"Some of the AT&T Digital PocketNet service compatible phones can also be connected to your PC using a cable (tethered). If you choose to connect your phone to your PC for use as a modem, in addition to any monthly fee, you will be charged at $.05 per kilobyte for each individual session. " There is a brief mention of this (without the pricing) on one of the other pages describing the service.
Incoming emails are limited to 50 messages and 2MB/message max. Once this limit is reached, messages are dumped FIFO. AT&T also reserves the right to unilaterally block incoming emails and other content.
I spoke with them about the service, and told them I was very dissapointed in the pricing for tethered service as the display capabilities of a phone are far below what I can get on my Palm PDA or PC. The rep thanked me for calling AT&T Wireless ('natch).
The 2nd poster is correct, I recall reading it in a A.C.Clarke story. IIRC, the story has a multinational exploration team (US ship, British ship, Soviet ship). Lot's of humorous Cold-War era scenes. Like everyone executes their TLI burn one orbit early (they all wanted to be first!).
The 6+ gag (it wasn't Coke - Clark mentions to logo was too complicated) is executed by the American crew.
In spite of all the notices on the web page that the counter notification form is a legally binding document, I don't see how it can have any validity in court.
I see no obvious way a form could be linked in court to a specific Napster user unless the user testifies they submitted it. There's no authentication that the name and address entered belongs to the person completing the form. There's no authentication by any obvious strong cryptographic means, no witness's signature, notary, or anything else normally associated with a legally binding document, let alone one where the alleged signer starts giving up their legal rights.
I suspect anyone could submit a form on behalf of any napster user. (Those more familiar with Napster's registration process are welcome to correct me). Yes, that's possibly perjury, but could someone sumbitting a false form be tracked down with only an IP address to find them?
I don't listen to Metallica, so I'm not directly involved in this issue. But I wouldn't fill out the damn form if I *was* blocked inadvertantly. It feels to me like replying to the opt-out address in SPAM email. If someone wants to sue me, they can use the traditional methods to find and serve me. (Been there, done that, my attorney and I are waiting)
...although they are the most obvious. The movement to privatize government functions has some created some interesting situations and ramifications. For example:
Prisons run by for-profit businesses. When the business decides the payment from the local government is inadequate and opens a factory "inside", how does this differ from a slave-labor camp in a totalitarian state?
Non-profit Research/Teaching/Community (take your pick) hospital converts to For-Profit. How well do the new owners adhere to the hospital's original missions?
For-profit company running public schools (Baltimore, Boston). Results have been mixed at best.
Homeowner Associations. Give the more intrusive powers of a commercial landlord to a traditional municipal government. Forget about accountability, rule of law, public hearings, or every other "protection of your rights" when (not if) they decide they don't "approve" of your [choice of paint color for front door or exterior | landscaping | desire for a 18" DBS satellite dish | placement of swing set for kids | home-based business, including programming | your public objections to anything else they do]. And your mortgage REQUIRES it, if they sue you, you pay for it, and if you don't like it, you have to move (assuming you can find a community without an HOA).
Katz has already mentioned private ownership of public airwaves and other means of public discussion and debate.
And as long as the mass public is satisified with the bread and circuses they get, little is likely to change. Historians will probably call it a rebellion when it does.
...a movie from the 1970's or early 80's that dealt with corporatism. This was back when the first fears of multinationals replacing governments arose in the popular press.
If I recall the plot correctly, the "hero" is a star rollerball player (a cross between roller derby, hockey, and legalized mayhem) on the Houston team who rebells to being a corporate pawn. It is becuase of his "star appeal" and celebrity status that he's considered a threat.
(shades of Napster - until Metallica got involved, this was below the radar of the mainstream press. After, it become a topic on Howard Stern's show.
Ohmigosh - Can this be a voice of reason in this ocean of chaos?
While I am not as experienced in the stock market as rlarson, I agree that this topic has been thorougly covered elsewhere, is not really/. material, and while worth concern and interest is NO cause for panic (unless promoting panic sells papers, ads, or click-throughs)
During the Oct 87 'crash", I distinctly remember my boss wearing his "cat AFTER it got the canary look" and chortling how he could finally pick up GE at a great price. He didn't panic and did rather well on that transaction. of course he wasn't over-extended to start with.
One one hand, there's been plenty of (mis)coverage of the market. To the point of it being beaten to death./. cannot hope to match the coverage in depth, quality (or lack of), or quantity. If people want a/.-like discussion of the market, I suggest The Motley Fool or Silicon Investor as sites that are not too overrun by touts, day traders, and ponzi scheme promoters.
On the other hand, the stock market *is* relevant to many on/. - public companies, vc firms, and "angel" investors have been using market-based assets to fund new tech ventures and expand existing ones. They hire us, buy our employer's products and services. Some of us hope to wind up reasonably well-off (as oppossed to a Stepehnsonian "f-u wealthy") after a few years (not months!) of working for these businesses.
And on the gripping hand (to borrow from Jerry Pournelle), as publisher/editor/lord of the manor, Cmdr Taco can decide to publish/ignore whatever stories he wishes to. Just like any other media publisher.
In the US and Canada, most of us have access at best to ONE daily newspaper, six TV news outlets (that tend to have the same talking heads saying the same thing about the same stories), and similar lack of options for radio news.
On the web, we have choices (at least until AOL/TW/MS/The Illuminati/... acquire everything - oh I forgot, their stock got hammered, too, so they can't afford it either!)
We just had a case in the Maryland public shcools where 6 girls claimed they'd been "molested" by one of their techers.
After the guy's reputation was well-ruined, the kids admitted that they'd made it all up. The school system "apologized" but they have put this teacher through a month-long hell from which he may never recover fully.
Subsequent investigations revealed the school staff bungled their handling of the charges from the start, in particular by allowing the girls to coordinate their stories and by assuming the teacher was guilty from the start.
With programs like "W.A.V.E", the kids can now get a taste of this behavior themselves.
I won't be surprised if Virginia tries to adopt something like this. At least I can now tell my kids' school system and respresentatives what I think of it.
IMHO, *all* the cell phone services fail to provide useful maps of usable coverage or realistic measures of what performance to expect.
I have AT&T's Digital One Rate and a Nokkia 6160 phone. Nice phone, more features than I can keep in my head, and the service has interesting quirks.
Paging, voice mail alerts only work when you are actually in AT&T's network and not in digital "extended area" coverage.
The system will try to stay on the AT&T network even if it means an unusable signal level vs. full-strength from the "extended network"
The gross-coverage maps ignore significant drop out areas -like my subdivision. I couldn't activate the phone from home, had to do it from work. And until a month or so ago, getting incoming calls or a dial tone from anywhere near my house was difficult at best. And we are not in RF-hostile terrain .
Interoperability between digital phone networks is poor. Such as dialing procedures.
Meaningful comparisons between providers is impossible. Ideally, I'd like to be able to use phones from, say, AT&T, Bell Atlantic, CellularOne, Sprint, and Nextel for a week and see which work best for me. Good luck finding a dealer who will do that. Which ignores what service I'll get on the road.
I use AT&T as the example becuase that's what I have. Neighbors on Bell Atlantic, Cellular One, have similar problems. (I don't know anyone on Sprint or Nextel so I can't comment on them).
A few other points to remember:
You're not buying a phone, you are buying a service (with a 12 or 24 month contract) and the phone comes with it. The performance and "features" of the service are far more important than those of the phone itself.
Remember that a cell phone is really a radio transmitter/receiver, subject to all the radio propagation effects at GHz-range frequencies. Sometimes it is amazing they work at all!
Accessories are important - spare batteries, chargers, a headset for hands-free use. Maybe even a way to sync the phone's built-in directory with a PDA or contact manager database.
Anyone have 1st-hand experience with the situation in europe (GSM phones)? Are they really better, or is it more hype?
Legislators from high tech areas are actually a good place to start. The representatives/MPs/... residing in areas known for high-tech (in the US: Silicon Valley, RTP, Route 128, Northern Virginia, even Redmond) and their staffs should already have some awareness they have a tech-savvy constituency. If nothing else they need to be aware that the business lobby isn't the only voice in their district.
Don't forget state/local/provincial representatives. UCITA is a state level issue in the US.
In no particular order and just a few minutes of thought:
DaVinci, for reasons already stated.
Michaelangelo - master architect and builder as well as painter and sculptor. There's real engineering in that art.
Gallileo; what could be more geek than dropping cannonballs off a tower "as an experiment" or building a telescope from scratch. And he got in trouble with the thought police a few centuries before PC came into vouge.
Gutenberg - where would OReilley be without *his* invention?
James Watt - made steam power practical leading to the Industrial Revoultion, etc...
Bejamin Franklin, for being a geek with style, fame, *and* political clout.
Samuel Morse - telegraphy became the "internet" of the last century (read the book "The Victorian Internet" and see if you agree)
Thomas Edison - quintessinal hardware hacker, entrepreneur, even suffered from NIH [not invented here] at times and wasn't above stealing a trade secret or two [so was he a cracker as well as a hacker?].
Otto Diesel - practical internal (infernal?) combustion engine, and all the cars, ships, planes, oil business, smog, etc. that came from it.
Enrico Fermi - "So you want this grant to build an atomic pile *WHERE*?!"
There's already an active thread on this at blackdown's java-linux mail list. Blackdown developers, some Inprise developers, and just folks. My impressions:
- Inprise knows they started with Blackdown's work
- The initial PR did not mention Blackdown. Could have been the stupid marketing departments
- The Inprise folks say they are mentioning and crediting Blackdown in press interviews at the Java conference in NY
- everyone agrees more communications between the teams would help
- The SCSL apparently allows Sun to do anything it wants with any code provided back to them.
And BTW, a new release candidate of blackdown's port was released yesterday!
I'm concerned about Sun, too. Don't attribute to deliberate malice what can be adequately explained by stupidity [paraphrasing Pournell]. But keep your powder dry [anon.]
The DC area *does* have plenty of connectivity (thanks to the Federal Gov't's needs) and especially in Northern Virginia, there are many big "dot com" firms, ISPs, and co-lo facilities. Local streets are in a constant state of disrepair as more fiber is laid.
But the *net attitude* of the area is still mired in political-style thinking and addressing issues as policy matters rather than real action. Virginia's governor is making a big deal about our status as a hub of the internet. I wish he'd pay as much attention to our roads and mass transit mess! (At least he doesn't claim he invented the Internet!)
The contrast betrween, Silicon Valley and the DC area is striking. It will be a long time until the "go for it" thinking I see in the valley is prevelant here.
Roughly the same topic - a discussion on the impact of the Internet on politics, primarily the 2000 Presidential Race, was on this morning's Diane Rheme show (WAMU in Wash DC and other PBS outlets).
I was paying at-best half-attention to the discussion, it sounded to me like the politcal reporters and the host (not Ms. Rheme) need to get more clued-in to the potential of the Internet themselves. They were trying hard, but I sensed a disconnect.
I also recal a science fictional treatment of Internet-based politics about 10-15 years ago in a book called "David's Sling". There are vauge references to an "information age solution" to various geopolitical problems (e.g. the cold war gets VERY hot) and a major political figure backed by big tobbacco loses an election when the on-line community mobilizes at the last-minute to defeat him.
It's winter down there. Dark, bad weather, is the risk to the aircraft crew and to the woman justified? vs. waiting until flying conditions are safer? There is a difference between a serious situation and an emergency situation.
Once a reporter has interviewed you, you lose control over your words. What you say and what gets printed can easily get misrepresented, misunderstood, or taken out of context. The printed/aired story becomes "Truth".
I've been interviewd twice - once as a teen by the local paper after I won an award to attend a science honors program at Columbia, and once as an adult regarding a subject area and program I worked on. The local interview was OK, although I didn't like how I was described ("flippant"? - I'd have to ask my parents for the clipping if they've kept it for 30 years!).
The "professional" interview quoted me at length, made me appear to be an authorized spokesman for a government program (I wasn't), and never told me I was being quoted vs. providing general background. After the story ran in an industry newsletter, I was almost fired at our customer's request, which would have permanently ended my employment in that industry! Fortunately, I was able to convince my bosses that I was taken advantage of, and my track record with them backed up my claims. (The "reporter" later called me to ask how I liked the story he had printed! Fortunately, yelling and cursing on a phone call in 1988 was not then a felony)
There is much to be said for annonymity over noteriety. If you DO get "lucky" enough to be interviewed, I'm sure John can offer specific advice; here's my 2 cents:
1. Get the topic and "slant" of the story before agreeing to be interviewed. 2. Make clear what is for quotation and what is not. 3. Present yourself as you want to hear/see/read about yourself. 4. Keep your own record of the interview and have someone else present (a parent or trusted adult if you are a minor). 5. You lose all control over your words the instant the interview ends. 6. The reporter is interested in getting a story and benefiting themselves, not in helping you. This is reality, not cynicism. 7. Be helpful without becoming vulnerable. Some of these people WANT to be educated and will listen to reasonable words.
Saw the announcements on the business wires. Checked Dell's web site - a search for Linux turned up nothing newer than mid March.
And where are they selling systems with Linux? All I could find on the web site were systems with different Windows/MS apps options. I'm sure this will all get fixed eventually.
In the meanwhile, it increases Linux's credibility when a vendor of Dell's size and "presence" at least announces they will "offer" linux on there systems (even if MS/Win remains 95-99%+ of their sales).
This article reminds me why I rarely do more than glance through "Smart Reseller".
The economic and technical conditions that enabled MS to establish a monopoly desktop O/S and extend it to applications and try with servers simply do not exist (at least at present) in the Linux community. It wasn't that long ago that Debian went from "new" to become a leading distribution.
We have different "flavors" of Linux distributions becuase the community has different needs.
IF RH were to start locking up applications, stopped supporting efforts like GNOME, stopped funding developers unless they licensed their code solely to RH, THEN I'd worry (and switch to another distro).
Me too! My ZX-81 was my 1st "home" computer. I loaned it to one of our programmers to take on his honeymoon cruise "just in case you get bored and want to get some work done." Nice guy that he is, it cam back. It's back in the basement with the other ZX-81s, TS1000's, TS16000, rampack, printer, magazines,... Wonder what I could sell this lot for on eBay?
Excerpted from the show transcript: (comments & emphasis added)
BLITZER: I want to get to some of those substantive domestic and international questions in a bit, but let's just wrap up a bit of the politics right now.
Why should Democrats, looks at the Democratic nomination, the process, support you instead of Bill Bradley -- a friend of yours, a former colleague in the Senate -- what do you have to bring to this that he doesn't necessarily bring to this process?
br77: Simple enough start-off question - "Why you over Senator Bradley?"
GORE: Well, I will -- I'll be offering my vision when my campaign begins,and it'll be comprehensive and sweeping, and I hope that it'll be compelling enough to draw people toward it. I feel that it
br77: "I won't tell you yet, but trust me, it'll be great!"
will be. But it will emerge from my dialogue with the American people. I've traveled to every part of this country during the last six years. During my service in the United States Congress, I took the initiative in creating the Internet.
br77: We need someone (Vint Cerf?) to chime in here: "I knew Jon Postel. He was my friend. And you're no Jon Postel" (profuse apologies if I've misspelled JP's name!)
I took the initiative in moving forward a whole range of initiatives that have proven to be
br77: he sure likes the word "initiative", doesn't he? I'm from New Jersey, does initiative have any special meaning if you're from Tennessee?
important to our country's economic growth, environmental protection, improvements in our educational system. During a quarter century of public service, including most of it long before I came into my current job, I have worked to try to improve the quality of life in our country and in our world.
br77: Couldn't he have taken claim to accomplishing even ONE SINGLE SOLITARY THING?
And what I've seen during that experience is an emerging future that's very exciting, about which I'm very optimistic and toward which I'm -- I want to lead.
br77: "I want to lead" at least he was honest about it. And (no surprise, Gore's a politician and he's been studying under a master), notice he NEVER answered the question about why him rather than Bradley.
I may have to change party affiliation to Demo just so I can vote against him.
Slashdot Mirror
Java on Linux started out as a reverse-engineering effort and a barely tolerated port.
Then there was the Sun/Inprise JDK and the poor way Sun initially acknowledged the contributions of the Blackdown folks.
Java on Linux will be taken seriously by the ISV community when Sun starts supporting Linux seriously.
Currently further along than XAPRS.
You can also run numerous DOS APRS programs under DOSEMU; maybe WINE will support the windows-based stuff (haven't tried it myself).
More APRS info at TAPR
ka1lm
"Some of the AT&T Digital PocketNet service compatible phones can also be connected to your PC using a cable (tethered). If you choose to connect your phone to your PC for use as a modem, in addition to any monthly fee, you will be charged at $.05 per kilobyte for each individual session. " There is a brief mention of this (without the pricing) on one of the other pages describing the service.
Incoming emails are limited to 50 messages and 2MB/message max. Once this limit is reached, messages are dumped FIFO. AT&T also reserves the right to unilaterally block incoming emails and other content.
I spoke with them about the service, and told them I was very dissapointed in the pricing for tethered service as the display capabilities of a phone are far below what I can get on my Palm PDA or PC. The rep thanked me for calling AT&T Wireless ('natch).
The 2nd poster is correct, I recall reading it in a A.C.Clarke story. IIRC, the story has a multinational exploration team (US ship, British ship, Soviet ship). Lot's of humorous Cold-War era scenes. Like everyone executes their TLI burn one orbit early (they all wanted to be first!).
The 6+ gag (it wasn't Coke - Clark mentions to logo was too complicated) is executed by the American crew.
Now I just have to recall the name of the story.
I see no obvious way a form could be linked in court to a specific Napster user unless the user testifies they submitted it. There's no authentication that the name and address entered belongs to the person completing the form. There's no authentication by any obvious strong cryptographic means, no witness's signature, notary, or anything else normally associated with a legally binding document, let alone one where the alleged signer starts giving up their legal rights.
I suspect anyone could submit a form on behalf of any napster user. (Those more familiar with Napster's registration process are welcome to correct me). Yes, that's possibly perjury, but could someone sumbitting a false form be tracked down with only an IP address to find them?
I don't listen to Metallica, so I'm not directly involved in this issue. But I wouldn't fill out the damn form if I *was* blocked inadvertantly. It feels to me like replying to the opt-out address in SPAM email. If someone wants to sue me, they can use the traditional methods to find and serve me. (Been there, done that, my attorney and I are waiting)
IANAL, standard disclaimers apply.
And as long as the mass public is satisified with the bread and circuses they get, little is likely to change. Historians will probably call it a rebellion when it does.
If I recall the plot correctly, the "hero" is a star rollerball player (a cross between roller derby, hockey, and legalized mayhem) on the Houston team who rebells to being a corporate pawn. It is becuase of his "star appeal" and celebrity status that he's considered a threat.
(shades of Napster - until Metallica got involved, this was below the radar of the mainstream press. After, it become a topic on Howard Stern's show.
Ohmigosh - Can this be a voice of reason in this ocean of chaos?
While I am not as experienced in the stock market as rlarson, I agree that this topic has been thorougly covered elsewhere, is not really /. material, and while worth concern and interest is NO cause for panic (unless promoting panic sells papers, ads, or click-throughs)
During the Oct 87 'crash", I distinctly remember my boss wearing his "cat AFTER it got the canary look" and chortling how he could finally pick up GE at a great price. He didn't panic and did rather well on that transaction. of course he wasn't over-extended to start with.
One one hand, there's been plenty of (mis)coverage of the market. To the point of it being beaten to death. /. cannot hope to match the coverage in depth, quality (or lack of), or quantity. If people want a /.-like discussion of the market, I suggest The Motley Fool or Silicon Investor as sites that are not too overrun by touts, day traders, and ponzi scheme promoters.
On the other hand, the stock market *is* relevant to many on /. - public companies, vc firms, and "angel" investors have been using market-based assets to fund new tech ventures and expand existing ones. They hire us, buy our employer's products and services. Some of us hope to wind up reasonably well-off (as oppossed to a Stepehnsonian "f-u wealthy") after a few years (not months!) of working for these businesses.
And on the gripping hand (to borrow from Jerry Pournelle), as publisher/editor/lord of the manor, Cmdr Taco can decide to publish/ignore whatever stories he wishes to. Just like any other media publisher.
In the US and Canada, most of us have access at best to ONE daily newspaper, six TV news outlets (that tend to have the same talking heads saying the same thing about the same stories), and similar lack of options for radio news.
On the web, we have choices (at least until AOL/TW/MS/The Illuminati/... acquire everything - oh I forgot, their stock got hammered, too, so they can't afford it either!)
After the guy's reputation was well-ruined, the kids admitted that they'd made it all up. The school system "apologized" but they have put this teacher through a month-long hell from which he may never recover fully.
Subsequent investigations revealed the school staff bungled their handling of the charges from the start, in particular by allowing the girls to coordinate their stories and by assuming the teacher was guilty from the start.
With programs like "W.A.V.E", the kids can now get a taste of this behavior themselves.
I won't be surprised if Virginia tries to adopt something like this. At least I can now tell my kids' school system and respresentatives what I think of it.
IMHO, *all* the cell phone services fail to provide useful maps of usable coverage or realistic measures of what performance to expect.
I have AT&T's Digital One Rate and a Nokkia 6160 phone. Nice phone, more features than I can keep in my head, and the service has interesting quirks.
A few other points to remember:
Anyone have 1st-hand experience with the situation in europe (GSM phones)? Are they really better, or is it more hype?
Don't forget state/local/provincial representatives. UCITA is a state level issue in the US.
Of course, it may not always help. My local delegate here in Virginia was one of the original Loudoun County Library net censors. (EFF library references) At least I know whom to vote AGAINST!
In no particular order and just a few minutes of thought:
DaVinci, for reasons already stated.
Michaelangelo - master architect and builder as well as painter and sculptor. There's real engineering in that art.
Gallileo; what could be more geek than dropping cannonballs off a tower "as an experiment" or building a telescope from scratch. And he got in trouble with the thought police a few centuries before PC came into vouge.
Gutenberg - where would OReilley be without *his* invention?
James Watt - made steam power practical leading to the Industrial Revoultion, etc...
Bejamin Franklin, for being a geek with style, fame, *and* political clout.
Samuel Morse - telegraphy became the "internet" of the last century (read the book "The Victorian Internet" and see if you agree)
Thomas Edison - quintessinal hardware hacker, entrepreneur, even suffered from NIH [not invented here] at times and wasn't above stealing a trade secret or two [so was he a cracker as well as a hacker?].
Otto Diesel - practical internal (infernal?) combustion engine, and all the cars, ships, planes, oil business, smog, etc. that came from it.
Enrico Fermi - "So you want this grant to build an atomic pile *WHERE*?!"
Yes, albeit dated 10/1998. I hope you get ahold of the new XiG software so you can do an update.
There's already an active thread on this at blackdown's java-linux mail list. Blackdown developers, some Inprise developers, and just folks. My impressions:
- Inprise knows they started with Blackdown's work
- The initial PR did not mention Blackdown. Could have been the stupid marketing departments
- The Inprise folks say they are mentioning and crediting Blackdown in press interviews at the Java conference in NY
- everyone agrees more communications between the teams would help
- The SCSL apparently allows Sun to do anything it wants with any code provided back to them.
And BTW, a new release candidate of blackdown's port was released yesterday!
I'm concerned about Sun, too. Don't attribute to deliberate malice what can be adequately explained by stupidity [paraphrasing Pournell]. But keep your powder dry [anon.]
The DC area *does* have plenty of connectivity (thanks to the Federal Gov't's needs) and especially in Northern Virginia, there are many big "dot com" firms, ISPs, and co-lo facilities. Local streets are in a constant state of disrepair as more fiber is laid.
But the *net attitude* of the area is still mired in political-style thinking and addressing issues as policy matters rather than real action. Virginia's governor is making a big deal about our status as a hub of the internet. I wish he'd pay as much attention to our roads and mass transit mess! (At least he doesn't claim he invented the Internet!)
The contrast betrween, Silicon Valley and the DC area is striking. It will be a long time until the "go for it" thinking I see in the valley is prevelant here.
-br77-
Roughly the same topic - a discussion on the impact of the Internet on politics, primarily the 2000 Presidential Race, was on this morning's Diane Rheme show (WAMU in Wash DC and other PBS outlets).
I was paying at-best half-attention to the discussion, it sounded to me like the politcal reporters and the host (not Ms. Rheme) need to get more clued-in to the potential of the Internet themselves. They were trying hard, but I sensed a disconnect.
I also recal a science fictional treatment of Internet-based politics about 10-15 years ago in a book called "David's Sling". There are vauge references to an "information age solution" to various geopolitical problems (e.g. the cold war gets VERY hot) and a major political figure backed by big tobbacco loses an election when the on-line community mobilizes at the last-minute to defeat him.
It's winter down there. Dark, bad weather, is the risk to the aircraft crew and to the woman justified? vs. waiting until flying conditions are safer? There is a difference between a serious situation and an emergency situation.
was also on NPR's Morning Edition this morning in the 6:30-6:45 segment.
Once a reporter has interviewed you, you lose control over your words. What you say and what gets printed can easily get misrepresented, misunderstood, or taken out of context. The printed/aired story becomes "Truth".
I've been interviewd twice - once as a teen by the local paper after I won an award to attend a science honors program at Columbia, and once as an adult regarding a subject area and program I worked on. The local interview was OK, although I didn't like how I was described ("flippant"? - I'd have to ask my parents for the clipping if they've kept it for 30 years!).
The "professional" interview quoted me at length, made me appear to be an authorized spokesman for a government program (I wasn't), and never told me I was being quoted vs. providing general background. After the story ran in an industry newsletter, I was almost fired at our customer's request, which would have permanently ended my employment in that industry! Fortunately, I was able to convince my bosses that I was taken advantage of, and my track record with them backed up my claims. (The "reporter" later called me to ask how I liked the story he had printed! Fortunately, yelling and cursing on a phone call in 1988 was not then a felony)
There is much to be said for annonymity over noteriety. If you DO get "lucky" enough to be interviewed, I'm sure John can offer specific advice; here's my 2 cents:
1. Get the topic and "slant" of the story before agreeing to be interviewed.
2. Make clear what is for quotation and what is not.
3. Present yourself as you want to hear/see/read about yourself.
4. Keep your own record of the interview and have someone else present (a parent or trusted adult if you are a minor).
5. You lose all control over your words the instant the interview ends.
6. The reporter is interested in getting a story and benefiting themselves, not in helping you. This is reality, not cynicism.
7. Be helpful without becoming vulnerable. Some of these people WANT to be educated and will listen to reasonable words.
Good Luck!
Saw the announcements on the business wires. Checked Dell's web site - a search for Linux turned up nothing newer than mid March.
And where are they selling systems with Linux? All I could find on the web site were systems with different Windows/MS apps options. I'm sure this will all get fixed eventually.
In the meanwhile, it increases Linux's credibility when a vendor of Dell's size and "presence" at least announces they will "offer" linux on there systems (even if MS/Win remains 95-99%+ of their sales).
This article reminds me why I rarely do more than glance through "Smart Reseller".
The economic and technical conditions that enabled MS to establish a monopoly desktop O/S and extend it to applications and try with servers simply do not exist (at least at present) in the Linux community. It wasn't that long ago that Debian went from "new" to become a leading distribution.
We have different "flavors" of Linux distributions becuase the community has different needs.
IF RH were to start locking up applications, stopped supporting efforts like GNOME, stopped funding developers unless they licensed their code solely to RH, THEN I'd worry (and switch to another distro).
Rob, this must be a slow news day.
Me too! My ZX-81 was my 1st "home" computer. I loaned it to one of our programmers to take on his honeymoon cruise "just in case you get bored and want to get some work done." Nice guy that he is, it cam back. It's back in the basement with the other ZX-81s, TS1000's, TS16000, rampack, printer, magazines,... Wonder what I could sell this lot for on eBay?
BLITZER: I want to get to some of those substantive domestic and international questions in a bit, but let's just wrap up a bit of the politics right now.
Why should Democrats, looks at the Democratic nomination, the process, support you instead of Bill Bradley -- a friend of yours, a former colleague in the Senate -- what do you have to bring to this that he doesn't necessarily bring to this process?
br77: Simple enough start-off question - "Why you over Senator Bradley?"
GORE: Well, I will -- I'll be offering my vision when my campaign begins,and it'll be comprehensive and sweeping, and I hope that it'll be compelling
enough to draw people toward it. I feel that it
br77: "I won't tell you yet, but trust me, it'll be great!"
will be. But it will emerge from my dialogue with the American people. I've traveled to every part of this country during the last six years. During my service in the United States Congress, I took the initiative in creating the Internet.
br77: We need someone (Vint Cerf?) to chime in here: "I knew Jon Postel. He was my friend. And you're no Jon Postel" (profuse apologies if I've misspelled JP's name!)
I took the initiative in moving forward a whole range of initiatives that have proven to be
br77: he sure likes the word "initiative", doesn't he? I'm from New Jersey, does initiative have any special meaning if you're from Tennessee?
important to our country's economic growth, environmental protection, improvements in our educational system. During a quarter century of public service, including most of it long before I came into my current job, I have worked to try to improve the quality of life in our country and in our world.
br77: Couldn't he have taken claim to accomplishing even ONE SINGLE SOLITARY THING?
And what I've seen during that experience is an emerging future that's very exciting, about which I'm very optimistic and toward which I'm -- I want to lead.
br77: "I want to lead" at least he was honest about it. And (no surprise, Gore's a politician and he's been studying under a master), notice he NEVER answered the question about why him rather than Bradley.
I may have to change party affiliation to Demo just so I can vote against him.