Being a Customer Service Professional (aka: phone rep) for the Telephony department at Cox Communications, some telemarketers don't block their Call ID string (but if you call that number back, it usually just hangs up on you automatically).
The BEST thing you can do to avoid telemarketers is this: 1) Once you get your phone number, make sure the telco does not publish your phone number. (Cox offers this at $1 / month)
2) Get a CallID blocking feature enabled on the phone (make sure it's permanent, not the per use * feature). Many companies who have call centers for taking orders/fast food (eg. Pizza Hut), log all the CallID strings, and sell those to telemarketing companies. This helps block these companies from selling this info. (Cox offers this service for free)
OR
If your telco provides the feature, get a phone anti-Solicitation service through your telco. Cox in the Phoenix AZ market does not currently offer this, but are looking too. I know Qwest offers this, but since the discussion is about Telcos making money off these features, I'd go with the other solution.
--A little off topic now but whatever.....
Don't wanna get upsold on crap while on the phone discussing your bill? Request to have permission to your CPNI revoked. CPNI is Customer Proprietary Network Information, meaning we can't attempt to even upsell you for phone services if we don't have permission to your info. If there's an attempt to upsell you, and you requested your CPNI revoked, to my knowledge if you report it to the FCC (or depending on your state, in Arizona there's the Arizona Corporate Commission, who would deal with this to my knowledge as well) the offending company suffers penalties around $50,000.
This is just with phone services though.......... cable is a whole different story.
I'm really hungry now, so I'm going to stop writing this post now.
(By the way, I live no where near Phoenix, actually I'm near Niagara Falls on the Canadian side of the border..)
On August 27, 1999 Bryan Midgette was arrested for abusing his wife, Marsha. Despite a restraining order, Bryan tracked Marsha down three days later at the Wal-Mart in Pottstown, Pennsylvania where she worked. He purchased bullets for his.22 caliber handgun in the store, then chased Marsha through the aisles and shot her before killing himself. Marsha survived, but suffers from severe brain damage.
For ten years, James Easton Kelly had studied towards a graduate degree in English at the University of Arkansas. Then, his professor, John R. Locke, informed him that due to his lack of progress towards his doctorate, the school was dismissing him. At 11:27 AM on Monday, August 28th, 2000 Kelly went to a Wal-Mart 10 miles from the Fayetteville campus and purchased 50 rounds of.38 caliber bullets. He then returned to the school, went to Locke's office and, shortly after noon, shot Locke three times, killing him instantly. Kelly then turned the gun on himself.
On May 22, 2001 Laura Gassaway entered a Wal-Mart in Rockford, Illinois, went to the sporting goods section and tried to purchase bullets for her handgun. After the clerk refused to sell to her because she did not have a state firearm owners identification card, Gassaway began shoplifting other items before store security stopped her. The security officers called the police and then took Gassaway to the back of the store. There, she pulled a handgun from her purse and shot three security guards before police burst in and killed her.
During an argument with his estranged wife on July 31, 2001, John VanGraafeiland threatened to go to Wal-Mart, buy bullets and kill himself. Police contacted the two local Wal-Mart's in Wilmington, North Carolina, warning them not to sell bullets to the man, but no one told the clerk selling the ammunition. After purchasing the bullets, VanGraafeiland went to his car and killed himself. Wal-Mart eventually settled a lawsuit brought by his family, paying them $130,000 for their negligence.
Actually I wouldn't mind the original soundtrack being possibly remixed by the likes of Infected Mushroom, Astral Projection, Wizzy Noise and a couple other goa trance musicians.:-)
I always thought of RMS as a anarchist. He seems to fit the anarchist ideals closer than that of a communist. *shrug* Then again, anarchists are confused as communists often enough.
Infoshop is a good resource to get an idea of what anarchism is about.
At my University, there are plenty of older students from India and Pakistan who are trying to get a 'Western' education. I've sat in classes of engineers who can't get work cause their foreign education is considered worthless.
So they end up coming here, just to find out that their education is worthless, and they find out they have to go BACK to University again here. I feel really bad for these people.
So when people complain saying that immigrants are stealing their jobs in the tech industry, many times it's just not true. (or not as pervasive as some make it seem to be) The only immigrants that maybe stealing tech jobs are rich immigrants.
Situations like this really make me question product/company loyalty as well. Especially after mentioning Steve Jobs vindictive tendencies.
As much as the Apple hardware and software are looking quite attractive to me these days, I can't understand these people who are so overzealous about Apple.
Do these people think Apple really cares what they think? We all know that in the end Apple only really cares what the shareholders think. I was laughing at the portion of the article that mentions Newton users protesting. I could just see the Newton users out their with their placards, and Steve sitting in his office sipping his latte saying "Awww - isn't that cute. But the Newton must die.".
On top of that, everything I read having to deal with Steve Jobs makes him come out like an asshole. From random readings on the net to comments from Linus Torvalds. Maybe that's just my interpretation of things.
I just woke up and started rambling - if something doesn't make sense I apologize.
If i ssh, vnc, or just use the internet for ANYTHING that is not work related, it leads to instant termination. Apparently not even a warning.
Now, they had clearly laid out what is work related and what is not, but it's just the fact that if I do a google search it could lead to my termination.
Then again, I work with a VERY large database of people's private information. (Everything from names, phone #'s, social security #'s, credit card #'s... etc etc) I think the largest fear is that someone could start sending customer data back to their home PC. The other fear is infecting the network w/ a virus. (It's all Windows 98 - 600 machines...) That virus would spread like wild-fire through the company.
If I was in IT, I'd get them changing some things, but that's me. Possibly the reason why I'm NOt in IT. oh well.
So yeah - make sure you're allowed to remotely access your home PC, cause if not, you can be fired.
If I was running a large corporation, I would definitely move my production to China or any country with low labour costs, and half-decently educated people for tech-industry type jobs. There are other jobs people can do here, they just may not pay as much. But as my father would say "You should be thankful that you have a job at all." The production goes overseas to lower the price of the product, and our incomes drop cause we start doing low-paying service jobs, it all balances in the end...
The point being is, you can't compete with North American labour running your factory anymore.
Now, I hate this fact. But you have to realize that a VERY VERY large chunk of the US and Canadian employed are in service industries now. Factory work is on the decline, and commissioned sales work is almost always availible as a form of employment. North America is quickly moving towards a market of selling products produced over-seas.
This is the way it seems to me right now at least. I'm probably wrong, but this is from my personal experience. I personally hate the whole concept behind any of this, but none of this will change unless we start tearing down capitalism.
If you're ready to go do that, great. If you're not, stop crying, cause this is the way the current system works.
But there's some people who're willing to help tear down capitalism out there.
I have always been a fan of cheap beige cases. Not for the color itself, but specifically for the price. I also look for functionality - since I spraypaint my cases another color anyways.
What I would like to see is a good spray that will coat my case/laptop with that 'wet'-looking gloss, and not wear down easily.
I attempted to use one type of gloss coat on my laptop, but parts of it still wear down. (such as the corners)
Anyone have any advice for this 'magical' gloss I'm looking for?
Well, from what I knew of previous studies regarding just 'games', chess was supposed to do the opposite of all the results this researcher made. Beta waves should increase in a game of head to head chess.
Let's put these chess players in the same situation, but on a computer without actually seeing each other. And then again on a computer, but they can see each other. And one more time playing against the computer.
A game of chess on a computer should be no different than a game of chess with actual pieces, just it lacks physical little pieces to play with and use to taunt your opponent.
But the one thing this study definitely needed to include was "What type of games." as you've mentioned. Many people would love to know more conclusive results, especially myself. I played video games a large portion of my life, and at one point, was rather obsessive with it. I am not an overly social person, but when it comes to talking to complete strangers I get along with them rather easily. I just might not have pursued talking to them.:-)
Maybe it's my time to do a computer-strike. Just not use a computer for an extended period of time. I'm thinking like a year....
yeah - but they won't be using the jamming in Ottawa though. There is going to be many protests across Canada over the next few days. One is planned for Kananaskis, which i don't think will be very large at all. And then, to what it seems to me, a very LARGE gathering in Ottawa.
So the summit may not be disrupted, but there are definately plans to disrupt our government for putting this summit way out in the middle of no where.
hence why this entire article seems like a giant troll.
if I wanted to rip that guy off I easily could, as long as I worked at any major retail store that he entered.
While I worked for a major electronics retailer in Canada, on the receipt your CC number and expiration date was printed onto it. As well as full name, address, phone number which can lead to lots of other information. Hopefully I talked him into applying for our credit card - then I would obtain much more juicy information like social security numbers, the bank he deals with and his income.
The problem here is, the purchaser managed to place an order for a different shipping address. Many online companies force the purchase made through them to go to the billing address, or a credit card company approved shipping address. (You need to call your CC company up and ask them to add a special shipping address, and they request LOTS and LOTS of info from you... )
Again, this article is just a troll.....
Is it just me - or is the Author's experience not all that believable? Something seriously is wrong with that article.
Generally "artists" tend to like the idea of making game graphics, but game graphics are a pain in the ass and somewhat tedious.
Like, it's one thing to design a game character, it's another to go draw the animations of the character frame by frame. Or textures, yay - making hundreds of textures that most people don't normally think about sounds like lots of fun. 3d models are at least somewhat more interesting, and the skins are usually made by someone else. It's just a matter of attracting more of the modding community to the OSS community. If they can get excited enough over an OSS game then we can obtain a large group of model designers and texture artists.
I highly prefer this for strange geometric shapes floating in the air. Mushrooms tend to just mess w/ my perception of depths. (Like a coffee mug looking about the size of a shot glass)
But again, these are my personal experiences - others may have a different experience.
That is so obviously photo editted... obviously by someone who sucks usings photoshop.
the best sign is the one that says: HOMOSE MUST BE ARREST
yes - i understand that it's meant to be "Homosexuals must be Arrested" - but the word "Homosexual" could never fit on that sign. The mentality of the Christian Right has always tormented me though. I do not understand how someone can be so concerned about the lives of unborn children, but not of people trying to feed their born children and just happened to be in a house that was next to a factory that gets hit by a cruise missle launched 500 KM away. What was that factory doing? Supposedly building weapons... do we REALLY know? Nope, because factories that MIGHT build equipment to manufacture weapons would also be targetted.....
At least the Anarchists for Life have a consistent argument. Start working towards improving conditions for womyn so that having children is feasible in ANY condition, and at least that would make the act of abortion less likely to be a desperation act. But then again, they aren't part of the Christian Right...:-)
Do I completely agree with them - yes and no. But this is not a pro-life/pro-choice/anti-life/anti-choice debate.:-)
I wish I read this thread earlier so I could get some mad karma on all my AFX links. As you can tell by my nickname I'm some sort of fuct up fan of his.
Oh well - not the end of the world. I'm just sick of my submissions getting turned down by slashdot editors and then the article comes up a week later. Bah.
But capitalism is based on the simple concept of accumulating wealth. And what we're seeing now is a very small percentage of people who are no longer sharing so much, and instead hoarding a very large portion of the resources that would be quite helpful if shared.
I also don't doubt the fact that we share and swap in our day to day activities, but comparing free software to free market capitalism is a long stretch. Since, if any single sellable package of free software had an edge over another package, that package would simply adopt that feature with no additional cost to them except redistribution. And would then make any competition useless, since there would be no profit. The only edge that would ultimately be left for any company is how good their marketing team is and their customer support. Companies would leave those markets in droves and abandon them completely...
Especially with GPL'd software. For example, the GPL requires sources to be included with the sold package. If Microsoft went and bought up every single linux distributor around the globe, Microsoft would have a distribution monopoly. But once they sell ONE CD, the source is availible to the public and they'll have heavy competition within a very short period of time.
Isn't the concept of sharing Communism? Communism/Socialism, it's the idea of doing things together. It's just a matter of how it's implemented is what has left the bad imagery in our minds.
If we ever do hit the absolute extreme of capitalism, information such as recorded history, will only be availible to those who can pay for it. But that's speaking of the ridiculous extreme... wait a second, we are commodifying water now. Keeping that in mind, sharing knowledge in the future might be regarded as some to be 'communist' in nature, and those who do so must be imprisoned.
Hmmm... how many people do I need to start listing for those who've been persecuted by a social and economic structure we've approved of for sharing knowledge?
Wasn't there some kid arrested or charged for releasing some code to decrypt DVDs? Was there not a Russian guy arrested in the United States for code he wrote while in Russia? Had something to do with Adobe eBooks if I remember correctly... Was there not a man who released code to encrypt information, and wasn't he threatened with criminal charges? Older examples... What about Galileo? Thomas Aquinas?
There's good reasons why Free Software can be seen as having ideals of anarchism and communism.
Well, it all depends what flavour of communism(probably Marxism) you're thinking.
If you take the complete social-libertarian perspective (Anarchism), you would be having contributions to a community that benefit everyone as a whole. GPL'd software is not viable in a capitalist market because you're selling software that gives you no edge over someone else who's selling the same thing. If money was to be made on the software alone, the market would get flooded with the GPL'd software and the price would bottom out to the lowest cost of distribution.
Companies that make money by providing Free Software are not capitalizing on the software itself, but the 'value-added' services, manuals, and most likely proprietary software tossed in. If they were generating huge income from the sole sale of software, we'd see Microsoft join the Free Software movement.
Marxism, would have us hand over our code for the 'greater good of the people' - as history has taught us, a totalitarian regime would ensure this. Anarchism, it's an individual choice. But anarchism works on the ideals that we can live better by working together, but working together because you want to. Not because someone in a position of authority has forced you to.
That way the motor won't have to work as hard to spin the bloody disc. Would it not be cool to hear the drive air seal it self when you close the drive door?
Generally though, pointing fingers exclusively at the Republicans is not fair though. Since we can all thank Al "I Am Troy McLure's Long Lost Twin" Gore's wife for the great 'Tipper Sticker'. Yes, the 'Explicit Lyrics' sticker, to help parent's protect their kids from "questionable content" on a musical recording. When you have the Christian-Right leading both major political parties, you'll generally get very similiar ideas. Hence why the term Republicrats is of better representation in my opinion.
Then again, I'm just a lowly Canadian sticking my nose in American politics... or is American politics just getting in my face?
Slashdot Mirror
Being a Customer Service Professional (aka: phone rep) for the Telephony department at Cox Communications, some telemarketers don't block their Call ID string (but if you call that number back, it usually just hangs up on you automatically).
.......... cable is a whole different story.
The BEST thing you can do to avoid telemarketers is this:
1) Once you get your phone number, make sure the telco does not publish your phone number. (Cox offers this at $1 / month)
2) Get a CallID blocking feature enabled on the phone (make sure it's permanent, not the per use * feature). Many companies who have call centers for taking orders/fast food (eg. Pizza Hut), log all the CallID strings, and sell those to telemarketing companies. This helps block these companies from selling this info. (Cox offers this service for free)
OR
If your telco provides the feature, get a phone anti-Solicitation service through your telco. Cox in the Phoenix AZ market does not currently offer this, but are looking too. I know Qwest offers this, but since the discussion is about Telcos making money off these features, I'd go with the other solution.
--A little off topic now but whatever.....
Don't wanna get upsold on crap while on the phone discussing your bill? Request to have permission to your CPNI revoked. CPNI is Customer Proprietary Network Information, meaning we can't attempt to even upsell you for phone services if we don't have permission to your info. If there's an attempt to upsell you, and you requested your CPNI revoked, to my knowledge if you report it to the FCC (or depending on your state, in Arizona there's the Arizona Corporate Commission, who would deal with this to my knowledge as well) the offending company suffers penalties around $50,000.
This is just with phone services though
I'm really hungry now, so I'm going to stop writing this post now.
(By the way, I live no where near Phoenix, actually I'm near Niagara Falls on the Canadian side of the border..)
From Michael Moore's "Bowling for Columbine" website:
.22 caliber handgun in the store, then chased Marsha through the aisles and shot her before killing himself. Marsha survived, but suffers from severe brain damage.
.38 caliber bullets. He then returned to the school, went to Locke's office and, shortly after noon, shot Locke three times, killing him instantly. Kelly then turned the gun on himself.
On August 27, 1999 Bryan Midgette was arrested for abusing his wife, Marsha. Despite a restraining order, Bryan tracked Marsha down three days later at the Wal-Mart in Pottstown, Pennsylvania where she worked. He purchased bullets for his
For ten years, James Easton Kelly had studied towards a graduate degree in English at the University of Arkansas. Then, his professor, John R. Locke, informed him that due to his lack of progress towards his doctorate, the school was dismissing him. At 11:27 AM on Monday, August 28th, 2000 Kelly went to a Wal-Mart 10 miles from the Fayetteville campus and purchased 50 rounds of
On May 22, 2001 Laura Gassaway entered a Wal-Mart in Rockford, Illinois, went to the sporting goods section and tried to purchase bullets for her handgun. After the clerk refused to sell to her because she did not have a state firearm owners identification card, Gassaway began shoplifting other items before store security stopped her. The security officers called the police and then took Gassaway to the back of the store. There, she pulled a handgun from her purse and shot three security guards before police burst in and killed her.
During an argument with his estranged wife on July 31, 2001, John VanGraafeiland threatened to go to Wal-Mart, buy bullets and kill himself. Police contacted the two local Wal-Mart's in Wilmington, North Carolina, warning them not to sell bullets to the man, but no one told the clerk selling the ammunition. After purchasing the bullets, VanGraafeiland went to his car and killed himself. Wal-Mart eventually settled a lawsuit brought by his family, paying them $130,000 for their negligence.
Actually I wouldn't mind the original soundtrack being possibly remixed by the likes of Infected Mushroom, Astral Projection, Wizzy Noise and a couple other goa trance musicians. :-)
I always thought of RMS as a anarchist. He seems to fit the anarchist ideals closer than that of a communist. *shrug* Then again, anarchists are confused as communists often enough.
Infoshop is a good resource to get an idea of what anarchism is about.
At my University, there are plenty of older students from India and Pakistan who are trying to get a 'Western' education. I've sat in classes of engineers who can't get work cause their foreign education is considered worthless.
So they end up coming here, just to find out that their education is worthless, and they find out they have to go BACK to University again here. I feel really bad for these people.
So when people complain saying that immigrants are stealing their jobs in the tech industry, many times it's just not true. (or not as pervasive as some make it seem to be) The only immigrants that maybe stealing tech jobs are rich immigrants.
No one said anything about browsing the network. They're just looking for networks ... that's all. :-)
Situations like this really make me question product/company loyalty as well. Especially after mentioning Steve Jobs vindictive tendencies.
As much as the Apple hardware and software are looking quite attractive to me these days, I can't understand these people who are so overzealous about Apple.
Do these people think Apple really cares what they think? We all know that in the end Apple only really cares what the shareholders think. I was laughing at the portion of the article that mentions Newton users protesting. I could just see the Newton users out their with their placards, and Steve sitting in his office sipping his latte saying "Awww - isn't that cute. But the Newton must die.".
On top of that, everything I read having to deal with Steve Jobs makes him come out like an asshole. From random readings on the net to comments from Linus Torvalds. Maybe that's just my interpretation of things.
I just woke up and started rambling - if something doesn't make sense I apologize.
If i ssh, vnc, or just use the internet for ANYTHING that is not work related, it leads to instant termination. Apparently not even a warning.
Now, they had clearly laid out what is work related and what is not, but it's just the fact that if I do a google search it could lead to my termination.
Then again, I work with a VERY large database of people's private information. (Everything from names, phone #'s, social security #'s, credit card #'s... etc etc) I think the largest fear is that someone could start sending customer data back to their home PC. The other fear is infecting the network w/ a virus. (It's all Windows 98 - 600 machines...) That virus would spread like wild-fire through the company.
If I was in IT, I'd get them changing some things, but that's me. Possibly the reason why I'm NOt in IT. oh well.
So yeah - make sure you're allowed to remotely access your home PC, cause if not, you can be fired.
If I was running a large corporation, I would definitely move my production to China or any country with low labour costs, and half-decently educated people for tech-industry type jobs. There are other jobs people can do here, they just may not pay as much. But as my father would say "You should be thankful that you have a job at all." The production goes overseas to lower the price of the product, and our incomes drop cause we start doing low-paying service jobs, it all balances in the end ...
The point being is, you can't compete with North American labour running your factory anymore.
Now, I hate this fact. But you have to realize that a VERY VERY large chunk of the US and Canadian employed are in service industries now. Factory work is on the decline, and commissioned sales work is almost always availible as a form of employment. North America is quickly moving towards a market of selling products produced over-seas.
This is the way it seems to me right now at least. I'm probably wrong, but this is from my personal experience. I personally hate the whole concept behind any of this, but none of this will change unless we start tearing down capitalism.
If you're ready to go do that, great. If you're not, stop crying, cause this is the way the current system works.
But there's some people who're willing to help tear down capitalism out there.
I have always been a fan of cheap beige cases. Not for the color itself, but specifically for the price. I also look for functionality - since I spraypaint my cases another color anyways.
What I would like to see is a good spray that will coat my case/laptop with that 'wet'-looking gloss, and not wear down easily.
I attempted to use one type of gloss coat on my laptop, but parts of it still wear down. (such as the corners)
Anyone have any advice for this 'magical' gloss I'm looking for?
I dunno if it's famous, but sounds like something that would be on "Malcolm in the Middle".
This is only if you believe what the say on TV that is.... :-)
Well, from what I knew of previous studies regarding just 'games', chess was supposed to do the opposite of all the results this researcher made. Beta waves should increase in a game of head to head chess.
:-)
....
Let's put these chess players in the same situation, but on a computer without actually seeing each other. And then again on a computer, but they can see each other. And one more time playing against the computer.
A game of chess on a computer should be no different than a game of chess with actual pieces, just it lacks physical little pieces to play with and use to taunt your opponent.
But the one thing this study definitely needed to include was "What type of games." as you've mentioned. Many people would love to know more conclusive results, especially myself. I played video games a large portion of my life, and at one point, was rather obsessive with it. I am not an overly social person, but when it comes to talking to complete strangers I get along with them rather easily. I just might not have pursued talking to them.
Maybe it's my time to do a computer-strike. Just not use a computer for an extended period of time. I'm thinking like a year
man - if i had some extra mod points, i would have smacked your score up.
but instead, i'll just add you to my friends list.
yeah - but they won't be using the jamming in Ottawa though. There is going to be many protests across Canada over the next few days. One is planned for Kananaskis, which i don't think will be very large at all. And then, to what it seems to me, a very LARGE gathering in Ottawa.
So the summit may not be disrupted, but there are definately plans to disrupt our government for putting this summit way out in the middle of no where.
hence why this entire article seems like a giant troll.
... )
.....
if I wanted to rip that guy off I easily could, as long as I worked at any major retail store that he entered.
While I worked for a major electronics retailer in Canada, on the receipt your CC number and expiration date was printed onto it. As well as full name, address, phone number which can lead to lots of other information. Hopefully I talked him into applying for our credit card - then I would obtain much more juicy information like social security numbers, the bank he deals with and his income.
The problem here is, the purchaser managed to place an order for a different shipping address. Many online companies force the purchase made through them to go to the billing address, or a credit card company approved shipping address. (You need to call your CC company up and ask them to add a special shipping address, and they request LOTS and LOTS of info from you
Again, this article is just a troll
Is it just me - or is the Author's experience not all that believable? Something seriously is wrong with that article.
Generally "artists" tend to like the idea of making game graphics, but game graphics are a pain in the ass and somewhat tedious.
Like, it's one thing to design a game character, it's another to go draw the animations of the character frame by frame. Or textures, yay - making hundreds of textures that most people don't normally think about sounds like lots of fun. 3d models are at least somewhat more interesting, and the skins are usually made by someone else. It's just a matter of attracting more of the modding community to the OSS community. If they can get excited enough over an OSS game then we can obtain a large group of model designers and texture artists.
I highly prefer this for strange geometric shapes floating in the air. Mushrooms tend to just mess w/ my perception of depths. (Like a coffee mug looking about the size of a shot glass)
But again, these are my personal experiences - others may have a different experience.
That is so obviously photo editted ... obviously by someone who sucks usings photoshop.
... do we REALLY know? Nope, because factories that MIGHT build equipment to manufacture weapons would also be targetted .....
:-)
:-)
the best sign is the one that says:
HOMOSE
MUST BE
ARREST
yes - i understand that it's meant to be "Homosexuals must be Arrested" - but the word "Homosexual" could never fit on that sign.
The mentality of the Christian Right has always tormented me though. I do not understand how someone can be so concerned about the lives of unborn children, but not of people trying to feed their born children and just happened to be in a house that was next to a factory that gets hit by a cruise missle launched 500 KM away. What was that factory doing? Supposedly building weapons
At least the Anarchists for Life have a consistent argument. Start working towards improving conditions for womyn so that having children is feasible in ANY condition, and at least that would make the act of abortion less likely to be a desperation act. But then again, they aren't part of the Christian Right...
Do I completely agree with them - yes and no. But this is not a pro-life/pro-choice/anti-life/anti-choice debate.
Plus - it's about time this guy got some credit.
I wish I read this thread earlier so I could get some mad karma on all my AFX links. As you can tell by my nickname I'm some sort of fuct up fan of his.
Oh well - not the end of the world.
I'm just sick of my submissions getting turned down by slashdot editors and then the article comes up a week later. Bah.
But capitalism is based on the simple concept of accumulating wealth. And what we're seeing now is a very small percentage of people who are no longer sharing so much, and instead hoarding a very large portion of the resources that would be quite helpful if shared.
...
I also don't doubt the fact that we share and swap in our day to day activities, but comparing free software to free market capitalism is a long stretch. Since, if any single sellable package of free software had an edge over another package, that package would simply adopt that feature with no additional cost to them except redistribution. And would then make any competition useless, since there would be no profit. The only edge that would ultimately be left for any company is how good their marketing team is and their customer support. Companies would leave those markets in droves and abandon them completely
Especially with GPL'd software. For example, the GPL requires sources to be included with the sold package. If Microsoft went and bought up every single linux distributor around the globe, Microsoft would have a distribution monopoly. But once they sell ONE CD, the source is availible to the public and they'll have heavy competition within a very short period of time.
umm ...
... wait a second, we are commodifying water now. Keeping that in mind, sharing knowledge in the future might be regarded as some to be 'communist' in nature, and those who do so must be imprisoned.
... how many people do I need to start listing for those who've been persecuted by a social and economic structure we've approved of for sharing knowledge?
... ...
Isn't the concept of sharing Communism?
Communism/Socialism, it's the idea of doing things together. It's just a matter of how it's implemented is what has left the bad imagery in our minds.
If we ever do hit the absolute extreme of capitalism, information such as recorded history, will only be availible to those who can pay for it. But that's speaking of the ridiculous extreme
Hmmm
Wasn't there some kid arrested or charged for releasing some code to decrypt DVDs?
Was there not a Russian guy arrested in the United States for code he wrote while in Russia? Had something to do with Adobe eBooks if I remember correctly
Was there not a man who released code to encrypt information, and wasn't he threatened with criminal charges?
Older examples
What about Galileo? Thomas Aquinas?
There's good reasons why Free Software can be seen as having ideals of anarchism and communism.
Well, it all depends what flavour of communism(probably Marxism) you're thinking.
If you take the complete social-libertarian perspective (Anarchism), you would be having contributions to a community that benefit everyone as a whole. GPL'd software is not viable in a capitalist market because you're selling software that gives you no edge over someone else who's selling the same thing. If money was to be made on the software alone, the market would get flooded with the GPL'd software and the price would bottom out to the lowest cost of distribution.
Companies that make money by providing Free Software are not capitalizing on the software itself, but the 'value-added' services, manuals, and most likely proprietary software tossed in. If they were generating huge income from the sole sale of software, we'd see Microsoft join the Free Software movement.
Marxism, would have us hand over our code for the 'greater good of the people' - as history has taught us, a totalitarian regime would ensure this. Anarchism, it's an individual choice. But anarchism works on the ideals that we can live better by working together, but working together because you want to. Not because someone in a position of authority has forced you to.
For more info on Anarchism:
www.infoshop.org/faq/index.html
To determine your political standing:
www.politicalcompass.org
Remove the air - remove most of the resistance.
That way the motor won't have to work as hard to spin the bloody disc.
Would it not be cool to hear the drive air seal it self when you close the drive door?
This is the kind of comments I like to see.
... or is American politics just getting in my face?
Generally though, pointing fingers exclusively at the Republicans is not fair though. Since we can all thank Al "I Am Troy McLure's Long Lost Twin" Gore's wife for the great 'Tipper Sticker'. Yes, the 'Explicit Lyrics' sticker, to help parent's protect their kids from "questionable content" on a musical recording. When you have the Christian-Right leading both major political parties, you'll generally get very similiar ideas. Hence why the term Republicrats is of better representation in my opinion.
Then again, I'm just a lowly Canadian sticking my nose in American politics
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afxgrin-at-fuckmicrosoft.com