If you like it in bulk, you can have 112,000 lbs of sugar for US$ 8,176, or about 7.3 cents/lb, if you don't mind picking it up in New York. (Bring friends.) But that's only if you are going to export it. If you live in the U.S., you have to pay $24,371 (21.8 c/lb) because we have to protect our domestic sugar beet industry from the insidious international sugar conspiracy that threatens the very pillars of our civilization. Or, because the farmers lobby has too much pull in Washington. I forget which one it is.
I'd also like to get involved in giving the gift of connectivity to people who otherwise might not receive it until much later. I've now brought a few old laptops ($100 ebay stuff) back to life on Linux and wouldn't say I've gotten the hang of it, but I am getting better.
First I'll bring up a few issues/problems, then offer a idea or two in return for being such a whiner.
1) Businesses are probably the best source for equipment because they upgrade more frequently and one "call" nets you 40 computers instead of one.. But most probably already do something with the computers and those that do have to 'change' what they are doing, which involves getting someone to say yes. This problem is solvable with a good sales pitch to someone who can say, "Yes."
2) It means almost nothing (these days) if the people who receive the computer can't get online, and that costs money -- $100-$120 a year at a minimum for dialup if you can't cut a discount. It would be nice if people could use all those free AOL disks, but that's a nonstarter for Linux and not sustainable anyway.
3) The time involved to setup an arbitrary computer is non-trivial. Big packages like SuSE have good autodetect but take manual effort each time. Debian is _much_ easier to maintain but setting up X was more challenging I thought. (Worth saying again -- Debian is much easier to maintain, especially if you want to add something that wasn't on the original distro setup disk.)
4) As you do volume, you need a lot of space to keep the equipment. Many eligible businesses are in cities, as are many needy donors, and that's where space is most expensive.
5) Training is a major component of computer cost. It's even more important if the computer donation is going to end up being 'fire and forget' in many cases. The best kind of training would be with the family, in the home, with scheduled follow ups. A major element of training would be to help make sure people could at least access the charity help page (with email submission form). It should also include basic printed materials. Capt Drunken Bum, how did you go about this?
6) The people who get the computer still need to do some setup, and going from no computer to *nix can't be easy. This could be somewhat mitigated if part of the script involved setting up for the person or family for whom the computer is intended, and presetting the dial-in numbers for whatever is the preferred internet service provider.
Okay, issue #6 had an idea crammed in there. Now a couple ideas without bring up problems:
1) It's always feels good to do things for yourself, but organizations like the Salvation Army have been performing this service for the needy for a long time. Rather than going it alone, it might be better to get them involved, if they are not already.
2) If you want something from people, the best way is of course to offer them something in return. Most people giving away computers don't want them anyway, but would like the tax deduction if it weren't the pain to get the substantiation. This goes for businesses, too. Providing a web service that estimates values for trade in computer based on the obvious components, then guides people into sending their computer in (or delivering it, if appropriate) is exactly that sort of service. They get the estimated value, register to send in their computer and get a computer id, and when the computer is received, they get a substantiation letter (to the extent it checks out). If a business is willing to donate more than N computers, it would be reasonable to have the charity perform the valuation for them rather than requiring them to do it all themselves. (Worth it for the volume.)
Does this mean than if a Guatemalan company manufactures this ready-to-assemble "microchip in" furniture running embedded Linux, they could also call their stuff "Scandanavian" furniture?
This was in Popular Science and/or PC Magazine. (Tough to remember which since both seem to have a number of articles written by the PR Crew, but I think it was PS.) The company was selling modifications to laptop screens and matching glasses. Obvious application was for on-plane editing by incredibly important people, of which there were many at that e-time. I liked the idea but couldn't rationalize the cost just to prevent people from discovering my Civilization strategies, finely honed though they may have been.
Isn't that really the same problem? If you are bringing your own power, in whatever form, you have a finite amount of energy you can expend in whatever combination you want to change the momentum of the asteroid. Your solution sounds slightly better because after the first shot, the remaining asteroid would have ever so-slightly less mass. But when you consider the problem of mounting a rail gun on some asteroid in a stable fashion...well, the combination of rockets and the super-pillow sounds a lot easier, which counts for a lot when you are a million miles from the nearest astro-workshop and the clock is ticking.
Of course if you can use external sources of energy, like solar energy (i.e. the solar sail) or asteroid itself, then you really solve one problem. But whatever your solution, if it is really to solve the problem, it also needs to have a rate of work sufficient to deflect the trajectory in the time you have remaining. If the asteroid is big enough to matter, let's hope we have lots of leadtime.
die "Usage ",$0," duckname1 [duckname2...]\n"; foreach qw(FRIENDS NEIGHBORS COUNTRYMEN) {
warn $ENV{$_}; } for(;;$duck++,$_=shift @ARGV){
chomp;
next if (/^[HD]uey$/ || $_ eq 'Louie') and $duck--;
last if $roof>$shouldbe;
die "Need more than $duck ducks (goose?)\n" if !@ARGV;
die "laughing\n" if $caught; } print $duck-1," is how many ducks a duckstuff could stuff if a duckstuff had the pluck.\n";
I am a terrible golfer (Perl and otherwise) but I do have fun. TMTOWTDI
My question: Larry Wall's favorite Perl program, five 80 char lines or less, not counting shebang. Obviously favorite could mean many things but I'll let him choose what it means. Thanks.
die "Usage ",$0," duckname1 [duckname2...]\n";
foreach qw(FRIENDS NEIGHBORS COUNTRYMEN) {
warn $ENV{$_};
}
for(;;$duck++,$_=shift @ARGV){
chomp;
next if (/^[HD]uey$/ || $_ eq 'Louie') and $duck--;
last if $roof>$shouldbe;
die "Need more than $duck ducks (goose?)\n" if !@ARGV;
die "laughing\n" if $caught;
}
print $duck-1," is how many ducks a duckstuff could stuff if a duckstuff had the pluck.\n";
I am a terrible golfer (Perl and otherwise) but I do have fun. TMTOWTDI
My question: Larry Wall's favorite Perl program, five 80 char lines or less, not counting shebang. Obviously favorite could mean many things but I'll let him choose what it means. Thanks.
Slashdot Mirror
I don't think the Free State is going to last for posterity if there are no women around as mates. Geek Wars: Attack of the Clones.
Warning: haiku ahead
Damn server too slow.
Why not buy a faster pipe?
You waited. Touche.
-
How about 246 toothpicks? Definitely. Not everyone has Rainman's memory.
Here's another secret:
Kmart sucks.
--
If you like it in bulk, you can have 112,000 lbs of sugar for US$ 8,176, or about 7.3 cents/lb, if you don't mind picking it up in New York. (Bring friends.) But that's only if you are going to export it. If you live in the U.S., you have to pay $24,371 (21.8 c/lb) because we have to protect our domestic sugar beet industry from the insidious international sugar conspiracy that threatens the very pillars of our civilization. Or, because the farmers lobby has too much pull in Washington. I forget which one it is.
I'd also like to get involved in giving the gift of connectivity to people who otherwise might not receive it until much later. I've now brought a few old laptops ($100 ebay stuff) back to life on Linux and wouldn't say I've gotten the hang of it, but I am getting better.
First I'll bring up a few issues/problems, then offer a idea or two in return for being such a whiner.
1) Businesses are probably the best source for equipment because they upgrade more frequently and one "call" nets you 40 computers instead of one.. But most probably already do something with the computers and those that do have to 'change' what they are doing, which involves getting someone to say yes. This problem is solvable with a good sales pitch to someone who can say, "Yes."
2) It means almost nothing (these days) if the people who receive the computer can't get online, and that costs money -- $100-$120 a year at a minimum for dialup if you can't cut a discount. It would be nice if people could use all those free AOL disks, but that's a nonstarter for Linux and not sustainable anyway.
3) The time involved to setup an arbitrary computer is non-trivial. Big packages like SuSE have good autodetect but take manual effort each time. Debian is _much_ easier to maintain but setting up X was more challenging I thought. (Worth saying again -- Debian is much easier to maintain, especially if you want to add something that wasn't on the original distro setup disk.)
4) As you do volume, you need a lot of space to keep the equipment. Many eligible businesses are in cities, as are many needy donors, and that's where space is most expensive.
5) Training is a major component of computer cost. It's even more important if the computer donation is going to end up being 'fire and forget' in many cases. The best kind of training would be with the family, in the home, with scheduled follow ups. A major element of training would be to help make sure people could at least access the charity help page (with email submission form). It should also include basic printed materials. Capt Drunken Bum, how did you go about this?
6) The people who get the computer still need to do some setup, and going from no computer to *nix can't be easy. This could be somewhat mitigated if part of the script involved setting up for the person or family for whom the computer is intended, and presetting the dial-in numbers for whatever is the preferred internet service provider.
Okay, issue #6 had an idea crammed in there. Now a couple ideas without bring up problems:
1) It's always feels good to do things for yourself, but organizations like the Salvation Army have been performing this service for the needy for a long time. Rather than going it alone, it might be better to get them involved, if they are not already.
2) If you want something from people, the best way is of course to offer them something in return. Most people giving away computers don't want them anyway, but would like the tax deduction if it weren't the pain to get the substantiation. This goes for businesses, too. Providing a web service that estimates values for trade in computer based on the obvious components, then guides people into sending their computer in (or delivering it, if appropriate) is exactly that sort of service. They get the estimated value, register to send in their computer and get a computer id, and when the computer is received, they get a substantiation letter (to the extent it checks out). If a business is willing to donate more than N computers, it would be reasonable to have the charity perform the valuation for them rather than requiring them to do it all themselves. (Worth it for the volume.)
-B
---------------------
Does this mean than if a Guatemalan company manufactures this ready-to-assemble "microchip in" furniture running embedded Linux, they could also call their stuff "Scandanavian" furniture?
This was in Popular Science and/or PC Magazine. (Tough to remember which since both seem to have a number of articles written by the PR Crew, but I think it was PS.) The company was selling modifications to laptop screens and matching glasses. Obvious application was for on-plane editing by incredibly important people, of which there were many at that e-time. I liked the idea but couldn't rationalize the cost just to prevent people from discovering my Civilization strategies, finely honed though they may have been.
Isn't that really the same problem? If you are bringing your own power, in whatever form, you have a finite amount of energy you can expend in whatever combination you want to change the momentum of the asteroid. Your solution sounds slightly better because after the first shot, the remaining asteroid would have ever so-slightly less mass. But when you consider the problem of mounting a rail gun on some asteroid in a stable fashion...well, the combination of rockets and the super-pillow sounds a lot easier, which counts for a lot when you are a million miles from the nearest astro-workshop and the clock is ticking.
Of course if you can use external sources of energy, like solar energy (i.e. the solar sail) or asteroid itself, then you really solve one problem. But whatever your solution, if it is really to solve the problem, it also needs to have a rate of work sufficient to deflect the trajectory in the time you have remaining. If the asteroid is big enough to matter, let's hope we have lots of leadtime.
Sorry, previous post was horribly unreadable.
...]\n";
die "Usage ",$0," duckname1 [duckname2
foreach qw(FRIENDS NEIGHBORS COUNTRYMEN) {
warn $ENV{$_};
}
for(;;$duck++,$_=shift @ARGV){
chomp;
next if (/^[HD]uey$/ || $_ eq 'Louie') and $duck--;
last if $roof>$shouldbe;
die "Need more than $duck ducks (goose?)\n" if !@ARGV;
die "laughing\n" if $caught;
}
print $duck-1," is how many ducks a duckstuff could stuff if a duckstuff had the pluck.\n";
I am a terrible golfer (Perl and otherwise) but I do have fun. TMTOWTDI
My question: Larry Wall's favorite Perl program, five 80 char lines or less, not counting shebang. Obviously favorite could mean many things but I'll let him choose what it means. Thanks.
die "Usage ",$0," duckname1 [duckname2 ...]\n";
foreach qw(FRIENDS NEIGHBORS COUNTRYMEN) {
warn $ENV{$_};
}
for(;;$duck++,$_=shift @ARGV){
chomp;
next if (/^[HD]uey$/ || $_ eq 'Louie') and $duck--;
last if $roof>$shouldbe;
die "Need more than $duck ducks (goose?)\n" if !@ARGV;
die "laughing\n" if $caught;
}
print $duck-1," is how many ducks a duckstuff could stuff if a duckstuff had the pluck.\n";
I am a terrible golfer (Perl and otherwise) but I do have fun. TMTOWTDI
My question: Larry Wall's favorite Perl program, five 80 char lines or less, not counting shebang. Obviously favorite could mean many things but I'll let him choose what it means. Thanks.