I sent several dozen letters through the USPS, but if you are sending letters from a combat zone (Iraq for example) you don't need to put postage on it, you can simply write "Free" in the upper-right corner where you would normally put a stamp.

I know what you mean. Here I am stationed in Iraq, I've got people going out every day who are possibly going to get really killed. We find explosives, get shot at, you name it. It's all VERY real. But there are enough people who are so totally insulated from this sort of thing that the EVE Online game is vastly more important to them.

On the other hand, this should spur someone from Darfur to post about the genocide there. Or one of the congo nations where life is so horrible.

What does it say about us as a species that there is such a range of lifestyles? On one end is the people where EVE Online takeovers might be the most important thing to happen to them all year. At the other end are refugees who get killed by the thousands and would have been starving and diseased anyway.

Is this disparity good or bad? Is there any limit to how much disparity is good? Would we be better off if everybody had similar worries and we were all about the same level on Maslow's hierarchy of needs?

They are a huge company. It's not a problem of the left hand not knowing what the right hand is doing, it's hand #27FH53 not knowing what hand #9CJ46DH is doing.

For all of the organizing principles behind this cathedral, disagreements between what one sub-organization wants and what another sub-organization wants are bound to arise.

The people actually selling product, they want to retain ALL rights. This will allow them to generate more profit with 0 additional expense.

The people making the media player portion want their software to be more useful. This requires all sorts of media to be available. So they want as much content available as possible. Preferably for free.

It takes time for the diverse needs that are in conflict to get brought up to the level of management that can arbitrate between them. And it costs money to do so; the company as a whole is better off (i.e. more profitable) if they ignore these types of conflicts until it becomes a problem.

BTW: Hi.

I bought one of their laptops (QLITech's). And what a great system it turned out to be. There's a review of their Emperor model at: www.linuxusersgroups.org.