I agree that paying shipping in no way justifies not having to pay tax. However, I didn't find any places in your message that explained why we should have to pay them and what good they would do.
As I stated before, this matter is being looked at by the same standards an "in person" transaction is looked at. The two are not the same, one requires tax dollars to work and the other does not, and no good justification for online taxes has yet been presented. -Clump
This all seems very presumptious of the panel to be deciding. "localities say sales taxes are a life and death issue for them, since they rely on the revenues to build schools, repair roads, and provide other essential municipal services."
Fine, but what the government fails to realize is that "in person" transactions are exactly that. You appear in person and pay for the item as well as the tax _in person_. Therefore, you drive on roads, walk through cities, and send your kids to school--All things legitimate for taxes. When you buy online, you are not there. You may be buying from "Littletown" California, but you are not there. You are not using that place's resources, and most of all, not using anything that requires tax dollars.
Keeping this in mind, it is arrogant and greedy for people to feel entitled to tax those transactions. For what reasons? Because localities need the revenue? A fine and legitimate argument formulated during a time when the only way to buy was in person. Therefore, taxing a budding industry with no just cause is outlandish. What is funding this panel? Tax Dollars. Has the panel been able to accomplish anything other than squabbling? No. How about giving the wasted "tax committee" money to some localities that say they are starving for it? -Clump
I am very impressed with Half-Life. It is my second favorite first-person-shooter behind Quake(my favotite game of any type). I found it to be very interesting and also very realistic. The people would act like you shot them and soldiers acted like soldiers.
Unrealism really bothers me in gaming. After seeing how things work in HL, (especially the helicopter), games like Sin are pathetic at best.
On a side note, I keep seeing that Wine can run Half Life. I have tried and keep failing. I wish I could find a place that documents how to do it.... hint... -Clump
I think you raised a good point, but I don't feel its in anyone's best interests to kneel to Big Business. After all, that is what Linux is all about.
Imagine what we would have if people said "Yes, I have a mission-critical application that cannot crash but I will run it on this OS because I am not willing to fight." Imagine if people bowed and stepped aside to Big Business in the United States in the early part of the century. If it was not for a few people who fought faceless beuracracies, there might not be a United States.
I understand that your post was not aimed at making us submit, but to show that stepping-aside can have benefits. Fighting for a just cause can have its benefits as well. Avoidance nullifies any sense of accomplishment and control. You may feel better to accept some money to suppress what you believe but that is nothing compared to the feeling of emptiness you will feel in the long run. If you fight for what you truly believe in you can't lose. -Clump
I seriously doubt that race is the issue here. The bottom line of the incident is that the webmaster had the domain first, whether it was a case of cybersquatting or not, and NSI gave it away without her permission. The latter is the case, and it is no more or less right because of the color of a person's skin. -Clump
If I may caution you, please try to avoid being reactionary. This was one article describing what happened and there are many sides. For one, the article was only telling the story from the "victim's" point of view. Plus, it is counterproductive to assume that it is racially motivated without any evidence.
For all I know, this could be racially motivated. I know no more than others on this topic. However, it would seem more logical that this is a case of "big business" bullying the "little guy". Until we know all sides of the story, lets please not start anything racial. -Clump
If the article is accurate, there is nothing the original webmaster can do. AOL is a huge business and can get what it wants done legally or not. I think that even though the author may have been first, she will not get that domain back.
I would say that this is fuel for the "NSI is evil" fire but how often do we see the little guy get crushed by big business? Look at the alleged practices by Microsoft and Intel.
I hope this can be resolved, after all the webmaster did not authorize the transfer. However I am skeptical that the system will actually work in this case. -Clump
Actually, benchmarks that I have seen make the AMD K6-III series outperform the Pentium III in all regards including "true 32" as in WinNT. The only place where clones have trouble against Intel is the FPU. Its not that AMD is bad there but Intel chips have pipelined FPUs that dramatically assist foating point.
Actually, I would commend anyone that weighed the cost-benefit ratio of purchasing Intel vs. AMD. A PIII is just A PII with SIMD instructions which would not help NT at all. As I said before, AMD would actually be better. Also, there are issues you need to realize. If you want high-performance, you buy a 64-bit Unix. Saying NT handles 8 users simultaneously is quite laughable. -Clump
Actually, the quote was "On some subjects, their brains just shut down -- the style reminded me a lot of the anonymous cowards on Slashdot."
I interpreted the above quote to refer to W2K kids that were ignorant in their questions, which is why I referred to them as such. I did _not_ say that Microsoft workers were ignorant nor was that what I meant to imply.
I understand your concern but you assuming how I "think" is ignorant in and of itself and contradicts your reason for replying. -Clump
I wish the interview were more specific. It barely scratched the surface of what implications the ordeal could have. For instance, I am wondering what the W2K kids were saying and being offended by and what Eric said to them.
One thing I thought was amusing was that Eric compared ignorant Microsoft workers to Anonymous Cowards on Slashdot. -Clump
I don't have Shoutcast, so I was not able to listen in on this. My prediction is that within a few hours, the Slashdot Effect will call so much attention to it that the site will be removed.
This isn't too big a deal for me. Granted, I value my privacy and don't want to be intruded upon but it would not surprise me if I found that people were listening in. When people first found out that it was easy to listen in on cordless-phone conversations people were concerned but that didn't deter the masses.
This is just one more thing to remind us that there are no guarantees of privacy. If more people knew what paper trail was associated with their card purchases and how companies sell customer/patient information, privacy would be much more valued. -Clump
I just don't have too much sympathy for Compaq. I feel it would almost be better for the industry if they were to go under. My concern lies with Alpha, though.
The reason I have little respect for Compaq is how they handle their own systems. A friend bought one and had to deal with cheap/proprietary hardware and had to pay for Win95 while not actually receiving the media. What was received instead was a "Compaq System CD" of sorts. Compaq was instrumental in building and supporting the WinTel empire, at the expense of better products.
So if Compaq sells Altavista and otherwise faces financial burdens, it would be not unlike the countless other companies that were shunned so the ever-profitable WinTel could thrive... -Clump
I had some conern about Be. I am a converted-to-Linux WinSheep and I felt that another OS might overshadow Linux and my platform would be forgotton. Small wonder that when I saw things along the lines of more people supporting Be, I was concerned.
Then I got to thinking. What was the whole reason I decided for Linux as opposed to Win32? I wanted an OS that: 1.) Played Quake
2.) Was stable
3.) Was customizable
4.) Did what I wanted it to do.
So now came this BeOS as an alternative to Win32 and, of course, my Linux. I felt this was bad and all people porting to it would ruin my way of computing. Then I began thinking a bit more..
The development to other platforms is not *bad*. Lets say Be does shadow Linux and can do things Linux cannot. I feel that competition in this instance will be good for everyone, even if Be isn't free. If it does some neat feature, some Linux people might like it and support/emulate it. If Be raises the bar in technology, well... they raised the bar and now the world has more technology and Joe user has another choice. I feel that choice is much more important than my sentiment for Linux.
Just thought you would like to hear what a Linux user thinks. -Clump
Huh? I am curious to see what they will discuss. "Here is our new Linux coat. It is fully threaded, can do SMC (Symmetrical Multiple Coat), and supports multiple users."
Sorry, I just see them as talking more about coats than OSs. That would be like Mazda going to an animal rights rally. -Clump
I really hope Home Depot makes the switch. Running Linux would be so much better than Win95.
Its funny that under their current Win32 model, they have to ship in a new hard drive for repairs. Wow. That seems like a huge waste to me. Hmm... maybe I should go to Home Depot and ask for some hard drives... -Clmup
It has been well known that people are fond of Linux. It has been well known that people fond of Linux are not always fond of criticism of Linux. It has been well known that people fond of anything can post inflammatory rhetoric out of reaction. Therefore, it is redundant that Mindcraft posted these e-mails.
Part of what brought Mindcraft's integrity into the public eye was Slashdot posts. Even on Mindcraft's site, they mentioned long ago that they were flamed by Linux zealots. However, Internet authorities agree flaming is unprofessional and happens. That was mentioned here on Slashdot. To post them is redundant, unprofessional, and proves Mindcraft has credibility issues. -Clump
I do agree with the assesment "If you really want the job you will do what it takes". That is a very true assertion. I am a techie but I work a less tech-oriented job. Why? Not because I sent my resume as a proprietary format or because of a database keyword system, but because I have not tried hard enough.
The point that the author and several follow-ups have presented is that tech job hunting really is a sad state of affairs. Not that tech hunting is the only job process that is lacking, just look at what your friends that are photographers or artists have to go through, but people that truly have the skills are being bottlenecked by those that don't. It is just a shame that the tech industry allows itself to draw skilled individuals in such an inefficient manner. -Clump
It us really nice to see Linux being ported to tiny objects and PCs. The article was somewhat fluffy, and didn't really give too much useful info. However, it did link me to the picture of the tiny web server. I have never seen that before.
Its just kind of funny... Other than WinCE, you are not seeing tiny devices that run Win32. I want an NT-controlled car Mp3 player. Think about it... I could get a tiny motherboard and CPU and add 64M of RAM. Then I could add a large hard drive so I could fit all the millions of lines of code onto it. Then I could have my friend reboot the system every few miles. I could also attach a trailer with a mini-power plant to my car so I could power my system.
Yea Slashdot... you watch out for me. As soon as NT5 comes out, I will buy another huge hard drive and have more people rebooting my system. Watch out... -Clump
I don't see why people are so surprised with this. The Internet still is not regarded as "acceptable" for real-time work, so why are people so affected by system faults?
"Planning planning planning." Planning is the key. On personal systems, there are UPS devices, floppy drives, RAID configurations (well maybe not so often on a PC), Zip drives, CDRs... all sorts of mediums to circumvent the loss of data. Just because a system is online or owned by a large group is no reason to assume it is secure. -Clump
See, this scares me a bit. I have so many problems/crashes/concerns on my non-networked PC at home. I couldn't imagine have a house that is networked as such.
It reminds me of Bill Gates' house. I was told it is almost fully automated running on WinNT. I hear that it has periods of non-functioning. Granted that is WinNT, but still, I would hate to have my dishwasher or shower crash.. -Clump
I am afraid you may have missed the point. AMD is much smaller than Intel and likely does not have the resources or the credibility to influence people to make brand-specific compiler optimizations.
I would rather see a collaborative effort to optimize x86 code for all x86 CPUs, not for a specific brand of CPU.
Even if AMD could influence compilers would we want them to? Imagine GCCK6-2, GCCK6-3, GCCPENTIUM, GCCP2, GCCP3, yadda yadda....
As for Intel dominating, they were being investigate just like Microsoft except that none other than AMD proved Intel is slipping. -Clump
Pardon my posting of an opinion, but am I the only one that didn't like the movie? I thought it was cheesy. I don't like Slimer and the second one was even dumber. Just my humble opinion.
I did, however, love the cartoon The Real Ghostbusters when I was really young. That and Ren and Stimpy. The first episodes, not after John K. got fired... -Clump
I will state that I agree with the first half of your post. Criticism can be great. The Linux community benefits from being told where it needs to improve. Criticism can inspire and motivate programmers to work harder.
You are right. It is wrong for anyone to issue inflammatory rhetoric simply because they are offended. It takes a better "man" to accept criticism and learn/grow from it.
With such a good insight, I am surprised you fell into exactly what you were complaining about. "Slashdot discussion forums are a nest of low informed ranting"
To discredit an entire movement because of a few news site posts is completely ludicrous. Why judge an entire movement on them? I hope you can reconsider your stance as it is much less articulate than the first half of your post. -Clump
It would appear you are a bit lacking in self-esteem. I have noticed that you have been posting callous remarks every few minutes.
The one fact you must consider is that Windows is a sheep OS. Sheep have no choice but to follow the shepard. In our case, the bullied OEM. People are tired. They want a stable operating system that can get things done. Linux properly installed does just that.
To properly install Linux, you must make sure that you install the needed software and packages. You exercise intelligence and think "Will I be compiling? Will I be using many text editors?"
Next, you tune your system. Add a new user, and check to see that your software is configured correctly. Unlike Win32, you can find all the documentation for your software because the Linux community pressures for it.
Then you go to town; do what you want on your system. It will break less as it is not Win32. Since you have all your docs you can repair what you need. Try that on Win32.
My bottom line is please stop posting for attention and realize that some of your remarks can be seen as exactly what they are. Cries for attention. -Clump
Slashdot Mirror
I agree that paying shipping in no way justifies not having to pay tax. However, I didn't find any places in your message that explained why we should have to pay them and what good they would do.
As I stated before, this matter is being looked at by the same standards an "in person" transaction is looked at. The two are not the same, one requires tax dollars to work and the other does not, and no good justification for online taxes has yet been presented.
-Clump
This all seems very presumptious of the panel to be deciding. "localities say sales taxes are a life and death issue for them, since they rely on the revenues to build schools, repair roads, and provide other essential municipal services."
Fine, but what the government fails to realize is that "in person" transactions are exactly that. You appear in person and pay for the item as well as the tax _in person_. Therefore, you drive on roads, walk through cities, and send your kids to school--All things legitimate for taxes. When you buy online, you are not there. You may be buying from "Littletown" California, but you are not there. You are not using that place's resources, and most of all, not using anything that requires tax dollars.
Keeping this in mind, it is arrogant and greedy for people to feel entitled to tax those transactions. For what reasons? Because localities need the revenue? A fine and legitimate argument formulated during a time when the only way to buy was in person. Therefore, taxing a budding industry with no just cause is outlandish. What is funding this panel? Tax Dollars. Has the panel been able to accomplish anything other than squabbling? No. How about giving the wasted "tax committee" money to some localities that say they are starving for it?
-Clump
I am very impressed with Half-Life. It is my second favorite first-person-shooter behind Quake(my favotite game of any type). I found it to be very interesting and also very realistic. The people would act like you shot them and soldiers acted like soldiers.
Unrealism really bothers me in gaming. After seeing how things work in HL, (especially the helicopter), games like Sin are pathetic at best.
On a side note, I keep seeing that Wine can run Half Life. I have tried and keep failing. I wish I could find a place that documents how to do it.... hint...
-Clump
I think you raised a good point, but I don't feel its in anyone's best interests to kneel to Big Business. After all, that is what Linux is all about.
Imagine what we would have if people said "Yes, I have a mission-critical application that cannot crash but I will run it on this OS because I am not willing to fight." Imagine if people bowed and stepped aside to Big Business in the United States in the early part of the century. If it was not for a few people who fought faceless beuracracies, there might not be a United States.
I understand that your post was not aimed at making us submit, but to show that stepping-aside can have benefits. Fighting for a just cause can have its benefits as well. Avoidance nullifies any sense of accomplishment and control. You may feel better to accept some money to suppress what you believe but that is nothing compared to the feeling of emptiness you will feel in the long run. If you fight for what you truly believe in you can't lose.
-Clump
I seriously doubt that race is the issue here. The bottom line of the incident is that the webmaster had the domain first, whether it was a case of cybersquatting or not, and NSI gave it away without her permission. The latter is the case, and it is no more or less right because of the color of a person's skin.
-Clump
If I may caution you, please try to avoid being reactionary. This was one article describing what happened and there are many sides. For one, the article was only telling the story from the "victim's" point of view. Plus, it is counterproductive to assume that it is racially motivated without any evidence.
For all I know, this could be racially motivated. I know no more than others on this topic. However, it would seem more logical that this is a case of "big business" bullying the "little guy". Until we know all sides of the story, lets please not start anything racial.
-Clump
If the article is accurate, there is nothing the original webmaster can do. AOL is a huge business and can get what it wants done legally or not. I think that even though the author may have been first, she will not get that domain back.
I would say that this is fuel for the "NSI is evil" fire but how often do we see the little guy get crushed by big business? Look at the alleged practices by Microsoft and Intel.
I hope this can be resolved, after all the webmaster did not authorize the transfer. However I am skeptical that the system will actually work in this case.
-Clump
Actually, benchmarks that I have seen make the AMD K6-III series outperform the Pentium III in all regards including "true 32" as in WinNT. The only place where clones have trouble against Intel is the FPU. Its not that AMD is bad there but Intel chips have pipelined FPUs that dramatically assist foating point.
Actually, I would commend anyone that weighed the cost-benefit ratio of purchasing Intel vs. AMD. A PIII is just A PII with SIMD instructions which would not help NT at all. As I said before, AMD would actually be better. Also, there are issues you need to realize. If you want high-performance, you buy a 64-bit Unix. Saying NT handles 8 users simultaneously is quite laughable.
-Clump
Actually, the quote was "On some subjects, their brains just shut down -- the style reminded
me a lot of the anonymous cowards on Slashdot."
I interpreted the above quote to refer to W2K kids that were ignorant in their questions, which is why I referred to them as such. I did _not_ say that Microsoft workers were ignorant nor was that what I meant to imply.
I understand your concern but you assuming how I "think" is ignorant in and of itself and contradicts your reason for replying.
-Clump
I wish the interview were more specific. It barely scratched the surface of what implications the ordeal could have. For instance, I am wondering what the W2K kids were saying and being offended by and what Eric said to them.
One thing I thought was amusing was that Eric compared ignorant Microsoft workers to Anonymous Cowards on Slashdot.
-Clump
I don't have Shoutcast, so I was not able to listen in on this. My prediction is that within a few hours, the Slashdot Effect will call so much attention to it that the site will be removed.
This isn't too big a deal for me. Granted, I value my privacy and don't want to be intruded upon but it would not surprise me if I found that people were listening in. When people first found out that it was easy to listen in on cordless-phone conversations people were concerned but that didn't deter the masses.
This is just one more thing to remind us that there are no guarantees of privacy. If more people knew what paper trail was associated with their card purchases and how companies sell customer/patient information, privacy would be much more valued.
-Clump
I just don't have too much sympathy for Compaq. I feel it would almost be better for the industry if they were to go under. My concern lies with Alpha, though.
The reason I have little respect for Compaq is how they handle their own systems. A friend bought one and had to deal with cheap/proprietary hardware and had to pay for Win95 while not actually receiving the media. What was received instead was a "Compaq System CD" of sorts. Compaq was instrumental in building and supporting the WinTel empire, at the expense of better products.
So if Compaq sells Altavista and otherwise faces financial burdens, it would be not unlike the countless other companies that were shunned so the ever-profitable WinTel could thrive...
-Clump
Wow. 1ghz of power. Imagine playing Quake on one of those. You know what is really funny, I bet NT could still slow one down severly.
-Clump
I had some conern about Be. I am a converted-to-Linux WinSheep and I felt that another OS might overshadow Linux and my platform would be forgotton. Small wonder that when I saw things along the lines of more people supporting Be, I was concerned.
Then I got to thinking. What was the whole reason I decided for Linux as opposed to Win32? I wanted an OS that:
1.) Played Quake
2.) Was stable
3.) Was customizable
4.) Did what I wanted it to do.
So now came this BeOS as an alternative to Win32 and, of course, my Linux. I felt this was bad and all people porting to it would ruin my way of computing. Then I began thinking a bit more..
The development to other platforms is not *bad*. Lets say Be does shadow Linux and can do things Linux cannot. I feel that competition in this instance will be good for everyone, even if Be isn't free. If it does some neat feature, some Linux people might like it and support/emulate it. If Be raises the bar in technology, well... they raised the bar and now the world has more technology and Joe user has another choice. I feel that choice is much more important than my sentiment for Linux.
Just thought you would like to hear what a Linux user thinks.
-Clump
"Burlington Coat Factory"
Huh? I am curious to see what they will discuss. "Here is our new Linux coat. It is fully threaded, can do SMC (Symmetrical Multiple Coat), and supports multiple users."
Sorry, I just see them as talking more about coats than OSs. That would be like Mazda going to an animal rights rally.
-Clump
I really hope Home Depot makes the switch. Running Linux would be so much better than Win95.
Its funny that under their current Win32 model, they have to ship in a new hard drive for repairs. Wow. That seems like a huge waste to me. Hmm... maybe I should go to Home Depot and ask for some hard drives...
-Clmup
It has been well known that people are fond of Linux. It has been well known that people fond of Linux are not always fond of criticism of Linux. It has been well known that people fond of anything can post inflammatory rhetoric out of reaction. Therefore, it is redundant that Mindcraft posted these e-mails.
Part of what brought Mindcraft's integrity into the public eye was Slashdot posts. Even on Mindcraft's site, they mentioned long ago that they were flamed by Linux zealots. However, Internet authorities agree flaming is unprofessional and happens. That was mentioned here on Slashdot. To post them is redundant, unprofessional, and proves Mindcraft has credibility issues.
-Clump
I do agree with the assesment "If you really want the job you will do what it takes". That is a very true assertion. I am a techie but I work a less tech-oriented job. Why? Not because I sent my resume as a proprietary format or because of a database keyword system, but because I have not tried hard enough.
The point that the author and several follow-ups have presented is that tech job hunting really is a sad state of affairs. Not that tech hunting is the only job process that is lacking, just look at what your friends that are photographers or artists have to go through, but people that truly have the skills are being bottlenecked by those that don't. It is just a shame that the tech industry allows itself to draw skilled individuals in such an inefficient manner.
-Clump
It us really nice to see Linux being ported to tiny objects and PCs. The article was somewhat fluffy, and didn't really give too much useful info. However, it did link me to the picture of the tiny web server. I have never seen that before.
Its just kind of funny... Other than WinCE, you are not seeing tiny devices that run Win32. I want an NT-controlled car Mp3 player. Think about it... I could get a tiny motherboard and CPU and add 64M of RAM. Then I could add a large hard drive so I could fit all the millions of lines of code onto it. Then I could have my friend reboot the system every few miles. I could also attach a trailer with a mini-power plant to my car so I could power my system.
Yea Slashdot... you watch out for me. As soon as NT5 comes out, I will buy another huge hard drive and have more people rebooting my system. Watch out...
-Clump
I don't see why people are so surprised with this. The Internet still is not regarded as "acceptable" for real-time work, so why are people so affected by system faults?
"Planning planning planning."
Planning is the key. On personal systems, there are UPS devices, floppy drives, RAID configurations (well maybe not so often on a PC), Zip drives, CDRs... all sorts of mediums to circumvent the loss of data. Just because a system is online or owned by a large group is no reason to assume it is secure.
-Clump
See, this scares me a bit. I have so many problems/crashes/concerns on my non-networked PC at home. I couldn't imagine have a house that is networked as such.
It reminds me of Bill Gates' house. I was told it is almost fully automated running on WinNT. I hear that it has periods of non-functioning. Granted that is WinNT, but still, I would hate to have my dishwasher or shower crash..
-Clump
I am afraid you may have missed the point. AMD is much smaller than Intel and likely does not have the resources or the credibility to influence people to make brand-specific compiler optimizations.
I would rather see a collaborative effort to optimize x86 code for all x86 CPUs, not for a specific brand of CPU.
Even if AMD could influence compilers would we want them to? Imagine GCCK6-2, GCCK6-3, GCCPENTIUM, GCCP2, GCCP3, yadda yadda....
As for Intel dominating, they were being investigate just like Microsoft except that none other than AMD proved Intel is slipping.
-Clump
Pardon my posting of an opinion, but am I the only one that didn't like the movie? I thought it was cheesy. I don't like Slimer and the second one was even dumber. Just my humble opinion.
I did, however, love the cartoon The Real Ghostbusters when I was really young. That and Ren and Stimpy. The first episodes, not after John K. got fired...
-Clump
I will state that I agree with the first half of your post. Criticism can be great. The Linux community benefits from being told where it needs to improve. Criticism can inspire and motivate programmers to work harder.
You are right. It is wrong for anyone to issue inflammatory rhetoric simply because they are offended. It takes a better "man" to accept criticism and learn/grow from it.
With such a good insight, I am surprised you fell into exactly what you were complaining about. "Slashdot discussion forums are a nest of low informed ranting"
To discredit an entire movement because of a few news site posts is completely ludicrous. Why judge an entire movement on them? I hope you can reconsider your stance as it is much less articulate than the first half of your post.
-Clump
It would appear you are a bit lacking in self-esteem. I have noticed that you have been posting callous remarks every few minutes.
The one fact you must consider is that Windows is a sheep OS. Sheep have no choice but to follow the shepard. In our case, the bullied OEM. People are tired. They want a stable operating system that can get things done. Linux properly installed does just that.
To properly install Linux, you must make sure that you install the needed software and packages. You exercise intelligence and think "Will I be compiling? Will I be using many text editors?"
Next, you tune your system. Add a new user, and check to see that your software is configured correctly. Unlike Win32, you can find all the documentation for your software because the Linux community pressures for it.
Then you go to town; do what you want on your system. It will break less as it is not Win32. Since you have all your docs you can repair what you need. Try that on Win32.
My bottom line is please stop posting for attention and realize that some of your remarks can be seen as exactly what they are. Cries for attention.
-Clump