Easy - let me walk you through the issues mentioned first:
Anyone who works has an interest in unions.
Outside of governmental employees, union participation has dropped over the years, is most likely single-digit, and is getting smaller (as a percentage) every year in the private sector. QED: niche issue.
All women and most Christians have an interest in abortion.
Unless the US Supreme Court overturns itself, or a new constitutional amendment is made (good luck with either), this issue is immutable insofar as the federal government is concerned. Why would someone try to promote 'defending' an activity that effectively cannot be banned thanks to Roe v. Wade? This in and of itself makes it a niche issue at best, since nothing can be done about it in any legal sense, and most people know that.
5% of the population is gay and again a large number of Christians seem to care about it.
Five percent is niche (assuming the percentage is true - I honestly do not know). What "a large number of Christians" think or do not think is irrelevant, since Obama wasn't trying to attract them - and "a large number" is a bit too vague to refute the fact that yes, this is a niche issue (and one that is being handled on a state-by-state basis, I might add).
--
Overall, it just seemed like so much hand-waving, expressly designed to distract from the much more immediate and larger problems of economy and geopolitics. Given that these larger problems will make themselves more manifest until they simply cannot be ignored any longer, and coupled with pleasing all the niche issue voters, I sincerely doubt that Obama is going to bother wasting time (let alone political capital) on patent reform.
Fact the first: Adverts within an application consume display space, and in smaller screens, this becomes more apparent.
Fact the second: Adverts require that you be a bit more careful with your mouse/finger/stylus/whatever, lest you accidentally click on the advert and interrupt what you're doing (especially if you're playing a game or other activity that has a high chance of random clickage).
Fact the third: Ads in paid-for/included applications, delivered by the OS maker, cannot be rationalized, especially since the competition does no such thing. When an OEM does it, it is often labeled "crapware".
Fact the fourth:: Even if you do not use it (them), you are stuck with the application(s) residing on your hard drive, taking up space, and potentially running in the background, which would consume both CPU and networking bandwidth. For mobile devices with 3G/4G data caps and using Windows 8 (be it RT or x86), this becomes a potential extra cost... you are literally paying to see the adverts in programs you did not install or choose yourself.
Fact the fifth: You as a consumer were not made aware of this intrusion until after you purchased the item, and since it is software, good luck getting a refund on it from either OEM or OS maker.
Conclusion: This ad-laden software is a massive flaw, not a feature.
Do some real business reforms and make everyone happy.
Fat chance of that happening.
At risk of sounding trollish, and no matter what your personal ideology on the matters, Obama got re-elected by pushing for as many niche issues as he possibly could - gay marriage, abortion, unions, you-name-it.
He's got enough to do towards keeping those constituencies happy (even though he's lame-duck, his party isn't), and isn't going to have much time towards doing anything beyond that and the day-to-day stuff.
Because a growing portion of your goods' retail prices are going to pay for this madness. ....or did you think that the corporations would simply eat the cost w/o passing it on?
It would be kinda boring to tell the tale, but okay: I sat in the living room, filled it out while Adult Swim played on TV, then I stuffed it in an envelope. Dropped it off at the post office on my way to work 2 weeks ago.
'course, this whole vote-by-mail thing does destroy a good excuse to take half the day off from work.:(
Exactly. Why all this re-inventing of the wheel (even literally?)
If they were working on machinery that could be more easily built with low technology (that is, w/o requiring CNC machining and integrated circuits), then it would be a sort-of good idea, though I'm not 100% sure that they can accurately predict what technologies and resources will still be around (and what won't) post-apocalypse.
But, if all they're trying to do is to make something free from patent/copyright encumbrance and BS like that? Umm, yeah - not seeing too many patent trolls roaming the Earth after civilization collapses (and any that try would likely be turned into fertilizer).
Seriously... the Internet has an ocean of nude pictures, and in far higher resolutions than any camera phone could hope to take. You can even get movies in full 1080p of women doing damned near anything and everything you can conceivably think of - be it sexual or not. Nearly any 14-year boy on the planet with Internet access know this!
In conclusion, we know that these two "techs" at the Verizon store aren't exactly carrying a surplus of clue here... ]...so what does that say about Verizon's hiring standards for technically-minded people? Seriously?
Funny you should mention FUD... Want an example of that? Okay, here you go (and mind that it's PDF). That was the the result of 5 seconds poking around on Google. Analyze it to your heart's content, but know that you're missing the point of the exercise - read on and you'll see why...
Like I said in the previous post: "Even if he were perfectly non-liable in civil court and perfectly innocent of any criminal charges, the time, effort, money, and potential loss of freedom (e.g. while awaiting trial) would be more than enough to make his life a living hell."
Seriously - in your rush to 'win' a 'debate', you missed the point entirely: It doesn't matter if it applies to him or not. Doesn't matter one whit if he's perfectly legit or if he's flirting with a long stint in PMITA prison. Let me repeat that: It. Does. Not. Matter. Fact is, he's still flirting with a long expensive legal process that, even if innocent/non-liable, will cost him a shitload of money, time, and possibly freedom.
All it takes is someone with an axe to grind with the guy, and who can find a lawyer dumb enough to do it on contingency. The rest equals upwards of a year+ of one very expensive living hell for the gent in TFA.
Actually, there are some laws he could wind up on the wrong end of, even if not perfectly so. Example? No problem: Unless he gets one of these signed for every person he videotapes (and one of these for every recognizeable property, not to mention trademarks) or painstakingly blurs every recognizeable face *and* recognizeable property? He could wind up in civil court from a wide variety of people and entities.
(Mind you, I'm not saying he would, but that he could.)
Even if he were perfectly non-liable in civil court and perfectly innocent of any criminal charges, the time, effort, money, and potential loss of freedom (e.g. while awaiting trial) would be more than enough to make his life a living hell.
Overall? Kudos to him for making a solid and valid point. I agree with the underlying concept - surveillance all over is IMHO a bad idea. OTOH, there has got to be a better way to go about proving the point...
I got that a few times on my company cell. Usually about once every couple of months.
If I had the time and inclination, I'd patch through the line, then claim that I'd have to send them a check to pay for it. They give me the address, then I'd try to do unto them what Slashdot once did to that fuckhead Ralsky. The USPS could use the boost anyway.
(Speaking of which, I wonder if Ralsky still gets mail... *snicker*)
I just hope they take the company owners, strap them to chairs, and force them to watch nothings adverts/infomercials, and while they sleep force them to hear robocall recordings. Do it 24/7/365, a' la A Clockwork Orange.
What they do with "Rachael" is not my concern. >:(
I've seen exactly two in-the-wild. One was carried by a Microsoft sales rep last year when the EA was renewed, and the other by a Microsoft consultant who stopped by to perform the free SQL Server performance assessment that we got for renewing that EA.
I'm afraid that it still depends on what market we're talking about.
In mobile and tablets, you're absolutely correct. MSFT is a bit player at best here, and you'd get more marketshare by supporting RIM.
In server-side software, maybe, depending on what your product does.
On workstations, you're still stuck with supporting them if you want more than 10-15% of the total market. I don't think that's going to change much for awhile still, at least not unless/until Windows 8 completely pisses off enough people to knock Microsoft's marketshare on desk/laptops down enough (and even then most will just go back to Windows 7, just like Vista users knocking back to XP).
I happen to live a it further down from the epicenter, on the Oregon Coast. The beach is 7 blocks from my front porch.
No sirens, no reverse-911 calls, nada. I live right on an official evacuation route (my street), and no traffic at all on it.
The only reason I even knew about it last night is from my mother-in-law, who recently moved the to the north WA coast, and is a bit of a drama queen at times... she calls up at 11:30pm local time to breathlessly warn us. Seems the local media up in SeaTac is kinda stupid. Checked the NOAA tsunami site, and they only had a warning out for Hawaii.
Hell, given the typical late-autumn storms around here, we likely had a bit of tsunami action, but it would've been lost in and among the usual surf.
So, the H1-B worker, by your calculation, lives of donuts he steals in the break room and sleeps on a park bench?
*fweeeet!*
Reductio ad absurdum, five-yard penalty!
What he is saying is actually rather common, though definitely not to the 'sleeps on a park bench' level.
It is very common for immigrants (legal or illegal) to spend only on what is necessary, and send every spare penny back home to family. After a few years, a sum is saved up which would be considered moderate here (say, saving off $50-$75k in aggregate from a middle-class job). After a few years, the immigrant returns to his/her country of origin, and either lives off the saved money for life, or uses it to start a business. The cost-of-living differential is high enough to return home a fairly prosperous person, and none of that money does anything in the local economy.
Renting a house? No problem - In an H1-B holder's shoes, I can rent a cheap 2-bd apartment with four of my friends, bunk two to a room, and pay a mere $200/month for that. Buy a car? No problem - a cheap-but running POS off of Craigslist cost what, $1000 at the most? Groceries? A minimal expense if you know where to shop, and don't get too picky on what you're eating. Given those low expenses, in three years as a DBA @ a (way low for the job!) wage of $80k here in the Pacific Northwest, I could eke out a semi-comfy cheap-assed living, and send home at least $100k to use for when I get back to my family. After all, it's no problem to live like a pauper in some strange land, especially when I know that in just a couple of years I will live like a deity in my own home neighborhood.
Were you an out of state student? No? Then you were subsidized.
Only at state universities. Private and non-state colleges don't get such things.
Did you also go to a private school for your primary and secondary schooling?
In my case, the answer is "yes" - Catholic School. However, the claim of subsidy or largesse at this level also falls flat when you realize that the source of that "subsidy" comes from taxation, which the child's parents paid. In other words, TANSTAAFL.
Slashdot Mirror
Enjoy that 0.3 cent check...
...unless it's on 3G/4G, then the amounts get slightly larger (especially for overages).
I suspect that the "Professional" versions would leave this bit out of it, lest Windows 7 become the last version that enterprises would use.
After all, who wants to see an ad for their competitor pop up on their workstations?
How are any of those niche issues?
Easy - let me walk you through the issues mentioned first:
Anyone who works has an interest in unions.
Outside of governmental employees, union participation has dropped over the years, is most likely single-digit, and is getting smaller (as a percentage) every year in the private sector. QED: niche issue.
All women and most Christians have an interest in abortion.
Unless the US Supreme Court overturns itself, or a new constitutional amendment is made (good luck with either), this issue is immutable insofar as the federal government is concerned. Why would someone try to promote 'defending' an activity that effectively cannot be banned thanks to Roe v. Wade? This in and of itself makes it a niche issue at best, since nothing can be done about it in any legal sense, and most people know that.
5% of the population is gay and again a large number of Christians seem to care about it.
Five percent is niche (assuming the percentage is true - I honestly do not know). What "a large number of Christians" think or do not think is irrelevant, since Obama wasn't trying to attract them - and "a large number" is a bit too vague to refute the fact that yes, this is a niche issue (and one that is being handled on a state-by-state basis, I might add).
--
Overall, it just seemed like so much hand-waving, expressly designed to distract from the much more immediate and larger problems of economy and geopolitics.
Given that these larger problems will make themselves more manifest until they simply cannot be ignored any longer, and coupled with pleasing all the niche issue voters, I sincerely doubt that Obama is going to bother wasting time (let alone political capital) on patent reform.
Fact the first: Adverts within an application consume display space, and in smaller screens, this becomes more apparent.
Fact the second: Adverts require that you be a bit more careful with your mouse/finger/stylus/whatever, lest you accidentally click on the advert and interrupt what you're doing (especially if you're playing a game or other activity that has a high chance of random clickage).
Fact the third: Ads in paid-for/included applications, delivered by the OS maker, cannot be rationalized, especially since the competition does no such thing. When an OEM does it, it is often labeled "crapware".
Fact the fourth:: Even if you do not use it (them), you are stuck with the application(s) residing on your hard drive, taking up space, and potentially running in the background, which would consume both CPU and networking bandwidth. For mobile devices with 3G/4G data caps and using Windows 8 (be it RT or x86), this becomes a potential extra cost... you are literally paying to see the adverts in programs you did not install or choose yourself.
Fact the fifth: You as a consumer were not made aware of this intrusion until after you purchased the item, and since it is software, good luck getting a refund on it from either OEM or OS maker.
Conclusion: This ad-laden software is a massive flaw, not a feature.
Do some real business reforms and make everyone happy.
Fat chance of that happening.
At risk of sounding trollish, and no matter what your personal ideology on the matters, Obama got re-elected by pushing for as many niche issues as he possibly could - gay marriage, abortion, unions, you-name-it.
He's got enough to do towards keeping those constituencies happy (even though he's lame-duck, his party isn't), and isn't going to have much time towards doing anything beyond that and the day-to-day stuff.
Sounds like a trolls war, why should I worry..
Because a growing portion of your goods' retail prices are going to pay for this madness. ...or did you think that the corporations would simply eat the cost w/o passing it on?
.
Yes, it's good to see a patent pest get what's coming to 'em, but consider... the plaintiff was nothing more than a patent troll.
Personally, *ALL* software patents should die.
Good luck getting anyone in power to agree to that, though. :(
Actually, it sort of was.
Oregon does all the voting through the mail.
It would be kinda boring to tell the tale, but okay: I sat in the living room, filled it out while Adult Swim played on TV, then I stuffed it in an envelope. Dropped it off at the post office on my way to work 2 weeks ago.
'course, this whole vote-by-mail thing does destroy a good excuse to take half the day off from work. :(
Unfortunately, we can't all sit in a drum circle, hold hands, and sing "kumbaya."
Unless you're capable of defending yourself, you'll end up slaves to the first civilization to come along with superior firepower. See also Rome.
Exactly. Why all this re-inventing of the wheel (even literally?)
If they were working on machinery that could be more easily built with low technology (that is, w/o requiring CNC machining and integrated circuits), then it would be a sort-of good idea, though I'm not 100% sure that they can accurately predict what technologies and resources will still be around (and what won't) post-apocalypse.
But, if all they're trying to do is to make something free from patent/copyright encumbrance and BS like that? Umm, yeah - not seeing too many patent trolls roaming the Earth after civilization collapses (and any that try would likely be turned into fertilizer).
Seriously... the Internet has an ocean of nude pictures, and in far higher resolutions than any camera phone could hope to take. You can even get movies in full 1080p of women doing damned near anything and everything you can conceivably think of - be it sexual or not. Nearly any 14-year boy on the planet with Internet access know this!
In conclusion, we know that these two "techs" at the Verizon store aren't exactly carrying a surplus of clue here... ] ...so what does that say about Verizon's hiring standards for technically-minded people? Seriously?
Funny you should mention FUD... Want an example of that? Okay, here you go (and mind that it's PDF). That was the the result of 5 seconds poking around on Google. Analyze it to your heart's content, but know that you're missing the point of the exercise - read on and you'll see why...
Like I said in the previous post:
"Even if he were perfectly non-liable in civil court and perfectly innocent of any criminal charges, the time, effort, money, and potential loss of freedom (e.g. while awaiting trial) would be more than enough to make his life a living hell."
Seriously - in your rush to 'win' a 'debate', you missed the point entirely: It doesn't matter if it applies to him or not. Doesn't matter one whit if he's perfectly legit or if he's flirting with a long stint in PMITA prison. Let me repeat that: It. Does. Not. Matter. Fact is, he's still flirting with a long expensive legal process that, even if innocent/non-liable, will cost him a shitload of money, time, and possibly freedom.
All it takes is someone with an axe to grind with the guy, and who can find a lawyer dumb enough to do it on contingency. The rest equals upwards of a year+ of one very expensive living hell for the gent in TFA.
Do you understand what I was getting at now?
Actually, there are some laws he could wind up on the wrong end of, even if not perfectly so. Example? No problem: Unless he gets one of these signed for every person he videotapes (and one of these for every recognizeable property, not to mention trademarks) or painstakingly blurs every recognizeable face *and* recognizeable property? He could wind up in civil court from a wide variety of people and entities.
(Mind you, I'm not saying he would, but that he could.)
Even if he were perfectly non-liable in civil court and perfectly innocent of any criminal charges, the time, effort, money, and potential loss of freedom (e.g. while awaiting trial) would be more than enough to make his life a living hell.
Overall? Kudos to him for making a solid and valid point. I agree with the underlying concept - surveillance all over is IMHO a bad idea. OTOH, there has got to be a better way to go about proving the point...
According to Wikipedia, Ralsky got out about 7 weeks ago. I wonder where he's living now? ;)
If he knows what's good for his mailbox, he'll be living a very quiet life and working a quiet but respectable job.
There are far too many sysadmins out here who have very long memories...
I got that a few times on my company cell. Usually about once every couple of months.
If I had the time and inclination, I'd patch through the line, then claim that I'd have to send them a check to pay for it. They give me the address, then I'd try to do unto them what Slashdot once did to that fuckhead Ralsky. The USPS could use the boost anyway.
(Speaking of which, I wonder if Ralsky still gets mail... *snicker*)
I just hope they take the company owners, strap them to chairs, and force them to watch nothings adverts/infomercials, and while they sleep force them to hear robocall recordings. Do it 24/7/365, a' la A Clockwork Orange.
What they do with "Rachael" is not my concern. >:(
I've seen exactly two in-the-wild. One was carried by a Microsoft sales rep last year when the EA was renewed, and the other by a Microsoft consultant who stopped by to perform the free SQL Server performance assessment that we got for renewing that EA.
I'm afraid that it still depends on what market we're talking about.
In mobile and tablets, you're absolutely correct. MSFT is a bit player at best here, and you'd get more marketshare by supporting RIM.
In server-side software, maybe, depending on what your product does.
On workstations, you're still stuck with supporting them if you want more than 10-15% of the total market. I don't think that's going to change much for awhile still, at least not unless/until Windows 8 completely pisses off enough people to knock Microsoft's marketshare on desk/laptops down enough (and even then most will just go back to Windows 7, just like Vista users knocking back to XP).
Think "old meme" here...
Question is - does the losing crab get even later on, starting a crab inter-familial feud that escalates into crab war?
Only then can they fully appreciate the lows of human nature.
You must be new here.
Welcome to Slashdot - home of provocative thought, fun information, and old memes that have the half-life of commercially-made fruitcake.
I happen to live a it further down from the epicenter, on the Oregon Coast. The beach is 7 blocks from my front porch.
No sirens, no reverse-911 calls, nada. I live right on an official evacuation route (my street), and no traffic at all on it.
The only reason I even knew about it last night is from my mother-in-law, who recently moved the to the north WA coast, and is a bit of a drama queen at times... she calls up at 11:30pm local time to breathlessly warn us. Seems the local media up in SeaTac is kinda stupid. Checked the NOAA tsunami site, and they only had a warning out for Hawaii.
Hell, given the typical late-autumn storms around here, we likely had a bit of tsunami action, but it would've been lost in and among the usual surf.
So, the H1-B worker, by your calculation, lives of donuts he steals in the break room and sleeps on a park bench?
*fweeeet!*
Reductio ad absurdum, five-yard penalty!
What he is saying is actually rather common, though definitely not to the 'sleeps on a park bench' level.
It is very common for immigrants (legal or illegal) to spend only on what is necessary, and send every spare penny back home to family. After a few years, a sum is saved up which would be considered moderate here (say, saving off $50-$75k in aggregate from a middle-class job). After a few years, the immigrant returns to his/her country of origin, and either lives off the saved money for life, or uses it to start a business. The cost-of-living differential is high enough to return home a fairly prosperous person, and none of that money does anything in the local economy.
Renting a house? No problem - In an H1-B holder's shoes, I can rent a cheap 2-bd apartment with four of my friends, bunk two to a room, and pay a mere $200/month for that. Buy a car? No problem - a cheap-but running POS off of Craigslist cost what, $1000 at the most? Groceries? A minimal expense if you know where to shop, and don't get too picky on what you're eating. Given those low expenses, in three years as a DBA @ a (way low for the job!) wage of $80k here in the Pacific Northwest, I could eke out a semi-comfy cheap-assed living, and send home at least $100k to use for when I get back to my family. After all, it's no problem to live like a pauper in some strange land, especially when I know that in just a couple of years I will live like a deity in my own home neighborhood.
Were you an out of state student? No? Then you were subsidized.
Only at state universities. Private and non-state colleges don't get such things.
Did you also go to a private school for your primary and secondary schooling?
In my case, the answer is "yes" - Catholic School. However, the claim of subsidy or largesse at this level also falls flat when you realize that the source of that "subsidy" comes from taxation, which the child's parents paid. In other words, TANSTAAFL.