I was at a bicycle race once where some ancient geezer didn't realise there was a street race going on (blocked off roads for the downtown stretch) and walked out in front of some guy bookin it on a skinny bike and got creamed and expired on the spot.
Stuff happens.....
At the drags the jet and rocket powered vehicles are always crowd favorites, I remember seeing a jet powered TRACTOR before that could run an impressive 1/4 mile.
Just reality., hoo-mannz like mechanical things that go fast, and doesn't natter what they are or what they use for motive power. Everything from gravity races (soap box derbies) to world cup sailing to a humonigigantinormus variety of engine equpped racing on or in land, sea and sky.
you "make money" in open source (primarily) by using it in your OTHER meat and potatoes widget making and selling business. Software is a tool to "do other real tangible stuff", it's the "do stuff" part where you make your money if you are joe corporation. If you are joe IT nerd, you make YOUR money by using open source for your employer at joe corporation making and selling widgets better than his competitor. If you forget that part, you will lose out and most likely get replaced.
This is 2005, not 1975, the software tool business is becoming "free", as in FOSS free, it's beyond mature, the "tools" are plenty good enough to "do business with" now, so look to actually DOING SOMETHING with the tools to "make money".
In meat space, there are just so many hammers and saws you will be able to sell to a contractor, eventually those hammers and saws go build a lot of buildings, THAT is where the real serious folding money is made, not on the sales of hammers and saws. If you try to keep coming out with a new hammer or saw that is only marginally different from the previous, the contractor is just going to go 'fuggit" and stop buying "new" tools as long as the old ones are functional and still making his living for him.
Yes, *some* loot is made on the tool, *some* people are employed manufacturing and selling them, but it's a tiny industry compared to the general construction industry. Home Depot is a big company, but it's a miniscule fraction of a percentage of the entire construction and remodeling industry dollars wise and raw numbers of gainfully employed people wise.
Staying focused on the "tools only" side will only result in a set of economic blinders to the really big picture. and this is also being lost on US corporations who have forgoten that eventually you really actually have to go to work and make something, you have to create wealth, not re arrange wealth, manage wealth, leverage wealth, trade wealth around, nope, you have to MAKE IT for any NEW wealth to actually get into circulation or in peoples hands. You can't just keep opening sales outlets while you close down wealth manufacturing outlets and expect it to last for generations, it just is not possible.
The same with an economy based primarily on intangibles, it just isn't possible.
...and a potential "new paradigm" business model if the theaters handed you a DVD of the movie as you exited the theater. Or at least offered it *cheap*, as in two bux cheap, something like that, not 20$. A lot of bands do that now at live concerts, sell the disks and other swag, so why not? Would it bump up interest, and help justify a "profit" level ticket price without having to make it on the popcorn and cokes? I don't know, but I would probably go to more movies (I very rarely go now anyway, for various reasons) if that was offered as a sweetener, and in bulk pressings, the actual cost of the disk would be pretty low for the producers.
They really only have two effective ways to "reduce piracy", the way they are doing it now-still steep prices and ridiculous laws and DRM schemes, or something different like "let's get real" prices and making the experience more pleasant all around. Get rid of the adversial mindset they have with their potential customers would be a good start methinks. Well, that and content as in the article, but that's really a huge variable anyway,along with being a market red herring, there's no easy way to classify taste or what people want, when you get down to it, every movie is a certain genre or niche market product, so it will have that x-number of potential customers only and that's it.
First, people aren't "idiots" because they took the word of their vendor and ran what came pre installed on their machines, thinking innocently that "the experts", the MS billionaires and whomever they bought their hardware from provided them with a quality product. That makes them conned, but that's something that can happen to anyone regardless of IQ. So the nasty inference is unwarranted. You don't blame the consumer if they get a hardware product and it continually fails, yet with a software product that fails for most people who aren't IT professionals it's THEIR fault? Says who, you? HAHAHAHA! You deny that most people who have gotten windows installs HAVEN'T been compromised? What are all these thousands of articles over the years talking about then? What's this huge after market industry devoted to trying to secure and fix what MS ships? an illusion? No, YOU face reality and just skip the FUD, windows causes extreme problems for people the way it is, even with firewalls and antivirus products installed, millions of just regular folks still get nailed. Even many large shops WITH professions sysadmins get compromised. Or do you deny that as well because your personal experience is different?
The trend for FOSS in general is going up. People are switching. Corporations are switching. It's slow, but plotted on a graph the indication is UP. it is not mere some small thousands of people like it was maybe 5 to 10 years ago, it's now untold millions around the planet, a not-insignifcant number, and word of mouth and political and raw economic factors that are forcing it to happen faster and faster now. Governmental agencies are switching. Many nations are openly embracing FOSS and it will be at an accelerated rate the longer this continues. Look to some of the new developing nations that look to be powerhouses in the future, like Brazil, they are in complete open revolt against MS and that entire socio/economic culture of expensive vendor lock in to insecure marginally performing products. Look at India where a plethora of industry and governmental officials are calling for a change, heck, look all over, every day another big company switching, another political action to try and force a governmental switch. People aren't doing this because it's just something to do, they are doing it because they want to switch from expensive and unsatisfactory to cheaper freer and more useful. This doesn't make them idiots, it makes them smart and aware.
Like I said, it will take some more years,note the word *years*, but it's easy to see it happening and what the trends are. And just because your *personal* microcosm anecdotal is favorable, my post was in *generalities* and macro trends, so changing the subject, while an obvious elementary debate 101 tactic, isn't any sort of reasonable or logical retort. I repeat, and this is an experiment anyone may try, go to your nearest whitebox shops, and see what they make the most money on with "computer repairs". It's cleaning up windows installations after it's gotten compromised. that's it, and you know it. I'm sure there are several people reading this who own and run whitebox shops, let them speak on this, what makes them money right now. As geeks, how many of us have had to 'fix" friends and families computers, where usually what is broken is *windows*. I know I have, you probably have, I would wager something like 99% of/. readership has. and years past, not much in the way of any alternatives, but NOW? It's getting there, look back even two or three years ago, now do an extrapolation exercise. You honestly see FOSS going back downhill and just going away to insignifigance and MS going back up?
The people who have this happen to them several times in a row are getting hip. They are not IT professionals, nor should they have to be just to use a machine. Yes, some care and training and awareness is necessary to use any computer/OS/applications package, but even the dullest of the non sharp are finally re
Most people I know who still run windows have at least a once a month cussing session when they get hosed, and have to haul their borked windows box to the smiling local MS fixit guy for folding money "repair". Not sure if you would call that angry or anoyed with MS, but put it this way, they are not amused in the slightest. if people don't have a tame geek handy who can be suckered into working for free, running MS just costs people cash and aggravation in between a few minutes of medicore performance and use.
If you don't believe this, just go into your nearest whitebox shop and see what the bulk of the repairs are. It's certainly not hardware failure at the top of the list. Now MS has done a remarkable job in marketing so far into keeping people dumbed down that it is 'the computer's" fault things go wrong, but we are at a tipping point now where people by the millions are realising that it's MICROSOFT that's broken. Years past they didn't know any better, but it sure is changing now. Heck, I was in a big chain hardware store yesterday, needed to order a part for a small gas engine tool, when the dude booted his machine to look up the part number I noticed the machine was running the moz browser, NOT IE. I commented to the salesguy, he said "it worked better". Kinda neat. A few years ago this wouldn't have been so, but once large corporations start changing, and those people go home and run that stuff on their home machines, then they tell their friends and family, and etc...well, MS is on the way out sometime, they have PEAKED and are on the downhill now, and longvistahorn will not be saving them. It will take some more time, but there's nothing they can do to stop the changes now, this "most people" person IS getting hip and won't be putting up with their ridiculous rip off buggy stuff for much longer. Might take 5 to 10 more years, but once the big slide happens, watch out, it will go FAST. And the younger geeks entering the IT workforce will be pushing this now, they just aren't going to be standing for running ancient expensive and bogus crap when they KNOW there's better.
Fuel is priced globally (most places, not everywherer, some nations are nationalized and subsidised), your bulk suppliers get it the same price we do, just UK taxes on fuel are higher,(if you are there, if not, disregard this) and they use that tax for other societal purposes. I know this doesn't mean much to anyones wallet, just the raw data is a nit picking point. It's not a market/money decision or situation in your case as much as a political decision ya'all have made collectively a long time ago.
I'd also say over the decades that we in the US probably pay a lot more for "fuel" than what most americans (or other folks really) think we do because of a 'stealth' cost, because we have had an inordinate *large* amount of tax money going to supply a military oversized enough to maintain a big presence in the middle east/mediterannean area, primarily because of securing oil supplies for the long term. They won't ever really say that out loud, but it's true. The reason for it I would guess is they were hip to the real numbers of proven reserves and where they were located, and long ago decided it was better to fully use up the foreign supplies FIRST before we completely tapped the domestic supplies out. A little mercenary, but so it goes with geopolitics and big business... If we add in that percentage that disappears with our federal taxes, the "fuel" prices we as joe citizens pay are probably closer to yours. Still not as high, but higher than displayed "pump" prices. How much I don't know but it's a factor to be sure when you consider the military budget over the past few decades is in the trillions of dollahs..
it's hard to do this accurately, because unless you are one of the planetary stonecutter bilderburger illuminated elite controllers, you sure as heck do NOT know what the price 0 fuel is going to be next year, or the year after, etc to the life of the car or your note, whichever comes first. The savings might not be there at a cost of x for the ride when gas is at 3$ gallon, but at 5 or 6$, which it could quite easily get to? How many more killer hurricanes will it take to sink in that we have a quite shaky and vulnerable fuel supply infrastructure? How may more middle eastern WHOOPSIES will it take??
And this also leaves out the large influence of after-market modding and adaptations you might be able to include in a year or whatever. Like for instance, already a lot of dudes are turning marginally performing priuses into true "plug in" hybrids, thereby opening up the "short commute" to being electric, using solar, or grid juice powered overnight, running on pure batteries for that 20 or 30 mile jaunt,with ZERO gas then, at much cheaper cost per mile than what they get now with the start and stop fuel engine. See how things can change quickly?
Basically, there are too many economic assumptions with trying to estimate *true* cost. At best you can guess based on todays prices. The price of the ride is exact, fuel....hmmmm... feeling LUCKY are ya lad?
With that said, well sure, the current crop of tiny diesels get better mileage, but still...having a modded hybrid that is true plug in plus be able to be used as an emergency generator makes it a lot more attractive for some situations. A lot of folks dig that "multi use" aspect that is possible with them.
To me, hybrids, and alternative energy in general, are a lot like the earlier computer years. They were more expensive than now, and what we have now is more powerful and faster, etc, but...wasn't it just SLICK to be an earlier adopter? Does anyone looking back really regret all their earlier more expensive computers? Didn't it payoff in the long run just 'doing it', both for yourself and for society in general? I have both computers and a solar rig, my ONLY regret is not getting into both those fields earlier, and that's it. I don't need a new ride yet, but when the time comes that is definetly the way I will go, because even if the iniial cost is higher over a 'straight' ride, you can do a lot more with one. I dig more features!
We are geeks! Sometimes we just do stuff because we know this or that is just plain cool and needs to happen! We are talking about bleeding edge tech, so???? Either we do it or it don't ever get done!
You are correct in that, people run what comes on the computer. This is gradually changing, you *can* get Linux and other open source apps pre installed, but it is at a glacial pace still.
I've used both, zippos lose their fluid quicker. For the price of one zippo you can buy a whole big bag of bics, enough for tens of thousands of fire lightings..
I know zippos are nostalgic and all, but bics are just lighter and cheaper and work very well.
Either way though, a good lighter is an A+ tool for survival.
No idea from a viewpoint like that, seems if your local heavy urban infrastructure is destroyed, all that stuff you mention won't be working, plus most likely you'll be on foot if the roads get jammed with wrecks and stalled cars and public transportation is hosed. Best then probably a nice mountain bike, you can always pick it up and walk around or climb over obstructions.
Anyway, from a suburban or rural perspective, in the survival/preparedness community we call this "move on a moments notice" a BOB, or "Bug out Bag", or the portable reality backpack to be descriptive.. It has to be made individual, a everyones needs are different, and your geography and local climate conditions (winter/summer, etc) vary.
I prioritize in this sequence, based on human need, as opposed to luxuries: water-food-shelter-security
water-you NEED water, both stored and a very good filtration system. I see one poster mentioned katadyn already, they are good, and there are others on the market, online or the better camping stores
food-the best quality that is portable is the higher end mountain climbing food, you get the most calories and nutrition for the weight, but it's expensive. Cheaper, as mentioned, granola bars, raisins, nuts, chocolates, beef jerky, etc, whatever floats your taste buds and is light, requires no preparations to eat, and will give you some energy and protein for working. MREs are "OK" as far as they go, I personally don't like them (ate up all mine already, no desire to replace them) but they are functional and store a long time. I'd rather eat a can of sardines and some granola.
shelter-your first area of shelter is your clothing, so you have to pack what is critical, good quality socks, gloves, heavy pants and shirts, coat or jacket, etc. After that, any of the huge variety of lightweight tents (a tent with a weather fly is the best), and a lightweight but comfy sleeping bag
security-big variable, but critical. In an emergency situation you will be 'on your own", so really think about that. You will need to be able to defend yourself, possibly hunt for food. You'll need tools for these purposes, and YMMV what you might be comfortable with in that regard. You WILL need some good knives, as in multiple. You just will. One multi blade with gadgets, one sturdy belt knife, and another backup lock blade folder should work.
After that it's really "salt to taste". I have small medkits, radios, flashlights, sewing supplies, etc in my bags. Socks. did I mention extra socks? Your feet are critical because that's your ride, take care of your feet. Put in some soap and other hygien action, and don't neglect that, blisters will form and you don't want infections, so stay clean as possible.
I live rural and am very rural oriented so I have things others might not, like snares and small traps, lightweight fishing tackle, lightweight cooking supplies, etc. This is a serious long time interest of mine since i wa a teen and we got wiped out by a blizzard and national guard helos dropped food down to our 'hood. made an impresion on me how fast it can go from civilization to "you're on your own, Sparky!" so it's evolved for me over the years. I have done several eXtreme duration backwoods treks and done the grizzly zogger routine for months at a time in all weathers. Kinda fun really once you get in the groove. Personally I have found one of the more useful tools is just a medium weight axe, just amazing what you can do with one. If you twisted my arm and said "one tool only" that's what I would grab. Second most useful is a bic lighter. Ya, you can do any number of boy sprout schemes to build fire, but you can't beat a one dollar bic. Does wonders for the old morale to have some hot rabbit or trout instead of cold bugs and raw minnows when the stress level is at the "OMG" level. Real nice to stretch out in front of a small cozy fire instead of shivering in the mist. And don't forget some salt and pepper packs! Get extra when you score fastfood and slip them into a ziplock. (B
The laptop is proposed as a cheap way to push out ebooks to a lot more students than a traditional dead trees version of a text book. Cost wise it's orders of magnitude cheaper that way.
I'm old school, this could be fun! Someone messes with the ride, they get the ski mask and louisville slugger treatment. Or 50 of their rides get keyed. Whatever. not advice to anyone, because OMGBBQ that's terrorism and lawyers and homeland security and union mafia goons and.. ha! Who cares now, the US has been de-nutted. But glad I grew up back when you dealt with your own problems.
yep,/me ex UAW and ex United Woodworkers. I quit the UAW because management (this was in the late 60's) was drunk and stoned leet morons who couldn't see the foreign cars looming on the horizon to take market share (better quality, better mileage, cheaper prices, this was a big duh if anyone bothered to look, and I was proven right a few years later), and the rank and file was drunk and stoned rednecks who couldn't see they were striking themselves out of jobs, not to mention the chronic theft that went on. I decided a pox on that industry, I would move on, so I did. I see no future in being stupid, or a crook, although our current business models seem to reward that...hmmm.. anyway, not for me!
hahahaha! pay big time folding money to go to some snob school with broken crap but pro-I mean amature football as priority, gotta love it!
many more colleges in the whirrled, time to pick another...or put up with the crap, learn nothing, get a useless degree in conformity and "girly man itis"
One time I was working COMDEX show, the show had started, the attendees were all inside, time to switch to suit mode. All of a sudden on the walkie talkie we get a call, one of our vendors had some major snafu, I have to go fix it. Problem, the Interface Group had only given our company so many show passes, they were out with some bosses on the floor and they weren't answering their talkies so I couldn't get one to get on the floor and security was being dinks about it.
hmmmmm
One show catalog for the logo and a fax machine and some old show badges and some leet artiste skills with magic markers and pens, etc, later, and I had a reasonably facsimile of what that days badge looked like,stuffed it in the plastic badge holder, grabbed a swag bag for effect, went to another entrance, one out on the docks that didn't have a mag stripe reader (couldn't fake that quickly) and waltzed right in.
maybe we need to fail then, if our society is THAT screwed up, I say trash it, start over, it ain't worth saving. If labor is dinkus and management is bogus and government is pathetic-well??? what's the point? why try to maintain any sort of 'values" like that? I know I wouldn't attend such a school or even live in an area like that.
well, if it really is that bad, guess if it was my decision to make I'd just skip that school or that area to live in. We do have a very large planet with other opportunities.
The entire deal just struck me as seriously wrong,funny and wrong at the same time, but as a microcosm of a macro problem, maybe there's something to be addressed there, perhaps from a political angle instead. Use a camera for the primary "repair" tool perhaps, as I mentioned previously. I still believe in the old tenet of "where there's a will there's a way".
I take your point and don't have any easy answer for it. I do think that perhaps something mnight have been attempted in the past politically, an honest "fess up" to some mistakes. The UK and the USA should have never interferred with those peoples nations in the ways they have done (setting up the shah in iran is one example). Carving up iraq back in the early 20th century, etc, etc.
I think the best we might be able to do now is try to influence the younger folks over there (and here) using new teh, the net, broadcast, etc, so that they come to understand it is "fundamentaly" weird to just hate people over various religious differences.
Now though with the portable nukes and various other weapons, yep, might be too late. I am pessimisstic on it also.
I understand that part about the stadium and agree with it, seems ludicrous, doesn't it? Millions for a stadium dozens of dollars for functional plant repair. Everything about the situation is funny/sad/weird/ I was just after the practical aspects of it, like, if I was forced to sit at a broken desk after a few days I would have just fixed it. Broken door in the johns phhht cordless drill and some bolts in the bookbag, done.
I think the same thing about local public schools, dropping tons of money on team sports while the textbook budget goes lacking, etc.,and forcing local property tax payers to fund that near nonsense.
It certainly wasn't intended as flamebait, just some good natured razzing as the concept had me cracking up. I was careful to type in numerous ha ha has....
uber leet engineers of de phtasmagorikal futah can't sneak past a snoozing "union" janitor and fix a door on a hinge. HAHAHAHAHA! Can sneak over to someone elses college and steal a mascot, figure out how to beat vegas, dissasemble and reassemble the profs car inside his bedroom, stuff like that, but a DOOR floors them!
teehheee hee, take yer razzin! No engineers street cred until you can brainstorm your way to fixed desks and doors! In the real world you have to deal with marketing weasels and deadlines based on when their car payments are due, clueles bosses who order you to do three different things simultaneouylsy that conflict with each other, government regulations that only make sense to people who are required to eat with spoons only, and all sorts of other impossible crap, yet the work still needs to be done, and it gets done. Figure it out, it ain't rocket surgery!
p.s. I was in a union long time ago, wouldn't have bothered me *one bit* if my work mysteriously got done when I wan't looking, because the CHECK would still show up! hehehehehehe, engineers, whooo hawww1one
This is HYSTERICAL. A school with "engineers" and millions for so called amature sports, and no one can cob job their own desks back together? glue, screws, a clamp? the tech leaders of tomorrow who will take us to mars and give us mr. fusion reactors? HAHAHAHA! A simple door off a hinge repair, and NO ONE does it in a year?
sounds like some people are studying being "elite" more than learning to become practical engineers.
No, I don't want to hear "it's not your job" either or you pay blah blah blah. Sometimes you just chip in and get something done, don't wait for an invite in the real world.
Down the street from me is sort of a weird intersection, the weeds grow real high quickly, blocking the view so you can't tell if a car is coming around the corner or not making it hazardous. Ya, the county mows it once a month, sometimes that isn't enough. solution! Take weed whacker in trunk of car, stop, get out, and HORRORS OF DE HORRORS do something practical that benefits the neighbors and me just for the hell of it! And not get paid! And it's not my job! And it costs time, and uber leet mad weed whacking skillz! The horrors!
MUAHAHAHAHAHA!
not trying to flame, but really............organize a dang fix up party with your buds and some brewskis some weekend, fix the desks and the doors and the leaks. Maybe after the school newspaper covers the action (don't leave out the contrast with the stadium, nice set of before and after pics, etc), it will embarass the school and alumni enough so they will fund the maintenance department better.
As to bad professors, no idea other than I hold that all bossess need to work the loading docks and the assembly line once in awhile, just to keep them straight, so all professors need to go out and get non academic jobs once in awhile. Pass a law or something.
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I was at a bicycle race once where some ancient geezer didn't realise there was a street race going on (blocked off roads for the downtown stretch) and walked out in front of some guy bookin it on a skinny bike and got creamed and expired on the spot.
Stuff happens.....
At the drags the jet and rocket powered vehicles are always crowd favorites, I remember seeing a jet powered TRACTOR before that could run an impressive 1/4 mile.
Just reality., hoo-mannz like mechanical things that go fast, and doesn't natter what they are or what they use for motive power. Everything from gravity races (soap box derbies) to world cup sailing to a humonigigantinormus variety of engine equpped racing on or in land, sea and sky.
you "make money" in open source (primarily) by using it in your OTHER meat and potatoes widget making and selling business. Software is a tool to "do other real tangible stuff", it's the "do stuff" part where you make your money if you are joe corporation. If you are joe IT nerd, you make YOUR money by using open source for your employer at joe corporation making and selling widgets better than his competitor. If you forget that part, you will lose out and most likely get replaced.
This is 2005, not 1975, the software tool business is becoming "free", as in FOSS free, it's beyond mature, the "tools" are plenty good enough to "do business with" now, so look to actually DOING SOMETHING with the tools to "make money".
In meat space, there are just so many hammers and saws you will be able to sell to a contractor, eventually those hammers and saws go build a lot of buildings, THAT is where the real serious folding money is made, not on the sales of hammers and saws. If you try to keep coming out with a new hammer or saw that is only marginally different from the previous, the contractor is just going to go 'fuggit" and stop buying "new" tools as long as the old ones are functional and still making his living for him.
Yes, *some* loot is made on the tool, *some* people are employed manufacturing and selling them, but it's a tiny industry compared to the general construction industry. Home Depot is a big company, but it's a miniscule fraction of a percentage of the entire construction and remodeling industry dollars wise and raw numbers of gainfully employed people wise.
Staying focused on the "tools only" side will only result in a set of economic blinders to the really big picture. and this is also being lost on US corporations who have forgoten that eventually you really actually have to go to work and make something, you have to create wealth, not re arrange wealth, manage wealth, leverage wealth, trade wealth around, nope, you have to MAKE IT for any NEW wealth to actually get into circulation or in peoples hands. You can't just keep opening sales outlets while you close down wealth manufacturing outlets and expect it to last for generations, it just is not possible.
The same with an economy based primarily on intangibles, it just isn't possible.
yep, sucks. Corruption is endemic all over the planet. Hard to find a non corrupt government.
Anyway, cheer up, perhaps the MIT 100$ laptop will provide the alternative needed for the planets poorer people.
...and a potential "new paradigm" business model if the theaters handed you a DVD of the movie as you exited the theater. Or at least offered it *cheap*, as in two bux cheap, something like that, not 20$. A lot of bands do that now at live concerts, sell the disks and other swag, so why not? Would it bump up interest, and help justify a "profit" level ticket price without having to make it on the popcorn and cokes? I don't know, but I would probably go to more movies (I very rarely go now anyway, for various reasons) if that was offered as a sweetener, and in bulk pressings, the actual cost of the disk would be pretty low for the producers.
They really only have two effective ways to "reduce piracy", the way they are doing it now-still steep prices and ridiculous laws and DRM schemes, or something different like "let's get real" prices and making the experience more pleasant all around. Get rid of the adversial mindset they have with their potential customers would be a good start methinks. Well, that and content as in the article, but that's really a huge variable anyway,along with being a market red herring, there's no easy way to classify taste or what people want, when you get down to it, every movie is a certain genre or niche market product, so it will have that x-number of potential customers only and that's it.
First, people aren't "idiots" because they took the word of their vendor and ran what came pre installed on their machines, thinking innocently that "the experts", the MS billionaires and whomever they bought their hardware from provided them with a quality product. That makes them conned, but that's something that can happen to anyone regardless of IQ. So the nasty inference is unwarranted. You don't blame the consumer if they get a hardware product and it continually fails, yet with a software product that fails for most people who aren't IT professionals it's THEIR fault? Says who, you? HAHAHAHA! You deny that most people who have gotten windows installs HAVEN'T been compromised? What are all these thousands of articles over the years talking about then? What's this huge after market industry devoted to trying to secure and fix what MS ships? an illusion? No, YOU face reality and just skip the FUD, windows causes extreme problems for people the way it is, even with firewalls and antivirus products installed, millions of just regular folks still get nailed. Even many large shops WITH professions sysadmins get compromised. Or do you deny that as well because your personal experience is different?
/. readership has. and years past, not much in the way of any alternatives, but NOW? It's getting there, look back even two or three years ago, now do an extrapolation exercise. You honestly see FOSS going back downhill and just going away to insignifigance and MS going back up?
The trend for FOSS in general is going up. People are switching. Corporations are switching. It's slow, but plotted on a graph the indication is UP. it is not mere some small thousands of people like it was maybe 5 to 10 years ago, it's now untold millions around the planet, a not-insignifcant number, and word of mouth and political and raw economic factors that are forcing it to happen faster and faster now. Governmental agencies are switching. Many nations are openly embracing FOSS and it will be at an accelerated rate the longer this continues. Look to some of the new developing nations that look to be powerhouses in the future, like Brazil, they are in complete open revolt against MS and that entire socio/economic culture of expensive vendor lock in to insecure marginally performing products. Look at India where a plethora of industry and governmental officials are calling for a change, heck, look all over, every day another big company switching, another political action to try and force a governmental switch. People aren't doing this because it's just something to do, they are doing it because they want to switch from expensive and unsatisfactory to cheaper freer and more useful. This doesn't make them idiots, it makes them smart and aware.
Like I said, it will take some more years,note the word *years*, but it's easy to see it happening and what the trends are. And just because your *personal* microcosm anecdotal is favorable, my post was in *generalities* and macro trends, so changing the subject, while an obvious elementary debate 101 tactic, isn't any sort of reasonable or logical retort. I repeat, and this is an experiment anyone may try, go to your nearest whitebox shops, and see what they make the most money on with "computer repairs". It's cleaning up windows installations after it's gotten compromised. that's it, and you know it. I'm sure there are several people reading this who own and run whitebox shops, let them speak on this, what makes them money right now. As geeks, how many of us have had to 'fix" friends and families computers, where usually what is broken is *windows*. I know I have, you probably have, I would wager something like 99% of
The people who have this happen to them several times in a row are getting hip. They are not IT professionals, nor should they have to be just to use a machine. Yes, some care and training and awareness is necessary to use any computer/OS/applications package, but even the dullest of the non sharp are finally re
Most people I know who still run windows have at least a once a month cussing session when they get hosed, and have to haul their borked windows box to the smiling local MS fixit guy for folding money "repair". Not sure if you would call that angry or anoyed with MS, but put it this way, they are not amused in the slightest. if people don't have a tame geek handy who can be suckered into working for free, running MS just costs people cash and aggravation in between a few minutes of medicore performance and use.
If you don't believe this, just go into your nearest whitebox shop and see what the bulk of the repairs are. It's certainly not hardware failure at the top of the list. Now MS has done a remarkable job in marketing so far into keeping people dumbed down that it is 'the computer's" fault things go wrong, but we are at a tipping point now where people by the millions are realising that it's MICROSOFT that's broken. Years past they didn't know any better, but it sure is changing now. Heck, I was in a big chain hardware store yesterday, needed to order a part for a small gas engine tool, when the dude booted his machine to look up the part number I noticed the machine was running the moz browser, NOT IE. I commented to the salesguy, he said "it worked better". Kinda neat. A few years ago this wouldn't have been so, but once large corporations start changing, and those people go home and run that stuff on their home machines, then they tell their friends and family, and etc...well, MS is on the way out sometime, they have PEAKED and are on the downhill now, and longvistahorn will not be saving them. It will take some more time, but there's nothing they can do to stop the changes now, this "most people" person IS getting hip and won't be putting up with their ridiculous rip off buggy stuff for much longer. Might take 5 to 10 more years, but once the big slide happens, watch out, it will go FAST. And the younger geeks entering the IT workforce will be pushing this now, they just aren't going to be standing for running ancient expensive and bogus crap when they KNOW there's better.
Fuel is priced globally (most places, not everywherer, some nations are nationalized and subsidised), your bulk suppliers get it the same price we do, just UK taxes on fuel are higher,(if you are there, if not, disregard this) and they use that tax for other societal purposes. I know this doesn't mean much to anyones wallet, just the raw data is a nit picking point. It's not a market/money decision or situation in your case as much as a political decision ya'all have made collectively a long time ago.
I'd also say over the decades that we in the US probably pay a lot more for "fuel" than what most americans (or other folks really) think we do because of a 'stealth' cost, because we have had an inordinate *large* amount of tax money going to supply a military oversized enough to maintain a big presence in the middle east/mediterannean area, primarily because of securing oil supplies for the long term. They won't ever really say that out loud, but it's true. The reason for it I would guess is they were hip to the real numbers of proven reserves and where they were located, and long ago decided it was better to fully use up the foreign supplies FIRST before we completely tapped the domestic supplies out. A little mercenary, but so it goes with geopolitics and big business... If we add in that percentage that disappears with our federal taxes, the "fuel" prices we as joe citizens pay are probably closer to yours. Still not as high, but higher than displayed "pump" prices. How much I don't know but it's a factor to be sure when you consider the military budget over the past few decades is in the trillions of dollahs..
it's hard to do this accurately, because unless you are one of the planetary stonecutter bilderburger illuminated elite controllers, you sure as heck do NOT know what the price 0 fuel is going to be next year, or the year after, etc to the life of the car or your note, whichever comes first. The savings might not be there at a cost of x for the ride when gas is at 3$ gallon, but at 5 or 6$, which it could quite easily get to? How many more killer hurricanes will it take to sink in that we have a quite shaky and vulnerable fuel supply infrastructure? How may more middle eastern WHOOPSIES will it take??
And this also leaves out the large influence of after-market modding and adaptations you might be able to include in a year or whatever. Like for instance, already a lot of dudes are turning marginally performing priuses into true "plug in" hybrids, thereby opening up the "short commute" to being electric, using solar, or grid juice powered overnight, running on pure batteries for that 20 or 30 mile jaunt,with ZERO gas then, at much cheaper cost per mile than what they get now with the start and stop fuel engine. See how things can change quickly?
Basically, there are too many economic assumptions with trying to estimate *true* cost. At best you can guess based on todays prices. The price of the ride is exact, fuel....hmmmm... feeling LUCKY are ya lad?
With that said, well sure, the current crop of tiny diesels get better mileage, but still...having a modded hybrid that is true plug in plus be able to be used as an emergency generator makes it a lot more attractive for some situations. A lot of folks dig that "multi use" aspect that is possible with them.
To me, hybrids, and alternative energy in general, are a lot like the earlier computer years. They were more expensive than now, and what we have now is more powerful and faster, etc, but...wasn't it just SLICK to be an earlier adopter? Does anyone looking back really regret all their earlier more expensive computers? Didn't it payoff in the long run just 'doing it', both for yourself and for society in general? I have both computers and a solar rig, my ONLY regret is not getting into both those fields earlier, and that's it. I don't need a new ride yet, but when the time comes that is definetly the way I will go, because even if the iniial cost is higher over a 'straight' ride, you can do a lot more with one. I dig more features!
We are geeks! Sometimes we just do stuff because we know this or that is just plain cool and needs to happen! We are talking about bleeding edge tech, so???? Either we do it or it don't ever get done!
You are correct in that, people run what comes on the computer. This is gradually changing, you *can* get Linux and other open source apps pre installed, but it is at a glacial pace still.
I've used both, zippos lose their fluid quicker. For the price of one zippo you can buy a whole big bag of bics, enough for tens of thousands of fire lightings..
I know zippos are nostalgic and all, but bics are just lighter and cheaper and work very well.
Either way though, a good lighter is an A+ tool for survival.
No idea from a viewpoint like that, seems if your local heavy urban infrastructure is destroyed, all that stuff you mention won't be working, plus most likely you'll be on foot if the roads get jammed with wrecks and stalled cars and public transportation is hosed. Best then probably a nice mountain bike, you can always pick it up and walk around or climb over obstructions.
Anyway, from a suburban or rural perspective, in the survival/preparedness community we call this "move on a moments notice" a BOB, or "Bug out Bag", or the portable reality backpack to be descriptive.. It has to be made individual, a everyones needs are different, and your geography and local climate conditions (winter/summer, etc) vary.
I prioritize in this sequence, based on human need, as opposed to luxuries: water-food-shelter-security
water-you NEED water, both stored and a very good filtration system. I see one poster mentioned katadyn already, they are good, and there are others on the market, online or the better camping stores
food-the best quality that is portable is the higher end mountain climbing food, you get the most calories and nutrition for the weight, but it's expensive. Cheaper, as mentioned, granola bars, raisins, nuts, chocolates, beef jerky, etc, whatever floats your taste buds and is light, requires no preparations to eat, and will give you some energy and protein for working. MREs are "OK" as far as they go, I personally don't like them (ate up all mine already, no desire to replace them) but they are functional and store a long time. I'd rather eat a can of sardines and some granola.
shelter-your first area of shelter is your clothing, so you have to pack what is critical, good quality socks, gloves, heavy pants and shirts, coat or jacket, etc. After that, any of the huge variety of lightweight tents (a tent with a weather fly is the best), and a lightweight but comfy sleeping bag
security-big variable, but critical. In an emergency situation you will be 'on your own", so really think about that. You will need to be able to defend yourself, possibly hunt for food. You'll need tools for these purposes, and YMMV what you might be comfortable with in that regard. You WILL need some good knives, as in multiple. You just will. One multi blade with gadgets, one sturdy belt knife, and another backup lock blade folder should work.
After that it's really "salt to taste". I have small medkits, radios, flashlights, sewing supplies, etc in my bags. Socks. did I mention extra socks? Your feet are critical because that's your ride, take care of your feet. Put in some soap and other hygien action, and don't neglect that, blisters will form and you don't want infections, so stay clean as possible.
I live rural and am very rural oriented so I have things others might not, like snares and small traps, lightweight fishing tackle, lightweight cooking supplies, etc. This is a serious long time interest of mine since i wa a teen and we got wiped out by a blizzard and national guard helos dropped food down to our 'hood. made an impresion on me how fast it can go from civilization to "you're on your own, Sparky!" so it's evolved for me over the years. I have done several eXtreme duration backwoods treks and done the grizzly zogger routine for months at a time in all weathers. Kinda fun really once you get in the groove. Personally I have found one of the more useful tools is just a medium weight axe, just amazing what you can do with one. If you twisted my arm and said "one tool only" that's what I would grab. Second most useful is a bic lighter. Ya, you can do any number of boy sprout schemes to build fire, but you can't beat a one dollar bic. Does wonders for the old morale to have some hot rabbit or trout instead of cold bugs and raw minnows when the stress level is at the "OMG" level. Real nice to stretch out in front of a small cozy fire instead of shivering in the mist. And don't forget some salt and pepper packs! Get extra when you score fastfood and slip them into a ziplock. (B
The laptop is proposed as a cheap way to push out ebooks to a lot more students than a traditional dead trees version of a text book. Cost wise it's orders of magnitude cheaper that way.
The proposed laptop comes with integrated wireless for mesh networking, and at least 4 USB ports.
And yes, a lot of ordinary people might want one, I am hoping some enterprising lads start making similar knockoffs for the retail market.
I'm old school, this could be fun! Someone messes with the ride, they get the ski mask and louisville slugger treatment. Or 50 of their rides get keyed. Whatever. not advice to anyone, because OMGBBQ that's terrorism and lawyers and homeland security and union mafia goons and.. ha! Who cares now, the US has been de-nutted. But glad I grew up back when you dealt with your own problems.
/me ex UAW and ex United Woodworkers. I quit the UAW because management (this was in the late 60's) was drunk and stoned leet morons who couldn't see the foreign cars looming on the horizon to take market share (better quality, better mileage, cheaper prices, this was a big duh if anyone bothered to look, and I was proven right a few years later), and the rank and file was drunk and stoned rednecks who couldn't see they were striking themselves out of jobs, not to mention the chronic theft that went on. I decided a pox on that industry, I would move on, so I did. I see no future in being stupid, or a crook, although our current business models seem to reward that...hmmm.. anyway, not for me!
yep,
awww..my feelings are hurt...no they ain't!
hahahaha! pay big time folding money to go to some snob school with broken crap but pro-I mean amature football as priority, gotta love it!
many more colleges in the whirrled, time to pick another...or put up with the crap, learn nothing, get a useless degree in conformity and "girly man itis"
One time I was working COMDEX show, the show had started, the attendees were all inside, time to switch to suit mode. All of a sudden on the walkie talkie we get a call, one of our vendors had some major snafu, I have to go fix it. Problem, the Interface Group had only given our company so many show passes, they were out with some bosses on the floor and they weren't answering their talkies so I couldn't get one to get on the floor and security was being dinks about it.
hmmmmm
One show catalog for the logo and a fax machine and some old show badges and some leet artiste skills with magic markers and pens, etc, later, and I had a reasonably facsimile of what that days badge looked like,stuffed it in the plastic badge holder, grabbed a swag bag for effect, went to another entrance, one out on the docks that didn't have a mag stripe reader (couldn't fake that quickly) and waltzed right in.
yep, sometimes you just gotta do what needs doin'
maybe we need to fail then, if our society is THAT screwed up, I say trash it, start over, it ain't worth saving. If labor is dinkus and management is bogus and government is pathetic-well??? what's the point? why try to maintain any sort of 'values" like that? I know I wouldn't attend such a school or even live in an area like that.
well, if it really is that bad, guess if it was my decision to make I'd just skip that school or that area to live in. We do have a very large planet with other opportunities.
The entire deal just struck me as seriously wrong,funny and wrong at the same time, but as a microcosm of a macro problem, maybe there's something to be addressed there, perhaps from a political angle instead. Use a camera for the primary "repair" tool perhaps, as I mentioned previously. I still believe in the old tenet of "where there's a will there's a way".
interesting parallels on a large scale with the recent hurricane news.
Seems bureaucracy and paperwork and who's job this or that was supposed to be slowed down a lot of the relief efforts. It's just *dumb*.
I take your point and don't have any easy answer for it. I do think that perhaps something mnight have been attempted in the past politically, an honest "fess up" to some mistakes. The UK and the USA should have never interferred with those peoples nations in the ways they have done (setting up the shah in iran is one example). Carving up iraq back in the early 20th century, etc, etc.
I think the best we might be able to do now is try to influence the younger folks over there (and here) using new teh, the net, broadcast, etc, so that they come to understand it is "fundamentaly" weird to just hate people over various religious differences.
Now though with the portable nukes and various other weapons, yep, might be too late. I am pessimisstic on it also.
I understand that part about the stadium and agree with it, seems ludicrous, doesn't it? Millions for a stadium dozens of dollars for functional plant repair. Everything about the situation is funny/sad/weird/ I was just after the practical aspects of it, like, if I was forced to sit at a broken desk after a few days I would have just fixed it. Broken door in the johns phhht cordless drill and some bolts in the bookbag, done.
I think the same thing about local public schools, dropping tons of money on team sports while the textbook budget goes lacking, etc.,and forcing local property tax payers to fund that near nonsense.
It certainly wasn't intended as flamebait, just some good natured razzing as the concept had me cracking up. I was careful to type in numerous ha ha has....
sounds reasonable!
uber leet engineers of de phtasmagorikal futah can't sneak past a snoozing "union" janitor and fix a door on a hinge.
HAHAHAHAHA! Can sneak over to someone elses college and steal a mascot, figure out how to beat vegas, dissasemble and reassemble the profs car inside his bedroom, stuff like that, but a DOOR floors them!
teehheee hee, take yer razzin! No engineers street cred until you can brainstorm your way to fixed desks and doors! In the real world you have to deal with marketing weasels and deadlines based on when their car payments are due, clueles bosses who order you to do three different things simultaneouylsy that conflict with each other, government regulations that only make sense to people who are required to eat with spoons only, and all sorts of other impossible crap, yet the work still needs to be done, and it gets done. Figure it out, it ain't rocket surgery!
p.s. I was in a union long time ago, wouldn't have bothered me *one bit* if my work mysteriously got done when I wan't looking, because the CHECK would still show up!
hehehehehehe, engineers, whooo hawww1one
This is HYSTERICAL. A school with "engineers" and millions for so called amature sports, and no one can cob job their own desks back together? glue, screws, a clamp? the tech leaders of tomorrow who will take us to mars and give us mr. fusion reactors? HAHAHAHA! A simple door off a hinge repair, and NO ONE does it in a year?
sounds like some people are studying being "elite" more than learning to become practical engineers.
No, I don't want to hear "it's not your job" either or you pay blah blah blah. Sometimes you just chip in and get something done, don't wait for an invite in the real world.
Down the street from me is sort of a weird intersection, the weeds grow real high quickly, blocking the view so you can't tell if a car is coming around the corner or not making it hazardous. Ya, the county mows it once a month, sometimes that isn't enough. solution! Take weed whacker in trunk of car, stop, get out, and HORRORS OF DE HORRORS do something practical that benefits the neighbors and me just for the hell of it! And not get paid! And it's not my job! And it costs time, and uber leet mad weed whacking skillz! The horrors!
MUAHAHAHAHAHA!
not trying to flame, but really............organize a dang fix up party with your buds and some brewskis some weekend, fix the desks and the doors and the leaks. Maybe after the school newspaper covers the action (don't leave out the contrast with the stadium, nice set of before and after pics, etc), it will embarass the school and alumni enough so they will fund the maintenance department better.
As to bad professors, no idea other than I hold that all bossess need to work the loading docks and the assembly line once in awhile, just to keep them straight, so all professors need to go out and get non academic jobs once in awhile. Pass a law or something.