I thought the idea of "decriminalization" was not a matter of "not being prosecuted" (maybe my idea of what prosecution is skewed), but a matter of enforcement/severity of punishment. For example, my understanding of current pot laws in British Columbia (canada) is that marijuana has been decriminalized. It is still illegal to grow, distribute, and use, and people do get busted. However, the penalty is a mere misdeamonor and maybe a small fine, and you're back in business. No felony, no jail time. This is why the major growers have multiple houses and still work cladestinely: it's still illegal and the police still bust. However, if they get busted, they just lose the equipment + crops, and have multiple other sites to cover the losses.
Remember the days of being a loyal Company man? Those guys who hired on at the local "Big Company" right out of High School or College and worked until their retirement? Where everyone in the town wanted to work there?
That world doesn't exist anymore (if it really truly ever did). As horrible as it sounds, it's really the truth.
Companies exist to make money, not to make friends, not to "reward" it's employees. As far as most corporations are concerned, the "reward" is the fact that they continue to let you come in day after day to punch a clock and collect a paycheck. Sure, the HR department says otherwise, as do the company "mission objectives", but face it: that's all marketing to keep you doing what you're doing until they can find a way to save a buck and lay you off. "OH, but they'd NEVER do that!" Guess again, bucko.
One thing this whole "out-sourcing" thing should do is reinforce something everyone should have realized from the beginning: The only person that counts is YOU. The only person you should have loyalty is to yourself. If you're not looking after yourself, then you can count on the fact that no one else is looking out for you, either.
What does this mean? It means standing up for yourself.
"Hey, Bob, we need you to work 80 hours a week for the next year or so with no Overtime pay."
"Hey, Super... I need you to take this pencil and shove it in your pee-hole."
or in your case "Hey, go ahead, lay me off. I built your systems. I know your systems. When you come crying back to me when some other person fucks it all to hell, my billing rate will be approximately 3x what you're paying me now. IF I'm feeling nice."
Maybe I'm just jaded, but I realize that if I don't look after myself, and that means standing up for myself and deciding to walk away from things when it benefits me rather than just "taking anything", then "they" will take everything they can from me.
/* By keeping their prices low Walmart provides a lot of goods for people who are in the lower income bracket. These people like to eat too. */
Many of whom are poor because Walmart moved into town, forced their previous employer to close down, and now they work at Walmart where they also shop for everything because they can't afford anything else. Anyone else reminded of the old "Company Store" towns?
Because technically it's not "illegal" to ask someone to advertise your wares. If you're a company and you want to reach an internet audience, you go to "Direct Marketing" Company B and say "I want advertising for my product!" Company B says "Sure, that'll be $xxxx". At that point, Company A is not concerned about how Company B runs its business, it's not the one breaking the law. I foresee a time when Company A will get Company B to do the marketing, and Company B will turn around and "outsource" the job to an offshore company (while taking their share of the profit) who can do it cheaply and without fear of legislation shutting them down.
Now, my knowledge of contract law is limited, but it's this same kind of mentality that also allows Nike to contract the manufacture of its shoes to some contractor in Asia, who does not have any sweatshops, but then it subcontracts out to other contractors who may not be as "ethical". Nike has plausible deniability. So does the Spam "customer". We could "boycott" the advertisers, but look at the Nike boycotts. Just how effective are they? Or the Walmart boycotters.. Walmart just posted record numbers.. see what I'm getting at?
Just a thought, but why doesn't someone email him and ask what the requirements for the "Agenda Management System" are and then try building a replacement for them? Help them help the community, host it on sourceforge so other government agencies can look at it and maybe even use it. Heck, someone might do someone a great favor by creating a "government office" specific distro, like the K-12 linux distro...
I see a lot of folks are mentioning their "multi-region" DVD players, but how do I find one? Locally? Cheap? I've perused a few lists on the net, but is there a single, up-to-date repository of currently available Multi-Region capable DVD players anywhere?
I know a lot of programmers who hate their jobs, but the money's too good to quit.
Many football players, judging by their whining interviews, hate playing the game, but are blessed with good genetics and, well, like the money.
Working for a major airline, I met a lot of pilots who hated flying, but loved the money.
What's the common thread? Money. I don't know of anyone who wanted to be a fry cook at McDonald's that's still a fry cook at McDonald's strictly for the money.
Exactly. I know quite a few restaurant chains that use SCO UnixWare machines that are already bought, paid for, and applications developed for, and for the most part, they work. Just up and scrapping SCO would mean serious downtime measured in the tens of thousands of dollars in lost revenue because their computerized ordering/order-fulfillment systems are down and manual entry (which has to be entered later) is just slower than normal. These are also companies who probably PAID SCO to come up with their custom solutions, so they're reluctant to have to fork that money out yet again to someone else willing to port/reimplement the system for Linux or what not. (Much of the software is not owned by the company running it).
A previous company I worked for had 2 SCO servers for only 1 reason: the courier dispatch/order entry/database software they needed only ran on SCO. They looked for other prebuilt solutions, none of which were suitable (each package lacked one or two critical features that the current package provided). So, while they would have loved to move to an all MS shop (or even move to Linux), they were limited by their choice in software. Sure, they *could* probably spend a couple hundred thousand dollars for a few programmers to come up with a custom solution, but what they have works now and they have exactly *zero* programmers on the dole. Small companies don't have the resources to fill the gaps, so to speak..
I'm not so sure about that. Here are the biggies: Offer with no RAM + upgradeable: The site says it comes with 16/32 meg flash RAM, upgradeable, + 32/64megs SDRAM. While not exactly on the money, it's close He asked for ethernet: check He asked for serial connections: check Upgradeable storage: check (you can buy micro-drives for it) Standard Boot method: unsure. Hey, it runs Linux. Last I checked, this was about $470, much less than the $600. There are even upgradeable modules for customization available from the company. Not bad at all for a board that's readily accessible *today* for today's discriminating hobbyists.
Admittedly, though, I skimmed over his "needs" of a clamshell case, 800x600 display, keyboard input, etc, but then again, I thought most of that was just merely wishful thinking on his half. Hell, I want a pony.
A cerfcube would do fairly well in starting off a budding embedded engineer for pretty cheap. Go find some surplus LCD's, etc, and you could have a working prototype of whatever you wanted (although I'd probably ditch the cerfcube format and get the plain cerfboard). It's all in how you use it..
You need to be more specific because as I've found, *anyone* can get a job. I've never been without a job for more than 3 weeks in my entire working life. Why? Low standards. It's like pussy. If you're willing to fuck below your standards, you can always get laid (it may also require a cash deposit). If you really want a job, McD's is always hiring. Now, getting a job you'll love at a wage you can actually live on, that's a whole different ball of wax.
You mean geeks outside of the US actually.. you know.. do stuff? Sky Diving? I mean, how many parachutes do you need to keep our fat-asses from splattering on the ground? Wow. Next thing you know, someone's going to say RMS got married.. To a Real Woman (and not a Real Doll (tm))!/flame
Dude, props for mentioning some nifty comics, but here's a minor correction (and thank god you didn't call him Kerberos):
It's Cerebus the Aardvark. He was first a barbarian (first 25 issues), then became a Prime Minister(25-50, High Society), then became the Pope(50-110? Church and State), and then relinquished that to be a bar fly/writer, and I kinda lost track after that. Great series, though. You can get them as trade paperback collections for each major storyline, which I fully recommend. My favorite, of course, is Church & State ("One less mouth to feed is One Less Mouth to Feed!"). Dave Sim is one of my more favorite comic writers and Gerhard draws some of the best architectural backgrounds.
/* Do you eat? Yes. Do you buy your food in a retail establishment that plays music over its PA system whenever the announcer doesn't need help in aisle 12? Is there any appreciable difference between retail background music and radio? */
They play music at the store? I've never noticed. But the big rebuttal to your remark is: so the fuck what? Did I pay to hear that music? No. Some store is. And why should I be offended if some store wants to play Muzak?/* Problem is that the adolescents who control much of the CD buying in America aren't willing to do this. Rather, they'll get their parents to buy whatever they hear on the school bus's radio, feeding the machine. */
It's their parents money and their money, not yours or mine. I don't give a fuck what YOU or THEY spend their money on. The point is *I'M* choosing not to "feed the machine." You're whining again./* I could "support" them with my dollars, but I don't see how I could directly help "form and maintain" them because I can't afford formal training in marketing. */
OH BOO FUCKING HOO! I don't have a SINGLE bit of formal training in marketing. Neither do the guys at Dischord. If you're going to say you can't "help and maintain" something because you don't have a marketing degree, what the fuck. You're fucking useless. Go kill yourself now. Jesus, "helping and maintaining" means passing out flyers, going to show, MAKING flyers (got scissors? Glue? Magic market? Access to a copy machine? YOu got fucking flyers, dumbass), telling people about bands coming into town you like, etc etc etc. You're continuing to make excuses./* Other than radio, what method of promotion works in a moving motor vehicle? */
How about a CD or a cassette tape? And noting your use of promotion in that sentence, I'm guessing you enjoy the ads on the radio or something?? I don't rely upon what the *radio* pushes. I rely upon what I read in zines I enjoy. I read the reviews on Amazon. I go see bands locally. I talk to people who have similar tastes in music. Are you some sort of socially inept quadriplegic, horribly disfigured person that doesn't get out much? I mean, if you are, then by all means, keep pretending to be ignorant. Otherwise, you're just making excuses for your refusal to actually make any sort of effort./* When an idea pops into a would-be songwriter's head, how can he make sure that the idea isn't in fact "substantially similar" to an already published and copyrighted song? George Harrison got in seven-figure trouble for this on his first solo album. */
Now, that is probably your first legitimate concern. However, you've already defeated your entire "effort" before you even got started.
"OH pooh. I'm no good at anything and I can't do anything and even if I did, I'll probably get sued because I ripped somoene off. I guess I'll sit here and listen to my Britney Spears CD's or listen to the JAM93.1 before I head over to the GAP."
Clean the sand out of your vagina and wake up.
I mean, seriously, though. That's the best you can come up with? Potential lawsuit? Fear of getting sued from being an artist? I'll give you a hint: George Harrison is a big name artist with deep pockets. Of course he's a target. Me, in my basement, playing for $20/show, selling 500 records a year, am not even on the radar. While our income levels are substantially different, I'm sure I enjoy life just as much as Mr. Harrison, I just have to work a day job to supplement my income. I'll bet you don't sing "Happy Birthday" out of fear the RIAA stormtroopers come knocking down your door.
/* The problem here is that those who do NOT have a lock on the media of promotion */
As a fan of the whole "punk rock" genre (and more obscure electronic stuff), I'm very well aware of the so-called "lock" that the big conglomerates have on traditional airwaves. But you know what else? I haven't turned on the radio in several years. Same goes for TV, which also suffers from the same, stifling corporate control. Basically, I've done what countless others have done: Formed networks of people who spread by word of mouth and compilation CD's and tapes and zines and so forth and that's how *we* get distribution and exposure. So what if the college frat kids down the street don't know or care who we are, we're not catering to them. If you're going to "whine" about the lock on the media rather than do something about it (in my case: by helping form and maintain and support alternative methods of distribution and promotion), then you're just like all those other whiners who constantly bitch about shit but never actually do anything about it "because they can't." No one's stopping you but you./* When was the last time you heard a commercial FM radio station play more than 5 percent of non-major-label music? */
I couldn't tell you the last time I listened to commercial FM radio. Seriously. And it's precisely *because* of their lack of attention to music. But that doesn't stop me from listening to music./* Not every city has enough free space in its FM band to let the local community college start an FM radio station. (I live in one of the unlucky cities.) */
Why are you still bitching about this? There's more to music than RADIO and music videos. Get out and see bands live, get involved in your local music community, start a band. Do Something./* Are you sure this is feasible */
Yes. There's an entire cottage industry of underground music, from electronica (trance, dance, trip hop), hip hop, rock and roll, indie rock, emo, punk, even "adult contemporary" and christian music being done every day by non-major labels./* Though it's rather easy now for any songwriter to produce a rough recording of his song using Modplug Tracker, most people cannot afford formal training in songwriting. */
Why are you making it so complicated? People write good/great music all the time and record on 4-tracks in the basements (see Ween and Pavement). But even then, I know a lot of studios (found in just about every city.. if you're town is starved for free FM radio space, I'm sure you have them, too) with good engineers and producers who are more than willing to work with you to get the "sound" you want. It'll just cost money. And why do you need "formal training" in songwriting? Some of the world's greatest songs and composers didn't have "formal training" in songwriting.
Imagine if Linus had sat around saying "Gee whiz. I can't use anything but Microsoft and Andrew won't let me play with his Minix.. I guess I'll go home and cry and listen to Bjork all day". Microsoft has a very similar grip on the computing industry that you're talking about, and yet there's Linux. And BSD. And countless others (in varying states of completion), countless examples that people aren't letting "microsoft" and their grip on the industry prevent them from doing something they want to do.
So, there's your solution. Start your own label, sign and promote your own bands, and charge $8 for the CD's! But why stop at $8? Why not $5! Certainly $5 will be enough! They're only $.50 to make in volume! Why, I'll bet we can pull another number out of our ass and say $2.50! But that's still ripping off the consumer to the tune of $2!
CD's are easy to get. Walmart has them. Target has them. Best Buy, Circuit City, even fucking Hot Topic. Are they expensive? You betcha, which is the crux of your argument. While some record labels believe in "fair pricing" and what not, the rest do not. The solution is NOT to download/infringe those who do not's properties. The solution is to either DO without, buy from those who DO, or DO IT YOURSELF.
RedHat does not make money directly from the GPL. They make money by offering services that depend upon GPL'd (and other licenses) software, and they do spend an extraordinary amount of capital and time to further enhance/bugfix/develop GPL software. The GPL is not the "engine" of their enterprise, although they have built their enterprise offerings around it. It seems that they could "easily" build their enterprise around a BSD and still retain their service-based approach, and still value-add by incorporating BSD licensed tools rather than GPL. So, in essence, while the argument is quite ludicrous (I completely concur), there is still room for wiggle. As I see it, the US Consitution and its founders refused to acknowledge Intellectual Property as a full property/right, but more as a privelege. IP is something that can be "shared" indiscriminately, once it's out, its out. Witness the language used in our Copyright laws, the idea that ideas are to benefit society, and not the originator of the ideas. This, I believe, is a flaw. My ideas should be mine, and I should be able to disseminate them however I wish. Which means I should be free to GPL them, Public Domain them, or merely sit on them until I die. My understanding is, if the Government decides that the GPL is harmful to the "spirit" of copyright, then they have the right to declare the GPL unlawful, as irrational as it may sound. Yikes.
While it's certainly no excuse, it's a trust issue. Naively, I thought "big giant megacorporation" certainly couldn't stand to screw over its customers, but over the past 5-10years, I've learned to be more and more cynical in my dealings with both individuals and companies. Frankly, though, while working 2 jobs (trying to keep up with the joneses) and going to school mostly FT (to get a better job to better keep up with the joneses), I just didn't "have the time" to scrutinize all my bills. I was lucky to get the bill, write a check and get it in the mail the next day while driving to work. Sad, but true. It's only recently when I realized I don't need all this.. stuff.. around that I quit working 2 jobs and starting paring down my expenses to compensate and realized where all this money was going. I agree with you, though, more people (including myself) need to pay better attention to what we're spending money on.
Convenience. And we all know, convenience costs money (walk down to the Circle K and compare prices with the grocery store).
With a U-Haul: You can move in the middle of the night, as your schedule sees fit. You don't have to be around to supervise movers and what not. You can provide the "proper" attention to care for certain items without worrying too much. With a moving company, many times they load their truck, take it to a warehouse, then unload it, store it, and then put it on a truck when convenient, all the while potentially losing items or damaging items. With a U-Haul, you also unload at your convenience, in the middle of the night, if need be.. You can be relatively certain when you put something in a U-Haul, it'll still be there when you get to your destination.
There are many inconveniences with the U-Haul (like you mentioned: price is one), but there are also many conveniences that some of us are willing to pay.
I can relate to the phone thing. I encourage every one here with a landline (I dont' have a cell, so I don't know how those things run) to check your local phone bill. I had BellSouth with AT&T as my Long Distance Provider. I don't carry all the bells and whistles, just touch tone. Think about that last one. I get billed.50 for that. While that in and of itself is borderline ridiculous, here's what I discovered a few months ago after paring my services back to almost minimum.
With "full" services (well, call-waiting), my typical phone bill was $25. Well, I cancelled call-waiting ($3/month) and found my next bill to be $26. WTF? So I go digging. Ah, there we go, I had a couple of long distance phone calls. For a total amount of around.50. Fifty fucking cents. So I dig more and find that AT&T charges $1 to "consolidate" the bill, plus the various taxes, and then there was a VERY suspicious charge. Some kind of "fee" for about $3. Reading the fine print, it stated that the fee was not federally mandated, and was used to pay for "Property taxes, maintainence on lines" and other stuff. Now, maybe I'm fucking retarded, but I thought all that stuff should be factored into an actual RATE as part of a regular business. It's not my fault that AT&T has to maintain their shit, so why are they trying to pass this off as a monthly "fee"? Anyway,.50 in LD calls cost me over $5, which pissed me off. So I call their customer service.
Hey! A girl with an Indian accent answers my call! (But she spoke very good english and provided good service, I just thought it was a bit ironic). I complain. She explains that she will take the $3 "fee" off and will also discharge the $1 consolidation fee, but AT&T will send me a bill for charges every month. She also says that the $3 "fee" will not appear on my bill ever again, leading me to think that it's a "sucker's" bill, hoping people won't notice it. Anyway, the experience infuriated me so much that I just cancelled my LD service right there and had LD completely removed from my phone line at home, but thought better of it and just went with BellSouth, who guaranteed there'd be no odd charges for "service" and no "consolidation" charge.
Because of this experience, however, I've now started combing over my power bill and other stuff, too, because who knows what else I'm paying for. In fact, I found out my bank charges me $1.25/month for "ATM service." Huh? Last I checked, using debit cards SAVE the bank something like.25/transaction because they dont' have to handle paper checks. But yet, I PAY for this "convenience". It's frustrating, but unless I want to start toting around a checkbook...
And hell, have the bounty put up front, have the "holding" company stick it in an interest bearing account, and you could theoretically pay the bandwidth/hosting/admin bills with the interest (someone's gotta cut the checks and what not)...
I concur. One of the common "outs" as a technician we had (to decrease call time, increase volume) was to goad the customer into saying "Yes, I installed _anything_" at which point the phone call could be terminated with "Well, sir/ma'am, the problem could be with the software you installed. You will need to uninstall the software and please call back if the problem continues. Thankyouforcalling*click*". Another good one was virii. "Sir/ma'am, we recommend the use of antivirus software and you should do some research to determine which software package is best for your needs. I cannot assist you in backing up your data, but I'd be happy to walk you through a reformat/reinstall of the Operating System which will result in total data loss. No? Thankyouforcalling*click*".
I found that being in tech support which only used call time and volume as metrics resulted in a two very specific kinds of persons being "bred" to thrive in such an environment: Clever, stinking little boggies (see Bored of the Rings) whose main goal is to find the most amazing way to turn a typical "real support" issue into a support boundary call (i.e. assholes), and clueless script readers who offer absolutely no help other than what they can read and have customers hang up on them. The "good" techs end up becoming disgusted, jaded, and quit or are fired for not meeting metrics.
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Hrm.. Someone correct me if I'm wrong but..
I thought the idea of "decriminalization" was not a matter of "not being prosecuted" (maybe my idea of what prosecution is skewed), but a matter of enforcement/severity of punishment. For example, my understanding of current pot laws in British Columbia (canada) is that marijuana has been decriminalized. It is still illegal to grow, distribute, and use, and people do get busted. However, the penalty is a mere misdeamonor and maybe a small fine, and you're back in business. No felony, no jail time. This is why the major growers have multiple houses and still work cladestinely: it's still illegal and the police still bust. However, if they get busted, they just lose the equipment + crops, and have multiple other sites to cover the losses.
Anyone?
Remember the days of being a loyal Company man? Those guys who hired on at the local "Big Company" right out of High School or College and worked until their retirement? Where everyone in the town wanted to work there?
That world doesn't exist anymore (if it really truly ever did). As horrible as it sounds, it's really the truth.
Companies exist to make money, not to make friends, not to "reward" it's employees. As far as most corporations are concerned, the "reward" is the fact that they continue to let you come in day after day to punch a clock and collect a paycheck. Sure, the HR department says otherwise, as do the company "mission objectives", but face it: that's all marketing to keep you doing what you're doing until they can find a way to save a buck and lay you off. "OH, but they'd NEVER do that!" Guess again, bucko.
One thing this whole "out-sourcing" thing should do is reinforce something everyone should have realized from the beginning: The only person that counts is YOU. The only person you should have loyalty is to yourself. If you're not looking after yourself, then you can count on the fact that no one else is looking out for you, either.
What does this mean? It means standing up for yourself.
"Hey, Bob, we need you to work 80 hours a week for the next year or so with no Overtime pay."
"Hey, Super... I need you to take this pencil and shove it in your pee-hole."
or in your case "Hey, go ahead, lay me off. I built your systems. I know your systems. When you come crying back to me when some other person fucks it all to hell, my billing rate will be approximately 3x what you're paying me now. IF I'm feeling nice."
Maybe I'm just jaded, but I realize that if I don't look after myself, and that means standing up for myself and deciding to walk away from things when it benefits me rather than just "taking anything", then "they" will take everything they can from me.
/* By keeping their prices low Walmart provides a lot of goods for people who are in the lower income bracket. These people like to eat too. */
Many of whom are poor because Walmart moved into town, forced their previous employer to close down, and now they work at Walmart where they also shop for everything because they can't afford anything else. Anyone else reminded of the old "Company Store" towns?
Because technically it's not "illegal" to ask someone to advertise your wares. If you're a company and you want to reach an internet audience, you go to "Direct Marketing" Company B and say "I want advertising for my product!" Company B says "Sure, that'll be $xxxx". At that point, Company A is not concerned about how Company B runs its business, it's not the one breaking the law. I foresee a time when Company A will get Company B to do the marketing, and Company B will turn around and "outsource" the job to an offshore company (while taking their share of the profit) who can do it cheaply and without fear of legislation shutting them down.
Now, my knowledge of contract law is limited, but it's this same kind of mentality that also allows Nike to contract the manufacture of its shoes to some contractor in Asia, who does not have any sweatshops, but then it subcontracts out to other contractors who may not be as "ethical". Nike has plausible deniability. So does the Spam "customer". We could "boycott" the advertisers, but look at the Nike boycotts. Just how effective are they? Or the Walmart boycotters.. Walmart just posted record numbers.. see what I'm getting at?
It sucks. Maybe resistance is futile after all.
Just a thought, but why doesn't someone email him and ask what the requirements for the "Agenda Management System" are and then try building a replacement for them? Help them help the community, host it on sourceforge so other government agencies can look at it and maybe even use it. Heck, someone might do someone a great favor by creating a "government office" specific distro, like the K-12 linux distro...
I see a lot of folks are mentioning their "multi-region" DVD players, but how do I find one? Locally? Cheap? I've perused a few lists on the net, but is there a single, up-to-date repository of currently available Multi-Region capable DVD players anywhere?
Sorry for the bother..
Damn right.
I know a lot of programmers who hate their jobs, but the money's too good to quit.
Many football players, judging by their whining interviews, hate playing the game, but are blessed with good genetics and, well, like the money.
Working for a major airline, I met a lot of pilots who hated flying, but loved the money.
What's the common thread? Money. I don't know of anyone who wanted to be a fry cook at McDonald's that's still a fry cook at McDonald's strictly for the money.
I understand, sir. If we launch a product serving Project China Consumer, it has a name.
His name was E28.
His name was E28.
His name was E28.
His name was E28.
His name was E28.
Exactly. I know quite a few restaurant chains that use SCO UnixWare machines that are already bought, paid for, and applications developed for, and for the most part, they work. Just up and scrapping SCO would mean serious downtime measured in the tens of thousands of dollars in lost revenue because their computerized ordering/order-fulfillment systems are down and manual entry (which has to be entered later) is just slower than normal. These are also companies who probably PAID SCO to come up with their custom solutions, so they're reluctant to have to fork that money out yet again to someone else willing to port/reimplement the system for Linux or what not. (Much of the software is not owned by the company running it).
A previous company I worked for had 2 SCO servers for only 1 reason: the courier dispatch/order entry/database software they needed only ran on SCO. They looked for other prebuilt solutions, none of which were suitable (each package lacked one or two critical features that the current package provided). So, while they would have loved to move to an all MS shop (or even move to Linux), they were limited by their choice in software. Sure, they *could* probably spend a couple hundred thousand dollars for a few programmers to come up with a custom solution, but what they have works now and they have exactly *zero* programmers on the dole. Small companies don't have the resources to fill the gaps, so to speak..
Hrm, speaking of which, that gives me an idea...
I'm not so sure about that. Here are the biggies:
Offer with no RAM + upgradeable: The site says it comes with 16/32 meg flash RAM, upgradeable, + 32/64megs SDRAM. While not exactly on the money, it's close
He asked for ethernet: check
He asked for serial connections: check
Upgradeable storage: check (you can buy micro-drives for it)
Standard Boot method: unsure. Hey, it runs Linux.
Last I checked, this was about $470, much less than the $600. There are even upgradeable modules for customization available from the company. Not bad at all for a board that's readily accessible *today* for today's discriminating hobbyists.
Admittedly, though, I skimmed over his "needs" of a clamshell case, 800x600 display, keyboard input, etc, but then again, I thought most of that was just merely wishful thinking on his half. Hell, I want a pony.
A cerfcube would do fairly well in starting off a budding embedded engineer for pretty cheap. Go find some surplus LCD's, etc, and you could have a working prototype of whatever you wanted (although I'd probably ditch the cerfcube format and get the plain cerfboard). It's all in how you use it..
cerfcube, man, cerfcube. :)
You need to be more specific because as I've found, *anyone* can get a job. I've never been without a job for more than 3 weeks in my entire working life. Why? Low standards. It's like pussy. If you're willing to fuck below your standards, you can always get laid (it may also require a cash deposit). If you really want a job, McD's is always hiring. Now, getting a job you'll love at a wage you can actually live on, that's a whole different ball of wax.
You mean geeks outside of the US actually.. you know.. do stuff? Sky Diving? I mean, how many parachutes do you need to keep our fat-asses from splattering on the ground? Wow. Next thing you know, someone's going to say RMS got married.. To a Real Woman (and not a Real Doll (tm))! /flame
Dude, props for mentioning some nifty comics, but here's a minor correction (and thank god you didn't call him Kerberos):
It's Cerebus the Aardvark. He was first a barbarian (first 25 issues), then became a Prime Minister(25-50, High Society), then became the Pope(50-110? Church and State), and then relinquished that to be a bar fly/writer, and I kinda lost track after that. Great series, though. You can get them as trade paperback collections for each major storyline, which I fully recommend. My favorite, of course, is Church & State ("One less mouth to feed is One Less Mouth to Feed!"). Dave Sim is one of my more favorite comic writers and Gerhard draws some of the best architectural backgrounds.
/* Do you eat? Yes. Do you buy your food in a retail establishment that plays music over its PA system whenever the announcer doesn't need help in aisle 12? Is there any appreciable difference between retail background music and radio? */
/* Problem is that the adolescents who control much of the CD buying in America aren't willing to do this. Rather, they'll get their parents to buy whatever they hear on the school bus's radio, feeding the machine. */
/* I could "support" them with my dollars, but I don't see how I could directly help "form and maintain" them because I can't afford formal training in marketing. */
/* Other than radio, what method of promotion works in a moving motor vehicle? */
/* When an idea pops into a would-be songwriter's head, how can he make sure that the idea isn't in fact "substantially similar" to an already published and copyrighted song? George Harrison got in seven-figure trouble for this on his first solo album. */
They play music at the store? I've never noticed. But the big rebuttal to your remark is: so the fuck what? Did I pay to hear that music? No. Some store is. And why should I be offended if some store wants to play Muzak?
It's their parents money and their money, not yours or mine. I don't give a fuck what YOU or THEY spend their money on. The point is *I'M* choosing not to "feed the machine." You're whining again.
OH BOO FUCKING HOO! I don't have a SINGLE bit of formal training in marketing. Neither do the guys at Dischord. If you're going to say you can't "help and maintain" something because you don't have a marketing degree, what the fuck. You're fucking useless. Go kill yourself now. Jesus, "helping and maintaining" means passing out flyers, going to show, MAKING flyers (got scissors? Glue? Magic market? Access to a copy machine? YOu got fucking flyers, dumbass), telling people about bands coming into town you like, etc etc etc. You're continuing to make excuses.
How about a CD or a cassette tape? And noting your use of promotion in that sentence, I'm guessing you enjoy the ads on the radio or something?? I don't rely upon what the *radio* pushes. I rely upon what I read in zines I enjoy. I read the reviews on Amazon. I go see bands locally. I talk to people who have similar tastes in music. Are you some sort of socially inept quadriplegic, horribly disfigured person that doesn't get out much? I mean, if you are, then by all means, keep pretending to be ignorant. Otherwise, you're just making excuses for your refusal to actually make any sort of effort.
Now, that is probably your first legitimate concern. However, you've already defeated your entire "effort" before you even got started.
"OH pooh. I'm no good at anything and I can't do anything and even if I did, I'll probably get sued because I ripped somoene off. I guess I'll sit here and listen to my Britney Spears CD's or listen to the JAM93.1 before I head over to the GAP."
Clean the sand out of your vagina and wake up.
I mean, seriously, though. That's the best you can come up with? Potential lawsuit? Fear of getting sued from being an artist? I'll give you a hint: George Harrison is a big name artist with deep pockets. Of course he's a target. Me, in my basement, playing for $20/show, selling 500 records a year, am not even on the radar. While our income levels are substantially different, I'm sure I enjoy life just as much as Mr. Harrison, I just have to work a day job to supplement my income. I'll bet you don't sing "Happy Birthday" out of fear the RIAA stormtroopers come knocking down your door.
Get a life and quit bitching.
/* The problem here is that those who do NOT have a lock on the media of promotion */
/* When was the last time you heard a commercial FM radio station play more than 5 percent of non-major-label music? */
/* Not every city has enough free space in its FM band to let the local community college start an FM radio station. (I live in one of the unlucky cities.) */
/* Are you sure this is feasible */
/* Though it's rather easy now for any songwriter to produce a rough recording of his song using Modplug Tracker, most people cannot afford formal training in songwriting. */
As a fan of the whole "punk rock" genre (and more obscure electronic stuff), I'm very well aware of the so-called "lock" that the big conglomerates have on traditional airwaves. But you know what else? I haven't turned on the radio in several years. Same goes for TV, which also suffers from the same, stifling corporate control. Basically, I've done what countless others have done: Formed networks of people who spread by word of mouth and compilation CD's and tapes and zines and so forth and that's how *we* get distribution and exposure. So what if the college frat kids down the street don't know or care who we are, we're not catering to them. If you're going to "whine" about the lock on the media rather than do something about it (in my case: by helping form and maintain and support alternative methods of distribution and promotion), then you're just like all those other whiners who constantly bitch about shit but never actually do anything about it "because they can't." No one's stopping you but you.
I couldn't tell you the last time I listened to commercial FM radio. Seriously. And it's precisely *because* of their lack of attention to music. But that doesn't stop me from listening to music.
Why are you still bitching about this? There's more to music than RADIO and music videos. Get out and see bands live, get involved in your local music community, start a band. Do Something.
Yes. There's an entire cottage industry of underground music, from electronica (trance, dance, trip hop), hip hop, rock and roll, indie rock, emo, punk, even "adult contemporary" and christian music being done every day by non-major labels.
Why are you making it so complicated? People write good/great music all the time and record on 4-tracks in the basements (see Ween and Pavement). But even then, I know a lot of studios (found in just about every city.. if you're town is starved for free FM radio space, I'm sure you have them, too) with good engineers and producers who are more than willing to work with you to get the "sound" you want. It'll just cost money. And why do you need "formal training" in songwriting? Some of the world's greatest songs and composers didn't have "formal training" in songwriting.
Imagine if Linus had sat around saying "Gee whiz. I can't use anything but Microsoft and Andrew won't let me play with his Minix.. I guess I'll go home and cry and listen to Bjork all day". Microsoft has a very similar grip on the computing industry that you're talking about, and yet there's Linux. And BSD. And countless others (in varying states of completion), countless examples that people aren't letting "microsoft" and their grip on the industry prevent them from doing something they want to do.
So, there's your solution. Start your own label, sign and promote your own bands, and charge $8 for the CD's! But why stop at $8? Why not $5! Certainly $5 will be enough! They're only $.50 to make in volume! Why, I'll bet we can pull another number out of our ass and say $2.50! But that's still ripping off the consumer to the tune of $2!
CD's are easy to get. Walmart has them. Target has them. Best Buy, Circuit City, even fucking Hot Topic. Are they expensive? You betcha, which is the crux of your argument. While some record labels believe in "fair pricing" and what not, the rest do not. The solution is NOT to download/infringe those who do not's properties. The solution is to either DO without, buy from those who DO, or DO IT YOURSELF.
Comment/Question then:
RedHat does not make money directly from the GPL. They make money by offering services that depend upon GPL'd (and other licenses) software, and they do spend an extraordinary amount of capital and time to further enhance/bugfix/develop GPL software. The GPL is not the "engine" of their enterprise, although they have built their enterprise offerings around it. It seems that they could "easily" build their enterprise around a BSD and still retain their service-based approach, and still value-add by incorporating BSD licensed tools rather than GPL.
So, in essence, while the argument is quite ludicrous (I completely concur), there is still room for wiggle. As I see it, the US Consitution and its founders refused to acknowledge Intellectual Property as a full property/right, but more as a privelege. IP is something that can be "shared" indiscriminately, once it's out, its out. Witness the language used in our Copyright laws, the idea that ideas are to benefit society, and not the originator of the ideas. This, I believe, is a flaw. My ideas should be mine, and I should be able to disseminate them however I wish. Which means I should be free to GPL them, Public Domain them, or merely sit on them until I die. My understanding is, if the Government decides that the GPL is harmful to the "spirit" of copyright, then they have the right to declare the GPL unlawful, as irrational as it may sound. Yikes.
me think'st thou hast too much fuckinth time on thine handsth.
While it's certainly no excuse, it's a trust issue. Naively, I thought "big giant megacorporation" certainly couldn't stand to screw over its customers, but over the past 5-10years, I've learned to be more and more cynical in my dealings with both individuals and companies. Frankly, though, while working 2 jobs (trying to keep up with the joneses) and going to school mostly FT (to get a better job to better keep up with the joneses), I just didn't "have the time" to scrutinize all my bills. I was lucky to get the bill, write a check and get it in the mail the next day while driving to work. Sad, but true. It's only recently when I realized I don't need all this.. stuff.. around that I quit working 2 jobs and starting paring down my expenses to compensate and realized where all this money was going. I agree with you, though, more people (including myself) need to pay better attention to what we're spending money on.
Convenience. And we all know, convenience costs money (walk down to the Circle K and compare prices with the grocery store).
With a U-Haul:
You can move in the middle of the night, as your schedule sees fit. You don't have to be around to supervise movers and what not. You can provide the "proper" attention to care for certain items without worrying too much. With a moving company, many times they load their truck, take it to a warehouse, then unload it, store it, and then put it on a truck when convenient, all the while potentially losing items or damaging items. With a U-Haul, you also unload at your convenience, in the middle of the night, if need be.. You can be relatively certain when you put something in a U-Haul, it'll still be there when you get to your destination.
There are many inconveniences with the U-Haul (like you mentioned: price is one), but there are also many conveniences that some of us are willing to pay.
I can relate to the phone thing. I encourage every one here with a landline (I dont' have a cell, so I don't know how those things run) to check your local phone bill. I had BellSouth with AT&T as my Long Distance Provider. .50 for that. While that in and of itself is borderline ridiculous, here's what I discovered a few months ago after paring my services back to almost minimum.
.50. Fifty fucking cents. So I dig more and find that AT&T charges $1 to "consolidate" the bill, plus the various taxes, and then there was a VERY suspicious charge. Some kind of "fee" for about $3. Reading the fine print, it stated that the fee was not federally mandated, and was used to pay for "Property taxes, maintainence on lines" and other stuff. Now, maybe I'm fucking retarded, but I thought all that stuff should be factored into an actual RATE as part of a regular business. It's not my fault that AT&T has to maintain their shit, so why are they trying to pass this off as a monthly "fee"? Anyway, .50 in LD calls cost me over $5, which pissed me off. So I call their customer service.
.25/transaction because they dont' have to handle paper checks. But yet, I PAY for this "convenience". It's frustrating, but unless I want to start toting around a checkbook...
I don't carry all the bells and whistles, just touch tone. Think about that last one. I get billed
With "full" services (well, call-waiting), my typical phone bill was $25. Well, I cancelled call-waiting ($3/month) and found my next bill to be $26. WTF? So I go digging. Ah, there we go, I had a couple of long distance phone calls. For a total amount of around
Hey! A girl with an Indian accent answers my call! (But she spoke very good english and provided good service, I just thought it was a bit ironic). I complain. She explains that she will take the $3 "fee" off and will also discharge the $1 consolidation fee, but AT&T will send me a bill for charges every month. She also says that the $3 "fee" will not appear on my bill ever again, leading me to think that it's a "sucker's" bill, hoping people won't notice it. Anyway, the experience infuriated me so much that I just cancelled my LD service right there and had LD completely removed from my phone line at home, but thought better of it and just went with BellSouth, who guaranteed there'd be no odd charges for "service" and no "consolidation" charge.
Because of this experience, however, I've now started combing over my power bill and other stuff, too, because who knows what else I'm paying for. In fact, I found out my bank charges me $1.25/month for "ATM service." Huh? Last I checked, using debit cards SAVE the bank something like
And hell, have the bounty put up front, have the "holding" company stick it in an interest bearing account, and you could theoretically pay the bandwidth/hosting/admin bills with the interest (someone's gotta cut the checks and what not)...
I concur. One of the common "outs" as a technician we had (to decrease call time, increase volume) was to goad the customer into saying "Yes, I installed _anything_" at which point the phone call could be terminated with "Well, sir/ma'am, the problem could be with the software you installed. You will need to uninstall the software and please call back if the problem continues. Thankyouforcalling*click*". Another good one was virii. "Sir/ma'am, we recommend the use of antivirus software and you should do some research to determine which software package is best for your needs. I cannot assist you in backing up your data, but I'd be happy to walk you through a reformat/reinstall of the Operating System which will result in total data loss. No? Thankyouforcalling*click*".
I found that being in tech support which only used call time and volume as metrics resulted in a two very specific kinds of persons being "bred" to thrive in such an environment: Clever, stinking little boggies (see Bored of the Rings) whose main goal is to find the most amazing way to turn a typical "real support" issue into a support boundary call (i.e. assholes), and clueless script readers who offer absolutely no help other than what they can read and have customers hang up on them. The "good" techs end up becoming disgusted, jaded, and quit or are fired for not meeting metrics.