After all, a consumer cant be expected to take multiple driving tests in order to get a license for each make of car.
Consumer??? Make that User Of Roads. I've got a license that says "5 Ton and Below," which is apparently playing very fast and loose with regulations. Usually every nitpicking little item has to be specifically named.
The iDrive is like linux. Sure its harder to use in the beginning, but once you get the hang of it, you'll wonder how you managed to get by without it. ?
To adjust my seat, I reach down to my seat, keeping my eyes on the road. To adjust my stereo, I stab a finger at my stereo, keeping my eyes on the road. To adjust the heat, I reach down to the heater, keeping my eyes on the road. To open my windows or sunroof I reach the doorsill or dash button and do it, keeping my eyes on the road. To shift gears, I press the clutch and change gears, keeping my eyes on the road.
I could keep going, but you're looking at it all wrong. This isn't the Linux of Car User Interfaces. It literally is the Windows version. I'm glad that they are in love with the start menu. I think pointing the dashboard elements at the driver (rather than straight fore and aft) was a much better ease of use innovation. A car isn't a PC. Some computers in the car are great. Turning a car into an application isn't. I know exactly how I got along without the iDrive: I was able to stay in my lane because I was busy driving- navigating down the road, not through a menu.
They're already using them. There are some purists (or teams with budgets under $50million) that still use the pushbuttons, and hell, maybe even clutch pedals. Look at Arrows- I think they have a clutch pedal and a column mounted shifter.
With FIA allowing traction control and launch control, I don't think computer controlled shifting is going to go away. That, in the end, is what F1 is really using. Not automatic transmissions as such, but real transmissions that shift when the computer tells them to.
If you GPL it, it'll have a virus in it. That's what the Microsoft people said. I don't want a virus on my computer, so forget it.
Re:Thankfully due to the GPL...
on
The Stallman Factor
·
· Score: 3, Insightful
RMS's goal still hasn't been met.
Because that guy in Santa Cruz used (parts of) RMS' plans, RMS is trying to strongarm everybody into calling it the GNU/Hempmobile. Once that's done, RMS can say that he's met his goal. I don't think we're going to see a GNU system released- we already have Linux.
How many times does the wheel need to be reinvented? Innovation, yes. Diversity, yes. Points of pride, no. If RMS wanted GNU on the front, he should have kept going. Someone else invented the critical part that was missing, and everyone put his name onto the system. I'm sorry. I'd be sitting in a room with 5 GNU boxes right now if he hadn't left it up to some kid from Finland. A bunch of good, free apps are nice, but without a kernel all you've got is an office suite.
It's a lot worse than that. There was no inattention to a site license or anything, just the standard MS strongarm tactics against a small software company that wrote something good. "We've got a deal, but it doesn't give us everything. Give us everything. No? Then we'll just take it." And another good software company goes bankrupt while trying to get justice, which MS is appealing anyway. That was a violated license agreement, all right. In the Biblical sense.
Hey, we've got a lesser of three evils senate race coming up in NH. I'm sure we could use a good candidate, whatever country he's from.
I don't think it's funny, as such, just refreshing. Well, it would be really refreshing if more media folks would admit it. The anti MS folks have always admitted it; indeed, revelled in it. They continually document the causes of their anti MS stance, making it less of an actual bias than a response to their continued actions. That's a lot different than the standard "anything said by a member of (insert political faction here) is automatically right/wrong" bias that makes for real problems in the news.
When I bought my Epson those many years ago, the manual said to press pause before turning it off to prevent the ink from drying out. I guess the market was a tad less cutthroat back then. It's worked for me for years- I have a laser, but keep the inkjet for color. I don't remember the last time I bought an ink cart, and it still works. I guess pausing it seals the nozzle somehow, while turning it off doesn't (?).
I hated the expensive ink cartridges, too. So I spent $425 on an HP 3200 fax/scanner/laser printer. I've still got my old Epson Stylus Color (no, no model number, it's that old a model) for those times that I need color. Come to think of it, I spent more on that color inkjet than I spent on the laser. I'll bet I spent more on ink than I spent on the laser printer. Toner? My work printer was screaming at me for a couple of months for new toner. I'll replace it when it runs out, not when it tells me to buy more.
I know you meant this as a joke, but what you'll find is that in practice this is what will happen.
Get real. While it was said humorously, it wasn't a joke. Employment is an exchange. When the employer drops what he's willing to give, there's a (minimum) corresponding drop in what he gets. I give the ma'am my time, energy and loyalty (I have a good boss). In return I get compensated with money. I think the money I get buys a lot of time and energy. The loyalty is to the person, but that affects my valuation of my time/energy vs. the money. If suddenly my boss decided to halve my pay, things would change. I'm not suddenly "worth" less money- I generate revenue, keep accounts happy and keep a lid on expenses. I'm just worth less as an employee, or a person- she takes a hit on loyalty for that. She is worth much less than half to me, because the loyalty affected the money's worth. I'd be gone, probably with anything not nailed down, making more money at some place that values me just as little- but hasn't betrayed my loyalty.
Loyalty is so easy for a company to get, it's pathetic. While money is important, even vital, it's not what keeps people. Management giving itself bonuses while announcing pay cuts- well, they're just smoking too much crack. Flee this company. It's more of a pyramid scam than a business. I'd be surprised if the employees don't start hauling off everything down to the furniture real fast.
What gets me is that shareholders actually seem to believe that a company cutting itself off at the knees is a good thing. We need more controls on accounting practices. These losers are simply Enron with less ambition.
Look up the "classical" definition of liberal sometime. Liber. Libre. Libertarian. Your "classical" definition, while applied widely in the US for the last few decades, is actually spelled s-o-c-i-a-l-i-s-t. Governmentally applied restrictions for your own good- to protect you from yourself, donchaknow. True, classical liberals believe in freedom. Not anarchy, but freedom- fewer governmental restrictions. Smaller government, if you will.
The problem with being politically conservative in the US these days is that the socially conservative folks give us a bad name. Note that most of those assholes want huge government while calling it small government: government that bans abortions. Government that reads everyone's email. Government that persecutes gays. Government that holds people secretly without charging them with anything. Government that hates fair use. Government that gives tax cuts to big business retroactively for all the '90s.
The absence of those clauses in US contracts indicates the presence of more conservitive (smaller government, states rights, Texas) elements in the US Government.
The absence of those clauses in the US is actually quite liberal. You are obviously using some definition of the word "liberal" with which I was not previously aquainted.
They generally react with panic, and implement a whole lot of rashly designed security plans that sound complete, but are actually so riddled with holes they might as well have done nothing.
Sounds like this whole fscking country, post Sept. 11.
I'm impressed. You managed to use "insight" and "opinions of the general populace" in the same sentance while keeping a straight face. Just keep on holding your breath- Jon Katz ought to put your question on the front page next friday or so.
You're right. This is worse than bait & switch. After calling the customer service number multiple times to confirm the price, ordering it,being charged for it and recieving confirmations, the store cancelled people's orders and failed to refund their money. They didn't even bother use a separate product to charge the higher price for.
Other than that they're totally in their right? Other than what, discriminating? It's okay to do the right thing for some of your customers? The main "other than that" problem I have isn't the after sale lying and arresting- those are crimes. The main problem is that after customers made every effort possible to verfy the low price and then ordered it, Best Buy took their money. A transaction had taken place. The money was out of people's cards. You have to honor a price if you have already taken that price as payment.
Rather than taking a mistake (miscalculation? It was too organised to be a typo) in stride, Best Buy decided to rectify it with a bigger mistake. There's no point in having customer service people if they don't have access to information that the customers don't. If the CS reps at the phone bank were simply looking at the same web site the customers were looking at, then Best Buy deserved to take a bath on this one. If upper management were smart enough to see that they were committed and gone along with what they had to do, none of this would have happened. Now they're really committed. Their store managers are lying, racist cretins and they have no company wide policy on discrimination. That's a bad spot to be in. They've generated hatred where it wouldn't have occurred to anyone to get upset.
If they had done it right, geeks would be telling this story for years- They posted this great deal, realized what had happened, and took it down. I ordered just in time. Lots of guys were pissed that they didn't order soon enough. Now not only are geeks going to be talking about it for years, but civil liberties groups will be, too. I want to see the TIME with Rod Hill's picture on the cover. That'll go over real well at the next board meeting.
I've asked Best Buy to look into whether making false statements to a Georgia peace officer is a felony. Forget the boycott. This is a hate crime, and Hill should be behind bars.
I'm with you, but I really don't like the classification of "hate crimes." Why shouldn't committing crimes against other people be worthy of punishment? Why should there be a sentencing differential based on the relative color of the perp's skin and the victims? Is a couple of rednecks beating a homosexual to death actually worse than their beating another redneck to death? Oh. Bad example. It actually is a bigger loss to society. But how about most other crimes? All the hate crime label does is officially charge the defendant with being retarded. Duh.
Re:My legal-sense is tingling!
on
Worst Buy
·
· Score: 2
It is then on Best Buy to prove that they haven't treated him any differentally than other customers (but have they had any Whites arrested?)
Ah, but they did treat him differently then other customers. Ten days earlier, that same store chose to honor the same price to another customer. I hope Rod Hill liked owning his own house.
I'm white, too. But southern police scare me a lot. It's kind of a shock to hear of someone described as anything other than suspect or perpetrator. Rod Hill, on the other hand, was called complainant Rod Hill (got to love the literacy rate among hick cops) and witness (General Manager) Rod Hill. Cherian was simply Indian male. I'm sorry, but unless you're here as a tourist or on a temporary visa, you're an American. Not Indian- American, Italian- American or Martian- American, but American. A lot more of an American than your average Dekalb County flatfoot.
Is anyone really stating that they are arbitrarily doing this?
I'll state that they are arbitrarily changing their prices.
Rod Hill, Store Manager for Best Buy #513 in Tucker/Dekalb County, GA, had a customer arrested on Friday of last week, citing Fraud and Criminal Trespassing . Hill informed police that Abraham Cherian, an Indian American, was trying to rip off the store, the same store that had conceded to give another customer his video card as requested 10 days earlier.
They are arbitrarily changing their prices.
Apparently, one person (minimum) got it at the good price. Over 2,000 other customers were discriminated against. Damn, I wish I had been one of them. Not so much for the money, but to be a part of the legal bitchslap that Best Buy has coming. Nobody really wants their company to make CNN in the same breath as "class-action." A price was offered. 2K+ people bought it at that price, (probably) most of them were charged that price, and at least one person recieved it for that price. If it were an error, they need to take the loss and drive on. Bait & Switch is illegal everywhere except fishing. Best Buy needs to be slapped hard- hard enough that they would have saved money by honoring the price that people bought at. Hell, hard enough that the board decides that they would have saved money by honoring the price that people bought at.
That's the key point here. It's not about geeks getting cheap components, it's about huge companies being financially convinced that they probably ought to obey the law some of the time. I don't care if the money they lose is in punitive damages or in fines (but it had better also be in meeting their price), but it needs to be enough money to make every board member certain to never allow abuse like this again, not to mention enough for other companies to learn something from the lesson of Best Buy.
As for our friend Rod Hill, I'd say that Cherian has an open and shut case against both him personally and Best Buy. I hope Hill liked owning his own house. Hell, I hope he liked living in his own house. Read the police report in the link. If Hill's store actually honored the low price 10 days earlier, he's going to be lucky to stay out of jail for what he did to Cherian. Add the fact that Cherian's an Indian American and you can even make it into a "hate crime." I wonder if the customer that Hill chose to honor the price for was white? I don't like twisting laws like that, but if Cherian has a lawyer who is even barely literate, that's the kind of crap that Hill is going to face. Best Buy, too, for tolerating this sort of behavior from management. So much easier to honor your contracts, folks.
I'm from Senator Disney's home state. Hollings is a Democrat, so voting against him means voting for a Republican.
Um... How about in the primary? Up heah in NH, our R congressman is going to take our R senator's spot. The senator is going to fight it, but it won't do him any good. The moral of the story is that you can lose an incumbent and keep the same party. Of course it helps that they're a mercenary bunch of unprincipled bastards. With some funding and some really good arguments spoon fed, finding the right candidate for the primary should be easy.
I see where you are coming from, but I don't think anyone with real feelings about freedom (net or meatspace) will have reprehensible views on abortion. Of course, no one with real feelings about freedom would have voted for the USAPATRIOT act. Or the DMCA.
Screw it, folks. I don't care if you vote geek or not; just fucking vote! We'll get better government if we vote instead of whine. I do both- voting just shows that I actually care about what I'm whining about.
Lower Your Insuance Premiums: Use Linux. The article is here. I haven't seen any follow up news, but this is where product liability has the best potential to hurt MS: where the only way they can affect the true cost of their product is by releasing a product that works.
Slashdot Mirror
Consumer??? Make that User Of Roads. I've got a license that says "5 Ton and Below," which is apparently playing very fast and loose with regulations. Usually every nitpicking little item has to be specifically named.
The iDrive is like linux. Sure its harder to use in the beginning, but once you get the hang of it, you'll wonder how you managed to get by without it. ?
To adjust my seat, I reach down to my seat, keeping my eyes on the road. To adjust my stereo, I stab a finger at my stereo, keeping my eyes on the road. To adjust the heat, I reach down to the heater, keeping my eyes on the road. To open my windows or sunroof I reach the doorsill or dash button and do it, keeping my eyes on the road. To shift gears, I press the clutch and change gears, keeping my eyes on the road.
I could keep going, but you're looking at it all wrong. This isn't the Linux of Car User Interfaces. It literally is the Windows version. I'm glad that they are in love with the start menu. I think pointing the dashboard elements at the driver (rather than straight fore and aft) was a much better ease of use innovation. A car isn't a PC. Some computers in the car are great. Turning a car into an application isn't. I know exactly how I got along without the iDrive: I was able to stay in my lane because I was busy driving- navigating down the road, not through a menu.
They're already using them. There are some purists (or teams with budgets under $50million) that still use the pushbuttons, and hell, maybe even clutch pedals. Look at Arrows- I think they have a clutch pedal and a column mounted shifter.
With FIA allowing traction control and launch control, I don't think computer controlled shifting is going to go away. That, in the end, is what F1 is really using. Not automatic transmissions as such, but real transmissions that shift when the computer tells them to.
Because that guy in Santa Cruz used (parts of) RMS' plans, RMS is trying to strongarm everybody into calling it the GNU/Hempmobile. Once that's done, RMS can say that he's met his goal. I don't think we're going to see a GNU system released- we already have Linux.
How many times does the wheel need to be reinvented? Innovation, yes. Diversity, yes. Points of pride, no. If RMS wanted GNU on the front, he should have kept going. Someone else invented the critical part that was missing, and everyone put his name onto the system. I'm sorry. I'd be sitting in a room with 5 GNU boxes right now if he hadn't left it up to some kid from Finland. A bunch of good, free apps are nice, but without a kernel all you've got is an office suite.
It's a lot worse than that. There was no inattention to a site license or anything, just the standard MS strongarm tactics against a small software company that wrote something good. "We've got a deal, but it doesn't give us everything. Give us everything. No? Then we'll just take it." And another good software company goes bankrupt while trying to get justice, which MS is appealing anyway. That was a violated license agreement, all right. In the Biblical sense.
Hey, we've got a lesser of three evils senate race coming up in NH. I'm sure we could use a good candidate, whatever country he's from.
Clean PC... Wal-Mart...
Clean PC... Wal-Mart... Aaaaaagh!
Get real. While it was said humorously, it wasn't a joke. Employment is an exchange. When the employer drops what he's willing to give, there's a (minimum) corresponding drop in what he gets. I give the ma'am my time, energy and loyalty (I have a good boss). In return I get compensated with money. I think the money I get buys a lot of time and energy. The loyalty is to the person, but that affects my valuation of my time/energy vs. the money. If suddenly my boss decided to halve my pay, things would change. I'm not suddenly "worth" less money- I generate revenue, keep accounts happy and keep a lid on expenses. I'm just worth less as an employee, or a person- she takes a hit on loyalty for that. She is worth much less than half to me, because the loyalty affected the money's worth. I'd be gone, probably with anything not nailed down, making more money at some place that values me just as little- but hasn't betrayed my loyalty.
Loyalty is so easy for a company to get, it's pathetic. While money is important, even vital, it's not what keeps people. Management giving itself bonuses while announcing pay cuts- well, they're just smoking too much crack. Flee this company. It's more of a pyramid scam than a business. I'd be surprised if the employees don't start hauling off everything down to the furniture real fast.
What gets me is that shareholders actually seem to believe that a company cutting itself off at the knees is a good thing. We need more controls on accounting practices. These losers are simply Enron with less ambition.
Yeah. Have you ever noticed that it's the fattest guy in the room telling everyone else that they have to tighten their belts?
The problem with being politically conservative in the US these days is that the socially conservative folks give us a bad name. Note that most of those assholes want huge government while calling it small government: government that bans abortions. Government that reads everyone's email. Government that persecutes gays. Government that holds people secretly without charging them with anything. Government that hates fair use. Government that gives tax cuts to big business retroactively for all the '90s.
The absence of those clauses in US contracts indicates the presence of more conservitive (smaller government, states rights, Texas) elements in the US Government.
The absence of those clauses in the US is actually quite liberal. You are obviously using some definition of the word "liberal" with which I was not previously aquainted.
Sounds like this whole fscking country, post Sept. 11.
Other than that they're totally in their right? Other than what, discriminating? It's okay to do the right thing for some of your customers? The main "other than that" problem I have isn't the after sale lying and arresting- those are crimes. The main problem is that after customers made every effort possible to verfy the low price and then ordered it, Best Buy took their money. A transaction had taken place. The money was out of people's cards. You have to honor a price if you have already taken that price as payment.
Rather than taking a mistake (miscalculation? It was too organised to be a typo) in stride, Best Buy decided to rectify it with a bigger mistake. There's no point in having customer service people if they don't have access to information that the customers don't. If the CS reps at the phone bank were simply looking at the same web site the customers were looking at, then Best Buy deserved to take a bath on this one. If upper management were smart enough to see that they were committed and gone along with what they had to do, none of this would have happened. Now they're really committed. Their store managers are lying, racist cretins and they have no company wide policy on discrimination. That's a bad spot to be in. They've generated hatred where it wouldn't have occurred to anyone to get upset.
If they had done it right, geeks would be telling this story for years- They posted this great deal, realized what had happened, and took it down. I ordered just in time. Lots of guys were pissed that they didn't order soon enough. Now not only are geeks going to be talking about it for years, but civil liberties groups will be, too. I want to see the TIME with Rod Hill's picture on the cover. That'll go over real well at the next board meeting.
I'm with you, but I really don't like the classification of "hate crimes." Why shouldn't committing crimes against other people be worthy of punishment? Why should there be a sentencing differential based on the relative color of the perp's skin and the victims? Is a couple of rednecks beating a homosexual to death actually worse than their beating another redneck to death? Oh. Bad example. It actually is a bigger loss to society. But how about most other crimes? All the hate crime label does is officially charge the defendant with being retarded. Duh.
Ah, but they did treat him differently then other customers. Ten days earlier, that same store chose to honor the same price to another customer. I hope Rod Hill liked owning his own house.
I'll state that they are arbitrarily changing their prices.
Rod Hill, Store Manager for Best Buy #513 in Tucker/Dekalb County, GA, had a customer arrested on Friday of last week, citing Fraud and Criminal Trespassing . Hill informed police that Abraham Cherian, an Indian American, was trying to rip off the store, the same store that had conceded to give another customer his video card as requested 10 days earlier.
They are arbitrarily changing their prices.
Apparently, one person (minimum) got it at the good price. Over 2,000 other customers were discriminated against. Damn, I wish I had been one of them. Not so much for the money, but to be a part of the legal bitchslap that Best Buy has coming. Nobody really wants their company to make CNN in the same breath as "class-action." A price was offered. 2K+ people bought it at that price, (probably) most of them were charged that price, and at least one person recieved it for that price. If it were an error, they need to take the loss and drive on. Bait & Switch is illegal everywhere except fishing. Best Buy needs to be slapped hard- hard enough that they would have saved money by honoring the price that people bought at. Hell, hard enough that the board decides that they would have saved money by honoring the price that people bought at.
That's the key point here. It's not about geeks getting cheap components, it's about huge companies being financially convinced that they probably ought to obey the law some of the time. I don't care if the money they lose is in punitive damages or in fines (but it had better also be in meeting their price), but it needs to be enough money to make every board member certain to never allow abuse like this again, not to mention enough for other companies to learn something from the lesson of Best Buy.
As for our friend Rod Hill, I'd say that Cherian has an open and shut case against both him personally and Best Buy. I hope Hill liked owning his own house. Hell, I hope he liked living in his own house. Read the police report in the link. If Hill's store actually honored the low price 10 days earlier, he's going to be lucky to stay out of jail for what he did to Cherian. Add the fact that Cherian's an Indian American and you can even make it into a "hate crime." I wonder if the customer that Hill chose to honor the price for was white? I don't like twisting laws like that, but if Cherian has a lawyer who is even barely literate, that's the kind of crap that Hill is going to face. Best Buy, too, for tolerating this sort of behavior from management. So much easier to honor your contracts, folks.
Um... How about in the primary? Up heah in NH, our R congressman is going to take our R senator's spot. The senator is going to fight it, but it won't do him any good. The moral of the story is that you can lose an incumbent and keep the same party. Of course it helps that they're a mercenary bunch of unprincipled bastards. With some funding and some really good arguments spoon fed, finding the right candidate for the primary should be easy.
Screw it, folks. I don't care if you vote geek or not; just fucking vote! We'll get better government if we vote instead of whine. I do both- voting just shows that I actually care about what I'm whining about.
Lower Your Insuance Premiums: Use Linux. The article is here. I haven't seen any follow up news, but this is where product liability has the best potential to hurt MS: where the only way they can affect the true cost of their product is by releasing a product that works.