Chuck Berry? Man, that's got to be a hell of an honor for ol' Chuck.
I imagine the first interstellar war will start when an alien civilization "pirates" that copyrighted Chuck Berry recording and the MPAA comes to collect royalties.
Except for the majority of the world who can't get any form of high speed access. But cell phones and landlines work just fine for low speed modems.
Right now, yes. But, it is a matter of maybe ten years before wireless broadband makes regular modems useless in the first world.
...the Bride of USAPATRIOT is on the sidelines, with Johnny Ashcroft and his minions rooting for it.
One step forward, four steps back.
But hey, anything goes as long as you can make the public vagely believe, or even not dispute too much, that it'll help them get Osama Bin Laden.
A roundup of the nominees for Best Picture and what I think their chances are:
The Two Towers. We see a great flick. Self-important Hollywood sees Elves and Dwarves beating up on Orcs, so we can fucking forget it.
Chicago. A musical. Forget it.
Gangs of New York. Three hours long, directed by Martin Scorsesie, has a Titanic feel to it, and touches on new ground (civil war era New York). Stands a good chance.
The Hours. Women with problems. Stands a chance, barely.
The Pianist. Jewish Artist vs. the Nazis. Should be a shoo-in, but we'll see.
What good is a higher profit margin to me if I loose my job?
Yay, the CEO & stockholders made a profit, but now I'm scrounging for work.
So what? The ultra-rich who live off of stock dividends have more money, and that's who you (and your government) ultimately work for. If you're not one of the ultra-rich, then you can just fsck right off. Same goes for your kids. Got it?
Re:It sounds like your job can't be oursourced
on
Giant Sucking Noise
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· Score: 1
Your company now has an extra $105K to spend! Either you get a raise (not likely), or another team can be created, employing 8 programmers where four were employed before (and allowing your company to do more work).
I doubt that the company will spend that extra $105k on R&D. More likely, it will present that to shareholders as a prudent savings given the uncertain economy.
Take a look at the numbers - globalization has been in full swing for a few decades now, and the U.S. has the lowest unemployment rate in years - lower than they thought possible a decade ago! Almost everyone wins when the people that can make a product the cheapest are allowed to do it. The only ones who lose, in the short run, are those who are displaced by the production move. The remedy for that is short-term government support, and the best way to get out is to acquire new skills.
Unemployment numbers are still higher than they thought possible a decade ago, as they are hovering above 5% (the theoretical minimum). In engineering they're hovering about 10%.
You're right that the best solution is to aquire new skill sets, but that is very difficult when you are unemployed with a house and two kids and have to choose between finding a job (and collecting unemployment insurance) and going to school (and therefore, in many states, forfeiting unemployment insurance). It is very difficult even for those who are employed, since the pressure is on to perform more work with less resources.
In my own case, I'm looking at getting laid off, soonish, because of state budget cuts. I can go to school to aquire new skills in AI, but because of the weak job market in my area, I will probably end up working at Kinko's for $10/hr while I'm going to school. I'm very lucky that I have no kids and I can "afford" to do this; if I had a 9 year old and a 12 year old, I would likely have to move to another state -- with all the cost, financial and emotional and physical, that this entails -- in order to provide for my family.
Economics, as a science, uses models that rely on unrealistic assumptions about the flexibility of labor. It would be interesting to see what happens once you introduce factors such as the cost to move a worker from one place to another, or the opportunity cost of taking time off to aquire new skills. I'm willing to bet that a lot of globalization's proported benefits will disappear.
My mom has played over 5000 games of Snood on her unregistered DOS version of the game. She's very hesitant to have me upgrade the folks' PC, because apparently you can't get a version of Snood that'll let you play forever without registering it!
Not true. The shareware (unregistered) version of Snood will let you play unlimited Easy and Child level games, and a limited number (100 or so) of Medium, Hard, Evil, Puzzle, etc. games. If you want to play more of the harder levels, you need to cough up money.
You'll forgive me if I don't envy you. Not because I think you got a bad deal, but because I think I got a good deal. My girlfriend's into RPGs, bad horror movies, fiction writing, toys.. and beer. Good beer.
CS isn't such an important part of my life anymore. The job market has turned me off from CS. I want to build robots and other toys.
One would hope she sacked away enough money during her prime, because a supermodel probably has fewer productive years than a pro football player.
You're right, but Cindy Crawford is the Michael Jordon of supermodels. She's been working for something over fifteen years and will probably be working for another ten.
...I've pretty much figured out that I'm tired of programming regular programming. I can do the database-business logic-web or client thing ad infinitum, but it's no fun. OTOH, my last job was in AI, and I loved every second of that.
I'm considering going back to a local school (Portland State) to pick up an MS in EE focusing on neural nets. I'm also thinking strongly about starting my own company, since there's no bloody AI work here in Portland. (Giving up my friends, my girlfriend, and my support network to relocate is less than optimal.)
My friends think I'm nuts whenever I talk about starting my own company, but the fact of the matter is that if you can't find the job you want, you have to create it yourself. I still want to get my MS first so that I can learn more about the guts of pattern recognition before I stake out on my own.
OK, so the reason for this post: how nuts am I, really, to pursue this track? I leave it to the Slashdot crowd to comment. God help me.:)
Spoken by someone who has never tried to run an open source business, I'm guessing.
True, but I used to work for the guy who ran an open source business. I'm not sure if that kind of experience counts.
Should you some day try to do this you'll realise very quickly that it's only the very largest projects that can make money in the ways you've stated above.
That doesn't surprise me one bit. Small companies writing applications for niche markets probably won't make money off of open source. Open source products won't make money unless it's a good product with a large user base. These kind of products are not easy to come by: they tend to be products that everyone needs, like OSes or office suites. If your product isn't one of those, you're better off doing support or consulting, or (of course) making it proprietary.
Of course, that's the nature of business in general. Most small businesses fail in the first five years, and even the ones that succeed don't necessaily make the owners rich.
I respectfully submit that you're misreading the NDA on the list. It states that you agree not to reveal information from the support list. That goes a bit beyond asserting their copyright, and that's what I think is both unneccessary and contrary to the spirit of open source.
To draw an analogy to a calculus book: there's a difference between telling someone that they can't photocopy the book, and telling someone that they can't teach derivatives to someone who hasn't also paid the $100 for the book. The first is expected; the second is probably inappropriate, and definitely not in the spirit of Freedom.
The NDA on the support list reads to me, and apparently to others, more like the second.
For what it's worth, Trolltech and RedHat seem to be turning modest profits from this. (RH recently posted a very small profit under GAAP, mostly from sales of Advanced Server.)
Try selling reprints of "Windows for Dummies" (techniques for using a software) (or the e-book version if you think electronic or not matters)and see how far you'll get before being slammed with a lawsuit.
Except that I'm not talking about reprints. I'm talking about describing techniques.
For example: you can add any shortcut to your Start button's left-side menu in WinXP by dragging it to the Start button.
There. I just described a technique for using, in a legal manner not subject to anti-hacking laws, Microsoft's (very proprietary) product.
Have I broken anyone's copyright? Should I expect for someone to sue me?
Let's suppose that this information (I am referring strictly to the tip I provide above, which is a harmless and oft-used user feature of the OS, not a security loophole or something else where there's an obvious good reason to keep the information concealed) is covered under NDA: once I learn it, I can't reveal it to anyone else. I'll grant that the company has the right to NDA this.
Is it reasonable for them to NDA it? Is it in the spirit of building a healthy user community, let alone in the spirit of open-source?
You can charge for documentation. O'Reilly does this for Perl, and you may notice, they don't include NDAs saying that you can't teach the information in those books to other people.
You can charge for priority support (phone calls returned within an hour -- or 15 minutes or 10 minutes).
You can charge for access to a high-speed, high-bandwidth update server, like Ximian does.
You can charge for training.
You can charge for certification.
You can charge for the right to include your product in closed-source products, like Trolltech or MySQL AB do.
You can charge to add new features.
You can charge for someone to come over there and install it.
Hell, you can even charge for the software itself.. Red Hat's advanced server product is GPL, all the components are available online, and companies STILL pay several thousand dollars for the product.
Finally, you can charge money for the hardware, like IBM does with its Linux-using mainframes and microframes.
Apples and oranges, kiddo. The book is covered by copyright; the techniques for using a software product are not. This is equivalent to including an NDA with a fiction book stating that you won't describe the plot to someone else.
Slashdot Mirror
Hussle is a rare thing in the demoralized post-boom world. And few geeks know how to sell, which is why we're in the economic mess we're in right now.
I imagine the first interstellar war will start when an alien civilization "pirates" that copyrighted Chuck Berry recording and the MPAA comes to collect royalties.
This may be the thing that pushes Wireless Broadband out the door.
Except for the majority of the world who can't get any form of high speed access. But cell phones and landlines work just fine for low speed modems. Right now, yes. But, it is a matter of maybe ten years before wireless broadband makes regular modems useless in the first world.
...the Bride of USAPATRIOT is on the sidelines, with Johnny Ashcroft and his minions rooting for it. One step forward, four steps back. But hey, anything goes as long as you can make the public vagely believe, or even not dispute too much, that it'll help them get Osama Bin Laden.
The $5000 threshhold is easy. Hire a security investigator to look into the problem, pay them five grand, and forward a copy of the bill to the FBI.
I think you mean that it was nominated last year. A Beautiful Mind (admittedly a good movie even from a geek perspective) won last year.
Besides Strong Bad, you might find Stickdeath amusing. That is, if you enjoy watching stick figures getting killed.
So what? The ultra-rich who live off of stock dividends have more money, and that's who you (and your government) ultimately work for. If you're not one of the ultra-rich, then you can just fsck right off. Same goes for your kids. Got it?
I doubt that the company will spend that extra $105k on R&D. More likely, it will present that to shareholders as a prudent savings given the uncertain economy.
Take a look at the numbers - globalization has been in full swing for a few decades now, and the U.S. has the lowest unemployment rate in years - lower than they thought possible a decade ago! Almost everyone wins when the people that can make a product the cheapest are allowed to do it. The only ones who lose, in the short run, are those who are displaced by the production move. The remedy for that is short-term government support, and the best way to get out is to acquire new skills.
Unemployment numbers are still higher than they thought possible a decade ago, as they are hovering above 5% (the theoretical minimum). In engineering they're hovering about 10%.
You're right that the best solution is to aquire new skill sets, but that is very difficult when you are unemployed with a house and two kids and have to choose between finding a job (and collecting unemployment insurance) and going to school (and therefore, in many states, forfeiting unemployment insurance). It is very difficult even for those who are employed, since the pressure is on to perform more work with less resources.
In my own case, I'm looking at getting laid off, soonish, because of state budget cuts. I can go to school to aquire new skills in AI, but because of the weak job market in my area, I will probably end up working at Kinko's for $10/hr while I'm going to school. I'm very lucky that I have no kids and I can "afford" to do this; if I had a 9 year old and a 12 year old, I would likely have to move to another state -- with all the cost, financial and emotional and physical, that this entails -- in order to provide for my family.
Economics, as a science, uses models that rely on unrealistic assumptions about the flexibility of labor. It would be interesting to see what happens once you introduce factors such as the cost to move a worker from one place to another, or the opportunity cost of taking time off to aquire new skills. I'm willing to bet that a lot of globalization's proported benefits will disappear.
Not true. The shareware (unregistered) version of Snood will let you play unlimited Easy and Child level games, and a limited number (100 or so) of Medium, Hard, Evil, Puzzle, etc. games. If you want to play more of the harder levels, you need to cough up money.
CS isn't such an important part of my life anymore. The job market has turned me off from CS. I want to build robots and other toys.
Honest to God, is it going to kill you to date an English major or a nursing student? Or the girl who works the cash register at Kroger?
You're right, but Cindy Crawford is the Michael Jordon of supermodels. She's been working for something over fifteen years and will probably be working for another ten.
That's just one of those chances I have to take. But life is full of chances.
I'm considering going back to a local school (Portland State) to pick up an MS in EE focusing on neural nets. I'm also thinking strongly about starting my own company, since there's no bloody AI work here in Portland. (Giving up my friends, my girlfriend, and my support network to relocate is less than optimal.)
My friends think I'm nuts whenever I talk about starting my own company, but the fact of the matter is that if you can't find the job you want, you have to create it yourself. I still want to get my MS first so that I can learn more about the guts of pattern recognition before I stake out on my own.
OK, so the reason for this post: how nuts am I, really, to pursue this track? I leave it to the Slashdot crowd to comment. God help me. :)
True, but I used to work for the guy who ran an open source business. I'm not sure if that kind of experience counts.
Should you some day try to do this you'll realise very quickly that it's only the very largest projects that can make money in the ways you've stated above.
That doesn't surprise me one bit. Small companies writing applications for niche markets probably won't make money off of open source. Open source products won't make money unless it's a good product with a large user base. These kind of products are not easy to come by: they tend to be products that everyone needs, like OSes or office suites. If your product isn't one of those, you're better off doing support or consulting, or (of course) making it proprietary.
Of course, that's the nature of business in general. Most small businesses fail in the first five years, and even the ones that succeed don't necessaily make the owners rich.
I was going to write a more lengthy reply, but I see that the AC's have treated your post for all it's worth.
To draw an analogy to a calculus book: there's a difference between telling someone that they can't photocopy the book, and telling someone that they can't teach derivatives to someone who hasn't also paid the $100 for the book. The first is expected; the second is probably inappropriate, and definitely not in the spirit of Freedom.
The NDA on the support list reads to me, and apparently to others, more like the second.
The question is whether this NDA is in the spirit of Open Source.
Another question has arisen, as to whether it is necessary for them to do this in order to profit.
The answer to the first question is probably "no." The answer to the second is up in the air, with both sides disagreeing vigorously.
For what it's worth, Trolltech and RedHat seem to be turning modest profits from this. (RH recently posted a very small profit under GAAP, mostly from sales of Advanced Server.)
Except that I'm not talking about reprints. I'm talking about describing techniques.
For example: you can add any shortcut to your Start button's left-side menu in WinXP by dragging it to the Start button.
There. I just described a technique for using, in a legal manner not subject to anti-hacking laws, Microsoft's (very proprietary) product.
Have I broken anyone's copyright? Should I expect for someone to sue me?
Let's suppose that this information (I am referring strictly to the tip I provide above, which is a harmless and oft-used user feature of the OS, not a security loophole or something else where there's an obvious good reason to keep the information concealed) is covered under NDA: once I learn it, I can't reveal it to anyone else. I'll grant that the company has the right to NDA this.
Is it reasonable for them to NDA it? Is it in the spirit of building a healthy user community, let alone in the spirit of open-source?
Well, since you asked:
Apples and oranges, kiddo. The book is covered by copyright; the techniques for using a software product are not. This is equivalent to including an NDA with a fiction book stating that you won't describe the plot to someone else.