Do not let others fight the battles that you have to fight.
There is a thing called false advertisement: CDs adhere to a set of technical standards, any company claiming to be selling CDs must adhere to those. If they claim they do and in fact they don't that is false advertisment, which is prosecutable in most countries I know.
If BMG does not make clear that the "broken CDs" (we need to find an appropriate term for this, we have a great chance here to win the terms in which people speak about broken CDs) will not play in your computer and claims that it is a CD then report it to your Fair Trade Commission, Consumer Protection Bureau or equivalent organization emphasizing that you believe BMG is misleading you maliciously.
BMG will have to either back down or label properly their defective wares, and even if they are not punished most probably the whole affair will highlight the problem in Europe were people are mostly unaware of these issues.
So please, less words and more action. Check you new CDs, specially BMG ones, test them and act in consequence (if they do work then all is moot point).
Long ancient cultures have drawbacks, one of the is inertia. WIll India manage to get rid of the worst part of her ancient beliefs (caste systems), tribal and religious problems without implode?
Will India manage to avoid self destruction in a fraticide war with Pakistan?
How Indian politicians address these problems will determine the future, unfortunately every time I read or see how Indian politicans act I feel troubled and deeply concerned.
Consumer buys new computer. Consumer sees shiny WIndows boxes in shops, advertised in magazines. Fast forward. Comsumer buys new computer. With Windows. Hold on a sec! I have Windows in my old computer? I want to use that same Windows! What is the discount for the computer with no Windows?
I may concede that most new buyers are as stupid as you paint them (they aren't) but my personal experience tells me that people are painfully aware of the price of the MS software in their PCs.
Most people understand that the software in your computer has a cost.
It may be not spelled out up front, but very often I am asked the question from "illiterate" computer users: "how much less would the computer cost without all the bundled software" or "without Windows"? (they have a perfectly legit copy that came with the old computer that they would like to use and save a few bucks).
People are under no illusion that MS is giving their software away, only you under some contrived logic is trying to make that point.
I was in Houston Texas a couple of weeks ago, all those huge SUV's and pick-up trucks are a lamentables spectacle (specially considering that are mostly a one-perosn vehicles. Most wasteful).
I am talking *mansions* not houses. You know, thousands of square meters, swimming pools, parking for around 10 cars,
I have been in both Namibia and the US (Houston amongst others, where space is cheap), the houses you can get in Namibia are immensely bigger when compared to what you get in the US for the same amount of money.
And don't dream: there is no way that you can provide full meals for 3 people (drinks, meat in the main meal, etc) with only 4 US$ in the US (I am talking sitting in a restaurant here).
After some years working in the IT industry I have still to see my boss or the boss of my boss chosing the people that are layed off. I have worked in big companies only, that may have some bearing in my personal experience.
Heck, sometimes the last to know is the boss of the unfortunate downsized...
Why is that all the companies producing software for geophysics and the banking industry are not running like crazy to port everything to Linux on x86?
COBOL is an excellent languages for many busineess oriented tasks and the cost of a replacement with something else (why, because it is "modern") may very well outweight any benefits.
Let take an extreme example of "charitable" giving:
In Colombia drug barons are reveared and seen as heroes. Why? because a lot of the money they earn pedalling drugs to rich countries is used in the local community (churches, schools, that kind of thing). Not only that, but drug money is the biggest earner of hard currency of the Colmbian economy.
Is it OK to laud somebody that makes good with the profits he has made by less than exemplary means?
I do not know. I think in the drug barons case the answer is clearly no, in the case of other people it may be more defficult to come with a satisfactory answer.
GPL si most respectful of copyright laws and private ownership, both anathemas to communist ideas.
You are encouraged to make a buck with OSS, you are encouraged to use your iniciative and talent to increase your profits as a business, consultant, etc.
Not a single farmer has been shot dead by goverment sponsored mobs.
The Namibian goverment is intending to redistribute land, and rightly so. They began with idle land owned by foreigners (which are mostly white).
Go to a white owned farm in Namibia: kilometers and more kilometers of land that benefit a few white people while providing just basic sustenance for underpaid workers.
Certainly the Namibian goverment is not the best and is begining to show the typical African deseases of tribalism, cronysm and corruption, but to call them genocidal racists is far off the mark (at least at the moment).
The Namibian dollar (pegged to the South African rand) can buy very little.
You can have a full meal for 3 (including drinks, loads of meat, etc) for the equivalent of 4 US$.
Houses in the rich area of Windhoek, the capital city, sell for around 150000 US$. We are talking mansions with 10 or more bedrooms, two or three floors and 24 hour security. Is where embassies are mostly located.
2000 US$ may be little for US standards, for Namibian standards is a huge amount of money.
Nevertheless the Namibian goverment got this one right: they saw what most people here have understood from the start, that MS donations are not such.
Don't mask your hervibore instincts with a sense that you have grown up.
Grown-ups have opinions and principles and they don't brake them. Kiddies in the other hand are told what to do and are forced to do it, for the greater good of course.
Most layoffs happen in a computer screen analyzing a spread sheet, unless they have a column headed "Dress decor" your expensive (both to buy and maintain) clothes will mean squat.
If how I dress affects how management feels about me then they will be affected also by a mosquito flying close by or by the position of Uranus in respect to Pluto. No chance I would like to work in such an environment.
When layoffs come, upper management just look at spreadsheets with numbers, they very often have never seen the people they are making jobless.
The people that get the sack have no job, no dignity and the money they would have saved is wasted in those very expensive suits and dry cleaning bills.
I understand that business is about performance, service and added value, not about image. Although perception plays a part in a working replationship its enforcement must have a clear justification, otherwise it shows a conformist bureaucratic corporate culture. I know that serious companies will judge me mostly on my 31337 skillz, of which they have ample notice on my CV and hiring interview. I play great in teams because I value diversity and relate to people for what they contribute and not for how they show off. I want to show that although I am very dependable I have principles which I can't compromise, most people value that because how can you trust somebody that compromises his principles?
More jobs, assuming you have the expertise in the first place.
What do you prefer: a highly skilled guy that hates ties or a sub-skilled comformist sheeple that dresses impecably?
I find that people advocating dress conformity are normally the ones that have to fear the most because they don't trust their own ability to remain current.
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Do not let others fight the battles that you have to fight.
There is a thing called false advertisement: CDs adhere to a set of technical standards, any company claiming to be selling CDs must adhere to those. If they claim they do and in fact they don't that is false advertisment, which is prosecutable in most countries I know.
If BMG does not make clear that the "broken CDs" (we need to find an appropriate term for this, we have a great chance here to win the terms in which people speak about broken CDs) will not play in your computer and claims that it is a CD then report it to your Fair Trade Commission, Consumer Protection Bureau or equivalent organization emphasizing that you believe BMG is misleading you maliciously.
BMG will have to either back down or label properly their defective wares, and even if they are not punished most probably the whole affair will highlight the problem in Europe were people are mostly unaware of these issues.
So please, less words and more action. Check you new CDs, specially BMG ones, test them and act in consequence (if they do work then all is moot point).
Long ancient cultures have drawbacks, one of the is inertia. WIll India manage to get rid of the worst part of her ancient beliefs (caste systems), tribal and religious problems without implode?
Will India manage to avoid self destruction in a fraticide war with Pakistan?
How Indian politicians address these problems will determine the future, unfortunately every time I read or see how Indian politicans act I feel troubled and deeply concerned.
Consumer buys new computer.
Consumer sees shiny WIndows boxes in shops, advertised in magazines.
Fast forward.
Comsumer buys new computer. With Windows. Hold on a sec! I have Windows in my old computer? I want to use that same Windows! What is the discount for the computer with no Windows?
I may concede that most new buyers are as stupid as you paint them (they aren't) but my personal experience tells me that people are painfully aware of the price of the MS software in their PCs.
Most people understand that the software in your computer has a cost.
It may be not spelled out up front, but very often I am asked the question from "illiterate" computer users: "how much less would the computer cost without all the bundled software" or "without Windows"? (they have a perfectly legit copy that came with the old computer that they would like to use and save a few bucks).
People are under no illusion that MS is giving their software away, only you under some contrived logic is trying to make that point.
10K US$?
180K is peanuts if you need to put quickly a distribution and test it. That amount would pay the salaries of a small team of people for one year.
Or declare voting day a public holiday. Less bureaucratic. Less excuses.
I was in Houston Texas a couple of weeks ago, all those huge SUV's and pick-up trucks are a lamentables spectacle (specially considering that are mostly a one-perosn vehicles. Most wasteful).
Windhoek has only 200000 inhabitants.
I am talking *mansions* not houses. You know, thousands of square meters, swimming pools, parking for around 10 cars,
I have been in both Namibia and the US (Houston amongst others, where space is cheap), the houses you can get in Namibia are immensely bigger when compared to what you get in the US for the same amount of money.
And don't dream: there is no way that you can provide full meals for 3 people (drinks, meat in the main meal, etc) with only 4 US$ in the US (I am talking sitting in a restaurant here).
After some years working in the IT industry I have still to see my boss or the boss of my boss chosing the people that are layed off. I have worked in big companies only, that may have some bearing in my personal experience.
Heck, sometimes the last to know is the boss of the unfortunate downsized...
Yea, that is the holly grail, discipline.
And all is embodied in a piece of cheap cloth.
Wise business practice indeed.
I normaly hire the "rebel' in case you wanted to know.
Why is that all the companies producing software for geophysics and the banking industry are not running like crazy to port everything to Linux on x86?
Can you please punish so much ignorance please?
Years and yaers of courts decisions and there are people still claiming MS is not a monopoly.
Jeeez.
Or are talking based on your obvious prejudices?
COBOL is an excellent languages for many busineess oriented tasks and the cost of a replacement with something else (why, because it is "modern") may very well outweight any benefits.
Let take an extreme example of "charitable" giving:
In Colombia drug barons are reveared and seen as heroes. Why? because a lot of the money they earn pedalling drugs to rich countries is used in the local community (churches, schools, that kind of thing). Not only that, but drug money is the biggest earner of hard currency of the Colmbian economy.
Is it OK to laud somebody that makes good with the profits he has made by less than exemplary means?
I do not know. I think in the drug barons case the answer is clearly no, in the case of other people it may be more defficult to come with a satisfactory answer.
GPL si most respectful of copyright laws and private ownership, both anathemas to communist ideas.
You are encouraged to make a buck with OSS, you are encouraged to use your iniciative and talent to increase your profits as a business, consultant, etc.
How do you square that with communism?
Not a single farmer has been shot dead by goverment sponsored mobs.
The Namibian goverment is intending to redistribute land, and rightly so. They began with idle land owned by foreigners (which are mostly white).
Go to a white owned farm in Namibia: kilometers and more kilometers of land that benefit a few white people while providing just basic sustenance for underpaid workers.
Certainly the Namibian goverment is not the best and is begining to show the typical African deseases of tribalism, cronysm and corruption, but to call them genocidal racists is far off the mark (at least at the moment).
The Namibian dollar (pegged to the South African rand) can buy very little.
You can have a full meal for 3 (including drinks, loads of meat, etc) for the equivalent of 4 US$.
Houses in the rich area of Windhoek, the capital city, sell for around 150000 US$. We are talking mansions with 10 or more bedrooms, two or three floors and 24 hour security. Is where embassies are mostly located.
2000 US$ may be little for US standards, for Namibian standards is a huge amount of money.
Nevertheless the Namibian goverment got this one right: they saw what most people here have understood from the start, that MS donations are not such.
Don't mask your hervibore instincts with a sense that you have grown up.
Grown-ups have opinions and principles and they don't brake them. Kiddies in the other hand are told what to do and are forced to do it, for the greater good of course.
Most layoffs happen in a computer screen analyzing a spread sheet, unless they have a column headed "Dress decor" your expensive (both to buy and maintain) clothes will mean squat.
If how I dress affects how management feels about me then they will be affected also by a mosquito flying close by or by the position of Uranus in respect to Pluto. No chance I would like to work in such an environment.
When layoffs come, upper management just look at spreadsheets with numbers, they very often have never seen the people they are making jobless.
The people that get the sack have no job, no dignity and the money they would have saved is wasted in those very expensive suits and dry cleaning bills.
I have never done it, doing well, thank you.
Why should I change now?
Why your definition of neatly is better than mine?
What is "professional looking"?
All what you say is a convention. A convention impossed top-down and that only helps to imposs the boss' authority in a hierarchical organization.
If a company talks about loyalty and team playing in a democratic society, enforced uniformism is clearly at odds with those desirable traits.
It reads like this:
I understand that business is about performance, service and added value, not about image. Although perception plays a part in a working replationship its enforcement must have a clear justification, otherwise it shows a conformist bureaucratic corporate culture. I know that serious companies will judge me mostly on my 31337 skillz, of which they have ample notice on my CV and hiring interview. I play great in teams because I value diversity and relate to people for what they contribute and not for how they show off. I want to show that although I am very dependable I have principles which I can't compromise, most people value that because how can you trust somebody that compromises his principles?
Better.
More jobs, assuming you have the expertise in the first place.
What do you prefer: a highly skilled guy that hates ties or a sub-skilled comformist sheeple that dresses impecably?
I find that people advocating dress conformity are normally the ones that have to fear the most because they don't trust their own ability to remain current.
But certainly go local is the best advice.
Good luck.
Return it after you read it?
Common, have some morals...