When did I say that my post wasn't an opinion? I said very clearly that those things are all things that I would want to see GMail add before I'd consider them as an email provider.
That's good for you that you just need plain vanilla email. I need many of those services, and like the rest. So, I guess I should say "congratulations" on having an opinion. But remember, opinions are like assholes: everybody has one.
There's this new thing out called a "CD". They hold at least 650 MB, are disposable, can be bought in most convenience stores, and cost about $0.10 each. They're almost universally readable, and there are probably 10x the number of CD drives out there than there are USB ports. Welcome to 1992.
No. You do this, and you'll have about 157 copies of the same.dll's on your system. What needs to be done is for companies to learn how to write a proper Installshield application. The system works just fine. You can install/uninstall to a Windows system as many times as you'd like if the installers are all written correctly.
9/10 of most machines you'll find in modern factories these days are run by old PC's with serial/parallel connections. Most retail setups need serial/parallel in some way. Tons and tons and tons of businesses have hardware that a Mac wouldn't even begin to know what to do with. Again, you're assuming that everybody works in an office with shiny new computers, PIMs, scanners, card readers, etc., etc.. Most of the world doesn't. Imagine a factory. Imagine a grocery store. Imagine a warehouse. Imagine a gas station......
If you are using legacy peripherals, you probably already have the legacy computers to use them with
Or I can drive down to Wal-Mart and buy a PC with legacy support (serial/parallel/ps2 ports).
Also, the life cycle of OS X is at least 15 months or so.
Hey, if you're running a business that can afford new operating systems (and the downtime associated with upgrading) every 15 months, drop me a line. I'm interested in whatever kind of business that can waste that kind of money and still stay afloat.
Sure, call it legacy, if you want. But when I run a retail business, and my receipt printers are all parallel port, and my credit card swipes and UPC scanners are all PS/2 port, I wouldn't exactly call them "legacy", except in the strictly technical sense of the word. Most small businesses can't afford to throw out perfectly good hardware just because something prettier came down the pike. All of my "legacy" equipment will be used until it fails (including my PC's), and not a second earlier, unless there is a massive gain in productivity to offset the price and headache of new equipment.
Well, I'd consider it for a fun home machine, but Macs are still pretty useless in most business environments. Poor hardware support (no serial or parallel port), and many, many fewer customer business apps make it impossible for me to consider switching my business. Also, I'm not really a fan of hardware lock-in. They're cute and fun, but not nearly as functional as a boring, generic PC if you're doing almost anything other than web browsing and writing email. Also, the upgrade cycle is insane. I'm simply not buying a new OS every 6 months just to maintain compatibility with current versions of software. My copes of Windows 2000 are still 100% compatible with all of my software, and probably will be for a long, long time, especially if I install the bolt-on.Net stuff.
That's not even true any more. We're a small business (less than 10 employees), so we still have a POS terminal with paper receipts. Last I checked, at most big merchants (I occasionally HAVE to go to one for office supplies) and even grocery stores, you simply swipe your own card. The cashier never even sees it. So, in these situations (which I'd assume, by the way Americans love their Big Box stores, is the majority), the signature is also useless.
I run a medium-sized store. The credit card signing IS useless. Why? What do we do with the credit card signatures? Nothing. Absolutely nothing. They get put in a big box, and every so often, they get thrown away. Visa/Mastercard/Amex/Discover makes no requirements on us to do anything with the signatures. The only reason that we could possibly need a signed receipt is if a transaction is fraudulent, and somebody needs proof that they did NOT sign the receipt. And honestly, that's just a guess. Maybe it's buried somewhere in the 100 pages of fine print, but I've never seen it.
1. Credit card companies don't ask for signatures, even in the case of fraud. It's not worth their time and money.
2. Neither myself or any of my employees are handwriting experts. Somebody could forge a signature very easily. It ain't rocket science.
Really, all the signatures for are to provide a sense of security to the tin-foil hat types. In reality, a credit card is as good as cash, but if you lose it, you don't feel the negative consequences. So, while credit card signatures are useless, I readily use mine everywhere without worrying about a signature.
If everyone says, "Damn I should have waited" then the market never materializes, the profit incentive never kicks in, and competition never makes any decent products.
You're exactly right. Luckily, there are "early adopters", many "early adopters" for geek gadgets are right here on Slashdot. They're generally categorized as having lots of extra disposable income, and they have a high demand for the newest and shiniest products so that they can be the first kids on the block with the toy. I'm not an early adopter. In fact, I wait until technology has matured at least several years before switching (ie: our business uses all parallel and serial port devices because they're tested and they're cheap). But even if I'm not an early adopter, or you're not, there always will be somebody who is.
But sometimes, early adopters can be misleading. There were lots and lots of early adopters for PDA's, but PDA's largely flopped once they hit the mass market. In that case, lots of companies lost lots of money because the initial analysis for such products looked good.
When/if it's released in the US, I'd probably buy at least a couple of copies. They'd run my cash registers. There's no need for a full-featured OS on a machine that runs one application, and a web browser.
It all goes back to TCO... and unless you're Steve Ballmer (YEAAA GET UP!! I LOVE THIS COMPANYYYY YEAAA!!!) the TCO is definately less with Linux.
Now, I'm trying to figure out... how did you know it costs my company less to run Linux than Windows XP Starter Edition? Did you steal my financials? Did you interview my employees to determine their expertise? Do you know what software that we run on top of the OS? Did you do an analysis of our future software needs?
Lessig, is, quite honestly, a media whore. It seems like he has a new stunt every week, most of which are relatively useless (like this), except that he gets more time in the limelight.
If anything, he should write a book "How to be a Media Whore and Profit From It". That's a book I'd buy.
Here's the obligatory post bitching about the "real" difference between hacker and cracker...
Actually, you know, I don't really know what the difference is any more, and I don't really care. But here's the post. Feel free to argue amongst yourselves.
No, this guy had no right to use the code at the company, and he knew it. He brought in code that conflicted with his employer's agreement, and thus HE is liable. They probably did not (and would not) knowingly accept GPL'ed code. They are not under the GPL license unless they agreed to it and signed off on it (or offered some kind of consideration for it). If he introduced the code to his company, then said "oh yeah, by the way, this is GPL", then he really is liable, and should be sued by the company, and the GPL foundation, actually. The GPL is not some kind of "super contract" that overrides everything else. In fact, it's barely been proven in court up to this point.
Why does the GPL overrive the company's IP rights? The developer in no way should have used GPL code at this job, and I'd think that the developer would be (and should be) personally liable for using GPL code. If anything, the GPL people should be suing the developer for this situation.
What would be the basis of this lawsuit, exactly? Aggressive marketing? This doesn't qualify as libel/slander because there's no quantitative way to prove if "Linux scales well". And who would do it? Red Hat vs. Oracle? Nope. They work together. SUSE vs. anybody? Nope. No money. C'mon. It ain't slander, and even if it was, there's nothing that anybody can do about it.
But the thing is that product decisions rarely make it to the board level in large companies. Very rarely. Besides, that's internal. It doesn't cause fear, uncertainty, and doubt among its customers like this kind of Open Source bickering does. And, much more imporantly, a real decision can be made. I don't remember any recent proprietary software apps that "forked". It's simply not possible because there's real ownership.
And no, I don't think it's positive. Managers don't want to have to pick one of several very similar projects to choose from, and hope that theirs will survive. When I pick an app for my business, I have to be as sure as I can be that our investment of time and money will not be wasted in a year when the software package/support/company goes belly up. I can't afford to waste any time or money on software dead-ends. In fact, right now, I'm reconsidering my decision to standardize my company on Firefox. It's not a big deal if Firefox gets all messed up, since it's not a *critical* application, but if we ever need a browser specific tool, I really doubt that I'd pick Firefox at this point.
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When did I say that my post wasn't an opinion? I said very clearly that those things are all things that I would want to see GMail add before I'd consider them as an email provider.
That's good for you that you just need plain vanilla email. I need many of those services, and like the rest. So, I guess I should say "congratulations" on having an opinion. But remember, opinions are like assholes: everybody has one.
And that's just a start.
There's this new thing out called a "CD". They hold at least 650 MB, are disposable, can be bought in most convenience stores, and cost about $0.10 each. They're almost universally readable, and there are probably 10x the number of CD drives out there than there are USB ports. Welcome to 1992.
No. You do this, and you'll have about 157 copies of the same .dll's on your system. What needs to be done is for companies to learn how to write a proper Installshield application. The system works just fine. You can install/uninstall to a Windows system as many times as you'd like if the installers are all written correctly.
Yahoo has had this for many, many years (in Internet time).
9/10 of most machines you'll find in modern factories these days are run by old PC's with serial/parallel connections. Most retail setups need serial/parallel in some way. Tons and tons and tons of businesses have hardware that a Mac wouldn't even begin to know what to do with. Again, you're assuming that everybody works in an office with shiny new computers, PIMs, scanners, card readers, etc., etc.. Most of the world doesn't. Imagine a factory. Imagine a grocery store. Imagine a warehouse. Imagine a gas station......
If you are using legacy peripherals, you probably already have the legacy computers to use them with
Or I can drive down to Wal-Mart and buy a PC with legacy support (serial/parallel/ps2 ports).
Also, the life cycle of OS X is at least 15 months or so.
Hey, if you're running a business that can afford new operating systems (and the downtime associated with upgrading) every 15 months, drop me a line. I'm interested in whatever kind of business that can waste that kind of money and still stay afloat.
Sure, call it legacy, if you want. But when I run a retail business, and my receipt printers are all parallel port, and my credit card swipes and UPC scanners are all PS/2 port, I wouldn't exactly call them "legacy", except in the strictly technical sense of the word. Most small businesses can't afford to throw out perfectly good hardware just because something prettier came down the pike. All of my "legacy" equipment will be used until it fails (including my PC's), and not a second earlier, unless there is a massive gain in productivity to offset the price and headache of new equipment.
Here's a hint: Not every job or business is in a cubicle in a giant corporation. Some of us do things other than push paper.
Well, I'd consider it for a fun home machine, but Macs are still pretty useless in most business environments. Poor hardware support (no serial or parallel port), and many, many fewer customer business apps make it impossible for me to consider switching my business. Also, I'm not really a fan of hardware lock-in. They're cute and fun, but not nearly as functional as a boring, generic PC if you're doing almost anything other than web browsing and writing email. Also, the upgrade cycle is insane. I'm simply not buying a new OS every 6 months just to maintain compatibility with current versions of software. My copes of Windows 2000 are still 100% compatible with all of my software, and probably will be for a long, long time, especially if I install the bolt-on .Net stuff.
That's not even true any more. We're a small business (less than 10 employees), so we still have a POS terminal with paper receipts. Last I checked, at most big merchants (I occasionally HAVE to go to one for office supplies) and even grocery stores, you simply swipe your own card. The cashier never even sees it. So, in these situations (which I'd assume, by the way Americans love their Big Box stores, is the majority), the signature is also useless.
I run a medium-sized store. The credit card signing IS useless. Why? What do we do with the credit card signatures? Nothing. Absolutely nothing. They get put in a big box, and every so often, they get thrown away. Visa/Mastercard/Amex/Discover makes no requirements on us to do anything with the signatures. The only reason that we could possibly need a signed receipt is if a transaction is fraudulent, and somebody needs proof that they did NOT sign the receipt. And honestly, that's just a guess. Maybe it's buried somewhere in the 100 pages of fine print, but I've never seen it.
1. Credit card companies don't ask for signatures, even in the case of fraud. It's not worth their time and money.
2. Neither myself or any of my employees are handwriting experts. Somebody could forge a signature very easily. It ain't rocket science.
Really, all the signatures for are to provide a sense of security to the tin-foil hat types. In reality, a credit card is as good as cash, but if you lose it, you don't feel the negative consequences. So, while credit card signatures are useless, I readily use mine everywhere without worrying about a signature.
If everyone says, "Damn I should have waited" then the market never materializes, the profit incentive never kicks in, and competition never makes any decent products.
You're exactly right. Luckily, there are "early adopters", many "early adopters" for geek gadgets are right here on Slashdot. They're generally categorized as having lots of extra disposable income, and they have a high demand for the newest and shiniest products so that they can be the first kids on the block with the toy. I'm not an early adopter. In fact, I wait until technology has matured at least several years before switching (ie: our business uses all parallel and serial port devices because they're tested and they're cheap). But even if I'm not an early adopter, or you're not, there always will be somebody who is.
But sometimes, early adopters can be misleading. There were lots and lots of early adopters for PDA's, but PDA's largely flopped once they hit the mass market. In that case, lots of companies lost lots of money because the initial analysis for such products looked good.
Don't bother to mod this as redundant. It is. What I'm wondering is who wouldn't think that there'd be a catch to getting a free $300+ gadget?
Too hard to set up. Doesn't work with our hardware. Doesn't work with our software. Too difficult to configure correctly. Too difficult to secure.
When/if it's released in the US, I'd probably buy at least a couple of copies. They'd run my cash registers. There's no need for a full-featured OS on a machine that runs one application, and a web browser.
It all goes back to TCO... and unless you're Steve Ballmer (YEAAA GET UP!! I LOVE THIS COMPANYYYY YEAAA!!!) the TCO is definately less with Linux.
Now, I'm trying to figure out... how did you know it costs my company less to run Linux than Windows XP Starter Edition? Did you steal my financials? Did you interview my employees to determine their expertise? Do you know what software that we run on top of the OS? Did you do an analysis of our future software needs?
Lessig, is, quite honestly, a media whore. It seems like he has a new stunt every week, most of which are relatively useless (like this), except that he gets more time in the limelight.
If anything, he should write a book "How to be a Media Whore and Profit From It". That's a book I'd buy.
Here's the obligatory post bitching about the "real" difference between hacker and cracker...
Actually, you know, I don't really know what the difference is any more, and I don't really care. But here's the post. Feel free to argue amongst yourselves.
No, this guy had no right to use the code at the company, and he knew it. He brought in code that conflicted with his employer's agreement, and thus HE is liable. They probably did not (and would not) knowingly accept GPL'ed code. They are not under the GPL license unless they agreed to it and signed off on it (or offered some kind of consideration for it). If he introduced the code to his company, then said "oh yeah, by the way, this is GPL", then he really is liable, and should be sued by the company, and the GPL foundation, actually. The GPL is not some kind of "super contract" that overrides everything else. In fact, it's barely been proven in court up to this point.
Why does the GPL overrive the company's IP rights? The developer in no way should have used GPL code at this job, and I'd think that the developer would be (and should be) personally liable for using GPL code. If anything, the GPL people should be suing the developer for this situation.
What would be the basis of this lawsuit, exactly? Aggressive marketing? This doesn't qualify as libel/slander because there's no quantitative way to prove if "Linux scales well". And who would do it? Red Hat vs. Oracle? Nope. They work together. SUSE vs. anybody? Nope. No money. C'mon. It ain't slander, and even if it was, there's nothing that anybody can do about it.
Is there anything the iPod can't do? ;)
How about being affordable to more than the top 1% of the people on the planet (financially)? I sure as shit can't afford one.
But the thing is that product decisions rarely make it to the board level in large companies. Very rarely. Besides, that's internal. It doesn't cause fear, uncertainty, and doubt among its customers like this kind of Open Source bickering does. And, much more imporantly, a real decision can be made. I don't remember any recent proprietary software apps that "forked". It's simply not possible because there's real ownership.
And no, I don't think it's positive. Managers don't want to have to pick one of several very similar projects to choose from, and hope that theirs will survive. When I pick an app for my business, I have to be as sure as I can be that our investment of time and money will not be wasted in a year when the software package/support/company goes belly up. I can't afford to waste any time or money on software dead-ends. In fact, right now, I'm reconsidering my decision to standardize my company on Firefox. It's not a big deal if Firefox gets all messed up, since it's not a *critical* application, but if we ever need a browser specific tool, I really doubt that I'd pick Firefox at this point.