... from just ceasing doing business with the promoters and professional copiers/distributors of the RIAA and getting their own organization. For all I know it may exist. They voluntarily agree to use these guys services, so it's a binary choice then, you can support RIAA represented music, or not. the bands can use RIAA companies, or not. Seems simple enough. If we DIDN'T have the net and alternative ways to hear and get music, I'd say it would be tough, but not now, it's possible and do-able to bypass the RIAA folks. that's as much of a clue as they are gonna get I think.
Besides that, the government is always talking about this alleged "terrorist al queda chatter" on these various Islamic websites. Maybe *someone* might accidently just go post there that the RIAA thinks muslims are teh suck and neener neener and various troll stuff like that there leave their addresses and names..... %^)
... can complain about lack 0 links on this article!
Ya, I don't get it either, like why don't apple release the iNewton2 or something....
If I ever run across one in a junk shop I'm gonna get one,I'm sitting on a stack of new newton ram and some modems I got for free once. But no newton....
...not being shy I'll ask it anyway. Isn't it possible, given that you can buy cheap generic hosting now, to just run your own web based email, instead of using a third party service where you don't have as much control over it? All I can see as an advantage with gmail and whatnot is that it is free, but after that, it is still a hassle and you get ads, etc. I would think that getting your own independent email service might be better in the long run, it adds an element of security-no evile stuff gets downloaded to your machine, and you have control over what gets saved and doesn't and who looks at it,and the obvious portability and access from anyplace that is the same with other web based emails, etc. Well, somewhat anyway.
Anyone have an experience in this, any recommendations?
they obviously had more than one kind of radio on board. The identity and their location was known to everyone concerned, israelis, the ship itself, and other US assets out in the med and elsewhere, along with various international HAMS who were monitoring what they could of the ongoing war taking place. The attack was delibarate, and designed to pin the blame on egypt (best credible analysis, IMO) in order to garner support for more US intervention and support for the israeli side. They went so far as to strafe survivors for hours in an attempt to kill all the witnesses. They didn't suceed, but to this day the attack continues to be excused as an "accident". The implications in todays politics are there, just extrapolate it as to how far a nation would go to get it's way in international affairs. I know this isn't an exact answer to your question with moon bounce radios, I just wanted to interject about radios in general and on the topic you raised of the attack on the Liberty. Here is a brief history of it for anyone:
http://www.wrmea.com/backissues/0693/9306019.htm
June 1993, Page 19
This Month in History
The Assault on the USS Liberty Still Covered Up After 26 Years
By James M. Ennes Jr.
Twenty-six years have passed since that clear day on June 8, 1967 when Israel attacked the USS Liberty with aircraft and torpedo boats, killing 34 young men and wounding 171. The attack in international waters followed over nine hours of close surveillance. Israeli pilots circled the ship at low level 13 times on eight different occasions before attacking. Radio operators in Spain, Lebanon, Germany and aboard the ship itself all heard the pilots reporting to their headquarters that this was an American ship. They attacked anyway. And when the ship failed to sink, the Israeli government concocted an elaborate story to cover the crime.
There is no question that this attack on a U.S. Navy ship was deliberate. This was a coordinated effort involving air, sea, headquarters and commando forces attacking over a long period. It was not the "few rounds of misdirected fire" that Israel would have the world believe. Worse, the Israeli excuse is a gross and detailed fabrication that disagrees entirely with the eyewitness recollections of survivors. Key American leaders call the attack deliberate. More important, eyewitness participants from the Israeli side have told survivors that they knew they were attacking an American ship.
Israeli Pilot Speaks Up
Fifteen years after the attack, an Israeli pilot approached Liberty survivors and then held extensive interviews with former Congressman Paul N. (Pete) McCloskey about his role. According to this senior Israeli lead pilot, he recognized the Liberty as American immediately, so informed his headquarters, and was told to ignore the American flag and continue his attack. He refused to do so and returned to base, where he was arrested.
Later, a dual-citizen Israeli major told survivors that he was in an Israeli war room where he heard that pilot's radio report. The attacking pilots and everyone in the Israeli war room knew that they were attacking an American ship, the major said. He recanted the statement only after he received threatening phone calls from Israel.
The pilot's protests also were heard by radio monitors in the U.S. Embassy in Lebanon. Then-U.S. Ambassador to Lebanon Dwight Porter has confirmed this. Porter told his story to syndicated columnists Rowland Evans and Robert Novak and offered to submit to further questioning by authorities. Unfortunately, no one in the U.S. government has any interest in hearing these first-person accounts of Israeli treachery.
Key members of the Lyndon Johnson administration have long agreed that this attack was no accident. Perhaps most outspoken is former Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff Admiral Thomas Moorer. "I can never accept the claim that this was a mistaken attack," he insists.
I was just referring in general to them trying to pass off disinformation as the real deal all the time. I probably could have used better examples. Hmm, the first released zapruder tape with the reversed frames with the headshot in them is a good but crude example.
... they want to be able to pass off their "intelligence" photos as the real mc coy easier, so as to not get busted when they release crap, like the phony fat osama bin laden video(wicked fake) and the (possibly) berg beheading. this technology would help them to establish bonafides with the offical forgeries. We are *this* close to a running man scenario here with them being able to frame people or to alter public opinion with phony video and pictures. If they can create one and have it slip through the checking algorithms, then they are home free.
On the other hand, it would be nice to go back and look at a lot of older photos to see what's what with them now.
Lately there's a smidgen of controversy over some of the mars photos, this would be a great place to use the technique.
... to my girlfriend. I'll be reading some new technical thing and go like "wow, they got a new cellphone that actually computes your MPG when using peanut oil,and automagically adjusts for altitude using gps and......" and blah blah blah. After about three of those geek gems in a row, she'll drag down a cooking book and start reading recipes out loud, for like 1/2 hour. Usually shuts me up for at least a coupla days......
I've really never seen it. Got plenty of hairs, most of them are grey now, just never been much of a microsoft user. I have seen a lot of derisive references to it, but have never seen it myself. Perhaps it's a MS help feature that has to be activated or something, but I haven't seen it pop up whenever I have used windows before. That's about as clear as I can be on that subject. I think it's amusing, that's all.
I am ther LAST guy to get alarmed over typos and misspellings, so no probs there.And I agree, pick a standard distro and leave it clean, don't try to support every distro out there, you would go nuts.
that's all good advice. Offer better service then most whitebbox shops, although to be fair, most of those do service as well, just during business hours. If they are 24/7, most likely they are bigger than a mom and pop store size, which was more what I had in mind, something about any nerd could do with a meagre budget and some drive.
Good luck on your new business, and by all means, be my guest to use the marketing gimmick! I thought it was cute, because it's true, and it probably will work to get people to walk in the door.
you surely could. I'm an old machead,loved them for years and years, I wasn't a windows or unix guy. Jobs just priced me out of macs finally, just cannot justify the expense for what I do with the computer, and I have adopted the FOSS philsophy as well. Linux is good enough, cheap enough and usefull enough to fit the bill for 90% of the people out there to do at least 905 of what they want to do, at one third the price of a mac machine and OSX nowadays. You can get a brand new basic x86 machine for around 300$ now and stick linux on it and it's swell. Not sure what the cheapest mac with OSX installed is from apple, but I bet it ain't 300$. and if it's both GUI and CLI, I don't see the difference any more. I certainly enjoyed my years of worry free easy surfing with macs, but time to move on now. sdome people make enough, I just don't, my days of dropping tons of cash on conmputers are over, forced upgrades every other year indicate to me that cheaper is good enough now. We hit a plateau a few years ago where computers in general all got powerful enough and good enough, what we are doing now is just horsepower wars to do almost the same tasks we've been doing, surf, email, listen to some tunes, look at some pics, write a document, etc. There's no way a whitebox shop can easily compete at the high end, but at the mom and pop low end you can, and apple just will not let you be a dealer unless you can plunk down serious folding cash, and even then you can't compete with apple, they will undercut you, that part sucks and is why you never saw many mac shops. what is it now, you need at least 50 grand to even think about being a new mac dealer? Something like that last I heard--too rich for my blood.
Naw, I switched to linux, is plenty good enough and the rate of change and improvement is awesome, and will only get better.
How do you check closed source propietary software for violations, to see if they have in fact taken GPL code and used it? Is this easily done, or do you have to guess, or get a leak from inside the company, or what? I admit I don't know enough about coding to understand this.
...JFK got whacked by a conspiracy of insiders in the US government and business. There were military, tranational business people, and civilian police agencies and bureaucrats involved. It went right to the top. It was not a bloodless coup, it involved blood and brains all over the place, then a whitewash commission to pin the blame on the designated patsy, and the controlled media helped with the brainwashing and legitimizing. The US government has been run in actuality ever since by a shadow government of those people giving orders to legions of "useful idiots" who follow orders, and supported by more of the same who just don't care enough to do anything about it, because of incrementalism. as long as the police state isn't sprung to fullness overnight, they don't care, they will suck up the step by step aspects of it..
The goof script readers we have had as "president" since then have all been puppets.
9-11-2001 is another example of their handiwork, again, using patsys and cutouts. You may wish to stay dumbed down over these things, but a lot of other people are well beyond that point now, and their numbers arte growing, and all I can say is thank God for the internet, because it's making it easier to get the word out.
We currently live inside a dictatorship-a police state-that although is in full bloom yet, is heading towarss that goal, that is daily getting worse and worse, and neither electing millionaire globalist script reading bonesman A or B is going to automagically "solve" any of those problems or make the police state get any better,on the contrary, it will continue on it's course of getting worse.
The legitimate old US experiment in an actual peoples government is OVER, and no dictatorship ever voted itself "clean" again, and it is not going to happen now, either, and black box voting proves what they are up to.
People literally do not know to even consider changing. They have never seen it, used it or in a lot of cases even heard of it. to most people, they think windows equals the computer equals the internet. Heck, most people have never even seen a mac for that matter. You have to physically show them, stick it right in their face, that's why you need a stock windows install running next to a major distro install on identical (or close enough) machines. I've done it, people freak out just looking at the menu, they are amazed all the stuff you get. Show them the browser, the office app, how to play a cd, how to look at pics, etc, that's all most folks do. I say line em up next to each other, there's hardly any difference except the vast difference in quantity of apps you get with linux, and modern linux desktops are certainly pretty enough. Compare what you get with both of them, and at the time you tell the customer "no more windows viruses, no more popups, no more winodws broken-ness". And you have to do that deal where you insist that you only support it as it sits, that any third party apps they get from you, and you could put tripwire on it or something to help you maintain that if they complain. Frankly, I think most users would be overjoyed to just not have to dick with it. They really don't want ot, they want it to be secure online, and there's no queestion the stock linux apps work perfectly fine now. Show them how to get online (pre set it up for them in the store with their ISP info), show them the browser, do the email thing (I would recommend mozilla suite to people, keep it simple and effective), and that's it. Only let them run as root for day to day updates that are automated, like RHN or whatever else the other distros have.
I think it's doable,either preloaded sales or load it up for them and give them an hour to play with it in the store or at their house, like I said, I would like to do it, everytime I go in a whhitebox store around here there's a stack of borked windows machines waiting to be picked up, usually from something they got being online, and-insert sam kinnison voice- it never ends. You can be there ten minutes and yet another windows victim walks in the store. I have been seing this for years now, it's crazy. no reason for it.
With any major distro, there are literally so many apps that can go with it right from an install, I think most folks would be quite comfortable with the selection. Tell them once or twice a year they can bring it in for a discounted upgrade, and reload the next version of the distro, charge something reasonable like only 20$. Tell them to compare that to windows, they'll get the message, they know what a windows upgrade costs. I mean, if their machine will take it, it will take it. You can get lists of easily supported hardware, and most hardware out there now is supported. Not all, but most, it's close enough now to deal with it. Keep note of your customers machines specs in a file, and recommend they always upgrade their RAM if it needs it, and do it for them at cost, it will make their machines run better and score you a lot of customer loyalty brownie points at the same time, worth a few minutes work, toss 'em a bone, people love that stuff, they love not getting gouged. Word of mouth will get you more business as these new customers friends get nailed by the exploit du jour, and they don't-they'll brag about it. People are tired of windows BS a lot more than they are "used" to windows BS, they just literally have no other place to go, they don't see it! They have no credible idea other than maybe they heard of it and think it's some strange app, they really don't know.
I keep thinking on this, maybe I might do it at night with some flyers and driving. It's obvious that the large companies are going to drag their feet with linux on the desktop, I say snag the billions a year cash they are ignoring. You are hard pressed to find anyone who has had a computer more than a year who doesn't have a windows horror story, it's the best advertising there is.
We need more whitebox shops in towns all over to start selling linux or installing it. Put up a big sign "windows viruses eliminated forever!" that would be enough to get a lot of people inside the store at least. Then if they saw a few machines setup running some good different distros with all the apps that come with them, a lot of folks would think about it. Let people play with it a little, then they can see there's enough similarities to be comfortable with it, and enough installed apps that they probably wouldn't need much more. For what people pay for their semi monthly windows debugging at the shop, they could get a shiny new distro installed and have a bit of handholding in the store to show them how to use it.
Personally, I just am not going to worry about ANYTHING that might come from the SCO issues. Initially I thought they might have something, but now it's obvious they have less than squat.
If I could figure out a way to be two people I would do the linux whitebox shop myself, but I got a job now.....
--the three minute tour was a good one. Lot of natural resources. As a sportsman, I bet the hunting and fishing are great!
OK, I think I have the basics of cricket down, seems semi clear now. I can see why it takes so long.
Just watch out for the complacency on political events. I have seen it change in five minutes inisde the US, been caught in the middle of pretty extensive riots twice now, one of the times I definetly needed to be armed, if I hadn't of been, well, most likely not typing this missive right now. Pretty scary stuff, one minute normal, few minutes later people getting beat, cars on fire, shops being looted, etc and I was definetly the wrong hue to be in the area. Mr. 357 helped me out a lot at that time... Had to go back into the thick of it twice, once to rescue a girlfriend I had at the time,who was working in the middle of the riot area, then we had to go back in and get her mother, who was ALSO working in another building in the thick of the rioting. Dang cops did NOTHING while all this went down for hours, not a darn thing, didn't stop one person getting beat, one store from getting looted, etc. Political correctness ordered from the (black)mayors office, and I know this is so because I questioned some cops about it. they were disgusted too, but were ordered out of the area and told to just let the rioterts do what they wanted to do..
When we got back from the rioting to our apartment, about 4-5 miles away from the rioting area, we got together the local "neighborhood watch" loosely defined because we were the only aware adults in the block, it was very young people or old retired geezers basically, anyway, that was me, a roomate, and two guys we knew on the next block over, and we packed the vehicles and got ready to convoy out, and sat back an monitored it live on the TV. We never did have to, but we discouraged some cruising gangbangers looking for a fight or some rape sport or some looting from rioting in our block,they came driving the block looking for trouble, and the sight they got of well armed and obviously annoyed adults standing around with heavy rifles and starring hard at them was enough to send them off a-rioting someplace else.;)
word to the wise, it never hurts to own a defensive arm, because you never know when it might come in handy....besides, target shooting is quite good fun!
Anyway, I always though SA would always do the best in africa,looks like it is by the webpages there, it has too much going for it. Zimbawe looks like it will totally collapse soon, I have no idea why europe and the US don't do something there, there's going to be even more massacres shortly I am afraid. When I was younger I considered going there when the fighting was still going on, but decided against it at the last minute when it became obvious they were going to lose to the goons who are in power now there. I thought "hmm, bad idea right now".
I have heard of the knobkerrie before. WHOMP! ya, I guess that wouldn't be too nice.
Are you aware of Jan Laprecht? I have been following his political commentary for a few years now about zimbabwe and south africa. It certainly sounds like a dismal future there as regards race relations, but perhaps it's over blown. What is your take (short version obviously) on what will be happening in SA in the near future?
Oh ya, the other traditional argument intensifer is the "axe handle", made from hickory.... I keep one in the "bumbershoot" stand next to the front door..... of course being a second amendment guy, that is backup to my long standing hardware-geek relationships with the technology we receive from messrs browning, colt, remington, winchester and smith and wesson....
And what exactly are the basic rules and gameplay of cricket? I honestly have no idea, but I have read that a game can last for days? Say whut? Hotdog and beer vendors must love that part!
Heh heh heh , that should keep you busy for ahile I bet! I'm just slap fulla questions, aren't I?
your disclaimer is pretty funny on your site "details about me" heheheheheheheheh
--in the US, louisville slugger is almost a generic term, although there are a lot of bat companies I guess. I have no idea anymore if it's a perfect bat or not, but it's a joke here in referring to a bat in it's non sport configuration and use, it's the standard second tier down "home and personal defense and argument intensifier" tool.
Thanks for the links and bit of trivia, I would have never guessed they used willow wood for them. US bats when made of wood are typically ash.
funny, the site won't load directly, but googles cache is fine. At first glance it almost looks like a distributed karma system. I'll check it out more, it looks complex, hard to comment on it with just a glance.
Let me guess, your corporation is guilty of criminal behavior, and it's because of what you personaly did.... because you worship money, nothing else is as important as money.... Sorry you got sucked in. Just remember, it's never too late to change.
Anyway, lookup the history of corporations in the US, and read what was said about them way way back. You will find I am correct.
Slashdot Mirror
... from just ceasing doing business with the promoters and professional copiers/distributors of the RIAA and getting their own organization. For all I know it may exist. They voluntarily agree to use these guys services, so it's a binary choice then, you can support RIAA represented music, or not. the bands can use RIAA companies, or not. Seems simple enough. If we DIDN'T have the net and alternative ways to hear and get music, I'd say it would be tough, but not now, it's possible and do-able to bypass the RIAA folks. that's as much of a clue as they are gonna get I think.
Besides that, the government is always talking about this alleged "terrorist al queda chatter" on these various Islamic websites. Maybe *someone* might accidently just go post there that the RIAA thinks muslims are teh suck and neener neener and various troll stuff like that there leave their addresses and names..... %^)
... can complain about lack 0 links on this article!
Ya, I don't get it either, like why don't apple release the iNewton2 or something....
If I ever run across one in a junk shop I'm gonna get one,I'm sitting on a stack of new newton ram and some modems I got for free once. But no newton....
...not being shy I'll ask it anyway. Isn't it possible, given that you can buy cheap generic hosting now, to just run your own web based email, instead of using a third party service where you don't have as much control over it? All I can see as an advantage with gmail and whatnot is that it is free, but after that, it is still a hassle and you get ads, etc. I would think that getting your own independent email service might be better in the long run, it adds an element of security-no evile stuff gets downloaded to your machine, and you have control over what gets saved and doesn't and who looks at it,and the obvious portability and access from anyplace that is the same with other web based emails, etc. Well, somewhat anyway.
Anyone have an experience in this, any recommendations?
they obviously had more than one kind of radio on board. The identity and their location was known to everyone concerned, israelis, the ship itself, and other US assets out in the med and elsewhere, along with various international HAMS who were monitoring what they could of the ongoing war taking place. The attack was delibarate, and designed to pin the blame on egypt (best credible analysis, IMO) in order to garner support for more US intervention and support for the israeli side. They went so far as to strafe survivors for hours in an attempt to kill all the witnesses. They didn't suceed, but to this day the attack continues to be excused as an "accident". The implications in todays politics are there, just extrapolate it as to how far a nation would go to get it's way in international affairs. I know this isn't an exact answer to your question with moon bounce radios, I just wanted to interject about radios in general and on the topic you raised of the attack on the Liberty. Here is a brief history of it for anyone:
http://www.wrmea.com/backissues/0693/9306019.htm
June 1993, Page 19
This Month in History
The Assault on the USS Liberty Still Covered Up After 26 Years
By James M. Ennes Jr.
Twenty-six years have passed since that clear day on June 8, 1967 when Israel attacked the USS Liberty with aircraft and torpedo boats, killing 34 young men and wounding 171. The attack in international waters followed over nine hours of close surveillance. Israeli pilots circled the ship at low level 13 times on eight different occasions before attacking. Radio operators in Spain, Lebanon, Germany and aboard the ship itself all heard the pilots reporting to their headquarters that this was an American ship. They attacked anyway. And when the ship failed to sink, the Israeli government concocted an elaborate story to cover the crime.
There is no question that this attack on a U.S. Navy ship was deliberate. This was a coordinated effort involving air, sea, headquarters and commando forces attacking over a long period. It was not the "few rounds of misdirected fire" that Israel would have the world believe. Worse, the Israeli excuse is a gross and detailed fabrication that disagrees entirely with the eyewitness recollections of survivors. Key American leaders call the attack deliberate. More important, eyewitness participants from the Israeli side have told survivors that they knew they were attacking an American ship.
Israeli Pilot Speaks Up
Fifteen years after the attack, an Israeli pilot approached Liberty survivors and then held extensive interviews with former Congressman Paul N. (Pete) McCloskey about his role. According to this senior Israeli lead pilot, he recognized the Liberty as American immediately, so informed his headquarters, and was told to ignore the American flag and continue his attack. He refused to do so and returned to base, where he was arrested.
Later, a dual-citizen Israeli major told survivors that he was in an Israeli war room where he heard that pilot's radio report. The attacking pilots and everyone in the Israeli war room knew that they were attacking an American ship, the major said. He recanted the statement only after he received threatening phone calls from Israel.
The pilot's protests also were heard by radio monitors in the U.S. Embassy in Lebanon. Then-U.S. Ambassador to Lebanon Dwight Porter has confirmed this. Porter told his story to syndicated columnists Rowland Evans and Robert Novak and offered to submit to further questioning by authorities. Unfortunately, no one in the U.S. government has any interest in hearing these first-person accounts of Israeli treachery.
Key members of the Lyndon Johnson administration have long agreed that this attack was no accident. Perhaps most outspoken is former Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff Admiral Thomas Moorer. "I can never accept the claim that this was a mistaken attack," he insists.
Former Secretary of State Dean Rusk is equall
I was just referring in general to them trying to pass off disinformation as the real deal all the time. I probably could have used better examples. Hmm, the first released zapruder tape with the reversed frames with the headshot in them is a good but crude example.
... they want to be able to pass off their "intelligence" photos as the real mc coy easier, so as to not get busted when they release crap, like the phony fat osama bin laden video(wicked fake) and the (possibly) berg beheading. this technology would help them to establish bonafides with the offical forgeries. We are *this* close to a running man scenario here with them being able to frame people or to alter public opinion with phony video and pictures. If they can create one and have it slip through the checking algorithms, then they are home free.
On the other hand, it would be nice to go back and look at a lot of older photos to see what's what with them now.
Lately there's a smidgen of controversy over some of the mars photos, this would be a great place to use the technique.
... to my girlfriend. I'll be reading some new technical thing and go like "wow, they got a new cellphone that actually computes your MPG when using peanut oil,and automagically adjusts for altitude using gps and......" and blah blah blah. After about three of those geek gems in a row, she'll drag down a cooking book and start reading recipes out loud, for like 1/2 hour. Usually shuts me up for at least a coupla days......
I've really never seen it. Got plenty of hairs, most of them are grey now, just never been much of a microsoft user. I have seen a lot of derisive references to it, but have never seen it myself. Perhaps it's a MS help feature that has to be activated or something, but I haven't seen it pop up whenever I have used windows before. That's about as clear as I can be on that subject. I think it's amusing, that's all.
...drat I say... got a three meter dish hanging out in the weeds over here... I been eyeballin that bad boy for a few now....... %^)
I am ther LAST guy to get alarmed over typos and misspellings, so no probs there.And I agree, pick a standard distro and leave it clean, don't try to support every distro out there, you would go nuts.
that's all good advice. Offer better service then most whitebbox shops, although to be fair, most of those do service as well, just during business hours. If they are 24/7, most likely they are bigger than a mom and pop store size, which was more what I had in mind, something about any nerd could do with a meagre budget and some drive.
Good for you! Do an update article and submit it to slashdot after you have been in business for awhile.
Good luck on your new business, and by all means, be my guest to use the marketing gimmick! I thought it was cute, because it's true, and it probably will work to get people to walk in the door.
I have to be the only person here to never have seen this clippy thing.
I must be blessed
you surely could. I'm an old machead,loved them for years and years, I wasn't a windows or unix guy. Jobs just priced me out of macs finally, just cannot justify the expense for what I do with the computer, and I have adopted the FOSS philsophy as well. Linux is good enough, cheap enough and usefull enough to fit the bill for 90% of the people out there to do at least 905 of what they want to do, at one third the price of a mac machine and OSX nowadays. You can get a brand new basic x86 machine for around 300$ now and stick linux on it and it's swell. Not sure what the cheapest mac with OSX installed is from apple, but I bet it ain't 300$. and if it's both GUI and CLI, I don't see the difference any more. I certainly enjoyed my years of worry free easy surfing with macs, but time to move on now. sdome people make enough, I just don't, my days of dropping tons of cash on conmputers are over, forced upgrades every other year indicate to me that cheaper is good enough now. We hit a plateau a few years ago where computers in general all got powerful enough and good enough, what we are doing now is just horsepower wars to do almost the same tasks we've been doing, surf, email, listen to some tunes, look at some pics, write a document, etc. There's no way a whitebox shop can easily compete at the high end, but at the mom and pop low end you can, and apple just will not let you be a dealer unless you can plunk down serious folding cash, and even then you can't compete with apple, they will undercut you, that part sucks and is why you never saw many mac shops. what is it now, you need at least 50 grand to even think about being a new mac dealer? Something like that last I heard--too rich for my blood.
Naw, I switched to linux, is plenty good enough and the rate of change and improvement is awesome, and will only get better.
How do you check closed source propietary software for violations, to see if they have in fact taken GPL code and used it? Is this easily done, or do you have to guess, or get a leak from inside the company, or what? I admit I don't know enough about coding to understand this.
...JFK got whacked by a conspiracy of insiders in the US government and business. There were military, tranational business people, and civilian police agencies and bureaucrats involved. It went right to the top. It was not a bloodless coup, it involved blood and brains all over the place, then a whitewash commission to pin the blame on the designated patsy, and the controlled media helped with the brainwashing and legitimizing. The US government has been run in actuality ever since by a shadow government of those people giving orders to legions of "useful idiots" who follow orders, and supported by more of the same who just don't care enough to do anything about it, because of incrementalism. as long as the police state isn't sprung to fullness overnight, they don't care, they will suck up the step by step aspects of it..
The goof script readers we have had as "president" since then have all been puppets.
9-11-2001 is another example of their handiwork, again, using patsys and cutouts. You may wish to stay dumbed down over these things, but a lot of other people are well beyond that point now, and their numbers arte growing, and all I can say is thank God for the internet, because it's making it easier to get the word out.
We currently live inside a dictatorship-a police state-that although is in full bloom yet, is heading towarss that goal, that is daily getting worse and worse, and neither electing millionaire globalist script reading bonesman A or B is going to automagically "solve" any of those problems or make the police state get any better,on the contrary, it will continue on it's course of getting worse.
The legitimate old US experiment in an actual peoples government is OVER, and no dictatorship ever voted itself "clean" again, and it is not going to happen now, either, and black box voting proves what they are up to.
People literally do not know to even consider changing. They have never seen it, used it or in a lot of cases even heard of it. to most people, they think windows equals the computer equals the internet. Heck, most people have never even seen a mac for that matter. You have to physically show them, stick it right in their face, that's why you need a stock windows install running next to a major distro install on identical (or close enough) machines. I've done it, people freak out just looking at the menu, they are amazed all the stuff you get. Show them the browser, the office app, how to play a cd, how to look at pics, etc, that's all most folks do. I say line em up next to each other, there's hardly any difference except the vast difference in quantity of apps you get with linux, and modern linux desktops are certainly pretty enough. Compare what you get with both of them, and at the time you tell the customer "no more windows viruses, no more popups, no more winodws broken-ness". And you have to do that deal where you insist that you only support it as it sits, that any third party apps they get from you, and you could put tripwire on it or something to help you maintain that if they complain. Frankly, I think most users would be overjoyed to just not have to dick with it. They really don't want ot, they want it to be secure online, and there's no queestion the stock linux apps work perfectly fine now. Show them how to get online (pre set it up for them in the store with their ISP info), show them the browser, do the email thing (I would recommend mozilla suite to people, keep it simple and effective), and that's it. Only let them run as root for day to day updates that are automated, like RHN or whatever else the other distros have.
I think it's doable,either preloaded sales or load it up for them and give them an hour to play with it in the store or at their house, like I said, I would like to do it, everytime I go in a whhitebox store around here there's a stack of borked windows machines waiting to be picked up, usually from something they got being online, and-insert sam kinnison voice- it never ends. You can be there ten minutes and yet another windows victim walks in the store. I have been seing this for years now, it's crazy. no reason for it.
With any major distro, there are literally so many apps that can go with it right from an install, I think most folks would be quite comfortable with the selection. Tell them once or twice a year they can bring it in for a discounted upgrade, and reload the next version of the distro, charge something reasonable like only 20$. Tell them to compare that to windows, they'll get the message, they know what a windows upgrade costs. I mean, if their machine will take it, it will take it. You can get lists of easily supported hardware, and most hardware out there now is supported. Not all, but most, it's close enough now to deal with it. Keep note of your customers machines specs in a file, and recommend they always upgrade their RAM if it needs it, and do it for them at cost, it will make their machines run better and score you a lot of customer loyalty brownie points at the same time, worth a few minutes work, toss 'em a bone, people love that stuff, they love not getting gouged. Word of mouth will get you more business as these new customers friends get nailed by the exploit du jour, and they don't-they'll brag about it. People are tired of windows BS a lot more than they are "used" to windows BS, they just literally have no other place to go, they don't see it! They have no credible idea other than maybe they heard of it and think it's some strange app, they really don't know.
I keep thinking on this, maybe I might do it at night with some flyers and driving. It's obvious that the large companies are going to drag their feet with linux on the desktop, I say snag the billions a year cash they are ignoring. You are hard pressed to find anyone who has had a computer more than a year who doesn't have a windows horror story, it's the best advertising there is.
We need more whitebox shops in towns all over to start selling linux or installing it. Put up a big sign "windows viruses eliminated forever!" that would be enough to get a lot of people inside the store at least. Then if they saw a few machines setup running some good different distros with all the apps that come with them, a lot of folks would think about it. Let people play with it a little, then they can see there's enough similarities to be comfortable with it, and enough installed apps that they probably wouldn't need much more. For what people pay for their semi monthly windows debugging at the shop, they could get a shiny new distro installed and have a bit of handholding in the store to show them how to use it.
Personally, I just am not going to worry about ANYTHING that might come from the SCO issues. Initially I thought they might have something, but now it's obvious they have less than squat.
If I could figure out a way to be two people I would do the linux whitebox shop myself, but I got a job now.....
--the three minute tour was a good one. Lot of natural resources. As a sportsman, I bet the hunting and fishing are great!
;)
OK, I think I have the basics of cricket down, seems semi clear now. I can see why it takes so long.
Just watch out for the complacency on political events. I have seen it change in five minutes inisde the US, been caught in the middle of pretty extensive riots twice now, one of the times I definetly needed to be armed, if I hadn't of been, well, most likely not typing this missive right now. Pretty scary stuff, one minute normal, few minutes later people getting beat, cars on fire, shops being looted, etc and I was definetly the wrong hue to be in the area. Mr. 357 helped me out a lot at that time... Had to go back into the thick of it twice, once to rescue a girlfriend I had at the time,who was working in the middle of the riot area, then we had to go back in and get her mother, who was ALSO working in another building in the thick of the rioting. Dang cops did NOTHING while all this went down for hours, not a darn thing, didn't stop one person getting beat, one store from getting looted, etc. Political correctness ordered from the (black)mayors office, and I know this is so because I questioned some cops about it. they were disgusted too, but were ordered out of the area and told to just let the rioterts do what they wanted to do..
When we got back from the rioting to our apartment, about 4-5 miles away from the rioting area, we got together the local "neighborhood watch" loosely defined because we were the only aware adults in the block, it was very young people or old retired geezers basically, anyway, that was me, a roomate, and two guys we knew on the next block over, and we packed the vehicles and got ready to convoy out, and sat back an monitored it live on the TV. We never did have to, but we discouraged some cruising gangbangers looking for a fight or some rape sport or some looting from rioting in our block,they came driving the block looking for trouble, and the sight they got of well armed and obviously annoyed adults standing around with heavy rifles and starring hard at them was enough to send them off a-rioting someplace else.
word to the wise, it never hurts to own a defensive arm, because you never know when it might come in handy....besides, target shooting is quite good fun!
Anyway, I always though SA would always do the best in africa,looks like it is by the webpages there, it has too much going for it. Zimbawe looks like it will totally collapse soon, I have no idea why europe and the US don't do something there, there's going to be even more massacres shortly I am afraid. When I was younger I considered going there when the fighting was still going on, but decided against it at the last minute when it became obvious they were going to lose to the goons who are in power now there. I thought "hmm, bad idea right now".
I have heard of the knobkerrie before. WHOMP! ya, I guess that wouldn't be too nice.
Are you aware of Jan Laprecht? I have been following his political commentary for a few years now about zimbabwe and south africa. It certainly sounds like a dismal future there as regards race relations, but perhaps it's over blown. What is your take (short version obviously) on what will be happening in SA in the near future?
Oh ya, the other traditional argument intensifer is the "axe handle", made from hickory.... I keep one in the "bumbershoot" stand next to the front door..... of course being a second amendment guy, that is backup to my long standing hardware-geek relationships with the technology we receive from messrs browning, colt, remington, winchester and smith and wesson....
And what exactly are the basic rules and gameplay of cricket? I honestly have no idea, but I have read that a game can last for days? Say whut? Hotdog and beer vendors must love that part!
Heh heh heh , that should keep you busy for ahile I bet! I'm just slap fulla questions, aren't I?
your disclaimer is pretty funny on your site "details about me" heheheheheheheheh
heh heh heh heh
--in the US, louisville slugger is almost a generic term, although there are a lot of bat companies I guess. I have no idea anymore if it's a perfect bat or not, but it's a joke here in referring to a bat in it's non sport configuration and use, it's the standard second tier down "home and personal defense and argument intensifier" tool.
Thanks for the links and bit of trivia, I would have never guessed they used willow wood for them. US bats when made of wood are typically ash.
funny, the site won't load directly, but googles cache is fine. At first glance it almost looks like a distributed karma system. I'll check it out more, it looks complex, hard to comment on it with just a glance.
Let me guess, your corporation is guilty of criminal behavior, and it's because of what you personaly did.... because you worship money, nothing else is as important as money....
Sorry you got sucked in. Just remember, it's never too late to change.
Anyway, lookup the history of corporations in the US, and read what was said about them way way back. You will find I am correct.