Domain: msn.com
Stories and comments across the archive that link to msn.com.
Comments · 6,558
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Re:So, um...
You can't use "Don't mess with Texas". It's a federally protected trademark:
http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/5151681/ -
Enough already!
We all know that the 360 is launching tomorrow.
How about some other news, like how Texas is suing Sony for up to $100,000 per computer infected?
Anything but another 360 article. -
Convergence of technologies and servicesCisco has been one of the leaders in VOIP technology -their office phone systems are really quite good-, as well as their more dominant role as a networking equipment provider. I can see them anticipating the convergence of network, phone, and tv services and acting to position themselves to be the dominant hardware provider. I know here I can get phone, internet, tv services through my local cable company, just as my local telco offers TV in addition to Phone, and Internet.
Here is MSNBC coverage . Somewhat more info on the Cisco viewpoints.
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Re:Hmm
No matter what your ideological position is, after seeing the UN in action you'll never really support them again other than in idea.
I see what they do, and what I see is hungry people being fed.
So I guess your ideological position on starving folks is "let them eat cake"? -
Re:Spasmodic DysphoniaVery nice guy, but imagine going through life sounding like bobcat goldwig
...I assume you mean Bobcat Goldthwait. I'd rather sound like him than look like him! http://music.msn.com/album/?album=10608927
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Re:Duh!
When somebody enjoys doing something they obviously want to do it more often. The question is just how much do they let that enjoyment interfere with their lives and possibly the lives of others?
Quite true, but in the case of games, addiction is very real. You only have to take the example of the Chinese guy who killed someone over some sword in a game. -
Re:Listen to HAARP
Who needs US-run HAARP Mind Control when the Japanese have put it into a consumer item !!
Check this link for the next-generation of wireless remote controllers for the human being - it actually controls you while you wear the headset - a Japanese designed device that will revolutionize gaming and other applications - what are we going to be sold next, eh ? Think Mind Control, think Montauk, think of no human freewill.
http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/9816703 -
Failed state stabilization> Standard news will make the UN look bad all on it's own- which you'd know
> if you've been paying any attention to the oil-for-food scandal, or any
> other story that's popped up in the past decade or so.Any other story? Such as this one from The Economist which talks about how the weight of evidence clearly shows that UN peacekeeping is extremely effective and cost-efficient at stabilizing and rehabilitating failed states, and has a much better track record at doing so than the US despite spending orders of magnitude less money?
How, exactly, does THAT story make the UN look bad? You made the blanket claim that "any other story" about the UN made it look bad, so clearly you'll have a detailed counter-argument to the study referred to in the article?
Or are you exactly the type of deluded, jingoistic anti-UN fool that the grandparent poster was talking about, and felt like you should provide an example to illustrate his point?
(As for the oil-for-food scandal, yes, that's bad; however, considering that similar bribery and kickbacks were occurring in the Coalition Provisional Authority within months of the invasion, I humbly submit that such corruption is a problem related to large sums of money sloshing around, rather than somehow unique to the UN.)
> Don't keep your mind too open, buddy, or people will throw a lot of trash into it.Yeah, can't have those damn facts polluting the purity of your ideology, can you?
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On-Demand Gaming Content
I think the era of on-demand gaming content started today. I hope Microsoft sees an opportunity here for more than just games, but all forms of high-definition content... http://spaces.msn.com/members/mthddirector/Blog/c
n s!1pm2FutahJhLqUT0MvLjy_iA!272.entry -
MSN Spaces (of course!)
http://spaces.msn.com
You know you love it... -
Re:The UN is not a government.
I call bullshit.
The U.N. may not be a world government YET but many are pushing it that way.
the relevant part : "without explicit authorization for U.N. taxes on currency exchange, fossil fuels and a host of other tax targets. "
And this
or this
or this
While I detest bush, I detest the "one world" mentality just as much. The U.N. was founded solely as a place where nations could talk about their disagreements, NOT as a world governing body, which they are trying to become.
I have enough problems with the bloated and bureaucratic U.S. government.
I do not want an even larger and more insulated layer deciding what I can and can't do. -
Re:Except...reminds me of this Newsweek article from a few months back :
That boom comes from buyers like Roberta Gray, who threw away most of her old clothes to make room for a new wardrobe from Greenloop, a boutique in Portland, Ore. A newly converted vegetarian and yogi, Gray, 43, wanted clothes that matched her healthier lifestyle. "When I buy things there, they last," she says. "They're of good quality, and I feel good about that."
it seems like her old wardrobe was lasting just fine until she threw them out! -
Re:Pandemic
First off , I am sure the original poster will be the only one to see this post so let me first say, I offer this information only to enlighten not to critcize.
The statement "This was one of the flus that worked so fast the immune system couldn't keep up. " appears to be incorrect.
The problem is actually th opposite, and hence why it dos in fact kill MORE healthy people than ill or elderly.
It is an immune OVERREACTION that floods the patiest with antibodies and kills them.
This artivle explains in laymans terms why
I have been following this and from the moment I heard 50% lethal I assumend a similar reasoning, but I had reason to.
Search around and you will find much of the recent research on the letahlity is coming to the same conclusion
I actually know wht this is like to some extent , I have many odd medical issues, among them I have several unrelated immune system oddities. as does my son , although his are kept under control by immunosuppresnts,
I for example am for all intents and purposes immune to strep, and nearly every related strain. (even the skin eating variety thank god), If I am even exposed however to someone who has strep I must undergo a month long steriod treatments and I look life F***ing AQUAMAN !, I break out in scales, yes scales. its called Guttate psoriasis and its a result of my body going freaking NUTS when exposed. E-Coli and Campo Lybachter are two others it would be very very unusual for me to suffer from again, I instead live life long with Reiter's Syndrome. Now why you ask ? Because I was exposed to ALL many many times and suffered a build up of immune responses.
My hope is this will be of benifit to you in your quest for knowledge , isnt tht why you hang at slashdot ? :) -
Stock Trader POV
As someone who trades stocks, I don't really see this the same way. Generally, I don't buy a stock because I want to own that company, I buy it because I think later I call sell it for more. I wouldn't buy Yahoo because I think they are overvalued, and they are facing increasing pressure from Google which they aren't handling very well. In my opinion, the stock does not have very much upside potential.
Generally, making people mad is costly for a stock. Bad news is bad, but uncertainty is much much worse. Will all of their customers leave? What effect will this have? There's thousands of publicly traded companies out there, so there's no reason to buy stock in one which has an uncertain future.
While i'm glad to see there are some responsible investors out there, they don't amount to a very large portion. When you look at the ownership of Cisco, you see that the two investors mentioned in the article aren't even listed. They each own less than 1% of the company's outstanding shares.
Recently, I was amused by something that happened to Intel. They received an award for corporate social responsibility. The stock traded down that day. -
Re:Pandemic
Am I the only one, having a somewhat strong immune system, that is not in the least bit worried about a pandemic?
Oddly enough the 1918 flu was especially hard on those with mature, fully functional, immune systems. The age of fatalities from most epidemics takes the form of a "bathtub" curve, killing the very young and the very old. However, many of the fatalities in the 1918 epidemic were young adults who died in in a matter of days or even hours, despite having previously been in good health. It's thought that the flu virus triggered a massive over-reaction of their immune systems called a cytokine storm. In the process of trying to kill virus infected cells, the victims' immune systems ended up killing so much of their lung tissue that they died. For a history and analysys of the 1918 pandemic I highly recommend the book The Great Influenza by John M. Barry.
To continue the cheery news, the current strain of bird flu also seems to be able to induce this kind of immune over-reaction. -
Re:Pandemic
Am I the only one, having a somewhat strong immune system, that is not in the least bit worried about a pandemic?
Start worrying. Many of the deaths from the 1918 pandemic and from H5N1 have been related to a "cytokine storm," resulting in an overly vigorous immune response. The typical "healthy young adult" is very much at risk. -
Re:Sensationalist Journalism?
"saying it's definitely going to mutate is an overstatement."
This probably isn't the mutation we are fearing the most, but it's quite eerie anyway:
http://msnbc.msn.com/id/10020499/ -
Re:Discovery Channel
Related news, this just in...
http://msnbc.msn.com/id/10020499/
HANOI - Scientists in Vietnam, where bird flu has killed 42 people, said the deadly H5N1 influenza virus had mutated into a more dangerous form that could breed more effectively in mammals, state media reported on Sunday. -
Re:No HD support? Wake up...I hadn't considered this. I would definitely be surprised if it were really a high percentage.
Coming back into this late, sorry. Anyway it's about 80% of households in the US, and it's only increasing.
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Re:On Paper?Silcone? Is a silicone computer like some women? They're fun to watch whilst they're running? (think about it)
He did !
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Re:The Mac is not transformative (Re:Drink the Ap.
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Re:They DO have a monopoly on the Web
The good thing about Microsoft having the ability to drive hooks for MSN search wherever they please in future IE/Windows releases is that they have at least been beaten to the punch by every single competitor in the web/OS market. For Windows on the desktop, customers can already choose between the various offerings from Mozilla and the excellent and now-free Opera web browsers, as far as Internet Explorer, I believe their "Search" button already uses MSN search, anyways. Furthermore, Microsoft has released MSN Search Toolbar that includes Windows Desktop Search, but until they become a standard package with Internet Explorer, and preferably don't have any kinds of privacy risks I usually associate with any toolbar for any browser, it's not going to seriously take off.
Meanwhile, desktop users of Linux systems have the same great offerings from Mozilla as well as Opera, and then there's Konqueror for KDE-styled systems that offers a level of integration far greater than Windows can even imagine at this point. If most people know of half the things you can do with the integration that Konqueror provides, from the web to your files to your media devices, I really think it would have a much greater market share than it currently does. In any case, I'm going to keep hoping that maybe we can get a product for Windows that offers as much and doesn't require you to upgrade your OS. That's a reference to how the MSN Toolbar requires Windows XP/Server 2k3/2k or greater & IE 5.01 or later. As long as they don't remove support for XP anytime in the (near) future, I think they'll be alright, for the most part.
By the way, the days of being able to quash technologically superior alternatives by simply slapping a user in the face with an unremovable and inferior product are soon to be gone, if they aren't already. Technology as a whole is becoming much more prevalent, and people are simply getting more and more fed up with their systems. Maybe I'm making a mistake by basing my observations on mostly youths between 10-30 (The crowd I hang around with most) years of age, but these are the people who will shape the future of computing, ultimately, as consumers and creators of technology. Hopefully Linux gets more momentum from game developers sometime soon (I would settle for Mac but I don't even care much for Apple, either, although I love their OS and hardware) so it can take off with a whole new market segment, as opposed to being "good enough for most people, as long as you don't game" like it is now. Personally, I just want a World of Warcraft port.
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Re:They DO have a monopoly on the Web
The good thing about Microsoft having the ability to drive hooks for MSN search wherever they please in future IE/Windows releases is that they have at least been beaten to the punch by every single competitor in the web/OS market. For Windows on the desktop, customers can already choose between the various offerings from Mozilla and the excellent and now-free Opera web browsers, as far as Internet Explorer, I believe their "Search" button already uses MSN search, anyways. Furthermore, Microsoft has released MSN Search Toolbar that includes Windows Desktop Search, but until they become a standard package with Internet Explorer, and preferably don't have any kinds of privacy risks I usually associate with any toolbar for any browser, it's not going to seriously take off.
Meanwhile, desktop users of Linux systems have the same great offerings from Mozilla as well as Opera, and then there's Konqueror for KDE-styled systems that offers a level of integration far greater than Windows can even imagine at this point. If most people know of half the things you can do with the integration that Konqueror provides, from the web to your files to your media devices, I really think it would have a much greater market share than it currently does. In any case, I'm going to keep hoping that maybe we can get a product for Windows that offers as much and doesn't require you to upgrade your OS. That's a reference to how the MSN Toolbar requires Windows XP/Server 2k3/2k or greater & IE 5.01 or later. As long as they don't remove support for XP anytime in the (near) future, I think they'll be alright, for the most part.
By the way, the days of being able to quash technologically superior alternatives by simply slapping a user in the face with an unremovable and inferior product are soon to be gone, if they aren't already. Technology as a whole is becoming much more prevalent, and people are simply getting more and more fed up with their systems. Maybe I'm making a mistake by basing my observations on mostly youths between 10-30 (The crowd I hang around with most) years of age, but these are the people who will shape the future of computing, ultimately, as consumers and creators of technology. Hopefully Linux gets more momentum from game developers sometime soon (I would settle for Mac but I don't even care much for Apple, either, although I love their OS and hardware) so it can take off with a whole new market segment, as opposed to being "good enough for most people, as long as you don't game" like it is now. Personally, I just want a World of Warcraft port.
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Re:Its Actually a Good MoveThe maximum Soyuz crew is three. Soyuz 1 had only one test pilot aboard. Whereas the shuttle has a maximum crew of 7. Soyuz has killed 4 crew members, both accidents in the infancy of the vehicle. Whereas the shuttle has killed 14.
Which doesn't really support your original claim that Soyuz is 'much safer'. At best it shows it is might be slightly safer, but the sample size is small enough that is statistically pretty meaningless. Especially if you start to look at the other close calls Soyuz has had: Soyuz 5 the first attempt of Soyuz 18 the first attempt at Soyuz t-10 The first 2 of those were only non-fatal by a large amount of luck.
Nor is recent history flawless:
- Loss of cabin pressure on TMA-6 landing http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/9888881/
- Thruster malfunction on TMA-5 http://www.russianspaceweb.com/iss_soyuztma5.html
- battery problems on TMA-5 http://www.nasawatch.com/archives/2005/04/soyuz_ba ttery_p.html
- Pyro accident and H2O2 tank problems in TMA-5 prelaunch processing. http://www.spaceflightnow.com/station/exp10/status .html
- Fuel pressurization problem on TMA-3 http://www.space.com/missionlaunches/exp8_soyuz_04 0428.html
- Flight computer failure/ballistic landing on TMA-1 http://www.russianspaceweb.com/iss_soyuztma1.htmlThe above obviously aren't in the same league as the early incidents, but do show a system that is encountering a significant loss of redundancy on nearly every flight. If you go back over the Mir era flights, you will find plenty more, although the Russians were even less inclined to talk about them.
I'm not trying to bash Soyuz... if you offered me a seat today, I'd jump on it. I'm just pointing out that the commonly held assumption that it is a whole lot safer than the shuttle doesn't really add up.
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Re:You are only hurting yourself you know....just wait, on one hand the lawsuits will start flying and hopefully this ID "theory" will get relegated to the crapper. (me with my optimism hat on)
On the other hand it will go all the way to the supreme court, which with its new right wingers, will decline to hear challenges and so it will stay in practice
but on the other, other hand (I've a third one), the catholics on the supreme court will follow recent vatican dogma stating that ID is not science (where's that link).. ah, here it is: http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/9913712/ and it'll be again relegated to the crapper, only to re-emerge as
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Silly Soviets, it's Lin-ux, not Line-X
the Soviet authorities in 1970 set up a new KGB section, known as Directorate T, to plumb Western research and development for badly needed technology. Directorate T's operating arm to steal the technology was known as Line X.
From the linked article: http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/4394002
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Did the original post actually quote correctly?It would be nice if someone quoting a post in an article to sensationalize, at least made sure the quote was not misleading or wrong... there were no satellites in space during World War One, so of course the Halifax Explosion (which really was the largest non-nuclear explosion recorded) was not the largest non-nuclear explosion seen from space.
From the post:
The resulting event is reportedly the largest non-nuclear explosion in the planet's history.
The actual quote from a hyperlink in the article mentioned in the post:
"The result was the most monumental non-nuclear explosion and fire ever seen from space"
The actual largest non-nuclear explosion occured during World War One in Halifax Harbour when an munitions ship collided with another ship and exploded. It is known as the Halifax Explosion. It was picked up on seismographs and created an 18 metre tsunami.
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No causualties
According to this article the damage was purely economic. Of course, I'm sure there was significant environmental damage.
As far as I can figure, people go crazy in times of war, even cold wars. -
All hail the mighty Soviet engineering
Engineers so good they had to steal their pipeline control software. And, apparently, a ton of other Western engineering too.
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The meat of the article...
July 28, 1962 -- Mariner I space probe. A bug in the flight software for the Mariner 1 causes the rocket to divert from its intended path on launch. Mission control destroys the rocket over the Atlantic Ocean. The investigation into the accident discovers that a formula written on paper in pencil was improperly transcribed into computer code, causing the computer to miscalculate the rocket's trajectory.
1982 -- Soviet gas pipeline. Operatives working for the U.S. Central Intelligence Agency allegedly (.pdf) plant a bug in a Canadian computer system purchased to control the trans-Siberian gas pipeline. The Soviets had obtained the system as part of a wide-ranging effort to covertly purchase or steal sensitive U.S. technology. The CIA reportedly found out about the program and decided to make it backfire with equipment that would pass Soviet inspection and then fail once in operation. The resulting event is reportedly the largest non-nuclear explosion in the planet's history.
1985-1987 -- Therac-25 medical accelerator. A radiation therapy device malfunctions and delivers lethal radiation doses at several medical facilities. Based upon a previous design, the Therac-25 was an "improved" therapy system that could deliver two different kinds of radiation: either a low-power electron beam (beta particles) or X-rays. The Therac-25's X-rays were generated by smashing high-power electrons into a metal target positioned between the electron gun and the patient. A second "improvement" was the replacement of the older Therac-20's electromechanical safety interlocks with software control, a decision made because software was perceived to be more reliable.
What engineers didn't know was that both the 20 and the 25 were built upon an operating system that had been kludged together by a programmer with no formal training. Because of a subtle bug called a "race condition," a quick-fingered typist could accidentally configure the Therac-25 so the electron beam would fire in high-power mode but with the metal X-ray target out of position. At least five patients die; others are seriously injured.
1988 -- Buffer overflow in Berkeley Unix finger daemon. The first internet worm (the so-called Morris Worm) infects between 2,000 and 6,000 computers in less than a day by taking advantage of a buffer overflow. The specific code is a function in the standard input/output library routine called gets() designed to get a line of text over the network. Unfortunately, gets() has no provision to limit its input, and an overly large input allows the worm to take over any machine to which it can connect.
Programmers respond by attempting to stamp out the gets() function in working code, but they refuse to remove it from the C programming language's standard input/output library, where it remains to this day.
1988-1996 -- Kerberos Random Number Generator. The authors of the Kerberos security system neglect to properly "seed" the program's random number generator with a truly random seed. As a result, for eight years it is possible to trivially break into any computer that relies on Kerberos for authentication. It is unknown if this bug was ever actually exploited.
January 15, 1990 -- ATT Network Outage. A bug in a new release of the software that controls ATT's #4ESS long distance switches causes these mammoth computers to crash when they receive a specif
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Wal-mart target market doesn't use Google.
Perhaps Circuit City, etc. should be concerned, however...
Wal-Mart need not worry. Its main target market is too stupid to have even heard of Google. When they need to find information online, they type, for example, "www.where can i get a good deal on cheap underwear.com" into the MSN SEARCH box on IE's default homepage. -
Re:gd2 vs. yahoo desktop + konfabulator
I tried out some of the desktop search engines offered lately by increasing number of companies. I needed to index and search both local desktop/laptop drives as well as network drives. Lots of our documents are stored on network storage. To decide whether the search engine works, I tested it by searching for 2 names that can be found inside PDFs and Word documents. All files containing the names were on the network drives.
I have evaluated search engines from Copernic, Google and MSN (Microsoft). Here are the results.
Short story: MSN toolbar is the best if it does not crash your machine. Others don't work.
Long story:
Best: Microsoft has released its desktop search engine (http://toolbar.msn.com/). I have it running on my laptop. It finished indexing one network drive in 2 days. It answers the queries perfectly.
However, MSN indexer crashes my laptop every 1-2 hours. :( I will try it on different machine to see if this is caused by some issue on the laptop. I wish I could fix the crashing issue, since I like the search engine a lot.
New version of Google desktop search (http://desktop.google.com/) now allows to index any drives and directories you specify. However it has indexed only part of the network drive in almost 2 months (!). It still does not find the names I am looking for in my tests. :(
Copernic (http://www.copernic.com/) search engine. After 5 months the search engine still does not find the results in my test cases. It claims to have finished indexing, so either their indexing is buggy or their software is. I gave up on it and uninstalled it.
Would have to see what Yahoo Desktop search does, now that you mentioned it. -
Re:Why not just use a browser?
Why, Internet Explorer with the MSN Search Toolbar, of course!
And in Windows Vista, you'll be able to search from any Explorer window. You can even save searches to special "search folders" to have access to them at any time. It is simply the most advanced feature of its kind available.
To learn more about Windows Vista, simply google for Windows Vista on the all-new MSN Search. -
Re:Why not just use a browser?
Why, Internet Explorer with the MSN Search Toolbar, of course!
And in Windows Vista, you'll be able to search from any Explorer window. You can even save searches to special "search folders" to have access to them at any time. It is simply the most advanced feature of its kind available.
To learn more about Windows Vista, simply google for Windows Vista on the all-new MSN Search. -
Re:Indexing or Caching?The Internet is an entirely new medium for which copyright laws as they were written prior to its creation do not adequately address its operation and functionality.
I think it's even more than this. Whatever happened to information wants to be free? Time and again has it been proven that giving people access to information copying techniques (photocopiers, tape decks, vcrs) does not stifle sales, kill innovation, or ruin industries. Those industries continue to grow. The same goes for books.
But the kicker is (as is mentioned above) that Google isn't giving you the whole book! They are simply giving you the best means possible to find art that exists and is available to you - as a citizen, or as a consumer.
This isn't about what Google is doing - the fundamentals are all pretty damn sound. Google Print will mostly likely drive huge sales increases. Rather, this is about power and control. The people who own the copyrights (rarely the authors) want to be able to say no because it makes them feel powerful and important. Tough luck. The sooner we wrestle some of the power out of the hands of these "copyright holders" who continually push to suppress artisitic innovation from becoming the property of the collective public (Bono act) and are always hoping that unlimited copyrights are just around the corner, control of information is power and they will do anything to hold on to it.
Remember what Pat Schroeder, the former Colorado congresswoman and head of the AAP said:
"The law does not say you can take my stuff because you're going to do something with it that is going to be really good for humanity."
God forbid.
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Re:Consequences of delisting?
What's even more important that this is that, once a stock is delisted, the index funds MUST sell it. So, let's say for sake of example that 24.6% of SGI's stock is "institutional," and half of that institutional ownership is in index funds, then you have 12.3% of all outstanding shares that will be put on the sales block first thing Monday morning. IANAFA, but I think one might guess this would have a net downward effect on SGI stock price.
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Wind power project goes deeper out to sea
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Re:don't know about the first
You can even have your current car modified to become a hydrogen car now. MSNBC has an article and the companies website Intergalactic Hydrogen.
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Re:LMAO
Here's an even funnier thing:
http://search.msn.com/results.aspx?FORM=LIVE&q=win dows+crap
The first link is to www.microsoft.com/windows/windowsmedia/wm7/drm/wha t.aspx (Windows Media DRM, as it reads from the URL) -
slashvertisement!
anyone else wondering why this is posted on the same day this story is on msnbc?
Search engine preps porn for video iPod
Guba to convert video files into format used by Apple's player
one can only wonder. -
Re:How does this differ from other UseNet Archives
The difference, according to this article is that they don't allow you to search for, or download MP3s or videos over 70 minutes.
I think I'll stick to EasyNews. It's cheaper, they don't log what I download, and they have an awesome web based search taht works well with FlashGot.
Also, after reading the linked article, their CEO sounds pretty clueless. They are blocking the MP3s because the RIAA has been so agressive about enforcing copyright, but will be leaving on TV shows because "the TV guys seem to understand the Internet..." I'm giving them a month or so before they're sued into oblivion. -
LMAO
I've just typed "what is windows live" at http://www.live.com/
The result is http://search.msn.com/results.aspx?FORM=LIVE&q=wha t+is+windows+live
And guess what the Microsoft(R) AdWord(R) for that search is?
"SPONSORED SITES
Windows Problems? - www.yourtechonline.com
Get professional computer help now. Fast, friendly techs standing by. Call now for a free consultation and repair estimate...."
It really speaks for itself... -
Who needs identity theft? Demand draft is easierBits and pieces posted here, full article at http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/7914159/
It would be music to any non-profit organization's ears: an unexpected $1,000 donation. But the offer came with dirty strings attached, and the surprise donation to California-based Urban Age Institute was hardly a gift at all. Instead, it placed the organization right in the middle of an extensive -- but elegantly simple -- worldwide scam.
Within days, $10,000 worth of checks were written against the non-profit's accounts and cashed by a woman in Georgia. She in turn wired money to Nigeria. The incident left the organization's leaders wondering: Is it that easy to raid anyone's checking account? The answer, according to banking experts interviewed for this story, is yes.
Armed with just a checking account number and bank routing number, criminals can create checks at whim, experts and law enforcement authorities say.
Most consumers presume that checks must be signed by an authorized account holder. That's ordinarily true, but not in the case of so-called "demand drafts." These look just like checks, but indicate "signature not required" or a similar message in the authorized signature area. And generally, banks cash them just like valid, signed checks.
one community bank surveyed demand drafts and found 73 percent to be fraudulent.
Last year, MSNBC.com exposed a Web site named PharmacyCards.com that was creating demand draft checks and withdrawing $139 from checking accounts all over the United States. The Federal Trade Commission later sued the site and alleged it had attempted to steal $10 million with bogus demand drafts.
And on and on and on...
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Who needs identity theft? Demand draft is easierBits and pieces posted here, full article at http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/7914159/
It would be music to any non-profit organization's ears: an unexpected $1,000 donation. But the offer came with dirty strings attached, and the surprise donation to California-based Urban Age Institute was hardly a gift at all. Instead, it placed the organization right in the middle of an extensive -- but elegantly simple -- worldwide scam.
Within days, $10,000 worth of checks were written against the non-profit's accounts and cashed by a woman in Georgia. She in turn wired money to Nigeria. The incident left the organization's leaders wondering: Is it that easy to raid anyone's checking account? The answer, according to banking experts interviewed for this story, is yes.
Armed with just a checking account number and bank routing number, criminals can create checks at whim, experts and law enforcement authorities say.
Most consumers presume that checks must be signed by an authorized account holder. That's ordinarily true, but not in the case of so-called "demand drafts." These look just like checks, but indicate "signature not required" or a similar message in the authorized signature area. And generally, banks cash them just like valid, signed checks.
one community bank surveyed demand drafts and found 73 percent to be fraudulent.
Last year, MSNBC.com exposed a Web site named PharmacyCards.com that was creating demand draft checks and withdrawing $139 from checking accounts all over the United States. The Federal Trade Commission later sued the site and alleged it had attempted to steal $10 million with bogus demand drafts.
And on and on and on...
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All hail Bill!
I think this image from his image gallery speaks for his intentions pretty well.
:-) -
Re:Hitchhiker's Guide to The Galaxy
Haha. for sure.
I was actually reminded of that farside comic where the guy invents a headpiece to interpret what dogs are saying when they bark and all he gets is "hey! hey, hey! hey, hey!heeeeey"
http://spaces.msn.com/members/eight1
- paul -
Re:[pries] my analog hole from my cold, dead hands
I hope you feel better you fucktard
Would you rather see Merriam-Webster?
http://merriamwebster.com/dictionary/prise
Main Entry: prise
Pronunciation: 'prIz
chiefly British variant of PRIZE
Cambridge?
http://dictionary.cambridge.org/define.asp?key=629 55&dict=CALD
Definition
prise Show phonetics
verb [T]
UK FOR prize (LIFT)
And here I found a definition of COLA MAN from MS Encarta:
http://encarta.msn.com/encnet/refpages/RefEdList.a spx?refid=210031633 -
like wow..
In other news Scientists have resolved all the world's problems.
I'm seriously wondering where we manage to get so much money from in order to just waste it on dumb research. Mice sing.. good for them. I would if I could.. but it wouldn't really help me in the female deparment at all..
http://spaces.msn.com/members/eight1
- paul -
Re:Looks a lot like Start.com
actually it appears to be just that.
disclaimer text at the bottom of the screen:
this site is not an officially supported site. it is an incubation experiment and doesn't represent any particular strategy or policy. for other incubation experiments, see http://sandbox.msn.com./ enjoy! -
It failed.... Google just won.
First search result when "Desktop" is searched for in MS "Live": Google Desktop! http://search.msn.com/results.aspx?FORM=LIVE&q=de
s ktop w00t!