Until 2/3 of your way through this analogy, I thought you were explaining the reason why infringing on intellectual property *is* theft, or as bad as theft.
All of the interesting value in a vehicle is in the design. The raw materials are worth next to nothing. If you were to deliver them to my front yard, I would have you arrested for littering. Like the matter making up a human being, without organization, those materials are just piles of junk with very little intrinsic value. It's how you organize them that matters.
GM, Ford, BMW, whoever-- they pay engineers and designers. They design the cars. They create the information, the structure that is imposed on the brute matter, that makes it useful to us, that makes it valuable. I paid $10,000 for a PT Cruiser-- you couldn't pay me $100 to accept delivery of the raw lumps of metal and plastic that make it up.
I would rather have you steel a few micrograms of silver, and some paper, and some plastic, from me than one of my photographs. I would rather have you steal a stack of paper and a few drams of ink from me, than steal one of my stories.
Here's what amazes me. This is Slashdot. Home of some very technologically savvy people who owe their livelihoods to the fact that we are living in the information age. Why, then, can so few of you understand that stealing information is as harmful as stealing materials?
http://www.baen.com/green_hills_of_earth.htm
Today will be a true milestone of space flight, as big as Neil Armstrong. Once we start going there just because we can, everything changes. Once people start making money off of it, the scale changes. That's when things get interesting.
---
The Green Hills of Earth
Let the sweet fresh breezes heal me
As they rove around the girth
Of our lovely mother planet
Of the cool, green hills of Earth.
We've tried each spinning space mote
And reckoned its true worth:
Take us back again to the homes of men
On the cool, green hills of Earth.
The arching sky is calling
Spacemen back to their trade.
ALL HANDS! STAND BY! FREE FALLING!
And the lights below us fade.
Out ride the sons of Terra,
Far drives the thundering jet,
Up leaps a race of Earthmen,
Out, far, and onward yet ---
We pray for one last landing
On the globe that gave us birth;
Let us rest our eyes on the fleecy skies
And the cool, green hills of Earth.
Robert A. Heinlein
I am a Mac user. I am a bit of a zealot, but only after having my first computer be an Amiga, then PCs running DOS, discovering Macs later on, and then working as a Mac and (mostly) Windows helpdesk support guy for a few years. I like to think that my platform opinions are well-informed with experience with a variety of machines. In the end, it just comes down to preference, and mine happens to be Macintosh.
Now, I read some Mac websites, and occasionally there and elsewhere, get trolled into the Mac vs. PC debate. I don't care much about it, but I will defend the Mac platform against falsehoods and bad arguments. One example of this is that people claim that Apple charges a premium for their machines.
So, about once a year, I do the following configuration exercise: Start with the base high-end Mac. Configure a high end Dell to match, modifying each to allow for configurations that are as similar as possible. The goal is to stick as close as I can to the base model, but make the two machines as identical as possible.
To do so, I use the online stores made available by each company, and try not to work with a bias that will create a cheaper Mac. Every year, the results are about the same... The Dell is a smidgeon more expensive. Let's try it again today, with new G5s just announced...
Dell Precision Workstation 650, Dual 2.4 GHz Xeon, 612 MB DDR266 RAM, 250 GB SATA HD, nVidia QuadroFX 500 (128 MB), 56k Modem, 8x DVD-R, 48x CD (No CD-R). $3300.
This is just about the closest I could get. The software bundles are both the minumim, both have keyboard, mouse, etc. Neither has a monitor.
Of course, this is comparing a lower-end processor on the Dell with Apple's top of the line, to keep GHz closer, and Dell won't sell you a machine that burns both CDs and DVDs. Try configuring this with the dual 3.2 GHz Xeons at the top of the line at Dell, and using just a Combo drive in both, and the prices end up at $2999 for the Mac, and $5149 for the Dell. I still can't get a Dell with RAM as fast as the G5's, or with the equivalent of the SuperDrive, or with optical audio standard, and available fiber channel for storage. They also don't seem to offer liquid-cooling, bluetooth input options, etc.
Why do people always say Apple charges a price premium?
All of my Macs have WiFi. After all, I use an AirPort network. I am not sure I understand your logic. Early AirPort base stations only had one EtherNet port, and they sold well.
Nonsense. This is a $130 base station. It has every feature that home users use from the AirPort Extreme base station for a lot less money. The audio features are pure gravy.
I agree. That's basically what I was going to say. If Mom and Pop can do it for $79, then BigTelCo can do it for $65. Nothing is stopping the big telcos from also cutting their costs by using the same technology... and they have marketing muscle, experience, infrastructure, bandwidth, etc.
I don't really think Google expects to change the mind of the Malware companies. Afterall, without shady practices, they would have exactly no business. Rather, I think there are two things going on here.
First, it's a little pure and simple shame. The more people who say that malware is evil, and the more prominent those people are, the harder it will be for companies to justify those practices.
Second, there's secondary shame. This can actually make a more direct difference. Basically, how would you feel if you used malware (bundling, advertising, etc.) and everyone was talking about how evil it was. Maybe Google can get a few companies who use malware from other companies to reconsider how they treat their customers.
Or maybe it's just marketing, and Google wants the brand loyalty that comes along with being one of the Good Guys.
Okay. I can see a program being written that can scan a text document, and decide if it is good English. It could check grammar, spelling, broadness of vocabulary, style, etc. and rate the text on how good the language of an essay it was. That at least seems doable within the realm of algorithm.
How exactly would this program be able to tell whether the essay was actually a good essay, though? After all, the function of an essay is to use facts, logic, and rhetoric to prove a thesis. What program could truly decide if an essay had proven its thesis, whether the facts it uses were true, sources good, logic sound, etc.?
The degree to which this removes critical thinking and subjective quality from the entire process scares me. I think this is a Bad Thing.(TM)
Why is nobody commenting on the fact that their web page was created by an eight-year-old? I think that's a pretty amazing feat. And if you don't believe me, just check out the spelling. This kid is spelling at at least a fifth grade level. Good for him!
The upgrade path isn't any cheaper. It's a stupid strategy.
You can spend $500 on an upgrade card, $100 on some RAM, and $250 for a new video card. That's $850.
For twice that, you can get a brand new G5. Or for barely anything more, an eMac. Either would be many times faster and more useful than the upgraded 9600.
No MSRP. They sell it for a certain wholesale price, but let each dealer decide on the retail price.
The alternative, of course, is that it means that the price was collectively worked on by a group of volunteers who knew what sort of price they want, and how to implement it, but know nothing whatsoever about the user experience.
I suspect I will draw a lot of fire with what I have to say, but here goes...
There's one kind of outsourcing that has always struck me as ridiculous-- Support. I can fully accept that India (or wherever) has intelligent, talented people in the work force. However, intentionally moving your support to an area with an accent (or even dialect) that can't be understood by most of your customers is daffy.
No, not everyone in India has an accent I can't understand. No, not everyone in the US has an accent I can understand. However, it's just gotta be hard to beat the odds. How many times have you called support, and not been able to understand the person on the other end of the line? Frustrating. It can't be worth the savings. I mean, all support is customer support, and all support is customer relations.
There, I said it.
Yes, but the "public domain" part doesn't really start until the 17 years are up... Public accessibility isn't quite the same as public ownership, which is what "public domain" seems to mean.
So, most people are, not too surprisingly, discussing the patent issues here.
What about the way other communities pounce on new patents? Not to question the idea of patent, but to speculate on a new product.
Will IBM be trying to jump-start the OSS movement by paying people to develop Linux and other tools?
It seems like a public domain patent isn't protected anymore, though I can see the point about stopping someone else from doing it.
I guess my thought was that a patent isn't required for it to be prior art. Other methods would work just fine, as long as you document it.
I guess time will tell why IBM did this. With all they are fighting Microsoft, Intel, and SCO (the Bad Guys) it's easy to see them as white knights. Still, they are far from flawless defenders.
There is no point in applying for a patent if you are going to put it in the public domain. Doing that dissolves the patent.
On the other hand, making it available under a free license might make sense. They control who gets it, but basically opens it up. That would probably work.
Slashdot Mirror
All of the interesting value in a vehicle is in the design. The raw materials are worth next to nothing. If you were to deliver them to my front yard, I would have you arrested for littering. Like the matter making up a human being, without organization, those materials are just piles of junk with very little intrinsic value. It's how you organize them that matters.
GM, Ford, BMW, whoever-- they pay engineers and designers. They design the cars. They create the information, the structure that is imposed on the brute matter, that makes it useful to us, that makes it valuable. I paid $10,000 for a PT Cruiser-- you couldn't pay me $100 to accept delivery of the raw lumps of metal and plastic that make it up.
I would rather have you steel a few micrograms of silver, and some paper, and some plastic, from me than one of my photographs. I would rather have you steal a stack of paper and a few drams of ink from me, than steal one of my stories.
Here's what amazes me. This is Slashdot. Home of some very technologically savvy people who owe their livelihoods to the fact that we are living in the information age. Why, then, can so few of you understand that stealing information is as harmful as stealing materials?
http://www.baen.com/green_hills_of_earth.htm Today will be a true milestone of space flight, as big as Neil Armstrong. Once we start going there just because we can, everything changes. Once people start making money off of it, the scale changes. That's when things get interesting. --- The Green Hills of Earth Let the sweet fresh breezes heal me As they rove around the girth Of our lovely mother planet Of the cool, green hills of Earth. We've tried each spinning space mote And reckoned its true worth: Take us back again to the homes of men On the cool, green hills of Earth. The arching sky is calling Spacemen back to their trade. ALL HANDS! STAND BY! FREE FALLING! And the lights below us fade. Out ride the sons of Terra, Far drives the thundering jet, Up leaps a race of Earthmen, Out, far, and onward yet --- We pray for one last landing On the globe that gave us birth; Let us rest our eyes on the fleecy skies And the cool, green hills of Earth. Robert A. Heinlein
Now, I read some Mac websites, and occasionally there and elsewhere, get trolled into the Mac vs. PC debate. I don't care much about it, but I will defend the Mac platform against falsehoods and bad arguments. One example of this is that people claim that Apple charges a premium for their machines.
So, about once a year, I do the following configuration exercise: Start with the base high-end Mac. Configure a high end Dell to match, modifying each to allow for configurations that are as similar as possible. The goal is to stick as close as I can to the base model, but make the two machines as identical as possible.
To do so, I use the online stores made available by each company, and try not to work with a bias that will create a cheaper Mac. Every year, the results are about the same... The Dell is a smidgeon more expensive. Let's try it again today, with new G5s just announced...
PowerMac G5, Dual 2.5 GHz G5, 512 MB DDR400 RAM, 250GB SATA HD, ATI Radeon 9600 XT (128 MB), 56k Modem, 8x SuperDrive. $3099.
and
Dell Precision Workstation 650, Dual 2.4 GHz Xeon, 612 MB DDR266 RAM, 250 GB SATA HD, nVidia QuadroFX 500 (128 MB), 56k Modem, 8x DVD-R, 48x CD (No CD-R). $3300.
This is just about the closest I could get. The software bundles are both the minumim, both have keyboard, mouse, etc. Neither has a monitor.
Of course, this is comparing a lower-end processor on the Dell with Apple's top of the line, to keep GHz closer, and Dell won't sell you a machine that burns both CDs and DVDs. Try configuring this with the dual 3.2 GHz Xeons at the top of the line at Dell, and using just a Combo drive in both, and the prices end up at $2999 for the Mac, and $5149 for the Dell. I still can't get a Dell with RAM as fast as the G5's, or with the equivalent of the SuperDrive, or with optical audio standard, and available fiber channel for storage. They also don't seem to offer liquid-cooling, bluetooth input options, etc.
Why do people always say Apple charges a price premium?
All of my Macs have WiFi. After all, I use an AirPort network. I am not sure I understand your logic. Early AirPort base stations only had one EtherNet port, and they sold well.
I stand by what I said. All of the features that home users use.
Nonsense. This is a $130 base station. It has every feature that home users use from the AirPort Extreme base station for a lot less money. The audio features are pure gravy.
I agree. That's basically what I was going to say. If Mom and Pop can do it for $79, then BigTelCo can do it for $65. Nothing is stopping the big telcos from also cutting their costs by using the same technology... and they have marketing muscle, experience, infrastructure, bandwidth, etc.
First, it's a little pure and simple shame. The more people who say that malware is evil, and the more prominent those people are, the harder it will be for companies to justify those practices.
Second, there's secondary shame. This can actually make a more direct difference. Basically, how would you feel if you used malware (bundling, advertising, etc.) and everyone was talking about how evil it was. Maybe Google can get a few companies who use malware from other companies to reconsider how they treat their customers.
Or maybe it's just marketing, and Google wants the brand loyalty that comes along with being one of the Good Guys.
How exactly would this program be able to tell whether the essay was actually a good essay, though? After all, the function of an essay is to use facts, logic, and rhetoric to prove a thesis. What program could truly decide if an essay had proven its thesis, whether the facts it uses were true, sources good, logic sound, etc.?
The degree to which this removes critical thinking and subjective quality from the entire process scares me. I think this is a Bad Thing.(TM)
You need two wireless cards for that?
However, mine is far denser. (Hmm. Maybe I could have said something more clever.)
Third Post!?
The sphere seems most likely. Though they probably just sell you a piece of paper that claims you own the star, like so many other yuppie-scams.
Why is nobody commenting on the fact that their web page was created by an eight-year-old? I think that's a pretty amazing feat. And if you don't believe me, just check out the spelling. This kid is spelling at at least a fifth grade level. Good for him!
The upgrade path isn't any cheaper. It's a stupid strategy. You can spend $500 on an upgrade card, $100 on some RAM, and $250 for a new video card. That's $850. For twice that, you can get a brand new G5. Or for barely anything more, an eMac. Either would be many times faster and more useful than the upgraded 9600.
No MSRP. They sell it for a certain wholesale price, but let each dealer decide on the retail price. The alternative, of course, is that it means that the price was collectively worked on by a group of volunteers who knew what sort of price they want, and how to implement it, but know nothing whatsoever about the user experience.
I suspect I will draw a lot of fire with what I have to say, but here goes... There's one kind of outsourcing that has always struck me as ridiculous-- Support. I can fully accept that India (or wherever) has intelligent, talented people in the work force. However, intentionally moving your support to an area with an accent (or even dialect) that can't be understood by most of your customers is daffy. No, not everyone in India has an accent I can't understand. No, not everyone in the US has an accent I can understand. However, it's just gotta be hard to beat the odds. How many times have you called support, and not been able to understand the person on the other end of the line? Frustrating. It can't be worth the savings. I mean, all support is customer support, and all support is customer relations. There, I said it.
Yes, but the "public domain" part doesn't really start until the 17 years are up... Public accessibility isn't quite the same as public ownership, which is what "public domain" seems to mean.
So, most people are, not too surprisingly, discussing the patent issues here. What about the way other communities pounce on new patents? Not to question the idea of patent, but to speculate on a new product. Will IBM be trying to jump-start the OSS movement by paying people to develop Linux and other tools?
It seems like a public domain patent isn't protected anymore, though I can see the point about stopping someone else from doing it. I guess my thought was that a patent isn't required for it to be prior art. Other methods would work just fine, as long as you document it. I guess time will tell why IBM did this. With all they are fighting Microsoft, Intel, and SCO (the Bad Guys) it's easy to see them as white knights. Still, they are far from flawless defenders.
Nimrod Megiddo. I am impressed if that's a real name. Real cultural significance, though not the joke you're hinting at.
There is no point in applying for a patent if you are going to put it in the public domain. Doing that dissolves the patent. On the other hand, making it available under a free license might make sense. They control who gets it, but basically opens it up. That would probably work.
Talk about a development likely to elicit mixed feelings.
http://www.sjsfalcons.org/images/EtchaSketch.jpg
If you take from me the right to decide who gets a copy of my creation, and how, then I don't have it anymore.