This hangup about defending our bullshit economy which truly only services the "haves" in the first place is being taken to extremes and I'm getting tired of it.
The median household income in the U.S. is $46,000.
It interests me when the geek places himself among the "have-nots."
I say pirate everything, convince your friends, family, etc. Let's see what they do when EVERYONE is downloading their shit. Are they going to throw us all in jail? Then where will they be?
No deposit. No return.
The production budget for Wall-E was $120 million. If the Geek wants to see more from Brad Bird ["1906'} and Pixar {"John Carter of Mars'] than the studio has to see a return on its investments - which the pirate cannot deliver.
There is, of course, the small matter of the export dollars and tax revenues the studio generates, not to mention employment for over four hundred skilled artists and craftsman....
where people can see the price difference between a windows pc and a linux pc.
The problem is that OEM Linux - in the consumer market - remains solidly anchored among the bottom feeders.
The Vista Premium laptop at Walmart.com starts at $500. The Dual Core AMD with 3 GB RAM at $700.
The PC at Walmart is all Vista at the mid-price range and higher. Long term - Walmart has struggled to keep similarly configured systems within $50-75 of their brand-name Windows competition.
Walmart does nothing to point you towards a Linux printer or anything else you might want or need.
If Vista is stumbling terribly with 10% growth in the past year, what does that say about Linux, which has seen only 0.2% growth - and has yet to break into the single digit? Top Operating System Share Trend
Vista will have 20% of the market in July. Four times that of the "MacIntel" - BootCamp - platform. Windows 7 may be simplified and more modular but it will still be Vista in its essentials.
Civilians in areas requiring aid could...report the movement of warlords...that might interrupt food shipments.
How do you keep the lines of communications open against the opposition of either the local warlord or whoever represents legitimate - centralized - authority? It can shorten your life to be in possession of a radio. The mesh network has the potential to expose everyone who is part of the mesh.
Ever read this?
The right of the people to be secure in their persons, houses, papers, and effects, against unreasonable searches and seizures.....
You are crossing an international border.
You are now effectively in limbo - a legal "no man's land."
You can't go forward and you can't go back until both sides agree to let you pass - under whatever terms and conditions they think appropriate and necessary.
What is really needed to help Linux stand out is a set of F/LOSS-licensed fonts that are of even better quality than the default MS stuff--I mean it's essential to be able to show Times New Roman correctly, but what would make Linux...stand out is a selection of superb fonts.
Times New Roman was introduced in 1932. Baskerville in 1757.
Type design at the highest level is an extraordinarily rare art and craft.
Assuming you have that problem solved, how do limit their distribution of your new font set to the "free" operating systems - without having the pragmatists and the ideologues of F/OSS coming at you with pitchforks from every side?
Linux has about a 0.68% share of the desktop. Sun with OpenOffice.org and the Mozilla Foundation with Firefox have set their sights a little higher.
Note that he uses Vista and he says his computer doesn't need more watts when playing games compared to normal usage. Maybe this is because Vista's 3D interface already taxes the video card and forces it to draw a lot of power?
How often a day do you suppose Aero's DX9 effects are invoked in Vista? I am betting the load on the GPU is trivial when compared to 10 seconds of the gamer-geek's first person shooter.
Then name one that isn't still in first run theatrical release.
Them name a classic which hasn't been released in a accessible format.
But if the technicolor master print is in a vault somewhere and no one is willing to pay for digital restoration and licensing, you won't find a link to it on Pirate Bay.
And I do draw the line 28 years (the original terms before our governments sold out to disney and other companies and sold away the public domain to them).
The animated feature Cinderella was followed by a Rogers & Hammerstein musical and a Jim Henson special for HBO and the CBC. IMdb lists over 100 versions of the tale dating back to the Nickelodeon days.
The geek doesn't want to learn from Cocteau and Philip Glass. He doesn't want to learn from Disney. He wants a Beauty and the Beast Lego Construction Set with all the hard work done for him.
Pixar takes chances and produces Finding Nemo, The Incredibles, Ratatouille, WALL-E.
The geek's creative imagination and integrity begins and ends with "Limbo of the Lost." He deserves a Uwe Boll.
Some jail; around 6 months.
A far sight better than 38 years, which is more than some murderers get.
When this student commits another crime in an attempt to get ahead, such as stealing an identity, and when he gets caught, then throw the book at him.
This - adult - is facing damn near fifty felony counts of altering public records, seven felony counts of computer fraud, four felony counts of identity theft and six of burglary.
Some murderers face lethal injection or life without parole.
But the Geek always takes exception when another Geek is looking at hard time.
That makes him no better than the Enron exec who can't conceive of a world in which the white collar criminal is treated like any other felon.
In many new markets success is often easy. Look at all the car companies at the beginning of the automotive boom
The curious thing about Henry Ford is that he lost touch with the middle class market. He had the perfect car for 1908 but he was still building it in 1927.
The $300 Model T of the 20's was still priced out of reach of the poorest of the poor - but those with a even a little more money to spend had moved on to something better.
There is - perhaps - a hint of warning in this for the Geek who has an emotional investment in the success of the XO, the net book, the net appliance.
I'm not sure that Gates knew that IBM was going to pull parts off the shelf to slam together a PC,
Of course he knew - IBM went to him.
1980
March
At the West Coast Computer Faire, Microsoft announces its first hardware product, the Z-80 SoftCard for the Apple II. This card...gives the Apple II CP/M capability, contributing greatly to Apple Computer's success. The card includes CP/M and Microsoft's Disk BASIC, all for US$349. Tim Patterson of Seattle Computer Products had built several prototypes before Microsoft's Don Burdis took over the project.
April
Seattle Computer Products decides to make their own disk operating system (DOS), due to delays by Digital Research in releasing a CP/M-86 operating system.
August 21
IBM meets with Microsoft again, to talk in general terms about their planned personal computers. IBM asks if Microsoft will develop some programming language interpreters/compilers for it. Bill Gates agrees to supply BASIC and other software development tools. IBM also asks for CP/M, but Gates says Digital Research would have to supply that.
August 28
IBM representatives meet at Microsoft again. Bill Gates signs a consulting agreement for US$15,000 to develop the software specifications for IBM's personal computer. Jack Sams asks about alternatives to CP/M-86. Gates says he might find one.
September
Seattle Computer Products completes and begins shipping 86-QDOS 0.10 (Quick and Dirty Operating System). Even though it had been created in only two man-months, the DOS worked surprisingly well.
September 22
Paul Allen of Microsoft contacts Rod Black of Seattle Computer Products, asking to sub-license 86-DOS to a potential customer
September 30
Bill Gates, Bob O'Rear, and Steve Ballmer meet with IBM in Boca Raton, Florida, to deliver a report to IBM. They propose that Microsoft be put in charge of the entire software development process for IBM's new microcomputer, including providing the main operating system to run on the computer. Bill Gates insists on maintaining rights to the DOS, receiving royalty payments rather than a lump sum.
October
Microsoft's Paul Allen contacts Seattle Computer Products' Tim Patterson, asking for the rights to sell SCP's DOS to an unnamed client (IBM). Microsoft pays less than US$100,000 for the right
November 6
Microsoft and IBM sign a formal contract for Microsoft to develop certain software products for IBM's new microcomputer. Microsoft will receive US$200,000 to adapt the operating system to the IBM PC, and US$500,000 for DOS, BASIC, and compilers. Microsoft is to have an initial version of the operating system and BASIC working by mid-January...
and I doubt he knew that clever reverse engineering of the ROM BIOS that Compaq would do would cause the Attack of The PC Clones to occur and the money bags to fall from the sky
Gates didn't need to know any of this.
CP/M had been a success with only bare hardware compatibility among 3000 models.
The IBM PC meant instant credibility for the 8086 and MS-DOS platform - the driving force behind the reverse-engineering of the BIOS.
Microsoft had the programming languages and development tools needed. It had a toehold in applications for the MS-DOS - an embryonic spreadsheet in Multiplan.
That's like giving Henry Ford all the credit for the industrial revolution. Moore's law was stated in 1965 when Bill Gates was 10 years old.
All Moore's Law tells you is that complex micro circuits will become prigressively cheaper.
It doesn't tell you which technologies will have social and economic impact. It doesn't forecast the success or failure of the PC, the cell phone, the video game console, iPod or anything else.
Henry Ford's genius lay in seeing that he could build a car that didn't need a paved road, a car whose technical sophistication was all "under the hood." In an engine that would have to take an astonishing amount of abuse because it would never see a professional mechanic.
A car that would cost a penny a mile to operate - cheaper than the train, cheaper than the streetcar.
Looks like people (and companies) were writing Operating Systems (and apps) without selling hardware for YEARS before that.
But in nothing like the numbers you see with the introduction of the OEM system bundle.
In 2008 the typical webstat shows Linux with a 0.6% market share. I'll take that as a fair measure of how little things have changed in damn near thirty years.
The PC as a kit of parts is for the enthusiast or the IT pro. No one else will touch it.
Edison made quite a bit of money off the light bulb -- but he didn't invent it.
The problem of the light bulb isn't simply in the filament. It is in the development of a safe and economical system of electrical distribution for general commercial and residential use.
You can't illuminate your home or shop with a carbon arc lamp designed for a lighthouse or the state penitentiary. You can't wire lamps in series or you live forever in full darkness or full light.
there's always an element of luck involved - good thing for Microsoft that Gary Kildall was out flying his airplane when IBM came by.
Microsoft launched in 1975.
In 1980 it was a powerhouse in the world of the eight bit micro - and very well positioned to enter the OS market. It was young, it was hungry, and it was moving up fast.
IBM's PC development team didn't just happen to drop on by - Microsoft's participation in the project was a given.
Meanwhile, the clock was ticking down and nothing much was coming out of Digital Research.
Microsoft promised nothing more than delivery of a serviceable DOS in time for launch - a DOS that would sell for the low, low price of $40.
Why isn't there a larger movement promoting the use of privacy tools?
For casual messaging, the penny postcard was simple, reliable, and cheap, but no more private than a party line phone call or a ten word telegram.
680 million postcards were mailed in 1908 - when the US population was 89 million. The History of Postcards
Secure channels of communication do not remain secure when they are used for trivial reasons. Secure channels are bypassed when they introduce unwanted and unneeded layers of complexity.
To make this work and keep it simple you have to persuade all your correspondents to use and maintain the same system.
That isn't going to happen outside the institutional or corporate environment.
We can also take comfort in knowing that the companies from whom the graphics were lifted probably keep the lion's share of the profit from game sales and the graphic artists make almost nothing, by comparison
That almost nothing can amount to something:
Results of a 2007 survey indicate that the average salary for a game artist is USD $66,594 annually. The least experienced artists (with less than 3 years experience) generally earn about $43,657, while artists with over six years experience on average earn $74,335. Art directors with over six years experience earn an average of $102,806 annually.Game Artist
Also, if the guy at 'Limbo of the Lost' bought the game it is his to do with what he wishes because he didn't agree to any stupid 'don't lift graphics' clause and shrinkwrap licenses have never been proven in court anyway
The graphics are copyrighted. The EULA argument is bogus.
"Information wants to be free."
Information doesn't want to free any more than coal wants to be mined.
You want coal, you must dig for coal or pay someone else to do the dirty and dangerous work for you.
Information always comes a price.
The movie or video game can be years in production and employ hundreds of exceptionally talented artists and craftsman. GTA 4 had a budget of $100 million dollars.
The terrorists from the Middle East want to kill all Americans. Why?
The fundamental reason lies in the rise of the West.
Osama's dream has always been that of a sterile medieval caliphate - with nothing of the intellectual achievement, the creativity and energy of Islamic culture in its prime. It is entirely appropriate that he found refuge with the Taliban.
WWII pilot briefing documents look better than this "official" document.
And WWII pilot briefing documents are nearly 60 years old. Do they look real because they weren't word processed?
A justice system that ignores basic inalienable rights by definition has no authority in that regard.
The notion of "inalienable" rights derives from a philosophy of natural law.
But the American judicial system is anchored in a tradition of written law and precedent. Natural law arguments can be framed just as effectively to serve the interests of an all-powerful state
Slashdot Mirror
The median household income in the U.S. is $46,000.
It interests me when the geek places himself among the "have-nots."
I say pirate everything, convince your friends, family, etc. Let's see what they do when EVERYONE is downloading their shit. Are they going to throw us all in jail? Then where will they be?
No deposit. No return.
The production budget for Wall-E was $120 million. If the Geek wants to see more from Brad Bird ["1906'} and Pixar {"John Carter of Mars'] than the studio has to see a return on its investments - which the pirate cannot deliver.
There is, of course, the small matter of the export dollars and tax revenues the studio generates, not to mention employment for over four hundred skilled artists and craftsman....
The problem is that OEM Linux - in the consumer market - remains solidly anchored among the bottom feeders.
The Vista Premium laptop at Walmart.com starts at $500. The Dual Core AMD with 3 GB RAM at $700.
The PC at Walmart is all Vista at the mid-price range and higher. Long term - Walmart has struggled to keep similarly configured systems within $50-75 of their brand-name Windows competition.
Walmart does nothing to point you towards a Linux printer or anything else you might want or need.
If Vista is stumbling terribly with 10% growth in the past year, what does that say about Linux, which has seen only 0.2% growth - and has yet to break into the single digit? Top Operating System Share Trend
Vista will have 20% of the market in July. Four times that of the "MacIntel" - BootCamp - platform. Windows 7 may be simplified and more modular but it will still be Vista in its essentials.
How do you keep the lines of communications open against the opposition of either the local warlord or whoever represents legitimate - centralized - authority? It can shorten your life to be in possession of a radio. The mesh network has the potential to expose everyone who is part of the mesh.
The median household income in the U.S. is $46,000.
I haven't much sympathy for the Geek who fakes his credentials in order to enter the job market at a much higher level.
The right of the people to be secure in their persons, houses, papers, and effects, against unreasonable searches and seizures.....
You are crossing an international border.
You are now effectively in limbo - a legal "no man's land."
You can't go forward and you can't go back until both sides agree to let you pass - under whatever terms and conditions they think appropriate and necessary.
Times New Roman was introduced in 1932. Baskerville in 1757.
Type design at the highest level is an extraordinarily rare art and craft.
Assuming you have that problem solved, how do limit their distribution of your new font set to the "free" operating systems - without having the pragmatists and the ideologues of F/OSS coming at you with pitchforks from every side?
Linux has about a 0.68% share of the desktop. Sun with OpenOffice.org and the Mozilla Foundation with Firefox have set their sights a little higher.
How often a day do you suppose Aero's DX9 effects are invoked in Vista? I am betting the load on the GPU is trivial when compared to 10 seconds of the gamer-geek's first person shooter.
Power consumption and Vista's Aero interface [October 2006]
"When the UI isn't doing anything, it isn't doing anything. So it's not going to use significantly more more power."
Name one.
Then name one that isn't still in first run theatrical release.
Them name a classic which hasn't been released in a accessible format.
But if the technicolor master print is in a vault somewhere and no one is willing to pay for digital restoration and licensing, you won't find a link to it on Pirate Bay.
And I do draw the line 28 years (the original terms before our governments sold out to disney and other companies and sold away the public domain to them).
The animated feature Cinderella was followed by a Rogers & Hammerstein musical and a Jim Henson special for HBO and the CBC. IMdb lists over 100 versions of the tale dating back to the Nickelodeon days.
The geek doesn't want to learn from Cocteau and Philip Glass. He doesn't want to learn from Disney. He wants a Beauty and the Beast Lego Construction Set with all the hard work done for him.
Pixar takes chances and produces Finding Nemo, The Incredibles, Ratatouille, WALL-E.
The geek's creative imagination and integrity begins and ends with "Limbo of the Lost." He deserves a Uwe Boll.
A far sight better than 38 years, which is more than some murderers get.
When this student commits another crime in an attempt to get ahead, such as stealing an identity, and when he gets caught, then throw the book at him.
This - adult - is facing damn near fifty felony counts of altering public records, seven felony counts of computer fraud, four felony counts of identity theft and six of burglary.
Some murderers face lethal injection or life without parole.
But the Geek always takes exception when another Geek is looking at hard time.
That makes him no better than the Enron exec who can't conceive of a world in which the white collar criminal is treated like any other felon.
The curious thing about Henry Ford is that he lost touch with the middle class market. He had the perfect car for 1908 but he was still building it in 1927.
The $300 Model T of the 20's was still priced out of reach of the poorest of the poor - but those with a even a little more money to spend had moved on to something better.
There is - perhaps - a hint of warning in this for the Geek who has an emotional investment in the success of the XO, the net book, the net appliance.
Of course he knew - IBM went to him.
1980
March
At the West Coast Computer Faire, Microsoft announces its first hardware product, the Z-80 SoftCard for the Apple II. This card...gives the Apple II CP/M capability, contributing greatly to Apple Computer's success. The card includes CP/M and Microsoft's Disk BASIC, all for US$349. Tim Patterson of Seattle Computer Products had built several prototypes before Microsoft's Don Burdis took over the project.
April
Seattle Computer Products decides to make their own disk operating system (DOS), due to delays by Digital Research in releasing a CP/M-86 operating system.
August 21
IBM meets with Microsoft again, to talk in general terms about their planned personal computers. IBM asks if Microsoft will develop some programming language interpreters/compilers for it. Bill Gates agrees to supply BASIC and other software development tools. IBM also asks for CP/M, but Gates says Digital Research would have to supply that.
August 28
IBM representatives meet at Microsoft again. Bill Gates signs a consulting agreement for US$15,000 to develop the software specifications for IBM's personal computer. Jack Sams asks about alternatives to CP/M-86. Gates says he might find one.
September
Seattle Computer Products completes and begins shipping 86-QDOS 0.10 (Quick and Dirty Operating System). Even though it had been created in only two man-months, the DOS worked surprisingly well.
September 22
Paul Allen of Microsoft contacts Rod Black of Seattle Computer Products, asking to sub-license 86-DOS to a potential customer
September 30
Bill Gates, Bob O'Rear, and Steve Ballmer meet with IBM in Boca Raton, Florida, to deliver a report to IBM. They propose that Microsoft be put in charge of the entire software development process for IBM's new microcomputer, including providing the main operating system to run on the computer. Bill Gates insists on maintaining rights to the DOS, receiving royalty payments rather than a lump sum.
October
Microsoft's Paul Allen contacts Seattle Computer Products' Tim Patterson, asking for the rights to sell SCP's DOS to an unnamed client (IBM). Microsoft pays less than US$100,000 for the right
November 6
Microsoft and IBM sign a formal contract for Microsoft to develop certain software products for IBM's new microcomputer. Microsoft will receive US$200,000 to adapt the operating system to the IBM PC, and US$500,000 for DOS, BASIC, and compilers. Microsoft is to have an initial version of the operating system and BASIC working by mid-January...
Chronology of Personal Computer Software
and I doubt he knew that clever reverse engineering of the ROM BIOS that Compaq would do would cause the Attack of The PC Clones to occur and the money bags to fall from the sky
Gates didn't need to know any of this.
CP/M had been a success with only bare hardware compatibility among 3000 models.
The IBM PC meant instant credibility for the 8086 and MS-DOS platform - the driving force behind the reverse-engineering of the BIOS.
Microsoft had the programming languages and development tools needed. It had a toehold in applications for the MS-DOS - an embryonic spreadsheet in Multiplan.
This is as lame a comeback as it gets:
IBM approached Digital Research at Bill Gate's suggestion to license an upcoming version of CP/M called CP/M 86 for the IBM PC.
By 1981, at the peak of its popularity, CP/M ran on 3000 different computer models and DRI had $5.4 million in yearly revenues. Gary Klidall
When - with WordPerfect - you were bought out by Novell, you didn't Microsoft to administer the kiss of death.
All Moore's Law tells you is that complex micro circuits will become prigressively cheaper.
It doesn't tell you which technologies will have social and economic impact. It doesn't forecast the success or failure of the PC, the cell phone, the video game console, iPod or anything else.
Henry Ford's genius lay in seeing that he could build a car that didn't need a paved road, a car whose technical sophistication was all "under the hood." In an engine that would have to take an astonishing amount of abuse because it would never see a professional mechanic.
A car that would cost a penny a mile to operate - cheaper than the train, cheaper than the streetcar.
But in nothing like the numbers you see with the introduction of the OEM system bundle.
In 2008 the typical webstat shows Linux with a 0.6% market share. I'll take that as a fair measure of how little things have changed in damn near thirty years.
The PC as a kit of parts is for the enthusiast or the IT pro. No one else will touch it.
The problem of the light bulb isn't simply in the filament. It is in the development of a safe and economical system of electrical distribution for general commercial and residential use.
You can't illuminate your home or shop with a carbon arc lamp designed for a lighthouse or the state penitentiary. You can't wire lamps in series or you live forever in full darkness or full light.
In 1979 Microsoft 8080 BASIC was the first microcomputer product to win the ICP Million Dollar Award.
No one - no one - had to tell IBM in 1980 how far and how fast Microsoft had risen in the world of the eight bit micro.
.
Microsoft launched in 1975.
In 1980 it was a powerhouse in the world of the eight bit micro - and very well positioned to enter the OS market. It was young, it was hungry, and it was moving up fast.
IBM's PC development team didn't just happen to drop on by - Microsoft's participation in the project was a given.
Meanwhile, the clock was ticking down and nothing much was coming out of Digital Research.
Microsoft promised nothing more than delivery of a serviceable DOS in time for launch - a DOS that would sell for the low, low price of $40.
About $700 million in 2007.
But Microsoft plays a deep game.
60% of Microsoft's revenues come from outside the U.S. and have for years now.
Microsoft is building a $300 million dollar research campus in Beijing's university district - China's "Silicon Valley."
Microsoft is a considered a prestige employer and will have its pick of 5,000 of the best and brightest.
How Microsoft Conquered China
For casual messaging, the penny postcard was simple, reliable, and cheap, but no more private than a party line phone call or a ten word telegram.
680 million postcards were mailed in 1908 - when the US population was 89 million. The History of Postcards
Secure channels of communication do not remain secure when they are used for trivial reasons. Secure channels are bypassed when they introduce unwanted and unneeded layers of complexity.
To make this work and keep it simple you have to persuade all your correspondents to use and maintain the same system.
That isn't going to happen outside the institutional or corporate environment.
That almost nothing can amount to something:
Results of a 2007 survey indicate that the average salary for a game artist is USD $66,594 annually. The least experienced artists (with less than 3 years experience) generally earn about $43,657, while artists with over six years experience on average earn $74,335. Art directors with over six years experience earn an average of $102,806 annually. Game Artist
Also, if the guy at 'Limbo of the Lost' bought the game it is his to do with what he wishes because he didn't agree to any stupid 'don't lift graphics' clause and shrinkwrap licenses have never been proven in court anyway
The graphics are copyrighted. The EULA argument is bogus.
"Information wants to be free."
Information doesn't want to free any more than coal wants to be mined.
You want coal, you must dig for coal or pay someone else to do the dirty and dangerous work for you.
Information always comes a price.
The movie or video game can be years in production and employ hundreds of exceptionally talented artists and craftsman. GTA 4 had a budget of $100 million dollars.
The fundamental reason lies in the rise of the West.
Osama's dream has always been that of a sterile medieval caliphate - with nothing of the intellectual achievement, the creativity and energy of Islamic culture in its prime. It is entirely appropriate that he found refuge with the Taliban.
What Went Wrong?"
And WWII pilot briefing documents are nearly 60 years old. Do they look real because they weren't word processed?
The field manual is simply a textbook:
Complete Digital Reference of US Army Field Manuals
600 books on DVD for $25.
You'll need an AKO [Army Knowledge Online] log-in to read the classified texts.
The tactical briefing is rough-cut because it isn't finalized or distributed until the last possible moment - for all the obvious reasons.
The notion of "inalienable" rights derives from a philosophy of natural law.
But the American judicial system is anchored in a tradition of written law and precedent. Natural law arguments can be framed just as effectively to serve the interests of an all-powerful state