Favorite Files

No favorite files added yet

Recent Posts

1. Comment - AOL Marshals Troops Against MS XP Offensive

   (May 6, 2001 - 1:34 PM)

   Unfortunately the unsavvy masses are being catered to. Just as automobiles aren't marketed soley to mechanics but unmechanical masses. This is why Midas does so well. Changing your front disc brakes is easy as hell but it's scary because if you screw up your car won't stop. Likewise I might screw up my new computer I just bought for $2000. I don't have the money just to burn. That is why these products exist. They do the 'work' to bring the layperson technology. They should be compensated, just like your automechanic.
   
   What AOL and Microsoft do isn't smart business. What are their business goals?
   To make as much profit as possible.
   To grow their business to capture the entire market.
   To expand into others areas and ultimately become the government.
   
   By the last statement I mean that given the opportunity that they will expand until MStores put Wal-Mart out of business. Until they control all aspects of your life. Providing total solutions for the human being that is convient and value added.
   
   Let us take the scenario of Wal-Mart as a autonomous community. It has a cafeteria, clothing, entertainment, plants, pets, books, barber/beauty salon, eye doctor, dry cleaners and EMPLOYMENT OPPERTUNITIES. Build an apartment complex onto it to live in and Wal-Mart becomes your one stop source for life. The biggest thing offered by Wal-Mart is security. I can get everything I need and have my worries taken care of. Store policy is broadened and would transition into my government. After all I don't want to be expelled from the community.
   
   Extreme? Yes. Can is happen? Yes.
   Corporate management in place of the bulky bumbling goverment.
   Show me the value.
   
   What is smart business is what is good for the community. What is good for your children. Make the world a better place to live. We've seem to forgotten this. Would you want to live your life according business models? I think not. So why should you run a business that way?
   
   You are correct when you say that the average joe-user only wants a few things. They are not going to take the time to learn Linux. Just like my brother won't do his own brakes. The difference is that what we spend our money on has changed.
   
   We used to work to provide food and housing. In the 1920s we started working for luxury items (car, washing machine, refrigerator). Technology made it possible to obtain food cheaply and readily. In the 1960s we made another change. We started spending most of our money on entertainment. TV is a huge success and video games (Atari), VCRs are right around the corner. Now media/entertainment rules our industry. Enter the Information Age. I can now get all my entertainment from a computer. Music, video, games, human interaction (online chat) are now possible from my house. People as a whole are now very lazy not having to work very hard for the basics of life. Technology is now driving our economics. When auto makers don't make sales expectations the stock market doesn't die anymore. When Microsoft takes a loss, EVERYTHING takes a loss.
   
   This in addition to the nature of the corporate business model evolving into the extremely controlling mechanism it is today equals a new breed of company.
   
   They are setting up technology and more importantly the law to totally control the consumer.
   
   It is not a matter of AOL and Microsoft squaring off against each other. It is the principle of a corporation driving out competition and forcing consumers to take what is offered.
   
   This is something that is attacking our democracy and constitution.
   
   Short term solution: Use Linux.
   
   Long term solution: So some interest for law-making and get involved in YOUR government, before it's outsourced in a value-stream.

2. Comment - AOL Marshals Troops Against MS XP Offensive

   (May 6, 2001 - 12:52 PM)

   Communism is the foundation upon which other 'harsher' forms of government have been built on, i.e. dictatorship, totalitarian.
   
   The reality is that any form of government works. It is the people in the government that determine if it is 'evil' or ineffective. Some of the best governments have been monarchies or other centrally controlled governments.
   
   One benevolent dictator is massively more effective than hundreds of well-intentioned congressmen.

3. Comment - AOL Marshals Troops Against MS XP Offensive

   (May 6, 2001 - 12:39 PM)

   Everyone is aghast at the Evil Empire (Microsoft) taking over all software applications and ultimately controlling the universe.
   What you fail to understand is that AOL wants to do the EXACT SAME THING. They want to be your total one stop solution for all online activity. They both are equally evil.
   
   Make no mistake. AOL is not innocent and will rise up as an Evil Empire if given the opportunity. They might be a victim in this case but I feel no pity for them.
   
   We'll probably see a lot of lawsuits akin to the whole "Netscape Fiasco" and nothing will come out of it. Microsoft IS a monopoly and SHOULD break up. I see this happening when the National Guard moves into Redmond forcing the issue.
   
   The problem is the new American dream of dominating the marketplace instead of having a business and returning a 10% profit to live.
   Corporate greed will make slaves of us all.