But health insurance pays for a lot more situations that ARE expensive but AREN'T related to genes - like childbirth and appendicitis, for instance.
If you think about it, insurance is similar to credit cards...people COULD save their money and buy everything from their checking account, but they don't...they buy on their credit card and make monthly payments on that. Insurance works the same way:)
You're talking to a future CPCU (www.aicpcu.org), btw:) I'm also an insurance agent for one of the top 5 companies in the USA.
It's both. You can choose whether or not to do business with an insurance company, and they can reject your business.
With government, you can't. You have to do business with them and they have to do business with you. That's why it's so expensive, because people that shouldn't get certain benefits pay too little and people that don't want or use the benefits still have to pay.
Where does it end? Where do you draw the line? I hate to get all Minority Report cliche-ish on ya here, but it really is a slippery slope.
You use the health/insurance example very astutely (especially compared to the other post I replied to), but insurance companies are private organizations you can choose to do or not to do business with. You do not have this option with the federal government. What if they run your DNA through the database and find that you're related to three murderers and the computer determines that based on similar data, your probability of committing murder is 10 times higher than the average citizen with no murderers related to them by blood? Well, expect that you'll have your own FBI file, just like other public welfare threats like John Lennon.
Besides, I thought they already had our DNA from pennies?;)
Oooh, insurance is so evil. Guess what, if you hate it, don't buy it! Save your money for your catastrophic illnesses so you can pay it out of pocket, for the car accident that you cause.
Insurance is SUPPOSED to exist to pay for catastrophic unknown and unexpected situations, not as a crutch to pay for every little thing that arises. Insurance is expensive and underwriting is strict because of attitudes like yours.
Talk about your flawed logic. You say you don't think you should have to spend more than the cost of a good PC for a digital camera. Is then a Rolls Royce overpriced because it costs more than your average house. You probably think I'm crazy then for blowing $1000 on my film camera setup (Nikon N80/50mm fixed lens/24-85 zoom)What about audio? I can get a pair of binaural microphones for $65 but I still lust after the $450 Sonic Studios (and the $250 headband-mounted accessory, and their $1000 preamp). The reverse is true; if you really wanted a bitchin' setup, I'll bet you could have spent a lot more than you did on your computer. I'd love a G5 with a huge flat panel and I think I priced that at over $4000 (maybe over $5000 or even $6000, but I don't remember). I'd even love to stick with PC and get a top of the line Athlon with 4GB of RAM and half a terabyte of HD with the newest and highest end ATI Radeon.
You're comparing apples to oranges. You cannot say that product X should always be cheaper than product Y, because their price and quality are not related to each other.
Ok, so which distro do we choose then? SuSE, Mandrake, Red Hat, or something else? I'm not suggesting buy multiple distros, just buy (or donate to, if it's Debian/Gentoo/*insert non-commercial distro here*) what you use; speak with your wallet, in other words. If the market doesn't think there should be multiple commercial distros, then eventually there will only be one left.
Honestly, I think you are a Debian troll, suggesting that Red Hat and the like stop producing a distro in favor of providing support solutions for Debian, since the ones you mention are all.rpm distros and Debian is.deb.
Most people who use and enjoy Linux and want to keep it going do, in fact, "shell out money" for a box set. I put my money where my mouth is; I buy every x.1 Mandrake release and am a Mandrake club member. I also just purchased the definitive guide, even though I think it's a little overpriced, the shipping is too high, the discount for being a club member isn't very much, and the entire book is available to club members (like myself) as a.pdf.
If you particularly like a certain distro and use it for day-to-day use, I suggest you do the same if you want it to survive. Or if it's something like Gentoo, give them the amount it would cost if they had a boxset once a year or so, which would be about $60.
Considering you can already get cross-cut shredders in any office supply store and they have been available for years, even reading the article was unnecessary.
I use it on my Windows XP install, which I use about 5-10% of the time vs. my MDK 9.1 install, which is the other 90-95% of the time. It's better for plugins than vanilla Mozilla on Windows.
You realize how little market share Linux has, right?
A significant number (to Microsoft) of people are not going to rush out and buy X-Boxes to install Linux on it. Maybe a few thousand worldwide, MAYBE. That's not going to put them over the top against Sony.
I didn't say they should/can dictate what is done with their hardware, I said, why would they want to legitimize hacking their own hardware, especially a company like Microsoft, who against homeade ANYTHING?
...did they really think Microsoft would give in to their "demands" AND legitimize X-Box hacking at the same time? Give me a break. Why would it make sense for Microsoft to encourage Linux installs on a product solely meant to play games and movies, when it doesn't even port it's cash cow software for the real desktop OS? I hate to make this comparison (because of the can of worms it's sure to open), but it's like terrorists who try to bargain hostages for freeing their buddies. You CAN'T bargain with them, because it simply encourages others to follow in their path.
Congrats to the guys for the hard hacking work, but get a little business sense and in the meantime, better get a lawyer. This ain't gonna make the boyz in Redmond none too happy.
The reason customer service has gone by the wayside is because customers will usually choose price over service, even if the price difference is negligible. This forces more companies to choose the low-ball route, and telemarketers are much cheaper to train, pay, and retain than customer service agents.
So remember that the next time you buy something from the large chain grocery instead of the corner market, or Best Buy instead of the local electronics shop. If you really want customer service as much as you say you do, you'll make that the number one factor in buying decisions, price second (not the other way around).
Frankly, I am for this - not the prohibition of women (my wife), atheists (myself), and homosexuals (my best friend), mind you, but the right for a private establishment to allow or not allow anyone they choose for any reason.
Notice I say PRIVATE. The Boy Scouts and The Masters are private organizations, paid for by individuals, not the government, i.e. tax dollars. Everybody pays taxes (well, in theory), so everyone should have access to publically/federally funded organizations. Individuals fund private organizations, so those individuals should then also decide who is eligible for the benefits enjoyed by members of said organizations.
On a smaller scale, saying that you don't think private organizations should be able to discriminate would be akin to saying that you couldn't keep someone out of your house for a prejudicial reason. What's prejudicial? Shouldn't matter, it's YOUR house and you should have a say in who comes in the door. The same goes on a larger scale. The Masters does not prevent women from playing golf and the Boy Scouts don't prevent atheist from learning how to survive in the woods. Nor does the KKK prevent blacks from being white supremacists (Laugh, it's a joke. And also a Chappelle Show reference). So why not move along to another club that will have you as a member, or start your own, rather than clashing with a group that doesn't want you?
I know I am putting many words in your mouth in this reply, but I'm always making this point with other people when the topic comes up so I figured I'd translate it to written form for the purpose of slashdot discussion. If the views I'm replying to don't reflect your opinions on the matter, no offense intended.
I could see being at that point, however I'm young and the will to fight MS is strong within me, so I continue to press onward with Mandrake 9.1:) My other OS is Windows 2000. I go into it to A) burn CD's (my burner is not supported yet) and B) use Cool Edit Pro. I don't even really NEED Cool Edit Pro, just a few of its functions...1) Copy/Paste 2) Hard Limiting 3) 10/20/31-Band Graphic EQ 4) Normalize. That's really about it. I think #3 is the only one that can't be done in Linux right now (I was made aware previously of an alpha-level plugin for XMMS, but that's not going to cut it just yet).
It's too bad Windows XP even had to be released with Windows 2000 available. It's not like they're competing with anyone!
The cashier's boss doesn't care or have any pull either, unless it's a mom and pop non-chain store (doubt it). They sell what is trucked in from corporate hq.
Try writing a letter instead of making some minimum wage person's life more difficult (I also used to be a cashier).
It's nice to see my intuition confirmed. Gentoo is the only community-run project of which I am aware that mostly ignores the community. Go read the posts at forums.gentoo.org...you'll see most of the developers (Especially Kurt Lieber) are arrogant and talk down to the users. You'll see many ignored ideas that make sense; it took about 6 months for anyone to pay attention to the scores of users who wanted updates from the developers, of this supposed "community" distribution and it took another couple of months before the Gentoo Newsletter was implemented...and it STILL doesn't really give people what they want, telling people the number of bugs found and squashed, rather than good info on what the bugs actually ARE.
Did I mention how arrogant the developers are? People who don't want to install 1.4 until it is final are looked down upon and told "it's just the installer, it's good enough." Well then, why not call 1.4 RCx "1.4 final" then, if it is "good enough?" People who suggest that new features shouldn't be added to a release candidate build are ignored. And this is not the first developer that has cried foul of Daniel Robbins. I don't know him personally so I can't say with authority, but I smell a rat.
The sad thing is, despite the horrendous developer beauracracy, it's still the best source-based distro out there. Hopefully this Zynot project will overtake it eventually. If there is more to it than spite towards DR, I think it will succeed.
Tell that to Gentoo. They've had like 4 Release Candidates with new features and new bugs each time. Every time I argue this convention with Kurt Lieber, he poo-poos it.
Slashdot Mirror
But health insurance pays for a lot more situations that ARE expensive but AREN'T related to genes - like childbirth and appendicitis, for instance.
:)
:) I'm also an insurance agent for one of the top 5 companies in the USA.
If you think about it, insurance is similar to credit cards...people COULD save their money and buy everything from their checking account, but they don't...they buy on their credit card and make monthly payments on that. Insurance works the same way
You're talking to a future CPCU (www.aicpcu.org), btw
Chris
It's both. You can choose whether or not to do business with an insurance company, and they can reject your business.
With government, you can't. You have to do business with them and they have to do business with you. That's why it's so expensive, because people that shouldn't get certain benefits pay too little and people that don't want or use the benefits still have to pay.
Chris
Where does it end? Where do you draw the line? I hate to get all Minority Report cliche-ish on ya here, but it really is a slippery slope.
;)
You use the health/insurance example very astutely (especially compared to the other post I replied to), but insurance companies are private organizations you can choose to do or not to do business with. You do not have this option with the federal government. What if they run your DNA through the database and find that you're related to three murderers and the computer determines that based on similar data, your probability of committing murder is 10 times higher than the average citizen with no murderers related to them by blood? Well, expect that you'll have your own FBI file, just like other public welfare threats like John Lennon.
Besides, I thought they already had our DNA from pennies?
Chris
Oooh, insurance is so evil. Guess what, if you hate it, don't buy it! Save your money for your catastrophic illnesses so you can pay it out of pocket, for the car accident that you cause.
Insurance is SUPPOSED to exist to pay for catastrophic unknown and unexpected situations, not as a crutch to pay for every little thing that arises. Insurance is expensive and underwriting is strict because of attitudes like yours.
Chris
No, THAT's their newest menu item!
Oh wait, I think you meant "point of sale". My bad.
Chris
I do want to add, however, that I wish good digital cameras were cheaper :)
Chris
Talk about your flawed logic. You say you don't think you should have to spend more than the cost of a good PC for a digital camera. Is then a Rolls Royce overpriced because it costs more than your average house. You probably think I'm crazy then for blowing $1000 on my film camera setup (Nikon N80/50mm fixed lens/24-85 zoom)What about audio? I can get a pair of binaural microphones for $65 but I still lust after the $450 Sonic Studios (and the $250 headband-mounted accessory, and their $1000 preamp). The reverse is true; if you really wanted a bitchin' setup, I'll bet you could have spent a lot more than you did on your computer. I'd love a G5 with a huge flat panel and I think I priced that at over $4000 (maybe over $5000 or even $6000, but I don't remember). I'd even love to stick with PC and get a top of the line Athlon with 4GB of RAM and half a terabyte of HD with the newest and highest end ATI Radeon.
You're comparing apples to oranges. You cannot say that product X should always be cheaper than product Y, because their price and quality are not related to each other.
Chris
Ok, so which distro do we choose then? SuSE, Mandrake, Red Hat, or something else? I'm not suggesting buy multiple distros, just buy (or donate to, if it's Debian/Gentoo/*insert non-commercial distro here*) what you use; speak with your wallet, in other words. If the market doesn't think there should be multiple commercial distros, then eventually there will only be one left.
.rpm distros and Debian is .deb.
Honestly, I think you are a Debian troll, suggesting that Red Hat and the like stop producing a distro in favor of providing support solutions for Debian, since the ones you mention are all
Chris
Most people who use and enjoy Linux and want to keep it going do, in fact, "shell out money" for a box set. I put my money where my mouth is; I buy every x.1 Mandrake release and am a Mandrake club member. I also just purchased the definitive guide, even though I think it's a little overpriced, the shipping is too high, the discount for being a club member isn't very much, and the entire book is available to club members (like myself) as a .pdf.
If you particularly like a certain distro and use it for day-to-day use, I suggest you do the same if you want it to survive. Or if it's something like Gentoo, give them the amount it would cost if they had a boxset once a year or so, which would be about $60.
Chris
Considering you can already get cross-cut shredders in any office supply store and they have been available for years, even reading the article was unnecessary.
Chris
I use it on my Windows XP install, which I use about 5-10% of the time vs. my MDK 9.1 install, which is the other 90-95% of the time. It's better for plugins than vanilla Mozilla on Windows.
Chris
You realize how little market share Linux has, right?
A significant number (to Microsoft) of people are not going to rush out and buy X-Boxes to install Linux on it. Maybe a few thousand worldwide, MAYBE. That's not going to put them over the top against Sony.
Chris
I didn't say they should/can dictate what is done with their hardware, I said, why would they want to legitimize hacking their own hardware, especially a company like Microsoft, who against homeade ANYTHING?
Chris
...did they really think Microsoft would give in to their "demands" AND legitimize X-Box hacking at the same time? Give me a break. Why would it make sense for Microsoft to encourage Linux installs on a product solely meant to play games and movies, when it doesn't even port it's cash cow software for the real desktop OS? I hate to make this comparison (because of the can of worms it's sure to open), but it's like terrorists who try to bargain hostages for freeing their buddies. You CAN'T bargain with them, because it simply encourages others to follow in their path.
Congrats to the guys for the hard hacking work, but get a little business sense and in the meantime, better get a lawyer. This ain't gonna make the boyz in Redmond none too happy.
Chris
The reason customer service has gone by the wayside is because customers will usually choose price over service, even if the price difference is negligible. This forces more companies to choose the low-ball route, and telemarketers are much cheaper to train, pay, and retain than customer service agents.
So remember that the next time you buy something from the large chain grocery instead of the corner market, or Best Buy instead of the local electronics shop. If you really want customer service as much as you say you do, you'll make that the number one factor in buying decisions, price second (not the other way around).
Chris
Yes it is true.
Frankly, I am for this - not the prohibition of women (my wife), atheists (myself), and homosexuals (my best friend), mind you, but the right for a private establishment to allow or not allow anyone they choose for any reason.
Notice I say PRIVATE. The Boy Scouts and The Masters are private organizations, paid for by individuals, not the government, i.e. tax dollars. Everybody pays taxes (well, in theory), so everyone should have access to publically/federally funded organizations. Individuals fund private organizations, so those individuals should then also decide who is eligible for the benefits enjoyed by members of said organizations.
On a smaller scale, saying that you don't think private organizations should be able to discriminate would be akin to saying that you couldn't keep someone out of your house for a prejudicial reason. What's prejudicial? Shouldn't matter, it's YOUR house and you should have a say in who comes in the door. The same goes on a larger scale. The Masters does not prevent women from playing golf and the Boy Scouts don't prevent atheist from learning how to survive in the woods. Nor does the KKK prevent blacks from being white supremacists (Laugh, it's a joke. And also a Chappelle Show reference). So why not move along to another club that will have you as a member, or start your own, rather than clashing with a group that doesn't want you?
I know I am putting many words in your mouth in this reply, but I'm always making this point with other people when the topic comes up so I figured I'd translate it to written form for the purpose of slashdot discussion. If the views I'm replying to don't reflect your opinions on the matter, no offense intended.
Chris
I could see being at that point, however I'm young and the will to fight MS is strong within me, so I continue to press onward with Mandrake 9.1 :) My other OS is Windows 2000. I go into it to A) burn CD's (my burner is not supported yet) and B) use Cool Edit Pro. I don't even really NEED Cool Edit Pro, just a few of its functions...1) Copy/Paste 2) Hard Limiting 3) 10/20/31-Band Graphic EQ 4) Normalize. That's really about it. I think #3 is the only one that can't be done in Linux right now (I was made aware previously of an alpha-level plugin for XMMS, but that's not going to cut it just yet).
It's too bad Windows XP even had to be released with Windows 2000 available. It's not like they're competing with anyone!
Chris
They probably used Star Office 6.0/Open Office 1.0.X because judging from the scope of the article, beta software is not an option.
That being said, I use Star Office 6.1 beta 2 daily and it rocks. I can't wait for the final.
Chris
The cashier's boss doesn't care or have any pull either, unless it's a mom and pop non-chain store (doubt it). They sell what is trucked in from corporate hq.
Try writing a letter instead of making some minimum wage person's life more difficult (I also used to be a cashier).
Chris
If 31 band graphic EQ could be added to Audacity, it would have everything I need and I could switch to Linux full-time.
;)
Get crackin'!
Chris
I like my Mandrake 9.1 just fine, thank you. I've used just about every other major distro (multiple versions of each) except SuSE, Slack, and Debian.
Chris
It's nice to see my intuition confirmed. Gentoo is the only community-run project of which I am aware that mostly ignores the community. Go read the posts at forums.gentoo.org...you'll see most of the developers (Especially Kurt Lieber) are arrogant and talk down to the users. You'll see many ignored ideas that make sense; it took about 6 months for anyone to pay attention to the scores of users who wanted updates from the developers, of this supposed "community" distribution and it took another couple of months before the Gentoo Newsletter was implemented...and it STILL doesn't really give people what they want, telling people the number of bugs found and squashed, rather than good info on what the bugs actually ARE.
Did I mention how arrogant the developers are? People who don't want to install 1.4 until it is final are looked down upon and told "it's just the installer, it's good enough." Well then, why not call 1.4 RCx "1.4 final" then, if it is "good enough?" People who suggest that new features shouldn't be added to a release candidate build are ignored. And this is not the first developer that has cried foul of Daniel Robbins. I don't know him personally so I can't say with authority, but I smell a rat.
The sad thing is, despite the horrendous developer beauracracy, it's still the best source-based distro out there. Hopefully this Zynot project will overtake it eventually. If there is more to it than spite towards DR, I think it will succeed.
Chris
Tell that to Gentoo. They've had like 4 Release Candidates with new features and new bugs each time. Every time I argue this convention with Kurt Lieber, he poo-poos it.
Chris
Shhh, PoToo's not supposed to be public until KaZaa is shut down!
Chris
Who says you can't redistribute what you download?
Chris