If you’ve had a hankering to grab a copy of CodeWeavers’s CrossOver Mac, which lets you run Windows applications on your Mac without installing the dreaded operating system from Redmond, then hold onto your pocketbooks. Tomorrow, you’ll have a chance to pick up the software gratis.
Earlier this year, CodeWeavers CEO Jeremy White launched The CodeWeavers Great American Lame Duck Presidential Challenge, promising that if any of several economic or political milestones were met before President Bush left office, the company would give away its software for a full day. One of those conditions just happened to be dropping the price of gas in the Twin Cities, where White lives, to $2.79 a gallon (from a price of $3.79 in July). Thanks to the nation’s financial crisis, the price of gasoline hit just that number about two weeks ago, leading White to fulfill his end of the bargain.
Starting tonight at midnight CST Central time (silly daylight savings time), you’ll be able to swing over to CodeWeavers’s website and pick up a code that’ll entitle you to one free copy of any of CrossOver’s software, complete with support. The deal runs for twenty-four hours, at which point you’re out of luck, unless one of the remaining goals gets met in the next three months, such as capturing Osama bin Laden or dropping the average price of a gallon of milk to $3.50 (not for the first time, reminding me I’m glad that we abandoned research into milk-fueled cars).
So, head over to CodeWeavers tomorrow to pick up a free copy of CrossOver Mac, CrossOver Linux, or CrossOver Games. Oh, and you might want to fill up your car while gas prices are still on the downturn. Consider it a public service announcement.
[via Infinite Loop]
Oh, man, THANKS so much for this announcement. :D I just downloaded Crossover not 2 weeks ago liked it better than having to install Windows on the machine. But the 60 days were bound to come to an end and I was already getting sad that the kids should be a priority when it comes to spending money, so instead of buying a license I would probably spend the money on milk. But now, I can have both, the milk AND the Crossover. Great news.
Judging by their online remarks and the rationale for this giveaway, Codeweavers seems a bit clueless about financial policies
The sub-prime lending policies that triggered this mess and required the $700+ billion bailout were begun under Carter and enlarged under Clinton. People who might have been able to afford a fixer-upper were encouraged to buy a fancier home by initial loan payments that were far too low (sub-prime) for the size of the loan being made, but that ballooned later to market size. When their payments ballooned, these unfortunates couldn't pay, putting those who made those loans into trouble. Because the loans were almost all guaranteed by two quasi-government agencies, Freddie Mae and Fannie Mac, it then became the taxpayers' problem.
Those policies produced the classic bubble. Encouraging people to buy homes they couldn't afford put too many people into the housing market, driving up prices rapidly, as we all recall. Banks foolishly assumed that, with home prices rising so rapidly, defaults would not matter, since a foreclosed home would be worth more than the outstanding loan. Then the bubble burst and home prices plummeted. Any attempt to foreclose and sell all those sub-prime homes would glut the market, driving prices down still further and increasing bank losses still more, sending some financial firms into bankruptcy.
This is the important part. Both the Bush administration and a group of Republicans that included McCain have tried since about 2003 to get the Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac problems dealt with, but have been repeatedly rebuffed by powerful Democrats. There's no doubt about that. You can find the Democrats making statements in defense of those disastrous policies on YouTube.
For the real reason for the Democratic behavior, do a Google search for the four senators who've gotten the most money from Freddie Mae and Fannie Mac. The order varies at little depending on the time period chosen, but they are:
1. Chris Dodd (D-CT), $133,900. He's head of the banking committee that oversees these policies.
2. John Kerry, (D-MA), $111,000.
3 Barack Obama (D-IL), $105,849.
4. Hillary Clinton (D-NY), $75,550.
Notice any familiar names there? In the House, the top recipient is Paul Kanjorski (D-PA) $65,500.
In case you work for Codeweavers and are bit clueless about politics, the "D" means they're Democrats, and all are for some reason from the NE US. Imagine for a moment what the press in this country would be doing if these were Republicans. Instead, the press is leaving us clueless about what happened, hoping that everyone is as stupid as those at Codeweavers. That's press bias about Democratic party corruption that'll cost taxpayers roughly $1 trillion. It should make you angry.
*****
Globally, the problems is built on easy credit with insufficient safeguards against bad risks and an assumption that, if every risk taker is backed up by large financial corporations, the risks can be managed. Europe's socialist economies adopted the same irresponsible policies as we did under Clinton for much the same reason--the people in their countries wanted cheap credit. Perhaps the worst hit economy is little Iceland, which went on an insane spending binge and must now pay the piper.
--Mike Perry, Seattle
Is this MacUser or Wonkette?
Incidentally, I also live in the Twin Cities, and filled up for $2.17 yesterday. Where has this guy been? :p
Gee, Mike, that's an awful lot to write about something off-topic...if you don't want the free software, you can just not download it.
This is one of the reasons I like Macuser so much. Thanks for the heads up.
It's picky, I know, but I can't resist: It's spelled "daylight saving time" not "daylight savings time". Think of it this way; we're saving daylight, not savings daylight :)