There are so many things wrong with this it's difficult to know where to start.
and state and local governments fear that tax collections will decline as shoppers turn to the Internet more often.
Shame, isn't it? Then CUT THE FUCKING BUDGET.
Does it not amaze everyone that state and local governments are the only money-spenders who REFUSE to make do with less? The businesses and people they TAX UP THE ASS have to. Why don't they?
"especially at a time when local governments have been squeezed by so many fiscal pressures"
Yeah, like running up record deficits and then running and crying to the media about how much money you're losing because you can't tax every single thing you want.
Traditional brick-and-mortar retailers also have their eyes on lost money. They said they stand to lose money as shoppers turn to tax-free Internet purchases.
In other words, competition should be disallowed. Remember the free market? Nice theory.
We are OVERTAXED AS IT IS. It is absolutely unconstitutional and unfair to ask a business in another state to collect sales tax. Period.
Oh, and anyone notice that the story has no details on exactly what the fuck this tax is?
It is truly amazing how important the simple act of writing really is. Nearly every form of education, entertainment, business and reference is totally dependent on letters, words and sentences.
In the face of $100 million motion picture budgets and teams of hundreds building video games, the words of another author remain quite profound:
"With words alone, I have an unlimited special effects budget."
What is the fascination with Access? Why does every company seem to use Access for important data when there are so many other databases that are not only higher quality, but less expensive at the same time?
There is nothing funnier than companies that try to use Access as the database for 150,000-pageview-a-day websites. Middle management at its most entertaining.
Make a product that's better than Windows on *all* counts, is bundled with custom-written applications instead of tweaked versions of existing ones, and then i'll raise an eyebrow.
I'm sure there are dozens of companies out there willing to invest 100,000 man-years of development resources to make one person raise an eyebrow.
"Make a product that, in its 1.0 release, is better than this other product that's had billions upon billions of dollars invested in it and has been around for almost 15 years, and make sure it includes several all-new custom applications so we can set a record for most reinventions of the wheel in the shortest time possible."
I'm sure they'll start giving it away as soon as they can.
If you wrote your own dance song, just because it had 3 stanzas, a bridge, and a chorus, and was in F sharp, that doesn't mean that the authors of every other dance song that had 3 stanzas, a bridge, and was in F sharp could sue you for copyright infringement
True, but they might send you a letter asking nicely that you never write a song in the key of F# again, or failing that, offer large amounts of money for you to never play it on the trombone.
Post-copyright? Hey, why not just try and get the copyright laws repealed? What's the point of all this half-assed sort-of-licensing bullshit?
Either authors own their work or they don't. You repeal copyright, economic value and production will drop 30%, and about two dozen entire industries will stop completely. That's the deal.
The day you can't pull your weight, you'll be jettisoned.
Sorry. That's backwards. First you'll be jettisoned. (Guaranteed) Then you can't pull your weight.
You actually think keeping your job has anything to do with competency or productivity? That's a nice, quaint idea, but unfortunately, it is no longer relevant.
I think that it's laughable that there are so many poeple on/. that they are smarter than the big businesses but don't bother to start their own address.
Anybody can be a fucking genius with nine-figure capital and a staff of 200.
Analog publishing generates per-unit costs -- each book or magazine requires a certain amount of paper and ink, and creates storage and transportation costs. Digital publishing doesn't.
Absolute twaddle.
putting the power to publish directly into their hands does not make them publishers
Yes it does. The very act of "publishing" makes one, by definition, a publisher.
Now, however, a single individual can serve an audience in the hundreds of thousands, as a hobby, with nary a publisher in sight.
Right up to the moment when they get their bandwidth bill, at which point they will chomp a cigar and say "HOW THE FUCK ARE WE GOING TO PAY FOR THIS?" Ta-dah! Publisher.
the willingness to accept one thing as a substitute for another.
Yeah? Call me when I can substitute fame for food, rent and electricity.
free content is growing in both amount and quality -- is what's actually happening.
Fine, and the best you're ever going to get is half an author, half a performer, half a developer, because they'll all need day jobs, and their craft will suffer for it. That fact is more inescapable than the constant beating of the "we want it for free" drum. (And for the love of green leaves, have we heard about enough of that shit yet?)
If you want it for free, you'll get exactly what you pay for, and not a bit more. You'll receive the work of either half an author or an amateur, and you'll have nothing better than that to look forward to, ever.
There will for fuck's sure be no spoon, no Helm's Deep, no Hulk and no Episode III; not even the written versions. The amount of sheer effort required to develop something creatively, and complete it is something that is beyond the imagining of most of the "we want it free" people. The amount of work required is astonishing, even for something as "easy" as a short story.
Someone who works that hard should be rewarded for their effort if people appreciate their work. They shouldn't be expected to invest the work first and then find that some half-assed theory about infinite economies means that they have to sell everything they own to buy groceries.
Virtually EVERYTHING YOU LIKE is the result of some FUCKING HARD WORK by HUMAN BEINGS WHO NEED TO EAT.
Slashdot Mirror
What can you expect the states to do?
CUT THEIR FUCKING BUDGETS
There are so many things wrong with this it's difficult to know where to start.
and state and local governments fear that tax collections will decline as shoppers turn to the Internet more often.
Shame, isn't it? Then CUT THE FUCKING BUDGET.
Does it not amaze everyone that state and local governments are the only money-spenders who REFUSE to make do with less? The businesses and people they TAX UP THE ASS have to. Why don't they?
"especially at a time when local governments have been squeezed by so many fiscal pressures"
Yeah, like running up record deficits and then running and crying to the media about how much money you're losing because you can't tax every single thing you want.
Traditional brick-and-mortar retailers also have their eyes on lost money. They said they stand to lose money as shoppers turn to tax-free Internet purchases.
In other words, competition should be disallowed. Remember the free market? Nice theory.
We are OVERTAXED AS IT IS. It is absolutely unconstitutional and unfair to ask a business in another state to collect sales tax. Period.
Oh, and anyone notice that the story has no details on exactly what the fuck this tax is?
Dell's announcement causes Apple's stock to drop almost 9% in two days.
So much for being rewarded for real innovation and hard work. Nothing is as important, obviously, as being #1.
It is truly amazing how important the simple act of writing really is. Nearly every form of education, entertainment, business and reference is totally dependent on letters, words and sentences.
In the face of $100 million motion picture budgets and teams of hundreds building video games, the words of another author remain quite profound:
"With words alone, I have an unlimited special effects budget."
What is the fascination with Access? Why does every company seem to use Access for important data when there are so many other databases that are not only higher quality, but less expensive at the same time?
There is nothing funnier than companies that try to use Access as the database for 150,000-pageview-a-day websites. Middle management at its most entertaining.
Food and housing should be free too, but they aren't.
What the fuck are these people doing with their e-mail addresses, displaying them on the fucking jumbotron at the Super Bowl?
Don't run out and buy an Athlon 64 just yet...
Yes. Be sure to give first right of refusal on all CPU purchases to the Pentium.
And don't even think about the G5...
Make a product that's better than Windows on *all* counts, is bundled with custom-written applications instead of tweaked versions of existing ones, and then i'll raise an eyebrow.
I'm sure there are dozens of companies out there willing to invest 100,000 man-years of development resources to make one person raise an eyebrow.
"Make a product that, in its 1.0 release, is better than this other product that's had billions upon billions of dollars invested in it and has been around for almost 15 years, and make sure it includes several all-new custom applications so we can set a record for most reinventions of the wheel in the shortest time possible."
I'm sure they'll start giving it away as soon as they can.
This concludes the argument over whether people will pay for something they can get on-line for free.
Thank you.
If you wrote your own dance song, just because it had 3 stanzas, a bridge, and a chorus, and was in F sharp, that doesn't mean that the authors of every other dance song that had 3 stanzas, a bridge, and was in F sharp could sue you for copyright infringement
True, but they might send you a letter asking nicely that you never write a song in the key of F# again, or failing that, offer large amounts of money for you to never play it on the trombone.
Mr. Card doesn't sell his time -- he sells a product.
What about the time it took to make the product?
is different, because once time is given to something, it can't be recalled or sold to someone else.
No shit. What about the months and years that went into writing that book?
Complain about spam and worms.
Yet support file sharing.
Allowed to take someone else's files.
Bitch when someone else takes the bandwidth.
Hey, everything's unlimited, right? Sure thing.
Post-copyright? Hey, why not just try and get the copyright laws repealed? What's the point of all this half-assed sort-of-licensing bullshit?
Either authors own their work or they don't. You repeal copyright, economic value and production will drop 30%, and about two dozen entire industries will stop completely. That's the deal.
The day you can't pull your weight, you'll be jettisoned.
Sorry. That's backwards. First you'll be jettisoned. (Guaranteed) Then you can't pull your weight.
You actually think keeping your job has anything to do with competency or productivity? That's a nice, quaint idea, but unfortunately, it is no longer relevant.
And how do you suppose whining will solve your problems?
What makes you think the word "whining" isn't its own cliche?
when it was just textile, steel, and auto workers.
When it was textile, steel and auto workers, most of the currently unemployed programmers were still learning how to spell.
Where were people like you thirty years ago when all Pittsburgh had was the Steelers and an unemployment check?
They were probably crying for the stewed bananas instead of the plums.
Justify your high wages, and maybe they'll keep you. I doubt it, but maybe you'll be the lucky one.
Yeah, that's a good way to build a community, raise families and have good neighborhoods: "maybe you'll be the lucky one."
However, what do you propose US businesses do?
For starters, stop destroying their neighbors' careers for a one-quarter percent bump in stock price.
Why in the world would the whole IT industry collude against skilled workers out of *spite*?
Good question.
Like you said, you are *expensive*.
Well boo
fuckin'
hoo.
Nobody ever said building great products was cheap.
Its also possible to engineer products without EE or CS degrees
It's possible to engineer shit without a chemistry degree too. What's your point?
By the way, if anyone didn't believe that business is totally fucked, this entire argument is irrefutable proof.
I think that it's laughable that there are so many poeple on /. that they are smarter than the big businesses but don't bother to start their own address.
Anybody can be a fucking genius with nine-figure capital and a staff of 200.
Expierence has shown that whenever people start trying to charge for content that people will find other sources which are free.
Yep. And they'll buy it anyway.
Oh, and people don't "try" to charge for content. They simply charge for it and make a FUCKLOAD of money in the process.
Analog publishing generates per-unit costs -- each book or magazine requires a certain amount of paper and ink, and creates storage and transportation costs. Digital publishing doesn't.
Absolute twaddle.
putting the power to publish directly into their hands does not make them publishers
Yes it does. The very act of "publishing" makes one, by definition, a publisher.
Now, however, a single individual can serve an audience in the hundreds of thousands, as a hobby, with nary a publisher in sight.
Right up to the moment when they get their bandwidth bill, at which point they will chomp a cigar and say "HOW THE FUCK ARE WE GOING TO PAY FOR THIS?" Ta-dah! Publisher.
the willingness to accept one thing as a substitute for another.
Yeah? Call me when I can substitute fame for food, rent and electricity.
free content is growing in both amount and quality -- is what's actually happening.
Fine, and the best you're ever going to get is half an author, half a performer, half a developer, because they'll all need day jobs, and their craft will suffer for it. That fact is more inescapable than the constant beating of the "we want it for free" drum. (And for the love of green leaves, have we heard about enough of that shit yet?)
If you want it for free, you'll get exactly what you pay for, and not a bit more. You'll receive the work of either half an author or an amateur, and you'll have nothing better than that to look forward to, ever.
There will for fuck's sure be no spoon, no Helm's Deep, no Hulk and no Episode III; not even the written versions. The amount of sheer effort required to develop something creatively, and complete it is something that is beyond the imagining of most of the "we want it free" people. The amount of work required is astonishing, even for something as "easy" as a short story.
Someone who works that hard should be rewarded for their effort if people appreciate their work. They shouldn't be expected to invest the work first and then find that some half-assed theory about infinite economies means that they have to sell everything they own to buy groceries.
Virtually EVERYTHING YOU LIKE is the result of some FUCKING HARD WORK by HUMAN BEINGS WHO NEED TO EAT.
Got it?
Gameplay?
Is the game fun?
Hello?
It's being introduced to compete for an Oscar.
Hey, after you lose the Super Bowl in front of 75 million television viewers, you shop for new players.
Not that it's going to matter, but hey, that's what you do.