Being a Blog of Uncertain Purpose
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dblplusbitter's LiveJournal:
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| Saturday, May 30th, 2009 | | 5:53 pm |
What is the Windows operating system worth, in monetary terms? "Nothing. It sucks." Ha, ha, ha. We've all had the snarky laugh. But seriously, what is the worth of the Windows operating system? It seems to me that any time tech web sites do a "system builder guide" they always price hardware alone. To some extent this seems reasonable. Isn't that how system builders go about pricing their systems? When people I know price building a computer vs ordering one, they look up stats from Dell and then price out comparable hardware. Buying from Newegg or some such similar almost always wins out. But usually these people completely ignore the price of the operating system. I wonder, is that fair? The logical response, I suppose, would be to say, "Linux (effectively) costs nothing, so that's what operating systems are worth. Windows has a value of $0." But I'm not convinced this is true. I've got nothing against Linux. I really don't. But Linux doesn't do a lot of the things I want it to do. Specifically, it doesn't run Microsoft Office. Yes, there's OpenOffice. Yes, OpenOffice does most of the stuff that MS Office does. I'm also told its largely compatible and bug-free, with comparable features. The problem is, I need some of the features available in MS Word that aren't yet available in OO Writer. I regularly use MS Word's commenting and change tracking features. These are features that make and break the software for me. I can't give them up. So Open Office isn't actually a viable alternative. From is point-of-view, the Windows operating system must have some kind of worth to me. I must need it for something. There may be couches left on the side of the road that I could drag into my apartment, but that doesn't make the value of new furniture in showrooms $0. Companies can hire unpaid college interns, but does that mean that an MBA with 12 years of industry experience should get $0/year? Windows is a funny sort of software; on its own it does nothing. It really exists only to make the computer's hardware functional. But without an operating system, the hardware is non-functional. An operating system run on crappy hardware results in crappy computing. But superior hardware without an operating system doesn't compute at all. Maybe I could judge the worth of Windows more effectively if I had other monetary benchmarks, but I don't have any. OS X is included with all Macs. Its cost is folded into the infamous "Apple Tax." Linux is largely free. I'm not even sure what other operating systems I should be considering. In the end, the cost of operating systems is almost entirely transparent to buyers. I wonder if that's why so few people think twice about pirating copies of Windows. Let the public think that your software is worthless, and they'll happily go along with the idea. | | Friday, May 29th, 2009 | | 7:48 pm |
I've been seeing a lot of conversations online about cell phones recently. Maybe that's because the iPhone is reportedly going to get an upgrade in June, or because the Palm Pre is also due for release in June. Either way, it sounds like lots of people are unhappy with exclusive carrier contracts. "Palm is making a huge mistake," I hear a lot. "Their decision to have Sprint be the exclusive carrier for the Pre is good for Palm, and good for Sprint, but it's terrible for consumers! I should be able to get whatever phone I want on my carrier. I don't want to switch." Now, I'm all for ethical action. I also believe that corporations have moral duties similar to (but not exactly the same as) those of individuals. But I wonder, where's the reciprocity? Where are the internet nerds complaining, "This wouldn't be fair to Sprint!" and "That wouldn't be fair to Palm!" Indeed, is anybody ever concerned with whether or not anything is fair to a corporation? I keep reading stories about net neutrality and metered billing. They all say about the same thing: Corporations are just thinking about the bottom line. They're not acting in the customer's best interest. They're not doing what's morally right. I'm at least sympathetic to the general line of reasoning. I can appreciate the idea that we should all (corporate entities included) treat each other as ends and not merely as a means. That is to say, we should recognize that we owe each other moral obligations and cannot simply use each other to get what we want. But doesn't that treatment go both ways? It would be unethical to presume that corporations owe individuals moral duties without individuals owing equitable moral duties to corporations. "But I pay for what I buy," people will say. But is that enough? Corporations render services. When I sign a contract with Sprint, they provide me with cell phone service. The contract doesn't specify that they need to refrain from entering into exclusive carrier deals that prohibit others from getting certain phones. If we want to enter into a moral argument about extra-contractual obligations (that is to say, the broader social implications of their actions) then moral duties must be reciprocal. We as individuals must ask, "If I want to change my carrier service to AT&T to get an iPhone, is that going to be good for Sprint? And how can I feel--morally--about that decision?" I'm fine with invoking moral arguments. Really, I am. But those who play the "moral righteousness" card had better be prepared to play the entire hand. | | Sunday, April 12th, 2009 | | 4:45 pm |
Easter again. Still no chocolate bunny. | | Friday, February 13th, 2009 | | 12:42 am |
I'm not sure if any of you have heard, but Realms of Fantasy is closing down. The April issue is going to be their last. I'm sad, of course. Tonight I went through my issues of Realms and read all of the stories I've published in them: The Rain God, Time Tells All, The Self-Fulfilling Prophet, and Somebody Desperately Needed to be Neil Gaiman. It was a little funny to read some of those stories. It's been so long since I wrote some of them. But I loved writing each one, and I loved reading them over again. At the risk of being an utter narcissistic ass, they're good fiction. | | Tuesday, February 3rd, 2009 | | 12:24 am |
Today I made a list of all of the things that I hate. It was about as long as you'd think. | | Monday, January 5th, 2009 | | 12:52 am |
| | Monday, December 15th, 2008 | | 1:17 am |
It occurred to me today that Christmas is coming up, and many of you will be all happy and joyous and whatever the hell else you people decide to be. My cup runneth empty. This holiday season, don't even expect hate from me. Hate would require me to acknowledge your existence, and I can't even be bothered to do that. If anybody needs me, I'll be sulking in the corner. | | Friday, November 28th, 2008 | | 10:27 pm |
Today I decided that I will make "slush" my new favorite curse word. | | Sunday, November 16th, 2008 | | 2:32 pm |
I realized that I haven't been blogging much lately, so I figured I ought to post something--anything--to justify still having this thing. Yesterday I bought a cream pie. The placard at the store said it was $4.49 but when I got home I saw that the receipt said it was $5.99. Now I just can't bring myself to eat the pie. How could it possibly be worth $6? $4.50? That I would've believed. But now the pie needs to be 33% better. That's a lot to ask out of a pie. But what's to be done about it? | | Sunday, October 12th, 2008 | | 11:38 pm |
They issued the chocolate ration today. 42g. And not that I mean to complain, but I thought the chocolate ration was supposed to be... well... chocolate. It turns out that the chocolate ration for this week is a peanut butter cup. So it's actually more peanut butter than chocolate. All I'm trying to say is, if they wanted it to be a candy ration, they could've said so. There's nothing wrong with a candy ration. I happen to think a candy ration is right good. But if you're going to say it's a chocolate ration, then there ought be chocolate! Anyway, I've not yet eaten the ration. It's got to last me all week. Maybe I'll eat a quarter of it tomorrow. Or I may save it for later in the week. Maybe Wednesday or Thursday. | | Saturday, October 11th, 2008 | | 8:42 pm |
Well, I suppose there's always ice cream. | | Tuesday, October 7th, 2008 | | 3:48 pm |
Let's Play a Stupid Game
What's the best thing that happened to you all day? I'll go first. The best thing that happened to me all day was getting a shipment of 50 lbs of printer paper. | | Sunday, October 5th, 2008 | | 9:42 pm |
Oh my gods, it's Monday tomorrow. I don't know if I'm ready for a Monday so soon. How about we just call tomorrow... Friday? Friday works better for me. | | Saturday, October 4th, 2008 | | 4:26 pm |
I was talking to a friend earlier today, and she said something that I didn't want to be true. So, like the good philosopher I am, I argued against it. A few minutes after we spoke, I felt obligated to apply a Kantian Categorical Imperative-style analysis on my argument. After doing so I had to admit that she was right. Not because my logic was wrong, but because I didn't fundamentally believe what I'd said. I only wanted to believe it. I wonder, why is it that people find being wrong so distasteful? People are wrong all the time. We're probably all wrong about something every day. You'd think that after literally thousands of instances where we're wrong, we'd get used to it. But I'm not convinced that we ever do get used to it. Why is that? | | Thursday, October 2nd, 2008 | | 6:55 pm |
I was under the impression that there would be cake. | | Tuesday, September 30th, 2008 | | 2:29 pm |
I think Netflix is throttling me. This morning my queue said, "We expect to ship your next available movie today." And now it says, "We expect to ship your next available movie Wednesday." The top five discs on my queue all say they're available now. Why am I waiting until Wednesday? Damn you, Netflix! | | Thursday, September 25th, 2008 | | 11:57 pm |
Is it Christmas Yet?
Things that I want: 1) Oreo cookies. 2) French fries. 3) Ice cream. 4) Fried chicken. 5) New laptop. 6) Lemon squares. 7) Shortbread. 8) Jell-O. 9) Marble cake. | | 8:09 pm |
Things That I Would Like To Do
1) Unleash my ever-living anger upon Netflix. Oh my gods. So, I returned 2 DVDs on Wednesday. And I did this so that on Friday I'd get the last 2 volumes of The Melancholy of Haruhi Suzumiya. The discs should've come just in time for the weekend. Perfect plan, right? Only Netflix decided to send me V3 from somewhere in California, so it won't get here until Monday! And V4 is getting here Friday. So now I have to either watch out of order, or just not watch anything at all this weekend. What the hell, Netflix? Did you plan it this way? Did you know? I'd like to think that I'm too small and insignificant a person to warrant somebody at Netflix screwing with me. And yet, this is a perfect way for Netflix to stop me from watching DVDs for a while. What do you folks think I should do: Watch Haruhi out of order, or wait until Monday? | | Monday, September 22nd, 2008 | | 5:56 pm |
After looking at the market action today, I decided that it's time to look into moving my investments to something that'll lose value a little more slowly. Say, a new laptop. | | Sunday, September 21st, 2008 | | 11:30 pm |
I don't know what it is about today, but I cannot stop eating. This morning I ate some leftover potatoes and chicken. For lunch I went to Burger King and ate a Whopper and some onion rings. After that I ate some noodles for dinner, a big cup of ice cream, and followed it up with cake. And I still sort of want to eat something. It's as many calories as I usually eat in 2 days, yet I still want more. Weird, huh? |
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