Many French and European IT specialist despise Microsoft and are having more and more of the same feeling about Apple. But the French Government unfortunatelly does not hate Microsoft, and most of the average citizen does not really care, nor knows anything about it.
Actually what you get in france is either: 25mb/s download and 8mbs/upload with Internet, about 30 tv channel and phone (free to call fixed lines) for 45/month (at FT) or 8mb/s for 30Month (at Free) for the same kind of triple play
This is in Paris
In a small village in the woods you get either dialup (this is still the only option for approx 2% of the population) or some "experimental" satelite + wifi 1mb/lines for 30/month
or your own bidirectional satelite dish for approx 150/month for 512 down 128 up
But in 12 month you will have a WiMax option almost everywhere (probably 0.5% of the population will still be able to hide:-))
Suse still does not read DVD "out of the box", the fact that there is a workaround (downloading deCSS "somewhere") is actually a hinderence "linux fans" have machines "that work" but when you try to convince a "naive user" to switch, either you become their system manager, or they will complain that the "music video bit" doesn't work. (on the other hand you are in the blissfull situation of never having to manager their malware issuers).
The situation will become MUCH worse with the advent of DRMs...
Bored CEO with rather large amount of money need repair on its reputation to make a political or if it does not work philantropy career. Send proposal to carleton@california_retreat.com all serious inquiery will be handled in total confidentiality.
Well, on a clean install it does "the right thing", but It is planned to be closely integrated with Firefox, so if FF is trying to "help you" by choosing some other default association you have to do it again. The way to fix it depends also somewhat on the OS version.
Well of course Photoshop is "better" than Gimp, and you absolutelly need flash, and Dreamweaver is much better than NVU and thinking is optional. Congratulation for you job change:-).
I really wish the copyprotection schemes would be better, and software piracy would go way down.
Closed source software user are happy to relinquish their freedoms, they deserve to suffer (more)
-- disclaimer, I just came back from the dentist, so I'm somewhat less mellow than usually --
I always wondered if Warren Buffet was bad, good or neutral.
Now it looks clearer: either he is as bad as BG, or somehow he got conned into it.
Or maybe he has so much vested interest in Microsoft shares that he really need to pump 37billion into their marketing department.
Well the fact that the CIA, NSA, FSB, Vatican Swiss Gards and the Mafia all are after your
skin is not a proof that your feeling of dread is unrelated to paranoia.
Actually although I do strongly believe in the "pure GPL" model, I also think that Outlook users and actually any Microsoft "freebe" user DESERVES to pay. There is no acceptable reason to use outlook or outlook express, and by using them people do help making the internet a less nice place. Making them pay is good.
So would you recommend a chocolate kalacksnikov (obviously non threatening to the drunked batchelors when the board the bus in broad daylight, but could look convincing in a dark alley:-)
Personally I belive that the only thing the parent need is a quiet chat with the owner of the locale that his clients patronize. I guess any street punk knows better than to anger the local night club owner, or is so far gone that even a bazooka might not convince him/her/it of the wisdom of leaving a bus driver to his/her rest.
Currently the SanDisk line required Window XP and WMA 10+ So let's say it's tito raging against staline, or Franco against Musolini. If they offer a rockbox version and find some distributors willing to support music and video distributions in some open format i'll be able to aplaud.
Right now I'll keep my PMA400 (archos PDA+Player Linux based:-))
It is really doublePlusGood, with this superGood(tm) law, parents will not have to look at what their childrens are doing with their PC/games console etc... Since the only way they could have a EvilTeroristDrugSexAndALlOtherBadThing Games running on their Electronic toy would be for somebody to loan one to them. And this cannot of course happen right.
And if parents would actually look at what their teenage childrens are doing they would have less time for TV and other important pursuits.
With this law they can safelly give their kids a couple of 100$ bills and completelly forget about them.
No I do not think those people should, but then it would not be a very different from the current situation where the people in charges are accustomed to get "support" from wholesome organizations like: Weapon Dealers, Casino Owners, Fiscal Paradise based Finance house, and for the more depraved one Microsoft.
Or put in another way: What the PB people are doing is "very very very naughty", but they can only get support because they create an opening in a situation that would otherwise be totaly evil.
On the other hand I would really be happy if ALL the P2P sites would stop right now at once, and all "illegal" DVD/CD ripping also, just so that the m****s that are still using "the obvious choice" would be "feeling the pain" and maybe start asking some "hard questions".
Sure we should regulate, for instance any company guily of releasing software generating more than 10 Million should be banned and forbidden to operate. So we would get rid of Microsoft, and probably most of the closed source companies. While it makes sense that a system integrator using some software to drive a peace maker should follow more stringent rules, than a game developper, "regulating the industry" is just a short hand for: "removing anybody that could be a new threat for us". I'm sure Oracle would love to "regulate" mySQL.
The law is not about Apple and the iPod but in general about letting a company use their power to avoid improving their products.
The CD is dead, in few years you will not be able to rip your music. So the choice will be between letting go 70% of the music or choosing between iPod and Microsoft, And you will not choose based on quality or price but on vague branding perception (Apple) vs price (Microsoft based players) (and the price will be too high anyway because everybody will have to pay for the Microsoft DRM licence).
And people might be feeling cheated by Apple, but they still will want to listen to their artists and will have to pay apple because the majors are helping Apple and Microsoft by keeping the artists hostage.
Problem not solved, you can now put on your mp3 player music that you ripped from your CD, do it while you can, music that you downloaded illegally (well the "right to do illegal things" is one of the reason to dislike state involvment), that too you might want to do as long as you can without too much hassle and untill you are caught, although of course the artists are ripped off even more that they are by the majors anyway. You can also listen to the minority of artists that are not vassals of the majors, this is actually a good thing, unfortunatelly it will help you to be excluded from your community.
So the question is: is it legitimate that Apple and Microsoft are the only authorized "gate keeper" for your music ? It is by the way very interesting to see that the medias are calling this the "iPod law" and not the "WMA 10 (or 11) law" leveraging the "positive image" of Apple/iPod rather than risk reinforcing the "hegemonistic image" of Microsoft.
In conclusion this is exactly what a government SHOULD do: create policies to protect competition and avoid situations where a powerful company can use one group (the artists) as hostage to control the public.
Since the next US president will be either Republican or Democrat, s/he will either bow to the IT industry (Microsoft) or to Hollywood, or both, just because the US need some sort of export industry to be able to at least pretent that the us dollar has some value. And monopoly are real good for the current brand of lobbytocracy that rule the US (and the EC), since monopolies have way more money to support "worthy causes".
And printer drivers are an "interesting" example, they are not released but not because or despite of the cost, but it has all to do with patent wars and control of the ink business. (for instance, an open source code that "calls home" is quite visible.)
And my point is that growing the marketshare (on which I'm working) is not the issue
If this would be true there would be no "flemish" release of DVD. The Netherlands + Flemish part of belgium represent a much smaller part of "the market" than the "Linux afficionados". (BTW in many case there are two different release one for the Netherland and one in Flemish since they are not exactly the same languages.)
So saying "we'll wait till you have a 10..20..30% marketshare is pure free floating horse shit.
The key reasons are cultural and political? basically Linux users are not a "nice demography" for the kind of people that are making decisions in the US, and the FOSS development model is giving way to much power to the creator and the user (nerds all of them) and not enough to the jock.
The way to counter this is political and legal, if for instance the "disabled" are able to influence public procurement, the "alternative users" have to learn how to do this and show the responsible corporations that it is cheaper to do something they absolutelly hate than being bothered all the time in court.
April one of the french OSS organisations made this kind of calendar last year. It is outsold. And I didn't buy one (unfortunatelly there was a lack of womanly OSS luminary, but I'm trying very hard to be ashamed of this).
But the real scandal in RMS selling autographs is that the cost is WAY TO LOW !!!! I want to avoid buying an autograph for at least 1000$ !!!
Nope, it is annual worker productivity, but it does not mean that the economy as a whole is more "productive", particularly if the company the EU worker is working for is mainly fuelling an Irish based US pension funded company.
I found the article rather interesting, and it is probably interesting as a hint for a city planner. Not personally really relevant, but generally interesting, but what made me laught was the conclusion at the end. 30% increase in hollydays ? hum, even ignoring the fact that 7minutes in the evening is not the same as 7minutes on the beach during a hollyday, reality hit home when I read that it is 30hours in addition to the 80hours of "normal hollydays", that is 10 days ?
In continental europe the normal number of hollydays for IT people is at least 25 days, and typically 30.. 35 days. Therefore the result is not only that since there are less work days the 30 hours gain would be about 10% lower, but it would have to be compared to a much higher number of hours.
In europe (where the typical worker productivity is higher than in the US) the news would be: By careful planning of your commute hours you can gain about 10% of additional "free time minutes", wich would of course be a great conversation piece in front of the coffe machine.
Slashdot Mirror
Many French and European IT specialist despise Microsoft and are having more and more of the same feeling about Apple.
But the French Government unfortunatelly does not hate Microsoft, and most of the average citizen does not really care, nor knows anything about it.
Sic Transit Gloria Mundi
Actually what you get in france is either:
:-))
25mb/s download and 8mbs/upload with Internet, about 30 tv channel and phone (free to call fixed lines) for 45/month (at FT)
or
8mb/s for 30Month (at Free) for the same kind of triple play
This is in Paris
In a small village in the woods you get either dialup (this is still the only option for approx 2% of the population) or some "experimental" satelite + wifi 1mb/lines for 30/month
or your own bidirectional satelite dish for approx 150/month for 512 down 128 up
But in 12 month you will have a WiMax option almost everywhere (probably 0.5% of the population will still be able to hide
Suse still does not read DVD "out of the box", the fact that there is a workaround (downloading deCSS "somewhere") is actually a hinderence "linux fans" have machines "that work" but when you try to convince a "naive user" to switch, either you become their system manager, or they will complain that the "music video bit" doesn't work. (on the other hand you are in the blissfull situation of never having to manager their malware issuers).
...
The situation will become MUCH worse with the advent of DRMs
Bored CEO with rather large amount of money need repair on its reputation to make a political or if it does not work philantropy career.
Send proposal to carleton@california_retreat.com
all serious inquiery will be handled in total confidentiality.
Well,
on a clean install it does "the right thing", but It is planned to be closely integrated with Firefox, so if FF is trying to "help you" by choosing some other default association you have to do it again.
The way to fix it depends also somewhat on the OS version.
Well of course Photoshop is "better" than Gimp, and you absolutelly need flash, and Dreamweaver is much better than NVU and thinking is optional. :-).
Congratulation for you job change
I really wish the copyprotection schemes would be better, and software piracy would go way down.
Closed source software user are happy to relinquish their freedoms, they deserve to suffer (more)
-- disclaimer, I just came back from the dentist, so I'm somewhat less mellow than usually --
I always wondered if Warren Buffet was bad, good or neutral.
Now it looks clearer: either he is as bad as BG, or somehow he got conned into it.
Or maybe he has so much vested interest in Microsoft shares that he really need to pump 37billion into their marketing department.
Well the fact that the CIA, NSA, FSB, Vatican Swiss Gards and the Mafia all are after your
skin is not a proof that your feeling of dread is unrelated to paranoia.
In a related News CompTIA warns governments against Linux: Runing Linux is proved to destroy Full sized buildings under various usage situations.
This proves that Linux can be used by Terorists, drug dealers that want to push competitors out and various other nefarious evildoer.
A member of CompTIA Steve B. indicated that Linux can even get chairs to fly around.
Actually although I do strongly believe in the "pure GPL" model, I also think that Outlook users and actually any Microsoft "freebe" user DESERVES to pay.
There is no acceptable reason to use outlook or outlook express, and by using them people do help making the internet a less nice place.
Making them pay is good.
So would you recommend a chocolate kalacksnikov (obviously non threatening to the drunked batchelors when the board the bus in broad daylight, but could look convincing in a dark alley :-)
Personally I belive that the only thing the parent need is a quiet chat with the owner of the locale that his clients patronize.
I guess any street punk knows better than to anger the local night club owner, or is so far gone that even a bazooka might not convince him/her/it of the wisdom of leaving a bus driver to his/her rest.
I guess this is what Lenovo had to do to be allowed to come back selling to the US government.
BTW didn't Microsoft got sued for something like that a couple of years ago ?
On the other hand I guess anything that makes the Chinese economy less competitive is good for the rest of the world?
Currently the SanDisk line required Window XP and WMA 10+
:-))
So let's say it's tito raging against staline, or Franco against Musolini.
If they offer a rockbox version and find some distributors willing to support music and video distributions in some open format i'll be able to aplaud.
Right now I'll keep my PMA400 (archos PDA+Player Linux based
It is really doublePlusGood, with this superGood(tm) law, parents will not have to look at what their childrens are doing with their PC/games console etc...
Since the only way they could have a EvilTeroristDrugSexAndALlOtherBadThing Games running on their Electronic toy would be for somebody to loan one to them.
And this cannot of course happen right.
And if parents would actually look at what their teenage childrens are doing they would have less time for TV and other important pursuits.
With this law they can safelly give their kids a couple of 100$ bills and completelly forget about them.
DoublePlusCool.
No I do not think those people should, but then it would not be a very different from the current situation where the people in charges are accustomed to get "support" from wholesome organizations like:
Weapon Dealers, Casino Owners, Fiscal Paradise based Finance house, and for the more depraved one Microsoft.
Or put in another way: What the PB people are doing is "very very very naughty", but they can only get support because they create an opening in a situation that would otherwise be totaly evil.
On the other hand I would really be happy if ALL the P2P sites would stop right now at once, and all "illegal" DVD/CD ripping also, just so that the m****s that are still using "the obvious choice" would be "feeling the pain" and maybe start asking some "hard questions".
I have an USB Key with SD (and a couple of other formats) reader inside.
It did cost me 29 but works everywhere and on about any OS.
There are some stupid IP issues with SD cards that makes support non trivial.
I was looking for a book easyng me into Qtopia, and it seems to fit the bill.
Thanks for an useful review.
Sure we should regulate, for instance any company guily of releasing software generating more than 10 Million should be banned and forbidden to operate.
So we would get rid of Microsoft, and probably most of the closed source companies.
While it makes sense that a system integrator using some software to drive a peace maker should follow more stringent rules, than a game developper, "regulating the industry" is just a short hand for: "removing anybody that could be a new threat for us".
I'm sure Oracle would love to "regulate" mySQL.
The law is not about Apple and the iPod but in general about letting a company use their power to avoid improving their products.
The CD is dead, in few years you will not be able to rip your music.
So the choice will be between letting go 70% of the music or choosing between iPod and Microsoft, And you will not choose based on quality or price but on vague branding perception (Apple) vs price (Microsoft based players) (and the price will be too high anyway because everybody will have to pay for the Microsoft DRM licence).
And people might be feeling cheated by Apple, but they still will want to listen to their artists and will have to pay apple because the majors are helping Apple and Microsoft by keeping the artists hostage.
Problem not solved, you can now put on your mp3 player music that you ripped from your CD, do it while you can, music that you downloaded illegally (well the "right to do illegal things" is one of the reason to dislike state involvment), that too you might want to do as long as you can without too much hassle and untill you are caught, although of course the artists are ripped off even more that they are by the majors anyway.
You can also listen to the minority of artists that are not vassals of the majors, this is actually a good thing, unfortunatelly it will help you to be excluded from your community.
So the question is: is it legitimate that Apple and Microsoft are the only authorized "gate keeper" for your music ? It is by the way very interesting to see that the medias are calling this the "iPod law" and not the "WMA 10 (or 11) law" leveraging the "positive image" of Apple/iPod rather than risk reinforcing the "hegemonistic image" of Microsoft.
In conclusion this is exactly what a government SHOULD do: create policies to protect competition and avoid situations where a powerful company can use one group (the artists) as hostage to control the public.
Since the next US president will be either Republican or Democrat, s/he will either bow to the IT industry (Microsoft) or to Hollywood, or both, just because the US need some sort of export industry to be able to at least pretent that the us dollar has some value.
And monopoly are real good for the current brand of lobbytocracy that rule the US (and the EC), since monopolies have way more money to support "worthy causes".
90% of the "blockbuster" are released in Flemish,
And printer drivers are an "interesting" example, they are not released but not because or despite of the cost, but it has all to do with patent wars and control of the ink business.
(for instance, an open source code that "calls home" is quite visible.)
And my point is that growing the marketshare (on which I'm working) is not the issue
If this would be true there would be no "flemish" release of DVD.
The Netherlands + Flemish part of belgium represent a much smaller part of "the market" than the "Linux afficionados".
(BTW in many case there are two different release one for the Netherland and one in Flemish since they are not exactly the same languages.)
So saying "we'll wait till you have a 10..20..30% marketshare is pure free floating horse shit.
The key reasons are cultural and political? basically Linux users are not a "nice demography" for the kind of people that are making decisions in the US, and the FOSS development model is giving way to much power to the creator and the user (nerds all of them) and not enough to the jock.
The way to counter this is political and legal, if for instance the "disabled" are able to influence public procurement, the "alternative users" have to learn how to do this and show the responsible corporations that it is cheaper to do something they absolutelly hate than being bothered all the time in court.
April one of the french OSS organisations made this kind of calendar last year.
It is outsold.
And I didn't buy one (unfortunatelly there was a lack of womanly OSS luminary, but I'm trying very hard to be ashamed of this).
But the real scandal in RMS selling autographs is that the cost is WAY TO LOW !!!!
I want to avoid buying an autograph for at least 1000$ !!!
-- lol ---
Nope, it is annual worker productivity, but it does not mean that the economy as a whole is more "productive", particularly if the company the EU worker is working for is mainly fuelling an Irish based US pension funded company.
Oh well what goes around comes around
I found the article rather interesting, and it is probably interesting as a hint for a city planner.
.. 35 days.
Not personally really relevant, but generally interesting, but what made me laught was the conclusion at the end.
30% increase in hollydays ? hum, even ignoring the fact that 7minutes in the evening is not the same as 7minutes on the beach during a hollyday, reality hit home when I read that it is 30hours in addition to the 80hours of "normal hollydays", that is 10 days ?
In continental europe the normal number of hollydays for IT people is at least 25 days, and typically 30
Therefore the result is not only that since there are less work days the 30 hours gain would be about 10% lower, but it would have to be compared to a much higher number of hours.
In europe (where the typical worker productivity is higher than in the US) the news would be:
By careful planning of your commute hours you can gain about 10% of additional "free time minutes", wich would of course be a great conversation piece in front of the coffe machine.
---------
Work less, work smarter