asciilifeform: '"chumpatron X debt continues to drag on the young generation, limiting their ability to be milked in chumpatron Y," the analysts said.'☟︎
asciilifeform: and where do these cheap clowns get off calling debt peonage 'ownership' ?
asciilifeform: the hidden text in this crap is 'let's print more hoap'
asciilifeform: what's a $300 book compared to the $100k tuition.
asciilifeform: and given as they are virtually never spending money which is -their own- in any palpable sense - they don't resist nearly as much as might be expected
asciilifeform: the textbook racket is in some ways inevitable - the kids with access to $maxint in loans are walking bags of delicious meat from the standpoint of ten thousand kinds of flea
asciilifeform: the parasite scum went, 'fine, we don't care if you want the dead tree to carry around or not, but you'll pay.'
asciilifeform: this was, as i understand, a reaction to folks scanning bookz
asciilifeform: where a used copy of the book literally doesn't let you pass the class because its homework account code (yes) is already spent.
asciilifeform: decimation: the latest scam i personally know of is the 'www homework membership'
asciilifeform: decimation: in one form or another, this has been going on for at least two decades.
asciilifeform: the basic 'zoological' observation here is that there is no such thing as a chumpatron of this size which stays 'single-layered' indefinitely. at a certain point, smaller fleas show up to go on the backs of the fleas, and so ad infinitum
asciilifeform: the textbook divisions of the same houses rape the undergrads, also to the enthusiastic applause of the faculty (who get kickbacks)
asciilifeform: BingoBoingo: the term of art, iirc, is 'tournament market'
asciilifeform: quite a few 'civilians' don't believe me when i explain that the 'publishers' do not edit, or - in most cases - even typeset the submissions; and that not only do authors receive no royalties, but often -pay- page costs
asciilifeform: and to the extent it isn't a problem, it is solely because academia is mostly dead as a going concern
asciilifeform: decimation: depends what sort of hobbyist
asciilifeform: the same folks who were paying the parasites (i will not call them publishers, they withhold only - performing not a single one of the traditional functions of a publishing house save the physical printing) - will continue to pay.
asciilifeform: but even if it were true - still a joke. picture, full year's embargo.
asciilifeform: but even the linked item contains 'Be available for download, reading and analysis free of charge no later than 12 months after initial publication'
asciilifeform: decimation: it's threatened to happen for more than a decade, yes
asciilifeform: decimation: subbed a dead short for your capacitor << not a dead short, an inductor-capacitor chimera. perfectly legit item, just not what was specced.
asciilifeform: mircea_popescu: linked to illustrate that ^ observation.
asciilifeform: ben_vulpes: where i went it was the 'credit-hour'
asciilifeform: they, of course, would say 'we busted a sc4mz0r'
asciilifeform: mircea_popescu: cared because 'if you don't know precisely who at the table is the chump...'
asciilifeform: mike_c: the other half of that thread was that i had serious doubts re: whether the service offered by mf inc. was actually economically possible as described, and ergo i might be a chump
asciilifeform: mike_c: the tale with the board house was simply a case of 'wunderwaffen' that did not fire to spec
asciilifeform: mike_c: understand, i cannot blame this particular vendor for the overall pace of the work - only self. (in particular, i am not clever enough to escape from having a fairly intense day job)
asciilifeform: mircea_popescu: i was thinking of doing this.
asciilifeform: mike_c: did you actually think the rng was the cargo? rng was exhibited at C-II
asciilifeform: mike_c: but i'm still empty-handed for C-III
asciilifeform: mike_c: if the thing shows up on fri., and works to spec, then useful, sure
asciilifeform: or ask around, futile, whether a hosting co. or manufacturing house somewhere might agree to take a little btc business
asciilifeform: 'they', for instance, don't have to split attention between N day jobs
asciilifeform: deliberately using the goxbubble numbers
asciilifeform: and this was at 'peak btc-usd' to date
asciilifeform: this is why i always say that victory is far, that 'we' are small and 'they' are - stupid, yes - but gigantic. the entire s.nsa ipo would not have bought a proper pick'n'placer, not even talking about real estate to house it in a place which i could economically get to, etc.
asciilifeform: well yes. that is normally how it works.
asciilifeform: or the 'percent of pie' sense discussed in possibly same thread
asciilifeform: 'money' in the allocator sense (see old mircea_popescu thread about subsistence vs capital-allocator)
asciilifeform: see, if i were the kind of fella who has money, would not have been having any of the problem described in this tale. would have either seen the boards made within a week (actual business relationship with factory, sleep ad libitum and fly in to supervise in person with own eyes) or would have a legit conveyor with requisite machinery in-house, and same
asciilifeform: based on rough eyeball of the kind of things can and cannot afford
asciilifeform: mircea_popescu: i switched through a number of offered substitute parts, one of which may well have been this inductor-capacitor combo (erroneously offered as circuit-equivalent)
asciilifeform: (see upper left hand corner of photo, for instance)
asciilifeform: (you can achieve the desired layout with bitshifts and logic ops, and end up introducing hidden platform dependencies - endian and wordsize)
asciilifeform: or even if you're writing something as mundane as a disassembler.
asciilifeform: and it is entirely non-negotiable if you're dealing with a hardware register where the bits have to fall -just so-
asciilifeform: on of the 1,001 ways in which 'c' specification is a sad joke.
asciilifeform: mats: incidentally, precise packings are not achievable without gcc pragma (or your compiler's equivalent)
asciilifeform: ma and they have taken swift and decisive action in this matter. At their request, the University has committed to provide educational training on diversity and respect for the entire fraternity. The University of Maryland remains committed to our core values of respect for human dignity, diversity, and inclusiveness. We are deeply saddened by the impact this email is having on our community.'
asciilifeform: 'On Tuesday, March 10, 2015, the University of Maryland became aware of an email dated January 2014, 15 months ago. The vulgar language in the email expresses views that are reprehensible to our campus community. We immediately met with the individual involved and a University investigation is currently underway, led by the Office of Civil Rights and Sexual Misconduct. We are in contact with the University chapter of Kappa Sig
asciilifeform: (thoughtcrimey email, from one drunken student to another, 15 months ago !?!)
asciilifeform: the mechanism in question actually -needs- exercise once in a while, or rusts. hence the increasingly lulzy faux mega-outrages and their regularity
