(now if we can just convince a judge in the US to accept an Australian court finding as precedent...)
Actually, thanks to CSS, DVDs are already allowed to be rented here in the US. The subsection making rental of software specifically exempts:
a computer program which is embodied in a machine or product and which cannot be copied during the ordinary operation or use of the machine or product; or
They like to very tightly control who has access (for good reason) to send them data, both for quality control and security.
That actually makes it the perfect place for open source software, because you don't have to worry about massive numbers of people downloading and using your software for free. Tax preparation and e-filing is a service, and selling services is exactly how you make money with open source software.
You should know that you have to be approved, submit your fingerprints, and pass an FBI criminal background check in order to connect to the IRS computers. I applied in mid-December and still haven't been approved. Even if I am approved the software will not likely be finished enough to pass the test until next year.
But you have to send them your fingerprints to be able to use it. I'm working on an open-source (QingPL) e-filing program. It probably won't be finished until next year without help, but it is available for your examination at http://sourceforge.net/projects/tax/.
Joe Sixpack isn't going to think to type in firestonesucks.com either. He'll type "firestone sucks" (without the quotes) into his IE address bar which will take him to a search.
it's a lot easier to remember and communicate "firestonesucks.com" than "angelfire.com/some/random/url/path/firestonesucks/"
But it's just as easy to remember rollingover.com as it is to remember firestonesucks.com. Besides, if you already have a channel to communicate your website address, why not just tell them why firestone sucks right there.
I've thought about this before, and the main problem I keep coming up with is the cost issue. So I ask this as a question: how much does it cost to have hardware perform ethernet layer 2 vs. firewire layer 2? I would imagine ethernet is more expensive, due to its intended use in machines with processors, but it's just a total guess (I'm also not a hardware guy).
Otherwise I'd say go for it. Gigabit ethernet can surely support just about any add-on other than monitors and ram. I'd love to be able to just plug in anything I buy for my computer to my ethernet switch. For those consumers too scared to open their machines it's an even better accomplishment.
it is even more unethical to buy them up just to prevent criticism of yourself.
But even buying a million domain names doesn't prevent people from criticising you. Really, who goes on the internet and types in firestonesucks.com to find out about what the problems are with firestone tires? You'll get much better results by going to google and typing in "firestone sucks".
But I will also point out that there is an equivalently limited set of English words
Wait a second here. When I use a word, that by no means stops someone else from using that same word. When I use a domain name to identify my web page, no one else can use that domain name. That is the difference.
If people realized that it was just an average public forum/rumor mill, a lot less people would come here.
I don't know. Sometimes I think slashdot is an above average public forum/rumor mill. Then I take a look at the comments on the front page. "I wonder how much of this profit represents 1-click licensing fees" - troll. "Can't say I'm surprised" - redundant offtopic troll. Sometimes I wonder if the only reason I come to slashdot is to get pissed off by the trolls.
But then I try to think of an alternative. And there really isn't one out there. I've learned a lot about certain topics through reading +4, +5 posts. It's just funny that it's despite the editors. The editors could just post the word "chicken" and somehow 5 interesting posts on the topic would rise to +5.
Communities with low social capital have poor schools, more teen pregnancies and child or youth suicide, and higher prental mortality.
I would think the ability to perform socially would be directly proportional to the ability for teens to get teens pregnant. After all, you can't get pregnant over the internet (yet). Also, I would think that the access to free information about birth control in the anonymity and privacy of your home would decrease teenage pregnancies.
It seems to me that the increase in teenage pregnancies would be more due to much different causes. Besides that, what's wrong with a teenager getting pregnant?
Call it whatever you want, a copy and paste from someone who has absolutely no idea what s/he's talking about (referring to the submitter, not timothy) isn't interesting to me.
Had someone else posted the same comment as mine and I had read it, that I would have found humorous. Others' tastes may vary, but unlike timothy at least I actually tried. So I'll keep publishing things that I find funny/interesting/insightful/whatever, and timothy can keep publishing the works of others without so much as checking facts or adding anything useful himself. At least there's a moderation system to tell me when others find my crap worthwhile. Timothy has to rely on flames from readers like me. Of course, judging from the lack of effort he seems to be putting into his work, apparently he'd prefer to sit in a cube from 9 to 5 and collect money from a soon to be bankrupt company.
Damn, I really need to set something up for that site. I've been thinking of a slashdot parody site, but I don't have the time to actually do it. For now I squat, I guess.
Timothy writes writes "Kallahar writes 'New Scientist is running a story about a Canadian university who had students break an encrypted message in order to get into college. A good idea to grab a good student, but here in 'Free' America these kids would have been thrown in jail for violating the DMCA...'
Inventory size won't matter as much in that case, but rent still will. I doubt office furnature depreciates as much, but storing 5000 desks will cost a lot less in ohio then in the greater DC area.
True, but shipping 5000 desks to 5000 locations will cost *a whole lot* less than shipping 5000 desks to 1 location. Desks aren't the kind of item that goes well online. It's more movies, electronics, books, etc.
Except checkout people get payed even when nobody is browsing (watch a store front sometime, traffice ebbs and flows).
I don't know, I've never run a real world store, so it's hard for me to say for sure. I am talking about the megastores though, the Wal Marts of the world. Joe's Video is obviously going to have a lot more waste in that respect. Another thing I just thought of is online fraud. Online stores I'd imagine get a *much* higher rate of chargebacks, and without a signiture there isn't very much they can do about them.
On the other hand a Internet store can provide much more complete access to the specs on complex items. Other then testing the feal of a DVD player I think Internet shopping wouks much better for that because the people at the stores are clueless and they can never locate the manuals.
I totally agree with you. For almost all items I buy I'd much rather shop for them online. But then I'd like to go pick the item up, not have to wait a week.
Around here it is cheaper to buy CD's online then from Tower. Around here it is cheaper to buy books from wherever www.bestbuybooks.com says then B&N or Borders.
If you're buying 1 CD, or 1 book, around here it's about the same, when factoring in shipping costs. If you're buying more you can get a small discount from shopping online. Fairly small, though.
I doubt it will ever be cheaper to get a tomato, loaf of bread, or pork roast online though.
Certainly not with the current shipping models, though I believe we will one day be able to do our grocery shopping online and then either go pick it up or have it delivered in a matter of hours. And I believe that will be the cheapest way to get your groceries, at least for all but the most rural areas.
Exactly, this will never happen unless there is a way for the middlemen to make a profit. It might happen if the online guys were the middlemen, and given your location what they are really telling you is where to go to get the stuff you asked for (minimum number of miles, minimum number of stores), and they got a small cut of the price from the retailers.
It could easily be done in states with no sales tax. Simply offer an order fulfillment service to the online retailers. Charge them (at cost) for warehousing their products at your fulfillment center, charge them at cost for shipping inventory to and from the fulfillment center, and then charge them a small charge (say $.25) for each product that is picked up. Charge a slightly higher price (say $1) for items to be delivered within 3 hours. If I had a few million to spare I'd probably try this. I think it would work. But when you come to think about it, this is essentially what the brick and mortar stores already do. The difference is that the orders are placed online, and there is much less brick and mortar because people come to your store only to pick things up. That's what I'm talking about when I suggest combining the two.
The problem with that idea is of course sales tax. This is especially sad because it's effectively a tax on brick and mortar businesses. I'm not sure how or if the government is going to solve that problem. Perhaps a federal sales tax on interstate commerce, remitted to the state in which the product is purchased, which the state can choose to refund to consumers (on their income tax forms) in states which have low or no sales/use tax. But there is a lot of fear that would eventually get stolen away from the states, a fear which is quite justified.
P.S. I'm not sure middlemen make less in an efficent market then anyone else -- in an efficent market all margins drop to zero.
Absolutely. I'm sorry if I implied otherwise.
In the real world stock brokers make real money
NYSE and NASDAQ are far from efficient markets. The ECNs are much closer, and the cost of trading has gone down dramatically since their inception. Take a look at the chart for NITE, a market maker. The ECNs and decimalization have devestated NITE's profits (last quarter they were down 62%), and as the market gets more and more efficient those profits will continue to drop.
The price differences between Circuit City and price watch retiler number 8 is a vast sea of complexity, and I doubt either of us knows even half the story.
I guess I really shouldn't talk about those complexities until I've done it myself, and at the moment no one is willing to loan me a few million to try. Which leads to another inefficiency with brick and mortar stores: barriers to entry. But barriers to entry just lead to profits, so I guess I *am* trying to argue that I do know half the story.
Maybe, but retail stores have to pay rent in more expansive [expensive] areas then mail order stores do. Retail stores have to keep inventory local, mail order stores can choose to not stock items until ordered, after all people buying from them are already signing up for a multi day wait for shipping, what is a few more days?
Both of these points are true, but for high volume items which don't depreciate rapidly this tends to be a rather small savings.
Mail order can get by with fewer employees per customer. Plus they can locate those people in areas with lower pay scale.
I'm not sure I agree with that. A person at a checkout counter isn't going to be paid very much, and isn't going to be spending any more time than someone packing boxes. Supermarkets are even coming out with self-checkout isles. Whether it's Amazon.com or Wal Mart you're still going to need a manager for every 5-10 employees or so. Things need to be stocked whether you're processing for mail order or retail, and in retail you actually have the advantage in most cases that the customer locates the product and takes it off the shelf for you.
Ordering off the Internet isn't worse then mail ordering via a catalogue (except for getting exact color matches), and is in many ways a bit better.
I totally agree with you there. But catalogue sales are a small percentage of consumer sales. The internet is a bit more efficient than catalogue sales, but it's by no means at a point where it can replace brick and mortar shopping. And I mean that not just because of consumer hesitation (though that's part of it). I mean that the inherent efficiencies built into the brick and mortar system have not been addressed.
The stuff was in the same queue you use for in-store ordered items that they bring from the warehouse.
Not exactly what I meant, but it's a start. What I really want is to be able to access the inventories right on the shelves of the store, in real time. What would be beautiful is if there were one physical store where I could pick-up my products from multiple different online stores. Combine the efficiencies of the brick and mortar stores with the efficiencies of the online stores. The only problem is that brick and mortar stores will lose all their profits as soon as people start comparison shopping. In a truly efficient market, middlemen don't make money. That difference in price between Circuit City and online retailers; it's not due to inefficiencies with brick and mortar stores, it's pure profit.
Depends on the item. DVDs for instance cost about 10% in shipping.
Also don't forget, just because you buy something mail order doesn't mean you're not supposed to pay use tax. No one does it, of course, but that doesn't mean you're not supposed to (this actually matters for large businesses which will get caught and fined for it).
Slashdot Mirror
(now if we can just convince a judge in the US to accept an Australian court finding as precedent...)
Actually, thanks to CSS, DVDs are already allowed to be rented here in the US. The subsection making rental of software specifically exempts:
They're plastic.
They like to very tightly control who has access (for good reason) to send them data, both for quality control and security.
That actually makes it the perfect place for open source software, because you don't have to worry about massive numbers of people downloading and using your software for free. Tax preparation and e-filing is a service, and selling services is exactly how you make money with open source software.
What do you call an ISP with stupid admins going out of business?
A start.
The difference between what these kids do and an arsonist is the FBI actually cares about arson.
Umm, the FBI doesn't have jurisdiction over arson cases unless it's a federal building.
You should know that you have to be approved, submit your fingerprints, and pass an FBI criminal background check in order to connect to the IRS computers. I applied in mid-December and still haven't been approved. Even if I am approved the software will not likely be finished enough to pass the test until next year.
But you have to send them your fingerprints to be able to use it. I'm working on an open-source (QingPL) e-filing program. It probably won't be finished until next year without help, but it is available for your examination at http://sourceforge.net/projects/tax/.
Slashdot is occasionally criticized for getting a story wrong, even though we diligently correct ourselves when necessary.
Hmm, wasn't it necessary to correct yourself for spewing this nonsense:
Sure, it's the false nonsense of someone else, but that's the same with the Reuters story.
Your Joe Sixpack computer user may not
Joe Sixpack isn't going to think to type in firestonesucks.com either. He'll type "firestone sucks" (without the quotes) into his IE address bar which will take him to a search.
it's a lot easier to remember and communicate "firestonesucks.com" than "angelfire.com/some/random/url/path/firestonesucks /"
But it's just as easy to remember rollingover.com as it is to remember firestonesucks.com. Besides, if you already have a channel to communicate your website address, why not just tell them why firestone sucks right there.
Anyone have specs on the latency of firewire vs. ethernet? I'd imagine firewire has a lower latency, since the maximum distances are shorter.
How would you coordinate the caches of two different machines using the same disk?
The same way it's done with firewire. You do know that you can connect two different machines to the same disk with firewire, don't you?
I've thought about this before, and the main problem I keep coming up with is the cost issue. So I ask this as a question: how much does it cost to have hardware perform ethernet layer 2 vs. firewire layer 2? I would imagine ethernet is more expensive, due to its intended use in machines with processors, but it's just a total guess (I'm also not a hardware guy).
Otherwise I'd say go for it. Gigabit ethernet can surely support just about any add-on other than monitors and ram. I'd love to be able to just plug in anything I buy for my computer to my ethernet switch. For those consumers too scared to open their machines it's an even better accomplishment.
it is even more unethical to buy them up just to prevent criticism of yourself.
But even buying a million domain names doesn't prevent people from criticising you. Really, who goes on the internet and types in firestonesucks.com to find out about what the problems are with firestone tires? You'll get much better results by going to google and typing in "firestone sucks".
But I will also point out that there is an equivalently limited set of English words
Wait a second here. When I use a word, that by no means stops someone else from using that same word. When I use a domain name to identify my web page, no one else can use that domain name. That is the difference.
Since these are whatever.sucks.com (not whateversucks.com), register.com only gets $35/year out of the deal.
If people realized that it was just an average public forum/rumor mill, a lot less people would come here.
I don't know. Sometimes I think slashdot is an above average public forum/rumor mill. Then I take a look at the comments on the front page. "I wonder how much of this profit represents 1-click licensing fees" - troll. "Can't say I'm surprised" - redundant offtopic troll. Sometimes I wonder if the only reason I come to slashdot is to get pissed off by the trolls.
But then I try to think of an alternative. And there really isn't one out there. I've learned a lot about certain topics through reading +4, +5 posts. It's just funny that it's despite the editors. The editors could just post the word "chicken" and somehow 5 interesting posts on the topic would rise to +5.
Communities with low social capital have poor schools, more teen pregnancies and child or youth suicide, and higher prental mortality.
I would think the ability to perform socially would be directly proportional to the ability for teens to get teens pregnant. After all, you can't get pregnant over the internet (yet). Also, I would think that the access to free information about birth control in the anonymity and privacy of your home would decrease teenage pregnancies.
It seems to me that the increase in teenage pregnancies would be more due to much different causes. Besides that, what's wrong with a teenager getting pregnant?
Call it whatever you want, a copy and paste from someone who has absolutely no idea what s/he's talking about (referring to the submitter, not timothy) isn't interesting to me.
Had someone else posted the same comment as mine and I had read it, that I would have found humorous. Others' tastes may vary, but unlike timothy at least I actually tried. So I'll keep publishing things that I find funny/interesting/insightful/whatever, and timothy can keep publishing the works of others without so much as checking facts or adding anything useful himself. At least there's a moderation system to tell me when others find my crap worthwhile. Timothy has to rely on flames from readers like me. Of course, judging from the lack of effort he seems to be putting into his work, apparently he'd prefer to sit in a cube from 9 to 5 and collect money from a soon to be bankrupt company.
Damn, I really need to set something up for that site. I've been thinking of a slashdot parody site, but I don't have the time to actually do it. For now I squat, I guess.
Timothy writes writes "Kallahar writes 'New Scientist is running a story about a Canadian university who had students break an encrypted message in order to get into college. A good idea to grab a good student, but here in 'Free' America these kids would have been thrown in jail for violating the DMCA ...'
Inventory size won't matter as much in that case, but rent still will. I doubt office furnature depreciates as much, but storing 5000 desks will cost a lot less in ohio then in the greater DC area.
True, but shipping 5000 desks to 5000 locations will cost *a whole lot* less than shipping 5000 desks to 1 location. Desks aren't the kind of item that goes well online. It's more movies, electronics, books, etc.
Except checkout people get payed even when nobody is browsing (watch a store front sometime, traffice ebbs and flows).
I don't know, I've never run a real world store, so it's hard for me to say for sure. I am talking about the megastores though, the Wal Marts of the world. Joe's Video is obviously going to have a lot more waste in that respect. Another thing I just thought of is online fraud. Online stores I'd imagine get a *much* higher rate of chargebacks, and without a signiture there isn't very much they can do about them.
On the other hand a Internet store can provide much more complete access to the specs on complex items. Other then testing the feal of a DVD player I think Internet shopping wouks much better for that because the people at the stores are clueless and they can never locate the manuals.
I totally agree with you. For almost all items I buy I'd much rather shop for them online. But then I'd like to go pick the item up, not have to wait a week.
Around here it is cheaper to buy CD's online then from Tower. Around here it is cheaper to buy books from wherever www.bestbuybooks.com says then B&N or Borders.
If you're buying 1 CD, or 1 book, around here it's about the same, when factoring in shipping costs. If you're buying more you can get a small discount from shopping online. Fairly small, though.
I doubt it will ever be cheaper to get a tomato, loaf of bread, or pork roast online though.
Certainly not with the current shipping models, though I believe we will one day be able to do our grocery shopping online and then either go pick it up or have it delivered in a matter of hours. And I believe that will be the cheapest way to get your groceries, at least for all but the most rural areas.
Exactly, this will never happen unless there is a way for the middlemen to make a profit. It might happen if the online guys were the middlemen, and given your location what they are really telling you is where to go to get the stuff you asked for (minimum number of miles, minimum number of stores), and they got a small cut of the price from the retailers.
It could easily be done in states with no sales tax. Simply offer an order fulfillment service to the online retailers. Charge them (at cost) for warehousing their products at your fulfillment center, charge them at cost for shipping inventory to and from the fulfillment center, and then charge them a small charge (say $.25) for each product that is picked up. Charge a slightly higher price (say $1) for items to be delivered within 3 hours. If I had a few million to spare I'd probably try this. I think it would work. But when you come to think about it, this is essentially what the brick and mortar stores already do. The difference is that the orders are placed online, and there is much less brick and mortar because people come to your store only to pick things up. That's what I'm talking about when I suggest combining the two.
The problem with that idea is of course sales tax. This is especially sad because it's effectively a tax on brick and mortar businesses. I'm not sure how or if the government is going to solve that problem. Perhaps a federal sales tax on interstate commerce, remitted to the state in which the product is purchased, which the state can choose to refund to consumers (on their income tax forms) in states which have low or no sales/use tax. But there is a lot of fear that would eventually get stolen away from the states, a fear which is quite justified.
P.S. I'm not sure middlemen make less in an efficent market then anyone else -- in an efficent market all margins drop to zero.
Absolutely. I'm sorry if I implied otherwise.
In the real world stock brokers make real money
NYSE and NASDAQ are far from efficient markets. The ECNs are much closer, and the cost of trading has gone down dramatically since their inception. Take a look at the chart for NITE, a market maker. The ECNs and decimalization have devestated NITE's profits (last quarter they were down 62%), and as the market gets more and more efficient those profits will continue to drop.
The price differences between Circuit City and price watch retiler number 8 is a vast sea of complexity, and I doubt either of us knows even half the story.
I guess I really shouldn't talk about those complexities until I've done it myself, and at the moment no one is willing to loan me a few million to try. Which leads to another inefficiency with brick and mortar stores: barriers to entry. But barriers to entry just lead to profits, so I guess I *am* trying to argue that I do know half the story.
Maybe, but retail stores have to pay rent in more expansive [expensive] areas then mail order stores do. Retail stores have to keep inventory local, mail order stores can choose to not stock items until ordered, after all people buying from them are already signing up for a multi day wait for shipping, what is a few more days?
Both of these points are true, but for high volume items which don't depreciate rapidly this tends to be a rather small savings.
Mail order can get by with fewer employees per customer. Plus they can locate those people in areas with lower pay scale.
I'm not sure I agree with that. A person at a checkout counter isn't going to be paid very much, and isn't going to be spending any more time than someone packing boxes. Supermarkets are even coming out with self-checkout isles. Whether it's Amazon.com or Wal Mart you're still going to need a manager for every 5-10 employees or so. Things need to be stocked whether you're processing for mail order or retail, and in retail you actually have the advantage in most cases that the customer locates the product and takes it off the shelf for you.
Ordering off the Internet isn't worse then mail ordering via a catalogue (except for getting exact color matches), and is in many ways a bit better.
I totally agree with you there. But catalogue sales are a small percentage of consumer sales. The internet is a bit more efficient than catalogue sales, but it's by no means at a point where it can replace brick and mortar shopping. And I mean that not just because of consumer hesitation (though that's part of it). I mean that the inherent efficiencies built into the brick and mortar system have not been addressed.
The stuff was in the same queue you use for in-store ordered items that they bring from the warehouse.
Not exactly what I meant, but it's a start. What I really want is to be able to access the inventories right on the shelves of the store, in real time. What would be beautiful is if there were one physical store where I could pick-up my products from multiple different online stores. Combine the efficiencies of the brick and mortar stores with the efficiencies of the online stores. The only problem is that brick and mortar stores will lose all their profits as soon as people start comparison shopping. In a truly efficient market, middlemen don't make money. That difference in price between Circuit City and online retailers; it's not due to inefficiencies with brick and mortar stores, it's pure profit.
Depends on the item. DVDs for instance cost about 10% in shipping.
Also don't forget, just because you buy something mail order doesn't mean you're not supposed to pay use tax. No one does it, of course, but that doesn't mean you're not supposed to (this actually matters for large businesses which will get caught and fined for it).
From what I've seen none of them have real time prices, inventory, and ability to reserve your item (via credit card). That's what I want.
If chess is for paranoid thrillseekers, who is it that plays go?