Well, here in MN, as a homeowner, I can and do my own construction/remodeling projects (many of them), even right in the capital city where I live. I can do my own gas fittings, my own plumbing, and (within reason) my own electrical work. All of them need to be inspected and must meet the building codes, but even on those important systems, I'm allowed to do it myself.
As I've said so many times before, there's a whole lot more to this country than NY and CA and in many ways, those 2 states operate in really different ways than the rest of the country.
It's actually not that far off as I pay monthly and was making the comparison that way rather than the 6 month or 12 month rate that others pay. I've just been paying my insurance monthly for so long, I didn't think of it any other way.
$250 is half your car insurance? Ouch. I have 2 vehicles with full coverage and also pay my disability and life insurance at the same time and the total bill is still only $430 a month.
Those debates were hilarious. The other two were giving the typical political "answers" to questions, which basically boil down to spinning the question until they can respond with one of their campaign platform points. Ventura was there giving them the same look that everyone watching was: rolling his eyes and just plain answering the questions. Even if you didn't agree with his answers, it was just refreshing to not find yourself screaming "Answer the stupid question!" at a candidate during a debate.
SimonDelivers (the MN service I use) packages everything so that it can sit outside in their bins for up to 8 hours without melting/spoiling, etc. Anything perishable is packed in styrofoam and surrounded with dry ice. I frequently have them deliver at noon during the summer and the milk is still refrigerator cold at 6:00pm.
Now, if I could just get Home Depot and Target to deliver for under $10, I could actually get my evenings and weekends back.
(Incidentally, I'm not asking for this so I can avoid leaving the house or get excercise. I walk a mile to catch my bus in the morning and another.5 mile to get to my desk when I arrive there.)
Or you use a service like 2Checkout.com who does the fraud checking for you, but still doesn't require the customer to sign up for any sort of account. They do the phone authorization if necessary and still have reasonable fees.
What I find amusing is when a cyclist is giving me advice on cycling to lose weight, they rant and rave about how I need to buy a light bike rather than an inexpensive/heavy one, totally ignoring the fact that the difference between 17 and 25 pounds for the bike is dwarfed by the weight I need to lose in the first place. If you're more than 8 pounds overweight, just losing the weight is free and reduces the total weight you're moving around more than spending more money on expensive light components.
Exactly. Several of us at a contract I was working passed the audiobook of The Diamond Age. That book has long passages of stories that are told to a 5 year old about Princess Nell, castles, etc. All of us commented on how we found ourselves listening intently to these "childish" stories during our listen to the book.
I drove a diesel VW rabbit for about 6 years (taking it from 186,000 miles to over 300,000 miles) and one of the issues is that in places like where I live (St. Paul, MN) a sudden early cold snap can leave you with a tank full of jelly. You need to manage the kind of fuel you're running pretty carefully or put anti-gel in your tank regularly to avoid gelling. Of course, if diesel was more popular, the fuel stations would manage much of this for you, but it's a chicken-egg kind of problem.
Hey, buddy, this is Slashdot. Your point will be 100% ignored if even the slightest detail is *possibly* incorrect. Most Slashdotters would rather stare at the mold on the bark on an individual tree than see the forest.
You'd have been corrected if you had stated that the chairs go for $1000 by someone screaming that they only paid $998 for theirs.
Absolutely. I listen to music 8-10 hours a day. I used to use a CD-based MP3 player, so 640MB on a disc. I lost track of the times where I would choose music in the evening before work and find myself not wanting to listen to any of it once I got there. When I carry all 25GB with me, whatever I want to listen to is available.
The thing is that I heard lots of people say that about CD collections before mp3 became popular. They'd say, "Who needs more than 10-15 CD's?". And, indeed, their collection was that small. I can't fathom listening to the same 10-15 CD's over and over and over and over. Do I have my favorites? Absolutely. But, even my list of favorite CD's (the ones I can listen to any time) numbers about 50-60.
I agree on the Pricewatch problems. The spam listings are a huge problem. Just try finding an external hard drive. For every size, there's pages of $35 entries, all of which are empty external enclosures that are "compatible" with the hard drive size you selected. Since the entire purpose of using a site like that is to sort by lowest price, the listings are effectively worthless as you have to page through until you get to the first "real" entry.
There's also the fact that in a value meal of a Big Mac, large fries and a large Coke that the Coke has about the same number of calories as the fries or the burger. You can literally turn a 1500 calorie meal into a 1000 calorie meal by getting rid of the Coke and another couple of hundred if you get only a small order of fries. As much of the problem is that these places push the super size fries and drinks along with the crappy burgers.
The problem is those who complain that they never got their receipt for their download purchase or any response to their web-submitted trouble ticket. They may have been either directly or indirectly responsible for creating the filter, but sure aren't willing to take responsibility for that fact.
I have scripts that send out messages in both of those situations as well as to deliver 30 day trial URL's. In every single one of those cases, the user directly requested it and in one of those cases, the user is legally *entitled* to the message containing their registration code.
However, I find an increasing number of these messages never get through. Instead of smooth operations that provide the requested information immediately, I hear from someone 2 weeks after I responded to their trouble ticket and they're irate because I "never responded".
I want to be able to ensure things get delivered, not because I want to flagrantly disregard all respect for email privacy, but because people are expecting the messages they request to actually arrive.
I've got a little GPL PHP script (in my sig) that automatically renders static copies in case of Slashdotting (can be customized to do the caching on any condition you want). I benchmark using Postnuke and, on my test machine, Postnuke's front page goes from 1.95 requests per second when dynamic, to 36.99 requests per second when the caching is turned on.
I love my computer you make me feel alright every waking hour and every lonely night I love my computer for all you give to me predictable errors and no identity and it's never been quite so easy I've never been quite so happy all I need to do is click on you and we'll be joined in the most soul-less way and we'll never ever ruin each other's day cuz when I'm through I just click and you just go away I love my computer you're always in the mood I get turned on when I turn on you I love my computer you never ask for more you can be a princess or you can be my whore and it's never been quite so easy I've never been quite so happy the world outside is so big but it's safe in my domain because to you I'm just a number and a clever screen name all I need to do is click on you and we'll be together for eternity and no one is ever gonna take my love from me because I've got security, her password and a key
Exactly why I just bought a 40GB Neuros. I have about 21GB of stuff from my CD's, but I buy 7-8 used CD's a month, so eventually, I'll fill it up. If I had only bought the 20 or 30 GB, I wouldn't be free to do that.
The thing is that that clause isn't in the distribution license, it's in the license to be allowed to download. I can create a "download" license for a GPL product that requires you to pay $1,000,000 in order to download it. Once you have it, you can distribute it according to the terms of the GPL. The reason you don't see that arrangement is that any one of your customers is allowed to give it away and $1,000,000 doesn't compete with free very easily.
In this case, rather than paying, you have to assume liability. If you decide to distribute it, that clause doesn't apply. Rather, you are free to create your own requirements before allowing download. As long as you don't add any restrictions on what they do with the software or how they distribute it *after* they have downloaded it, you haven't altered the terms of the GPL at all. Basically, by adding this clause, they are saying that if you got it from somewhere else (from a secondary distribution mirror) they weren't responsible, but if you want it from them, you have to agree to assume the risk and liability.
Where you do see a lot of people "adding" terms to the GPL is amateur software authors who try to explain the GPL on their pages and say things like the GPL version is for "non-commercial use only", etc.
Unfortunately, the corollary to "will never need to scale" is "this is going to be so big that it needs enterprise level design, but ends up with 10 users" and that frequently leads to systems that never get out of the gate or have ongoing costs that dwarf any revenue the project may bring in. Given how many projects are never completed at all, a *small* amount of "just get it working" can ensure a project's completion.
I've seen a lot of web sites running on $10,000 load balanced clusters of computers and $1,000/month in available bandwidth and they never get more than 500 visitors per day.
There's a balance somewhere, but I'm not the guy to draw the line. I just know it when I see it.
I know my insurance is done by month and prorated if I switch vehicles. Also, in Minnesota, the registration is pretty cheap and follows the car, meaning you don't have to buy new license plate tabs until they actually expire.
As far as reliability is concerned, you can actually mitigate this while still following the cheapskate way. You just have your next car sitting in the driveway under a tarp for when the current one breaks down.
If I wasn't married, I'd still be living this way.
Nothing like a straw man argument to make a day on Slashdot complete. The post to which I responded implied that this compiler wasn't really free. Rather, it merely lowered the price for Windows C++ development from ~$1200 to $207. I responded to that implication and you seem to have decided to hijack the point and make it into something about the monopoly (including zealous shouting).
My overall point is that, for the target audience (those who wish to compile source code on a Windows machine), it *is* free and those other costs are "givens".
For instance, if I ask an apartment dweller to go and get me 20 sheets of plywood, according to the grandparent post, the fact that that apartment dweller would need to buy a truck would make the plywood cost the extra couple of hundred it might cost to rent a pickup to transport it. However, for anyone doing construction, a pickup's a given.
However, even if you *did* have to buy Windows, the price given by the grandparent post is more like list price and not reality. Incidentally, the *upgrade* for XP Home lists for $99, not the full version. And, places like BananaPC include the hardware necessary for OEM compliance in the price, not as an add-on.
When you consider that a DSL or cable line easily runs $40-50 a month, $85 really isn't that much if you really need to build Windows software directly on the Windows platform. And, if it is, just don't use it. Do your compiling with GCC on Linux.
While still not free, XP Home can be had for $85 in a full version, not just an upgrade. And that cost only exists if you didn't already buy a computer with 2000 or XP on it. Obviously, you either bought a computer with Win98 on it or bought 98 by itself a few years ago.
Your complaint sounds like someone griping that some piece of free software (could even be Linux-based) isn't really free because it requires a 600Mhz processor and 128MB of RAM and your old 133/16MB will require a CPU and RAM upgrade to run it.
Slashdot Mirror
I took from your John Q. Homeowner generalization that you were implying the general uselessness of building codes for homeowners/laymen.
Well, here in MN, as a homeowner, I can and do my own construction/remodeling projects (many of them), even right in the capital city where I live. I can do my own gas fittings, my own plumbing, and (within reason) my own electrical work. All of them need to be inspected and must meet the building codes, but even on those important systems, I'm allowed to do it myself.
As I've said so many times before, there's a whole lot more to this country than NY and CA and in many ways, those 2 states operate in really different ways than the rest of the country.
It's actually not that far off as I pay monthly and was making the comparison that way rather than the 6 month or 12 month rate that others pay. I've just been paying my insurance monthly for so long, I didn't think of it any other way.
$250 is half your car insurance? Ouch. I have 2 vehicles with full coverage and also pay my disability and life insurance at the same time and the total bill is still only $430 a month.
Those debates were hilarious. The other two were giving the typical political "answers" to questions, which basically boil down to spinning the question until they can respond with one of their campaign platform points. Ventura was there giving them the same look that everyone watching was: rolling his eyes and just plain answering the questions. Even if you didn't agree with his answers, it was just refreshing to not find yourself screaming "Answer the stupid question!" at a candidate during a debate.
SimonDelivers (the MN service I use) packages everything so that it can sit outside in their bins for up to 8 hours without melting/spoiling, etc. Anything perishable is packed in styrofoam and surrounded with dry ice. I frequently have them deliver at noon during the summer and the milk is still refrigerator cold at 6:00pm.
.5 mile to get to my desk when I arrive there.)
Now, if I could just get Home Depot and Target to deliver for under $10, I could actually get my evenings and weekends back.
(Incidentally, I'm not asking for this so I can avoid leaving the house or get excercise. I walk a mile to catch my bus in the morning and another
Or you use a service like 2Checkout.com who does the fraud checking for you, but still doesn't require the customer to sign up for any sort of account. They do the phone authorization if necessary and still have reasonable fees.
What I find amusing is when a cyclist is giving me advice on cycling to lose weight, they rant and rave about how I need to buy a light bike rather than an inexpensive/heavy one, totally ignoring the fact that the difference between 17 and 25 pounds for the bike is dwarfed by the weight I need to lose in the first place. If you're more than 8 pounds overweight, just losing the weight is free and reduces the total weight you're moving around more than spending more money on expensive light components.
Exactly. Several of us at a contract I was working passed the audiobook of The Diamond Age. That book has long passages of stories that are told to a 5 year old about Princess Nell, castles, etc. All of us commented on how we found ourselves listening intently to these "childish" stories during our listen to the book.
I drove a diesel VW rabbit for about 6 years (taking it from 186,000 miles to over 300,000 miles) and one of the issues is that in places like where I live (St. Paul, MN) a sudden early cold snap can leave you with a tank full of jelly. You need to manage the kind of fuel you're running pretty carefully or put anti-gel in your tank regularly to avoid gelling. Of course, if diesel was more popular, the fuel stations would manage much of this for you, but it's a chicken-egg kind of problem.
Hey, buddy, this is Slashdot. Your point will be 100% ignored if even the slightest detail is *possibly* incorrect. Most Slashdotters would rather stare at the mold on the bark on an individual tree than see the forest.
You'd have been corrected if you had stated that the chairs go for $1000 by someone screaming that they only paid $998 for theirs.
"Do u really need 1000+ songs"
Absolutely. I listen to music 8-10 hours a day. I used to use a CD-based MP3 player, so 640MB on a disc. I lost track of the times where I would choose music in the evening before work and find myself not wanting to listen to any of it once I got there. When I carry all 25GB with me, whatever I want to listen to is available.
The thing is that I heard lots of people say that about CD collections before mp3 became popular. They'd say, "Who needs more than 10-15 CD's?". And, indeed, their collection was that small. I can't fathom listening to the same 10-15 CD's over and over and over and over. Do I have my favorites? Absolutely. But, even my list of favorite CD's (the ones I can listen to any time) numbers about 50-60.
I agree on the Pricewatch problems. The spam listings are a huge problem. Just try finding an external hard drive. For every size, there's pages of $35 entries, all of which are empty external enclosures that are "compatible" with the hard drive size you selected. Since the entire purpose of using a site like that is to sort by lowest price, the listings are effectively worthless as you have to page through until you get to the first "real" entry.
There's also the fact that in a value meal of a Big Mac, large fries and a large Coke that the Coke has about the same number of calories as the fries or the burger. You can literally turn a 1500 calorie meal into a 1000 calorie meal by getting rid of the Coke and another couple of hundred if you get only a small order of fries. As much of the problem is that these places push the super size fries and drinks along with the crappy burgers.
The problem is those who complain that they never got their receipt for their download purchase or any response to their web-submitted trouble ticket. They may have been either directly or indirectly responsible for creating the filter, but sure aren't willing to take responsibility for that fact.
I have scripts that send out messages in both of those situations as well as to deliver 30 day trial URL's. In every single one of those cases, the user directly requested it and in one of those cases, the user is legally *entitled* to the message containing their registration code.
However, I find an increasing number of these messages never get through. Instead of smooth operations that provide the requested information immediately, I hear from someone 2 weeks after I responded to their trouble ticket and they're irate because I "never responded".
I want to be able to ensure things get delivered, not because I want to flagrantly disregard all respect for email privacy, but because people are expecting the messages they request to actually arrive.
I've got a little GPL PHP script (in my sig) that automatically renders static copies in case of Slashdotting (can be customized to do the caching on any condition you want). I benchmark using Postnuke and, on my test machine, Postnuke's front page goes from 1.95 requests per second when dynamic, to 36.99 requests per second when the caching is turned on.
"I Love My Computer"
I love my computer
you make me feel alright
every waking hour
and every lonely night
I love my computer
for all you give to me
predictable errors and no identity
and it's never been quite so easy
I've never been quite so happy
all I need to do is click on you
and we'll be joined
in the most soul-less way
and we'll never
ever ruin each other's day
cuz when I'm through I just click
and you just go away
I love my computer
you're always in the mood
I get turned on
when I turn on you
I love my computer
you never ask for more
you can be a princess
or you can be my whore
and it's never been quite so easy
I've never been quite so happy
the world outside is so big
but it's safe in my domain
because to you
I'm just a number
and a clever screen name
all I need to do is click on you
and we'll be together for eternity
and no one is ever gonna take my love
from me because I've got security,
her password and a key
Exactly why I just bought a 40GB Neuros. I have about 21GB of stuff from my CD's, but I buy 7-8 used CD's a month, so eventually, I'll fill it up. If I had only bought the 20 or 30 GB, I wouldn't be free to do that.
The thing is that that clause isn't in the distribution license, it's in the license to be allowed to download. I can create a "download" license for a GPL product that requires you to pay $1,000,000 in order to download it. Once you have it, you can distribute it according to the terms of the GPL. The reason you don't see that arrangement is that any one of your customers is allowed to give it away and $1,000,000 doesn't compete with free very easily.
In this case, rather than paying, you have to assume liability. If you decide to distribute it, that clause doesn't apply. Rather, you are free to create your own requirements before allowing download. As long as you don't add any restrictions on what they do with the software or how they distribute it *after* they have downloaded it, you haven't altered the terms of the GPL at all. Basically, by adding this clause, they are saying that if you got it from somewhere else (from a secondary distribution mirror) they weren't responsible, but if you want it from them, you have to agree to assume the risk and liability.
Where you do see a lot of people "adding" terms to the GPL is amateur software authors who try to explain the GPL on their pages and say things like the GPL version is for "non-commercial use only", etc.
PlusDeck
Unfortunately, the corollary to "will never need to scale" is "this is going to be so big that it needs enterprise level design, but ends up with 10 users" and that frequently leads to systems that never get out of the gate or have ongoing costs that dwarf any revenue the project may bring in. Given how many projects are never completed at all, a *small* amount of "just get it working" can ensure a project's completion.
I've seen a lot of web sites running on $10,000 load balanced clusters of computers and $1,000/month in available bandwidth and they never get more than 500 visitors per day.
There's a balance somewhere, but I'm not the guy to draw the line. I just know it when I see it.
I not only visited their site, but have 3 machines running copies of XP purchased from that exact page.
I know my insurance is done by month and prorated if I switch vehicles. Also, in Minnesota, the registration is pretty cheap and follows the car, meaning you don't have to buy new license plate tabs until they actually expire.
As far as reliability is concerned, you can actually mitigate this while still following the cheapskate way. You just have your next car sitting in the driveway under a tarp for when the current one breaks down.
If I wasn't married, I'd still be living this way.
Nothing like a straw man argument to make a day on Slashdot complete. The post to which I responded implied that this compiler wasn't really free. Rather, it merely lowered the price for Windows C++ development from ~$1200 to $207. I responded to that implication and you seem to have decided to hijack the point and make it into something about the monopoly (including zealous shouting).
My overall point is that, for the target audience (those who wish to compile source code on a Windows machine), it *is* free and those other costs are "givens".
For instance, if I ask an apartment dweller to go and get me 20 sheets of plywood, according to the grandparent post, the fact that that apartment dweller would need to buy a truck would make the plywood cost the extra couple of hundred it might cost to rent a pickup to transport it. However, for anyone doing construction, a pickup's a given.
However, even if you *did* have to buy Windows, the price given by the grandparent post is more like list price and not reality. Incidentally, the *upgrade* for XP Home lists for $99, not the full version. And, places like BananaPC include the hardware necessary for OEM compliance in the price, not as an add-on.
When you consider that a DSL or cable line easily runs $40-50 a month, $85 really isn't that much if you really need to build Windows software directly on the Windows platform. And, if it is, just don't use it. Do your compiling with GCC on Linux.
Your complaint sounds like someone griping that some piece of free software (could even be Linux-based) isn't really free because it requires a 600Mhz processor and 128MB of RAM and your old 133/16MB will require a CPU and RAM upgrade to run it.