Everyone knows "hacker" == "technology + evil" and it gets more play than a headline that reads "Accountant Office Burglarized: Romney Tax Returns Stolen"
The inconsistency of their agents has to be the most annoying thing. In Dallas a few weeks ago they were uniformly polite and efficient. In Oklahoma City they tend to be pretty good as well. In Charlotte they like to pretend they are Gestapo agents and in In Fort Lauderdale they are crass and unobservant (had a new bottle of gel toothpaste in my carry-on that went unnoticed because they were too busy bitching about the phone charger and camera clumped together) in smaller airports they tend to fumble around a lot. I flew out of Washington National a few years ago with my 8 inch dive knife in my carry-on (by accident.)
I think TSA satisfaction would increase if the airlines hadn't turned the security checkpoint into a baggage checkpoint. The volume of luggage going through the system slows everything down and creates more hassle, which is communicated to the passengers. Flying is no longer a luxury in most cases, it's a necessity. As such the airlines really don't care about providing customer service, they only try to avoid liability. This touches everyone who participates in the system.
My family currently has 5 smartphones and a MiFi - about 1200 minutes on a calling plan, unlimited texting and data on everything. (an OLD plan) If we convert to one of the new bucket plans and allocate enough extra data to cover estimated monthly usage we *might* save $10 per month, but we would also be giving up a device (the MiFi) since tethering would be included for the smartphones. In short, we'd essentially pay the same and get less for it. No thanks!
How is this "heartless" - as previously stated, people are purchasing books at a price that the seller has deemed fair and are moving them to another market where they have identified the potential to make a profit. Since when did it become taboo to make a fair profit? If they're willing to search out the books and put forth the effort then they're certainly entitled to reaping benefit for their efforts. It's called work. I find the concept inspiring; here's someone who identified an opportunity and is using it to earn money without taking advantage of anyone.
If I donate to the library for their sale it is for several reasons. 1) Recycling the books 2) Providing the library a source of revenue 3) Hoping that someone else will derive enjoyment from something that I have previously possessed. If there's a 2a) inserted by a third party it has not diminished any of the reasons I had and actually adds an additional benefit. All of the statements about the outlets using technology to maximize their profits are well taken, but there are explicit and implicit costs to the application of this technology and the cost/benefit may not merit the effort as compared to pricing them by an algorithm.
I'm a little late to the dance, so to speak, mainly because I was giving a presentation earlier this week about PLC networking at a conference.:-) I'm working with a PLC networking company, we're "inside the transformer" (building distribution) as opposed to on the pole. It's here, it's real, and it works. There are a few variations out there right now, mostly running at "old" ethernet speeds (14 Mbps theoretical, 5-8 Mbps measured, real-world rates) Chipsets are available that will allow speeds of ~50Mbps and under development that will deliver >200Mbps. We've got test deployments running in a hotel as well as an apartment complex, with 2 more hotel sites coming on line.
As a Silly-Con Valley escapee I can say that Webvan was great from a customer perspective. When I was commuting coast-to-coast I could place my order from NC and have it delivered the morning after my arrival back in CA. The customer service people were among the best I have ever dealt with. The products were outstanding (any problems, they would cheerfully refund or replace, your choice.)
So what went wrong? A couple of things, IMHO. As others have mentioned, trying to go too far too fast. Instead of expansion they needed to insinuate themselves into the mentality of the Bay Area. We lived in a nice neighborhood in Saratoga and the only time I ever saw a Webvan truck was parked at my house. When my wife came out to CA she loved Webvan, but like most people going to the grocery store was such a habit she had a hard time sitting down at the computer to order groceries.
IMHO, if Webvan had spent more time and energy converting people to their mode of business we wouldn't be having this discussion. A regional chain around here, Loews Foods, now has a "shopping service" where you order online and pick up at the curb. In some areas they have started offering delivery as well. This will, in all likelyhood, be successful.
Huh? The current economic downturn started long before the primaries, much less the election. Might as well blame Bush for the exploding tires on the Ford Explorer.
I remember reading the account of Maynard Hill's 33 hr. endurance flight in Model Aviation magazine when I was a teenager. It was amazing at that time that anyone could keep an airplane up for that long. The biggest surprise for me is that it's taken around 20 years for them to make this attempt.:-)
Tuesday there was a sunspot large enough to be observed naked-eye (provided you had a solar filter handy!)
You may have even been able to project it, I'm not sure. I took a few shots with my 500mm lens (again, through a solar filter)
but haven't processed the film yet. In addition to the large spot there were a couple dozen smaller spots, all lined up and
converging on the solar equator. I don't know if the aurora has been very evident around here, but I'll take a look tonight.
We've got a stable of speakers available to give presentations at all types of venues.
It makes things real simple if your group meets on a regular basis, that way we can work with people
to schedule meetings in a sort of road trip format. Regardless of size or scheduling, we're
always willing to try and work out visits whenever we can.
In my mind the terms "Free Software" and "Open Source" are fundamentally synonymous. Free Software is just a specific type of Open Source.
Now as far as beginning the Open Source revolution, I don't really think Red Hat is
responsible. I seem to recall that the Netscape release of Mozilla marked a significant turning point, a point that most people recognize as the beginning of a revolution. Until that point most of the Linux world was still shrouded in relative obscurity. When Mozilla was unleashed the world took note, and then things started to accelerate.
I think it's fair to say that Red Hat was a catalyst of the revolution, as was Slashdot, VA, Linux Journal, ALS, LinuxWorld.com, LinuxWorld Expo and others. Does it happen because of one of these? No. Does it happen if
one of them is missing? Almost certainly.
I certainly don't think that any one company or entity can claim complete responsibility. Just like there are many contributors to the Linux kernel, there have been many contributors to the Linux revolution.
Saturday morning here in the Bay Area Digital Convergence ran an infmercial on the Cue Cat and their software. (I can't remember where to put the annoying ":"'s nor the name of the software.) Anyway, the infomercial was in a classroom setting of the future with a cheesy (but not unattractive) teacher telling the class how the world changed after "Convergence" took place. It seems that DC is going to change the world with their service and we'll never understand how we limped along in the current world of the internet.
Annoying infomercial aside, the function that their software has been designed for is pretty neat. Anyone can register (buy? license?) a 'Cue' (personalized barcode) that is encoded to a specific web page. The uses for this are pretty much limitless, and in most instances quite useful. Read an article in a magazine and
zap a code to see a page of links to the
products mentioned, or a group of related recipies, or a list of vendors, you get the idea. You can even get a personal 'Cue' that you could print on business cards, greeting cards, a resume, etc.
In short, it seems to be a fairly neat way to accelerate the movement of information.
So why don't these clueless people focus on selling 'Cues' to every business on the planet? It's obvious that's where the revenue lies. Forget the specific demographics that they will be denied by all but the lemmings. Just track the hits generated by each 'Cue' and use that to make their customers swoon. Otherwise they're just going to end up with a lot of John Does living at 123 Anystreet using their service.
I think we all have a good idea of how far that will take them.
--Kit
Speaking only for myself at the moment but employed by:
Frankly, what disturbs me is that VA shipped you a computer with no OS. They should have sold you a standard product and made you
erase whatever it was they _did_ support. The fact they sold it with no OS hints at a lax or non-existent testing/burn-in program.
He may have ordered a machine with no software kit, but it most definitely had our load installed, for burn-in if nothing else.
You can check out the tools we use for burn-in
over at SourceForge, do a search for "Cerberus".
Fortunately that is not the case here.:-)
Many of our tech support staff have moved to other
areas of the company over the years.
New positions range from webmasters to software
engineering and professional services.
Keep people motivated and moving forward and they're
more likely to be productive.
The name was actually changed about this time last year at Linux Expo in Raleigh, when VA Research announced the acquisition of Linux Hardware Solutions (my former company)
No one person or company is, or ever will be, "Linux", that's the beauty of Open Source.
I'd just like to clarify a few things about VA's stance on these issues.
First, the load that we produce is based on Red Hat as the starting point. We then modify about 100 packages, add some kernel drivers when needed, and generally make it "ours." This is not unlike what Mandrake and Caldera used to do. (For those that may not know, Caldera Network Desktop 1.0, their first packaged distribution product, was essentially Red Hat 2.1 with a few tweaks and some extra packages. Most of the rpms were built on porky.redhat.com. I have a couple copies of both sitting here.)
Anyway, I digress.
VA has standardized on one load over the past year or so for one reason, to ensure that we could scale our production in an effective manner.
We are in the process of deploying some new systems that will allow us to offer other options for the software load on our hardware products. There has been tremendous effort put forth to implement this and we're excited about the possibilities.
With respect to other Open Source operating systems, I'd like to point out that SourceForge not only has multiple Linux distributions available in the compile farm, there are also BSD variants available. Over time the available platforms will continue to expand.
BTW: My friends who did SAS always took pains to remind me that you don't pronounce it 'Sass', but rather 'Ess Ay Ess'. It really chapped their balls to hear it the wrong way...
Well, all of my friends and relatives that work at SAS, along with the HR people I've talked to in the past, and Dr. Jim Goodnight (President of SAS and owner of the building that my brother-in-law's restaurant occupies in Cary) all pronounce it "sass".
All early investors and employees are bound by a lockup agreement. The underwriters demand this as a condition of their participation in the IPO.
This keeps the market from being flooded from the outset.
Generally the VC firms pass their stock back to the investors in the VC funds, who tend to hold things long-term. The initial activity on an IPO is simply people flipping the stock back and forth trying to maximize their gain.
Red Hat's lockup period just ended, which is a likely contributor to the recent slide from the mid 90's to the 68.5 that it closed at yesterday. VA just released earnings last week that were misinterpreted on several fronts. You can see the details on the investor relations page.
The stock market is a complex beast and doesn't lend itself to simple or absolute explainations.
You might also notice that all of these posts are identical, and in response to identical false posts being made by someone pretending to be Larry.
I'd much rather spend my time on things more productive than rebutting fraudulent posts on Slashdot, but some extremely bored individual out there gets his jollies filling the pages with useless garbage.
For the conspiracy theorists, if VA were exerting some level of control over Slash-dot [sic] don't you think Rob & Company would just delete the bogus posts by "VA Linux"?
Slashdot Mirror
Everyone knows "hacker" == "technology + evil" and it gets more play than a headline that reads "Accountant Office Burglarized: Romney Tax Returns Stolen"
The inconsistency of their agents has to be the most annoying thing. In Dallas a few weeks ago they were uniformly polite and efficient. In Oklahoma City they tend to be pretty good as well. In Charlotte they like to pretend they are Gestapo agents and in In Fort Lauderdale they are crass and unobservant (had a new bottle of gel toothpaste in my carry-on that went unnoticed because they were too busy bitching about the phone charger and camera clumped together) in smaller airports they tend to fumble around a lot. I flew out of Washington National a few years ago with my 8 inch dive knife in my carry-on (by accident.)
I think TSA satisfaction would increase if the airlines hadn't turned the security checkpoint into a baggage checkpoint. The volume of luggage going through the system slows everything down and creates more hassle, which is communicated to the passengers. Flying is no longer a luxury in most cases, it's a necessity. As such the airlines really don't care about providing customer service, they only try to avoid liability. This touches everyone who participates in the system.
My family currently has 5 smartphones and a MiFi - about 1200 minutes on a calling plan, unlimited texting and data on everything. (an OLD plan) If we convert to one of the new bucket plans and allocate enough extra data to cover estimated monthly usage we *might* save $10 per month, but we would also be giving up a device (the MiFi) since tethering would be included for the smartphones. In short, we'd essentially pay the same and get less for it. No thanks!
How is this "heartless" - as previously stated, people are purchasing books at a price that the seller has deemed fair and are moving them to another market where they have identified the potential to make a profit. Since when did it become taboo to make a fair profit? If they're willing to search out the books and put forth the effort then they're certainly entitled to reaping benefit for their efforts. It's called work. I find the concept inspiring; here's someone who identified an opportunity and is using it to earn money without taking advantage of anyone.
If I donate to the library for their sale it is for several reasons. 1) Recycling the books 2) Providing the library a source of revenue 3) Hoping that someone else will derive enjoyment from something that I have previously possessed. If there's a 2a) inserted by a third party it has not diminished any of the reasons I had and actually adds an additional benefit. All of the statements about the outlets using technology to maximize their profits are well taken, but there are explicit and implicit costs to the application of this technology and the cost/benefit may not merit the effort as compared to pricing them by an algorithm.
I'm a little late to the dance, so to speak, mainly because I was giving a presentation earlier this week about PLC networking at a conference. :-) I'm working with a PLC networking company, we're "inside the transformer" (building distribution) as opposed to on the pole. It's here, it's real, and it works. There are a few variations out there right now, mostly running at "old" ethernet speeds (14 Mbps theoretical, 5-8 Mbps measured, real-world rates) Chipsets are available that will allow speeds of ~50Mbps and under development that will deliver >200Mbps. We've got test deployments running in a hotel as well as an apartment complex, with 2 more hotel sites coming on line.
--Kit
Nope, LHS never suffered from the illness that caused the plan to change every other week, nor was it large enough to have any PHBs.
--Kit
From your comments I'd swear the small company
you worked at was VA circa 1999-2001.
--Kit
So what went wrong? A couple of things, IMHO. As others have mentioned, trying to go too far too fast. Instead of expansion they needed to insinuate themselves into the mentality of the Bay Area. We lived in a nice neighborhood in Saratoga and the only time I ever saw a Webvan truck was parked at my house. When my wife came out to CA she loved Webvan, but like most people going to the grocery store was such a habit she had a hard time sitting down at the computer to order groceries.
IMHO, if Webvan had spent more time and energy converting people to their mode of business we wouldn't be having this discussion. A regional chain around here, Loews Foods, now has a "shopping service" where you order online and pick up at the curb. In some areas they have started offering delivery as well. This will, in all likelyhood, be successful.
--Kit
Might as well blame Bush for the exploding tires on the Ford Explorer.
--Kit
I remember reading the account of Maynard Hill's 33 hr. endurance flight in Model Aviation magazine when I was a teenager. It was amazing at that time that anyone could keep an airplane up for that long. The biggest surprise for me is that it's taken around 20 years for them to make this attempt. :-)
--Kit
Tuesday there was a sunspot large enough to be observed naked-eye (provided you had a solar filter handy!)
You may have even been able to project it, I'm not sure. I took a few shots with my 500mm lens (again, through a solar filter)
but haven't processed the film yet. In addition to the large spot there were a couple dozen smaller spots, all lined up and
converging on the solar equator. I don't know if the aurora has been very evident around here, but I'll take a look tonight.
--Kit
It makes things real simple if your group meets on a regular basis, that way we can work with people
to schedule meetings in a sort of road trip format. Regardless of size or scheduling, we're
always willing to try and work out visits whenever we can.
The best way to contact us is via email to community@valinux.com
--Kit
Director of Community Projects
In my mind the terms "Free Software" and "Open Source" are fundamentally synonymous. Free Software is just a specific type of Open Source.
Now as far as beginning the Open Source revolution, I don't really think Red Hat is responsible. I seem to recall that the Netscape release of Mozilla marked a significant turning point, a point that most people recognize as the beginning of a revolution. Until that point most of the Linux world was still shrouded in relative obscurity. When Mozilla was unleashed the world took note, and then things started to accelerate.
I think it's fair to say that Red Hat was a catalyst of the revolution, as was Slashdot, VA, Linux Journal, ALS, LinuxWorld.com, LinuxWorld Expo and others. Does it happen because of one of these? No. Does it happen if one of them is missing? Almost certainly.
I certainly don't think that any one company or entity can claim complete responsibility. Just like there are many contributors to the Linux kernel, there have been many contributors to the Linux revolution.
--Kit
their software. (I can't remember where to put the annoying ":"'s nor the name of the software.)
Anyway, the infomercial was in a classroom setting of the future with a cheesy (but not unattractive)
teacher telling the class how the world changed after "Convergence" took place. It seems that DC
is going to change the world with their service and we'll never understand how we limped along
in the current world of the internet.
Annoying infomercial aside, the function that their software has been designed for is pretty neat.
Anyone can register (buy? license?) a 'Cue' (personalized barcode) that is encoded to a specific web page.
The uses for this are pretty much limitless, and in most instances quite useful. Read an article in a magazine
and zap a code to see a page of links to the products mentioned, or a group of related recipies, or a list of
vendors, you get the idea. You can even get a personal 'Cue' that you could print on business cards,
greeting cards, a resume, etc.
In short, it seems to be a fairly neat way to accelerate the movement of information.
So why don't these clueless people focus on selling 'Cues' to every business on the planet?
It's obvious that's where the revenue lies. Forget the specific demographics that they will be denied by
all but the lemmings. Just track the hits generated by each 'Cue' and use that to make their customers
swoon. Otherwise they're just going to end up with a lot of John Does living at 123 Anystreet using their service.
I think we all have a good idea of how far that will take them.
--Kit
Speaking only for myself at the moment but employed by:
He may have ordered a machine with no software kit, but it most definitely had our load installed, for burn-in if nothing else.
You can check out the tools we use for burn-in over at SourceForge, do a search for "Cerberus".
--Kit
Fortunately that is not the case here. :-)
Many of our tech support staff have moved to other
areas of the company over the years.
New positions range from webmasters to software
engineering and professional services.
Keep people motivated and moving forward and they're
more likely to be productive.
--Kit
VA Linux Systems
The name was actually changed about this time last year at Linux Expo in Raleigh, when
VA Research announced the acquisition of Linux Hardware Solutions (my former company)
No one person or company is, or ever will be, "Linux", that's the beauty of Open Source.
--Kit
Director, Community Projects
First, the load that we produce is based on Red Hat as the starting point.
We then modify about 100 packages, add some kernel drivers when needed,
and generally make it "ours." This is not unlike what Mandrake and Caldera used to do.
(For those that may not know, Caldera Network Desktop 1.0, their first packaged
distribution product, was essentially Red Hat 2.1 with a few tweaks and some extra packages.
Most of the rpms were built on porky.redhat.com. I have a couple copies of both sitting here.)
Anyway, I digress.
VA has standardized on one load over the past year or so for one reason, to ensure
that we could scale our production in an effective manner.
We are in the process of deploying some new systems that will allow us to offer other
options for the software load on our hardware products.
There has been tremendous effort put forth to implement this and we're excited about
the possibilities.
With respect to other Open Source operating systems, I'd like to point out that
SourceForge not only has multiple Linux distributions available in the compile farm,
there are also BSD variants available. Over time the available platforms will continue to expand.
--Kit
Director, Community Projects
but rather 'Ess Ay Ess'. It really chapped their balls to hear it the wrong way...
Well, all of my friends and relatives that work at SAS, along with the HR people I've talked to in the past,
and Dr. Jim Goodnight (President of SAS and owner of the building that my brother-in-law's restaurant
occupies in Cary) all pronounce it "sass".
--Kit
All early investors and employees are bound by a lockup agreement. The underwriters demand
this as a condition of their participation in the IPO.
This keeps the market from being flooded from the outset.
Generally the VC firms pass their stock back to the investors in the VC funds, who tend to hold
things long-term. The initial activity on an IPO is simply people flipping the stock back and forth
trying to maximize their gain.
Red Hat's lockup period just ended, which is a likely contributor to the recent slide from the mid 90's
to the 68.5 that it closed at yesterday. VA just released earnings last week that were misinterpreted
on several fronts. You can see the details on the investor relations page.
The stock market is a complex beast and doesn't lend itself to simple or absolute explainations.
--Kit
This is not an official post from Larry.
There isn't a Slashdot Giveaway
This is a bored individual who enjoys misleading people and generating unnecessary email.
Official VA promotions will always be posted on the VA Linux website.
Sorry for the confusion that has been created.
--Kit
I'd much rather spend my time on things more productive than rebutting fraudulent posts on Slashdot, but some extremely bored individual out there gets his jollies filling the pages with useless garbage.
For the conspiracy theorists, if VA were exerting some level of control over Slash-dot [sic] don't you think Rob & Company would just delete the bogus posts by "VA Linux"?
--Kit
There isn't a Slashdot Giveaway
This is a bored individual who enjoys misleading people and generating unnecessary email.
Official VA promotions will always be posted on the VA Linux website.
Sorry for the confusion that has been created.
--Kit
There isn't a Slashdot Giveaway
This is a bored individual who enjoys misleading people and generating unnecessary email.
Official VA promotions will always be posted on the VA Linux website.
Sorry for the confusion that has been created.
--Kit
There isn't a Slashdot Giveaway
Things like this would be posted on the VA website, not on Slashdot.
My apologies to anyone who has been misled by this poster.
--Kit