Depends on your perspective. The way I see it they are charging a fee to customers who want to keep their privacy. If no one used those cards, then the stores that had lower prices regardless of whether or not you had a card would have a competetive advantage. Then none of the stores would bother with "loyalty to big brother" cards.
Its a classic tragedy of the commons situation. By giving up your privacy you are screwing over the people who don't give up their privacy.
Couldn't you just ask the dns server for a/b/c/d and have it return 123.45.67.89/c/d as a reply? Then have ping and ssh just ignore everything after the first slash. Not really a big difference, its just that we're so used to things the way it is.
And it would be extremely useful. You could add a new server for each directory with very little effort.
Why has the DoJ been so bent on making examples of hackers, but completely ignored the true scum that are scammers?
Because their boss is a scammer himself? Honour among theives and all that.
Seriously though, there's a very fine line between aggressive marketing and scamming. The politicians can understand someone lying for personal gain, but can't understand breaking stupid laws for social gain. So the politicians simply have more in common with spammers than with hackers. Hackers have more in common with revolutionaries, which threaten politicians.
Well,/etc should be backed up if you've made significant changes. And you are making a lot of changes in/etc you're probably a sysadmin and know the importance of making backups.
And a rogue program can come along and infect your gnome/kde session files (or.bashrc) and start up spyware as soon as you log on. Not need to have access to/etc/init.d. Running stuff in userspace protects the sysadmin's work, but doesn't make any difference to the end users.
What do viruses, worms, spyware, etc, need to work? The ability to modify and execute files, and network access. Any user account that has the ability to do those things is vulnerable. Viruses and worms don't need root to spread and cause a lot of damage. "rm -rf ~/" will screw up anyone's day.
Honestly, who the hell cares about/etc or/usr/lib? I can just pop in my install cd and get all that stuff back. All of my work is in/home/me. If that gets hosed, I lose everything I've done since my last backup.
Yeah keeping stuff in user space is good idea. But when you only have a single user on a computer it makes absolutely no difference.
The real problem isn't having an integrated web browser / file manager. Its allowing the web browser to run scripts that are allowed to modify files. Even if you only allow it to modify files in/home/me its still as much a problem as if it could change files anywhere.
he was asked for details about his setup and got pissed off and demanded that they tell him what the next step was. It was only on page 3 or so that he let it slip that he had 3 drives and was installing ubuntu on hdc, then acted all pissed off because these questions were obviously pointless because hda was the one that wasn't booting.
Actually the problem was likely with hdc since the problem was in stage 1.5 meaning that the boot sector on hda was working fine, the problem was in finding stage2 on hdc.
Somewhere on page 4 or so he lets it slip he had to replace hdc before because of problems.
Of course we will probably never know what the problem really was, but it could have been the mobo not talking to hdc properly.
Now if he had of actually responded to people's requests for more information on page 1, they probably would have figured out the problem and found a fix for it (and using "please" and "thank you" on occassion would have helped too). By acting like an asshole and not answering questions from people who were trying to help him, he eliminated any chance of getting his problem fixed.
But weren't they convicted as a monopolist? Yeah, I'm pretty sure they were.
A regulated monopoly (maybe) is a lesser of three evils. See, your natural gas example is what's called a "natural monopoly". in order for their to be competition in that market, you would need to build multiple gas lines, which would be expensive. So there is a monopoly. Your choices there are to have a publically owned gas company, a regulated monopoly, or and unregulated monopoly.
Every company needs to make a certain level of profit to make it worthwhile to stay in business. When you look at your simple supply and demand curves the supply curve includes this minimum profit level. So even in a non monopoly situation, companies are going to make a profit.
When you have a regulated monopoly there is an attempt to emulate a normal market. That includes a supply curve with a built in minimum profit level.
When you have an unregulated monopoly the company tries to maximise profits just as in any other situation. Only the government isn't setting their profit level to anything sensible, and there is no competition to keep them in check either. So the monopoly can get what's called "super profits", that is profits above and beyond the minimum profit level a company needs.
All monopolies are bad. But regulating them at least keeps them from gouging us. And voters have been convinced that private corporations are better than public corporations, so its the best option.
Microsoft is an unregulated monopoly. They have locked their customers into windows and MS is the sole producer of windows.
Should MS be made a regulated monopoly? No. Its not necessary. Just breaking up MS into an OS company and an Apps company will stop their lock-in practices and allow for competition again. But that's a capitalist solution, and apparently capitalism has been killed by corporatism.
That sounds exactly like the experience I had with a Dell laptop I had. Except instead of the motherboard dying, mine had dead keys, dead motherboard, dead power supply and dead hard drive, all within two years and just after the warranty expired. And they did have replacement parts, but would sell them to me because they were reserved for people with warranties.
Seems like Dell and Alienware are a match made in hell.
I think you've hit on the problem there. Sometimes I might be in the mood to see a movie, only to find out that crappy blockbuster sequel is playing in all 8 theatres of the multiplex.
They have 8 theatres per location, why are they all playing the same thing? keep movies in there longer, so that I can choose between 8 different movies. Then when I'm in a mood to watch a movie I will be liekly to find something watchable.
The only reason so much money gets spent on advertising and actors is because there's always somebody in Hollywood willing to spend more. It's a tragedy of the commons. If people weren't so eager to get the #1 name or the most airtime, the same films could be produced for a fraction of what they are at the moment.
Actually, it's called competition. If studios did drop salries across the board, it would be called collusion.
Are big name actors overpaid? Yup. Most MBA's are overpaid too. That's just employers not understanding the value of the people they hire. Happens all the time. It's not really a tragedy of the commons type situation though.
Aren't we in the cooler part of that cycle? This is why its surprising that last year was the warmest on record, because it was supposed to be a cold year. Yeah we are in the warmer part of the ice age cycle, but its been that way for the entire human history.
Wait a sec, you mean you can't sell a GPLv3 product AND a DRM'd product at the same store? Hell an iPod has DRM, so anyone selling iPods can't sell something with GPLv3? It seems like GPLv3 isn't going to catch on if that's the case.
I think everyone has to use Access to learn that lesson. Yeah, you can make up a simple database and some good data entry forms really quickly, but then it quickly gets out of control.
You'd really think MS would put a little more work into Access to make it easier to scale. They could make an "Access Professional" that could actually scale and they'd make huge money off it.
But right this very week I'm going in to talk to some people who have the same common problem: out of control Access. And what solution can I offer them? Basically just scrap it and build something that doesn't suck. Why doesn't MS offer anything for this?
Why not? Webshop can just sell them as two separate products. The GPLv3 isn't violated until the customer actually installs the software onto the computer, at which point the its still legal since its personal use. Its not up to Webshop to try to guess what softawre the customer will install on his hardware.
Its no different from selling DVD burners and blank DVDs. it could be used for illegal things (and often is), but its not up to Webshop to prevent people from doing illegal things with the stuff they buy.
And what happens if SoftCorp releases their software for free? people could buy their hardware from HardCorp and download their software from SoftCorp.
Slashdot Mirror
Its a classic tragedy of the commons situation. By giving up your privacy you are screwing over the people who don't give up their privacy.
And it would be extremely useful. You could add a new server for each directory with very little effort.
Because their boss is a scammer himself? Honour among theives and all that.
Seriously though, there's a very fine line between aggressive marketing and scamming. The politicians can understand someone lying for personal gain, but can't understand breaking stupid laws for social gain. So the politicians simply have more in common with spammers than with hackers. Hackers have more in common with revolutionaries, which threaten politicians.
And a rogue program can come along and infect your gnome/kde session files (or .bashrc) and start up spyware as soon as you log on. Not need to have access to /etc/init.d. Running stuff in userspace protects the sysadmin's work, but doesn't make any difference to the end users.
What do viruses, worms, spyware, etc, need to work? The ability to modify and execute files, and network access. Any user account that has the ability to do those things is vulnerable. Viruses and worms don't need root to spread and cause a lot of damage. "rm -rf ~/" will screw up anyone's day.
Yeah keeping stuff in user space is good idea. But when you only have a single user on a computer it makes absolutely no difference.
The real problem isn't having an integrated web browser / file manager. Its allowing the web browser to run scripts that are allowed to modify files. Even if you only allow it to modify files in /home/me its still as much a problem as if it could change files anywhere.
Actually the problem was likely with hdc since the problem was in stage 1.5 meaning that the boot sector on hda was working fine, the problem was in finding stage2 on hdc.
Somewhere on page 4 or so he lets it slip he had to replace hdc before because of problems.
Of course we will probably never know what the problem really was, but it could have been the mobo not talking to hdc properly.
Now if he had of actually responded to people's requests for more information on page 1, they probably would have figured out the problem and found a fix for it (and using "please" and "thank you" on occassion would have helped too). By acting like an asshole and not answering questions from people who were trying to help him, he eliminated any chance of getting his problem fixed.
Ubuntu forums is really good, check the link for proof of that. The guy was being a complete asshole and still people were trying to help him.
why would you want to make zope look like slash? That's like ripping the guts out of a mac and jamming it into a beige box.
That's good, because I got 118,000 web pages for you to read, dickhead.
A regulated monopoly (maybe) is a lesser of three evils. See, your natural gas example is what's called a "natural monopoly". in order for their to be competition in that market, you would need to build multiple gas lines, which would be expensive. So there is a monopoly. Your choices there are to have a publically owned gas company, a regulated monopoly, or and unregulated monopoly.
Every company needs to make a certain level of profit to make it worthwhile to stay in business. When you look at your simple supply and demand curves the supply curve includes this minimum profit level. So even in a non monopoly situation, companies are going to make a profit.
When you have a regulated monopoly there is an attempt to emulate a normal market. That includes a supply curve with a built in minimum profit level.
When you have an unregulated monopoly the company tries to maximise profits just as in any other situation. Only the government isn't setting their profit level to anything sensible, and there is no competition to keep them in check either. So the monopoly can get what's called "super profits", that is profits above and beyond the minimum profit level a company needs.
All monopolies are bad. But regulating them at least keeps them from gouging us. And voters have been convinced that private corporations are better than public corporations, so its the best option.
Microsoft is an unregulated monopoly. They have locked their customers into windows and MS is the sole producer of windows.
Should MS be made a regulated monopoly? No. Its not necessary. Just breaking up MS into an OS company and an Apps company will stop their lock-in practices and allow for competition again. But that's a capitalist solution, and apparently capitalism has been killed by corporatism.
Obviously they intend to make a mod chip that does the same thing and make some money.
You must be watching some fucked up shit. Normal people aren't into that shit and fucked up people will be fucked up people with or without porn.
They still are.
Seems like Dell and Alienware are a match made in hell.
Actually, its kurdish.
Well you can fork the code and make a version that doesn't make any money for anyone. That is, if you're willing to work for free.
They have 8 theatres per location, why are they all playing the same thing? keep movies in there longer, so that I can choose between 8 different movies. Then when I'm in a mood to watch a movie I will be liekly to find something watchable.
Actually, it's called competition. If studios did drop salries across the board, it would be called collusion.
Are big name actors overpaid? Yup. Most MBA's are overpaid too. That's just employers not understanding the value of the people they hire. Happens all the time. It's not really a tragedy of the commons type situation though.
He's been out of Star Wars ideas since 1983.
Not that I think that MS did anything groundbreaking, they just happened to be in the right place when IBM screwed up.
Aren't we in the cooler part of that cycle? This is why its surprising that last year was the warmest on record, because it was supposed to be a cold year. Yeah we are in the warmer part of the ice age cycle, but its been that way for the entire human history.
Wait a sec, you mean you can't sell a GPLv3 product AND a DRM'd product at the same store? Hell an iPod has DRM, so anyone selling iPods can't sell something with GPLv3? It seems like GPLv3 isn't going to catch on if that's the case.
You'd really think MS would put a little more work into Access to make it easier to scale. They could make an "Access Professional" that could actually scale and they'd make huge money off it.
But right this very week I'm going in to talk to some people who have the same common problem: out of control Access. And what solution can I offer them? Basically just scrap it and build something that doesn't suck. Why doesn't MS offer anything for this?
Its no different from selling DVD burners and blank DVDs. it could be used for illegal things (and often is), but its not up to Webshop to prevent people from doing illegal things with the stuff they buy.
And what happens if SoftCorp releases their software for free? people could buy their hardware from HardCorp and download their software from SoftCorp.
What commercial are you refering to?