It doesn't matter if your machine comes with vista or xp because you're probably going to pony-up the dough for MS Office, and there's the profit. As long as Microsoft keeps you on a Windows platform, be it vista or xp, they've got that Office gravy coming in.
No, he wasn't happy because 1) my friend was the one who grew the company's revenue from nothing to millions and 2) time showed that my friend got the best payout of anyone involved. This also goes to few those posters calling BS on me (people who've obviously never dealt with lawsuits and the like before). You see, you don't just go to a lawyer and win your lawsuit next week. As some of the posters point out, a lawsuit like this could take 3 or more years. A lot happens in 3 years, esp. to a small company. First, the company didn't get bought, so the $20 million from a potential sale never materialized. Then the economy turned down and that company today is down to a skeleton crew and probably going to shut down soon, which means it, and the shares that the founders own, is pretty much worth nothing. So if my friend had sued, she would have ended up with nothing but legal bills even if she won the lawsuit. There's another thing that nobody mentioned, and that's the bad blood, name calling, lies, etc. a lawsuit creates, and if you have a serious career you are careful about such things.
A close friend of mine was allocated 10% of her employer if she would stay there two years. After 5 years the company had grown substantially and was offered $20 million to be acquired. My friend made a comment to the founder of the company along the lines of her $2 million (10% of $20 mil) payout and the founder said there was no way she was getting that much money. Days later he offered her a check for $100,000 if she would resign and not claim her 10% ownership. At that point she went to attorneys who said it would have been better if they could have been involved from the beginning because they could have prevented a later fight. While the lawyers agreed she had a valid claim, she would be looking at $50,000 in legal fees and a nasty fight. End the end she took the $100,000 and resigned, and nobody was very happy. See some attorneys up front, even if just for a brief consultation to see what could options are available.
Can we post comments, click on a little thumbs up/down button, have logins where we set up a profile and can choose what picture displays next to our comments (anime schoolgirl, picture of our cat, Karl Marx, Milton Friedman, etc.), connect to our friends (OMG can you believe they won't be funding our ipod museum WTF!!!), blog about what we think about how our money was spent on researching the impact improving a bridge will have on the local sewer rat population...
Everybody is all excited about Windows7 and how it's going to be so much better than Vista. So maybe they could try slapping a Windows7 capable sticker on the Zune, or rename it Zune7.
Right now when I get a support call in the middle of the night, I can bounce out of bed and remote desktop into my office pc to handle the issue immediately. How am I supposed to RDC into a down machine? So instead I will have to get dressed, take a cab to the office, get past security in the middle of the night, and finally boot up the machine. That takes an hour of time, plus the cab ride isn't exactly carbon friendly (I'd need a taxi ride because adequate public transportation isn't available in the middle of the night). Having this situation arise just 2-3 times a year would wipe out any savings from leaving the machine off, and that's not counting the cost of my time and the fact that clients will be upset that an issue that should have taken less than 5 minutes to resolve took over an hour.
I kept looking for the libertarian solution, which is to scrap public schools and privatize education so that parents can regain control of the children that they brought into the world. Why institutionalize children and train them to become lifetime wards of the state? A real fix for many of this country's problems begins with eliminating the public "education" system.
RMS might not be the choice, but it should be someone with vision. Tech should not be about record companies suing customers to maintain an outdated business model, stupid software and business process patents, paranoid monitoring of citizens, outsourcing jobs to cheaper countries, etc. CIOs seem to promote such things.
We need to get back to kids being excited about tech, folks in a garage or dorm room creating a product, the Internet being a fun place, etc. Bill Joy seems to be more in line with this. Some CIO or whatever from a company that just kluges together overpriced systems doesn't seem very enlightened to me.
In Illinois non-competes are pretty much unenforceable. Does this mean the tech & startup environment in Chicago is good? Nope, the tech environment is a joke here and the startup community is at best composed of blow-hards, failure, and new talent that soon finds out that they need to move elsewhere to accomplish anything useful.
I grew up on a farm in Indiana and lived in the rural Midwest until about 10 years ago. Like many of my neighbors, I had a gun rack with, usually, one or more firearms in the back window of my pickup. I wouldn't know what percentage of pickup truck drivers did this in the rural places I've lived because it was so normal that you didn't notice it. It would be like noticing that a pickup has a trailer hitch or a bed liner.
Google "trading microseconds" to get a taste of your answer. I've worked in the hedge fund industry and microseconds can make or break a trading strategy.
Slashdot Mirror
It doesn't matter if your machine comes with vista or xp because you're probably going to pony-up the dough for MS Office, and there's the profit. As long as Microsoft keeps you on a Windows platform, be it vista or xp, they've got that Office gravy coming in.
Any reason why we (consumers) should be against this?
Ever heard of doing apt-get after a minimal install? This isn't windoze where you have to take everything or nothing.
Clearly the people doing crypto, and designing nuclear planets, etc would benefit from having a faster computer.
I think designing a nuclear planet would take more than a fast computer.
Thanks to the brilliant, economy-enhancing concept of shipping U.S. jobs to other countries, RTFM could also mean "Release To Foreign Manufacturing"
RTM means "Release To Manufacturing" not "Read The Manual"
No, he wasn't happy because 1) my friend was the one who grew the company's revenue from nothing to millions and 2) time showed that my friend got the best payout of anyone involved. This also goes to few those posters calling BS on me (people who've obviously never dealt with lawsuits and the like before). You see, you don't just go to a lawyer and win your lawsuit next week. As some of the posters point out, a lawsuit like this could take 3 or more years. A lot happens in 3 years, esp. to a small company. First, the company didn't get bought, so the $20 million from a potential sale never materialized. Then the economy turned down and that company today is down to a skeleton crew and probably going to shut down soon, which means it, and the shares that the founders own, is pretty much worth nothing. So if my friend had sued, she would have ended up with nothing but legal bills even if she won the lawsuit. There's another thing that nobody mentioned, and that's the bad blood, name calling, lies, etc. a lawsuit creates, and if you have a serious career you are careful about such things.
A close friend of mine was allocated 10% of her employer if she would stay there two years. After 5 years the company had grown substantially and was offered $20 million to be acquired. My friend made a comment to the founder of the company along the lines of her $2 million (10% of $20 mil) payout and the founder said there was no way she was getting that much money. Days later he offered her a check for $100,000 if she would resign and not claim her 10% ownership. At that point she went to attorneys who said it would have been better if they could have been involved from the beginning because they could have prevented a later fight. While the lawyers agreed she had a valid claim, she would be looking at $50,000 in legal fees and a nasty fight. End the end she took the $100,000 and resigned, and nobody was very happy. See some attorneys up front, even if just for a brief consultation to see what could options are available.
Can we post comments, click on a little thumbs up/down button, have logins where we set up a profile and can choose what picture displays next to our comments (anime schoolgirl, picture of our cat, Karl Marx, Milton Friedman, etc.), connect to our friends (OMG can you believe they won't be funding our ipod museum WTF!!!), blog about what we think about how our money was spent on researching the impact improving a bridge will have on the local sewer rat population...
Good save, RMS was about to post a comment correcting your error.
Everybody is all excited about Windows7 and how it's going to be so much better than Vista. So maybe they could try slapping a Windows7 capable sticker on the Zune, or rename it Zune7.
Right now when I get a support call in the middle of the night, I can bounce out of bed and remote desktop into my office pc to handle the issue immediately. How am I supposed to RDC into a down machine? So instead I will have to get dressed, take a cab to the office, get past security in the middle of the night, and finally boot up the machine. That takes an hour of time, plus the cab ride isn't exactly carbon friendly (I'd need a taxi ride because adequate public transportation isn't available in the middle of the night). Having this situation arise just 2-3 times a year would wipe out any savings from leaving the machine off, and that's not counting the cost of my time and the fact that clients will be upset that an issue that should have taken less than 5 minutes to resolve took over an hour.
He doesn't have the laptop so he can't submit the story. Dell knows this so they aren't worried.
I kept looking for the libertarian solution, which is to scrap public schools and privatize education so that parents can regain control of the children that they brought into the world. Why institutionalize children and train them to become lifetime wards of the state? A real fix for many of this country's problems begins with eliminating the public "education" system.
Will it have a "valmorphanize" button?
RMS might not be the choice, but it should be someone with vision. Tech should not be about record companies suing customers to maintain an outdated business model, stupid software and business process patents, paranoid monitoring of citizens, outsourcing jobs to cheaper countries, etc. CIOs seem to promote such things.
We need to get back to kids being excited about tech, folks in a garage or dorm room creating a product, the Internet being a fun place, etc. Bill Joy seems to be more in line with this. Some CIO or whatever from a company that just kluges together overpriced systems doesn't seem very enlightened to me.
Blue Cloud Of Death is what came to my mind.
Growing a beard seems to be important to becoming a famous programmer.
... for what that's worth
... but I do wonder if you've ever heard of Sarbanes-Oxley.
I don't want to upgrade to Web 3.0 yet.
In Illinois non-competes are pretty much unenforceable. Does this mean the tech & startup environment in Chicago is good? Nope, the tech environment is a joke here and the startup community is at best composed of blow-hards, failure, and new talent that soon finds out that they need to move elsewhere to accomplish anything useful.
In 38 years his "hacking skills" will be so outdated they are useless.
I grew up on a farm in Indiana and lived in the rural Midwest until about 10 years ago. Like many of my neighbors, I had a gun rack with, usually, one or more firearms in the back window of my pickup. I wouldn't know what percentage of pickup truck drivers did this in the rural places I've lived because it was so normal that you didn't notice it. It would be like noticing that a pickup has a trailer hitch or a bed liner.
Google "trading microseconds" to get a taste of your answer. I've worked in the hedge fund industry and microseconds can make or break a trading strategy.