Wasn't there a similar proclamation made around a hundred years ago regarding discoveries? Someone (Lord Kelvin, if memory serves) stated that all the important scientific discoveries had been made and that any further work would involve mere refinements. I think he was proven wrong.
You don't think that as long as there are problems to solve someone will come up with novel ways of solving them? (Jeez, if you do, how jaded can you get?) Some of these solutions could be `cooler' than anything you listed -- which incidently only covered communications and transportation. There's (ahem) just a few more fields that might attract an inventor's attention.
Just think of the things that have been discovered in the past 50 years that no one's found practical uses for yet. Superconductivity hasn't really made it out of the labs. When it does it could be as significant as electric power or (every Slashdot addict's favorite invention) the semiconductor.
``of course genetically engineer ourselves. If that happens.''
IMO, that would be akin (to borrow an analogy from Philip Greenspun) to: a bunch of curious schoolkids, after having broken into a Boeing 747, flipping all the switches to see what happens. I'd be more than a little worried if the biotech industry starts moving in this direction. (Oops! We didn't think tweaking that gene would do that! Sorry.)
Every month I have to walk some guy into the data center to inspect the fire extinguishers. Now he's going to ask to see my balls. Couldn't they have made them like Frisbees or something, heck anything, that's not so... personal?
Gosh sorry. I looked for any readable documentation as to how one might do that for most of the desktops (KDE, Gnome, Enlightenment) and haven't found anything useful (I have found a few documents that were about as useless as one could imagine). Apparently I'm supposed to pour over all the C sources to figure out all the oddball variables that have to get set to make a decent theme. Then spend endless hours fiddling with all those settings which seem to have all sorts of interrelations that you don't find out about until you change one. Who has that kind of time?
My main beef with the themes is that, based on what I was seeing posted, 99% of them must have been deviced by people who think that black backgrounds on web pages are still k00l. `Dark this', `Dark that', `My Organic Theme', etc. and not one of them that anyone could stand to use for more than an evening without straining their eyesight. IMHO, the vast majority of them are a waste of iron oxide. FYI: I, too, have wound up sticking with mostly stock KDE... and found it about as aesthetically pleasing as Windows [gag]. The hell of it is that, at least under Windows if I increase the title bar font size I don't have to finagle some obscure variable in a file somewhere to make the title bar large enough to display the title without clipping (which happens too often with KDE).
Looks like I'm stuck switching wallpapers and titlebar colors for now.
``You would have to be one cheap individual to want to download all the music in your life for free and this study proves that. Because most people are obviously using file sharing to find new music to purchase. A concept the RIAA can not comprehend.''
Right. They're too darned busy paying off the radio stations to play the latest ``hit'' from some boy band or Britney wannabee. Gotta sell those records to recoup all that expensive hype.
Since the radio stations aren't actually playing any music from the other 99 percent of the artists that they distribute, just how the hell do the record companies expect those artists to be heard? Or do they expect those un-hyped bands to gain their sales as a result of impulse purchases?
If I hadn't found a sample of a band's music (or the occasional full track) in MP3 format, there are bands whose music I wouldn't have purchased. Take note, Hilary, lest you wind up killing off the Golden Goose.
``What the hell was wrong with the old themes.org, not the previous one(what a disaster), but the one before?''
There wasn't anything wrong with it that the consultant that was hired -- probably with instructions to `clean it up a bit' -- didn't manage to make worse. On the plus side, I'll bet their bandwidth charges dropped after the facelifts.
I tried to download a theme several times since those overhauls. What a joke. Click here and find yourself someplace else that doesn't seem to result in a theme being downloaded. Truly was one for the ``Interface Hall of Shame''.
``And where is the X resources section?''
Right. Guess you're not supposed to know or care about those any more. In the headlong dash to become another Windows, both Gnome, KDE (especially KDE) and others have forgotten a little something. Is it just me or do most of the so-called themes that I see for KDE look very much like the ``Look! You can change the color of the window title bar and, voila, a new theme!'' crud that passes for a `theme' under Windows.
And please... if the themes site is going to be usable again, here's a radical idea: howzabout filling it with some themes that actually make the interface usable instead of merely looking like promos for the latest cult movie or video game.
The beef isn't that IE is bundled with the ``desktop''. It's that IE is being pushed as part of the operating system.
And your KDE comment is wrong as well for a couple of reasons:
The browser may be ``bundled'' with the desktop but I am not forced to use it. I can delete it. I can remove the icons. I can remove the references to it from all of the desktop menus. Try that with IE and Windows; it's difficult.
The desktop is not part of the operating system. I can use something other than KDE. Or no ``desktop'' at all and still have the ability to use a browser. Heck, if I don't want graphics I can omit the desktop altogether and still browse. Try that with Windows; it's not possible any more.
Don't try to equate Microsoft's comingling of IE and Windows with KDE's (or Gnome's, etc.) bundling. It's not the same thing.
``...sued the people whose house he broke into because he broke his leg falling down the stairs
because of some crap he tripped on...''
Yah. The rule of thumb is (I think) that when you shoot the guy who's broken into the house and is raping your daughter, make sure you empty the revolver into him. If all you do is wound him and he survives he'll sue you.
I wish I could find a reference for my favorite legal atrocity: Inmates escape from prison. They're at large for weeks. When finally caught, at least one of them sues the state for the `mental anguish' he suffered while on the lam. (I guess the fear of being captured would be awfully stressful.) The state loses the suit.
I guess we can't expect all judges to have the wisdom of Solomon. But why the heck do so many seem to have less common sense than Homer Simpson?
``The result is a three-paragraph statement that Chief Marketing Officer Scott Eagle calls a "kindergarten version" of the full policy.''
Say, Scott, I wonder how many of the customers that your company depends on would appreciate your insult? If you can't get people to accept using your product unless it's real purpose is hidden in umpty-ump pages of legalese then you have a problem. Don't insult the computer user who hasn't got the time or the inclination to decypher the dense verbiage in your EULA.
Of course, perhaps you need to resort to legalistic trickery buried in your EULA since you have problems actually marketing your product any other way. Probably has something to do with referring to potential users as ``kindergarteners''.
``try georgia tech's CS4420, "Database System Implementation". a semester of group work, and what do you have to show for it at the end? an integer-only database which can only run poorly-optimized extremely limited SELECT statements. it lends a whole new perspective of companies that sell databases. you almost start to understand why oracle charges $60,000 per processor.''
Sorry but just how this is a valid excuse for charging so damned much for an Oracle license? Were you expecting that a classroom full of college students were going to reinvent Oracle RDBMS over the course of a single semester? I had to write a circuit analysis program for a half-semester course. I doubt that anyone was expecting that a competitor to ECAP, LINCAD, or SPICE was going to result from that assignment. Geez.
``You should pay whatever price the market will bear.''
The funny thing is that may be exactly what's happening: the price that the market will bear is dropping and the record companies using the internet as a scapegoat to explain why people are looking elsewhere for music. (Record company: ``No... we don't think it's about the quality of the music...''. Me: ``You got that right. There hasn't been any quality in years.'')
To paraphrase an old song:
``How do you afford your record exec lifestyle?''
(Apparently, by blaming someone else and by lobbying Congress for protection.)
``...there are some alternative points of view too: a study at the University of Buffalo claims that music sharing may cut down on superstars and promote new music.''
Hasn't it been demonstrated many times in the past few years that the only artists that are benefitting from the contracts with major record distributors has been those superstars? The smaller, lesser known bands -- the ones that produce the far more interesting music (IMHO) -- get little benefit from deals with the major labels.
``a nice chart I saw a few days ago compares CD sales vs. price over the last several years and suggests that price-fixing by the recording industry may play a part in slowing sales''
And I take ``the recording industry'' to mean the megalabels. CD prices have actually appeared to be decreasing for the music put out by the smaller labels. (But the big music store chains don't seem to be passing those lower prices on to the customers.) I've been seeing prices down in the US$10-$12 range -- sometimes under $10 -- for many CDs put out by small, independent labels. Of course my musical tastes don't run along the lines of an artist who's paid US$30M and told not to let the door hit her in the ass on the way out. So YMMV. Of course, you have to know where to look for these CDs. You won't find them at Best Buy, WalMart, Tower, or any of the other giant chains that the major labels like to sell through. You have to buy most of these CDs over the internet. And we all know just how well the major record labels understand the internet now don't we.
There was an interesting, multipage article in the 4/14 edition of the Chicago Tribune (see ``Rocking Radio's World'' under ``Arts and Entertainment'' at their web site (free registration req'd.) that was describing -- among other things -- the ill-effects of the consolidation of the major radio outlets in the US. It seems that radio listeners are turning elsewhere to hear the music that they want: satellite and the Web. The traditional broadcasters are so concerned about not offending their listeners sensitive ears that they'll program Nsync and Britney Spears clones all day long. One radio exec actually thinks that that's what everyone wants to hear. If memory serves, his comment was ``people only want to hear the hits. I guess that means only the music that the major distributors have decided are to be hits.
I grew up listening to a radio station that converted to a rock format after having been for many years a classical station (Bonus points for the person who identifies this station). Their format for a long time was to have a pair of ``featured artists'' each day. That meant that probably once an hour you'd hear a song by one of the featured artists. I never knew of anyone who complained when the featured artists were, oh, Santana and Stravinsky or the Beatles and Bach. But I do know many people who do not listen to that station any more after its purchase by one of the major radio conglomerates and the format changed to bland, formulaic, hits-only programming. Failure to recognize that their listeners actually like having their ears challenged will -- I can only hope -- be their downfall.
If these folks want to know why music purchases are down, why traditional radio stations aren't being listened to any more all they have to do is ask and listen to the what people are telling them. But I suspect that the music execs are pathologically incapable of doing the latter and it'll take bankrupcy to finally get their attention.
``If article is correct and they really were successful in brainwashing that many engineers, their task just got that much harder. Clear thinking engineers who think for themselves would not be brainwashed so easily, nor would they be happy smily about it.''
And if the article's correct, it just reinforces my belief that working for Microsoft is sort of like being in a cult.
Um, yah! Like I want people working with and for me that can be brainwashed in a half a day.
IMHO, if this clown thinks that ``geeks'' can be brainwashed in that short of a time, he doesn't understand ``geeks''. (My experience is that most technical employees, upon hearing of an edict like this coming down from upon high, will question the entire process. Especially if they're not included in the process at all which is what it sounds like happened at Microsoft. They're about as likely to jump in and accept this process about as much as Microsoft's upper management is likely to admit that they did anything wrong leading up to the anti-trust conviction.)
And if this code review was so damned effective that it put the OSS movement to shame why have there been recently discovered bugs made public by people outside Microsoft? And made public by people who first brought them to Microsoft's attention and were ignored?
``If my employer ever publicly said anything like that, I'd run for the exits.''
Couldn't happen to a more deserving company (IMHO).
I was an (contract) admin at a company that felt the need to post those ``motivational'' posters around the workplace. I found them pretty insulting. Especially the one that they had plastered on the wall where the developers worked that read: ``It's dumb to be too smart.'' (It always amazes me when managers wonder why, after treating their workers like shit, they find themselves thought of as assholes.)
After I left, I heard quite a few headhunters comment that they had a difficult time getting anyone to accept positions at that company. Some of the headhunters claimed that they were being asked to filter candidates according to age (which they refused to do), that candidates were routinely lied to during interviews, and that recruiting fees weren't paid without a huge hassle. Wonder how long it'll be before Microsoft begins being viewed the same way by recruiters.
...that demand for broadband isn't there. Hell, they're not willing to listen to the demand.
I came close to starting a wireless network in my neighborhood fed by a T1 (or better) line. We're all about 500 feet farther than the phone company will allow for any DSL service. But they'd gladly charge a fortune for a T-class line. Unfortunately most of my neighbors are happy with their cable modem access to AOL and I opted for an IDSL connection.
You just have to ask: What good is mandatory copyright protection in computers to protect digital movies that require broadband that the phone companies aren't willing to provide in the first place?
``Now, if the guy's posts to this list in response actually got blocked, I do feel for him a bit. What was the moderator thinking?''
Well, according to the article, the guy's posts were bounced because they contained mime attachments. I'd guess that the moderator had long ago gotten tired of dealing with attachments and had started rejecting anything that came in containing them. If the store owner had bothered to follow directions his postings probably would have been accepted. But then to run to a lawyer because your postings were rejected... that's a little like me shouting from the rooftop about how someone posted something I didn't particularly like and then, when they don't respond or don't respond in a way that gives me everything I want, then filing a lawsuit. A few postings doesn't (IMHO) constitute much of an effort on the store owner's part. I mean, heck, after the first posting didn't appear on the forum, wouldn't you try to figure out why? Apparently, Mr. Store Owner just got ticked off and called a lawyer.
I have to wonder -- along with some of the other people posting here -- what effort the store owner made to inquire into the alleged rip-off. His entire reaction to this isn't going to sit very well with his other customers. Who wants to do business with someone who takes you to court if you have a dispute with them? How concerned is he (really) about his business's image and reputation if he runs to the courts to fix his customers reactions instead of fixing the broken business practice that caused that reaction in the first place? (IMHO, not very.)
I predict falling sales revenues for this guy. Wonder who he'll sue next to make up for that?
Sad...
Re:I don't expect I'll ever sync a Zaurus to Outlo
on
Bad Review for the Zaurus
·
· Score: 1, Offtopic
Heh!
I'd take an anchovie and bacon pizza over Outlook any time. (Though I'd prefer shrimp and capers.)
... (besides the obvious solution of turning the computer off and reading a book, that is) is to move it out of the room. If Larry Ellison is still selling his network computers... I'm in the market. I've moved all but one computer into a rack down in the basement and would move the remaining one if I could find an really quiet desktop device like an X-terminal that I could hang my 19-in monitor off of. I'd rather listen to my stereo than whirring disk drives and muffin fans. Any pointers on where the affordable devices like this are for sale (HDS's prices for their X-terminals are steeper than I'd like to pay)?
Headphone? Seems stupid and, ultimately, uncomfortable for long-term wearing. (Though they might be nice -- along with some long-johns -- for those stints I sometimes spend in the data center doing upgrades.:-) )
Slashdot Mirror
Wasn't there a similar proclamation made around a hundred years ago regarding discoveries? Someone (Lord Kelvin, if memory serves) stated that all the important scientific discoveries had been made and that any further work would involve mere refinements. I think he was proven wrong.
You don't think that as long as there are problems to solve someone will come up with novel ways of solving them? (Jeez, if you do, how jaded can you get?) Some of these solutions could be `cooler' than anything you listed -- which incidently only covered communications and transportation. There's (ahem) just a few more fields that might attract an inventor's attention.
Just think of the things that have been discovered in the past 50 years that no one's found practical uses for yet. Superconductivity hasn't really made it out of the labs. When it does it could be as significant as electric power or (every Slashdot addict's favorite invention) the semiconductor.
IMO, that would be akin (to borrow an analogy from Philip Greenspun) to: a bunch of curious schoolkids, after having broken into a Boeing 747, flipping all the switches to see what happens. I'd be more than a little worried if the biotech industry starts moving in this direction. (Oops! We didn't think tweaking that gene would do that! Sorry.)
Every month I have to walk some guy into the data center to inspect the fire extinguishers. Now he's going to ask to see my balls. Couldn't they have made them like Frisbees or something, heck anything, that's not so... personal?
Gosh sorry. I looked for any readable documentation as to how one might do that for most of the desktops (KDE, Gnome, Enlightenment) and haven't found anything useful (I have found a few documents that were about as useless as one could imagine). Apparently I'm supposed to pour over all the C sources to figure out all the oddball variables that have to get set to make a decent theme. Then spend endless hours fiddling with all those settings which seem to have all sorts of interrelations that you don't find out about until you change one. Who has that kind of time?
My main beef with the themes is that, based on what I was seeing posted, 99% of them must have been deviced by people who think that black backgrounds on web pages are still k00l. `Dark this', `Dark that', `My Organic Theme', etc. and not one of them that anyone could stand to use for more than an evening without straining their eyesight. IMHO, the vast majority of them are a waste of iron oxide. FYI: I, too, have wound up sticking with mostly stock KDE... and found it about as aesthetically pleasing as Windows [gag]. The hell of it is that, at least under Windows if I increase the title bar font size I don't have to finagle some obscure variable in a file somewhere to make the title bar large enough to display the title without clipping (which happens too often with KDE).
Looks like I'm stuck switching wallpapers and titlebar colors for now.
I'm sorry... perhaps I missed something in your post. This would be bad, how?
Right. They're too darned busy paying off the radio stations to play the latest ``hit'' from some boy band or Britney wannabee. Gotta sell those records to recoup all that expensive hype.
Since the radio stations aren't actually playing any music from the other 99 percent of the artists that they distribute, just how the hell do the record companies expect those artists to be heard? Or do they expect those un-hyped bands to gain their sales as a result of impulse purchases?
If I hadn't found a sample of a band's music (or the occasional full track) in MP3 format, there are bands whose music I wouldn't have purchased. Take note, Hilary, lest you wind up killing off the Golden Goose.
You know? I think you've hit upon the reason that the previous site was so unusable: it had been defaced.
There wasn't anything wrong with it that the consultant that was hired -- probably with instructions to `clean it up a bit' -- didn't manage to make worse. On the plus side, I'll bet their bandwidth charges dropped after the facelifts.
I tried to download a theme several times since those overhauls. What a joke. Click here and find yourself someplace else that doesn't seem to result in a theme being downloaded. Truly was one for the ``Interface Hall of Shame''.
Right. Guess you're not supposed to know or care about those any more. In the headlong dash to become another Windows, both Gnome, KDE (especially KDE) and others have forgotten a little something. Is it just me or do most of the so-called themes that I see for KDE look very much like the ``Look! You can change the color of the window title bar and, voila, a new theme!'' crud that passes for a `theme' under Windows.
And please... if the themes site is going to be usable again, here's a radical idea: howzabout filling it with some themes that actually make the interface usable instead of merely looking like promos for the latest cult movie or video game.
All that hardware and no mention of any devices with which to do any backup of that 180+GB of hard disk space. Keep away from my servers, please.
The beef isn't that IE is bundled with the ``desktop''. It's that IE is being pushed as part of the operating system.
And your KDE comment is wrong as well for a couple of reasons:
Don't try to equate Microsoft's comingling of IE and Windows with KDE's (or Gnome's, etc.) bundling. It's not the same thing.
Heh! But they were invited. Didn't they know that a free audit was included with any on-campus presentations?
Hmm... maybe be it's just me, but making a translucent case doesn't strike me as being terribly innovative. Stylish is more accurate (IMHO).
Yah. The rule of thumb is (I think) that when you shoot the guy who's broken into the house and is raping your daughter, make sure you empty the revolver into him. If all you do is wound him and he survives he'll sue you.
I wish I could find a reference for my favorite legal atrocity: Inmates escape from prison. They're at large for weeks. When finally caught, at least one of them sues the state for the `mental anguish' he suffered while on the lam. (I guess the fear of being captured would be awfully stressful.) The state loses the suit.
I guess we can't expect all judges to have the wisdom of Solomon. But why the heck do so many seem to have less common sense than Homer Simpson?
Say, Scott, I wonder how many of the customers that your company depends on would appreciate your insult? If you can't get people to accept using your product unless it's real purpose is hidden in umpty-ump pages of legalese then you have a problem. Don't insult the computer user who hasn't got the time or the inclination to decypher the dense verbiage in your EULA.
Of course, perhaps you need to resort to legalistic trickery buried in your EULA since you have problems actually marketing your product any other way. Probably has something to do with referring to potential users as ``kindergarteners''.
Jeez...
Sorry but just how this is a valid excuse for charging so damned much for an Oracle license? Were you expecting that a classroom full of college students were going to reinvent Oracle RDBMS over the course of a single semester? I had to write a circuit analysis program for a half-semester course. I doubt that anyone was expecting that a competitor to ECAP, LINCAD, or SPICE was going to result from that assignment. Geez.
The funny thing is that may be exactly what's happening: the price that the market will bear is dropping and the record companies using the internet as a scapegoat to explain why people are looking elsewhere for music. (Record company: ``No... we don't think it's about the quality of the music...''. Me: ``You got that right. There hasn't been any quality in years.'')
To paraphrase an old song:
(Apparently, by blaming someone else and by lobbying Congress for protection.)
NOT!
Hasn't it been demonstrated many times in the past few years that the only artists that are benefitting from the contracts with major record distributors has been those superstars? The smaller, lesser known bands -- the ones that produce the far more interesting music (IMHO) -- get little benefit from deals with the major labels.
And I take ``the recording industry'' to mean the megalabels. CD prices have actually appeared to be decreasing for the music put out by the smaller labels. (But the big music store chains don't seem to be passing those lower prices on to the customers.) I've been seeing prices down in the US$10-$12 range -- sometimes under $10 -- for many CDs put out by small, independent labels. Of course my musical tastes don't run along the lines of an artist who's paid US$30M and told not to let the door hit her in the ass on the way out. So YMMV. Of course, you have to know where to look for these CDs. You won't find them at Best Buy, WalMart, Tower, or any of the other giant chains that the major labels like to sell through. You have to buy most of these CDs over the internet. And we all know just how well the major record labels understand the internet now don't we.
There was an interesting, multipage article in the 4/14 edition of the Chicago Tribune (see ``Rocking Radio's World'' under ``Arts and Entertainment'' at their web site (free registration req'd.) that was describing -- among other things -- the ill-effects of the consolidation of the major radio outlets in the US. It seems that radio listeners are turning elsewhere to hear the music that they want: satellite and the Web. The traditional broadcasters are so concerned about not offending their listeners sensitive ears that they'll program Nsync and Britney Spears clones all day long. One radio exec actually thinks that that's what everyone wants to hear. If memory serves, his comment was ``people only want to hear the hits. I guess that means only the music that the major distributors have decided are to be hits.
I grew up listening to a radio station that converted to a rock format after having been for many years a classical station (Bonus points for the person who identifies this station). Their format for a long time was to have a pair of ``featured artists'' each day. That meant that probably once an hour you'd hear a song by one of the featured artists. I never knew of anyone who complained when the featured artists were, oh, Santana and Stravinsky or the Beatles and Bach. But I do know many people who do not listen to that station any more after its purchase by one of the major radio conglomerates and the format changed to bland, formulaic, hits-only programming. Failure to recognize that their listeners actually like having their ears challenged will -- I can only hope -- be their downfall.
If these folks want to know why music purchases are down, why traditional radio stations aren't being listened to any more all they have to do is ask and listen to the what people are telling them. But I suspect that the music execs are pathologically incapable of doing the latter and it'll take bankrupcy to finally get their attention.
Oh, man! They didn't [cringe] use those clips to prevent their eyelids from closing, did they?
And if the article's correct, it just reinforces my belief that working for Microsoft is sort of like being in a cult.
Um, yah! Like I want people working with and for me that can be brainwashed in a half a day.
IMHO, if this clown thinks that ``geeks'' can be brainwashed in that short of a time, he doesn't understand ``geeks''. (My experience is that most technical employees, upon hearing of an edict like this coming down from upon high, will question the entire process. Especially if they're not included in the process at all which is what it sounds like happened at Microsoft. They're about as likely to jump in and accept this process about as much as Microsoft's upper management is likely to admit that they did anything wrong leading up to the anti-trust conviction.)
And if this code review was so damned effective that it put the OSS movement to shame why have there been recently discovered bugs made public by people outside Microsoft? And made public by people who first brought them to Microsoft's attention and were ignored?
Couldn't happen to a more deserving company (IMHO).
I was an (contract) admin at a company that felt the need to post those ``motivational'' posters around the workplace. I found them pretty insulting. Especially the one that they had plastered on the wall where the developers worked that read: ``It's dumb to be too smart.'' (It always amazes me when managers wonder why, after treating their workers like shit, they find themselves thought of as assholes.)
After I left, I heard quite a few headhunters comment that they had a difficult time getting anyone to accept positions at that company. Some of the headhunters claimed that they were being asked to filter candidates according to age (which they refused to do), that candidates were routinely lied to during interviews, and that recruiting fees weren't paid without a huge hassle. Wonder how long it'll be before Microsoft begins being viewed the same way by recruiters.
Whoa... enough of this topic drift!
...that demand for broadband isn't there. Hell, they're not willing to listen to the demand.
I came close to starting a wireless network in my neighborhood fed by a T1 (or better) line. We're all about 500 feet farther than the phone company will allow for any DSL service. But they'd gladly charge a fortune for a T-class line. Unfortunately most of my neighbors are happy with their cable modem access to AOL and I opted for an IDSL connection.
You just have to ask: What good is mandatory copyright protection in computers to protect digital movies that require broadband that the phone companies aren't willing to provide in the first place?
Well, according to the article, the guy's posts were bounced because they contained mime attachments. I'd guess that the moderator had long ago gotten tired of dealing with attachments and had started rejecting anything that came in containing them. If the store owner had bothered to follow directions his postings probably would have been accepted. But then to run to a lawyer because your postings were rejected... that's a little like me shouting from the rooftop about how someone posted something I didn't particularly like and then, when they don't respond or don't respond in a way that gives me everything I want, then filing a lawsuit. A few postings doesn't (IMHO) constitute much of an effort on the store owner's part. I mean, heck, after the first posting didn't appear on the forum, wouldn't you try to figure out why? Apparently, Mr. Store Owner just got ticked off and called a lawyer.
I have to wonder -- along with some of the other people posting here -- what effort the store owner made to inquire into the alleged rip-off. His entire reaction to this isn't going to sit very well with his other customers. Who wants to do business with someone who takes you to court if you have a dispute with them? How concerned is he (really) about his business's image and reputation if he runs to the courts to fix his customers reactions instead of fixing the broken business practice that caused that reaction in the first place? (IMHO, not very.)
I predict falling sales revenues for this guy. Wonder who he'll sue next to make up for that?
Sad...
Heh!
I'd take an anchovie and bacon pizza over Outlook any time. (Though I'd prefer shrimp and capers.)
... (besides the obvious solution of turning the computer off and reading a book, that is) is to move it out of the room. If Larry Ellison is still selling his network computers... I'm in the market. I've moved all but one computer into a rack down in the basement and would move the remaining one if I could find an really quiet desktop device like an X-terminal that I could hang my 19-in monitor off of. I'd rather listen to my stereo than whirring disk drives and muffin fans. Any pointers on where the affordable devices like this are for sale (HDS's prices for their X-terminals are steeper than I'd like to pay)?
Headphone? Seems stupid and, ultimately, uncomfortable for long-term wearing. (Though they might be nice -- along with some long-johns -- for those stints I sometimes spend in the data center doing upgrades. :-) )