So one has to specifically state that they are going to pay for things now? Is it not implied that if I want goods or services that I pay for them? Is this not why there are exceptions (open source, freeware, shareware, etc) to prove the rule (pay for what you use)?
No, jcr is just being a tool as usual.
Giving the power solely to a corporation is not a good idea. Splitting MS into distinct parts is a good idea. They used intimidation and underhanded tactics to procure most of the products they ship and to gain the market share they have, so it's quite reasonable to enforce the anti-trust against MS... Anyone who disputes this should take it up with the DOJ in the US.
They do have both the technical and legal ability to do so. You agree to their terms the moment you access the site. If you don't like the terms, you are free to browse elsewhere.
There's a gaming site here in Australia (PALGN) that at one stage detected if you were blocking ads and asked nicely for you not to (they linked to an article they'd written on running costs, etc for the site). It was quite reasonable, they didn't force anyone to view their ads, but they could, and it would be 100% legal.
Just like it's 100% legal to block certain countries, IP ranges, etc from your site, it's 100% legal to block people who are blocking ads. It's your site, you have the right to refuse entry.
Just because you "think" something is true doesn't mean it is. Maybe check your facts before posting.
Personally I don't mind ads on sites if they are non-intrusive (those floating ads ARE intrusive). As someone who has run sites in the past for gaming clans/guilds/etc I can assure you that the meager revenue generated by hosting ads does help, and even if it's on a larger corporate scale it's the site's right to show the ads.
Think about it like this - just as you have a right to block the ads, the site has a right to block your access if you block their ads. No, I do not particularly like advertising, but it's there for a purpose.
If you don't believe the site should be generating revenue, or that the ads are too intrusive, then don't go there... I don't go to Wired anymore for both of these reasons
Funny you say that, I've always wanted to build (or buy if they made the damn things) a wearable.
On a more serious note, Lenovo aren't known for doing things "right" nor having their finger on the pulse. Even when IBM owned the notebook devision it was just as bad.
If the Lenovo dual screen notebook wasn't an example of the retardation that happens at that company, I don't know what is.
They fail to see what people want - a cut down machine with a low resource OS in a small form factor.
NO, this does not mean larger screens, Windows 7 or touch screens.
I find my EEE PC 701 great, the battery is a little shitty, but that's what you get with the 701s. The 7" screen, EasyPeasy (Ubuntu), and wireless are perfect for what it's intended.
I take it with me when I travel and have had little to no issues (main issues are security gawking at it and asking questions). On the other hand, my 15" notebook is mainly used for browsing the web in front of TV. It's really not practical to take anywhere due to size and cost of fixing should the screen, chassis, etc, break (compared to the EEE PC). Even my partner's 13" MacBook is a little large to be used as a netbook.
All in all, I think Kohut is blowing this out of his arse to sell more notebooks. Lenovo have received lukewarm, at best, responses to their latest offerings, so what better way to beat up sales than predict that the future of netbooks is what Lenovo already sell?
By the look of it you're actually wrong. You have no rights, it's completely legal for them to tail you and keep tabs on you.
I'm laughing my arse off here as so many times I see posts by US citizens claiming that the UK is the nanny state and to watch out for 1984... well, this IS 1984 style.
"They who can give up essential liberty to obtain a little temporary safety, deserve neither liberty nor safety"
Firstly, the 50/60hz is a refresh rate, not a frame rate (frame rate is actuall 25 for PAL, and 30 for NTSC).
Secondly, PAL is capable of running in either 50hz or 60hz nowerdays. All of this is controlled by the CONSOLE not the GAME. True, if you're running in 50hz mode you will get some "tearing", but only usually in complex scenes that require more processing - vsync tends to get a lower priority over maintaining graphics rendering quality in consoles.
There is almost no cost these days for the difference between PAL & NTSC. The whole region thing is bullshit, we all know this. It's just a way for companies to fuck over gamers by charging them more for games released locally.
Example, I live in Australia, I pay (on average) AU$100 per new release (some are upwards of $120, especially on the PS3), meanwhile, if I buy from STEAM (depending on the AU to US dollar cash rate) I pay between AU$60 and AU$75. Hell, when the aussie dollar was doing great I paid almost dollar for dollar and saved almost 1/2 the price on games. The ONLY game on steam that was changed for aussies was COD4, Activision realised we were paying only about AU$60 for the game, rather than the AU$100 in the shops so changed the price to US$80 for aussies.
Quite simply, region locking and regionalistion is just another ploy to screw people over. I really can't blame people for pirating games to be honest, not when shit like this happens.
I have never read such nonsense. Sure if you're wearing racing leathers and you don't hit anything when you slide you'll be "better off", but the chances of this are 0 in India. Hell, people don't even wear helmets, let alone leathers.
I can't believe someone would post such a stupid strawman. Let me guess, you ride a bike, so you like to talk bullshit about how they are "safe"? I ride a bike, I don't bullshit about how "safe" they are.
There's a reason doctors at hospitals call bike riders either "temporary citizens" or "donors".
I bet their first expansion will be Flaming Crusades, and their second will be Wrath of the Zombie king.
Actually, no... considering that they removed all undead from WoW in China citing being offensive to Chinese culture, I don't think the second expansion will be called this.
That's exactly why I hate this whole idea of a user pays society.
There are some things that are needed to be part of the government system... health, education, and welfare.
Example, here in Australia, we have free(ish) health. On Good Friday I awoke with intense abdominal pains so I went to hospital. Sure, I spent about 1.5-2hrs waiting to be seen, but once I was seen I had a bed, a doctor and a nurse. I was doped up on morphine, had a saline drip to got to watch TV while they did my blood & urine tests. All up I was in the bed for about 6hrs.
I think there's a difference between a member doing something against the TOS and a member that you don't like, or have been told to not like. This, to me, is a political deletion, has nothing to do with getting rid of bad members.
I'd hazard a guess that your site isn't thriving if you can't tell the difference between a personal dislike and someone breaking the rules of your site. Where I live, if this happened, the site owners would find themselves infront of the ACMA quicker than you can say "politically unjust act".
Yes, you are an "asshole" as you said, but you're also an idiot too... but they usually go hand in hand.
It's actually not surprising that Nintendo are doing this.
I had my Wii for less than a month and the drive died in it, so I sent it off to Nintendo and they wanted to charge me AU$150 for a new drive. Needless to say I was pissed off, it took taking them to Consumer Affairs before they'd back down and repair it under warranty.
They claimed it was user damage, even after I explained that it had been used twice and not moved from where it was installed. It's not the first case I'd heard about Nintendo trying to fleece customers with repairs.
This whole idea of charging more for a device with HBC installed is exactly how Nintendo operates. If they see a space for profit, they go for it. I mean, who else are you going to get to repair it?
Sure, if it was an Xbox 360 or a PS3 you'd find a repairer, but Wii repair places are few and far between... or at least in my experience they are.
Re:Perfect Qualities For....
on
Bringing Up Bill
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· Score: 5, Insightful
I'm not sure whether to mod you insightful or funny, so I'll just post... I really think this is quite a valid opinion.
I'm probably the first to despise Bill for his tactics with regards to computers, but I can only imagine what it'd be like if he was a politician. Makes me kind of thankful that he stayed with stealing other people's software...
Knives are a good idea. Big, fuck-off shiny ones. Ones that look like they could skin a crocodile. Knives are good, because they don't make any noise, and the less noise they make, the more likely we are to use them. Shit 'em right up. Makes it look like we're serious. Guns for show, knives for a pro.
Unfortunately like all good resources, diamonds in the rough. You have to wade through so much shit that you end up almost giving up. Almost... then you find the gem, and cherish it.
While it is sad to see it gone, the horrid gaudy gif sites will not be missed.
I'm not sure what you're getting at... Linux servers are already in nearly every house, all be it as routers and using an embedded form of Linux. It seems that people are slowly moving toward Linux as the backbone for their housing.
I have no less than 4 Linux devices/computers in my house, most people will have at least 1 or 2. The whole desktop thing will be a natural progression once people realise Vista SE, I mean 7, has fallen flat on it's face.
While I agree in part with this sentiment, I think there is room for paid content on sites.
Case in point, if you subscribe to New Scientist you get access to their full online articles. Not all are truncated, but there are some very juicy articles that are. There's also the Slashdot model that is in use on many other sites - articles are free, but are delayed and have ads for non-subscribers. Both methods seem to work, the first because you still get hard print, the second because people are always going to want to get the news first.
Unfortunately, in this day and age, if you're not offering free NEWS, as opposed to editorial articles, people won't pay. If the papers aren't willing to change their business model they won't survive, which is pretty much what we see happening with a lot of media lately.
Do you realise how slow these people's machines are and how unproductive they are?
You're just trying to flame the thread by talking crap, I'd hazard a guess you've never worked in support or even had anything to do with support. You've never been asked 100 times a day as to why a customer's computer, brand new, is so slow. Or why they can't run X app while Y app is running without the computer freezing. Because that's bullshit, 100% bullshit, never happens, as you'd have us believe.
Let me guess, you're someone loosely associated with IT who builds all their dimwit friends' computers, they know no better because all they use them for is solitaire and porn (which it can't handle if you try both at the same time). So you build them a piece of shit machine, never have to answer any questions, and say that this is a good plan of attack for new computing.
Sorry, but NO. Low power, low speed processing has come leaps and bounds over the last few years, to sit there and say that we could have done what we can today 12, or even 5 years ago is total bullshit.
There's more to a processor than just raw Mhz, if you don't understand this then you are just betraying your own ignorance.
Troll, flamebait or whatever, you're still an idiot.
I think you may be missing the point. "Good Enough" 12 years ago, hell even 5 years ago, wasn't really good enough to do anything of use. Pretty much the business machine was a Celeron processor that lacked so much so that if you did have email/browser/etc open at the same time it'd die in a heartbeat.
The latest processors while running low speed are being built very differently to the old school gear. The reason why you were never listened to by people back in the PII days is that you were talking grade A bullshit.
The processors weren't designed to run as cheap "good enough" processors. Pretty much the slow cheap ones were pieces of shit you wouldn't even sell to your mother. You didn't see this coming, you just kept saying the same thing until it came true.
It took 12 years mind you. Meanwhile the rest of us were able to run more than just a browser, or just an email client, on more expensive but usable equipment.
the system builder is agreeing to provide tech support for that software.
Actually, no, the system builder does not need to provide any support at all. Most don't now due to the massive pitfalls and loss in productivity caused by doing so.
Instantly you're liable for every slack jawed computer owner who refuses to learn how to use a system and merely relies on support to do everything for them. Yes, I have worked for companies that are stupid enough to give free support to software.
Slashdot Mirror
So one has to specifically state that they are going to pay for things now? Is it not implied that if I want goods or services that I pay for them? Is this not why there are exceptions (open source, freeware, shareware, etc) to prove the rule (pay for what you use)?
No, jcr is just being a tool as usual.
Giving the power solely to a corporation is not a good idea. Splitting MS into distinct parts is a good idea. They used intimidation and underhanded tactics to procure most of the products they ship and to gain the market share they have, so it's quite reasonable to enforce the anti-trust against MS... Anyone who disputes this should take it up with the DOJ in the US.
Actually, that's horseshit.
They do have both the technical and legal ability to do so. You agree to their terms the moment you access the site. If you don't like the terms, you are free to browse elsewhere.
There's a gaming site here in Australia (PALGN) that at one stage detected if you were blocking ads and asked nicely for you not to (they linked to an article they'd written on running costs, etc for the site). It was quite reasonable, they didn't force anyone to view their ads, but they could, and it would be 100% legal.
Just like it's 100% legal to block certain countries, IP ranges, etc from your site, it's 100% legal to block people who are blocking ads. It's your site, you have the right to refuse entry.
Just because you "think" something is true doesn't mean it is. Maybe check your facts before posting.
Pretty much it.
Personally I don't mind ads on sites if they are non-intrusive (those floating ads ARE intrusive). As someone who has run sites in the past for gaming clans/guilds/etc I can assure you that the meager revenue generated by hosting ads does help, and even if it's on a larger corporate scale it's the site's right to show the ads.
Think about it like this - just as you have a right to block the ads, the site has a right to block your access if you block their ads. No, I do not particularly like advertising, but it's there for a purpose.
If you don't believe the site should be generating revenue, or that the ads are too intrusive, then don't go there... I don't go to Wired anymore for both of these reasons
Funny you say that, I've always wanted to build (or buy if they made the damn things) a wearable.
On a more serious note, Lenovo aren't known for doing things "right" nor having their finger on the pulse. Even when IBM owned the notebook devision it was just as bad.
If the Lenovo dual screen notebook wasn't an example of the retardation that happens at that company, I don't know what is.
They fail to see what people want - a cut down machine with a low resource OS in a small form factor.
NO, this does not mean larger screens, Windows 7 or touch screens.
I find my EEE PC 701 great, the battery is a little shitty, but that's what you get with the 701s. The 7" screen, EasyPeasy (Ubuntu), and wireless are perfect for what it's intended.
I take it with me when I travel and have had little to no issues (main issues are security gawking at it and asking questions). On the other hand, my 15" notebook is mainly used for browsing the web in front of TV. It's really not practical to take anywhere due to size and cost of fixing should the screen, chassis, etc, break (compared to the EEE PC). Even my partner's 13" MacBook is a little large to be used as a netbook.
All in all, I think Kohut is blowing this out of his arse to sell more notebooks. Lenovo have received lukewarm, at best, responses to their latest offerings, so what better way to beat up sales than predict that the future of netbooks is what Lenovo already sell?
By the look of it you're actually wrong. You have no rights, it's completely legal for them to tail you and keep tabs on you.
I'm laughing my arse off here as so many times I see posts by US citizens claiming that the UK is the nanny state and to watch out for 1984... well, this IS 1984 style.
"They who can give up essential liberty to obtain a little temporary safety, deserve neither liberty nor safety"
Firstly, the 50/60hz is a refresh rate, not a frame rate (frame rate is actuall 25 for PAL, and 30 for NTSC).
Secondly, PAL is capable of running in either 50hz or 60hz nowerdays. All of this is controlled by the CONSOLE not the GAME. True, if you're running in 50hz mode you will get some "tearing", but only usually in complex scenes that require more processing - vsync tends to get a lower priority over maintaining graphics rendering quality in consoles.
There is almost no cost these days for the difference between PAL & NTSC. The whole region thing is bullshit, we all know this. It's just a way for companies to fuck over gamers by charging them more for games released locally.
Example, I live in Australia, I pay (on average) AU$100 per new release (some are upwards of $120, especially on the PS3), meanwhile, if I buy from STEAM (depending on the AU to US dollar cash rate) I pay between AU$60 and AU$75. Hell, when the aussie dollar was doing great I paid almost dollar for dollar and saved almost 1/2 the price on games. The ONLY game on steam that was changed for aussies was COD4, Activision realised we were paying only about AU$60 for the game, rather than the AU$100 in the shops so changed the price to US$80 for aussies.
Quite simply, region locking and regionalistion is just another ploy to screw people over. I really can't blame people for pirating games to be honest, not when shit like this happens.
I have never read such nonsense. Sure if you're wearing racing leathers and you don't hit anything when you slide you'll be "better off", but the chances of this are 0 in India. Hell, people don't even wear helmets, let alone leathers.
I can't believe someone would post such a stupid strawman. Let me guess, you ride a bike, so you like to talk bullshit about how they are "safe"? I ride a bike, I don't bullshit about how "safe" they are.
There's a reason doctors at hospitals call bike riders either "temporary citizens" or "donors".
Which is why WAR is dieing, same as AoC.
Because the US has never done that before?
I bet their first expansion will be Flaming Crusades, and their second will be Wrath of the Zombie king.
Actually, no... considering that they removed all undead from WoW in China citing being offensive to Chinese culture, I don't think the second expansion will be called this.
WoW and most (if not all) MMOs are still really turn based when it comes to combat.
There's still the roll of the dice, still that feeling that there's no immediate feedback from player to world.
That said, yes, they are almost identical, just the graphics and the ability to play multiplayer.
So being forced into poverty by countries/corporations that are exploiting you is failure?
Gotta love these right wing nutjobs.
That's exactly why I hate this whole idea of a user pays society.
There are some things that are needed to be part of the government system... health, education, and welfare.
Example, here in Australia, we have free(ish) health. On Good Friday I awoke with intense abdominal pains so I went to hospital. Sure, I spent about 1.5-2hrs waiting to be seen, but once I was seen I had a bed, a doctor and a nurse. I was doped up on morphine, had a saline drip to got to watch TV while they did my blood & urine tests. All up I was in the bed for about 6hrs.
All this cost me a grand total of: $0
I think there's a difference between a member doing something against the TOS and a member that you don't like, or have been told to not like. This, to me, is a political deletion, has nothing to do with getting rid of bad members.
I'd hazard a guess that your site isn't thriving if you can't tell the difference between a personal dislike and someone breaking the rules of your site. Where I live, if this happened, the site owners would find themselves infront of the ACMA quicker than you can say "politically unjust act".
Yes, you are an "asshole" as you said, but you're also an idiot too... but they usually go hand in hand.
It's actually not surprising that Nintendo are doing this.
I had my Wii for less than a month and the drive died in it, so I sent it off to Nintendo and they wanted to charge me AU$150 for a new drive. Needless to say I was pissed off, it took taking them to Consumer Affairs before they'd back down and repair it under warranty.
They claimed it was user damage, even after I explained that it had been used twice and not moved from where it was installed. It's not the first case I'd heard about Nintendo trying to fleece customers with repairs.
This whole idea of charging more for a device with HBC installed is exactly how Nintendo operates. If they see a space for profit, they go for it. I mean, who else are you going to get to repair it?
Sure, if it was an Xbox 360 or a PS3 you'd find a repairer, but Wii repair places are few and far between... or at least in my experience they are.
I'm not sure whether to mod you insightful or funny, so I'll just post... I really think this is quite a valid opinion.
I'm probably the first to despise Bill for his tactics with regards to computers, but I can only imagine what it'd be like if he was a politician. Makes me kind of thankful that he stayed with stealing other people's software...
Are you naive enough to think Britney Spears owns the copyright to the music she performed?
Don't need ammunition...
Knives are a good idea. Big, fuck-off shiny ones. Ones that look like they could skin a crocodile. Knives are good, because they don't make any noise, and the less noise they make, the more likely we are to use them. Shit 'em right up. Makes it look like we're serious. Guns for show, knives for a pro.
Unfortunately like all good resources, diamonds in the rough. You have to wade through so much shit that you end up almost giving up. Almost... then you find the gem, and cherish it.
While it is sad to see it gone, the horrid gaudy gif sites will not be missed.
I'm not sure what you're getting at... Linux servers are already in nearly every house, all be it as routers and using an embedded form of Linux. It seems that people are slowly moving toward Linux as the backbone for their housing.
I have no less than 4 Linux devices/computers in my house, most people will have at least 1 or 2. The whole desktop thing will be a natural progression once people realise Vista SE, I mean 7, has fallen flat on it's face.
While I agree in part with this sentiment, I think there is room for paid content on sites.
Case in point, if you subscribe to New Scientist you get access to their full online articles. Not all are truncated, but there are some very juicy articles that are. There's also the Slashdot model that is in use on many other sites - articles are free, but are delayed and have ads for non-subscribers. Both methods seem to work, the first because you still get hard print, the second because people are always going to want to get the news first.
Unfortunately, in this day and age, if you're not offering free NEWS, as opposed to editorial articles, people won't pay. If the papers aren't willing to change their business model they won't survive, which is pretty much what we see happening with a lot of media lately.
But HD is higher resolution than the real world...
Do you realise how slow these people's machines are and how unproductive they are?
You're just trying to flame the thread by talking crap, I'd hazard a guess you've never worked in support or even had anything to do with support. You've never been asked 100 times a day as to why a customer's computer, brand new, is so slow. Or why they can't run X app while Y app is running without the computer freezing. Because that's bullshit, 100% bullshit, never happens, as you'd have us believe.
Let me guess, you're someone loosely associated with IT who builds all their dimwit friends' computers, they know no better because all they use them for is solitaire and porn (which it can't handle if you try both at the same time). So you build them a piece of shit machine, never have to answer any questions, and say that this is a good plan of attack for new computing.
Sorry, but NO. Low power, low speed processing has come leaps and bounds over the last few years, to sit there and say that we could have done what we can today 12, or even 5 years ago is total bullshit.
There's more to a processor than just raw Mhz, if you don't understand this then you are just betraying your own ignorance.
Troll, flamebait or whatever, you're still an idiot.
I think you may be missing the point. "Good Enough" 12 years ago, hell even 5 years ago, wasn't really good enough to do anything of use. Pretty much the business machine was a Celeron processor that lacked so much so that if you did have email/browser/etc open at the same time it'd die in a heartbeat.
The latest processors while running low speed are being built very differently to the old school gear. The reason why you were never listened to by people back in the PII days is that you were talking grade A bullshit.
The processors weren't designed to run as cheap "good enough" processors. Pretty much the slow cheap ones were pieces of shit you wouldn't even sell to your mother. You didn't see this coming, you just kept saying the same thing until it came true.
It took 12 years mind you. Meanwhile the rest of us were able to run more than just a browser, or just an email client, on more expensive but usable equipment.
the system builder is agreeing to provide tech support for that software.
Actually, no, the system builder does not need to provide any support at all. Most don't now due to the massive pitfalls and loss in productivity caused by doing so.
Instantly you're liable for every slack jawed computer owner who refuses to learn how to use a system and merely relies on support to do everything for them. Yes, I have worked for companies that are stupid enough to give free support to software.
Needless to say they pretty much went under.