I haven't forgotten how easily Democrats were herded into signing the USAPATRIOT act, but in this case, they seem to have finally woken up. Can anyone more up on politics tell me which way the wind is blowing? If the most important item on my agenda is to limit the expansion of executive/police powers, would it be worth it to vote Democrat in the next election, as opposed to a third-party protest vote?
Have paid developers work on high-quality closed-source Linux-only games, or maybe only *partially* open like Quake, then use proceeds to help fund the OS on which they run. Games are non-essential, and therefore, I think, do not break the spirit of the GPL ideology when they're sold closed-source.
Have existing documentation companies like O'Reilly help fund core developers on the technologies they document, with the understanding that O'Reilly (or whoever) gets precedence on the developer's time whenever they want something explained.
This would be especially mutually beneficial on *new* projects which, if developed, would need a new O'Reilly book.
Try paying for the OS by packaging it in the back of a nice, clear, four-color manual. Techies routinely pay $50 for O'Reilly books. Why not pay that, or even less, for a manual that comes straight from the developers?
Interesting link. And it led to this link, which I'll use to preempt the "Swedish are Tax Commies" talk that's sure to ensue.
The effective tax that a medium size company in the United States must pay or withhold within a year is shown below. Entrepreneurs there must make 10 payments, spend 325 hours, and pay 45.96% of gross profit in taxes." (To wit, not that much less than in Sweden, which provides better public services.)
On one hand, powerful backbone providers might oppose RIAA lawsuits, since they want people to be motivated to buy fat broadband accounts and to consider the internet relatively safe from real-world hazards. (Why do you need a broadband account if you're afraid to download media?)
On the other hand, maybe they already take universal adoption of broadband (and the fees that come with it) for granted, and would support the RIAA in order to keep traffic costs down.
Would Sprint, MCI, and other backbone providers be allies or enemies?
I've been discovering a lot of new stuff with iRate radio. The songs that it locates for you, while not necessarily Libre, are at least free-as-in-beer.
I'm not a lawyer, but I think these instructions should immediately be posted to sites hosted outside the U.S., so that Diebold can't get an injunction to shut the site down under the DMCA, and so they'll have less reason to take legal action against the poster, since doing so won't erase the evidence.
Obviously, the iPod generation doesn't mind laying down a few hundred dollars for the latest and greatest technology. The way to win them over to Linux is not to play catch-up, or even to offer a free alternative to something that already exists. Linux will have to offer some killer app that can't be had on Windows or OS X.
I'm not sure what that would be, but there's an angle: FOSS developers are free to develop applications that don't have a business model, and paid developers are not.
I've patented the process of affecting hipness in order to obtain paper friendships within an online community. Soon I'll 0wn Friendster and MySpace both!
In the late eighties, I was called into the principal's office and accused of devil worship by my math teacher (Church of Christ) and principal (Seventh Day Adventist.) Grown people of average sanity considered it a real threat back then. Are we stupid again?
would rather see democratic politics be about engaging with the serious ideas of intelligent opponents, about activating and motivating ordinary people to get involved and really care about politics beyond the television soundbites
This is just the sort of garbage I'd expect some granola crunching, long-haired, pinko lefty idealist to spout. I say we should stick with plain-folks politics and salt of the earth politicians, who understand that people don't care about economics, education, or the environment, but about whether those funny-boys can marry each other.
I wouldn't be so sure about that. I work for a large (and legally savvy) U.S. publisher, and we are extremely careful about how we handle fonts. I gather that the same thing can happen here.
Whoops - meant to say: OpenOffice's "get legal" campaign is an excellent idea.
Why not post the specs and have a design contest? The open-source crowd and the graphic design crowd run in similar circles. I don't think you'd even have to offer a prize, aside from bragging rights.
Must this be a four-color ad, or could you save money by making it two-color or b/w? Do they offer that on the back page? What are the dimensions of the page? Do they prefer Quark? InDesign? Something else?
Their media kit says Metro appears in 18 languages. I assume this ad isn't going to be translated, but where will the English version run aside from New York?...London?...Sydney?...Johannesburg? (If so, they'll care even less about the Founding Fathers than the American audience!)
What audience are you most after? End-users? Startup businesses? Either way, if they were impressed by ideology, they'd already be on board with FLOSS. You'll have to spin it another way - maybe noting that OO.o frees their small business from the EULAs and license fees of Office. Office's "get legal" campaign is an excellent idea - small business owners are terrified of corporate attack lawyers, and OO.o legitimately frees them from some of that fear.
Slashdot Mirror
...wants to be free!
I haven't forgotten how easily Democrats were herded into signing the USAPATRIOT act, but in this case, they seem to have finally woken up. Can anyone more up on politics tell me which way the wind is blowing? If the most important item on my agenda is to limit the expansion of executive/police powers, would it be worth it to vote Democrat in the next election, as opposed to a third-party protest vote?
Have paid developers work on high-quality closed-source Linux-only games, or maybe only *partially* open like Quake, then use proceeds to help fund the OS on which they run. Games are non-essential, and therefore, I think, do not break the spirit of the GPL ideology when they're sold closed-source.
Have existing documentation companies like O'Reilly help fund core developers on the technologies they document, with the understanding that O'Reilly (or whoever) gets precedence on the developer's time whenever they want something explained.
This would be especially mutually beneficial on *new* projects which, if developed, would need a new O'Reilly book.
Try paying for the OS by packaging it in the back of a nice, clear, four-color manual. Techies routinely pay $50 for O'Reilly books. Why not pay that, or even less, for a manual that comes straight from the developers?
Interesting link. And it led to this link, which I'll use to preempt the "Swedish are Tax Commies" talk that's sure to ensue.
The effective tax that a medium size company in the United States must pay or withhold within a year is shown below. Entrepreneurs there must make 10 payments, spend 325 hours, and pay 45.96% of gross profit in taxes." (To wit, not that much less than in Sweden, which provides better public services.)
Workarounds can be found here and here.
On one hand, powerful backbone providers might oppose RIAA lawsuits, since they want people to be motivated to buy fat broadband accounts and to consider the internet relatively safe from real-world hazards. (Why do you need a broadband account if you're afraid to download media?)
On the other hand, maybe they already take universal adoption of broadband (and the fees that come with it) for granted, and would support the RIAA in order to keep traffic costs down.
Would Sprint, MCI, and other backbone providers be allies or enemies?
I've been discovering a lot of new stuff with iRate radio. The songs that it locates for you, while not necessarily Libre, are at least free-as-in-beer.
...does it have the latest version of "Microsoft Drm?" Because I'm not buying it if it doesn't manage my digital rights.
Only the tourists have to worry!
Do you mean "terrorist" or are you referring to the fact that only the tourists seem to realize there's a reason to worry?
Match each band to the model of truck its music is eminating from:
1. Metallica
2. Billy Ray Cyrus
3. Lynnrd Skynnrd
a. GMC truck with double tires on the back
b. Primer-color El Camino with beer cans in the back
c. Shiny red F-150 with aerodynamic truckbed lid
I'm not a lawyer, but I think these instructions should immediately be posted to sites hosted outside the U.S., so that Diebold can't get an injunction to shut the site down under the DMCA, and so they'll have less reason to take legal action against the poster, since doing so won't erase the evidence.
Obviously, the iPod generation doesn't mind laying down a few hundred dollars for the latest and greatest technology. The way to win them over to Linux is not to play catch-up, or even to offer a free alternative to something that already exists. Linux will have to offer some killer app that can't be had on Windows or OS X.
I'm not sure what that would be, but there's an angle: FOSS developers are free to develop applications that don't have a business model, and paid developers are not.
No way; Friendster has totally set them up the bomb. MySpace has no chance to survive, so they might as well make their time.
They can do what MySpace did, and pay 100,000 girls a hundred bucks each to pretend that they are "bi."
We have free, limitless energy, but we can't sell it unless people believe in it.
I think the only question here is: Fry or boil?
How to solve the population problem:
I've patented the process of affecting hipness in order to obtain paper friendships within an online community. Soon I'll 0wn Friendster and MySpace both!
In the late eighties, I was called into the principal's office and accused of devil worship by my math teacher (Church of Christ) and principal (Seventh Day Adventist.) Grown people of average sanity considered it a real threat back then. Are we stupid again?
would rather see democratic politics be about engaging with the serious ideas of intelligent opponents, about activating and motivating ordinary people to get involved and really care about politics beyond the television soundbites
This is just the sort of garbage I'd expect some granola crunching, long-haired, pinko lefty idealist to spout. I say we should stick with plain-folks politics and salt of the earth politicians, who understand that people don't care about economics, education, or the environment, but about whether those funny-boys can marry each other.
I wouldn't be so sure about that. I work for a large (and legally savvy) U.S. publisher, and we are extremely careful about how we handle fonts. I gather that the same thing can happen here.
Whoops - meant to say: OpenOffice's "get legal" campaign is an excellent idea.
Why not post the specs and have a design contest? The open-source crowd and the graphic design crowd run in similar circles. I don't think you'd even have to offer a prize, aside from bragging rights.
Must this be a four-color ad, or could you save money by making it two-color or b/w? Do they offer that on the back page? What are the dimensions of the page? Do they prefer Quark? InDesign? Something else?
...London? ...Sydney? ...Johannesburg? (If so, they'll care even less about the Founding Fathers than the American audience!)
Their media kit says Metro appears in 18 languages. I assume this ad isn't going to be translated, but where will the English version run aside from New York?
What audience are you most after? End-users? Startup businesses? Either way, if they were impressed by ideology, they'd already be on board with FLOSS. You'll have to spin it another way - maybe noting that OO.o frees their small business from the EULAs and license fees of Office. Office's "get legal" campaign is an excellent idea - small business owners are terrified of corporate attack lawyers, and OO.o legitimately frees them from some of that fear.