Roberts said the contract with Software Images did not contain anything that prevented Software Images working with the Open Source Society or pressing Linux CDs "or anything like that".
He said Software Images made their decision before talking to Microsoft "for their own reasons".
"It's very much a Coke/Pepsi situation. If you are an ad agency dealing with Pepsi you don't pick up business with Coke."
When the Herald pointed out that Open Source software was a competitor to Microsoft, Roberts said: "I guess so, but the NZ Open Source Society isn't."
Interestingly enough, the software business has very similary markups. In the case of some server products, 60x the marketing and distribution costs is a lowball estimate. I would say that there are plenty of companies with high markups that do extremely well (eg, Microsoft).
You have to consider fixed costs when considering the price you which to sell at if you are not in a perfectly competitive market.
That said, a boycott for a few months would probably not even get close to defunding the RIAA. They have plenty of cash, and getting enough people to boycott the RIAA would be ridiculously tough.
Actually, in the US you only have to prove guilt beyond a reasonable doubt in a criminal case.
This law is about enabling law suits, which only have to be proved beyond 50% certainty. That's why OJ was found not guilty (they couldn't prove beyond a reasonable doubt that he was guilty), but he lost the lawsuit.
I can't recommend this open source program enough for stopping spam. Anyone can set it up, and while no heuristic based spam stopping program can be 100% foolproof, this will certainly stop a large amount of inappropriate spam from reaching your children.
It works by matching unique words in mail, and you can constantly train it. After just going through a few pages of mail and training it I get absolutely NO mortgage, porn, penis enlargement, or viagra spams at all.
The most obvious reason why the same can't happen to the spammers is that they are impossible to prosecute.
The post office would be able to track you as the sender of those postcards. If you sent them anonymously, as most spam companies do, you can surely bet that no one would sue you.
It gets much more complicated when you add the fact that a lot of spammers are from overseas and use open relays.
One thing that his excellent analogy leaves out is the concept of branch prediction.
For those of you who didn't major in CS...
Imagine that we finish the first stage of building our SUV (building the engine) and commence with stage 2 (putting the engine in the stasis). While we are doing that we are building another engine for SUV #2. However, what if the next customer didn't want an SUV, but instead wanted a compact car. We have to throw away our engine for SUV #2 and start over. We wasted an entire stage!!
This analogy doesn't work so well it seems. So we'll stick with computers. If you have 5 instructions in your pipeline and one of them is a conditional branch (think, If the user hit ENTER, print a message to the screen. If they hit escape, BSOD).
If the conditional instruction is high up in the pipeline then every instruction under it could be wasted. Obviously, if the processor could predict which path the branch would follow it would waste less instructions.
Branch predicting algorithms are extremely interesting. The early ones were very simple with:
Prediction: Never take the branch
OR Prediction: Always take the branch
People soon realized that most branches were in loops, so they came up with a new algorithm
Prediction: If the last time we were here we took the branch, take it again, otherwise don't take it. Basically, repeat what we did the last time we ran this instruction.
IIRC there are lots of branch prediction algorithms, some of which are eerily accuratae (above 90%). Unforunately, branch prediction requires cache which takes away from the cache your programs need.
Operator: Hello, Mr Johnson? Jon: Mr Jameson actually. Operator: Did you take pictures of my house? Jon: Yes, so what?? Operator: Perhaps you'd be interested in our new line of digital cameras? Jon: What? No, god no...
(Here comes the threatening part..) Operator: But my camera now bitch or you'll get a call like this every hour for the new 15 years.
Jon: Noooooooooooooooooooo (dies in horrible spam anguish)
I have to disagree. Why is it so wrong to trust people? I'll admit that $30,000 is a lot to spend on an ebay auction but with ratings, feedback, etc., it's very easy to get a lapse in judgement and trust a complete stranger.
I hardly think that assuming an escrow service isn't a fake site would make someone an idiot. There are plenty of very intelligent people out there who wouldn't know that faking an escrow site is even possible. You would realize this if you ever spent time around a hospital where you have brilliant people (Doctors), who don't know all that much about computers and/or the net.
While I have yet to play the GameCube Legend of Zelda to say it is easily the best game ever made is a bit presumptous. Considering how many excellent games have been made before I would think that your praise comes a bit too easy.
Re:Listen up, this is the last time I'll say this
on
Decentralization
·
· Score: 2, Informative
I love to see other fellow men and women reach their highest potential
This happens to be Microsofts current vision statement or mission statement or motto, or whatever it is that appears on their commercials.
I do agree with you though. There's absolutely no reason to pigeonhole ourselves into a specific career. At the University of Michigan business school the highest percentage of students (27%) have an undergraduate degree in engineering.
Plenty of geeks are out there getting MBAs or Law degrees.
I remember back in the days when AOL didn't have unlimited accounts people would phish for credit cards.
Telling someone that service X has lost their credit card information probably has the same hit rate of any other spam, 1-2%. It doesn't take much to make a lot of money off of stupid people.
That theory worked years ago, and it still works today. The way I see it, 1 of 2 things needs to happen for this to stop.
1) Greedy people have to develop some ethics
or
2) People have to become less stupid
Experts predict that either one could happen around, oh, never.
I sincerely doubt that more than a few thousand lines of source will be released to India. Proprietary functions will most likely remain just that, proprietary functions.
I came up with the idea awhile back for a group independent study project. The idea was to build a portable console, building everything from scratch. The console would have the same proportions as your tv screen, and have buttons in the same configuration as the SNES controller.
The best part is that the portable console would run nes and snes and gameboy rom files. This wouldn't be a project to market, but something to learn the intricacies of low-level programming. It would also be a fun toy for boring lectures.
Unfortunately the group I assembled to build the device voted it down and we ended up building something completely useless...
If this can get support from game companies it has a lot more chance of being successful.
It takes more than Solitaire to make an OS. They already have 3d card support, so if I can play counter-strike on one of these it would be worth giving it a shot.
Slashdot Mirror
Actually, you can get margin on terms of 5%, or even 3%. If you have 5% margin then you can make MUCH more than 200% by selling short.
Of course, you can also screw up royally and lose all your money in a day.
From the article:
Roberts said the contract with Software Images did not contain anything that prevented Software Images working with the Open Source Society or pressing Linux CDs "or anything like that".
He said Software Images made their decision before talking to Microsoft "for their own reasons".
"It's very much a Coke/Pepsi situation. If you are an ad agency dealing with Pepsi you don't pick up business with Coke."
When the Herald pointed out that Open Source software was a competitor to Microsoft, Roberts said: "I guess so, but the NZ Open Source Society isn't."
Interestingly enough, the software business has very similary markups. In the case of some server products, 60x the marketing and distribution costs is a lowball estimate. I would say that there are plenty of companies with high markups that do extremely well (eg, Microsoft).
You have to consider fixed costs when considering the price you which to sell at if you are not in a perfectly competitive market.
That said, a boycott for a few months would probably not even get close to defunding the RIAA. They have plenty of cash, and getting enough people to boycott the RIAA would be ridiculously tough.
Actually, in the US you only have to prove guilt beyond a reasonable doubt in a criminal case.
This law is about enabling law suits, which only have to be proved beyond 50% certainty. That's why OJ was found not guilty (they couldn't prove beyond a reasonable doubt that he was guilty), but he lost the lawsuit.
I can't recommend this open source program enough for stopping spam. Anyone can set it up, and while no heuristic based spam stopping program can be 100% foolproof, this will certainly stop a large amount of inappropriate spam from reaching your children. It works by matching unique words in mail, and you can constantly train it. After just going through a few pages of mail and training it I get absolutely NO mortgage, porn, penis enlargement, or viagra spams at all.
Download it here
The most obvious reason why the same can't happen to the spammers is that they are impossible to prosecute. The post office would be able to track you as the sender of those postcards. If you sent them anonymously, as most spam companies do, you can surely bet that no one would sue you. It gets much more complicated when you add the fact that a lot of spammers are from overseas and use open relays.
One thing that his excellent analogy leaves out is the concept of branch prediction.
For those of you who didn't major in CS...
Imagine that we finish the first stage of building our SUV (building the engine) and commence with stage 2 (putting the engine in the stasis). While we are doing that we are building another engine for SUV #2. However, what if the next customer didn't want an SUV, but instead wanted a compact car. We have to throw away our engine for SUV #2 and start over. We wasted an entire stage!!
This analogy doesn't work so well it seems. So we'll stick with computers. If you have 5 instructions in your pipeline and one of them is a conditional branch (think, If the user hit ENTER, print a message to the screen. If they hit escape, BSOD).
If the conditional instruction is high up in the pipeline then every instruction under it could be wasted. Obviously, if the processor could predict which path the branch would follow it would waste less instructions.
Branch predicting algorithms are extremely interesting. The early ones were very simple with:
Prediction: Never take the branch
OR
Prediction: Always take the branch
People soon realized that most branches were in loops, so they came up with a new algorithm
Prediction: If the last time we were here we took the branch, take it again, otherwise don't take it. Basically, repeat what we did the last time we ran this instruction.
IIRC there are lots of branch prediction algorithms, some of which are eerily accuratae (above 90%). Unforunately, branch prediction requires cache which takes away from the cache your programs need.
Operator: Hello, Mr Johnson?
Jon: Mr Jameson actually.
Operator: Did you take pictures of my house?
Jon: Yes, so what??
Operator: Perhaps you'd be interested in our new line of digital cameras?
Jon: What? No, god no...
(Here comes the threatening part..)
Operator: But my camera now bitch or you'll get a call like this every hour for the new 15 years.
Jon: Noooooooooooooooooooo (dies in horrible spam anguish)
Next time you buy hundereds of dollars worth of equipment on Ebay, be sure to use my new escrow service: http://www.reallythisisntafakeescrow.com
C#
This is a superb idea. Even if it doesn't net you any Profit it will most assuredly get them to stop messaging you.
I have to disagree. Why is it so wrong to trust people? I'll admit that $30,000 is a lot to spend on an ebay auction but with ratings, feedback, etc., it's very easy to get a lapse in judgement and trust a complete stranger.
I hardly think that assuming an escrow service isn't a fake site would make someone an idiot. There are plenty of very intelligent people out there who wouldn't know that faking an escrow site is even possible. You would realize this if you ever spent time around a hospital where you have brilliant people (Doctors), who don't know all that much about computers and/or the net.
SUCCESS BREEDS IMITATORS
The article mentions that success breeds imitators.
So MSNBC posts an article about a fake escrow site that SUCCESSFULLY stole $500,000. That's IMITATABLE
While I have yet to play the GameCube Legend of Zelda to say it is easily the best game ever made is a bit presumptous. Considering how many excellent games have been made before I would think that your praise comes a bit too easy.
I love to see other fellow men and women reach their highest potential
This happens to be Microsofts current vision statement or mission statement or motto, or whatever it is that appears on their commercials.
I do agree with you though. There's absolutely no reason to pigeonhole ourselves into a specific career. At the University of Michigan business school the highest percentage of students (27%) have an undergraduate degree in engineering.
Plenty of geeks are out there getting MBAs or Law degrees.
I remember back in the days when AOL didn't have unlimited accounts people would phish for credit cards.
Telling someone that service X has lost their credit card information probably has the same hit rate of any other spam, 1-2%. It doesn't take much to make a lot of money off of stupid people.
That theory worked years ago, and it still works today. The way I see it, 1 of 2 things needs to happen for this to stop.
1) Greedy people have to develop some ethics
or
2) People have to become less stupid
Experts predict that either one could happen around, oh, never.
I sincerely doubt that more than a few thousand lines of source will be released to India. Proprietary functions will most likely remain just that, proprietary functions.
I came up with the idea awhile back for a group independent study project. The idea was to build a portable console, building everything from scratch. The console would have the same proportions as your tv screen, and have buttons in the same configuration as the SNES controller.
The best part is that the portable console would run nes and snes and gameboy rom files. This wouldn't be a project to market, but something to learn the intricacies of low-level programming. It would also be a fun toy for boring lectures.
Unfortunately the group I assembled to build the device voted it down and we ended up building something completely useless...
If this can get support from game companies it has a lot more chance of being successful.
It takes more than Solitaire to make an OS. They already have 3d card support, so if I can play counter-strike on one of these it would be worth giving it a shot.
Watching /.'rs comment on law is amazing . The whole thing is simple:
Ah yes, very simple, it only took a page of text and 11 points to explain the whole thing....
Looks like there is gonna be a war... on intellectual property and rights.. soon.
Reminds me of a line in Jason X:
You're lucky you weren't around for the Microsoft wars. We were beating people with our own severed limbs.