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How is she related to this story?

Well my comment was half in jest, but No Logo talks at length about the encroachment of megabrands into everyday life, and the replacement of the "public sphere" with controlled spaces that conform to the brand's image.

In this case, while the Apple Concert Hall may superficially look like just another music venue (many of which are privately owned in their own right, obviously). But its musical programme will almost surely follow a different set of guiding principles, in conformance to how Apple wants to project their brand to consumers. And the goal itself of hosting live music performances takes second stage (heh) compared to that of marketing them for streaming consumption. Speaking of which: it's not mentioned in the article, but I would be _extremely_ surprised if Apple didn't make this move with Vision users in mind.


There's nothing stopping you from charging money for FOSS software. Sell the first one for as much as it cost to write it.

I assume you mean "sell it before you open source it."

If you found one willing buyer while it was still closed source, odds are there are others. Why deprive yourself of additional income? Open sourcing does happen from closed source, but usually that's long after the income stream has exhausted itself (see, e.g., https://github.com/microsoft/ms-dos).


Or before you make it. Lots of folks get paid to make open source- they are employees, contractors, and creators with patrons who pay them to create.

Honestly, there's a real elegance to this model.

I'd argue the best possible model for goods that have no marginal costs (aka IP) is the "pay me to create it" model.

As in, let a creator decide how much they value creating the work. Then pay them that to create it - then release it free for everyone.

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No ridiculous societal restraints that cost time and money to enforce (poorly) as IP law. Compensation is happening. Creating is encouraged.

Practical constraints make it unlikely we'll get much closer to this than Kickstarter (and equivalents) but it's a very honest model, that works with intellectual property by default.


I think Kickstarter and similar are a great model for creating open source software. It's more problematic for maintaining it. It could work for some features and bugs, but it doesn't scale down super well (maybe have campaigns for a packet of related features and bugs?), and more importantly it isn't great to have security fixes dependent on a successful funding campaign.

There's nothing stopping you, true. But I think you will find that nobody is going to buy software for whatever thousands of dollars it took you to make it. So the limitation in this case is a practical one, not a legal or moral one.

I can't possibly take this at face value since it's obvious that people (businesses) pay others many tens or hundreds of thousands and millions of dollars to build software for them. So, what do you really mean?

That suggests there's never been a viable market for commercial software at all, which is obviously wrong.

That's kind of black and white thinking though. No one is going to pay a million dollars for QuickBooks, but a lot of people paid several hundreds. Just because no one pays you to develop a new QuickBooks (at least pre LLM), doesn't mean there's not a market there.

Isn't that the whole point of crowdfunding platforms like kickstarter?

Developer presents the idea and how much it costs. If enough people pitch in, then the idea is funded, the developer gets the money as a lump sum and can turn the idea into reality.

Why did this model fail?


Okay, then sell it until you make a million bucks then open source it.

Are you aware of what FOSS stands for?

You know that F stands for free as in freedom not beer?

News articles to this effect have been popping up occasionally for the past 20 years at least. So the economics don't seem to stack up. At least not yet; but if oil gets a bit dearer...

They really are being built and used commercially. Probably incentives play a part in this, but their numbers are slowly increasing, so it's not totally vaporware (of course we don't need new articles every ~6 month talking about how amazing this technique is) [0]

[0] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rotor_ship#Modern_vessels


Some of these sails claim 10% fuel reduction, which is ~5% operational cost, or ~150k per trip to spend on some tubes of metal or sheets of cloth.

I've seen a few articles about Norsepower (mentioned in the top article) validating the shipboard measurement equipment meant to confirm how much is actively being saved by their sails. I haven't seen any hard numbers on what the actual savings are, but they've had at least one ship (Chinook Oldendorff) with sails since at least 2024. So hopefully the public will get some concrete numbers on how much is saved.

Given the increasing number of companies that are mentioned as upcoming partners for actual installations, it might be that they've finally been able to convince shippers that wind power is viable for cost savings.


Is that 10% best case or average case? Also, what's the capex on the the sails, and what's the additional opex (training, maintenance)? Not trying to pooh-pooh the idea, but as said, I've seen articles like this regularly for decades, and it hasn't become the norm, so I'd figure there's a reason for that.

Sorry, typo, and unclear. I meant to say fuel is ~50% operational cost.

Why can't they pump more water down there to create pressure?

Not quite sure of the intent, but I have variously thought of starting a business based on an idea or gap in the market I could fill with my coding skills... only to realise running a business is not fun at all. Even getting an app published in the app store (and maintaining it) is a level of boredom I can't be bothered with. So maybe that's a use case. Of course, nowadays the coding part will be done by an agent too, so I guess it's just the initial idea?

I use the coding tools in my business. I wouldn’t for a moment suggest those tools are capable of “running” a business and I think it is disingenuous to suggest so.

Sure, but it's only disingenuous until someone does it. Maybe this isn't it, ok. Better to criticize it on specific grounds of failure.

I guess it comes down to definition of “running”. Maybe running means automating some number of functions. I read it initially as running as a CEO does, which includes a whole lot more.

Interesting; in Australia I'm using exclusively 4G with no problems

Same in NZ. I don't need the extra speed of 5G if it's even available and would rather have the extra battery life.

"the mountain in the sea" is recent sci fi that deals with this idea.


Cleanliness is overrated. Sure, it's great for surgery and if you actually have a wound, but your immune system needs pathogens to train on, or it does silly things like attacking your body, or reacting to pollens.


It civilized to live in a clean home instead of a dirty mess. Life is not just about maximizing your survival rate.


What does 'civilized' mean? Usage here seems to be another way to express your own biases. I consider myself civilized, and have a rich and meaningful life, but my house is much less clean than many. I prefer to spend my time and money on things other than being clean and tidy (beyond a basic level of functionality)


Stop washing your hands and showering and see how that goes. I'm not advocating for fab level cleanliness, just a certain level of it.


That's how a real plane's control works, so many games do the same.


Yeah, that makes sense. I've never flown a plane or played this kind of game before, so it felt a bit unusual to me at first.


Indeed. Trim wheels when rolled upward trim for higher speed, i.e. nose down.

Wait, this agrees with GP's experience but not mine. Did OP invert it?


This is only to make getting a fix faster - A-GPS downloads the almanac data via the internet (fast, but needs internet) instead of directly from the GPS satellites (slow but works everywhere). It doesn't make it any more accurate.


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