It's linux, a few years ago. Handy if you want something that has been hardened by time ( web server comes to mind, as well as maybe a firewall. Are they still using ipchains? ).
Not my cup of tea really. I dislike the entire feel of the OS ( personal opinion ).
We do not ever need a monopoly, that invites all sorts of problems we need to avoid. Instead, we need common ways to talk to each other that aren't patent encumbered.
Here's the deal: This is a system perpetuated by both the music industry AND the radio stations, but the music industry is in charge, make no mistakes. If they really didn't like the system, they could have and would have phased it out years ago.
But I think they know they have too much to loose.
They essentially have a monopoly over FM playlists, which means they can push out whatever teeny bopper crap they come up with and know, just KNOW, that it will sell well. Why? Good question. The answer is, because we are sheep. Peer pressure is a powerful force, for every age group, but especially the ones they are targetting.
Now, the radio stations are just as addicted to this problem as the labels, but they are NOT in control. If the labels decided tomorrow that they weren't going to pay out anymore, the stations would fail fast.
The music industry is right where it wants to be: It can dictate play lists to the music stations.
Marginal cost is the cost of making and selling it for one more customer. The marginal costs for off-the-shelf software are almost zero (in fact most of Microsoft's marginal costs are self-imposed, e.g. hologram stickers)
Ok, so while that changes the original argument, it doesn't make it any smarter. As I have read, and how you explained, marginal cost is the cost for producing in scale. So while the marginal cost is almost small ( a point that can be argued ), the initial cost is high.
And I still don't think that changes the basics: Cost doesn't matter. What is important is the fact that MS set a price for their product, and if you don't want to pay it, then you don't get to use the product.
That's pretty simple to understand really.
So the original poster was quite right, and you're a jerk.
He may have been right to the limited extent of his statement, but he was still wrong overall. And while I admit readily that I was wrong..somewhat...I do admit, quite freely, that I am a jerk AND asshole.
Why the hell did someone mod the parent post insightful?
Anyway...
You have something with almost zero marginal cost
I sure as hell hope you aren't talking about the software, because you would be dead wrong. You have to pay SOMEONE to write the software, and in MS's case, that's a lot of someones over a long period of time. I would imagine it's cost them billion+ to write the current version of XP.
That is hardly "zero marginal cost". And you know what? They have every right to charge however much they want for it. And you know what else? No one is entitled to use it. If you want to use it, you pay their terms.
Honestly, I hate people who steal software as much as I hate companies that charge too much for their crap. But you know what? It's THEIRS to charge whatever they wish.
That's some kind of a recipe for happiness, I'll tell ya! (not)
It is, actually. Who do you think is happier: Some schmuck who mopes around complaining about the degree he got that is now useless, or the guy who sees things changing and adapts?
People operate under this assumption that we are owed happiness, and thus, they sit back and wait for it to be dropped into their lap. Then, they complain and blame everyone else when they aren't happy.
( Yes, I am generalizing to a certain extent. We all do this, to varying degrees. My argument is simply those who do this less are happier than those who do this more )
Seriously, I don't mean to demean the time and effort you put into this, but one thing you'd better come to grips with right now: The world owes you exactly 'Jack' and 'Shit'. The sooner you learn that, the happier you will be.
And your 4 years was not wasted, you picked up valuable skills that most people don't have. Sure, programming was the main goal, but you also learned how to follow through on a project and it built a strong sense of motivation.
Adapt.
Re:Let he who has not sinned, throw the first ston
on
Interview with a Spampire
·
· Score: 5, Insightful
If your passion revolves around software and the jobs have dried up, and you have to make a living somehow... you're going to do what you have to.Ah, a person of questionable ethics.
Let's make this real clear for you: You are NOT entitled to work in your chosen field. Most of us do, because we fought hard to, but you are not guaranteed shit. If I had a passion for working with animals, but I couldn't get a job as a vet, do you think it'd be ok for me to go kill kittens and make money off of it? We do have an over population problem, after all.
Sure, selling spamware is unethical. But if it's that or starving to death...1. There are jobs to be had. Maybe not in your field, but there are jobs to be had.
2. When was the last time you heard of ANYBODY starving to death in the US?
There's a lot of stuff that may be pretty damn cool if you're a geek or hacker type, but I think you're going to have to find more relevant selling points if you want wider exposure than those limited circles.
You aren't thinking then. Imagine, you use openoffice today, but who's to say something better isn't coming out nextweek? Well, given OO's open format, you can switch fairly painlessly ( given the programmer knows his job ).
Neatness does indeed become relevant in the long run, often that's what switches people over.
so far. The article seems to think cost is the reason to get excited. I agree, that is pretty damn cool, however, the real reason to get all a titter is because of the open formats used in open office.
The format being as open as it is ( you can read, in the code, the format if all else fails ), you can do a great many things that just aren't possible with ms office.
With just port 25 being closed ( or a select few ), it's much less administrative overhead, and a much lower chance that something will break. And it's easier to train your higher level techs what to look for in abusers ( I openned port 25, and the traffic has spiked and hasn't gone down since...hmmmm ) with a few select ports.
That said, I'd love to see AOL implement this. You just KNOW their target market wouldn't even realize this is what is going on, and it'd cut back, dramatically, on the amount of crap out of their network.
So it's a toss up, but I can't see any reason in the world why local level ISPs don't block the "dangerous" ports by default.
I don't agree. I can tell you that I, personally, would be thrilled if comcast did just what I am describing. I'd be more than happy to spend an couple minutes describing that I need port 25 open, if the trade off was i would get a significant decrease in my virus and spam.
Get the stick out of your ass, it was a suggestion, and a damn good one at that.
Tell me, what does your average user need with outgoing port 25 to anything other than their ISPs mail server? Most wouldn't even notice it, and those that do, I'd want to be able to call up and have it opened up for them.
The only people that wouldn't like this, amazingly enough, are spammers and virus writers.
An effective stop gap measure would be for ISPs to block port 25 ( along with a number of others ) outbound by default, and open it up only on customer requests.
This way, zombie'd machines wouldn't have a chance to spew their virus/spam emails to everyone, I could still run my home email server, and the ISPs would save on bandwidth.
I wonder why this ISN'T yet in place, to be honest.
How is adobe providing this? Sure, it's for free, but what exactly does that mean? Of all groups of people, the slashdot crowd should know better than to get taken in by the whole free thing.
Example: You need a file format. I have one, that I own patents on. I say you can use it for free, you agree. Then, later, I decide I want to start charging for it. As we did not have a previous agreement that includes this circumstance, you are up shit creek.
So no, I do not trust this, especially from adobe, until I see the fine print.
Slashdot Mirror
...tell me what address to mail this...um...strangly ticking package to.
Gotta wonder how these things get missed at the beta stage."
PHB: Beta stage? What beta stage?
That's about accurate.
It's linux, a few years ago. Handy if you want something that has been hardened by time ( web server comes to mind, as well as maybe a firewall. Are they still using ipchains? ).
Not my cup of tea really. I dislike the entire feel of the OS ( personal opinion ).
That was slashdot's idiot protection plan. It's free, but obviously, there are still some kinks to work out.
Simplistic. Wrong, and simplistic.
We do not ever need a monopoly, that invites all sorts of problems we need to avoid. Instead, we need common ways to talk to each other that aren't patent encumbered.
Whoa, nice spin.
Here's the deal: This is a system perpetuated by both the music industry AND the radio stations, but the music industry is in charge, make no mistakes. If they really didn't like the system, they could have and would have phased it out years ago.
But I think they know they have too much to loose.
They essentially have a monopoly over FM playlists, which means they can push out whatever teeny bopper crap they come up with and know, just KNOW, that it will sell well. Why? Good question. The answer is, because we are sheep. Peer pressure is a powerful force, for every age group, but especially the ones they are targetting.
Now, the radio stations are just as addicted to this problem as the labels, but they are NOT in control. If the labels decided tomorrow that they weren't going to pay out anymore, the stations would fail fast.
The music industry is right where it wants to be: It can dictate play lists to the music stations.
Marginal cost is the cost of making and selling it for one more customer. The marginal costs for off-the-shelf software are almost zero (in fact most of Microsoft's marginal costs are self-imposed, e.g. hologram stickers)
Ok, so while that changes the original argument, it doesn't make it any smarter. As I have read, and how you explained, marginal cost is the cost for producing in scale. So while the marginal cost is almost small ( a point that can be argued ), the initial cost is high.
And I still don't think that changes the basics: Cost doesn't matter. What is important is the fact that MS set a price for their product, and if you don't want to pay it, then you don't get to use the product.
That's pretty simple to understand really.
So the original poster was quite right, and you're a jerk.
He may have been right to the limited extent of his statement, but he was still wrong overall. And while I admit readily that I was wrong..somewhat...I do admit, quite freely, that I am a jerk AND asshole.
Why the hell did someone mod the parent post insightful?
Anyway...
You have something with almost zero marginal cost
I sure as hell hope you aren't talking about the software, because you would be dead wrong. You have to pay SOMEONE to write the software, and in MS's case, that's a lot of someones over a long period of time. I would imagine it's cost them billion+ to write the current version of XP.
That is hardly "zero marginal cost". And you know what? They have every right to charge however much they want for it. And you know what else? No one is entitled to use it. If you want to use it, you pay their terms.
Honestly, I hate people who steal software as much as I hate companies that charge too much for their crap. But you know what? It's THEIRS to charge whatever they wish.
That's a hard concept for a lot of people.
That's some kind of a recipe for happiness, I'll tell ya!
(not)
It is, actually. Who do you think is happier: Some schmuck who mopes around complaining about the degree he got that is now useless, or the guy who sees things changing and adapts?
People operate under this assumption that we are owed happiness, and thus, they sit back and wait for it to be dropped into their lap. Then, they complain and blame everyone else when they aren't happy.
( Yes, I am generalizing to a certain extent. We all do this, to varying degrees. My argument is simply those who do this less are happier than those who do this more )
Tough nuts?
Seriously, I don't mean to demean the time and effort you put into this, but one thing you'd better come to grips with right now: The world owes you exactly 'Jack' and 'Shit'. The sooner you learn that, the happier you will be.
And your 4 years was not wasted, you picked up valuable skills that most people don't have. Sure, programming was the main goal, but you also learned how to follow through on a project and it built a strong sense of motivation.
Adapt.
If your passion revolves around software and the jobs have dried up, and you have to make a living somehow... you're going to do what you have to.Ah, a person of questionable ethics.
Let's make this real clear for you: You are NOT entitled to work in your chosen field. Most of us do, because we fought hard to, but you are not guaranteed shit. If I had a passion for working with animals, but I couldn't get a job as a vet, do you think it'd be ok for me to go kill kittens and make money off of it? We do have an over population problem, after all.
Sure, selling spamware is unethical. But if it's that or starving to death...1. There are jobs to be had. Maybe not in your field, but there are jobs to be had.
2. When was the last time you heard of ANYBODY starving to death in the US?
Who else thought that you could place a few parks to clean the air in the area?
Ah, simcity...:)
Ponies have tricks. The earth just functions
:
For my geekiness, can we call them "Member Methods"?
Besides, the only (main) way for the earth to lose mass is to radiate more energy than it receives from the sun
Ahem...let us not forget what happens when a large body of mass impacts another at a high rate of speed.
*shuuder*
Notice the foot? It's supposed to be a somewhat humorous little blurb about something silly.
What a fun crowd we've got around here on Sunday...
Maths doesn't work like that. Writing something down as a formula doesn't automatically tell you something new or prove something.
It sounds like they're trying to describe how things can go wrong with a formula. That's nice, but it's just their opinion.
Christ, you must be a blast at parties.
You know that was a joke, right? Right?
They were really quite generous in changing the Doom mythology a bit.
Wait, so you take the very thing that MAKES it doom, and you change it?
It is a wonderful age we live in...*sniff*...I'm sorry, I promised myself I wouldn't cry *sniff*
There's a lot of stuff that may be pretty damn cool if you're a geek or hacker type, but I think you're going to have to find more relevant selling points if you want wider exposure than those limited circles.
You aren't thinking then. Imagine, you use openoffice today, but who's to say something better isn't coming out nextweek? Well, given OO's open format, you can switch fairly painlessly ( given the programmer knows his job ).
Neatness does indeed become relevant in the long run, often that's what switches people over.
No, what I am saying is you are no longer locked into a single product.
You don't think that's impressive at all, or more interesting to managers than cost? You have never suffered vendor lock in then.
so far. The article seems to think cost is the reason to get excited. I agree, that is pretty damn cool, however, the real reason to get all a titter is because of the open formats used in open office.
The format being as open as it is ( you can read, in the code, the format if all else fails ), you can do a great many things that just aren't possible with ms office.
Depends. I'll explain:
With just port 25 being closed ( or a select few ), it's much less administrative overhead, and a much lower chance that something will break. And it's easier to train your higher level techs what to look for in abusers ( I openned port 25, and the traffic has spiked and hasn't gone down since...hmmmm ) with a few select ports.
That said, I'd love to see AOL implement this. You just KNOW their target market wouldn't even realize this is what is going on, and it'd cut back, dramatically, on the amount of crap out of their network.
So it's a toss up, but I can't see any reason in the world why local level ISPs don't block the "dangerous" ports by default.
I don't agree. I can tell you that I, personally, would be thrilled if comcast did just what I am describing. I'd be more than happy to spend an couple minutes describing that I need port 25 open, if the trade off was i would get a significant decrease in my virus and spam.
Get the stick out of your ass, it was a suggestion, and a damn good one at that.
Tell me, what does your average user need with outgoing port 25 to anything other than their ISPs mail server? Most wouldn't even notice it, and those that do, I'd want to be able to call up and have it opened up for them.
The only people that wouldn't like this, amazingly enough, are spammers and virus writers.
So, which are you?
An effective stop gap measure would be for ISPs to block port 25 ( along with a number of others ) outbound by default, and open it up only on customer requests.
This way, zombie'd machines wouldn't have a chance to spew their virus/spam emails to everyone, I could still run my home email server, and the ISPs would save on bandwidth.
I wonder why this ISN'T yet in place, to be honest.
Let me put it another way:
How is adobe providing this? Sure, it's for free, but what exactly does that mean? Of all groups of people, the slashdot crowd should know better than to get taken in by the whole free thing.
Example: You need a file format. I have one, that I own patents on. I say you can use it for free, you agree. Then, later, I decide I want to start charging for it. As we did not have a previous agreement that includes this circumstance, you are up shit creek.
So no, I do not trust this, especially from adobe, until I see the fine print.