I placed two separate orders from L.L. Bean. The last one was on Dec 15th. Both arrived in the promised 3-4 days.
It appears that L.L Bean's website is directly connected to their inventory system. There were two items (colors actually) that I tried to order that were out of stock. It was nice to find out up front, so that I could order something that was in stock and that chould be shipped right away.
>For example, I know that VALinux provides >services for etoys.com and I would bet that not >many people at VA like what etoys has done. So, >pull the plug on them. Withhold your services. I >know that someone from VA reads slashdot, so >what do you say?
They probably can't do that, not legally. VALinux is a public company now, isn't it? Public companies have a duty to their shareholders to make the most money possible. To stop selling to a valuable client just because you didn't like what that client was doing would be a breach of fiduciary duty. The VALinux directors could end up in court over that.
>One where he supposedly locked himself out of >his computer-alarmed house and had to do a >commando-style operation to get in.
Gosh darn it! I remember that article. It was so funny that I saved the issue for years. Don't have it now though. Lost in one of my many moves. It was truly hilarious though.
At one time, all unused acres of land DID belong to the government. Much of Michigan's land was sold from gov't to the timber traders, and then to settlers. Eventually the people bought up all the land. Eventually, the people will buy up all the domain names. Property taxes prevent any one person from holding large chunks of land forever. As the value goes up, the person has to pay more for the privilege of owning the land. Perhaps what we need is a property tax on domain names.
>You can't go to the phone company and say 'I >want to buy all the phone numbers from xxx-0012 >through xxx-0102', can you? Well I suppose you >could, but would they let you? Not unless you >pay for the lines to go with it.
Interesting point. I thought that part of the deal with domain names was that you did have to have the name point somewhere. Presumably that would cost money, and that cost would make it harder to hoard the names.
I've been watching the progress of these for sometime now. You should have seen my 10-year old daughter's eyes light up when I showed her the Barbie PC on the website. Heck, *I* want one of those Hot Wheels models:-). I have two kids, and there's a good chance I'll end up one each of these boxes.
That having been said, I'm a bit dissapointed that I can't get my son a camera to match his PC, and my daughter a steering wheel to match hers. "Uh, here son. Here's a hot-wheels PC, and Daddy bought you this Barbie camera to go with it."
I just have to reply to this. Two things you said really reasonated with me. I too, when I learned Dvorak, found that one day things "just clicked". I also switch keymaps to Dvorak, much to the frustration of *my* coworkers. But at least no one ever touches my PC. Heck, no one else in the office can type on it.
>It is much easier to imagine and understand >what it means to say "I am six feet tall" >than it is to say "I am one hundred and >eighty three centimeters tall" or "I am >one point eight meters tall".
I tend to agree with this point. I do wish the metric system had a unit of measure closer to a foot. The decimeter doesn't quite do it. The issue I see is that the length of many commnon objects can reasonably be approximated in terms of an integer number of feet. I'm almost 6 feet tall. My desk is four feet wide. My tv is maybe two feet accross. When you switch to metric, the length of all these common objects becomes some fraction of a meter.
>It will bomb among the Linux savvy, but will be >a hit in the Windows croud (which is much >larger...)
I agree, and I am one of the latter (the Windows crowd). I've tried SUSE and RedHat, and have never been able to get a Lisa install to work out right. I've always had problems with graphics, pcmcia support, ppp support, and so forth. I purchased Caldera's distribution based on the strength of their installer. It was great. It's the first time I've ever gotten Linux up and running with a GUI (presumably X, but who cares). I can't blame them one bit for not wanting to give that away. That was a competitive advantage. Installers like that will make Linux accessible to the average person.
>Does this new Dell support imply that Dell will >help in cajoling hardware manufacturers to write >Linux drivers? I dam' well hope so, though it >might not help me any.
Dell's a big company. I'm sure they'll do some arm twisting if necessary to get whatever it takes to support Linux on their boxes.
>Hmmm. AFAIK we're restricted to 48 hours per week >(with rules on just how much of that you can do >at once) here in Europe.
Yuck. I work a day job, plus I have a small side business. That extra money has made a huge difference to me and my familly. Would I not be allowed to do that in Europe? That would be like placing a cap on how much money I could make. Please keep that law on your side of the pond.
>True, it has some "internet" related features >such as a JVM within the database engine, but I >view the "i" as more of a marketing decision
The addition of the "i" was purely a marketing decision that was made to underscore the fact that Oracle now has a number of internet related features such as the built-in Java Virtual Machine, the Internet File System (it's comming), and so forth.
>That isn't exactly true. Take the case of real >estate. If you own land you are required to pay >a property tax based on the market value. If you >fail to pay the tax then you lose the land even >though the land is worth many times more than >the tax.
And domains are no different. You have to pay the fee every year or you lose it.
It seems to me that the problem here is that @home does not want to provide service to people running web sites (and other servers) from their home, and that people do it anyway because the cost is so low. The frustrating part I'm sure, is that there aren't any hospitable alternatives for a home user who wants to run a website from their house. It would sure be nice if some national company came out with something similiar to @home, but without the prohibitions against running a web server from your house. It would probably cost more though. I'd like to run a web server from my house, just to play around with, but so far I havn't found a cost-effective solution. I need something that costs less than $150/month. The local ISPS want $250+ a month for ISDN connections, and the costs go up from there.
Someday the content providers are going to find a way to limit the playing of digital music to the person who bought it. There's too much at stake for this not to happen. What will be the impact of that? Right now, I can buy a CD and play it on any CD player that I own. I can loan that CD to friends, and they can play it as well. How does that work if I buy digital music that is copy protected? Will the digital music be keyed to my PC? Then what happens when I buy a new machine? How will I be able to loan it to friends? Will I be able to loan it? Will my right to listen have a time limit (e.g. five years costs more than two years) put on it?
Slashdot Mirror
I placed two separate orders from L.L. Bean. The last one was on Dec 15th. Both arrived in the promised 3-4 days.
It appears that L.L Bean's website is directly connected to their inventory system. There were two items (colors actually) that I tried to order that were out of stock. It was nice to find out up front, so that I could order something that was in stock and that chould be shipped right away.
Jonathan
>For example, I know that VALinux provides
>services for etoys.com and I would bet that not
>many people at VA like what etoys has done. So,
>pull the plug on them. Withhold your services. I
>know that someone from VA reads slashdot, so
>what do you say?
They probably can't do that, not legally. VALinux is a public company now, isn't it? Public companies have a duty to their shareholders to make the most money possible. To stop selling to a valuable client just because you didn't like what that client was doing would be a breach of fiduciary duty. The VALinux directors could end up in court over that.
Jonathan
>One where he supposedly locked himself out of
>his computer-alarmed house and had to do a >commando-style operation to get in.
Gosh darn it! I remember that article. It was so funny that I saved the issue for years. Don't have it now though. Lost in one of my many moves. It was truly hilarious though.
At one time, all unused acres of land DID belong to the government. Much of Michigan's land was sold from gov't to the timber traders, and then to settlers. Eventually the people bought up all the land. Eventually, the people will buy up all the domain names. Property taxes prevent any one person from holding large chunks of land forever. As the value goes up, the person has to pay more for the privilege of owning the land. Perhaps what we need is a property tax on domain names.
Just a thought.
>You can't go to the phone company and say 'I
>want to buy all the phone numbers from xxx-0012
>through xxx-0102', can you? Well I suppose you
>could, but would they let you? Not unless you
>pay for the lines to go with it.
Interesting point. I thought that part of the deal with domain names was that you did have to have the name point somewhere. Presumably that would cost money, and that cost would make it harder to hoard the names.
Jonathan
I've been watching the progress of these for sometime now. You should have seen my 10-year old daughter's eyes light up when I showed her the Barbie PC on the website. Heck, *I* want one of those Hot Wheels models :-). I have two kids, and there's a good chance I'll end up one each of these boxes.
That having been said, I'm a bit dissapointed that I can't get my son a camera to match his PC, and my daughter a steering wheel to match hers. "Uh, here son. Here's a hot-wheels PC, and Daddy bought you this Barbie camera to go with it."
Jonatahn
I just have to reply to this. Two things you said really reasonated with me. I too, when I learned Dvorak, found that one day things "just clicked". I also switch keymaps to Dvorak, much to the frustration of *my* coworkers. But at least no one ever touches my PC. Heck, no one else in the office can type on it.
Jonathan
>It is much easier to imagine and understand
>what it means to say "I am six feet tall"
>than it is to say "I am one hundred and
>eighty three centimeters tall" or "I am
>one point eight meters tall".
I tend to agree with this point. I do wish the metric system had a unit of measure closer to a foot. The decimeter doesn't quite do it. The issue I see is that the length of many commnon objects can reasonably be approximated in terms of an integer number of feet. I'm almost 6 feet tall. My desk is four feet wide. My tv is maybe two feet accross. When you switch to metric, the length of all these common objects becomes some fraction of a meter.
>It will bomb among the Linux savvy, but will be
>a hit in the Windows croud (which is much
>larger...)
I agree, and I am one of the latter (the Windows crowd). I've tried SUSE and RedHat, and have never been able to get a Lisa install to work out right. I've always had problems with graphics, pcmcia support, ppp support, and so forth. I purchased Caldera's distribution based on the strength of their installer. It was great. It's the first time I've ever gotten Linux up and running with a GUI (presumably X, but who cares). I can't blame them one bit for not wanting to give that away. That was a competitive advantage. Installers like that will make Linux accessible to the average person.
--Jonathan
>Does this new Dell support imply that Dell will
>help in cajoling hardware manufacturers to write
>Linux drivers? I dam' well hope so, though it
>might not help me any.
Dell's a big company. I'm sure they'll do some arm twisting if necessary to get whatever it takes to support Linux on their boxes.
>Hmmm. AFAIK we're restricted to 48 hours per week
>(with rules on just how much of that you can do
>at once) here in Europe.
Yuck. I work a day job, plus I have a small side business. That extra money has made a huge difference to me and my familly. Would I not be allowed to do that in Europe? That would be like placing a cap on how much money I could make. Please keep that law on your side of the pond.
Jonathan
>True, it has some "internet" related features
>such as a JVM within the database engine, but I
>view the "i" as more of a marketing decision
The addition of the "i" was purely a marketing decision that was made to underscore the fact that Oracle now has a number of internet related features such as the built-in Java Virtual Machine, the Internet File System (it's comming), and so forth.
Jonathan Gennick
>That isn't exactly true. Take the case of real >estate. If you own land you are required to pay >a property tax based on the market value. If you >fail to pay the tax then you lose the land even >though the land is worth many times more than >the tax.
And domains are no different. You have to pay the fee every year or you lose it.
It seems to me that the problem here is that @home does not want to provide service to people running web sites (and other servers) from their home, and that people do it anyway because the cost is so low. The frustrating part I'm sure, is that there aren't any hospitable alternatives for a home user who wants to run a website from their house. It would sure be nice if some national company came out with something similiar to @home, but without the prohibitions against running a web server from your house. It would probably cost more though. I'd like to run a web server from my house, just to play around with, but so far I havn't found a cost-effective solution. I need something that costs less than $150/month. The local ISPS want $250+ a month for ISDN connections, and the costs go up from there.
Jonathan
Someday the content providers are going to find a way to limit the playing of digital music to the person who bought it. There's too much at stake for this not to happen. What will be the impact of that? Right now, I can buy a CD and play it on any CD player that I own. I can loan that CD to friends, and they can play it as well. How does that work if I buy digital music that is copy protected? Will the digital music be keyed to my PC? Then what happens when I buy a new machine? How will I be able to loan it to friends? Will I be able to loan it? Will my right to listen have a time limit (e.g. five years costs more than two years) put on it?
Jonathan