ergo, The lower the price, the more the purchases.
Put this into a math expression:
# of purchases N = k / price.
Let's generalize this a bit more.
N=f(price)=(k1/price)^k2; k1,k2 are unknown.
Profit P = price*N = price*(k1/price)^k2;
(I'd like to do a full study on this. Anyone into statistics to develop a more accurate model? Like adding the popularity)
If we take into account social distribution, we find that there are MANY MORE people with VERY FEW money, and VERY FEW people with MUCH MORE money.
Multiply both, and you get an interesting curve. Apparently, the record labels are WAY TOO MUCH to the left of the curve (purchases=very low, price= very high). No wonder they're so worried about profits. Because the file sharers are on the OPPOSITE side (purchases=very high, price=0).
Move more to the middle, gentlemen. Lower your prices.
This guy who helped very old patients to commit suicide.
The authorities couldn't charge him for assisted suicide. So he said: "Hey, why don't you charge me for murder?" So they did. And he got jailed.
Now this case is similar. Publishing suicide info is helping people to commit suicide. But this time we're not talking about euthanasia. We're talking about mostly kids with problems at home. Is it legal to assist in the murder of someone just because he's having temporary problems (which can be solved with therapy, mostly family therapy sessions)?
So I'm in favor of this law. First sign of sanity in a world filled with twisted laws.
IIRC, the programmer who stole PearPC's code was fired, in the author's own words, he "fired his ass off".
Now let's suppose the author didn't want to start everything from scratch. So i think he just kept the configuration stuff, and changed only the internals (after all, Linux is from the outside more or less the same than Unix, isn't it?)
IANAL, but I suppose (someone correct me if I'm wrong) I can look at a GPL code, jot down a list of classes, what they do, and implement my own, without even copying a single byte from it.
So i'm for examining the source code and comparing it.
What should we expect from a school who said girls were naturally bad at math?
Besides, the guys at Harvard should at least say: If you hack into the site, no matter how subtle the methods, you will *NOT* get accepted.
Was there any warning sign? No. The applicants DON'T submit to the rules because they HAVEN'T BEEN accepted yet. They should get accepted, and then get a report or something so that they wouldn't do it again. THAT'S how law should be enforced.
Screw harvard. And with all the outsourcing problems and "I-can't-find-a-job-despite-my-harvard-degree"... what do we get?
Let me tell you something. Where I live, University contributes to SOCIAL MOBILITY. Helps poor people get a degree so they can GET BETTER JOBS.
And if that ain't working, who needs more elitist junk "with-a-degree"?
Criminal control shouldn't be given to "innocent people" (the innocent people are the children who are found dead when playing with daddy's gun), but there should be MORE cops and stricter control.
Many guns used by criminals are STOLEN. Stolen from whom? From "innocent people" who LEGALLY BOUGHT their guns. Congratulations Mr. Innocent people, you just let a thief get another gun!
If you want more insight on Gun control, you should watch "Bowling for Columbine" by Michael Moore.
Now, going BACK TO THE TOPIC:
Yes, they're putting a TAX on eBay'ing. Well, that should teach people to pay more attention when voting.
WinFS will attempt to present non-geeks with the same ease of organization as a nice clean directory structure: throw everything in one place, and organize it afterwards by searching cleverly.
Come on. Organizing things is GEEK? Au contraire! Geeks are the most disorganized people! Just look at physics teachers's desks (no kidding).
If you click on "Add category", you'd have nice bubbly icons (perhaps with a cartoon jumping puppy licking all over your face or something - kids LOVE that), and you could have:
"Games!" "Homework" "Tools" "Collections" et c, each with its very nice bubbly cutesy icon. Just drag and drop the category (or make "NEW" category).
My opinion is that Microsoft thought it would be much easier to... in your words, "throw everything in one place".
Yeah... like in a closet full of uncategorized stuff. Just don't ask me to get my bowling ball from there. Who knows what might be lurking along with the golf clubs, old dictionaries, electronic experiments... hey, i found my hamster! And I thought I had lost it!
Yeah, THAT's what I think of Microsoft's idea of being "organized".
AH HAH!!!! _NOW_ I know how I can sue the popup makers! They're making me CLICK to close their darn ads! When the jury sees my RSI-victimized hands, I'll surely win the case.
It had the trackball on the right, but three buttons on the left side of the KB (just below the spacebar). It was wonderful for playing 1st person 3D games (like Eye of the Beholder), because the trackball was so close to the cursor keys, while i could click with my left hand. (Right hand: Movement, left hand: Clicks. Isn't that sweet?)
One year ago, when my CTS was the worst, I asked Logitech to develop buttons on the left side of the keyboard, so that you could attach your mouse to a special connector, and use the KB's buttons instead of the mouse's. I told them that I wouldn't patent the idea, i just wanted the thing to be made.
Here's more or less a list of my directories: C:\DOCS C:\DOCS\HOMEWORK C:\DOCS\J OB C:\GAMES C:\GAMES\3D C:\GAMES\ADVENTUR C:\G AMES\PLATFORM C:\LENG\BC C:\LENG\TP C:\PICS C: \WIN95 -- my custom "WINDOWS" directory. C:\WIN98 C:\WP
So I could organize myself. Now, do you know what Microsoft did?
C:\Documents and Settings\me\My Documents\doc1 C:\Documents and Settings\me\My Documents\doc2 C:\Documents and Settings\me\My Documents\doc3... C:\Documents and Settings\me\My Documents\docN
C:\Documents and Settings\me\My Documents\My Images\img1 C:\Documents and Settings\me\My Documents\My Images\img2... C:\Documents and Settings\me\My Documents\My Images\imgN
Suddenly, the worst happens. My start menu is erased! Or my config got erased!
*cries* WAH!!! I lost one of my files! Where is it? They were on "My Documents", I swear!!
If Microsoft had ALLOWED the users to specify CATEGORIES for program installations... as in "Create Category", etc and made THIS feature an integral part of the system ("A certified WinXP application will present the "category" dialogue when installing something), we wouldn't NEED WinFS at all.
Now that I think of it, here's a new motto for Microsoft: "What do you want to hide today?"
Yes, it's funny, but at the same time, it's so true:( One of the things i don't like about Open Source is the tendency of the community to go as incompatible as they can get.
Sometimes it's good trying new things. But when you're talking about REPLACING EXISTING PRODUCTS... please.
Is it ethical to forbid your employees to work for your competitors if they ever leave?
In Mexico there is this case. The largest TV company in the country, Televisa, had this "shunning" clause on the contract, saying that all artist that left the company were forbidden to make TV appearances in competition's broadcasts.
Due to this fear, all the people were "loyal" to the company. They had no choice, it was the only major TV company.
And we ALL know Microsoft is a monopoly. Don't give them more ideas, please.
I read the blog entry and comments. And I frankly agree with Marc.
However, he misses the whole point: Microsoft is not a software business. It's a software RESELLER.
Nearly ALL software Microsoft has sold us had been bought before. Visual Basic, FoxPro, MS-DOS, they even stole the GUI from Apple. Microsoft wasn't founded by a programmer - but by a businessman with a keen eye for investments.
I recall the previous "Ask slashdot" post where this guy left the company because he wasn't comfortable with Microsoft tools.
Is it a mystery that they don't know how to deploy software? And with their flawed architecture, is it a mystery all software updates are major headaches? Of course Microsoft can't deliver software! They designed it (I'm speaking of MS Windows) to be HARD to configure, with their undocumented features, proprietary API, proprietary formats (MS Word)... (btw, I think this is why Microsoft is whining about Linux and GPL - they can't figure out a way to adopt it, embrace it and get money from it).
Microsoft can't deliver software updates because their business model was designed to sell COMPLETE PACKAGES (MS Office), not software updates. And with the major bugs and vulnerabilities, Microsoft is having to cope with their own demons.
My applauses to Marc, i think this is his smartest career move. Keep up the good work.
OK. Forget about Suprnova. Its successor is already online, and it's growing everyday. Haven't heard about it? Neither had I, until some guy posted a comment here. (Hint: search the source code for "</a> [". It's the first match).
IRC leeching? DOH. IRC users could setup their own trackers, i.e. private subnets to distribute torrents. Of course, who knows they're not doing that already...
Sharing a-la Kazaa? Exeem (lite).
Perhaps you were complaining that there aren't any EASY, spoonfed ways to get torrents anymore. Well - in that case, it's the geeks who will master Zen and the art of peer-downlading. As they've always done.
The rest of the world will pay-per-view. As they've always done.
Without the prehistoric fitoplancton creating oxygen as a byproduct of their metabolism, there wouldn't be oxygen in the atmosphere in the first place - ergo, no ozone.
Meanwhile, greedy corporations destroy the ecosystem, the CO2 production is going overboard - who's the bad guy now?
Slashdot Mirror
The higher the price, the less the purchases.
ergo, The lower the price, the more the purchases.
Put this into a math expression:
# of purchases N = k / price.
Let's generalize this a bit more.
N=f(price)=(k1/price)^k2;
k1,k2 are unknown.
Profit P = price*N = price*(k1/price)^k2;
(I'd like to do a full study on this. Anyone into statistics to develop a more accurate model? Like adding the popularity)
If we take into account social distribution, we find that there are MANY MORE people with VERY FEW money, and VERY FEW people with MUCH MORE money.
Multiply both, and you get an interesting curve. Apparently, the record labels are WAY TOO MUCH to the left of the curve (purchases=very low, price= very high). No wonder they're so worried about profits. Because the file sharers are on the OPPOSITE side (purchases=very high, price=0).
Move more to the middle, gentlemen. Lower your prices.
It is up to YOU to defend yourself in a violent situation.
Haven't you guys heard of PREVENTIVE measures?
No wonder the US is so screwed up, and the crime rates are so huge.
wxWidgets is the de-facto standard on cross-platform ui's. Why did he change it?
Whatever, I'm still using ABC client. After all, the bittorrent PROTOCOL hasn't changed, right?
This guy who helped very old patients to commit suicide.
The authorities couldn't charge him for assisted suicide. So he said: "Hey, why don't you charge me for murder?" So they did. And he got jailed.
Now this case is similar. Publishing suicide info is helping people to commit suicide. But this time we're not talking about euthanasia. We're talking about mostly kids with problems at home. Is it legal to assist in the murder of someone just because he's having temporary problems (which can be solved with therapy, mostly family therapy sessions)?
So I'm in favor of this law. First sign of sanity in a world filled with twisted laws.
IIRC, the programmer who stole PearPC's code was fired, in the author's own words, he "fired his ass off".
Now let's suppose the author didn't want to start everything from scratch. So i think he just kept the configuration stuff, and changed only the internals (after all, Linux is from the outside more or less the same than Unix, isn't it?)
IANAL, but I suppose (someone correct me if I'm wrong) I can look at a GPL code, jot down a list of classes, what they do, and implement my own, without even copying a single byte from it.
So i'm for examining the source code and comparing it.
CVS usage should be at the beginning of the book. CVS has saved hours of work for me. Why isn't it part of standard programming education?
What should we expect from a school who said girls were naturally bad at math?
Besides, the guys at Harvard should at least say: If you hack into the site, no matter how subtle the methods, you will *NOT* get accepted.
Was there any warning sign? No. The applicants DON'T submit to the rules because they HAVEN'T BEEN accepted yet. They should get accepted, and then get a report or something so that they wouldn't do it again. THAT'S how law should be enforced.
Screw harvard. And with all the outsourcing problems and "I-can't-find-a-job-despite-my-harvard-degree"... what do we get?
Let me tell you something. Where I live, University contributes to SOCIAL MOBILITY. Helps poor people get a degree so they can GET BETTER JOBS.
And if that ain't working, who needs more elitist junk "with-a-degree"?
Criminal control shouldn't be given to "innocent people" (the innocent people are the children who are found dead when playing with daddy's gun), but there should be MORE cops and stricter control.
Many guns used by criminals are STOLEN. Stolen from whom? From "innocent people" who LEGALLY BOUGHT their guns. Congratulations Mr. Innocent people, you just let a thief get another gun!
If you want more insight on Gun control, you should watch "Bowling for Columbine" by Michael Moore.
Now, going BACK TO THE TOPIC:
Yes, they're putting a TAX on eBay'ing. Well, that should teach people to pay more attention when voting.
WinFS will attempt to present non-geeks with the same ease of organization as a nice clean directory structure: throw everything in one place, and organize it afterwards by searching cleverly.
t c, each with its very nice bubbly cutesy icon. Just drag and drop the category (or make "NEW" category).
Come on. Organizing things is GEEK? Au contraire! Geeks are the most disorganized people! Just look at physics teachers's desks (no kidding).
If you click on "Add category", you'd have nice bubbly icons (perhaps with a cartoon jumping puppy licking all over your face or something - kids LOVE that), and you could have:
"Games!"
"Homework"
"Tools"
"Collections"
e
My opinion is that Microsoft thought it would be much easier to... in your words, "throw everything in one place".
Yeah... like in a closet full of uncategorized stuff. Just don't ask me to get my bowling ball from there. Who knows what might be lurking along with the golf clubs, old dictionaries, electronic experiments... hey, i found my hamster! And I thought I had lost it!
Yeah, THAT's what I think of Microsoft's idea of being "organized".
You've never heard of this?
AH HAH!!!! _NOW_ I know how I can sue the popup makers! They're making me CLICK to close their darn ads! When the jury sees my RSI-victimized hands, I'll surely win the case.
(And no, my name is NOT Kramer)
In 1992, my dad bought me a trackball keyboard.
It had the trackball on the right, but three buttons on the left side of the KB (just below the spacebar). It was wonderful for playing 1st person 3D games (like Eye of the Beholder), because the trackball was so close to the cursor keys, while i could click with my left hand. (Right hand: Movement, left hand: Clicks. Isn't that sweet?)
One year ago, when my CTS was the worst, I asked Logitech to develop buttons on the left side of the keyboard, so that you could attach your mouse to a special connector, and use the KB's buttons instead of the mouse's. I told them that I wouldn't patent the idea, i just wanted the thing to be made.
They never replied.
the big companies in the US that they should start pushing the govt to get rid of those patents.
For once, I'm glad that Taiwan company decided to go to the extreme. Only that way they can learn how ridiculous their evil ways are...
I recall my good ol' DOS times.
J OBG AMES\PLATFORM: \WIN95 -- my custom "WINDOWS" directory.
...
...
...
Here's more or less a list of my directories:
C:\DOCS
C:\DOCS\HOMEWORK
C:\DOCS\
C:\GAMES
C:\GAMES\3D
C:\GAMES\ADVENTUR
C:\
C:\LENG\BC
C:\LENG\TP
C:\PICS
C
C:\WIN98
C:\WP
So I could organize myself. Now, do you know what Microsoft did?
C:\Program Files\app 1
C:\Program Files\app 2
C:\Program Files\app 3
C:\Program Files\app 9,999
C:\Documents and Settings\me\My Documents\doc1
C:\Documents and Settings\me\My Documents\doc2
C:\Documents and Settings\me\My Documents\doc3
C:\Documents and Settings\me\My Documents\docN
C:\Documents and Settings\me\My Documents\My Images\img1
C:\Documents and Settings\me\My Documents\My Images\img2
C:\Documents and Settings\me\My Documents\My Images\imgN
Suddenly, the worst happens. My start menu is erased! Or my config got erased!
*cries* WAH!!! I lost one of my files! Where is it? They were on "My Documents", I swear!!
If Microsoft had ALLOWED the users to specify CATEGORIES for program installations... as in "Create Category", etc and made THIS feature an integral part of the system
("A certified WinXP application will present the "category" dialogue when installing something),
we wouldn't NEED WinFS at all.
Now that I think of it, here's a new motto for Microsoft:
"What do you want to hide today?"
Yes, it's funny, but at the same time, it's so true :( One of the things i don't like about Open Source is the tendency of the community to go as incompatible as they can get.
Sometimes it's good trying new things. But when you're talking about REPLACING EXISTING PRODUCTS... please.
Yeah, but at least OpenOffice doesn't TRANSLATE the freaking scripting commands to YOUR language.
sum: Command not found. Try "suma".
Way to go, Microsoft!
Let me answer with a question.
Is it ethical to forbid your employees to work for your competitors if they ever leave?
In Mexico there is this case. The largest TV company in the country, Televisa, had this "shunning" clause on the contract, saying that all artist that left the company were forbidden to make TV appearances in competition's broadcasts.
Due to this fear, all the people were "loyal" to the company. They had no choice, it was the only major TV company.
And we ALL know Microsoft is a monopoly. Don't give them more ideas, please.
I read the blog entry and comments. And I frankly agree with Marc.
However, he misses the whole point: Microsoft is not a software business. It's a software RESELLER.
Nearly ALL software Microsoft has sold us had been bought before. Visual Basic, FoxPro, MS-DOS, they even stole the GUI from Apple. Microsoft wasn't founded by a programmer - but by a businessman with a keen eye for investments.
I recall the previous "Ask slashdot" post where this guy left the company because he wasn't comfortable with Microsoft tools.
Is it a mystery that they don't know how to deploy software? And with their flawed architecture, is it a mystery all software updates are major headaches? Of course Microsoft can't deliver software! They designed it (I'm speaking of MS Windows) to be HARD to configure, with their undocumented features, proprietary API, proprietary formats (MS Word)... (btw, I think this is why Microsoft is whining about Linux and GPL - they can't figure out a way to adopt it, embrace it and get money from it).
Microsoft can't deliver software updates because their business model was designed to sell COMPLETE PACKAGES (MS Office), not software updates. And with the major bugs and vulnerabilities, Microsoft is having to cope with their own demons.
My applauses to Marc, i think this is his smartest career move. Keep up the good work.
Here VoIP is forbidden due to stupid regulations. There might be VoIP, but it'll be provided by... guess who? The major phone companies >:(
The giants won't surrender that easily...
OK. Forget about Suprnova. Its successor is already online, and it's growing everyday. Haven't heard about it? Neither had I, until some guy posted a comment here.
(Hint: search the source code for "</a> [". It's the first match).
IRC leeching? DOH. IRC users could setup their own trackers, i.e. private subnets to distribute torrents. Of course, who knows they're not doing that already...
Sharing a-la Kazaa? Exeem (lite).
Perhaps you were complaining that there aren't any EASY, spoonfed ways to get torrents anymore. Well - in that case, it's the geeks who will master Zen and the art of peer-downlading. As they've always done.
The rest of the world will pay-per-view. As they've always done.
What gives? Can we bring back the old content?
When the nerds forget about "the news for lawyers", there WON'T be any content to look at. It'll be too late.
But what happens when you use Adam and Eve with Darwin?
I don't know, but I think I have a slight idea of what that'd be like...
Uh... didn't P2P clients act as data ROUTERS??? The bittorrent model is amazingly accurate.
Just look at the vi/emacs wars
:(
You betcha. Remember SCUMMVM ? Well IIRC, the project was halted because of a vi/emacs discussion started by some of the developers.
Uh... that doesn't say much of the poster's question, does it?
Perhaps he's been so much in the mixvertising business that he forgot how a pure original is supposed to be.
Actually, wouldn't the ecosystem be the good guy?
Without the prehistoric fitoplancton creating oxygen as a byproduct of their metabolism, there wouldn't be oxygen in the atmosphere in the first place - ergo, no ozone.
Meanwhile, greedy corporations destroy the ecosystem, the CO2 production is going overboard - who's the bad guy now?