Man, I cannot agree more. The drivers here in Atlanta have no concept of left to right driving. And the SUVs here are appaling. Either its a soccermom who can't drive, or some "yo" that won't becuase he's too pimpin to follow the traffic laws.
400 at 8:30AM/5:30PM is a nightmare. Luckily, I drive against traffic both ways. I go North from the city to Roswell in the morning, and South back into the city in the evening.
Also, and I couldn't believe this, but ebay charges for categorizing products in more than a few, limited, categories... making products harder to find! coo coo!
Thats actually there as a preventative step against spamming your wares as everything under the sun. If they didn't do this, people would be ticked off about no category control and inaccurate product listings to a much larger degree.
Microsoft knows this, and the razor-thin margins on hardware. So they give deep volume discounts to VARs who only sell Windows. If you offer Linux (and are smaller than Dell) suddenly the price per unit for Windows is raised and your profit disappears.
Thing is, that's a pretty standard practice - so I'm not arguing with myself. There are alot of other software companies doing the same thing. In fact, some say you have to choose their product and no one elses or you can't resell their product.
It's not blackmail, it's controlling your distribution channels. Let me correct your statement for you.
If you offer Linux (and are smaller than Dell) suddenly the price per unit for Windows is raised and your profit disappears.
This should read, if you are a loyal VAR and only sell Windows, MS waives the cost per unit increase in your new contract, and you maintain your current margin.
Once a contract is up, both parties are allowed to rework that contract. The fact that someone at the table is in a position of superiority is common. MS does work with more than just Dell on its pricing though, to think otherwise would be ignorant. They don't have to work with Ma and Pa Kettle though.
Welcome to spin - you go your way and I'll pull the other way for fun. Lets see where it breaks.
The fact that most people have no idea what the alternatives are should show you that something is wrong
Yeah, that the people who want to compete in the OS space expect the end users to do too much. Consumer ignorance is in no way a sign of a market failure. In fact, it is a sign that the consumer is generally happy.
While I agree with most of your statements, this argument seems to be based on the idea that marketing and branding can hold a consumer base captive, that's just not true. Consumer ignorance is what keeps a market captive. If the consumer doesn't initiate going out to learn more themselves, they must be happy with what they have. Either that or the barrier for change is too great to overcome quickly.
It is not Microsofts fault that Linux isn't taking off on the end user market like the engineers wanted it to. You wanna kick the hell out of MS, here is what the Linux community is going to have to do.
Get your OS install package together and place it next to a functioning, OS free machine. Put this machine in a room with 2 way mirrors, a mic, and a camera. Get the dumbest motherfucker you can find and pay him to install your OS on the box. Watch him fail. Repeat this many times. Go back and fix the barriers to install.
Then do the same for products your software packages.
Then you stand a chance. Coke says Pepsi sucks, Pepsi says Coke sucks. People pick what they like. Thats why RC cola sells like shit, comparatively.
why else do all the PC makers have that XXX reccomends Microsoft Windows XP on their machines??? they get paid for it and if they promote any other OS actively they lose the market development funds...
PC makers are VARS (Value Added Resellers) for Windows. See, at first the PC makers LOVED the fact that Microsoft would pay for THEIR marketing as long as it contained something about Windows in it. This is normal operating procedure for any VAR relationship. The PC seller quite often offers its own tech support for the PC, so ignorant folks who can't tell the difference between a hardware malfunction and a software glitch won't take up so much of Windows support resources.
Later, when Linux became more popular and really, really annoying people started complaining to these VARS that they couldn't purchase a computer with Linux on it - they had to respond. The began creating boxes that had Linux on them, but guess what. Linux distros aren't coughing up an equal amount of marketing co-op dollars to match what MS was giving them. MS doesn't give dollars to promote Linux PC's.
Here's what really bothers me. I would surmise that most of the earliest and most vocal complainers about the inability to find Linux on a prebuilt machine know how to build a box. They also know that building a box yourself is cheaper than buying one premade. These people forced PC makers to offer Linux home boxes due to creating a false sense of market demand. The PC makers were then in turn forced to expend money on something that didn't have the same rate of return, nor did it provide the same amount of financial support as MS' product.
Hell, most end users didn't want it, nor could they use it properly. They still can't. The market not being able to support a falsely created presence of consumer demand is not monopolistic behavior.
cliff-tiered pricing for OEM copies that made it completely uneconomical to put anything else on the machines
All OEM deals using the "software as a product" model are like this.
why else do you find the Dell Linux machines well buried in the website with no direct links to them... you have to actively search for them.
Because the casual end user doesn't give a shit? Businesses respond to CASH. There is no way MS could force ALL of the PC makers from selling Linux boxes if it was more profitable than selling Windows boxes. But its not more profitable, the margins are nothing on hardware these days. Add in labor and you are making almost no money on the hardware. But, if MS will cover your marketing bills, you can make more money - so thats what you do. That's not a monopoly either.
Another reason, the market isn't ready. Scream all you want about Linux distro whatever being easy to use and install. It isn't to the end user. Average end users don't even understand the concept of command line, or device drivers. The days where the ability to overcome those issues as run of the mill for PC use are OVER. Windows handles this WAY better than any Linux distro I have ever heard of. I have yet to hear, Distro whatever has WAY better driver support than Windows out of an end users mouth. They aren't really sure what a device driver is.
Every Linux debate at my job goes like this:
Engineer: But if end users want this, they should use Linux distro whatever and software whatever.
Me: Yeah, maybe so - but they don't want to learn a new OS and Software package.
Engineer: But if end users would learn they would be happier.
Me: Possibly, but their not going to do that until it gets much more automatic for the people.
Engineer: But if the end user could get more technically proficient that wouldn't be a problem anymore.
Me: Woulda, shoulda, coulda - when are you going to start dealing with is, can, and will?
Engineer: Well, it wouldn't be a problem if Microsoft wasn't such a Monopoly.
OSS Community: I felt a strange disturbance in the force unlike anything I have ever felt before. Almost as if millions of leechers cried out at once, and then nothing.
I've always thought about the overall mood of people, and if there's relation between it and a certain period of time.
Not just that, but you could attempt to track the mood in relation to data. If a popular news item was making the rounds, what was the overall mood of those passing it. Did the information affect the mood and how?
Actually, this was part of a test I was administered in my first web dev gig. The project brief I was given to follow was simple and was really only a secondary part of the test. The network cable was unplugged from the back of the pc. I was told I was being timed and had a time limit of 30 minutes.
All I had to do was build a table that was center justified. It needed to contain 5 rows, and 3 columns of equal width. Image one was to be centered in the uppermost left cell. I was to create a link in the top center cell using whatever anchor text I wanted that pointed to a named anchor in the bottom center cell. You were then supposed to upload it to the designated directory.
I pumped out the peice of junk in a few, and then couldn't upload it. I saw the crossed out icon in the taskbar and checked the back of the machine. Found the unplugged cable and fixed it. Upload and done.
My interviewer complemented me as I was the second person he had interviewed that fixed it themselves. Everyone else claimed they were done because they couldn't upload the file, the network was down. In a small company, wasting time on fixing this type of thing has a significant impact. I was offered a job 3 days later.
Funny sidenote. Some girl who interviewed after me was hired as well because of how she dealt with the scenario. When she was given the directions she noticed the disconnected icon right away. She asked if "connecting the network connection behind the computer" test was really necessary.
Anyone with enough resources to fight this fight against Kroger probably doesn't apply for jobs, they submit resumes for work. That or they offer services where they are sought out by employers. So lets assume that the person being "discriminated" against is lacking deep pockets.
You probably don't know how to get a class action lawsuit started.
The ACLU is not gonna get involved for you, they are too busy.
Jesse Jackson, Helen Keller, or whoever champions your particular self realised niche of oppresion is too busy to help you.
Any lawyer who you could afford with your humble finances probably sucks and would get eaten alive by the sheer paper that Kroger would throw at them.
A pro-bono lawyer is generally busy as hell, and cannot dedicate adequate time to your case.
Ultimately, the lawsuit sucks. Criminal and Civil are both about as likely to suceed as me building the first lightsaber.
I think that logic only works if you prove that they purposely broke it, not that it was broken. The dude wasn't allowed to apply because there was no way to apply, not because they specifically denied him. A white guy, a black guy, a gay, an indian, a jew, and a cripple could have walked in right after him and they wouldn't have been able to apply either.
There is no "right to apply" law that I know of. If an establishment refused to provide applications from people selectively, then there would be a case. The application was denied to anyone asking for it across the board. The period of time that this event occured in is irrelevant.
I personally hate paying $7 for a game rental at blockbuster and haven't really gotten into the whole rent by mail craze because I really don't watch/play that many movies/games a month to make it worthwhile.
I am in the same boat, but I'll tell you what - gamefly has really allowed me to play alot more games. I pay for the one game plan and play 3 games a month, and I really have a limited amount of time. I get to feel a game out, and enjoy (or suffer) the gameplay. Most games don't hold my interest, but I get to see some cool stuff. If I don't like a game, it's with the outgoing mail the next day at work. New game in 5 days.
I'm not sure if I was to post AC as this sounds like a commercial.
Here's what will happen. Most games will never be finished, and even the ones that do will fall into the "release and patch" format for the individual episodes. No one who didn't have the full time to play the whole game will buy its parts (at least they won't get any more use out of them if they), and nothing worthwhile will come of this.
Actually, there are a lot of untried business models that eposodic gaming could use to work. Publishers could actually allow user generated content into the game on a regular high frequency schedule. The modding community could be allowed to create full modules that would be looked at by the producers and evaluated. The game producer would then use a much smaller dev team to clean up the one they decided to go with. The modders get credits and a little cash. The producer gets multiple options on story direction while saving money on dev costs.
To add to this, the Babay Boomer generation is the largest demographic in America. The numbers will drastically change when they start dropping out of the population.
I have always dreamed about being able to do something like this, but I never will. The problem is with upgrades and improvements. Every peice of hardare I have been an early adopter of has come back and bit me on the ass.
Theres othr things I have yet to purchase because the rate of its evolution is too fast for me to justify jumping into the stream of things just to have something thats going to be obsolete sooner than I can accept.
No way am I going to experience that with something that attaches to my brain.
Regarding what? Me making money? Me getting a dream job? Me saving the world through double homicide?
Come on man, just because I understand that I can do whatever I want in theory if I don't mind the consequences doesn't make me a heartless evil bastard. The behavior is usually of the "victimless crime" type.
OK, I have been guilty of defending the business motivation behind the RIAA from time to time, but that shit is over.
Are these fucks out of their mind? Drop out of school or go to community college? This would be horrible advice to anyone going to college, but this is a friggin MIT student. You know, the type of people that come up with some of the coolest shit ever. The type of people that helped develop the technologies the RIAA is exploiting right now.
Did anyone at the RIAA think of what it would be like to piss these people off? I mean, this type of thing could not only unite the MIT campus into taking offensive action, but the whole lot of prestigious technical Universities as well.
Plus, the run of the mill uneducated citizen can figure this one out. "MIT is where the smart people go. The RIAA says that they want this student to drop out so they can pay them. What the hell."
I sure hope the PR guy for the RIAA drops his intestines when he gets this news.
Slashdot Mirror
Man, I cannot agree more. The drivers here in Atlanta have no concept of left to right driving. And the SUVs here are appaling. Either its a soccermom who can't drive, or some "yo" that won't becuase he's too pimpin to follow the traffic laws.
400 at 8:30AM/5:30PM is a nightmare. Luckily, I drive against traffic both ways. I go North from the city to Roswell in the morning, and South back into the city in the evening.
in fact, I dare you to find a noun you can search for on google without coming up with an eBay add.
Testicles. eBay does not sell testicles. Well, they don't advertise on google that they do.
Also, and I couldn't believe this, but ebay charges for categorizing products in more than a few, limited, categories... making products harder to find! coo coo!
Thats actually there as a preventative step against spamming your wares as everything under the sun. If they didn't do this, people would be ticked off about no category control and inaccurate product listings to a much larger degree.
Microsoft knows this, and the razor-thin margins on hardware. So they give deep volume discounts to VARs who only sell Windows. If you offer Linux (and are smaller than Dell) suddenly the price per unit for Windows is raised and your profit disappears.
Thing is, that's a pretty standard practice - so I'm not arguing with myself. There are alot of other software companies doing the same thing. In fact, some say you have to choose their product and no one elses or you can't resell their product.
It's not blackmail, it's controlling your distribution channels. Let me correct your statement for you.
If you offer Linux (and are smaller than Dell) suddenly the price per unit for Windows is raised and your profit disappears.
This should read, if you are a loyal VAR and only sell Windows, MS waives the cost per unit increase in your new contract, and you maintain your current margin.
Once a contract is up, both parties are allowed to rework that contract. The fact that someone at the table is in a position of superiority is common. MS does work with more than just Dell on its pricing though, to think otherwise would be ignorant. They don't have to work with Ma and Pa Kettle though.
Welcome to spin - you go your way and I'll pull the other way for fun. Lets see where it breaks.
The fact that most people have no idea what the alternatives are should show you that something is wrong
Yeah, that the people who want to compete in the OS space expect the end users to do too much. Consumer ignorance is in no way a sign of a market failure. In fact, it is a sign that the consumer is generally happy.
While I agree with most of your statements, this argument seems to be based on the idea that marketing and branding can hold a consumer base captive, that's just not true. Consumer ignorance is what keeps a market captive. If the consumer doesn't initiate going out to learn more themselves, they must be happy with what they have. Either that or the barrier for change is too great to overcome quickly.
It is not Microsofts fault that Linux isn't taking off on the end user market like the engineers wanted it to. You wanna kick the hell out of MS, here is what the Linux community is going to have to do.
Get your OS install package together and place it next to a functioning, OS free machine. Put this machine in a room with 2 way mirrors, a mic, and a camera. Get the dumbest motherfucker you can find and pay him to install your OS on the box. Watch him fail. Repeat this many times. Go back and fix the barriers to install.
Then do the same for products your software packages.
Then you stand a chance. Coke says Pepsi sucks, Pepsi says Coke sucks. People pick what they like. Thats why RC cola sells like shit, comparatively.
Your sig is the shit.
why else do all the PC makers have that XXX reccomends Microsoft Windows XP on their machines??? they get paid for it and if they promote any other OS actively they lose the market development funds...
PC makers are VARS (Value Added Resellers) for Windows. See, at first the PC makers LOVED the fact that Microsoft would pay for THEIR marketing as long as it contained something about Windows in it. This is normal operating procedure for any VAR relationship. The PC seller quite often offers its own tech support for the PC, so ignorant folks who can't tell the difference between a hardware malfunction and a software glitch won't take up so much of Windows support resources.
Later, when Linux became more popular and really, really annoying people started complaining to these VARS that they couldn't purchase a computer with Linux on it - they had to respond. The began creating boxes that had Linux on them, but guess what. Linux distros aren't coughing up an equal amount of marketing co-op dollars to match what MS was giving them. MS doesn't give dollars to promote Linux PC's.
Here's what really bothers me. I would surmise that most of the earliest and most vocal complainers about the inability to find Linux on a prebuilt machine know how to build a box. They also know that building a box yourself is cheaper than buying one premade. These people forced PC makers to offer Linux home boxes due to creating a false sense of market demand. The PC makers were then in turn forced to expend money on something that didn't have the same rate of return, nor did it provide the same amount of financial support as MS' product.
Hell, most end users didn't want it, nor could they use it properly. They still can't. The market not being able to support a falsely created presence of consumer demand is not monopolistic behavior.
cliff-tiered pricing for OEM copies that made it completely uneconomical to put anything else on the machines
All OEM deals using the "software as a product" model are like this.
why else do you find the Dell Linux machines well buried in the website with no direct links to them... you have to actively search for them.
Because the casual end user doesn't give a shit? Businesses respond to CASH. There is no way MS could force ALL of the PC makers from selling Linux boxes if it was more profitable than selling Windows boxes. But its not more profitable, the margins are nothing on hardware these days. Add in labor and you are making almost no money on the hardware. But, if MS will cover your marketing bills, you can make more money - so thats what you do. That's not a monopoly either.
Another reason, the market isn't ready. Scream all you want about Linux distro whatever being easy to use and install. It isn't to the end user. Average end users don't even understand the concept of command line, or device drivers. The days where the ability to overcome those issues as run of the mill for PC use are OVER. Windows handles this WAY better than any Linux distro I have ever heard of. I have yet to hear, Distro whatever has WAY better driver support than Windows out of an end users mouth. They aren't really sure what a device driver is.
Every Linux debate at my job goes like this:
Engineer: But if end users want this, they should use Linux distro whatever and software whatever.
Me: Yeah, maybe so - but they don't want to learn a new OS and Software package.
Engineer: But if end users would learn they would be happier.
Me: Possibly, but their not going to do that until it gets much more automatic for the people.
Engineer: But if the end user could get more technically proficient that wouldn't be a problem anymore.
Me: Woulda, shoulda, coulda - when are you going to start dealing with is, can, and will?
Engineer: Well, it wouldn't be a problem if Microsoft wasn't such a Monopoly.
Unfucking believable.
OSS Community: I felt a strange disturbance in the force unlike anything I have ever felt before. Almost as if millions of leechers cried out at once, and then nothing.
I've always thought about the overall mood of people, and if there's relation between it and a certain period of time.
Not just that, but you could attempt to track the mood in relation to data. If a popular news item was making the rounds, what was the overall mood of those passing it. Did the information affect the mood and how?
Scary stuff.
Actually, this was part of a test I was administered in my first web dev gig. The project brief I was given to follow was simple and was really only a secondary part of the test. The network cable was unplugged from the back of the pc. I was told I was being timed and had a time limit of 30 minutes.
All I had to do was build a table that was center justified. It needed to contain 5 rows, and 3 columns of equal width. Image one was to be centered in the uppermost left cell. I was to create a link in the top center cell using whatever anchor text I wanted that pointed to a named anchor in the bottom center cell. You were then supposed to upload it to the designated directory.
I pumped out the peice of junk in a few, and then couldn't upload it. I saw the crossed out icon in the taskbar and checked the back of the machine. Found the unplugged cable and fixed it. Upload and done.
My interviewer complemented me as I was the second person he had interviewed that fixed it themselves. Everyone else claimed they were done because they couldn't upload the file, the network was down. In a small company, wasting time on fixing this type of thing has a significant impact. I was offered a job 3 days later.
Funny sidenote. Some girl who interviewed after me was hired as well because of how she dealt with the scenario. When she was given the directions she noticed the disconnected icon right away. She asked if "connecting the network connection behind the computer" test was really necessary.
As former bartender, I must declare that this post is not a troll and is in fact very good advice.
You'll make more money. Hot girls with relaxed moral sets. Accelerated practice of social skills. These are all desirable.
But, get an education while you work there - because you don't want to get stuck there.
Here's the thing.
Anyone with enough resources to fight this fight against Kroger probably doesn't apply for jobs, they submit resumes for work. That or they offer services where they are sought out by employers. So lets assume that the person being "discriminated" against is lacking deep pockets.
You probably don't know how to get a class action lawsuit started.
The ACLU is not gonna get involved for you, they are too busy.
Jesse Jackson, Helen Keller, or whoever champions your particular self realised niche of oppresion is too busy to help you.
Any lawyer who you could afford with your humble finances probably sucks and would get eaten alive by the sheer paper that Kroger would throw at them.
A pro-bono lawyer is generally busy as hell, and cannot dedicate adequate time to your case.
Ultimately, the lawsuit sucks. Criminal and Civil are both about as likely to suceed as me building the first lightsaber.
I think that logic only works if you prove that they purposely broke it, not that it was broken. The dude wasn't allowed to apply because there was no way to apply, not because they specifically denied him. A white guy, a black guy, a gay, an indian, a jew, and a cripple could have walked in right after him and they wouldn't have been able to apply either.
There is no "right to apply" law that I know of. If an establishment refused to provide applications from people selectively, then there would be a case. The application was denied to anyone asking for it across the board. The period of time that this event occured in is irrelevant.
I personally hate paying $7 for a game rental at blockbuster and haven't really gotten into the whole rent by mail craze because I really don't watch/play that many movies/games a month to make it worthwhile.
I am in the same boat, but I'll tell you what - gamefly has really allowed me to play alot more games. I pay for the one game plan and play 3 games a month, and I really have a limited amount of time. I get to feel a game out, and enjoy (or suffer) the gameplay. Most games don't hold my interest, but I get to see some cool stuff. If I don't like a game, it's with the outgoing mail the next day at work. New game in 5 days.
I'm not sure if I was to post AC as this sounds like a commercial.
Here's what will happen. Most games will never be finished, and even the ones that do will fall into the "release and patch" format for the individual episodes. No one who didn't have the full time to play the whole game will buy its parts (at least they won't get any more use out of them if they), and nothing worthwhile will come of this.
Actually, there are a lot of untried business models that eposodic gaming could use to work. Publishers could actually allow user generated content into the game on a regular high frequency schedule. The modding community could be allowed to create full modules that would be looked at by the producers and evaluated. The game producer would then use a much smaller dev team to clean up the one they decided to go with. The modders get credits and a little cash. The producer gets multiple options on story direction while saving money on dev costs.
To add to this, the Babay Boomer generation is the largest demographic in America. The numbers will drastically change when they start dropping out of the population.
It promotes retarded creativity.
I have always dreamed about being able to do something like this, but I never will. The problem is with upgrades and improvements. Every peice of hardare I have been an early adopter of has come back and bit me on the ass.
Theres othr things I have yet to purchase because the rate of its evolution is too fast for me to justify jumping into the stream of things just to have something thats going to be obsolete sooner than I can accept.
No way am I going to experience that with something that attaches to my brain.
Wow, thats an open ended scenario.
Regarding what? Me making money? Me getting a dream job? Me saving the world through double homicide?
Come on man, just because I understand that I can do whatever I want in theory if I don't mind the consequences doesn't make me a heartless evil bastard. The behavior is usually of the "victimless crime" type.
It's inspirational because it's sad.
My personal view has always been that you can do what ever you want, as long as you are willing the accept the consequences, legal or otherwise
You are the only other person I have ever heard that follows this idea.
OK, I have been guilty of defending the business motivation behind the RIAA from time to time, but that shit is over.
Are these fucks out of their mind? Drop out of school or go to community college? This would be horrible advice to anyone going to college, but this is a friggin MIT student. You know, the type of people that come up with some of the coolest shit ever. The type of people that helped develop the technologies the RIAA is exploiting right now.
Did anyone at the RIAA think of what it would be like to piss these people off? I mean, this type of thing could not only unite the MIT campus into taking offensive action, but the whole lot of prestigious technical Universities as well.
Plus, the run of the mill uneducated citizen can figure this one out. "MIT is where the smart people go. The RIAA says that they want this student to drop out so they can pay them. What the hell."
I sure hope the PR guy for the RIAA drops his intestines when he gets this news.
Thanks!
Now I'm going to go and patent using your wallet to hold air. Its a win/win baby!
Although, I think there may be some trouble defending "with Ranch".
I'm in the process of patenting my invention, I call it "money".
Everyone is screwed now.