I am have been thinking lately about innovative ways to revamp that "classic" copyright argument. Under the classical distribution model, we get the following:
1. Work Created. 2. Copyright acquired. 3. Work sits quite nicely on the third shelf waiting for something to happen. 4. Creator grudgingly enters a contract with a Major Label, who rakes them over coals. Label acquires work, sells some copies, then buries it the following year. No one ever sees work again. 5. Artist is lucky to receive a pittance for their effort.
Well, we've SOLVED the distribution part. What we haven't solved is Cash-To-Artist part. EMusic is a good start. Other strange business models could be possible.
If the ARTISTS AND BUYERS unite, then the DRM media companies will croak. I currently avoid both Ipods, and all but the essential paid music. I am content for the moment with free tracks, remix communities, and I'm studying Emusic.
The fragment was originally included as mathematical nonsense in a SF story to describe another universe. I welded it to Lewis Carroll's classic literary nonsense to achieve... compound nonsense, all as an elliptic comment on the original story.
I would much prefer to be fiddling with software than hardware/OS interactions. In the last few posts, four reasonably techincal posts have been followed by corrections.
Then I saw the comment that problems with drivers affect media and flash, forcing you to acquire external drivers from... somewhere.
This is why I'm still a relevant party to the M$ YRO stories: because I can grind a price-reduced open-box mongrel machine to dust while I wait for Kentsfield without wasting time. Enduring the eternal derision of the/. experts is still the lesser of two evils. Humility is at least time-efficient.
There seemed to be a Duplicate version of this story on Aug 1, but then apparently someone noticed and removed it, so I am "moving along" to here.
That brief newer version had something about Microsoft's surprise at the number of downloads, with the "need to cover costs." The first 8 replies expressed incerdulity, and added one word: Torrent.
We all know a few people who practice on the far fringes of health care, but in my brief observances of them, they still have the compassion left. You may hide a smile under your hand at their approaches, but sometimes they will have stumbled onto something valuble.
I once checked up on a startling cassette-tape presentation I came across in my bulk music purchases. The presenter said that you can ditch your $75/month supply of vitamins, and pick up a box of dog biscuits. "If you don't believe me, check the ingredients list. It's all there."
He said that this is ironically true for two reasons.
A: most people DON'T really value their pets anywhere near the level of human people, so they won't normally pay through the nose for medical treatment for Sparky. B: At the same time, the trainers want to make money off of their "High Performance" animals.
Addressing both situations, the animal industry cuts its losses and... builds vitamins into doggie biscuits. (Or canned meat food, but that MIGHT make you truly ill because of different fatty profiles, plus the exponentially nastier taste.) Paraphrase from the presentation. "You give your DOG more vitamins every day than your CHILD. What kind of parent are you?"
A bulk pack of multi-vitamins from GNC is my current choice, but I tried this once. Just get a good dipping sauce.
Counterpoint: "Effect of Mutually Exclusive Grammar"
There are in fact some very intelligent discussions online. However, I think I have observed that discussions take place at either a high level, or a low level, but rarely mix. Seven correctly spelled words stand out when mingled with hacked grammar, and a NetSpeaker gets modded down on serious forums.
If Robert Heinlein could have dreamed of Lewis Caroll, the result would have said it best:
Twas brillig, and the slithy toves, did gyre and gimble in the wabe. All mimsy were the borogoves, and the momeraths outgrabe in a Non-Euclidean universe where three perfectly parallel lines intersect at ninety degree angles to form a perfect square with seven triangular sides.
Come hither, dearest little mod-points. I promise that/. won't hurt your grammar or your pappy.
to which I always reply: "Look, if you're that lazy, either say nothing, or make an alias and buy some vowels from Vannah. She's still a score, even at her age."
That it was May thus dremed me In time of love and jollite That al thyng gynneth waxen gay For there is neither busk nor hay In May that it nyl shrouded ben, And it with new leves wryen. These greves eke recoveren grene, That dry in wynter ben to sen, And the erthe waxeth proude withal For swete dewes that on it falle . . .
'Tweener Net
in mAY i hd a drem like a stry it seems i luv it now lol tht all that ssht is kewl May has these prety leeves Fck hey its green like sleves Winter sukked so flipin cold gimme a light i feel so old i duno and i dont care aint a shame that i live here
Conceptually, of you are of course correct. I am fully aware that Wordpad is free as in Beer, not as in Speech. Since I am also aware that its sole use is ugly hack documenting, I expect nothing from it.
When I find some time and energy, I *should* find an alternate friendly editor and load it onto all four machines. Mostly, I considered the lack of direct revenue not given to Microsoft sufficient for the moment.
Is anyone else as terrified (in context) by that as I am? We can discuss how effective the AV writers are, and whether some of them have side deals, but they are at least DIFFERENT companies trying to patch a known-broken OS. I trust them to SortOfWork.
The MS Source in the article has GOT to be kidding if we now have to take THEIR word that the known-broken OS is... "less" broken? Didn't MS blow that feeble chance at trust just lately by shoving an also-broken WGA deceptively as a "critical update"?
---Moving from "Barely Positive Windows User" to "Trapped Windows User looking for the chance to switch".
Some good analysis here. I shall try to add some snips.
Microsoft *did* succeed in controlling the web - so well in fact, that all the Monopoly issues arose. The court cases discussed the near-monopoly of Windows itself. I am having trouble recalling the final results, but I think the effect was that Microsoft barely stayed within legal limits purely on the OS side, and only got in trouble with Bundling.
Paul Thurrott's little WGA escapade aside, I do rely on him to explain the fundamentals, and he did slip in a truly scary warning about Vista. (paraphrased) "Because of the inertia of decades of sloppy programming for windows, suddenly when programs are no longer able to write where they want, this will break thousands of programs". If this is really true, it *would* be the second of three strikes to seriously cripple Microsoft.
What exactly would happen if Microsoft completely went nova? Would there be the world's biggest renaissance of IT to switch the entire business world over? Unlike the Airline Bailouts, Microsoft already has large (illegal) amounts of money. If Vista tanks, after we all watch Return of the Jedi, the social effects would be nearly incalculable. (All for good ends, but a bumpy ride.)
Trying to read between the lines, the specs I see on Vista are "it does nothing well except MAYBE security". So this is a Slashdot story, because the Senior Security Strategist is leaving (I'm sure he had a job: "what the #$%^#$% do I do with legacy code? Which of three user bases do I want to royally piss off?) (Do the math: 'FIVE years'. That means he arrived post-XP... and didn't see the completion of Vista. And I forget who, there's a lead product designer who is also retring promptly upon the release of Vista.) Is there any chance they abused him so badly he said : "Oh yeah? I dare you to try to finish out a Beta that our lead reviewer says not to install!". Is it possible that by doing his part to BrainDrain Microsoft, he is expressing discontent? "Vista, the Security Version of Windows, without the Senior Security chief. I dare you to fix that glitch when...."
There is an industry of service providers who provide opinions about products (or other services). You as the reader may be aware that the reviewer has a bias, but at least a minimum level of quality is expected. This Double-Barrelled story is *extremely* disturbing, because it involves logic flaws all across the scenario grid.
My initial opinions: Microsoft: Huge company, containing some reasonably intelligent technical crews with a history of sloppy execution, hampered by an albatross code legacy, and a completely untrustworthy marketing department.
Paul Thurrott: A moderately skilled technical reviewer, who is financed by Microsoft-directed sources to make the process at least a little more open. Microsoft can usually take "a small amount of heat" such as the post about User Security, because the response "okay, the next build improved this" is still better than a nebulous perception of "what evil is the Redmond Behemoth up to?"
***
Episode 1: Harsh Report on WGA A. Technics: Could be a Beta, pushed out too fast. Presumably at least "partially" operational. I understood the technical critiques as False Positives, not Silent Negatives. B: Concern over social impact of False Positives, possibly sloppy code, and Distribution Ethics. Eval: "Small Heat Microsoft can afford to take" to gain credence for Paul.
Episode 2: "Look, WGA found my copy was a fake!" A: Technics: The entire point of the post is to rule out the False Positive. I would bet money that *however derived*, the copy tested... is indeed fake. However, the story appears technically flawed. I grant he's not Alpha grade, but I would grant his technical knowledge at least a B to B+. From all kinds of approaches, his second post creaks heavily at best. This makes the Social eval very complex. B: Social: "This post is all wrong, but *which way?*" B1: Initial post meant as Small Heat, M$ told him it became Big Heat, and Post2 is a paid attempt to dissipate Big Heat. B2: Paired post totally engineered by M$ over Paul's objection, with pay. This would be the variant of Straw Man, in which WGA "working" silences more serious concerns by distraction. B3: If he did "just pick up a quick copy" which was flagged by WGA, he should have been nervous, thus avoiding the first post. If the initial post is straight up, which becomes a phenomenal technical blunder requiring the desperate "better bleed credibility fast and cauterize than let this fester". This would be "Career Ending Blunder barely saved by M$, who unhappily decides they have no one developed to fill his niche as Friendly Reporter". B4: Some other weird mix of obscure mixed motives. Examples include: Paul takes a Faux Credibility Sacrifice. Casting aspersions on the 2005 edition, in which their lawyers failed to bust the "hardware loophole". Vague doubts about "trusted vendors". Adding to the "Ominous Mystique" of M$.
Whichever version is true, generating Warm Fuzzies for Microsoft is nowhere in sight. I'm still trapped by circumstances to Windows, but I will work to migrate to OSS replacements of office & web apps, and urge&assist others to do the same.
I'll take Cheap, New, Medium-Quality every time, presuming it doesn't have the ad services mentioned in the topic post. (Read: Spend 2 hours unhooking the OEM ads.)
Every time my company spends $11,000 at Dell for four (!) PC's, I wilt.
Related in there is the urge to have a computer "perfectly understand" everything, so they can indulge in unclear thinking. Not a day goes by without my supervisor saying, "So, how is that progressing?", referring to something about seven topics back. When I haven't a clue, I continually reply: "I don't understand the question."
I'll second the previous comment. Star Trek grade SR is just another fiction device, present for the very reasons we read fiction: we DON'T want realism in our fiction! Reality is far too full of lost days of work because you discovered the approach you took crashed hard into some flaw.
I am an enthusiastic fan of Speech Production, because computers understand source text just fine. Hoping for miracles in Speech Recognition is at best 50 years away, and simply "wishing" at best. (If you insist loud enough, can you retroactively re-create the past?)
Even with better accuracy in their limited environments, I still find voice prompts irritating, because people around you have to put up with "... yes... representative... hardware... other issue... connect me." Then the computer misses one of the words, and you get "Sorry, I didn't get that."
Parent post is rather fierce. These cyclical effects swing in and out. Consider especially that lots of these minimum wage positions are *part time*. That means the opportunity cost of being locked out of anything more useful, being just tired enough from 30 hours at mininum wage to run out of energy to add an extra 25 from a second job PLUS inter-job commute&preparation.
Depending on the "desperation level" of the area, many intelligent candidate workers see these offerings as the traps they are. Depending again on that desperation level, some managers become sharks who grind their staff into the floor.
One chilling comment that stuck with me was the supervisor of an arcade telling me years ago "I work 60 hours a week and clear $250". Are you seeing laziness, or numbing fatigue?
When we "study 14 hours a day" we expect later to be rewarded with some kind of field where we can work *less*, because of a higher rate per hour.
Those who simply have a lower capacity to study, are forced to take simpler jobs. Then they *work* 14 hours a day *forever*.
The new phrase is "From each, according to their ability to Study; To each, according to the leverage Corporations from making enough desperate people fight against each other".
The bad news is, "Control is exciting". (Insert your harsher synonyms here.) Anyone involved with reviewing this information is not losing sleep at the "horrid terrorists", but they are fidgeting in glee. 'Look at all the lovely patterns.'
The problem with control, *religous included*, since our President seems bent upon including that subject, is that once you have sufficiently crushed people's ability to defend themselves, you can insert provisions that line your pockets. I only caught up with Slashdot again recently last month, and something like 15 "Your Rights" stories, taken together, have me horrified.
1984 is one book, and Fahrenheit 451 is the other, addressing the knowledge side. I for one am glad to see an "official" recognition of a topic I have quietly followed. This trend of SuperControl is here to stay unless by some incredible chance a profound reason opposite to 9-11 emerges to counteract the tide. I've seen comments elsewhere like "why don't you fight it". My reply: not yet. America *RE*-elected Bush in 2004, so this was apparently the mood of the country in 2003. But I do see signs that the downsides are impressing people; I remark that the correct time to fight is *ahead*.
I am amazed I don't know the candidates for the upcoming election... I'll have to check timelines for elections prior to see if this is unusual. At least one of the candidates in the next 5 years will be against these abuses, and that is the time to add support to a more favorable presidency, not the lame duck period of a hopeless Administration desperate to add its last legacies.
Unfortunately, I haven't yet forecasted an event strong enough to ideologically stand up to 9:11. (No longer break time at work, now a Symbol.)
I disagree. I clearly separate OSS from "pirated". I will try my best to get OSS stuff to work, because it's a member of the class of software that made Micro$oft wake up and grudgingly admit they'd better tie their hopes to Windows, and not MS Office at $400 a snap.
I won't "freshly" copy MS software, because in corporations, it's too easy to get snared in some weird trap when HR on a bad day learns of it. At work, they spend more on coffee than Microsoft office.
For personal use, I use Wordpad, OpenOffice Calc, and free email from yahoo.
If I had a monster text file to process, I'd flip it to work to "Borrow" MS Word, do some quick formatting, and flip it home again.
I shall add the twist that this "re-educates" customers to know at time of purchase "there isn't a hope of support". So if it's a hardware commodity and it still works but is horrible, try to return it to the store, and if it breaks past warranty, buy another one.
Especially on the Systems Build side, I gather that a lot of Dotters can take a rough built system and tune it up themselves, rather than spend $300 on some kind of "service plan".
1 Core for Vista Aero Glass, 1 Core for 12 tab FireFox, at last; 1 Core to export an Mp3 CD, 1 Core for TTS, to read stories to me; 1 Core for Accounting and Word, 1 Core for Excel Models Absurd; 1 Core to play Chess with Crafty, 1 Core to rule them all, in the darkness, Snappily.
Slashdot Mirror
I am have been thinking lately about innovative ways to revamp that "classic" copyright argument. Under the classical distribution model, we get the following:
1. Work Created.
2. Copyright acquired.
3. Work sits quite nicely on the third shelf waiting for something to happen.
4. Creator grudgingly enters a contract with a Major Label, who rakes them over coals. Label acquires work, sells some copies, then buries it the following year. No one ever sees work again.
5. Artist is lucky to receive a pittance for their effort.
Well, we've SOLVED the distribution part. What we haven't solved is Cash-To-Artist part. EMusic is a good start. Other strange business models could be possible.
If the ARTISTS AND BUYERS unite, then the DRM media companies will croak. I currently avoid both Ipods, and all but the essential paid music. I am content for the moment with free tracks, remix communities, and I'm studying Emusic.
I think you missed the post idea.
The fragment was originally included as mathematical nonsense in a SF story to describe another universe. I welded it to Lewis Carroll's classic literary nonsense to achieve... compound nonsense, all as an elliptic comment on the original story.
Sigh. This is what unnerves me.
... somewhere.
/. experts is still the lesser of two evils. Humility is at least time-efficient.
I would much prefer to be fiddling with software than hardware/OS interactions. In the last few posts, four reasonably techincal posts have been followed by corrections.
Then I saw the comment that problems with drivers affect media and flash, forcing you to acquire external drivers from
This is why I'm still a relevant party to the M$ YRO stories: because I can grind a price-reduced open-box mongrel machine to dust while I wait for Kentsfield without wasting time. Enduring the eternal derision of the
There seemed to be a Duplicate version of this story on Aug 1, but then apparently someone noticed and removed it, so I am "moving along" to here.
That brief newer version had something about Microsoft's surprise at the number of downloads, with the "need to cover costs." The first 8 replies expressed incerdulity, and added one word: Torrent.
We all know a few people who practice on the far fringes of health care, but in my brief observances of them, they still have the compassion left. You may hide a smile under your hand at their approaches, but sometimes they will have stumbled onto something valuble.
... builds vitamins into doggie biscuits. (Or canned meat food, but that MIGHT make you truly ill because of different fatty profiles, plus the exponentially nastier taste.) Paraphrase from the presentation. "You give your DOG more vitamins every day than your CHILD. What kind of parent are you?"
I once checked up on a startling cassette-tape presentation I came across in my bulk music purchases. The presenter said that you can ditch your $75/month supply of vitamins, and pick up a box of dog biscuits. "If you don't believe me, check the ingredients list. It's all there."
He said that this is ironically true for two reasons.
A: most people DON'T really value their pets anywhere near the level of human people, so they won't normally pay through the nose for medical treatment for Sparky. B: At the same time, the trainers want to make money off of their "High Performance" animals.
Addressing both situations, the animal industry cuts its losses and
A bulk pack of multi-vitamins from GNC is my current choice, but I tried this once. Just get a good dipping sauce.
1500 posts are worth more than an OEM life. Give me the self esteem injection of a +1 mod anyday.
Wait. That's too abstruse of a lexigraphic choice for a story which investigates whether messaging deprecates grammar, but not Kelsey Grammer.
Counterpoint: "Effect of Mutually Exclusive Grammar"
There are in fact some very intelligent discussions online. However, I think I have observed that discussions take place at either a high level, or a low level, but rarely mix. Seven correctly spelled words stand out when mingled with hacked grammar, and a NetSpeaker gets modded down on serious forums.
If Robert Heinlein could have dreamed of Lewis Caroll, the result would have said it best:
/. won't hurt your grammar or your pappy.
Twas brillig, and the slithy toves, did gyre and gimble in the wabe. All mimsy were the borogoves, and the momeraths outgrabe in a Non-Euclidean universe where three perfectly parallel lines intersect at ninety degree angles to form a perfect square with seven triangular sides.
Come hither, dearest little mod-points. I promise that
'Preciate it, Y'all.
The GameServer Sneeze is appropriate here:
ggthx
to which I always reply: "Look, if you're that lazy, either say nothing, or make an alias and buy some vowels from Vannah. She's still a score, even at her age."
Chaucer:
That it was May thus dremed me
In time of love and jollite
That al thyng gynneth waxen gay
For there is neither busk nor hay
In May that it nyl shrouded ben,
And it with new leves wryen.
These greves eke recoveren grene,
That dry in wynter ben to sen,
And the erthe waxeth proude withal
For swete dewes that on it falle . . .
'Tweener Net
in mAY i hd a drem
like a stry it seems
i luv it now lol
tht all that ssht is kewl
May has these prety leeves
Fck hey its green like sleves
Winter sukked so flipin cold
gimme a light i feel so old
i duno and i dont care
aint a shame that i live here
Conceptually, of you are of course correct. I am fully aware that Wordpad is free as in Beer, not as in Speech. Since I am also aware that its sole use is ugly hack documenting, I expect nothing from it.
When I find some time and energy, I *should* find an alternate friendly editor and load it onto all four machines. Mostly, I considered the lack of direct revenue not given to Microsoft sufficient for the moment.
I do not know. I consider myself warned, and am content to let actual dramas unfold in seven months.
Is anyone else as terrified (in context) by that as I am? We can discuss how effective the AV writers are, and whether some of them have side deals, but they are at least DIFFERENT companies trying to patch a known-broken OS. I trust them to SortOfWork.
... "less" broken? Didn't MS blow that feeble chance at trust just lately by shoving an also-broken WGA deceptively as a "critical update"?
The MS Source in the article has GOT to be kidding if we now have to take THEIR word that the known-broken OS is
---Moving from "Barely Positive Windows User" to "Trapped Windows User looking for the chance to switch".
Some good analysis here. I shall try to add some snips.
... and didn't see the completion of Vista. And I forget who, there's a lead product designer who is also retring promptly upon the release of Vista.) Is there any chance they abused him so badly he said : "Oh yeah? I dare you to try to finish out a Beta that our lead reviewer says not to install!". Is it possible that by doing his part to BrainDrain Microsoft, he is expressing discontent? "Vista, the Security Version of Windows, without the Senior Security chief. I dare you to fix that glitch when ...."
Microsoft *did* succeed in controlling the web - so well in fact, that all the Monopoly issues arose. The court cases discussed the near-monopoly of Windows itself. I am having trouble recalling the final results, but I think the effect was that Microsoft barely stayed within legal limits purely on the OS side, and only got in trouble with Bundling.
Paul Thurrott's little WGA escapade aside, I do rely on him to explain the fundamentals, and he did slip in a truly scary warning about Vista. (paraphrased) "Because of the inertia of decades of sloppy programming for windows, suddenly when programs are no longer able to write where they want, this will break thousands of programs". If this is really true, it *would* be the second of three strikes to seriously cripple Microsoft.
What exactly would happen if Microsoft completely went nova? Would there be the world's biggest renaissance of IT to switch the entire business world over? Unlike the Airline Bailouts, Microsoft already has large (illegal) amounts of money. If Vista tanks, after we all watch Return of the Jedi, the social effects would be nearly incalculable. (All for good ends, but a bumpy ride.)
Trying to read between the lines, the specs I see on Vista are "it does nothing well except MAYBE security". So this is a Slashdot story, because the Senior Security Strategist is leaving (I'm sure he had a job: "what the #$%^#$% do I do with legacy code? Which of three user bases do I want to royally piss off?) (Do the math: 'FIVE years'. That means he arrived post-XP
--TaoPhoenix
There is an industry of service providers who provide opinions about products (or other services). You as the reader may be aware that the reviewer has a bias, but at least a minimum level of quality is expected. This Double-Barrelled story is *extremely* disturbing, because it involves logic flaws all across the scenario grid.
... is indeed fake. However, the story appears technically flawed. I grant he's not Alpha grade, but I would grant his technical knowledge at least a B to B+. From all kinds of approaches, his second post creaks heavily at best. This makes the Social eval very complex.
My initial opinions:
Microsoft: Huge company, containing some reasonably intelligent technical crews with a history of sloppy execution, hampered by an albatross code legacy, and a completely untrustworthy marketing department.
Paul Thurrott: A moderately skilled technical reviewer, who is financed by Microsoft-directed sources to make the process at least a little more open. Microsoft can usually take "a small amount of heat" such as the post about User Security, because the response "okay, the next build improved this" is still better than a nebulous perception of "what evil is the Redmond Behemoth up to?"
***
Episode 1: Harsh Report on WGA
A. Technics: Could be a Beta, pushed out too fast. Presumably at least "partially" operational. I understood the technical critiques as False Positives, not Silent Negatives.
B: Concern over social impact of False Positives, possibly sloppy code, and Distribution Ethics.
Eval: "Small Heat Microsoft can afford to take" to gain credence for Paul.
Episode 2: "Look, WGA found my copy was a fake!"
A: Technics: The entire point of the post is to rule out the False Positive. I would bet money that *however derived*, the copy tested
B: Social: "This post is all wrong, but *which way?*"
B1: Initial post meant as Small Heat, M$ told him it became Big Heat, and Post2 is a paid attempt to dissipate Big Heat.
B2: Paired post totally engineered by M$ over Paul's objection, with pay. This would be the variant of Straw Man, in which WGA "working" silences more serious concerns by distraction.
B3: If he did "just pick up a quick copy" which was flagged by WGA, he should have been nervous, thus avoiding the first post. If the initial post is straight up, which becomes a phenomenal technical blunder requiring the desperate "better bleed credibility fast and cauterize than let this fester". This would be "Career Ending Blunder barely saved by M$, who unhappily decides they have no one developed to fill his niche as Friendly Reporter".
B4: Some other weird mix of obscure mixed motives. Examples include: Paul takes a Faux Credibility Sacrifice. Casting aspersions on the 2005 edition, in which their lawyers failed to bust the "hardware loophole". Vague doubts about "trusted vendors". Adding to the "Ominous Mystique" of M$.
Whichever version is true, generating Warm Fuzzies for Microsoft is nowhere in sight. I'm still trapped by circumstances to Windows, but I will work to migrate to OSS replacements of office & web apps, and urge&assist others to do the same.
--TaoPhoenix
I'll take Cheap, New, Medium-Quality every time, presuming it doesn't have the ad services mentioned in the topic post. (Read: Spend 2 hours unhooking the OEM ads.)
Every time my company spends $11,000 at Dell for four (!) PC's, I wilt.
Related in there is the urge to have a computer "perfectly understand" everything, so they can indulge in unclear thinking. Not a day goes by without my supervisor saying, "So, how is that progressing?", referring to something about seven topics back. When I haven't a clue, I continually reply: "I don't understand the question."
I'll second the previous comment. Star Trek grade SR is just another fiction device, present for the very reasons we read fiction: we DON'T want realism in our fiction! Reality is far too full of lost days of work because you discovered the approach you took crashed hard into some flaw.
... representative ... hardware ... other issue ... connect me." Then the computer misses one of the words, and you get "Sorry, I didn't get that."
I am an enthusiastic fan of Speech Production, because computers understand source text just fine. Hoping for miracles in Speech Recognition is at best 50 years away, and simply "wishing" at best. (If you insist loud enough, can you retroactively re-create the past?)
Even with better accuracy in their limited environments, I still find voice prompts irritating, because people around you have to put up with "... yes
Parent post is rather fierce. These cyclical effects swing in and out. Consider especially that lots of these minimum wage positions are *part time*. That means the opportunity cost of being locked out of anything more useful, being just tired enough from 30 hours at mininum wage to run out of energy to add an extra 25 from a second job PLUS inter-job commute&preparation.
Depending on the "desperation level" of the area, many intelligent candidate workers see these offerings as the traps they are. Depending again on that desperation level, some managers become sharks who grind their staff into the floor.
One chilling comment that stuck with me was the supervisor of an arcade telling me years ago "I work 60 hours a week and clear $250". Are you seeing laziness, or numbing fatigue?
I think a few of you are missing the split.
When we "study 14 hours a day" we expect later to be rewarded with some kind of field where we can work *less*, because of a higher rate per hour.
Those who simply have a lower capacity to study, are forced to take simpler jobs. Then they *work* 14 hours a day *forever*.
The new phrase is "From each, according to their ability to Study; To each, according to the leverage Corporations from making enough desperate people fight against each other".
--TaoPhoenix
The bad news is, "Control is exciting". (Insert your harsher synonyms here.) Anyone involved with reviewing this information is not losing sleep at the "horrid terrorists", but they are fidgeting in glee. 'Look at all the lovely patterns.'
The problem with control, *religous included*, since our President seems bent upon including that subject, is that once you have sufficiently crushed people's ability to defend themselves, you can insert provisions that line your pockets. I only caught up with Slashdot again recently last month, and something like 15 "Your Rights" stories, taken together, have me horrified.
1984 is one book, and Fahrenheit 451 is the other, addressing the knowledge side. I for one am glad to see an "official" recognition of a topic I have quietly followed. This trend of SuperControl is here to stay unless by some incredible chance a profound reason opposite to 9-11 emerges to counteract the tide. I've seen comments elsewhere like "why don't you fight it". My reply: not yet. America *RE*-elected Bush in 2004, so this was apparently the mood of the country in 2003. But I do see signs that the downsides are impressing people; I remark that the correct time to fight is *ahead*.
I am amazed I don't know the candidates for the upcoming election... I'll have to check timelines for elections prior to see if this is unusual. At least one of the candidates in the next 5 years will be against these abuses, and that is the time to add support to a more favorable presidency, not the lame duck period of a hopeless Administration desperate to add its last legacies.
Unfortunately, I haven't yet forecasted an event strong enough to ideologically stand up to 9:11. (No longer break time at work, now a Symbol.)
--TaoPhoenix
I disagree. I clearly separate OSS from "pirated". I will try my best to get OSS stuff to work, because it's a member of the class of software that made Micro$oft wake up and grudgingly admit they'd better tie their hopes to Windows, and not MS Office at $400 a snap.
I won't "freshly" copy MS software, because in corporations, it's too easy to get snared in some weird trap when HR on a bad day learns of it. At work, they spend more on coffee than Microsoft office.
For personal use, I use Wordpad, OpenOffice Calc, and free email from yahoo.
If I had a monster text file to process, I'd flip it to work to "Borrow" MS Word, do some quick formatting, and flip it home again.
I shall add the twist that this "re-educates" customers to know at time of purchase "there isn't a hope of support". So if it's a hardware commodity and it still works but is horrible, try to return it to the store, and if it breaks past warranty, buy another one.
Especially on the Systems Build side, I gather that a lot of Dotters can take a rough built system and tune it up themselves, rather than spend $300 on some kind of "service plan".
Lessee what I might need 8 cores for:
1 Core for Vista Aero Glass,
1 Core for 12 tab FireFox, at last;
1 Core to export an Mp3 CD,
1 Core for TTS, to read stories to me;
1 Core for Accounting and Word,
1 Core for Excel Models Absurd;
1 Core to play Chess with Crafty,
1 Core to rule them all, in the darkness, Snappily.
From this movie trailer:
e d&search=pac%20man
http://youtube.com/watch?v=ZxOaOyXkrkg&mode=relat