A few years? If I'm not mistaken, you can still get security updates for Windows 95, which is more than 8 years old. The last OS X was released, what, less than a year ago? This kidn of bullshit will keep me from buying a Mac indefinitely.
But you still haven't answered *why* there'd be a community. Everybody easts bread, yet I've never seen a "community" of bread eaters, or a "community" of tooth brushers. There's an OSS community because OSS users are a tiny, tiny, tiny % of the entire population, and a community is desperately needed for support.
There's no reason for "community". When most of the people on the planet are using their software, there's no real reason for the users to band together. That's like saying that there's no "community" of automobile drivers. Another thing that a "community" needs is some common goal or focus or belief. There's nothing really controversial about using MS software. You buy it, you use it, it generally works. No big deal.
Heck, if the employment contract is anything like the ones that I signed, it essentially says "We can fire you for any reason, and you can quit for any reason". Besides, since he was a temp (like I was), MS just asked the temp agency to remove him. He's officially employed by the temp agency, so whether he actually became unemployed or not is another question altogether.
All things aside, if this jackass was working for me, I would've fired him in a heartbeat.
Other than occasional military actions against extremist countries, there's *nothing* stopping other countries from achieving this same level of wealth. Wealth is already starting to re-distribute among the middle and lower classes (ie: manufacturing leaving the US and moving to Asia & S & Central America). Truly wealthy people have inertia. The more wealth you have, the easier it is to keep it (ie: can afford health insurance, can afford investments & savings, etc.)
The fact that 3% of the world's population (North American) controls 60% of the world's wealth is a problem with our society's refusal to want less
In no way is that a problem. That's capitalism in action. A community of nobody striving for anything better becomes a hippie commune. I want all the wealth I can get, and I'm gonna bust my ass to get there. I'm not apologizing, either.
Perhaps, but what you have to remember is, it isn't how other people feel about you, it is how you feel about yourself. That's true to a point, but it's hard to feel good about yourself if you're not banging hot chicks. The way it goes with me... I stay in great shape in order to get laid on a very regular basis in order to feel good about myself. I admit it. If every woman on the planet were to suddenly die, what reason would there be to stay in good shape? I'd be a fat slob if not for women. As is, women keep me in the gym.
Pay Pal? You'd trust a non-regulated, pseudo-financial institution with a questionable history over a credit card, which by federal law, mandates that a user can't lose more than $25?? You've got to be kidding me.
How can anyone be "pro-Apple"? That's like saying that I'm "pro-McDonald's". It's a fucking company selling a product. It's not a political movement. It's not a religion.
I didn't say that I desired any dead. I was merely pointing out that my guess is that these sheeple don't contribute to society any more than their wallets do. What kind of people are so self-indulgent and frivolous that they'll line up, clamor, and obsess over a fucking product??
Oh yes... and mod this post down, by all means. Those who speak out against the Cult of Consumerism should definitely be branded heretics. How dare anybody suggest that standing in line to buy something like cows at the slaughter is a bad thing?
Ahh, lemmings. You gotta love it. Consumers who literally worship a company. Isn't that just the penultimate example of American Consumerism gone haywire? People standing in line, having parties about buying a piece of software that in all honesty, is going to have little to no impact on their lives except to make their wallets several hundred bucks lighter, and that's after they already bought the same damn product in the past year or so. It absolutely amazes me that people bitch about "having" to work so much, yet I'm sure some of these same, stupid, glassy-eyed sheep are dutifully standing in line to throw their money away on some useless toy. You gotta wonder... if there were some kind of terrorist attack on one of these Apple product parties, would the death of the people there have any impact on society whatsoever? Do these people actually *do* anything, or are they simply consumers?
How so? Buy less shit, and you've got plenty of money for retirement and health insurance. If I spent the way most people spend, I'd also be worried about retirement and health care. I'm saying SPEND LESS. You'll have much more money, and you won't have to work as much! It's very simple.
...Buy less shit, then you don't have to work as much to pay for your useless shit. How difficult is this? Sell that stupid fucking SUV. Throw out your goddamned cellphones/PDA's/pagers. Turn off the fucking TV and disconnect cable. Move into a reasonably sized house. Don't make an event out of shopping. Jesus, and those are just a few things off the top of my head. Americans seem to think that they are *entitled* to a ridiculously high standard of living. Well, they aren't. But they're gonna keep striving for more and more shiny shit, working themselves to death along the way. Me? I've already done all of those things I mentioned above and more and I'll be retired by the time I'm 35.
I lost as a closed source developer? Really? Hmm... I was a developer for 6 years, earning more than 6 figures a year doing that, while I earned nothing for the public domain apps I wrote. Hmmm... If you call that "losing", then I'd *love* to "lose" some more!
Lighten up. But yes, some people DO deserve a DARPA engineered smart bomb launched from a radio-controlled plane to land right on their head and turn them into a fine red mist. C'mon... can you imagine the look on people's faces when they have a missle coming in through their house window? That's some funny shit. How about those air fuel bombs? Imagine the looks on peoples' faces when they're at the outer perimeter of the blast, and all of the air is suddenly sucked out of their lungs, and their bodies implode. If that isn't fun, I don't know what is.
The goal of *EVERY* business is to make money. Some do it by providing the best services & products possible, and some do it by providing products & services as CHEAP as possible. There's room for both in most markets. If this company (being the hospital/HMO/whatever) is in the "high quality service" niche, then they're going to get hit hard by their customers. If they're offering cheap services to bottom feeders, then nobody will care. That's how business works every day. Your naive assumption that every business wants to provide outstanding service is just plain wrong. Do people go to McDonald's for their stellar service and healthy food? No, they go because it's cheap.
but the mantra seems to be there's little reason to upgrade unless you absolutely need the new features
This was a pretty stupid statement, IMO. One should *NEVER* upgrade unless you absolutely need the new features. This has always been the way a good admin/user worked. Anyone upgrading for the sake of upgrading is quite simply, an idiot.
... that fail to label "copy protected" CD's properly. It's simple fraud (you're not buying a "CD" per se), plus, with some schemes, it's outright vandalism.
You're out of your mind. It's selfish greed that got technology to this point. With a big food commune, nobody works to improve anything and it all turns to shit.
Slashdot Mirror
A few years? If I'm not mistaken, you can still get security updates for Windows 95, which is more than 8 years old. The last OS X was released, what, less than a year ago? This kidn of bullshit will keep me from buying a Mac indefinitely.
But you still haven't answered *why* there'd be a community. Everybody easts bread, yet I've never seen a "community" of bread eaters, or a "community" of tooth brushers. There's an OSS community because OSS users are a tiny, tiny, tiny % of the entire population, and a community is desperately needed for support.
There's no reason for "community". When most of the people on the planet are using their software, there's no real reason for the users to band together. That's like saying that there's no "community" of automobile drivers. Another thing that a "community" needs is some common goal or focus or belief. There's nothing really controversial about using MS software. You buy it, you use it, it generally works. No big deal.
Heck, if the employment contract is anything like the ones that I signed, it essentially says "We can fire you for any reason, and you can quit for any reason". Besides, since he was a temp (like I was), MS just asked the temp agency to remove him. He's officially employed by the temp agency, so whether he actually became unemployed or not is another question altogether.
All things aside, if this jackass was working for me, I would've fired him in a heartbeat.
Other than occasional military actions against extremist countries, there's *nothing* stopping other countries from achieving this same level of wealth. Wealth is already starting to re-distribute among the middle and lower classes (ie: manufacturing leaving the US and moving to Asia & S & Central America). Truly wealthy people have inertia. The more wealth you have, the easier it is to keep it (ie: can afford health insurance, can afford investments & savings, etc.)
The fact that 3% of the world's population (North American) controls 60% of the world's wealth is a problem with our society's refusal to want less
In no way is that a problem. That's capitalism in action. A community of nobody striving for anything better becomes a hippie commune. I want all the wealth I can get, and I'm gonna bust my ass to get there. I'm not apologizing, either.
Perhaps, but what you have to remember is, it isn't how other people feel about you, it is how you feel about yourself. That's true to a point, but it's hard to feel good about yourself if you're not banging hot chicks. The way it goes with me... I stay in great shape in order to get laid on a very regular basis in order to feel good about myself. I admit it. If every woman on the planet were to suddenly die, what reason would there be to stay in good shape? I'd be a fat slob if not for women. As is, women keep me in the gym.
Pay Pal? You'd trust a non-regulated, pseudo-financial institution with a questionable history over a credit card, which by federal law, mandates that a user can't lose more than $25?? You've got to be kidding me.
How can anyone be "pro-Apple"? That's like saying that I'm "pro-McDonald's". It's a fucking company selling a product. It's not a political movement. It's not a religion.
I didn't say that I desired any dead. I was merely pointing out that my guess is that these sheeple don't contribute to society any more than their wallets do. What kind of people are so self-indulgent and frivolous that they'll line up, clamor, and obsess over a fucking product??
That's 5 years. That's no proof of the viability of a business. 5 years is still a startup.
Oh yes... and mod this post down, by all means. Those who speak out against the Cult of Consumerism should definitely be branded heretics. How dare anybody suggest that standing in line to buy something like cows at the slaughter is a bad thing?
Ahh, lemmings. You gotta love it. Consumers who literally worship a company. Isn't that just the penultimate example of American Consumerism gone haywire? People standing in line, having parties about buying a piece of software that in all honesty, is going to have little to no impact on their lives except to make their wallets several hundred bucks lighter, and that's after they already bought the same damn product in the past year or so. It absolutely amazes me that people bitch about "having" to work so much, yet I'm sure some of these same, stupid, glassy-eyed sheep are dutifully standing in line to throw their money away on some useless toy. You gotta wonder... if there were some kind of terrorist attack on one of these Apple product parties, would the death of the people there have any impact on society whatsoever? Do these people actually *do* anything, or are they simply consumers?
You're a fucking genius!! Wow! You're smarter than the marketing department of one of the largest companies in the world? I'm so impressed!!
Oh yeah, your website isn't working.
How so? Buy less shit, and you've got plenty of money for retirement and health insurance. If I spent the way most people spend, I'd also be worried about retirement and health care. I'm saying SPEND LESS. You'll have much more money, and you won't have to work as much! It's very simple.
...Buy less shit, then you don't have to work as much to pay for your useless shit. How difficult is this? Sell that stupid fucking SUV. Throw out your goddamned cellphones/PDA's/pagers. Turn off the fucking TV and disconnect cable. Move into a reasonably sized house. Don't make an event out of shopping. Jesus, and those are just a few things off the top of my head. Americans seem to think that they are *entitled* to a ridiculously high standard of living. Well, they aren't. But they're gonna keep striving for more and more shiny shit, working themselves to death along the way. Me? I've already done all of those things I mentioned above and more and I'll be retired by the time I'm 35.
I lost as a closed source developer? Really? Hmm... I was a developer for 6 years, earning more than 6 figures a year doing that, while I earned nothing for the public domain apps I wrote. Hmmm... If you call that "losing", then I'd *love* to "lose" some more!
Lighten up. But yes, some people DO deserve a DARPA engineered smart bomb launched from a radio-controlled plane to land right on their head and turn them into a fine red mist. C'mon... can you imagine the look on people's faces when they have a missle coming in through their house window? That's some funny shit. How about those air fuel bombs? Imagine the looks on peoples' faces when they're at the outer perimeter of the blast, and all of the air is suddenly sucked out of their lungs, and their bodies implode. If that isn't fun, I don't know what is.
Boo-fucking-Hoo. Some people deserve to die. They just make it more fun.
The goal of *EVERY* business is to make money. Some do it by providing the best services & products possible, and some do it by providing products & services as CHEAP as possible. There's room for both in most markets. If this company (being the hospital/HMO/whatever) is in the "high quality service" niche, then they're going to get hit hard by their customers. If they're offering cheap services to bottom feeders, then nobody will care. That's how business works every day. Your naive assumption that every business wants to provide outstanding service is just plain wrong. Do people go to McDonald's for their stellar service and healthy food? No, they go because it's cheap.
but the mantra seems to be there's little reason to upgrade unless you absolutely need the new features
This was a pretty stupid statement, IMO. One should *NEVER* upgrade unless you absolutely need the new features. This has always been the way a good admin/user worked. Anyone upgrading for the sake of upgrading is quite simply, an idiot.
Google Toolbar has a fantastic popup blocker... and you get to keep using IE!
... that fail to label "copy protected" CD's properly. It's simple fraud (you're not buying a "CD" per se), plus, with some schemes, it's outright vandalism.
It'd be nice if they were in a format that's actually usable. WTF is "gtar"??
You're out of your mind. It's selfish greed that got technology to this point. With a big food commune, nobody works to improve anything and it all turns to shit.