On the other side of this, I met a guy who was employed by MS as a project manager. Him and about ten other of the latest managers were invited to Bill's house for dinner.
One of the guys is *really* keen to impress, and nattered away all through the meal 'Bill, did you know...' etc. Eventually, Bill looks at him, drops his fork and says: 'Get out of my fucking house. You're fired.'
Same guy also said that working MS was not all milk and honey; there was a constant fear of Bill, who would stalk the campus two hours a day looking for people 'wasting his money'. Apparently the flip side is his wife, who smoothes everying over, apologises and rehires people!
What O'Reilly say though is that this is a complement to real books rather than a replacement. I'm sure all sysadmins/programmers regularly come across subjects they are likely to look at once and never again - perhaps the regular [insert obscure programming language] expert is on vacation or whatever. The idea of this is that if you need to use a book regularly, you buy it; but if it is a one-off or you just want to see whats available you can check it out online.
I wouldn't spend $50 on a book when I only need one chapter on one day; this is a compromise.
This isn't a bad move by AOL. True, most of their customers are on dialup, but they would like them to be on AOL broadband. So they offer extra content on broadband (there will undoubtably be 'six months of songs free when you switch to AOL broadband'). They don't expect this to take off with dialup users, but to serve as bait for them to switch.
God forbid that a web designer should - gasp - pander to his/her client. I mean, they're only the ones paying the bills. Why should they get a say over the Honourable Profession of WebMastering?
Well, according to the FAQ, in the new Star Wars Galaxies game players who do not obey the laws (murdering, looting etc) can be declared outlaws. They can then be hunted down by virtual cops (bounty hunters, also other players) and get that virtual punishment (being killed).
Such rough justice could only happen in a virtual environment, of course. Or Texas.
Re:We will have a cashless society as soon as. . .
on
The Future of Money
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· Score: 1
What do precious metals have to do with it? There are no countries still using the gold standard, and a nickel is hardly precious metal.
The flipside of this is of course that the rise of credit was excellent for the economy and (excluding people who blew the lot and went bankrupt) quality of life. In countries without functioning credit systems, only people with access to large amounts of cash can buy houses, cars etc and this increases divisions in the society.
Perhaps the end of paper money will have similar positive effects; it will make robbery and drug dealing very difficult, for example.
Buses are like women; you wait ages for one, miss it and then use a screen which can represent them instead.
Already a campaign against it....
on
Cashless Society
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· Score: 1
I've seen several bakeries here in Paris campaign against it because of the time it takes. They have these posters showing a queue of people getting annoyed as some guy puts the card in the machine, types in the code, etc etc
However, the idea itself will eventually catch on. There was a story on/. a few months back about a similar system which integrated into a watch, which you could wave at a the register to do a similar transaction, Jedi mind-trick style. Once these are available, and quicker than cash, we will really see the end of paper money.
I find your comment shows little knowledge of the situation in Africa. It is a big place; most of the countries there are not in the grip of famines or civil wars.
AIDS poses the threat of both of these, however; it has been said that the AIDS epidemic threatens to destroy any progress made in the last thirty years on terms of development.
I have just returned from Uganda, where there are international programs which are making a difference. There is no famine, no civil war, but an AIDS infection rate of around 10%.
How about spending billions to save society from famine, civil war and other infectious diseases... only to have them die of AIDS and see all these problems return.
True, 'promising to throw money' is not a magic bullet. But doing nothing certainly will not help.
There are lots of places where the budget could be cut (for example, Bush's proposal for an extra $25 billion for AIDS assistance to Africa would more than double the budget of NASA), but there really isn't that much pork left in the military budget.
Of course! Why spend money to save millions of lives when you could spend it to take thousands...
Did it occur to anyone else that the military have probably thought about this and there is more to the article than just the blurb?
Perhaps the Slashback story could read: 'US Military agree to technology restriction which makes their enemies impossible to defeat. Luckily, some guy on Slashdot notices!'
The article also deals with this problem, in the part where it mentions the need for publicity and understanding of the system. Most people and businesses would never ever in their lives have to pay an 'Interrupt Fee'; those offering you work would understand that.
The point is that those who know (deep in their black, black, hearts) that you do not want to receive their new mortgage/viagra ads will know that they WILL have to pay the fee and will desist.
I think you are closer to the point than most of the morons who clearly have not read the article and wrote 'why would spammers do this'
But... the idea of this is that spam would be cut off entirely. 'Reputable spammers' is an oxymoron. All those sending unsolicited email would be unable to spam anyone in this scheme, full stop. The point of the article is that this scheme is valid because it hinges on the right of the user to refuse email rather than the right of the spammer to send.
Slashdot Mirror
Sounds like you need to get a smaller apartment. Want to swap? In my place you can just turn on the stereo and hear it everywhere...
One of the guys is *really* keen to impress, and nattered away all through the meal 'Bill, did you know...' etc. Eventually, Bill looks at him, drops his fork and says: 'Get out of my fucking house. You're fired.'
Same guy also said that working MS was not all milk and honey; there was a constant fear of Bill, who would stalk the campus two hours a day looking for people 'wasting his money'. Apparently the flip side is his wife, who smoothes everying over, apologises and rehires people!
And of course, 50 million people downloading Microsoft Office would be highly damaging to MS's image!
They do corporate licenses with a free 30-day trial. You have to contact them for it though, I would guess it costs quite a bit.
I wouldn't spend $50 on a book when I only need one chapter on one day; this is a compromise.
This isn't a bad move by AOL. True, most of their customers are on dialup, but they would like them to be on AOL broadband. So they offer extra content on broadband (there will undoubtably be 'six months of songs free when you switch to AOL broadband'). They don't expect this to take off with dialup users, but to serve as bait for them to switch.
Well, Time Warner is a member of the RIAA, and since in this case the record company is getting cash they wouldn't care.
God forbid that a web designer should - gasp - pander to his/her client. I mean, they're only the ones paying the bills. Why should they get a say over the Honourable Profession of WebMastering?
It didn't go beep beep beep. And the paper was pretty bad, and I got a bad grade.
Now I have windows; I lose all my papers at least once, and rewriting them makes them much better!
Such rough justice could only happen in a virtual environment, of course. Or Texas.
What do precious metals have to do with it? There are no countries still using the gold standard, and a nickel is hardly precious metal.
Perhaps the end of paper money will have similar positive effects; it will make robbery and drug dealing very difficult, for example.
Buses are like women; you wait ages for one, miss it and then use a screen which can represent them instead.
However, the idea itself will eventually catch on. There was a story on /. a few months back about a similar system which integrated into a watch, which you could wave at a the register to do a similar transaction, Jedi mind-trick style. Once these are available, and quicker than cash, we will really see the end of paper money.
I have a Dell Optiplex in front of me, and it has a very nice USB port on the front for this purpose. So they thought it through...
Thanks, that makes things a lot clearer. Surely someone around here must speak German?
AIDS poses the threat of both of these, however; it has been said that the AIDS epidemic threatens to destroy any progress made in the last thirty years on terms of development.
I have just returned from Uganda, where there are international programs which are making a difference. There is no famine, no civil war, but an AIDS infection rate of around 10%.
How about spending billions to save society from famine, civil war and other infectious diseases... only to have them die of AIDS and see all these problems return.
True, 'promising to throw money' is not a magic bullet. But doing nothing certainly will not help.
Of course! Why spend money to save millions of lives when you could spend it to take thousands...
Perhaps the Slashback story could read: 'US Military agree to technology restriction which makes their enemies impossible to defeat. Luckily, some guy on Slashdot notices!'
hmph.
Does it really make a difference to your enjoyment of the article? Perhaps you could complain to him personally. In Arabic.
Since he is against contraception, doesn't the Pope already encourage contractions?
The point is that those who know (deep in their black, black, hearts) that you do not want to receive their new mortgage/viagra ads will know that they WILL have to pay the fee and will desist.
I think you are closer to the point than most of the morons who clearly have not read the article and wrote 'why would spammers do this'
But... the idea of this is that spam would be cut off entirely. 'Reputable spammers' is an oxymoron. All those sending unsolicited email would be unable to spam anyone in this scheme, full stop. The point of the article is that this scheme is valid because it hinges on the right of the user to refuse email rather than the right of the spammer to send.
bingo! thats the point
Its a book (was a very big seller last year) all about globalisation and its effects. See http://www.nologo.org/