Avaktavyam

Apparently HP has announced global support for Debian GNU/Linux. This is a good thing.

However, I am confused as to what attitude I should have towards HP. You see, I bought a HP 5550c scanner and I have been utterly disappointed by the performance of the ADF on the said scanner. In response to this, I have decided that I would not buy any other HP product. But now I learn that HP is sponsoring Debian… which is the distribution I use on my computers. HP’s sponsorship of Debian is a very good thing.

What am I to do? For sure, I won’t buy another scanner with ADF from HP. Perhaps, however, I should not ban other HP products out of hand?

Yeah, you read that right. $275 for one pair of jeans… I stumbled upon that from the Student Advantage site after I renewed my card. Whatever kiddo pays $275 for one pair of jeans better not come to me complaining that life is hard on a student’s stipend.

Since I’ve used Amtrak heavily during the past two years, during my M.A. at Penn, I’ve saved a good deal of money with the SA card (15% off the regular fare). I’m still going to use Amtrak and Greyhound during my Ph.D. at UVA so renewing makes sense for me. For people who don’t have a need like mine, I wonder just how useful the SA card is… given offerings like $275 jeans. Good grief!!

Here’s a news item from Slashdot reporting that the American Chemical Society is pressuring the US government not to make publicly available the results of research payed with taxpayer money. Their rationale is that the government shouldn’t provide what the private sector is already providing, but should be understood as “anything that is hurting us is bad and should be outlawed”.

I am particularly saddened by this due to the fact that when I was actively working as an engineer I was writing software that facilitated the migration from paper to digital for organizations like the American Chemical Society. (I know ACS was a client of the company where I used to work… I just don’t remember whether I actually worked on one of their projects…) While in the business, at times I did have the impression that our clients had interests that were at odds with that of the general public. Now, I’m finding that my impressions were indeed founded.

When those publishers explained their projects to us, it was always for the benefit of students, researchers, teachers, widows and orphans. (Alright, nobody talked about widows and orphans.) In fact, the only benefit they really care about is their own. The benefit of others is taken into account only insofar as self-benefit is directly influenced by it. A particularly flagrant case of this is Questia about which you can read more here.