... umm, that's why I said the top 100 produced products. I would INCLUDE precious metals in their normal coin form like we have now, it's always beeen recognized and is still in use around the world, and set their worth pegged to the top 100 (98 if you want to be picky about it) other commodities actually produced in the preceeding year.
As society and technology and business changes, those commodities can be adjusted by dropping them in the rank on the list, or raising them, or dropping them completely off the list when they don't make the top 100 (buggywhips for example) entirely, or adding brand new products based on tech advances or whatever. I picked 100 because it's a nice number we all understand and more importantly is a large enough representation of what is made across the board in the nation so it will include the most important stuff. Your example-beef-most likely would be included, I think it would make the cut into top 100 commodities easily. My system is based entirely, 100% entirely, on verifiable, quantifiable *produced wealth*, and not based on created credit or future-debt like it is now. It is inflation proof, the money is *entirely* backed by something real, the something being what the nation has produced into existence. By necessity, again, wealth (leave out land, it can't be produced, what we got is here already), wealth has to be either something mined/extracted, or it is grown or harvested, or it's manufactured from something in some combination from the first two. And that's it if you think about it. Just pick the top 100, and that data is easily found, they already track it.
The first year during a transition, a date is picked and a freeze on the money supply occurs, the supply meaning how many digits they claim are in existence at that point. This number is cross indexed/compared to the data of the totality of the top 100 products. That becomes a floating point of worth, that is adjusted annually, merely by using the already collected and collated data that those various industries and government already produce. this is done proportionally, any verifiable increase in production has a corresponding increase in the offical money supply. This is cool, it adjusts for population ups and downs, it adjusts for changes in business climate, it gives investors a much more accurate way to gauge the currency and their particular nich of investing they are looking at, and it makes the currency very attractive for continual foreign investment, because they can count on it being STABLE in worth.
It's really a simple concept. The only real drawback is that no government insider or central banker/system can get "rich" off of it by borrowing into existence "money", miraculously "loaning" it to us, and somehow even then having the nads to actually charge us "interest" on it.
Think about it, we are told we owe THEM interest. On what? Where the hell did they have enough real money to be able to LOAN the US government people this "money"? They sitting on umpteen trillions of realdollars and decide to cut us a deal and "loan" it to us? Nope, they are allowed to create and obscenely profit from having a LEGAL MONOPOLY on the most important thing we have in our economic system, our day to day "money". Why we do that? Why do we even need those guys? Really, why? We have a mint, and it's separate from the federal reserve, we don't really need them, just they conned some folks back in the teens with a few bought off senators. It's in the history books and is one of the US's darkest days with government. Is that a nutso concept or what, but they pulled it off (check history of creation of fed reserve, fascinating case study of abuse of government and insider deals there, the mother of all fast ones, conjob deluxe), and we've been paying the price and supporting them leeches ever since, and it really leads to extreme boom and bust artifically created cycles that do nothing but skim off the economy and create economic chaos.. And that single "drawback" if you want to call it that t
... that example you site, a similar law could pass that affected your favorite pet peeve thing, and we've all got them. We've already seen throughly ridiculous and obviously unconstitutional "free speech" zones where anti-insert-favorite-pol-here protesters are herded like a mile away from his or her presence to some fenced in place where it's "lawful to protest", and if you don't go there and protest someplace else near the "annointed one" the goons arrest you.
Stuff has a way of dramatically getting out of control when you infringe freedoms.
With the adware/spyware, my thought is, illegal if it installs a program on your bow without your consent, or does something it doesn't admit to, or can't be removed or if it dramatically borks your other apps, etc, but if you go to a site at random-well, it's a big net, a site has bogus stuff you don't want to see, block it or don't go there. For instance, I occassionaly send off polite emails that require javascript be enabled in order to navigate the site. I hates it. javascript WORKS, it just is abused too much, so I always try to keep it turned off, and really don't visit sites that require it. if it's a site I REALLY want to access occassionaly, I'll send the webmaster an email and ask if they could alter the coding. Or say like "you need this browser only" sites. their descion to do that, but I do my part by asking them politely to recode if they want my visit. I want to use my browser, not their choice, but I also don't got to use their site either.And there's too many security risks with active scripting on webpages in general, just a bad idea, IMO. Too bad, but there ya go.
In meat world, the same thing, on a case by case basis, but I already got PLENTY of unConstitutional restrictions now, I don't need any more. I grew up protesting,civil rights on up, see no reason to put more restrictions on it, it's hard enough now to get constructive political changes or rollbacks to more constitutional behavior by government.. We went through too much gas, beatings, jail, etc to let it slide, and that means you have to be ready to allow the other guy his beef, even if you 100% don't agree with it. That part is CRITICAL I think.
Despotism doesn't happen overnight,, if you look back in history it always takes some time, a weird law here, some wild stuff there, first this thing than that thing gets restricted or outlawed, pretty soon, yep YOU are illegal in the eyes of the goonerment. Happens all the time.
...similar ideas. Several different "watch ads get to have free intarweb" deals, and at least one "free" long distance teleophony attempt I remember, it was something like you needed to listen to a 30 second ad and got 5 minutes free domestic LD, something like that.
I don't care as long as it's opt-in & opt-out, and you can *easily* remove every trace of the program,return to the state you had before installation, and it doesn't do anything more than what it says upfront it does.
--I'd like to see micropayments. I'm pretty low income but I wouldn't mind doing a micropayment to the various projects/apps I use. I also think that the big distro vendors need to do a micropayment system to every app they include, and that a minimum fee be established for the downloading service. Pays for the brick and mortar expense of the servers and the bandwith etc, with some more going to the micro payments to the app developers. Kind of a place between traditional shareware and "no payment whatsoever even though it costs to distribute" like it is now.
.. but certainly I think there might be enough interest in the linux laptop and generic desktop. Maybe follow a basic design goal of a minimum 12 hours practical usage battery life, low power consumption, all the drives "just work",sound audio usb wireless, etc "just work", built in this and that, etc. bottom line is "just works" with linux (maybe customised distro with it?) and is *affordable* and *upgradeable* easily. I've been wanting to build one of those for awhile now,the laptop, maybe based on transmeta or via. And having a way to increase battery life, like what we have been discussing on some other article threads. I'm a *big* fan of at least two on board batteries myself, I think the weight increase is neglible compared to the benefits. And insure the batteries are some kind of universal battery that is CHEAP to replace, even at the hardware store, like maybe a popular cordless tool replacement batt, or even a standardized size SLA battery like what used to be in bagphones.
Anyway, that's more for a cooperative to debate on, I just like the idea, and will probably develop the laptop myself if no one else wants to fool with it. I think it sucks how non upgradeable or long lived modern laptops are, and I know why, they keep trying to make them desktop replacements,they have a fixation on making them so light all the components are ridiculous expensive, and there NEEDS to be a rock solid linux laptop. Making it a "community" laptop is just gravy, IMO.
As another aside, I have a friend of mine really involved in a goods and services "club" that uses "barter credits" to represent your good or service. No cash ever exchanges hands, but you can get a surprisingly large variety of normal goods and services via networking with the other members. I forget the name now but it's nationwide. He's gotten stuff from new desktops to vacations out of it so far. Everything is just swapped, and combos can be worked out. That's how he explained it to me though, although I never joined, there's a one time upfront fee (expensive, some hundreds IIRC) for the coordinators involved, that part is a little MLM to me, but they seem to be active so people must think it's worth it.
When you are a "dozenaire" you gots to count your nickles...
--perhaps just peruse the vendors "supported hardware" before you get another sound card. I would think that would work better than pick a sound card and hope it works.. personally I've never had a problem with sound, but I use an antique card as well, been out forever.
hmm, this means you've never heard linus say hello in the sound config utility? I remember the first time I heard that, I think it's neat and ought to be default for any linux distro that you got to hear that as the first sound out of the box....
My rule of economic and useability thumb is, I let the rich guys be the beta testers, and I stay on the *bleeding edge* of 5 or 6 year old technology. Shoot, it's more than that I just realised, my main machine I am sitting in front of now was made in 96, heh. Not having anything else to compare it to, I think I got the newest whizzbang stuff..... FC1 runs on this machine too... with enough ram
... to make the "conservative" bosses more easily accept the "liberal socialist" linux, I would be happy to sell them a nice paper recommending linux, that way, because they paid for it, it will soothe the capitalist breast a bit... I will charge many-MANY thousands of dollars for this advice, a truly CEO impressive sum...just.. give me a few days to accumulate a heap of those "lost your diploma" replacement certificates I see in the helpful advertisements that well meaning people send to my email inbox.
--coincidence. I just posted what I think is a good idea around the concept of the built from scratch linux laptop. It is in the "geeks inherit the earth" article.
.. as soon as you type in the input line in the program and hit enter. The rest is a matter of *time shifting* and not necessarily limited to the "screen captures" mentioned in the article.. If this law was strictly enforced, chat itself could be conceivably illegal. And how about newsgroups? Similar there as well. email, etc.
... that in the blackops and/or despotic upper power and money levels in the world, that implantable chips that can control a lot of an individuals mind/emotions/physiological functions already exist beyond what "they" might admit to.
There is some anecdotal supporting this out there that can be found with googling (mkultra, etc), but I have no direct knowledge of it, but given the normal track record of advanced designs and processes out there in those blackbudget areas,ie, "more advanced than you think", combined with the easy to see "benefits" that the same blackops/despotic managers would see in such devices and schemes, I would wager they exist already in some fashion and are being used. There already exists data that drugs are used, for example, drugs that remove a certain amount of normal "conscious" in military personnel so that their violence proclivities might be dramatically increased (I have forgoten the name of the drug right this second, but there have been some incidents reported when returning combat members have continued to be effected by the drugs and have engaged in apparently insane violent acts), along with perceived energy level enhancers "speed"or "go pills", so I could see where they might want to enhance this even farther via microchip implanting.
And perhaps even leading to the "drone" chip which might be universally implanted (via force or trickery), basically to keep the mass of the population "content" with their lot and turned into..well.. complacent serfs.
In fact I would be quite surprised if this isn't being done now at least on a prototype scale.
I've had an idea for awhile now, about taking open source and sharing concept to the world of tangible products. WHATIF a collaborative of geeks/thinkers/doers (yes, hitch hikers guide reference) decided to take the next step from sharing input that makes freely shared software, to sharing tangible input so that tangible products might be distributed and enjoyed in some form?
Here's a simplistic example. Take computers, we all like computers, we all like to have new nice ones, etc. Perhaps a cooperative could be formed where we might be able to take advantage of wholesale pricing and design sharing? Suppose one geek gets a wholesale license on cases, then anotherperson does on hard drives, then another on mobos, another on the ram that fits same, etc. The people in the cooperative agree to equally share the wholesale cost to other people for their respective part, at exact wholesale cost +shipping? Everyone gets the great price at wholesale then, by distributing the upfront costs around. At first of course it would be a standard box, not a lot of uber-customization or variance, but I don't see that as any different from the normal arguing-say-about which code goes into which app in any open source project. Perhaps even to develop the "designed from the ground up true linux modular upgradeable laptop" as a first project?
The concept could be scaled up later on, and branch into other projects. How about an actual car? A shared concept design from scratch car, perhaps a hybrid design, arrived at via the usual open source methods, then using normal aftermarket parts just put together in a kit fashion, but the parts being available wholesale to the sharers by individual geeks assuming responsibility for one of the components? Instead of ONE geek trying to get together all the pieces cheaply, the effort gets shared.
Basically, this idea is a spin off from community food coops, I've been in several and they are nice.
cool idea, or whack? At least starting from the cheap computer idea?
I don't know what usual vendor wholesale prices are of course, not in the business, just wondering if this might be worth thinking on is all. I think "open source" and "shared" can be taken to the next logical step into tangible products.
the biggest deal now is the gumbo all these international investors have gotten themselves into supporting us government paper and relying on the frn as the default world trade currency. They kept propping up the dollar, while at the SAME time watching the US outsource industries and actual productive wealth. Now they are stuck with the puzzler how to remove their "investments" which are losing ground daily without completely losing them all, as a panic would hurt all of them. Japan two weeks ago or so stopped protecting the dollar, they just can't afford it anymore, it's beyond even the importance of having the US as a market. When your domestic prime rate is..basically nothing, and you've run out of government make-work work, you need to step back and think on things some...
rock/hard place for everyone, IMO the keynesian numbnuts have screwed the pooch all over the planet
ps, I am a bit chem shy today, which compound does your sig represent?
...by night are white hat "system administrators" by day? Or even better, how many white hat system administrators have NEVER engaged in a little "sport"? And where is the line crossed exactly between harmless sport and looking and maybe a little... whatever?
Remember when back orifice was released? All the people I knew personally who were running it were employed in the IT world in some manner, ie, they were societally assumed to be "whitehats".
Personally, I think "the industry" is a lot more an over-all "gray" color than they want to admit to publically...
.. please, japan had MUCH higher tariffs on US cars, and also much more intrusive inspection at the docks procedures. this is just data, a google search will reveal it. And in the 70s they exported cars at lower than production cost. this concept is called dumping, and is a pretty raw deal on the domestic industry it is hurting. and granted, US automakers needed a cluestick or three on quality, I know, I was in the UAW back then when the import flood began and NEITHER the management nor the rank and file had much of a clue then, sad to say. Japan was and still is much more protectionistic than the US, and so is China. We charge much less % tariffs for chinese imports than they for US imports. That's why I support "fair" trade with exact-equal quid pro quo tariff structures, rather than "free" trade which is always some convulted formula that only results in governmental bureaucrats being bribed off.
--there comes a tipping over point where "service" doesn't equate any sort of rational national economic model. We can't all do each others laundry and call that an economy. that's what we are being told now though. We don't need manufacturing of tangibles, now we are told we don't need manufacturing of IP or intangibles. Huh? what's left?
And "insourcing" is just as bad when these service jobs are being given to highly illegal "insourced" laborers who are willing to live in situations that haven't been seen much inside the US in decades in any numbers, ie, literally 12 adults and children to a single bedroom apartment, etc. The two phenomenoon need to be looked at at the same time. All my labor is in danger of the later, wheras most of slashdot is in the former, in outsourcing, but I assure you it is both.
Every outsourced middle class job means we've outsourced a middle class income which means we've outsourced a middle class consumer. Unless it is replaced at the same time with an *exactly level economic strata job*, it results in a net-loss in GNP, and there is no way to escape the math, especially for the one who's just lost their job.
I don't think there's any question that over outsourcing is a bad idea, I think the question now is where is the tipping over point into utter economic chaos and collapse. I think it is much closer than most people want to think about, because they are scared, and are living in denial, cognitive dissoanance is the term. I had the same exact arguments with white collar people well over ten years ago, they thought their jobs were "secure" forever,that it didn't matter if we outsourced traditional industries. I called "bogus' On that then. Now these same people are nervous, as wellthey should be. A lot are beyond nervous, they got hit, some more than once now. Look at this article and the discussions on slashdot all the time, it's REAL. Now they will admit I had a point. I was right then, and I'm right now. All the signs are there for it to occur, for it to get much much worse here in the US. The middle class is going to dramatically shrink, the lower class is going to dramatically rise in numbers, the very upper classwillshrink in numbers but those there will become even more wealthy and powerful, and the POWER is what they are after, not just the "more money", thesepeople want power overr other human beings, to recreate feudalistic structure. that's the part people will REALLY not want to admit to, but you can see it happening now, there exists an "above the common laws" class already, you can quite easily see it.
The "roaring 20's" gave way to 20 years of extreme poverty, despair and property and social advances lost, only partially regained with major world war which in itself wasn't worth the cost in terms of human despair. And yes, the primary reasons of WW2 were from the global economic depression brought on by the "something for nothing" over-exuberance and the theory that stock trading alone somehow equates "wealth production" the extraordinary failure of roaring 20s economic model that was dramatically attempted again in the 90s. People will NOT learn from history, they usually repeat the same mistakes, just using different levels of technology.. Not ALL the reasons I wish to say to the historians here, but certainly one of the primary factors for ww2 was a fialed global economic "system" run by hereditary feudalists for the most part and the globalists of the day..
History WILL repeat itself I am afraid. Cycles in man's history are valid points of reference. boom-bust-belligerence or false prosperity and greed, giving rise to economic collapse and deapair leading to finger pointing and warfare, because at that point only looting ion a national scale is in any way productive, if you can call theft and murder productive. it's a way for the traditional money powers to absolve themselves of the blame. It's easy for them to pull off, too.
We have much more efficient ways of killing people now. Much more efficient. The next time
... for your fellow neighbors and countrymen does NOT make one a racist. I EXPECT anyone in another country to want the same thing for their own countrymen and neigbors, and I encourage them to do so.
That is an insulting and erroneous strawman argument oft repeated, never been true. It's a feeble attempt at debate 101 called "changing the subject" or "not answering the real question". In fact, you have directly implied that I myself am a racist because of the potential questions I proposed, despite all the words I have posted previously on slashdot that would show I am a nationalist, but not a racist. You imply that if a CEO was to keep jobs at home rather than exporting them to save a few dollars that that would imply that he wore the "kkk" hat. Sorry, that's beyond lame, and just flat out wrong.
There is a clear cut and distinct difference.
My point is, I feel it is both more patriotic and more economically practical to keep as many well paying middle class jobs inside a recognized structure as represented by these constructs called "nations" as possible. Now if one does not really care, if the concept of a "nation" means little to nothing, then yes, do what you will. that is a viable option, just don't pretend to be patriotic as you stab your neighbor in the back about it, THEN expect him to somehow keep purchasing your imported products.
Exporting well paid middle class jobs means you are also exporting a middle class level consumer unless an identical paying job is immediately right there to replace the lost job. I will guarantee you that this isn't the case now, nor has it been over the past 20 years with the export of industries and the jobs that go with them.. Merely stating "look in the paper" does not reflect reality. there are far fewer jobs now avaialble then there were years past at the same cost adjusted middle class level, and benfits have shrunk, and now there is a most credible worry that pensions already promised will have to be severely restricted or reduced or be simply defaulted on. Again, data, easily verifiable.. That's just data, and the other indicators will reinforce that,here's another, average equity in homes is the lowest level in two generations, debt is the highest,unemployment has has it's very statistics altered to keep the magic "public" number out of the double digit range, when in reality it is in double digits because they stopped counting people who have exhausted unemployment benefits, and they started counting people who work as little as 3 hours a wekek as "see, they are employed!". That is absurdly disingenous of them, but it showes how far they will go to keep reality from sinking in to the people. They removed fuel and food from the CPI (most places) in another attempt to make our economy look rosier than it is, ie, that inflation is not as bad a sit really is. They use a pull out of their nether region poterntial "rent" for the value of real estate, instead of what it actuall costs. these are carefuly considered lies meant solely to make the overall numbers ti look better, which would "support" the globalists free-but not fair- trade policies.
Exporting jobs without *simultaneously* creating rough equal-pay replacements is a short term way for a very few people at the top of an organization to maximise profits, but it will not work for long, and it doesn't "trickle down" to wherever those jobs got exported from. Inm fact, if YOUR job just got exported, you don't get a check that week. That's the reality of it after it's stripped from academic discussion, it's real people losing real jobs and losing their homes, losing a chance at college perhaps, losing a lot. It isn't just a "few" people or some small "fraction", it is in the millions of exported jobs with not near as many created jobs, and of those created, they are on average lower paying with much less benefits. This is a national decrease.
Back in history this concept was studied, analysed and it was found to be wanting, so much so that a term entered our language and culture, it's called "eating the seed corn". You do that, it looks like you are fabulously well off-for a short time frame. Then reality hits hard. It is unsustainable.
"cracking" something like that will still be most doable with social engineering. Depending on what the crack is really worth, employees with access can be bought off, scared off, or usually a combination of the two. If it's extremely valuable information that is needed by the cracker (say a state sponsered attempt against a critical defense or financial entity, etc), then kidnapping and torture might be used-say.
It's in the payoffs what people will risk, and how hard you make it for the cracker.
Give you a real world example in security. This is researchable BTW. When a lot of states passed the "two or three strikes and you're out" laws, intending to have better "security" for their populations, a curious thing happend, violent crime went up, as criminals who before were satisfied with the risk/reward ratio suddenly realised that if they got popped or identified that that might face life switched to more violent crimes because they had "nothing to lose" if they were caught and convicted. If you are going to get life for your third even small time felony conviction, and manslaughter is life, well..... that's what happened.
The same thing will happen in the cybersecurity end of things, because the data trying to be stolen is valuable from the "real world" applications that the data represents.(I am not considering casual defacement and sport by kiddies). Make it TOO hard for traditional cracking, I predict a lot more actual physical insecurity for employees of those places, and more blackmail/bribery attempts, all the way to the director or CIO levels.
you develop missiles, then you adversary needs anti missiles, then you need anti anti missiles, and so forth. Security is always analogous to an arms race, yes?
1 -if offshoring is so great, why aren't we seeing corporate executives jobs being eliminated and outsourced? Are they trying to maintain the illusion that only the lower level peons jobs are worth of outsourcing to "save money and be cost competitive", but that their "management" jobs are not?
2--Ask them why average CEO pay is now approaching 1000 times what their entry level employees pay is contrasted with 20 years ago or so when it was around 30 times? Couldn't they maintain the same 30 times level and still be *well* compensated? It seemed to work back then, the "boss class" made more than sufficient money to live comfortably, and the stockholders still made a return.
3- Ask them don't they have any sense of universal social patriotism for their nation, or are they "citizens of the world" who don't really care about their national neighbors? And if so, ask them why they don't pubicly renounce their US citizen ship and take up citizenship in the nations they move their jobs to?
4-ask them why before "outsourcing" became popular, that a single (1) average pay blue collar domestic job, not even a white collar, a blue collar, why that level of pay was sufficient to maintain a home, a car or cars, and a family with several children, that that job in most cases provided a nice insurance package and a pension, that the employee could be given a 2 week paid vacation, contrasted with now, merely 20 years later, it takes two (2) such jobs to maintain parity with that time frame, and in a lot of cases without any of the perqs that existed back then?
5- ask them, and this is extremely critical, WHAT-exactly WHAT do you tell a young person just about to enter the workforce, who is seeing BOTH blue collar AND white collar jobs being outsourced, ask them EXACTLY WHAT that young person is supposed to study or train for. Ask them what sort of "job" they should be specialising in so that they might have a life, WHICH JOBS SPECIFICALLY are not going to be "outsourced"? These CEOs have to remember, when the IT and high tech boom started, it coincided with the dismantling of the blue collar manufacturing jobs, we were PROMISED that these jobs were the replacements, and now THOSE jobs are leaving--ask them-WHAT'S LEFT??? What are they going to LEAVE in the US for jobs in the next one to two decades?
6- Ask them how it feels to not be looked up to as models of success that most previous generations of people granted successful business people, but to be reviled and distrusted by the vast majority of people now, to be not trusted to either be patriotic nor to tell the truth or act in the publics best interest, only their own.
OK, about what I thought. It's possible but clunky. I thought that the magnet idea might work, and I am reminded that hard drives have motors that produce a magnetic field that doesn't seem to be much of a problem with the bits and bytes staying in the ssame place, so I know it's possible.
with that said...
Here's an idea. How about eliminating the entire straight in friction plug idea, and make "plugs" be a screw in? BNC (is this correct?) is sort of like that, your coax to your tv or whatever in a lot of cases screws on and is much more robust. Or a push in, twist, lock, like the bayonet styled flaslight lamps. Or even a normal phone jack styled arrangement, at least there is a spring lock that holds it in place. For static purposes normal plugs work because they aren't constantly jiggled around, for mobile devices I think a much better plug scheme is indicated. We already have the USB styled connectors, that seems suitable, and is in widespread use already. Just lose those stoopid minijacks entirely, too clunky and wimpy.
... and I hope it does. there's no reason any longer for software that is sold to be treated differently than other product. As opposed to the intangible "art" that is sold as entertainment, software products are rleased because they "do something". They need a warranty if they expect to be paid for them.
... that's the big difference. OSS "products" are not marketed, they are given away. Closed source and proietary are sold for a profit (usually, generally speaking now).
Rule of thumb to my way of thinking is:
sold as a "product" = normal consumer warranties required
given away free = a "freepass" EULA type license/contract is acceptable
... with other products that are sold, they can not make you agree to a license that absolves them of suitability for purpose or that has serious defects that cause harm. These are normal product consumer warranties. Apply the same laws to them as apply to vacuum cleaners, cars, blenders or whatnot. Even if you AGREE to giving the manufactuer a free pass, it's still not legal. See my latest post on the CEOs and security article.
I'll pre answer the argument that they always use, that it's an "intangible" that it doesn't really "exist" in the normal way of thinking. Swell, let them accept MY intangible "money", I'll email them a jpeg of a stack of cash for their "product" then.. Swell
In meat world, when a "patch" is needed, a recall of a consumer product, the physical object needs to go back to the shop, then gets returned with the fix in place. with software, even when it is provided on disk, this doesn't happen, the old physical media, the CD, is allowed to stay around.
I think if it's a tangible PROFIT they want, then it's the companies duty to provide a patched TANGIBLE product. They should be required to provide a PATCHED install CD, not just skate on saying "there's a downloadable patch available".
Example in meatworld. Lst year I found out two of my small cordless drills were recalled. The company paid to mail the old drills back to them, and they sent me new drills "patched"(they were basically brand new drills of a newer "release" style), they DIDN'T just send me via snail mail or email a set of instructions on how to "fix" the drills. I WASN'T required to show where I had bought the drills,nor if I had a "license to drill with them" or anything of the sort. I shipped the b0rked drills off to them on their nickle, I got patched drills back.
I say apply the SAME rules to software on CD's that are produced and sold for a tangible profit. if they want real money, they need to provide real normal warranties. Make them be forced to take your old CD back at their expense, and have to send you a new CD with the patches, etc. Lather rinse repeat until they bingo it's a much better idea to do it *right* in the first place.
IF they were forced by law to provide a replacement of their indistry-alleged "tangible" product that they tangibly "profit" from, it would cost them and wake them up. It would cause one of those "paradigm" shifts in the software world, BUT,in the long run, I would be willing to bet that software would be much more intensely audited and tested before it shipped in the future.
That and there REALLY needs to be a law that eliminates the "nothing is our fault, neener neener neener EULA" crap. If they want a tangible profit, they need to have a similar law applied to them that tangible products elsewhere are forced to conform to. It's called normal consumer product warranties.
A long time ago I can see the need for software to be given a time frame to get up to speed on development. It is a mature sophisticated,entrenched and profitable industry now, these companies can be forced to be treated as competent adults in the market place if they are selling a product, no different from other industries. And there should be an actual legal time limit for products that are recallable, and it needs to be MANY years. In some cases, forever. FORCE them to provide FREE replacement CDs on a one to one basis, no questions asked, that have all the same functionality of the original product, but have had the patches applied.
As many times as it takes.
Yes, "recalls" can be expensive to the company,THAT'S THE POINT, it has been shown in every other industry that it works, it is making for much better products in the market place, safer, more functional, better, and these companies are still profitable.
"Caveat emptor" is NOT the law of the land with other products, because we as a society decided that that sucked, bigtime, and passedlaws about it.
The software companies want it both ways, to be treated as if all their product is a tangible when it comes to profits and income, but they want no responsibility for their "products". Seriously insecure and malfunctioning products everyplace else get recalled. You aren't forced to become your own mechanic and just told how to fix stuff, even if the part is offered.
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... umm, that's why I said the top 100 produced products. I would INCLUDE precious metals in their normal coin form like we have now, it's always beeen recognized and is still in use around the world, and set their worth pegged to the top 100 (98 if you want to be picky about it) other commodities actually produced in the preceeding year.
As society and technology and business changes, those commodities can be adjusted by dropping them in the rank on the list, or raising them, or dropping them completely off the list when they don't make the top 100 (buggywhips for example) entirely, or adding brand new products based on tech advances or whatever. I picked 100 because it's a nice number we all understand and more importantly is a large enough representation of what is made across the board in the nation so it will include the most important stuff. Your example-beef-most likely would be included, I think it would make the cut into top 100 commodities easily. My system is based entirely, 100% entirely, on verifiable, quantifiable *produced wealth*, and not based on created credit or future-debt like it is now. It is inflation proof, the money is *entirely* backed by something real, the something being what the nation has produced into existence. By necessity, again, wealth (leave out land, it can't be produced, what we got is here already), wealth has to be either something mined/extracted, or it is grown or harvested, or it's manufactured from something in some combination from the first two. And that's it if you think about it. Just pick the top 100, and that data is easily found, they already track it.
The first year during a transition, a date is picked and a freeze on the money supply occurs, the supply meaning how many digits they claim are in existence at that point. This number is cross indexed/compared to the data of the totality of the top 100 products. That becomes a floating point of worth, that is adjusted annually, merely by using the already collected and collated data that those various industries and government already produce. this is done proportionally, any verifiable increase in production has a corresponding increase in the offical money supply. This is cool, it adjusts for population ups and downs, it adjusts for changes in business climate, it gives investors a much more accurate way to gauge the currency and their particular nich of investing they are looking at, and it makes the currency very attractive for continual foreign investment, because they can count on it being STABLE in worth.
It's really a simple concept. The only real drawback is that no government insider or central banker/system can get "rich" off of it by borrowing into existence "money", miraculously "loaning" it to us, and somehow even then having the nads to actually charge us "interest" on it.
Think about it, we are told we owe THEM interest. On what? Where the hell did they have enough real money to be able to LOAN the US government people this "money"? They sitting on umpteen trillions of realdollars and decide to cut us a deal and "loan" it to us? Nope, they are allowed to create and obscenely profit from having a LEGAL MONOPOLY on the most important thing we have in our economic system, our day to day "money". Why we do that? Why do we even need those guys? Really, why? We have a mint, and it's separate from the federal reserve, we don't really need them, just they conned some folks back in the teens with a few bought off senators. It's in the history books and is one of the US's darkest days with government. Is that a nutso concept or what, but they pulled it off (check history of creation of fed reserve, fascinating case study of abuse of government and insider deals there, the mother of all fast ones, conjob deluxe), and we've been paying the price and supporting them leeches ever since, and it really leads to extreme boom and bust artifically created cycles that do nothing but skim off the economy and create economic chaos.. And that single "drawback" if you want to call it that t
... that example you site, a similar law could pass that affected your favorite pet peeve thing, and we've all got them. We've already seen throughly ridiculous and obviously unconstitutional "free speech" zones where anti-insert-favorite-pol-here protesters are herded like a mile away from his or her presence to some fenced in place where it's "lawful to protest", and if you don't go there and protest someplace else near the "annointed one" the goons arrest you.
Stuff has a way of dramatically getting out of control when you infringe freedoms.
With the adware/spyware, my thought is, illegal if it installs a program on your bow without your consent, or does something it doesn't admit to, or can't be removed or if it dramatically borks your other apps, etc, but if you go to a site at random-well, it's a big net, a site has bogus stuff you don't want to see, block it or don't go there. For instance, I occassionaly send off polite emails that require javascript be enabled in order to navigate the site. I hates it. javascript WORKS, it just is abused too much, so I always try to keep it turned off, and really don't visit sites that require it. if it's a site I REALLY want to access occassionaly, I'll send the webmaster an email and ask if they could alter the coding. Or say like "you need this browser only" sites. their descion to do that, but I do my part by asking them politely to recode if they want my visit. I want to use my browser, not their choice, but I also don't got to use their site either.And there's too many security risks with active scripting on webpages in general, just a bad idea, IMO. Too bad, but there ya go.
In meat world, the same thing, on a case by case basis, but I already got PLENTY of unConstitutional restrictions now, I don't need any more. I grew up protesting,civil rights on up, see no reason to put more restrictions on it, it's hard enough now to get constructive political changes or rollbacks to more constitutional behavior by government.. We went through too much gas, beatings, jail, etc to let it slide, and that means you have to be ready to allow the other guy his beef, even if you 100% don't agree with it. That part is CRITICAL I think.
Despotism doesn't happen overnight,, if you look back in history it always takes some time, a weird law here, some wild stuff there, first this thing than that thing gets restricted or outlawed, pretty soon, yep YOU are illegal in the eyes of the goonerment. Happens all the time.
...similar ideas. Several different "watch ads get to have free intarweb" deals, and at least one "free" long distance teleophony attempt I remember, it was something like you needed to listen to a 30 second ad and got 5 minutes free domestic LD, something like that.
I don't care as long as it's opt-in & opt-out, and you can *easily* remove every trace of the program,return to the state you had before installation, and it doesn't do anything more than what it says upfront it does.
--I'd like to see micropayments. I'm pretty low income but I wouldn't mind doing a micropayment to the various projects/apps I use. I also think that the big distro vendors need to do a micropayment system to every app they include, and that a minimum fee be established for the downloading service. Pays for the brick and mortar expense of the servers and the bandwith etc, with some more going to the micro payments to the app developers. Kind of a place between traditional shareware and "no payment whatsoever even though it costs to distribute" like it is now.
.. but certainly I think there might be enough interest in the linux laptop and generic desktop. Maybe follow a basic design goal of a minimum 12 hours practical usage battery life, low power consumption, all the drives "just work",sound audio usb wireless, etc "just work", built in this and that, etc. bottom line is "just works" with linux (maybe customised distro with it?) and is *affordable* and *upgradeable* easily. I've been wanting to build one of those for awhile now,the laptop, maybe based on transmeta or via. And having a way to increase battery life, like what we have been discussing on some other article threads. I'm a *big* fan of at least two on board batteries myself, I think the weight increase is neglible compared to the benefits. And insure the batteries are some kind of universal battery that is CHEAP to replace, even at the hardware store, like maybe a popular cordless tool replacement batt, or even a standardized size SLA battery like what used to be in bagphones.
Anyway, that's more for a cooperative to debate on, I just like the idea, and will probably develop the laptop myself if no one else wants to fool with it. I think it sucks how non upgradeable or long lived modern laptops are, and I know why, they keep trying to make them desktop replacements,they have a fixation on making them so light all the components are ridiculous expensive, and there NEEDS to be a rock solid linux laptop. Making it a "community" laptop is just gravy, IMO.
As another aside, I have a friend of mine really involved in a goods and services "club" that uses "barter credits" to represent your good or service. No cash ever exchanges hands, but you can get a surprisingly large variety of normal goods and services via networking with the other members. I forget the name now but it's nationwide. He's gotten stuff from new desktops to vacations out of it so far. Everything is just swapped, and combos can be worked out. That's how he explained it to me though, although I never joined, there's a one time upfront fee (expensive, some hundreds IIRC) for the coordinators involved, that part is a little MLM to me, but they seem to be active so people must think it's worth it.
When you are a "dozenaire" you gots to count your nickles...
--perhaps just peruse the vendors "supported hardware" before you get another sound card. I would think that would work better than pick a sound card and hope it works.. personally I've never had a problem with sound, but I use an antique card as well, been out forever.
hmm, this means you've never heard linus say hello in the sound config utility? I remember the first time I heard that, I think it's neat and ought to be default for any linux distro that you got to hear that as the first sound out of the box....
My rule of economic and useability thumb is, I let the rich guys be the beta testers, and I stay on the *bleeding edge* of 5 or 6 year old technology. Shoot, it's more than that I just realised, my main machine I am sitting in front of now was made in 96, heh. Not having anything else to compare it to, I think I got the newest whizzbang stuff..... FC1 runs on this machine too... with enough ram
%^)
... to make the "conservative" bosses more easily accept the "liberal socialist" linux, I would be happy to sell them a nice paper recommending linux, that way, because they paid for it, it will soothe the capitalist breast a bit... I will charge many-MANY thousands of dollars for this advice, a truly CEO impressive sum. ..just.. give me a few days to accumulate a heap of those "lost your diploma" replacement certificates I see in the helpful advertisements that well meaning people send to my email inbox.
--coincidence. I just posted what I think is a good idea around the concept of the built from scratch linux laptop. It is in the "geeks inherit the earth" article.
.. as soon as you type in the input line in the program and hit enter. The rest is a matter of *time shifting* and not necessarily limited to the "screen captures" mentioned in the article.. If this law was strictly enforced, chat itself could be conceivably illegal. And how about newsgroups? Similar there as well. email, etc.
big ole can a wurmes here....
... that in the blackops and/or despotic upper power and money levels in the world, that implantable chips that can control a lot of an individuals mind/emotions/physiological functions already exist beyond what "they" might admit to.
There is some anecdotal supporting this out there that can be found with googling (mkultra, etc), but I have no direct knowledge of it, but given the normal track record of advanced designs and processes out there in those blackbudget areas,ie, "more advanced than you think", combined with the easy to see "benefits" that the same blackops/despotic managers would see in such devices and schemes, I would wager they exist already in some fashion and are being used. There already exists data that drugs are used, for example, drugs that remove a certain amount of normal "conscious" in military personnel so that their violence proclivities might be dramatically increased (I have forgoten the name of the drug right this second, but there have been some incidents reported when returning combat members have continued to be effected by the drugs and have engaged in apparently insane violent acts), along with perceived energy level enhancers "speed"or "go pills", so I could see where they might want to enhance this even farther via microchip implanting.
And perhaps even leading to the "drone" chip which might be universally implanted (via force or trickery), basically to keep the mass of the population "content" with their lot and turned into..well.. complacent serfs.
In fact I would be quite surprised if this isn't being done now at least on a prototype scale.
I've had an idea for awhile now, about taking open source and sharing concept to the world of tangible products. WHATIF a collaborative of geeks/thinkers/doers (yes, hitch hikers guide reference) decided to take the next step from sharing input that makes freely shared software, to sharing tangible input so that tangible products might be distributed and enjoyed in some form?
Here's a simplistic example. Take computers, we all like computers, we all like to have new nice ones, etc. Perhaps a cooperative could be formed where we might be able to take advantage of wholesale pricing and design sharing? Suppose one geek gets a wholesale license on cases, then anotherperson does on hard drives, then another on mobos, another on the ram that fits same, etc. The people in the cooperative agree to equally share the wholesale cost to other people for their respective part, at exact wholesale cost +shipping? Everyone gets the great price at wholesale then, by distributing the upfront costs around. At first of course it would be a standard box, not a lot of uber-customization or variance, but I don't see that as any different from the normal arguing-say-about which code goes into which app in any open source project. Perhaps even to develop the "designed from the ground up true linux modular upgradeable laptop" as a first project?
The concept could be scaled up later on, and branch into other projects. How about an actual car? A shared concept design from scratch car, perhaps a hybrid design, arrived at via the usual open source methods, then using normal aftermarket parts just put together in a kit fashion, but the parts being available wholesale to the sharers by individual geeks assuming responsibility for one of the components? Instead of ONE geek trying to get together all the pieces cheaply, the effort gets shared.
Basically, this idea is a spin off from community food coops, I've been in several and they are nice.
cool idea, or whack? At least starting from the cheap computer idea?
I don't know what usual vendor wholesale prices are of course, not in the business, just wondering if this might be worth thinking on is all. I think "open source" and "shared" can be taken to the next logical step into tangible products.
the biggest deal now is the gumbo all these international investors have gotten themselves into supporting us government paper and relying on the frn as the default world trade currency. They kept propping up the dollar, while at the SAME time watching the US outsource industries and actual productive wealth. Now they are stuck with the puzzler how to remove their "investments" which are losing ground daily without completely losing them all, as a panic would hurt all of them. Japan two weeks ago or so stopped protecting the dollar, they just can't afford it anymore, it's beyond even the importance of having the US as a market. When your domestic prime rate is..basically nothing, and you've run out of government make-work work, you need to step back and think on things some...
rock/hard place for everyone, IMO the keynesian numbnuts have screwed the pooch all over the planet
ps, I am a bit chem shy today, which compound does your sig represent?
...by night are white hat "system administrators" by day? Or even better, how many white hat system administrators have NEVER engaged in a little "sport"? And where is the line crossed exactly between harmless sport and looking and maybe a little... whatever?
Remember when back orifice was released? All the people I knew personally who were running it were employed in the IT world in some manner, ie, they were societally assumed to be "whitehats".
Personally, I think "the industry" is a lot more an over-all "gray" color than they want to admit to publically...
.. please, japan had MUCH higher tariffs on US cars, and also much more intrusive inspection at the docks procedures. this is just data, a google search will reveal it. And in the 70s they exported cars at lower than production cost. this concept is called dumping, and is a pretty raw deal on the domestic industry it is hurting. and granted, US automakers needed a cluestick or three on quality, I know, I was in the UAW back then when the import flood began and NEITHER the management nor the rank and file had much of a clue then, sad to say. Japan was and still is much more protectionistic than the US, and so is China. We charge much less % tariffs for chinese imports than they for US imports. That's why I support "fair" trade with exact-equal quid pro quo tariff structures, rather than "free" trade which is always some convulted formula that only results in governmental bureaucrats being bribed off.
--there comes a tipping over point where "service" doesn't equate any sort of rational national economic model. We can't all do each others laundry and call that an economy. that's what we are being told now though. We don't need manufacturing of tangibles, now we are told we don't need manufacturing of IP or intangibles. Huh? what's left?
And "insourcing" is just as bad when these service jobs are being given to highly illegal "insourced" laborers who are willing to live in situations that haven't been seen much inside the US in decades in any numbers, ie, literally 12 adults and children to a single bedroom apartment, etc. The two phenomenoon need to be looked at at the same time. All my labor is in danger of the later, wheras most of slashdot is in the former, in outsourcing, but I assure you it is both.
Every outsourced middle class job means we've outsourced a middle class income which means we've outsourced a middle class consumer. Unless it is replaced at the same time with an *exactly level economic strata job*, it results in a net-loss in GNP, and there is no way to escape the math, especially for the one who's just lost their job.
I don't think there's any question that over outsourcing is a bad idea, I think the question now is where is the tipping over point into utter economic chaos and collapse. I think it is much closer than most people want to think about, because they are scared, and are living in denial, cognitive dissoanance is the term. I had the same exact arguments with white collar people well over ten years ago, they thought their jobs were "secure" forever,that it didn't matter if we outsourced traditional industries. I called "bogus' On that then. Now these same people are nervous, as wellthey should be. A lot are beyond nervous, they got hit, some more than once now. Look at this article and the discussions on slashdot all the time, it's REAL. Now they will admit I had a point. I was right then, and I'm right now. All the signs are there for it to occur, for it to get much much worse here in the US. The middle class is going to dramatically shrink, the lower class is going to dramatically rise in numbers, the very upper classwillshrink in numbers but those there will become even more wealthy and powerful, and the POWER is what they are after, not just the "more money", thesepeople want power overr other human beings, to recreate feudalistic structure. that's the part people will REALLY not want to admit to, but you can see it happening now, there exists an "above the common laws" class already, you can quite easily see it.
The "roaring 20's" gave way to 20 years of extreme poverty, despair and property and social advances lost, only partially regained with major world war which in itself wasn't worth the cost in terms of human despair. And yes, the primary reasons of WW2 were from the global economic depression brought on by the "something for nothing" over-exuberance and the theory that stock trading alone somehow equates "wealth production" the extraordinary failure of roaring 20s economic model that was dramatically attempted again in the 90s. People will NOT learn from history, they usually repeat the same mistakes, just using different levels of technology.. Not ALL the reasons I wish to say to the historians here, but certainly one of the primary factors for ww2 was a fialed global economic "system" run by hereditary feudalists for the most part and the globalists of the day..
History WILL repeat itself I am afraid. Cycles in man's history are valid points of reference. boom-bust-belligerence or false prosperity and greed, giving rise to economic collapse and deapair leading to finger pointing and warfare, because at that point only looting ion a national scale is in any way productive, if you can call theft and murder productive. it's a way for the traditional money powers to absolve themselves of the blame. It's easy for them to pull off, too.
We have much more efficient ways of killing people now. Much more efficient. The next time
... for your fellow neighbors and countrymen does NOT make one a racist. I EXPECT anyone in another country to want the same thing for their own countrymen and neigbors, and I encourage them to do so.
,unemployment has has it's very statistics altered to keep the magic "public" number out of the double digit range, when in reality it is in double digits because they stopped counting people who have exhausted unemployment benefits, and they started counting people who work as little as 3 hours a wekek as "see, they are employed!". That is absurdly disingenous of them, but it showes how far they will go to keep reality from sinking in to the people. They removed fuel and food from the CPI (most places) in another attempt to make our economy look rosier than it is, ie, that inflation is not as bad a sit really is. They use a pull out of their nether region poterntial "rent" for the value of real estate, instead of what it actuall costs. these are carefuly considered lies meant solely to make the overall numbers ti look better, which would "support" the globalists free-but not fair- trade policies.
That is an insulting and erroneous strawman argument oft repeated, never been true. It's a feeble attempt at debate 101 called "changing the subject" or "not answering the real question". In fact, you have directly implied that I myself am a racist because of the potential questions I proposed, despite all the words I have posted previously on slashdot that would show I am a nationalist, but not a racist. You imply that if a CEO was to keep jobs at home rather than exporting them to save a few dollars that that would imply that he wore the "kkk" hat. Sorry, that's beyond lame, and just flat out wrong.
There is a clear cut and distinct difference.
My point is, I feel it is both more patriotic and more economically practical to keep as many well paying middle class jobs inside a recognized structure as represented by these constructs called "nations" as possible. Now if one does not really care, if the concept of a "nation" means little to nothing, then yes, do what you will. that is a viable option, just don't pretend to be patriotic as you stab your neighbor in the back about it, THEN expect him to somehow keep purchasing your imported products.
Exporting well paid middle class jobs means you are also exporting a middle class level consumer unless an identical paying job is immediately right there to replace the lost job. I will guarantee you that this isn't the case now, nor has it been over the past 20 years with the export of industries and the jobs that go with them.. Merely stating "look in the paper" does not reflect reality. there are far fewer jobs now avaialble then there were years past at the same cost adjusted middle class level, and benfits have shrunk, and now there is a most credible worry that pensions already promised will have to be severely restricted or reduced or be simply defaulted on. Again, data, easily verifiable.. That's just data, and the other indicators will reinforce that,here's another, average equity in homes is the lowest level in two generations, debt is the highest
Exporting jobs without *simultaneously* creating rough equal-pay replacements is a short term way for a very few people at the top of an organization to maximise profits, but it will not work for long, and it doesn't "trickle down" to wherever those jobs got exported from. Inm fact, if YOUR job just got exported, you don't get a check that week. That's the reality of it after it's stripped from academic discussion, it's real people losing real jobs and losing their homes, losing a chance at college perhaps, losing a lot. It isn't just a "few" people or some small "fraction", it is in the millions of exported jobs with not near as many created jobs, and of those created, they are on average lower paying with much less benefits. This is a national decrease.
Back in history this concept was studied, analysed and it was found to be wanting, so much so that a term entered our language and culture, it's called "eating the seed corn". You do that, it looks like you are fabulously well off-for a short time frame. Then reality hits hard. It is unsustainable.
"cracking" something like that will still be most doable with social engineering. Depending on what the crack is really worth, employees with access can be bought off, scared off, or usually a combination of the two. If it's extremely valuable information that is needed by the cracker (say a state sponsered attempt against a critical defense or financial entity, etc), then kidnapping and torture might be used-say.
It's in the payoffs what people will risk, and how hard you make it for the cracker.
Give you a real world example in security. This is researchable BTW. When a lot of states passed the "two or three strikes and you're out" laws, intending to have better "security" for their populations, a curious thing happend, violent crime went up, as criminals who before were satisfied with the risk/reward ratio suddenly realised that if they got popped or identified that that might face life switched to more violent crimes because they had "nothing to lose" if they were caught and convicted. If you are going to get life for your third even small time felony conviction, and manslaughter is life, well..... that's what happened.
The same thing will happen in the cybersecurity end of things, because the data trying to be stolen is valuable from the "real world" applications that the data represents.(I am not considering casual defacement and sport by kiddies). Make it TOO hard for traditional cracking, I predict a lot more actual physical insecurity for employees of those places, and more blackmail/bribery attempts, all the way to the director or CIO levels.
you develop missiles, then you adversary needs anti missiles, then you need anti anti missiles, and so forth. Security is always analogous to an arms race, yes?
1 -if offshoring is so great, why aren't we seeing corporate executives jobs being eliminated and outsourced? Are they trying to maintain the illusion that only the lower level peons jobs are worth of outsourcing to "save money and be cost competitive", but that their "management" jobs are not?
2--Ask them why average CEO pay is now approaching 1000 times what their entry level employees pay is contrasted with 20 years ago or so when it was around 30 times? Couldn't they maintain the same 30 times level and still be *well* compensated? It seemed to work back then, the "boss class" made more than sufficient money to live comfortably, and the stockholders still made a return.
3- Ask them don't they have any sense of universal social patriotism for their nation, or are they "citizens of the world" who don't really care about their national neighbors? And if so, ask them why they don't pubicly renounce their US citizen ship and take up citizenship in the nations they move their jobs to?
4-ask them why before "outsourcing" became popular, that a single (1) average pay blue collar domestic job, not even a white collar, a blue collar, why that level of pay was sufficient to maintain a home, a car or cars, and a family with several children, that that job in most cases provided a nice insurance package and a pension, that the employee could be given a 2 week paid vacation, contrasted with now, merely 20 years later, it takes two (2) such jobs to maintain parity with that time frame, and in a lot of cases without any of the perqs that existed back then?
5- ask them, and this is extremely critical, WHAT-exactly WHAT do you tell a young person just about to enter the workforce, who is seeing BOTH blue collar AND white collar jobs being outsourced, ask them EXACTLY WHAT that young person is supposed to study or train for. Ask them what sort of "job" they should be specialising in so that they might have a life, WHICH JOBS SPECIFICALLY are not going to be "outsourced"? These CEOs have to remember, when the IT and high tech boom started, it coincided with the dismantling of the blue collar manufacturing jobs, we were PROMISED that these jobs were the replacements, and now THOSE jobs are leaving--ask them-WHAT'S LEFT??? What are they going to LEAVE in the US for jobs in the next one to two decades?
6- Ask them how it feels to not be looked up to as models of success that most previous generations of people granted successful business people, but to be reviled and distrusted by the vast majority of people now, to be not trusted to either be patriotic nor to tell the truth or act in the publics best interest, only their own.
OK, about what I thought. It's possible but clunky. I thought that the magnet idea might work, and I am reminded that hard drives have motors that produce a magnetic field that doesn't seem to be much of a problem with the bits and bytes staying in the ssame place, so I know it's possible.
with that said...
Here's an idea. How about eliminating the entire straight in friction plug idea, and make "plugs" be a screw in? BNC (is this correct?) is sort of like that, your coax to your tv or whatever in a lot of cases screws on and is much more robust. Or a push in, twist, lock, like the bayonet styled flaslight lamps. Or even a normal phone jack styled arrangement, at least there is a spring lock that holds it in place. For static purposes normal plugs work because they aren't constantly jiggled around, for mobile devices I think a much better plug scheme is indicated. We already have the USB styled connectors, that seems suitable, and is in widespread use already. Just lose those stoopid minijacks entirely, too clunky and wimpy.
... and I hope it does. there's no reason any longer for software that is sold to be treated differently than other product. As opposed to the intangible "art" that is sold as entertainment, software products are rleased because they "do something". They need a warranty if they expect to be paid for them.
... that's the big difference. OSS "products" are not marketed, they are given away. Closed source and proietary are sold for a profit (usually, generally speaking now).
:
Rule of thumb to my way of thinking is
sold as a "product" = normal consumer warranties required
given away free = a "freepass" EULA type license/contract is acceptable
... with other products that are sold, they can not make you agree to a license that absolves them of suitability for purpose or that has serious defects that cause harm. These are normal product consumer warranties. Apply the same laws to them as apply to vacuum cleaners, cars, blenders or whatnot. Even if you AGREE to giving the manufactuer a free pass, it's still not legal. See my latest post on the CEOs and security article.
I'll pre answer the argument that they always use, that it's an "intangible" that it doesn't really "exist" in the normal way of thinking. Swell, let them accept MY intangible "money", I'll email them a jpeg of a stack of cash for their "product" then.. Swell
In meat world, when a "patch" is needed, a recall of a consumer product, the physical object needs to go back to the shop, then gets returned with the fix in place. with software, even when it is provided on disk, this doesn't happen, the old physical media, the CD, is allowed to stay around.
I think if it's a tangible PROFIT they want, then it's the companies duty to provide a patched TANGIBLE product. They should be required to provide a PATCHED install CD, not just skate on saying "there's a downloadable patch available".
Example in meatworld. Lst year I found out two of my small cordless drills were recalled. The company paid to mail the old drills back to them, and they sent me new drills "patched"(they were basically brand new drills of a newer "release" style), they DIDN'T just send me via snail mail or email a set of instructions on how to "fix" the drills. I WASN'T required to show where I had bought the drills,nor if I had a "license to drill with them" or anything of the sort. I shipped the b0rked drills off to them on their nickle, I got patched drills back.
I say apply the SAME rules to software on CD's that are produced and sold for a tangible profit. if they want real money, they need to provide real normal warranties. Make them be forced to take your old CD back at their expense, and have to send you a new CD with the patches, etc. Lather rinse repeat until they bingo it's a much better idea to do it *right* in the first place.
IF they were forced by law to provide a replacement of their indistry-alleged "tangible" product that they tangibly "profit" from, it would cost them and wake them up. It would cause one of those "paradigm" shifts in the software world, BUT,in the long run, I would be willing to bet that software would be much more intensely audited and tested before it shipped in the future.
That and there REALLY needs to be a law that eliminates the "nothing is our fault, neener neener neener EULA" crap. If they want a tangible profit, they need to have a similar law applied to them that tangible products elsewhere are forced to conform to. It's called normal consumer product warranties.
A long time ago I can see the need for software to be given a time frame to get up to speed on development. It is a mature sophisticated,entrenched and profitable industry now, these companies can be forced to be treated as competent adults in the market place if they are selling a product, no different from other industries. And there should be an actual legal time limit for products that are recallable, and it needs to be MANY years. In some cases, forever.
FORCE them to provide FREE replacement CDs on a one to one basis, no questions asked, that have all the same functionality of the original product, but have had the patches applied.
As many times as it takes.
Yes, "recalls" can be expensive to the company,THAT'S THE POINT, it has been shown in every other industry that it works, it is making for much better products in the market place, safer, more functional, better, and these companies are still profitable.
"Caveat emptor" is NOT the law of the land with other products, because we as a society decided that that sucked, bigtime, and passedlaws about it.
The software companies want it both ways, to be treated as if all their product is a tangible when it comes to profits and income, but they want no responsibility for their "products". Seriously insecure and malfunctioning products everyplace else get recalled. You aren't forced to become your own mechanic and just told how to fix stuff, even if the part is offered.
Name them (the ones you are aware of) with the referenced articles. I think it's a good idea to hold their feet to the probability "whodunnit" fire..
automatic virus creating "tools" that are available from some open source places for "academic and security studying", etc.