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Music Companies Convicted of Price Fixing Again
InspectorPraline writes "Providing more proof that the record industry is indeed a oligopoly, this article at the New York Times reports that two major record companies, Vivendi Universal and Warner Communications, have been convicted of price fixing by the FTC over a recording from 1998 of the Three Tenors. While Warner reached an agreement with the FTC about a year ago, Vivendi continues to deny wrongdoing and will, of course, appeal." The FTC's release is quite informative, describing the entire case.
Mozilla does suck. Leaving it open for more than a day with "quickstart" causes RAM usage to jump to ridiculous levels, we're talking about > 60 MB here. That is just unacceptable. I cannot believe people actually put up with such a slow crappy browser. The menus draw so damn slowly I sometimes wonder if I am using a Java application instead of a "native" application. The interface is worse. It doesn't even look like any other windows apps. I realize that people want it to look the same on all platforms, but why? That is just about the worst idea I've ever heard. If you want Windows (or any) users to adopt your crappy browser, at least you could take the time to make it not look like a piece of shit on Windows. The "modern" skin looks like ass.
I'm just glad NS4.7x is phasing out of use. I've wasted more hours than I like to admit fooling with pages to render halfway decently on that piece of shit browser. Modern versions are much better (4.77 seems to at least render 25% of my CSS) but still really suck in comparison to IE or even Opera.
And a 9+ meg download for a browser WITHOUT a Java VM? Jesus Christ, talk about bloat. IE may not be the most trim download either, but at least it supports just about everything on the web.
The worst part about Mozilla is that it doesn't support the PWP. How can I enjoy all of Klerck's hard work if it just comes out as a long post? Pages want to be wide.
My favorite is hearing people talk about how bloated IE is and how fast Mozilla is. I am not sure what alternate dimension they live on, but here in reality Mozilla is a bloated, ugly, slow piece of shit.
I really really did try to give Mozilla a decent shot. Too bad it sucks ass. On a linux platform, Konqueror is really a much better choice, especially if you use KDE. But KDE is another bloated piece of shit too. Don't get me started on that. Opera is pretty nice, the mouse gestures rock, and I love the tabbed interface. Mozilla's implementation of the tabbed interface is joke compared to what Opera has done.
It's not like I have anything against Open Source. I have a Debian NAT/firewall that works nicely. My video capture card also works much better on my Debian box (blame ATI for writing sorry ass TV Tuner drivers). But I can't get used to the shitty GUI systems that are X-Windows, KDE, Gnome, etc. The command line interface is nice for admining servers over a network, but for everday use (which it is almost necessary to do anything remotely useful on a Linux machine) it is absolutely awful. Are these people addicted to typing a lot? How do people stand to use Mutt or Pine to access their email? Step into the 21st century, we are not in the 70s anymore. My monitor has more than 16 colors, is it wrong to want to use all of them?
I can't stand all of the Slashdot fags that try to say how much Linux is better than Windows or FreeBSD is better than windows or X is better than Y. Linux is not the end-all solution to every problem. It won't solve world hunger. Linux isn't perfect. The open sores development model isn't perfect. Windows isn't perfect. Get over it.
Also, the open source model isn't perfect either. There's something to be said for a good QC department. There's something to be said for any sort of Quality Control in general. I think it explains this question: Why is it that Linux lags several years behind any commercial operating system in terms of usability? The open source model lets you work on whatever the fuck you want to. Well, who wants to work on the not-fun-never-will-be-fun-in-a-million-years parts of an application? Nobody, so it takes a long time getting done. No boss to tell you you have to get that done.
Try saying anything bad about Linux or Open Sores to the bastards on Slashdot. You'll be modded "-1, Troll" faster than you can blink. Although everyone knows you should be modded "+5, Truthful and Non-Homosexual."
People that insist all software should be free are also fucking morons. I'm a software developer, is it wrong to want to be paid for my work? You pay the grocer for your food, the car mechanic to fix your car, rent to your landlord/apartment complex, so why the fuck is it wrong to pay for software? I'm sorry if I don't want to end up a fat bastard with a ruddy complexion that drinks way too much Jaegermeister.
Go push your communist agenda somewhere else you cumguzzling ass-fucking retarded free software zealots.
OK I'm done. Feel free to use this to crapflood or do anything else with. It is released under the NHFL (non homosexual free license).
PS Thanks Trollaxor for having a place like this so I can rant about this kind of crap and not get made fun of for being heterosexual.
Top 10 Reasons to Upgrade to Visual Basic NETMicrosoft Visual Basic NET included in Microsoft Visual Studio NET Professional Enterprise Developer and Enterprise Architect editions is the latest version of Visual Basic built specifically for existing Visual Basic developers who want to get the most out of the software development experienceIn addition to more power productivity and application stability Visual Basic NET provides key enhancements that solve the most pressing challenges that Visual Basic developers face today From the new integrated development environment IDE to a modern streamlined Visual Basic language Visual Basic NET delivers the top requested features built for todays Visual Basic developerNumber 1Seamless DeploymentVisual Basic NET solves the most pressing issues around Windowsbased application deployment and makes DLL Hell and component versioning issues a thing of the past New XCOPY deployment enables developers to install a Windowsbased application simply by copying files to a directory With Visual Basic NET and new autodownload deployment Windowsbased applications can be installed and executed simply by pointing a Web browser to a URLNumber 2More Robust CodeVisual Basic NET delivers the feature most requested by existing Visual Basic developersfewer bugs in the code they write Features in the new Visual Studio NET IDE such as the realtime background compiler and the task list keep Visual Basic developers uptodate on any coding errors as they occur enabling quick and effective error resolution Enhancements to the Visual Basic language such as strict type checking and structured exception handling enable developers to write code that is more robust maintainable and less prone to runtime errorsNumber 3Powerful Windowsbased ApplicationsVisual Basic NET is the most productive tool for constructing powerful Microsoft Windowsbased applications The new Windows Forms Designer enables developers to get their desktop applications to market in less time New features include control anchoring and docking to eliminate the need for complex resize code the inplace menu editor to deliver WYSIWYG menu creation and the tab order editor to provide rapid application development RAD organization of controlsNumber 4Powerful Flexible Data AccessVisual Basic NET provides developers with both the ActiveX Data Objects ADO data access programming model that they know and love plus the new XMLbased Microsoft ADONET With ADONET developers gain access to more powerful components such as the DataSet control and a new strongly typed programming model that provides Microsoft IntelliSense statement completion within data access codeNumber 5Simplified Component CreationVisual Basic NET brings RAD to component development Developers can use nonvisual toolbox and server explorer components to easily incorporate resources such as message queues event logs and performance counters into their applications without writing a single line of codeNumber 6Enhanced Control CreationVisual Basic NET provides unprecedented flexibility in building customized user controls Developers can easily extend preexisting user controls and Windows Forms controls as well as design their own controls that generate custom user interfacesNumber 7Complete Direct Access to the PlatformVisual Basic NET provides complete direct access to the Microsoft NET Framework enabling Visual Basic developers to quickly access the registry event log performance counters and file system Visual Basic NET also eliminates the need for declares statements for access to the operating system In addition the new Windows service project template enables rapid application development of real Microsoft Windows NT ServicesNumber 8Integrated Reporting with Crystal ReportsUpgrading to Visual Studio NET Professional Edition or later provides Visual Basic developers with the power of Crystal Reports directly within the IDE Crystal Reports delivers the most productive integrated and RAD experience for creating highly graphical and interactive relational data reports These reports can be generated for the entire array of Visual Basic NET application types including Windows Web and mobile applicationsNumber 9Easy Webbased Application DevelopmentVisual Basic NET delivers Visual Basic for the Web Using new Web Forms you can easily build true thinclient Webbased applications that intelligently render on any browser and on any platform Web Forms deliver the RAD programming experience of Microsoft Visual Basic 60 forms with the full power of Visual Basic NET rather than limited scripting capacity The new HTML designer delivers IntelliSense statement completion for HTML tags and the separation of user interface UI and code enable more efficient teambased developmentNumber 10Existing Investments Carry ForwardVisual Basic NET enables developers to leverage their existing investments in code and skills Windows Forms provides a robust container for Microsoft ActiveX controls Component Object Model COM Interoperability provides bidirectional communication between existing Visual Basic applications and those written with Visual Basic NET The upgrade wizard enables developers to seamlessly migrate up to 95 percent of existing code to Visual Basic NETPut these top 10 features to work in the applications you are building today with Visual Studio NET and Visual Basic NET
-pwpbot
HAND.
lameness filter evasion.
I have two replies to that. Take whichever one you want.
1.) There are six flags on the moon. All of them are ours. To paraphrase Eddie Izzard, "No flags, no moon rocks."
2.) There's a (silly) little UN treaty that says everything that isn't earth belongs to "everybody," essentially that you can take whatever raw materials you can get. Going back to the previous simplification, "No Saturn Vs, no moon rocks."
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