Unless some Next Big Thing comes along that favors geeks, we are doomed.
The Next Big Thing is more than a decade away, though. In the meantime wealth will continue to concentrate at the top, and the increasing numbers at the bottom will get enough scraps to live on to keep them from revolting and REDISTRIBUTING the wealth more fairly.
We're facing a future where increased productivity gains (hoarded by the wealth) mean that vastly more people will be technologically unemployed, but are still expected to WORK to justify their existence. Frankly, I'm resigned to the fact that the situtation can only get worse, until the molecular nanotech is developed that allows people to live self-sufficiently, independent of most traditional trade-based economies.
The sooner molecular manufacturing is advanced, the sooner global poverty, and most economic inequality can actually be eliminated. You can donate a fish today, or donate towards the tech that can assemble a fish using free solar and recycled molecules in the middle of the desert...
(Anyway, I just had to add you to my friends-list for being in the position you're in without also having the exessively-greedy me-me-me mentality.)
So what if Rove testified? Penalty of perjury isn't enough to get that sociopath to tell the truth. He's a lying weasel of the highest order, but you wouldn't know it to look at him.
I intentionally don't forward the ports because the stupid SMC Barricade g (SMC2804WBR) router gives up the ghost after 15 minutes
And that's the main reason I still use an energy-wasting old linux PC as my gateway router, instead of getting one of those 'convenient' home NATrouter in a tinybox. Even my Vonage box would lockup on high throughput when I first tested it as the router; had to move it inside. Wish someone (besides Cisco premium) would make a better home router.
And the DeBeers monopoly has been caught red-handed knowingly buying conflict diamonds; though they insist they don't (because image is everything, just like diamonds).
I can't wait for the day that the pure artificial diamond manufacturers put those crooks out of business. Further, I hope that people eventually wake up to the fact that carbon (in diamond form) isn't really that scarce, and as nanotech matures diamond will increasingly become worthless (beyond the energy required to forge the molecular bonds).
GM food is a great advance, except for a few minor drawbacks (in order of importance):
The Law of Unintended Consequences when (not if) genetic freaks get loose and upset global ecosystems, forcing dependence upon the outcompeting freaks and counterfreaks.
Greedy corporations like ADM and Monsanto who aim to OWN food production by claiming "IP" rights on genes.
Frankenfood FUDsters who would throw the golden-rice baby out with the bathwater because of fear and romantic notions about old-fashioned organic food somehow being better for you, even if it's not sustainable.
GM was inevitable, but it would be very sad if we ended up destroying our natural ecosystems, or locking it up in IP monopolies, only a few decades before we developed the molecular nanotech needed to self-sufficiently manufacture food, without depending on Mother Nature and top-down distribution.
No, because Apple doesn't use the KHTML renderer as-is; they improve on it and those changes don't make their way back into KDE right away. So for perfect compatibility testing - instead of just hoping it's the same - PearPC is the best choice for me.
PearPC is really, really, really slow, though it is making progress. For comparison against CherryOS's claim that it runs the guest 80% as fast as the host, it takes PearPC over 5 minutes just to boot MacOSX 10.3 on my 1.2GHz Athlon running Suse9.1 (kernel 2.6.5).
PearPC is free/FREE, though, and I only use it for Safari compatibility testing, so its speed isn't a major issue for me.
I've had Vonage for almost a year now, and initially I had the same QoS problem you had. Since the vonage box was inside the network (rather than on the outside, which is also an option, albeit a dumb one), and my router is a 3-NIC PC running linux, I was able to tweak the QoS easily. However, I hear that SOME of the newer home-cheapo routers (like the ones from linksys) can do traffic shaping now, so that would also be worth looking into.
2a. Street Performer derivatives - artists build up a reputation (for free), then people pay into escrow for that proven artist to add more to the commons.
(btw, just added you to my friends list - you say the same things I've been saying in regards to solutions in a world where enforcing and extending artificial scarcity is insanity.)
In other words, you act as a middle man and make money off other peoples' work with very little tangible contribution to that body of work. Sounds like you're the equivalent of the RIAA.
No, but nice try.
The RIAA owns and sucks their artists dry while providing no real service themselves. I create/modify as a service (like the artists should be doing), and give back to the commons for others to build on instead of locking it up for life+70+{next_extension}.
The day that I can make cars for free in my basement is the day that the automakers have the same problem.
And that day isn't as far away as you might think. Ultra-efficient molecular manufacturing "replicators" are a few decades away at most, and will be the end of many old powerful companies.
The difference is that this time the digital AND material abundance go hand-in-hand so nobody can complain about not getting paid enough to put "food on the table" because with MNT, you can manufacture YOUR OWN food from recycled compost material, and live almost entirely self-sufficiently in many other respects too.
Energy (stored solar) + Material (recycled molecules) + Molecular Blueprint ("illegal 3D scan files") + Bottom-up nanotechnology == FREEDOM.
Why do you think that people deserve compensation for providing a service, teaching or selling a tangible widget? What makes you think that this is any different to creating music, writing books or articles, or writing software?
First, nobody deserves compensation simply because they put blood, sweat and tears into something. Hard-working people lose their jobs and businesses go under all the time, and NOT for lack of effort - it's just market reality.
Second, even WITH artificial monopolies, the difference between a service or tangible-good and a bit of information is simple: fundamental scarcity. Tangible goods and services are both inherently scarce and thus can COMMAND a price due to limited supply, whereas a copy of a bit of information has an infinite supply which can flow freely (and easily around DRM-type blocks). The new market reality -- in which hundreds of millions of people selfishly reject carrying-over artificial scarcity -- says that creators will have to figure out how to get paid for their scarce SERVICE of original creation, rather than non-scarce instances of freely available old work that is no longer tied to a scarce-medium. Simple, eh?
And I put my money where my mouth is. What do I do for a living? I sell the value-add service of creating, modifying and integrating open-source environments. I make it point to reject software-as-a-product when the pragmatic future is obviously software-as-a-service. Microsoft made a fortune because of a temporary imbalance.
How did you get on my/.friends-list with an attitude like that?
The internet has stripped away the convenient medium(s) that used to contain an inherently scarce message that could physically command the price you asked for. The new reality of the situation is that either you think DRM + DMCA can and should be used to keep doing things the old way, by keeping a decades-old instance of information artificially scarce, or you think-- like millions already do --that information is cheap, and the value lies in the inherently scarce service of performing or creating NEW information. New systems will emerge to fund creation and promote progress, but it won't be the "right to profit" gravytrain of the past.
I only get my information from trusted sources, such as the Ministry of Truth. In fact, I just checked, and my new MS Trusted Computing(TM) XBOX-ME didn't let me access the untrusted terrorist website you linked to. With dangerous attitudes like yours, how did you even get access to The Secure Internet, brother? You can tell me; I won't turn you in.
IMO - and this will sound whacko - we won't truly be free until we're liberated from most scarcity (with MNT), and the from the evolutionary psychology that makes being a greedy asshole a successful (genetic) trait even once in a world of abundance (with intelligence amplification).
Today, given the choice, most people would rather be a god among peasants than a king among equal kings. It's the relative advantage that matters to their genes.
Probably some out of the way where the cost of living is low enough, and you can safely drop out of society and live off-grid once you've made a relatively small bundle of money. Beware the gringo kidnappers, though! blend in.:)
1st- most of those abandonware games have probably already been ripped to ROMimage and emulated (so they haven't been lost to history because of IP hoarding).
2nd- yeah, I guess you are selfish like that, but fortunately many aren't. You think the chicks will see you lording your *exclusive* pile of cartridges over the bit-poor, and recognize you as a success for the awesome POWER you can leverage with said stash, and then they'll scream to have your baby?:)
Slashdot Mirror
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The Next Big Thing is more than a decade away, though. In the meantime wealth will continue to concentrate at the top, and the increasing numbers at the bottom will get enough scraps to live on to keep them from revolting and REDISTRIBUTING the wealth more fairly.
We're facing a future where increased productivity gains (hoarded by the wealth) mean that vastly more people will be technologically unemployed, but are still expected to WORK to justify their existence. Frankly, I'm resigned to the fact that the situtation can only get worse, until the molecular nanotech is developed that allows people to live self-sufficiently, independent of most traditional trade-based economies.
--
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The sooner molecular manufacturing is advanced, the sooner global poverty, and most economic inequality can actually be eliminated. You can donate a fish today, or donate towards the tech that can assemble a fish using free solar and recycled molecules in the middle of the desert...
(Anyway, I just had to add you to my friends-list for being in the position you're in without also having the exessively-greedy me-me-me mentality.)
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And that's the main reason I still use an energy-wasting old linux PC as my gateway router, instead of getting one of those 'convenient' home NATrouter in a tinybox. Even my Vonage box would lockup on high throughput when I first tested it as the router; had to move it inside. Wish someone (besides Cisco premium) would make a better home router.
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I can't wait for the day that the pure artificial diamond manufacturers put those crooks out of business. Further, I hope that people eventually wake up to the fact that carbon (in diamond form) isn't really that scarce, and as nanotech matures diamond will increasingly become worthless (beyond the energy required to forge the molecular bonds).
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- The Law of Unintended Consequences when (not if) genetic freaks get loose and upset global ecosystems, forcing dependence upon the outcompeting freaks and counterfreaks.
- Greedy corporations like ADM and Monsanto who aim to OWN food production by claiming "IP" rights on genes.
- Frankenfood FUDsters who would throw the golden-rice baby out with the bathwater because of fear and romantic notions about old-fashioned organic food somehow being better for you, even if it's not sustainable.
GM was inevitable, but it would be very sad if we ended up destroying our natural ecosystems, or locking it up in IP monopolies, only a few decades before we developed the molecular nanotech needed to self-sufficiently manufacture food, without depending on Mother Nature and top-down distribution.--
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PearPC is free/FREE, though, and I only use it for Safari compatibility testing, so its speed isn't a major issue for me.
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(btw, just added you to my friends list - you say the same things I've been saying in regards to solutions in a world where enforcing and extending artificial scarcity is insanity.)
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No, but nice try.
The RIAA owns and sucks their artists dry while providing no real service themselves. I create/modify as a service (like the artists should be doing), and give back to the commons for others to build on instead of locking it up for life+70+{next_extension}.
--
And that day isn't as far away as you might think. Ultra-efficient molecular manufacturing "replicators" are a few decades away at most, and will be the end of many old powerful companies.
The difference is that this time the digital AND material abundance go hand-in-hand so nobody can complain about not getting paid enough to put "food on the table" because with MNT, you can manufacture YOUR OWN food from recycled compost material, and live almost entirely self-sufficiently in many other respects too.
Energy (stored solar) + Material (recycled molecules) + Molecular Blueprint ("illegal 3D scan files") + Bottom-up nanotechnology == FREEDOM.
--
First, nobody deserves compensation simply because they put blood, sweat and tears into something. Hard-working people lose their jobs and businesses go under all the time, and NOT for lack of effort - it's just market reality.
Second, even WITH artificial monopolies, the difference between a service or tangible-good and a bit of information is simple: fundamental scarcity. Tangible goods and services are both inherently scarce and thus can COMMAND a price due to limited supply, whereas a copy of a bit of information has an infinite supply which can flow freely (and easily around DRM-type blocks). The new market reality -- in which hundreds of millions of people selfishly reject carrying-over artificial scarcity -- says that creators will have to figure out how to get paid for their scarce SERVICE of original creation, rather than non-scarce instances of freely available old work that is no longer tied to a scarce-medium. Simple, eh?
And I put my money where my mouth is. What do I do for a living? I sell the value-add service of creating, modifying and integrating open-source environments. I make it point to reject software-as-a-product when the pragmatic future is obviously software-as-a-service. Microsoft made a fortune because of a temporary imbalance.
--
The internet has stripped away the convenient medium(s) that used to contain an inherently scarce message that could physically command the price you asked for. The new reality of the situation is that either you think DRM + DMCA can and should be used to keep doing things the old way, by keeping a decades-old instance of information artificially scarce, or you think-- like millions already do --that information is cheap, and the value lies in the inherently scarce service of performing or creating NEW information. New systems will emerge to fund creation and promote progress, but it won't be the "right to profit" gravytrain of the past.
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I only get my information from trusted sources, such as the Ministry of Truth. In fact, I just checked, and my new MS Trusted Computing(TM) XBOX-ME didn't let me access the untrusted terrorist website you linked to. With dangerous attitudes like yours, how did you even get access to The Secure Internet, brother? You can tell me; I won't turn you in.
Today, given the choice, most people would rather be a god among peasants than a king among equal kings. It's the relative advantage that matters to their genes.
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2nd- yeah, I guess you are selfish like that, but fortunately many aren't. You think the chicks will see you lording your *exclusive* pile of cartridges over the bit-poor, and recognize you as a success for the awesome POWER you can leverage with said stash, and then they'll scream to have your baby? :)
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The new king of the morbidly curious is Ogrish.com
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