It's cheaper for Compaq to pay Microsoft than to have to produce another version of the iPAQ without wince. Sure, they could make a Linux version. Would you like to pay $30 more for it?
-russ
As the former webmaster of www.yopy.org, I have to tell you to get an iPAQ. It's not at all clear that the G.Mate people understand how open source should work; not true for the Compaq CRL people led by Jim Gettys (insert impeccable credentials here). The iPAQ doesn't require that you have a CF sleeve if you don't need one. Yeah, it's got some design problems. But all-around, it's just so nice that you gotta have one.
-russ
This is the result of consumer control in a free market. A company has two choices: either make consumers happy, or go under. DC didn't manage to do the first, so to deserves the second.
-russ
1. Once all competition has been destroyed, there isn't much reason to keep prices low.
As long as nobody is prohibited from entering the market, there is no such thing as "no competition". There's nothing to stop someone from undercutting Wal*Mart on their higher-margin products.
-russ
pygps interfaces to your gps receiver via gpsd (see freshmeat). Once it's talking to your gps receiver, it shows you which satellites it's receiving, how well it's receiving them, and shows you your lat/lon easting/northing location. You can log your track for later playback, mark waypoints as you go, and view your location on maps.
It's designed to run on the Linux iPAQ, so it supports 320x240, 240x320, and 1024x768 screens, automagically selecting the right one for your screen resolution.
It doesn't create any maps, but instead selects the best available map from maps you've entered into its database.
Of course Slashdot contains an OSDN webbug. Slashdot is owned by OSDN. Some people gotta turn their paranoia control WAY down, otherwise they're gonna start seeing black helicopters soon.
-russ
Yr an anonymous coward, but you get extra points for being correct. Yes, you understand the problem fully. We're in a very sticky wicket here in the US. How do we peacefully regain the political power we have given away over the course of the previous century?
-russ
Which is more fair? To force convicts to work to pay their keep? Or to force their victims to pay to keep their crime's perpetrator safe and in good health?
More than half the prisoners are due to our insane war on drugs. The war on drugs cannot be won for a simple reason: when you put a drug dealer in jail, you haven't reduced the supply of drugs. All you've done is create a job opening. Obviously, all the people who learned that lesson the first time around (Prohibition) have died. So now we get to re-learn it. Painfully and at great cost.
-russ
Businesses are only interesting in influencing government because government is interested in controlling businesses. If we didn't let governments interfere with the marketplace, businesses wouldn't be able to make more money by buying legislators. So we'd have honest politicians again, because the dishonest ones wouldn't be able to make money and wouldn't be attracted to the job.
No amount of campaign finance reform is going to change the fact that when something is for sale, somebody is going to buy it. The only solution to corrupt politicians is for us -- that means you and I -- to tell our politicians that we don't want them to interfere in the marketplace.
-russ
Hmmmm... There are conspiracy theories everywhere on the net. You think maybe that means something? How come you never see conspiracy theories anywhere else? Perhaps somebody wants to see Internet publications taken less seriously??
-russ
Yep, the Hot Rock was based on the book (oh, dare I say it?) _The Hot Rock_. The book and the movie went well together. The book was better simply because the book usually *is* better because it can go into more detail. For example, the movie never mentioned the submarine.
Too bad the movie isn't out on video. It was shot at least partially on Long Island. The jailbreak was filmed at the Nassau County Jail in Mineola.
-russ
You're right, it's not writing to its screen properly last I heard. However, Jamey also found a place where the wrong GPIO bit was being used, so that might be the breakthrough.
-russ
A monochrome iPAQ only costs $399. Add $40 for the CF sleeve plus $60 for Ethernet, and you've got one of these puppies PLUS a display and digitizer. For no additional cost. Could somebody explain to me again why this product is so wonderful?
-russ
Keep working on the Kinesis. In time, you'll find yourself much faster with it. There's a lot to be said for reducing the distance your fingers have to travel to type.
-russ
According to economic theory, you should be able jack up interest rates, throw millions of people out of work, and within a year the economy will recover, but resume at a much lower inflation rate. As it turns out, Ronnie was right. But try explaining that to the people at the beginning of the recession who lost their jobs.
Actually, you have no choice once you start inflating your currency. It's recession now or depression later. Look at Turkey. The Turkish Lire is now 1,110,500 to the dollar. It was only 580,000 to the dollar when I was there a year ago. Eventually they'll be hauling lire around in wheelbarrows because they're so worthless.
-russ
Ten years ago, it took $20,000 worth of a van full of electronics. Now it probably only takes $5,000 and a suitcase. Of course, the problem with the van thing was that most people don't want their fiber optic cables tapped. It's just a thing with them -- a phase they're going through. They'll get over it.
-russ
Just more evidence that politics and economics are philosophically opposed to each other. In a free market, price discrimination helps to lower prices for everyone, and it's more fair, even though that conclusion is not obvious.
Take the upper end -- someone who values the item at more than its price. They would happily pay more for it, even though it's the same thing. So effectively, they're getting more value than someone who's buying it at the median price. It would be more fair if the seller received more of the value.
Take the lower end. That's someone for whom the value of the item is less than the price, so they don't get the produce. If, on the other hand, the seller could discriminate and take a lower profit margin on just those buyers, the low end buyers could enjoy the product.
Robinson-Patman exists only because of a mistaken concept of "fairness". When you actually look at it, though, it's the law itself which creates the unfairness.
-russ
Actually, I did. And if I had written it up in a print article, it would be prior art. Instead, I just thought "Now that's a stupid idea," and went on with my life.
-russ
Because more people will buy at a lower price than a higher price. You'd really like to fill the entire space under the price-demand curve, rather than the rectangle delimited by a single price point. That's why hardcover books sell at a premium, and that's why hardcover books come out before the paperback version. What you're *really* paying for is the earlyness, not the hard cover. It's called "price differentiation".
In a competitive market, it serves to lower prices for everyone. Yes, even the people who pay the higher prices.
Economics is fun! You can learn more about this kind of thing from David Friedman's _Hidden Order_.
-russ
Quaker merchants pioneered the idea of a single price for all buyers. Prior to that, only a competent negotiator could get a good price on something. So you couldn't send a child to buy something at the corner store.
So in time, people sought out Quaker merchants, because they knew they would get a fair deal.
-russ
Slashdot Mirror
It's cheaper for Compaq to pay Microsoft than to have to produce another version of the iPAQ without wince. Sure, they could make a Linux version. Would you like to pay $30 more for it?
-russ
As the former webmaster of www.yopy.org, I have to tell you to get an iPAQ. It's not at all clear that the G.Mate people understand how open source should work; not true for the Compaq CRL people led by Jim Gettys (insert impeccable credentials here). The iPAQ doesn't require that you have a CF sleeve if you don't need one. Yeah, it's got some design problems. But all-around, it's just so nice that you gotta have one.
-russ
This is the result of consumer control in a free market. A company has two choices: either make consumers happy, or go under. DC didn't manage to do the first, so to deserves the second.
-russ
The Slashdot remake would star Natalie Portman as one of the virgins.
-russ
Rob needs a new hof category: most moderated posting.
-russ
1. Once all competition has been destroyed, there isn't much reason to keep prices low.
As long as nobody is prohibited from entering the market, there is no such thing as "no competition". There's nothing to stop someone from undercutting Wal*Mart on their higher-margin products.
-russ
Is it open source? I want to rip off bits for pygps. Gonna have to write a data stripper so that the data set will fit on an iPAQ.
-russ
pygps interfaces to your gps receiver via gpsd (see freshmeat). Once it's talking to your gps receiver, it shows you which satellites it's receiving, how well it's receiving them, and shows you your lat/lon easting/northing location. You can log your track for later playback, mark waypoints as you go, and view your location on maps.
It's designed to run on the Linux iPAQ, so it supports 320x240, 240x320, and 1024x768 screens, automagically selecting the right one for your screen resolution.
It doesn't create any maps, but instead selects the best available map from maps you've entered into its database.
It's listed on freshmeat.
-russ
And pygps supports gpsd. It's got moving maps, and logging.
-russ
Where do I get world files for the maps that ESRI draws?? Without world files, the maps are useless to a GIS application.
-russ
Of course Slashdot contains an OSDN webbug. Slashdot is owned by OSDN. Some people gotta turn their paranoia control WAY down, otherwise they're gonna start seeing black helicopters soon.
-russ
Yr an anonymous coward, but you get extra points for being correct. Yes, you understand the problem fully. We're in a very sticky wicket here in the US. How do we peacefully regain the political power we have given away over the course of the previous century?
-russ
Which is more fair? To force convicts to work to pay their keep? Or to force their victims to pay to keep their crime's perpetrator safe and in good health?
More than half the prisoners are due to our insane war on drugs. The war on drugs cannot be won for a simple reason: when you put a drug dealer in jail, you haven't reduced the supply of drugs. All you've done is create a job opening. Obviously, all the people who learned that lesson the first time around (Prohibition) have died. So now we get to re-learn it. Painfully and at great cost.
-russ
Businesses are only interesting in influencing government because government is interested in controlling businesses. If we didn't let governments interfere with the marketplace, businesses wouldn't be able to make more money by buying legislators. So we'd have honest politicians again, because the dishonest ones wouldn't be able to make money and wouldn't be attracted to the job.
No amount of campaign finance reform is going to change the fact that when something is for sale, somebody is going to buy it. The only solution to corrupt politicians is for us -- that means you and I -- to tell our politicians that we don't want them to interfere in the marketplace.
-russ
Hmmmm... There are conspiracy theories everywhere on the net. You think maybe that means something? How come you never see conspiracy theories anywhere else? Perhaps somebody wants to see Internet publications taken less seriously??
-russ
Yep, the Hot Rock was based on the book (oh, dare I say it?) _The Hot Rock_. The book and the movie went well together. The book was better simply because the book usually *is* better because it can go into more detail. For example, the movie never mentioned the submarine.
Too bad the movie isn't out on video. It was shot at least partially on Long Island. The jailbreak was filmed at the Nassau County Jail in Mineola.
-russ
You're right, it's not writing to its screen properly last I heard. However, Jamey also found a place where the wrong GPIO bit was being used, so that might be the breakthrough.
-russ
A monochrome iPAQ only costs $399. Add $40 for the CF sleeve plus $60 for Ethernet, and you've got one of these puppies PLUS a display and digitizer. For no additional cost. Could somebody explain to me again why this product is so wonderful?
-russ
Keep working on the Kinesis. In time, you'll find yourself much faster with it. There's a lot to be said for reducing the distance your fingers have to travel to type.
-russ
According to economic theory, you should be able jack up interest rates, throw millions of people out of work, and within a year the economy will recover, but resume at a much lower inflation rate. As it turns out, Ronnie was right. But try explaining that to the people at the beginning of the recession who lost their jobs.
Actually, you have no choice once you start inflating your currency. It's recession now or depression later. Look at Turkey. The Turkish Lire is now 1,110,500 to the dollar. It was only 580,000 to the dollar when I was there a year ago. Eventually they'll be hauling lire around in wheelbarrows because they're so worthless.
-russ
Ten years ago, it took $20,000 worth of a van full of electronics. Now it probably only takes $5,000 and a suitcase. Of course, the problem with the van thing was that most people don't want their fiber optic cables tapped. It's just a thing with them -- a phase they're going through. They'll get over it.
-russ
Just more evidence that politics and economics are philosophically opposed to each other. In a free market, price discrimination helps to lower prices for everyone, and it's more fair, even though that conclusion is not obvious.
Take the upper end -- someone who values the item at more than its price. They would happily pay more for it, even though it's the same thing. So effectively, they're getting more value than someone who's buying it at the median price. It would be more fair if the seller received more of the value.
Take the lower end. That's someone for whom the value of the item is less than the price, so they don't get the produce. If, on the other hand, the seller could discriminate and take a lower profit margin on just those buyers, the low end buyers could enjoy the product.
Robinson-Patman exists only because of a mistaken concept of "fairness". When you actually look at it, though, it's the law itself which creates the unfairness.
-russ
YOU didn't think of it did you?
Actually, I did. And if I had written it up in a print article, it would be prior art. Instead, I just thought "Now that's a stupid idea," and went on with my life.
-russ
I mean, why charge ANYONE a lower price?
Because more people will buy at a lower price than a higher price. You'd really like to fill the entire space under the price-demand curve, rather than the rectangle delimited by a single price point. That's why hardcover books sell at a premium, and that's why hardcover books come out before the paperback version. What you're *really* paying for is the earlyness, not the hard cover. It's called "price differentiation".
In a competitive market, it serves to lower prices for everyone. Yes, even the people who pay the higher prices.
Economics is fun! You can learn more about this kind of thing from David Friedman's _Hidden Order_.
-russ
Quaker merchants pioneered the idea of a single price for all buyers. Prior to that, only a competent negotiator could get a good price on something. So you couldn't send a child to buy something at the corner store.
So in time, people sought out Quaker merchants, because they knew they would get a fair deal.
-russ