--and when you get to work, what do you do? Is it in an office, climate controlled, or a factory, or outside doing physical labor, or what? Do you have to carry tools, or just a laptop?
You just won't find people who do hard physical labor all that enthused about walking home after a long shift, hauling their tools. Some do obviously, but most people get tired, want to ride home.
I lived metro atlanta for quite a long time, I really tried to use the marta to go to work,I did a lot, but two tool boxes on a hand truck, gross weight more than 100 lbs, just got to be too much. I eventually just went back to using my van and driving. And quite frankly, sometimes the marta trains are pretty disgusting.
I think there's a big disconnect on peoples points of view depending on what they do for a living. And also, taxes, mass transit is heavily taxed, and most places I think the fares are additionally subsidised. I don't know what the break down is, but it's hard to put a quantifier on the ability to have an exact trip and schedul there you can create yourself, rather than relying on a common denominator average, because mass transit doesn't go "everyplace". I never even considered my 10 speed for that job. It was un-possible.
The US was designed around the distances here, people wanting to do different things, and mass production was more or less perfected here. And living heavily urban, high rises, etc is just not that attractive to a lot of people. for millions it is, for millions more it is not. I personally can sort of tolerate it for a visit, but not to live like that. matter of taste, no right or wrong to it, I can see the advantages and disadvantages of the various forms of basic living.
For better or worse, individual vehicles are here to stay, I imagine the drive-trains and fuel will change a lot in the future though. I look forward to it.
Got a funny, I remember seeing in the paper, some guy in detroit lived upriver in the burbs, worked downtown, figured out his quickest commute was jetski! I remember seeing a pic of him going to work.
--thanks. It's not any sort of real burning desire, I was before just trying to think what would halp a newb actually get into it better, and, being a newb, thought from my perspective. i thought there might actually be a program or command that did that already. If it's scriptable on demand, that is prety slick!
I'm sorta different from a lot of linux people, I didn't come into it from windows or previous unix, I was mac classic since dos days, I dropped dos the day I first played with a GUI mac, it was just light years easier for me. And that was a 512k so that will date me on that, even though I got it used early 90's. I fooled with windows a few times, but it was always weird to me. Now, especially as an older dog, it's just harder to grasp new things, especially a command line where one typo mistake (and man can I make them) or forgotten command borks you, as opposed to pointing and clicking, which is sorta hard to miss. It either clicks.. or it *don't*. Command line is way different.
wow, I got insulted, "flamed", gee... wow, you are so powerful, awesome display man. Bet you're really good at videogames, too, huh? wow...
All I asked was if anyone was familiar with a good online website about that subject that had some basic meat to it. The subject of the thread is discussing the net, maybe making different nets, etc. It's one possibility, maybe folks with the desire but lacking some of the expertise could actually *find* that expertise, and do more. Ya know, read books, read some web references, no biggee. But I guess all that is somehow...wrong.
So glad you told me that, now I know, thankee muchly.
--pitiful. Can't tell ya how many used car guys I insulkted and walked away from when out shopping before and encountered the same thing. Too cheap and too busy crasmking in fried chicken or something to put a new 30$ battery in a car, but they want to make a grand or two profit on them. As soon as I see they need to jump it, I walk away, I tell them why, "hey buddy, you are just too cheap, sorry". And NEW? That must have been embarassing for that dealer, for a luxury car.
Me, I'll stick to window cranks as long as they are available, I understand the benefits of electric windows, but, I guess I'll "struggle by" with cranks anyway. Along with simpler engines I can work on.
Man, what ther HECK am I saying, my windows on the jeep are ZIPPERS! HAHAHAHA! I know, I need linux embedded servo actuated zippers! No wait, microsoft with patches and a license to think about using the zippers as long as I am the original installer and have them activated over the net! No wait, bsd so I don't get my window zippers owned! No wait......GNUFIREMOZIPpers, rats, the name is probably taken, don't need long flame wars and lawyers involved... no wait! Mac zippers, that come in a rainbow of colors and do floating point tooth matching in.2 nanoseconds in 3D!.. no wait....
..YES, I see no problem with the first humans there to claim it, and also declare their independence. This deal where only the currently established nations are IT, like no new ones are "allowed" some how, is bogus. I can see a group of investors and pioneers claiming mars, why shouldn't they? If no one else wants to go there, and they expend the energy and cost and take the huge risks? I see no moral claim to the current monopoly holders, none, hardly a nation out there that has the same borders it started out with. And I'll go further, NASA and the US government doesn't "own" space, it's none of their business if anyone decides to travel there. I think if someone can come up with a launching place someplace that the trajectory doesn't interfere or pose a risk to other people, say out over the 'free" ocean, then that's their lookout then. Launch away, and don't ask NASAs permission. This is like when they tried to squash space tourism, ta heck with that noise! Adventure, tourism, that's part of what builds exploration. It's not all of it, but back through human history a lot of places got explored almost just "because", it's what adventursome people DO. Ya, they would look for sponsors back then, swell, we can still use that technique. As to who, no idea, but I bet a nickle you could get interest in it. shares? How about colonize mars shares? buck a apiece? who knows, someone IS going there, I hate to have it only the few big governments we have now though, seems sort of bogus, because none of them are really all that great.. they mostly suck. US, china, russia, etc, none of them have a great track record, except exploitation.
When the explorers and pilgrims came to north america, they just really wanted to be free, to be rid of the old kings and weirdness, to just have a chance to start over, be themselves. Not perfect, not by a long shot, but that was a major part of it. Some were just looters and mercenaries and soldiers from some bogus regime, but a lot more were just.. pioneers. Space is the same deal. And I'd rather it was free of current established government controls and manipulations if at all possible. Dangerous and expensive? Yes! That's part of adventure! Risks and maybe some rewards? You bet, that's great!
And the MAIN deal to go there, what the reward is-it's ANOTHER PLANET, it's *not* "the earth".
We done ran out of continents to discover and colonize, you can't even colonize antarctica, because the monopoly governments all said "no mining", which you would need to do to live there full time, just to have adequate energy and raw materials, and they would send their bogus militaries to kill you, so that's out. Space, the deck might be stacked more evenly. Maybe,maybe not, but we won't know unless we try, and my guess is, humans will try it. I just hope it's free and independent humans, that's all.
yes, I want this too, to teach me the command line. what would work for me, would be when I start a graphical program, the console mirrors what's happening exactly, command by command by printout. right now, no idea, I still mostly click and do. I have learned a smidgen of command line, but find it frustrating still. It's like I *think* I have some commands correct, but most of the time nothing happens, or error message, or I don't even know what to do with what I have. If it was synced and mirrored in real time, I could look at it, read, go OH YA, this does that and causes this and this and this.
No idea if such a program exists or not. The GUI to CLI real-time translator.
... mom and pop ISPs? Or I think co-op internets, like food co-ops, might be better. and thinking on it, that's a good place to garner interest in advance, use the exisiting food co ops all over.
Are there any good tutorials or packages out there for people who've never attempted a small scale ISP endeavor? I don't mean try to build an earthlink, just basic facts, lists of hardware and software required, basic setup, etc.
--maybe you know the answer to this one. Long time ago, a friend of mine told me that publishers print up x-thousands of copies of a book, they'll ship them to the retailers. After a certain time they strip the unsold ones off the shelves and destroy them, then they'll print up the same book and stock it again.
I was floored, but have no verification or clarification of that.
No "vigilantes" have not been rejected, not even close. I can hire a private security guard, and I can also band together with my neighbors for mutual self defense. If I see an obvious stranger breaking into my neighbors house, I can go over and stop him, OR call the cops, OR both. and ESPECIALLY if 'government" has proven itself over and over again to be ineffectual, like they once again have shown here. and what's the alternative, do you REALLY want a huge new bureaucracy of government cyber cops, beyond what we have now? I sure don't, I'd rather leave the net alone, let the victims be able to FIGHT BACK.
It's just the word got hijacked by the pansy PC police. People are too scared for self defense any more, a lot of them anyway, they want nanny government to always be there for them. Government has it's place, but it's not the entire total solution to crime.
In this instance and other instances, government is 20 years behind when it comes to dealing with spam, viruses, etc. Ya, they passed a few laws, whoopedy zing, they haven't stopped any crime,they haven't stopped or even cleaned up one virus or worm that I am aware of, except off their own computers, at best, government usually just reacts to crime after the fact, and most of the time they don't even get that right.
Frankly, I'd like to see open relays that are hijacked treated this way, maybe a screen pops up HEY, QUIT SENDING ME SPAM, MORON!
then maybe people would start to take more proactive measures with their computers, or demand the OS and app vendors to do a better job.
Maybe, don't know, but if someone hacks me,or infects my box, I claim the right to fight back, to use whatever self defense is at my disposal, same as when I am out and about on the street. these poor IRC people are doing all they can do, or should a worm writer have the right to just destroy their networks?
I don't see any problem with this thing, none, good for them to do something actually effective. Same as spamming spammers, tough luck for those nimrods.
I LIKE good old fashioned in your face instant karma justice, I LIKE to be "vigilant". If we had more of it, there would be less crime. People talk about the old "wild wild west", but if you research it, with only a few exceptions it had much less crime than what we have now, the only difference is, the crime fighting was mostly done by the victims. It's not perfect, but nothing else is either, is it?
.. why not just re arange the prices and make the sums average out to a higher number with the taxes, etc? Charging 99 cents and 4.95$ and etc is just silly, I know it's psychological marketing, but it's still doofus, and no one is faked out anymore. Figure it out with that 99 cent thing, drop price to make up for the tax, or round it up, or whatever, but stop with the stupid marketing schemes, then maybe guys like this math whizz could go get a real job someplace instead of studying it. This is beyond busywork, I mean, geeeezzz. Even on big ticket items like cars, you see those obnoxious TV screaming sales guys, selling some car like at 29,999$.
"Wow, see honey, it's a deal, it's only 20 grand and some change!!!"
I mean, really........
ya,ya, I know, it probably keeps working for them though, a sad commentary on the state of education and mass conusmerism brainwashing.
And no, this is one article/paper I slap refuse to read! And I'm going to comment anyway! Somebody go over there and drag that guy outside to go look at pretty girls in the park or something, get him AWAY from the desk. This is obsessive/compulsive behavior on nitro. And I certainly hope he wasn't PAID for that thing./me, take own advice, go back outside, work on bushhog.
heh heh heh--didn't know you had an english teacher running whatever there. sorry. New jersey is a "special place" I think.
It doesn't matter, once it collapses, it will collapse, it's inevitable now. This is the modern equivalent of the fall of rome. Overly centralised and dictatorial government. Check. Expansionist/imperialist warfare. Check. Blind nationalism. Check. Loss of confidence with the people as opposed to their government, increasing mistrust, propaganda replacing just normal "news" and official pronouncements. Check. Using foreigners to do all your actual work, even in government. Almost completely there-check. Over emphasis on urbanization and "trade" as opposed to actual wealth-creation. Check. Over emphasis on bread and circuses and amusements, gluttony and greed and increasing lawlessness and immorality very common. Check. Government making more and more things illegal as well, to have more command and control over people, a spiral down. Double check. A neo royal class of people, who "rule" over the others. Check.
See? It won't matter, it's on the decline, like a star going super nova. Happened to every single other civilization that went that same route, tech level is not even much of a factor in it.
People in the US by and large think that history doesn't apply to them, they are "special".
Pretty silly viewpoint, but most have it, near as I can see anyway.
--he doesn't run office, but I told him about open office, etc if he wanted to do similar. this was a guy who has a couple of computers at home, that's it, maybe young 40's. He's also a regular adult, a lot of older people really don't care about games, hard as that might be to contemplate on slashdot where games are very popular. I know they are hugely popular in some circles, but the reverse is true too, millions of people really don't play games all that much, if ever. Hmm, I'd say in the 4 years I've been living in this area, I honestly cannot recall one single extended conversation I have had with anyone about video games, but I have had a number of computer related discussions. I think it's as big a variable as any other sport/hobby whatever. We live in the country, outdoor activities are just way more popular, even with most young people around here that I know. A lot of folks own computers, actually, in the 6 houses directly around me everyone has at least one computer because I go over and help fix them, I have yet to even hear anything along the lines of "hey, the new blaster whatever game is out!"
It really doesn't happen. People will ask about your garden, your new ride, how you did trout fishing or deer hunting, what's going on with the local bozo politicians and their silly political games, etc. Sports seem way more popular it appears. Myself, I play some game once in an extremely great while,really, could be a year or more between 30 minutes of 'gaming", even though I've owned a computer since 91, I just never got the bug myself. I used to play frogger on my really ancient mac, I do remember that one.
I don't think that game deal is as important as game enthusiasts think it is, I think people who play a lot of games buy consoles for the purpose, at least, that's what I have seen. PC gaming may be very big, but compared to even say just general fishing enthusiasm in the united states I don't think it can compare. I don't have any stats handy, just pure guess and anecdotal. Gamers may buy a 2 thou $ PC for the purpose, and the latest video card, I honestly can say I don't know anyone personally who has done that, but I can rattle off a list of people I know who own 10 to 20 thousand dollar fishing boats, 2 or 3 thousand dollar 4 wheelers, and pickup trucks that run upwards of 50 grand with mods (lift kits, lockouts, various engine mods, really expensive wheels and tires, several thousand apiece,lot of other stuff, just to tow those two things around, purely for "play". They all own computers, I doubt any are any newer than two years old though, and those are just stock off the shelf deal with whatever came installed. Well, thinking about it, I do know one off that list who just bought a new one, merely because his old 300 mghz whatever just stopped working one day, hardware failures to the mother board. He just went and picked up some cheap 500$ whitebox something, only a 1.x ghz model, nothing fancy about it. A lot of people just surf and do email and a bit of bookeeping, that's it. They watch DVDs with a stand alone dvd player off the big screen TVs, and regular TV off a dish, and stuff like that.
The US is not really a lock step easy to classify or generalise population. I know games are really big, but only for *some* of the population, it's just a main topic at slashdot. I know me not being a gamer, I don't have to bother to have to upgrade all that much, I'm still using a 200PP, with only a 6 gig hdd, 226 ram. I surf, listen to my radio shows I like, little email, that's it. I see this box lasting for several more years, and I can still add the second processor and finish maxing out the ram if I have to, to "keep up". My vid card is just an old 2 megger, seems to draw the screen ok, I mean, there it is, I see the web page, it's clear. I got a 17 inch used dell monitor, costs me 7$, works fine. I have at least a dozen more older working systems, and then a pile of junk, a nice collection of various radios, etc, stuff like that for "geekness", but games? uhh, well, fun for 15 m
--what's really nice about solar power is how incredibly fast it can be up and running, the almost complete lack of any significant maintenance, and that it actually produces a lot of useful power, especially when you gots *no* power onsite, and onsite can be anyplace the sun shines fairly regularly. Fuel gennys take constant refueling, fuel is expensive enough most places, and they break down fairly regularly until you get into the higher end models. Solar and wind are just great for getting some power to remote places, and to serve as decent backups for primary grid developed areas. And as to the "payback", sure, the stats are correct,turen it around, how much do you get from the normal household variety of consumer junk? How much from some solar PV compared to the amount of power you get out of your 50 inch TV with stereo and tivo??? Or the ordinary shingles on the roof? The jetski? And a lot of other consumer devices? You know what I mean.
You see, we blow the energy produced from oil and nukes, etc on tons of other stuff, stuff that once built, that took tons of energy to build and created pollution and whatnot, that just keeps TAKING power, never gives any back, that never ever is going to give you even a 1% energy "payback", well that one thing could be "sacraficed" instead to get some back. If everone picked out just *one* of their non energy-producing (yes, I know, converting) toys,and got solar or wind or whatever with the same loot, the huge influx of interest and cash and demand just might spur on a little more R &D of the productive sort. And perhaps donate it to some poor village someplace? 1/2 maybe? One decent medium sized panel runs US retail around 200$, a charge controller under 100$, and any old truck battery can be scrounged in even a third world country. You're in business. that's what guys routinely pay for just a video card. skip one generation of 'game" upgrade, get some starter interest solar instead, it'scool, and you can do stuff with it. or donate it. Tithing is a good thing. That's enough juice to run a small laptop for several hours a day, give some place some outside interactive access to the entire world. Lot of knowledge to share then. Or run the HAM radio there, or some lights for people to read at night after working stoop labor all day in the fields, or for the local medic to be able to work. Stuff like that. No giant remote expensive plants to build, no huge amounts of wires to run, with poles and transformers and etc.
Living with it daily myself, I can tell you you learn to appreciate every watt, and you can still geek-out with it, just not as much as people who are rich and can just throw a small part of their check at the electric bill, but it's NICE to have *some* elelctricity, and the bulk of the planet still lives where that is fairly primitive and expensive. That is an exact reason why it's still cool, practical, worth it. I like it because I always have power, even if the local grid goes down, and it's clean power, none of this brownout dirty power action. I started with one panel and my truck battery though, but that was enough for my little TV, a light to read with at night and my radio. cool beans. I imagine for some villages it might be just the ticket. A million dollar electric plant might be out of the question, but a few thou worth of solar and gear might be doable and enough to get by on.
--check your states ethics codes. Sometimes there are additional laws that can be applied to "public servants" when they are obviously not doing their jobs. It varies a lot state by state so you are on your own there for the research. The complaint can be filed by you, a good backup inducement for them to get on the ball and earn their pay.
Sorry to hear about that stuff you are going through.
.... was something like this. One of their journalists (FOX) had a video expose of BGH in milk being harmful, that was the conclusion. Fox squashed it, then ran something totally 180 from that. The originators sued and LOST, the court ruled it was perfectly "legal" to lie on a news show.
Someone might have the link, I didn't bookmark it.
--a drivers license is exactly like a microsoft eula, no compromise, you can't negotiate, you are a freeking pedestrian held from driving completely safely at gunpoint and threat of arrest if you don't "click their eula" and agree to their "voluntary" "permit-ission" to travel. It's a bogus unconstitutional money and power grabbing scheme as far as I am concerned. Ya, I know, that means zero, just my opinion on it.. And inside a nation 3,000 miles long, too, like in our society unless you live downtown major urban area you don't need to drive to conduct your business.
It's a coerced effort, completely coerced, forced,with threat of violence to your person and theft of your property from you if you "just say no to overreraching statism"..
IMO, "Licenses" should only be required of people who have proven by their past driving record, from fudging up, that they need special treatment. A license -a permission slip in this case- means you are considered an incompetent in advance, and must plead to the state in advance to be allowed to use your own private property and to travel unmolested by the state. I can see, just perhaps as a compromise,to be required to show cause you are competent to operate a motor vehicle in the beginning, but NOT to travel once you have passed that first operators competency test. Then, as long as you can drive cool, no license required. Mess up bad, tough luck, you have to have a provisional license with a review, similar to probation for any other crime.
Why not a "proof of not being a thief in advance" license? Same deal basically
That stuff has been bass ackward with drivers "licenses" since day one. It sorta rankles me that constant "driving is a privelege, we own you totally" mindset. It's just another smarmy deal they got going with government and their command and control fetish.
small rant... sorry, don't mean to thread drift that much
The in car cameras? I'd rather they were openly broadcast back to the cop shop,recorded there in their entirety and stored at least a month,and anyone could tune in at any time and see exactly which cop was where,record whatever they want, to make sure no funny business was going on. Same with all elected officials and higher level appointed officials. I'm for as much sunshine as possible to be pumped back into government, they got this secrecy deal going way too much now, this is supposed to be a government "of the people", not "us" and "them". I want exactly the same rights to monitor them as they see fit to require of us.
I think you'd see a LOT less high crimes and midemeanors and corruption and scandal if they knew they were being observed. It's creeping incrementalism, you can go back and look-or have lived it-what they are doing now is insane nutso, back when I was a kid no one would have stood for it, now though, because it's step by step with this mass conditioining, people put up with it. Complete random roadblocks common now? Please, that was only done by those bad places like east germany when I was a kid, we ridiculed that in class, something to point at and feel sorry for those people over there, living like that. Masked cops in every small town in america with submachine guns just kicking in doors and going total batsquat? Honest, I never even heard of anything like that happening, that was something like if they knew for a fact joe bank robber was holed up someplace and they called at him with a bullhorn and he wouldn't come out. Very, very rare. But now, it's common. And the cops didn't wear masks back then, people would have freaked out. Robbers, ku klux klan, people like that might wear a mask, not cops, no-freekin-way, it didn't happen, it would have been grotesque, e-vile. But...they s-l-o-w-l-y slid that crap in, now it's common, people accept it.
You have to be able to see the trends over a long period of time to get the full flavor of it, what I mean. Totalitarianism doesn't really happen over night all at once, they chip away at it, a piece here, a piece there, st
--it's not really a major biggee, just my way of saying thanks back to the open source community. I can't code, and I'm a menace even sending in bug reports, but I can evangelize, help out, and start to get some sort of cash and interest flowing towards the over-all goals. Let a newbie try a few flavors, see what he likes, most regular joes will then pick a vendor and buy the full priced distro. Seems like a workable deal to me. I was careful, too, told him to run google and his printer in advance, look at the various offerings, see what floated his boat, read up on installing it then go for it. I even told him about walmart.com cheap pre-loaded linux peecees, he sounded interested in those as well, and told him about run from the CD knoppix, the various major distros, how you can have several desktops, etc, just a normal spiel.
Lot of folks aren't mad modders, or programming gurus, but they just are *uncomfortable* with what they have,a computer, that's it, just use it, they really want something else than what they have, and it has to be affordable. Joe sixpack is not real enthused about having a forced total upgrade every year, they want some sort of stability for several years, smaller cheaper upgrades,sure, but not this "you need a new hundred dollar OS and a new 1000 buck box to run it then" deal, then they still are frustrated. It's nuts. At least with linux it's cheap enough to experiment with, you can find what "fits" your current situation and budget and interest. It's a good thing. It's how I stumbled into it. Was a mac classic guy for a long time, financial reasons kept me from upgrading to osx, but one day I get a heckuva deal on a jeep load of peecees. I cannot resit, price was definetly right. Get home, wonder what to stick on them, buddy had a set of rh 7.1 disks, sez here try this out, I gave him 2$ for the blanks he burnt.
cool beans! the stuff works! and I don't feel completely doofus running it! Even with my dos days so long ago I barely remember, I am not askeered, I can still click a mouse! it installs! Look, there's the internet! Hey, lookee, programs already here! And it's cheap! Then I start reading about "open source" and GPL license and whatnot and go YES, this is a *good thing*, I "get it", I grok it, everyone shares, everyone benefits, the cyber equivalent of the old fashioned neighborhood barn raising, friends and neighbors helping friends and neighbors. I get it, it's cool, I pass the idea on.
... just got back an hour or so ago from my weekly supplies run to town. One of our stops is the church thrift store, girlfriend and I enjoy that random "deal" shopping. I always head to the electronic junk and hardware, she splits to what I call the "imelda marcos" area. Anyway, myself and another customer are staring at this old xt bundle, commenting on what we are running now. The dude actually starting complaining about xp, said NO WAY would he pay that to upgrade, but he was really bogued out about what he was running, which is ME. SO, here's my chance, I ask "Hey, ever try that "linux" stuff?".
yada yada, he sounds enthused already,he's heard of it, I'm the first person he's ever met weho's used it,he asks how much it is. I sez, "well, 30-40 clams from the vendors with manuals and stuff low end, or you can.." I only got that far he goes FOURTY DOLLARS FOR AN OPERATING SYSTEM?? WHERE CAN I GET IT????
No lie. Then I drop the next one, "well, you can download and burn it for free,too, or clone companies will sell it to you for like 5-10 bux whatever, oh ya, comes with one zillion programs, too"
--if you are looking for the national community of independents, who can see beyond the dem/repub good cop/badcop routine, look to the alternative patriot broadcasters like found at gcnlive.com and truthradio.org. Internet/shortwave/satellite, some am/fm. Constitutional radio and commentary and news at the various hosts websites. My two favs out of the 24 hour programming are alex jones show, infowars.com, and thepowerhour, throw an.org on that one for their site. There's more, too, and there's some spill over from more of the "indy" places as well. A LOT of people are abandoning the old fashioned forced left/right dem/repub scamster paradigms and parties and finding a lot of common ground and understanding with each other in the independent and various third party movements. "common ground" around basic born-with rights is the real key phrase there.
It's a good thing,too, IMO. The quicker we can be rid of that two headed single monster hydra of a criminal junta government the better. It's been hijacked, taken over, they are scared to even have a couple/three more candidates on the stage with them at the so called "national debates". Prima facie evidence of advanced political goonery. Bring back the constitution, and this time stick to the english language! Less bribed and blackmailed conflict-of-interest lawyers and international global businessmen writing laws, ta heck with that, we need middle class english teachers with common sense doing that! And NOT members of the CFR or skull and bones, either! Ha!
... told the used truck salesman I needed a V-8, had to carry heavy stuff and tow a trailer once in awhile.
He said, "here's one".
Cool, I go to pop the hood, can't. The hood is welded shut!
What's this? I ask, I can't see the engine?
No, you can't.
How do I know it's a v-8?
Because we sayso.
But I want to look!
You can't.
How do I know you aren't lying?
You can ask my boss.
But you and your boss work for the same company, how do I know he's not lying?
Because he doesn't lie.
How do I know that?
Because we sayso.
Can I get an independent opinion?
Sure.
From who?
The dealer.
The dealer! He works for the same company!
That's it, all we have to tell you, take it or leave it.
grumble, go to the next dealer down the street.
Hi! I'd like to buy a truck! I need a v-8!
Sure! We have one right here.
Go to look, hood welded shut....
#$%^&*!!!!
Computerised voting is such a bad idea on so many levels I am amazed it's even gotten one positive comment. It's the mother of all voting scams, sophisticated fraud and manipulation potential to the nth degree, way past simple ballot box stuffing in the olden days. Way, way, way past. Now combine that with the "two party that is one party in reality" district and debate and "news" rigging, well, there ya go, millions of people who *think* they just voted.
.. how about trying to enlist the help of those same nashville disk jockeys who helped rouse the rabble to protest the proposed state income tax? They seemed to do a good job getting tennesseans out there to the capitol. Can't hurt,it's a phone call/email away.
this is a rather interesting legal situation, one I don't know the answer to, I am thinking though, that if a corporation has a published price, offered to the public at large, then sells below cost to someone else, then the question to ask is "does anyone else have the right to that same lower price?" The reverse is clearly illegal, they can't publish a price then charge you more for it.
Think about it, I walk into the hardware store and buy some tool, it has a price on it,I go to the check out counter. The guy in front of me has the same tool, the clerk and the guy wink at each other, he walks out with the tool and has paid a penny or zero. If it was you, what would you say to the clerk or manager then?
I really don't know any case law on that, but I'm sure it exists. "Dumping" as has been mentioned is illegal, I think those laws apply to the corporation itself and not to any of it's competitors prices, just their own cost of production, AFAIK. I know they can set any price they want, just wonder about the published price angle to it.
Slashdot Mirror
--and when you get to work, what do you do? Is it in an office, climate controlled, or a factory, or outside doing physical labor, or what? Do you have to carry tools, or just a laptop?
You just won't find people who do hard physical labor all that enthused about walking home after a long shift, hauling their tools. Some do obviously, but most people get tired, want to ride home.
I lived metro atlanta for quite a long time, I really tried to use the marta to go to work,I did a lot, but two tool boxes on a hand truck, gross weight more than 100 lbs, just got to be too much. I eventually just went back to using my van and driving. And quite frankly, sometimes the marta trains are pretty disgusting.
I think there's a big disconnect on peoples points of view depending on what they do for a living. And also, taxes, mass transit is heavily taxed, and most places I think the fares are additionally subsidised. I don't know what the break down is, but it's hard to put a quantifier on the ability to have an exact trip and schedul there you can create yourself, rather than relying on a common denominator average, because mass transit doesn't go "everyplace". I never even considered my 10 speed for that job. It was un-possible.
The US was designed around the distances here, people wanting to do different things, and mass production was more or less perfected here. And living heavily urban, high rises, etc is just not that attractive to a lot of people. for millions it is, for millions more it is not. I personally can sort of tolerate it for a visit, but not to live like that. matter of taste, no right or wrong to it, I can see the advantages and disadvantages of the various forms of basic living.
For better or worse, individual vehicles are here to stay, I imagine the drive-trains and fuel will change a lot in the future though. I look forward to it.
Got a funny, I remember seeing in the paper, some guy in detroit lived upriver in the burbs, worked downtown, figured out his quickest commute was jetski! I remember seeing a pic of him going to work.
--thanks. It's not any sort of real burning desire, I was before just trying to think what would halp a newb actually get into it better, and, being a newb, thought from my perspective. i thought there might actually be a program or command that did that already. If it's scriptable on demand, that is prety slick!
I'm sorta different from a lot of linux people, I didn't come into it from windows or previous unix, I was mac classic since dos days, I dropped dos the day I first played with a GUI mac, it was just light years easier for me. And that was a 512k so that will date me on that, even though I got it used early 90's. I fooled with windows a few times, but it was always weird to me. Now, especially as an older dog, it's just harder to grasp new things, especially a command line where one typo mistake (and man can I make them) or forgotten command borks you, as opposed to pointing and clicking, which is sorta hard to miss. It either clicks.. or it *don't*. Command line is way different.
wow, I got insulted, "flamed", gee... wow, you are so powerful, awesome display man. Bet you're really good at videogames, too, huh? wow...
All I asked was if anyone was familiar with a good online website about that subject that had some basic meat to it. The subject of the thread is discussing the net, maybe making different nets, etc. It's one possibility, maybe folks with the desire but lacking some of the expertise could actually *find* that expertise, and do more. Ya know, read books, read some web references, no biggee. But I guess all that is somehow...wrong.
So glad you told me that, now I know, thankee muchly.
--pitiful. Can't tell ya how many used car guys I insulkted and walked away from when out shopping before and encountered the same thing. Too cheap and too busy crasmking in fried chicken or something to put a new 30$ battery in a car, but they want to make a grand or two profit on them. As soon as I see they need to jump it, I walk away, I tell them why, "hey buddy, you are just too cheap, sorry". And NEW? That must have been embarassing for that dealer, for a luxury car.
.2 nanoseconds in 3D!.. no wait....
Me, I'll stick to window cranks as long as they are available, I understand the benefits of electric windows, but, I guess I'll "struggle by" with cranks anyway. Along with simpler engines I can work on.
Man, what ther HECK am I saying, my windows on the jeep are ZIPPERS! HAHAHAHA! I know, I need linux embedded servo actuated zippers! No wait, microsoft with patches and a license to think about using the zippers as long as I am the original installer and have them activated over the net! No wait, bsd so I don't get my window zippers owned! No wait......GNUFIREMOZIPpers, rats, the name is probably taken, don't need long flame wars and lawyers involved... no wait! Mac zippers, that come in a rainbow of colors and do floating point tooth matching in
Gadgets, gotta love em.. and hate em sometimes.
..YES, I see no problem with the first humans there to claim it, and also declare their independence. This deal where only the currently established nations are IT, like no new ones are "allowed" some how, is bogus. I can see a group of investors and pioneers claiming mars, why shouldn't they? If no one else wants to go there, and they expend the energy and cost and take the huge risks? I see no moral claim to the current monopoly holders, none, hardly a nation out there that has the same borders it started out with. And I'll go further, NASA and the US government doesn't "own" space, it's none of their business if anyone decides to travel there. I think if someone can come up with a launching place someplace that the trajectory doesn't interfere or pose a risk to other people, say out over the 'free" ocean, then that's their lookout then. Launch away, and don't ask NASAs permission. This is like when they tried to squash space tourism, ta heck with that noise! Adventure, tourism, that's part of what builds exploration. It's not all of it, but back through human history a lot of places got explored almost just "because", it's what adventursome people DO. Ya, they would look for sponsors back then, swell, we can still use that technique. As to who, no idea, but I bet a nickle you could get interest in it. shares? How about colonize mars shares? buck a apiece? who knows, someone IS going there, I hate to have it only the few big governments we have now though, seems sort of bogus, because none of them are really all that great.. they mostly suck. US, china, russia, etc, none of them have a great track record, except exploitation.
When the explorers and pilgrims came to north america, they just really wanted to be free, to be rid of the old kings and weirdness, to just have a chance to start over, be themselves. Not perfect, not by a long shot, but that was a major part of it. Some were just looters and mercenaries and soldiers from some bogus regime, but a lot more were just.. pioneers. Space is the same deal. And I'd rather it was free of current established government controls and manipulations if at all possible. Dangerous and expensive? Yes! That's part of adventure! Risks and maybe some rewards? You bet, that's great!
And the MAIN deal to go there, what the reward is-it's ANOTHER PLANET, it's *not* "the earth".
We done ran out of continents to discover and colonize, you can't even colonize antarctica, because the monopoly governments all said "no mining", which you would need to do to live there full time, just to have adequate energy and raw materials, and they would send their bogus militaries to kill you, so that's out. Space, the deck might be stacked more evenly. Maybe,maybe not, but we won't know unless we try, and my guess is, humans will try it. I just hope it's free and independent humans, that's all.
yes, I want this too, to teach me the command line. what would work for me, would be when I start a graphical program, the console mirrors what's happening exactly, command by command by printout. right now, no idea, I still mostly click and do. I have learned a smidgen of command line, but find it frustrating still. It's like I *think* I have some commands correct, but most of the time nothing happens, or error message, or I don't even know what to do with what I have. If it was synced and mirrored in real time, I could look at it, read, go OH YA, this does that and causes this and this and this.
No idea if such a program exists or not. The GUI to CLI real-time translator.
... mom and pop ISPs? Or I think co-op internets, like food co-ops, might be better. and thinking on it, that's a good place to garner interest in advance, use the exisiting food co ops all over.
Are there any good tutorials or packages out there for people who've never attempted a small scale ISP endeavor? I don't mean try to build an earthlink, just basic facts, lists of hardware and software required, basic setup, etc.
--maybe you know the answer to this one. Long time ago, a friend of mine told me that publishers print up x-thousands of copies of a book, they'll ship them to the retailers. After a certain time they strip the unsold ones off the shelves and destroy them, then they'll print up the same book and stock it again.
I was floored, but have no verification or clarification of that.
No "vigilantes" have not been rejected, not even close. I can hire a private security guard, and I can also band together with my neighbors for mutual self defense. If I see an obvious stranger breaking into my neighbors house, I can go over and stop him, OR call the cops, OR both. and ESPECIALLY if 'government" has proven itself over and over again to be ineffectual, like they once again have shown here. and what's the alternative, do you REALLY want a huge new bureaucracy of government cyber cops, beyond what we have now? I sure don't, I'd rather leave the net alone, let the victims be able to FIGHT BACK.
It's just the word got hijacked by the pansy PC police. People are too scared for self defense any more, a lot of them anyway, they want nanny government to always be there for them. Government has it's place, but it's not the entire total solution to crime.
In this instance and other instances, government is 20 years behind when it comes to dealing with spam, viruses, etc. Ya, they passed a few laws, whoopedy zing, they haven't stopped any crime,they haven't stopped or even cleaned up one virus or worm that I am aware of, except off their own computers, at best, government usually just reacts to crime after the fact, and most of the time they don't even get that right.
Frankly, I'd like to see open relays that are hijacked treated this way, maybe a screen pops up HEY, QUIT SENDING ME SPAM, MORON!
then maybe people would start to take more proactive measures with their computers, or demand the OS and app vendors to do a better job.
Maybe, don't know, but if someone hacks me,or infects my box, I claim the right to fight back, to use whatever self defense is at my disposal, same as when I am out and about on the street. these poor IRC people are doing all they can do, or should a worm writer have the right to just destroy their networks?
I don't see any problem with this thing, none, good for them to do something actually effective. Same as spamming spammers, tough luck for those nimrods.
I LIKE good old fashioned in your face instant karma justice, I LIKE to be "vigilant". If we had more of it, there would be less crime. People talk about the old "wild wild west", but if you research it, with only a few exceptions it had much less crime than what we have now, the only difference is, the crime fighting was mostly done by the victims. It's not perfect, but nothing else is either, is it?
.. why not just re arange the prices and make the sums average out to a higher number with the taxes, etc? Charging 99 cents and 4.95$ and etc is just silly, I know it's psychological marketing, but it's still doofus, and no one is faked out anymore. Figure it out with that 99 cent thing, drop price to make up for the tax, or round it up, or whatever, but stop with the stupid marketing schemes, then maybe guys like this math whizz could go get a real job someplace instead of studying it. This is beyond busywork, I mean, geeeezzz. Even on big ticket items like cars, you see those obnoxious TV screaming sales guys, selling some car like at 29,999$.
/me, take own advice, go back outside, work on bushhog.
"Wow, see honey, it's a deal, it's only 20 grand and some change!!!"
I mean, really........
ya,ya, I know, it probably keeps working for them though, a sad commentary on the state of education and mass conusmerism brainwashing.
And no, this is one article/paper I slap refuse to read! And I'm going to comment anyway! Somebody go over there and drag that guy outside to go look at pretty girls in the park or something, get him AWAY from the desk. This is obsessive/compulsive behavior on nitro. And I certainly hope he wasn't PAID for that thing.
heh heh heh--didn't know you had an english teacher running whatever there. sorry. New jersey is a "special place" I think.
It doesn't matter, once it collapses, it will collapse, it's inevitable now. This is the modern equivalent of the fall of rome. Overly centralised and dictatorial government. Check. Expansionist/imperialist warfare. Check. Blind nationalism. Check. Loss of confidence with the people as opposed to their government, increasing mistrust, propaganda replacing just normal "news" and official pronouncements. Check. Using foreigners to do all your actual work, even in government. Almost completely there-check. Over emphasis on urbanization and "trade" as opposed to actual wealth-creation. Check. Over emphasis on bread and circuses and amusements, gluttony and greed and increasing lawlessness and immorality very common. Check. Government making more and more things illegal as well, to have more command and control over people, a spiral down. Double check. A neo royal class of people, who "rule" over the others. Check.
See? It won't matter, it's on the decline, like a star going super nova. Happened to every single other civilization that went that same route, tech level is not even much of a factor in it.
People in the US by and large think that history doesn't apply to them, they are "special".
Pretty silly viewpoint, but most have it, near as I can see anyway.
--he doesn't run office, but I told him about open office, etc if he wanted to do similar. this was a guy who has a couple of computers at home, that's it, maybe young 40's. He's also a regular adult, a lot of older people really don't care about games, hard as that might be to contemplate on slashdot where games are very popular. I know they are hugely popular in some circles, but the reverse is true too, millions of people really don't play games all that much, if ever. Hmm, I'd say in the 4 years I've been living in this area, I honestly cannot recall one single extended conversation I have had with anyone about video games, but I have had a number of computer related discussions. I think it's as big a variable as any other sport/hobby whatever. We live in the country, outdoor activities are just way more popular, even with most young people around here that I know. A lot of folks own computers, actually, in the 6 houses directly around me everyone has at least one computer because I go over and help fix them, I have yet to even hear anything along the lines of "hey, the new blaster whatever game is out!"
It really doesn't happen. People will ask about your garden, your new ride, how you did trout fishing or deer hunting, what's going on with the local bozo politicians and their silly political games, etc. Sports seem way more popular it appears. Myself, I play some game once in an extremely great while,really, could be a year or more between 30 minutes of 'gaming", even though I've owned a computer since 91, I just never got the bug myself. I used to play frogger on my really ancient mac, I do remember that one.
I don't think that game deal is as important as game enthusiasts think it is, I think people who play a lot of games buy consoles for the purpose, at least, that's what I have seen. PC gaming may be very big, but compared to even say just general fishing enthusiasm in the united states I don't think it can compare. I don't have any stats handy, just pure guess and anecdotal. Gamers may buy a 2 thou $ PC for the purpose, and the latest video card, I honestly can say I don't know anyone personally who has done that, but I can rattle off a list of people I know who own 10 to 20 thousand dollar fishing boats, 2 or 3 thousand dollar 4 wheelers, and pickup trucks that run upwards of 50 grand with mods (lift kits, lockouts, various engine mods, really expensive wheels and tires, several thousand apiece,lot of other stuff, just to tow those two things around, purely for "play". They all own computers, I doubt any are any newer than two years old though, and those are just stock off the shelf deal with whatever came installed. Well, thinking about it, I do know one off that list who just bought a new one, merely because his old 300 mghz whatever just stopped working one day, hardware failures to the mother board. He just went and picked up some cheap 500$ whitebox something, only a 1.x ghz model, nothing fancy about it. A lot of people just surf and do email and a bit of bookeeping, that's it. They watch DVDs with a stand alone dvd player off the big screen TVs, and regular TV off a dish, and stuff like that.
The US is not really a lock step easy to classify or generalise population. I know games are really big, but only for *some* of the population, it's just a main topic at slashdot. I know me not being a gamer, I don't have to bother to have to upgrade all that much, I'm still using a 200PP, with only a 6 gig hdd, 226 ram. I surf, listen to my radio shows I like, little email, that's it. I see this box lasting for several more years, and I can still add the second processor and finish maxing out the ram if I have to, to "keep up". My vid card is just an old 2 megger, seems to draw the screen ok, I mean, there it is, I see the web page, it's clear. I got a 17 inch used dell monitor, costs me 7$, works fine. I have at least a dozen more older working systems, and then a pile of junk, a nice collection of various radios, etc, stuff like that for "geekness", but games? uhh, well, fun for 15 m
... is a REALLY good and unusual and *true facts* point. Real dang good. Outstanding even.
--what's really nice about solar power is how incredibly fast it can be up and running, the almost complete lack of any significant maintenance, and that it actually produces a lot of useful power, especially when you gots *no* power onsite, and onsite can be anyplace the sun shines fairly regularly. Fuel gennys take constant refueling, fuel is expensive enough most places, and they break down fairly regularly until you get into the higher end models. Solar and wind are just great for getting some power to remote places, and to serve as decent backups for primary grid developed areas. And as to the "payback", sure, the stats are correct,turen it around, how much do you get from the normal household variety of consumer junk? How much from some solar PV compared to the amount of power you get out of your 50 inch TV with stereo and tivo??? Or the ordinary shingles on the roof? The jetski? And a lot of other consumer devices? You know what I mean.
You see, we blow the energy produced from oil and nukes, etc on tons of other stuff, stuff that once built, that took tons of energy to build and created pollution and whatnot, that just keeps TAKING power, never gives any back, that never ever is going to give you even a 1% energy "payback", well that one thing could be "sacraficed" instead to get some back. If everone picked out just *one* of their non energy-producing (yes, I know, converting) toys,and got solar or wind or whatever with the same loot, the huge influx of interest and cash and demand just might spur on a little more R &D of the productive sort. And perhaps donate it to some poor village someplace? 1/2 maybe? One decent medium sized panel runs US retail around 200$, a charge controller under 100$, and any old truck battery can be scrounged in even a third world country. You're in business. that's what guys routinely pay for just a video card. skip one generation of 'game" upgrade, get some starter interest solar instead, it'scool, and you can do stuff with it. or donate it. Tithing is a good thing. That's enough juice to run a small laptop for several hours a day, give some place some outside interactive access to the entire world. Lot of knowledge to share then. Or run the HAM radio there, or some lights for people to read at night after working stoop labor all day in the fields, or for the local medic to be able to work. Stuff like that. No giant remote expensive plants to build, no huge amounts of wires to run, with poles and transformers and etc.
Living with it daily myself, I can tell you you learn to appreciate every watt, and you can still geek-out with it, just not as much as people who are rich and can just throw a small part of their check at the electric bill, but it's NICE to have *some* elelctricity, and the bulk of the planet still lives where that is fairly primitive and expensive. That is an exact reason why it's still cool, practical, worth it. I like it because I always have power, even if the local grid goes down, and it's clean power, none of this brownout dirty power action. I started with one panel and my truck battery though, but that was enough for my little TV, a light to read with at night and my radio. cool beans. I imagine for some villages it might be just the ticket. A million dollar electric plant might be out of the question, but a few thou worth of solar and gear might be doable and enough to get by on.
--check your states ethics codes. Sometimes there are additional laws that can be applied to "public servants" when they are obviously not doing their jobs. It varies a lot state by state so you are on your own there for the research. The complaint can be filed by you, a good backup inducement for them to get on the ball and earn their pay.
Sorry to hear about that stuff you are going through.
.... was something like this. One of their journalists (FOX) had a video expose of BGH in milk being harmful, that was the conclusion. Fox squashed it, then ran something totally 180 from that. The originators sued and LOST, the court ruled it was perfectly "legal" to lie on a news show.
Someone might have the link, I didn't bookmark it.
--a drivers license is exactly like a microsoft eula, no compromise, you can't negotiate, you are a freeking pedestrian held from driving completely safely at gunpoint and threat of arrest if you don't "click their eula" and agree to their "voluntary" "permit-ission" to travel. It's a bogus unconstitutional money and power grabbing scheme as far as I am concerned. Ya, I know, that means zero, just my opinion on it.. And inside a nation 3,000 miles long, too, like in our society unless you live downtown major urban area you don't need to drive to conduct your business.
It's a coerced effort, completely coerced, forced,with threat of violence to your person and theft of your property from you if you "just say no to overreraching statism"..
IMO, "Licenses" should only be required of people who have proven by their past driving record, from fudging up, that they need special treatment. A license -a permission slip in this case- means you are considered an incompetent in advance, and must plead to the state in advance to be allowed to use your own private property and to travel unmolested by the state. I can see, just perhaps as a compromise,to be required to show cause you are competent to operate a motor vehicle in the beginning, but NOT to travel once you have passed that first operators competency test. Then, as long as you can drive cool, no license required. Mess up bad, tough luck, you have to have a provisional license with a review, similar to probation for any other crime.
Why not a "proof of not being a thief in advance" license? Same deal basically
That stuff has been bass ackward with drivers "licenses" since day one. It sorta rankles me that constant "driving is a privelege, we own you totally" mindset. It's just another smarmy deal they got going with government and their command and control fetish.
small rant... sorry, don't mean to thread drift that much
The in car cameras? I'd rather they were openly broadcast back to the cop shop,recorded there in their entirety and stored at least a month,and anyone could tune in at any time and see exactly which cop was where,record whatever they want, to make sure no funny business was going on. Same with all elected officials and higher level appointed officials. I'm for as much sunshine as possible to be pumped back into government, they got this secrecy deal going way too much now, this is supposed to be a government "of the people", not "us" and "them". I want exactly the same rights to monitor them as they see fit to require of us.
I think you'd see a LOT less high crimes and midemeanors and corruption and scandal if they knew they were being observed. It's creeping incrementalism, you can go back and look-or have lived it-what they are doing now is insane nutso, back when I was a kid no one would have stood for it, now though, because it's step by step with this mass conditioining, people put up with it. Complete random roadblocks common now? Please, that was only done by those bad places like east germany when I was a kid, we ridiculed that in class, something to point at and feel sorry for those people over there, living like that. Masked cops in every small town in america with submachine guns just kicking in doors and going total batsquat? Honest, I never even heard of anything like that happening, that was something like if they knew for a fact joe bank robber was holed up someplace and they called at him with a bullhorn and he wouldn't come out. Very, very rare. But now, it's common. And the cops didn't wear masks back then, people would have freaked out. Robbers, ku klux klan, people like that might wear a mask, not cops, no-freekin-way, it didn't happen, it would have been grotesque, e-vile. But...they s-l-o-w-l-y slid that crap in, now it's common, people accept it.
You have to be able to see the trends over a long period of time to get the full flavor of it, what I mean. Totalitarianism doesn't really happen over night all at once, they chip away at it, a piece here, a piece there, st
--it's not really a major biggee, just my way of saying thanks back to the open source community. I can't code, and I'm a menace even sending in bug reports, but I can evangelize, help out, and start to get some sort of cash and interest flowing towards the over-all goals. Let a newbie try a few flavors, see what he likes, most regular joes will then pick a vendor and buy the full priced distro. Seems like a workable deal to me. I was careful, too, told him to run google and his printer in advance, look at the various offerings, see what floated his boat, read up on installing it then go for it. I even told him about walmart.com cheap pre-loaded linux peecees, he sounded interested in those as well, and told him about run from the CD knoppix, the various major distros, how you can have several desktops, etc, just a normal spiel.
Lot of folks aren't mad modders, or programming gurus, but they just are *uncomfortable* with what they have,a computer, that's it, just use it, they really want something else than what they have, and it has to be affordable. Joe sixpack is not real enthused about having a forced total upgrade every year, they want some sort of stability for several years, smaller cheaper upgrades,sure, but not this "you need a new hundred dollar OS and a new 1000 buck box to run it then" deal, then they still are frustrated. It's nuts. At least with linux it's cheap enough to experiment with, you can find what "fits" your current situation and budget and interest. It's a good thing. It's how I stumbled into it. Was a mac classic guy for a long time, financial reasons kept me from upgrading to osx, but one day I get a heckuva deal on a jeep load of peecees. I cannot resit, price was definetly right. Get home, wonder what to stick on them, buddy had a set of rh 7.1 disks, sez here try this out, I gave him 2$ for the blanks he burnt.
cool beans! the stuff works! and I don't feel completely doofus running it! Even with my dos days so long ago I barely remember, I am not askeered, I can still click a mouse! it installs! Look, there's the internet! Hey, lookee, programs already here! And it's cheap! Then I start reading about "open source" and GPL license and whatnot and go YES, this is a *good thing*, I "get it", I grok it, everyone shares, everyone benefits, the cyber equivalent of the old fashioned neighborhood barn raising, friends and neighbors helping friends and neighbors. I get it, it's cool, I pass the idea on.
I never tried it, but maybe this is what you are looking for, morphix
... just got back an hour or so ago from my weekly supplies run to town. One of our stops is the church thrift store, girlfriend and I enjoy that random "deal" shopping. I always head to the electronic junk and hardware, she splits to what I call the "imelda marcos" area. Anyway, myself and another customer are staring at this old xt bundle, commenting on what we are running now. The dude actually starting complaining about xp, said NO WAY would he pay that to upgrade, but he was really bogued out about what he was running, which is ME. SO, here's my chance, I ask "Hey, ever try that "linux" stuff?".
yada yada, he sounds enthused already,he's heard of it, I'm the first person he's ever met weho's used it,he asks how much it is. I sez, "well, 30-40 clams from the vendors with manuals and stuff low end, or you can.." I only got that far he goes FOURTY DOLLARS FOR AN OPERATING SYSTEM?? WHERE CAN I GET IT????
No lie. Then I drop the next one, "well, you can download and burn it for free,too, or clone companies will sell it to you for like 5-10 bux whatever, oh ya, comes with one zillion programs, too"
He's floored, gonna try it.
One person at a time
(hey spider tools, you might have an incoming)
--if you are looking for the national community of independents, who can see beyond the dem/repub good cop/badcop routine, look to the alternative patriot broadcasters like found at gcnlive.com and truthradio.org. Internet/shortwave/satellite, some am/fm. Constitutional radio and commentary and news at the various hosts websites. My two favs out of the 24 hour programming are alex jones show, infowars.com, and thepowerhour, throw an .org on that one for their site. There's more, too, and there's some spill over from more of the "indy" places as well. A LOT of people are abandoning the old fashioned forced left/right dem/repub scamster paradigms and parties and finding a lot of common ground and understanding with each other in the independent and various third party movements. "common ground" around basic born-with rights is the real key phrase there.
It's a good thing,too, IMO. The quicker we can be rid of that two headed single monster hydra of a criminal junta government the better. It's been hijacked, taken over, they are scared to even have a couple/three more candidates on the stage with them at the so called "national debates". Prima facie evidence of advanced political goonery. Bring back the constitution, and this time stick to the english language! Less bribed and blackmailed conflict-of-interest lawyers and international global businessmen writing laws, ta heck with that, we need middle class english teachers with common sense doing that! And NOT members of the CFR or skull and bones, either! Ha!
BTW- cool handle, pretty funny!
... told the used truck salesman I needed a V-8, had to carry heavy stuff and tow a trailer once in awhile.
He said, "here's one".
Cool, I go to pop the hood, can't. The hood is welded shut!
What's this? I ask, I can't see the engine?
No, you can't.
How do I know it's a v-8?
Because we sayso.
But I want to look!
You can't.
How do I know you aren't lying?
You can ask my boss.
But you and your boss work for the same company, how do I know he's not lying?
Because he doesn't lie.
How do I know that?
Because we sayso.
Can I get an independent opinion?
Sure.
From who?
The dealer.
The dealer! He works for the same company!
That's it, all we have to tell you, take it or leave it.
grumble, go to the next dealer down the street.
Hi! I'd like to buy a truck! I need a v-8!
Sure! We have one right here.
Go to look, hood welded shut....
#$%^&*!!!!
Computerised voting is such a bad idea on so many levels I am amazed it's even gotten one positive comment. It's the mother of all voting scams, sophisticated fraud and manipulation potential to the nth degree, way past simple ballot box stuffing in the olden days. Way, way, way past. Now combine that with the "two party that is one party in reality" district and debate and "news" rigging, well, there ya go, millions of people who *think* they just voted.
--heh heh hehheh, open source models any day now! gnuclu, kklew, mozclunixbird, gclucc clue compiler, and to build them all around, the clunernal
.. how about trying to enlist the help of those same nashville disk jockeys who helped rouse the rabble to protest the proposed state income tax? They seemed to do a good job getting tennesseans out there to the capitol. Can't hurt,it's a phone call/email away.
this is a rather interesting legal situation, one I don't know the answer to, I am thinking though, that if a corporation has a published price, offered to the public at large, then sells below cost to someone else, then the question to ask is "does anyone else have the right to that same lower price?" The reverse is clearly illegal, they can't publish a price then charge you more for it.
Think about it, I walk into the hardware store and buy some tool, it has a price on it,I go to the check out counter. The guy in front of me has the same tool, the clerk and the guy wink at each other, he walks out with the tool and has paid a penny or zero. If it was you, what would you say to the clerk or manager then?
I really don't know any case law on that, but I'm sure it exists. "Dumping" as has been mentioned is illegal, I think those laws apply to the corporation itself and not to any of it's competitors prices, just their own cost of production, AFAIK. I know they can set any price they want, just wonder about the published price angle to it.