I got CTS when I was 16 and working at a design company. This was back in 1994 at epic software, which is probably still hiring... exploiting... high school kids to this day..
Shell Oil screamed at my boss because he screwed up an order; the boss screamed at me to type four pages of detailed technical information as fast as possible for Shell. Before that day, I had never even heard of CTS. After that day, I went home hurting.. and the soreness and eventual numbness never went away (and remains to this day).
My mistake was that I was a kid and didn't know better. I did as I was told and didn't think about it. Ergonomics were terrible in those days (this was circa 1994 - 1995); OSHA is trying to get people up to date.
Most of the new furniture available to businesses is compliant with standards to prevent RSI.
It's just when employers have old-ass equipment and furniture that they have used and used and used that really presents a problem. Computer desks from 10 years ago are not the same as those today.
In my case, my employer had me working and typing on a long "bingo" table and a folding chair.
Most employers will listen to requests for ergo stuff now, but, back when I got CTS, my employer said, "We'll just have to take you out back and shoot you" (referring to how horses with broken legs are often dealt with)
SOHO standards are coming about because people are employing others to do work in their home office and making them sit on consumer furniture that is not meant to be worked on. Can you imagine doing a consulting job where you spent 8 - 12 hours coding on someone's small kitchen stool, keyboard in lap? It has happened.
Before you diss OSHA, don't forget that there are plenty of stupid people out there that aren't as wise to ergonomics as you are. It is these people that they want to crack down on because their employees are getting injured.
Well, for one thing, people who "jump" between jobs for high salaries and high workloads are going to be highly unattractive.
Contractors might still be okay, though.
>The companies are only your friends now because
>it's the only way they can keep talent. What do
I speak as an employer, but also as a person whose wife is employed by a very "friendly" company who gives low wages and compensates by giving them a free snack machine, a ping pong table, etc.
What needs to happen is a paradigm shift (when the economy downturns) whereby the snack machine and Playstation and 70 hour week are tossed, but employers give days off to spend with their
families.
Several countries in Europe have a very nice way of doing this... some even up to a month off. Of course, we don't.
The flipside to it is like when mothers take a long maternity leave here in the US. Yeah, they can do it by law, but, when they return, people have changed, their work has been done by others, and they are resented to some extent.
Nonetheless, I would venture to say that most people would even take a pay cut, just to get some more days off. I would.
After the FBI raid and confiscation of Steve Jackson Games for allegations that were clearly off-base, the EFF was formed to attempt to combat this.
At one time, as I recall, the EFF was a pretty strong and respected organization. I even contributed back in the 0ld Sk00l days.
Then, its support has seemed to dwindle over the years to where most people haven't heard about/don't really care about it.
The last I heard of them, they had some sort of fairly expensive dinner/black-tie event at the Harvard Club downtown. Whether this is what it actually was, I don't know -- some dot-com lawyer tried to push it on me. At the time, it seemed like a schmoozing fest for dot-coms and their venture capitalists.
Looking at their website now, it seems like they are a lobbying organization or something rather than a progressive activist group. It appears to be a far cry from their roots... and the people who were their main supporters.
I would be interested to know if the EFF still handles or supports cases like this or are they through with trying to fight it?
I have to agree with the comments so far; the ability to forbid someone to circumvent protective measures on a piece of tangible property that you own seems futile.
Hackers will always be collectively smarter than any corporation or law enforcement body... and there is not a law or rule in the book that can prevent this.
Ah, yes, the shameless promotion. I put GNU in there because "working in free software" wouldn't fit.;-)
I'm looking for someone who is local in Boston, starting out at part-time, to do some Debian GNU/Linux (and, sometimes, RH) hacking and a few other business-oriented things. Basically, I'm severely overworked and need a partner in kr1m3 to lend a hand in a lot of different areas. Even if you can offer help as a consultant, that would be cool.
If you're interested, please drop me a line. Many thanks.
Job's business strategy - Focus on Customer
on
X On OSX Now Free
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· Score: 1
Apple has always gone after the supposed upper-class niche of computer users. It didn't work with NeXT - it didn't work with the original Macs. It still isn't working. If you've read the latest stockholder reports, the iMacs are sagging badly as are the Cubes.
*HOWEVER*, I don't see any reason why they would drop prices. Jobs understands that, pretty much no matter how outrageous Apple behaves, they will never fail their die-hard users. It's part of knowing who your customer is. What Apple has that PC box-pushers don't is a dedicated customer base of people who will buy their funky machines and tolerate their broken software.
As for Jobs "turning around" Apple: as a stockholder, I don't think that he was successful - this was more of a media play than anything else. OTOH, he did something that no one else had been able to do before Jobs (since Sculley): he plugged back into the Apple customer and made a real attempt to satisfy what Apple customers want. IMHO, he was very successful at pumping new life and bringing new vision into the still-ailing business model of Apple.
See my detailed article on supporting Linux end-users and their needs at Advogato. I also give the weaknesses and strengths of setting up a "cooperative" to support these needs.
I think the limitation is that not much is really known about GNU/Linux end-users and what they expect. With all of the VC injected into the Linux server market, large entities really don't care about the end-users because the margins are very tight. There is not enough money to satisfy their VC obligations with a return of 15%. Server margins are upwards of 400%.
I don't know if you checked out their site, but, when broadband becomes more accessable, these seemingly flexible console-kiosk things boxen can probably be retrofitted with equipment to allow a variety of services. The flexibility of Linux allows a lot more leeway than older, size-constrained (and proprietary) ROM setups.
I'm thinking, more or less, about videophones... but I'm sure there are a lot more useful ideas that will come about with more flexible kiosks.
Would it not just be easier to make a deal with the American pr0n sites to use the new TLDs (e.g.,.xxx and.adult)?
Every filter I have used has been pretty much bogus. You can't arbitrarily keep kids out from stuff without some sort of standard; it just doesn't work.
It reminds me of the times I used to spend at Kinko's hacking "Desk Tracy", a slipshod program placed over Windows or Mac OS to try to regulate access (before this became a priority). I never paid one cent for computer usage. Using WinNT now, it appears to be a little more difficult. But *I* wouldn't know....;)
Basically, fuck the US News & World report. I went to several schools before finding one that was right for me (Texas A&M). For instance, having been there, I can say that Harvard is *not* for everyone... not even *close*. Pick a school that you feel comfortable in and can get the most out of. Then, stick with it.
When you get out of school and become and employer or an employee who has to interview people (I'm both), you'll know that every single person (no matter where they go) who comes out of college knows about the same: not much. It then is up to the employer to decide whether he wants to take on the task of training a college grad and giving him experience -- if you've had a miserable college experience and are embittered by it, you'll have a more difficult time in this process since it is very intimidating for people fresh out of school.
"He estimated that the state could cut the price of a good laptop computer to about $1,200,
which students would pay directly to the vendor. State officials have been in talks with
computer makers IBM, Compaq, Gateway, and Dell."
A very nice example of computer industry lobbying masquerading as a "for the public good" law... and everyone will be running Windows.
If one could bring UMass into sync with the rest of the world by requiring laptops, it would have been done already. They have other priorities right now that they need to fix. For them, it is all a matter of getting subsidies from the state... and helping out their public image.
This is a good point... Try to keep the customer by *allowing* him to upgrade... and upgrade at *his* own leisure according to *his* needs as the technology changes.
There's no doubt that growth in the market is declining. You'll still have the same people who have purchased computers before, but you'll have to try to keep them for their business in the future... without the tricks and games that are played today.
People's attitudes will change, as well. People hate being treated like cattle, yet they still buy from large PC companies and expect to get great service. They go for Billy Bob's Discount PC-O-Rama because they can save a whole $20 on a 1GHz machine and wonder why the parts are bad and they can't get help. Then they wonder why the S&H charges are astronomical.
Old habits die hard. People are still using old boxen with Linux and still buying new Windows PCs when those wear out... and then complaining of a global conspiracy by PC manufacturers and their upgrade-itis and proprietary stuff. People expect to be screwed, so they go the same vendors because they at least know *how* they're going to be screwed.
Why not just do it in reverse: instead of buying a Windows PC, buy your next PC as a *free software* box from someone (or an entity) that makes free software boxen. Then, use Windows with vmware. Finally, stir gently and let simmer.:)
At any rate, it seems the era of pushing boxes upon hapless consumers is fading. Indeed, they're getting smarter, more demanding -- and this requires a better strategy than what has been used lately.
What I have been trying to do with the Blackbird is to try to build a free software platform that can be upgraded over time. Open design, open communication. Try to have as few things "built in" (dirty) as possible. Sell components at near-OEM prices (e.g., what I buy them for + a thin margin) to existing customers so that they can upgrade theirs over time. Most people will be content with a 1GHz Blackbird for a long time, but they will probably upgrade storage, video, and stuff like that. Giving people the *freedom* NOT to buy component upgrades from the company they bought the machine from seems to build a certain degree of trust, since "upgrades" sold by vendors today are often proprietary and machine-specific.
The strategy seems to work in theory. The hardest part is attracting the people needed to make it work: the intelligent computer crowd. People who *understand* how to upgrade a mobo or a processor...
... and that is what will be *INCREASING* in the next two years.
.NET seems as if it will help us integrate GNU/Linux into the Windows workplace. If we can get more people to use Linux, even if it is through.NET, this can mean more mindshare.
If we can relegate Microsoft to a particular service that works with our GNU/Linux setup, I'm in support of that.
The GPL also prevents Microsoft from coming too close to the distributed OS. My question is: what about modifications to the OS?
For instance, to use.NET, if Microsoft decides to "innovate" a stock/etc file, adding information that is not what we're used to or changing the format such that certain other programs won't work with it anymore, is this something that is legal?
Let's take it a step further. Then, is it legal if they decide to replace certain command programs with ones that work with that particular/etc file? If these link against the kernel dynamically, they can be precompiled.
In essence, these are established standards that we have been in place for a long time... and we know about Microsoft and standards. Would people tolerate it?
I've submitted my registration to patent the click. I will license this for $5 per finite period of noise emitted from a depressed computer mouse button.
You may think this is rather simple, but the noise is quite complex. I invented it while listening to dolphins at the age of 4. This was before Xerox's Alto mouse, so I believe I have a fair share of the profits coming to me.
Our family VC suggested that I should keep a backlog of clicks so that, after I'm awarded the patent, I can retroactively bill people.
Then I'm going to use a FUD-inspired tactic of convincing people to license my clicks rather than competitors' clicks because mine are more wholistic and actually help businesses succeed 175% because they're the *original* clicks.
...Hey! You haven't even established an account yet.
.... !! That's $10 now. Very funny rich boy.
..... Keep it up, hey! Ok, that's $15. I can take VISA, Mastercar...
Kiss your what ??!! Well, you just wait until I incorporate a bad language provision into my EULA!!
Some no-name, generic people who barely know what the DNS is are being chosen to attach "innovations" to the Internet by a committee of voters that most of us (who actually understand what is going on) can't even join.
Were it up to me, TLDs and the architecture of the Internet would be decided by seasoned, 20 year veterans of networking. People who program, people who hack (in the positive sense of the word), people who have a wealth of understanding in technology.
I'm 24; I've used the Internet since 1991 and GNU/Linux since it was.9... but someone who is 44 and has 20 more years of historical experience in how things (UNIX, networking, etc. etc.) were before I came on the scene is infinitely more beneficial to the direction of the Internet than I am. Choosing a politician, lawyer, or businessperson who happened to be at the right place, who barely understands the technology, and who "understands civil liberties" (yah, don't we all...) seems to be a bad move for the future, even if simply setting a precedent for the type of people that "should" occupy the position.
I don't think Sun will be adopting open source alternatives just yet. It would be *nice*, but I think we have to consider its business model.
Anyone who has ever even inquired about selling Sun stuff knows that Sun detests "Box Pushing". It doesn't want to get grouped in with Intel whitebox sales -- flat and becoming flatter and insanely unprofitable except to the big guys (e.g., Dell). Intel-based megaservers, however, are profitable.
Sun wants to sell solutions because there is more money involved on both the VAR and Sun's end. Sun gets the sales on software and hardware, the VAR gets the sales in services, plus the markup on the actual equipment. Going open source for some of its pieces or moving to GPL therefore means a substantial drop in sales.
They also would have far less control in how to implement solutions; quality on the VAR end would probably suffer as open-source development changes rapidly -- that is, printed material can seldom keep up with most open-source projects unless it is an established open-source work (e.g., perl). If you've ever looked at a Sun manual, you know that they do a pretty good job at them.
The reason most Sun resellers really aren't sticking up for GNU/Linux is that *anyone* who sells Sun stuff has to be able to invest $30K in Sun equipment and software and do $500K a year in sales... It takes 6 months and with lots of training. You must also submit a *business plan*.... Yes, that's right, just to SELL Sun boxes. With this much constraint on their businesses, most VAR would *not* want Sun to be subjugated to the wily, chaotic, and often anti-profit nature of open-source development.
Companies like Red Hat are trying to do similar stuff with GNU/Linux, but I haven't been able to see through the smoke and hype just yet to determine whether or not GNU/Linux solutions providers can seriously compete with Sun solutions providers.
The Cobalt acquisition means that Sun wants to get its feet wet in solution-providing for other markets, but not too close and not while risking its own name. It will, however, adopt Cobalt to the "Sun style" of doing things to work within the current business model.
Information on UPC Symbols is in the public,
isn't it? Isn't this a universal (AFAIK at least American?) standard?
My thought is that CueCat is probably VC-based, and they're watching their business plan being eaten... but they have VC-money to sue with.
A database of UPC Symbols would be of great use to smaller business and retailers who want to use them "scanning in" either a.) purchases of commonly purchased items, without having to actually scan the box or b.) inventory tracking.
Inventory tracking is difficult to do when there are slight differences between the two products. A simple Maxtor HDD listing with features like UDMA, etc. can even be complex, for instance, if one has a 5400RPM rotation instead of a 7200 rotation. If you've ever worked with a distributor and not had the SKU, you know that the most complex part is trying to determine what things are by a jumble of extremely long sentences and unclearly abbreviated phrases. Sometimes the differentiation doesn't fit on the screen (e.g., the Maxtor drives would look the same, except for the price).
It would be nice to scan in what inventory you want to reorder from a laser-printed sheet and have it automatically poll Ingram-Micro (or whomever) to see if it is available.
As far as difficulty scanning boxes, if you've ever tried to move a set of stacked boxes around to find the UPC code (often on the bottom), you probably know what I'm talking about. It's not fun.
With companies being so quick to sue, they seem to forget that, even with something like the CueCat, there is always a way to make some sort of money simply by (*gasp*) taking care of your customers. Not *everyone* is interested in hacking it, and most people are probably looking for a solution-based (e.g., service) approach. When you dump your customers (e.g., the lawsuit money has to come from somewhere, and customer service is often the first to suffer) to go after hackers and play lawsuit-cowboy, you have alienated both parties... parties that both had the potential to support your company in some fashion.
In the hacking world, hackers give good publicity. Sure, they love to tear your stuff apart, but they gave rise to stuff like the iOpener and the CueCat which would have never been heard of otherwise. Hackers represent the ultimate consumer - they have a no-BS approach, they're intelligent, they're skeptical, and they love a quality product they can tool around with. Most small business owners would be able to die happy if they could have even received one-fifth the publicity that either of these companies got. Go figure.
Yes, it is nice that it will still run on a 386, but there are other factors to consider:
1. Earlier platforms generally had no CD-ROM. Most Linux distros (except for fringe distros) come on CD-ROMs. Most people do not want to buy a CD-ROM for their 386, 486s. There are places that offer small "floppy-disk-sized" Linux distros, but they are obviously chopped. 1400K on a 500MB HDD.
2. Earlier machines usually had a 5 1/4" floppy disk, until the late 486s started really using 3.5" floppies. Most people are not going to spend money and time ripping out an old floppy.
3. Earlier machines had RAM limitations, aside from the fact that no one wants to really waste the money on putting more EDO memory into an obsolete machine.
4. Some earlier machines had fscked BIOSes, aside from Y2K-unfriendly BIOSes; Most people will not research whether the particular BIOS is okay to determine whether or not to spend money on the first three items.
5. Earlier machines had ISA, EISA, etc. Oh, what, you want to run GNU/Linux in something other than CGA?
6. Earlier network cards are not all supported to get around many of these limitations... I tried to get around not having a CD or a 3.5" floppy in an old 486 by using some sort of older ISA-based network card.
Obviously, there are many issues to consider before nodding one's head to allow Linus to try to preserve performance in ancient boxen for nostalgic purposes.
"I recently began using a new product from Microsoft called MSN Explorer."
"With MSN Explorer, you can send and receive spam, exchange erotic messages with me and the millions of other teenagers who use MSN Explorer, browse for pornography and much more. MSN Explorer even offers an exciting new proprietary interface for using the Web and makes it 'easy' to preview and license music online. Want to try it out? It's FREE - just click on the link below, sign the waiver, and fill out several screens of detailed information."
I don't know what you guys are talking about...Mine seems to work fine...
---
"I recently began using a new product from Microsoft called MSN Explorer. With MSN Explorer, you can send and receive e-mail, exchange instant messages with me and the millions of other people who use MSN Explorer, browse the Web and much more. MSN Explorer even offers an exciting new look for using the Web and makes it easy to find and play music online. Want to try it out? It's FREE! Just click on the link below and follow the download instructions."
Those CD-ROMs that it uses... maybe it is because of the image, but (to me) they look a little different than normal CD-ROMs....
Perhaps they are trying to curb what happened with the Playstation, in terms of duplication.
There is also the fact that Nintendo all but invented the idea of licensing games (avoiding the Atari anyone-can-make-a-videogame fiasco - see earlier Slashdot articles on the topic) -- perhaps developers will also have to license the ability to use the proprietary CD-ROM technology or format... I suppose this would be no different than it is now with the cartridge-based N64.
IdeaLab! is not suing just yet, but it is going through the procedure to get their name removed from the page. This includes a formal warning that FuckedCompany.com is potentially liable for infringements on certain aspects of IdeaLab's IP.
The formal filing of a complaint does not take place until later, if FuckedCompany.com (or the guy who runs it, Pud) does not comply with a written letter and IdeaLab decides the case is worth fighting in courts.
If IdeaLab is going under and trying to gain additional funding, however, they would not want to further the humiliation by formally suing about having their company posted, causing more publicity to the fact that they are, well, fucked.
The other thing to consider is their ability to sue - if much of IdeaLab's venture capital is contained in their fixed assets (e.g., computer stuff) and maintaining their employee overhead, then they will not have the ability to do more than send off threatening letters. A threatening letter costs ~$200 from an attorney; a lawsuit costs much, much more... and not only in terms of money.
>Eventually, though, the market will mature. The >dot-coms that are unrealistic will fail, and >companies will find themselves saddled with more >IT people than they can use. The firings will >begin, and a lot of ITs (and probably a lot >of/. readers) will be out on the streets.
Another thing you have to realize is that, while employers (like me) are SOL right now as far as finding people, when the economy turns down and it's an employer's market, people who have been "job-hopping" (i.e., spending only a few months at a.com-style job before leaving for another, higher-paying.com-style job) will be *damaged goods*.
Think about it: If you had to pick between someone who had three or four.com jobs in two years and someone who stuck solidly with their company through the past few greedy years, there is already an implied bonus: the latter seems to promote stability and level-headedness (even if it is not the case). It will also show that the person can make real contributions to the company (in terms of culture) and that training him or her will be worthwhile. These are just examples.
As I've learned when talking with other employers, some people (potential employees) have caught on to this and have started leaving "gaps" in their resumes to hide it. Either way, their resume immediately gets tossed. If they do make it into an interview, they are grilled about the "missing" time. Ususally, it is some bullsh*t like, "Oh, I took a vacation for three months."
Best thing: stick with it for at least a year. Remain level-headed and don't be greedy; as more and more people pour onto the scene doing what you do and the economy inevitably turns downward, employers are going to be selecting the best *people*, not just someone who can *code*.
a.) I'm not certain where this is, but certainly could he not get a train into one of the major metropolitan areas to pick it up at a UPS Distribution Center?
b.) Perhaps someone here is from one of these places and could perhaps volunteer to keep the package for him (e.g., a drop location).
c.) Is there an internal mail system/infrastructure in Russia that can handle going to the outskirts? Perhaps the package can be routed from UPS to the Russian mail system.
d.) What are the policies of other American or International carriers that do business with America? Anyone know?
e.) Perhaps the packages can be routed through a different country that has better access to that area.
These come to mind; this is an interesting problem if Russia is going to be a global player: distribution infrastructure issues.
Slashdot Mirror
I got CTS when I was 16 and working at a design company. This was back in 1994 at epic software, which is probably still hiring... exploiting... high school kids to this day..
Shell Oil screamed at my boss because he screwed up an order; the boss screamed at me to type four pages of detailed technical information as fast as possible for Shell. Before that day, I had never even heard of CTS. After that day, I went home hurting.. and the soreness and eventual numbness never went away (and remains to this day).
My mistake was that I was a kid and didn't know better. I did as I was told and didn't think about it. Ergonomics were terrible in those days (this was circa 1994 - 1995); OSHA is trying to get people up to date.
Most of the new furniture available to businesses is compliant with standards to prevent RSI.
It's just when employers have old-ass equipment and furniture that they have used and used and used that really presents a problem. Computer desks from 10 years ago are not the same as those today.
In my case, my employer had me working and typing on a long "bingo" table and a folding chair.
Most employers will listen to requests for ergo stuff now, but, back when I got CTS, my employer said, "We'll just have to take you out back and shoot you" (referring to how horses with broken legs are often dealt with)
SOHO standards are coming about because people are employing others to do work in their home office and making them sit on consumer furniture that is not meant to be worked on. Can you imagine doing a consulting job where you spent 8 - 12 hours coding on someone's small kitchen stool, keyboard in lap? It has happened.
Before you diss OSHA, don't forget that there are plenty of stupid people out there that aren't as wise to ergonomics as you are. It is these people that they want to crack down on because their employees are getting injured.
--
Well, for one thing, people who "jump" between jobs for high salaries and high workloads are going to be highly unattractive.
Contractors might still be okay, though.
>The companies are only your friends now because>it's the only way they can keep talent. What do
I speak as an employer, but also as a person whose wife is employed by a very "friendly" company who gives low wages and compensates by giving them a free snack machine, a ping pong table, etc.
What needs to happen is a paradigm shift (when the economy downturns) whereby the snack machine and Playstation and 70 hour week are tossed, but employers give days off to spend with their families.
Several countries in Europe have a very nice way of doing this... some even up to a month off. Of course, we don't.
The flipside to it is like when mothers take a long maternity leave here in the US. Yeah, they can do it by law, but, when they return, people have changed, their work has been done by others, and they are resented to some extent.
Nonetheless, I would venture to say that most people would even take a pay cut, just to get some more days off. I would.
Lucas
--
After the FBI raid and confiscation of Steve Jackson Games for allegations that were clearly off-base, the EFF was formed to attempt to combat this.
At one time, as I recall, the EFF was a pretty strong and respected organization. I even contributed back in the 0ld Sk00l days.
Then, its support has seemed to dwindle over the years to where most people haven't heard about/don't really care about it.
The last I heard of them, they had some sort of fairly expensive dinner/black-tie event at the Harvard Club downtown. Whether this is what it actually was, I don't know -- some dot-com lawyer tried to push it on me. At the time, it seemed like a schmoozing fest for dot-coms and their venture capitalists.
Looking at their website now, it seems like they are a lobbying organization or something rather than a progressive activist group. It appears to be a far cry from their roots... and the people who were their main supporters.
I would be interested to know if the EFF still handles or supports cases like this or are they through with trying to fight it?
I have to agree with the comments so far; the ability to forbid someone to circumvent protective measures on a piece of tangible property that you own seems futile.
Hackers will always be collectively smarter than any corporation or law enforcement body... and there is not a law or rule in the book that can prevent this.
Ah, yes, the shameless promotion. I put GNU in there because "working in free software" wouldn't fit. ;-)
I'm looking for someone who is local in Boston, starting out at part-time, to do some Debian GNU/Linux (and, sometimes, RH) hacking and a few other business-oriented things. Basically, I'm severely overworked and need a partner in kr1m3 to lend a hand in a lot of different areas. Even if you can offer help as a consultant, that would be cool.
If you're interested, please drop me a line. Many thanks.
Apple has always gone after the supposed upper-class niche of computer users. It didn't work with NeXT - it didn't work with the original Macs. It still isn't working. If you've read the latest stockholder reports, the iMacs are sagging badly as are the Cubes. *HOWEVER*, I don't see any reason why they would drop prices. Jobs understands that, pretty much no matter how outrageous Apple behaves, they will never fail their die-hard users. It's part of knowing who your customer is. What Apple has that PC box-pushers don't is a dedicated customer base of people who will buy their funky machines and tolerate their broken software. As for Jobs "turning around" Apple: as a stockholder, I don't think that he was successful - this was more of a media play than anything else. OTOH, he did something that no one else had been able to do before Jobs (since Sculley): he plugged back into the Apple customer and made a real attempt to satisfy what Apple customers want. IMHO, he was very successful at pumping new life and bringing new vision into the still-ailing business model of Apple.
See my detailed article on supporting Linux end-users and their needs at Advogato. I also give the weaknesses and strengths of setting up a "cooperative" to support these needs.
I think the limitation is that not much is really known about GNU/Linux end-users and what they expect. With all of the VC injected into the Linux server market, large entities really don't care about the end-users because the margins are very tight. There is not enough money to satisfy their VC obligations with a return of 15%. Server margins are upwards of 400%.
Lucas
I don't know if you checked out their site, but, when broadband becomes more accessable, these seemingly flexible console-kiosk things boxen can probably be retrofitted with equipment to allow a variety of services. The flexibility of Linux allows a lot more leeway than older, size-constrained (and proprietary) ROM setups.
I'm thinking, more or less, about videophones... but I'm sure there are a lot more useful ideas that will come about with more flexible kiosks.
Would it not just be easier to make a deal with the American pr0n sites to use the new TLDs (e.g., .xxx and .adult)?
;)
Every filter I have used has been pretty much bogus. You can't arbitrarily keep kids out from stuff without some sort of standard; it just doesn't work.
It reminds me of the times I used to spend at Kinko's hacking "Desk Tracy", a slipshod program placed over Windows or Mac OS to try to regulate access (before this became a priority). I never paid one cent for computer usage. Using WinNT now, it appears to be a little more difficult. But *I* wouldn't know....
Lucas
Basically, fuck the US News & World report. I went to several schools before finding one that was right for me (Texas A&M). For instance, having been there, I can say that Harvard is *not* for everyone... not even *close*. Pick a school that you feel comfortable in and can get the most out of. Then, stick with it.
When you get out of school and become and employer or an employee who has to interview people (I'm both), you'll know that every single person (no matter where they go) who comes out of college knows about the same: not much. It then is up to the employer to decide whether he wants to take on the task of training a college grad and giving him experience -- if you've had a miserable college experience and are embittered by it, you'll have a more difficult time in this process since it is very intimidating for people fresh out of school.
Lucas
Cambridge, MA
"He estimated that the state could cut the price of a good laptop computer to about $1,200, which students would pay directly to the vendor. State officials have been in talks with computer makers IBM, Compaq, Gateway, and Dell."
A very nice example of computer industry lobbying masquerading as a "for the public good" law... and everyone will be running Windows.
If one could bring UMass into sync with the rest of the world by requiring laptops, it would have been done already. They have other priorities right now that they need to fix. For them, it is all a matter of getting subsidies from the state... and helping out their public image.
Lucas
Cambridge, MA
This is a good point... Try to keep the customer by *allowing* him to upgrade... and upgrade at *his* own leisure according to *his* needs as the technology changes.
There's no doubt that growth in the market is declining. You'll still have the same people who have purchased computers before, but you'll have to try to keep them for their business in the future... without the tricks and games that are played today.
People's attitudes will change, as well. People hate being treated like cattle, yet they still buy from large PC companies and expect to get great service. They go for Billy Bob's Discount PC-O-Rama because they can save a whole $20 on a 1GHz machine and wonder why the parts are bad and they can't get help. Then they wonder why the S&H charges are astronomical.
Old habits die hard. People are still using old boxen with Linux and still buying new Windows PCs when those wear out... and then complaining of a global conspiracy by PC manufacturers and their upgrade-itis and proprietary stuff. People expect to be screwed, so they go the same vendors because they at least know *how* they're going to be screwed.
Why not just do it in reverse: instead of buying a Windows PC, buy your next PC as a *free software* box from someone (or an entity) that makes free software boxen. Then, use Windows with vmware. Finally, stir gently and let simmer. :)
At any rate, it seems the era of pushing boxes upon hapless consumers is fading. Indeed, they're getting smarter, more demanding -- and this requires a better strategy than what has been used lately.
What I have been trying to do with the Blackbird is to try to build a free software platform that can be upgraded over time. Open design, open communication. Try to have as few things "built in" (dirty) as possible. Sell components at near-OEM prices (e.g., what I buy them for + a thin margin) to existing customers so that they can upgrade theirs over time. Most people will be content with a 1GHz Blackbird for a long time, but they will probably upgrade storage, video, and stuff like that. Giving people the *freedom* NOT to buy component upgrades from the company they bought the machine from seems to build a certain degree of trust, since "upgrades" sold by vendors today are often proprietary and machine-specific.
The strategy seems to work in theory. The hardest part is attracting the people needed to make it work: the intelligent computer crowd. People who *understand* how to upgrade a mobo or a processor...
... and that is what will be *INCREASING* in the next two years.
Lucas
.NET seems as if it will help us integrate GNU/Linux into the Windows workplace. If we can get more people to use Linux, even if it is through .NET, this can mean more mindshare.
If we can relegate Microsoft to a particular service that works with our GNU/Linux setup, I'm in support of that.
The GPL also prevents Microsoft from coming too close to the distributed OS. My question is: what about modifications to the OS?
For instance, to use .NET, if Microsoft decides to "innovate" a stock /etc file, adding information that is not what we're used to or changing the format such that certain other programs won't work with it anymore, is this something that is legal?
Let's take it a step further. Then, is it legal if they decide to replace certain command programs with ones that work with that particular /etc file? If these link against the kernel dynamically, they can be precompiled.
In essence, these are established standards that we have been in place for a long time... and we know about Microsoft and standards. Would people tolerate it?
Lucas
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I've submitted my registration to patent the click. I will license this for $5 per finite period of noise emitted from a depressed computer mouse button.
You may think this is rather simple, but the noise is quite complex. I invented it while listening to dolphins at the age of 4. This was before Xerox's Alto mouse, so I believe I have a fair share of the profits coming to me.
Our family VC suggested that I should keep a backlog of clicks so that, after I'm awarded the patent, I can retroactively bill people.
Then I'm going to use a FUD-inspired tactic of convincing people to license my clicks rather than competitors' clicks because mine are more wholistic and actually help businesses succeed 175% because they're the *original* clicks.
.... !! That's $10 now. Very funny rich boy.
..... Keep it up, hey! Ok, that's $15. I can take VISA, Mastercar...
Kiss your what ??!! Well, you just wait until I incorporate a bad language provision into my EULA!!
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I'm still laughing at this.
Some no-name, generic people who barely know what the DNS is are being chosen to attach "innovations" to the Internet by a committee of voters that most of us (who actually understand what is going on) can't even join.
Were it up to me, TLDs and the architecture of the Internet would be decided by seasoned, 20 year veterans of networking. People who program, people who hack (in the positive sense of the word), people who have a wealth of understanding in technology.
I'm 24; I've used the Internet since 1991 and GNU/Linux since it was .9... but someone who is 44 and has 20 more years of historical experience in how things (UNIX, networking, etc. etc.) were before I came on the scene is infinitely more beneficial to the direction of the Internet than I am. Choosing a politician, lawyer, or businessperson who happened to be at the right place, who barely understands the technology, and who "understands civil liberties" (yah, don't we all...) seems to be a bad move for the future, even if simply setting a precedent for the type of people that "should" occupy the position.
Lucas
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I don't think Sun will be adopting open source alternatives just yet. It would be *nice*, but I think we have to consider its business model.
Anyone who has ever even inquired about selling Sun stuff knows that Sun detests "Box Pushing". It doesn't want to get grouped in with Intel whitebox sales -- flat and becoming flatter and insanely unprofitable except to the big guys (e.g., Dell). Intel-based megaservers, however, are profitable.
Sun wants to sell solutions because there is more money involved on both the VAR and Sun's end. Sun gets the sales on software and hardware, the VAR gets the sales in services, plus the markup on the actual equipment. Going open source for some of its pieces or moving to GPL therefore means a substantial drop in sales.
They also would have far less control in how to implement solutions; quality on the VAR end would probably suffer as open-source development changes rapidly -- that is, printed material can seldom keep up with most open-source projects unless it is an established open-source work (e.g., perl). If you've ever looked at a Sun manual, you know that they do a pretty good job at them.
The reason most Sun resellers really aren't sticking up for GNU/Linux is that *anyone* who sells Sun stuff has to be able to invest $30K in Sun equipment and software and do $500K a year in sales... It takes 6 months and with lots of training. You must also submit a *business plan* .... Yes, that's right, just to SELL Sun boxes. With this much constraint on their businesses, most VAR would *not* want Sun to be subjugated to the wily, chaotic, and often anti-profit nature of open-source development.
Companies like Red Hat are trying to do similar stuff with GNU/Linux, but I haven't been able to see through the smoke and hype just yet to determine whether or not GNU/Linux solutions providers can seriously compete with Sun solutions providers.
The Cobalt acquisition means that Sun wants to get its feet wet in solution-providing for other markets, but not too close and not while risking its own name. It will, however, adopt Cobalt to the "Sun style" of doing things to work within the current business model.
Lucas
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Spindletop Blackbird, the GNU/Linux Cube.
Information on UPC Symbols is in the public, isn't it? Isn't this a universal (AFAIK at least American?) standard?
My thought is that CueCat is probably VC-based, and they're watching their business plan being eaten... but they have VC-money to sue with.
A database of UPC Symbols would be of great use to smaller business and retailers who want to use them "scanning in" either a.) purchases of commonly purchased items, without having to actually scan the box or b.) inventory tracking.
Inventory tracking is difficult to do when there are slight differences between the two products. A simple Maxtor HDD listing with features like UDMA, etc. can even be complex, for instance, if one has a 5400RPM rotation instead of a 7200 rotation. If you've ever worked with a distributor and not had the SKU, you know that the most complex part is trying to determine what things are by a jumble of extremely long sentences and unclearly abbreviated phrases. Sometimes the differentiation doesn't fit on the screen (e.g., the Maxtor drives would look the same, except for the price).
It would be nice to scan in what inventory you want to reorder from a laser-printed sheet and have it automatically poll Ingram-Micro (or whomever) to see if it is available.
As far as difficulty scanning boxes, if you've ever tried to move a set of stacked boxes around to find the UPC code (often on the bottom), you probably know what I'm talking about. It's not fun.
With companies being so quick to sue, they seem to forget that, even with something like the CueCat, there is always a way to make some sort of money simply by (*gasp*) taking care of your customers. Not *everyone* is interested in hacking it, and most people are probably looking for a solution-based (e.g., service) approach. When you dump your customers (e.g., the lawsuit money has to come from somewhere, and customer service is often the first to suffer) to go after hackers and play lawsuit-cowboy, you have alienated both parties... parties that both had the potential to support your company in some fashion.
In the hacking world, hackers give good publicity. Sure, they love to tear your stuff apart, but they gave rise to stuff like the iOpener and the CueCat which would have never been heard of otherwise. Hackers represent the ultimate consumer - they have a no-BS approach, they're intelligent, they're skeptical, and they love a quality product they can tool around with. Most small business owners would be able to die happy if they could have even received one-fifth the publicity that either of these companies got. Go figure.
Lucas
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Spindletop Blackbird, the GNU/Linux Cube.
Yes, it is nice that it will still run on a 386, but there are other factors to consider:
1. Earlier platforms generally had no CD-ROM. Most Linux distros (except for fringe distros) come on CD-ROMs. Most people do not want to buy a CD-ROM for their 386, 486s. There are places that offer small "floppy-disk-sized" Linux distros, but they are obviously chopped. 1400K on a 500MB HDD.
2. Earlier machines usually had a 5 1/4" floppy disk, until the late 486s started really using 3.5" floppies. Most people are not going to spend money and time ripping out an old floppy.
3. Earlier machines had RAM limitations, aside from the fact that no one wants to really waste the money on putting more EDO memory into an obsolete machine.
4. Some earlier machines had fscked BIOSes, aside from Y2K-unfriendly BIOSes; Most people will not research whether the particular BIOS is okay to determine whether or not to spend money on the first three items.
5. Earlier machines had ISA, EISA, etc. Oh, what, you want to run GNU/Linux in something other than CGA?
6. Earlier network cards are not all supported to get around many of these limitations... I tried to get around not having a CD or a 3.5" floppy in an old 486 by using some sort of older ISA-based network card.
Obviously, there are many issues to consider before nodding one's head to allow Linus to try to preserve performance in ancient boxen for nostalgic purposes.
Lucas
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Spindletop Blackbird, the GNU/Linux Cube.
"I recently began using a new product from Microsoft called MSN Explorer."
"With MSN Explorer, you can send and receive spam, exchange erotic messages with me and the millions of other teenagers who use MSN Explorer, browse for pornography and much more. MSN Explorer even offers an exciting new proprietary interface for using the Web and makes it 'easy' to preview and license music online. Want to try it out? It's FREE - just click on the link below, sign the waiver, and fill out several screens of detailed information."
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Spindletop Blackbird, the GNU/Linux Cube.
I don't know what you guys are talking about...Mine seems to work fine...
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"I recently began using a new product from Microsoft called MSN Explorer. With MSN Explorer, you can send and receive e-mail, exchange instant messages with me and the millions of other people who use MSN Explorer, browse the Web and much more. MSN Explorer even offers an exciting new look for using the Web and makes it easy to find and play music online. Want to try it out? It's FREE! Just click on the link below and follow the download instructions."
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Spindletop Blackbird, the GNU/Linux Cube.
Those CD-ROMs that it uses... maybe it is because of the image, but (to me) they look a little different than normal CD-ROMs....
Perhaps they are trying to curb what happened with the Playstation, in terms of duplication.
There is also the fact that Nintendo all but invented the idea of licensing games (avoiding the Atari anyone-can-make-a-videogame fiasco - see earlier Slashdot articles on the topic) -- perhaps developers will also have to license the ability to use the proprietary CD-ROM technology or format... I suppose this would be no different than it is now with the cartridge-based N64.
Lucas
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Spindletop Blackbird, the GNU/Linux Cube.
Most PR stunts like this are done because:
a) They're looking for more funding from VC.
b) They're going to make an IPO soon, so they are trying to get their name out into the investment community.
c) They want to boost consumer opinion of their product (or non-product, as the case may be).
d) They are trying to intimidate another company (e.g., AMD) into working out some sort of deal behind the scenes (which we know nothing about)...
I'm still waiting to see a Crusoe chip; if it's everything they say it is, then Transmeta can crow all they want.
Lucas
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Spindletop Blackbird, the GNU/Linux Cube.
IdeaLab! is not suing just yet, but it is going through the procedure to get their name removed from the page. This includes a formal warning that FuckedCompany.com is potentially liable for infringements on certain aspects of IdeaLab's IP.
The formal filing of a complaint does not take place until later, if FuckedCompany.com (or the guy who runs it, Pud) does not comply with a written letter and IdeaLab decides the case is worth fighting in courts.
If IdeaLab is going under and trying to gain additional funding, however, they would not want to further the humiliation by formally suing about having their company posted, causing more publicity to the fact that they are, well, fucked.
The other thing to consider is their ability to sue - if much of IdeaLab's venture capital is contained in their fixed assets (e.g., computer stuff) and maintaining their employee overhead, then they will not have the ability to do more than send off threatening letters. A threatening letter costs ~$200 from an attorney; a lawsuit costs much, much more... and not only in terms of money.
Lucas
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Spindletop Blackbird, the GNU/Linux Cube.
>dot-coms that are unrealistic will fail, and
>companies will find themselves saddled with more
>IT people than they can use. The firings will
>begin, and a lot of ITs (and probably a lot
>of
Another thing you have to realize is that, while employers (like me) are SOL right now as far as finding people, when the economy turns down and it's an employer's market, people who have been "job-hopping" (i.e., spending only a few months at a .com-style job before leaving for another, higher-paying .com-style job) will be *damaged goods*.
Think about it: If you had to pick between someone who had three or four .com jobs in two years and someone who stuck solidly with their company through the past few greedy years, there is already an implied bonus: the latter seems to promote stability and level-headedness (even if it is not the case). It will also show that the person can make real contributions to the company (in terms of culture) and that training him or her will be worthwhile. These are just examples.
As I've learned when talking with other employers, some people (potential employees) have caught on to this and have started leaving "gaps" in their resumes to hide it. Either way, their resume immediately gets tossed. If they do make it into an interview, they are grilled about the "missing" time. Ususally, it is some bullsh*t like, "Oh, I took a vacation for three months."
Best thing: stick with it for at least a year. Remain level-headed and don't be greedy; as more and more people pour onto the scene doing what you do and the economy inevitably turns downward, employers are going to be selecting the best *people*, not just someone who can *code*.
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Spindletop Blackbird, the GNU/Linux Cube.
a.) I'm not certain where this is, but certainly could he not get a train into one of the major metropolitan areas to pick it up at a UPS Distribution Center?
b.) Perhaps someone here is from one of these places and could perhaps volunteer to keep the package for him (e.g., a drop location).
c.) Is there an internal mail system/infrastructure in Russia that can handle going to the outskirts? Perhaps the package can be routed from UPS to the Russian mail system.
d.) What are the policies of other American or International carriers that do business with America? Anyone know?
e.) Perhaps the packages can be routed through a different country that has better access to that area.
These come to mind; this is an interesting problem if Russia is going to be a global player: distribution infrastructure issues.
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Spindletop Blackbird, the GNU/Linux Cube.