Infinite State

My colleague Dan Woods just posted one of his typically thought-provoking questions on his Blog at O’ReillyNet. Referencing Jared Diamond’s superlative (and Pulitzer-winning) book “Guns, Germs and Steel: The Fates of Human Societies”, Dan asks which one of the two software creation models will come to dominate the other — Open Source or Commercial?

While the clash of these titans is tempting to consider, my first thought was that a different book than Diamond’s was more appropriate, one that didn’t suggest such a huge difference in originating circumstances between OSS and COTS.
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Our long distance bills are typically pretty small, but every so often a long call to an old friend results in a surprising phone bill. After years of trusting Working Assets Long Distance to be reasonable (and contribute to good causes) my growing suspicions were too great to ignore. Turns out we were in fact paying around $0.22 a minute long distance on some calls. So I did a little research and switched to a solid plan from a major provider for 25% of that on most calls. And what do we get in the mail from Working Assets? A desperate letter asking us to come back and get $0.05 per minute 24/7, a $50. credit and a year’s worth of Ben & Jerry’s certificates. All I could think was they’d been fleecing us all that time.

So if you are a WALD customer, I suggest you switch away just so they lower your rates and send you free ice cream.