Apparently claiming that a $10 service is free will induce EVERYONE to point out the inaccuracy, regardless of how many times it has been don previously in the thread. Good work, comrades.
From a cost standpoint, I just bought a 99 dollar linksys router for about 45 after some clever rebates and amazon coupons. Go ahead and tell me what kind of hardware you can buy to run a *bsd router for that much money. I dont think you can even get a small hard drive for that price.
If you keep your eyes open, you can pick up a 486 or Pentium 90-200 system for next to nothing. Our local surplus auctioneers routinely sell these "antique" systems at a price of $2-$10.
Add a couple of $6 NICs (a reasonable refurb price), LRP software (free), and a floppy drive (included in the $10 system), and you have a good router/firewall.
$10+$6+$6=$22
$45-$22= about 3 six-picks of really good porter.
Enjoy your Linksys, pal.
dookdookdook
Re:Slashdot can just hire Cringely
on
Make Your Own DSL
·
· Score: 1
The components of a Cringely are freely and inexpensively available, so Slashdot should actually build its own Cringely. It is a simple as assembling some Carbon, Hydrogen, Oxygen, etc. With a little expertise, anyone an roll their own Cringely!
But I am just sick of all the damn childishness you people show in these mindless responses.
Good show; I agree as well. What I find particularly baffling are the people who post intelligently about 90% of the time but turn into mewling, Katz-flaming sheep whenever they see a Katz article. Slashdot is a community where everyone is welcome to participate, but don't be surprised if we shout you down with ad hominem attacks, especially if you don't seem "real" enough.
If you are interested in finding this phenomenon elsewhere in the wild, get involved in your local music scene. If you are lucky enough to live in a large city, or a small college city, you will find your local bars, parties, festivals, and other public occasions awash in a variety of local bands, the quality of which will range from "better than the crap they play on MTV2" to "oww, my ears are broken." Invariably, as one of the more skillful bands becomes more successful--earning critical praise, audience adoration, and measurable payments--the other bands in the scene will start to dog them. The more successful they get, the less "real" they are considered. Thus, it becomes cool to be a nobody and lame to be a success. (See also "high school, getting good grades in")
Frankly, I expected better of Slashdot.
You know, the Katz-dogging jerks actually go to the trouble of reading his articles and then posting how much they hate them. They go out of their way to be annoyed, and then further out of their way to let everyone know it.
I have an admission to make. I dislike Star Wars. I'm not indifferent, I actively loathe the movies, especially the latest one. Now guess what I do when a Star Wars article makes it on Slashdot?
I ignore it. Wow. Yay, me.
Katz-haters of the world, I challenge you to let the next Katz article go without comment. When you see Katz on the by-line, stand up, walk out the nearest doorway, and spend the next five minutes sitting quietly in the sun. Drink a Dr. Pepper. Check your stocks. Listen to your favorite MP3. Nap quietly for 5 minutes. Do something else with the time you spend flaming Katz.
All of these, I think, are available words. Hyphenate to taste. Serve chilled.
dookdookdook
Re:Soon to be an instrument of corporate evil
on
Books on Demand
·
· Score: 1
DISCLAIMER! I am not a publishing professional. All of the following is information I remember (or misremember) from casual research. I may be WRONG!
As far as I understand this (at least in the US) publishers have a big impetus to let titles go out of print. An "in print" title is considered as asset and is therefor subject to (for lack of a better term) an intellectual property tax. However, if the title is allowed to go out of print, then the IP reverts to the author, freeing the publisher from the tax liability.
This practice seems to explain why a lot of mass market fiction that was wildly popular a few years ago is now completely unavailable. The publisher prints a single, massive run and is done. I'm under the impression that a lot of the smaller genre publishers (TOR, etc.) do this pretty frequently.
Re:Too big for me, too small for thee?
on
Books on Demand
·
· Score: 1
Rogerborg wrote:
Also, in the immediate future, publishers will likely only want to pay to digitise their bestsellers, not educational or special interest texts. But have a look on the ebooks usenet groups, and there are plenty of titles out there if you have a PC setup and aren't not that fussed about copyright - and remember, we're now talking about the impoverished here, where we're trying to educate people up to the stage where they do have the leisure and luxury to care about abstract issues like copyright.
I think you may have this backwards; the real economic benefit to publishers comes when they can do it the other way around.
A title with a huge run (in the hundreds of thousands) makes money at a resonable retail price. Publishers who can only hope to sell thousands (or hundreds, or dozens, even) of titles either make no profit or are forced to charge outrageousprices on their titles (or, often, both). Fewer units sold = more money per unit to cover the fixed costs of publication. Under the current system, the large-run mass-market books make money, while the small-run sleepers don't.
Mass-market paberback titles are so cheap per unit to produce that the publishers will not even pay to have the books shipped back and re-processed. Retailers instead tear off the front cover and toss the book in the garbage/recycle bin.
With the current process for printing and selling books at a profit firmly established, don't expect publishers to move their most bankable commodities to a new, experimental technology. Rather, look for small publishers, self-publishers, and marginalized titles from the big guys to show up first on the POD machines. Only if this proves to be a widely-implemented standard will you see the bestsellers show up in this format.
What we would do is search realtor.com and harmonhomes.com (a local to CT site, which unfortunately was recently redesigned to the point of uselessness) and find the things that specifically fit what we were looking for. We would print out maps to them (a feature on realtor.com), and drive by to see if it was something we'd like before ever calling the agent.
My wife and I did the same thing. From the online listings we compiled a fat notebook of potential candidates. we drove by the ones that looked most promising, and eliminated those that were in obvious crack neighborhoods, had extensive problems that were not described, etc. Only after this preliminary leg/Web work did we actually go to an agent.
As a bit of information, try Ocwen's web site. They specialize in foreclosures, abandoned properties, and other "distressed" listings. If you are cash poor and handy with a hammer, you can really save some cash by going this route. FHA and Fannie Mae both offer special package loans to rehabilitate broken houses.Ocwen also offers information about commercial sites.
(BTW, I am not associated w/ them in any way. I seriously looked at a rehab house when I was shopping, but someone snatched it right before our offer got made by our agent. But that, friends, is another story.)
Slashdot Mirror
Apparently claiming that a $10 service is free will induce EVERYONE to point out the inaccuracy, regardless of how many times it has been don previously in the thread. Good work, comrades.
Here is a graphic with some building identification. The rest is up to you.
dookdookdook
If you keep your eyes open, you can pick up a 486 or Pentium 90-200 system for next to nothing. Our local surplus auctioneers routinely sell these "antique" systems at a price of $2-$10. Add a couple of $6 NICs (a reasonable refurb price), LRP software (free), and a floppy drive (included in the $10 system), and you have a good router/firewall.
$10+$6+$6=$22
$45-$22= about 3 six-picks of really good porter.
Enjoy your Linksys, pal.
dookdookdook
The components of a Cringely are freely and inexpensively available, so Slashdot should actually build its own Cringely. It is a simple as assembling some Carbon, Hydrogen, Oxygen, etc. With a little expertise, anyone an roll their own Cringely!
Good show; I agree as well. What I find particularly baffling are the people who post intelligently about 90% of the time but turn into mewling, Katz-flaming sheep whenever they see a Katz article. Slashdot is a community where everyone is welcome to participate, but don't be surprised if we shout you down with ad hominem attacks, especially if you don't seem "real" enough.
If you are interested in finding this phenomenon elsewhere in the wild, get involved in your local music scene. If you are lucky enough to live in a large city, or a small college city, you will find your local bars, parties, festivals, and other public occasions awash in a variety of local bands, the quality of which will range from "better than the crap they play on MTV2" to "oww, my ears are broken." Invariably, as one of the more skillful bands becomes more successful--earning critical praise, audience adoration, and measurable payments--the other bands in the scene will start to dog them. The more successful they get, the less "real" they are considered. Thus, it becomes cool to be a nobody and lame to be a success. (See also "high school, getting good grades in")
Frankly, I expected better of Slashdot.
You know, the Katz-dogging jerks actually go to the trouble of reading his articles and then posting how much they hate them. They go out of their way to be annoyed, and then further out of their way to let everyone know it.
I have an admission to make. I dislike Star Wars. I'm not indifferent, I actively loathe the movies, especially the latest one. Now guess what I do when a Star Wars article makes it on Slashdot?
I ignore it. Wow. Yay, me.
Katz-haters of the world, I challenge you to let the next Katz article go without comment. When you see Katz on the by-line, stand up, walk out the nearest doorway, and spend the next five minutes sitting quietly in the sun. Drink a Dr. Pepper. Check your stocks. Listen to your favorite MP3. Nap quietly for 5 minutes. Do something else with the time you spend flaming Katz.
There, don't you feel better?
dookdookdook
Lust
Rat
Ore
All of these, I think, are available words. Hyphenate to taste. Serve chilled.
dookdookdook
DISCLAIMER! I am not a publishing professional. All of the following is information I remember (or misremember) from casual research. I may be WRONG!
As far as I understand this (at least in the US) publishers have a big impetus to let titles go out of print. An "in print" title is considered as asset and is therefor subject to (for lack of a better term) an intellectual property tax. However, if the title is allowed to go out of print, then the IP reverts to the author, freeing the publisher from the tax liability.
This practice seems to explain why a lot of mass market fiction that was wildly popular a few years ago is now completely unavailable. The publisher prints a single, massive run and is done. I'm under the impression that a lot of the smaller genre publishers (TOR, etc.) do this pretty frequently.
Also, in the immediate future, publishers will likely only want to pay to digitise their bestsellers, not educational or special interest texts. But have a look on the ebooks usenet groups, and there are plenty of titles out there if you have a PC setup and aren't not that fussed about copyright - and remember, we're now talking about the impoverished here, where we're trying to educate people up to the stage where they do have the leisure and luxury to care about abstract issues like copyright.
I think you may have this backwards; the real economic benefit to publishers comes when they can do it the other way around.
A title with a huge run (in the hundreds of thousands) makes money at a resonable retail price. Publishers who can only hope to sell thousands (or hundreds, or dozens, even) of titles either make no profit or are forced to charge outrageous prices on their titles (or, often, both). Fewer units sold = more money per unit to cover the fixed costs of publication. Under the current system, the large-run mass-market books make money, while the small-run sleepers don't. Mass-market paberback titles are so cheap per unit to produce that the publishers will not even pay to have the books shipped back and re-processed. Retailers instead tear off the front cover and toss the book in the garbage/recycle bin.
With the current process for printing and selling books at a profit firmly established, don't expect publishers to move their most bankable commodities to a new, experimental technology. Rather, look for small publishers, self-publishers, and marginalized titles from the big guys to show up first on the POD machines. Only if this proves to be a widely-implemented standard will you see the bestsellers show up in this format.
What we would do is search realtor.com and harmonhomes.com (a local to CT site, which unfortunately was recently redesigned to the point of uselessness) and find the things that specifically fit what we were looking for. We would print out maps to them (a feature on realtor.com), and drive by to see if it was something we'd like before ever calling the agent.
My wife and I did the same thing. From the online listings we compiled a fat notebook of potential candidates. we drove by the ones that looked most promising, and eliminated those that were in obvious crack neighborhoods, had extensive problems that were not described, etc. Only after this preliminary leg/Web work did we actually go to an agent.
As a bit of information, try Ocwen's web site. They specialize in foreclosures, abandoned properties, and other "distressed" listings. If you are cash poor and handy with a hammer, you can really save some cash by going this route. FHA and Fannie Mae both offer special package loans to rehabilitate broken houses.Ocwen also offers information about commercial sites.
(BTW, I am not associated w/ them in any way. I seriously looked at a rehab house when I was shopping, but someone snatched it right before our offer got made by our agent. But that, friends, is another story.)
dookdookdook