Linux World domination (was Re: [NCLUG] PC for Linux (Ubuntu))

Brian Wood bwood at beww.org
Fri Sep 19 19:29:15 MDT 2008


Kevin Fenzi wrote:
> On Fri, 19 Sep 2008 18:51:46 -0600
> bwood at beww.org (Brian Wood) wrote:
> 
>> Grant Johnson wrote:
>>
>>> Anyway, the real point is this:  If a change in the way things work
>>> (think buggy whips) removes your livelihood, adapt or go broke.  If
>>> FLOSS kills off the market for shrink-wrap, and that is what you do,
>>> maybe you need to find work installing and customizing FLOSS.
>> Anybody have a copy of RAH's "Life Line"?
> 
> yep. ;) 
>> There was a scene in there where the life insurance companies were
>> trying to shut down a guy who had developed a machine that would tell
>> you the exact date and time of your death, (thus bankrupting the life
>> insurance companies).
>>
>> The remarks from the judge, who basically said the same thing as
>> quoted above, were great, Heinlein at his best IMHO.
> 
> Not sure, but you might mean the statement from the defendant in the
> case, "doctor" Pinero:
> 
> "It is true that Amalgamated has lost business through my activities,
> but that is the natural result of my discovery, which has made their
> policies as obsolete as the bow and arrow. If an injunction is granted
> on that ground, I shall set up a coal-oil-lamp factory, and then ask
> for an injunction against the Edison and General Electric companies to
> forbid them to manufacture incandescent bulbs."
> 

Close, very close. I seem to recall there was a statement to the effect
that just because you have made a profit from the public in the past,
the government is not obligated to ensure that you continue to do so. I
thought I recalled the buggy whip analogy, though I may be
mis-remembering the oil lamp line.

Dang, getting old, memory failing, and I can't find my copy...

beww




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