't build pages indivudally and a change to 'real' CSS would take a major change in the system code. Changing it would be a major implementation, which could cost millions.
expect a slew of car anti-virus products to be lining the shelves before you know it
More like law schools/legal seminars gearing up for another angle to sue the car companies and a new defense against speeding tickets.
"...because my client's car was infected by...., he lost control and is not responable, but... is responsable".
Has Comcast been granted a monopoly by the government... if not, then it's not their problem
A monopoly doesn't need to be government sponsored. Think Microsoft, or better yet Standard Oil.
You don't have a right to broadband, just because you can't get what you want, doesn't mean Comcast should be forced to give it to you.
No, it's not a right, but broadband is a service which the government considers a strategic move for a healthy economy, thus an 'inconsiderate' monopoly can be considered to be a threat to the nations economy.
In all fairness, while being a little higher cost than I'd like Comcast has been fairly decent to me, even though they are the only reasonable broadband service available to me. Of course, a big part of keeping the irresponsible elements in Comcast in check are the anti-trust laws. (there are no evil companies, just bad people who have too much influence in those companies.)
The *official* USA domain is '.us', of course that is mostly redundant because '.gov' and '.mil' is only the relm of the US government. Personally, I like to see at least "france.gov" and "germany.mil" to be at least portal sites controled by their own governments.
HA HA you have misspelt 'spelling'. You sir, obviously lack any real intelligence, and thus you opinions lack any merit. People should discount your ideas in their entirety.
Consider that as the entire post, well that's how SN and GT work, but that's not how I work it, so to continue...
The people reading the forum are less important than those reading the white paper?
No, noone is 'less important' than any others, all human being share the same level of importance, even those that cannot spell correctly all of the time. That's what you are missing.
You are 100% right. Now if only I could get you to edit my posts in real time, I'd have the ability to make raelly good posts.:)
Truth is if I added the time that you took to edit my post, and combined it with the time I took to create the thoughts, my post would have been on the 4th page by now, and you would never have read it. Since the topic is spelling and grammar errors your post is on topic and relavent, but still it'd be nice if your post contained some other content. You know, its missing something, perhaps a blatant critique of my intelligence, rather than just being implied. You know, I practically feel cheated, most other SN and GT do that. How dare you, being subtle like that!
...effected...affected...Two words, which mean almost the same thing, which sound alike, but have very different implications.
Very true, but in both cases the writer indicates that he has made an effort at least add to the change. SN and GT don't do that, they just jump in with their mighty intellect and attempt wipe away a couple minutes of original thought, and perhaps even real insight with a quick critique of diction. I do try to take what they say to heart, for the reasons which you point out. Personally, I realilized a couple of years ago that I needed to express myself more clearly, both for professional and personal reasons. However, I've found that the typical SN and GT is really just trying to insult me when they can't otherwise 'beat' me.
Intellegent people can (and should, maybe need) to be able to carry on conversation which those who are less able. Pompous arrogant jerks need to tell the world why they don't need (or want to) communicate with those they deam less capable than themselves.
Like it or not, for every grammar nazi with the courage and courtesy to criticize you to your face over your errors,
Courage, from an AC, WAHH ha ahah ahahahahaha ahahahah ahahhah, (catches breath) that's a good one.
simply criticize you silently as an ignorant hillbilly
And that's supposed to be *courtesy*? How very *typical*
Grammar and spelling errors are 100% preventable with very little effort.
Post other than AC and let us all see your posting history. Me thinks, people who live in glass houses shouldn't throw stones. Either a) you made many spelling and grammer errors yourself. b)you rarely post more than a quick line or two, and thus making it easy to edit.
I've said it with every single reply to many of these posts, I take what SN and GT say to heart, but I find that they never add anything to the discussion other than their literary masturbation over correct diction.
And I always Google candidates (by name and email address) before hiring them. I believe that putting an illiterate consultant in front of my customers reflects poorly on my company and gives them little reason to choose my services over an offshore competitor.
Good thing my name is "John Smith", JK, really my name isn't that common, but a well published author shares it with me.
I used to use my 'real' email online, but it got so completely spam ridden, I stopped using it about 2001 and dropped the entire domain just last month, even after 4 years of inactivity, I still got like 50 messages a day on it (sometimes it'd peak at over 100). Now the only active account which even shows up is the one I use for this forum.
But you are doing exactly what you are doing when you writing an academic paper-- communicating your ideas.
You wouldn't write "BTW" on an academic paper, but in informal communication I think it's OK.
Why thank you, but you don't respond you just...
silently assume you are stupid and discount whatever you say.
Truth is there are two kinds of problems, one where someone mispelts (or missuses) a word or too and others where a writter makes a ulmost incomphensiable senetance. The second bugs me as well, but if you can't read over a couple of words you can't clearly make out, I'd suggest never reading Chaucer (just kidding).
Again, my message to all of you GT and SN is I try to take your damn message to heart, just add something to the message rather than just belittling my entire message for an error, it doesn't add to the general conversation.
I had a college professor who couldn't say the word "purchases", and he used the term often. It was like nails dragging across the chalkboard. Do you think the I should have stood up in class, interupted him, and said "that's purchases you unitellegent moron".
I try very hard not to be a jerk about grammar or spelling, learning to roll with the punches.
Sometimes in life we need to overlook our pet peeves, otherwise we cannot live in society. Personally I almost feel compelled to yell at people who have "W 04" bumper stickers, but I have to understand that they have the right to exercise their political views, even if it's so very wrong.
I sometimes wonder if I'm one of the last generations (I'm 34) who will have any solid grounding in grammar, spelling, and basic English constructs for the future.
Personally, I see a resurgance of writing skills, thanks to email, forums and blogs. I'm just a little older than you, and personally I grew up never writing a letter, and avoiding anything that required a written response. It wasn't until I started writing emails and posting in various forums that I made a real effort at both spelling and grammar. So while I take SN and GT messages to heart as well as I can, I still berate them for having nothing else to add. Kinda like the rude teenage girl who talks about your ugly zit loudly right behind your back.
Again SP and GT aren't always bad, just for God's Sake, add something, and really show your general intellegence.
While sometimes you can't see it, mostly I like to have responses to my posts. It means that people are reading and (sometimes) thinking about what I have to say. A spelling nazi, mearly scans the words and indicates his disaproval by going after the individual words rather than the ideas they are being used to convey. I can't remember seeing one say "good point" but I think you meant "your" rather than "you're".
I always try for self improvement, and I've taken a lot of those 'lessons' to heart, but I am often willing to "do them a favor" and remind them what an ass they truely are.
I even see the names of products and companies misspelled from time to time.
The Horror!
Do they not realize that a mediocre command of written English makes them appear less intelligent?
The Horror!
it baffles me even more that many people become enraged when you attempt to help them correct and learn from their mistakes.
You mean the people don't like to be criticized.
As someone who is constantly picked on by these people, I can say that more than often, they are rude, have very little to add to any discussion, other than showing off their impressive command of the English language. I'd be more receptive if some of them made their response to the thread at hand, and did a BTW, but that's not what happens. Usually they are just have one line response that is rude, and often picking on one or two 'mistakes', and always critical of one's intelligence. I've said it before, but it's not the diction that matters, but the message.
Good grammer is only helpful to get a message across. I'm not writing a fucking paper, it's an response in a damn forum.
Am I missing something here?
Yes, good humor, understanding, and basic people skills.
One session of Congress after someone patents the business model of "infulencing legislation by campain donation, "informational trips" to resorts, and payments for public speaking.
Or better yet patents a bicameral legislature, then sues the U.S. govt.
Anyone care to put up a ticket for a permanant visit to N. Korea and the bottom of Maslow's hierarchy of needs? (btwjftaf [BTW, just for the anticiated flamewar) I do not like Bush and I am working within the electoral processs to free us from his relatively mild form of tyranny)
life isn't better than death;
Dead men can't type, surely you have choosen a one point to live rather than death.
bravery isn't better than cowardice;
Damn good thing at least some people don't think that way
truth isn't better than lies
So someone could stand up in court and say that you are a serial killer, and you'll put up no defense?
So let's stand for nothing, since we have nothing on which to stand
You should replace "let's" and "we" with the far more appropiate "I" and we'll finally agree.
I've got a great idea, submit your question to Slashdot! Oh, yea. here we are...
AKA,
Travel to your nearest users group and ask around, I'll bet even money that you'll find some people from your area
but more importantly get to know that organizer, and find out that they do to be successful.
Get to know the local University or College, post in the lunch room perhaps even take a night class.
Post to online forums, I hear people get good success from Craig's list.
Put a magnetic sign on your car, announcing your group.
Get a booth at the local flea market.
hang signs where ever you can. Take inspiration from the "loose weight now" signs you see posted on public property. (if it's legal where your at)
Go door to door like a Jehovah's witness (ok that's a little over the top).
Go to the nearest Scifi convention, and spread the word.
Talk to the nearest computer hardware providers, ask them to put up signs, they might even 'sponsor' your group!
Meet with as many people as you can muster, even if it's one or two, but do so in a public place like the coffee area of a bookstore, chances are someone will wander by and ask what's going on.
True being able to build and keep open a nightclub for 6 years in any city is actually an achievement, he should be proud of, and I'll give him that. However, in the early to mid nineties, that guy worked on some of the hottest stuff in Silicon Valley, I am certain that Netscape stock made him rich, yet, he seems to have no underlying appreaciation for any of it. In his blog about leaving AOL, Mozilla, and the industry, he says:
And so I'm giving up.
The Mozilla project has become too depressing, and too painful, for me to continue working on. I wanted Mozilla to become something that it has not, and I am tired of fighting and waiting to make it so. I have felt very ineffectual, and that's just not a good feeling.
As a firefox user, I'm happy that he left. While he may not have been the problem (maybe he was I really don't know), he certainly wasn't the solution.
The real screwed up thing is that his latest complaint is like complaining that a philips screwdrive won't turn a flat head screw. Anyone who knows the Apple, Linux, MS, Sun, etc product mix will tell you that for sound and video, Apple cannot be beat on the low-end market, and it's been like for years.
Ironicly enough, his lasting contibution to the web was not his code, project management or cheerful attitude, but his blog. The "about:jws" easter egg showed many what a website could be and truely was one of the first widely read blogs.
Slashdot Mirror
BTW, I wouldn't expect to keep the business accounts of the people who 'force' you to service their home PCs (if my guess is correct and that is how they do it).
Serious regulation will come to GM crops eventually (even in the U.S.), however I fear that it will be the result of a major crop failure. Don't get me wrong, GM crops do hold a lot of promise for mankind, but like atomic power there is a serious 'downside'.
It'll be the only team sport where a airplane crash would take out both teams, the officials, and staff. Seriously, does anyone know how safe these fights are?
4 8 15 16 23 42
The GPL is only one way which a copyright holder may expose his work. If it's all your own original work, you can publish the interfaces under a less restrictive license, while still doing the GPL for the 'base' code.
In all fairness, while being a little higher cost than I'd like Comcast has been fairly decent to me, even though they are the only reasonable broadband service available to me. Of course, a big part of keeping the irresponsible elements in Comcast in check are the anti-trust laws. (there are no evil companies, just bad people who have too much influence in those companies.)
Consider that as the entire post, well that's how SN and GT work, but that's not how I work it, so to continue...
No, noone is 'less important' than any others, all human being share the same level of importance, even those that cannot spell correctly all of the time. That's what you are missing.Truth is if I added the time that you took to edit my post, and combined it with the time I took to create the thoughts, my post would have been on the 4th page by now, and you would never have read it. Since the topic is spelling and grammar errors your post is on topic and relavent, but still it'd be nice if your post contained some other content. You know, its missing something, perhaps a blatant critique of my intelligence, rather than just being implied. You know, I practically feel cheated, most other SN and GT do that. How dare you, being subtle like that!
Intellegent people can (and should, maybe need) to be able to carry on conversation which those who are less able. Pompous arrogant jerks need to tell the world why they don't need (or want to) communicate with those they deam less capable than themselves.
I've said it with every single reply to many of these posts, I take what SN and GT say to heart, but I find that they never add anything to the discussion other than their literary masturbation over correct diction.
I used to use my 'real' email online, but it got so completely spam ridden, I stopped using it about 2001 and dropped the entire domain just last month, even after 4 years of inactivity, I still got like 50 messages a day on it (sometimes it'd peak at over 100). Now the only active account which even shows up is the one I use for this forum.
Again, my message to all of you GT and SN is I try to take your damn message to heart, just add something to the message rather than just belittling my entire message for an error, it doesn't add to the general conversation.
Again SP and GT aren't always bad, just for God's Sake, add something, and really show your general intellegence.
I always try for self improvement, and I've taken a lot of those 'lessons' to heart, but I am often willing to "do them a favor" and remind them what an ass they truely are.
As someone who is constantly picked on by these people, I can say that more than often, they are rude, have very little to add to any discussion, other than showing off their impressive command of the English language. I'd be more receptive if some of them made their response to the thread at hand, and did a BTW, but that's not what happens. Usually they are just have one line response that is rude, and often picking on one or two 'mistakes', and always critical of one's intelligence. I've said it before, but it's not the diction that matters, but the message. Good grammer is only helpful to get a message across. I'm not writing a fucking paper, it's an response in a damn forum.
Yes, good humor, understanding, and basic people skills.AKA,
The real screwed up thing is that his latest complaint is like complaining that a philips screwdrive won't turn a flat head screw. Anyone who knows the Apple, Linux, MS, Sun, etc product mix will tell you that for sound and video, Apple cannot be beat on the low-end market, and it's been like for years.
Ironicly enough, his lasting contibution to the web was not his code, project management or cheerful attitude, but his blog. The "about:jws" easter egg showed many what a website could be and truely was one of the first widely read blogs.