That's not to say I think that local stores are always worse than national chains. If there is an advantage to shopping at a particular local store (i.e. less crowded, items I can't find anywhere else, better environment, etc.), then I will shop there. But telling me it "helps the local economy" will never get me to shop there. The economy exists to serve ME and every other CONSUMER. Period. If local stores can do that better in some instances than national chains, then they should exist. Otherwise, they should not exist. Shopping somewhere for charitable reasons sends entrepreneurs the wrong message. It tells them that consumers want more of something that they really don't.
So then, you should be able to buy any kind of gas guzzling car that spews black smoke out the back because it serves YOUR needs? Fuck anybody else, right? It's not your problem, after all. Environmental problems are another example of what happens when individual goods end up becoming a common bad. So sure, YOU may be able to save your precious $0.25 by buying online. Everybody can.
But most of the country is already starting to be a place where it's simply not enjoyable to live. If you think that a lot of cookie cutter towns with the same big box stores and lots of UPS trucks is ideal, then go right ahead. I enjoy living in a town where I don't have to go into those big box stores, and I know the shopkeepers, and I know that my tax money is going back into the local economy to pay for things like sidewalks, bike lanes, libraries, recycling programs, our free bus service, our free wireless service, lots of park land, and lots of other things that make my town so much better than GenericSuburbia, USA where people don't even get out of their SUV's except to walk across a giant paved parking lot. Blech. You can have it.
And it's certainly not charitable. I own a business that is beating the pants off of two big box stores because we have better service, better prices, and better products.
Re:Where are the device drivers?
on
Amazon Goes Wiki
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· Score: 1
1. Ask the store to order you one. Considering that computer retail is getting destroyed by big box stores and online stuff, I'd be very surprised if they didn't get one for you immediately.
2. They may have no clue as to what you're talking about, in which case you may have to order something online. Linux-specific computer hardware is a pretty tiny niche that I wouldn't expect any local computer store to deal with. I know that none of ours do, but they can always get anything special that I need.
Because the Canon Powershot 405x3ty will fill your needs, while the Canon Powershot 405x3tz won't? C'mon, I don't believe that for a second. Unless you're a professional that needs a speciailzed niche item, that's simply not true for most consumer products. And, I don't know of too many independent stores that can't order whatever you absolutely, positively need, anyway. We do that all of the time for the picky customers.
All I'm saying is that maybe there are a few things out there that are just as, if not more, important than YOU getting the exact right plastic Chinese gizmo that you need at the absolute rock bottom price. Everything that you do has consequences, whethere it's buying that latest version of Windows, buying that new DRM'ed Sony CD, or shunning your own local economy.
See the riots outside of Wal-Mart stores this time of year? That's the logical result of everybody "needing" all of their crap right NOW at the absolute rock-bottom price. As the American public becomes even more consumption-oriented, that kind of shit will become more and more common.
Remember, *nothing* was stolen during the p2p transaction, so she didnt actually *lose* anything, it is only a reduction in the vague concept of 'potential' ( i.e. unprovable ) sales.
That's an incredibly bogus argument if I've ever heard one. What you say could apply to any service related business. Is it OK to say, force a dentist to work on somebody at gunpoint? After all, he wouldn't *lose* anything, it is only a reduction in the vague concept of 'potential' sales. How about stealing information from a database that somebody took time and money to collect and collate? They're not *losing* anything, since they still have the data, right?
Firstly there *are* no 'local' stores any more - they're all part of big national chains.
That's simply not true. I own quite a successful one, thank you.
Secondly, they all charge 25%-50% more than online charges, have fewer items available, and don't get me started on customer support - those idiots wouldn't know support if it hit them on the head.
25-50% more? I doubt that. They will be more expensive, sure, because they create good jobs, contribute to your economy, and give you a local place to get stuff. They're going to be more expensive. And, do you really NEED 100,000 different items to choose from? Are you buying 100,000 different items?
But, keep repeating what you're saying and one day you'll be right... there will be no more local stores.
Wow... you got screwed over by an anonymous international corporation? Wow! I'm so surprised! But really, you won't get any sympathy from me. You want to not support your local economy so you can pinch a few pennies? Fine by me. You get what you deserve.
I really don't understand people who think that they can go to Amazon or Ebay in order to screw local retailers and save themselves a few bucks, yet get the same quality customer service. Customer service isn't free. Shop at a real store next time (even better... an independent retailer) and I can almost guarantee that you'd have much, much better service.
Somehow I doubt that the time and money that goes into something like Ubuntu, complete with slick marketing, even comes close to offsetting the price that their own corporate users would have to pay for an install of say, Debian.
There MUST be a tremendous amount of wealth because many projects (like Ubuntu), the creator derives negligible benefit. Projects like that are most definitely a net loss to the user. Why would somebody put in even 20 hours developing for GIMP when for a significant less amount of time/money, that person could have their needs filled with a rival, like Photoshop.
There MUST be a relatively large amount of money sloshing around in IT beause you simply don't see people working in other industries willing to give away their services for free. How many plumbers do you know that plumb for free in their off time? How about car mechanics? Carpenters? Marketing people? Truck drivers? Accountants? Hell, I can't think about any industry where a noticeable segment work for free.
No... I take that back. Some lawyers do pro bono work... but then again, those are either idealistic young attorneys, or very wealthy attorneys that can work 50 hours a week at $200/hour. Same thing with OSS... it's either the very young, indealistic crowd (college kids without bills to pay and families to support) or the very wealthy (the creator or Ubuntu is a great example).
Oh, please. The whole "convicted monopoly" thing is the same as the politico-drones who buy into and further propogate the idea that the Iraq war was a good, useful, justified war because Bush said they had "Weapons of Mass Destruction" and the President can't be wrong or questioned. Puh-lease.
I shouldn't have to justify my statement because anybody who has any interest in how large corporations work would see right off that the whole MS thing was the equivalent of a cop sitting on the side of the road and picking out speeding cars that happen to be BMW's and Mercedes. After all, he's just protecting the public good from the evil speeders, right? C'mon, use your fucking brain.
your pornographic website is awesome (if you use a secure browser and turn off plugins, java, and javascript).
Thanks... website is all automated, and I still have trouble detecting some of the newer tricks that gallery creators use, but I'm working on it. Just implemented something about a week ago that should improve the quality a good bit. Unfortunately, it's a constant fight to keep the assholes at bay.
And I honestly don't expect anybody here to think. I just can't let baldfaced ignorance go unchallenged. I feel some kind of twisted moral obligation to try to correct them.
And, this is honestly not some kind of reach-around compliment, but I actually like torrentspy (just saw it for the first time). I think I'm gonna have to fire up ABC again tonight...
The whole "convicted of abusing their monopoly position" is entirely meaningless. I wish that you lemmings would quit repeating that, as if the US judicial system was overseen by God, Himself. They were arbitarily chosen because they have deep pockets, and very strong rivals who were getting whipped silly. I can guarantee that that case didn't happen to protect you or any other end user from the big, evil "monopoly".
Try running a restaurant where you have fountain drinks with both Coke and Pepsi. products. See how much of a price break you get, if either vendor will even agree to sell to you. It happens every day, in every business that I've ever worked in, studied, or owned. You just aren't aware of it.
Ubuntu is the pet project of a very rich guy who does Ubuntu for fun. There are not too many other products on the planet that are produced and given away for free "just because". People would be idiots NOT to question why a product is given away for free.
Would you take a free ham sandwich from a guy standing on the street? How about some free car tires from some random guy who says that they're jsut as good as the tires you buy from a store? "Free" generally means "something wrong with it". Only recently has society had an abundance of very wealthy people who have enough surplus time and money that they're willing to give it away for nothing. It's going to take several generations for people to wrap their minds around, assuming that it lasts that long. It's a completely foreign concept to just about everybody who has to work to earn a living.
Here's a little secret kiddo: lots and lots of suppliers are like that. All of the suppliers that we use give us large volume discounts. If they start losing some of our business, they'll try to keep us, but they'll also jack up their prices. Loyalty is rewarded in every aspect of business. Just because this is new to you doesn't mean it's new or at all unusual.
And my question still goes unanswered... where's the money coming from? Who's willing to pay to convince people to use their free product? Doesn't make any sense to me at all. Somebody with some serious money has a serious agenda they're trying to push.
What I'm trying to figure out is where in the hell they're getting money to pay to convince people to use their free product. Am I the last sane person on the planet that thinks that a business should actually attempt to make a profit (or *any* kind of income)? Who's paying for this, and are they just doing it for fun? Honestly, what's the point of marketing to give away a free product? The only thing that I can come up with is that Firefox is just a giant bait-and-switch scheme, where the Mozilla Foundation will get a lot of people using their product, then try to charge for it. It's the only thing that really makes sense to me.
Fat Americans will eat this up! I mean really.... if there's something that costs $200 but keeps some fat, TV-watching lemming from burning 2 precious calories, they'll rush right out in their giant SUV's to buy it.
The general rule of thumb is really that if a page isn't showing up right in Firefox, then it was either made by Microsoft or it just wasn't made right (almost the same thing).
And who explains that to all of the users who wouldn't know HTML from COBOL? Firefox still has quite a ways to go in my opinion. It's not bad, but there are still too many sites that it doesn't handle correctly.
Re:Advances/Alternative to the server
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PHP 5.1.0 Released
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Do you mean that you can't store objects as session or application variables? I work with ASP, so I just assumed that PHP has had this ability for well... years.
You, sir, have just written all you need to procure millions from venture capitalists. Congratulations! I recommend taking the money to buy yourself lots and lots of toys. Don't worry too much about actually putting out a product or generating any revenue. Those two paragraphs are worth MILLIONS!
The difference is, I don't think my wife wants to have a giant cable following her around that she can trip over, while she is reading up on her Soap Opera Digest while watching TV in the living room.
Luckily, Cat 5 cable and ports are extremely cheap, allowing me to have multiple Cat 5 ports all through my house. Much faster and much more reliable than any kind of wireless.
Another zealot that is completely and totally oblivious of the real world:
What's so difficult about downloading a program and typing "installpkg" and the package name?
That's entirely too hard. You may as well say "what's so hard about rebuilding your carbureator?" "InstallPKG"? Where does somebody get that information? Does a window pop up when I install that says "if you need to install new software, type installpkg""? And where's the list of applications? Do I do "InstallPKG Firefox"? "installpkg firefox 1.0.7"? "Install fire fox"? Really, there's literally no way that a normal user could figure this out without buying a book. That's certainly not easy.
What Slackware advocates are telling you is that in order to truely appreciate Slackware for what it is, you must learn how Linux works first, because Slackware is just unadulterated Linux.
Why do I want to learn Linux, exactly? I want to play games, surf the net, and do work. Learning Linux is NOT some kind of universal thing that everybody likes. Personally, I'd rather have bamboo shoots hammered under my fingernails than learn Linux.
1. They have nowhere near a monopoly in the game market. So no, there is no oversight, nor should there be.
2. If this is "dumping" then you should jump up and down about gas stations (gas is often sold at or near cost), Coke and Pepsi (with a true monopoly, fountain drinks are sold at or below cost), all cell phone companies (my cell phones were all free), etc.
3. They're not competing on quality? I don't exactly have $400 burning a hole in my pocket that I have to spend on a game machine. Considering that the XBox 360 is the most expensive console out there right now, there is absolutely no dumping going on.
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That's not to say I think that local stores are always worse than national chains. If there is an advantage to shopping at a particular local store (i.e. less crowded, items I can't find anywhere else, better environment, etc.), then I will shop there. But telling me it "helps the local economy" will never get me to shop there. The economy exists to serve ME and every other CONSUMER. Period. If local stores can do that better in some instances than national chains, then they should exist. Otherwise, they should not exist. Shopping somewhere for charitable reasons sends entrepreneurs the wrong message. It tells them that consumers want more of something that they really don't.
So then, you should be able to buy any kind of gas guzzling car that spews black smoke out the back because it serves YOUR needs? Fuck anybody else, right? It's not your problem, after all. Environmental problems are another example of what happens when individual goods end up becoming a common bad. So sure, YOU may be able to save your precious $0.25 by buying online. Everybody can.
But most of the country is already starting to be a place where it's simply not enjoyable to live. If you think that a lot of cookie cutter towns with the same big box stores and lots of UPS trucks is ideal, then go right ahead. I enjoy living in a town where I don't have to go into those big box stores, and I know the shopkeepers, and I know that my tax money is going back into the local economy to pay for things like sidewalks, bike lanes, libraries, recycling programs, our free bus service, our free wireless service, lots of park land, and lots of other things that make my town so much better than GenericSuburbia, USA where people don't even get out of their SUV's except to walk across a giant paved parking lot. Blech. You can have it.
And it's certainly not charitable. I own a business that is beating the pants off of two big box stores because we have better service, better prices, and better products.
1. Ask the store to order you one. Considering that computer retail is getting destroyed by big box stores and online stuff, I'd be very surprised if they didn't get one for you immediately.
2. They may have no clue as to what you're talking about, in which case you may have to order something online. Linux-specific computer hardware is a pretty tiny niche that I wouldn't expect any local computer store to deal with. I know that none of ours do, but they can always get anything special that I need.
Well, I imagine that there are still plenty of uses for super-high end computing hardware setups. Believe it or not, Pee-Cee's can't do *everything*.
Because the Canon Powershot 405x3ty will fill your needs, while the Canon Powershot 405x3tz won't? C'mon, I don't believe that for a second. Unless you're a professional that needs a speciailzed niche item, that's simply not true for most consumer products. And, I don't know of too many independent stores that can't order whatever you absolutely, positively need, anyway. We do that all of the time for the picky customers.
All I'm saying is that maybe there are a few things out there that are just as, if not more, important than YOU getting the exact right plastic Chinese gizmo that you need at the absolute rock bottom price. Everything that you do has consequences, whethere it's buying that latest version of Windows, buying that new DRM'ed Sony CD, or shunning your own local economy.
See the riots outside of Wal-Mart stores this time of year? That's the logical result of everybody "needing" all of their crap right NOW at the absolute rock-bottom price. As the American public becomes even more consumption-oriented, that kind of shit will become more and more common.
Remember, *nothing* was stolen during the p2p transaction, so she didnt actually *lose* anything, it is only a reduction in the vague concept of 'potential' ( i.e. unprovable ) sales.
That's an incredibly bogus argument if I've ever heard one. What you say could apply to any service related business. Is it OK to say, force a dentist to work on somebody at gunpoint? After all, he wouldn't *lose* anything, it is only a reduction in the vague concept of 'potential' sales. How about stealing information from a database that somebody took time and money to collect and collate? They're not *losing* anything, since they still have the data, right?
Firstly there *are* no 'local' stores any more - they're all part of big national chains.
That's simply not true. I own quite a successful one, thank you.
Secondly, they all charge 25%-50% more than online charges, have fewer items available, and don't get me started on customer support - those idiots wouldn't know support if it hit them on the head.
25-50% more? I doubt that. They will be more expensive, sure, because they create good jobs, contribute to your economy, and give you a local place to get stuff. They're going to be more expensive. And, do you really NEED 100,000 different items to choose from? Are you buying 100,000 different items?
But, keep repeating what you're saying and one day you'll be right... there will be no more local stores.
Wow... you got screwed over by an anonymous international corporation? Wow! I'm so surprised! But really, you won't get any sympathy from me. You want to not support your local economy so you can pinch a few pennies? Fine by me. You get what you deserve.
I really don't understand people who think that they can go to Amazon or Ebay in order to screw local retailers and save themselves a few bucks, yet get the same quality customer service. Customer service isn't free. Shop at a real store next time (even better... an independent retailer) and I can almost guarantee that you'd have much, much better service.
Somehow I doubt that the time and money that goes into something like Ubuntu, complete with slick marketing, even comes close to offsetting the price that their own corporate users would have to pay for an install of say, Debian.
There MUST be a tremendous amount of wealth because many projects (like Ubuntu), the creator derives negligible benefit. Projects like that are most definitely a net loss to the user. Why would somebody put in even 20 hours developing for GIMP when for a significant less amount of time/money, that person could have their needs filled with a rival, like Photoshop.
There MUST be a relatively large amount of money sloshing around in IT beause you simply don't see people working in other industries willing to give away their services for free. How many plumbers do you know that plumb for free in their off time? How about car mechanics? Carpenters? Marketing people? Truck drivers? Accountants? Hell, I can't think about any industry where a noticeable segment work for free.
No... I take that back. Some lawyers do pro bono work... but then again, those are either idealistic young attorneys, or very wealthy attorneys that can work 50 hours a week at $200/hour. Same thing with OSS... it's either the very young, indealistic crowd (college kids without bills to pay and families to support) or the very wealthy (the creator or Ubuntu is a great example).
Oh, please. The whole "convicted monopoly" thing is the same as the politico-drones who buy into and further propogate the idea that the Iraq war was a good, useful, justified war because Bush said they had "Weapons of Mass Destruction" and the President can't be wrong or questioned. Puh-lease.
I shouldn't have to justify my statement because anybody who has any interest in how large corporations work would see right off that the whole MS thing was the equivalent of a cop sitting on the side of the road and picking out speeding cars that happen to be BMW's and Mercedes. After all, he's just protecting the public good from the evil speeders, right? C'mon, use your fucking brain.
your pornographic website is awesome (if you use a secure browser and turn off plugins, java, and javascript).
Thanks... website is all automated, and I still have trouble detecting some of the newer tricks that gallery creators use, but I'm working on it. Just implemented something about a week ago that should improve the quality a good bit. Unfortunately, it's a constant fight to keep the assholes at bay.
And I honestly don't expect anybody here to think. I just can't let baldfaced ignorance go unchallenged. I feel some kind of twisted moral obligation to try to correct them.
And, this is honestly not some kind of reach-around compliment, but I actually like torrentspy (just saw it for the first time). I think I'm gonna have to fire up ABC again tonight...
The whole "convicted of abusing their monopoly position" is entirely meaningless. I wish that you lemmings would quit repeating that, as if the US judicial system was overseen by God, Himself. They were arbitarily chosen because they have deep pockets, and very strong rivals who were getting whipped silly. I can guarantee that that case didn't happen to protect you or any other end user from the big, evil "monopoly".
Try running a restaurant where you have fountain drinks with both Coke and Pepsi. products. See how much of a price break you get, if either vendor will even agree to sell to you. It happens every day, in every business that I've ever worked in, studied, or owned. You just aren't aware of it.
Ubuntu is the pet project of a very rich guy who does Ubuntu for fun. There are not too many other products on the planet that are produced and given away for free "just because". People would be idiots NOT to question why a product is given away for free.
Would you take a free ham sandwich from a guy standing on the street? How about some free car tires from some random guy who says that they're jsut as good as the tires you buy from a store? "Free" generally means "something wrong with it". Only recently has society had an abundance of very wealthy people who have enough surplus time and money that they're willing to give it away for nothing. It's going to take several generations for people to wrap their minds around, assuming that it lasts that long. It's a completely foreign concept to just about everybody who has to work to earn a living.
Here's a little secret kiddo: lots and lots of suppliers are like that. All of the suppliers that we use give us large volume discounts. If they start losing some of our business, they'll try to keep us, but they'll also jack up their prices. Loyalty is rewarded in every aspect of business. Just because this is new to you doesn't mean it's new or at all unusual.
And my question still goes unanswered... where's the money coming from? Who's willing to pay to convince people to use their free product? Doesn't make any sense to me at all. Somebody with some serious money has a serious agenda they're trying to push.
What I'm trying to figure out is where in the hell they're getting money to pay to convince people to use their free product. Am I the last sane person on the planet that thinks that a business should actually attempt to make a profit (or *any* kind of income)? Who's paying for this, and are they just doing it for fun? Honestly, what's the point of marketing to give away a free product? The only thing that I can come up with is that Firefox is just a giant bait-and-switch scheme, where the Mozilla Foundation will get a lot of people using their product, then try to charge for it. It's the only thing that really makes sense to me.
Fat Americans will eat this up! I mean really.... if there's something that costs $200 but keeps some fat, TV-watching lemming from burning 2 precious calories, they'll rush right out in their giant SUV's to buy it.
The general rule of thumb is really that if a page isn't showing up right in Firefox, then it was either made by Microsoft or it just wasn't made right (almost the same thing).
And who explains that to all of the users who wouldn't know HTML from COBOL? Firefox still has quite a ways to go in my opinion. It's not bad, but there are still too many sites that it doesn't handle correctly.
Do you mean that you can't store objects as session or application variables? I work with ASP, so I just assumed that PHP has had this ability for well... years.
You, sir, have just written all you need to procure millions from venture capitalists. Congratulations! I recommend taking the money to buy yourself lots and lots of toys. Don't worry too much about actually putting out a product or generating any revenue. Those two paragraphs are worth MILLIONS!
A 3rd party program to make Firefox work correctly? Why, exactly, do you see this as acceptable? I certainly don't.
The difference is, I don't think my wife wants to have a giant cable following her around that she can trip over, while she is reading up on her Soap Opera Digest while watching TV in the living room.
Luckily, Cat 5 cable and ports are extremely cheap, allowing me to have multiple Cat 5 ports all through my house. Much faster and much more reliable than any kind of wireless.
Another zealot that is completely and totally oblivious of the real world:
What's so difficult about downloading a program and typing "installpkg" and the package name?
That's entirely too hard. You may as well say "what's so hard about rebuilding your carbureator?" "InstallPKG"? Where does somebody get that information? Does a window pop up when I install that says "if you need to install new software, type installpkg""? And where's the list of applications? Do I do "InstallPKG Firefox"? "installpkg firefox 1.0.7"? "Install fire fox"? Really, there's literally no way that a normal user could figure this out without buying a book. That's certainly not easy.
What Slackware advocates are telling you is that in order to truely appreciate Slackware for what it is, you must learn how Linux works first, because Slackware is just unadulterated Linux.
Why do I want to learn Linux, exactly? I want to play games, surf the net, and do work. Learning Linux is NOT some kind of universal thing that everybody likes. Personally, I'd rather have bamboo shoots hammered under my fingernails than learn Linux.
1. They have nowhere near a monopoly in the game market. So no, there is no oversight, nor should there be.
2. If this is "dumping" then you should jump up and down about gas stations (gas is often sold at or near cost), Coke and Pepsi (with a true monopoly, fountain drinks are sold at or below cost), all cell phone companies (my cell phones were all free), etc.
3. They're not competing on quality? I don't exactly have $400 burning a hole in my pocket that I have to spend on a game machine. Considering that the XBox 360 is the most expensive console out there right now, there is absolutely no dumping going on.
Idiot.
Oracle's had this for years. Since v 8, I think? (corrections welcome)
Somehow, I figured that the zealots would do their best to shit all over the good news. Would you like cheese with that whine?