Supposedly though, there are people developing applications and infrastructure for desktop-use of linux. For these people to have your attitude would be strange.
The reason why there's one OS with a >50% market share is (a) 95% of users are people who expect a computer to "just work", and (b) that OS is unfragmented. You have marginal choice for sound and UI and graphics interfaces (the margin for optimization and special-purpose hardware), and that means that companies, which exist to make money, can safely develop to the humdrum standard and sell their product saying "Will run under Windows", and it has been that way for a long, long time. Sheer momentum keeps it going now, although Apple has been making some progress since OSX, another well-defined monolithic platform.
For linux, you have to make choices, such as GTK vs QT. That choice affects the developer because, rather than a uniform programming interface, the two are wildly different. And it affect users because look-and-feel is different, libraries are needed, it comes with an installation instruction that requires typing (so 20th century). And *if* something goes wrong, they'll have to dig into the system to fix it, and they won't; ergo, the software doesn't work.
I'd say idiot, or maybe just lazy and with too much money.
In Holland, energy company Oxxio is known for intentional billing errors. At one point they reactivated the accounts of a few thousand ex-customers, and collected money on that (typically we pay things by authorizing our bank to let the companies withdraw the money from our account). Those who complained were reimbursed and re-deactivated. Who knows, some people might still be paying their former energy provider.
Seconded. The best place to code is a mental image that has a giant arrow pointing to the place you need to go. Those times when requirements shift over lunchtime, or meeting-filled days, those made me glad we had a Wii at the office.
For those who haven't been reading enough Slashdot: You know you've been reading too much Slashdot when you can read abbreviations without having to spell them out
... you need to patent it and find licensees. Or sell the patent. If you want your invention to be used as widely as possible, you need corporate backing to turn it into a product (either form your own company to exploit the idea, or sell/offer it to other companies).
If it's not patented, what company in their right mind would spend their time and effort marketing the product, so that if/when it becomes popular, any competitor can step in?
I've got a little box where I once put in a list of shows I want to watch. As soon those as shows get posted to Usenet, it leeches them, and whenever I switch it on I can see if something new is on there.
I get all the latest shows in HD where available, practically as soon as they've aired, been encoded and posted. Oh, and I live in the Netherlands, so even if I *wanted* to watch Hulu, I can't.
Yes, and Minds that are entirely omnipotent (they can create worlds and autonomous human-equivalents) are not above influencing entire populations to suit their own needs, of course.
They are benevolently ominous and ominously benevolent, which is one thing that makes the books so nice.
That's not investing in a TV show. That's gambling, but with other people's jobs. Besides, how many great shows would have been snuffed with that attitude?
I am a bit ambivalent on Dollhouse. I'm looking forward to when the basic premise kicks in a bit more, with Echo's character recomposition thingamajigg. Until then, it's a monster-of-the-week type deal, which doesn't work well until people already care about the characters.
There is already some movement from an "Anybody can provide" model, to an "Only we provide, but we do it very well" model. Case in point, iTunes music store, and the iPod.
I wonder if an iTunes model would work. Get any magazine for $1. Maybe back issues older than a year for $0.50. Blend it with the mobile phone market's ideas, and subsidize the device with a two-year subscription on (a group of) magazines. Get the major magazine publishers and papers on board and split the proceeds honestly.
Of course, if they could actually do the right thing wrt technology and consumers, their industry wouldn't be dying right now.
The way a married couple I know do it is: - Pool both incomes; - Pay fixed costs and reserve groceries; - Split up the remainder to private accounts, and fuck you if you try to tell me what to do with it.
I don't know if they do an even split or an income-based split. But if he wants to spend his month's income on number 13 at a casino, he can. Over the long haul, I don't see another way to do it that isn't going to work out horribly.
That would be already made, and called Dasher. See an earlier post for a Youtube video, or try it out at their site. Works reasonably well, almost like magic. But then, so does ShapeWriter.
Looking at the income tax, you can see it's nicely staggered. In practice, I pay almost 40% income tax. Everything I buy, and every service I use, takes VAT of 19%, except for foods and related services, which is 6%.
A car is still the money-farm for the Dutch government. To buy a car, you get a list price. In my case, a car had a list price of about 14k euro's. Then I have to pay:
- BPM: 42.3% of the list price. Unjustified tax, just goes into the main government pot.
- VAT: 19% over the list price plus BPM.
Total cost: 14000*1.423*1.19 = 23707, which makes it 59% tax, to buy a vehicle. With my wages, which have already been taxed for almost 40%. Or my savings, which are also taxed for 1.2% a year if they're big enough.
Then we have to pay road tax, and gasoline. Gas is currently cheap at EUR 1,18 per liter or so, or US$6.28 per US Gallon, about 70% of which is also tax.
In car-related taxes, about 17 billion euro's were collected, of which about 4 billion were spent on our overly congested public road system (in repairs. The road quality is generally good, the planning and scalability aren't)
Why is it an error in judgement? Smack dab in the middle of puberty is an excellent time to start having sex. There's a strong biological drive, and there's social pressure (which is not good to always completely ignore, since it exists in humans for a reason...)
Also, the problem isn't two 15 year old kids, it's when Johnny turns 16 that he's in trouble. Stupid? Yes. You Americans are weird...
There are some units, especially some of the elite ones, that have the attribute of "Will charge without orders". If you don't want that to happen, you shouldn't deploy them.
Although, granted, it is an annoying attribute that I would have had whipped out of my armed forces.
What happens when you give that job to a low-wage person at a slightly higher than local average salary? (You want to draw in the local talent, after all, not get stuck with the worst-of-the-cheap)
You increase his spending power, which he will pump into his local economy. That takes money away from *your* economy. He's not telling you not to do it, he saying that you should not be allowed to do it.
It's always nice to draw extremes, because they highlight problems. Let's say all jobs in the country are outsourced. The only thing that remains are job-creators such as yourself, and labor that requires a presence here. That would mean a lot of people are unemployed, which would make that local labor cheap due to oversupply. Who, then, is going to buy all the products that your overseas workers are making? The low-wage menial laborers, the unemployed, or the tiny fraction that comprises your group? And that is what you're working towards.
Of course eventually, low-wage countries do not stay low-wage. To get skilled workers, say software developers, you need to motivate them to come to you, rather than a competitor. Typically, this means offering slightly higher wages than their current employer. Given that these people are by definition willing to change jobs for more cash, another company will do the same thing to you. Eventually, wages will be essentially as high as here, if you count the added expense of good remote oversight.
Using Java, I had great fun with RoboCode, by IBM. You get to implement the logic of a little tank, which has to navigate, locate targets and destroy them, while preventing getting destroyed themselves. Obviously, the opponents are other RoboCode robots.
Since you're actually using a Java API and providing compilable code, you get to deal with the actual programming (and algorithm implementation) while not having to to do any of the housekeeping you have to do with any app that wants to use IO unmanaged. Also, it's fun to see your drone autonomously kick butt (or get pasted, as the case may be)
Slightly more advanced than the single tank is the tank-with-drones. The main tank cannot fire, the drones cannot detect enemies, and you get to coordinate between them.
in any case, this sounds like a great way to kill two birds with one stone. so long as the plasma plant doesn't generate any toxic waste or cause heat pollution it'd be a great way to get energy in practically any environment.
Why the caveat? It does sound great, if the toxic waste and heat pollution is manageable, and can be offset by both (a) having smaller garbage dumps, and (b) requiring less power from coal-burning facilities.
It doesn't have to be perfect, or you'd never get any new tech online. It just has to provide an improvement to the status quo.
It's funny. Because here tipping is not considered mandatory, there is no *expectation* of a tip, and thus, if I really like the service I got, I can give an average tip.
The tipping system in the US is insane. Waitresses should be paid normal wages, and should get tips only as reward for good service (or physical contact, for those so inclined).
Nice. Someone provides a service people are willing to pay for, without causing harm to anyone, and you want his life to be ruined.
When I stopped playing WoW, I sold my game+account to a friend, who got to start with a level 43 priest, with mount. If I ever go crazy and decide to play again, I'd want to start with a mount and an ability to go on raids. That's not a bonus, that's the main game.
If ISPs had given users IP addresses as needed, we wouldn't have anywhere near the proliferation of firewalls that we see with NATs. People care about security in the same way they care about the third world; they don't want it to bother them.
NATs are a necessity, and it's the necessity which drives their demand. And because of that, pretty much everyone's PC is automatically screened from port scans and unwanted connection attempts from away.
That said: Bring on IPv6. It's about time we had global multi- and broadcasting capabilities.
Excuse me if I am repeating obvious conclusions. My only gateway onto the 'Net is very expensive, and I don't get all messages.
I agree on the Usenet references... It was eerily accurate, and very enjoyable. Also, I liked his concept of aliens, which were actually alien, rather than most sci-fi.
Slashdot Mirror
Yes, you are one user. Good on you.
Supposedly though, there are people developing applications and infrastructure for desktop-use of linux. For these people to have your attitude would be strange.
The reason why there's one OS with a >50% market share is (a) 95% of users are people who expect a computer to "just work", and (b) that OS is unfragmented. You have marginal choice for sound and UI and graphics interfaces (the margin for optimization and special-purpose hardware), and that means that companies, which exist to make money, can safely develop to the humdrum standard and sell their product saying "Will run under Windows", and it has been that way for a long, long time. Sheer momentum keeps it going now, although Apple has been making some progress since OSX, another well-defined monolithic platform.
For linux, you have to make choices, such as GTK vs QT. That choice affects the developer because, rather than a uniform programming interface, the two are wildly different. And it affect users because look-and-feel is different, libraries are needed, it comes with an installation instruction that requires typing (so 20th century). And *if* something goes wrong, they'll have to dig into the system to fix it, and they won't; ergo, the software doesn't work.
I'd say idiot, or maybe just lazy and with too much money.
In Holland, energy company Oxxio is known for intentional billing errors. At one point they reactivated the accounts of a few thousand ex-customers, and collected money on that (typically we pay things by authorizing our bank to let the companies withdraw the money from our account). Those who complained were reimbursed and re-deactivated. Who knows, some people might still be paying their former energy provider.
Seconded. The best place to code is a mental image that has a giant arrow pointing to the place you need to go. Those times when requirements shift over lunchtime, or meeting-filled days, those made me glad we had a Wii at the office.
YKYBRTMSWYCRAWHTSTO
For those who haven't been reading enough Slashdot:
You know you've been reading too much Slashdot when you can read abbreviations without having to spell them out
... you need to patent it and find licensees. Or sell the patent. If you want your invention to be used as widely as possible, you need corporate backing to turn it into a product (either form your own company to exploit the idea, or sell/offer it to other companies).
If it's not patented, what company in their right mind would spend their time and effort marketing the product, so that if/when it becomes popular, any competitor can step in?
I've got a little box where I once put in a list of shows I want to watch. As soon those as shows get posted to Usenet, it leeches them, and whenever I switch it on I can see if something new is on there.
I get all the latest shows in HD where available, practically as soon as they've aired, been encoded and posted. Oh, and I live in the Netherlands, so even if I *wanted* to watch Hulu, I can't.
Yes, and Minds that are entirely omnipotent (they can create worlds and autonomous human-equivalents) are not above influencing entire populations to suit their own needs, of course.
They are benevolently ominous and ominously benevolent, which is one thing that makes the books so nice.
It would already be gone, five episodes in?
That's not investing in a TV show. That's gambling, but with other people's jobs. Besides, how many great shows would have been snuffed with that attitude?
I am a bit ambivalent on Dollhouse. I'm looking forward to when the basic premise kicks in a bit more, with Echo's character recomposition thingamajigg. Until then, it's a monster-of-the-week type deal, which doesn't work well until people already care about the characters.
Don't you people have a train schedule that is repeated? You make up a new one every week?
I think it'd be a fine workaround.
There is already some movement from an "Anybody can provide" model, to an "Only we provide, but we do it very well" model. Case in point, iTunes music store, and the iPod.
I wonder if an iTunes model would work. Get any magazine for $1. Maybe back issues older than a year for $0.50. Blend it with the mobile phone market's ideas, and subsidize the device with a two-year subscription on (a group of) magazines. Get the major magazine publishers and papers on board and split the proceeds honestly.
Of course, if they could actually do the right thing wrt technology and consumers, their industry wouldn't be dying right now.
The way a married couple I know do it is:
- Pool both incomes;
- Pay fixed costs and reserve groceries;
- Split up the remainder to private accounts, and fuck you if you try to tell me what to do with it.
I don't know if they do an even split or an income-based split. But if he wants to spend his month's income on number 13 at a casino, he can. Over the long haul, I don't see another way to do it that isn't going to work out horribly.
That's... disturbing, Johnny.
That would be already made, and called Dasher. See an earlier post for a Youtube video, or try it out at their site. Works reasonably well, almost like magic. But then, so does ShapeWriter.
I only know about Dutch tax rates
Looking at the income tax, you can see it's nicely staggered. In practice, I pay almost 40% income tax. Everything I buy, and every service I use, takes VAT of 19%, except for foods and related services, which is 6%.
A car is still the money-farm for the Dutch government. To buy a car, you get a list price. In my case, a car had a list price of about 14k euro's. Then I have to pay:
- BPM: 42.3% of the list price. Unjustified tax, just goes into the main government pot.
- VAT: 19% over the list price plus BPM.
Total cost: 14000*1.423*1.19 = 23707, which makes it 59% tax, to buy a vehicle. With my wages, which have already been taxed for almost 40%. Or my savings, which are also taxed for 1.2% a year if they're big enough.
Then we have to pay road tax, and gasoline. Gas is currently cheap at EUR 1,18 per liter or so, or US$6.28 per US Gallon, about 70% of which is also tax.
In car-related taxes, about 17 billion euro's were collected, of which about 4 billion were spent on our overly congested public road system (in repairs. The road quality is generally good, the planning and scalability aren't)
I'd say we pay more than you Leftpondians :-)
Why is it an error in judgement? Smack dab in the middle of puberty is an excellent time to start having sex. There's a strong biological drive, and there's social pressure (which is not good to always completely ignore, since it exists in humans for a reason...)
Also, the problem isn't two 15 year old kids, it's when Johnny turns 16 that he's in trouble. Stupid? Yes. You Americans are weird...
There are some units, especially some of the elite ones, that have the attribute of "Will charge without orders". If you don't want that to happen, you shouldn't deploy them.
Although, granted, it is an annoying attribute that I would have had whipped out of my armed forces.
Famous last words. Or rather, the last words are "But you can't do this to me!"
What happens when you give that job to a low-wage person at a slightly higher than local average salary? (You want to draw in the local talent, after all, not get stuck with the worst-of-the-cheap)
You increase his spending power, which he will pump into his local economy. That takes money away from *your* economy. He's not telling you not to do it, he saying that you should not be allowed to do it.
It's always nice to draw extremes, because they highlight problems. Let's say all jobs in the country are outsourced. The only thing that remains are job-creators such as yourself, and labor that requires a presence here. That would mean a lot of people are unemployed, which would make that local labor cheap due to oversupply. Who, then, is going to buy all the products that your overseas workers are making? The low-wage menial laborers, the unemployed, or the tiny fraction that comprises your group? And that is what you're working towards.
Of course eventually, low-wage countries do not stay low-wage. To get skilled workers, say software developers, you need to motivate them to come to you, rather than a competitor. Typically, this means offering slightly higher wages than their current employer. Given that these people are by definition willing to change jobs for more cash, another company will do the same thing to you. Eventually, wages will be essentially as high as here, if you count the added expense of good remote oversight.
Using Java, I had great fun with RoboCode, by IBM. You get to implement the logic of a little tank, which has to navigate, locate targets and destroy them, while preventing getting destroyed themselves. Obviously, the opponents are other RoboCode robots.
Since you're actually using a Java API and providing compilable code, you get to deal with the actual programming (and algorithm implementation) while not having to to do any of the housekeeping you have to do with any app that wants to use IO unmanaged. Also, it's fun to see your drone autonomously kick butt (or get pasted, as the case may be)
Slightly more advanced than the single tank is the tank-with-drones. The main tank cannot fire, the drones cannot detect enemies, and you get to coordinate between them.
In the words of Terry Pratchett, "The person who said that, wasn't one."
Why the caveat? It does sound great, if the toxic waste and heat pollution is manageable, and can be offset by both (a) having smaller garbage dumps, and (b) requiring less power from coal-burning facilities.
It doesn't have to be perfect, or you'd never get any new tech online. It just has to provide an improvement to the status quo.
It's funny. Because here tipping is not considered mandatory, there is no *expectation* of a tip, and thus, if I really like the service I got, I can give an average tip.
The tipping system in the US is insane. Waitresses should be paid normal wages, and should get tips only as reward for good service (or physical contact, for those so inclined).
Nice. Someone provides a service people are willing to pay for, without causing harm to anyone, and you want his life to be ruined.
When I stopped playing WoW, I sold my game+account to a friend, who got to start with a level 43 priest, with mount. If I ever go crazy and decide to play again, I'd want to start with a mount and an ability to go on raids. That's not a bonus, that's the main game.
If ISPs had given users IP addresses as needed, we wouldn't have anywhere near the proliferation of firewalls that we see with NATs. People care about security in the same way they care about the third world; they don't want it to bother them.
NATs are a necessity, and it's the necessity which drives their demand. And because of that, pretty much everyone's PC is automatically screened from port scans and unwanted connection attempts from away.
That said: Bring on IPv6. It's about time we had global multi- and broadcasting capabilities.
Excuse me if I am repeating obvious conclusions. My only gateway onto the 'Net is very expensive, and I don't get all messages.
I agree on the Usenet references... It was eerily accurate, and very enjoyable. Also, I liked his concept of aliens, which were actually alien, rather than most sci-fi.