The great strength of both Capitalism and Republican Democracy is their ability to turn our Sin Nature around and use it for the collective good.
(For those unfamiliy with the term "Sin Nature," it is a Christian theological term. It refers to human being's innate tendency to do that which is evil - to tend to lie, cheat, steal, destroy, etc. in pursuit of their own desires at the cost of the desires of their fellows. In this belief system, it is a fundamental building block of human nature. I think most (though not all) modern thinkers agree with some mutation of this idea, though they may decide to call it by a different name.)
Both of these systems, which dominate the world scene now due to their success, work because they channel our natural tendency to do what is good for me into doing what is good for all of us. The capitalist wants money or power or recognition. He/She does this by building a company (which provides jobs which benefits other) which produces a product (which meets a need of others) and brings in money (which pays for the other stuff and is also collected in taxes to support the many). The key is to make sure the structure is put together correctly so that this works. It is the strengths which lead to the unprecedented wealth and prosperity seen in First-World countries. It is the weaknesses which lead to problems like Enron, etc.
This post is a bit long. The basic point is that competition is not bad. It is simply a force which our society has harnessed for good. Don't try to end the competition. Try to put a structure in place which will make the compeition work for society to produce the Good you are looking for.
The money is one issue but... way more important is the fact the medical profession is Conservative to the point of absurdity. There are numerous factors... but the two most important are fear of lawsuits, and the ever popular old-boys syndrome.
We have to also remember that the medical profession is not like programming for most of us, or like banking, or like journalism, or most capitalistic pursuits. When I mess up as a Systems Analyst, I waste someone's money and make some people annoyed. When a doctor messes up, it is often a matter of life and death. This is why they are so conservative - not just because of lawsuits or "old-boys syndrome" or pride. The lawsuits exist and are so out of hand, because a very simple human error (exhausted doctor proscribes the wrong dosage by misplacing a decimal point) results in permanent damage or death.
Re:Review is confusing
on
The Chronoliths
·
· Score: 4, Interesting
Not sure this is a better review, but here is my take on it:
An unknown terrorist leader from the future begins beaming back monuments to himself through time (think of the Washington Monument appearing suddenly in the middle of colonial virginia), which tell of a terrible war where this terrible leader won everything. These monuments appear with more and more frequency as time moves on, and the world begins to panic as they imagine a new Ghengis Khan, Hitler, or Hannibal. Like people claiming to be the Messiah today, people begin taking on the name of the leader and claiming to be HIM in their own areas of the world. Chaos threatens to engulf the world, as our heros try to find a way to prevent an outcome which has apparently already happened.
Basically, I found the book interesting, but not exciting or compelling. The narrative was diverse and the ideas unusual, but in the end many threads were left unexplored and the book sort of peters out rather than ending with a bang. If you like speculative fiction, this will fill a pleasant afternoon but is not a "must-have."
It has been my impression that the reason Toast has remained the only player in the Apple MacOS space has been its excellence. It allows you to do almost anything with its toolset, and is so easy to use that even users whose needs are modest enough that Apple's built-in CD-burning would do 99% of what they want go out and buy it. This new move to enforce DRM, if properly publicized, may finally produce an openning for a competitor to get a foothold. Now, it would not be "MacOS Favorite Toast" versus "Windows Invader Brand-X CD Burner." It would be "DRM-enforcer Toast" versus "Freedom Loving Brand-X CD Burner." Easy advertising copy and a ready pool of idealistic users ready to jump on the bandwagon.
Any volunteers?
One bit of fiction on the subject...
on
Digital Dark Ages?
·
· Score: 4, Interesting
...is Souls in the Great Machine by Sean McMuller which looks at a world where all computerized records are wiped out in a great war. They are awash in information but can not read any of it, and thus are reduced to a 1600s to 1800s-style society. Good reading and a good point worth considering.
Which is more important: the software and how we can continue evolving it by any legal means, or the licensing and philosophy behind it?
Many people are pointing out that OSS's beauty is that ad-supported software can be easily recompiled without the ads. Well, so what? This seems like an advantage of the approach to me. Those who wish to support a project through direct monetary means can still do so and recompile without the ads. Those who wish to support a project through ads (perhaps strapped-for-cash college students) can do so by leaving the module in the code. Those who wish to support the project by contributing code and not cash can strip the ads out. And those who wish to not support the project are not forced to do so.
Who is hurt by this? No one! And still it opens up a new revenue stream for OpenSource OSes and applications.
The article (and the one linked through the other story) is not specific on how strict they are really being. Are they assaulting only unsecured access points or anyone with a wireless network? While a reasonable person would clearly say something like, "Feel free to use WiFi, but do not share your bandwidth unless you have a service plan which prices appropeiately." But we know lawyers of this type are generally not reasonable, but rather knee-jerk absolutists saying things like "WiFi bad. Stop using."
As an Apple Airport user with a secured station who is looking to get into cable internet in the next six months, this is a critical question for me to answer. Guess I need to talk to my local cable company personally.
I hope I am not the only one who read that introduction and had the monosylabbic response, "Huh?" For any others like me in serious need of some explication, first the definition of "fascicle" from dictionary.com:
fascicle Pronunciation Key (fs-kl)
n.
1. A small bundle. 2. One of the parts of a book published in separate sections. Also called fascicule. 3. Botany. A bundle or cluster of stems, flowers, or leaves. 4. See fasciculus.
I believe the definition used here is #2.
Second, a quick definition of what this is all about: it appears to be a collection of great scientific and programming works to be used as a primer for new programmers.
Hopefully, that allays some of the confusion I was having among others out there.
Sorry if you got redirected or the link was temporarily hijacked. It was xTunes for me back then and it is xTunes for me now. Below is a pasted excerpt of the text, in case this problem happens again:
xtunes
xtunes is a comprehensive digital music system. It supports ripping CDs, burning CDs, playing digital music (MP3 and Ogg Vorbis), and organizing digital music in a library with playlists.
Features:
* xtunes maintains a library of all the digital music files it knows about. Music files get into the library by either ripping cds or importing existing files.
* xtunes supports the standard playback methods including loop and random to play any song in the library. The user can create unlimited playlists of any length to specify the playback of their music. xtunes can play any audio cd.
* xtunes can rip any audio cd into any supported digital music format. It uses cddb to look up information about the cd. A playlist is automatically created for the cd and all the songs are organized into the library.
* Creating an audio cd using xtunes is a piece of cake. Simply select a playlist and click the burn button and xtunes handles all the rest: decoding the songs in the playlist to wav files, spawning cdrecord to create the cd.
* xtunes is built with an extensible plugin framework, similar to xmms or the gimp. Plugins are used for decoding, encoding, song information, and output. This allows xtunes to support ripping/playing/burning multiple digital music formats. * xtunes now supports the Apple iPod. Simply drag songs or playlists onto the iPod icon and they are automatically transferred to the iPod. See the xpod page for more information.
Not sure if the site has been slashdotted or is just slow, but I was unable to bring it up. For those interested,
here is the Google Cache of the xtunes page.
Personally, I think this is a vindication of Apple's strategy to keep the iPod Apple-only for a time. It kept demand to a reasonable level, allowed them to focus on Apple-only hardware, sold a lot more Macs, and in the long-term will not keep anyone out of the iPod Revolution.
Well, it would not be totally out of the realm of possibility that MS might form a Linux Business Unit in the same way they already have a Macintosh Business Unit. If they did that to churn out MS Office editions for Linux, it might head off the insurgency of OpenOffice and ThinkFreeOffice and maintain their place as the #1 provider of office software.
Remember, in the end MS is out there to make money. Ruling the world is just a means to that end.
Has any of your work been impacted by post-9/11 issues? I am just a normal person and my first thought on reading this article was, "If he can build a rocket to go 35 miles, he can build a missile for the same purpose." Have you had to deal with well-intentioned, security-minded authorities of late?
3.A bad idea to discontinue the Windows versions as this will surely encourage Billg to retaliate (no OfficeX updates?)
I had a similar thought, but not for the reasons you outline. I am not so worried about ticking off Bill Gates as I am the thousands of Windows users who currently are buyers of this software. While I realize that Apple's intention is likely to use this as a push to move people to their hardware, this is an awfully steep slope to push people down. They are more likely to balk at the move and instead spend their money on a "competitive upgrade" to a competitor's version.
It might have been a better idea to rework the Window's software with a Mac-ish look and feel. Get the users used to the ease of use provided by a Mac within the Windows framework, then phase out the Windows version afterward. This way, the culture shock is less and the user base has had some first-hand experience in what makes an Apple interface great.
Course, then we are pouring tens of thousands of dollars into a version of software which Apple fully intends to end-of-life ASAP. Not an easy decision.
1. The company in question was founded by people whose actions (as shown inexamples provided by Salon) appear immoral.
2. The founders of the company founded a series of companies, each more intrusive and immoral than the last.
3. In the end, they were fired from their own company when it was bought out, presumably for ethics violations but the new parent company would not comment.
4. In addition to being morally challenged, the founders were also violent and muscular. They used these qualities to intimidate/bully employees, customers, and others to the point of punching a hole in the door of a programmer who decided to quit.
I must say this is something I have been wanting. I bought a Palm VIIx about a year ago, when the big promotion came out from Palm. I used the thing fr HOURS the first month, MINUTES the second month, and then barely at all after that. Wound up cancelling service as soon as was possible under the terms of my contract. The thing is, with high-speed internet at work, an Airport network at home, and dial-ups available while on the road, there was not much that I had left to do with a wireless unit which only did low-tech, no-color internet.
But if it had been able to do wireless gaming, I suspect I would still be an owner and an enthusiastic user. Even without the graphics, even without sound effects, the ability to play new games all the time and to play against real people is compelling.
...not terribly compelling read for me. Then again, maybe if I put on some John Williams music from Raiders of the Lost Ark, it set the mood better.;-)
Actually, I recently bought a DVD/VCR combo box by Panasonic (the one with Progressive-Scan in it) from Circuit City and I must say I have really been enjoying the experience. The key is to make sure that there is ENOUGH SEPARATION between the two parts of the unit. The early TV/VCRs (and modern ones, I hear) had the problem that you could not watch one thing and tape another - the complete and total union stole a critical feature from you. The DVD/VCR combo I purchased, on the other hand, is almost totally separate in its functions: I can rewind a tape while watching a DVD, record a program while using the DVD, pause a DVD and switch to VCR to check on stuff, etc. The only integration is in the remote control and the audio/video hardware... and even there it is separate so I can have digital/hi-def outputs for the DVD player and normal RCA for the VCR.
So overall, I have a 2-in-1 box which is only really 1 in the ways that count: ease of use, small footprint, and less-power consumption. If this X-Box/PVR can be similar, it might actually work.
The article indicates that Mitnick is calmly able to lay out what he did, because the statute of limitations has expired on his alleged crimes. Anyone who has spent anytime watching LAW & ORDER (and of its spin-offs) has to wonder if there is an enterprising District Attorney somewhere combing the law for any permutation of the law WITHOUT a statute of limitations to use against him based on this testimony. For example, he can not be tried for the hacking itself, but could he be tried for Conspiracy?
I bought a PC about a year ago after being a Mac-only buyer for about 15 years (before that it was an Amiga, but I blush to mention it). It was not because Apple screwed up, but because my employer used PCs and it was the way to ensure I could work from home and learn some new software for work before work adopted it. I still kept my Macs for home use, and today I find myself using all of the Macs (even the ones a few years old) and the PC is collecting dust in our basement.
My point? An Apple user buying a PC is not necesarily an abrogation of the Mac. It just means that today he needed something that only PCs provide.
These were roughly my thoughts, but better said than the conversation going on in my head.;-) I live near two large cities, New York City and Bridgeport, CT, both of which are struggling to improve their education. Are they struggling to introduce technology to improve the lives of students and introduce them to the 21st century? No! They are struggling to teach the BASICS - math, reading, science, etc.
At this time, we need to be focussing on Equality of Opportunity by making sure every citizen is literate, understands at least enough Math to balance a checkbook and understand how to save money, and understands enough science to know snake oil salesmen when they show up. If a person knows that much, they can take their destiny into their own hands and learn the rest from books, the Net, whatever.
That is not to say we should not strive to make computers available to everyone - internet computers in libraries are a great idea. But first things first.
At least once a week now, I read someone who proclaims that "I no longer even use bookmarks or try typing in URLs. I just always go to Google for my information." Has anyone approached you (or have you considered yourself) producing a Web Browser which has no URL line, but instead has a Google line to automatically send anything typed there to Google as a gateway to the Internet? Seems like it would "sell" to the Google-holics.
I think someone has to ask if these kinds of applications are really useful for cell phones in the first place. Right now, it seems like companies are scrambling to bring together all kinds of disparate technology so that their "ComboTech" can each be the NEXT BIG THING. Putting a camera onto a PDA makes a certain amount of sense - PDAs are meant to hang with you and let you record things on the go. But phones? Picturephones have been around for a while (for an interesting view of them, check out the movie MOTHER by Albert Brooks) and have never caught on.
While some of the lack has to be due to the low picture quality, some of it is simply due to the fact that phones are NOT A VISUAL MEDIUM. A person using a phone is doing so to communicate verbally, not with body langugae. Until a new form factor emerges for visual communication (I like the communicators in EARTH: FINAL CONFLICT) I think this kind of work is a dead end.
My problem is that this PDA ideas seems to assume 100% uptime of your wireless connectivity. In order to save a document or intercept many of the calls Word would demand, you would need to be connected to a wireless server each time. I have an Apple Airport network at home which is about as easy to use as they come. But even that has blackout points in the house, where construction or atmospheric conditions make it impossible to get a solid signal. How much worse would this be for a subway commuter or rural user who could have blackouts for minutes or hours at a time?
Seems like it would be easier AND more reliable just to use a Tablet PC, OQO, or similar device.
At my last job, I was extended and accepted a counter-offer when I was out looking for a job. The key is to be honest with everyone involved, including yourself. Before you step out the door (or onto DICE.COM) consider why you are looking for a new job and what would resolve the problem you are trying to address. Is it just money? Then a counteroffer should be in your considerations. Is it appreciation, management style, duties, etc.? Then maybe not. Then once you have decided the options, be sure to tell your recruiter and/or interviewer that you plan to entertain counteroffers from your current employer. They will let you know how that sits with them - some will decide then and there NOT to extend an offer because they want you definitely; others will be encouraged because it means you will extend THEM the same courtesy when/if you decide to leave their employ. This can work out for both sides.
My first time looking for a new job, a counteroffer was possible. My reasons for leaving were general dissatisfaction and lack of appreciation. I got an offer, came to my boss and laid all the cards on the table. He agreed to match the offer AND to address my other issues. The company improved and I got paid better. Next time around, my reasons for leaving were lost trust in a different manager and a belief that they were phasing out my department. This time, the counteroffer was again extended, but it was never an issue. I refused and am happily at the new job.
Slashdot Mirror
(For those unfamiliy with the term "Sin Nature," it is a Christian theological term. It refers to human being's innate tendency to do that which is evil - to tend to lie, cheat, steal, destroy, etc. in pursuit of their own desires at the cost of the desires of their fellows. In this belief system, it is a fundamental building block of human nature. I think most (though not all) modern thinkers agree with some mutation of this idea, though they may decide to call it by a different name.)
Both of these systems, which dominate the world scene now due to their success, work because they channel our natural tendency to do what is good for me into doing what is good for all of us. The capitalist wants money or power or recognition. He/She does this by building a company (which provides jobs which benefits other) which produces a product (which meets a need of others) and brings in money (which pays for the other stuff and is also collected in taxes to support the many). The key is to make sure the structure is put together correctly so that this works. It is the strengths which lead to the unprecedented wealth and prosperity seen in First-World countries. It is the weaknesses which lead to problems like Enron, etc.
This post is a bit long. The basic point is that competition is not bad. It is simply a force which our society has harnessed for good. Don't try to end the competition. Try to put a structure in place which will make the compeition work for society to produce the Good you are looking for.
An unknown terrorist leader from the future begins beaming back monuments to himself through time (think of the Washington Monument appearing suddenly in the middle of colonial virginia), which tell of a terrible war where this terrible leader won everything. These monuments appear with more and more frequency as time moves on, and the world begins to panic as they imagine a new Ghengis Khan, Hitler, or Hannibal. Like people claiming to be the Messiah today, people begin taking on the name of the leader and claiming to be HIM in their own areas of the world. Chaos threatens to engulf the world, as our heros try to find a way to prevent an outcome which has apparently already happened.
Basically, I found the book interesting, but not exciting or compelling. The narrative was diverse and the ideas unusual, but in the end many threads were left unexplored and the book sort of peters out rather than ending with a bang. If you like speculative fiction, this will fill a pleasant afternoon but is not a "must-have."
At least that is my two cents.
Any volunteers?
...is Souls in the Great Machine by Sean McMuller which looks at a world where all computerized records are wiped out in a great war. They are awash in information but can not read any of it, and thus are reduced to a 1600s to 1800s-style society. Good reading and a good point worth considering.
Many people are pointing out that OSS's beauty is that ad-supported software can be easily recompiled without the ads. Well, so what? This seems like an advantage of the approach to me. Those who wish to support a project through direct monetary means can still do so and recompile without the ads. Those who wish to support a project through ads (perhaps strapped-for-cash college students) can do so by leaving the module in the code. Those who wish to support the project by contributing code and not cash can strip the ads out. And those who wish to not support the project are not forced to do so.
Who is hurt by this? No one! And still it opens up a new revenue stream for OpenSource OSes and applications.
As an Apple Airport user with a secured station who is looking to get into cable internet in the next six months, this is a critical question for me to answer. Guess I need to talk to my local cable company personally.
fascicle Pronunciation Key (fs-kl) n.
1. A small bundle.
2. One of the parts of a book published in separate sections. Also called fascicule.
3. Botany. A bundle or cluster of stems, flowers, or leaves.
4. See fasciculus.
I believe the definition used here is #2.
Second, a quick definition of what this is all about: it appears to be a collection of great scientific and programming works to be used as a primer for new programmers.
Hopefully, that allays some of the confusion I was having among others out there.
Sorry if you got redirected or the link was temporarily hijacked. It was xTunes for me back then and it is xTunes for me now. Below is a pasted excerpt of the text, in case this problem happens again:
xtunes
xtunes is a comprehensive digital music system. It supports ripping CDs, burning CDs, playing digital music (MP3 and Ogg Vorbis), and organizing digital music in a library with playlists.
Features:
* xtunes maintains a library of all the digital music files it knows about. Music files get into the library by either ripping cds or importing existing files.
* xtunes supports the standard playback methods including loop and random to play any song in the library. The user can create unlimited playlists of any length to specify the playback of their music. xtunes can play any audio cd.
* xtunes can rip any audio cd into any supported digital music format. It uses cddb to look up information about the cd. A playlist is automatically created for the cd and all the songs are organized into the library.
* Creating an audio cd using xtunes is a piece of cake. Simply select a playlist and click the burn button and xtunes handles all the rest: decoding the songs in the playlist to wav files, spawning cdrecord to create the cd.
* xtunes is built with an extensible plugin framework, similar to xmms or the gimp. Plugins are used for decoding, encoding, song information, and output. This allows xtunes to support ripping/playing/burning multiple digital music formats.
* xtunes now supports the Apple iPod. Simply drag songs or playlists onto the iPod icon and they are automatically transferred to the iPod. See the xpod page for more information.
Personally, I think this is a vindication of Apple's strategy to keep the iPod Apple-only for a time. It kept demand to a reasonable level, allowed them to focus on Apple-only hardware, sold a lot more Macs, and in the long-term will not keep anyone out of the iPod Revolution.
Remember, in the end MS is out there to make money. Ruling the world is just a means to that end.
Has any of your work been impacted by post-9/11 issues? I am just a normal person and my first thought on reading this article was, "If he can build a rocket to go 35 miles, he can build a missile for the same purpose." Have you had to deal with well-intentioned, security-minded authorities of late?
I had a similar thought, but not for the reasons you outline. I am not so worried about ticking off Bill Gates as I am the thousands of Windows users who currently are buyers of this software. While I realize that Apple's intention is likely to use this as a push to move people to their hardware, this is an awfully steep slope to push people down. They are more likely to balk at the move and instead spend their money on a "competitive upgrade" to a competitor's version.
It might have been a better idea to rework the Window's software with a Mac-ish look and feel. Get the users used to the ease of use provided by a Mac within the Windows framework, then phase out the Windows version afterward. This way, the culture shock is less and the user base has had some first-hand experience in what makes an Apple interface great.
Course, then we are pouring tens of thousands of dollars into a version of software which Apple fully intends to end-of-life ASAP. Not an easy decision.
Here is the 10 cent version:
1. The company in question was founded by people whose actions (as shown inexamples provided by Salon) appear immoral.
2. The founders of the company founded a series of companies, each more intrusive and immoral than the last.
3. In the end, they were fired from their own company when it was bought out, presumably for ethics violations but the new parent company would not comment.
4. In addition to being morally challenged, the founders were also violent and muscular. They used these qualities to intimidate/bully employees, customers, and others to the point of punching a hole in the door of a programmer who decided to quit.
Hope that clears things up.
I must say this is something I have been wanting. I bought a Palm VIIx about a year ago, when the big promotion came out from Palm. I used the thing fr HOURS the first month, MINUTES the second month, and then barely at all after that. Wound up cancelling service as soon as was possible under the terms of my contract. The thing is, with high-speed internet at work, an Airport network at home, and dial-ups available while on the road, there was not much that I had left to do with a wireless unit which only did low-tech, no-color internet.
But if it had been able to do wireless gaming, I suspect I would still be an owner and an enthusiastic user. Even without the graphics, even without sound effects, the ability to play new games all the time and to play against real people is compelling.
...not terribly compelling read for me. Then again, maybe if I put on some John Williams music from Raiders of the Lost Ark, it set the mood better. ;-)
Actually, I recently bought a DVD/VCR combo box by Panasonic (the one with Progressive-Scan in it) from Circuit City and I must say I have really been enjoying the experience. The key is to make sure that there is ENOUGH SEPARATION between the two parts of the unit. The early TV/VCRs (and modern ones, I hear) had the problem that you could not watch one thing and tape another - the complete and total union stole a critical feature from you. The DVD/VCR combo I purchased, on the other hand, is almost totally separate in its functions: I can rewind a tape while watching a DVD, record a program while using the DVD, pause a DVD and switch to VCR to check on stuff, etc. The only integration is in the remote control and the audio/video hardware... and even there it is separate so I can have digital/hi-def outputs for the DVD player and normal RCA for the VCR.
So overall, I have a 2-in-1 box which is only really 1 in the ways that count: ease of use, small footprint, and less-power consumption. If this X-Box/PVR can be similar, it might actually work.
The article indicates that Mitnick is calmly able to lay out what he did, because the statute of limitations has expired on his alleged crimes. Anyone who has spent anytime watching LAW & ORDER (and of its spin-offs) has to wonder if there is an enterprising District Attorney somewhere combing the law for any permutation of the law WITHOUT a statute of limitations to use against him based on this testimony. For example, he can not be tried for the hacking itself, but could he be tried for Conspiracy?
My point? An Apple user buying a PC is not necesarily an abrogation of the Mac. It just means that today he needed something that only PCs provide.
At this time, we need to be focussing on Equality of Opportunity by making sure every citizen is literate, understands at least enough Math to balance a checkbook and understand how to save money, and understands enough science to know snake oil salesmen when they show up. If a person knows that much, they can take their destiny into their own hands and learn the rest from books, the Net, whatever.
That is not to say we should not strive to make computers available to everyone - internet computers in libraries are a great idea. But first things first.
At least once a week now, I read someone who proclaims that "I no longer even use bookmarks or try typing in URLs. I just always go to Google for my information." Has anyone approached you (or have you considered yourself) producing a Web Browser which has no URL line, but instead has a Google line to automatically send anything typed there to Google as a gateway to the Internet? Seems like it would "sell" to the Google-holics.
While some of the lack has to be due to the low picture quality, some of it is simply due to the fact that phones are NOT A VISUAL MEDIUM. A person using a phone is doing so to communicate verbally, not with body langugae. Until a new form factor emerges for visual communication (I like the communicators in EARTH: FINAL CONFLICT) I think this kind of work is a dead end.
If you think the house sounds big, you should see the yard. Our mailbox is in a different zip code than the house. ;-)
Gotta hate it when grammar comes back to bite you.
My problem is that this PDA ideas seems to assume 100% uptime of your wireless connectivity. In order to save a document or intercept many of the calls Word would demand, you would need to be connected to a wireless server each time. I have an Apple Airport network at home which is about as easy to use as they come. But even that has blackout points in the house, where construction or atmospheric conditions make it impossible to get a solid signal. How much worse would this be for a subway commuter or rural user who could have blackouts for minutes or hours at a time?
Seems like it would be easier AND more reliable just to use a Tablet PC, OQO, or similar device.
At my last job, I was extended and accepted a counter-offer when I was out looking for a job. The key is to be honest with everyone involved, including yourself. Before you step out the door (or onto DICE.COM) consider why you are looking for a new job and what would resolve the problem you are trying to address. Is it just money? Then a counteroffer should be in your considerations. Is it appreciation, management style, duties, etc.? Then maybe not. Then once you have decided the options, be sure to tell your recruiter and/or interviewer that you plan to entertain counteroffers from your current employer. They will let you know how that sits with them - some will decide then and there NOT to extend an offer because they want you definitely; others will be encouraged because it means you will extend THEM the same courtesy when/if you decide to leave their employ. This can work out for both sides.
My first time looking for a new job, a counteroffer was possible. My reasons for leaving were general dissatisfaction and lack of appreciation. I got an offer, came to my boss and laid all the cards on the table. He agreed to match the offer AND to address my other issues. The company improved and I got paid better. Next time around, my reasons for leaving were lost trust in a different manager and a belief that they were phasing out my department. This time, the counteroffer was again extended, but it was never an issue. I refused and am happily at the new job.