People sign things like NDAs, record deals, and professional sports contracts, and then expect us to be sympathetic when they decide not to honor their agreements?
Want your music to be free (speech)? Great! Then don't sign a contract with a major label! It's that simple!
"What about _anything_ else that is compelled through coersion or threat?"
I wasn't talking about "anything else", just charity.
"Can you honestly say "forcing someone to give 3$ to the United Way" is anything like being kidnapped, chained up aboard a ship, taken to a new land..."
Certainly, the scope is different, but the underlying absense of free will is the same.
And I repeat that the GGP has no place to judge the merits of someone else's charitable work. He is, of course, free to donate to a cause he deems worthy.
I would argue that people DO want e-books (books take up space, kill trees, etc.). People DON'T want absurd restrictions placed on their usage.
However I can see the other side of this as well. Publishers want to sell e-books (no shipping charges, cheaper to mass-produce, etc.). Publishers DON'T want unrestricted e-books to be copied and proliferate around P2P networks.
A balance needs to be struck here between the financial needs of the publisher and the financial needs of their customers.
That's assuming that the same books are being used from semester to semester. Often professors publish new editions of their books every year (or sometimes every semester) and require the latest for the class.
Shady as hell, but I don't know a way around that.
Considering that you usually can't recover 33% of the purchase price when you sell a book back to the store, this is actually a pretty good deal. I had plenty of $100+ books that I only got $20 for on re-sale.
True, but you are hardly alone in your disdain for non-Linux users. It's part of a pervasive holier-than-thou sense of superiority that the overall Linux user-base has assumed, and people resent that.
I personally have stayed away form Linux as long as I have because I don't feel like defending my qualifications as a computer user whenever I have a question. I can't imagine I'm alone in that sentiment.
What exactly did you expect? Taxpayers to pay for your entire home-improvement project? Buy you a new car?
The energy/fuel efficiency alone should be enough to get people to upgrade. Isn't that the right thing to do anyway? The tax break just sweetens the deal.
But then I suspect that if a Democratic president signed this into law, you'd be applauding his/her committment to energy conservation.
Slashdot Mirror
...Microsoft patched the holes BEFORE the exploits started circulating?
If that's the case, what's the problem?
What is it these days??
People sign things like NDAs, record deals, and professional sports contracts, and then expect us to be sympathetic when they decide not to honor their agreements?
Want your music to be free (speech)? Great! Then don't sign a contract with a major label! It's that simple!
Given the equally childish actions of Google, I'd say this was a perfectly appropriate response.
That is some solid gold right there! I imagine the Comic Book Guys/Google Fanboys among us are dealing with quite the dilemma right now!
This was a settlement, not a judgement. Hence no punative damages.
And I call it "taxation". :)
I wasn't talking about "anything else", just charity.
"Can you honestly say "forcing someone to give 3$ to the United Way" is anything like being kidnapped, chained up aboard a ship, taken to a new land..."
Certainly, the scope is different, but the underlying absense of free will is the same.
But of course Slashdotters would likely piss and moan about how greedy M$ was to pocket that $7 million.
Either way, no matter what they did with the money, Slashdot would find some way to disparage them for it.
And I repeat that the GGP has no place to judge the merits of someone else's charitable work. He is, of course, free to donate to a cause he deems worthy.
It's called charity for a reason; they're giving of their own free will. Who are you, or anyone, to tell somebody else how generous they should be?
Charity, when compelled through coersion or threat, is just a nice word for slavery.
All I'm saying is that businesses have gotten along just fine in the past without heavy convoluted packages like ERP and CRM.
I'd be more interested in seeing a list of office suites, book-keeping, and tax software; the kinds of things that even small businesses need.
The list of packages seems to be the sort of stuff that PHBs piss company money away on after they already have the bare essentials.
How about a list of the bare essentials instead?
I would argue that people DO want e-books (books take up space, kill trees, etc.). People DON'T want absurd restrictions placed on their usage.
However I can see the other side of this as well. Publishers want to sell e-books (no shipping charges, cheaper to mass-produce, etc.). Publishers DON'T want unrestricted e-books to be copied and proliferate around P2P networks.
A balance needs to be struck here between the financial needs of the publisher and the financial needs of their customers.
That's assuming that the same books are being used from semester to semester. Often professors publish new editions of their books every year (or sometimes every semester) and require the latest for the class.
Shady as hell, but I don't know a way around that.
Considering that you usually can't recover 33% of the purchase price when you sell a book back to the store, this is actually a pretty good deal. I had plenty of $100+ books that I only got $20 for on re-sale.
...before anyone else can claim prior art!
When I have kids, I'm sure I'll introduce them to computers as soon as possible so they can start familiarizing themselves with them.
However they will be on the family computer; they will not have one of their own until they have worked and can afford one of their own.
That way they can learn how to use a computer AND learn the value of hard work at the same time.
In my case, it is a laptop. Still haven't gotten the USB sound to work (though the crap on-board sound works like a champ).
That's not the theme, that's marketing. They're trying to sell the book to that demographic.
I would imagine the book doesn't speak that language, nor encourage readers to do so.
True, but you are hardly alone in your disdain for non-Linux users. It's part of a pervasive holier-than-thou sense of superiority that the overall Linux user-base has assumed, and people resent that.
I personally have stayed away form Linux as long as I have because I don't feel like defending my qualifications as a computer user whenever I have a question. I can't imagine I'm alone in that sentiment.
What exactly did you expect? Taxpayers to pay for your entire home-improvement project? Buy you a new car?
The energy/fuel efficiency alone should be enough to get people to upgrade. Isn't that the right thing to do anyway? The tax break just sweetens the deal.
But then I suspect that if a Democratic president signed this into law, you'd be applauding his/her committment to energy conservation.
Ask and you shall receive.
The energy bill includes tax incentives for buying energy-efficient devices and appliances, as well as for fuel-efficient vehicles.
Oh that devious, evil George Dubbya Bu$hitler! What will he think of next?
Perhaps next time you should try "What can we do to make a more compelling case for Linux?"
Lashing out at potential customers when they don't choose in your favor is a good way to guarantee they'll never consider you again.
Doing somersaults to get a common USB sound card working is a blast too.
Oh wait, you're talking about Windows.