While I agree, a wholesale replacement hasn't occurred, there is definitely a strong trend in play. I won't disagree either that choice is good.
I've noticed it personally, as I'm a shareware author of an image publishing package. The software has gotten better and better but the sales have slowly been drying up. After second guessing my marketing, pricing, and a host of other things, I came to a conclusion.
Few home users want to publish their own photos to their own web site any longer. In fact, look at most individual's personal web sites. They are no longer hand made HTML. They're either simply a blog, or a myspace/myspace equivalent page. Even a lot of up and coming musicians don't even have dedicated web sites any longer. They just publish the URL for their myspace page.
Same is happening with photos. People would rather just have Shutterfly or Google or a host of others host their photos.
In some ways I guess this is good. It has opened things up for the general users a lot more. In some ways it is bad though. I'm probably an exception, but I have around 15,000 photos in my web gallery. I've spent a lot of time organizing the photos and adding captions, etc. I have the availability to view the originals as well. In fact this isn't just a "web gallery", but HTML that I can burn on a CD and put away and open it in 20 years. Of course, this assumes we'll have browsers in 20 years and JPEG and HTML will be understood. I, for one, doubt we'll have a problem here. There is so much content in these formats that at a minimum, there will be an OSS alternative for viewing them.
Say I had invested all that time into a Picasa or Shutterfly album. What would I have? A bunch of time and data locked up in someone else's system. What are the chances I'll be able to share all this creative content with my kids in 20 years?
I guess I'm old school, but it is sad to see desktop applications slowly dying off. I've been writing desktop applications every since the days of the TRS-80. I've also built web applications, but typically not the type that would replace a desktop client. I've still use some of the same apps I was using back in 2000. I wonder if I would be lucky enough to have such a long run with software running as a service.
Call me old school again, but I'm not a fan of "renting" music. In many cases I still find that the best deal is buying a CD at Best Buy for 10 or 12 bucks and ripping it to whatever quality I like. I'll have this music for a lifetime, for a one time fee.
I was thinking more of public middle and high schools that are requiring Office for student's assignments because that is what is used at the school. It is one thing for a college, where students take out loans to attend. I'm sure there has to be options for kids who don't have computers. But, perhaps the schools might consider using OO on campus to save everyone a little money when the work at home. Sure, MS could some day give Office to students for free. This furthers the argument of the original article though, since as soon as someone graduates, it is no longer free- but they've always known it to be free and they might keep thinking this way.
The counter argument is that kids need to be educated in Excel, Word, Access and Powerpoint since that is what they'll be expected to use in the real world. Of course this mentality creates a vicious cycle that is hard to escape.
I'm not a fan at all of the way Vista has been released, with so many different flavors. However, I find myself thinking that MS would do well to release a stripped down Office. For example, a version of Word that just does basic formatting and tables. Release this new suite for Mac and Linux as well, and price it right. Of course, this will never happen, but one can dream.
There is definitely a valid point to be made about the circumstances surrounding "Free Windows." For me, though, Office is a better example. Consider the facts: Office is pretty much never part of an OEM pre-load unless you pay for it. So everyone is aware of how much it costs.
You can buy a $350 Dell and then add $150-$400 for Office. I'm not sure if non-students qualify for the $150.
Yet the fact that so many people "require" you to use Office makes me think they assume it is free, which can only mean that everyone pirates it. For example, I was interviewing for jobs once and submitted my resume as a PDF generated with OO. They kicked it back and said they needed it in Word format so they could index it properly. I know OO saves in Word format, but I don't trust it for someone as important as a resume. Without a test machine with Office, it is hard to know what formatting/conversion defects might appear that would make me look like a dufus to the prospective employer. (Now cue the "you shouldn't work at such a stupid place anyway" comments- you're probably right!)
Also I've heard some schools require kids to do work in MS Office at home. Are they really telling parents they have to go out and spend $150-$400? Or do they THINK they're telling parents and kids to use something they already have? If they already have it, how many of those are pirated copies.
So yeah, if it suddenly became impossible to pirate office, I really think that at a minimum, schools would change their tune.
I'm not a MS basher, and try to stay pretty objective. But the fact that we, as a society, have convinced ourselves that we HAVE to use Office and make our own policies enforcing it's use... well, it drives me nuts! It is such a cliche by now, but still so valid- most people don't use 10% of the features in Word or Excel.
Sadly, many real-world systems are often nothing like what people might envision as them as. We all sit back in our chairs reading slashdot and thinking everything is masterfully architected, fully HA, redundant, etc.
Then as you work more places you start seeing that this is pretty far from actual truth. Many "production" systems are held together by rubber bands, and duct tape if you're lucky (but not even the good kind.) In my experience it can be a combination of poor funding, poor priorities, technical management that doesn't understand technology, or just a lack of experience or skills among the workers.
Not every place is a Google or Yahoo!, that I can imagine look and smell like technology wherever you go on their fancy campuses. Most organizations are businesses first, and tech shops last. If software and hardware appears to "work", it is hard to convince anybody in a typical business that anything should change- even if what is "working" is a one-off prototype running on desktop hardware. It often requires strong technical management and a good CIO/CTO to make sure that things happen like they should.
I suspect that a lot of things that we consider "critical" in our society are a hell of a lot less robust under then hood than anything Google is running.
Why is it that we allow drinking and driving of any kind?
Well, I imagine your average 180 pound male who has 2 drinks over the course of a 5 hour evening is less dangerous on the road than someone who is severely sleep deprived or potentially someone who is talking on a cell phone.
I can tell you personally that I am far less capable of driving after being on station for 12 hours, say 10pm to 10am. There are times I've slept in my car for an hour before heading out and then had to stop a couple times on the 45 minute drive home. Even then, I'm a mess, because I can't sleep at all during the day. So there are weeks when I've gotten about 5 hours total sleep, and driving under these conditions is rough.
However if I hit someone driving home as a result of being tired from working to feed my family, I'd probably get a little more sympathy than if I had a similar accident at 2am after being at a club and having the two drinks I mentioned earlier. Personally, I feel I have equal guilt (or innocence) in both cases.
This is why a world where you don't own anything is a bad idea.
Sadly, in todays world even owning it means nothing. Eminent domain laws guarantee others the right to take your property to do other things with it, like build a large condo complex for low income families or build a road. When this type of thing starts happening on a wide scale, nobody will want to own anything, because of fear from having it taken away. In that case it will make more sense just to rent. Or, to take whatever the government is going to provide. I'll just live in my government housing watching government provided digital media. Sounds good, yeah?
What happened with the Google Video Store is more like buying a bunch of cookware and using it for a year and then one day waking up to find out that it had self destructed into a pile of ashes.
All very good, valid points- thanks for making them.
I've always feared having a beer or two and then having a non-alcohol related accident, and going to jail. I can just imagine what would happen if you had an accident and the cop smelled the least bit of beer on your breath.
It is kind of like if some poorly adjusted kid accused you of molesting them, and the cops found where you had surfed a bunch of porn recently and a couple of the pics in your cache out of several hundred were of someone who was 15 or 16. At this point, you're finished.
It is unfortunate, but it seems as if our society is willing to find people guilty prior to a trial not based on whether they actually did the crime but instead on what their lifestyle or circumstantial conditions are. For example, John had a couple drinks (not legally drunk) and hit a 16 year old pedestrian (who jumped into the middle of a busy, poorly lit street.) John is a killer! He should fry!
I think the biggest problem in music, at least in the US, is the end of independent ownership and management of radio stations.
Agreed. I'm as strong of a capitalist as they come, and wlecome larger stores like WalMart, Costco and Best Buy. To me, buying deodorant or paper towels isn't some spiritual experience. It is a minor annoyance in my life that I'd like to handle as cheaply and as quickly as possible. I could care less about having some special experience with a mom and pop store when I'm buying commodities. I'm sure others will differ, don't really care to argue the point, I'm just explaining myself in order to make my next point:
I used to live on the east coast, now I live on Kauai... one of the nicest things here is that the radio stations and movie theaters are still privately owned- no Regal, AMC, ClearChannel or other affiliations that I'm aware of. The result? Lets see:
Radio stations play whatever they want, and basically whatever people want to hear. With less commercials. They don't have a requirement to play the latest Fergie or P-Diddy jingle every hour. One station's motto is "We play whatever we want."
Movies? Hell, its like the good old days. You go in, pay your $7, watch a few previews and the movie starts. You're not overrun with advertising while you wait for the previews before the lights go dim, only to learn there will more more commericals before the previews.
The big record labels have screwed stuff up equally as bad. But, things like iTMS have a potential to change this. People may not NEED a huge record label to earn a living anymore. They might not need to have their music at Best Buy and their song played every hour on every station Clear Channel owns.
So, what do good capitalists do? They vote with their dollars. I'm pumping money into an independent theater, listening to independent radio stations, and buy music online that isn't associated with massive record labels. I encourage everyone to vote with their dollars, too, even if you're voting for different stuff than me.
The Sparrow was built and sold in the US... didn't really catch on. However it cost a lot more than 9K and could only carry one person. But still, I'm not sure how well a small electric car will sell. I personally don't feel that gasoline prices are a major driver in all of this. If $5 every day for a Starbucks coffee doesn't phase people, neither will another couple bucks at the pump every week.
Well, if the class action suit is lost, you could make the plaintiff pay the defendant's legal fees. Companies might not fight back today.... but if they knew that the people suing them could end up going broke over the deal (Apple's legal staff probably doesn't work cheap) then they might actually put up a fight as a lesson to people who seek frivolous lawsuits in the future.
I am convinced that what allows this crap to happen is the fact that these lawyers can sue people with fear of losing nothing but a bit of time and effort. And the payoffs are big. Who wouldn't gamble a bit of time and effort if the odds were strongly in your favor that you'd make hundreds of thousands of dollars or even millions?
Some people say that our broken system is what allows poor people to file law suits, since they could ordinarily not afford it. Well, there are lots of things that poor people can't afford (that is the definition of being poor.) It is unfortunate, but it is not a good enough reason to break the entire system. EVERYONE pays more for products when these law suits happen. Companies don't have lawyers working for free. And it isn't just electronics manufacturers that get sued like this. For example, the cereal industry has had their share of crap to deal with too.
It is no wonder that there is a lot of curiosity and anticipation of this device. To spite what geeks/nerds might think, the current products on the market today are a mess. Look at these things with dozens of buttons, thick and ugly, with thrown together interfaces, everything is basically a one-off kludge. Consumers see the potential in handheld devices but they know that nobody has yet realized this potential. Will it be the iPhone? I don't know. But if it isn't, we might be in trouble- I don't know of another device on the horizon with as much potential.
I'm not sure what you tried to link to, but it doesn't go to a forum post or anything like that- just the developer homepage.
Anyway I agree, stacks needs work. I'm curious if you found a post or something about this that we can add our 2 cents to.
saw a guy the other day - while driving - talking on one phone and sending a text message on another phone.
Were you in the car with this person? Otherwise I'm surprised at the detail you were able to gather. If you were driving, you should probably pay more attention to the road instead of watching what every other driver on the road is doing with both hands.
Come on, +4 interesting? Did you guys who modded this up even click on the link? If you did you'd see that it is a bogus site. Total vaporware. There is no "Buy" link therefore there is no price because there is nothing to buy. Simon80 is trying to pad his karma by posting bogus shit.
The burden of truth typically lies with the person asserting the positive. However, in this case it would be interesting and useful to hear other explanations for this photo, because it *does* appear to reveal something of interest.
I think that a chemical formula that took millions or billions of dollars worth of research to produce is worthy of at least as much protection as your measly 300K house. The difference is, I view both as property, you don't. You don't feel that the formula is property? Perhaps you'd feel differently if you were the one who spent billions of dollars and many years of your life to discover it. Not all property is "tangible."
Any valid government only has only a few legitimate, moral functions and one of those functions is to protect property rights. This is what patents are for. Try closing the patent office and see how much innovation appears. Would the next set of great innovations come from volunteers? What, money isn't what motivates you? I'll wait while you go tell your employer that you no longer want a paycheck- you're working for the good of humanity. I'm sure society will take good care of you out of the goodness of their hearts. Let me know how the meals are.
There are a lot of people who understand what you are talking about, but probably like yourself, most of us have jobs. The people who usually have the most time and energy to be visible and vocal are usually the ones who don't have careers and would stand to benefit the most from socialism. Think about *most* of the people you see protesting things. Either that, or they are celebrities who get all the airtime they want for their socialist causes.
Every piece of news I heard this week made me think that Atlas really is getting ready to Shrug soon. I'm not sure what is to blame- for example, we we see so many comments to this story like "nice to see humanity win one for a change." I suppose the only possible answer is that children aren't being taught to actually think in school any more. They're getting environmental awareness and world humanity concerns shoved down their throat, and they're memorizing some stuff for a multiple choice test, but that is about it. Well, we see the results. I think maybe it is time to consider paying (a lot) more for teachers. I want someone of my own intellectual ability to educate my children, and I can tell you I wouldn't work for 30K a year, nor would many others.
I need a place to live. The government has decided that you must give me your house because I need it more than you do. Nice to see humanity win one, eh?
I love the fact that pretty much all the responses to this topic say "quit!"
It is amazing how easy it is to tell someone else to quit their job. The majority of people telling this guy to quit have probably installed lots of pirated software in the past, and they probably have music that they didn't buy. Why should you be so offended when your manager asks you to do something that you've already done in your personal life many times?
It is kind of like if you are a mass murderer and go to prison, and your cell mate asks you to kill someone in a cell down the hall. Shouldn't be that offended that he asked, should you?
Anyway, what this company is asking him to do is wrong. No doubt. But I love the fact that everyone here is so incredibly offended and now has all these morales that they didn't have last week when they were posting bits about how they trade music files without guilt because even though the law says it is illegal, they don't recognize the law as being valid.
Slashdot Mirror
You're not the only one. I'm not sure it was written in 100% English.
1 Install DVD For PPC 32 bit, PPC 64 bit, Intel 32 bit & Intel 64 bit with complete binary compatibility between all versions.
Thanks for that- it cannot be overstated.
While I agree, a wholesale replacement hasn't occurred, there is definitely a strong trend in play. I won't disagree either that choice is good.
I've noticed it personally, as I'm a shareware author of an image publishing package. The software has gotten better and better but the sales have slowly been drying up. After second guessing my marketing, pricing, and a host of other things, I came to a conclusion.
Few home users want to publish their own photos to their own web site any longer. In fact, look at most individual's personal web sites. They are no longer hand made HTML. They're either simply a blog, or a myspace/myspace equivalent page. Even a lot of up and coming musicians don't even have dedicated web sites any longer. They just publish the URL for their myspace page.
Same is happening with photos. People would rather just have Shutterfly or Google or a host of others host their photos.
In some ways I guess this is good. It has opened things up for the general users a lot more. In some ways it is bad though. I'm probably an exception, but I have around 15,000 photos in my web gallery. I've spent a lot of time organizing the photos and adding captions, etc. I have the availability to view the originals as well. In fact this isn't just a "web gallery", but HTML that I can burn on a CD and put away and open it in 20 years. Of course, this assumes we'll have browsers in 20 years and JPEG and HTML will be understood. I, for one, doubt we'll have a problem here. There is so much content in these formats that at a minimum, there will be an OSS alternative for viewing them.
Say I had invested all that time into a Picasa or Shutterfly album. What would I have? A bunch of time and data locked up in someone else's system. What are the chances I'll be able to share all this creative content with my kids in 20 years?
I guess I'm old school, but it is sad to see desktop applications slowly dying off. I've been writing desktop applications every since the days of the TRS-80. I've also built web applications, but typically not the type that would replace a desktop client. I've still use some of the same apps I was using back in 2000. I wonder if I would be lucky enough to have such a long run with software running as a service.
Call me old school again, but I'm not a fan of "renting" music. In many cases I still find that the best deal is buying a CD at Best Buy for 10 or 12 bucks and ripping it to whatever quality I like. I'll have this music for a lifetime, for a one time fee.
I was thinking more of public middle and high schools that are requiring Office for student's assignments because that is what is used at the school. It is one thing for a college, where students take out loans to attend. I'm sure there has to be options for kids who don't have computers. But, perhaps the schools might consider using OO on campus to save everyone a little money when the work at home. Sure, MS could some day give Office to students for free. This furthers the argument of the original article though, since as soon as someone graduates, it is no longer free- but they've always known it to be free and they might keep thinking this way.
The counter argument is that kids need to be educated in Excel, Word, Access and Powerpoint since that is what they'll be expected to use in the real world. Of course this mentality creates a vicious cycle that is hard to escape.
I'm not a fan at all of the way Vista has been released, with so many different flavors. However, I find myself thinking that MS would do well to release a stripped down Office. For example, a version of Word that just does basic formatting and tables. Release this new suite for Mac and Linux as well, and price it right. Of course, this will never happen, but one can dream.
There is definitely a valid point to be made about the circumstances surrounding "Free Windows." For me, though, Office is a better example. Consider the facts: Office is pretty much never part of an OEM pre-load unless you pay for it. So everyone is aware of how much it costs.
You can buy a $350 Dell and then add $150-$400 for Office. I'm not sure if non-students qualify for the $150.
Yet the fact that so many people "require" you to use Office makes me think they assume it is free, which can only mean that everyone pirates it. For example, I was interviewing for jobs once and submitted my resume as a PDF generated with OO. They kicked it back and said they needed it in Word format so they could index it properly. I know OO saves in Word format, but I don't trust it for someone as important as a resume. Without a test machine with Office, it is hard to know what formatting/conversion defects might appear that would make me look like a dufus to the prospective employer. (Now cue the "you shouldn't work at such a stupid place anyway" comments- you're probably right!)
Also I've heard some schools require kids to do work in MS Office at home. Are they really telling parents they have to go out and spend $150-$400? Or do they THINK they're telling parents and kids to use something they already have? If they already have it, how many of those are pirated copies.
So yeah, if it suddenly became impossible to pirate office, I really think that at a minimum, schools would change their tune.
I'm not a MS basher, and try to stay pretty objective. But the fact that we, as a society, have convinced ourselves that we HAVE to use Office and make our own policies enforcing it's use... well, it drives me nuts! It is such a cliche by now, but still so valid- most people don't use 10% of the features in Word or Excel.
Sadly, many real-world systems are often nothing like what people might envision as them as. We all sit back in our chairs reading slashdot and thinking everything is masterfully architected, fully HA, redundant, etc.
Then as you work more places you start seeing that this is pretty far from actual truth. Many "production" systems are held together by rubber bands, and duct tape if you're lucky (but not even the good kind.) In my experience it can be a combination of poor funding, poor priorities, technical management that doesn't understand technology, or just a lack of experience or skills among the workers.
Not every place is a Google or Yahoo!, that I can imagine look and smell like technology wherever you go on their fancy campuses. Most organizations are businesses first, and tech shops last. If software and hardware appears to "work", it is hard to convince anybody in a typical business that anything should change- even if what is "working" is a one-off prototype running on desktop hardware. It often requires strong technical management and a good CIO/CTO to make sure that things happen like they should.
I suspect that a lot of things that we consider "critical" in our society are a hell of a lot less robust under then hood than anything Google is running.
Why is it that we allow drinking and driving of any kind?
Well, I imagine your average 180 pound male who has 2 drinks over the course of a 5 hour evening is less dangerous on the road than someone who is severely sleep deprived or potentially someone who is talking on a cell phone.
I can tell you personally that I am far less capable of driving after being on station for 12 hours, say 10pm to 10am. There are times I've slept in my car for an hour before heading out and then had to stop a couple times on the 45 minute drive home. Even then, I'm a mess, because I can't sleep at all during the day. So there are weeks when I've gotten about 5 hours total sleep, and driving under these conditions is rough.
However if I hit someone driving home as a result of being tired from working to feed my family, I'd probably get a little more sympathy than if I had a similar accident at 2am after being at a club and having the two drinks I mentioned earlier. Personally, I feel I have equal guilt (or innocence) in both cases.
This is why a world where you don't own anything is a bad idea.
Sadly, in todays world even owning it means nothing. Eminent domain laws guarantee others the right to take your property to do other things with it, like build a large condo complex for low income families or build a road. When this type of thing starts happening on a wide scale, nobody will want to own anything, because of fear from having it taken away. In that case it will make more sense just to rent. Or, to take whatever the government is going to provide. I'll just live in my government housing watching government provided digital media. Sounds good, yeah?
What happened with the Google Video Store is more like buying a bunch of cookware and using it for a year and then one day waking up to find out that it had self destructed into a pile of ashes.
What RAID level is your $100 home job storage solution?
All very good, valid points- thanks for making them.
I've always feared having a beer or two and then having a non-alcohol related accident, and going to jail. I can just imagine what would happen if you had an accident and the cop smelled the least bit of beer on your breath.
It is kind of like if some poorly adjusted kid accused you of molesting them, and the cops found where you had surfed a bunch of porn recently and a couple of the pics in your cache out of several hundred were of someone who was 15 or 16. At this point, you're finished.
It is unfortunate, but it seems as if our society is willing to find people guilty prior to a trial not based on whether they actually did the crime but instead on what their lifestyle or circumstantial conditions are. For example, John had a couple drinks (not legally drunk) and hit a 16 year old pedestrian (who jumped into the middle of a busy, poorly lit street.) John is a killer! He should fry!
I think the biggest problem in music, at least in the US, is the end of independent ownership and management of radio stations.
Agreed. I'm as strong of a capitalist as they come, and wlecome larger stores like WalMart, Costco and Best Buy. To me, buying deodorant or paper towels isn't some spiritual experience. It is a minor annoyance in my life that I'd like to handle as cheaply and as quickly as possible. I could care less about having some special experience with a mom and pop store when I'm buying commodities. I'm sure others will differ, don't really care to argue the point, I'm just explaining myself in order to make my next point:
I used to live on the east coast, now I live on Kauai... one of the nicest things here is that the radio stations and movie theaters are still privately owned- no Regal, AMC, ClearChannel or other affiliations that I'm aware of. The result? Lets see:
Radio stations play whatever they want, and basically whatever people want to hear. With less commercials. They don't have a requirement to play the latest Fergie or P-Diddy jingle every hour. One station's motto is "We play whatever we want."
Movies? Hell, its like the good old days. You go in, pay your $7, watch a few previews and the movie starts. You're not overrun with advertising while you wait for the previews before the lights go dim, only to learn there will more more commericals before the previews.
The big record labels have screwed stuff up equally as bad. But, things like iTMS have a potential to change this. People may not NEED a huge record label to earn a living anymore. They might not need to have their music at Best Buy and their song played every hour on every station Clear Channel owns.
So, what do good capitalists do? They vote with their dollars. I'm pumping money into an independent theater, listening to independent radio stations, and buy music online that isn't associated with massive record labels. I encourage everyone to vote with their dollars, too, even if you're voting for different stuff than me.
The Sparrow was built and sold in the US... didn't really catch on. However it cost a lot more than 9K and could only carry one person. But still, I'm not sure how well a small electric car will sell. I personally don't feel that gasoline prices are a major driver in all of this. If $5 every day for a Starbucks coffee doesn't phase people, neither will another couple bucks at the pump every week.
Well, if the class action suit is lost, you could make the plaintiff pay the defendant's legal fees. Companies might not fight back today.... but if they knew that the people suing them could end up going broke over the deal (Apple's legal staff probably doesn't work cheap) then they might actually put up a fight as a lesson to people who seek frivolous lawsuits in the future. I am convinced that what allows this crap to happen is the fact that these lawyers can sue people with fear of losing nothing but a bit of time and effort. And the payoffs are big. Who wouldn't gamble a bit of time and effort if the odds were strongly in your favor that you'd make hundreds of thousands of dollars or even millions? Some people say that our broken system is what allows poor people to file law suits, since they could ordinarily not afford it. Well, there are lots of things that poor people can't afford (that is the definition of being poor.) It is unfortunate, but it is not a good enough reason to break the entire system. EVERYONE pays more for products when these law suits happen. Companies don't have lawyers working for free. And it isn't just electronics manufacturers that get sued like this. For example, the cereal industry has had their share of crap to deal with too.
It is no wonder that there is a lot of curiosity and anticipation of this device. To spite what geeks/nerds might think, the current products on the market today are a mess. Look at these things with dozens of buttons, thick and ugly, with thrown together interfaces, everything is basically a one-off kludge. Consumers see the potential in handheld devices but they know that nobody has yet realized this potential. Will it be the iPhone? I don't know. But if it isn't, we might be in trouble- I don't know of another device on the horizon with as much potential.
I'm not sure what you tried to link to, but it doesn't go to a forum post or anything like that- just the developer homepage. Anyway I agree, stacks needs work. I'm curious if you found a post or something about this that we can add our 2 cents to.
saw a guy the other day - while driving - talking on one phone and sending a text message on another phone.
Were you in the car with this person? Otherwise I'm surprised at the detail you were able to gather. If you were driving, you should probably pay more attention to the road instead of watching what every other driver on the road is doing with both hands.
Come on, +4 interesting? Did you guys who modded this up even click on the link? If you did you'd see that it is a bogus site. Total vaporware. There is no "Buy" link therefore there is no price because there is nothing to buy. Simon80 is trying to pad his karma by posting bogus shit.
The burden of truth typically lies with the person asserting the positive. However, in this case it would be interesting and useful to hear other explanations for this photo, because it *does* appear to reveal something of interest.
Admittedly they are trying more benign stuff too like better hearing aids
Am I the only one who didn't understand that statement? Probably.
I think that a chemical formula that took millions or billions of dollars worth of research to produce is worthy of at least as much protection as your measly 300K house. The difference is, I view both as property, you don't. You don't feel that the formula is property? Perhaps you'd feel differently if you were the one who spent billions of dollars and many years of your life to discover it. Not all property is "tangible."
Any valid government only has only a few legitimate, moral functions and one of those functions is to protect property rights. This is what patents are for. Try closing the patent office and see how much innovation appears. Would the next set of great innovations come from volunteers? What, money isn't what motivates you? I'll wait while you go tell your employer that you no longer want a paycheck- you're working for the good of humanity. I'm sure society will take good care of you out of the goodness of their hearts. Let me know how the meals are.
There are a lot of people who understand what you are talking about, but probably like yourself, most of us have jobs. The people who usually have the most time and energy to be visible and vocal are usually the ones who don't have careers and would stand to benefit the most from socialism. Think about *most* of the people you see protesting things. Either that, or they are celebrities who get all the airtime they want for their socialist causes.
Every piece of news I heard this week made me think that Atlas really is getting ready to Shrug soon. I'm not sure what is to blame- for example, we we see so many comments to this story like "nice to see humanity win one for a change." I suppose the only possible answer is that children aren't being taught to actually think in school any more. They're getting environmental awareness and world humanity concerns shoved down their throat, and they're memorizing some stuff for a multiple choice test, but that is about it. Well, we see the results. I think maybe it is time to consider paying (a lot) more for teachers. I want someone of my own intellectual ability to educate my children, and I can tell you I wouldn't work for 30K a year, nor would many others.
I need a place to live. The government has decided that you must give me your house because I need it more than you do. Nice to see humanity win one, eh?
I love the fact that pretty much all the responses to this topic say "quit!"
It is amazing how easy it is to tell someone else to quit their job. The majority of people telling this guy to quit have probably installed lots of pirated software in the past, and they probably have music that they didn't buy. Why should you be so offended when your manager asks you to do something that you've already done in your personal life many times?
It is kind of like if you are a mass murderer and go to prison, and your cell mate asks you to kill someone in a cell down the hall. Shouldn't be that offended that he asked, should you?
Anyway, what this company is asking him to do is wrong. No doubt. But I love the fact that everyone here is so incredibly offended and now has all these morales that they didn't have last week when they were posting bits about how they trade music files without guilt because even though the law says it is illegal, they don't recognize the law as being valid.
Well, this is SLASHDOT, after all.