That is one of the issues there, not only an open document standard that could be read far into the future,by any citizen, using any OS, but weaning the state off of the regular large sums checks (i.e; tax money) they continually ship to MS for absolutely no other reasons other than inertia and intellectual apathy.
You are equating an ad sponsored search engine on a browser to a monopoly desktop operating system that comes pre installed on the vast bulk of the worlds computers? These are supposed to be equivalent somehow? Sorry, not seeing it. MS was convicted of abusing it's status in the market place, violating the law, and their so called "fine" boiled down to further entrenching themselves into the market place by using their software as "legal tender". If YOU got fined by the government, wouldn't you like to be told to keep doing what you have been doing as the punishment? Be able to just print up something, give it an inflated monetary value, and "pay the fine" that way? Who else gets a deal like that? The other example I can think of is some of the **AA media distributors got busted for collusion and the "fine" was they got to dump old tunes that hardly anyone wanted, clean out the backrooms in the warehouses, to libraries and etc. That was covered here sometime back, sorry no link handy.
Anyway, the discussion was about how allegedly "wrong" it was for google to fund some open source projects, to the tune of 350 grand. I disagreed that it was wrong. MS has been subsidising their closed source expensive products for years now, in the schools, in a very obvious attempt to capture hearts and minds so that down the road they can maintain monopoly status. Certainly if all these places paid full retail like the prices you see at the computer shops the numerical value would be vastly more than 350 grand, and the difference is, MS furthers a lock in, contravening the entire exercise of their monopoly abuse and investigations and alleged punishment. THAT is the difference so far in a general political and ethical sense, although apparently not in any common sense law enforcement actions. I am suspicious of that as well, that perhaps some...consulting fees...changed hands someplace. Obviously can't prove it of course, merely suspicious of it. I never had anything against MS until it became obvious what business slimeballs they were and still are, THEY changed my mind about them. In the earlier days, meh, a software company. Then it comes out over the years that there isn't a sleazy trick they won't pull, multiple times. Basically, lying bullies, strong arm goons.
When and if google gets busted and loses in court for abusing their services in some manner, then we can discuss some sort of parity situation, now though, it is two different things. I have some issues with google as well, but at this time on the ethics scale I'll still put them head and shoulders over MS.
MS has long offered subsidised software to capture hearts and minds to schools. For years and years. Apple has, too. Go to local computer store, note MS retail prices, then check colleges discounts prices. They do the same with libraries, etc as well. And when they lost the anti trust case,(while still maintaining the monopoly OS install in most mainstream vendors retailed computers for some reason...) the so called "fine" was to subsidise software at free or cheap to schools mostly. I mean, really....google dropping 350 thou on encouraging open source is a joke compared to what MS has dropped.
I think for most folks casual home use, an older CPU is fine, just throw lots more RAM at it and upgrade the video card. Unil a few months ago that's all I was using was a PP200, it worked fine with modern linux, at least, for my purposes it did. I'd still be using it if it wasn't for extremely crappy local grid power, fried two machines so I just snagged a cheap barebones system and swapped my drives out.
Actually, that's sounds like a good niche machine idea with this twist. Perhaps a form factor that is sort of a laptop, but only comes with a very small integral screen, say 7 inches (or smaller, anything like a large PDA screen would be sufficient), and it's designed to be carried from big monitor to big monitor (and normal keyboard) and plugged in for regular use. You could use it away from work or home, but primarily it's designed to be a commuter special carry-all. The machine itself could still be relatively small then for ease of transport. Sized between todays high end PDAs and ultra small notebooks. Without the big screen to lug around, the machine could be pretty light and still have a decent sized battery in it, which would function as the UPS device as well. Perhaps even use the mini itx form factor board and an easy to open case so it could be upgradeable in the future.
...an old junker VCR case might be nice, pizza box form factor (set screen on top in other words), available free or for 1$ at most thrift shops. Take where the slot for the old tape was and use that for the optical drive access. I like the mini itx idea, just don't like those cubicle form factor boxes. They don't really fit anyplace that looks "right" to me, and I just as soon as not don't care if the power supply is inside the case, one less do-dad with wires hanging out of it to stare at on the desktop.
Ya, I know, taste. Right now I just crammed mine (bought used so it was cheap, hear ya on the prices) in an old AT case just to get it booted up, I plan on doing the briefcase type install sometime once I find the right briefcase. One of those long term, one stage at a time projects...I just want a pure low power 12 VDC machine for extended power outtages when they occur.
And with that said,for anyone who might be interested, Beatrix linux was designed for mini itx and Via boards/CPUs from the get-go.
I think he's missing the boat on what a truly open system of information means economically. More and more people are finally realising that it is in their own selfish best interest, economic or otherwise, to be able to access WAY more data freely than whatever they can come up with individually or be forced to jump through hoops for or pay for. Restrictive licenses are just that, restrictive. If you encourage restriction, it just keeps coming back at you, your available knowledge base gets smaller, and harder to access,so even if there might be "more" out there, it won't do you as much good. Look at the hardware model, the more "How do we do that?" information that becomes available to use for anyone at free or reduced cost, the quicker we are getting more advanced features, at a lesser cost. Would we have as much innovation today if patents were even more restrictive and lasted longer? Would we have as much if specs were harder to access? Suppose the patent model for slapping an ICE on a horse carriage lasted 100 years and the specs were blackbox, no looking the whole time? It's the same with knowledge in general, carry it to ridiculous extrapolative extremes in either direction, think of what the world would look like then. In one direction, you would have universal access and sharing, so you can get on with the real work that humans do. The transition period might be painful to some, as not all people could immediately benefit from the openness, as they don't really innovate, they just leech and consume. On the other, carried to the extreme, you would need a personal lawyer on a tether to follow you around and give you guidance on everything you touched or read, combined with your personal accountant clicking away as you paid off your increasingly complex contractural obligations to access this or that.
I know which direction I would prefer...both have ups and downs, but if you have a long range view, to me anyway, it appears free and open would eventually win if expanding the universal knowledge base is a goal.
It would eliminate a lot of middlemen jobs though...
You don't necessarily have to have either/or, you could theoretically have both, just like my analogy, you got cops, then a plethora of private security firms and services.
Another model would put it out for competition, municipally paid for, but based on criteria and price. In addition, many areas have gone to private water provision and sewer from bids, rather than have government run it directly now.
In other situations, it might even be preferable to having it mostly private, but universally accessible, say in areas that are forced to rely 100% on volunteer fire departments. If there was at a minimum a small core of fully funded firefighters available, then the augmentation by the volunteers would just add additional backup, and the residents would know that they would be guaranteed a higher level of potential service.
This is all theoretical, but I still think it's possible, What is political reality though, is governments first and overwhelmingly primary job is perpetuation of itself, witness Katrina and the fight over "who's in charge" being more important than anything else as a recent blatant glaring example. Any "services" governments in general provide are secondary and tertiary concerns. That is a very generalized statement, but is mostly true as well. Certain situations definetly seem better with governmental intervention and lead, others do not, and some like this situation *could* be approached with a blend.
Interesingly enough, fire protection in ye olden dayes was like that, no pay, your house burned down. It got to be a protection racket with the local fire department company/corporation/gang showing up whilst the flames were climbing and demanding an additional fee, and etc shenanigans. The public eventually squawked enough to go volunteer and muni public driven.
With that said, today, heck ya it might work, we have a model already with private security companies and guards to do what people *think* cops are supposed to do. An all inclusive contract for security, including private fire fighting, might work. who knows, bet it would be spendy though. That equipment is not cheap, and seeing as how it is hazardous duty and requires continual training, etc, neither would the labor be all that cheap. It might theoretically help on insurance and mortgages though, so as to balance out your costs, if the private companies insisted on better than norm "building codes" and inspections for your structure in order to get their services. You could take that cert once you aquired it back to your insurance carrier and negotiate for better rates. Possible, interesting biz idea though.
the suit will probably mean more work for those third world electronics factories/people. Make ipod nano screen once, it is defective, turn around make another one, marginally better. Like, what do they care, just another contract. The more throw away products we consume, good, bad or mediocre, the more money they make. They don't care.
ALL industries that are primarily concerned with burning tons of fuel are being effected negatively recently. Truckers, airlines, power plants, agricultural, etc. I know on the big farm where I work this winters projected cost of propane, because of the massive price increases lately, will put us into the red, actually cost money, zilch net profits. You can't double the cost of doing business in a relatively short time span and not expect it to ripple down. ALL domestic industries are vulnerable, you'll just see the drastic effects at shops like that first, so don't worry, your turn will come, too. You are GOING to see the cost of most everything just climb though the roof soon. Did you check this last months stats on consumer prices? HA! Double ha!
It doesn't have as much to do with unions as you think, although that is certainly part of it, unions exist because management has ALWAYS been "unionized" in a sense since the first two companies did the same work, they just call it something else, industrial working groups, etc. You think those fatcats don't get together and collude,a litle sub rosa understandngs worked out at the golf courses, etc??
The extreme discount airlines are only showing meager profits because they buy old used airplanes so they have slightly lower costs, all the first tier airlines are hurting and the second tier will be right behind them shortly, unless people suck up to a doubling of ticket prices soon.
putting a free disk in a mainstream non computer magazine. Sounds like something mark shuttleworth -Ubuntu- could afford, but not too many other people. Heck, you can't get a lot of the big name distros to pop 50 grand to include MP3 play out of the box, they just give you hints to offshore servers for the gray area plugin. Cheap is as cheap does, and you have to admit, look at how far ubuntu has come once someone threw some serious cash at actually getting linux "out there", with out there meaning "besides the suit and tie enterprise arena". I don't know exactly what he's dropped, but it's in the millions no doubt. If he were to do this with those mags like you suggested, well...it would get slapped into some disk drives, then word of mouth, etc. FF raised a fifth of a million just for a stupid ad in the newspaper, I wonder if "the Linux Community" could raise an even million bucks for the great magazine give away? I bet several mags would be interested in making some cash just for including a disk.
HOWEVER, I see another way to sneak it into mainstream use,perhaps even to make some enterprising lads some coin, and that is as an impulse item game disk on the gaming shelves at some of the larger stores, heck, even walmart. If you had a "Tons-0-Free-Games!" disk for ten bucks retail,not 20 or 50,but @ 9.99$, which also coincidently was a more or less complete "linux web surfer edition" distro underneath, a LOT of people might accidently try it out. It has to be on the shelf though, and be a Live Cd-installation very optional type deal.
...by offering content instead of just bandwith. Then it would be in their interest to offer the fastest and largest pipe to the customer,to go ahead and subsidise that so they can turn around and offer all sorts of premium content on demand. that's where the next wave of money is coming from, IMO. The game console makers do that, dump the machines near cost so they can sell games. Car makers do it, the base model is not all that profitable, but all the add-ons make the money. And etc.
company A offers.5 up. 1.5 down at price X
company b offers 1.5 down,.5 up at same price X plus all sorts of legit media, movies, custom news, music, TV shows, access to popular game servers, whatever.
Theoretical then- Who will wind up with more customers and make more net profit? Who will have a higher gross so they can play with the monthly float? Who will have higher numbers to throw at the quarterly statements?
the government ignoring the evidence of the impending 9-11 attack, both from their own intel agents and from foreign intel sources is a much bigger "threat" than what they push.
And al queda, meaning the base or database of enlisted mujahedin, was a joint construct of the UK, USA and Saudi governments, who then used them to fight a proxy war against the USSR in afghanistan. Many of these same "al queda" got governmental training when we waged war on serbia in favor of the narco terrorists of the KLA from albania. And saddam was a propped up and completely supplied puppet of the UK and USA for years as long as we cold use him to fight Iran. and he was just as evil then as he always was, but no western guys in dark suits gave a care then. And we got into a beef with Iran when they finally kicked out the shah and his SAVAK torturers, after the US set him up after some spooks masterminded the assassination of Irans legit elected leader and got the "peacock throne" royal goons in there as puppets, who then turned around and instigated the first OPEC oil embargo against the west.
And yada yada yada, you can go back to before WW1 and see a lot of examples of the Anglo/US axis of maximum profits just *constantly* meddling with those people and setting up tinpot dictators who eventually all go "rogue", so the process can repeat. It's all just data, history.
Frankly, I am amazed at those people's restraint against the west, and it's no wonder the fundy mullahs have such an easy time recruiting now..
In other words, we are surely reaping what we have been sowing for a few generations now. And we keep being told we need to "support" the latest batch of corporate/political meddlers to go over there and harass, kill and exploit those people.
spend a few bucks then, and get linspire or xandros with the full hand holding support. That's what those distros are for. Around 15 cents a day (+ - ) is not that much to drop on your folks. If you want polished and noob friendly, then just buy that.
Supposedly a few years ago now some russian fighter overflew a US carrier group undetected except for visual as it passed over. I don't know if it is a true story or not, but it got reported in the press.
The plasma pencil is interesting. It wan't clear what it does with prions though (BSE-CJD reference), one of the critical problems they are facing in hospital with sterilzaion of surgical instruments.
...I can't answer your question exactly, no frame of reference (neither a young guy nor work in an office...), BUT...I have noticed in meatspace that orders come from the top down, but the WORK comes from the bottom up, and it most alway gets a little morphed on the way.
My best guess is that what the young folks want will eventually be reality in the workplace, as they move up the ladder, they'll haul their opinions and desires and accumulated skills, etc with them. Plus, you'll get the quirks of the generation.
Hmm, example. Went to the bank the other day. The teller was a young guy, who had a couple visible tattoos (one on his hand and another creeping over his collar on his neck) and an eyebrow piercing.
Now, I can tell ya this wouldn't have been reality back a few decades ago, not in a *bank*.
So, given todays popularity with IM and younger folks, eventually they'll get the security bugs straightened out and it will become more mainstream. All it really is is real time no-lag email when you distill it down.
OR, perhaps a group of lads here would be interested in forming an "open source press association"? We'll use that name in fact.. We can not only self accredit ourselves, but I propose we get to wear funny hats and give ourselves exalted titles...
I am self appointed Imperial Grand Poombah, and I wear a boonie hat that has been run over and mowed before, it has mucho character and qualifies as funny looking...I'll sew PRESS into it somehow
yes they should, as long as it's free to the customer. If it's a paid add on, there's no incentive for them to make their primary product, the OS, better and more secure. In fact, it would pay them more to release a LESS secure OS, because the *need* for antivirus and firewall would be greater then, increasing sales in that direction, so they get ya coming and going.
It's a connundrum similar to Sony. One division markets media, another division markets media viewing/using hardware. The media/content side wants all sorts of strange DRM to "protect their IP", whereas the hardware side would (most likely) want to offer more open and more functional hardware because consumers would rather have that.
I wasn't commenting at all on the viability of the tech or the advice of using same in a war scenario. On cursory glance it looks like it might work..perhaps. The opponent could harden the torpedo most likely, or use it in concert with any number of other simultaneous attacks as part of a swarm. Or, like you opined, in a suicide type attack, it would make it difficult.
I personally don't think any smaller group would even bother using anything but assymetrical and force multiplying tactics, but that's an entire other conversation..
Anyway... I was commenting on the possibility that the fight would most likely continue after the first round of torpedoes,i.e. that it wouldn't stop there with both parties steaming away from each other IF the deterrent values had been deemed by the opposition to still be worth risking. So, as such, my point was there would be loss of ship(s) in this theoretical encounter with the resultant *whatever* spilled into the ocean. It was that simple.
as to politics with regards to these conflicts we always seem to get involved with lately.. or are likely to..if you want the cliff notes version of my views... here ya go
I believe in personal and national self defense. Got the T shirt a long time ago, thanks...
I don't believe in being a moronic arrogant international bully based on greed driven megalomania. I think that is "bad form". I expect it of a loon like kim ill dung heap, but not of any so-called civilized leaders.
I very rarely am naieve or uninformed enough to swallow most official-brand federal government wild assed political (or economic) conspiracy theories as promulgated by their official spokesmodels and shills, and over the years historical retrospect has shown (to beyond my satisfaction) that I made the correct decision in developing and maintaining that default position and viewpoint. They are at best chronic serial liars with CYA as their primary goal, and at worst are actively engaged (in some very limited but command-powerful circles) in outright traitorus and harmful actions.
...if my armchair admiral's tactics might be a scosh off, but seems to me that if the large ship had just had a torpedo attack, and had defended against the attack, wouldn't they now be..uhh, "pissed off" is the phrase.. and go hunt down and destroy the attacking sub, thereby causing leakage of submarine nuclear reactor fuel and/or mass quantities of diesel oil and various other whatnots of the hazardous to marine life stuff?
...even get my alleged "linux friendly" HP USB connected printer to work. Fries my grits, because I got it to work before I "upgraded" my distro. It doesn't even register as a USB device, it's like nothing is plugged in. It *sucked* before getting it to work, but I accomplished it eventually (a cli guru I am not), but now--sheesh, if it can't be seen it just ain't happenin'.
Back in ye olden days,(I started with RH 7 series) my parallel connected printers I always were able to get working, now with USB I get nada. My cheap USB camera doesn't show up either. Forced to keep an old win98 install on another computer just to pull my pics off. Oh ya, some USRobotics router I got is invisible as well, desktop paperweight. Looks cool....no network for ME
sorta sucks, it's like it gets so darn *close*, but there's always one or two critical bugs that make it uncool.
Can't afford OSX at this time (not interested in the mini at all), but was thinking of trying open solaris and also some of the BSDs to see if I can get all my do-dads functional. Just tired of trying different distros all the time seeking the magic solution. And the deal is, there is so much reinventing the wheel going on in linux land, one has to wonder how much better it would be if there was a solid coordinated effort to make ONE really good desktop OS instead of hundreds of "me toos"
or a cartel of game companies could collaborate on one linux distro, decide that was the "one true OS" they would develop for in the troika of MS, Mac and 'other' ", and do all their games on that platform. Or say office (OO.org) could decide to release an integrated OS with their product and perhaps a few more critical business apps.
Besides that, yep, even the big hardware vendors are sorta screwed, as releasing "linux" just means WAY too many different things, so mostly except for professionally administered servers they go "this just ain't happening" for a "the masses" guy machine with linux pre installed, and I can see their point on that. Nothing to pick with an assurance that you as the vendor haven't picked "wrong". It's too big a gamble. There are a few exceptions now obviously, but still..the bulk of the market for the alternative desktop/OS will continue to be marginalized from mass divergence, "me too"ism with marginal distro du juor, and lack of agreed upon standards.
HOWEVER...yes, if there was at least a mainstream accepted way to package a kernel of choice with a package of apps of choice, so that it didn't matter what distro you were using, then perhaps it could go forward faster.
I think either consolidate, OR make it excrutiatingly easy for "the masses" guy to build his own on demand, and linux become known as the "have it your way, because that's the only way" operating system. That would mean dumping all the current distros and just concentrating on kernel and packages and put the convergence efforts on standardizing the way packages and apps are pushed, perhaps source based only, get rid of debs/RPMS and assorted whatnot completely.
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That is one of the issues there, not only an open document standard that could be read far into the future,by any citizen, using any OS, but weaning the state off of the regular large sums checks (i.e; tax money) they continually ship to MS for absolutely no other reasons other than inertia and intellectual apathy.
You are equating an ad sponsored search engine on a browser to a monopoly desktop operating system that comes pre installed on the vast bulk of the worlds computers? These are supposed to be equivalent somehow? Sorry, not seeing it. MS was convicted of abusing it's status in the market place, violating the law, and their so called "fine" boiled down to further entrenching themselves into the market place by using their software as "legal tender". If YOU got fined by the government, wouldn't you like to be told to keep doing what you have been doing as the punishment? Be able to just print up something, give it an inflated monetary value, and "pay the fine" that way? Who else gets a deal like that? The other example I can think of is some of the **AA media distributors got busted for collusion and the "fine" was they got to dump old tunes that hardly anyone wanted, clean out the backrooms in the warehouses, to libraries and etc. That was covered here sometime back, sorry no link handy.
Anyway, the discussion was about how allegedly "wrong" it was for google to fund some open source projects, to the tune of 350 grand. I disagreed that it was wrong. MS has been subsidising their closed source expensive products for years now, in the schools, in a very obvious attempt to capture hearts and minds so that down the road they can maintain monopoly status. Certainly if all these places paid full retail like the prices you see at the computer shops the numerical value would be vastly more than 350 grand, and the difference is, MS furthers a lock in, contravening the entire exercise of their monopoly abuse and investigations and alleged punishment. THAT is the difference so far in a general political and ethical sense, although apparently not in any common sense law enforcement actions. I am suspicious of that as well, that perhaps some...consulting fees...changed hands someplace. Obviously can't prove it of course, merely suspicious of it. I never had anything against MS until it became obvious what business slimeballs they were and still are, THEY changed my mind about them. In the earlier days, meh, a software company. Then it comes out over the years that there isn't a sleazy trick they won't pull, multiple times. Basically, lying bullies, strong arm goons.
When and if google gets busted and loses in court for abusing their services in some manner, then we can discuss some sort of parity situation, now though, it is two different things. I have some issues with google as well, but at this time on the ethics scale I'll still put them head and shoulders over MS.
MS has long offered subsidised software to capture hearts and minds to schools. For years and years. Apple has, too. Go to local computer store, note MS retail prices, then check colleges discounts prices. They do the same with libraries, etc as well. And when they lost the anti trust case,(while still maintaining the monopoly OS install in most mainstream vendors retailed computers for some reason...) the so called "fine" was to subsidise software at free or cheap to schools mostly. I mean, really....google dropping 350 thou on encouraging open source is a joke compared to what MS has dropped.
I think for most folks casual home use, an older CPU is fine, just throw lots more RAM at it and upgrade the video card. Unil a few months ago that's all I was using was a PP200, it worked fine with modern linux, at least, for my purposes it did. I'd still be using it if it wasn't for extremely crappy local grid power, fried two machines so I just snagged a cheap barebones system and swapped my drives out.
Actually, that's sounds like a good niche machine idea with this twist. Perhaps a form factor that is sort of a laptop, but only comes with a very small integral screen, say 7 inches (or smaller, anything like a large PDA screen would be sufficient), and it's designed to be carried from big monitor to big monitor (and normal keyboard) and plugged in for regular use. You could use it away from work or home, but primarily it's designed to be a commuter special carry-all. The machine itself could still be relatively small then for ease of transport. Sized between todays high end PDAs and ultra small notebooks. Without the big screen to lug around, the machine could be pretty light and still have a decent sized battery in it, which would function as the UPS device as well. Perhaps even use the mini itx form factor board and an easy to open case so it could be upgradeable in the future.
...an old junker VCR case might be nice, pizza box form factor (set screen on top in other words), available free or for 1$ at most thrift shops. Take where the slot for the old tape was and use that for the optical drive access. I like the mini itx idea, just don't like those cubicle form factor boxes. They don't really fit anyplace that looks "right" to me, and I just as soon as not don't care if the power supply is inside the case, one less do-dad with wires hanging out of it to stare at on the desktop.
Ya, I know, taste. Right now I just crammed mine (bought used so it was cheap, hear ya on the prices) in an old AT case just to get it booted up, I plan on doing the briefcase type install sometime once I find the right briefcase. One of those long term, one stage at a time projects...I just want a pure low power 12 VDC machine for extended power outtages when they occur.
And with that said,for anyone who might be interested, Beatrix linux was designed for mini itx and Via boards/CPUs from the get-go.
I think he's missing the boat on what a truly open system of information means economically. More and more people are finally realising that it is in their own selfish best interest, economic or otherwise, to be able to access WAY more data freely than whatever they can come up with individually or be forced to jump through hoops for or pay for. Restrictive licenses are just that, restrictive. If you encourage restriction, it just keeps coming back at you, your available knowledge base gets smaller, and harder to access,so even if there might be "more" out there, it won't do you as much good. Look at the hardware model, the more "How do we do that?" information that becomes available to use for anyone at free or reduced cost, the quicker we are getting more advanced features, at a lesser cost. Would we have as much innovation today if patents were even more restrictive and lasted longer? Would we have as much if specs were harder to access? Suppose the patent model for slapping an ICE on a horse carriage lasted 100 years and the specs were blackbox, no looking the whole time? It's the same with knowledge in general, carry it to ridiculous extrapolative extremes in either direction, think of what the world would look like then. In one direction, you would have universal access and sharing, so you can get on with the real work that humans do. The transition period might be painful to some, as not all people could immediately benefit from the openness, as they don't really innovate, they just leech and consume. On the other, carried to the extreme, you would need a personal lawyer on a tether to follow you around and give you guidance on everything you touched or read, combined with your personal accountant clicking away as you paid off your increasingly complex contractural obligations to access this or that.
I know which direction I would prefer...both have ups and downs, but if you have a long range view, to me anyway, it appears free and open would eventually win if expanding the universal knowledge base is a goal.
It would eliminate a lot of middlemen jobs though...
instead of a tether, use the girder system that holds the solar panels and (possibly) the communication antennas. Should be strong enough then.
You don't necessarily have to have either/or, you could theoretically have both, just like my analogy, you got cops, then a plethora of private security firms and services.
Another model would put it out for competition, municipally paid for, but based on criteria and price. In addition, many areas have gone to private water provision and sewer from bids, rather than have government run it directly now.
In other situations, it might even be preferable to having it mostly private, but universally accessible, say in areas that are forced to rely 100% on volunteer fire departments. If there was at a minimum a small core of fully funded firefighters available, then the augmentation by the volunteers would just add additional backup, and the residents would know that they would be guaranteed a higher level of potential service.
This is all theoretical, but I still think it's possible, What is political reality though, is governments first and overwhelmingly primary job is perpetuation of itself, witness Katrina and the fight over "who's in charge" being more important than anything else as a recent blatant glaring example. Any "services" governments in general provide are secondary and tertiary concerns. That is a very generalized statement, but is mostly true as well. Certain situations definetly seem better with governmental intervention and lead, others do not, and some like this situation *could* be approached with a blend.
Interesingly enough, fire protection in ye olden dayes was like that, no pay, your house burned down. It got to be a protection racket with the local fire department company/corporation/gang showing up whilst the flames were climbing and demanding an additional fee, and etc shenanigans. The public eventually squawked enough to go volunteer and muni public driven.
With that said, today, heck ya it might work, we have a model already with private security companies and guards to do what people *think* cops are supposed to do. An all inclusive contract for security, including private fire fighting, might work. who knows, bet it would be spendy though. That equipment is not cheap, and seeing as how it is hazardous duty and requires continual training, etc, neither would the labor be all that cheap. It might theoretically help on insurance and mortgages though, so as to balance out your costs, if the private companies insisted on better than norm "building codes" and inspections for your structure in order to get their services. You could take that cert once you aquired it back to your insurance carrier and negotiate for better rates. Possible, interesting biz idea though.
the suit will probably mean more work for those third world electronics factories/people. Make ipod nano screen once, it is defective, turn around make another one, marginally better. Like, what do they care, just another contract. The more throw away products we consume, good, bad or mediocre, the more money they make. They don't care.
ALL industries that are primarily concerned with burning tons of fuel are being effected negatively recently. Truckers, airlines, power plants, agricultural, etc. I know on the big farm where I work this winters projected cost of propane, because of the massive price increases lately, will put us into the red, actually cost money, zilch net profits. You can't double the cost of doing business in a relatively short time span and not expect it to ripple down. ALL domestic industries are vulnerable, you'll just see the drastic effects at shops like that first, so don't worry, your turn will come, too. You are GOING to see the cost of most everything just climb though the roof soon. Did you check this last months stats on consumer prices? HA! Double ha!
It doesn't have as much to do with unions as you think, although that is certainly part of it, unions exist because management has ALWAYS been "unionized" in a sense since the first two companies did the same work, they just call it something else, industrial working groups, etc. You think those fatcats don't get together and collude,a litle sub rosa understandngs worked out at the golf courses, etc??
The extreme discount airlines are only showing meager profits because they buy old used airplanes so they have slightly lower costs, all the first tier airlines are hurting and the second tier will be right behind them shortly, unless people suck up to a doubling of ticket prices soon.
putting a free disk in a mainstream non computer magazine. Sounds like something mark shuttleworth -Ubuntu- could afford, but not too many other people. Heck, you can't get a lot of the big name distros to pop 50 grand to include MP3 play out of the box, they just give you hints to offshore servers for the gray area plugin. Cheap is as cheap does, and you have to admit, look at how far ubuntu has come once someone threw some serious cash at actually getting linux "out there", with out there meaning "besides the suit and tie enterprise arena". I don't know exactly what he's dropped, but it's in the millions no doubt. If he were to do this with those mags like you suggested, well...it would get slapped into some disk drives, then word of mouth, etc. FF raised a fifth of a million just for a stupid ad in the newspaper, I wonder if "the Linux Community" could raise an even million bucks for the great magazine give away? I bet several mags would be interested in making some cash just for including a disk.
HOWEVER, I see another way to sneak it into mainstream use,perhaps even to make some enterprising lads some coin, and that is as an impulse item game disk on the gaming shelves at some of the larger stores, heck, even walmart. If you had a "Tons-0-Free-Games!" disk for ten bucks retail,not 20 or 50,but @ 9.99$, which also coincidently was a more or less complete "linux web surfer edition" distro underneath, a LOT of people might accidently try it out. It has to be on the shelf though, and be a Live Cd-installation very optional type deal.
...by offering content instead of just bandwith. Then it would be in their interest to offer the fastest and largest pipe to the customer,to go ahead and subsidise that so they can turn around and offer all sorts of premium content on demand. that's where the next wave of money is coming from, IMO. The game console makers do that, dump the machines near cost so they can sell games. Car makers do it, the base model is not all that profitable, but all the add-ons make the money. And etc.
.5 up. 1.5 down at price X
.5 up at same price X plus all sorts of legit media, movies, custom news, music, TV shows, access to popular game servers, whatever.
company A offers
company b offers 1.5 down,
Theoretical then- Who will wind up with more customers and make more net profit? Who will have a higher gross so they can play with the monthly float? Who will have higher numbers to throw at the quarterly statements?
the government ignoring the evidence of the impending 9-11 attack, both from their own intel agents and from foreign intel sources is a much bigger "threat" than what they push.
And al queda, meaning the base or database of enlisted mujahedin, was a joint construct of the UK, USA and Saudi governments, who then used them to fight a proxy war against the USSR in afghanistan. Many of these same "al queda" got governmental training when we waged war on serbia in favor of the narco terrorists of the KLA from albania. And saddam was a propped up and completely supplied puppet of the UK and USA for years as long as we cold use him to fight Iran. and he was just as evil then as he always was, but no western guys in dark suits gave a care then. And we got into a beef with Iran when they finally kicked out the shah and his SAVAK torturers, after the US set him up after some spooks masterminded the assassination of Irans legit elected leader and got the "peacock throne" royal goons in there as puppets, who then turned around and instigated the first OPEC oil embargo against the west.
And yada yada yada, you can go back to before WW1 and see a lot of examples of the Anglo/US axis of maximum profits just *constantly* meddling with those people and setting up tinpot dictators who eventually all go "rogue", so the process can repeat. It's all just data, history.
Frankly, I am amazed at those people's restraint against the west, and it's no wonder the fundy mullahs have such an easy time recruiting now..
In other words, we are surely reaping what we have been sowing for a few generations now. And we keep being told we need to "support" the latest batch of corporate/political meddlers to go over there and harass, kill and exploit those people.
I'll pass.
Learn from history or repeat it, binary choice
...having fun and taking it to the local pawn shop to see what you can get for it?
rough call there....
spend a few bucks then, and get linspire or xandros with the full hand holding support. That's what those distros are for. Around 15 cents a day (+ - ) is not that much to drop on your folks. If you want polished and noob friendly, then just buy that.
wikipedia has a writeup on russian efforts with plasma and stealth for planes
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Plasma_stealth
Supposedly a few years ago now some russian fighter overflew a US carrier group undetected except for visual as it passed over. I don't know if it is a true story or not, but it got reported in the press.
The plasma pencil is interesting. It wan't clear what it does with prions though (BSE-CJD reference), one of the critical problems they are facing in hospital with sterilzaion of surgical instruments.
...I can't answer your question exactly, no frame of reference (neither a young guy nor work in an office...), BUT...I have noticed in meatspace that orders come from the top down, but the WORK comes from the bottom up, and it most alway gets a little morphed on the way.
My best guess is that what the young folks want will eventually be reality in the workplace, as they move up the ladder, they'll haul their opinions and desires and accumulated skills, etc with them. Plus, you'll get the quirks of the generation.
Hmm, example. Went to the bank the other day. The teller was a young guy, who had a couple visible tattoos (one on his hand and another creeping over his collar on his neck) and an eyebrow piercing.
Now, I can tell ya this wouldn't have been reality back a few decades ago, not in a *bank*.
So, given todays popularity with IM and younger folks, eventually they'll get the security bugs straightened out and it will become more mainstream. All it really is is real time no-lag email when you distill it down.
...if you are blogger, join one of these associations, whichever you feel is more appropriate. Can't hurt dealing with the fedmonster.
a ssociations/
BTW, Lugar has always been a NWO *goon*, nothing new there
http://www.shgresources.com/resources/newspapers/
OR, perhaps a group of lads here would be interested in forming an "open source press association"? We'll use that name in fact.. We can not only self accredit ourselves, but I propose we get to wear funny hats and give ourselves exalted titles...
I am self appointed Imperial Grand Poombah, and I wear a boonie hat that has been run over and mowed before, it has mucho character and qualifies as funny looking...I'll sew PRESS into it somehow
next guy, grab cool titles before they are gone
yes they should, as long as it's free to the customer. If it's a paid add on, there's no incentive for them to make their primary product, the OS, better and more secure. In fact, it would pay them more to release a LESS secure OS, because the *need* for antivirus and firewall would be greater then, increasing sales in that direction, so they get ya coming and going.
It's a connundrum similar to Sony. One division markets media, another division markets media viewing/using hardware. The media/content side wants all sorts of strange DRM to "protect their IP", whereas the hardware side would (most likely) want to offer more open and more functional hardware because consumers would rather have that.
I wasn't commenting at all on the viability of the tech or the advice of using same in a war scenario. On cursory glance it looks like it might work..perhaps. The opponent could harden the torpedo most likely, or use it in concert with any number of other simultaneous attacks as part of a swarm. Or, like you opined, in a suicide type attack, it would make it difficult.
I personally don't think any smaller group would even bother using anything but assymetrical and force multiplying tactics, but that's an entire other conversation..
Anyway... I was commenting on the possibility that the fight would most likely continue after the first round of torpedoes,i.e. that it wouldn't stop there with both parties steaming away from each other IF the deterrent values had been deemed by the opposition to still be worth risking. So, as such, my point was there would be loss of ship(s) in this theoretical encounter with the resultant *whatever* spilled into the ocean. It was that simple.
as to politics with regards to these conflicts we always seem to get involved with lately.. or are likely to..if you want the cliff notes version of my views... here ya go
I believe in personal and national self defense. Got the T shirt a long time ago, thanks...
I don't believe in being a moronic arrogant international bully based on greed driven megalomania. I think that is "bad form". I expect it of a loon like kim ill dung heap, but not of any so-called civilized leaders.
I very rarely am naieve or uninformed enough to swallow most official-brand federal government wild assed political (or economic) conspiracy theories as promulgated by their official spokesmodels and shills, and over the years historical retrospect has shown (to beyond my satisfaction) that I made the correct decision in developing and maintaining that default position and viewpoint. They are at best chronic serial liars with CYA as their primary goal, and at worst are actively engaged (in some very limited but command-powerful circles) in outright traitorus and harmful actions.
...if my armchair admiral's tactics might be a scosh off, but seems to me that if the large ship had just had a torpedo attack, and had defended against the attack, wouldn't they now be..uhh, "pissed off" is the phrase.. and go hunt down and destroy the attacking sub, thereby causing leakage of submarine nuclear reactor fuel and/or mass quantities of diesel oil and various other whatnots of the hazardous to marine life stuff?
...even get my alleged "linux friendly" HP USB connected printer to work. Fries my grits, because I got it to work before I "upgraded" my distro. It doesn't even register as a USB device, it's like nothing is plugged in. It *sucked* before getting it to work, but I accomplished it eventually (a cli guru I am not), but now--sheesh, if it can't be seen it just ain't happenin'.
Back in ye olden days,(I started with RH 7 series) my parallel connected printers I always were able to get working, now with USB I get nada. My cheap USB camera doesn't show up either. Forced to keep an old win98 install on another computer just to pull my pics off. Oh ya, some USRobotics router I got is invisible as well, desktop paperweight. Looks cool....no network for ME
sorta sucks, it's like it gets so darn *close*, but there's always one or two critical bugs that make it uncool.
Can't afford OSX at this time (not interested in the mini at all), but was thinking of trying open solaris and also some of the BSDs to see if I can get all my do-dads functional. Just tired of trying different distros all the time seeking the magic solution. And the deal is, there is so much reinventing the wheel going on in linux land, one has to wonder how much better it would be if there was a solid coordinated effort to make ONE really good desktop OS instead of hundreds of "me toos"
or a cartel of game companies could collaborate on one linux distro, decide that was the "one true OS" they would develop for in the troika of MS, Mac and 'other' ", and do all their games on that platform. Or say office (OO.org) could decide to release an integrated OS with their product and perhaps a few more critical business apps.
Besides that, yep, even the big hardware vendors are sorta screwed, as releasing "linux" just means WAY too many different things, so mostly except for professionally administered servers they go "this just ain't happening" for a "the masses" guy machine with linux pre installed, and I can see their point on that. Nothing to pick with an assurance that you as the vendor haven't picked "wrong". It's too big a gamble. There are a few exceptions now obviously, but still..the bulk of the market for the alternative desktop/OS will continue to be marginalized from mass divergence, "me too"ism with marginal distro du juor, and lack of agreed upon standards.
HOWEVER...yes, if there was at least a mainstream accepted way to package a kernel of choice with a package of apps of choice, so that it didn't matter what distro you were using, then perhaps it could go forward faster.
I think either consolidate, OR make it excrutiatingly easy for "the masses" guy to build his own on demand, and linux become known as the "have it your way, because that's the only way" operating system. That would mean dumping all the current distros and just concentrating on kernel and packages and put the convergence efforts on standardizing the way packages and apps are pushed, perhaps source based only, get rid of debs/RPMS and assorted whatnot completely.