It all went down hill (pardon the pun) after he broke his back in a hang gliding accident. It was about the same time he got married to (if memory serves) a truly grasping, condescending, politically correct "intellectual" snob wife who radically influenced his strip.
His strips started losing their innocent anarchy. They got progressively more and more nasty, then they started getting weird, although his subconcious seemed to be screaming for help via the Steve Dallas character: Steve had his brain inverted by aliens and he turned into an ever more strange tofu-eating, flower hugging oddball. It was like he was parodying himself and screaming for help.
I attended a Breathed lecture when he was at the height of his strip and his talent. It was one of the most informative and funny 2 hours I've ever spent.
- Danger, Will Robinson - SMA (Shiny Metal A**) - We Might be Iron Giants - Robbie and the Robot Monsters - Fembotica - EXTERMINATE! EXTERMINATE! (if you count cyborg bands) - Blown Diode - Protocol Droids - Infinite Loop (a "IF Ready THEN Rock ELSE Next" cover band) - Power Cell
As for Tesla I don't know if he made mistakes. I don't know what he was trying to achieve so I don't know if he made mistakes as he went about trying to achieve it. Because someone doesn't make money it doesn't mean they made mistakes in what they did.
I certainly agree that money is not necessarily a measure of success. However the sad truth in Tesla's case is that he couldn't realize so many of his truly fantastic ideas because of a lack of funds. He made one truly bone-headed monetary mistake which fundamentally altered the course of his later life and probably that of the world as well.
In 1888, Tesla had a licensing contract with George Westinghouse for his poly-phase alternating current generator/motor patents. When the men signed the original agreement it gave Tesla a per horsepower royalty payment on all generators and motors produced by Westinghouse. The amount of the royalty is not known for sure, but it has been speculated it was anywhere from 10 cents to $2.50 per horsepower, with most believing it was around $1.00 per horsepower. At the time of the contract, it was no big deal: they hadn't won the Niagra Falls or Columbia Exposition contracts yet.
When Westinghouse started winning the "current wars" against Edison (a truly Gates-sian manipulator if their ever was one), the royalty terms were projected to be a huge financial burden for Westinghouse Electric. George Westinghouse's accountant types basically forced him to go back to Tesla to see if they could renegotiate the agreement.
That original agreement was basically a formalized "hand shake" deal between two men who admired each other. So it isn't surprising that when George Westinghouse went literally hat in hand to his friend Nikola Tesla, Tesla waved his request off and TORE UP THE CONTRACT. Tesla essentially gave Westinghouse the AC power system used world wide for free. Tesla died penniless in the 1940s after decades of publicising ever more bizarre preditions and ideas in the hope of gaining investors. Some of his most brilliant ideas never were realized or were created decades later by others, because of his lack of funds:
wireless power/voice/image broadcasting
remote controlled vehicles
compact personal VTOL aircraft
electro-mechanical resonators
electrical logic gates
and so on.
Even if Tesla had renegotiated the Westinghouse license for royalty of a fraction of a cent per horsepower, he probably would have been the richest person in the world by early 1900s, and we would probably be at least 30 years ahead technologically.
Thanks for the link to Roundup. I plan on checking it out for my wife and her change management group. Just a brief glance at the web site reveals two major pluses (at least to me) for Roundup: 1) its OSS and 2) its written in Python.
I think you are right that most ticket tracking systems will meet the needs for most businesses, including the one I described in my earlier post. I think the key, and where OSS really shines, is that if customization is needed then you can change it to what you want and need.
I know the biggest thing my wife's company uses their "home grown" system for is to help enforce a uniform and structured change process for the whole IT division. So obviously whatever tracking tool they use has to be tailored to her company's specific needs and eccentricities. For her change management group and the division as a whole, the important part is the "here's how we make changes" process and not necessarily "here is the tool we use to track changes". Customized tracking software just helps them follow their change management process better AND helps them to enforce the change process better.
The great thing about this discussion thread is I now have a big list of various tracking software to check out and show my wife, so that perhaps her company can move to a more robust and capable tool than what they are using now.
Thanks again for your response to my comments and the link to the Roundup page.
I'm pretty unclear as to why support-style ticket tracking doesn't work for you.
Perhaps because he needs a tool that is more oriented toward change management at the business level instead of a simply a tool to track bug fixes and requests. His words:
There is a 'workflow' aspect to many of these requests: we do our thing, then pass it off to the UNIX admins, firewall folks, or DBAs to process another portion of the request.
It sounds like his real problem is not the "I need a request tracker" but is more like "our business needs a clear process to manage IT changes AND it would be nice to have most of it automated." If I am reading his descriptions right, he is trying to describe an enterprise change management system using programmer/SA terms.
My wife manages the IT change management group for a Fortune 500 company. The IT division is almost exclusively devoted to creating, maintaining, and frequently running third party logistics solutions (eg trucks & warehouses) for a variety of large and small customers. Any given change to a customer solution usually entails managing multiple independant 3rd party software packages, custom integration layers, in-house web tracking tools, and various servers and other hardware. Every customer is unique and all have their own customized solutions. Some changes have an effect across multiple customers and require extra handling. Individual customer requests (new features, bug fixes, or process changes) are handled by in-house project leads. The changes frequently require the coordination and participation of multiple internal and external groups: product vendors, developers, SAs, DBAs, logistics speciallists, customer support, QA, and so on. Most changes require multiple stages of internal and external approvals (sw change go through QA, hw changes go through tech review, etc). Some changes have to be coordinated across customers (ex. "no you can't bring that server down for customer ABC's upgrade this weekend, customer XYZ has to be up for end-of-month processing...").
My wife's team manages this mess by a) having a standard change management process that EVERY change goes through and b)using a home-grown web-based change management program that tracks the changes and sends out status emails (it is very similar to what StormShadw described above). It is critical that they manage all changes (hw, sw, config, etc) as well as possible. Otherwise, very unhappy customers take their millions of dollars a year worth of business to someone else.
When they were developing their change management web-tool several years ago, they looked around for off the shelf applications that could be customized to manage this nightmare. They didn't find anything that would manage a change through the whole development/deployment lifecycle for their varied and complex needs. So they built their own. It is kind of clunky (made by a part time intern over the course of a year), but it currently serves their needs.
I am glad to see so much discussion about this issue and the high number of recommendations for solutions. I plan on checking them out for my wife. However, please don't doubt that there is a BIG need for this kind of software for large businesses. Before my wife put the change management processes and tool in place, her company lost numerous clients because of botched changes. When you are talking about a big company's logistics systems going down, you are talking about them losing thousands of dollars a minute. The fact that so few companies have firm business processes and tools to support their IT change management, them tells me that most of them are relying far too much on "water-cooler and post-it note" tech management.
Block the call (several devices exist on the market to do this)
Use a cell phone and cancel your phone service. Most telemarketers avoid calling cell phones. (For now at least.)
Obviously I hit a nerve with you on what was supposed to be a helpful suggestion for citking. Lets go over your points then, shall we?
Don't Answer- Not an option if I am expecting an important phone call. Even if I'm not expecting a call, why should I take the additional time to screen telemarketing calls when a vastly better alternative exists: not getting them in the first place.
Hang up- while somewhat satisfying, hanging up doesn't prevent telemarketers from calling you again. Not being called by telemarketers at all seems the goal of at least 50 million Americans. Hanging up does not help accomplish this goal. That plus many people find it very difficult to hang up on someone, even an univited sales pitch. Telemarketers frequently take advantage of many peoples' reluctance to be rude
Block the call- What a novel concept. Now I get to pay money to block calls I shouldn't be getting in the first place on a phone I pay for. Additionally, this makes it very difficult to receive legitimate phone calls from people not on my pre-approved phone list. That plus there are known exploits used by telemarketers to get past call blocking (spoofing fire & police service numbers, which can't be blocked, etc). So this is a partial solution, which inconvieniences me and costs me money.
Use a cell phone and cancel cell service - Certainly this is an option for some, but for others it poses problems. For example, I if I live in a low signal area, now ALL my phone calls are lousy quality and are subject to frequent disconnects. Additionally, if the power goes out in the area (something that happens where I live frequently due to electrical storms, tornados, etc), then you have no way to call out for emergency services, to family (perhaps to let them know you are ok), your boss (gee I'll be late today my freezer is turning into a puddle), etc. Also, having a cell phone may reduce or prevent the number of telemarking calls I receive today, but what about tomorrow? Will telemarketers continue to leave these numbers alone? What's our guarantee?
Don't make me solve your problems. Don't make the government solve your problems. This "they are making me listen to them" whining plays right into the hands of people who would just love to run every element of your life.
Hmmm, how is my telling citking the best way to currently reduce the number of telemarketing calls he receives making you solve my problems? Unless you mean my support of a National Do Not Call List. In that case I see no reason why the United States government ("...of the People, by the People, for the People") cannot devote a meager amount of resources to addressing a problem that literally millions of Americans want fixed. Unwanted telemarketing calls are an irritating, timewasting, and an eminently fixable problem. It seems obvious that "We the People" want it fixed and are using our biggest bat to fix it.
If you think that having a national Do Not Call list and allowing fines to be levied against egregious violators somehow promotes a government Big Brother agenda and "plays right into the hands of people who would just love to run every element of your life", then I suggest you ask yourself exactly how is this going to be abused? This isn't some conspiracy agenda being promoted from above, it is 50+ million people complaining LOUDLY that they want this crap to stop NOW.
There are much better places to look for will-to-power and anti-freedom political agendas. The National Do Not Call list is not one of them.
I.V.
(ps. I went back and read my post, nary a whine to be found. civilized discourse about controversial topics is only harmed by unnecessary emotional characterizations)
I don't know about you, but for every telemarkerter that has called me I have always told them (right noff the bat, before their little spiel) that I do not buy anything over the phone and to please remove my name from the list. I then hang up. (BTW, these are the actions one should take to, in theory, be removed from a list. It doesn't always work, however).
The reason it doesn't work is they refresh their lists constantly. "Taking you off their list" means that particular telemarketer will cross your name off of the list they use for that particular client. The same telemarketer could call you an hour later for a different client. A few telemarketing firms are a bit more moral and actually cross your name off their list for all their clients. That's great, right up until they renew their list the next week. Then you are back on their list and the cycle continues.
A more effective approach is to ask them to put you on their do not call list. Each telemarketing firm is required to keep and use a do not call list. Unscrupulous telemarketing busnesses can call you anyway, but are subject to FCC fines, etc. After a few of these calls, you will see a reduction in the number of solicitous calls. It won't eliminate them, but it does help.
I still don't see how a National Do Not Call list violates their free speech rights. Implicit in the right of free speech is the right to walk away and not listen. Since they are calling us, a mandatory do not call list (national or otherwise) is our only real way of refusing to listen to their speech.
This is just one more example that 2001-2010 should be known as the "SHUT UP" Decade.
Of course they thought IBM would settle, or more likely that IBM would buy SCO outright. That's the Canopy Group's MO: buy/create small companies, pump up their apparent value (frequently via litigation), sell them to bigger companies.... Oh wait, this is/. I better format that correctly:
Canopy Group Business Plan
1. Buy/create small company
2. Pump up company's apparent value (frequently via litigation)
3. PROFIT! (aka sell it to bigger company)
The really irritating thing, is it seems to be working. Canopy is making loads of money.
So these unique, one-of-a-kind, human artifacts are unique because..... they have a number on them.
Guess what DeBeers is currently doing to 'protect' their diamonds against 'forgery'? They are etching the DeBeers logo into each diamond they sell.
Basically you just proved my thesis. Once it becomes impossible to distinguish between 'natural' (man-made) and machine made artifacts without a functionally unnecessary ornament, then you lose the ability to prop up the prices of goods. It won't matter one whit if the human made stuff has an unbreakable crypto signature on it. The price will fall to its natural 'floor'. The bell curve guarentees that (more people can 'afford' the non-human stuff, which sets the 'price').
Sure, there will always be some people that will pay 10x, 100x, 1000x or more for the 'unique' human made item. We see that today. People pay more just for a brand, when the identical generic sells for half the price or less. However, that equal quality generic holds down the price of the expensive name brand item. Just look at any market. Once an item becomes a commodity, the price falls. The only way to boost the price is make it 'unique' again by adding/changing features. This true for every product from hand soap to automobiles.
This commodity principle is true today and it will be true as we move into an Abundance-based civilization.
Rather than try to find ways to prop up old scarcity based economic models, it is much more interesting to think about what new types of economic forces will come into play when everything is almost literally dirt cheap.
Dead Wrong. They swear to uphold the Constitution, hence they swear to uphold the rights of Citizens defined in that Constitution. The following is the Oath given by EVERY agent of the FBI:
I do solemnly swear to support,
uphold and defend the Constitution of the United States of America against all enemies, foreign and domestic, to obey the lawful orders and directives of those appointed before and above me, and that I enter into this office without any mental reservation whatsoever, so help me GOD.
The damn slope is slippery enough lately without American Citizens holding their PUBLIC SERVANTS to their oaths.
It is their job to uphold, support, and defend the Constitution to the best of their abilities. It is the Citizens' job to make sure they do that job.
Here's the future. Nanotech makes nothing valuable except designs. AI makes computers 1000x more capable at designing than any humans. AI accumulate all things of value, humans are left with nothing. The only way around that I see is for humans to value things made by humans, and local humans at that. For example:
Treat original art as more valuable than copies, and art made locally (all other things being equal) is more valuable than art made elsewhere.
Treat handmade furniture, ornate building decorations, one-of-a-kind tilings as valuable. The property of being made by a human and having no other copies makes things valuable.
You just described 90% of the 'Vickies' socio-economic philosophy in Stephenson's The Diamond Age.
Its a nice idea, but one that is subject to a variant of the "Prisoner's Dilema". Basically, when someone is able to flawlessly mimic "human" artifacts, then the value of unique artifacts will diminish over time and will eventually reach the minimum profitable price.
Want an example of what it will be like? Just watch how the whole Manufactured Diamonds vs. DeBeer's Cartel story plays out over the next 20 years.
I leave how Linux/OSS is currently devaluing Windows/CSS as an exercise for the reader.
One of the things I enjoyed about Vinge's use of the USENET-like posts was how he subtly mixed grains of truth and insight into some of the posts.
From the readers perspective, it is easy to see which posts were on the right track and which ones were utter nonsense. It offered an interesting perspective on how garbled or wrong information could have unexpected and dangerous consequences (unprovoked attacks on innocents, etc).
It was particularly facinating to read the posts on the "Hexapodia..." thread go from garbled facts to a dead-on analysis of the situation.
Slashdot Mirror
It all went down hill (pardon the pun) after he broke his back in a hang gliding accident. It was about the same time he got married to (if memory serves) a truly grasping, condescending, politically correct "intellectual" snob wife who radically influenced his strip.
His strips started losing their innocent anarchy. They got progressively more and more nasty, then they started getting weird, although his subconcious seemed to be screaming for help via the Steve Dallas character: Steve had his brain inverted by aliens and he turned into an ever more strange tofu-eating, flower hugging oddball. It was like he was parodying himself and screaming for help.
I attended a Breathed lecture when he was at the height of his strip and his talent. It was one of the most informative and funny 2 hours I've ever spent.
Then he lost it.
Hope he does well with OPUS.
"Hacker's as a rule do not handle obsolesence well."
nuts who lost their train of though at the slightest unexpected noise
Or there will be a huge upsurge in the sales of iPods.
And what the hell were those elves doing at helm's Deep??
Elves? I thought those guys were the Vulcan Olympic Archery Team.
You know a movie has jumped the shark when they put up a serious scene and you reflexively think "How is Picard going to get them out of this one?"
It's a commonly repeated manta that you can't understand something until you have broken it.
"He who breaks something to find out what it is has lost the path to wisdom" -- Gandalf.
(of course Tolkien WAS a bit of Luddite)
Cheers,
I.V.
It's a warning to other potential investors, invest in SCO and endure the gaze of IBM's army of lawyers.
I like it. Call it the "IBM Basilisk Effect" - watch your potential investors turn into stone when IBM lawyers look at them.
You forgot:
- Danger, Will Robinson
- SMA (Shiny Metal A**)
- We Might be Iron Giants
- Robbie and the Robot Monsters
- Fembotica
- EXTERMINATE! EXTERMINATE! (if you count cyborg bands)
- Blown Diode
- Protocol Droids
- Infinite Loop (a "IF Ready THEN Rock ELSE Next" cover band)
- Power Cell
And of course:
- Klaatu Barada Nikto
He must, because:
What's wrong with NTFS?
It doesn't force people into functionally unnecessary upgrades which keep MS profits high, that's what's wrong with it.
"Microsoft - We force you to upgrade because We Care (about our profits)".
I certainly agree that money is not necessarily a measure of success. However the sad truth in Tesla's case is that he couldn't realize so many of his truly fantastic ideas because of a lack of funds. He made one truly bone-headed monetary mistake which fundamentally altered the course of his later life and probably that of the world as well.
In 1888, Tesla had a licensing contract with George Westinghouse for his poly-phase alternating current generator/motor patents. When the men signed the original agreement it gave Tesla a per horsepower royalty payment on all generators and motors produced by Westinghouse. The amount of the royalty is not known for sure, but it has been speculated it was anywhere from 10 cents to $2.50 per horsepower, with most believing it was around $1.00 per horsepower. At the time of the contract, it was no big deal: they hadn't won the Niagra Falls or Columbia Exposition contracts yet.
When Westinghouse started winning the "current wars" against Edison (a truly Gates-sian manipulator if their ever was one), the royalty terms were projected to be a huge financial burden for Westinghouse Electric. George Westinghouse's accountant types basically forced him to go back to Tesla to see if they could renegotiate the agreement.
That original agreement was basically a formalized "hand shake" deal between two men who admired each other. So it isn't surprising that when George Westinghouse went literally hat in hand to his friend Nikola Tesla, Tesla waved his request off and TORE UP THE CONTRACT. Tesla essentially gave Westinghouse the AC power system used world wide for free. Tesla died penniless in the 1940s after decades of publicising ever more bizarre preditions and ideas in the hope of gaining investors. Some of his most brilliant ideas never were realized or were created decades later by others, because of his lack of funds:
wireless power/voice/image broadcasting
remote controlled vehicles
compact personal VTOL aircraft
electro-mechanical resonators
electrical logic gates
and so on.
Even if Tesla had renegotiated the Westinghouse license for royalty of a fraction of a cent per horsepower, he probably would have been the richest person in the world by early 1900s, and we would probably be at least 30 years ahead technologically.
I.V.
You forgot to add: Godspeed, Yang Liwei
Thanks for the link to Roundup. I plan on checking it out for my wife and her change management group. Just a brief glance at the web site reveals two major pluses (at least to me) for Roundup: 1) its OSS and 2) its written in Python.
I think you are right that most ticket tracking systems will meet the needs for most businesses, including the one I described in my earlier post. I think the key, and where OSS really shines, is that if customization is needed then you can change it to what you want and need.
I know the biggest thing my wife's company uses their "home grown" system for is to help enforce a uniform and structured change process for the whole IT division. So obviously whatever tracking tool they use has to be tailored to her company's specific needs and eccentricities. For her change management group and the division as a whole, the important part is the "here's how we make changes" process and not necessarily "here is the tool we use to track changes". Customized tracking software just helps them follow their change management process better AND helps them to enforce the change process better.
The great thing about this discussion thread is I now have a big list of various tracking software to check out and show my wife, so that perhaps her company can move to a more robust and capable tool than what they are using now.
Thanks again for your response to my comments and the link to the Roundup page.
Cheers,
I.V.
Perhaps because he needs a tool that is more oriented toward change management at the business level instead of a simply a tool to track bug fixes and requests. His words:
It sounds like his real problem is not the "I need a request tracker" but is more like "our business needs a clear process to manage IT changes AND it would be nice to have most of it automated." If I am reading his descriptions right, he is trying to describe an enterprise change management system using programmer/SA terms.
My wife manages the IT change management group for a Fortune 500 company. The IT division is almost exclusively devoted to creating, maintaining, and frequently running third party logistics solutions (eg trucks & warehouses) for a variety of large and small customers. Any given change to a customer solution usually entails managing multiple independant 3rd party software packages, custom integration layers, in-house web tracking tools, and various servers and other hardware. Every customer is unique and all have their own customized solutions. Some changes have an effect across multiple customers and require extra handling. Individual customer requests (new features, bug fixes, or process changes) are handled by in-house project leads. The changes frequently require the coordination and participation of multiple internal and external groups: product vendors, developers, SAs, DBAs, logistics speciallists, customer support, QA, and so on. Most changes require multiple stages of internal and external approvals (sw change go through QA, hw changes go through tech review, etc). Some changes have to be coordinated across customers (ex. "no you can't bring that server down for customer ABC's upgrade this weekend, customer XYZ has to be up for end-of-month processing...").
My wife's team manages this mess by a) having a standard change management process that EVERY change goes through and b)using a home-grown web-based change management program that tracks the changes and sends out status emails (it is very similar to what StormShadw described above). It is critical that they manage all changes (hw, sw, config, etc) as well as possible. Otherwise, very unhappy customers take their millions of dollars a year worth of business to someone else.
When they were developing their change management web-tool several years ago, they looked around for off the shelf applications that could be customized to manage this nightmare. They didn't find anything that would manage a change through the whole development/deployment lifecycle for their varied and complex needs. So they built their own. It is kind of clunky (made by a part time intern over the course of a year), but it currently serves their needs.
I am glad to see so much discussion about this issue and the high number of recommendations for solutions. I plan on checking them out for my wife. However, please don't doubt that there is a BIG need for this kind of software for large businesses. Before my wife put the change management processes and tool in place, her company lost numerous clients because of botched changes. When you are talking about a big company's logistics systems going down, you are talking about them losing thousands of dollars a minute. The fact that so few companies have firm business processes and tools to support their IT change management, them tells me that most of them are relying far too much on "water-cooler and post-it note" tech management.
Cheers,
I.V.
Thanks for the info!
Don't answer
Hang up
Block the call (several devices exist on the market to do this)
Use a cell phone and cancel your phone service. Most telemarketers avoid calling cell phones. (For now at least.)
Obviously I hit a nerve with you on what was supposed to be a helpful suggestion for citking. Lets go over your points then, shall we?
Don't Answer- Not an option if I am expecting an important phone call. Even if I'm not expecting a call, why should I take the additional time to screen telemarketing calls when a vastly better alternative exists: not getting them in the first place.
Hang up- while somewhat satisfying, hanging up doesn't prevent telemarketers from calling you again. Not being called by telemarketers at all seems the goal of at least 50 million Americans. Hanging up does not help accomplish this goal. That plus many people find it very difficult to hang up on someone, even an univited sales pitch. Telemarketers frequently take advantage of many peoples' reluctance to be rude
Block the call- What a novel concept. Now I get to pay money to block calls I shouldn't be getting in the first place on a phone I pay for. Additionally, this makes it very difficult to receive legitimate phone calls from people not on my pre-approved phone list. That plus there are known exploits used by telemarketers to get past call blocking (spoofing fire & police service numbers, which can't be blocked, etc). So this is a partial solution, which inconvieniences me and costs me money.
Use a cell phone and cancel cell service - Certainly this is an option for some, but for others it poses problems. For example, I if I live in a low signal area, now ALL my phone calls are lousy quality and are subject to frequent disconnects. Additionally, if the power goes out in the area (something that happens where I live frequently due to electrical storms, tornados, etc), then you have no way to call out for emergency services, to family (perhaps to let them know you are ok), your boss (gee I'll be late today my freezer is turning into a puddle), etc. Also, having a cell phone may reduce or prevent the number of telemarking calls I receive today, but what about tomorrow? Will telemarketers continue to leave these numbers alone? What's our guarantee?
Don't make me solve your problems. Don't make the government solve your problems. This "they are making me listen to them" whining plays right into the hands of people who would just love to run every element of your life.
Hmmm, how is my telling citking the best way to currently reduce the number of telemarketing calls he receives making you solve my problems? Unless you mean my support of a National Do Not Call List. In that case I see no reason why the United States government ("...of the People, by the People, for the People") cannot devote a meager amount of resources to addressing a problem that literally millions of Americans want fixed. Unwanted telemarketing calls are an irritating, timewasting, and an eminently fixable problem. It seems obvious that "We the People" want it fixed and are using our biggest bat to fix it.
If you think that having a national Do Not Call list and allowing fines to be levied against egregious violators somehow promotes a government Big Brother agenda and "plays right into the hands of people who would just love to run every element of your life", then I suggest you ask yourself exactly how is this going to be abused? This isn't some conspiracy agenda being promoted from above, it is 50+ million people complaining LOUDLY that they want this crap to stop NOW.
There are much better places to look for will-to-power and anti-freedom political agendas. The National Do Not Call list is not one of them.
I.V.
(ps. I went back and read my post, nary a whine to be found. civilized discourse about controversial topics is only harmed by unnecessary emotional characterizations)
The reason it doesn't work is they refresh their lists constantly. "Taking you off their list" means that particular telemarketer will cross your name off of the list they use for that particular client. The same telemarketer could call you an hour later for a different client. A few telemarketing firms are a bit more moral and actually cross your name off their list for all their clients. That's great, right up until they renew their list the next week. Then you are back on their list and the cycle continues.
A more effective approach is to ask them to put you on their do not call list. Each telemarketing firm is required to keep and use a do not call list. Unscrupulous telemarketing busnesses can call you anyway, but are subject to FCC fines, etc. After a few of these calls, you will see a reduction in the number of solicitous calls. It won't eliminate them, but it does help.
I still don't see how a National Do Not Call list violates their free speech rights. Implicit in the right of free speech is the right to walk away and not listen. Since they are calling us, a mandatory do not call list (national or otherwise) is our only real way of refusing to listen to their speech.
This is just one more example that 2001-2010 should be known as the "SHUT UP" Decade.
Cheers,
I.V.
Of course they thought IBM would settle, or more likely that IBM would buy SCO outright. That's the Canopy Group's MO: buy/create small companies, pump up their apparent value (frequently via litigation), sell them to bigger companies.... Oh wait, this is /. I better format that correctly:
Canopy Group Business Plan
1. Buy/create small company
2. Pump up company's apparent value (frequently via litigation)
3. PROFIT! (aka sell it to bigger company)
The really irritating thing, is it seems to be working. Canopy is making loads of money.
Thanks for the link. Nice to see Buckley is still a twit and still completely misses the point.
Glad I'm not the only one who flashed on that when I heard he was running.
I wonder what his position on manned missions to Mars is? Archeology? Psychic Research?
Also, if anybody ever sees President Clark doodling the words 'Scorched Earth' then we are screwed.
Appologies in advance but I flashed on something when I read it.
I know what Dave Barry would say about this: "Briefcase Full of FUD would be a great name for a rock band."
So these unique, one-of-a-kind, human artifacts are unique because..... they have a number on them.
Guess what DeBeers is currently doing to 'protect' their diamonds against 'forgery'? They are etching the DeBeers logo into each diamond they sell.
Basically you just proved my thesis. Once it becomes impossible to distinguish between 'natural' (man-made) and machine made artifacts without a functionally unnecessary ornament, then you lose the ability to prop up the prices of goods. It won't matter one whit if the human made stuff has an unbreakable crypto signature on it. The price will fall to its natural 'floor'. The bell curve guarentees that (more people can 'afford' the non-human stuff, which sets the 'price').
Sure, there will always be some people that will pay 10x, 100x, 1000x or more for the 'unique' human made item. We see that today. People pay more just for a brand, when the identical generic sells for half the price or less. However, that equal quality generic holds down the price of the expensive name brand item. Just look at any market. Once an item becomes a commodity, the price falls. The only way to boost the price is make it 'unique' again by adding/changing features. This true for every product from hand soap to automobiles.
This commodity principle is true today and it will be true as we move into an Abundance-based civilization.
Rather than try to find ways to prop up old scarcity based economic models, it is much more interesting to think about what new types of economic forces will come into play when everything is almost literally dirt cheap.
Dead Wrong. They swear to uphold the Constitution, hence they swear to uphold the rights of Citizens defined in that Constitution. The following is the Oath given by EVERY agent of the FBI:
The damn slope is slippery enough lately without American Citizens holding their PUBLIC SERVANTS to their oaths.
It is their job to uphold, support, and defend the Constitution to the best of their abilities. It is the Citizens' job to make sure they do that job.
Who guards the guardians? WE DO!
Its a nice idea, but one that is subject to a variant of the "Prisoner's Dilema". Basically, when someone is able to flawlessly mimic "human" artifacts, then the value of unique artifacts will diminish over time and will eventually reach the minimum profitable price.
Want an example of what it will be like? Just watch how the whole Manufactured Diamonds vs. DeBeer's Cartel story plays out over the next 20 years.
I leave how Linux/OSS is currently devaluing Windows/CSS as an exercise for the reader.
Yes, too true. After all, Uruk-Hai will only split your body in two and eat you alive.
IBM Lawyers do that AND chew on your immortal soul for all eternity. Then they get REALLY nasty!
One of the things I enjoyed about Vinge's use of the USENET-like posts was how he subtly mixed grains of truth and insight into some of the posts.
From the readers perspective, it is easy to see which posts were on the right track and which ones were utter nonsense. It offered an interesting perspective on how garbled or wrong information could have unexpected and dangerous consequences (unprovoked attacks on innocents, etc).
It was particularly facinating to read the posts on the "Hexapodia..." thread go from garbled facts to a dead-on analysis of the situation.
Great book by one of the modern SF masters.