You are missing one thing in your analogy. Macs aren't like a luxury car. The OS isn't any "easier", and the machine doesn't have more speed. What it DOES have is a more economical outlook. The OS isn't easier, but it gets out of your way and gives you multiple levels of sophistication. The machine doesn't have more raw speed, but it is faster for the things that crawl for most people (hence the development of AltiVec.)
Volvos come with better crash ratings (more likely to walk away from a system failure, so to speak), four wheel drive and four wheel disk brakes (BSD-underneath), and an engine that doesn't have as many CCs but still plenty of get-you-there. Costs you a little more, but not any more than a Ford with the same features.
[Composed on my shiney (and I mean shiney) new G4 that I only paid $2000 and have burned 2 DVDs on.]
My business partner bought a Honda Insight a couple of years ago, so I am fairly familiar with his experiences. He enjoy driving it; he says that it takes some practice to learn the light touch you need to get it from 50 mpg to the mid 60s, but not hard.
The car routinely gets heads to turn, and he says that the resale value is high enough that even with only 2 years paid on the car he has equity (rather than being upside down.) I have no first-hand knowledge of the other vehicles.
What is your view on the future in ebooks? What has been done so far (like Stephen King's attempt) could be qualified as either a success or failure, depending on your view.
Do you favor a closed, centrally driven system (keeping the publisher/distributer chain much like it is now) or something more like each author being able to make his own manuscript and hang his own "publisher" shingle? I suppose as a person with a highly developed creativity skill <g>, you couldn't have something completely different in mind, could you?
The only problem with this is that it lets the spammers know how much they need to change their MO to slide under the radar. I did get a warm feeling from seeing all of it though.
"You are going to let them in here? They're gonna see everything! Waaaeeeh, they're gonna see the big board!"
I mean, isn't this one of the first real examples of privatized justice?
Yes, it is an example of privatized justice, and it is one of the very things libertarianism fights against.
Attacking someone like this is using (electronic) force to circumvent free association -- and free association is the foundation of libertarianism. The RIAA says that it's rights are being violated? There is a due process to be followed to restore their rights.
As far as dummy files goes, I think that the argument is moot, because there are technological blacklists which would be quickly implimented to throw the RIAA off the network for pissing in the pool -- in other words, free association, because the hallmark of a free association is the right to end that association at will. When the RIAA begins bandwidth consuming attacks (which still seem to be allowed under the proposed law, even if they aren't called to attention) then they are taking away the right of the sharer to associate with others on the net, and will probably be treated like any other script kiddie on the net -- thier packets will enter the black hole as soon as they hit a router that isn't on the RIAA dole (and it won't take too many hops.)
Thank Goodness for Lazy Installers
on
What Free Cable?
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· Score: 1
I have ATTBI. When the tech showed up to install, he told me "I'll have to rerun the drop from the ped (I had no idea what a ped was at the time) but I think the wiring inside is OK." He reran the outside drop and carried some black box meters of some kind into the attic.
"Signal's good and strong now," he tells me, and slaps the modem on the wall jack that was already in the room. "I don't have to run a new jack that way" he explains. I don't know if installing a 400 filter is standard in this area, but if it is, he didn't. I have digital phone too, but I doubt that is the reason that he didn't install a filter.
I WILL be examining my bill for an extra $10 when I get home, though. I am certainly not the kind of scoundrel who would hook a TV up to the jacks, and I'm not going to take a hit just because the tech was too lazy to run a new jack and just kept all the splitters that were already up in the attic.
Besides, if you are only using the old RG-6 jumpers that the cable company themselves use to hook up the TVs, the leakage would be much harder to detect, wouldn't it? I wasn't the one who hooked up all the splitters in the attic that would show up on the line length scan, and I'm not worried about "degrading my modem's signal" -- I had 4.5 mb for about a week, and then the @home merger goes through, and I get capped at 1.5 for the same price.
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You are missing one thing in your analogy. Macs aren't like a luxury car. The OS isn't any "easier", and the machine doesn't have more speed. What it DOES have is a more economical outlook. The OS isn't easier, but it gets out of your way and gives you multiple levels of sophistication. The machine doesn't have more raw speed, but it is faster for the things that crawl for most people (hence the development of AltiVec.)
Volvos come with better crash ratings (more likely to walk away from a system failure, so to speak), four wheel drive and four wheel disk brakes (BSD-underneath), and an engine that doesn't have as many CCs but still plenty of get-you-there. Costs you a little more, but not any more than a Ford with the same features.
[Composed on my shiney (and I mean shiney) new G4 that I only paid $2000 and have burned 2 DVDs on.]
My business partner bought a Honda Insight a couple of years ago, so I am fairly familiar with his experiences. He enjoy driving it; he says that it takes some practice to learn the light touch you need to get it from 50 mpg to the mid 60s, but not hard.
The car routinely gets heads to turn, and he says that the resale value is high enough that even with only 2 years paid on the car he has equity (rather than being upside down.) I have no first-hand knowledge of the other vehicles.
What is your view on the future in ebooks? What has been done so far (like Stephen King's attempt) could be qualified as either a success or failure, depending on your view.
Do you favor a closed, centrally driven system (keeping the publisher/distributer chain much like it is now) or something more like each author being able to make his own manuscript and hang his own "publisher" shingle? I suppose as a person with a highly developed creativity skill <g>, you couldn't have something completely different in mind, could you?
The only problem with this is that it lets the spammers know how much they need to change their MO to slide under the radar. I did get a warm feeling from seeing all of it though.
"You are going to let them in here? They're gonna see everything! Waaaeeeh, they're gonna see the big board!"
Yes, it is an example of privatized justice, and it is one of the very things libertarianism fights against.
Attacking someone like this is using (electronic) force to circumvent free association -- and free association is the foundation of libertarianism. The RIAA says that it's rights are being violated? There is a due process to be followed to restore their rights.
As far as dummy files goes, I think that the argument is moot, because there are technological blacklists which would be quickly implimented to throw the RIAA off the network for pissing in the pool -- in other words, free association, because the hallmark of a free association is the right to end that association at will. When the RIAA begins bandwidth consuming attacks (which still seem to be allowed under the proposed law, even if they aren't called to attention) then they are taking away the right of the sharer to associate with others on the net, and will probably be treated like any other script kiddie on the net -- thier packets will enter the black hole as soon as they hit a router that isn't on the RIAA dole (and it won't take too many hops.)
I have ATTBI. When the tech showed up to install, he told me "I'll have to rerun the drop from the ped (I had no idea what a ped was at the time) but I think the wiring inside is OK." He reran the outside drop and carried some black box meters of some kind into the attic.
"Signal's good and strong now," he tells me, and slaps the modem on the wall jack that was already in the room. "I don't have to run a new jack that way" he explains. I don't know if installing a 400 filter is standard in this area, but if it is, he didn't. I have digital phone too, but I doubt that is the reason that he didn't install a filter.
I WILL be examining my bill for an extra $10 when I get home, though. I am certainly not the kind of scoundrel who would hook a TV up to the jacks, and I'm not going to take a hit just because the tech was too lazy to run a new jack and just kept all the splitters that were already up in the attic.
Besides, if you are only using the old RG-6 jumpers that the cable company themselves use to hook up the TVs, the leakage would be much harder to detect, wouldn't it? I wasn't the one who hooked up all the splitters in the attic that would show up on the line length scan, and I'm not worried about "degrading my modem's signal" -- I had 4.5 mb for about a week, and then the @home merger goes through, and I get capped at 1.5 for the same price.
Bastards.