i believe that the majority of posters here have missed the point (and i certainly expect the legislaters to miss the point as well). the key isn't teaching with or on the computer it's allowing kids to be comfortable with them. the reason so many middle aged people cannot or refuse to use computers is because they never became familiar with them as children, and at this point, it seems alien to them.
i don't think there are enough teachers that are familiar enough with computers to use them as teaching tools beyond word processors. computer curriculums are also way behind curriculums in other subjects. even just playing games at lunch, getting homework assignments from the web, and typing up assignments on the computers (no specific lessons) would be a huge step toward enabling the kids of today with the computer skills they need. especially in families that don't have the computer at home.
as many other people have already said, selling these at cost (estimated at around $400 us) would make them unappealing. the coolness of the hack is in taking a cheap machine and making it into something useful. that said, there must be some way for netpliance to recoup the money that they're losing while still making their product attractive to hackers. this was the key of the article that has sparked the interest.
the obvious way to recover cost is through leveraging the r&d costs of the open source development model. netpliance should set up a lot of different developer relations and support sites. they should give developers access to time with the engineers who designed the thing and maybe devote an engineer to trying out prototypes and the like. then the $100-$200 they lose on the cost of the items can be made up in free staffing and r&d. the neat things that hackers think of can then be resold by netpliance.
plus think of the positive press (first open source hardware company?) and coolness factor the company would gain (much less possible stock boon).
governor ridge once again tries to give a tax break to the rich while keeping up pretences of doing otherwise. you mean to tell me that the difference between someone buying and not buying a computer is the 6% tax and not the thousand dollar price tag? this only saves money for the people that can already afford computers.
perhaps if gov. ridge offered this only saying, "we're losing money to delaware because everyone in eastern pennsylvania is buying their computers there," or, "if you mail-order a computer, there is no tax. this is to give local businesses a chance at that business," i wouldn't complain. but, the article clearly states, "The tax-free holidays will give families who cannot normally afford the $1,800 average cost of a computer and related equipment to purchase them without having to pay the state's 6 percent sales tax." there is no mention of the opportunity at buying lower cost machines because, of course, this isn't the market ridge is aiming to help. and, the 6% becomes more negligible at $300 ($18).
if ridge were really interested in helping to give families that couldn't afford the computer a chance, perhaps he would say for two weeks the tax collected on computer sales would be alloted to families that can't afford, but are interested in buying. or maybe, for two weeks, the tax collected on computer sales will go to putting new computers in inner-city (or under-privileged) schools.
well, somehow i don't think this is very likely. corel has way too many "other" interests that would turn off red hat.
a) windows software b) macintosh software c) old support contracts
that said, there are some interesting aspects of a corel buy (namely the hardware connections, the expertise, and the two distribution questions). more important, though, is that corel doesn't even make as much sense as other companies for a possible office suite for linux. a company with more focus seems to be a much better option. what about abisource? what about applix? seems that if red hat bought applix, gpl'd it, gtk'd it, and gnome-ified it that would make much more sense.
as for red hat buying everyone and everything rumors, red hat is starting to have enough money to screw up. it was fine when they could only afford blunders. it seems now, though, that they can afford disasters as well. tread lightly mr. young (and don't even think about cray)!
so we have the GPL, the LGPL, and the BSD licenses, plus an assortment of other licenses that are all a little different by netscape, novell, etc. anyone have any desire to make a fill in the blanks with the company name license that matches the intent of all the company name licenses so there is less confusion?
the scariest thing of all is how many of you could easily have been that person that was caught. i mean, there are right and wrong ways to go about warez, and this kid obviously wasn't to much in the know, but this _does_ hit close to home (and i'd imagine for a lot of you).
who knows what kind of silly stuff we all did when we were young and foolish in terms of where we stored our bits and where they passed through. who knows what logs are still around.
i personally can say that warez don't excite me in the slightest anymore and that nothing on my computer _now_ is illegal, but...
what we _really_ need is someone who actually knows the law to make it very clear how to protect yourself. someone who makes it clear what's entrapment, who clears up the 24 hour (bullsh*t) rule, and who can elaborate on the penalties and where the line is drawn. i for one would have liked to know, rather than cockily guessed, what would and would not have gotten me in trouble. perhaps something like this can save some poor kids who are making big mistakes before they realize what they are doing.
if bill gates were 15 now he would certainly pirate software.
Xwrits reminds you to take wrist breaks, which will hopefully help you prevent repetitive stress injury. It pops up an X window when you should rest, you click on that window, then take a break.
the biggest problem with this re-organization plan and for that matter pretty much all of the "splitting" plans is that the split companies aren't really competing against each other. isn't that the whole point?
so, now there's an office group. what's to stop bill gates (or any other high exec) from telling to office group to only produce versions for windows? it's not as if the office group has any new incentive to try and come out with the best product that they didn't have already.
anti-trust is all about creating competition. re-organization does nothing to create competition. let's hope the DOJ realizes this.
Slashdot Mirror
here's a useful link to some useful information about the things.
i was gonna paraphrase, but i hear that's bad news these days ... *smirk*
i believe that the majority of posters here have missed the point (and i certainly expect the legislaters to miss the point as well). the key isn't teaching with or on the computer it's allowing kids to be comfortable with them. the reason so many middle aged people cannot or refuse to use computers is because they never became familiar with them as children, and at this point, it seems alien to them.
i don't think there are enough teachers that are familiar enough with computers to use them as teaching tools beyond word processors. computer curriculums are also way behind curriculums in other subjects. even just playing games at lunch, getting homework assignments from the web, and typing up assignments on the computers (no specific lessons) would be a huge step toward enabling the kids of today with the computer skills they need. especially in families that don't have the computer at home.
as many other people have already said, selling these at cost (estimated at around $400 us) would make them unappealing. the coolness of the hack is in taking a cheap machine and making it into something useful. that said, there must be some way for netpliance to recoup the money that they're losing while still making their product attractive to hackers. this was the key of the article that has sparked the interest.
the obvious way to recover cost is through leveraging the r&d costs of the open source development model. netpliance should set up a lot of different developer relations and support sites. they should give developers access to time with the engineers who designed the thing and maybe devote an engineer to trying out prototypes and the like. then the $100-$200 they lose on the cost of the items can be made up in free staffing and r&d. the neat things that hackers think of can then be resold by netpliance.
plus think of the positive press (first open source hardware company?) and coolness factor the company would gain (much less possible stock boon).
perhaps if gov. ridge offered this only saying, "we're losing money to delaware because everyone in eastern pennsylvania is buying their computers there," or, "if you mail-order a computer, there is no tax. this is to give local businesses a chance at that business," i wouldn't complain. but, the article clearly states, "The tax-free holidays will give families who cannot normally afford the $1,800 average cost of a computer and related equipment to purchase them without having to pay the state's 6 percent sales tax." there is no mention of the opportunity at buying lower cost machines because, of course, this isn't the market ridge is aiming to help. and, the 6% becomes more negligible at $300 ($18).
if ridge were really interested in helping to give families that couldn't afford the computer a chance, perhaps he would say for two weeks the tax collected on computer sales would be alloted to families that can't afford, but are interested in buying. or maybe, for two weeks, the tax collected on computer sales will go to putting new computers in inner-city (or under-privileged) schools.
*sigh*
matt from pittsburgh, pa
so if i have the pre-eminent open source online mag and i own corel stock, what's the easiest way to drive up the price?
rumors of red hat buying corel!
*grin*
well, somehow i don't think this is very likely. corel has way too many "other" interests that would turn off red hat.
a) windows software
b) macintosh software
c) old support contracts
that said, there are some interesting aspects of a corel buy (namely the hardware connections, the expertise, and the two distribution questions). more important, though, is that corel doesn't even make as much sense as other companies for a possible office suite for linux. a company with more focus seems to be a much better option. what about abisource? what about applix? seems that if red hat bought applix, gpl'd it, gtk'd it, and gnome-ified it that would make much more sense.
as for red hat buying everyone and everything rumors, red hat is starting to have enough money to screw up. it was fine when they could only afford blunders. it seems now, though, that they can afford disasters as well. tread lightly mr. young (and don't even think about cray)!
so we have the GPL, the LGPL, and the BSD licenses, plus an assortment of other licenses that are all a little different by netscape, novell, etc. anyone have any desire to make a fill in the blanks with the company name license that matches the intent of all the company name licenses so there is less confusion?
first to say "taste like chicken!"
*grin*
btw, has anyone ever had chicken-fried iguana (while we're on the subject). seems that they're raisin' iguana like livestock in central america now.
the scariest thing of all is how many of you could easily have been that person that was caught. i mean, there are right and wrong ways to go about warez, and this kid obviously wasn't to much in the know, but this _does_ hit close to home (and i'd imagine for a lot of you).
...
who knows what kind of silly stuff we all did when we were young and foolish in terms of where we stored our bits and where they passed through. who knows what logs are still around.
i personally can say that warez don't excite me in the slightest anymore and that nothing on my computer _now_ is illegal, but
what we _really_ need is someone who actually knows the law to make it very clear how to protect yourself. someone who makes it clear what's entrapment, who clears up the 24 hour (bullsh*t) rule, and who can elaborate on the penalties and where the line is drawn. i for one would have liked to know, rather than cockily guessed, what would and would not have gotten me in trouble. perhaps something like this can save some poor kids who are making big mistakes before they realize what they are doing.
if bill gates were 15 now he would certainly pirate software.
Xwrits reminds you to take wrist breaks, which will hopefully help you prevent repetitive stress injury. It pops up an X window when you should rest, you click on that window, then take a break.
they own like 10% of lycos too. don't really know what that means, but i thought it was interesting enough.
-matt
the biggest problem with this re-organization plan and for that matter pretty much all of the "splitting" plans is that the split companies aren't really competing against each other. isn't that the whole point?
so, now there's an office group. what's to stop bill gates (or any other high exec) from telling to office group to only produce versions for windows? it's not as if the office group has any new incentive to try and come out with the best product that they didn't have already.
anti-trust is all about creating competition. re-organization does nothing to create competition. let's hope the DOJ realizes this.