I just had re-read his books recently (except Zodiac and Cryptonomicon, but I read Cryptonomiocon recently enough to remember it well) and I have to say that (in reply to the "what a waste" post among others) that N.S and William Gibson's and actually many other really good SF writers main concerns have never really been about the technology itself. It is true that whats gets them noticed is the exciting imagery that the describe new possibilities of tech but really what I have noticed and what keeps peopoe coming back is they are really concenred with the effect of all this tech, and they are concerned with it in a surprisingly humanistic way (which makes it very surprising to me that they are held in great regard by geeks as elite 'tech' type writers)
I'll stick with Neal S. for now, but having read his most all his book, you can detect even way back in Snow Crash that Neal believes that what technology is really doing is making it clear that what really makes people different is not race (remember, the Protangonist, "Hiro" is a black/asian) not race, or genetics, but the culture that they acquire (the software that is written into the bio-Hardware, if you will).
In a A lady's Illus. primer I was surprised that this book really was a modern versioin of many philosophical tracts that were popular in the 18/19th centuries. IN A.L's.I.P, N.S. is really concerned with what is key about education, what is key about a culture that makes it successful. While his grip on his understanding culture seems to be (from reading) kind of unsophisticated, I have to give them man extreme props for even trying to tackle what seems to be the most contentious issue of our times. He directly attacks "cultureal relativity", "the dumbing down of society", "The real reason for poverty", and in both A.L's.I.P and in "..The Command line" Essay, he tries to describe what is about cultures and even sub-groups of the cultures (Hacker, vs, End_user, for example).
What I am trying to say that Neal is using tech as a way to strip away the mere happenstance that makes people a certain way and is trying to understand fundamentally what is going on with culture and where it is heading.
I look forward to his new book, and will not be surprised if I see these same themes play out, once again.
I would appreciate hearing you comments on what you guys think Neal's real themes are ( and no they arent about what new tech thing is coming up, btw:)
Preface: i didnt say Communism was correct. Rather it was more fucked up.
BUT
Also remember that the music industry is getting a lot of help from the government in being able to screw us with the DMCA, etc. So you can't really blame all this on capitalism.
Jesus christ, fuckwit, Have you not heard the oft repeated quote
"The business of America is Business" Do you understand what that means?
That IS capitalism.
The fact that you think Capitalism is a free 'choice' tells me that you really have no idea how Capitalsm works. It is big government helping people make lots of money, you moron. Why do you think the Government keeps bailing out Big business? Its because if they didnt, then Big time investors wouldnt go for it. They dont take big chances, because they know that the goverment will bail them out. Is this the capitalism you are thinking of?
I dont think so.
Right now, The music industry is certainly trying to away lots of rights I have, all in the name of Capitalsm, in the name of Business. And its all being allowed, because "its just business". What bullshit.
I think you better read up on the history of coporations and see how brainwashed you have become into beliving exactly what you are told to believe (just like the communists, no doubt)
Hell, right now ENRON, the bastion of capitalist everywhere has screwed thousands of workers when there stock went up. They let the CEO's cash out, but told there employeess that they were not allows to cash out, because it would make the stock's dive even worse. Hmm thats another prime example of capitalism.
I think you had better read up on what Capitalsm really is, instead of being told what it is by big business.
Hmmm, on so many levels does this seem to over-ride many laws.
1. Does that man public libraries cant lend copies
1.a Does this mean you can lend CD,this seems to be quantifiable bullshit
2. As I understand, we Are allowed to make a copy for ourselves.
I think that this will be yet another clarion call in which there will be two types of music listeners. perhaps in the future, we shall see
1. Britney spears listeners
2. People who are underground, an undergroun method of payment, an underground distribution. Many of these things are already true, but soon (unless it is made illegal, which may happen) there will be a completely different control to the means of production.
And yes I mean to use communist language, because although there are a lot of fuckwits who think capitialism is the best thing, I think they need to understand that the Music business is a Grade-A example of Captiliasm as its "best", just like MS
I'm a bit surprised by Katz's surprisingly unsophiticated view of the computer market. IN this case he has it completely backwards.
What he seems to be saying is that what drives computer standard is AOL and MS because the middle class uses them, and that the new users of computers are being misled by what is new and innovative and that new users and esp. new technology works (programmers,,etc) should concentrate of the AOL and MS and stop wasting their time with newer technologies.
This is clearly getting it backwards. AOL and MS commidify what is on the fringes of the computer society. Remember Instant Message? Hmm sounds like 'talk' to me. This wasnt AOL coming up with IM, but AOL distributing to millions. In this case, IM was something that the elite had already grasped onto the concept and AOL was merely marketing to the rest of the public.
MS never has innoviated. I think most people can agree with this. How than can someone learn from MS? They will always be behind if people really did follow Katz's advice to stick with the "drab" corportations.
But let me make this clear, if you miss my Point:
AOL, MS and the other drab corporations make their money by commidify (ie making safer, more generic) the ideas and concepts that are out on the fringes. It does not work the other way aroung as Katz seems to be suggesting, and woe to any computer programmger who does not keep up with the "fringe" linux, and Opensource ideas floating about because they will be fighting the last war and not this one.
Esp in this exconomy, people are going to see $230 as a big bite and will stop using it.
Sure there is no competition right now, and sure it is a leave or take it atitude, right now, but doesnt this remind you of cable tv service years ago, and satelite tv came in and kicked their asses for that atitute.
so as i see it, if they really are going to start charging a lot more
1. people will stop using it.
2 other companies are going to want to get into it
#2. I think his best book to read is
Discipline and Punish : The Birth of the Prison its quite good and gets a lot of ideas in there
#3 Madness and Civilization : A History of Insanity in the Age of Reason
is probably his most famous and also another one that does take long to read or understand. again lots of good stuff
#4 The Cambridge Companion to Foucault (Cambridge Companions to Philosophy)
This is a good reader written by philosophers specializing in foucault but also very well and clearly written. I would get this one and maybe thumb through the other i mentioned
#4
Actually, the idea that just because you have nothing to hide means that you shouldnt have the ability to hide something is an interesting fallacy.
Foucalt was a 60's "post-modern" French philospher who studied how systems of control are used to keep a Power in place. One of his most interesting insights was the more you can observe something the more the you can label it, quantify it, and more important the easier it becomes to define a Norm. Once you have a defined a norm, you know have the means to control the subject you were initally just merely observing.
I think this is a case of being able to keep something from observation, ie keep it away from ouside powers
Bottom line is that XP is no worse than any other "modern" graphical OS - it's just made by Microsoft. Accept the fact that Windows XP is a decent operating system and far superior to the Win9x line and get back to using your Linux PC.
I will have to respectfully disagree (unlike some of the replies ive seen to you)
We decided to set XP in my families new XP1800 computer. I wil be the first to admit that when it runs, it runs smoothly and the family likes it, but It certainly is much worse in terms of stability to say Mandrak or MacOSx. There is not a day that does not go by the computer iwll up and reboot for no reason or simply crash.
As for being a decent OS being made by Microsoft, all i can say is that we must remember that Microsoft KNEW about a HUGH REMOTE HOLE for almost a month before deciding to let the rest of us know about. That in my opinion makes it a very much worse OS than the others. At the moment, i am trying to get hem used to a linux desktop and will simply replace it all with Linux in a few months.
Just think about it,
We know that India and China are battling it out to see who is going to be the powerhouse computer programming center and here Korea may have just pulled a coup by declaring openSource to be something that the gov't official supports. I dont know about you, but I would now look towards Korea as a contender for the place to where computer programming is acutaly done. Think of the costs savingd from using opensource
(I know OpenSource still costs money to run, but just think of the savings Korea will experince)
It seems that if you nickel&dime people, they will pay because the pain of each payment is little. But when you see a big nu mber like $230 dollars, that pain is much much greater than the individual smallers pains. And the individial smaller pains if you add them all up, wont feel like a $230 pain, if you get my meaning.
As many have already pointed out, this is great for competition,
and it may be a shock to the cable tv industry if large numbers of people balk at the large price increases.
Also, as many have noted before, we are at logger heads here, As computer tech gets cheaper and chearper, we get used to it, but the cable tv industry doesnt think like that, they beleive in always increases the price and this just might be the thing to shock them into dropping their prices.
I apologize if this is post isnt exactly on topic,
but I started thinking when I saw the pictures of UT2 who good they really were becoming
and while its extremely obvious, This is real interaction between people in a space that is as "real" as it can be made while still keeping it fun.
Yes I know people normally dont go around shooting at each other and wearing armour
but as UT2 gets more and more 'real' looking, is this what
the internet is going to look like in the future. I am rather surprised that i havent seen UT mods where people can upload an avatar skin, that is specif for them, and have a area that is just a lounge. I help but thinking about Neal Stephenson's Metaverse and what it would look like and I keep thinking that it might look like UT2. The tech is there, now it really needes to be expanded.
I know that many will point out to things like Ultima Online and the like, and I agree with you, but I think UT2 may (just graphically I mean) represent some version of what the future internet may look like.
I could tear your statement apart in so many ways, but let me stick with the obvious. How the hell did you learn about computers unless you had access to them? I really can't believe that a lot of the/. readers are nothing but Grade-A idiots when it comes to the enviroment they were brought up, yet seem to deny the existence of the many advantaged they had when it comes to providing these same advantages to others. Yes I mean letting others have computers just like you did yourself!
Chirst, i get more and more sad by the cultural-ignorance of/. readers who really do believe they are an elite group but clear have no idea what lays beyond their computer screens
Does it not occur to any of you, that the reason you know how to use computers is YOU HAD ACCESS TO THEM!
I keep hearing the same argument that giving people computers won't help them, but no one realizes that their own first exposure to computers was "given" to them by Someone else.
I keep hearing that you cant fix the problems of the poor by simply throwing money at the problem, but you tell me one thing that money doesnt make easier. Yeesh!
unless you believe the old line that the poor get what they deserve just as the Rich have earned the money they make?
From your flawed line of reasoning, I take it you think public education is also wasted on the poor?
Of course, it could never have occured to you that the reason you know how to use a computer is that you grew up with the ability to have access to one? No, I dont think that ever occured to someone that thinks like you
By the same token, you can offer the best education if you can afford the best teachers which implies competition which in turn implies capitalism and profits.
Wrong again. Public school should be likened more to basic research. Basic research is funded for the sake of being able to do basic research. Public education should be funded for the sake of public education. In both cases, we can not predict what specifically will prove most beneficial when we fund it, thus it makes no sense to fund it like a business. What I am trying to say is no one "betted" on the internet and wanted to make it a business when it first started.
You are so shallow. I put my name by my opinions?
are you not so shallow that you go AC?
It was not "capitalism" that left Argentina penniless, it was overgrown and badly managed government.
Once again, you seem to not get exactly what capitalism really is. I would argue that capitalism causing bas government: Ever heard of Bail-Out in the 80's. MMmmm, thats real capitalism, that was fucked up governement too, buddy
... with the ever-tightening restrictions imposed by Affirmative Action (raising dropout rates to 25% in some fields) it's no wonder that schools are starting to find ways to make money any way they can.
I'm sorry but i simply cant let this statement go by. Do you have any proff for this statement?
As for the idea of universities making money, I think that we are witnessing the further progression of a wrong headed idea that "ALL THINGS SHOULD BE RUN LIKE A BUSINESS." Recently, Penn voters voted down a plan to privatize schools. The questions becomes why would making a profit help education?
It must be made clear that SCHOOLS ARE THERE TO TEACH, NOT TO MAKE A PROFIT.
For some reason, many people inclduing this poster simply arent critical thinkers about what "Making a Profit" means, what values it implies. Hell, just today Argentina told the "free market system" to fuck off as it has left the country penniless. Lets be clear, the free market system is anything but free to most people of the world. It is made especially to let a certain group of people get rich, to hell with everyone else. I think this poster fits right into this group, esp with his post i am responding to.
1. I always ask the librarian if it is ok if I add CD-rom of linux to the unix and linux books in the library. So far, all of them have been enthusiastic that someone is interested in providing linux to the libraris (although im sure they dont know what it is exactly
2. I carefully and fully label exactly what is on the Cd-RoM. I put say "Debian distribution of linux 2.2 revision3"
and also put "If you have any question, please email me at..."
I think the email idea is probably the best thing you can do if you provide linux CD's as if a person has questions they can contact you immediately!
the more i think about the fact that MS knew about this huge HOLE
for FIVE WEEKS. FIVE WEEKS! The more and more I am conviced that not only will
I never use a microsoft OS again, (which is no big deal)
but as soon as I can, I am simply going to remove it from my parents computers,
and from my friends computers (if they allow it) and get the hell away from using it in
my business.
I think the full implications of what MS has allowed to happen is going to felt more and more as real users suddenly understand that MS basically does not care about its users.
I think we should read more into the Gov't talking to MS then we think.
It could be that the Gov't also just found this out, and the fact that MS did not tell them really does not bode will for MS.
This could be the camel that broke the straw's back, because it certainly is with me. IF I see MS OS anywhere I will inform those parties that they are making a seriously mistake that I can demonstrate has real consequences.
For now though, My parents will no longer use it, My sister wont, my brother wont, my business wont. MS should consider what these actions really mean.
Slashdot Mirror
I just had re-read his books recently (except Zodiac and Cryptonomicon, but I read Cryptonomiocon recently enough to remember it well) and I have to say that (in reply to the "what a waste" post among others) that N.S and William Gibson's and actually many other really good SF writers main concerns have never really been about the technology itself. It is true that whats gets them noticed is the exciting imagery that the describe new possibilities of tech but really what I have noticed and what keeps peopoe coming back is they are really concenred with the effect of all this tech, and they are concerned with it in a surprisingly humanistic way (which makes it very surprising to me that they are held in great regard by geeks as elite 'tech' type writers)
:)
I'll stick with Neal S. for now, but having read his most all his book, you can detect even way back in Snow Crash that Neal believes that what technology is really doing is making it clear that what really makes people different is not race (remember, the Protangonist, "Hiro" is a black/asian) not race, or genetics, but the culture that they acquire (the software that is written into the bio-Hardware, if you will).
In a A lady's Illus. primer I was surprised that this book really was a modern versioin of many philosophical tracts that were popular in the 18/19th centuries. IN A.L's.I.P, N.S. is really concerned with what is key about education, what is key about a culture that makes it successful. While his grip on his understanding culture seems to be (from reading) kind of unsophisticated, I have to give them man extreme props for even trying to tackle what seems to be the most contentious issue of our times. He directly attacks "cultureal relativity", "the dumbing down of society", "The real reason for poverty", and in both A.L's.I.P and in "..The Command line" Essay, he tries to describe what is about cultures and even sub-groups of the cultures (Hacker, vs, End_user, for example).
What I am trying to say that Neal is using tech as a way to strip away the mere happenstance that makes people a certain way and is trying to understand fundamentally what is going on with culture and where it is heading.
I look forward to his new book, and will not be surprised if I see these same themes play out, once again.
I would appreciate hearing you comments on what you guys think Neal's real themes are ( and no they arent about what new tech thing is coming up, btw
Thanks for reading
REWIND
I dont know about you but the thing I liked most about DVD was the ability not to need to Rewind!
Thanks all
You are correct.
I officially offer my apologies.
Please do accept them
As for a better system,
Ill need some time on that one.
and please do accept my apologies.
Correction: I mean to say:
when enron's sotck WENT DOWN
Not UP
Thanks
Preface: i didnt say Communism was correct. Rather it was more fucked up.
BUT
Also remember that the music industry is getting a lot of help from the government in being able to screw us with the DMCA, etc. So you can't really blame all this on capitalism.
Jesus christ, fuckwit, Have you not heard the oft repeated quote
"The business of America is Business"
Do you understand what that means?
That IS capitalism.
The fact that you think Capitalism is a free 'choice' tells me that you really have no idea how Capitalsm works. It is big government helping people make lots of money, you moron. Why do you think the Government keeps bailing out Big business? Its because if they didnt, then Big time investors wouldnt go for it. They dont take big chances, because they know that the goverment will bail them out. Is this the capitalism you are thinking of?
I dont think so.
Right now, The music industry is certainly trying to away lots of rights I have, all in the name of Capitalsm, in the name of Business. And its all being allowed, because "its just business". What bullshit.
I think you better read up on the history of coporations and see how brainwashed you have become into beliving exactly what you are told to believe (just like the communists, no doubt)
Hell, right now ENRON, the bastion of capitalist everywhere has screwed thousands of workers when there stock went up. They let the CEO's cash out, but told there employeess that they were not allows to cash out, because it would make the stock's dive even worse. Hmm thats another prime example of capitalism.
I think you had better read up on what Capitalsm really is, instead of being told what it is by big business.
Anyway, thanks for reading
Hmmm, on so many levels does this seem to over-ride many laws.
1. Does that man public libraries cant lend copies
1.a Does this mean you can lend CD,this seems to be quantifiable bullshit
2. As I understand, we Are allowed to make a copy for ourselves.
I think that this will be yet another clarion call in which there will be two types of music listeners. perhaps in the future, we shall see
1. Britney spears listeners
2. People who are underground, an undergroun method of payment, an underground distribution. Many of these things are already true, but soon (unless it is made illegal, which may happen) there will be a completely different control to the means of production.
And yes I mean to use communist language, because although there are a lot of fuckwits who think capitialism is the best thing, I think they need to understand that the Music business is a Grade-A example of Captiliasm as its "best", just like MS
I'm a bit surprised by Katz's surprisingly unsophiticated view of the computer market. IN this case he has it completely backwards.
What he seems to be saying is that what drives computer standard is AOL and MS because the middle class uses them, and that the new users of computers are being misled by what is new and innovative and that new users and esp. new technology works (programmers,,etc) should concentrate of the AOL and MS and stop wasting their time with newer technologies.
This is clearly getting it backwards. AOL and MS commidify what is on the fringes of the computer society. Remember Instant Message? Hmm sounds like 'talk' to me. This wasnt AOL coming up with IM, but AOL distributing to millions. In this case, IM was something that the elite had already grasped onto the concept and AOL was merely marketing to the rest of the public.
MS never has innoviated. I think most people can agree with this. How than can someone learn from MS? They will always be behind if people really did follow Katz's advice to stick with the "drab" corportations.
But let me make this clear, if you miss my Point:
AOL, MS and the other drab corporations make their money by commidify (ie making safer, more generic) the ideas and concepts that are out on the fringes. It does not work the other way aroung as Katz seems to be suggesting, and woe to any computer programmger who does not keep up with the "fringe" linux, and Opensource ideas floating about because they will be fighting the last war and not this one.
Anyway thanks,
I think that you mis-understand my point.
Esp in this exconomy, people are going to see $230 as a big bite and will stop using it.
Sure there is no competition right now, and sure it is a leave or take it atitude, right now, but doesnt this remind you of cable tv service years ago, and satelite tv came in and kicked their asses for that atitute.
so as i see it, if they really are going to start charging a lot more
1. people will stop using it.
2 other companies are going to want to get into it
thanks
#1. I mispelled it. Its FOUCAULT
#2. I think his best book to read is
Discipline and Punish : The Birth of the Prison
its quite good and gets a lot of ideas in there
#3 Madness and Civilization : A History of Insanity in the Age of Reason
is probably his most famous and also another one that does take long to read or understand. again lots of good stuff
#4 The Cambridge Companion to Foucault (Cambridge Companions to Philosophy)
This is a good reader written by philosophers specializing in foucault but also very well and clearly written. I would get this one and maybe thumb through the other i mentioned
#4
Actually, the idea that just because you have nothing to hide means that you shouldnt have the ability to hide something is an interesting fallacy.
Foucalt was a 60's "post-modern" French philospher who studied how systems of control are used to keep a Power in place. One of his most interesting insights was the more you can observe something the more the you can label it, quantify it, and more important the easier it becomes to define a Norm. Once you have a defined a norm, you know have the means to control the subject you were initally just merely observing.
I think this is a case of being able to keep something from observation, ie keep it away from ouside powers
anyway, thanks
good point.
But I ran linux on it using kernel 2.4.16 and ran unstable on it for about 2 weeks before converting it to XP and never had one problem with.
it was doing seti@home calculations for 2 solid weeks.
Thanks
Bottom line is that XP is no worse than any other "modern" graphical OS - it's just made by Microsoft. Accept the fact that Windows XP is a decent operating system and far superior to the Win9x line and get back to using your Linux PC.
I will have to respectfully disagree (unlike some of the replies ive seen to you)
We decided to set XP in my families new XP1800 computer. I wil be the first to admit that when it runs, it runs smoothly and the family likes it, but It certainly is much worse in terms of stability to say Mandrak or MacOSx. There is not a day that does not go by the computer iwll up and reboot for no reason or simply crash.
As for being a decent OS being made by Microsoft, all i can say is that we must remember that Microsoft KNEW about a HUGH REMOTE HOLE for almost a month before deciding to let the rest of us know about. That in my opinion makes it a very much worse OS than the others. At the moment, i am trying to get hem used to a linux desktop and will simply replace it all with Linux in a few months.
Thankx!
Just think about it,
We know that India and China are battling it out to see who is going to be the powerhouse computer programming center and here Korea may have just pulled a coup by declaring openSource to be something that the gov't official supports. I dont know about you, but I would now look towards Korea as a contender for the place to where computer programming is acutaly done. Think of the costs savingd from using opensource
(I know OpenSource still costs money to run, but just think of the savings Korea will experince)
Thanks for reading
I think AOL/TW may have made a tactical mistake.
It seems that if you nickel&dime people, they will pay because the pain of each payment is little. But when you see a big nu mber like $230 dollars, that pain is much much greater than the individual smallers pains. And the individial smaller pains if you add them all up, wont feel like a $230 pain, if you get my meaning.
As many have already pointed out, this is great for competition,
and it may be a shock to the cable tv industry if large numbers of people balk at the large price increases.
Also, as many have noted before, we are at logger heads here, As computer tech gets cheaper and chearper, we get used to it, but the cable tv industry doesnt think like that, they beleive in always increases the price and this just might be the thing to shock them into dropping their prices.
anyway thanks
I apologize if this is post isnt exactly on topic,
but I started thinking when I saw the pictures of UT2 who good they really were becoming
and while its extremely obvious, This is real interaction between people in a space that is as "real" as it can be made while still keeping it fun.
Yes I know people normally dont go around shooting at each other and wearing armour
but as UT2 gets more and more 'real' looking, is this what
the internet is going to look like in the future. I am rather surprised that i havent seen UT mods where people can upload an avatar skin, that is specif for them, and have a area that is just a lounge. I help but thinking about Neal Stephenson's Metaverse and what it would look like and I keep thinking that it might look like UT2. The tech is there, now it really needes to be expanded.
I know that many will point out to things like Ultima Online and the like, and I agree with you, but I think UT2 may (just graphically I mean) represent some version of what the future internet may look like.
Anyway, sorry for rambling,
have a nice day
My faith in slashdotters has just been increased.
Thank you for a pleasant and insighful reply.
G
I could tear your statement apart in so many ways, but let me stick with the obvious. How the hell did you learn about computers unless you had access to them? I really can't believe that a lot of the /. readers are nothing but Grade-A idiots when it comes to the enviroment they were brought up, yet seem to deny the existence of the many advantaged they had when it comes to providing these same advantages to others. Yes I mean letting others have computers just like you did yourself!
/. readers who really do believe they are an elite group but clear have no idea what lays beyond their computer screens
Chirst, i get more and more sad by the cultural-ignorance of
Christ!
I didnt think the Geeks were so short sided!
Does it not occur to any of you, that the reason you know how to use computers is YOU HAD ACCESS TO THEM!
I keep hearing the same argument that giving people computers won't help them, but no one realizes that their own first exposure to computers was "given" to them by Someone else.
I keep hearing that you cant fix the problems of the poor by simply throwing money at the problem, but you tell me one thing that money doesnt make easier. Yeesh!
Oh my
Do th epoor really need a computer?
You simply can not mean what you are saying
unless you believe the old line that the poor get what they deserve just as the Rich have earned the money they make?
From your flawed line of reasoning, I take it you think public education is also wasted on the poor?
Of course, it could never have occured to you that the reason you know how to use a computer is that you grew up with the ability to have access to one? No, I dont think that ever occured to someone that thinks like you
By the same token, you can offer the best education if you can afford the best teachers which implies competition which in turn implies capitalism and profits.
Wrong again. Public school should be likened more to basic research. Basic research is funded for the sake of being able to do basic research. Public education should be funded for the sake of public education. In both cases, we can not predict what specifically will prove most beneficial when we fund it, thus it makes no sense to fund it like a business. What I am trying to say is no one "betted" on the internet and wanted to make it a business when it first started.
You are so shallow.
I put my name by my opinions?
are you not so shallow that you go AC?
It was not "capitalism" that left Argentina penniless, it was overgrown and badly managed government.
Once again, you seem to not get exactly what capitalism really is. I would argue that capitalism causing bas government: Ever heard of Bail-Out in the 80's. MMmmm, thats real capitalism, that was fucked up governement too, buddy
... with the ever-tightening restrictions imposed by Affirmative Action (raising dropout rates to 25% in some fields) it's no wonder that schools are starting to find ways to make money any way they can.
I'm sorry but i simply cant let this statement go by. Do you have any proff for this statement?
As for the idea of universities making money, I think that we are witnessing the further progression of a wrong headed idea that "ALL THINGS SHOULD BE RUN LIKE A BUSINESS." Recently, Penn voters voted down a plan to privatize schools. The questions becomes why would making a profit help education?
It must be made clear that SCHOOLS ARE THERE TO TEACH, NOT TO MAKE A PROFIT.
For some reason, many people inclduing this poster simply arent critical thinkers about what "Making a Profit" means, what values it implies. Hell, just today Argentina told the "free market system" to fuck off as it has left the country penniless. Lets be clear, the free market system is anything but free to most people of the world. It is made especially to let a certain group of people get rich, to hell with everyone else. I think this poster fits right into this group, esp with his post i am responding to.
Anyway, thanks for reading,
1. I always ask the librarian if it is ok if I add CD-rom of linux to the unix and linux books in the library. So far, all of them have been enthusiastic that someone is interested in providing linux to the libraris (although im sure they dont know what it is exactly
..."
2. I carefully and fully label exactly what is on the Cd-RoM. I put say "Debian distribution of linux 2.2 revision3"
and also put "If you have any question, please email me at
I think the email idea is probably the best thing you can do if you provide linux CD's as if a person has questions they can contact you immediately!
I wish i had that when i started.
Thanks for reading
the more i think about the fact that MS knew about this huge HOLE
for FIVE WEEKS. FIVE WEEKS! The more and more I am conviced that not only will
I never use a microsoft OS again, (which is no big deal)
but as soon as I can, I am simply going to remove it from my parents computers,
and from my friends computers (if they allow it) and get the hell away from using it in
my business.
I think the full implications of what MS has allowed to happen is going to felt more and more as real users suddenly understand that MS basically does not care about its users.
I think we should read more into the Gov't talking to MS then we think.
It could be that the Gov't also just found this out, and the fact that MS did not tell them really does not bode will for MS.
This could be the camel that broke the straw's back, because it certainly is with me. IF I see MS OS anywhere I will inform those parties that they are making a seriously mistake that I can demonstrate has real consequences.
For now though, My parents will no longer use it, My sister wont, my brother wont, my business wont. MS should consider what these actions really mean.
And thank you for reading
now we see the Gov't take a special interest in
the latest XP hole.
Dont know about you, but I am really dont know what to think?
oh my, an AC lets me here his opinion.
Gosh, i dont know what to say as I dont knwo Who to say it too.
oh my, the horror