First, lets talk money. Schools make a shitload of money off soda and snack machines. When I was in school, we did not have a pepsi or coke machine. I think the only one in the school was in the teachers lounge.
But these dirtbag peice of scum motherfuckers decided that they would trade the health of children to make a few dollars. So they installed soda machines in middle schools and high schools. Kids could now get a pepsi and twinkies on the way to math class.
Here is the problem. It is a CONFLICT OF INTEREST. Schools use this money to pay their faculty higher wages.
There are so many elementary, middle, and highschool teachers making over $100,000 a year with 3 MONTHS VACATION!!! And they can't be fired.
They found a formula. They have a teachers union. Every 3 or 4 years, no matter how good they have it, they go on strike, and demand more money. They demand tenure for everyone, no matter how bad the teacher is.
So schools must come up with money. They can only tax the people so much. So they find creative ways. They bring in the pepsi machines, charge a dollar for a 25 cent can. They start packing 60 people in general history and english classes.
And this is where it gets really sick!
They devide of the 10% or so of the school that they know will go on to Harvard and the like, students that could make noise in 10 years. And they make an honors program for them, where they get Honors History with 15 students, while everyone else is stuck in the class with 50 people.
Here is a study I would like to do. Take one of those honors students, before they know they were picked or approved for honors. Keep him/her in the general class. Take a random middle of the road student and put him in the honors class. I bet you will find better grades and exams from the smaller class size. Someone is getting gipped.
But back to fat kids. Why do they get fat? Is PE so value-less that the bright kids no longer want to take it. Is PE a time when 50 kids sit around for 10 minutes waiting for the teacher to set up the game, play for 15 minutes, then get 10 minues to go back and change?
I think the I-Pod idea is bad. Someone has to pay for it, and it won't be me!! I want the kids to be healthy, to exersize, to have a good life. But it does not take throwing money on a problem to improve things. Teachers were never paid better, when I was younger, I was told stay away from teaching because it is a low paying job where the only ones who do it really love the work. This is back when you did not find teachers making over $30-40k. Today we have them making over $170,000 a year.
Now, before I finish my rant, let me tell you the solution. It is called "bust your ass". Kids get 5 minutes to change for PE. Class is long enough for them to get 35 minutes of cardo every day school is in session. They throw out the vending machines (which would require putting teachers in line with reasonable pay, removing tenure as an automatic gift). And here is the kicker, have schools feed healthy meals. Instead of high fat food, how about a vegi lasanga one day, baked chicken the next. It should not be hard to have a healthy menu.
I don't know where they are talking about downloading it from, but an avarage intelligent person will not find it.
Consider this. Doing a google search for torrents shows most are shut down. Go ten pages deep in the searches, and there is alot of spam and bs.
Second, some websites that were torrent lists, are not MPAA websites. They track IP addresses. Can they do anything to you for just looking at a website? No. Are they trying to intimidate people? Hell yes!
Second, With all the torrent websites down, how many people are seeding? I found one website, just one with a link. It required a registration. It then required waiting 24 hours to use the website. It is a pain in the butt.
After the 24 hours were up, I tried to download a file at a whopping 0.7 k/s. And to top it off, for all I know I just tried to d/l from the RIAA. Who knows.
So what is the moral?
1) It is hard to find torrent listing websites. Good luck. Chances are most are secretive and closed to new members, they are well hidden and happy with their current members
2) Use protection. Use a proxy. You don't want to get one of those letters from the MPAA or RIAA or any **AA telling you that you owe them $10,000 or they will take you to court for some multiple of that.
What we need is an out-of-the USA filesharing network. We need a slashdot like moderation system, to mod files as +1 good quality or -1 MPAA crap.
I remember Napster, it was easy to use. I now use WinMX, but the good old days are gone. Only way out is for someone in a country where file sharing is not illegal, for them to host a service.
Michigan isn't satisfied and is proposing banning all over-the-net wine orders on the flimsy reasoning that kids will be able to buy booze without government control.
When you have a weak argument, tell them you are legislating "to save the children".
LOL, this is a health issue. We don't want kids getting drunk and turning into alcoholics. Most banks and currency exchanges sell credit cards. All a kid needs to do is buy a credit card, they will sell them to anyone. Then they go on-line, and order wine. A few days later, they recieve a shipment at their front door. Find some house where the parents work late, and can collect the wine and go drinking.
I know some states have laws that require checking an ID when dropping off alcohol, but most post office employees are not bartenders, they don't care. They just drop the shit off.
The law that will eventually pass in congress will be this:
All alcohol sold on the internet, or shipped via postal services, must be sent registered mail, and can only be picked up at the post office, where the original Credit Card and State ID must be shown
That should be enough to combat kids who want to buy alcohol from the internet. But I can only imagine what a 95 degree warehouse will do to a red.
i know, i hate adequacy and appropriateness trolls as much as the next
but seriously, this story is pretty far off the mark of slashdot's focus, no?
am i missing something?
Every IT person I know is also a wine nut. I guess programming and drinking large quantities of wine go hand in hand.
Edit that... Drinking large quantities of cheap wine that you convince everyone is better than the expensive wine. I had one buddy who went crazy over Chilean wines. He kept claiming their $8 dollar a bottle reds were better than most $30 dollar a bottle reds here in the states.
Then again, I guess to read his code you would have to be drunk. It is the cypher.
But consider this: It is a big loss for "states rights", because it says that states have no right to control interstate commerce that passes through their borders.
States never, ever had the right to regulate interstate commerce. That power is reserved for congress.
The reason why is when we had the Articles of Confederation, every state regulated commerce, and it was a clusterfuck. It was like dealing with foriegn nations, all with their own tarrifs and trade policies.
This law has nothing to do with state rights, because it was never a state rights issue.
Their reasoning is that the states' 'authority to regulate the sale of alcohol within their borders' under the 21st Amendment does not supersede 'the Constitution's ban on state discrimination against interstate commerce
That is plain wrong.
The constitution grants congress the power to regulate interstate commerce.
A law regulating internet sale of alcohol will originate in congress. They might give some of the regulatory rights to states. Then it would be legal.
They make LOUD clicking sounds. No way you could use one at night if you have a family. Nobody could sleep. Plus, if you have a smart wife, she can count the clicking and know what website your beating off to. Seriously. That is how I got busted.
I have had it since I don't know when. I got it out of the bargin bin. I have spilled soda over it, katch-up from fries, accidental sperm from unexpected ejaculation, mayonnaise, just about any food product has come in contact with it. Some nights, I can hear the keys clicking from mice crawling on it licking off whatever food residue is left. And I have even beat the keyboard with 2 clenched fists after dissapointing emails (girls breaking up, getting fired from work, etc). And my cheapo bargin bin keyboard works like a charm. Never any problems.
Meanwhile, I know a guy with an ergo-centric, never going to get carpal tunnel syndrome, wierdo layout with the keyboard split, that he paid $59 for. He has to replace it every 18 months or so. He even has a no food or drink policy in his computer room. And nobody can type on it, not even him.
Keyboards are one of the few things with computers where cheaper is better. Save the extra money for ram.
I don't understand why smart people would buy a TiVo??
A VCR lets you keep the tapes, you can't take any content off a TiVo. Once you run out of room, you have to delete the show. And you can't record and skip commercials. With a VCR you can pause during commercials.
It is too bad the SVHS did not catch on. Near DVD like quality, surround sound, better than what VHS is. Plus, if you want to loan a tape to a friend, you can.
I'll give one more example of why TiVo sucks. I was going to work late one friday night, and called a friend of mine to record a show. He said he only had a TiVo, but would record it. He was leaving saturday morning to go home for the weekend. If he had a tape, I could have stopped to pick it up. But TiVo requires I be in his house to see it.
TiVo is taking away your choices, your rights. As content goes from analog to digital, there will be more content encrypted. TiVo will side with the producers, to get the ability to save this content. Before, with VHS, everything was standard, the producers could not get away with it.
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Anyways, I wonder how the hell these fuckers are able to stick their dicks in the air agianst powerful studios and lobby groups.
Why do we measure things with money?
on
Star Wars Sickout
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· Score: 2, Insightful
I don't get it. Is money God? Is money happiness? Or is money just something the rich dangle to make the poor jump through hoops?? There were societies in the past without money, they hunted, they had music, they danced and laughed. And they lived life on their terms.
These people who are taking their days off work, they would have taken a day off for something else. They happen to enjoy Star Wars. I am not planning on running to the theater to see it, but I take off time from work every year for baseball games.
The danger in these kinds of stories is politicians might start thinking "entertainment drains productivity". Lobby groups might decide workers need less overtime protection, to make up those losses.
If you ask me, money is the least most valuable thing on earth. I'd rather take a hike through a park, or ride a bike.
The Tigers football team can't be mistaken with TigerDirect computer supplies. Apple Tiger can be mistaken, they are in the same industry.
Nice move, but it is moot.
Now for my opinion. I think it is all BS. Apple is clearly not trying to take anything away from TigerDirect (who btw, has pretty damn good prices, and if you call them, often you can wiggle the price down more if you tell them you are a small buisness, get an account executive, not the sales data entry guy).
But TigerDirect must defend itself. If Apple wins, then what it will become a generic term, worthless. What if the next big thing is the Tiger Hard Drive, or Tiger DVD burner, or Tiger RAM? Then one day, maybe I'll open up TigerDiscount and sell all those Tiger products.
If Apple would have added more to the name like TigerMAC, then I think they would have a better chance.
Yesterday it was announced that access to the most popular sections of the forum will soon attract a $20/year fee unless you are a magazine subscriber or a high-ranking forum member
Wohaaa cowboy, what exactly is a high-ranking member?
Time to spam like a motherfucker on the 4th of July. WOHOOO!!!!!
, for one (and hopefully not the only), would be more than willing to pay a fee for something I find useful... Just because it started out free isn't a guarantee it stays free.
This is like Microsoft EULA. You get ham one day and *mean and meat product* the next day. And the price goes up. Woohoooo!!! I get mechanically seperatred meat by-product. Fuck steak.
And, juxtaposed with other things in my life.... $13/mo for tivo subscription (and don't flame me about mythtv.... time invested is worth money, too)
I gotta take issue with you here. I am gonna get flamed like crazy, but why pay for what you can get for free? #1) VCR. What is wrong with a VCR? Are you telling me it is so hard to record a show with a VCR? TV Guide has a show code number you can enter if telling the VCR what time to record is too hard. #2) And this is far more baffling. I know one guy, he got TiVo a while ago, and his service is FREE. I know another guy who spends $20 a month for the same thing. The guy with the free TiVo says he caught a good deal, a life time subscription for $200, something less than the other guy pays for a years worth of service. It does not seem very fair to me.
$600 insurance/year to drive my car
Who'd you hit? Geez... I buy my insurance from the guy on TV with the 1-800 number who will insure anyone. The guy with the abe lincoln hat and $99/ six month premium. Of course I know abe was not black, but at these prices I'll buy anything.
So, in context with other things I pay for, I'd happily pay $20/yr for something like the right to do this on slashdot
Not me. I'd be the first to say goodbye slashdot, you big fat bloated whore. Now make me dinner before I walk out on you.
I may not WANT to pay for yet another "thingy", but it's a system of choice, and if the sum total of things I want and their costs exceeds my budget, I selectively cull thingies until equilibrium is re-established. It's the way the market works.
Vodoo economics. I have an equilibrium too, but if you want to know about it, there is a subscription fee.
And I am the guy who is too lazy to register for the NY Times, even though it is free. If they don't have a guest/guest or asdf/asdf login, I will get my news elsewhere. I ain't paying for it. I'll get my buddies, and we'll go elsewhere. After all, we're what makes it great!
If money is what people want, why don't resturants charge a quarter for every flush? Maybe they're worried nobody will flush? People won't pay twice for the same thing. These websites make money off advertising.
First, I have to admit I have a preference for Intel. I always have, and I am willing to pay a premium for the name. Back in college, when some tried to save a few bucks and buy Cyrix, the rest of us saw the hell they lived through. Windows NT would NOT work with Cyrix, it kept locking up.
The past few years, I have started meeting some people who are fanatical about AMD, how it is better than Intel. And it is no coincidence, many of these people are die-hard linux users as well. But I remembered the old AMD k-5 chips that used to overheat. My logic was "AMD is following the leader, making imitation chips, they will never be in the lead".
I think the #1 problem AMD must overcome is the relationship Intel has with Microsoft. AMD makes clone chips, Intel makes chips that fit into Microsofts OS. Intel and Microsoft share information about how the chip will work with the software.
And, I guess it is also an issue of name. To this day, I still buy Sony because their TV's were the cadillac of TV's when I was a kid.
One of the factors that goes into the risk rating is the age of the site. That's a good insight: phishers tend to create new sites often, as the old ones get closed down or are simply dropped.
Force the people who register URL's to have proof of who is buying the domain. Force them to have a credit card to buy, and force them to give a phone number and address that must be verified prior to making the URL go live. Banks do this, they check your social security number, they check your home address. Why can't we do that with URL's?
Then when a central government agency see's domain after domain from the same person going down, they can track him. If the person uses others to buy the domain, once the government tracks them all down and threatens them with jail time, chances are one of them will give away the guy.
It seems the real crooks like the dark shadows, they don't like being seen. The old addage of don't walk alone at night, walk in lighted places, ect... how do they translate for the world of the internet. With the web, there is more anonymity. It is just what the crook wants, a place where they can do their crimes and not be seen. Plus, it is easier to give the perception that you're in a nice well lite area, it's safe here. You can't fake that kind of perception in a ghetto.
The obvious responce will be more laws. Laws that will take away the freedom of the non-criminal. The RIAA is forcing ISP's to hand over IPA's. Commercial websites track customers. How long until the web requires authentication just to do anything?
I hope the government really hurts the first people it catches. But until the laws change, I doubt it will be that bad. If you could rip off 1,000 people for $1,000,000, would you? What if it meant 5 years in prision, and you could hide the money so it was there when you were released?
It's not so much the cost that makes it wrong. The government should not be competing with what is potentially a brewing industry. Also, the government should not do it because the government has a tendency to do things wrong. If Verizon was your carrier and they were doing it wrong, you could stop supporting them. If it's the government, you're stuck with it.
Then why have any public services? Why not do away with pulic libraries? We can let private buisnesses start libraries. Maybe they can provide a better service?
Or are there some services that ALL people need for an advanced country and economy to continue.
The idea of private buisnesses running public services is not an old idea. In some states, private companies now run prisions, and for less money. I have never seen any in-depth analysis, but I wonder where they are cutting the costs? Less gaurds? Lower paid gaurds? Or gaurds that are not sworn officers?
Schools are another example, some of the wealthy people in the USA want another tax credit so they can pull their kid out of the public school and put them in private schools. This in my opinion is seggregation. What is good for the goose is good for the gander. But there is a bigger problem. Say for example the state spends $4000 per student, and the state says if you put your kid in a private school, we'll give you $4000. But the private school does not cost $4000, it costs $9000. So what happened is the rich get a tax credit to send their kids to a better school. The poor can't afford that $5000 difference, so they keep their kids in public schools. And now, the wealthy kids are gone to mingle in a private school.
Don't forget what saved the USA in the greatest economic downfall. Public services. When all the buisnesses failed and all the stocks collapesed, what saved the USA was Joe Sixpack. FDR started programs where the government provided services, and Joe Sixpack built it. Today, we are getting back to greed. CEOs will pocked tens of millions of dollars while laying off people, or moving a buisness outside of the USA. It is because of this the USA will collapse.
Now before everyone says it costs the city money, lets think about it. At City hall, you have a mayor you must pay anyways, the elected officials. And you have the city workers. So that cost is there regardless of what a city does.
The added cost, of having someone set up the service, well, would it be more than a company? I don't think so. At least with a city, you won't have a CEO pulling in millions of dollars a year, will you? And with a city, you can protect the workers, they can't get fired. In a company, at the very exact moment a CEO gets a 10 million dollar bonus, he can lay off thousands of people to save the company a few million. Don't that seem a little dumb?
Cities are the perfect provider for this service. For what a company will charge, a city can provide the service for pennies on the dollar. Just think about the economies of scale, a city getting the service costs reduced because of all the people, it is like buying bulk. It is the best value people can get.
Win2000 was great, it was really stable, it doesn't have candy GUI and activation and other bullshit. But everything afterward has been bad. WinME (hahaha), and XP with its CPU-eating candy GUI, activation, and many many worms.
Jesus, don't start with Windows ME. I don't know what that crap was, but it was not an operating system. I had a neighbor in college who purchased a HP computer with Windows ME on it. I have never in my life seen as many blue screens of death as on that OS. I have seen her cry many nights when her computer froze before she had a chance to save her work.
they haven't released anything new, except for free patches to fix broken software
First, I think I am done buying M$, but having said that, I had an idea.
Why does not Microsoft not release their OS, but hold it for a few months, have a large beta group of testers. Fix the bugs. Have their own in house hackers try and break in, make more fixes. Load it with lots of different kinds of software and fix whatever problems they have.
Instead it feels like they release a product too early. Service pack 1 followed by 2 and 3 and 4.
My second complaint is these service packs are too large for some people with dial-up. If AOL can have 100's of CD's in every computer store, why can't Microsoft have their free service patch CD's in stores??
Time to start 20 years of "Microsoft is dying" trolls.
Just another way Microsoft is copying Apple.
It took me a while to grasp how much money Microsoft is making. 9.6 Billion dollars. $9,620,000,000.00. I wonder how many nations have a GNP less than what microsoft does in sales??
When Windows first came out, 3.1 was the version for me, I loved it. Before that I was stuck with DOS on my 386. Then Windows 95, I could not believe how beautiful it was, and 98, WOW all the support for multimedia and MMX. But ever since Windows 2000, my love of their product has been dying.
I dunno who is to blame more. Part of me puts the blame 100% on hackers who write viruses. There are a good number of people who blame microsoft for making a bad product. I guess the question would be, if Microsoft was making door locks instead of software, and their locks were crap, who would be responsible for breaking into a house? If everyone knew MS locks = stick a plastic butter knife and unlock, would that make the hacker any less criminal for breaking and entering.
But that is not the point. Microsoft does not offer me the product I want.
And then, with the Slashdot story a few days ago of discovering Microsoft is not only lobbying for their buisness interests (staying a monopoly) but also on social issues I decided I am through buying their product.
Damn, I wish IBM's OS/2 stayed alive. Looking back on 1992, if only it would have caught on, maybe we would have had a choice when it comes to an OS. Instead, we have linux which is being sued. What real choice does a buisness have? Use linux and risk being sued? Pay an outrageous license for unix? We needed OS/2 as a second legitimate choice for the X86 platform.
Three months ago, the software giant said it expected revenue for the period to come in between $9.7 billion and $9.8 billion. But when the company released results Apr. 28, it came up short. Microsoft (MSFT ) rang up just $9.62 billion in sales, a 5% increase from the year-ago quarter.
So, if sales went up 5% from last year, how much higher can it go? How many more copies of windows do they need to sell? Or will Microsoft metamorpahsize into a service company? It was not that long ago I was reading that MS was going to stop selling Office, and start renting it. Only way to use it is to be on-line or something dumb like that.
if a dvd mail rental place exists in SF for example, how will they know it is illegal to rent porn in a specific county in Georgia, that it violates community standards?
These are the same people that predicted that Enron and Worldcom were the companies of the future, that Lucent was going to grow forever, that QQQ was the ticket to retiring at 30. Who gives a shit about their opinion? Listen to successful investors: W. Buffett, Peter Lynch, they'll tell you that the best thing to do about analysts is to ignore their predictions. So what does this guy know about Netflix? Has he actually even tried their service?
I took Peter Lynchs advice as the best. His whole opinion of stocks boils down to one question: "Do I like their product, their service, the way they treat me", "Will I be buying from them again, and like it", "Will other people like them". He says, if you anwser yes to these questions, chances are you have a good company. Lynch said the best companies he invested in, the big ten-bangers, were companies he really liked, or noticed other people liked.
People can read all about P/E ratio, how fast a company is growing, and the rest. But this will not tell you who will suceed. These numbers should just tell you if there is a red flag, if a company could collapse on itself.
It all boils down to a good product. Price is very important, but if someone sells you crap, or bad service, people will not buy from them, and their buisness is doomed.
Slashdot Mirror
First, lets talk money. Schools make a shitload of money off soda and snack machines. When I was in school, we did not have a pepsi or coke machine. I think the only one in the school was in the teachers lounge.
But these dirtbag peice of scum motherfuckers decided that they would trade the health of children to make a few dollars. So they installed soda machines in middle schools and high schools. Kids could now get a pepsi and twinkies on the way to math class.
Here is the problem. It is a CONFLICT OF INTEREST. Schools use this money to pay their faculty higher wages.
Check this shit out:
http://www.thechampion.org/teach2004/TopTeach.asp
There are so many elementary, middle, and highschool teachers making over $100,000 a year with 3 MONTHS VACATION!!! And they can't be fired.
They found a formula. They have a teachers union. Every 3 or 4 years, no matter how good they have it, they go on strike, and demand more money. They demand tenure for everyone, no matter how bad the teacher is.
So schools must come up with money. They can only tax the people so much. So they find creative ways. They bring in the pepsi machines, charge a dollar for a 25 cent can. They start packing 60 people in general history and english classes.
And this is where it gets really sick!
They devide of the 10% or so of the school that they know will go on to Harvard and the like, students that could make noise in 10 years. And they make an honors program for them, where they get Honors History with 15 students, while everyone else is stuck in the class with 50 people.
Here is a study I would like to do. Take one of those honors students, before they know they were picked or approved for honors. Keep him/her in the general class. Take a random middle of the road student and put him in the honors class. I bet you will find better grades and exams from the smaller class size. Someone is getting gipped.
But back to fat kids. Why do they get fat? Is PE so value-less that the bright kids no longer want to take it. Is PE a time when 50 kids sit around for 10 minutes waiting for the teacher to set up the game, play for 15 minutes, then get 10 minues to go back and change?
I think the I-Pod idea is bad. Someone has to pay for it, and it won't be me!! I want the kids to be healthy, to exersize, to have a good life. But it does not take throwing money on a problem to improve things. Teachers were never paid better, when I was younger, I was told stay away from teaching because it is a low paying job where the only ones who do it really love the work. This is back when you did not find teachers making over $30-40k. Today we have them making over $170,000 a year.
Now, before I finish my rant, let me tell you the solution. It is called "bust your ass". Kids get 5 minutes to change for PE. Class is long enough for them to get 35 minutes of cardo every day school is in session. They throw out the vending machines (which would require putting teachers in line with reasonable pay, removing tenure as an automatic gift). And here is the kicker, have schools feed healthy meals. Instead of high fat food, how about a vegi lasanga one day, baked chicken the next. It should not be hard to have a healthy menu.
Consider this. Doing a google search for torrents shows most are shut down. Go ten pages deep in the searches, and there is alot of spam and bs.
Second, some websites that were torrent lists, are not MPAA websites. They track IP addresses. Can they do anything to you for just looking at a website? No. Are they trying to intimidate people? Hell yes!
Second, With all the torrent websites down, how many people are seeding? I found one website, just one with a link. It required a registration. It then required waiting 24 hours to use the website. It is a pain in the butt.
After the 24 hours were up, I tried to download a file at a whopping 0.7 k/s. And to top it off, for all I know I just tried to d/l from the RIAA. Who knows.
So what is the moral?
1) It is hard to find torrent listing websites. Good luck. Chances are most are secretive and closed to new members, they are well hidden and happy with their current members
2) Use protection. Use a proxy. You don't want to get one of those letters from the MPAA or RIAA or any **AA telling you that you owe them $10,000 or they will take you to court for some multiple of that.
What we need is an out-of-the USA filesharing network. We need a slashdot like moderation system, to mod files as +1 good quality or -1 MPAA crap.
I remember Napster, it was easy to use. I now use WinMX, but the good old days are gone. Only way out is for someone in a country where file sharing is not illegal, for them to host a service.
Michigan isn't satisfied and is proposing banning all over-the-net wine orders on the flimsy reasoning that kids will be able to buy booze without government control.
When you have a weak argument, tell them you are legislating "to save the children".
LOL, this is a health issue. We don't want kids getting drunk and turning into alcoholics. Most banks and currency exchanges sell credit cards. All a kid needs to do is buy a credit card, they will sell them to anyone. Then they go on-line, and order wine. A few days later, they recieve a shipment at their front door. Find some house where the parents work late, and can collect the wine and go drinking.
I know some states have laws that require checking an ID when dropping off alcohol, but most post office employees are not bartenders, they don't care. They just drop the shit off.
The law that will eventually pass in congress will be this:
All alcohol sold on the internet, or shipped via postal services, must be sent registered mail, and can only be picked up at the post office, where the original Credit Card and State ID must be shown
That should be enough to combat kids who want to buy alcohol from the internet. But I can only imagine what a 95 degree warehouse will do to a red.
but seriously, this story is pretty far off the mark of slashdot's focus, no?
am i missing something?
Every IT person I know is also a wine nut. I guess programming and drinking large quantities of wine go hand in hand.
Edit that... Drinking large quantities of cheap wine that you convince everyone is better than the expensive wine. I had one buddy who went crazy over Chilean wines. He kept claiming their $8 dollar a bottle reds were better than most $30 dollar a bottle reds here in the states.
Then again, I guess to read his code you would have to be drunk. It is the cypher.
States never, ever had the right to regulate interstate commerce. That power is reserved for congress.
The reason why is when we had the Articles of Confederation, every state regulated commerce, and it was a clusterfuck. It was like dealing with foriegn nations, all with their own tarrifs and trade policies.
This law has nothing to do with state rights, because it was never a state rights issue.
That is plain wrong.
The constitution grants congress the power to regulate interstate commerce.
A law regulating internet sale of alcohol will originate in congress. They might give some of the regulatory rights to states. Then it would be legal.
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Wifey: God Damn it Bill, I told you, no more teens!
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Wifey: Or transvestites!
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Wifey: That's better, read the news.
Meanwhile, I know a guy with an ergo-centric, never going to get carpal tunnel syndrome, wierdo layout with the keyboard split, that he paid $59 for. He has to replace it every 18 months or so. He even has a no food or drink policy in his computer room. And nobody can type on it, not even him.
Keyboards are one of the few things with computers where cheaper is better. Save the extra money for ram.
A VCR lets you keep the tapes, you can't take any content off a TiVo. Once you run out of room, you have to delete the show. And you can't record and skip commercials. With a VCR you can pause during commercials.
It is too bad the SVHS did not catch on. Near DVD like quality, surround sound, better than what VHS is. Plus, if you want to loan a tape to a friend, you can.
I'll give one more example of why TiVo sucks. I was going to work late one friday night, and called a friend of mine to record a show. He said he only had a TiVo, but would record it. He was leaving saturday morning to go home for the weekend. If he had a tape, I could have stopped to pick it up. But TiVo requires I be in his house to see it.
TiVo is taking away your choices, your rights. As content goes from analog to digital, there will be more content encrypted. TiVo will side with the producers, to get the ability to save this content. Before, with VHS, everything was standard, the producers could not get away with it.
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Anyways, I wonder how the hell these fuckers are able to stick their dicks in the air agianst powerful studios and lobby groups.
These people who are taking their days off work, they would have taken a day off for something else. They happen to enjoy Star Wars. I am not planning on running to the theater to see it, but I take off time from work every year for baseball games.
The danger in these kinds of stories is politicians might start thinking "entertainment drains productivity". Lobby groups might decide workers need less overtime protection, to make up those losses.
If you ask me, money is the least most valuable thing on earth. I'd rather take a hike through a park, or ride a bike.
Nice move, but it is moot.
Now for my opinion. I think it is all BS. Apple is clearly not trying to take anything away from TigerDirect (who btw, has pretty damn good prices, and if you call them, often you can wiggle the price down more if you tell them you are a small buisness, get an account executive, not the sales data entry guy).
But TigerDirect must defend itself. If Apple wins, then what it will become a generic term, worthless. What if the next big thing is the Tiger Hard Drive, or Tiger DVD burner, or Tiger RAM? Then one day, maybe I'll open up TigerDiscount and sell all those Tiger products.
If Apple would have added more to the name like TigerMAC, then I think they would have a better chance.
Wohaaa cowboy, what exactly is a high-ranking member?
Time to spam like a motherfucker on the 4th of July. WOHOOO!!!!!
, for one (and hopefully not the only), would be more than willing to pay a fee for something I find useful... Just because it started out free isn't a guarantee it stays free.
This is like Microsoft EULA. You get ham one day and *mean and meat product* the next day. And the price goes up. Woohoooo!!! I get mechanically seperatred meat by-product. Fuck steak.
And, juxtaposed with other things in my life.... $13/mo for tivo subscription (and don't flame me about mythtv.... time invested is worth money, too)
I gotta take issue with you here. I am gonna get flamed like crazy, but why pay for what you can get for free? #1) VCR. What is wrong with a VCR? Are you telling me it is so hard to record a show with a VCR? TV Guide has a show code number you can enter if telling the VCR what time to record is too hard. #2) And this is far more baffling. I know one guy, he got TiVo a while ago, and his service is FREE. I know another guy who spends $20 a month for the same thing. The guy with the free TiVo says he caught a good deal, a life time subscription for $200, something less than the other guy pays for a years worth of service. It does not seem very fair to me.
$600 insurance/year to drive my car
Who'd you hit? Geez... I buy my insurance from the guy on TV with the 1-800 number who will insure anyone. The guy with the abe lincoln hat and $99/ six month premium. Of course I know abe was not black, but at these prices I'll buy anything.
So, in context with other things I pay for, I'd happily pay $20/yr for something like the right to do this on slashdot
Not me. I'd be the first to say goodbye slashdot, you big fat bloated whore. Now make me dinner before I walk out on you.
I may not WANT to pay for yet another "thingy", but it's a system of choice, and if the sum total of things I want and their costs exceeds my budget, I selectively cull thingies until equilibrium is re-established. It's the way the market works.
Vodoo economics. I have an equilibrium too, but if you want to know about it, there is a subscription fee.
And I am the guy who is too lazy to register for the NY Times, even though it is free. If they don't have a guest/guest or asdf/asdf login, I will get my news elsewhere. I ain't paying for it. I'll get my buddies, and we'll go elsewhere. After all, we're what makes it great!
If money is what people want, why don't resturants charge a quarter for every flush? Maybe they're worried nobody will flush? People won't pay twice for the same thing. These websites make money off advertising.
Do they still let users overclock their cpu's? I know intel locked thier CPU's. I wonder if AMD still lets people play with their products more.
The past few years, I have started meeting some people who are fanatical about AMD, how it is better than Intel. And it is no coincidence, many of these people are die-hard linux users as well. But I remembered the old AMD k-5 chips that used to overheat. My logic was "AMD is following the leader, making imitation chips, they will never be in the lead".
I think the #1 problem AMD must overcome is the relationship Intel has with Microsoft. AMD makes clone chips, Intel makes chips that fit into Microsofts OS. Intel and Microsoft share information about how the chip will work with the software.
And, I guess it is also an issue of name. To this day, I still buy Sony because their TV's were the cadillac of TV's when I was a kid.
Force the people who register URL's to have proof of who is buying the domain. Force them to have a credit card to buy, and force them to give a phone number and address that must be verified prior to making the URL go live. Banks do this, they check your social security number, they check your home address. Why can't we do that with URL's?
Then when a central government agency see's domain after domain from the same person going down, they can track him. If the person uses others to buy the domain, once the government tracks them all down and threatens them with jail time, chances are one of them will give away the guy.
The obvious responce will be more laws. Laws that will take away the freedom of the non-criminal. The RIAA is forcing ISP's to hand over IPA's. Commercial websites track customers. How long until the web requires authentication just to do anything?
I hope the government really hurts the first people it catches. But until the laws change, I doubt it will be that bad. If you could rip off 1,000 people for $1,000,000, would you? What if it meant 5 years in prision, and you could hide the money so it was there when you were released?
Then why have any public services? Why not do away with pulic libraries? We can let private buisnesses start libraries. Maybe they can provide a better service?
Or are there some services that ALL people need for an advanced country and economy to continue.
The idea of private buisnesses running public services is not an old idea. In some states, private companies now run prisions, and for less money. I have never seen any in-depth analysis, but I wonder where they are cutting the costs? Less gaurds? Lower paid gaurds? Or gaurds that are not sworn officers?
Schools are another example, some of the wealthy people in the USA want another tax credit so they can pull their kid out of the public school and put them in private schools. This in my opinion is seggregation. What is good for the goose is good for the gander. But there is a bigger problem. Say for example the state spends $4000 per student, and the state says if you put your kid in a private school, we'll give you $4000. But the private school does not cost $4000, it costs $9000. So what happened is the rich get a tax credit to send their kids to a better school. The poor can't afford that $5000 difference, so they keep their kids in public schools. And now, the wealthy kids are gone to mingle in a private school.
Don't forget what saved the USA in the greatest economic downfall. Public services. When all the buisnesses failed and all the stocks collapesed, what saved the USA was Joe Sixpack. FDR started programs where the government provided services, and Joe Sixpack built it. Today, we are getting back to greed. CEOs will pocked tens of millions of dollars while laying off people, or moving a buisness outside of the USA. It is because of this the USA will collapse.
Now before everyone says it costs the city money, lets think about it. At City hall, you have a mayor you must pay anyways, the elected officials. And you have the city workers. So that cost is there regardless of what a city does.
The added cost, of having someone set up the service, well, would it be more than a company? I don't think so. At least with a city, you won't have a CEO pulling in millions of dollars a year, will you? And with a city, you can protect the workers, they can't get fired. In a company, at the very exact moment a CEO gets a 10 million dollar bonus, he can lay off thousands of people to save the company a few million. Don't that seem a little dumb?
Cities are the perfect provider for this service. For what a company will charge, a city can provide the service for pennies on the dollar. Just think about the economies of scale, a city getting the service costs reduced because of all the people, it is like buying bulk. It is the best value people can get.
Jesus, don't start with Windows ME. I don't know what that crap was, but it was not an operating system. I had a neighbor in college who purchased a HP computer with Windows ME on it. I have never in my life seen as many blue screens of death as on that OS. I have seen her cry many nights when her computer froze before she had a chance to save her work.
First, I think I am done buying M$, but having said that, I had an idea.
Why does not Microsoft not release their OS, but hold it for a few months, have a large beta group of testers. Fix the bugs. Have their own in house hackers try and break in, make more fixes. Load it with lots of different kinds of software and fix whatever problems they have.
Instead it feels like they release a product too early. Service pack 1 followed by 2 and 3 and 4.
My second complaint is these service packs are too large for some people with dial-up. If AOL can have 100's of CD's in every computer store, why can't Microsoft have their free service patch CD's in stores??
Just another way Microsoft is copying Apple.
It took me a while to grasp how much money Microsoft is making. 9.6 Billion dollars. $9,620,000,000.00. I wonder how many nations have a GNP less than what microsoft does in sales??
When Windows first came out, 3.1 was the version for me, I loved it. Before that I was stuck with DOS on my 386. Then Windows 95, I could not believe how beautiful it was, and 98, WOW all the support for multimedia and MMX. But ever since Windows 2000, my love of their product has been dying.
I dunno who is to blame more. Part of me puts the blame 100% on hackers who write viruses. There are a good number of people who blame microsoft for making a bad product. I guess the question would be, if Microsoft was making door locks instead of software, and their locks were crap, who would be responsible for breaking into a house? If everyone knew MS locks = stick a plastic butter knife and unlock, would that make the hacker any less criminal for breaking and entering.
But that is not the point. Microsoft does not offer me the product I want.
And then, with the Slashdot story a few days ago of discovering Microsoft is not only lobbying for their buisness interests (staying a monopoly) but also on social issues I decided I am through buying their product.
Damn, I wish IBM's OS/2 stayed alive. Looking back on 1992, if only it would have caught on, maybe we would have had a choice when it comes to an OS. Instead, we have linux which is being sued. What real choice does a buisness have? Use linux and risk being sued? Pay an outrageous license for unix? We needed OS/2 as a second legitimate choice for the X86 platform.
So, if sales went up 5% from last year, how much higher can it go? How many more copies of windows do they need to sell? Or will Microsoft metamorpahsize into a service company? It was not that long ago I was reading that MS was going to stop selling Office, and start renting it. Only way to use it is to be on-line or something dumb like that.
if a dvd mail rental place exists in SF for example, how will they know it is illegal to rent porn in a specific county in Georgia, that it violates community standards?
I took Peter Lynchs advice as the best. His whole opinion of stocks boils down to one question: "Do I like their product, their service, the way they treat me", "Will I be buying from them again, and like it", "Will other people like them". He says, if you anwser yes to these questions, chances are you have a good company. Lynch said the best companies he invested in, the big ten-bangers, were companies he really liked, or noticed other people liked.
People can read all about P/E ratio, how fast a company is growing, and the rest. But this will not tell you who will suceed. These numbers should just tell you if there is a red flag, if a company could collapse on itself.
It all boils down to a good product. Price is very important, but if someone sells you crap, or bad service, people will not buy from them, and their buisness is doomed.