Anti-establishment businesses and groups BECOMING the established?
What else is new?
This is how companies WORK, folks. Someone starts something new and exciting, and it creates a fan base- and then a following. It's good, so people want it. Then, it gets bigger, because the owners want to bring it to more people. Then it gets sold (or starts selling stocks) and it becomes a corperation. Ford, Microsoft, Apple, Ben & Jerry's Ice Cream, Ebay, PayPal... these are ALL companies that started "in some guy's garage" and have grown from there into major corporations. It's how companies are MADE, mostly.
Works in music, too- anyone heard of They Might Be Giants? You can buy their CDs at Barnes & Noble now, and at Wal-Mart. How about Nirvana? or Elvis? both were major anti-establishment artists in their day... and are now being used in advertizements and on television.
It happens because the young and hip grow up to be the middle-age businessman, and they take their businesses and music tastes with them. Simple enough.
The question is- will these corporations take these little open-source businesses and keep them good- like Ben & Jerry's... or will they make them evil, like Paypal. Only time will tell.
For everyone in this thread who is biatching about RS asking for names and addresses- they havn't asked for names and addresses for OVER TWO YEARS now- unless you are buying something that requires delivery, or is a service-based product. Even when they DID ask for names and addresses, it was so they could look up your receipt if/when you lost it, so they could like... help you.
Gasp.
Radioshack Canada: RadioShack Canada has been owned for years by Circuit City, who bought it way back in the 70s along with the remainders of RadioShack's attempt at a big-box store. Recently, Circuit City sold the chain to Best Buy, who attempted to retain the RadioShack name despite the fact that the original agreement prohibited that. They lost that court case, hence the change in store names.
Parts: For all of you complaining about the lack of parts in stores- if there are no parts in the stores anymore, it's YOUR fault. Where did you go when you needed parts? RadioShack? bet not, unless it was a pinch case. No company is dumb enough to keep carrying things that do not sell anymore. The same thing happened with high-end stereo stuff, car stereos, less common ICs, and radio gear. No one came in to buy it, so they stopped carrying it.
Besides, other a few stores in malls, most stores still carry an almost complete line of common parts- resisters, capaciters, common ICs, connectors, solder, pencils and irons, light bulbs, batteries, and cables.
RadioShack has been, and continues to be, the biggest seller of mobile phones in the country. They typically outsell even the company stores for the carriers they have.
Profit Issues: Despite what any news articles are telling you, there is a very real reason why RadioShack's profits sucked in the fourth quarter- product supply. The mainly promoted products were iPod, MP3 players, Sirius Sattelite Radio, mobile phones, and digital cameras. All of these are really low-margin items, but the corperate structure was unable to supply stores with the accessories and parts required to actually turn a profit. Pretty simple issue, in theory.
Now, all of this is publicly available information, but just so you know, yes I DO work for RadioShack, and have worked for them for almost 5 years. I too am frustrated by the fact that we don't carry amature radio gear (had my ticket for 7 years or so now) but I understand why we don't. The selection of product has changed, and changes, because the market has changed. People go to extremely large stores like Best Buy and Wal-mart to buy a lot of their more expensive gear because it's cheaper- due mostly to the fact that those stores either short-shift on their service, use questionable managing methodology, or both. RadioShack is trying to be the guys that you go to because you want an answer for your question, or because you have a need but no idea how to fill it. They'll never be able to compete in price- because other companies can't compete in service.
Oh yeah, the new website? It IS competetive in pricing, and carries much that they can't afford to carry in stores. Still has good service, too.
I'm not saying that they've done it perfectly- far from it. There is vast room for improvement. I've been to some stores where the avarage IQ of an employee is lower then the temperature outside. Most stores aren't like that, however. In general, I think that RadioShack has done all right, competing in a world that currently values lower prices over better service.
To all the people pooh-poohing Sony on here- have any of you ever owned a (cassette) walkman or a (cd) discman? How about a Viao laptop, or a portable minidisc player? Whatever your opinions are about their non-portable equipment; their politics or their policies, Sony has ALWAYS made very durable and dependable portable equipment. Paying a "premium" for Sony equipment is like paying a premium for Apple equipment- except that you get durable devices instead of pretty ones.
Oh, and everyone saying they'll wait for Apple to release one? Remember, Apple hasn't always been the forward-thinking design firm they are today- gee, it's almost like they somehow CHANGED the way they do business? *gasp*... but Sony could NEVER do that! All sarcasm aside- Sony screwed up, folks, pure and simple. This rootkit business would obviously never have happened if their security people has been controlled better... and you can bet it probably won't happen again (at least not soon). Sony makes, has made, and will continute to make quality hardware, and I doubt that will change in the near future. These people brought us the betamax wars (beta was better!) and, more popularly, the CD format that has been the basis for data and audio transfer for two decades. Let it go.
Oh yes, Apple fans, remember- expect to actually pay MORE for a compareable Apple product then the Sony MSRP because, well, it's Apple!
That being said, I probably won't buy this product, but for different reasons then most people. I prefer my books in dead-tree format, because I can toss them in bags, bang them around, sit on them, whatever, and they only cost me about $6 to replace. Also, many of the books I like are out of print now, and although I'm sure the library they have available when these are released will be large, I doubt it'll have much in the way of out-of-print science fiction and fantasy.
What I'd like to see come out of this is the development of a thin-but-durable paper/plastic product that you can write on, and then save the data to put on a computer later. Pair this screen technology with a memory recording device and a touch-screen applique, and you'd have a low-power electronic 'notebook' that's good for taking notes in classes or at work, but doesn't require hauling around a $700+ device.
I can agree with your assertment that MS isn't making profit on Xbox (I didn't know that, actually)... but do you think that they would be trying to capture market share if it wasn't going to profit for them at some point in the future?
Why would a lactose-intolerant person milk cows for a living? There has to be a profit somewhere.
That's true- to a point. there are many companies who do very good things, and are good 'corperate citizens'. But a company- especially a very large one- has a tendancy to do what it can to make money- that's the idea, right? And the larger the company, the better odds of it being unscrupulous, as you said- because the billionaires at the top care more about buying that new seaside resrort then in doing what's right. Again, not ALWAYS true, but true enough in the more visible of the largest companies.
So what to do? I know what I do- buy good product from good companies, even if it means paying a bit more. Typically I come out on top in the end because the higher-quality product tends to work better, last longer, and generally give me less aggrivation. I do research, talk to people who have products like the one I want, and generally think about things before rushing into them. Impulse buying has rarely, if ever, paid off for me in the end.
... You know they won't. The problem with today's software (and combined hardware/software) manufacturers and vendors has nothing to do with the programmers themselves. Companies have simply responded to the paying public's demand for new toys with no wait. We want our toys NOW, not later. And buying trends for YEARS now have indicated that computer and computer program buyers are more then willing to purchase a program and then spend a significant amout of time patching and updating it- often right out of the box.
Microsoft responded to this in the way that gained them the most extra profit- they rushed the system to market without (apparently enough) random batch testing or other beta testing. People (lots and lots of people) bought the systems. They are crashing. Microsoft will now start to release patches (probably over Live) that correct this bug or that. The paying public will accept this and install them. People who buy XBox 360s down the road will expect the patches to be installed before they buy the system- but they'll still expect to have to install more at some point.
It's NOT the computer companies fault things have grown this way. They- like all companies- are a FOR-PROFIT venture, and will do whatever they think is the thing that will garner them the most profit. Period.
Home hardware stores have used a linux-based POS and inventory control system for at least the last 2 years- and I believe for much longer (2 years ago was the first time I noted the terminals were running Linux, but it looked like they had been that way for a while)
If you want to talk about a really LARGE company using Linux for server systems- RadioShack has used SCO Linux (yes, I know, I know) for at minimum the last decade, in all of their 5200+ company owned stores.
UNFORTUNATELY they've just started phasing their POS server and inventory system to a program running on Windows Server, so they can reduce backroom equipment from 2 computers to 1, and further automation between website and POS system.
Id've rather stuck to the dual-computer system, because now when the webserver goes down, I get to write hand tickets.
that buying cheap crappy CD-Rs meant that your data died faster, but I had no idea how the degredation worked.
What about the "armored" DVD-Rs from places like Datawrite? They're supposedly almost impossible to destroy. How well do they stand up?
Irfan View is probably the best image (read: pr0n) viewer out there. It's small enough to fit on a floppy, will read dang near any image/video format, has a thumbnailing feature, batch operations capabilities, and is generally very useful for parsing large directories of images quickly. The Homepage.
i drove 38k miles in my '86 civic DX hatch last year, almost all at highway speeds, and most on interstates. shortly after getting a speeding ticket i decided that i should see if i get better milage going slower (and also avoiding the eyes of the law-with-nothing-to-do)
driving consistantly at about 65mph caused me to get passed by everyone, almost get run off the road twice, and actually INCREASED my daily driving stress. milage= ~38mpg
driving my normal pace of 75-80 or so, i stayed mostly in the fast or fast-er lane, no problems with traffic, and just cruised. milage= ~41mpg
so i actually get better milage going faster. i havn't tried this at any higher speeds as they are too risky ticket-wise to maintain. i drove to chicago once doing about 90-95 for 6 hours or so, but i did a lot of hard breaking and accellerating dealing with traffic, so i'm sure the milage wasn't all that good.
it's still interesting to see that, in terms of real-world numbers, my regular civic gets just slightly worse milage then the hybrid civic. dissapointing is what it is. perhaps there are some benifits i'm not seeing?
being a "new" amature operator, i'm stuck down on the 2m bands and near there, but i've made a few hits that were fun... 50 miles of hilly terrain with 10 watts on a mobile antenna was cool.
just like everything else, some people think that "bigger=better" and just turn up the juice. fools. i hope this antenna is what it's being proported as being, becuase i'll have on as soon as i can if they are...
Slashdot Mirror
Anti-establishment businesses and groups BECOMING the established?
What else is new?
This is how companies WORK, folks. Someone starts something new and exciting, and it creates a fan base- and then a following. It's good, so people want it. Then, it gets bigger, because the owners want to bring it to more people. Then it gets sold (or starts selling stocks) and it becomes a corperation. Ford, Microsoft, Apple, Ben & Jerry's Ice Cream, Ebay, PayPal... these are ALL companies that started "in some guy's garage" and have grown from there into major corporations. It's how companies are MADE, mostly.
Works in music, too- anyone heard of They Might Be Giants? You can buy their CDs at Barnes & Noble now, and at Wal-Mart. How about Nirvana? or Elvis? both were major anti-establishment artists in their day... and are now being used in advertizements and on television.
It happens because the young and hip grow up to be the middle-age businessman, and they take their businesses and music tastes with them. Simple enough.
The question is- will these corporations take these little open-source businesses and keep them good- like Ben & Jerry's... or will they make them evil, like Paypal. Only time will tell.
For everyone in this thread who is biatching about RS asking for names and addresses- they havn't asked for names and addresses for OVER TWO YEARS now- unless you are buying something that requires delivery, or is a service-based product. Even when they DID ask for names and addresses, it was so they could look up your receipt if/when you lost it, so they could like... help you.
Gasp.
Radioshack Canada:
RadioShack Canada has been owned for years by Circuit City, who bought it way back in the 70s along with the remainders of RadioShack's attempt at a big-box store. Recently, Circuit City sold the chain to Best Buy, who attempted to retain the RadioShack name despite the fact that the original agreement prohibited that. They lost that court case, hence the change in store names.
Parts:
For all of you complaining about the lack of parts in stores- if there are no parts in the stores anymore, it's YOUR fault. Where did you go when you needed parts? RadioShack? bet not, unless it was a pinch case. No company is dumb enough to keep carrying things that do not sell anymore. The same thing happened with high-end stereo stuff, car stereos, less common ICs, and radio gear. No one came in to buy it, so they stopped carrying it.
Besides, other a few stores in malls, most stores still carry an almost complete line of common parts- resisters, capaciters, common ICs, connectors, solder, pencils and irons, light bulbs, batteries, and cables.
RadioShack has been, and continues to be, the biggest seller of mobile phones in the country. They typically outsell even the company stores for the carriers they have.
Profit Issues:
Despite what any news articles are telling you, there is a very real reason why RadioShack's profits sucked in the fourth quarter- product supply. The mainly promoted products were iPod, MP3 players, Sirius Sattelite Radio, mobile phones, and digital cameras. All of these are really low-margin items, but the corperate structure was unable to supply stores with the accessories and parts required to actually turn a profit. Pretty simple issue, in theory.
Now, all of this is publicly available information, but just so you know, yes I DO work for RadioShack, and have worked for them for almost 5 years. I too am frustrated by the fact that we don't carry amature radio gear (had my ticket for 7 years or so now) but I understand why we don't. The selection of product has changed, and changes, because the market has changed. People go to extremely large stores like Best Buy and Wal-mart to buy a lot of their more expensive gear because it's cheaper- due mostly to the fact that those stores either short-shift on their service, use questionable managing methodology, or both. RadioShack is trying to be the guys that you go to because you want an answer for your question, or because you have a need but no idea how to fill it. They'll never be able to compete in price- because other companies can't compete in service.
Oh yeah, the new website? It IS competetive in pricing, and carries much that they can't afford to carry in stores. Still has good service, too.
I'm not saying that they've done it perfectly- far from it. There is vast room for improvement. I've been to some stores where the avarage IQ of an employee is lower then the temperature outside. Most stores aren't like that, however. In general, I think that RadioShack has done all right, competing in a world that currently values lower prices over better service.
To all the people pooh-poohing Sony on here- have any of you ever owned a (cassette) walkman or a (cd) discman? How about a Viao laptop, or a portable minidisc player? Whatever your opinions are about their non-portable equipment; their politics or their policies, Sony has ALWAYS made very durable and dependable portable equipment. Paying a "premium" for Sony equipment is like paying a premium for Apple equipment- except that you get durable devices instead of pretty ones.
Oh, and everyone saying they'll wait for Apple to release one? Remember, Apple hasn't always been the forward-thinking design firm they are today- gee, it's almost like they somehow CHANGED the way they do business? *gasp*... but Sony could NEVER do that! All sarcasm aside- Sony screwed up, folks, pure and simple. This rootkit business would obviously never have happened if their security people has been controlled better... and you can bet it probably won't happen again (at least not soon). Sony makes, has made, and will continute to make quality hardware, and I doubt that will change in the near future. These people brought us the betamax wars (beta was better!) and, more popularly, the CD format that has been the basis for data and audio transfer for two decades. Let it go.
Oh yes, Apple fans, remember- expect to actually pay MORE for a compareable Apple product then the Sony MSRP because, well, it's Apple!
That being said, I probably won't buy this product, but for different reasons then most people. I prefer my books in dead-tree format, because I can toss them in bags, bang them around, sit on them, whatever, and they only cost me about $6 to replace. Also, many of the books I like are out of print now, and although I'm sure the library they have available when these are released will be large, I doubt it'll have much in the way of out-of-print science fiction and fantasy.
What I'd like to see come out of this is the development of a thin-but-durable paper/plastic product that you can write on, and then save the data to put on a computer later. Pair this screen technology with a memory recording device and a touch-screen applique, and you'd have a low-power electronic 'notebook' that's good for taking notes in classes or at work, but doesn't require hauling around a $700+ device.
I can agree with your assertment that MS isn't making profit on Xbox (I didn't know that, actually)... but do you think that they would be trying to capture market share if it wasn't going to profit for them at some point in the future?
Why would a lactose-intolerant person milk cows for a living? There has to be a profit somewhere.
That's true- to a point. there are many companies who do very good things, and are good 'corperate citizens'. But a company- especially a very large one- has a tendancy to do what it can to make money- that's the idea, right? And the larger the company, the better odds of it being unscrupulous, as you said- because the billionaires at the top care more about buying that new seaside resrort then in doing what's right. Again, not ALWAYS true, but true enough in the more visible of the largest companies.
So what to do? I know what I do- buy good product from good companies, even if it means paying a bit more. Typically I come out on top in the end because the higher-quality product tends to work better, last longer, and generally give me less aggrivation. I do research, talk to people who have products like the one I want, and generally think about things before rushing into them. Impulse buying has rarely, if ever, paid off for me in the end.
Food for thought, at any rate.
... You know they won't. The problem with today's software (and combined hardware/software) manufacturers and vendors has nothing to do with the programmers themselves. Companies have simply responded to the paying public's demand for new toys with no wait. We want our toys NOW, not later. And buying trends for YEARS now have indicated that computer and computer program buyers are more then willing to purchase a program and then spend a significant amout of time patching and updating it- often right out of the box.
Microsoft responded to this in the way that gained them the most extra profit- they rushed the system to market without (apparently enough) random batch testing or other beta testing. People (lots and lots of people) bought the systems. They are crashing. Microsoft will now start to release patches (probably over Live) that correct this bug or that. The paying public will accept this and install them. People who buy XBox 360s down the road will expect the patches to be installed before they buy the system- but they'll still expect to have to install more at some point.
It's NOT the computer companies fault things have grown this way. They- like all companies- are a FOR-PROFIT venture, and will do whatever they think is the thing that will garner them the most profit. Period.
Welcome to Capitalism, enjoy your stay.
Same company as the guys who make the Roomba, eh?
I Wonder if they'll offer a firmware update for the roomba that allows it to Aquire and Eliminate enemy dust bunnies with pinpoint accuracy...
Yep, you're right, actually. A mentalgraphical error. I was up too long and worked on too many messed up desktops today.
Home hardware stores have used a linux-based POS and inventory control system for at least the last 2 years- and I believe for much longer (2 years ago was the first time I noted the terminals were running Linux, but it looked like they had been that way for a while) If you want to talk about a really LARGE company using Linux for server systems- RadioShack has used SCO Linux (yes, I know, I know) for at minimum the last decade, in all of their 5200+ company owned stores. UNFORTUNATELY they've just started phasing their POS server and inventory system to a program running on Windows Server, so they can reduce backroom equipment from 2 computers to 1, and further automation between website and POS system. Id've rather stuck to the dual-computer system, because now when the webserver goes down, I get to write hand tickets.
that buying cheap crappy CD-Rs meant that your data died faster, but I had no idea how the degredation worked. What about the "armored" DVD-Rs from places like Datawrite? They're supposedly almost impossible to destroy. How well do they stand up?
Irfan View is probably the best image (read: pr0n) viewer out there. It's small enough to fit on a floppy, will read dang near any image/video format, has a thumbnailing feature, batch operations capabilities, and is generally very useful for parsing large directories of images quickly. The Homepage.
I'm suprised there's no Wesley Snipes tie-in with this product. It would seem natural.
"Blades- the only thing between you, and the end of the world"
i drove 38k miles in my '86 civic DX hatch last year, almost all at highway speeds, and most on interstates. shortly after getting a speeding ticket i decided that i should see if i get better milage going slower (and also avoiding the eyes of the law-with-nothing-to-do) driving consistantly at about 65mph caused me to get passed by everyone, almost get run off the road twice, and actually INCREASED my daily driving stress. milage= ~38mpg driving my normal pace of 75-80 or so, i stayed mostly in the fast or fast-er lane, no problems with traffic, and just cruised. milage= ~41mpg so i actually get better milage going faster. i havn't tried this at any higher speeds as they are too risky ticket-wise to maintain. i drove to chicago once doing about 90-95 for 6 hours or so, but i did a lot of hard breaking and accellerating dealing with traffic, so i'm sure the milage wasn't all that good. it's still interesting to see that, in terms of real-world numbers, my regular civic gets just slightly worse milage then the hybrid civic. dissapointing is what it is. perhaps there are some benifits i'm not seeing?
being a "new" amature operator, i'm stuck down on the 2m bands and near there, but i've made a few hits that were fun... 50 miles of hilly terrain with 10 watts on a mobile antenna was cool.
just like everything else, some people think that "bigger=better" and just turn up the juice. fools. i hope this antenna is what it's being proported as being, becuase i'll have on as soon as i can if they are...