While you are correct that Ma & Pa don't need the bandwidth you are incorrect in thinking this will bring them new customers.
What this might do is fill a niche for users who are comfortable using 3rd party software and looking for a cheaper alternative to AOL.
In my experience (and I have been an aol customer for over 10 years, I have my reasons) the reason people like AOL is because of the ease of use. With earthlink et al you still need to configure a mail client and fiddle with a browser. You'd be surprised how many people out there cannot accomplish this simple task.
AOL comes already installed on many new machines which means you select a username and your ready to go. No configuration. You don't even have to open a browser (although you can if you want). I know many many people who use AOL simply because everything they want is right in front of them, which consists of email and news. AOL also makes it very simple to send pictures (yeah, I know most mail clients do, but AOL makes it super-duper simple, my Mom can even do it). These people pay for convenience and are happy to do so.
Now, back to that niche. AOL loses many customers after they have become more comfortable using computers and the internet. Many new customers have no idea what they are doing. But after a year or so they have learned how to install software and have learned how to find better news sites. These are the people that leave AOL for cheaper alternatives and are the same people this new service is likely targeted for. They still don't use the internet enough to go broadband, but have enough savy to install a mail client and configure it. If AOL can keep these people in the family for half the price they are still better off than losing them completly to netzero.
That makes much more sense now. I blame no coffee yet and a massive headache, but...
I still would like the ability to add more tracks for the same cost (see my post below). But not being stuck in a yearly contract is nice, if I can find a band I like and emusic has them it will likely be cheaper to pay 9.99 for one month and get the album (or two, or three) than buy it from anywhere else.
I agree they should make it more clear, but come on, do the math. Could they stay in business if they allowed people to download that much. I'm a heavy downloader with about 30 gig of music just from emusic.com, but I never got 2000 tracks in one month.
you will be billed $9.99 per month for access to the service with no minimum monthly commitment
Que?
Exactly what I thought. I guess they mean you can give them $9.99/month, but your not required to actually download anything. Doesn't make sense however which way I read that sentance.
One thought though, at $9.99 for 480 tracks per year that's $0.25 per track. Why not just offer all tracks at 25 cents, or at least make it so subscribers can pay.25/track for more downloads. I may want 100 tracks one month and at $25 emusic would be making good money and I'd still get a good deal.
Oh well, I'm very likely to cancel my subscription anyway. Good thing I've already gotten all the jazz and blues I wanted.
I've seen this problem myself on my own machine. I was trying to join a friends local network while visiting his home and we could not figure out why I couldn't see the other machines. I finally UNINSTALLED zonealarm and everything worked fine (have not seen the uninstall bug mentioned in another post). Seems like the problem lies with za's truevector thingy, it's still wants to filter the tcp stack even when za is shut down.
HOWEVER.... I still highly recommend ZoneAlarm for home users because I haven't seen anything better (I will be looking into Kerio). All software has problems and ZA is not immune, but for the most part it's a non-issue.
The only OS I've seen problems with is XP pro. I've been running different versions of ZA on win98 and win2k boxes for years (both ZA free and Pro) without a single problem. It takes a little effort to get setup so it doesn't annoy the user constantly, but once it's in it does its job well.
The only case where I'm against it's use is corportate environment or SOHO network. And in both of those cases there should be either a hardware firewall or a router with a built in firewall to take it's place. A standalone Windows box is naked without ZoneAlarm.
That's just my opinion, but I'm normally paid pretty well for it.
Who would be stupid enough to pay for something that you can get for free?
concerned parents who don't want to prevent their kids from talking to their friends, but want to be reasonably sure they aren't talking to 40-year old men trying to lure them lure them away? There are plenty of non-technical people out there who are willing to pay for things like this.
the whole point and appeal of a chat-room was the anonymous access!
not for everyone. I don't think most kids under 16 are worried about being anonymous, they just want to talk about the latest B. Spears album.
Of course, this isn't going to solve the problem, and the fear-mongering being used by the media is rediculous, but I don't really see this as a problem as long as there are alternatives. Informed parents can feel better about allowing kids to chat online and I'd bet we'll soon see software that blocks online chat software for just those parents.
I do wonder if this monitoring will open M$ up to lawsuits if some kid runs off with a person they met in a moderated chat room though.
This isn't new, been around at least 3 months as that's when I looked at it, but I think it was there long before that. However, Comcast is testing capacity in many areas by upping the silver package to 3.5mb down. Word on the grape vine is that the silver package will soon go 3.5 nationwide and they will bump the pro package to 5.5 or 6.0, but that's just gossip for now.
The really shitty thing about pro is the $99 installation charge if you don't already have an account. I called about pro and was NOT going to pay that, but the rep was reasonable and pointed out that I could get digital cable + HSI for $60/month for 3 months (varies region to region) at which point I could swap to pro and since I would already have an account they would wave the install fee. Of course, I did have to pay the install fee for digital cable, but since they screwed that up I called and yelled at them until they gave me the equivilant amount of money back in VOD purchases. I'm happy so far.
Also, this is my first month on comcast and I'm easily going to hit 100gb down (nothing much questionable, I did want pro for a reason). Can't wait till I get my letter.
No-one's gonna license the music people want unless it's protected by DRM.
Really, maybe you should tell Emusic, cause they have a huge selection of music that I enjoy with no restrictions on anything. Oddly enough, look who owns them......
well, I haven't, but I know plenty of people who have. When you have that many machines you need something like SMS with SUS, works pretty well from what I'm told. I just set up SUS (works without SMS, but only for hotfix's) today on an IIS server in a 50 workstation call center because it's easier than mbsaFU and I'm lazy.
"You ever try patching a workstation where the user never *ever* logs off except for power failures?"
ok, um, if the users never log off I would say that's a horrible security policy. Anyway, there are group policies that can handle restarting a machine or at the very least notifying the user to either reboot now, or reboot later.
I agree that patching in a corporate environment can take time because of testing, but to argue that it's difficult is just uninformed.
so.... your interest is in reading reviews of things you have no interest in and pointing out that you have no interest in those things? frankly, i'd rather be reading a comic.
Mr. Blackitt - That's what linux is all about. That's why it's the OS for me. That's why it's the OS for anyone who respects the individual and the indivudual's right to decide for him or herself. When Linus released his code in 1991, he may not have realised the full significance of what he was doing, but 12 years later, thanks to him, my dear, I can wear whatever I want on my John Thomas,..... and, linux doesn't stop at the simple window manager! Oh, no! I can use Debian if I want.
Mrs. Blackitt - You what?
Mr. Blackitt - Debian, RedHat, Mandrake, Lindows. Distributions that are designed not only to protect, but also to enhance the user experience.
Mrs. Blackitt - Have you got them?
Mr. Blackitt - Have I got them? Uh, well, no, but I can get on the internet any time I want and log into an FTP site and hold my head up high and say in a loud, steady voice, "Harry, I want to download a distribution. In fact, today, I think I'll have Debian, for I am a Linux user."
Mrs. Blackitt - Well, why don't you?
Mr. Blackitt - But they -- Well, they cannot, 'cause their OS never made the great leap out of the Middle Ages and the domination of Microsoft's proprietary supremacy.
Narrator #1 - But despite the attempts of linux users to promote the idea of programming for pleasure, windows desktops continued to multiply everywhere.
I hesitate to mention it here, because it's one of my favorite places, but Chet still runs portal of evil, which omm is/was a part of. I won't provide any links, but if you look you will find it and you will laugh your ass off. Other POE sites of interest are seanbaby and shortandhappy. I think all of them have been mentioned here on/. before, but I hope it stays obscure, because when something becomes popular, it starts to suck. kinda like/.
I'm confused as well. I mean, how exactly does one 'crack' a cd? I can install the game and then crack it, but the cd remains unblemished. Back in college I worked at the local chain video game store, and sure, I had a copy of everything I wanted, but my copying and cracking games had no effect on a customers purchase.
Now, if your talking about purchasing software that has been cracked and then burnt to cd, well, that's receiving stolen property (i think). You can't have someone steal a car for you, then pay them for it and say you are the owner because you paid for it. You wouldn't have the title to the car, just like when you purchase pirated software you wouldn't have a valid license.
Err, do you work for the feds in the homeless taskforce?
no.
Your proposing giving a mentally ill person that cannot legally make a decision for themselves a choice
no, I'm proposing we give the people who spend their lives trying to help these people better tools in which to do so. I understand that some of them are so whacked out they are beyond help. Those people should be in a hospital where they can get the care they need, not wandering around on the street endangering the rest of society.
Homelessness is a societal problem. Not a tracking problem.
Correct. However, managing and helping the homeless could be made easier if they could be tracked. Again, I'm not saying this is the answer, I'm just saying it bears looking into if it could possibly help.
We live in a capitolist societly. Not everyone is going to rise to the top.
Has nothing to do with this discussion. And it's "capitalist".
they could give them some skills training, food, and a place to stay.
um, they do, which is why they want to track them. Look, if you were put in charge of helping thousands of people whose mental health was unstable and wandered all over the place what would be the first thing you would want to do? Organize and track them, right? If you can track them you can make sure Joe Crazyhomelessguy is getting his meds and has had something to eat in the last week. Without an easy way to track these people there is no way to know what is happening to them. I'm sure there are many other situations where this tracking system would be helpful.
Now, to answer those who say it's a violation of privacy rights, I say don't make it mandatory. Give them a choice. If they choose to be tracked it makes their life a little better. And if they don't, fine, they likely don't want to be part of society anyway. If that's the case though, don't go begging society for handouts. Find a nice spot in the woods grow a garden, I don't really give a fuck, just don't expect society to care about you when you don't care about anything else. The entire rest of the world works on a give and take philosophy, learn to deal with it or become independent.
Something like this could work if the proper checks and balances were in place (altough they rarely are). I can see many problems with it, but name one gov't service that doesn't have major problems. Just screaming that the gov't is evil doesn't help anything.
Do your part to jump start the economy and just tell them
'yes, your flux capacitor is broken, you'll need to buy a whole new machine. Just go find the most expensive one you can because the more you spend on it the longer it will last.'
If you tell that to enough people maybe this time next year we'll be talking about the new tech boom.
Sorry, the parent subject made me think of that line.
I do have something relavent to say though. I was one of those people who hated cell phones and people who used them (actually I just hate people, all of them, cell phones just give me one more reason). But when I quit my job over a year ago and just wandered around the country I figured I should have some way of ordering pizza and keeping in touch with family.
I looked at several plans and went with T-Mobile mostly because I had a friend that worked there and didn't charge me the hookup fee. So, I got a free phone, 600 anytime minutes, free nights and weekends, AIM, no roaming charges ever, free long distance and they let me choose my phone number so I could make it a local call for my parents (even though I bought it out of state).
I also got a free earpiece so I can use the phone hands free (Everyone seems to think I'm talking to myself because I don't hold my phone next to my ear). I just kept the crappy free phone they gave me, but haven't had a single problem with it even though I've dropped it many, many times (the case is cracked, but it still works). Yeah, T-Mobile coverage isn't the best yet, but as long as you are in a reasonably sized town or near an interstate you will have service, and did I mention the no roaming ever.
The best part of it is that I've had 0 worry with it. My bill is automagically paid from my checking and all I do is look over the paperwork to see that everything is smooth. They actually bumped up my anytime minutes a few months ago even though I've never come close to going over. Since I bought the service from my friend I have not had a single conversation with any T-Mobile rep, haven't had a need to.
I'm not sure now why I was so against cell phones in the first place. Oh, wait, I hate stupid people that's right. People who simply must have the latest pop tune as their ring tone instead of using the vibrate. And then there are those that seem to want the entire rest of the world to listen in to their half of every converstation.
I'd gladly wear a tie if they'd let me get high at work. Of course, at that point it would likely be a Grateful Dead tie worn around my head to keep my long, luxurious hippy hair out of my eyes.
actually you are partly right. it's all about momentum, since M$ already has momentum in gov't systems they just keep snowballing.
I can pull windows out of its box, put it in my computer, and have it running in about 30 minutes
I can do this with RedHat and likely many more here can have any *nix installed and running in ~30 minutes.
I don't have to manually pick out kernel drivers like with debian, I don't have to worry about RedHat not recognizing half my hardware
That's why you plan ahead and already have these issues solved before rollout, really, this issue exists with Windows also (I will grant you it's not as much of an issue, but with sufficient planning it's not an issue with *nix either. as long as you know what hardware you are going to be using you can plan for it).
I can take any lance corporal off the field, and with windows, he's most likely to know how to at least do basic stuff like surf the web, read e-mail, etc
I can tell my Mom to click on the icon on the desktop to check her mail and click on the other icon that says 'web' to open a browser, from there it's just clicking links. Now, which OS is she using? Doesn't matter does it, the basics are just as simple as long as a competant admin sets everything up correctly. Really, most people out there can't tell IE from Acrobat, but they can click a link when they see it, makes no difference what the OS is.
If the guvment were to use Linux, they would have to spend additional manpower on installation... blah blah blah...
They already spend money training monkey's to do this type of thing. Installation, maintenance and repair for the new *nix machines would just need changes in the monkey's manual. Believe me, I work for the gov't and it's all M$ here, but all I do is follow procedure. Something goes wrong, look in the manual and follow instructions (on a side note, as I don't work with linux that often, I wonder if this would not be a benefit, if I had a nickel for everytime the manual was wrong about something in windows....).
not to mention retraining a lot of staff on how to use these computers
I've got 40 monkey's here that I can guarantee you that I could change their OS and they would never know the difference. The computer is just a tool for them. As long as email and the two other apps they use worked, they would never know anything changed. They do their job and do it well, anything goes wrong with the tool they use, they look to me to fix it.
they probally already have a majority of their services on windows
BINGO! Momentum. They went with M$ to begin with, just like the rest of the world. Most gov't specialized apps are written for windows and it would take a tremendous effort to change. Just like it's taking a tremendous effort to change the rest of the world. It has nothing to do with anything else, it's just that they have all these neat little toy's that already work in windows and they don't want to or don't have the budget to change now, even if they want to. I believe it's called vendor lockin in our industry and it's very much a bad thing.
I also have two side note conspiracy theories:
1. The US Gov't wants to boost M$ in order to continue to boost the US economy.
2. Uh, ok, geez, shouldn't have smoked that last bowl, now I can't remember my other theory. Maybe Bill Gates has some pics of Georgie in a diaper or something. Oh well, I started out with a good arguement, it's a good thing I work for the gov't.
A new medium has appeared. It's called (approximately) a hard-drive
exactly. i heard a dj over the weekend talking about how he'd been in the business since lp's and how now everything was on hard drive and was sooo much easier and better. he went on and on about how great this was for radio stations, apparently not grasping the fact that it was great for music listeners as well.
i think the music industry as a whole is at the same stage. the storage and distribution medium has changed and they think it's great for them, they are just now realizing that everyone else thinks it's just dandy too.
add the internet and you've got the greatest distribution channel for music off all time. just like the dot-bombs, music companies will either figure out to streamline and adapt or they will die. hey, they won't be the first to have their industry pulled out from underneath them by advanced technology. what do you think all those buggy manufacturers said when hank ford perfected the assembly line? "d'oh"
I do sometimes wonder if there isn't a viable place for, "just concentrate on giving the customer good service," in this world.
yes, there is. i used to work for a small manufacturing company that did just this, they made by far the best product in their (small niche) market and provided independant scientific proof that their products were better than the competition. in fact, the founder of the company (an MIT grad) created the market with this product and other larger companies had been trying to copy it for years, unsusccesfully. the founder was a doctor and very busy researching product improvements and new products, however, he still took time to personally answer every customer question from email, forums and phone calls. they actually listened to customer complaints and responded by making changes in distribution channels and packaging.
while i was working for them I can say the sales people were the most professional and caring people i have ever worked with. our customers information was guarded ferociously as there were many many request for phone and email lists. and even though we had a dealer locator on the web site, the dealer had to opt-in before we would even list that.
i could go on and on, it was a great company. but now we get to the downside. since it was a small company that did not feel the need to harass customers, market share was slowly being eaten away by large conglomerate's that had unsuccesfully tried to by them out. these other companies had inferior products that were priced much lower than ours, but they pushed them on dealers and customers much harder. they mass-marketed the hell out of their products. even going so far as to name their products similarly and use the same packaging colours. we constantly had customers calling and asking if we had been bought out because they had received junk-mail advertising 'new and improved' products that were compared directly to ours making it seem that the 'new and improved' was ours. a federal judge put a stop to the advertising, but the damage had already been done. i talked to many people in that particular industry that just assumed we had been bought out and never questioned it.
my point is that there is a place for companies that value product quality and service, but because the majority of consumers just mindlessly believe what is shoved down their throats that place is 'getting beaten by companies that are sleazier and greedier'.
Slashdot Mirror
While you are correct that Ma & Pa don't need the bandwidth you are incorrect in thinking this will bring them new customers.
What this might do is fill a niche for users who are comfortable using 3rd party software and looking for a cheaper alternative to AOL.
In my experience (and I have been an aol customer for over 10 years, I have my reasons) the reason people like AOL is because of the ease of use. With earthlink et al you still need to configure a mail client and fiddle with a browser. You'd be surprised how many people out there cannot accomplish this simple task.
AOL comes already installed on many new machines which means you select a username and your ready to go. No configuration. You don't even have to open a browser (although you can if you want). I know many many people who use AOL simply because everything they want is right in front of them, which consists of email and news. AOL also makes it very simple to send pictures (yeah, I know most mail clients do, but AOL makes it super-duper simple, my Mom can even do it). These people pay for convenience and are happy to do so.
Now, back to that niche. AOL loses many customers after they have become more comfortable using computers and the internet. Many new customers have no idea what they are doing. But after a year or so they have learned how to install software and have learned how to find better news sites. These are the people that leave AOL for cheaper alternatives and are the same people this new service is likely targeted for. They still don't use the internet enough to go broadband, but have enough savy to install a mail client and configure it. If AOL can keep these people in the family for half the price they are still better off than losing them completly to netzero.
d'oh
...
That makes much more sense now. I blame no coffee yet and a massive headache, but
I still would like the ability to add more tracks for the same cost (see my post below). But not being stuck in a yearly contract is nice, if I can find a band I like and emusic has them it will likely be cheaper to pay 9.99 for one month and get the album (or two, or three) than buy it from anywhere else.
I agree they should make it more clear, but come on, do the math. Could they stay in business if they allowed people to download that much. I'm a heavy downloader with about 30 gig of music just from emusic.com, but I never got 2000 tracks in one month.
you will be billed $9.99 per month for access to the service with no minimum monthly commitment
.25/track for more downloads. I may want 100 tracks one month and at $25 emusic would be making good money and I'd still get a good deal.
Que?
Exactly what I thought. I guess they mean you can give them $9.99/month, but your not required to actually download anything. Doesn't make sense however which way I read that sentance.
One thought though, at $9.99 for 480 tracks per year that's $0.25 per track. Why not just offer all tracks at 25 cents, or at least make it so subscribers can pay
Oh well, I'm very likely to cancel my subscription anyway. Good thing I've already gotten all the jazz and blues I wanted.
I've seen this problem myself on my own machine. I was trying to join a friends local network while visiting his home and we could not figure out why I couldn't see the other machines. I finally UNINSTALLED zonealarm and everything worked fine (have not seen the uninstall bug mentioned in another post). Seems like the problem lies with za's truevector thingy, it's still wants to filter the tcp stack even when za is shut down.
.... I still highly recommend ZoneAlarm for home users because I haven't seen anything better (I will be looking into Kerio). All software has problems and ZA is not immune, but for the most part it's a non-issue.
HOWEVER
The only OS I've seen problems with is XP pro. I've been running different versions of ZA on win98 and win2k boxes for years (both ZA free and Pro) without a single problem. It takes a little effort to get setup so it doesn't annoy the user constantly, but once it's in it does its job well.
The only case where I'm against it's use is corportate environment or SOHO network. And in both of those cases there should be either a hardware firewall or a router with a built in firewall to take it's place. A standalone Windows box is naked without ZoneAlarm.
That's just my opinion, but I'm normally paid pretty well for it.
Who would be stupid enough to pay for something that you can get for free?
concerned parents who don't want to prevent their kids from talking to their friends, but want to be reasonably sure they aren't talking to 40-year old men trying to lure them lure them away? There are plenty of non-technical people out there who are willing to pay for things like this.
the whole point and appeal of a chat-room was the anonymous access!
not for everyone. I don't think most kids under 16 are worried about being anonymous, they just want to talk about the latest B. Spears album.
Of course, this isn't going to solve the problem, and the fear-mongering being used by the media is rediculous, but I don't really see this as a problem as long as there are alternatives. Informed parents can feel better about allowing kids to chat online and I'd bet we'll soon see software that blocks online chat software for just those parents.
I do wonder if this monitoring will open M$ up to lawsuits if some kid runs off with a person they met in a moderated chat room though.
This isn't new, been around at least 3 months as that's when I looked at it, but I think it was there long before that. However, Comcast is testing capacity in many areas by upping the silver package to 3.5mb down. Word on the grape vine is that the silver package will soon go 3.5 nationwide and they will bump the pro package to 5.5 or 6.0, but that's just gossip for now.
The really shitty thing about pro is the $99 installation charge if you don't already have an account. I called about pro and was NOT going to pay that, but the rep was reasonable and pointed out that I could get digital cable + HSI for $60/month for 3 months (varies region to region) at which point I could swap to pro and since I would already have an account they would wave the install fee. Of course, I did have to pay the install fee for digital cable, but since they screwed that up I called and yelled at them until they gave me the equivilant amount of money back in VOD purchases. I'm happy so far.
Also, this is my first month on comcast and I'm easily going to hit 100gb down (nothing much questionable, I did want pro for a reason). Can't wait till I get my letter.
No-one's gonna license the music people want unless it's protected by DRM.
......
Really, maybe you should tell Emusic, cause they have a huge selection of music that I enjoy with no restrictions on anything. Oddly enough, look who owns them
"You ever try patching 5,000 workstations?"
well, I haven't, but I know plenty of people who have. When you have that many machines you need something like SMS with SUS, works pretty well from what I'm told. I just set up SUS (works without SMS, but only for hotfix's) today on an IIS server in a 50 workstation call center because it's easier than mbsaFU and I'm lazy.
"You ever try patching a workstation where the user never *ever* logs off except for power failures?"
ok, um, if the users never log off I would say that's a horrible security policy. Anyway, there are group policies that can handle restarting a machine or at the very least notifying the user to either reboot now, or reboot later.
I agree that patching in a corporate environment can take time because of testing, but to argue that it's difficult is just uninformed.
sure there is, you can find it here.
I'm taking the rest of the day off to go romp through a dandelion patch!
so.... your interest is in reading reviews of things you have no interest in and pointing out that you have no interest in those things? frankly, i'd rather be reading a comic.
Mr. Blackitt - That's what linux is all about. That's why it's the OS for me. That's why it's the OS for anyone who respects the individual and the indivudual's right to decide for him or herself. When Linus released his code in 1991, he may not have realised the full significance of what he was doing, but 12 years later, thanks to him, my dear, I can wear whatever I want on my John Thomas, ..... and, linux doesn't stop at the simple window manager! Oh, no! I can use Debian if I want.
Mrs. Blackitt - You what?
Mr. Blackitt - Debian, RedHat, Mandrake, Lindows. Distributions that are designed not only to protect, but also to enhance the user experience.
Mrs. Blackitt - Have you got them?
Mr. Blackitt - Have I got them? Uh, well, no, but I can get on the internet any time I want and log into an FTP site and hold my head up high and say in a loud, steady voice, "Harry, I want to download a distribution. In fact, today, I think I'll have Debian, for I am a Linux user."
Mrs. Blackitt - Well, why don't you?
Mr. Blackitt - But they -- Well, they cannot, 'cause their OS never made the great leap out of the Middle Ages and the domination of Microsoft's proprietary supremacy.
Narrator #1 - But despite the attempts of linux users to promote the idea of programming for pleasure, windows desktops continued to multiply everywhere.
with respect to MP
I hesitate to mention it here, because it's one of my favorite places, but Chet still runs portal of evil, which omm is/was a part of. I won't provide any links, but if you look you will find it and you will laugh your ass off. Other POE sites of interest are seanbaby and shortandhappy. I think all of them have been mentioned here on /. before, but I hope it stays obscure, because when something becomes popular, it starts to suck. kinda like /.
I'm confused as well. I mean, how exactly does one 'crack' a cd? I can install the game and then crack it, but the cd remains unblemished. Back in college I worked at the local chain video game store, and sure, I had a copy of everything I wanted, but my copying and cracking games had no effect on a customers purchase.
Now, if your talking about purchasing software that has been cracked and then burnt to cd, well, that's receiving stolen property (i think). You can't have someone steal a car for you, then pay them for it and say you are the owner because you paid for it. You wouldn't have the title to the car, just like when you purchase pirated software you wouldn't have a valid license.
Err, do you work for the feds in the homeless taskforce?
no.
Your proposing giving a mentally ill person that cannot legally make a decision for themselves a choice
no, I'm proposing we give the people who spend their lives trying to help these people better tools in which to do so. I understand that some of them are so whacked out they are beyond help. Those people should be in a hospital where they can get the care they need, not wandering around on the street endangering the rest of society.
Homelessness is a societal problem. Not a tracking problem.
Correct. However, managing and helping the homeless could be made easier if they could be tracked. Again, I'm not saying this is the answer, I'm just saying it bears looking into if it could possibly help.
We live in a capitolist societly. Not everyone is going to rise to the top.
Has nothing to do with this discussion. And it's "capitalist".
they could give them some skills training, food, and a place to stay.
um, they do, which is why they want to track them. Look, if you were put in charge of helping thousands of people whose mental health was unstable and wandered all over the place what would be the first thing you would want to do? Organize and track them, right? If you can track them you can make sure Joe Crazyhomelessguy is getting his meds and has had something to eat in the last week. Without an easy way to track these people there is no way to know what is happening to them. I'm sure there are many other situations where this tracking system would be helpful.
Now, to answer those who say it's a violation of privacy rights, I say don't make it mandatory. Give them a choice. If they choose to be tracked it makes their life a little better. And if they don't, fine, they likely don't want to be part of society anyway. If that's the case though, don't go begging society for handouts. Find a nice spot in the woods grow a garden, I don't really give a fuck, just don't expect society to care about you when you don't care about anything else. The entire rest of the world works on a give and take philosophy, learn to deal with it or become independent.
Something like this could work if the proper checks and balances were in place (altough they rarely are). I can see many problems with it, but name one gov't service that doesn't have major problems. Just screaming that the gov't is evil doesn't help anything.
mmmmmmmm........ syrup flavored beaver......
Do your part to jump start the economy and just tell them
'yes, your flux capacitor is broken, you'll need to buy a whole new machine. Just go find the most expensive one you can because the more you spend on it the longer it will last.'
If you tell that to enough people maybe this time next year we'll be talking about the new tech boom.
Indeed there is. You can find it listed here.
Slipstick is an excellent reference for anyone who admins an exchange server.
Sorry, the parent subject made me think of that line.
I do have something relavent to say though. I was one of those people who hated cell phones and people who used them (actually I just hate people, all of them, cell phones just give me one more reason). But when I quit my job over a year ago and just wandered around the country I figured I should have some way of ordering pizza and keeping in touch with family.
I looked at several plans and went with T-Mobile mostly because I had a friend that worked there and didn't charge me the hookup fee. So, I got a free phone, 600 anytime minutes, free nights and weekends, AIM, no roaming charges ever, free long distance and they let me choose my phone number so I could make it a local call for my parents (even though I bought it out of state).
I also got a free earpiece so I can use the phone hands free (Everyone seems to think I'm talking to myself because I don't hold my phone next to my ear). I just kept the crappy free phone they gave me, but haven't had a single problem with it even though I've dropped it many, many times (the case is cracked, but it still works). Yeah, T-Mobile coverage isn't the best yet, but as long as you are in a reasonably sized town or near an interstate you will have service, and did I mention the no roaming ever.
The best part of it is that I've had 0 worry with it. My bill is automagically paid from my checking and all I do is look over the paperwork to see that everything is smooth. They actually bumped up my anytime minutes a few months ago even though I've never come close to going over. Since I bought the service from my friend I have not had a single conversation with any T-Mobile rep, haven't had a need to.
I'm not sure now why I was so against cell phones in the first place. Oh, wait, I hate stupid people that's right. People who simply must have the latest pop tune as their ring tone instead of using the vibrate. And then there are those that seem to want the entire rest of the world to listen in to their half of every converstation.
I'd gladly wear a tie if they'd let me get high at work. Of course, at that point it would likely be a Grateful Dead tie worn around my head to keep my long, luxurious hippy hair out of my eyes.
actually you are partly right. it's all about momentum, since M$ already has momentum in gov't systems they just keep snowballing.
... blah blah blah...
I can pull windows out of its box, put it in my computer, and have it running in about 30 minutes
I can do this with RedHat and likely many more here can have any *nix installed and running in ~30 minutes.
I don't have to manually pick out kernel drivers like with debian, I don't have to worry about RedHat not recognizing half my hardware
That's why you plan ahead and already have these issues solved before rollout, really, this issue exists with Windows also (I will grant you it's not as much of an issue, but with sufficient planning it's not an issue with *nix either. as long as you know what hardware you are going to be using you can plan for it).
I can take any lance corporal off the field, and with windows, he's most likely to know how to at least do basic stuff like surf the web, read e-mail, etc
I can tell my Mom to click on the icon on the desktop to check her mail and click on the other icon that says 'web' to open a browser, from there it's just clicking links. Now, which OS is she using? Doesn't matter does it, the basics are just as simple as long as a competant admin sets everything up correctly. Really, most people out there can't tell IE from Acrobat, but they can click a link when they see it, makes no difference what the OS is.
If the guvment were to use Linux, they would have to spend additional manpower on installation
They already spend money training monkey's to do this type of thing. Installation, maintenance and repair for the new *nix machines would just need changes in the monkey's manual. Believe me, I work for the gov't and it's all M$ here, but all I do is follow procedure. Something goes wrong, look in the manual and follow instructions (on a side note, as I don't work with linux that often, I wonder if this would not be a benefit, if I had a nickel for everytime the manual was wrong about something in windows....).
not to mention retraining a lot of staff on how to use these computers
I've got 40 monkey's here that I can guarantee you that I could change their OS and they would never know the difference. The computer is just a tool for them. As long as email and the two other apps they use worked, they would never know anything changed. They do their job and do it well, anything goes wrong with the tool they use, they look to me to fix it.
they probally already have a majority of their services on windows
BINGO! Momentum. They went with M$ to begin with, just like the rest of the world. Most gov't specialized apps are written for windows and it would take a tremendous effort to change. Just like it's taking a tremendous effort to change the rest of the world. It has nothing to do with anything else, it's just that they have all these neat little toy's that already work in windows and they don't want to or don't have the budget to change now, even if they want to. I believe it's called vendor lockin in our industry and it's very much a bad thing.
I also have two side note conspiracy theories:
1. The US Gov't wants to boost M$ in order to continue to boost the US economy.
2. Uh, ok, geez, shouldn't have smoked that last bowl, now I can't remember my other theory. Maybe Bill Gates has some pics of Georgie in a diaper or something. Oh well, I started out with a good arguement, it's a good thing I work for the gov't.
A new medium has appeared. It's called (approximately) a hard-drive
exactly. i heard a dj over the weekend talking about how he'd been in the business since lp's and how now everything was on hard drive and was sooo much easier and better. he went on and on about how great this was for radio stations, apparently not grasping the fact that it was great for music listeners as well.
i think the music industry as a whole is at the same stage. the storage and distribution medium has changed and they think it's great for them, they are just now realizing that everyone else thinks it's just dandy too.
add the internet and you've got the greatest distribution channel for music off all time. just like the dot-bombs, music companies will either figure out to streamline and adapt or they will die. hey, they won't be the first to have their industry pulled out from underneath them by advanced technology. what do you think all those buggy manufacturers said when hank ford perfected the assembly line? "d'oh"
I do sometimes wonder if there isn't a viable place for, "just concentrate on giving the customer good service," in this world.
yes, there is. i used to work for a small manufacturing company that did just this, they made by far the best product in their (small niche) market and provided independant scientific proof that their products were better than the competition. in fact, the founder of the company (an MIT grad) created the market with this product and other larger companies had been trying to copy it for years, unsusccesfully. the founder was a doctor and very busy researching product improvements and new products, however, he still took time to personally answer every customer question from email, forums and phone calls. they actually listened to customer complaints and responded by making changes in distribution channels and packaging.
while i was working for them I can say the sales people were the most professional and caring people i have ever worked with. our customers information was guarded ferociously as there were many many request for phone and email lists. and even though we had a dealer locator on the web site, the dealer had to opt-in before we would even list that.
i could go on and on, it was a great company. but now we get to the downside. since it was a small company that did not feel the need to harass customers, market share was slowly being eaten away by large conglomerate's that had unsuccesfully tried to by them out. these other companies had inferior products that were priced much lower than ours, but they pushed them on dealers and customers much harder. they mass-marketed the hell out of their products. even going so far as to name their products similarly and use the same packaging colours. we constantly had customers calling and asking if we had been bought out because they had received junk-mail advertising 'new and improved' products that were compared directly to ours making it seem that the 'new and improved' was ours. a federal judge put a stop to the advertising, but the damage had already been done. i talked to many people in that particular industry that just assumed we had been bought out and never questioned it.
my point is that there is a place for companies that value product quality and service, but because the majority of consumers just mindlessly believe what is shoved down their throats that place is 'getting beaten by companies that are sleazier and greedier'.