Bill G. (he of the Borg image at the top of the page and the perennial scourge of/.) has endowed his foundation with over $20 billion dollars. His foundation gives away over $1 billion a year. Do you think better of him now? I'm sure he couldn't give a damn, but...
"Savvy tech consumers (which I think means at least 50% of the people who are out there looking for computers and an ISP)"
Without reading any more of your posting, it is very obvious you have never worked with end users in an ISP environment. I have worked in ISP helpdesk and other end-user oriented jobs for years, and I'd say that no more than 20% of users are even really cognizant of what the Internet even is, much less that they're 'savvy'. Granted, the people that call tech support are usually the clueless 10% at the bottom, but these people generally don't know what I mean when I say "What email program do you use?", and I'm never sure whether it is 'email', 'program' or 'use' that is throwing them. The vast majority of people only perceive the Internet as a buzzword they see on TV commercials, and they have no idea what it entails. And they will never get more than 5% use out of it once they figure out how to click a couple of buttons to get online.
"Makes me wish that we actually lived in a democracy, rather than a republic"
The United States was chartered as a Republic, back in the day when nobody but landowners could vote. Is that what you meant?
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Bill G. (he of the Borg image at the top of the page and the perennial scourge of /.) has endowed his foundation with over $20 billion dollars. His foundation gives away over $1 billion a year. Do you think better of him now? I'm sure he couldn't give a damn, but...
"Savvy tech consumers (which I think means at least 50% of the people who are out there looking for computers and an ISP)" Without reading any more of your posting, it is very obvious you have never worked with end users in an ISP environment. I have worked in ISP helpdesk and other end-user oriented jobs for years, and I'd say that no more than 20% of users are even really cognizant of what the Internet even is, much less that they're 'savvy'. Granted, the people that call tech support are usually the clueless 10% at the bottom, but these people generally don't know what I mean when I say "What email program do you use?", and I'm never sure whether it is 'email', 'program' or 'use' that is throwing them. The vast majority of people only perceive the Internet as a buzzword they see on TV commercials, and they have no idea what it entails. And they will never get more than 5% use out of it once they figure out how to click a couple of buttons to get online.
"Makes me wish that we actually lived in a democracy, rather than a republic" The United States was chartered as a Republic, back in the day when nobody but landowners could vote. Is that what you meant?