Well, this is a very good premise, and it appears to be in the correct line of thought, since we now have WinModems and WinWIFI
to play with.
What's next?
WinCPUs?
We already have drivers for VIA Chipsets... that need the OS to use it efficently. What else will become part of the MS collective?
When purchasing devices for my latest system, I tried my hardest to make sure that the devices that I purchased are NOT OS specific. Unfortunately, my choice in MOBOs hampered that... the Promise RAID controller was a "software RAID"... it required Windows drivers... Mandrake Linux saw a mirrored set of drives just fine, however, a striped set was unreadable. Sigh...
As far as the sales tax portion of this goes, if you have something that I want to purchase... is there sales tax involved? Between private parties, there is none. If you're required to collect sales tax because you're a business, then you're correct. However, since we're talking about sales between two people (on amazon anyway) this point is moot. BTW, ND taxes sales on cars between two individuals, this is forced when you transfer the title.
On to Bezos' arguments... I'll concede that while I don't agree with his points, they are valid... to a degree.
I think that used book sales are a Good Thing(tm), but his arguments take a leap of logic to realize. I'm not commenting on the used book issue directly, moreso Bezos' arguements FOR used book sales.
Ahhh... you mean like the DMV forcing you to pay taxes EVERY TIME a vehicle is sold, and not just the first time? If a vehicle exchanges hands 10 times, the DMV gets 10 sets of taxes paid on the selling price of the vehicle. (NOTE: this may not be in every state, but it is in mine)
My point isn't that I'm for or against used book sales (normally I buy new)... my point is that Jeff's arguements are not necessarily valid.
Personally I think that the Writers Guild (or whatever), should really shut up, since they don't legally have a leg to stand on. Plus they're giving "free publicity" to the fact that Amazon sells used books (and I can sell one of mine through them). Also, it gets books that normally sit on the shelf collecting dust into someone's hands that will actually read it, and possibly buy more (new) books from that author.
Amazon's steep discounting of new titles and royalty-less sales of used books are two examples of how Amazon helps the book industry and authors.
How?
I mean that authors receive royalties for the books sold after the publisher takes their cut for the advance and publicity for the books.
Now, I suppose you could attempt to claim that you sell new books cheap... so you "help" the authors by getting to their royalty payments a bit faster (by paying off the publisher faster).
But how does this help the authors for used books? Hmmm? They don't receive ANY royalties from these sales... nor does the publisher. So what's in it for them if you do this? Now... if I could find a new book for $30 (which pays royalties, and Bezos loses money) or a used book for $15 (which pays NO royalties, and Bezos gets $$$ for the listing)... certainly the $15 book would probably get sold. Personally, I don't normally buy used book, except in very good condition, and a title that I want.
However, the only thing this helps is your pocket, profit, and the bottom line. NOT the author or publisher.
Not knowing if this is entirely possible... can a page be marked for non-caching?
If so, then mark the anti-<whatever> pages as non-cached... then the links should not be declared illegal. In the 2600 case, the link was to something that was a "circumvention device". However, in this case it should be protected speech, since the page(s) linked to don't have "circumvention device" on them...
yada yada yada IANAL yada yada I said SHOULD NOT... not WILL NOT yada yada
Seeing that it's still down... I would conjecture that they did not use "real" Lego bricks, but a inferior substitute that has looser molding tolerances...
Mega-Bloks... almost, but not totally unlike Lego bricks...
PuppyTail is MSFT's new marketing division, sorta "wag the dog" style.
SnuggleBear is MSFT's new education initiative for public elementary schools. Get the kids hooked early. Sort of like "Bob", only friendlier.
ComfyHat is MSFT's foray into non-computer related profitable industries (prophylactics)
any work sufficiently complex can be interpreted in many ways... for instance...
Hand one: Star Wars entertaining.
Hand two: Star Wars philosophical.
Hand three: Star Wars rip-off.
Who is the ONLY authority to actually determine the 'truth' of it? George Lucas. Period. Others are wasting our time be attempting to explain why it did well at the box-office...
However, the situation that affects me, is that I bring my PERSONAL equipment into the workplace, with my PERSONALLY bought software (for development), and my PERSONAL MP3 library on my system. Whether anyone else can access that library of music is up to me, however very few people know about it.
If anyone, ANYONE, want's to look at my PC without a search warrent, they can kiss my hairy white @$$... this includes any "raids" by the BSA, **AA, and FBI.
If my employer wants to look at my PC, I'll make a share for them, and they can look at the directory that I want them to. Limited to the files relavent to their software that I'm developing.
BTW, I'm a independant consultant/contractor, and both me and my boss like it that way.
Slashdot Mirror
If you send me your email address, I can forward this great opportunity to you.
Actually ... I'd rather pay MORE for devices, if it was known to work 100% ... with no device drivers needed ...
Well ... DUH ...
I mean if Slashdot was the size of NBC ... it would be MSSlashdot ... the joint venture.
Hmmm ... maybe the site should have been running on of the ultra-portables ...
What's next?
WinCPUs?
We already have drivers for VIA Chipsets ... that need the OS to use it efficently. What else will become part of the MS collective?
When purchasing devices for my latest system, I tried my hardest to make sure that the devices that I purchased are NOT OS specific. Unfortunately, my choice in MOBOs hampered that ... the Promise RAID controller was a "software RAID" ... it required Windows drivers ... Mandrake Linux saw a mirrored set of drives just fine, however, a striped set was unreadable. Sigh ...
One word: Optimize.
(now removing tongue from cheek)
Free + Gay + Sex ??? (7,569.23 + 2,239.56 + 3,836.79 = $13,645.58/day)
On to Bezos' arguments ... I'll concede that while I don't agree with his points, they are valid ... to a degree.
I think that used book sales are a Good Thing(tm), but his arguments take a leap of logic to realize. I'm not commenting on the used book issue directly, moreso Bezos' arguements FOR used book sales.
Musicians != RIAA
or, Directors != MPAA
Anything Amazon sells more than once hurts the latter more.
However, it could be argued that the author, musician, director (etc) are indirectly hurt by loss of royalties ... buy people not buying new ...
My point isn't that I'm for or against used book sales (normally I buy new) ... my point is that Jeff's arguements are not necessarily valid.
Personally I think that the Writers Guild (or whatever), should really shut up, since they don't legally have a leg to stand on. Plus they're giving "free publicity" to the fact that Amazon sells used books (and I can sell one of mine through them). Also, it gets books that normally sit on the shelf collecting dust into someone's hands that will actually read it, and possibly buy more (new) books from that author.
How?
I mean that authors receive royalties for the books sold after the publisher takes their cut for the advance and publicity for the books.
Now, I suppose you could attempt to claim that you sell new books cheap ... so you "help" the authors by getting to their royalty payments a bit faster (by paying off the publisher faster).
But how does this help the authors for used books? Hmmm? They don't receive ANY royalties from these sales ... nor does the publisher. So what's in it for them if you do this? Now ... if I could find a new book for $30 (which pays royalties, and Bezos loses money) or a used book for $15 (which pays NO royalties, and Bezos gets $$$ for the listing) ... certainly the $15 book would probably get sold. Personally, I don't normally buy used book, except in very good condition, and a title that I want.
However, the only thing this helps is your pocket, profit, and the bottom line. NOT the author or publisher.
If so, then mark the anti-<whatever> pages as non-cached ... then the links should not be declared illegal. In the 2600 case, the link was to something that was a "circumvention device". However, in this case it should be protected speech, since the page(s) linked to don't have "circumvention device" on them ...
yada yada yada IANAL yada yada I said SHOULD NOT ... not WILL NOT yada yada
Mega-Bloks ... almost, but not totally unlike Lego bricks ...
Damn hackers ...
PuppyTail is MSFT's new marketing division, sorta "wag the dog" style.
SnuggleBear is MSFT's new education initiative for public elementary schools. Get the kids hooked early. Sort of like "Bob", only friendlier.
ComfyHat is MSFT's foray into non-computer related profitable industries (prophylactics)
Look for the news release soon ...
In Other News:
Prepaid Calling Cards can be used for bad.
Disposable Cell Phones can be used for bad.
Pretty much anything can be used for bad.
Ok ... time to get back to surfing for pr0n ...
How can you tell if it was an "accident" or accident that a satellite fails? There is a LOT of junk flying around up there ...
Could a country tell? Could we tell?
I thought he'd be able to pull of another 2 or 3 elections ... :)
Oh well ...
Hand one: Star Wars entertaining.
Hand two: Star Wars philosophical.
Hand three: Star Wars rip-off.
Who is the ONLY authority to actually determine the 'truth' of it? George Lucas. Period. Others are wasting our time be attempting to explain why it did well at the box-office ...
However, the situation that affects me, is that I bring my PERSONAL equipment into the workplace, with my PERSONALLY bought software (for development), and my PERSONAL MP3 library on my system. Whether anyone else can access that library of music is up to me, however very few people know about it.
If anyone, ANYONE, want's to look at my PC without a search warrent, they can kiss my hairy white @$$ ... this includes any "raids" by the BSA, **AA, and FBI.
If my employer wants to look at my PC, I'll make a share for them, and they can look at the directory that I want them to. Limited to the files relavent to their software that I'm developing.
BTW, I'm a independant consultant/contractor, and both me and my boss like it that way.
or Tic-Tac-Toe?
Would you like to play a game?
They'll use a Zurgling rush ...
I can just see it now ...
Detective: How did he die?
Coroner: Well ... he was running 2.0.3 of UberPace. You know, the Open-Source pacemaker software. Well ... he should have upgraded, but forgot.
I thought "Slashvertisements" were only going to be on
However, it looks like this article is an "slashvertisement" for OTM's Virtual Pen.
Just a little searching ...
... ~$241 (on pricewatch.com)
... ~$583 (on pricegrabber.com)
Athlon 2100+
Pentium 4 2.4Ghz
Well