yes, and as a vegetarian, i frown on the whole horse-cart thing. nevertheless, if bean has been known to go off on a coding streak -we are running on an open source platform.

by the way, we are working on 1.1 already (rest is for people that can sleep) and are working toward a mid-October release.

i am taking the words of the sg community and adding a wishlist to our, well, wishlist. not sure if it will make 1.1 but i will try.

thanks again, i am grateful to a friend who pointed me to this community.

-george

bean

STAFF

Los Angeles, CA

AUG 24, 2005 02:10 PM

gpolisne said:
yes, and as a vegetarian, i frown on the whole horse-cart thing. nevertheless, if bean has been known to go off on a coding streak -we are running on an open source platform.

by the way, we are working on 1.1 already (rest is for people that can sleep) and are working toward a mid-October release.

i am taking the words of the sg community and adding a wishlist to our, well, wishlist. not sure if it will make 1.1 but i will try.

thanks again, i am grateful to a friend who pointed me to this community.

-george

Wow, it's really awesome that you're running on an open source platform. I can't find any info on the site about it, though. Is there a page somewhere with info for contributing?

commonman

USA

August 2003

AUG 25, 2005 09:29 AM

TheFuckOffKid said:

bean said:
Did you miss the part where I said this costs zero extra money? It's pretty damn convenient, too, considering it's only two days old, and will only get better.

To be fair to commonman, I think his point is that if one utilises this information based on ethical/political considerations, one might decide to switch to more ethical (and less cheap) products because the cheap producer of mp3 players is exploiting Namibian goat-herders or something.

So, at some point, a choice has to be made about whether to shell out for the free-range fair-trade no-sweatshop unionised-labour health-care-plan-offering mp3 player.

I think that's the point anyway.

That was my point, although I didn't express it clearly, I think. There is definitely value in informing consumers about the choices that certain companies make in their business prectices so that consumers can use that information in their buying decisions.

But, I don't think it is exactly a secret that WalMart, Target, HomeDepot, etc. underpay their own workers, don't give them health care, drive production to labor- and envoronment-unfriendly countries, support sweatshops, and put unionized, insured, and pensioned workers out of jobs every day. This is the source of their low prices, Even so, they are the largest retailers in the US, which leads me to believe that price trumps all other considerations.

In fact, the loss of good-paying jobs has created a huge swath of American socity that needs to save every penny just to keep up with the rising costs of living. These people might have a hard time justifying spending extra on a product made by a company that has higher producton costs due to its health care, pensions, living wages paid to workers, and stringent environmental practices even if they wanted to (and they might be too tired from working their three jobs to even think about those issues).

Lest I sound too negative (and I know I do), I also think that the more these issues are raised, the more people will think about them, and eventually there could be real changes in people's behaviors. I guess my ultimate point is that it's a very difficult fight to win, but it's a fight that's worth fighting. And I'm glad that alonovo is taking it on.