1) Reporter does the math wrong. This is usually a minor point, but happens way to much. But the reporter puts so much emphasis on how much it is, that it's inexecsuable. Take a friggin' math class!
2) Their editor missed it. I knew within 1 second of looking at the numbers that their math was wrong. Someone should have caught it.
3) Slashdot reader makes the same mistake. Cripes, does anyone know how to use a calculator?
4) The/. editor is either dumb or did not read the article. This error had to slip by 4(!) people to get posted in/..
5) 90% of the posters on/. didn't catch the error. At least it's assumed that/. readers won't RTFA, though, so we'll let that one go.
Another point is that the number is a fantasy. The idea that one infraction is $150,000 just makes it easy to go after anyone. My take is, I hope the RIAA keeps going after colleges, because they're really close to getting a massive backlash.
No experience with any PayPal shenanigans, although I'm sure it happens. But when a nutball, anti-semitic conspiracy site (whatreallyhappened.com) starts railing against PayPal, it doesn't do anything to affect my opinion.
Absolutely true. Of course, this product is an absolute train-wreck; the sellers must know that they have a dog on their hands, but they are trying to sell it anyways. It sounds completely useless to a non-techie, and completely senseless to a linux user.
If someone doesn't knock Lindows out of the consumer-linux-desktop-of-choice perch that they currently enjoy in the media, they just might set back Linux 5 years.
The whole premise of Lindows seems to be overselling the product. Does anyone regularly use Lindows, or know of someone else that does? I bet the computers Walmart sells end up running Red Hat/ Debian/..., with a pirate version of XP, or being useful paperweights.
Ya, that was good stuff. I guess some people are just too lazy to use the "shift" key, their fingerrs slip a lot, they can't quite grasp the concept of homonym (What? You mean it sounds the same same but it means different things? That's just wacky.), and they never learned of the benefits of proofreading.
My favorite is when people use "quotes" (irony intended) around words that are used in the proper context, and the meaning is exactly what it's supposed to be.
Yup, I proudly call myself an engineer. What gives me the right to do that? Is my experience as a sanitation engineer, a customer service engineer or something else like that? Or maybe I dabble in software code, and I have the title of engineer in my company.
Or how about this. I went to a 4-year accredited university, where I earned my Bachelor of Science in Engineering (Mechanical Engineering); from the University of Michigan actually. Or maybe I can call myself an engineer an engineer because I sspent 5++ years doing research while earning my Ph.D. in mechanical engineering from UCSD.
Does my business card say engineer? No, I am a "Member of the Technical Staff" at an aerospace company; I'm effectively a rocket engineer. Mostly, we're referred to as analysts.
So, are programmers engineers? Not in the same way I'm an engineer. Go to an accredited 4-year university and earn your degree in engineering (mechanical, chemical, nuclear, nukular, electrical, and yes, even computer or computer science), then you can call yourself an engineer. These "code monkeys" who go around calling themselves engineers cheapen the term MUCH more than any sanitation engineer or customer service engineer ever did; because employees knew that it was an overt attempt by management to instill them with pride by calling them engineers. The code-monkey types actually BELIEVE they are engineers.
In another sense, we're all engineers if we solve problems. But in that case, I think 90% of employees would be an engineer of some sort. I get the sense that "software engineers" want to draw the line at everyone less technical than they are. How noble.
Two weeks? My PowerBook G3/333 Lombard is up to about 38 days. Mostly in sleep mode, obviously. Still, I last booted 3 states ago, and I bet I have over 100 hours of interactive use. I've had a few apps quit on me (Explorer, Chimera, maybe a few others), but the OS is rock solid. I've removed and added my WiFi card about 3 times, operated on planes and in cars, run the battery down to less than 10%, and I have updated multiple pieces of software. It includes hours of heavy iPhoto use, too.
Not bad for a 1998-vintage computer that doesn't even meet the specs for iPhoto, was built when OS X was still a glean in Avie Tevanian's eyes and no one ever heard of Aqua or Quartz in the Apple world.
OK, so Adobe links to one article showing that PCs are faster at certain tasks. How do you make the leap that Adobe "prefers" PCs? Have they never before shown any benchmarks between the two? Adobe may prefer PCs, but that's not at all what the mini-article on Adobe's site says. It's just ammunition for people wanting to use PC's, so they can say to their boss (or employee), "see, PCs are better." I bet they have stuff that goes the other way, too. Every platform switch is money in the bank for Adobe.
Here's the dirty little secret. Many soldiers use their own civilian GPS devices, b/c they have better features. So, I'd bet there are more American and British soldiers using civilian GPS than there are Iraqis. I doubt GPS will be degraded, and if so, it will be brief.
This article is a joke. This guy has an agenda, and a careful reading reveals it. In his 1st paragraph, he writes,
Evans Data Corporation hired me to help out with a research report focused on Linux developers. They surveyed a broad range of developers, including VARs, consultants, developers working for ISVs and IT-developers for companies of every imaginable size.
From my perspective, the results of the article only concern people who already use/ develop for Linux. Big deal. 40% of Linux developers develope primarily for Linux. And this is news because...?
The trend may be accurate, but nothing like 40% of developers code primarily for Linux. That's just a fairy tale written to get attention from headline-scanning news organizations. Looks like he snagged at least one!
It has a very slim chance of being a success. Here's the way it can work: It's gotta be free. Free to buy (comes with cable, presumably), $5/month tops to use. I think they'd sell a lot more PPV this way. It's actually a great idea, but it won't kill TiVo.
Seriously, if the Mystro came bundled with cable TV and had varying levels of utility, it'd be great. Pause live TV (FF disabled) and PPV ordering (keeps shows up to 7 days) is free. Record shows by time, FF disabled, $5/month. Then the $10-13 charge for full TiVo-like service.
Divx was a great idea too, the problem was it was set up in opposition to DVDs. If it had been introduced much later (like now!), the response would be much better. And the studios, at this point, would not care kill off the cash cow that is DVD sales.
the problem with Mystro and Divx is that they are set up in opposition to the user-controlled experience, instead of an improvement over the content producer-controlled experience. Divx would be a lot better than renting DVDs at Blockbuster; Mystro will be great for a lot of people who just want the simple functions made possible (pause TV, record PPV for upcoming viewing), or made simpler (no need to return DVDs).
I own a DirecTiVo, and it's great. I won't give it up. But it doesn't mean there can't be other options.
I think we have to remember that "technology" is not really synonymous with electronics/ computers. And the original example was more of an item than a class of technologies.
So with that in mind, I nominate the Great Wall of China, still standing after all these years. I think it qualifies whereas things like the Pyramids don't, in that they never served any real function. I bet the wall would still work pretty well today, if there was a war. Not perfect, but good.
If the goal was to pick classes of technologies, I think most of the responses here are exceptionally shortsighted. I think sail technology, the steam engine and the wheel had a lot more staying power, and who knew?
I think there are some good specific examples. Any real old bridges out there? Panama Canal is great, 'course it was designed to last a long time. I bet there are some irrigation ditches somewhere that were dug thousands of years ago, and still work. Stepped hillsides fall into that category, too. Most people who built them probably paid no heed to them lasting longer.
Pioneer is unique, because there was really no way to maintain it, and it was a 1 (or 2) shot deal. Those HP calcs are fine, but have more than 10% lasted this long? I'd love t hear about some scarecrow that's been scaring away crows for 200 years without a person laying his hands on it. What's the longest any manufactured item has lasted (and remained useful) for without human intervention? Kudos to the winner.
OK, I like this idea. What you need to do, is design a form that facilitates the abilities of people to make entries. You might want to limit it to fiction initially, or maybe not. Instead of listing a "cast" for each book, treat the characters as if they were actors, and let the readers see where characters show up in more than one book. So maybe Huck Finn is a character in someone else's book. That'd be a neat thing to know. This obviously has a lot more utility (and gets a lot more complicated) with non-fiction.
But how about this: design a form that publishers can fill out with the key pieces of information (author, title, characters). They will be prompted to see if any of the characters they've entered are already in the database. At the same time, many thousands of volunteers will start going through the back-catalog of their favorite books and doing the same thing. Even agents or the authors themselves might think it's useful to undergo this exercise. I'd suggest you swear off any ownership of the database and go with some GPL-type license to make sure no one else can "embrace and extend" it.
I think it'd be really neat thing to do; maybe someone else has tried. If you can make it work, it will be unbelievable useful for both general interest and serious scholarship. And once it's up and running and popular, a lot of free books could be linked from your site. If you push it, I bet you can make it work. Spend the few weeks it takes to make this type of info easy to enter, and the rest will take care of itself.
Re:Too bad Coke pricing isn't weather sensitive
on
Which Price is Right?
·
· Score: 1
That's wjy I prefaced my remarks with, "for those that read the article...." Honestly, they talk abut this in the article and why it was abandoned.
Re:Too bad Coke pricing isn't weather sensitive
on
Which Price is Right?
·
· Score: 1
I think that's the other side of the same coin. I suppose it has to do more with the monoplistic nature of it. The reason the monopoly can exist is because there is a captive market.The demand curve has not shifted vs. what exist outside of the stadium; I'm still willing to pay the same for a coke as I was before, and so is everyone else. But because of the monopoly, the supply curve is shifted in order to maximize revenue. These curves will tend to intersect at a higher price/ lower volume than would exist without the captive market.
Too bad Coke pricing isn't weather sensitive
on
Which Price is Right?
·
· Score: 5, Interesting
For those that read the article, I think it's a shame that Coke's weather sensitive pricing model failed. If it had worked, then often a Coke would cost less (who would want to drink it on a cold day), other times it would cost more. But here's the beneficial part. Now, I bet Coke machines are a lot more likely to go empty on hot days than they are on cold days, because people buy more. Have you ever been in a situation where you would gladly pay $3.00 for a Coke/ bottle of water, if only one were available. Well, with weather sensitive (and inventory sensitive) pricing you could. Once stock gets too low, the price rises, and only the truly thirsty drink. Brilliant!
Personally, I've paid $3+ for a bottle of water before, usually b/c I'm really thirsty and that's the only option. Now, if I'm dieing due to dehydration, it's certainly immoral to charge more than a fair/ standard price. Otherwise, let me make the decision.
Last note on bottled drink prices. They are expensive at sporting events, airports and rock concerts. Why? Scarcity of supply, which drives up prices, increases profits, which either go to maintain the airport and line the owner's pockets;. Note that the vendor doesn't relly make a killing. The rent (and other fixed costs) that he pays reflect the fact that he can maintain very high profit margins. I have no problem with that.
However, it makes my blood boil when I go to an event or place that charges $4+ for any sort of drink, and does not have drinking fountains available. I think it's a matter of time before some public parks decide to remove their water fountains (at some indeterminable savings), and gives the monopoly soft-drink contract to Coke or Pepsi, who then proceed to charge $1 for every drink in a public place. The park rangers/ city councilors will claim it's a win-win-win b/c 1) The city "saves" money by removing the water fountains, 2) the city is paid for giving the monopoly contract, 3) the consumers have a wider variety of drink choice! HAH!
I'd actually be fine with the scenario if there were no monopoly contract, b/c then the pricing would likely be reasonable. Ever notice how cheap Coke is in a Coke machine when it's next to a Pepsi machine? That's why the vendor wants the monopoly contract, and why public entities should NEVER give a true monopoly soft-drink contract (i.e, monopoly contract and water fountain removal).
So, why did they use activation in the 1st place? Presumably to reduce sharing or the illegal selling of the software. Thus, more people will buy the software, and Intuit makes more money...
I would imagine that there sales would go up; that's the whole point, after all. If sales drop or they stay the same, it then brings to bear the question, "what's the point."
Now, according to Intuit (via C|Net), 'Bennett added that Intuit's share of the tax preparation software market stands at 69.3 percent, almost identical to its market share at the same point in the tax season last year. "While it's still too early to declare victory, all the signs are positive...and we're on track for another great consumer tax season," he said.'
Conclusion: The copy-protection software is completely usless! It did not help Intuit increase sales. Instead, sales remained at the same level and support costs went up!
Good job Intuit. You just proudly demonstrated the utter lack of utility of complicated copy-protection schemes on a $20 piece of software.
Re:Building a new STS the right way.
on
More on Columbia
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· Score: 1
Guess I flubbed that one. However, eliminating 1 or 2 shuttle flights from the manifest annually would probably not save a lof of money, as long as the overhead to maintain the fleet is maintained.
Re:Building a new STS the right way.
on
More on Columbia
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· Score: 1
Nice thoughts, but a few things.
1) There were typically 4 shuttle flights a year, although O'Keefe wanted to move it to 5.
2) The $450 million/ flight cost includes initial development, a cost which cannot be recovered at this point. The actual marginal cost of one shuttle flight is something like $50 million. If the USA had built as many as originally envisioned, the cost/ flight would have likewise been a lot lower.
3) Almost all the recent shuttle missions have been Space Station construction missions. Columbia was the first science flight in about 3 years. There was also a flight to repair Hubble.
4) NASA is going somewhat in the direction you recommend, with the development of the so-called orbital space plane. It'll carry 4-10 passengers, and will likely launched atop an existing expendable launch vehicle (read: rocket), almost certainly the Delta IV or Atlas V if they can be man-rated. The shuttles won't have a heavy-lift replacement for ~15+ years.
5) All that said, the shuttle is an amazing piece of technology. Today, it has the largest payload capacity of any vehicle, and that does not include the mass of the vehicle itself.
Case 1: An ISP hosts a spammer. We all act furious. Thank goodness for the RBL, and other stuff like that. Sure, legitamite (sp?) email may be blocked, but that will just spur the ISP to take action.
Case 2: An ISP hosts KIDDIE PORN. The government orders that ISPs block access to that site. Sure, legal sites might be blocked, but that will just spur the ISP to take action.
WTF is the difference? OK, the government mandate is a little annoying. But other than that, there is almost none. And believe me, KIDDIE PORN is a lot more harmful spam.
This seems like a perfectly reasonable solution. Legit sites will move their servers, the ISPS will be forced to boot the kiddie porn, or become kiddie porn only. Actually, seems like an ideal solution. So put away the knee-jerk and move on.
Yup. So, Symantec forgets abouts time zones and starts congratulating themselves for their good work. Wired forgets about time zones and reports on Symantec's irresponsible acts. A Slashdot reader breezes through the article and submits it, whilst forgetting about time zones. Slashdot editor, rushing to post the article, forgets about time zones and posts the news item.
Shame on Symantec. Shames on Wired. Good thing we have the good folks at Slashdot to keep the news in perspective.
1) She wasn't driving; 2) have you ever tried to dring a boiling cup of anything? Would you serve it to your grandmother?
Mickey D's intentionally kept the coffer at 180, b/c they wanted it to be hot if it wasn't drank for a few minutes. 'course, Mickey D's did not run a disclaimer telling people to not drink the coffee for 2 minutes. And, they were sued before for having hot coffee. Mickey D's didn't want to settle (for far less than was won at jury), and instead helped instigate a smear campaign against the women after the initial verdict.
Ebay is the world's largest yard sale and should remain sales tax free!
Actually, eBay is NOT sales tax free, in the sense that buyers are obliged to pay sales tax. Same as any other etail site; if you are in california, and sell to californians, you are obligated to collect sales tax. There's probably some exemption for used stuff, or small sellers, etc.; but, for regular sellers, they often make provisions to collect sales tax.
eBay fees are not subject to sales tax, AFAIK, because there is a moratorium on net taxes, and I believe eBay fees would fall into that category.
Slashdot Mirror
Pathetic on so many levels:
/. editor is either dumb or did not read the article. This error had to slip by 4(!) people to get posted in /. .
/. didn't catch the error. At least it's assumed that /. readers won't RTFA, though, so we'll let that one go.
1) Reporter does the math wrong. This is usually a minor point, but happens way to much. But the reporter puts so much emphasis on how much it is, that it's inexecsuable. Take a friggin' math class!
2) Their editor missed it. I knew within 1 second of looking at the numbers that their math was wrong. Someone should have caught it.
3) Slashdot reader makes the same mistake. Cripes, does anyone know how to use a calculator?
4) The
5) 90% of the posters on
Another point is that the number is a fantasy. The idea that one infraction is $150,000 just makes it easy to go after anyone. My take is, I hope the RIAA keeps going after colleges, because they're really close to getting a massive backlash.
I'll PayPal $10 to the person who sets up an online donation site for Mike Wahash's advocate.
No experience with any PayPal shenanigans, although I'm sure it happens. But when a nutball, anti-semitic conspiracy site (whatreallyhappened.com) starts railing against PayPal, it doesn't do anything to affect my opinion.
Absolutely true. Of course, this product is an absolute train-wreck; the sellers must know that they have a dog on their hands, but they are trying to sell it anyways. It sounds completely useless to a non-techie, and completely senseless to a linux user.
..., with a pirate version of XP, or being useful paperweights.
If someone doesn't knock Lindows out of the consumer-linux-desktop-of-choice perch that they currently enjoy in the media, they just might set back Linux 5 years.
The whole premise of Lindows seems to be overselling the product. Does anyone regularly use Lindows, or know of someone else that does? I bet the computers Walmart sells end up running Red Hat/ Debian/
Ya, that was good stuff. I guess some people are just too lazy to use the "shift" key, their fingerrs slip a lot, they can't quite grasp the concept of homonym (What? You mean it sounds the same same but it means different things? That's just wacky.), and they never learned of the benefits of proofreading.
My favorite is when people use "quotes" (irony intended) around words that are used in the proper context, and the meaning is exactly what it's supposed to be.
Yup, I proudly call myself an engineer. What gives me the right to do that? Is my experience as a sanitation engineer, a customer service engineer or something else like that? Or maybe I dabble in software code, and I have the title of engineer in my company.
Or how about this. I went to a 4-year accredited university, where I earned my Bachelor of Science in Engineering (Mechanical Engineering); from the University of Michigan actually. Or maybe I can call myself an engineer an engineer because I sspent 5++ years doing research while earning my Ph.D. in mechanical engineering from UCSD.
Does my business card say engineer? No, I am a "Member of the Technical Staff" at an aerospace company; I'm effectively a rocket engineer. Mostly, we're referred to as analysts.
So, are programmers engineers? Not in the same way I'm an engineer. Go to an accredited 4-year university and earn your degree in engineering (mechanical, chemical, nuclear, nukular, electrical, and yes, even computer or computer science), then you can call yourself an engineer. These "code monkeys" who go around calling themselves engineers cheapen the term MUCH more than any sanitation engineer or customer service engineer ever did; because employees knew that it was an overt attempt by management to instill them with pride by calling them engineers. The code-monkey types actually BELIEVE they are engineers.
In another sense, we're all engineers if we solve problems. But in that case, I think 90% of employees would be an engineer of some sort. I get the sense that "software engineers" want to draw the line at everyone less technical than they are. How noble.
Two weeks? My PowerBook G3/333 Lombard is up to about 38 days. Mostly in sleep mode, obviously. Still, I last booted 3 states ago, and I bet I have over 100 hours of interactive use. I've had a few apps quit on me (Explorer, Chimera, maybe a few others), but the OS is rock solid. I've removed and added my WiFi card about 3 times, operated on planes and in cars, run the battery down to less than 10%, and I have updated multiple pieces of software. It includes hours of heavy iPhoto use, too.
Not bad for a 1998-vintage computer that doesn't even meet the specs for iPhoto, was built when OS X was still a glean in Avie Tevanian's eyes and no one ever heard of Aqua or Quartz in the Apple world.
OK, so Adobe links to one article showing that PCs are faster at certain tasks. How do you make the leap that Adobe "prefers" PCs? Have they never before shown any benchmarks between the two? Adobe may prefer PCs, but that's not at all what the mini-article on Adobe's site says. It's just ammunition for people wanting to use PC's, so they can say to their boss (or employee), "see, PCs are better." I bet they have stuff that goes the other way, too. Every platform switch is money in the bank for Adobe.
Yup, that's probably right. But the soldiers on the ground have to radio in the coordinates. So they need the accurate GPS.
Here's the dirty little secret. Many soldiers use their own civilian GPS devices, b/c they have better features. So, I'd bet there are more American and British soldiers using civilian GPS than there are Iraqis. I doubt GPS will be degraded, and if so, it will be brief.
Evans Data Corporation hired me to help out with a research report focused on Linux developers. They surveyed a broad range of developers, including VARs, consultants, developers working for ISVs and IT-developers for companies of every imaginable size.
From my perspective, the results of the article only concern people who already use/ develop for Linux. Big deal. 40% of Linux developers develope primarily for Linux. And this is news because...? The trend may be accurate, but nothing like 40% of developers code primarily for Linux. That's just a fairy tale written to get attention from headline-scanning news organizations. Looks like he snagged at least one!
It has a very slim chance of being a success. Here's the way it can work: It's gotta be free. Free to buy (comes with cable, presumably), $5/month tops to use. I think they'd sell a lot more PPV this way. It's actually a great idea, but it won't kill TiVo.
Seriously, if the Mystro came bundled with cable TV and had varying levels of utility, it'd be great. Pause live TV (FF disabled) and PPV ordering (keeps shows up to 7 days) is free. Record shows by time, FF disabled, $5/month. Then the $10-13 charge for full TiVo-like service.
Divx was a great idea too, the problem was it was set up in opposition to DVDs. If it had been introduced much later (like now!), the response would be much better. And the studios, at this point, would not care kill off the cash cow that is DVD sales.
the problem with Mystro and Divx is that they are set up in opposition to the user-controlled experience, instead of an improvement over the content producer-controlled experience. Divx would be a lot better than renting DVDs at Blockbuster; Mystro will be great for a lot of people who just want the simple functions made possible (pause TV, record PPV for upcoming viewing), or made simpler (no need to return DVDs).
I own a DirecTiVo, and it's great. I won't give it up. But it doesn't mean there can't be other options.
So with that in mind, I nominate the Great Wall of China, still standing after all these years. I think it qualifies whereas things like the Pyramids don't, in that they never served any real function. I bet the wall would still work pretty well today, if there was a war. Not perfect, but good.
If the goal was to pick classes of technologies, I think most of the responses here are exceptionally shortsighted. I think sail technology, the steam engine and the wheel had a lot more staying power, and who knew?
I think there are some good specific examples. Any real old bridges out there? Panama Canal is great, 'course it was designed to last a long time. I bet there are some irrigation ditches somewhere that were dug thousands of years ago, and still work. Stepped hillsides fall into that category, too. Most people who built them probably paid no heed to them lasting longer.
Pioneer is unique, because there was really no way to maintain it, and it was a 1 (or 2) shot deal. Those HP calcs are fine, but have more than 10% lasted this long? I'd love t hear about some scarecrow that's been scaring away crows for 200 years without a person laying his hands on it. What's the longest any manufactured item has lasted (and remained useful) for without human intervention? Kudos to the winner.
OK, I like this idea. What you need to do, is design a form that facilitates the abilities of people to make entries. You might want to limit it to fiction initially, or maybe not. Instead of listing a "cast" for each book, treat the characters as if they were actors, and let the readers see where characters show up in more than one book. So maybe Huck Finn is a character in someone else's book. That'd be a neat thing to know. This obviously has a lot more utility (and gets a lot more complicated) with non-fiction.
But how about this: design a form that publishers can fill out with the key pieces of information (author, title, characters). They will be prompted to see if any of the characters they've entered are already in the database. At the same time, many thousands of volunteers will start going through the back-catalog of their favorite books and doing the same thing. Even agents or the authors themselves might think it's useful to undergo this exercise. I'd suggest you swear off any ownership of the database and go with some GPL-type license to make sure no one else can "embrace and extend" it.
I think it'd be really neat thing to do; maybe someone else has tried. If you can make it work, it will be unbelievable useful for both general interest and serious scholarship. And once it's up and running and popular, a lot of free books could be linked from your site. If you push it, I bet you can make it work. Spend the few weeks it takes to make this type of info easy to enter, and the rest will take care of itself.
That's wjy I prefaced my remarks with, "for those that read the article...." Honestly, they talk abut this in the article and why it was abandoned.
I think that's the other side of the same coin. I suppose it has to do more with the monoplistic nature of it. The reason the monopoly can exist is because there is a captive market.The demand curve has not shifted vs. what exist outside of the stadium; I'm still willing to pay the same for a coke as I was before, and so is everyone else. But because of the monopoly, the supply curve is shifted in order to maximize revenue. These curves will tend to intersect at a higher price/ lower volume than would exist without the captive market.
Personally, I've paid $3+ for a bottle of water before, usually b/c I'm really thirsty and that's the only option. Now, if I'm dieing due to dehydration, it's certainly immoral to charge more than a fair/ standard price. Otherwise, let me make the decision.
Last note on bottled drink prices. They are expensive at sporting events, airports and rock concerts. Why? Scarcity of supply, which drives up prices, increases profits, which either go to maintain the airport and line the owner's pockets;. Note that the vendor doesn't relly make a killing. The rent (and other fixed costs) that he pays reflect the fact that he can maintain very high profit margins. I have no problem with that.
However, it makes my blood boil when I go to an event or place that charges $4+ for any sort of drink, and does not have drinking fountains available. I think it's a matter of time before some public parks decide to remove their water fountains (at some indeterminable savings), and gives the monopoly soft-drink contract to Coke or Pepsi, who then proceed to charge $1 for every drink in a public place. The park rangers/ city councilors will claim it's a win-win-win b/c 1) The city "saves" money by removing the water fountains, 2) the city is paid for giving the monopoly contract, 3) the consumers have a wider variety of drink choice! HAH!
I'd actually be fine with the scenario if there were no monopoly contract, b/c then the pricing would likely be reasonable. Ever notice how cheap Coke is in a Coke machine when it's next to a Pepsi machine? That's why the vendor wants the monopoly contract, and why public entities should NEVER give a true monopoly soft-drink contract (i.e, monopoly contract and water fountain removal).
So, why did they use activation in the 1st place? Presumably to reduce sharing or the illegal selling of the software. Thus, more people will buy the software, and Intuit makes more money...
I would imagine that there sales would go up; that's the whole point, after all. If sales drop or they stay the same, it then brings to bear the question, "what's the point."
Now, according to Intuit (via C|Net), 'Bennett added that Intuit's share of the tax preparation software market stands at 69.3 percent, almost identical to its market share at the same point in the tax season last year. "While it's still too early to declare victory, all the signs are positive...and we're on track for another great consumer tax season," he said.'
Conclusion: The copy-protection software is completely usless! It did not help Intuit increase sales. Instead, sales remained at the same level and support costs went up!
Good job Intuit. You just proudly demonstrated the utter lack of utility of complicated copy-protection schemes on a $20 piece of software.
Guess I flubbed that one. However, eliminating 1 or 2 shuttle flights from the manifest annually would probably not save a lof of money, as long as the overhead to maintain the fleet is maintained.
Nice thoughts, but a few things.
1) There were typically 4 shuttle flights a year, although O'Keefe wanted to move it to 5.
2) The $450 million/ flight cost includes initial development, a cost which cannot be recovered at this point. The actual marginal cost of one shuttle flight is something like $50 million. If the USA had built as many as originally envisioned, the cost/ flight would have likewise been a lot lower.
3) Almost all the recent shuttle missions have been Space Station construction missions. Columbia was the first science flight in about 3 years. There was also a flight to repair Hubble.
4) NASA is going somewhat in the direction you recommend, with the development of the so-called orbital space plane. It'll carry 4-10 passengers, and will likely launched atop an existing expendable launch vehicle (read: rocket), almost certainly the Delta IV or Atlas V if they can be man-rated. The shuttles won't have a heavy-lift replacement for ~15+ years.
5) All that said, the shuttle is an amazing piece of technology. Today, it has the largest payload capacity of any vehicle, and that does not include the mass of the vehicle itself.
OK, let me get this straight.
Case 1:
An ISP hosts a spammer. We all act furious. Thank goodness for the RBL, and other stuff like that. Sure, legitamite (sp?) email may be blocked, but that will just spur the ISP to take action.
Case 2:
An ISP hosts KIDDIE PORN. The government orders that ISPs block access to that site. Sure, legal sites might be blocked, but that will just spur the ISP to take action.
WTF is the difference? OK, the government mandate is a little annoying. But other than that, there is almost none. And believe me, KIDDIE PORN is a lot more harmful spam.
This seems like a perfectly reasonable solution. Legit sites will move their servers, the ISPS will be forced to boot the kiddie porn, or become kiddie porn only. Actually, seems like an ideal solution. So put away the knee-jerk and move on.
Yup. So, Symantec forgets abouts time zones and starts congratulating themselves for their good work. Wired forgets about time zones and reports on Symantec's irresponsible acts. A Slashdot reader breezes through the article and submits it, whilst forgetting about time zones. Slashdot editor, rushing to post the article, forgets about time zones and posts the news item.
Shame on Symantec. Shames on Wired. Good thing we have the good folks at Slashdot to keep the news in perspective.
Clever, incorrect analogies do not make a good argument.
1) She wasn't driving; 2) have you ever tried to dring a boiling cup of anything? Would you serve it to your grandmother?
Mickey D's intentionally kept the coffer at 180, b/c they wanted it to be hot if it wasn't drank for a few minutes. 'course, Mickey D's did not run a disclaimer telling people to not drink the coffee for 2 minutes. And, they were sued before for having hot coffee. Mickey D's didn't want to settle (for far less than was won at jury), and instead helped instigate a smear campaign against the women after the initial verdict.
Ebay is the world's largest yard sale and should remain sales tax free!
Actually, eBay is NOT sales tax free, in the sense that buyers are obliged to pay sales tax. Same as any other etail site; if you are in california, and sell to californians, you are obligated to collect sales tax. There's probably some exemption for used stuff, or small sellers, etc.; but, for regular sellers, they often make provisions to collect sales tax.
eBay fees are not subject to sales tax, AFAIK, because there is a moratorium on net taxes, and I believe eBay fees would fall into that category.