Deleting obvious spam only takes a few seconds, but we have to do it over and over, day after day, forever amen.
Plus there are still some people without fat pipes. Add in the cumulative time it takes to download all that shit.
Then there are those times when we're concentrating on code or whatever over on screen four, but expecting an important email. Whatever indicates that you've got mail, so you break your concentration, switch to screen one and read "Get rich quick by flogging your dog in the privacy of your own home" or some such shit. It would be as if some dirtbag kept knocking on your door, at random, for no reason, every freaking day, for ever and ever.
Add it all up. That's a lot of time stolen from our lives by bastards who will never have to answer for it. Maybe I've just been online for too many years but I could murder a spammer in cold blood this morning and sleep well tonight, knowing that I had done the human race a favor.
For all of that, when people you know use bad email etiquette, it's even more annoying.
At our website, we've got an ongoing parody -- it will be several chapters -- of the censorware issue going. It's called CensorWear Chronicles. Might amuse someone...
Didn't think this issue - important to many people - was getting enough exposure. Consequently we've published a piece looking at this this issue called Against Murdering Babies (Sorta). It's more balanced than the title probably makes it sound.
They'd raise embarrassing questions about issues the Demopublican party candidates agree on.
AND
The Commission on Presidental Debates is - like the candidates' party - bought and paid for by corporations that benefit from the status quo - building prisons for the War on Drugs, hooking people on Valium, when marijuana would be a cheaper alternative, etc.
...with the same 'company' which produced Carnivore, promises that it will protect our privacy, and can't even protect the privacy of the researchers who are studying it. Being clueless enough to believe this old hoax indicates they are probably both more than qualified.
The 'Sarcaster 2000' (recently upgraded to 2001) a character in my online editorial comic series Totalitarian Burger has run on Linux since the first of the year.
"Amazon.com does not sell, trade, or rent your personal information to others. We may choose to do so in the future with trustworthy third parties, but you can tell us not to by sending a blank e-mail message to never@amazon.com... If we decide to change our privacy policy, we will post those changes on this page so that you are always aware of what information we collect, how we use it, and under what circumstances we disclose it"
I'm going to try that email address when I get home (to my email address of record) and see what happens. In any case, I probably won't be buying from them any more.
I only watch the local news channel that...
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The New Mediascape
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...has a functional web site. Since I often write editorials about stories I see on the news, it's important to me to be able to recheck what I thought I saw against the same story posted on their site (even the whole broadcase in RA). It seems odd to me that I can get several broadcast channels -- all which have web sites -- but only one puts energy into making use of the web. The rest just link to the network's site.
I've emailed the rest suggesting that they invest some resources in this new-fangled thing called the Internet, but they don't even reply to my emails. So, I ignore them.
Although this isn't "on topic" for Napster, we've just published an article called Cybersquatting Double Standard, which addresses another Internet freedom of expression injustice. Some of you might find it a worthy read.
I've had computers since the mid-80s but only in the past 18 months got interested in Linux -- experimenting w/ various distributions on older hardware. 'Bout 3-4 months ago, I bought one of their workstations. Of all my systems from various manufacturers ever, swear2gosh, it's been the most solid -- and not just because it's got Linux on it.
No, I don't work for them. Just my recommendation.
You're reporting this about VALinux? I hope your story is the exception to the rule because -- after suffering tech support nightmares with Windows box companies, my most recent purchase was from VA. (Of course, that wasn't the only reason I decided to buy a pre-installed Linux box.)
Not all of them, of course, but compared to older men and women, they're generally in pretty good shape. I like your idea, but I'd improve on it by finding someone in their 40s or 50s. Their lives can be improved by computer knowledge as much as anybody's, if they are willing to learn. Better yet, find an older person with a background in education. Teach them, so they can spread it their peers.
I bought two of their EtherFast 10/100 LAN cards because they were the only ones on the shelf that had the "Tested with LINUX" penguin on the box. I couldn't get them to work in my old P100 box, so I paged through the manual. It's chocked full of Windows and Novell instructions, while the only mention of Linux is: "Linksys does not provide technical support for Linux, BSD, or other freeware and open source operating systems..."
Now, maybe with more experience or something, I could have made them work, but it is inherently dishonest to put a big "Linux" on the outside and say you don't support it on the inside.
Let's not forget that this whole Independence Day thing was about a king who was "...unfit to be the ruler of a free people", in the words of the Declaration of Independence. I'm not entirely sure that those who took over for him are up to the job either.
I'd been following this story since I first heard that PETA sued Doughney. Early this morning, I finally finished my essay on it, entitled Can Dish it Out; Can't Take It. Just for fun, I also whipped out my own PETA parody news article, Wolves are Killers, claims PETA. Enjoy!
I had heard months ago that Dell was installing Linux, and I know they have a good rep for quality. I wanted to be a Dell customer.
About a month ago, I went to www.dell.com/linux/. They had a list of their hardware that was compat, and a link (something like) "click here to configure a computer with Linux"... which took me to the regular MS-based configurators! I went all over their site, trying to figure out how to buy a preconfigured Linux system without talking to a salesperson, and couldn't. Maybe it was there somewhere, but I didn't see it.
So I ordered from VA Linux, and I'm happy as a pig in shit -- especially since I just configured a Dell as close as I could to my new VALinux, and Dell is a lot more expensive.
(No, I don't work for, nor am I being paid by VALinux for this referral. I'm just a satisfied customer.)
Mattel was already on my shit list
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This is the same company that uses child labor in Chinese sweatshops to manufacture toys. I would no more buy a product from Mattel than I would enslave and work a child in conditions that should have gone out with the dark ages . . . which of course, Mattel does by proxy.
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Plus there are still some people without fat pipes. Add in the cumulative time it takes to download all that shit.
Then there are those times when we're concentrating on code or whatever over on screen four, but expecting an important email. Whatever indicates that you've got mail, so you break your concentration, switch to screen one and read "Get rich quick by flogging your dog in the privacy of your own home" or some such shit. It would be as if some dirtbag kept knocking on your door, at random, for no reason, every freaking day, for ever and ever.
Add it all up. That's a lot of time stolen from our lives by bastards who will never have to answer for it. Maybe I've just been online for too many years but I could murder a spammer in cold blood this morning and sleep well tonight, knowing that I had done the human race a favor.
For all of that, when people you know use bad email etiquette, it's even more annoying.
Enjoy.
Here!
AND
The Commission on Presidental Debates is - like the candidates' party - bought and paid for by corporations that benefit from the status quo - building prisons for the War on Drugs, hooking people on Valium, when marijuana would be a cheaper alternative, etc.
OK, so it's not a real robot, but still...
"Amazon.com does not sell, trade, or rent your personal information to others. We may choose to do so in the future with trustworthy third parties, but you can tell us not to by sending a blank e-mail message to never@amazon.com... If we decide to change our privacy policy, we will post those changes on this page so that you are always aware of what information we collect, how we use it, and under what circumstances we disclose it"
I'm going to try that email address when I get home (to my email address of record) and see what happens. In any case, I probably won't be buying from them any more.
I've emailed the rest suggesting that they invest some resources in this new-fangled thing called the Internet, but they don't even reply to my emails. So, I ignore them.
No, I don't work for them. Just my recommendation.
But they won't get any more, regardless. Given this forum, maybe they won't get yours either.
Now, maybe with more experience or something, I could have made them work, but it is inherently dishonest to put a big "Linux" on the outside and say you don't support it on the inside.
I'll never buy from the fuckers again.
About a month ago, I went to www.dell.com/linux/. They had a list of their hardware that was compat, and a link (something like) "click here to configure a computer with Linux" ... which took me to the regular MS-based configurators! I went all over their site, trying to figure out how to buy a preconfigured Linux system without talking to a salesperson, and couldn't. Maybe it was there somewhere, but I didn't see it.
So I ordered from VA Linux, and I'm happy as a pig in shit -- especially since I just configured a Dell as close as I could to my new VALinux, and Dell is a lot more expensive.
(No, I don't work for, nor am I being paid by VALinux for this referral. I'm just a satisfied customer.)