I think mandatory certification for PC repair services would be the kiss of death to affordable quality service. The fact that a business person doesn't request several bids, or, get references for a likely contender for a job, should not be the premise upon which licensing mandates are instituted. That would only reward lazy business owners/managers, and reward easy fixes.
The fact that a person can afford to take a test to get certification doesn't say squat about that person's ability to solve problems requiring critical reasoning or independent thought. I would rather hire someone based on his or her reputation for having their shit together and getting the job done right the first time. And, on the flip side, I would like to think that my own reputation spoke more highly for me than having any certification a well-trained chimp might get its hands on, given said chimp's ability to pay for it.
I tend to be nominally liberal, but in such a case as this, I am all for unregulated commerce. Dumbshits who fuck up will not be in business for long. Honest people with their act together will find their isn't enough time in the day to accept all requests for service.
Now, when it comes to coding software, I am in favor of regulation, especially for operating systems coders. but then, that is another kettle of fish entirely...
"And it's not like there are, or can be, incredibly deadly viruses. The worst in the world (arguably) is AIDs..."
Well, I would say influenza gets the gold for being the most consistently deadly virus, but how do you handicap a contest like that, really?
"Nothing short of a Borg-like sentient race hell-bent on our destruction (or a planet-killing disaster in the next few hundred years) could kill us off. Sorry, universe, you're stuck with us."
Before I was a sysadmin (or a wannabe), I never even thought about massively parallel or distributed computing, let alone its potential evolutionary impact. However, since my sysadmin career, I am often thinking about it. I see no reason that a species fundamentally Borg-like in social structure shouldn't evolve. I also see no reason that such a species would necessarily be hell-bent on our destruction, either. Or even, for that matter, being all too interested in or anxious to contact us. It could possibly be that any or all other possible sentiant races exist this way, and that we are just an exception to the rule, unable to see the big picture, anyhow, because we are just too damned stupid.
I was sort of looking forward to this show, and I was also unimpressed. Going into it, however, I was skeptical for a number of reasons.
First, who is to say what course evolution will take? Kakos' criticism regarding the one 'possible' evolutionary course is well-warranted. Even a cursory review of the evolutionary history laid out in the fossil record shows that evolution moves in fits and starts, and not necessarily headed in one direction. Certainly, evolution at least covers all the bases, in case one chess move doesn't work as expected.
Second, I felt that too much was made of very few individual species and how they eat each other. Spiders eating the last mammal species. 'Sharkopath' creatures eating giant squid (forget that the largest whales today show battle scars from their assumed feasting on giant squids, showing that there is some fight in squids that might drive that species evolution).
Third, it took a shallow view of the wide world of animals--the only animals represented were those living within a narrow ecological band, basically several meters above/below ground and below sea level. One was begged to accept that life on Future Earth hinges on 'flish' being blown inland by Super typhoons, to feed 'bumblebeetles' that live for only a matter of hours/days.
Where were the crustaceans? The plankton? Single-celled life? I'd like to think that the question of possible futures requires a deeper exploration of evolutionary forces, and, as Kakos indicated, a discussion of the many possibilities of evolution, rather than the narrow picture presented.
A longer, episodic treatment is more appropriate to this subject, and personally, I'd love to see it. First episode: whoops, the Earth gets really cold! Second Episode: Eek, what if it gets really hot? Third episode: Zounds, rebellion of the sea creatures!
Unfortunately, we'll never see such a treatment.:(
They abandoned me, and yet still charged me for a month of service ater -- yes, AFTER -- requesting canellation. So Fuck them. Spread the info, bring DirecTV to it's DirectKnees.
Not to oversimplify matters, but this, as in the case of the abortion issue, warrants something I have been saying more and more of late: "I am all for the long arm of the law, but it has no business reaching up a lady's skirt."
Not to be a Clinton apologist, but the 'redefining,' as you call it, of the word, 'is', stands as pretty much a cornerstone of legal gymnastics. When it comes down to it, literacy means a lot, and in that case, a lot hung on the meaning and context of the word, as it was employed. Lawyers earn their living by splitting such hairs, and we should all be grudgingly thankful for it.
I cringe when people refer to this as some sort of redefinition of language. It is more accurately a reexaminination of language. Without such hair-splitting, language becomes irrelavent, and our common experiential basis for societal comparison/examination goes out the window.
You see, during WW2, there was a tank plant nearly plunk in the middle of Ann Arbor, the home of the University of Michigan. It had guard towers and razor wire, etc. Mind you, this was as far into the heartland, almost, as you could get at the time. There was no jet transportation at the time, and lots of well-armed continental US between either sea and Michigan. Still, it was a matter of national security, so this quaint little college town had an armed presence of some significance. Not so much due to an obvious threat of clear and present danger, but because in theory, the threat of compromise to such activity had fundamental national security implications. We're talking, national life and death issues.
Data should be treated similarly, certainly when entrusted by the government to an outside contractor. If it can't be shown to be absolutely safe in a contractor's hands, then it should not be contracted out. If that means armed security of an armed forces kind, then so be it.
Government bean counters and others with less practical, more dangerous political schemes and secret purposes would probably contract out national security, if you let them.
At this rate, I wouldn't be surprised. Probably to MS Armed Forces XP. Just remember to patch early and often.
Are there half-nude hippie chicks? Hubba hubba!
on
Drama in the Desert
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· Score: 1
I always imagined there would be lotsa new-age free-love types there... Well? What's the skinny on that? What's the 4-1-1?
I must concur. In my last job, in a library, I had the Circ Desk running on PII-200's, with 32MB RAM and Win98. And no one knew the difference between it and their home machines.
If only I could have lasted a little bit longer under the insane management... I SO wanted to replace theose PCs with LCD iMacs, but I really couldn't bear to part with them so long as they did the job!
I love blue-sky predictions, don't you?
on
Landshark
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· Score: 1
Please note this thing hasn't been built yet. They have a target range for manufacture. It's great pre-packaged masturbational geek fantasy, just like the god-damned flying car I've been lusting after for most of my life, after seeing it in an early-80's Omni mag (geek porn). However, like the flying car, it don't bloody-well EXIST now, do it?
While I can appreciate the motivation behind this, I think that by holding tightly to the old-tech definition of a state/State (borders, most notably), geeks would be playing by ancient rules.
I have thought for the last few years that, technology being what it is, the nation-state is doomed, and the virtual state is in the ascendancy.
Geekocracy, methinks, is the next step in human governance, whereby physical location has nothing to do with your valued citizenship and the exercise thereof.
If only my boss had read this book already, but the review appears slightly more than a week too late to prevent my submitting two-weeks' notice. The concepts in this book appear to be just what my tech-ignorant, conflict-phobic, soon-to-be-ex-boss needs (apart from a swift kick in the butt).
[Word to the wise geek: never work in a public library if you will be the only geek on staff--you'll thank me for this advice]
That said, this book seems destined to be purchased by managers nationwide, only to collect dust on their shelf, next to the One-Minute Manager and Dummies Guide to Management.
Can someone explain how hemp derived methanol is made? I've heard the same claims, but where does it actually come from? I don't think its fermented...Not that much sugar in Hemp."
Well, of course, this method has important limitations.
The sugar will come from the Snickers bar your plane wolfs down once the munchies kick in.
Then, the plane will fly really slowly and deliberately along it's flight path.
Meanwhile, the autopilot will fly 1,000 nautical miles out of it's way to get to your destination.
Finally, once you get there, the plane will have forgotten the purpose for the trip, and go blow your last 20 bucks on junk food.
" The president nominates justices for the supreme court. Do you see him nominating a leftist to something which will probably be his longest lasting legacy, the stacking of the supreme court?"
Are you MAD? Lessig is conservative. He was an aide to Scalia, for chrissakes! His argument is as CONSERVATIVE an argument as one can make regarding this matter under the Constitution and in the times we currently find ourselves. Criminy, not everything radical is leftist, and not everything conservative is is in the interest of commercial concerns.
There is a lot of talk about the lack of local language support in Linux. To make a long diatribe short, I think if the gov't of India is making an effort to move towards OSS, then I wouldn't be at all surprised to find Indian gov't support for a publicly-financed initiative to do a complete localization project. Once that is done, the floodwaters will surge and all will be raised in the same boat. Huzzah!
Maybe then we will see Americans going to India to be cab drivers for the new elite.;-)
The point of the strike is not to complain about work conditions, if you half-witted slashdot readers were actually following this. At dispute is the encroachment of non-union labor into a union environment. I can imagine the longshoremen see this as a threat to their positions. As a citizen, I see it as the McDonaldization of the ports: pay very little, get high turnaround, continue to pay very little, etc. Eventually, the people running the pors are all disgruntled lazy asses with an axe to grind, and little motivation to keep things dockside on the up-and-up.
Well, once people start getting cybernetic implants, they can probobly leverage this technology to gather personal information for networking purposes... Touch a client, get info, act as though blabbing about their family and health came naturally to you, yada yaday yada...
I see Amway devouring such technology in 15-25 years, once the hardcore Fundies in West Michigan have experienced Rapture and left the rest of us THE HELL ALONE...In fifty years, Amway representatives will be able to shake your hand and upload their own personal "How would you like a check every week for $CURRENT_ENVIABLE_SALARY??" spiel to your implants.
Maybe by then Amway will also sell something with which to cleanse one's brain of bad influences... [shiver]
Does anyone know any of the specifics of the integrated system they are using to manage operations after opening? Are they slaves to closed-source software or what?
By the way, I always thought the Big Dig was a neat idea. Too bad they aren't doing it here in Michigan. We'd save on road salt costs.:-)
ARRRGH! I didn't want to flame off, but I just gotta!
First, I think Linux represents less of a desire to vanquish M$, and FAR more of a quest to simply get the job of computing DONE, M$ or no M$. The more important part of the equation is that your operating system not get between you and personal productivity. Thus, if Linux displaces Windows because users prefer to spend more computer time actually USING their PC, it **naturally** follows that Windows will fall by the wayside, even more so when, economically, the Linux model FAVORS the end user, also known in some circles as as the consumer.
Additionally, if it is good for 'the industry,' as well as being a good server, and a nice operating system, it can't help BUT be good for the consumer. All ISPs 'support' Linux, in the sense that their protocols are all Unix-based to begin with. Recent additions to the menagerie of Linux distros are beginning to integrate GUI network configuration tools that appear similar to Windows, as well. So, the difference soon will just be that Linux people don't NEED to call in for support, while Windows users WILL have to get phone support to get walked through the proprietary goof-code maze blindfolded
Also, I think a lot of people underestimate the public's ability to sit through the Redhat installation process (or any of the other, similar installation programs). After all, they sat through DOS for all those years! They sat through years of "Please wait while Windows reboots your machine."
And don't let's forget the "Decade of the BSOD," either.
The inescapable fact is that Linux is a more stable operating system, is currently more secure, and has fine counterparts to every major Windows application that comes installed now, including counterparts for Word, Excel, MSIE, etc. Plus, you get all that AND time-hardened versions of telnet, ftp, and the rest, no cost.
Add to this the fact that the price [free-to-cheap] is right, and it would take only AN UNHOLY ALLIANCE BETWEEN OUR GOVERNMENT AND MICROSOFT TO PREVENT THE SUCCESS OF LINUX![insert sound of thunder claps and music of a menacingly minor key!]
If you want a game machine, get an X-Box or PS2. If you want a computer, use Linux.
It was in a commercial for a points-for-prizes contest. Basically, they showed a series of 'real' prizes with the associated number of points required to win each, The tag of the commercial showed a kid landing in a Harrier 'jump jet' in front of his school, and carried with it a display of an impossibly high (they thought) number of points required to win the jet.
There was, as I recall, NO DISCLAIMER in the commercial indicating it was only a PR gimmick, thus, one could argue they were promising it as a reward.
If the kid had actually saved up the points, I'd have sided with him, but he saved just a few and got, apparantly, others to pony up a cash equivalent, which didn't satisfy the requirement of saving up the points, in my estimation.
I am stumpified as to why the RIAA is so caught up with trying to control old-time media. I am surprised they haven't gone to a subscription-based music distribution system. The technology exists, after all. In the face of existing technology, it just doesn't make sense for them to send out hard copies of recordings. They could easily start up their own network (riaa-reviewnet.com or some such creature) and allow reviewers to download (or otherwise hear) music in a controlled environment. Have the client software be some bastardized thing with copy-protection and they would be all set.
Hell, if I were a stockholder in a record company, I'd expect no less. By continuing as they do, they really are begging for a diagnosis of insanity.
I am considering, in the FAR future, moving things from Windows to Linux, here in the public library for which I work. One argument I get when I float certain elements of the plan is, "But everyone already knows Windows." (the library's computer classes teach to Windows, not to basic computer literacy.
This made me think... What is more important for the end-user, from the standpoint of computer literacy? Knowing the operating system, or understanding basic functions that are universal across applications?
As patrons shouldn't even be THINKING of accessing the OS, I lean towards emphasizing application functions, such as print, save, etc. Those are the functions the majority of users will be needing anyhow.
That said, I think Linux should work fine, despite the naysayers, so long as the desktop/interface is simple and straightforward enough so that the user doesn't feel the need to plum the depths of the OS (in order to type up their recipe, email their grandson, etc.). In fact, the flexibility of Linux, I believe, enables you to BETTER serve your constituency in this manner.
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I think mandatory certification for PC repair services would be the kiss of death to affordable quality service. The fact that a business person doesn't request several bids, or, get references for a likely contender for a job, should not be the premise upon which licensing mandates are instituted. That would only reward lazy business owners/managers, and reward easy fixes.
The fact that a person can afford to take a test to get certification doesn't say squat about that person's ability to solve problems requiring critical reasoning or independent thought. I would rather hire someone based on his or her reputation for having their shit together and getting the job done right the first time. And, on the flip side, I would like to think that my own reputation spoke more highly for me than having any certification a well-trained chimp might get its hands on, given said chimp's ability to pay for it.
I tend to be nominally liberal, but in such a case as this, I am all for unregulated commerce. Dumbshits who fuck up will not be in business for long. Honest people with their act together will find their isn't enough time in the day to accept all requests for service.
Now, when it comes to coding software, I am in favor of regulation, especially for operating systems coders. but then, that is another kettle of fish entirely...
"And it's not like there are, or can be, incredibly deadly viruses. The worst in the world (arguably) is AIDs..."
Well, I would say influenza gets the gold for being the most consistently deadly virus, but how do you handicap a contest like that, really?
"Nothing short of a Borg-like sentient race hell-bent on our destruction (or a planet-killing disaster in the next few hundred years) could kill us off. Sorry, universe, you're stuck with us."
Before I was a sysadmin (or a wannabe), I never even thought about massively parallel or distributed computing, let alone its potential evolutionary impact. However, since my sysadmin career, I am often thinking about it. I see no reason that a species fundamentally Borg-like in social structure shouldn't evolve. I also see no reason that such a species would necessarily be hell-bent on our destruction, either. Or even, for that matter, being all too interested in or anxious to contact us. It could possibly be that any or all other possible sentiant races exist this way, and that we are just an exception to the rule, unable to see the big picture, anyhow, because we are just too damned stupid.
***Heaves a sigh and a shrug***
I was sort of looking forward to this show, and I was also unimpressed. Going into it, however, I was skeptical for a number of reasons.
:(
First, who is to say what course evolution will take? Kakos' criticism regarding the one 'possible' evolutionary course is well-warranted. Even a cursory review of the evolutionary history laid out in the fossil record shows that evolution moves in fits and starts, and not necessarily headed in one direction. Certainly, evolution at least covers all the bases, in case one chess move doesn't work as expected.
Second, I felt that too much was made of very few individual species and how they eat each other. Spiders eating the last mammal species. 'Sharkopath' creatures eating giant squid (forget that the largest whales today show battle scars from their assumed feasting on giant squids, showing that there is some fight in squids that might drive that species evolution).
Third, it took a shallow view of the wide world of animals--the only animals represented were those living within a narrow ecological band, basically several meters above/below ground and below sea level. One was begged to accept that life on Future Earth hinges on 'flish' being blown inland by Super typhoons, to feed 'bumblebeetles' that live for only a matter of hours/days.
Where were the crustaceans? The plankton? Single-celled life? I'd like to think that the question of possible futures requires a deeper exploration of evolutionary forces, and, as Kakos indicated, a discussion of the many possibilities of evolution, rather than the narrow picture presented.
A longer, episodic treatment is more appropriate to this subject, and personally, I'd love to see it. First episode: whoops, the Earth gets really cold! Second Episode: Eek, what if it gets really hot? Third episode: Zounds, rebellion of the sea creatures!
Unfortunately, we'll never see such a treatment.
They abandoned me, and yet still charged me for a month of service ater -- yes, AFTER -- requesting canellation. So Fuck them. Spread the info, bring DirecTV to it's DirectKnees.
Geezus... now we have to encrypt (shred) our GARBAGE? LOL
Not to oversimplify matters, but this, as in the case of the abortion issue, warrants something I have been saying more and more of late: "I am all for the long arm of the law, but it has no business reaching up a lady's skirt."
Not to be a Clinton apologist, but the 'redefining,' as you call it, of the word, 'is', stands as pretty much a cornerstone of legal gymnastics. When it comes down to it, literacy means a lot, and in that case, a lot hung on the meaning and context of the word, as it was employed. Lawyers earn their living by splitting such hairs, and we should all be grudgingly thankful for it.
I cringe when people refer to this as some sort of redefinition of language. It is more accurately a reexaminination of language. Without such hair-splitting, language becomes irrelavent, and our common experiential basis for societal comparison/examination goes out the window.
Of course, your mileage may vary.
With guard towers and barbed wire.
You see, during WW2, there was a tank plant nearly plunk in the middle of Ann Arbor, the home of the University of Michigan. It had guard towers and razor wire, etc. Mind you, this was as far into the heartland, almost, as you could get at the time. There was no jet transportation at the time, and lots of well-armed continental US between either sea and Michigan. Still, it was a matter of national security, so this quaint little college town had an armed presence of some significance. Not so much due to an obvious threat of clear and present danger, but because in theory, the threat of compromise to such activity had fundamental national security implications. We're talking, national life and death issues.
Data should be treated similarly, certainly when entrusted by the government to an outside contractor. If it can't be shown to be absolutely safe in a contractor's hands, then it should not be contracted out. If that means armed security of an armed forces kind, then so be it.
Government bean counters and others with less practical, more dangerous political schemes and secret purposes would probably contract out national security, if you let them.
At this rate, I wouldn't be surprised. Probably to MS Armed Forces XP. Just remember to patch early and often.
I always imagined there would be lotsa new-age free-love types there... Well? What's the skinny on that? What's the 4-1-1?
;)
Will it run Linux?
I must concur. In my last job, in a library, I had the Circ Desk running on PII-200's, with 32MB RAM and Win98. And no one knew the difference between it and their home machines.
If only I could have lasted a little bit longer under the insane management... I SO wanted to replace theose PCs with LCD iMacs, but I really couldn't bear to part with them so long as they did the job!
Please note this thing hasn't been built yet. They have a target range for manufacture. It's great pre-packaged masturbational geek fantasy, just like the god-damned flying car I've been lusting after for most of my life, after seeing it in an early-80's Omni mag (geek porn). However, like the flying car, it don't bloody-well EXIST now, do it?
Sorry to rain on your parades.
Kinda... Heh
While I can appreciate the motivation behind this, I think that by holding tightly to the old-tech definition of a state/State (borders, most notably), geeks would be playing by ancient rules.
I have thought for the last few years that, technology being what it is, the nation-state is doomed, and the virtual state is in the ascendancy.
Geekocracy, methinks, is the next step in human governance, whereby physical location has nothing to do with your valued citizenship and the exercise thereof.
If only my boss had read this book already, but the review appears slightly more than a week too late to prevent my submitting two-weeks' notice. The concepts in this book appear to be just what my tech-ignorant, conflict-phobic, soon-to-be-ex-boss needs (apart from a swift kick in the butt).
[Word to the wise geek: never work in a public library if you will be the only geek on staff--you'll thank me for this advice]
That said, this book seems destined to be purchased by managers nationwide, only to collect dust on their shelf, next to the One-Minute Manager and Dummies Guide to Management.
"hemp-derived methanol
Can someone explain how hemp derived methanol is made? I've heard the same claims, but where does it actually come from? I don't think its fermented...Not that much sugar in Hemp."
Well, of course, this method has important limitations.
The sugar will come from the Snickers bar your plane wolfs down once the munchies kick in.
Then, the plane will fly really slowly and deliberately along it's flight path.
Meanwhile, the autopilot will fly 1,000 nautical miles out of it's way to get to your destination.
Finally, once you get there, the plane will have forgotten the purpose for the trip, and go blow your last 20 bucks on junk food.
" The president nominates justices for the supreme court. Do you see him nominating a leftist to something which will probably be his longest lasting legacy, the stacking of the supreme court?"
Are you MAD? Lessig is conservative. He was an aide to Scalia, for chrissakes! His argument is as CONSERVATIVE an argument as one can make regarding this matter under the Constitution and in the times we currently find ourselves. Criminy, not everything radical is leftist, and not everything conservative is is in the interest of commercial concerns.
Sheesh...
There is a lot of talk about the lack of local language support in Linux. To make a long diatribe short, I think if the gov't of India is making an effort to move towards OSS, then I wouldn't be at all surprised to find Indian gov't support for a publicly-financed initiative to do a complete localization project. Once that is done, the floodwaters will surge and all will be raised in the same boat. Huzzah!
;-)
Maybe then we will see Americans going to India to be cab drivers for the new elite.
The point of the strike is not to complain about work conditions, if you half-witted slashdot readers were actually following this. At dispute is the encroachment of non-union labor into a union environment. I can imagine the longshoremen see this as a threat to their positions. As a citizen, I see it as the McDonaldization of the ports: pay very little, get high turnaround, continue to pay very little, etc. Eventually, the people running the pors are all disgruntled lazy asses with an axe to grind, and little motivation to keep things dockside on the up-and-up.
Step 1: (M$) Close Windows XP 2003 to all but Redmond/M$ PCs
Step 2: (M$)Infuriate the industry
Step 3: (APPL)Release Marklar
Step 4: (APPL)Profit!
Well, once people start getting cybernetic implants, they can probobly leverage this technology to gather personal information for networking purposes... Touch a client, get info, act as though blabbing about their family and health came naturally to you, yada yaday yada...
I see Amway devouring such technology in 15-25 years, once the hardcore Fundies in West Michigan have experienced Rapture and left the rest of us THE HELL ALONE...In fifty years, Amway representatives will be able to shake your hand and upload their own personal "How would you like a check every week for $CURRENT_ENVIABLE_SALARY??" spiel to your implants.
Maybe by then Amway will also sell something with which to cleanse one's brain of bad influences... [shiver]
Does anyone know any of the specifics of the integrated system they are using to manage operations after opening? Are they slaves to closed-source software or what?
:-)
By the way, I always thought the Big Dig was a neat idea. Too bad they aren't doing it here in Michigan. We'd save on road salt costs.
ARRRGH! I didn't want to flame off, but I just gotta!
First, I think Linux represents less of a desire to vanquish M$, and FAR more of a quest to simply get the job of computing DONE, M$ or no M$. The more important part of the equation is that your operating system not get between you and personal productivity. Thus, if Linux displaces Windows because users prefer to spend more computer time actually USING their PC, it **naturally** follows that Windows will fall by the wayside, even more so when, economically, the Linux model FAVORS the end user, also known in some circles as as the consumer.
Additionally, if it is good for 'the industry,' as well as being a good server, and a nice operating system, it can't help BUT be good for the consumer. All ISPs 'support' Linux, in the sense that their protocols are all Unix-based to begin with. Recent additions to the menagerie of Linux distros are beginning to integrate GUI network configuration tools that appear similar to Windows, as well. So, the difference soon will just be that Linux people don't NEED to call in for support, while Windows users WILL have to get phone support to get walked through the proprietary goof-code maze blindfolded
Also, I think a lot of people underestimate the public's ability to sit through the Redhat installation process (or any of the other, similar installation programs). After all, they sat through DOS for all those years! They sat through years of "Please wait while Windows reboots your machine."
And don't let's forget the "Decade of the BSOD," either.
The inescapable fact is that Linux is a more stable operating system, is currently more secure, and has fine counterparts to every major Windows application that comes installed now, including counterparts for Word, Excel, MSIE, etc. Plus, you get all that AND time-hardened versions of telnet, ftp, and the rest, no cost.
Add to this the fact that the price [free-to-cheap] is right, and it would take only AN UNHOLY ALLIANCE BETWEEN OUR GOVERNMENT AND MICROSOFT TO PREVENT THE SUCCESS OF LINUX![insert sound of thunder claps and music of a menacingly minor key!]
If you want a game machine, get an X-Box or PS2. If you want a computer, use Linux.
It was in a commercial for a points-for-prizes contest. Basically, they showed a series of 'real' prizes with the associated number of points required to win each, The tag of the commercial showed a kid landing in a Harrier 'jump jet' in front of his school, and carried with it a display of an impossibly high (they thought) number of points required to win the jet.
There was, as I recall, NO DISCLAIMER in the commercial indicating it was only a PR gimmick, thus, one could argue they were promising it as a reward.
If the kid had actually saved up the points, I'd have sided with him, but he saved just a few and got, apparantly, others to pony up a cash equivalent, which didn't satisfy the requirement of saving up the points, in my estimation.
I am stumpified as to why the RIAA is so caught up with trying to control old-time media. I am surprised they haven't gone to a subscription-based music distribution system. The technology exists, after all. In the face of existing technology, it just doesn't make sense for them to send out hard copies of recordings. They could easily start up their own network (riaa-reviewnet.com or some such creature) and allow reviewers to download (or otherwise hear) music in a controlled environment. Have the client software be some bastardized thing with copy-protection and they would be all set.
Hell, if I were a stockholder in a record company, I'd expect no less. By continuing as they do, they really are begging for a diagnosis of insanity.
I am considering, in the FAR future, moving things from Windows to Linux, here in the public library for which I work. One argument I get when I float certain elements of the plan is, "But everyone already knows Windows." (the library's computer classes teach to Windows, not to basic computer literacy.
This made me think... What is more important for the end-user, from the standpoint of computer literacy? Knowing the operating system, or understanding basic functions that are universal across applications?
As patrons shouldn't even be THINKING of accessing the OS, I lean towards emphasizing application functions, such as print, save, etc. Those are the functions the majority of users will be needing anyhow.
That said, I think Linux should work fine, despite the naysayers, so long as the desktop/interface is simple and straightforward enough so that the user doesn't feel the need to plum the depths of the OS (in order to type up their recipe, email their grandson, etc.). In fact, the flexibility of Linux, I believe, enables you to BETTER serve your constituency in this manner.
Plus, Microsoft is pure evil.