SCO is going to have a harder time making a case because the Linux community is EXTREMELY tech savvy and we are past the beginning of the information age. Most people absorb info pertaining to topics of interest on a daily basis and geeks even more so.
Should the GPL or Linux be in danger, you have a couple million experts out there waiting to testify or share evidence AGAINST SCO. Though the may be litigious geniuses, they are fighting an uphill battle.
Yep, the phone company. Why pay for DSL and phone when alot of phone companies still offer this option (or a similar one) as part of your phone service at no additional charge (or a minimal one).
I checked with some online schools (*cough* Phoenix *cough*) and some of them wanted the same amount of money as a regular college. I mentioned the fact that I don't get use of their facilities, gymnasium, extracurricular, etc and questioned why it was the same price. They didn't have an answer.
I remember when I used to play MUDs/MUSHs way back when, I found a way to get GOD powers by creating an item that chowned itself to whover picked it up (in this case a super user), then forced the holder of the item to give super user powers to the object. Upon that, it would teleport itself back to me at which point I could use the item as a puppet and have full GOD priveleges and abilities. And the best part was that because the item chowned itself to the superuser, it would always show that that super user had made the changes or was doing things.
Ok... so that was my geeky game hack tale. I feel all dirty now. Must go wash and pretend to be a normal human being now.
I noticed you didn't mention the product. So what was this tool called that was so amazing that you must hide behind a cloud of anonymity when talking about it?
Oh this is such a pile of shit. Without standards, the person with the best marketing will become the standard... not the best and most useful system.
Sure standards do slow innovation... but so does the the FDA when they ask for proper testing and years of results before millions of people pop that blue pill. Proper testing and analysis of innovations in technology need to occur before we just plaster them across the network only to find out later how gimped it was to begin with.
It's not PR. If they get you used to an OS, you won't want to switch. Once you are running Microsoft on your desktops and servers, why use competitors products when Microsoft bundles it all together? Why use Apache when you've got IIS? Why use REAL when you've got Media Player?
Then they want you to use THEIR IDE's and development languages which further gimps you and makes you more and more reliant on Microsoft.
It's just like a pusher and a junkie; the more smack they buy from you the more addicted they get.
Non-competes are unenforcable and to date (as far as I know) have NEVER gone to court. Microsoft has bullied people with their non-compete clause and forced people to fire their Microsoft employees. And when I worked at Amazon, they made me sign a 10 year non-compete.
Non-competes are inherently non-enforcable because they make it impossible for alot of people to find work in their field. True some people can go on to find work if their jobs were not specific in nature but for those whose jobs WERE specific to the company , a non-compete clause puts them out of work and keeps them out of work making it illegal.
I am honestly surprised that no one has ever challenged them to date.
Tell her that ever so recently, MySQL 4.0 passed speed tests that ranked it equivalent to Oracle 9i (and then conveniently neglect to mention its lack of checks on foreign keys...heh).
I ever so recently got a job for a company whose incomes relys heavily on Microsofties. Their big concern is that they wanted to support Microsoft as much as possible and I wanted to go towards an open source solution (specifically an LAMP architecture). I managed to get my way on everything but the server (still have to run Win2k) and am quite pleased with how much I was able to maneuver.
My best suggestion to you is do your research. Show those benchmarks. Show the community support (which is far better than 24 hr support because when you post to a news group, IRC channel or even a bulletin board, your solution will be found in a matter of minutes).
Also, show them the vast amounts of documentation freely available online (and with each product). Trying finding how to configure the intracies of IIS in comparison with Apache.
Also, look for product comparisons of software packages. For instance, MySQL vs. SQL Server; in recent benchmarks, MySQL was rated alongside Oracle 9i for speed and comes with it's own ODBC-to-ODBC bridge which SQL Server does not (and which can be purchased for $5400).
Make as strong a case as you can and gear it towards their pocketbook and level of tech experience.
And if that doesn't work, remind them that Code Red and Nimda took out 80,000 Windows machines; that's 80,000 machines that run proprietary code which is not cross platform compliant. Does ASP work on Unix, Linux, BSD or MAC? How about Visual Basic? IIS? You get my point. Cross platform compliancy is another good one because if they want to ever move to a different OS, they are screwed if they go with Microsoft.
The savings in cost, the community support, cross compliancy... what is there argument?
True. But they rely on customer laziness, brand recognition and dependability to overcome this. The savvy shopper will always compare but most people, once they found something, they don't care to look elsewhere. That and the Amazon name is known and trusted due to the building of it's large customer base right in the beginning of the company (for 2 years we had a 100% growth rate EVERY SINGLE MONTH).
They are great spindoctors too. But you are totally right, no worse that regular retailers, they just found new ways to do the same old thing.
I was a buyer at Amazon from 95-97 and helped build their buying dept and I can tell you that it is even more insidious than that. They buy straight from publishers/manufacturer when they can on almost all of the most popular items so they can get a 55-60% discount.
And thanks to me, they get a killer deal on shipping due to a little known program known as consignment shipping via UPS so they pay less than half of what they normally would pay; though they charge you for the full price of shipping, nearly all of this money goes straight into their pocket. They now claim it is for the manpower to ship your book but I have an Uncle that works for the warehouse down in Nevada and gets paid minimum and the time it takes to fill an order is less than 3 minutes ($10/hr x 3 seconds = approx 0.75).
Now, they then charge full price and have items that they overstocked pull up higher in searches with edited customer reviews to make them appear better than they are. True fact. They started editing reviews back when I was there.
Oh the horror stories I could tell...
"...people just like the feel of a dead tree in their hands." -Jeff Bezos
The person who flamebaited above going by the name of 'Xeno' should not be confused with the moderator of Crackbaby.com (who has far more brains that the individual listed above). Just trying to save some eventual hatemail from headed our way.
Signing the papers means nothing. Amazon.com had me sign a non-compete clause for up to 7 years and Microsoft does the same thing. But did you know they are not that enfgorcable? The can easily be overturned.
You can put anything onto paper for someone to sign ('The signer hereby agrees to wipe from back to front') but enforcing it is another thing. Courts will often find that the contract is not legally binding or that it is unconstitutional... and quite often, opens up the grounds for a counter suit.
I got into an argument with AT&T ever so recently because they wanted me to pay an fee for ending my cell service early because my cell phone was stolen. Since I did not purchase the cell phone through them (I had merely purchased the contract), I told them that that was illegal and that it would be like charged me for cable TV after my TV was stolen or charging me for insurance after my car was stolen.
They claimed it was in the contract I signed and that I would still have to pay. I told them the courts would decide that.
Needless to say, after many threats by them, they realized that they could not enforce the contract and they called up to say that 'as a courtesy' they would be waiving the fees.
So, if you know something is illegal and they can't enforce the contract, go ahead and sign. It's no sweat off your back.
This is pathetic... security through obscurity? If you live in constant fear of the infinite possibilities then the terrorists have already won. Besides, if the government would pay for decent systems and good sys admins, this wouldn't be a problem... well at least not to the extent where we would have to hide their IP's and stuff. That's just pathetic.
The law only applies to those who get caught and in this instance, they only caught one head of the hydra while several P2P networks rose up to take it's place.
Law shma? People like you would make Hitler proud; follow the regime and don't question. Can I get a Heil in the house?
I have run across alot of companies getting pissy about people pirating software that they no longer support. Do you believe if a company is no longer supporting a product, that they should have license to it, or should it be open sourced?
Slashdot Mirror
Well my point was more that the information gathering skills of the community at large can be put to good use.
Well IMHO...
SCO is going to have a harder time making a case because the Linux community is EXTREMELY tech savvy and we are past the beginning of the information age. Most people absorb info pertaining to topics of interest on a daily basis and geeks even more so.
Should the GPL or Linux be in danger, you have a couple million experts out there waiting to testify or share evidence AGAINST SCO. Though the may be litigious geniuses, they are fighting an uphill battle.
Yep, the phone company. Why pay for DSL and phone when alot of phone companies still offer this option (or a similar one) as part of your phone service at no additional charge (or a minimal one).
I. Cringely had a great article a while back about rolling your own DSL. All you need is a copper pair into your domicile. Good luck getting it though
I checked with some online schools (*cough* Phoenix *cough*) and some of them wanted the same amount of money as a regular college. I mentioned the fact that I don't get use of their facilities, gymnasium, extracurricular, etc and questioned why it was the same price. They didn't have an answer.
As far as I'm concerned, it's a ripoff.
How about a laptop that doubles as a bong?
Yep. I know with the SQL standard, far too often things that are useful do not get implemented because companies with competing products veto them.
Oh geekiest of geeks...
I remember when I used to play MUDs/MUSHs way back when, I found a way to get GOD powers by creating an item that chowned itself to whover picked it up (in this case a super user), then forced the holder of the item to give super user powers to the object. Upon that, it would teleport itself back to me at which point I could use the item as a puppet and have full GOD priveleges and abilities. And the best part was that because the item chowned itself to the superuser, it would always show that that super user had made the changes or was doing things.
Ok... so that was my geeky game hack tale. I feel all dirty now. Must go wash and pretend to be a normal human being now.
My New mantra: I'm normal, I'm normal, I'm normal
I noticed you didn't mention the product. So what was this tool called that was so amazing that you must hide behind a cloud of anonymity when talking about it?
Oh this is such a pile of shit. Without standards, the person with the best marketing will become the standard... not the best and most useful system.
Sure standards do slow innovation... but so does the the FDA when they ask for proper testing and years of results before millions of people pop that blue pill. Proper testing and analysis of innovations in technology need to occur before we just plaster them across the network only to find out later how gimped it was to begin with.
It's not PR. If they get you used to an OS, you won't want to switch. Once you are running Microsoft on your desktops and servers, why use competitors products when Microsoft bundles it all together? Why use Apache when you've got IIS? Why use REAL when you've got Media Player?
Then they want you to use THEIR IDE's and development languages which further gimps you and makes you more and more reliant on Microsoft.
It's just like a pusher and a junkie; the more smack they buy from you the more addicted they get.
Non-competes are unenforcable and to date (as far as I know) have NEVER gone to court. Microsoft has bullied people with their non-compete clause and forced people to fire their Microsoft employees. And when I worked at Amazon, they made me sign a 10 year non-compete.
Non-competes are inherently non-enforcable because they make it impossible for alot of people to find work in their field. True some people can go on to find work if their jobs were not specific in nature but for those whose jobs WERE specific to the company , a non-compete clause puts them out of work and keeps them out of work making it illegal.
I am honestly surprised that no one has ever challenged them to date.
Tell her that ever so recently, MySQL 4.0 passed speed tests that ranked it equivalent to Oracle 9i (and then conveniently neglect to mention its lack of checks on foreign keys...heh).
I ever so recently got a job for a company whose incomes relys heavily on Microsofties. Their big concern is that they wanted to support Microsoft as much as possible and I wanted to go towards an open source solution (specifically an LAMP architecture). I managed to get my way on everything but the server (still have to run Win2k) and am quite pleased with how much I was able to maneuver.
My best suggestion to you is do your research. Show those benchmarks. Show the community support (which is far better than 24 hr support because when you post to a news group, IRC channel or even a bulletin board, your solution will be found in a matter of minutes).
Also, show them the vast amounts of documentation freely available online (and with each product). Trying finding how to configure the intracies of IIS in comparison with Apache.
Also, look for product comparisons of software packages. For instance, MySQL vs. SQL Server; in recent benchmarks, MySQL was rated alongside Oracle 9i for speed and comes with it's own ODBC-to-ODBC bridge which SQL Server does not (and which can be purchased for $5400).
Make as strong a case as you can and gear it towards their pocketbook and level of tech experience.
And if that doesn't work, remind them that Code Red and Nimda took out 80,000 Windows machines; that's 80,000 machines that run proprietary code which is not cross platform compliant. Does ASP work on Unix, Linux, BSD or MAC? How about Visual Basic? IIS? You get my point. Cross platform compliancy is another good one because if they want to ever move to a different OS, they are screwed if they go with Microsoft.
The savings in cost, the community support, cross compliancy... what is there argument?
How about when we create A.I., would company ownership of said a.i. constitute slavery and endentured servitude? That one is my personal fave.
They are great spindoctors too. But you are totally right, no worse that regular retailers, they just found new ways to do the same old thing.
Oh forgot to mention, prior to discounting products, they would always hike the prices.
And thanks to me, they get a killer deal on shipping due to a little known program known as consignment shipping via UPS so they pay less than half of what they normally would pay; though they charge you for the full price of shipping, nearly all of this money goes straight into their pocket. They now claim it is for the manpower to ship your book but I have an Uncle that works for the warehouse down in Nevada and gets paid minimum and the time it takes to fill an order is less than 3 minutes ($10/hr x 3 seconds = approx 0.75).
Now, they then charge full price and have items that they overstocked pull up higher in searches with edited customer reviews to make them appear better than they are. True fact. They started editing reviews back when I was there.
Oh the horror stories I could tell...
"...people just like the feel of a dead tree in their hands." -Jeff Bezos
Then on top of that
I thought the Capuccino was the smallest computer? This thing doesn't look smaller than that.
The person who flamebaited above going by the name of 'Xeno' should not be confused with the moderator of Crackbaby.com (who has far more brains that the individual listed above). Just trying to save some eventual hatemail from headed our way.
You can put anything onto paper for someone to sign ('The signer hereby agrees to wipe from back to front') but enforcing it is another thing. Courts will often find that the contract is not legally binding or that it is unconstitutional... and quite often, opens up the grounds for a counter suit.
I got into an argument with AT&T ever so recently because they wanted me to pay an fee for ending my cell service early because my cell phone was stolen. Since I did not purchase the cell phone through them (I had merely purchased the contract), I told them that that was illegal and that it would be like charged me for cable TV after my TV was stolen or charging me for insurance after my car was stolen.
They claimed it was in the contract I signed and that I would still have to pay. I told them the courts would decide that.
Needless to say, after many threats by them, they realized that they could not enforce the contract and they called up to say that 'as a courtesy' they would be waiving the fees.
So, if you know something is illegal and they can't enforce the contract, go ahead and sign. It's no sweat off your back.
This is pathetic... security through obscurity? If you live in constant fear of the infinite possibilities then the terrorists have already won. Besides, if the government would pay for decent systems and good sys admins, this wouldn't be a problem... well at least not to the extent where we would have to hide their IP's and stuff. That's just pathetic.
The law only applies to those who get caught and in this instance, they only caught one head of the hydra while several P2P networks rose up to take it's place.
Law shma? People like you would make Hitler proud; follow the regime and don't question. Can I get a Heil in the house?
Well to correct your correction, the bill ALSO stated for 'significant financial loss' as well. What is significant? They never said... could be $5. :)
I have run across alot of companies getting pissy about people pirating software that they no longer support. Do you believe if a company is no longer supporting a product, that they should have license to it, or should it be open sourced?