Linux is represented by Tux, but all of us using and embracing Linux and OSS are Tux's babies or compatriots.
I suggest Tux has several baby penguins, maybe one for each continent.
OTOH, why not one penguin for each government, military, and commercial sale, like pilots, sailors and submariners placed skulls or bombs on their fuselages, superstructures, and sails/conning towers.
THAT would irk the hell out of ms, if a bullet, a hyperlink and the basic particulars behind the decision to take FoSS/Linux inhouse showed up behind every penguin that appeard on a prominent website every day.
But, what would be the metaphor for Tux's wife/partner? I'm assuming Tux is a "he" and is not asexual, androgenous, or self-reproducing/spawing, and that there are no Star Trek TNG-like "inseminate husks/3rd-party fetus carriers" involved here...
-- why are Japanese cell phones are fairly superior to the units we get shipped
-- why can you tell time by their Shinkansen and other bullet trains
-- why is mass transit more viable there (tho/while cars crawl at a rate of 1/2 k every 30 minutes)
-- why are consumer electronics just better
-- why the average Japanese consumer is more fickle and induces manufacturer acquiescence better than we do here
A LOT of "whys". I think it has to do with the fact that often we here are complacent and lazy, taking what industry throws us. For example, US washing machines tore up or wore out my friend's expensive clothes he brought here with him from Japan. They have washer/dryer units that have ONE hopper: soiled articles go in dry, get wet, get washed, get dried, and finished in one device, not two. I imagine Maytag would be hopping/spinning mad, claiming "DUMPING"/"UNFAIR TRADE" if the Japanese unloaded loads of their best stuff. But, they don't, most likely because of a lack of appreciation on our part, and maybe a certain amount of "we don't deserve it" attitude. I envy what can be had there.
That South Korea has blazingly-fast speeds in Internet cafes is nice, but here in some cities you can get fast connectivity, such as for playing SOF/CS/HL and other RPGs.
However, I think that the crap (slow speeds in less populated areas/increased prices for electrons, 1s & 0s) we get doled out to us is not a function of what goes on in other countries, but a matter of profits and holding back, sort of like treating the goods and services as drugs: the more we want it, the more we have to ante up in dollars. Except, with goods, the less interest, the less likely we are to get stuff improved "for the hell of it".
Really, it's cost of goods, cost of manufacture and more...but their cost of delivery are based on some weiredness that tries to factor in ever-increasing profits which are coupled to defections or low conversion rates. Rather than catch customers and keep them for the long haul, they jade then torture them and cause defections, bad stories, and loss of potential customers.
Maybe their asses will wake up one day and realize "a buck" is not ALL there is to being in business.
I think ms (lower-casing/deprecation intentional/perpetual) is positioning itself to be known as:
"The Word"
or something like that...
Scary...Dangerous stuff...
something needs to be done about that. Especially since they're roping Sony and others into the proprietary blue-ray. (If the intent is to make it impossible to have Linux/Open Source users legally buy and legally integrate BR-based DVD devices, then...)
This is neat/fearsome/interesting because just a few minutes ago as I was reading:
http://www.securityfocus.com/infocus/1769
my mind wandered (like it always does) and I asked myself a question I'd pondered many times:
"How'd the FBI get the password from that mob/mafia guy they nabbed? They refused to tell the public how they did it."
We'll I USED to suspect they used keystroking, whether they paid an insider to put some gizmo into or next to keyboard to pick up his keystroke's raw RF. I also suspected they pointed some microwave antenna into his home/unit and had a receiver/ticker/counter on the opposite side to measure differences in power/strength/amplitude/modulation or whatever else they could. (This assumes the target was not marginally smart (or informed) enough to shield his home against RF/microwave (or if fearing Star Trek, IR) snooping.)
JUST as I decided to to check Slashdot to see what is going on, I see this thread/topic. I immediately thought, "I'll be damned, they probably for some time had THIS capability and fed the guy a fake but remote shell of his own session, soaked up all his passwords and notes he thought were local (maybe he/the mobster never gave it much thought).
So, what are the implications for this if a Man-In-the-Middle heist of signals is perpetrated against a perp or a citizen under observation? In school, work, or a controlled environment, it can be expected to be fed a remote session, be monitored, and have no privacy. But imagine if not only crooks and crackers intruding on you, but imagine if domestic intelligence is able to or is actually hijacking entire screen sessions and using them.
But, I imagine there are better ways than this. However, does the remote session leave any forensic dtails that it was in effect? I imagine a number of remote tools would leave evidence, but when a government uses Echelon or Carnivore, I imagine they do it at the ISP level JUST because the session can be recorded at the ISP's equipment, and not likely be noticed on the target's own hardware (after all, mobsters and crooked accountants probably have magnetometer sleuths for friends...).
Hopefully, the septic system is not part of the package and certainly not in the bottom of the bowl. If they go past the nominal or limiting/breaking point, the thing could crash down on the slurry or mess.
On top of that, the Crematory and Krispy Kreme articles were adjacent to each other on the Yahoo! page.
As for the Romans and their crematory, they'll have to "burn through a lot of cash" to make a profit/return to profitability. They're REALLy going to have to BURN their way back to profits, if the courts or the state don't fry them alive.
As for Krispy Kreme being CREAMED, I can't fathom how a business or an industry expects to increase Q over Q profits with a basically unhealthy business model -- one that idealistically presumes people will be RESPONSIBLE for their own health but factually depends on people eating their way into a grave or a heart operation (and as a nation we pick up the tab for each and every piece of junk putting some obese or morbidly obese American or insured visitor on the procedure table or the post-mortem gurney). It's only inevitable and logical that the more educated people become the more they should cut back on JUNK or compensate by drinking more water, exercising more, and watching their sugars, salt, calories, and other levels. (About two weeks ago, I ate a KK donut and my teeth and gums hurt like hell for a few minutes. I don't recall that from other donuts, but Snickers and 3 Musketeers and some but not all candy bars give the same sensation of having needles run thru my teeth or gums. Quite unpleasant. I better see my dentist...)
Now, just add some speakers, a dictionary of expletives, and the phrase "FIRE! FIRE!" or the KDE/app sound "Oooh-ah", or the non-zero number/word "Oh!"
(Example: Around 1994 I dialed a wrong extension, which included an errant "zero". The female voice responde with "There IS no EXTENsion: TWO-OH-OH". I was onto something. I hit, 2500300 or something like that. That led to her response, then I just entered all zeroes...
"There IS no EXTENsion: Oh! Oh! Oh! Oh! Oh! Oh! Oh! Oh! Oh! Oh! Oh! Oh! Oh!...". That went on for about enough time (with the speaker volume up a bit higher than necesary) for my manager/president to ask me to knock it off. I think later the industry changed the "OH" to "ZERO", but there are still a number of them out there...)
If WinAmp doesn't release or realize a worthy fix, they could be dipping their skin in an arcing, amping, electric fryer if the exploits get out of control.
I still have mine, in storage. I also still have my OS/2 disks (humongous number of them shipped in the box) and OS/2 Warp disks AND CD kit.
I still have vid cards (Spider Graphics) and controller cards (Promise), as well as 2-speed CD units, and an old one which had dedicated contrller/interface card. I still have my 486/DX2/66 box, I bought in 1993 with that nice but derided 14" near-flat screen KFC monitor. I haven't used it since maybe 1996 or so, when I bought a PowerSpec system from MicroCenter.
It is (yep, I still have it) is the machine on which I first tried Linux, SuSE, back in mid-1999. I put McMillan/Mandrake 6.x from MicroCenter on it, and it's been Mandrake for me ever since, tho I did buy copies (boxed sets) of SuSE "just to give'em a try", but I wanted GUI tools, not haphazard guessing at my disks' drive geometry when mounting PCMCIA-based devices.
If I wanted, as long as the hardware is still alive, I could go back to playing Falcon 2.0, US Navy Tomcat, and other games from 1993. But, I wouldn't try to play HL or Lonbow Apache on them. Longbow is what got me to upgrade to the 198 MHz PowerSpec Cyrix-based machine.
Then, in 2000, I was so into HL and Longbow I needed to go up to an 800 MHz Gateway Select, which I duly fed Linux (SuSE, Mandrake, Caldera, etc...). Now, I just use my laptop more, since I don't have much space nor time to run all 8 of my computers...
Anybody know any philanthropic types who'd help me set up a Linux training facility in Campbell, CA? It's time we get this ball rolling, before the economy supposedly turns back up and people forget the timeliness of the bubble bursting and the explosion of Linux. Saved money on that confluence, why not perpetually?
AHHHH! THAT'S how to weaken ms (lower-casing/deprecation intentional/perpetual). Just keep cranking out code to do something needed more as a standalone than as part of a suite.
Make something that is EASY, so easy, to use that it reduces tech support calls to ms.
Just make sure to look for prior art, and to be sure your stuff plays nicely.
It might help if when marketing your tools or wares you:
--KNOW what your Customer is uing
--find suitable replacements or add-ons if needed
-- you have a working server and two or more clients (get laptops, if you have to, but don't force the client to have to put it on their machine until/unless they are "hooked"/"jazzed" by your stuff
-- you don't demand obtuse or obscene commitments of your prospects or you Customers
-- you offer an escape, to show you care
-- you GIVE SCREENSHOTS in marketing materials!
-- your box HAS representative, accurate, and meaningful artwork, not just some bland, blank, uninformative box. This isn't a VITAMIN; it's supposed to be a gadgety, attractive, USEFUL thingy or thing -- your demo is fairly functional
-- your demo can import your Customer's data, and give it back to them unadulterated
-- your stuff doesn't break other stuff
-- your code is minimal in space consumption (meaning, don't embed and hide Doom or Magic Carpet the way ms supposedly did back around 1996 in ms office/orifice)
-- you DON'T LIE to your prospective Customers
-- you don't charge an arm, a leg and a brain lobe for your product
I will go with the Ferengi Rule of Acquisition that says, "Dignity and an empty sack is worth the empty sack."
Meaning, I prefer to have my dignity, morals, scruples, and honor than have any of ms' money. When you get that big, it's got to be hollow (not hallowed) and nerve-wracking trying to find new markets to hijack just to assuage instant-gratification investors. Long-term investors can be respected more, though.
Tons of money can make you truly rich, but it doesn't make you REALLY/honestly happy. It's a relative illusion.
But, is clippy on a box, or emblazoned on an article?
Is clippy loved and adored by all or even most of ms' users/subjects? Recall how many people beg for information on how to turn off that annoyance. Tux doesn't pop up and scamper all over your screen offering up pointless or irrelevant assistance like that dog or the paperclip.
Tux is just "there", on artwork, tee-shirts, and even molded into keychain accessories. I haven't seen anyone wearing a "clippy" t-shirt. Have you?
And may they kick our squish our asses the moment we bring up:
-investment -annuities -tract -amenities -RO I -license -heir -appreciation -depreciation -land rights -easements -right-of-way -free trade -equal rights -zone -ordinance -tax -duty -immigrati on
and more... Until some more intelligent consensus out there deems we're FIT to be out there. I can see it now: humans zoning and carving up the Moon, Mars, and anything else rather than fixing problems down here.
If SETI has such small odds of finding life, then what the hell are we wasting the money for? even if we DO find indications of an advanced civilization, they'll likely be dead by the time we draft and send a "Hello" message, or they'll have been on the way for who knows how long, arriving here to eradicate us or who knows what, if they determine we're vermin.
Is what microsoft (lower-casing/deprecation intentional!) has been and is continuing to demonstrate itself as;
hence why I describe them as:
"-voracious (computing, real estate, banking, entertainment...) -omnivorous (buy up real or file fake patents) -belligerent (FUD, pre-empt moms & pops) -bellicose- (funding BSA, (no, not the Boy Scouts)) -obtuse (pricing) -sprially spawning into numerous markets (see item above... let us hope they don't end up in airline cockpits) -prevaricators (faked video testimony, ROI, etc...)"
Unfortunately (warning: this piece meanders a bit, and not to blow my own horn, I didn't use a spell checker, though I DID have to consult a paper thesaurus for the correct spelling of "grammar"... I have a problem trying to remember whether it ends with -er or -ar... go figure...),
**SO** -- or ALL too -- many students graduating from high schools, even from colleges, "escape" or are "set free" with these and worse kind(s) of errors. It can be quite disillusioning or even quite infuriating for non-degreed (not just speaking for myself), but reasonably intelligent individuals to be rejected (or not trained for) for a decent or responsibility-intensive position in employment or to be subordinated to a person who possesses a degree but who is lacking in grammar, spelling and other mechanics requisite to producing sensible, structured, intelligent and non-confusing documents devoid of run-ons, subject-verb agreement, and so forth. It's also shameful when marketing materials are riddled with basic errors (particularly materials that are more psychologically-driven than factually driven). Colloquial writing obviously is excused from rigors of English rules, but business writing -- even journalistic matter -- can be found with annoyances.
Fortunately, though, even with these weaknesses, many of the people whom I've met and who possess the degrees but can't "write" or spell to save their own skin can at least program well enough to be retained or show increased proficiency in their areas of interest if work is changed up a bit. They (the programmers) can do something I CAN'T or which I am not interested in doing. I am too WYSIWYG-minded (I don't think I'm either left- or right-brained -- I am brain-spun, or in possession of an ever-spinning brain that is probably 2 to 3 degrees warmer than it needs to be (NO! It's not available for scans and probes...) but I am still functioning, hehe.
(Hmm, why am I not in a technical writing position? That's another story...but suffice it to say I'm not interested in using ms word..., and it's hard to find a place using Lotus WordPro, OpenOffice.org, or OpenSource tools, or... And I'm too politically contaminating to remain very long in ms-riddled offices. I can't change that, but maybe I can... I'm brainstorming ideas...(legal, of course, heheh) Hmm, why am I not in law? Obviously I like to live, and were I suicidal enough to be in law, and given enough power, I'd make decisions to cut the crap, and bust up some cozy arrangements that are delaying REAL improvement; I'd revamp the USPTO, remove corporate lobbying from lawmaking, force corrupt/greedy management and self-serving unions to reconcile so that effectively there'd be no reason for unions to exist if employees' needs were REALLY being met, I'd wipe out huge swaths of software patents, particulary dubious or land-grabbing types, I'd retroactively punish ms and similar companies for having LIED in court, I'd retroactively forbid or enjoin the worst of the worst execs from operating in industries they hosed up, and more (I'd pump more cash into the hands of people who SPEND, not people who HOARD cash, and I'd fire city mayors and managers who can come up with hundreds of millions to renovate or build new city offices but who cannot cough up an extra few million for entrepreneurs, or who don't greenbelt protect successful moms & pops being run out of town by the likes of starbucks (for example, where the existing proprietor cannot hope to counter when sbux drops in the property owner's lap THREE TIMES what the existing tenant can afford to pay (no, I'm not anti-corporate, just anti-corrrupt-corporates...wait, is that a conundrum?). But, then, there'd be bullets, acid baths, torture chambers, and more waiting for me and for anyone dumb enough to put me in a position to swiftly effect these changes that would deeply affect the "old boy/girl" networks, right?). WHEW, what a segue...(not segway, and not Segway heheh!).
Unfortunately, the pay disparity increasingly today seems to be or i
Slashdot Mirror
Why not a school or herd or flock or gaggle?
Linux is represented by Tux, but all of us using and embracing Linux and OSS are Tux's babies or compatriots.
I suggest Tux has several baby penguins, maybe one for each continent.
OTOH, why not one penguin for each government, military, and commercial sale, like pilots, sailors and submariners placed skulls or bombs on their fuselages, superstructures, and sails/conning towers.
THAT would irk the hell out of ms, if a bullet, a hyperlink and the basic particulars behind the decision to take FoSS/Linux inhouse showed up behind every penguin that appeard on a prominent website every day.
But, what would be the metaphor for Tux's wife/partner? I'm assuming Tux is a "he" and is not asexual, androgenous, or self-reproducing/spawing, and that there are no Star Trek TNG-like "inseminate husks/3rd-party fetus carriers" involved here...
David Syes
Tux is going to have babies.
What you also may want to know "why?: to is
-- why are Japanese cell phones are fairly superior to the units we get shipped
-- why can you tell time by their Shinkansen and other bullet trains
-- why is mass transit more viable there (tho/while cars crawl at a rate of 1/2 k every 30 minutes)
-- why are consumer electronics just better
-- why the average Japanese consumer is more fickle and induces manufacturer acquiescence better than we do here
A LOT of "whys". I think it has to do with the fact that often we here are complacent and lazy, taking what industry throws us. For example, US washing machines tore up or wore out my friend's expensive clothes he brought here with him from Japan. They have washer/dryer units that have ONE hopper: soiled articles go in dry, get wet, get washed, get dried, and finished in one device, not two. I imagine Maytag would be hopping/spinning mad, claiming "DUMPING"/"UNFAIR TRADE" if the Japanese unloaded loads of their best stuff. But, they don't, most likely because of a lack of appreciation on our part, and maybe a certain amount of "we don't deserve it" attitude. I envy what can be had there.
That South Korea has blazingly-fast speeds in Internet cafes is nice, but here in some cities you can get fast connectivity, such as for playing SOF/CS/HL and other RPGs.
However, I think that the crap (slow speeds in less populated areas/increased prices for electrons, 1s & 0s) we get doled out to us is not a function of what goes on in other countries, but a matter of profits and holding back, sort of like treating the goods and services as drugs: the more we want it, the more we have to ante up in dollars. Except, with goods, the less interest, the less likely we are to get stuff improved "for the hell of it".
Really, it's cost of goods, cost of manufacture and more...but their cost of delivery are based on some weiredness that tries to factor in ever-increasing profits which are coupled to defections or low conversion rates. Rather than catch customers and keep them for the long haul, they jade then torture them and cause defections, bad stories, and loss of potential customers.
Maybe their asses will wake up one day and realize "a buck" is not ALL there is to being in business.
David Syes
I think ms (lower-casing/deprecation intentional/perpetual) is positioning itself to be known as:
/ 14 44254&tid=198&tid=109&tid=155&tid= 17
"The Word"
or something like that...
Scary...Dangerous stuff...
something needs to be done about that. Especially since they're roping Sony and others into the proprietary blue-ray. (If the intent is to make it impossible to have Linux/Open Source users legally buy and legally integrate BR-based DVD devices, then...)
See yesterday's:
http://yro.slashdot.org/article.pl?sid=04/09/01
This is neat/fearsome/interesting because just a few minutes ago as I was reading:
http://www.securityfocus.com/infocus/1769
my mind wandered (like it always does) and I asked myself a question I'd pondered many times:
"How'd the FBI get the password from that mob/mafia guy they nabbed? They refused to tell the public how they did it."
We'll I USED to suspect they used keystroking, whether they paid an insider to put some gizmo into or next to keyboard to pick up his keystroke's raw RF. I also suspected they pointed some microwave antenna into his home/unit and had a receiver/ticker/counter on the opposite side to measure differences in power/strength/amplitude/modulation or whatever else they could. (This assumes the target was not marginally smart (or informed) enough to shield his home against RF/microwave (or if fearing Star Trek, IR) snooping.)
JUST as I decided to to check Slashdot to see what is going on, I see this thread/topic. I immediately thought, "I'll be damned, they probably for some time had THIS capability and fed the guy a fake but remote shell of his own session, soaked up all his passwords and notes he thought were local (maybe he/the mobster never gave it much thought).
So, what are the implications for this if a Man-In-the-Middle heist of signals is perpetrated against a perp or a citizen under observation? In school, work, or a controlled environment, it can be expected to be fed a remote session, be monitored, and have no privacy. But imagine if not only crooks and crackers intruding on you, but imagine if domestic intelligence is able to or is actually hijacking entire screen sessions and using them.
But, I imagine there are better ways than this. However, does the remote session leave any forensic dtails that it was in effect? I imagine a number of remote tools would leave evidence, but when a government uses Echelon or Carnivore, I imagine they do it at the ISP level JUST because the session can be recorded at the ISP's equipment, and not likely be noticed on the target's own hardware (after all, mobsters and crooked accountants probably have magnetometer sleuths for friends...).
Just a thought, or two...
David Syes
Danger! Danger!
Where is the Jupiter Two?!
Hopefully, the septic system is not part of the package and certainly not in the bottom of the bowl. If they go past the nominal or limiting/breaking point, the thing could crash down on the slurry or mess.
DANGER! Danger!.
David Syes
"I-am-called-KornLong-ee-yoh".
So, will KornHorn "dig the corn" out of longhorn?
Will this mean longhorn has a painful "hornia" (hernia)?
Will KornHorn do a horn-job on longhorn over the longhaul?
COME now, chap...
Flamebait?
Sigh...
http://www.newsday.com/news/health/wire/sns-ap-swe et-revenge,0,5006418.story?coll=sns-ap-health-head lines
I am sure cops and sociologists already know this, but some of you may find today's article interesting.
I imagine CEOs will think long and hard about acting precipitously, in revenge, or out of "we must control them..."
Oh,
On top of that, the Crematory and Krispy Kreme articles were adjacent to each other on the Yahoo! page.
As for the Romans and their crematory, they'll have to "burn through a lot of cash" to make a profit/return to profitability. They're REALLy going to have to BURN their way back to profits, if the courts or the state don't fry them alive.
As for Krispy Kreme being CREAMED, I can't fathom how a business or an industry expects to increase Q over Q profits with a basically unhealthy business model -- one that idealistically presumes people will be RESPONSIBLE for their own health but factually depends on people eating their way into a grave or a heart operation (and as a nation we pick up the tab for each and every piece of junk putting some obese or morbidly obese American or insured visitor on the procedure table or the post-mortem gurney). It's only inevitable and logical that the more educated people become the more they should cut back on JUNK or compensate by drinking more water, exercising more, and watching their sugars, salt, calories, and other levels. (About two weeks ago, I ate a KK donut and my teeth and gums hurt like hell for a few minutes. I don't recall that from other donuts, but Snickers and 3 Musketeers and some but not all candy bars give the same sensation of having needles run thru my teeth or gums. Quite unpleasant. I better see my dentist...)
I CANNOT help this...
m l?tid=172&tid=1&tid=218
1 9&ncid=519&e=2&u=/ap/20040826/ap_on_re_us/cremator y_lawsuit_8
8 26/bs_nm/leisure_krispykreme_earns_dc_9
All in one day...
1. WinAmp is being skinned alive
2. Cremators settle for $80M suit
3. Krispy Kreme profits fall by 1/2
1. is at (redundantly) http://slashdot.org/articles/04/08/26/1919249.sht
2. http://story.news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=story&cid=5
and
3. http://news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=story&u=/nm/20040
Talk about skinning, slashing and burning...
DOH!
David Syes
"colorful programming".
Now, just add some speakers, a dictionary of expletives, and the phrase "FIRE! FIRE!" or the KDE/app sound "Oooh-ah", or the non-zero number/word "Oh!"
(Example: Around 1994 I dialed a wrong extension, which included an errant "zero". The female voice responde with "There IS no EXTENsion: TWO-OH-OH". I was onto something. I hit, 2500300 or something like that. That led to her response, then I just entered all zeroes...
"There IS no EXTENsion: Oh! Oh! Oh! Oh! Oh! Oh! Oh! Oh! Oh! Oh! Oh! Oh! Oh!...". That went on for about enough time (with the speaker volume up a bit higher than necesary) for my manager/president to ask me to knock it off. I think later the industry changed the "OH" to "ZERO", but there are still a number of them out there...)
David Syes
If WinAmp doesn't release or realize a worthy fix, they could be dipping their skin in an arcing, amping, electric fryer if the exploits get out of control.
(Hmm, fixes, amping, arcing...)
I still have mine, in storage. I also still have my OS/2 disks (humongous number of them shipped in the box) and OS/2 Warp disks AND CD kit.
I still have vid cards (Spider Graphics) and controller cards (Promise), as well as 2-speed CD units, and an old one which had dedicated contrller/interface card. I still have my 486/DX2/66 box, I bought in 1993 with that nice but derided 14" near-flat screen KFC monitor. I haven't used it since maybe 1996 or so, when I bought a PowerSpec system from MicroCenter.
It is (yep, I still have it) is the machine on which I first tried Linux, SuSE, back in mid-1999. I put McMillan/Mandrake 6.x from MicroCenter on it, and it's been Mandrake for me ever since, tho I did buy copies (boxed sets) of SuSE "just to give'em a try", but I wanted GUI tools, not haphazard guessing at my disks' drive geometry when mounting PCMCIA-based devices.
If I wanted, as long as the hardware is still alive, I could go back to playing Falcon 2.0, US Navy Tomcat, and other games from 1993. But, I wouldn't try to play HL or Lonbow Apache on them. Longbow is what got me to upgrade to the 198 MHz PowerSpec Cyrix-based machine.
Then, in 2000, I was so into HL and Longbow I needed to go up to an 800 MHz Gateway Select, which I duly fed Linux (SuSE, Mandrake, Caldera, etc...). Now, I just use my laptop more, since I don't have much space nor time to run all 8 of my computers...
Anybody know any philanthropic types who'd help me set up a Linux training facility in Campbell, CA? It's time we get this ball rolling, before the economy supposedly turns back up and people forget the timeliness of the bubble bursting and the explosion of Linux. Saved money on that confluence, why not perpetually?
david syes
Back in the '80s I saw a sticker which proclaimed:
The meek shall inherit the shit.
This will only work until the anti-competive from redmond put the word out to all stores and device manufacturers to NOT let us test the hardware...
Ah, I can see anti-competitive suits being filed...
David Syes
Imagine the Jesuit geeks mounting canon... /mnt/canon
and realizing they've got a blessed machine...
it's been "canon"ized.
DOH!
As long as the packaging doesn't say "Mystal Creth"...
AHHHH! THAT'S how to weaken ms (lower-casing/deprecation intentional/perpetual). Just keep cranking out code to do something needed more as a standalone than as part of a suite.
Make something that is EASY, so easy, to use that it reduces tech support calls to ms.
Just make sure to look for prior art, and to be sure your stuff plays nicely.
It might help if when marketing your tools or wares you:
--KNOW what your Customer is uing
--find suitable replacements or add-ons if needed
-- you have a working server and two or more clients (get laptops, if you have to, but don't force the client to have to put it on their machine until/unless they are "hooked"/"jazzed" by your stuff
-- you don't demand obtuse or obscene commitments of your prospects or you Customers
-- you offer an escape, to show you care
-- you GIVE SCREENSHOTS in marketing materials!
-- your box HAS representative, accurate, and meaningful artwork, not just some bland, blank, uninformative box. This isn't a VITAMIN; it's supposed to be a gadgety, attractive, USEFUL thingy or thing -- your demo is fairly functional
-- your demo can import your Customer's data, and give it back to them unadulterated
-- your stuff doesn't break other stuff
-- your code is minimal in space consumption (meaning, don't embed and hide Doom or Magic Carpet the way ms supposedly did back around 1996 in ms office/orifice)
-- you DON'T LIE to your prospective Customers
-- you don't charge an arm, a leg and a brain lobe for your product
David Syes
I will go with the Ferengi Rule of Acquisition that says, "Dignity and an empty sack is worth the empty sack."
Meaning, I prefer to have my dignity, morals, scruples, and honor than have any of ms' money. When you get that big, it's got to be hollow (not hallowed) and nerve-wracking trying to find new markets to hijack just to assuage instant-gratification investors. Long-term investors can be respected more, though.
Tons of money can make you truly rich, but it doesn't make you REALLY/honestly happy. It's a relative illusion.
David Syes
But, is clippy on a box, or emblazoned on an article?
Is clippy loved and adored by all or even most of ms' users/subjects? Recall how many people beg for information on how to turn off that annoyance. Tux doesn't pop up and scamper all over your screen offering up pointless or irrelevant assistance like that dog or the paperclip.
Tux is just "there", on artwork, tee-shirts, and even molded into keychain accessories. I haven't seen anyone wearing a "clippy" t-shirt. Have you?
And may they kick our squish our asses the moment we bring up:
O I
-land rightsi on
-investment
-annuities
-tract
-amenities
-R
-license
-heir
-appreciation
-depreciation
-easements
-right-of-way
-free trade
-equal rights
-zone
-ordinance
-tax
-duty
-immigrat
and more... Until some more intelligent consensus out there deems we're FIT to be out there. I can see it now: humans zoning and carving up the Moon, Mars, and anything else rather than fixing problems down here.
If SETI has such small odds of finding life, then what the hell are we wasting the money for? even if we DO find indications of an advanced civilization, they'll likely be dead by the time we draft and send a "Hello" message, or they'll have been on the way for who knows how long, arriving here to eradicate us or who knows what, if they determine we're vermin.
David Syes
Why don't we take a look, shall we?
h tm l
Linux has Tux.
Is this what ms' mascot should be:
ttp://www.geocities.com/Heartland/5960/manatee.
or
http://www.manateeworld.net
Let's vote
Is what microsoft (lower-casing/deprecation intentional!) has been and is continuing to demonstrate itself as;
1 00 60564
hence why I describe them as:
"-voracious (computing, real estate, banking, entertainment...)
-omnivorous (buy up real or file fake patents)
-belligerent (FUD, pre-empt moms & pops)
-bellicose- (funding BSA, (no, not the Boy Scouts))
-obtuse (pricing)
-sprially spawning into numerous markets (see item above... let us hope they don't end up in airline cockpits)
-prevaricators (faked video testimony, ROI, etc...)"
in:
http://slashdot.org/comments.pl?sid=119111&cid=
Unfortunately (warning: this piece meanders a bit, and not to blow my own horn, I didn't use a spell checker, though I DID have to consult a paper thesaurus for the correct spelling of "grammar"... I have a problem trying to remember whether it ends with -er or -ar... go figure...),
... And I'm too politically contaminating to remain very long in ms-riddled offices. I can't change that, but maybe I can... I'm brainstorming ideas...(legal, of course, heheh) Hmm, why am I not in law? Obviously I like to live, and were I suicidal enough to be in law, and given enough power, I'd make decisions to cut the crap, and bust up some cozy arrangements that are delaying REAL improvement; I'd revamp the USPTO, remove corporate lobbying from lawmaking, force corrupt/greedy management and self-serving unions to reconcile so that effectively there'd be no reason for unions to exist if employees' needs were REALLY being met, I'd wipe out huge swaths of software patents, particulary dubious or land-grabbing types, I'd retroactively punish ms and similar companies for having LIED in court, I'd retroactively forbid or enjoin the worst of the worst execs from operating in industries they hosed up, and more (I'd pump more cash into the hands of people who SPEND, not people who HOARD cash, and I'd fire city mayors and managers who can come up with hundreds of millions to renovate or build new city offices but who cannot cough up an extra few million for entrepreneurs, or who don't greenbelt protect successful moms & pops being run out of town by the likes of starbucks (for example, where the existing proprietor cannot hope to counter when sbux drops in the property owner's lap THREE TIMES what the existing tenant can afford to pay (no, I'm not anti-corporate, just anti-corrrupt-corporates...wait, is that a conundrum?). But, then, there'd be bullets, acid baths, torture chambers, and more waiting for me and for anyone dumb enough to put me in a position to swiftly effect these changes that would deeply affect the "old boy/girl" networks, right?). WHEW, what a segue...(not segway, and not Segway heheh!).
**SO** -- or ALL too -- many students graduating from high schools, even from colleges, "escape" or are "set free" with these and worse kind(s) of errors. It can be quite disillusioning or even quite infuriating for non-degreed (not just speaking for myself), but reasonably intelligent individuals to be rejected (or not trained for) for a decent or responsibility-intensive position in employment or to be subordinated to a person who possesses a degree but who is lacking in grammar, spelling and other mechanics requisite to producing sensible, structured, intelligent and non-confusing documents devoid of run-ons, subject-verb agreement, and so forth. It's also shameful when marketing materials are riddled with basic errors (particularly materials that are more psychologically-driven than factually driven). Colloquial writing obviously is excused from rigors of English rules, but business writing -- even journalistic matter -- can be found with annoyances.
Fortunately, though, even with these weaknesses, many of the people whom I've met and who possess the degrees but can't "write" or spell to save their own skin can at least program well enough to be retained or show increased proficiency in their areas of interest if work is changed up a bit. They (the programmers) can do something I CAN'T or which I am not interested in doing. I am too WYSIWYG-minded (I don't think I'm either left- or right-brained -- I am brain-spun, or in possession of an ever-spinning brain that is probably 2 to 3 degrees warmer than it needs to be (NO! It's not available for scans and probes...) but I am still functioning, hehe.
(Hmm, why am I not in a technical writing position? That's another story...but suffice it to say I'm not interested in using ms word..., and it's hard to find a place using Lotus WordPro, OpenOffice.org, or OpenSource tools, or
Unfortunately, the pay disparity increasingly today seems to be or i
"Affect", not "e"ffect...
But, it is a common foible. Another is where people use "rather then" instead of "rather than"...
By levying this shot across your bow, I leave myself open to scrutiny/attack, too.
Bon-word-a-tit