That link was given in the 2.5-line summary, as well as in the original article, and was immediately slashdotted. Why on earth would you think that we needed to see it again?
This is almost as redundant as the 10 posts complaining that this topic has already appeared. Of course, while I'm writing to call attention to this 3 other people probably are as well, so this message is also redundant. Sorry to waste your time!
Yet there seems to be no liability on the part of the blackhole list providers when they fail to remove servers from their list once any mis-configuration (open relays) whether intentional or not, is corrected.
These guys are providing advice, which ISPs and end-users, at their discretion, may or may not follow. The scenario you describe implies that at one time, this was good advice, i.e. the IP was an open relay that should have been blocked. It wasn't the list's fault that you misconfigured your system. Maybe it's not the most negligent thing you could possibly do, but the fact that you got on the list was YOUR FAULT.
Spam is a serious problem. Those lists which make any claims to prevent spam naturally have some liability to accomplish this. To this purpose, these lists publish IPs which have been known to facilitate spam.
Restoration Of Service To Those Who Have Previously Facilitated Spam is not a serious problem. No list claims that it constantly monitors the IPs on its list for momentary lapses in spamming. Why should any list be made to do so, when this is an onerous task that clearly would distract from the list's stated purpose?
If an ISP or end user decided that identifying these "no-longer-spamming" IPs was important for any reason, this would be a fairly straitforward task to accomplish. Likewise, if "ROSTTWHPFS" becomes a serious problem, we can imagine the creation of "don't block" lists that could be used in conjunction with the block lists.
As a practical matter, any normal business that finds it impossible to send emails to those to whom it may legitimately send is not prevented from contacting its legitimate recipients by other means to encourage them to no longer block its emails. Those potential recipients would then be free to accept or deny such a request. When I say "normal", I mean businesses that actually do something. These are highly unlikely to be listed. If, OTOH, your business consists entirely of sending email to people, then you should expect to have this problem occasionally, especially if you mis-configure your servers, and you should write it off as a cost of doing business.
I've loved the Ender series (especially when compared to OSC's others like "Homecoming" and "Alvin Maker"), and I would definitely look forward to the movie, but to me the short stories from _Maps_in_a_Mirror_ are his most enjoyable work. That's why I was stoked to see "Dogwalker" listed on the site as well. This is one of the best of them, and much more suited to the screen than "Kingsmeat", "Fat Farm", or "A Thousand Deaths".
Notice I said "most enjoyable". As much as we'd like to transfer all the great metaphysical scifi to the screen, such a transfer is likely to either create an unwatchable set of wooden monologues, completely toss the deep concepts, or both. Also, LOTR notwithstanding, short stories are easier to adapt than novels.
If we can judge from the screenshots, this engine is terrific. I can imagine some really sweet lemmings-meets-M:TFL games. And while there were a few games produced that appeared to be in that vein, it was cool that a number of completely different ideas showed up as well.
By the looks of it, the first iteration of this event was a success. It will be great when we can download the games and see for ourselves.
There has been quite a bit of protectionism and bigotry expressed in this discussion, but please don't discount the real issues involved. I worked for 1.5 years in Asia relying on developer support in the U.S. and in London, and that sucked real hard for many of the same reasons that have been given above. This was a combination of development of new functionality and bug-fixing, and it was like pulling teeth.
When you can't call the developers except at 1 AM, and when they don't have an intuitive understanding of the the cultural situation in which the product will be used, you've got a difficult time. If you add to that developers who do not feel personally responsible for producing quality software [and developers like this exist in ALL countries], it's very difficult to make any progress at all. You probably have techniques for dealing with uninspired programmers working in the same office, but you should realize that when they are working 11 timezones away you will have very little leverage.
just imagine if we allowed your average person on the street to dictate how a tcp/ip stack should be implemented, or what have you.
Since the tcp/ip stack simply describes a way in which machines may exchange electronic signals, any group of people who own machines may use any alternative that they like. This confusion of the Internet with literal highways is a misuse of metaphor that does real harm to a free society. From the fact that a 16-ft-wide area in which the general public operates vehicles of varying tonnages at speeds in excess of 60 mph needs a modicum of regulation, please don't deduce that the internet needs it as well.
later, Jess
--
Socrates was banished for his views. I expect no less from our 'modern' society.
Umm, I thought he was executed. Would you expect that?
I have a friend who was rear-ended by a cell-phoner while stopped at a light recently, and I've heard about all the other problems that have been "caused" by cell phones, so I realize intellectually that many people are not capable of driving and conversing at the same time. Even so, the fact that anyone could have such low brainpower amazes me. I mean, I've driven ~30k miles in the last year (granted, this has been mostly in the Mountain TZ, where the traffic is a bit lighter), and I'm probably safest when talking on the phone. It's much more dangerous when I'm switching CDs, making sandwiches, reading a map, searching for a pen, searching for change, trying to see if the cop made a U-turn, etc.
On those occassions when I'm speaking on the phone, I am looking at the road. How can anyone fail to react to his surroundings when he is looking at them? Not to be a eugenicist, but anyone who can't simultaneously think of something to say and realize that he needs to hit the brakes will not be missed from the gene pool. It's just unfortunate that he will probably interrupt my sandwich-making.
later, Jess
p.s. I somehow doubt that the sign control system in the picture got hacked. It seems more likely that someone GIMPed the message in.
Not personally knowing any of the participants, but aware of the issues involved, I had always been willing to give them the benefit of the doubt. Blacklists are a good technical solution to the social problem that is spam. While I knew there was some animosity between the old MAPS and the old ORBS, I had always assumed that regardless of egotism, they were doing basically the right thing. Certainly, when ORBS was sued by that spammer I was sure the judge had screwed up. [or was it MAPS that got sued? I forget; it may have been both of them] But this current action really leads me to question the motives of MAPS. Spam is only helped when someone who has spent so long fighting it is prevented from using his tools and from developing more tools. It seems that egotism or something very like it has now caused MAPS to do the wrong thing, and that's very unfortunate.
You need to be able to effect productivity with...
This is making a large assumption, that the company is actually capable of measuring programmer productivity. I submit that most organizations are not. It's not for lack of trying, but this is still something that we're not good at. I imagine that if companies were good at measuring productivity, they'd be less likely to torture their coders and we'd have less need for unionisation/professionalisation.
The fact that doctors have accreditation probably has less effect on their ethics than the fact that they have a tradition of ethical behavior. There is a long-standing code, with which every doctor I've met concurs, that governs what the public should expect from the profession. For centuries before they knew how to be of much benefit, they pledged not to do harm. This tradition, to me, is the essence of a profession. Other fields, such as law or the military, also have a tradition. I'll grant that in the U.S. lawyers have recently tarnished this tradition, but it still exists in other countries and at one time it existed here.
A profession will not blossom overnight, and only important things become professions. There is no janitorial profession, and there is currently no software profession. In fifty years, if humanity still sees this work as important, there might be.
Nowdays, depending on the situation, "professionalism" will be held up as a worthy goal, but its meaning varies from company to company. In fact, unethical managers probably bark something about professionalism before they send ethical coders packing. I don't want that definition (the managers') to be the standard for our profession. So I envision decades of hard, ethical work ahead of all of us, to come up with a better one that we and the public expect of all coders. We live in Hippocratic times.
I'm sure that the first documented case of a prion-based disease was among the cannibals of Papua New Guinea. I'm not sure if it was the same prion that causes Creutzfeldt-Jakob disease, but they got it the same way the cows did: by eating brains. Don't assume that civilization invented any biological problem. Of course, your noble savage would probably not eat human brains, but sometimes you can't be particular.
As a touch typist of English, Japanese keyboards annoy me precisely because they are so much like American keyboards. If the keys were completely different, presumably one could learn the other system. On a Japanese keyboard, the letters are in the same place. But, I type punctuation as well as letters, and with the Japanese keyboards it seems like 60% of the punctuation is not where I expect it to be. I'm not saying it's wrong, but I totally understand that it could be a disincentive to an American shopping in Akihabara. When I worked in Japan the company provided a laptop with an American keyboard. Then whenever I moved to a server or a desktop I would have to curse for about a minute before continuing my work.
The link didn't point to the story I was expecting, but the exceedingly link-happy story about "Your Son the Computer Hacker" I got certainly put me off adequacy.org for the present. Would you say it is typical of adequacy.org stories? Because it was simply idiotic.
There are very few industries that can be said not to use "third-world" [his term, I don't use it myself] labor. If you wear clothing, use gasoline, shop at a grocery store, or make less than $100K a year I have no doubt that you have patronised such an industry. But please don't feel guilty about that. The man, woman, or teenager who is hired for $1 a day to sew shoes might be able to support a family that otherwise might have to scavenge for much less. I don't doubt that abuse occurs, and it should be stopped where it is identified. I'd love to see Wal-Mart institute a program to do just that. But I can't agree with an ignorant, blanket statement that would have us deal a staggering blow to the economies of nations like Malaysia, Peru, Thailand, Mexico, India, Nigeria, etc. Maybe you imagine a world in which we could snap our fingers and all countries would be "modernised" at once. We don't live in that world. Maybe you think that they should all just go back to picking bananas and pulling rickshaws. That sort of thinking would be an insult to all the rational adults who just happen not to have been born in the developed world. They do have problems, but the solutions to them lie far more in jobs and economic development than in aid and the exploitation of natural resources.
Even if you a leg to stand on in the above, Wal-Mart is more strongly identified in the minds of most people with "buy american" than most other large retailers.
and their opression of competition in small-towns
Just what do you understand the word "competition" to mean? Wal-Mart closes down mom-and-pop stores because they can't compete. Wal-Mart typically brings an orders of magnitude greater selection of products to a town, and then offers significantly lower prices for those products. Monopolistic behavior would then dictate a raising of prices after local competition had left, but I challenge you to cite a study that has found this. In the small towns in which I've lived most of my life, we were happy if we could reap the benefits of capitalism by driving 30 miles to a Wal-Mart. Our communities appreciate a large employer for the uneducated for whom we struggle to find jobs. Gone is the time when we would "just wait" for an item that we wanted or needed. Wal-Mart is a healthy phenomenon for the general public. In most cases I've seen, efficient retailers like auto parts stores, farm supplies, hardware stores, pharmacies, and the like have survived. It's nineteenth-century dinosaurs like general stores or clothing stores that have gone by the wayside. Or maybe we should just go back to picking peas like the bumpkins you know we are?
A large portion of Wal-Mart's merchandise is produced in third-world countries under sweatshop conditions. This immoral and unethical business practice may save you a few pennies at the checkout but it exploits children and exaggerates the distance between socioeconomic classes.
Please cite any source at all for these statements. Please quantify "large portion".
Even the processor in the "linux-friendly PC" sold at Wal-Mart is manufactured from child labor in third-world countries. It is a well known fact that AMD Duron processors are made in a sweatshop in Maylasia. [sic]
Is it actually well known that the AMD plants in Malaysia that manufacture Durons use child labor? I've spent some time in Malaysia, and while it certainly isn't the U.S. [nor would I expect it to be], it is a rapidly modernising nation with a strong tradition of caring for its population, and a growing concern for the education of all young people. Malays appreciate the benefits of modern life as well as taking pride in their distinction as a culture and a nation.
I would urge everyone concerned with the exploitation of the poor children to purchase only American-made genuine Intel processors. Furthermore, using third-world labor for manufacturing causes significant harm to the American economy because of the tens of thousands of blue collar manufacturing jobs which have been moved overseas.
Ah, finally. Here it is. You, sir, are a protectionist. First, do you consider the manufacture of computers to be a traditional blue collar industry? How many jobs existed in this industry in the U.S. 20 years ago that have since moved overseas? Then, please realize that the productivity gains, which are the only drivers of sustained economic growth, over those 20 years have come about as a combination of the use of cheap overseas labor and information technology. Would you really like to trade in our economy for that of the early 1980s, even if we could? Do you imagine that any other components of your "genuine Intel" PCs are manufactured in the U.S.? As a side comment, I would much rather have my current job as an IT consultant than any manufacturing job.
Wal-Mart portrays a patriotic image in its advertising campaigns, but in reality is an evil corporate monster who exploits children for the sake of its own bottom line.
Like most companies not directly involved in the manufacture of chemicals, Wal-Mart is amoral. I would love to see it implement a program to find and eliminate child labor, but its effect in developing nations is overall positive. It is one of the strengths of capitalism that for the most part it encourages amoral individuals and organizations to improve the lives of real people, in the U.S. and elsewhere.
The best way to fight this is with our dollars. Don't spend any money at Wal-Mart and support their evil globalised empire. If we all band together, we can stop this evil menace.
This is funny, and makes me wonder if I've been trolled. Ah well, too late. I'm sure others have had these thoughts, even if you haven't.
Are we to imagine some magnanimous third party that flies into action whenever some inventor imagines that her patent has been infringed? Why haven't we heard of this generous organization before? Enforcement is 9/10 of the law.
but is it right to take a good product away from so many people who really do like it just because another company's product isn't taking over the market like they hoped it would?
I agree with all those who complain about bad patents, and I too detest Flash, but the submitter who would ask the above question is really missing the point. If patents could be violated by anyone who really did want to violate them they wouldn't provide much incentive for innovation. No matter how low my opinion of patents as currently instantiated may drop, I would still contend that they are a valid concept in some situations.
This is interesting information about Colorado. It works much the same in Texas (now that's not such a surprise, is it?). And I would point out that no matter what the law says, the willingness of local DAs to prosecute will vary significantly between jurisdictions. If you live back in the woods in any state besides maybe Massachusetts, you're probably safe blasting away whenever you feel like it, in your own residence. If you think this will be an issue for you, it's time to take an active role in local politics!
(I never understood their logo, either - it looks like Jesus beating the hell out of a snake...)
According to their site, it's actually Thor. Although I agree the guy looks much more semitic than scandinavian, the far-fetched explanation they came up with is quite endearing.
If great ideas drove the car market, cars would be far more sophisticated than they are today.
You're right, of course. I can't think of any market, other than perhaps some segments of the computer hardware industry, that is driven by great ideas.
I've seen people get hit by cars and arise to pound the shit out of the driver. Not at 40 MPH mind you, but surely you don't go that fast everywhere? Regardless of what power you might think you posess while riding, you wouldn't "run over" anyone; it would be a collision that you would feel as well. And if you knocked someone unconscious anywhere near me, I would be among the crowd of people eager to administer a bit of street justice.
Please be careful while riding your heavy mountain bike.
Just wait until your knees go kaput somewhere in your 50s and then lets hear you sing the praises of the bicycle.
Less than 1% of the people that purchase a Segway in the first year will do so for this reason. A significant percentage will not actually own a bike, nor would they consider walking to any business located more than 100 yards from their front door.
There are significant differences among the types of football to which you refer. Even so, they all (well, maybe not soccer, if in fact you were referring to that) require an admirable tolerance for pain to be played well. Let's not belittle anyone who has played any of them.
Slashdot Mirror
This is almost as redundant as the 10 posts complaining that this topic has already appeared. Of course, while I'm writing to call attention to this 3 other people probably are as well, so this message is also redundant. Sorry to waste your time!
later,
Jess
These guys are providing advice, which ISPs and end-users, at their discretion, may or may not follow. The scenario you describe implies that at one time, this was good advice, i.e. the IP was an open relay that should have been blocked. It wasn't the list's fault that you misconfigured your system. Maybe it's not the most negligent thing you could possibly do, but the fact that you got on the list was YOUR FAULT.
Spam is a serious problem. Those lists which make any claims to prevent spam naturally have some liability to accomplish this. To this purpose, these lists publish IPs which have been known to facilitate spam.
Restoration Of Service To Those Who Have Previously Facilitated Spam is not a serious problem. No list claims that it constantly monitors the IPs on its list for momentary lapses in spamming. Why should any list be made to do so, when this is an onerous task that clearly would distract from the list's stated purpose?
If an ISP or end user decided that identifying these "no-longer-spamming" IPs was important for any reason, this would be a fairly straitforward task to accomplish. Likewise, if "ROSTTWHPFS" becomes a serious problem, we can imagine the creation of "don't block" lists that could be used in conjunction with the block lists.
As a practical matter, any normal business that finds it impossible to send emails to those to whom it may legitimately send is not prevented from contacting its legitimate recipients by other means to encourage them to no longer block its emails. Those potential recipients would then be free to accept or deny such a request. When I say "normal", I mean businesses that actually do something. These are highly unlikely to be listed. If, OTOH, your business consists entirely of sending email to people, then you should expect to have this problem occasionally, especially if you mis-configure your servers, and you should write it off as a cost of doing business.
later,
Jess
Notice I said "most enjoyable". As much as we'd like to transfer all the great metaphysical scifi to the screen, such a transfer is likely to either create an unwatchable set of wooden monologues, completely toss the deep concepts, or both. Also, LOTR notwithstanding, short stories are easier to adapt than novels.
later,
Jess
By the looks of it, the first iteration of this event was a success. It will be great when we can download the games and see for ourselves.
later,
Jess
When you can't call the developers except at 1 AM, and when they don't have an intuitive understanding of the the cultural situation in which the product will be used, you've got a difficult time. If you add to that developers who do not feel personally responsible for producing quality software [and developers like this exist in ALL countries], it's very difficult to make any progress at all. You probably have techniques for dealing with uninspired programmers working in the same office, but you should realize that when they are working 11 timezones away you will have very little leverage.
later,
Jess
Since the tcp/ip stack simply describes a way in which machines may exchange electronic signals, any group of people who own machines may use any alternative that they like. This confusion of the Internet with literal highways is a misuse of metaphor that does real harm to a free society. From the fact that a 16-ft-wide area in which the general public operates vehicles of varying tonnages at speeds in excess of 60 mph needs a modicum of regulation, please don't deduce that the internet needs it as well.
later,
Jess
--
Socrates was banished for his views. I expect no less from our 'modern' society.
Umm, I thought he was executed. Would you expect that?
On those occassions when I'm speaking on the phone, I am looking at the road. How can anyone fail to react to his surroundings when he is looking at them? Not to be a eugenicist, but anyone who can't simultaneously think of something to say and realize that he needs to hit the brakes will not be missed from the gene pool. It's just unfortunate that he will probably interrupt my sandwich-making.
later,
Jess
p.s. I somehow doubt that the sign control system in the picture got hacked. It seems more likely that someone GIMPed the message in.
later,
Jess
This is making a large assumption, that the company is actually capable of measuring programmer productivity. I submit that most organizations are not. It's not for lack of trying, but this is still something that we're not good at. I imagine that if companies were good at measuring productivity, they'd be less likely to torture their coders and we'd have less need for unionisation/professionalisation.
later,
Jess
A profession will not blossom overnight, and only important things become professions. There is no janitorial profession, and there is currently no software profession. In fifty years, if humanity still sees this work as important, there might be.
Nowdays, depending on the situation, "professionalism" will be held up as a worthy goal, but its meaning varies from company to company. In fact, unethical managers probably bark something about professionalism before they send ethical coders packing. I don't want that definition (the managers') to be the standard for our profession. So I envision decades of hard, ethical work ahead of all of us, to come up with a better one that we and the public expect of all coders. We live in Hippocratic times.
[teary-eyed]later,
Jess
thanks,
Jess
I'm sure that the first documented case of a prion-based disease was among the cannibals of Papua New Guinea. I'm not sure if it was the same prion that causes Creutzfeldt-Jakob disease, but they got it the same way the cows did: by eating brains. Don't assume that civilization invented any biological problem. Of course, your noble savage would probably not eat human brains, but sometimes you can't be particular.
later,
Jess
later,
Jess
later,
Jess
Addressed in the previous post.
their use of third-world labor,
There are very few industries that can be said not to use "third-world" [his term, I don't use it myself] labor. If you wear clothing, use gasoline, shop at a grocery store, or make less than $100K a year I have no doubt that you have patronised such an industry. But please don't feel guilty about that. The man, woman, or teenager who is hired for $1 a day to sew shoes might be able to support a family that otherwise might have to scavenge for much less. I don't doubt that abuse occurs, and it should be stopped where it is identified. I'd love to see Wal-Mart institute a program to do just that. But I can't agree with an ignorant, blanket statement that would have us deal a staggering blow to the economies of nations like Malaysia, Peru, Thailand, Mexico, India, Nigeria, etc. Maybe you imagine a world in which we could snap our fingers and all countries would be "modernised" at once. We don't live in that world. Maybe you think that they should all just go back to picking bananas and pulling rickshaws. That sort of thinking would be an insult to all the rational adults who just happen not to have been born in the developed world. They do have problems, but the solutions to them lie far more in jobs and economic development than in aid and the exploitation of natural resources.
Even if you a leg to stand on in the above, Wal-Mart is more strongly identified in the minds of most people with "buy american" than most other large retailers.
and their opression of competition in small-towns
Just what do you understand the word "competition" to mean? Wal-Mart closes down mom-and-pop stores because they can't compete. Wal-Mart typically brings an orders of magnitude greater selection of products to a town, and then offers significantly lower prices for those products. Monopolistic behavior would then dictate a raising of prices after local competition had left, but I challenge you to cite a study that has found this. In the small towns in which I've lived most of my life, we were happy if we could reap the benefits of capitalism by driving 30 miles to a Wal-Mart. Our communities appreciate a large employer for the uneducated for whom we struggle to find jobs. Gone is the time when we would "just wait" for an item that we wanted or needed. Wal-Mart is a healthy phenomenon for the general public. In most cases I've seen, efficient retailers like auto parts stores, farm supplies, hardware stores, pharmacies, and the like have survived. It's nineteenth-century dinosaurs like general stores or clothing stores that have gone by the wayside. Or maybe we should just go back to picking peas like the bumpkins you know we are?
A large portion of Wal-Mart's merchandise is produced in third-world countries under sweatshop conditions. This immoral and unethical business practice may save you a few pennies at the checkout but it exploits children and exaggerates the distance between socioeconomic classes.
Please cite any source at all for these statements. Please quantify "large portion".
Even the processor in the "linux-friendly PC" sold at Wal-Mart is manufactured from child labor in third-world countries. It is a well known fact that AMD Duron processors are made in a sweatshop in Maylasia. [sic]
Is it actually well known that the AMD plants in Malaysia that manufacture Durons use child labor? I've spent some time in Malaysia, and while it certainly isn't the U.S. [nor would I expect it to be], it is a rapidly modernising nation with a strong tradition of caring for its population, and a growing concern for the education of all young people. Malays appreciate the benefits of modern life as well as taking pride in their distinction as a culture and a nation.
I would urge everyone concerned with the exploitation of the poor children to purchase only American-made genuine Intel processors. Furthermore, using third-world labor for manufacturing causes significant harm to the American economy because of the tens of thousands of blue collar manufacturing jobs which have been moved overseas.
Ah, finally. Here it is. You, sir, are a protectionist. First, do you consider the manufacture of computers to be a traditional blue collar industry? How many jobs existed in this industry in the U.S. 20 years ago that have since moved overseas? Then, please realize that the productivity gains, which are the only drivers of sustained economic growth, over those 20 years have come about as a combination of the use of cheap overseas labor and information technology. Would you really like to trade in our economy for that of the early 1980s, even if we could? Do you imagine that any other components of your "genuine Intel" PCs are manufactured in the U.S.? As a side comment, I would much rather have my current job as an IT consultant than any manufacturing job.
Wal-Mart portrays a patriotic image in its advertising campaigns, but in reality is an evil corporate monster who exploits children for the sake of its own bottom line.
Like most companies not directly involved in the manufacture of chemicals, Wal-Mart is amoral. I would love to see it implement a program to find and eliminate child labor, but its effect in developing nations is overall positive. It is one of the strengths of capitalism that for the most part it encourages amoral individuals and organizations to improve the lives of real people, in the U.S. and elsewhere.
The best way to fight this is with our dollars. Don't spend any money at Wal-Mart and support their evil globalised empire. If we all band together, we can stop this evil menace.
This is funny, and makes me wonder if I've been trolled. Ah well, too late. I'm sure others have had these thoughts, even if you haven't.
later,
Jess
Only true if the world is run by dishonest cheaters.
QED.
later,
Jess
but is it right to take a good product away from so many people who really do like it just because another company's product isn't taking over the market like they hoped it would?
I agree with all those who complain about bad patents, and I too detest Flash, but the submitter who would ask the above question is really missing the point. If patents could be violated by anyone who really did want to violate them they wouldn't provide much incentive for innovation. No matter how low my opinion of patents as currently instantiated may drop, I would still contend that they are a valid concept in some situations.
later,
Jess
This is interesting information about Colorado. It works much the same in Texas (now that's not such a surprise, is it?). And I would point out that no matter what the law says, the willingness of local DAs to prosecute will vary significantly between jurisdictions. If you live back in the woods in any state besides maybe Massachusetts, you're probably safe blasting away whenever you feel like it, in your own residence. If you think this will be an issue for you, it's time to take an active role in local politics!
later,
Jess
According to their site, it's actually Thor. Although I agree the guy looks much more semitic than scandinavian, the far-fetched explanation they came up with is quite endearing.
later,
Jess
You're right, of course. I can't think of any market, other than perhaps some segments of the computer hardware industry, that is driven by great ideas.
later,
Jess
Please be careful while riding your heavy mountain bike.
later,
Jess
Less than 1% of the people that purchase a Segway in the first year will do so for this reason. A significant percentage will not actually own a bike, nor would they consider walking to any business located more than 100 yards from their front door.
later,
Jess
later,
Jess
Forget the physics; someone who would make this statement has never played a sport.
later,
Jess