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On Sat, 17 Apr 2010 12:58:43 +0100, Orchid XP v8 wrote:
> Jim Henderson wrote:
>
>> There's a value proposition that has to be offset.
>
> I have no idea what this accounting jargon means.
Which is amazing, because I'm not an accountant.
Stuff costs money. In order to afford stuff, you have to have money.
Same principle for a business - if they want to build something, they
have to figure out how to pay for it. When they figure out how to pay
for it, they have to look at what it costs and see if they can offset the
cost with revenue.
>>> You would *think* making MathReader free would benefit Wolfram, but
>>> apparently not...
>>
>> It depends on the business analysis. Wolfram might well have concluded
>> that not enough people need the reader to make it worthwhile, or that
>> the number of people paying for the creation software wouldn't offset
>> the development costs.
>
> I should point out that MathReader is simply Mathematica with a few
> features turned off. The "development costs" should be minimal. (They
> probably spend more on testing it to make sure the requisit features
> really are switched off...) But sure, it's a cost analysis.
Part of that cost analysis, then, is what amount of revenue is likely to
be lost when (not if) someone figures out how to unlock the full product
features and posts it on the Internet. If it truly is Mathematica with a
few features turned off.
> (Actually MathReader *is* free - it's just that you have to jump through
> hoops to get at it. But it doesn't cost any actual money, no.)
The hoops probably (I haven't looked) involve you giving them something
of value - like your contact information so they can market to you.
See? You pay something, just because it isn't money, doesn't mean what
you offer them in exchange has no value.
Jim
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On Sat, 17 Apr 2010 12:27:38 +0100, Orchid XP v8 wrote:
> John VanSickle wrote:
>
>>> - Network installers.
>>
>> Or I have to install it on that machine over there, which for perfectly
>> valid reasons has no network connectivity at all.
>
> Yes, that too. (Although in my case, the "valid reason" is usually "I
> can't get Linux to believe me that a NIC exists"...)
Is it a NIC that is supported?
Jim
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>> I should point out that MathReader is simply Mathematica with a few
>> features turned off. The "development costs" should be minimal. (They
>> probably spend more on testing it to make sure the requisit features
>> really are switched off...) But sure, it's a cost analysis.
>
> Part of that cost analysis, then, is what amount of revenue is likely to
> be lost when (not if) someone figures out how to unlock the full product
> features and posts it on the Internet. If it truly is Mathematica with a
> few features turned off.
Well, I would guess that they probably "turn off" this stuff by omitting
the code necessary to do it for the most part. That way the download is
smaller, and to "turn on" these features again would require basically
reimplementing them.
Then again, I'm no expert. I don't know how exactly they did it. (It's
something like a 100 MB download.)
>> (Actually MathReader *is* free - it's just that you have to jump through
>> hoops to get at it. But it doesn't cost any actual money, no.)
>
> The hoops probably (I haven't looked) involve you giving them something
> of value - like your contact information so they can market to you.
Oh yeah, you gotta give them a whole load of personal data. Plus the
installer scans your PC and generates a hash code based on your
hardware, and you have to send this code to get the license key. So
they're determined that you should only install this program on *one*
PC. (Which seems somewhat counter-productive to me... I mean, it's not
like they gain anything by making it harder to install on several PCs.)
> See? You pay something, just because it isn't money, doesn't mean what
> you offer them in exchange has no value.
Heh. Not "what you offer" but rather "what they demand". ;-)
--
http://blog.orphi.me.uk/
http://www.zazzle.com/MathematicalOrchid*
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>>> Or I have to install it on that machine over there, which for perfectly
>>> valid reasons has no network connectivity at all.
>> Yes, that too. (Although in my case, the "valid reason" is usually "I
>> can't get Linux to believe me that a NIC exists"...)
>
> Is it a NIC that is supported?
Define "supported".
It tends not to be a problem these days. But for example, when I first
set up my shiny new socket-939 board with the brand new nForce-4
chipset, none of the distros I tried could handle the SATA controller or
either of the two NICs.
--
http://blog.orphi.me.uk/
http://www.zazzle.com/MathematicalOrchid*
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On Sat, 17 Apr 2010 19:20:40 +0100, Orchid XP v8 wrote:
>>> I should point out that MathReader is simply Mathematica with a few
>>> features turned off. The "development costs" should be minimal. (They
>>> probably spend more on testing it to make sure the requisit features
>>> really are switched off...) But sure, it's a cost analysis.
>>
>> Part of that cost analysis, then, is what amount of revenue is likely
>> to be lost when (not if) someone figures out how to unlock the full
>> product features and posts it on the Internet. If it truly is
>> Mathematica with a few features turned off.
>
> Well, I would guess that they probably "turn off" this stuff by omitting
> the code necessary to do it for the most part. That way the download is
> smaller, and to "turn on" these features again would require basically
> reimplementing them.
Perhaps; some eval software (which this *could* be seen as) has stuff
just "turned off", while others have elements ripped out. Ripping out
bits, though, requires more work and regression test - especially for
gratis software, since you don't want to leave the prospective customer
with a bad impression.
> Then again, I'm no expert. I don't know how exactly they did it. (It's
> something like a 100 MB download.)
It's always hard to know for sure unless you have access to the code,
that's for certain.
>>> (Actually MathReader *is* free - it's just that you have to jump
>>> through hoops to get at it. But it doesn't cost any actual money, no.)
>>
>> The hoops probably (I haven't looked) involve you giving them something
>> of value - like your contact information so they can market to you.
>
> Oh yeah, you gotta give them a whole load of personal data. Plus the
> installer scans your PC and generates a hash code based on your
> hardware, and you have to send this code to get the license key. So
> they're determined that you should only install this program on *one*
> PC. (Which seems somewhat counter-productive to me... I mean, it's not
> like they gain anything by making it harder to install on several PCs.)
If that's the case, then they've done a fair amount to identify the value
of that to them.
>> See? You pay something, just because it isn't money, doesn't mean what
>> you offer them in exchange has no value.
>
> Heh. Not "what you offer" but rather "what they demand". ;-)
Well, no, you "offer" it in exchange for the goods or services. If you
don't offer it, then you don't get the goods or services.
Jim
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On Sat, 17 Apr 2010 19:22:49 +0100, Orchid XP v8 wrote:
>>>> Or I have to install it on that machine over there, which for
>>>> perfectly valid reasons has no network connectivity at all.
>>> Yes, that too. (Although in my case, the "valid reason" is usually "I
>>> can't get Linux to believe me that a NIC exists"...)
>>
>> Is it a NIC that is supported?
>
> Define "supported".
One that a driver is provided for and that has been verified to work.
> It tends not to be a problem these days. But for example, when I first
> set up my shiny new socket-939 board with the brand new nForce-4
> chipset, none of the distros I tried could handle the SATA controller or
> either of the two NICs.
I've got a system with an nForce chipset, but I'm not sure which; newer
hardware sometimes isn't supported right away when the specs change and
aren't shared with the kernel devs, though; the wireless card in this
machine (it's the one I'm using, actually) doesn't work well with Linux,
but it's not important to me because the system is right under my
ethernet switch and has a functioning ethernet card in it.
The wireless *works*, but after a few minutes of serving up data, it
starts doing something (not sure what, haven't diagnosed it) that kills
my access point completely.
But when I first installed Linux on it, the card wasn't even recognized
because it was so new.
So it has improved.
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Jim Henderson wrote:
> The wireless *works*, but after a few minutes of serving up data, it
> starts doing something (not sure what, haven't diagnosed it) that kills
> my access point completely.
My dad keeps complaining that ever since he upgraded to a new version of
SUSE, his network access has slowed to a crawl. Eventually he reverted
to the old version, and it speeded up again. Go figure...
--
http://blog.orphi.me.uk/
http://www.zazzle.com/MathematicalOrchid*
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On Sat, 17 Apr 2010 19:48:00 +0100, Orchid XP v8 wrote:
> Jim Henderson wrote:
>
>> The wireless *works*, but after a few minutes of serving up data, it
>> starts doing something (not sure what, haven't diagnosed it) that kills
>> my access point completely.
>
> My dad keeps complaining that ever since he upgraded to a new version of
> SUSE, his network access has slowed to a crawl. Eventually he reverted
> to the old version, and it speeded up again. Go figure...
He might ask a question on forums.opensuse.org and provide some details.
It's possible he needs to disable ipv6 both in the kernel and in Firefox
- a simple fix to improve performance.
Jim
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GOOGLE!
1) I wanted to learn about the views of a professor with an Asian name. I was
hopelessly thwarted because Google insisted on giving me hits with tons of
variations of spellings-- despite use of "" and +.
2) I did an image search on Google of someone I thought I knew from college,
first name Lynda. Of course it had to show me an image of Lynda Carter.
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gregjohn wrote:
> 1) I wanted to learn about the views of a professor with an Asian name.
I'm guessing you spelled it wrong. Like, with latin characters or something. ;-)
--
Darren New, San Diego CA, USA (PST)
Linux: Now bringing the quality and usability of
open source desktop apps to your personal electronics.
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