Wow, I never thought that this would be accepted by the editors. When I submitted this, I did want to know about some things, but I couldn't resist saying some trollish stuff.
For those who offered some meaningful statistics, I appreciate it. Thank you for your time.
For what it's worth, when I said, "I think that knowing this is important so that we can direct our attention to the appropriate governments, in hopes of helping them to make the correct choice.", I really did intend that to mean, "How can we make them only use Linux?". I wanted to see how well this would be received by the editors. However, in reality, I do respect the fact that governments should have the ability to choose the best software for the job. I'd happy if it were Linux or *BSD, but it's not that important to me.
That's sad. A more interesting, but slightly off-topic thing that happened here in British Columbia is that we are required to wear bicycle helmets. It's really sad. Normal people can be given tickets for not wearing 1. Sikhs, however, aren't going to be given tickets for not wearing 1. This is true for motor bikes. The government keeps ammending laws that aren't right. The government should just let people do what they will, but not cover them, when they get into an accident.
They should say, "If you don't wear a helmet, then automatically no medical coverage for bike accidents.", or something similar that draws a clean line. This gives everybody the right to choose. This way, if I am willing to bear the risks, I won't have to wear a helmet. It's a matter of who pays for the consequences.
Taxing solar power is as ridiculous as taxing job hunting. It's bad enough that you tax the purchase of the hardware, but why should someone pay the government to use solar energy? It makes no sense.
"You applied for 100 jobs? Okay, that'll be $10 please."
In other news, children are now required to pay to ride their bikes. They will be charged per Newton & per kilometre. Stationary bikes are included too.
Well, you got 2 replies [1 + this 1], & 4 mods. I meta-moderated 1of the informative-moderations, & felt that it was fair. So, you have 6 people who saw this, & probably more. Rest assured, your thoughts made a difference--at least to me.
That is interesting that you mention the forms. I wonder if there is a market for that kind of stuff. In other words, are there a lot of people who would be willing to pay for this software? Would you be able to customize it for other government forms?
I'm not looking for an answer, because it's best if you keep your trade secrets & knowledge to yourself.
On an unrelated note, I think that maybe scripting might provide the necessary potential to customize software, because it seems that a script can really get a high level of customization. Unfortunately, the source would probably be "open" for all to see, so there is no point in trying to license it. It a programmer decides to do scripting, then it may be wise to set a price based on the number of hours worked, & not the "value" of the software. Perhaps it would require a licensing that allow the customer to make copies & sell them over & over again, & let the programmer to do likewise.
Idea 1) definitely is the standard way of going about things. The interesting thing, is that no matter how much $$$ or man power that you throw at it, you can never really do as well as someone who has been in the niche industry, for an extended period of time, which must be what you meant in 2). I could be wrong about what I said regarding the niche industry. I came to this conclusion, because a real barrier to market research is the communication. 1 customer might complain all the time to you, but have nothing but high praises for your software, when chatting with his friends. Another customer might be the exact opposite. I worked for a market research company once, & there were so many little intricacies for getting precise information. I suspect that what you say about needing a big company & an accompanying sales force can be compensated with less workers & more time.
Very good point about having 2 careers. To add to that, it may be best for people to try to move on to the business of contracting work out to others, because this gives all of your experience to other people who are interested in producing accounting software for the niche industry. Advantages include:
It gives people a chance to learn & earn @ the same time
It makes it naturally harder for someone to move in right away. I could be wrong in this.
You pass on your experience & earn money @ the same time.
With experience being passed on, this allows prices to drop in a fair manner for all, while still allowing for more take home pay, because everybody is producing more. The bottleneck for new programmers will be getting programming experience. The bottleneck for experienced programmers will be finding enough man hours to fulfill all contracts. If the experienced programmer continues to focus on programming instead of using the experience in the niche industry, then I don't think that there will be as much profit. The experienced programmer should pass the programming experience on to newcomers, & use the niche industry experience for bringing in more business.
For a more specific idea, think about designing accounting software for a niche market.
Yes, that is exactly what I was thinking of, but neglected to mention. If 100,000 programmers are designing accounting packages for 100,000 psychologists, then some programmers are going to have to look for another career. That is, if they all insist that programming in the same niche is all that matters. After all, some of those programmers will naturally service more than 1 psychologist.
The neatest thing about programming accounting software is that there are always customizations that need to be done, because businesses change daily to adapt to ecomomic conditions. After all, the time a company saves can be used elsewhere, which will require software too.
Another neat thing is that it is naturally hard for similarly skilled competitors to move in. The natural barrier is the learning curve. My father's software is customized for glass companies & a few other types. It would be harder for us to move into other companies that bill in different ways; ie: psychologists.
On an unrelated note, I'll let my dad know about how psychologists need software. We're always looking for new niches. I don't know how we'll do it, though.
On another unrelated note, why don't you try to create a macro for your mother so that she can make use of spread sheet software + database software [such as MySQL]? I'm not experienced enough to know if it'll help, but I speculate that in the future there may be potential to writing macros for the 2 types of software.
Have you ever thought of designing accounting software? There are a lot of companies out there that have accounting software, but need better features. They would be willing to drop what they have in an instant, if you could provide that.
Have you ever thought of designing software that would help people do better market research? I don't know what would be needed, but it seems to me that there are too many workers fighting for the same jobs, and not enough workers filling other jobs. I realize that education plays a big part, but it's obvious that people aren't thinking hard enough about meeting demands.
Actually, if you were me, then you'd do them less often, kind of like laundry.;^) That's why I never encourage people to be like me!;^) For what it's worth, I'd never use a CD to scrape my dishes, for a couple of reasons.
When I eat, I eat very cleanly. The only things on the plate are dried up sauces, bones, etc. I don't leave scraps.
A CD seems like a very awkward thing to use to scrape. The whole suggestion was just a brainstorm idea, kind of like the venetian blinds idea. I'd like to try it just find fun & creative exercise, but I'd never use it for something permanent.
1.) Hang 1 from the ceiling of your garage, to give you an idea of how far you have to drive in to park. Make sure that your car is just barely in the garage, & then hang the cd to just barely touch the windshield or other part of the car. When you drive in next time, & barely touch it, you'll know that you are in just the right amount.
2.) String a bunch of them to make venetian blinds or whatever.
3.) Depending on the type of plastic, I wonder if it would be good to use as a scraper for when you're doing the dishes.
I think that the ninja star idea was 1 of the best ideas.
Thanks! If I had a modpoint or more, I'd give you some. I've always wanted to know how to do it, but was afraid to mess with my system, because I couldn't find any simple real world examples.
I don't know why, but Mozilla seems to slow down on my Pentium box. It seems as if there are memory leaks or something. So, I can relate to what you are saying. Oddly enough, Phoenix actually does seem to load pages faster. It could be my imagination.
...I don't think that you are referring to the hypen. Perhaps you mean the dash: "--"; 2 lines without quotes? The hyphen is 1 line. Unless the rules have changed since '95, it should be as I stated. But then again, my memory is vague.
Perhaps a semicolon will give you just the right amount of pause that you are looking for?
I'm not trying to be a spelling Nazi. It's just that it's refreshing to see people discuss proper punctuation in a non-scholastic context.
Actually, he should just submit a story on/. I'm sure that a lot of people would be interested in this. I assume that the editors would be gracious enough to post the story.
[snip: tournament explanation/comment]As far a demoing software, yes the game room/cafe is a wonderful place to test out new software, even as a marketing point.[snip]Good points.
Well, you're the one who brought up the tournament idea, and yes, *you* have a good point.:^) If I were to rephrase, "You have have a great idea about tournaments. I was wondering, if sampling software would be something that could be added to that, or is it a totally different niche that should be tackled seperately?". And you answered my question perfectly. I point this out, because I don't want to take credit where it isn't due.
Too bad, that I don't have the time, energy and money to venture forth in this way. I've always wanted to open an arcade, and apparently, what you decscribe seems to be the arcade of the future.
Thank you for your time. I appreciate you sharing your experiences and insights with all of us.
I was thinking that he should try to get some new games on the machines so that people could sample them, and eventually buy them. If focuses on the tournaments [as you suggested] and allowing people to sample games, do you feel that he could have a real stable business?
I keep reading about people wanting to demo games before deciding to keep them. Do you think that this might be a nice business opportunity?
I suppose, but I never pictured my brother's VCR instructions getting wet. I thought it was just to keep them from going all over the box, while it is being shipped. If we were to look underneath his tv in the cabinet, we'd see the manuals still inside the bags. It seems pretty logical to me. This way we could think of the whole thing as one item, which makes it easier to keep tidy in the cabinet.
If there are real concerns about keeping it dry, then that's not a problem. Just use real plastic, or biodegradable plastic with a long life. I wouldn't give a guilt trip then.
On an unrelated note, every now and then, I'll see plastic used to protect glass. In this case, I'm pretty sure it isn't a problem if it gets wet. I wonder how beneficial it would be to use biodegradable plastic that broke down really quickly. It would be neat if they could just spray the entire building to remove plastic on new office windows or just wait for it to rain. In BC, Canada, they wouldn't have to wait too long, if they did it in the fall, winter or spring.
Using the word "God" in a joke does not imply a belief in God. Everyone else seemed to get that. Why are you having so much trouble with it?
fmaxwell, I think that that guy is just trolling. You should probably ignore him and let the chips fall where they may. Your time is probably worth more than that.
Just to put this into perspective, I am a Christian, and yet I'm suggesting that you ignore this. He looks like he's lost his ability to reason.
What I mean by that is that you can repeat certain types of events, as well as review certain events, but you can't repeat the actual event. In other words, WWII can't happen again. Another world war would be WWIII. If that doesn't make sense, you could let me know, and I'll try to be more verbose.
You could always try these very simple and effective solutions:
I agree. They best way to protect the environment is to use less of it. Reusable products, and reduction of consumption, are the best solutions, by far.
The key is to be creative, and see if you can come up with an alternative to buying a new item, or way of using less resources with the same comfort level. Changing to the alternative will definitely not be easy, because it takes effort to change habits for the better, but if it is better, then it will be well worth it.
I wouldn't anticipate starch-based bags replacing traditional plastic ones in the shopping bag market any time soon.
Actually, I could picture that. Shopping bags only need to be strong enough to get home. I suppose that some people will use them as liners for small trash cans [like the ones by a desk], but that could easily be solved by making them stronger.
I speculate that they could be used as ordinary shopping bags if they had a 24 hour disolve time built in. For example, a container of juice breaks open, and they get home in a couple of hours. Or perhaps wet vegetables drip a bit, and they get home in a couple of hours. When I was living on my own, I shopping for grocercies by taking transit. It was quite a long trip, and I never had problems.
As for small trash cans, they should be able to deal with the liquids, assuming that the trash is emptied once a day, or dry enough.
You bring up a good point.
Perhaps in other packaging markets...
I agree, in that the best place to start isn't the shopping bag market. The best place to start would be to use them for disposable cookie trays [or similar products] that are packed in regular plastic. To let people know that these trays are environmentaly friendlier, it would be wise to just say so at the bottom of the tray on both sides.
I can also see them being used for bags that hold instuctions and other things; you get them when you buy electronic items. Ikea would also be able to make good use of them, because they sell dry goods. A while ago, I went and bought a bag of screws from them.
On a slightly unrelated note, I'm willing to bet that they could come up with a version that doesn't break down very quickly, but when it does start to break down, then it goes real quick. For instance, the cell phone face plates are made of plastic. It may be worth while to use two types of biodegradable plastics with them. The first kind on the outer layer of plastic would be long lasting and durable, while the inside would break down quickly. Therefore, to break down the majority of the volume, you would just break the face plate in half, and wet it, or after the outer layer wears out, you would just wet the whole thing. Whatever.
Slashdot Mirror
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Wow, I never thought that this would be accepted by the editors. When I submitted this, I did want to know about some things, but I couldn't resist saying some trollish stuff.
:^)
For those who offered some meaningful statistics, I appreciate it. Thank you for your time.
For what it's worth, when I said, "I think that knowing this is important so that we can direct our attention to the appropriate governments, in hopes of helping them to make the correct choice.", I really did intend that to mean, "How can we make them only use Linux?". I wanted to see how well this would be received by the editors. However, in reality, I do respect the fact that governments should have the ability to choose the best software for the job. I'd happy if it were Linux or *BSD, but it's not that important to me.
I feel so evil.
Although I was trolling, I was sincere about the things that you answered. Thanks for the details.
dd
That's sad. A more interesting, but slightly off-topic thing that happened here in British Columbia is that we are required to wear bicycle helmets. It's really sad. Normal people can be given tickets for not wearing 1. Sikhs, however, aren't going to be given tickets for not wearing 1. This is true for motor bikes. The government keeps ammending laws that aren't right. The government should just let people do what they will, but not cover them, when they get into an accident.
They should say, "If you don't wear a helmet, then automatically no medical coverage for bike accidents.", or something similar that draws a clean line. This gives everybody the right to choose. This way, if I am willing to bear the risks, I won't have to wear a helmet. It's a matter of who pays for the consequences.
Taxing solar power is as ridiculous as taxing job hunting. It's bad enough that you tax the purchase of the hardware, but why should someone pay the government to use solar energy? It makes no sense.
"You applied for 100 jobs? Okay, that'll be $10 please."
In other news, children are now required to pay to ride their bikes. They will be charged per Newton & per kilometre. Stationary bikes are included too.
Well, you got 2 replies [1 + this 1], & 4 mods. I meta-moderated 1of the informative-moderations, & felt that it was fair. So, you have 6 people who saw this, & probably more. Rest assured, your thoughts made a difference--at least to me.
That is interesting that you mention the forms. I wonder if there is a market for that kind of stuff. In other words, are there a lot of people who would be willing to pay for this software? Would you be able to customize it for other government forms?
I'm not looking for an answer, because it's best if you keep your trade secrets & knowledge to yourself.
On an unrelated note, I think that maybe scripting might provide the necessary potential to customize software, because it seems that a script can really get a high level of customization. Unfortunately, the source would probably be "open" for all to see, so there is no point in trying to license it. It a programmer decides to do scripting, then it may be wise to set a price based on the number of hours worked, & not the "value" of the software. Perhaps it would require a licensing that allow the customer to make copies & sell them over & over again, & let the programmer to do likewise.
Very good point about having 2 careers. To add to that, it may be best for people to try to move on to the business of contracting work out to others, because this gives all of your experience to other people who are interested in producing accounting software for the niche industry. Advantages include:
It gives people a chance to learn & earn @ the same time
It makes it naturally harder for someone to move in right away. I could be wrong in this.
You pass on your experience & earn money @ the same time.
With experience being passed on, this allows prices to drop in a fair manner for all, while still allowing for more take home pay, because everybody is producing more.
The bottleneck for new programmers will be getting programming experience. The bottleneck for experienced programmers will be finding enough man hours to fulfill all contracts. If the experienced programmer continues to focus on programming instead of using the experience in the niche industry, then I don't think that there will be as much profit. The experienced programmer should pass the programming experience on to newcomers, & use the niche industry experience for bringing in more business.
The neatest thing about programming accounting software is that there are always customizations that need to be done, because businesses change daily to adapt to ecomomic conditions. After all, the time a company saves can be used elsewhere, which will require software too.
Another neat thing is that it is naturally hard for similarly skilled competitors to move in. The natural barrier is the learning curve. My father's software is customized for glass companies & a few other types. It would be harder for us to move into other companies that bill in different ways; ie: psychologists.
On an unrelated note, I'll let my dad know about how psychologists need software. We're always looking for new niches. I don't know how we'll do it, though.
On another unrelated note, why don't you try to create a macro for your mother so that she can make use of spread sheet software + database software [such as MySQL]? I'm not experienced enough to know if it'll help, but I speculate that in the future there may be potential to writing macros for the 2 types of software.
Have you ever thought of designing accounting software? There are a lot of companies out there that have accounting software, but need better features. They would be willing to drop what they have in an instant, if you could provide that.
Have you ever thought of designing software that would help people do better market research? I don't know what would be needed, but it seems to me that there are too many workers fighting for the same jobs, and not enough workers filling other jobs. I realize that education plays a big part, but it's obvious that people aren't thinking hard enough about meeting demands.
When I eat, I eat very cleanly. The only things on the plate are dried up sauces, bones, etc. I don't leave scraps.
A CD seems like a very awkward thing to use to scrape.
The whole suggestion was just a brainstorm idea, kind of like the venetian blinds idea. I'd like to try it just find fun & creative exercise, but I'd never use it for something permanent.
1.) Hang 1 from the ceiling of your garage, to give you an idea of how far you have to drive in to park. Make sure that your car is just barely in the garage, & then hang the cd to just barely touch the windshield or other part of the car. When you drive in next time, & barely touch it, you'll know that you are in just the right amount.
2.) String a bunch of them to make venetian blinds or whatever.
3.) Depending on the type of plastic, I wonder if it would be good to use as a scraper for when you're doing the dishes.
I think that the ninja star idea was 1 of the best ideas.
Thanks! If I had a modpoint or more, I'd give you some. I've always wanted to know how to do it, but was afraid to mess with my system, because I couldn't find any simple real world examples.
I don't know why, but Mozilla seems to slow down on my Pentium box. It seems as if there are memory leaks or something. So, I can relate to what you are saying. Oddly enough, Phoenix actually does seem to load pages faster. It could be my imagination.
...I don't think that you are referring to the hypen. Perhaps you mean the dash: "--"; 2 lines without quotes? The hyphen is 1 line. Unless the rules have changed since '95, it should be as I stated. But then again, my memory is vague.
Perhaps a semicolon will give you just the right amount of pause that you are looking for?
I'm not trying to be a spelling Nazi. It's just that it's refreshing to see people discuss proper punctuation in a non-scholastic context.
It seems like such a logical choice to host it at http://www.linuxbase.org/. This way, people can learn how to install the standard base from scratch.
Actually, he should just submit a story on /. I'm sure that a lot of people would be interested in this. I assume that the editors would be gracious enough to post the story.
Too bad, that I don't have the time, energy and money to venture forth in this way. I've always wanted to open an arcade, and apparently, what you decscribe seems to be the arcade of the future.
Thank you for your time. I appreciate you sharing your experiences and insights with all of us.
I was thinking that he should try to get some new games on the machines so that people could sample them, and eventually buy them. If focuses on the tournaments [as you suggested] and allowing people to sample games, do you feel that he could have a real stable business?
I keep reading about people wanting to demo games before deciding to keep them. Do you think that this might be a nice business opportunity?
I suppose, but I never pictured my brother's VCR instructions getting wet. I thought it was just to keep them from going all over the box, while it is being shipped. If we were to look underneath his tv in the cabinet, we'd see the manuals still inside the bags. It seems pretty logical to me. This way we could think of the whole thing as one item, which makes it easier to keep tidy in the cabinet.
If there are real concerns about keeping it dry, then that's not a problem. Just use real plastic, or biodegradable plastic with a long life. I wouldn't give a guilt trip then.
On an unrelated note, every now and then, I'll see plastic used to protect glass. In this case, I'm pretty sure it isn't a problem if it gets wet. I wonder how beneficial it would be to use biodegradable plastic that broke down really quickly. It would be neat if they could just spray the entire building to remove plastic on new office windows or just wait for it to rain. In BC, Canada, they wouldn't have to wait too long, if they did it in the fall, winter or spring.
Just to put this into perspective, I am a Christian, and yet I'm suggesting that you ignore this. He looks like he's lost his ability to reason.
What I mean by that is that you can repeat certain types of events, as well as review certain events, but you can't repeat the actual event. In other words, WWII can't happen again. Another world war would be WWIII. If that doesn't make sense, you could let me know, and I'll try to be more verbose.
I hope that helps.
The key is to be creative, and see if you can come up with an alternative to buying a new item, or way of using less resources with the same comfort level. Changing to the alternative will definitely not be easy, because it takes effort to change habits for the better, but if it is better, then it will be well worth it.
I speculate that they could be used as ordinary shopping bags if they had a 24 hour disolve time built in. For example, a container of juice breaks open, and they get home in a couple of hours. Or perhaps wet vegetables drip a bit, and they get home in a couple of hours. When I was living on my own, I shopping for grocercies by taking transit. It was quite a long trip, and I never had problems.
As for small trash cans, they should be able to deal with the liquids, assuming that the trash is emptied once a day, or dry enough.
You bring up a good point.I agree, in that the best place to start isn't the shopping bag market. The best place to start would be to use them for disposable cookie trays [or similar products] that are packed in regular plastic. To let people know that these trays are environmentaly friendlier, it would be wise to just say so at the bottom of the tray on both sides.
I can also see them being used for bags that hold instuctions and other things; you get them when you buy electronic items. Ikea would also be able to make good use of them, because they sell dry goods. A while ago, I went and bought a bag of screws from them.
On a slightly unrelated note, I'm willing to bet that they could come up with a version that doesn't break down very quickly, but when it does start to break down, then it goes real quick. For instance, the cell phone face plates are made of plastic. It may be worth while to use two types of biodegradable plastics with them. The first kind on the outer layer of plastic would be long lasting and durable, while the inside would break down quickly. Therefore, to break down the majority of the volume, you would just break the face plate in half, and wet it, or after the outer layer wears out, you would just wet the whole thing. Whatever.