Here in the United States we so frequently demonstrate our inability to consider the long term consequences of our actions that our government can intervene in the light bulb market and only a small percentage of people will care about it.
Here in the United States the majority of people are like myself, who were brought up understanding not to waste. Here in the United States the later generations have little understanding, if any, of what waste is, so all are punished. Conservation does not mean going without, it means avoiding waste.
Here in the United States we use what, twice as much energy per capita than people do in Europe?
Here in the United States we have a completely different lifestyle than people do in Europe.
Here in the United States, we apparently consider legislation equivalent to auto emissions standards to be tyranny.
Here in the United States we consider legislation which takes our cars away and forces us to replace them with models we do not want, do not like, and/or do not offer the utility and mobility we desire or need as the elimination of our free choice, our freedom, and therefore is tyranny.
Here in the United States, we have a god-given right to be stupid no matter what the cost to ourselves and others.
Here in the United States we have a God-given right to life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness, protected from the whims of government, and we are encouraged, nay forced by its own merit, to learn from our own mistakes as individuals and the impact those mistakes have upon ourselves and others, and encourage others to avoid the same mistakes. Here in the United States the government is not the well spring from which the people flow, but the opposite.
Here in the United States, no one is required to understand legislation, and few do.
Here in the United States, no one who represents the people is required to read or understand bills heading towards legislation, and few do.
GE had been working on this technology long before the government mandates reared. What I find amazing is the government tends to act like ineffective middle management: you take an idea already in development and find some way to quash it or wait until right before reveal, then institute a new policy exactly as planned, perhaps with minor personalizing tweaks; everyone jumps on-board because it was already in progress, and the presenter looks like a genius.
I have dealt with enough managers like this to recognize the tactics and know that these governments are full of shit.
I already bear a cost directly related to the amount of electricity I use. I refuse another tax on my consumption.
Some people just cannot wrap their brains around this: I use 1000kW in a month, I pay $150; I use 2000kW in a month, I pay (ready for this?) $300! Amazing! It is almost as if I pay more when I consume more.
That would not seem to be the case with any TV I have ever owned up to 36", which is the largest CRT I have ever owned, or will ever own. Anyway, the TVs I have owned take a good 20 to 30 seconds to bring up a picture. The more recent ones apparently withheld the video signal while the tube came up, allowing the picture to suddenly appear. Not like older TVs when you could watch the picture fade in. I recall both taking approximately the same amount of time, so I would conclude that the tube is not kept powered.
Yup, that was pretty much my point. The Zip Plus could work on a parallel or SCSI port, automatically detecting to which it had been connected. Was great, as I could share the Zip drive with my Amiga and Windows machine (not at the same time, of course.)
The proper-gendered DB25 serial port started with the A500, and continued through the end of the series. No Amiga model used a DB9 without third-party expansions.
I used low-profile gender changers on my 1000 with male pins pulled out of the appropriate places. Worked like a charm.
Yes, so then we could just plug SCSI cables into parallel ports and vice-versa. I think the Zip Plus was made just for this scenario.
This happened recently. A customer called me out because their system would not recognize the scanner. Turns out the SCSI scanner had been plugged into the parallel port. Two second fix, 1/2 hour billing.
I laughed hysterically when I saw the picture of a fully-loaded TI system. That was my inspiration to track down a PE Box, too.
The only thing missing from the inside of the Peripheral Expansion Box was the Speech Synthesizer but, thankfully, that was corrected with a few different CorComp and other third-party cards.
Even after moving everything inside the box, that firehose cable interface is still a monster and easily disrupts an otherwise enjoyable computing session.
Trains that pick up at 3am, on two days a week going in opposite directions. Sometimes never making it to the end of the run (Sunset Limited,) if it runs at all, most of them not going directly to where I want -- but I can take a bus for the third, last, or some leg.
Yeah, I do not think I will be partaking at all if the new high speed rail runs the way the government runs it like Amtrak, or allows it to be run like Amtrak, in most of the country.
I like the freedom to set my own schedule. Even flying is better than rail travel. I am afraid I have little faith in a monolithic enterprise. And with the government invested so heavily, it will be too big to fail against better methods of travel.
Unless the competitive methods are taxed so much that travel is no longer economical. And the subsequent wackiness which ensues.
Many environments do not lend themselves to "4 (sic) hours of kicking the tires on some software" and then blogging about it. And you are indeed right, there are a lot of people who refuse to read FAQs, but that does not make legitimate questions any less legitimate.
The OP wanted a reliable answer from a reliable source, a community of fellow geeks, nerds, twerps, dweebies, grunts, krunks, dorks, and the like.
And, hey, while I am at it, I think I will throw in another famous response in FOSS forums: "write your own patch and submit it." Yeah, I have seen that one plenty of times to feature recommendations or requests.
A lot of FOSS developers forget that there are people using their software who are not programmers. FFS, you should be flattered. And while I understand you have to deal with a lot of dumb-asses who ask the same dumb-ass questions you have already put in your FAQ, but that is part of dealing with the customer. You do not like that? The hire Smykowski to act as the go-between for you and your customers, because it seems that dealing with them has depleted your people skills.
And therefore, frankly, good riddance to you and your software until you learn how to address your audience.
This is the exact attitude that pushes people away from FOSS in the first place.
It is almost impossible to get a real answer from people with experience when all you get in return is "RTFM n00b."
R'ing TFM does not always give you practical information or experience. Especially since there are quite a lot of people out there who are great at writing software but cannot write a manual to save their life. Either it is too technical and boasts about all of the incredible feats of writing the program with very little usability information, or overly verbose about how the program works with very little usability information.
Google does not have all of the answers. It has a wealth of information, but sometimes no answers.
Then, either you need to broaden your horizons, or not be so anal in your analysis.
Trent Reznor says that he was influenced and inspired by David Bowie's "Low" album for "The Downward Spiral." Would you say the later is a rip-off or copy of the former?
And in respect to my aforementioned "Calvin and Hobbes," what did that copy?
As an advocate, you have presented very little to bolster your claim. As well, your gloat in the face of this man's plight, alleged or otherwise, is appalling.
I applaud you for choosing and sticking to a particular cause. But please get off your high-horse.
Copyright laws may be used to benefit both large and small, and I have seen instances of the later, while we all have seen instances of the former. Eliminating copyright and endorsing nothing but public domain is not the solution. Frequently people advocate complete elimination of a broken system instead of actually fixing it. I cannot abide such a position as it is too much like just walking away from a problem rather than actually analyzing and correcting the underlying issue.
Yes, we are seeing copyright and patent laws abused the world over. But put everything in the public domain? Too communistic for me, thank you. (Though probably not the best way to describe the situation, since the interpretation of Communism which we know involves the State taking possession of its peoples' creations and efforts for the benefit of all and the Greater Good, or however it sees fit. I simply lack a better way to describe it.)
I enjoy owning things, and that includes anything that I create. Sure, I may choose to make something available for others to use, but other items of my creation I want to stay under my control, so it represents what I want it to represent and not be usurped by ulterior, unintended, or inappropriate presentations.
Bill Waterston has mentioned plenty of times how the image of Calvin was essentially stolen from him and used for unauthorized depictions of him pissing on anything from a race car number to the Windows logo. Such depiction goes entirely against Mr. Waterston's intentions and desired representations of "Calvin and Hobbes."
And how would the creators of "Veggie Tales," a cartoon expressing religious morality, feel about a Larry the Cucumber vibrator?
It seems to me that too many people are very liberal with the use of other peoples' creations. And yet many of those same people become very defensive once the tables are turned.
Maybe we just go back to dongles. I work with several applications that require a USB key with encrypted information on it.
This presents several advantages for the vendor and the customer alike. For the vendor, it allows them to serialize their software, and in some cases provide updates for usage licenses for multi-user/network use. For the customer, it is quick and easy, resalable since it's yours. And all modern computers have USB ports, and will or at least should for many many years to come.
Of course, the down-side as any joystick dongle user from the dark ages of computing will tell you is once the company is gone and you lose your dongle, you are pretty much SOL without a hack.
Offline, the same caveats as a standard serial number apply. You can still hack the code, provided it is not extremely well protected.
The ROI article mentions a product which you BUY to shut down your PCs.
I have a free solution:
shutdown -s -t 0 -f -m
You can schedule that at your server to force all computers to shut down at a specified time.
Something along the lines of
for/f "skip=3 tokens=1 delims=\" %m in ('net view') do shutdown -s -t 0 -f -m %m
Now, you could be nice and change -t 0 to something like -t 45 and give any poor sucker at a terminal a chance to shutdown -a, or at least close programs. (There will be one error at the end for the success notice.)
I do not recommend using that on a network without some tweaking: it will also shut down servers which show up in net view. Just a basic idea, and I do use a modified version of it at a couple of sites.
Even a scheduled wol.exe could run to make sure computers are able to run updates overnight.
Or you could push out a group policy that forces suspend after an hour of inactivity, and sets Windows Update to wake the computer to run. No fuss, no muss.
The obvious issue is that you decide to walk on a job because they refuse to use legitimately licensed software, and you have no avenue for indemnification. They get snippy and threaten you with telling everyone how you walked, and "you'll never work in this town again."
So, you walk. They tell other potential customers that you walked and give some cockamamy story that makes you look like the ass-hole. You tell the customer what really happened then get the pants sued off of you.
Eh, not a good road to travel. The better strategy is to nip that in the bud. Diplomacy at first, "I do not agree with you, and I would prefer not to work under these conditions. Should anyone ask, please just say that we could not agree to terms." They say fuck you, and you say "okay, how about a visit from the BSA, the reward from which would allow me to take a couple of years off?"
Yup. I have walked out of jobs like this and let some of my less scrupulous colleagues take them on. While no one I know of locally has ever had a visit from the BSA, they are a bit like lightning.
I have been advised by legal counsel that a "CYA" letter does not "CYA." If you run into a situation where illegitimate (I prefer not to use the term illegal) is in use, you bring it to the attention of management, and management does not care, GTFO.
Make your arguments, wait for the final word, and walk. Do not stop, do not talk, do not even say good bye... WALK AWAY. As a consultant, you have the freedom to do that. As an employee, polish up your CV.
Although, at this point they are playing a very dangerous game with themselves and with you. Another tidbit of advice given was to write up a document which essentially held them hostage in return for your reputation: you agree not to report their use of illegitimate software in return for you never being there. Shitty, yes, but those are the games we play and the chances we take.
Unless the guy's name is "Tony" and he runs a "waste management" business. Then you just say "yes, sir!" and move to another country in the middle of the night. Better yet, get off the damn planet.
Another guy here mentioned an alternative plan of attack, which is gradual compliance. If you can present that as an option, I think that would work as well. You are still on sticky legal grounds with the BSA, though. They consider unlicensed software like child porn, and if you ever THINK it is there and do nothing immediately, you are considered complicit.
It does not matter either way. It would have taken much longer, or perhaps never, for such items to ever make it to the free market because the free market does not like to spend money on short-term money pits like the technology which has been brought to us by the "space age."
We have plenty of Terran technology which is "good enough" and does not cost extra money, just maybe a life here and there. But "good enough" for Earth is not good enough for space. The space program sank money into an expensive necessity and then found ways to produce it inexpensively. Then some smart person or group of people figured out how to use it to make Earth-bound life better, and how to manufacture it even more inexpensively.
We still have a lot to learn from our space travels. I personally cannot wait to get off this fekking planet.
Slashdot Mirror
They do not have to rely on Linux for that kind of answer. I believe that was installed a long time ago under the L/GFY license.
But this begs the question, in terms of performance differences, how old was the iron running Solaris?
Here in the United States we so frequently demonstrate our inability to consider the long term consequences of our actions that our government can intervene in the light bulb market and only a small percentage of people will care about it.
Here in the United States the majority of people are like myself, who were brought up understanding not to waste. Here in the United States the later generations have little understanding, if any, of what waste is, so all are punished. Conservation does not mean going without, it means avoiding waste.
Here in the United States we use what, twice as much energy per capita than people do in Europe?
Here in the United States we have a completely different lifestyle than people do in Europe.
Here in the United States, we apparently consider legislation equivalent to auto emissions standards to be tyranny.
Here in the United States we consider legislation which takes our cars away and forces us to replace them with models we do not want, do not like, and/or do not offer the utility and mobility we desire or need as the elimination of our free choice, our freedom, and therefore is tyranny.
Here in the United States, we have a god-given right to be stupid no matter what the cost to ourselves and others.
Here in the United States we have a God-given right to life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness, protected from the whims of government, and we are encouraged, nay forced by its own merit, to learn from our own mistakes as individuals and the impact those mistakes have upon ourselves and others, and encourage others to avoid the same mistakes. Here in the United States the government is not the well spring from which the people flow, but the opposite.
Here in the United States, no one is required to understand legislation, and few do.
Here in the United States, no one who represents the people is required to read or understand bills heading towards legislation, and few do.
Then there is this
Slashdot | GE Announces Advancement in Incandescent Technology
http://hardware.slashdot.org/article.pl?sid=07/02/26/1916211
GE had been working on this technology long before the government mandates reared. What I find amazing is the government tends to act like ineffective middle management: you take an idea already in development and find some way to quash it or wait until right before reveal, then institute a new policy exactly as planned, perhaps with minor personalizing tweaks; everyone jumps on-board because it was already in progress, and the presenter looks like a genius.
I have dealt with enough managers like this to recognize the tactics and know that these governments are full of shit.
I already bear a cost directly related to the amount of electricity I use. I refuse another tax on my consumption.
Some people just cannot wrap their brains around this: I use 1000kW in a month, I pay $150; I use 2000kW in a month, I pay (ready for this?) $300! Amazing! It is almost as if I pay more when I consume more.
That would not seem to be the case with any TV I have ever owned up to 36", which is the largest CRT I have ever owned, or will ever own. Anyway, the TVs I have owned take a good 20 to 30 seconds to bring up a picture. The more recent ones apparently withheld the video signal while the tube came up, allowing the picture to suddenly appear. Not like older TVs when you could watch the picture fade in. I recall both taking approximately the same amount of time, so I would conclude that the tube is not kept powered.
The only bad thing about this is the loss of mirrors of GOOD lists it provides.
Yup, that was pretty much my point. The Zip Plus could work on a parallel or SCSI port, automatically detecting to which it had been connected. Was great, as I could share the Zip drive with my Amiga and Windows machine (not at the same time, of course.)
The proper-gendered DB25 serial port started with the A500, and continued through the end of the series. No Amiga model used a DB9 without third-party expansions.
I used low-profile gender changers on my 1000 with male pins pulled out of the appropriate places. Worked like a charm.
Yes, so then we could just plug SCSI cables into parallel ports and vice-versa. I think the Zip Plus was made just for this scenario.
This happened recently. A customer called me out because their system would not recognize the scanner. Turns out the SCSI scanner had been plugged into the parallel port. Two second fix, 1/2 hour billing.
I laughed hysterically when I saw the picture of a fully-loaded TI system. That was my inspiration to track down a PE Box, too.
The only thing missing from the inside of the Peripheral Expansion Box was the Speech Synthesizer but, thankfully, that was corrected with a few different CorComp and other third-party cards.
Even after moving everything inside the box, that firehose cable interface is still a monster and easily disrupts an otherwise enjoyable computing session.
Trains that pick up at 3am, on two days a week going in opposite directions. Sometimes never making it to the end of the run (Sunset Limited,) if it runs at all, most of them not going directly to where I want -- but I can take a bus for the third, last, or some leg.
Yeah, I do not think I will be partaking at all if the new high speed rail runs the way the government runs it like Amtrak, or allows it to be run like Amtrak, in most of the country.
I like the freedom to set my own schedule. Even flying is better than rail travel. I am afraid I have little faith in a monolithic enterprise. And with the government invested so heavily, it will be too big to fail against better methods of travel.
Unless the competitive methods are taxed so much that travel is no longer economical. And the subsequent wackiness which ensues.
Sometimes the fingers work faster than the brain. Thanks for pointing that out.
Man, nothing cool like that ever happens around here.
Many environments do not lend themselves to "4 (sic) hours of kicking the tires on some software" and then blogging about it. And you are indeed right, there are a lot of people who refuse to read FAQs, but that does not make legitimate questions any less legitimate.
The OP wanted a reliable answer from a reliable source, a community of fellow geeks, nerds, twerps, dweebies, grunts, krunks, dorks, and the like.
And, hey, while I am at it, I think I will throw in another famous response in FOSS forums: "write your own patch and submit it." Yeah, I have seen that one plenty of times to feature recommendations or requests.
A lot of FOSS developers forget that there are people using their software who are not programmers. FFS, you should be flattered. And while I understand you have to deal with a lot of dumb-asses who ask the same dumb-ass questions you have already put in your FAQ, but that is part of dealing with the customer. You do not like that? The hire Smykowski to act as the go-between for you and your customers, because it seems that dealing with them has depleted your people skills.
And therefore, frankly, good riddance to you and your software until you learn how to address your audience.
Seconded. I wish I had seen your post before I gave my tirade just above yours.
This is the exact attitude that pushes people away from FOSS in the first place.
It is almost impossible to get a real answer from people with experience when all you get in return is "RTFM n00b."
R'ing TFM does not always give you practical information or experience. Especially since there are quite a lot of people out there who are great at writing software but cannot write a manual to save their life. Either it is too technical and boasts about all of the incredible feats of writing the program with very little usability information, or overly verbose about how the program works with very little usability information.
Google does not have all of the answers. It has a wealth of information, but sometimes no answers.
Then, either you need to broaden your horizons, or not be so anal in your analysis.
Trent Reznor says that he was influenced and inspired by David Bowie's "Low" album for "The Downward Spiral." Would you say the later is a rip-off or copy of the former?
And in respect to my aforementioned "Calvin and Hobbes," what did that copy?
As an advocate, you have presented very little to bolster your claim. As well, your gloat in the face of this man's plight, alleged or otherwise, is appalling.
I applaud you for choosing and sticking to a particular cause. But please get off your high-horse.
Copyright laws may be used to benefit both large and small, and I have seen instances of the later, while we all have seen instances of the former. Eliminating copyright and endorsing nothing but public domain is not the solution. Frequently people advocate complete elimination of a broken system instead of actually fixing it. I cannot abide such a position as it is too much like just walking away from a problem rather than actually analyzing and correcting the underlying issue.
Yes, we are seeing copyright and patent laws abused the world over. But put everything in the public domain? Too communistic for me, thank you. (Though probably not the best way to describe the situation, since the interpretation of Communism which we know involves the State taking possession of its peoples' creations and efforts for the benefit of all and the Greater Good, or however it sees fit. I simply lack a better way to describe it.)
I enjoy owning things, and that includes anything that I create. Sure, I may choose to make something available for others to use, but other items of my creation I want to stay under my control, so it represents what I want it to represent and not be usurped by ulterior, unintended, or inappropriate presentations.
Bill Waterston has mentioned plenty of times how the image of Calvin was essentially stolen from him and used for unauthorized depictions of him pissing on anything from a race car number to the Windows logo. Such depiction goes entirely against Mr. Waterston's intentions and desired representations of "Calvin and Hobbes."
And how would the creators of "Veggie Tales," a cartoon expressing religious morality, feel about a Larry the Cucumber vibrator?
It seems to me that too many people are very liberal with the use of other peoples' creations. And yet many of those same people become very defensive once the tables are turned.
I think what everyone is missing here is that someone in our government actually had the chutzpah to tell NASA to respect the wishes of the people.
Maybe we just go back to dongles. I work with several applications that require a USB key with encrypted information on it.
This presents several advantages for the vendor and the customer alike. For the vendor, it allows them to serialize their software, and in some cases provide updates for usage licenses for multi-user/network use. For the customer, it is quick and easy, resalable since it's yours. And all modern computers have USB ports, and will or at least should for many many years to come.
Of course, the down-side as any joystick dongle user from the dark ages of computing will tell you is once the company is gone and you lose your dongle, you are pretty much SOL without a hack.
Offline, the same caveats as a standard serial number apply. You can still hack the code, provided it is not extremely well protected.
The ROI article mentions a product which you BUY to shut down your PCs.
I have a free solution:
shutdown -s -t 0 -f -m
You can schedule that at your server to force all computers to shut down at a specified time.
Something along the lines of
for /f "skip=3 tokens=1 delims=\" %m in ('net view') do shutdown -s -t 0 -f -m %m
Now, you could be nice and change -t 0 to something like -t 45 and give any poor sucker at a terminal a chance to shutdown -a, or at least close programs. (There will be one error at the end for the success notice.)
I do not recommend using that on a network without some tweaking: it will also shut down servers which show up in net view. Just a basic idea, and I do use a modified version of it at a couple of sites.
Even a scheduled wol.exe could run to make sure computers are able to run updates overnight.
Or you could push out a group policy that forces suspend after an hour of inactivity, and sets Windows Update to wake the computer to run. No fuss, no muss.
Now, what did all that cost us?
Diplomacy is required, of course.
The obvious issue is that you decide to walk on a job because they refuse to use legitimately licensed software, and you have no avenue for indemnification. They get snippy and threaten you with telling everyone how you walked, and "you'll never work in this town again."
So, you walk. They tell other potential customers that you walked and give some cockamamy story that makes you look like the ass-hole. You tell the customer what really happened then get the pants sued off of you.
Eh, not a good road to travel. The better strategy is to nip that in the bud. Diplomacy at first, "I do not agree with you, and I would prefer not to work under these conditions. Should anyone ask, please just say that we could not agree to terms." They say fuck you, and you say "okay, how about a visit from the BSA, the reward from which would allow me to take a couple of years off?"
Yup. I have walked out of jobs like this and let some of my less scrupulous colleagues take them on. While no one I know of locally has ever had a visit from the BSA, they are a bit like lightning.
I have been advised by legal counsel that a "CYA" letter does not "CYA." If you run into a situation where illegitimate (I prefer not to use the term illegal) is in use, you bring it to the attention of management, and management does not care, GTFO.
Make your arguments, wait for the final word, and walk. Do not stop, do not talk, do not even say good bye... WALK AWAY. As a consultant, you have the freedom to do that. As an employee, polish up your CV.
Although, at this point they are playing a very dangerous game with themselves and with you. Another tidbit of advice given was to write up a document which essentially held them hostage in return for your reputation: you agree not to report their use of illegitimate software in return for you never being there. Shitty, yes, but those are the games we play and the chances we take.
Unless the guy's name is "Tony" and he runs a "waste management" business. Then you just say "yes, sir!" and move to another country in the middle of the night. Better yet, get off the damn planet.
Another guy here mentioned an alternative plan of attack, which is gradual compliance. If you can present that as an option, I think that would work as well. You are still on sticky legal grounds with the BSA, though. They consider unlicensed software like child porn, and if you ever THINK it is there and do nothing immediately, you are considered complicit.
This work makes me sick sometimes.
Which is worse, the fanboi or the antiboi?
It does not matter either way. It would have taken much longer, or perhaps never, for such items to ever make it to the free market because the free market does not like to spend money on short-term money pits like the technology which has been brought to us by the "space age."
We have plenty of Terran technology which is "good enough" and does not cost extra money, just maybe a life here and there. But "good enough" for Earth is not good enough for space. The space program sank money into an expensive necessity and then found ways to produce it inexpensively. Then some smart person or group of people figured out how to use it to make Earth-bound life better, and how to manufacture it even more inexpensively.
We still have a lot to learn from our space travels. I personally cannot wait to get off this fekking planet.
Yeah, what the hell have the Romans ever done for us?