Saw a congressional discussion about this on CPAN satellite channel last night. Programmers would recognize that those talking are not serious about understanding and solving problems.
Consider the specifications of the system that will hold do-not-call information. Everyone who doesn't want their telephone system abused will make one entry into the database every time they change their telephone number. I figure, on average, one entry every two years.
I've got a 386SX-16 computer around somewhere. That's probably overkill. Looks like I'll be making a profit on my $500,000 bid.
This story would sound reasonable, except that there is another story in which
the facts are easier to check: Telephone Price Wars Called Off. The story says that the long distance
companies are losing money and need to raise their rates. I think the truth is
that providing long-distance services has become cheaper, and they are only
trying to squeeze the customers. Why do I think that? Look at BigZoo. That company is able to make a
profit at 2.9 cents per minute and 75 cents per month.
If you begin to doubt the "telephone companies are poor" story, then it is
likely that you will doubt the "Billy Tauzin is only thinking of how to manage
this best" story.
Here is a southern Repbulican man who, even though he is an adult, is still
called by the diminutive name "Billy". Is is possible that he would take $16,250 to slow the passage of extremely popular legislation while he
tries to stop it? Has such a thing ever happened before? Or, is it true that
Billy is taking an intellectual interest in the bill?
Did this whole idea of having a do-not-call list jump into reality last week?
No, it has been around for a long time. Billy Tauzin could have "studied" it
before.
A lot of newspaper stories are really paid advertisements for a point of view
the payers want you to believe.
It has been a long time since I have dealt with them, but TurboPower software
has been one of the best software companies I have ever seen. They have a
history of making sensible decisions about what to program and how to program
it.
I would very much like to have the source code to the free TPE,
TurboPowered Editor. This was an excellent DOS editor. There may be
Windows versions. If there is only a DOS version, I would plan to make a GUI
version. It would be a great start on some HTML processing tools. I would be
glad to act as coordinator for a SourceForge entry of the code. I still use
the DOS TPE for some text manipulation purposes. Thanks, TurboPower, for the
great software.
I tried to send them email, and got this response: "TurboPower has recently
announced its withdrawal from the component library and developer tools
market." They seem to be going out of business more completely than the story
suggested. I read the story as them going out of the retail business, but I
thought that there were wholesale ways of selling their products that they
would continue. I guess not.
Last Sunday I had dinner with an Intel employee. I told her I thought that one of the reasons Andy Grove (former Intel CEO) got cancer was because he worked too hard. She told me something surprising: She said she had heard that Mr. Grove thought that too.
Burning out employees is a recipe for disaster. It is not a way to make more money.
I'm guessing that the article was written by the Fortune Magazine PR department. Friends of mine at Intel are routinely overworked, because Intel will not hire enough people.
Remember, Fortune is a "what the rich want you to think" company.
Thanks Amazing Quantum Man. You are, in fact, amazing. I was in a big hurry. My woman friend was asking me to be with her for some A. D. I quickly looked at all the comments, and couldn't see that the question was answered. You are right, I didn't read the article.
Intuit's activation scheme for TurboTax is a VERY serious issue. It means that you cannot use the software to work with your return next year if next year you have another computer.
TurboTax software is NEVER backward compatible. That means that you have to re-install last year's software to look at last year's tax return.
Does anyone know if TaxCut has an activation scheme? I saw TaxCut Platinum on sale yesterday at Office Depot for $29.95.
I've used TurboTax for as long as it has been available, but not this year, and not ever again. I will never buy any Intuit software now that the company has been shown to be adversarial to its customers.
Second: I would like to have a Terex even though I have absolutely no use for it.
Third: I would want the best, the Unit Rig MT 5500 Terex Mining Truck. The other truck mentioned above has only 1050 horsepower! I just know I need the 2800 HP of the MT 5500. You know you have a real vehicle when it comes with a ladder that you climb two stories to get to the driver's seat.
Fourth: This is only off topic if someone else is choosing the topic.
I would guess that the arresting officer mistakenly copied his DOB as the date of arrest. The record is one that was widely circulated at the time of the campaign (but not among most voters). Only at the very end of the campaign was there any information that was widely circulated.
Total Information Awareness is not that, it is Total Information Control. When
we have true awareness, everyone will know these facts:
George W. Bush is not mentally suitable to be a leader of any kind. There
is no evidence that he has ever thought deeply about anything in his life. He
has been arrested 3 times. Who do you know who has been arrested 3 times who
wasn't taking part in protest demonstrations?
Dick Cheney is not mentally suitable to be a leader of any kind. According
to an acquaintance of mine who was once in the same social circle as Cheney,
he has a history of womanizing and drinking. Dick Cheney is a very sick man;
he has had a quadruple heart bypass; he should be letting his mind work on the
malfunctions of his body, and avoiding other efforts.
Many Republicans are not members of a political party, they are members of
a corruption organization. They only want to sell the government to whatever
corrupt influence will give the most money.
The U.S. government already operates the biggest surveillance system the
world has ever known. The U.S. government's NSA, FBI, and CIA departments spy
on anyone in any country, and arrange the death of anyone they want, secretly.
The secret agencies of the U.S. government are, at present, the most
violent force in the world. They U.S. government has invaded 14 countries and
killed more than 3,000,000 million people in the last 33 years. In an article,
What should be the
Response to Violence?, I collected some links and explanation about this.
Characteristics that cause micropayment methods to fail:
Business people are self-destructive. Every one seems to dream of making a billion dollars overnight.
Technical people aren't business people.
Why not charge people's credit cards a minimum fee like $10? Then you could refund the balance in case someone did not spend it all and wanted to close an account. The account could keep track of the amount and reason that micro-debits were made. This has the advantage that you hold the money while the purchases are being decided.
osCommerce looks great! This is what the world needs, in my opinion, a
standard method, so people don't have to invent their own. This is the first
time I've seen it, so thank you nandix and Slashdot.
However, the osCommerce documentation and source sites are disorganized enough
that it seems like osCommerce is not ready for wide use. For example, the
documentation project site calls the software by a different name than the
software site: OSCommerce vs. osCommerce.
There is a fundamental difference. When Oregon laws are faulty, there are two reasons: 1) Nixon: Someone wants something and needs a faulty law to get it, and 2) Boot sector: The legislators just aren't thinking clearly.
The biggest friends of business are business men and women. The biggest
enemies of business are... business men and women. Slashdot articles have
provided many examples of business people being self-destructive.
The law in the U.S. has become corrupt, as this July 2002 article, linked at
the bottom of the Inquirer article, says: Political contribution
watch.
I've done some research about how law is made in Oregon: Airplanes are safe, but laws
often crash. (For those who live outside the U.S.: Oregon is a U.S.
state.)
Basically, it appears that the law in the U.S. is being driven by those who
have a financial interest, not people who have the best interests of the
country in mind.
Slashdot Mirror
My understanding is that the $16 million is just for setting up the system. There would, of course, be a yearly cost.
I would have those people leave their address and phone number, and have transcribers send them a form to fill out.
I'm guessing that the call center would be entirely automated. There are no decisions to be made. Touch-tone entries would be enough.
Saw a congressional discussion about this on CPAN satellite channel last night. Programmers would recognize that those talking are not serious about understanding and solving problems.
Consider the specifications of the system that will hold do-not-call information. Everyone who doesn't want their telephone system abused will make one entry into the database every time they change their telephone number. I figure, on average, one entry every two years.
I've got a 386SX-16 computer around somewhere. That's probably overkill. Looks like I'll be making a profit on my $500,000 bid.
"... is it just me, or does $16M sound like a lot of money for a relatively simple database?"
Especially since I would be willing to do it for $250,000, no, make that $500,000.
Place your bids now. We can send them to Billy's office, and show the price for the fraud it really is.
This story would sound reasonable, except that there is another story in which the facts are easier to check: Telephone Price Wars Called Off. The story says that the long distance companies are losing money and need to raise their rates. I think the truth is that providing long-distance services has become cheaper, and they are only trying to squeeze the customers. Why do I think that? Look at BigZoo. That company is able to make a profit at 2.9 cents per minute and 75 cents per month.
If you begin to doubt the "telephone companies are poor" story, then it is likely that you will doubt the "Billy Tauzin is only thinking of how to manage this best" story.
Here is a southern Repbulican man who, even though he is an adult, is still called by the diminutive name "Billy". Is is possible that he would take $16,250 to slow the passage of extremely popular legislation while he tries to stop it? Has such a thing ever happened before? Or, is it true that Billy is taking an intellectual interest in the bill?
Did this whole idea of having a do-not-call list jump into reality last week? No, it has been around for a long time. Billy Tauzin could have "studied" it before.
A lot of newspaper stories are really paid advertisements for a point of view the payers want you to believe.
It has been a long time since I have dealt with them, but TurboPower software has been one of the best software companies I have ever seen. They have a history of making sensible decisions about what to program and how to program it.
I would very much like to have the source code to the free TPE, TurboPowered Editor. This was an excellent DOS editor. There may be Windows versions. If there is only a DOS version, I would plan to make a GUI version. It would be a great start on some HTML processing tools. I would be glad to act as coordinator for a SourceForge entry of the code. I still use the DOS TPE for some text manipulation purposes. Thanks, TurboPower, for the great software.
I tried to send them email, and got this response: "TurboPower has recently announced its withdrawal from the component library and developer tools market." They seem to be going out of business more completely than the story suggested. I read the story as them going out of the retail business, but I thought that there were wholesale ways of selling their products that they would continue. I guess not.
Exactly right, first poster. TurboPower makes excellent software.
Last Sunday I had dinner with an Intel employee. I told her I thought that one of the reasons Andy Grove (former Intel CEO) got cancer was because he worked too hard. She told me something surprising: She said she had heard that Mr. Grove thought that too.
Burning out employees is a recipe for disaster. It is not a way to make more money.
I'm guessing that the article was written by the Fortune Magazine PR department. Friends of mine at Intel are routinely overworked, because Intel will not hire enough people.
Remember, Fortune is a "what the rich want you to think" company.
MOD PARENT UP! Excellent explanation of the issues.
Thanks Amazing Quantum Man. You are, in fact, amazing. I was in a big hurry. My woman friend was asking me to be with her for some A. D. I quickly looked at all the comments, and couldn't see that the question was answered. You are right, I didn't read the article.
Intuit's activation scheme for TurboTax is a VERY serious issue. It means that you cannot use the software to work with your return next year if next year you have another computer.
TurboTax software is NEVER backward compatible. That means that you have to re-install last year's software to look at last year's tax return.
Does anyone know if TaxCut has an activation scheme? I saw TaxCut Platinum on sale yesterday at Office Depot for $29.95.
I've used TurboTax for as long as it has been available, but not this year, and not ever again. I will never buy any Intuit software now that the company has been shown to be adversarial to its customers.
First: You can't have too much overkill.
Second: I would like to have a Terex even though I have absolutely no use for it.
Third: I would want the best, the Unit Rig MT 5500 Terex Mining Truck. The other truck mentioned above has only 1050 horsepower! I just know I need the 2800 HP of the MT 5500. You know you have a real vehicle when it comes with a ladder that you climb two stories to get to the driver's seat.
Fourth: This is only off topic if someone else is choosing the topic.
Sorry, Bush's DOB: 07/6/46. The DOB on the record is in error.
I would guess that the arresting officer mistakenly copied his DOB as the date of arrest. The record is one that was widely circulated at the time of the campaign (but not among most voters). Only at the very end of the campaign was there any information that was widely circulated.
$10 is not too much if I am planning on downloading a variety of files, as in the case of a developer who needs development aids.
Credit card fees can be passed on to the customers.
Here's my contribution to TIA:
President of the U.S. George W. Bush Arrest record #1.
President of the U.S. George W. Bush Arrest record #2.
Vice President of the U.S. Dick Cheney Arrest record #1.
Vice President of the U.S. Dick Cheney Arrest record #2.
Total Information Awareness is not that, it is Total Information Control. When we have true awareness, everyone will know these facts:
Characteristics that cause micropayment methods to fail:
Business people are self-destructive. Every one seems to dream of making a billion dollars overnight.
Technical people aren't business people.
Why not charge people's credit cards a minimum fee like $10? Then you could refund the balance in case someone did not spend it all and wanted to close an account. The account could keep track of the amount and reason that micro-debits were made. This has the advantage that you hold the money while the purchases are being decided.
osCommerce looks great! This is what the world needs, in my opinion, a standard method, so people don't have to invent their own. This is the first time I've seen it, so thank you nandix and Slashdot.
However, the osCommerce documentation and source sites are disorganized enough that it seems like osCommerce is not ready for wide use. For example, the documentation project site calls the software by a different name than the software site: OSCommerce vs. osCommerce.
OSCommerce 2.2CVS Documentation
OSCommerce 2.2CVS Pretend product catalog
Short description: About osCommerce
830 sites use osCommerce, and are registered.
But you are allowed to charge for the delivery of GPL code. Redhat does this, for example.
Bruce,
Will they charge for the digital version, or will that version be free?
Both.
There is a fundamental difference. When Oregon laws are faulty, there are two reasons: 1) Nixon: Someone wants something and needs a faulty law to get it, and 2) Boot sector: The legislators just aren't thinking clearly.
The biggest friends of business are business men and women. The biggest enemies of business are
The law in the U.S. has become corrupt, as this July 2002 article, linked at the bottom of the Inquirer article, says: Political contribution watch.
I've done some research about how law is made in Oregon: Airplanes are safe, but laws often crash. (For those who live outside the U.S.: Oregon is a U.S. state.)
Basically, it appears that the law in the U.S. is being driven by those who have a financial interest, not people who have the best interests of the country in mind.