I didn't, I just said a deadline. It *might* be the next day, but it can be any arbitrary time forward that would indicate it couldn't be finished by the date specified, given the x-amount already acomplished in the y-time of the past. A "deadline" is not a specific length opf time unless yopu are specifically discussing an exact circumstance, as I was not. I was generally speaking. And what, you've never seen a project that was close to a "deadline" and not near finished, in ANY business you've been associated with? And then sometimes shortcuts taken? You have really never seen this? If so, you are joe competent and joe lucky, both. You are either self employed and really manage your time and resopurces and skills well, or work for a fantastic company that gives you all the time and resources in the world you need to accomplish a project or goal towards a project. Good for you if that is the case, but frankly, I would think that is a general exception, and not the rule in most places.
And as to where they would look to get code to recycle, I thought that was obvious, in any open source project that is similar to what they are doing.
your quote: "This isn't a task that could be done overnight - negating the supposed advantage you were talking about."
sorry, you are wrong, the advantage is in stealing, the time element is irrelevenat, I merely provided an example-one of many-why free open source may be stolen and hidden inside closed/propietary, and why the vendors of same *might* wish to perpetuaqte closed source propietary, to hide the fact it occurred. And I am merely speculating, you seem to be insisting that it never happens at all, if so, I doubt you could prove that, whereas I am not trying to prove anything, merely suggesting a possibility, so this is really two different subjects, although related. I say I *think*-it is a theory of mine- based on other industries and what I have seen in meatspace that I think software is no different from any other industry,human nature being the same, you will see roughly the same amount of illegalities going on, theft in various fashions being just one of them. And to be very specific going back to the original article, I would be beyond surprised if there wasn't a lot of code inside MS's shop *in general with all their products* that was "borrrowed" and not necessarily from a BSD styled licensed piece of code.
I hope this clarifies my position on these issues.
I neglected that, but sure, that has to be a part of it as well. It would cripple them completely. I doubt you'd be able to even use windows on the net then. Who knowth though... And I am not shy about saying I hope it happens to them, that eventually they get broken up, lose their various incorporation charters, the whole nine yards. Some of the execs actually serving hard time behind bars.. Even if that means rutan needs to find new financing...
They, same as everyone else in this world, had a chance to be an honest company but instead chose to go the route of greed, arrogance, bullying, and other sorts of no-goodnik behavior. A long time ago I actually admired them-until I actually learned what was going on with them in the business world. No different from Enron, just another huge weasel company. Their products are a different matter, some work OK, some suck,. about the same as any other humongous company, but their TACTICS are abhorrent.
I'm not a coder, but I do observe how business works. There's these things like deadlines, over hyped sales, etc and the temptation is right there. I know you can't "steal" open source and free code, but I don't know how to phrase it more accurately. You got a flock of PHBs breathing down your neck,because some clients are breathing down their necks, or the "stock" holders, etc, you can see some shortcuts to take to get them off your back. I've seen it first hand in other industries, so I imagine software is no different. It's just a variant of industrial espionage, and obviously fairly easy to do.
It sure would help to get rid of patents with intangibles, I think that's the biggest mistake, but they went down that road long ago, so I don't see them going away inside the USA any time soon..
I honestly don't think MS is as much interested in the fines (although it is a significant sum) as in the public blackeye from the ruling, and being forced to reveal source code. I would guess they have something to hide in the source code, as in "stolen" code, and perhaps quite a few "bits" of it. I also think this applies to a slew of closed source softwares.
Whatsay any AC closed source developers? Is theft of open source rampant?
using the webform for the first contact, then a whitelist with the customers email, and blocking/filtering everything else sounds like the best solution for you then, for those who don't want to use the phone. I agree, wading through 2000 spams a day is nuts, it's like a totally second job that doesn't pay, it just costs.
And geez, it just doesn't seem all that long ago when you never got much spam if any. I've almost given up on personal email, I think at most about a dozen people have my addy now, and I stopped being on mail lists for various topics.
Anyway, good luck however you work it, it's hard enough now to just run a business without all the other sideways hassle.
bottle rockets on 10 cent balsa wood gliders, then apply the old 20 gauge I had when I was a kid. Great sport, solved the problem of no one to throw a clay bird for you, plus, they would fly very erratically, extra bonus points for a correct aim, and if you missed, it was still good to go again..You had to have them on a ramp, shotgun in hand, bend,light, then only a few seconds to get a bead and blast it.
It was either that or blast locusts in the off-season.....
%^)
Slickest practical use for a toy I ever saw a friend of mine built. We used to pull cables for pro A/V and LAN installations. We tried any number of schemes to speed up the process of getting a light cord run first to drag the cable bundles in tricky dropped ceiling locations, without having to push up dozens of tiles and get all fiberglassed out and chip the things up.. First we tried a short casting rod, nope, that didn't work. then we tried a wrist rocket slingshot with the casting rod reel attached to it, shoot a rubber weight way down the ceiling tiles to the open one for a drop, the weight trailed a light monofilament line that was strong enough to snake the cables with. OK, but it still lacked great accuracy and hard to make it go around obstacles. Then, a stroke of genius. It was my idea, but he had the loot to pull it off. Went to ratshack, got the meanest rc all something drive they had, at the time was a bigfoot looking truck. That worked GREAT for hauling cables, as long as we could see it to steer it. Nowadays I guess you could put a cam with it and a headlight,and do some fancy long range cable hauling (if cables are still used now that is).
how many actual business inquiries do you get out of all that email? If it's not too large a number, wouldn't it be easier to just switch back to POTS for your business, and just trash the concept of email as being unworkable at this time without a ton of headaches? Just a POTS and an answering machine might be all you need.
Another alternative might be to use webforms instead of email, and indicate any replies back to the prospective customer will be done on your nickle, on the phone, and they should give you a time and date to return the call.
I'm a blue collar worker so I am always amazed at the idea that somehow cheaper/freer/more useful tools are somehow bad for the economy. Man, cheap/free/better is GREAT to increase productivity. Like today, I have to go work on a medium sized diesel mower (kubota f2000 to be exact) that has some busted hydraulics. I have to stop my real productivity (mowing in this case),experience unexpected "downtime", the stuff that makes me my real coin, rummage through my tools, hope I have enough of everything I need to get to the busted part, then hope I can fix it without purchasing an entire new part. If there was a way I could replicate what I needed, make a copy, and if I knew I could just go get all the tools I needed for cheap/free, MAN 0 MAN would that be nice. I know I might have to pay a fee for a part, but if it's too much, and they want to charge me for the knowlege of how to deal with that part, and insist I can only use their brand tools to work on it, etc, it starts to slide into the sucky range. There needs a common sense balance here.
Charging through the nose for tools, I mean, say if I had to subscribe to tools, and had to constantly keep paying for tools that never improved much, and kept breaking, etc, would really suck. The REAL productivity would never get much better, I'd be stuck in tool/parts cost expense hell, productivty would keep dropping, not improving, and everyone starts to suffer.. Whenever the cost/price of tools and parts drops, and when the aggregation of the tools and parts (in this case a functioning tractor) increase, I am more productive, make more loot. Less downtime, less hassle, less headaches etc. I'm not out to make the tool companies rich,they can make a few clamss off me but not so much that it makes my job impossible. They have to stay real and keep their tools and parts good enough and cheap enough and functional enough for me to keep going in my real job. There's a symbiosis here that benfits all, but it would never happen if the tools and parts cost more than what the job makes. If it gets to the point that the aggregate is just not worth it, then that's that, it no longer is profitable for ANYONE concerned in the whole deal.
My point is, tools and parts are for the REAL WORK, they, in and of themselves, are NOT the entire real work. That's the major difference in see in the softwarez and IT world between closed/expensive/propietary and cheap(er)/free(er)/ and more open.
My best guess is, for example, the way-just a randomness here, say redhat- is approaching this situation fits closer to a profitable/workable arrangement for all concerned, shifting to non tangible products and tools. It's not perfect, not yet, but getting better and evolving to a happier medium that benefits all concerned. The over all societal benefit in having closer to free/cheap tools and parts, and tools and parts that people are free to modify for a particular purpose (say I need a wrench to fit into a tight spot, I can bend it in a vise to make it fit, no license or permission required, and I can share the design with others and still not suffer), then this is a good thing.
And I HAVE done this in meat space. There's an industry specific tool that's used all over that I designed and had built the first examples of.(It is not relevant the exact tool for this discussion) previous there were a lot of home made widgets that functioned similarily, but I made a professional one that was useful and durable enough that several companies are now producing and making them. I initially made a few bucks on it,and that was it, I recovered my costs basically and still own several of the first run, and have used them in *real* work, which was the original idea. I benefited initially from just borrowing a home made cob job example of the tool, then greatly improving on itwith my meagre 'developer" skills. But the design, etc, I just threw out to the world, no patents, copyrights, nuthin, just dumped it, free, because I understand having better tools is a good idea for the people who use to
(hmm, caplock key just came in handy).. I say MILLIONS of people in rural america who would love broadband, and so far, wireless seems the only way we are gonna get it. And at 50$ for his service would it be available in my area, I would be *SAVING* 20$ a month to replace my dialup, as I could ditch the landline phone that I only use for inet connection. Seems like a good deal to me!
Yes, maybe inside broadband-rich urban mega cities it might not be cost competetive (if you refuse to factor in convenience of mobility, which is a + worth something in terms of dollars), but in other areas it would be very attractive.
It's a humongous untapped market, SOMEONE is gonna bingo to the fact there's millions of dollars there for the harvesting. No one is going to run us cable or fiber out here, satellite is WAY too expensive both upfront and monthly. Telcos give crappy service, and dsl coverage is quite spotty and irregular. What is left then?
did you know that governator schwazenegger did the same thing when he was in the austrian army? he and his buddy snagged some tank and went barrelling through this town. they both got busted for it. I heard him on the TV telling the story once, forget which show now.
I use various equipment in my work, sometimes it's *quite large*. I can guarantee even just a medium sized crawler like a d-5 caterpillar is capable of some dang serious damage to most buildings. I'm surprised the guy didn't do more.
As to passive resistance...well, been doing this a long time,shoot, going on real close now 4 decades. I've taken all the gas and beatings and abuse from brain dead follow-any-order-given cops I'm ever gonna take. I've seen just too much of the system now, I don't think passive resistance will ever cut the mustard in the US. Even back in the racial civil rights days, by 64 we got the civil rights act, but it wasn't until 67-68 when all the just-returned black and poor white combat vets decided they weren't gonna take it anymore did we get any fundamental REAL change inside the US, including the end to the you-must-be-the - mans - slave called "the draft". It wasn't perfect, and it had flaws, but sometimes the only way to get a mules attention is the clue by four up 'longside the head.
I don't like it, but that's been my observations. Our entire nation was clearly founded on that same deal-eventually enough's enough,you run out of options, so you got to get down and dance.
providing a web reference is the only acceptable way to make a point on an internet forum, so perhaps I was remiss in not providing a direct link. But, I really don't care in this instance, some times I have more to do than to go find something for someone. sometimes i do, sometimes I don't, that particular story was SO widespread I find it incredulous that anyone missed it or would doubt it. It's easy enough, and a lot of times I prefer - and think it's fairer-to just give people a reference and let them find and pick out their own links for research, rather than picking out my personal favorite link. I can't think of a fairer way to do it, if a search term turns up quite a few hits (as it will in this case), and as we do not have psychic mind melds yet, we are stuck with web references, so I invite you or anyone to use search engine of choice to look into the "massacre at mazar". There exists now overlapping coroboration of the incident, one of thousands in the US militaries history. I'm not singling out the US military, I know all other militaries/regimes do similar, but as I am an US citizen, I feel justified in criticising both our policies and my fellow citizens lack of knowledge and/or interest in warcrimes. In other words, I find the holier than thou meme to be extremly over rated and in most cases, utterly bogus. I just call 'em like I see 'em, sorry if that bursts anyone's bubble or "belief" system. There are plenty of political focused forums out there that are quite happy to delete and blackhole data points that don't "fit" their intended audiences belief systems. Several, all equally dishonest, but... quite popular. Perhaps you might be happier there?
In science, if you find evidence that proves without a doubt that a popular theorem is in error, then that makes that theorem invlaid. You have to accept it and move on. The theorem that the US is always "the good guys" and everyone else is always "the bad guys" is in total error, and it is what's called "a lie". It is just not true. And if I thought and believed and had hard evidence and proof that the US was always the good guy, well, I would say that, too. I am consistent. I don't pick and choose the data, the data just exists, and from the data you arrive at your conclusions, it's a simple enough concept to grasp, especially here on a site with a much higher than median IQ. We may disagree a lot, on a variety of subjects, but I don't think it's being very honest to actually deny *data*. Data is just neutral, it just "is", is all.
is the name you are thinking of with the quotage. Maybe wolf is spelled with an e, spelling is NOT my forte.
I'm almost at the point of disagreeing with her, time-wise.
%^)
At least one guy REALLY doesn't agree with her, witness last nights home made tank rampage in colorado, where some guy just HAD IT and said enough and took on the local government who he thought had screwed him over. I don't CONDONE what he did, but around the nation people are getting wise to the universal "can't win" aspect of "anyone you" going up against big money in cahoots with "governmental authority". You are screwed before you even start most of the time. I'm amazed more people just don't go "ta heck with it".
thank you for the link and the tips! Most of the time I don't need to find a file,just I am always wondering though where everything goes and fits in. Gradually starting to work out for myself how this all works together. I know if I had started with linux or unix many years ago I would know all this stuff, but I didn't, only started using linux in the "pretty good enough" GUI age, and as such, my knowledge of hierarchy and CLI is woefully lacking.
I'm in favor of anything that would help users find the dad gum files. I get lost all the time, I fully admit it. I even would go for full static programs, to heck with saving space. I *might* try this one out. Glad someone posted the article, I never heard of them before.
Some spooks and US special forces and their allies, the "northern alliance" opium growers, killed 3,000 prisoners of war in afghanistan by locking them in almost air tight shipping containers and leaving them sit in the hot sun for days, then machine gunned whomever lived through it. It's on google, you can go find it yourself. There's some war crimes researchers investigating it now, digging up the mass graves, etc.
If you really look, you can find a long string of abuses by the US military going all the way back to the civil war, including all the outright genocide committed on the Indians here.
Their hands are just as dirty as anyone elses. Perhaps you have never heard the term "free fire zone"? Go find some actual nam combat vets and talk to them off the record, Hardly any of them WON'T have abuse/rape/torture stories. You might even see pictures, millions of them were taken and brought back to the US. Of course, in public or on the net on forums you won't read it much,because guys just don't freely admit to raping 12 year old girls or shooting prisoners or throwing them out of helicopters or dropping willie peter on tied up groups of prisoners,because they are all middle aged now with kids in colege and are local "respectable" business people and etc, but in meatspace if you talk to a lot of them,like I said, off the record, you'll hear some quite interesting stories. Combat and warzones are never john wayne-ish, that does not exist in real life. And it's the same with brit troops, french, russians, aussies, you name it. Warcrimes are NOT rare, or "confined to a few bad apples", and they never have been. There have been a lot of them committed in iraq so far, you'll just have to admit it, the evidence is overwhelming. The red cross already estimates the number of civilian deaths to be in the thousands, so I don't know how much has to occur before it's classed as a war crime.
As to china, if it was up to me, we would have never traded so much as a pair of chopsticks with those goons. They killed millions of their own people, they still run concentration camps, and the same political criminal gang is still in charge. I blame kissinger and nixon for starting the ball rolling on legitimizing that criminal empire, and I think it sucks we have outr economy tied to them, and that western profiteers in suits are bending over backwards to make that police state and military even more powerful. I will predict that within 10 years we will be at war with them, because at that time their population pressures and thirst for oil and more sources of other raw materials will force them to expand outwards, and we just might not be strong enough to stop them without annihilating the entire planet.
It sucks, I was against "normalization" with china without quid pro quos of them opening themselves up to normal freedoms and normal political process. All we have done is enrich china at the full expense of the US middle class, we traded cheap trinkets at walmart to build up the political party and war machine of a nation that has already killed more of it's own people then were killed in all of ww2. They are goons, I hope their people finally get hip and revolt against those goons.
And I hope we can eventually get rid of the democrat and republican parties inside this nation as well, two of the most corrupt organizations to ever have been created. We don't have any sort of "representative republic" unless you happen to be a billionaire internationalist. The vote is a joke,it's hijacked now, the appointed judges are all hand picked criminal gang members. The big time mass media is run by international profiteers aligned with the various war machines. they sit on each others boards of directors, slurping up the proofits, and the media helps keep people brainwashed. I mean, really, how can any honest journalist even use the term "detainee" without giggling? It's such a doublespeak farce.
No one in the US has anything righteous to be proud of any more, we suck as bad as any other bogus dictato
self cleaning glass?
I know there's no rain on mars, but perhaps any high winds, plus this type of glass, might extend the usefulness of the PV panels. Of course, I also don't know how much this new type of glass would degrade the electrical conversion rates with the panels either.
yes, I believe so. Some places it's almost entirely butane, technically. I believe they add a scent to it as well, same as delivered via pipe to your home or building with "natural" gas, a different product. The two are similar, but require different carburetion in cars, or in use in appliances they need different settings. It is quite common in suburban or rural USA to have the home heating, hot water, and cooking all be done with propane.
.. the patent office professionals association,just it doesn't coordinate with anyone else very well, and special civil service laws apply to them. They also implicity seem to trust either Ds or Rs to rule over them, despite the evidence that the combination of D and R rule is the primary reason for having such a screwed up government and economy. Both those parties got completely corrupted generations ago,they are both run at the tippy top by global international corporations, yet there's little effort towards breaking thaeir stranglehold over society.
--people might want to think about their petty differences as the economy continues to implode, and as we continue this mass migration to fascism and doublespeak. I don't think the universe will implode any time soon, but we are hovering on the brink of another crash that will make 1929-34 look like dropping a penny on the sidewalk and watching it roll into the gutter. And waiting until AFTER a crash, or an even more strained middle class due to the "globalisation" scam, will make it that much harder. Right now, people still have *some* money and some reserves, after that gets poofed, they will be hard pressed to reverse it.
I agree with you it's not likely to happen either, that's why I do a lot of personal survivalist/preparedness efforts right now. I don't trust big business or "the government" to have my best interests in mind,because they absolutely do NOT, but I trust most of my fellow citizens even less, because they have the ostrich head in the sand meme down as a conscious lifestyle choice, half from being brainwashed since birth, the other half is that becoming aware and working towards relaistic goals with government/work etc is just "too hard, what can you do, I'm only one person" whine etc.. They not only won't wake up, they won't even admit they been asleep at the swirch for years. Scary.
I'm old enough to have talked to a lot of people who lived through the first great depression, the gist of it was, hardly anyone "believed" it was coming, because of the government and business leaders overlapping lies. They had "faith" a "belief" that really huge business/corporate/government controllers were their friend or something, they had an illogical trust that approached a cult like "belief". that's as close as I can describe all those conversatiobns I had in the past, to nartrow it down. a "belief system" that things would always be great, all you needed to do was buy stocks and get rich or something, and government would always look out for you. It was nuts, you can see that now looking back, but people will NOT see it now looking at the present and forward. Nuts. The "great" depression was a huge congame to transfer actual produced wealth upstream to the loftiest of heights, to steal it basically, and it was successful beyond their wildest dreams. All the clues were there, and they are here now, too, just people did NOT want to see them back then.
IT runs the world now, there's a one time unique opportunity to make a difference,*right now*, but not doing it is the norm. It's more important to be entertained, engage in spectator sports, play games, etc. Not my lookout, I'm just a town crier, that's about it. If I really and truly believed things were just great, everything rosy, well, I'd say that, I'd post accordingly. It's not, it sucks right now, these are hugely dangerous times, both socially and economically, and most people are just stumbling towards it, because the alternative means they got to really think and work, and differently then what they have been doing. Change is just *too hard* for most people. And seeing the necessity for change is even harder, people reach a belief system level and STAY THERE, exactly at their comfort zone. It becomes impossible for them to even acknowledge any level higher in awareness, they suffer cognizant dissonance at that point, so that's where they stay stuck. It takes huge effort to overcome it. I admit it's whacked me hard, several times, in the past, one of the reasons I am so forceful on these subjects I write on, I just plain don't like to see people hurt/ripped off/ lied to. It makes me *most annoyed*.
... how much I have thought about your idea as well. I got into linux late (rh 7.1), and as such, never had to learn much command line, nor do I now. I was a mac classic background, so there ya go. I never liked windows at all, fooled with dos way way back for a couple of months, despised it, bought a point and cliky mac instead. If there was a program for linux that would let you SEE what was going on in real time, and if it gave you a graphical representation of all the files being accessed, and where they are, etc, that would be SO *nice*. I have found man pages as they exist now to be almost totally useless coming from near- zero command line background. I even bought a linux book (linux , the complete reference), which was basically a thousand plus pages of reproduced man pages-I never use the thing, I was so dissapointed. It's like, there's no "first steps" written in english anywhere, perhaps this book is it, not sure by the review. I can find my way around any sort of graphical menu, and can go look on the net if I get stuck, but it's not the same as LEARNING something. I got a feeling I'm between this book in the review and something else, not sure what that would be though. I'd rather have it running as a program though. You know in some menus where they will show you the keyboard shortcuts for what you are clicking? Same deal, but the total command line sequence.
to build your own wireless router? Well, what I mean is, take the normal ethernet router you can make with some nics, and add a wifi card, or some other radio transceiver dealie. I know you can build a hard wired router using linux and an old pentium, just wondering on this wifi deal. Inside the house I can deal with ethernet, just wanting the *potential* to get wireless to the router. Just add a pci wifi card, or what? Any recommendations? I haven't fooled with wireless yet, just thinking about it now, want to go *cheap* as possible and perhaps go to an external antenna.
.... having the people who are combatting spam effectively reduce the over al global bandwith load that spam represents, plus helping in another oblique way be getting more people aware of spam and maintaining their own computers in a safer manner. It's a win for everyone who's on the net-except the spammers.
you have it exactly. They COULD have been making money on volume, by selling CDs with music or video for like 2$ retail-and everyone knows they could do it, too, with economies of scale. And they would still make profit. Same with software. A LOT of people wouldn't even bother downloading and copying and burning if they could go into any store they normally go into and pick up a dozen CDs for real cheap. They should also have pick and chose and burn your own kiosks set up, for the same price, pick your tunes or vids from a menu, burn it, check out, split, for cheap. The way they are trying to do it now is a rip off, that's the main deal most people see. I know I never buy new Cds, never, but I probably would have been all along if they were 2 bucks or something. The music guys lost me as a customer a LONG time ago with their ridiculous prices. I would pay an hours pay to go see a live concert, but for a 25 cent copy on a plastic disk? Not happening. Screw 'em, they are going obsolete anyway, although there will be a flurry of pretty strange legislation and schemes they try before their buggy whip pseudo industry finishes it's crash and burn.
As far as I am concerned, they are economic terrorists, using bribe money to get laws passed, and other general goonish behavior. And they have always been that way, too, as far back as I can remember, always using bribes, black mails, pay offs, etc to maintain a lucrative monopoly.
So, I just boycott paid for music in general. I just quit. I listen to it on the radio, maybe there's some advertising during the music shows that will get me to go check out a product, but as for paying for copies-I just "say no". They want to get real on what stuff really coists, get a clue on a real business model, I might reconsider, but so far, everything they do has pushed me further into the "I won't buy it anymore" camp.
Slashdot Mirror
I didn't, I just said a deadline. It *might* be the next day, but it can be any arbitrary time forward that would indicate it couldn't be finished by the date specified, given the x-amount already acomplished in the y-time of the past. A "deadline" is not a specific length opf time unless yopu are specifically discussing an exact circumstance, as I was not. I was generally speaking. And what, you've never seen a project that was close to a "deadline" and not near finished, in ANY business you've been associated with? And then sometimes shortcuts taken? You have really never seen this? If so, you are joe competent and joe lucky, both. You are either self employed and really manage your time and resopurces and skills well, or work for a fantastic company that gives you all the time and resources in the world you need to accomplish a project or goal towards a project. Good for you if that is the case, but frankly, I would think that is a general exception, and not the rule in most places.
:
And as to where they would look to get code to recycle, I thought that was obvious, in any open source project that is similar to what they are doing.
your quote
"This isn't a task that could be done overnight - negating the supposed advantage you were talking about."
sorry, you are wrong, the advantage is in stealing, the time element is irrelevenat, I merely provided an example-one of many-why free open source may be stolen and hidden inside closed/propietary, and why the vendors of same *might* wish to perpetuaqte closed source propietary, to hide the fact it occurred. And I am merely speculating, you seem to be insisting that it never happens at all, if so, I doubt you could prove that, whereas I am not trying to prove anything, merely suggesting a possibility, so this is really two different subjects, although related. I say I *think*-it is a theory of mine- based on other industries and what I have seen in meatspace that I think software is no different from any other industry,human nature being the same, you will see roughly the same amount of illegalities going on, theft in various fashions being just one of them. And to be very specific going back to the original article, I would be beyond surprised if there wasn't a lot of code inside MS's shop *in general with all their products* that was "borrrowed" and not necessarily from a BSD styled licensed piece of code.
I hope this clarifies my position on these issues.
I neglected that, but sure, that has to be a part of it as well. It would cripple them completely. I doubt you'd be able to even use windows on the net then. Who knowth though... And I am not shy about saying I hope it happens to them, that eventually they get broken up, lose their various incorporation charters, the whole nine yards. Some of the execs actually serving hard time behind bars.. Even if that means
rutan needs to find new financing...
They, same as everyone else in this world, had a chance to be an honest company but instead chose to go the route of greed, arrogance, bullying, and other sorts of no-goodnik behavior. A long time ago I actually admired them-until I actually learned what was going on with them in the business world. No different from Enron, just another huge weasel company. Their products are a different matter, some work OK, some suck,. about the same as any other humongous company, but their TACTICS are abhorrent.
I'm not a coder, but I do observe how business works. There's these things like deadlines, over hyped sales, etc and the temptation is right there. I know you can't "steal" open source and free code, but I don't know how to phrase it more accurately. You got a flock of PHBs breathing down your neck,because some clients are breathing down their necks, or the "stock" holders, etc, you can see some shortcuts to take to get them off your back. I've seen it first hand in other industries, so I imagine software is no different. It's just a variant of industrial espionage, and obviously fairly easy to do.
It sure would help to get rid of patents with intangibles, I think that's the biggest mistake, but they went down that road long ago, so I don't see them going away inside the USA any time soon..
I honestly don't think MS is as much interested in the fines (although it is a significant sum) as in the public blackeye from the ruling, and being forced to reveal source code. I would guess they have something to hide in the source code, as in "stolen" code, and perhaps quite a few "bits" of it. I also think this applies to a slew of closed source softwares.
Whatsay any AC closed source developers? Is theft of open source rampant?
using the webform for the first contact, then a whitelist with the customers email, and blocking/filtering everything else sounds like the best solution for you then, for those who don't want to use the phone. I agree, wading through 2000 spams a day is nuts, it's like a totally second job that doesn't pay, it just costs.
And geez, it just doesn't seem all that long ago when you never got much spam if any. I've almost given up on personal email, I think at most about a dozen people have my addy now, and I stopped being on mail lists for various topics.
Anyway, good luck however you work it, it's hard enough now to just run a business without all the other sideways hassle.
bottle rockets on 10 cent balsa wood gliders, then apply the old 20 gauge I had when I was a kid. Great sport, solved the problem of no one to throw a clay bird for you, plus, they would fly very erratically, extra bonus points for a correct aim, and if you missed, it was still good to go again..You had to have them on a ramp, shotgun in hand, bend,light, then only a few seconds to get a bead and blast it.
It was either that or blast locusts in the off-season.....
%^)
Slickest practical use for a toy I ever saw a friend of mine built. We used to pull cables for pro A/V and LAN installations. We tried any number of schemes to speed up the process of getting a light cord run first to drag the cable bundles in tricky dropped ceiling locations, without having to push up dozens of tiles and get all fiberglassed out and chip the things up.. First we tried a short casting rod, nope, that didn't work. then we tried a wrist rocket slingshot with the casting rod reel attached to it, shoot a rubber weight way down the ceiling tiles to the open one for a drop, the weight trailed a light monofilament line that was strong enough to snake the cables with. OK, but it still lacked great accuracy and hard to make it go around obstacles. Then, a stroke of genius. It was my idea, but he had the loot to pull it off. Went to ratshack, got the meanest rc all something drive they had, at the time was a bigfoot looking truck. That worked GREAT for hauling cables, as long as we could see it to steer it. Nowadays I guess you could put a cam with it and a headlight,and do some fancy long range cable hauling (if cables are still used now that is).
how many actual business inquiries do you get out of all that email? If it's not too large a number, wouldn't it be easier to just switch back to POTS for your business, and just trash the concept of email as being unworkable at this time without a ton of headaches? Just a POTS and an answering machine might be all you need.
Another alternative might be to use webforms instead of email, and indicate any replies back to the prospective customer will be done on your nickle, on the phone, and they should give you a time and date to return the call.
I'm a blue collar worker so I am always amazed at the idea that somehow cheaper/freer/more useful tools are somehow bad for the economy. Man, cheap/free/better is GREAT to increase productivity. Like today, I have to go work on a medium sized diesel mower (kubota f2000 to be exact) that has some busted hydraulics. I have to stop my real productivity (mowing in this case),experience unexpected "downtime", the stuff that makes me my real coin, rummage through my tools, hope I have enough of everything I need to get to the busted part, then hope I can fix it without purchasing an entire new part. If there was a way I could replicate what I needed, make a copy, and if I knew I could just go get all the tools I needed for cheap/free, MAN 0 MAN would that be nice. I know I might have to pay a fee for a part, but if it's too much, and they want to charge me for the knowlege of how to deal with that part, and insist I can only use their brand tools to work on it, etc, it starts to slide into the sucky range. There needs a common sense balance here.
Charging through the nose for tools, I mean, say if I had to subscribe to tools, and had to constantly keep paying for tools that never improved much, and kept breaking, etc, would really suck. The REAL productivity would never get much better, I'd be stuck in tool/parts cost expense hell, productivty would keep dropping, not improving, and everyone starts to suffer.. Whenever the cost/price of tools and parts drops, and when the aggregation of the tools and parts (in this case a functioning tractor) increase, I am more productive, make more loot. Less downtime, less hassle, less headaches etc. I'm not out to make the tool companies rich,they can make a few clamss off me but not so much that it makes my job impossible. They have to stay real and keep their tools and parts good enough and cheap enough and functional enough for me to keep going in my real job. There's a symbiosis here that benfits all, but it would never happen if the tools and parts cost more than what the job makes. If it gets to the point that the aggregate is just not worth it, then that's that, it no longer is profitable for ANYONE concerned in the whole deal.
My point is, tools and parts are for the REAL WORK, they, in and of themselves, are NOT the entire real work. That's the major difference in see in the softwarez and IT world between closed/expensive/propietary and cheap(er)/free(er)/ and more open.
My best guess is, for example, the way-just a randomness here, say redhat- is approaching this situation fits closer to a profitable/workable arrangement for all concerned, shifting to non tangible products and tools. It's not perfect, not yet, but getting better and evolving to a happier medium that benefits all concerned. The over all societal benefit in having closer to free/cheap tools and parts, and tools and parts that people are free to modify for a particular purpose (say I need a wrench to fit into a tight spot, I can bend it in a vise to make it fit, no license or permission required, and I can share the design with others and still not suffer), then this is a good thing.
And I HAVE done this in meat space. There's an industry specific tool that's used all over that I designed and had built the first examples of.(It is not relevant the exact tool for this discussion) previous there were a lot of home made widgets that functioned similarily, but I made a professional one that was useful and durable enough that several companies are now producing and making them. I initially made a few bucks on it,and that was it, I recovered my costs basically and still own several of the first run, and have used them in *real* work, which was the original idea. I benefited initially from just borrowing a home made cob job example of the tool, then greatly improving on itwith my meagre 'developer" skills. But the design, etc, I just threw out to the world, no patents, copyrights, nuthin, just dumped it, free, because I understand having better tools is a good idea for the people who use to
(hmm, caplock key just came in handy).. I say MILLIONS of people in rural america who would love broadband, and so far, wireless seems the only way we are gonna get it. And at 50$ for his service would it be available in my area, I would be *SAVING* 20$ a month to replace my dialup, as I could ditch the landline phone that I only use for inet connection. Seems like a good deal to me!
Yes, maybe inside broadband-rich urban mega cities it might not be cost competetive (if you refuse to factor in convenience of mobility, which is a + worth something in terms of dollars), but in other areas it would be very attractive.
It's a humongous untapped market, SOMEONE is gonna bingo to the fact there's millions of dollars there for the harvesting. No one is going to run us cable or fiber out here, satellite is WAY too expensive both upfront and monthly. Telcos give crappy service, and dsl coverage is quite spotty and irregular. What is left then?
Yes, tanks are pretty much bad news.
did you know that governator schwazenegger did the same thing when he was in the austrian army? he and his buddy snagged some tank and went barrelling through this town. they both got busted for it. I heard him on the TV telling the story once, forget which show now.
I use various equipment in my work, sometimes it's *quite large*. I can guarantee even just a medium sized crawler like a d-5 caterpillar is capable of some dang serious damage to most buildings. I'm surprised the guy didn't do more.
As to passive resistance...well, been doing this a long time,shoot, going on real close now 4 decades. I've taken all the gas and beatings and abuse from brain dead follow-any-order-given cops I'm ever gonna take. I've seen just too much of the system now, I don't think passive resistance will ever cut the mustard in the US. Even back in the racial civil rights days, by 64 we got the civil rights act, but it wasn't until 67-68 when all the just-returned black and poor white combat vets decided they weren't gonna take it anymore did we get any fundamental REAL change inside the US, including the end to the you-must-be-the - mans - slave called "the draft". It wasn't perfect, and it had flaws, but sometimes the only way to get a mules attention is the clue by four up 'longside the head.
I don't like it, but that's been my observations. Our entire nation was clearly founded on that same deal-eventually enough's enough,you run out of options, so you got to get down and dance.
providing a web reference is the only acceptable way to make a point on an internet forum, so perhaps I was remiss in not providing a direct link. But, I really don't care in this instance, some times I have more to do than to go find something for someone. sometimes i do, sometimes I don't, that particular story was SO widespread I find it incredulous that anyone missed it or would doubt it. It's easy enough, and a lot of times I prefer - and think it's fairer-to just give people a reference and let them find and pick out their own links for research, rather than picking out my personal favorite link. I can't think of a fairer way to do it, if a search term turns up quite a few hits (as it will in this case), and as we do not have psychic mind melds yet, we are stuck with web references, so I invite you or anyone to use search engine of choice to look into the "massacre at mazar". There exists now overlapping coroboration of the incident, one of thousands in the US militaries history. I'm not singling out the US military, I know all other militaries/regimes do similar, but as I am an US citizen, I feel justified in criticising both our policies and my fellow citizens lack of knowledge and/or interest in warcrimes. In other words, I find the holier than thou meme to be extremly over rated and in most cases, utterly bogus. I just call 'em like I see 'em, sorry if that bursts anyone's bubble or "belief" system. There are plenty of political focused forums out there that are quite happy to delete and blackhole data points that don't "fit" their intended audiences belief systems. Several, all equally dishonest, but... quite popular. Perhaps you might be happier there?
In science, if you find evidence that proves without a doubt that a popular theorem is in error, then that makes that theorem invlaid. You have to accept it and move on. The theorem that the US is always "the good guys" and everyone else is always "the bad guys" is in total error, and it is what's called "a lie". It is just not true. And if I thought and believed and had hard evidence and proof that the US was always the good guy, well, I would say that, too. I am consistent. I don't pick and choose the data, the data just exists, and from the data you arrive at your conclusions, it's a simple enough concept to grasp, especially here on a site with a much higher than median IQ. We may disagree a lot, on a variety of subjects, but I don't think it's being very honest to actually deny *data*. Data is just neutral, it just "is", is all.
is the name you are thinking of with the quotage. Maybe wolf is spelled with an e, spelling is NOT my forte.
I'm almost at the point of disagreeing with her, time-wise.
%^)
At least one guy REALLY doesn't agree with her, witness last nights home made tank rampage in colorado, where some guy just HAD IT and said enough and took on the local government who he thought had screwed him over. I don't CONDONE what he did, but around the nation people are getting wise to the universal "can't win" aspect of "anyone you" going up against big money in cahoots with "governmental authority". You are screwed before you even start most of the time. I'm amazed more people just don't go "ta heck with it".
thank you for the link and the tips! Most of the time I don't need to find a file,just I am always wondering though where everything goes and fits in. Gradually starting to work out for myself how this all works together. I know if I had started with linux or unix many years ago I would know all this stuff, but I didn't, only started using linux in the "pretty good enough" GUI age, and as such, my knowledge of hierarchy and CLI is woefully lacking.
I'm in favor of anything that would help users find the dad gum files. I get lost all the time, I fully admit it. I even would go for full static programs, to heck with saving space. I *might* try this one out. Glad someone posted the article, I never heard of them before.
Some spooks and US special forces and their allies, the "northern alliance" opium growers, killed 3,000 prisoners of war in afghanistan by locking them in almost air tight shipping containers and leaving them sit in the hot sun for days, then machine gunned whomever lived through it. It's on google, you can go find it yourself. There's some war crimes researchers investigating it now, digging up the mass graves, etc.
If you really look, you can find a long string of abuses by the US military going all the way back to the civil war, including all the outright genocide committed on the Indians here.
Their hands are just as dirty as anyone elses. Perhaps you have never heard the term "free fire zone"? Go find some actual nam combat vets and talk to them off the record, Hardly any of them WON'T have abuse/rape/torture stories. You might even see pictures, millions of them were taken and brought back to the US. Of course, in public or on the net on forums you won't read it much,because guys just don't freely admit to raping 12 year old girls or shooting prisoners or throwing them out of helicopters or dropping willie peter on tied up groups of prisoners,because they are all middle aged now with kids in colege and are local "respectable" business people and etc, but in meatspace if you talk to a lot of them,like I said, off the record, you'll hear some quite interesting stories. Combat and warzones are never john wayne-ish, that does not exist in real life. And it's the same with brit troops, french, russians, aussies, you name it. Warcrimes are NOT rare, or "confined to a few bad apples", and they never have been. There have been a lot of them committed in iraq so far, you'll just have to admit it, the evidence is overwhelming. The red cross already estimates the number of civilian deaths to be in the thousands, so I don't know how much has to occur before it's classed as a war crime.
As to china, if it was up to me, we would have never traded so much as a pair of chopsticks with those goons. They killed millions of their own people, they still run concentration camps, and the same political criminal gang is still in charge. I blame kissinger and nixon for starting the ball rolling on legitimizing that criminal empire, and I think it sucks we have outr economy tied to them, and that western profiteers in suits are bending over backwards to make that police state and military even more powerful. I will predict that within 10 years we will be at war with them, because at that time their population pressures and thirst for oil and more sources of other raw materials will force them to expand outwards, and we just might not be strong enough to stop them without annihilating the entire planet.
It sucks, I was against "normalization" with china without quid pro quos of them opening themselves up to normal freedoms and normal political process. All we have done is enrich china at the full expense of the US middle class, we traded cheap trinkets at walmart to build up the political party and war machine of a nation that has already killed more of it's own people then were killed in all of ww2. They are goons, I hope their people finally get hip and revolt against those goons.
And I hope we can eventually get rid of the democrat and republican parties inside this nation as well, two of the most corrupt organizations to ever have been created. We don't have any sort of "representative republic" unless you happen to be a billionaire internationalist. The vote is a joke,it's hijacked now, the appointed judges are all hand picked criminal gang members. The big time mass media is run by international profiteers aligned with the various war machines. they sit on each others boards of directors, slurping up the proofits, and the media helps keep people brainwashed. I mean, really, how can any honest journalist even use the term "detainee" without giggling? It's such a doublespeak farce.
No one in the US has anything righteous to be proud of any more, we suck as bad as any other bogus dictato
self cleaning glass?
I know there's no rain on mars, but perhaps any high winds, plus this type of glass, might extend the usefulness of the PV panels. Of course, I also don't know how much this new type of glass would degrade the electrical conversion rates with the panels either.
yes, I believe so. Some places it's almost entirely butane, technically. I believe they add a scent to it as well, same as delivered via pipe to your home or building with "natural" gas, a different product. The two are similar, but require different carburetion in cars, or in use in appliances they need different settings. It is quite common in suburban or rural USA to have the home heating, hot water, and cooking all be done with propane.
.. the patent office professionals association,just it doesn't coordinate with anyone else very well, and special civil service laws apply to them. They also implicity seem to trust either Ds or Rs to rule over them, despite the evidence that the combination of D and R rule is the primary reason for having such a screwed up government and economy. Both those parties got completely corrupted generations ago,they are both run at the tippy top by global international corporations, yet there's little effort towards breaking thaeir stranglehold over society.
--people might want to think about their petty differences as the economy continues to implode, and as we continue this mass migration to fascism and doublespeak. I don't think the universe will implode any time soon, but we are hovering on the brink of another crash that will make 1929-34 look like dropping a penny on the sidewalk and watching it roll into the gutter. And waiting until AFTER a crash, or an even more strained middle class due to the "globalisation" scam, will make it that much harder. Right now, people still have *some* money and some reserves, after that gets poofed, they will be hard pressed to reverse it.
I agree with you it's not likely to happen either, that's why I do a lot of personal survivalist/preparedness efforts right now. I don't trust big business or "the government" to have my best interests in mind,because they absolutely do NOT, but I trust most of my fellow citizens even less, because they have the ostrich head in the sand meme down as a conscious lifestyle choice, half from being brainwashed since birth, the other half is that becoming aware and working towards relaistic goals with government/work etc is just "too hard, what can you do, I'm only one person" whine etc.. They not only won't wake up, they won't even admit they been asleep at the swirch for years. Scary.
I'm old enough to have talked to a lot of people who lived through the first great depression, the gist of it was, hardly anyone "believed" it was coming, because of the government and business leaders overlapping lies. They had "faith" a "belief" that really huge business/corporate/government controllers were their friend or something, they had an illogical trust that approached a cult like "belief". that's as close as I can describe all those conversatiobns I had in the past, to nartrow it down. a "belief system" that things would always be great, all you needed to do was buy stocks and get rich or something, and government would always look out for you. It was nuts, you can see that now looking back, but people will NOT see it now looking at the present and forward. Nuts. The "great" depression was a huge congame to transfer actual produced wealth upstream to the loftiest of heights, to steal it basically, and it was successful beyond their wildest dreams. All the clues were there, and they are here now, too, just people did NOT want to see them back then.
IT runs the world now, there's a one time unique opportunity to make a difference,*right now*, but not doing it is the norm. It's more important to be entertained, engage in spectator sports, play games, etc. Not my lookout, I'm just a town crier, that's about it. If I really and truly believed things were just great, everything rosy, well, I'd say that, I'd post accordingly. It's not, it sucks right now, these are hugely dangerous times, both socially and economically, and most people are just stumbling towards it, because the alternative means they got to really think and work, and differently then what they have been doing. Change is just *too hard* for most people. And seeing the necessity for change is even harder, people reach a belief system level and STAY THERE, exactly at their comfort zone. It becomes impossible for them to even acknowledge any level higher in awareness, they suffer cognizant dissonance at that point, so that's where they stay stuck. It takes huge effort to overcome it. I admit it's whacked me hard, several times, in the past, one of the reasons I am so forceful on these subjects I write on, I just plain don't like to see people hurt/ripped off/ lied to. It makes me *most annoyed*.
.... IT union = zero political power. Always voting for a democrat or republican = zero political power.
No political power = zero economic power.
Zero economic power = modern technofeudalistic serfdom for the producers,and getting worse daily.
I am constantly amazed how so many really *quite smart* people haven't bingoed to this yet.
... how much I have thought about your idea as well. I got into linux late (rh 7.1), and as such, never had to learn much command line, nor do I now. I was a mac classic background, so there ya go. I never liked windows at all, fooled with dos way way back for a couple of months, despised it, bought a point and cliky mac instead. If there was a program for linux that would let you SEE what was going on in real time, and if it gave you a graphical representation of all the files being accessed, and where they are, etc, that would be SO *nice*. I have found man pages as they exist now to be almost totally useless coming from near- zero command line background. I even bought a linux book (linux , the complete reference), which was basically a thousand plus pages of reproduced man pages-I never use the thing, I was so dissapointed. It's like, there's no "first steps" written in english anywhere, perhaps this book is it, not sure by the review. I can find my way around any sort of graphical menu, and can go look on the net if I get stuck, but it's not the same as LEARNING something. I got a feeling I'm between this book in the review and something else, not sure what that would be though. I'd rather have it running as a program though. You know in some menus where they will show you the keyboard shortcuts for what you are clicking? Same deal, but the total command line sequence.
to build your own wireless router? Well, what I mean is, take the normal ethernet router you can make with some nics, and add a wifi card, or some other radio transceiver dealie. I know you can build a hard wired router using linux and an old pentium, just wondering on this wifi deal. Inside the house I can deal with ethernet, just wanting the *potential* to get wireless to the router. Just add a pci wifi card, or what? Any recommendations? I haven't fooled with wireless yet, just thinking about it now, want to go *cheap* as possible and perhaps go to an external antenna.
.... having the people who are combatting spam effectively reduce the over al global bandwith load that spam represents, plus helping in another oblique way be getting more people aware of spam and maintaining their own computers in a safer manner. It's a win for everyone who's on the net-except the spammers.
you have it exactly. They COULD have been making money on volume, by selling CDs with music or video for like 2$ retail-and everyone knows they could do it, too, with economies of scale. And they would still make profit. Same with software. A LOT of people wouldn't even bother downloading and copying and burning if they could go into any store they normally go into and pick up a dozen CDs for real cheap. They should also have pick and chose and burn your own kiosks set up, for the same price, pick your tunes or vids from a menu, burn it, check out, split, for cheap. The way they are trying to do it now is a rip off, that's the main deal most people see. I know I never buy new Cds, never, but I probably would have been all along if they were 2 bucks or something. The music guys lost me as a customer a LONG time ago with their ridiculous prices. I would pay an hours pay to go see a live concert, but for a 25 cent copy on a plastic disk? Not happening. Screw 'em, they are going obsolete anyway, although there will be a flurry of pretty strange legislation and schemes they try before their buggy whip pseudo industry finishes it's crash and burn.
As far as I am concerned, they are economic terrorists, using bribe money to get laws passed, and other general goonish behavior. And they have always been that way, too, as far back as I can remember, always using bribes, black mails, pay offs, etc to maintain a lucrative monopoly.
So, I just boycott paid for music in general. I just quit. I listen to it on the radio, maybe there's some advertising during the music shows that will get me to go check out a product, but as for paying for copies-I just "say no". They want to get real on what stuff really coists, get a clue on a real business model, I might reconsider, but so far, everything they do has pushed me further into the "I won't buy it anymore" camp.
probably why I never got an office job, I was always the sucks with typing...My cursive handwriting is still nice though, when I try.
I have a major beef with english, to many exceptions to the rules with spelling. If it didn't look so hokey I would use simple fonetics* all the time.
*And isn't that just stoopid, spelling fonetics with a ph?