So, my single purchase (or non-purchase) is insignificant, and Microsoft won't care.
Everyone knows they don't, but they definitively should care. Because you and everyone who thinks like you (myself included) could be a bellwether for how things might turn out for Microsoft if they don't listen. Just look at how things have turned out with Windows 8. MS could have saved themselves a lot of trouble and humiliation if they had just listened to the bellwethers before trying to cram that POS down people's throat. MS isn't the company it used to be, and they'll probably learn the hard way that they can no longer strong-arm people into buying into their shitty visions. They don't have a monopoly anymore and competition in the game (and OS) space is growing every day.
Instead of playing their old dirty tricks, they should instead be using their size and power to beat down the game publishers (who are the ones forcing the issue of phone-home consoles and crippled or disabled resale games) so that they can release a product that people might actually want to buy. Instead, by peddling to and promoting the publisher's greedy desires, all of them will end up losing.
Head of Structures for WSP Middle East, Bart Leclercq, told Middle East Architect, “I don’t think it’s possible to build [an 838m tower] as quickly as they claim. If they manage to build this structure in three months then I will give up structural engineering. I will hang my hat and retire. I will be eating humble pie as well.” Leclercq likes the idea of prefabrication but says concrete poured onsite in tall buildings provides stiffness, and the time it takes concrete to cure is non-negotiable. He thinks the five-year mark set by the Burj Khalifa is about as good as it gets with current techniques and technologies.
Because they are steadfastly denying that there are instructions on how to dump piss out of a boot and instead are claiming to everyone that in the boot is where the piss belongs?
Great expression, by the way. I'm definitively going to have to remember that one?
As chance would have it, I'm actually right in the middle of reading this book!
While the general premise of the book is the same as the movie (androids/replicants being hunted by a bounty hunter/blade runner), there are already enough differences between the two (so far) that I can definitely see them diverging from each other to the point where they have "very little to do with" each other... or perhaps not.
It's been many years since I've seen Blade Runner, but the principal theme (or moral, or whatever) that I recall from the movie is the confusion/tension between human (or "life") and machine and the underlying themes of what it actually means to be "alive" vs being a mechanical automaton. In the movie, Deckard, a human (or so I recall. As I understand it, there exists a theory that he was actually a replicant...) spends all of his energy chasing down and retiring what we are led to believe are nothing more than machines, but at the end we (and him) discover that these so-called lifeless androids have lived more than he ever has. You are left wondering what the real difference is between being "alive" as a human or being "alive" as an android, especially since the androids, owing to their shorter lifespan, seemed to appreciate life more, and lived it more fully than their human counterparts (that go though life living like machines) do.
While the book (so far) has a lot of difference between it and the movie, and hasn't indicated that androids have an artificially shorter lifespan (like in the movie), it has already introduced some themes that set up confusion/tension between things that are "alive" vs ones that are artificial and mechanical. Therefore, like I said earlier, I can definitely see it finishing in the same way as the movie: with us questioning if there is a real difference, and wondering if the androids were actually more "human" and more "alive" than the humans themselves. If that's true, then I wouldn't really say that one had very little to do with the other.
One thing's for sure though; it's an interesting book, and regardless of how things turn out, I think that so far it's definitely worth reading.
Yes, as other comments also indicate, due to my lack of not knowing German, my German is pretty bad. Count yourself lucky I didn't use my amazing Swedish, which I've learned through years of watching the muppet show!
Due to a misunderstanding with European contractors, Oklahoma City's new data centre was only designed to handle very light breezes of up to 310 meters per hour (m/h), and collapsed moments after construction was completed. When asked how they could confuse "MPH" with "m/h", the response was "wast ist eine 'mile'?". Full story at 11...
I didn't read the summary or the TFA, but everyone knows it's the other way around: consumption of too much beer can ruin fracking. While the consumption of some beer may very well increase desire, reduce inhibitions and can make someone undesirable look very frackable indeed (google "beer goggles"), it is well documented that having too much beer reduces activity and performance and can very much ruin a good frack. In the extreme, having way too much beer will just make you pass out in the middle of fracking, making it prone for you to have the money from your wallet stolen in retribution by the girl that you were with.
As usual, I don't know what the hell the Germans are talking about.
Anyway, all this fracking business reminds me that I haven't seen Battlestar Galactica in a while.
Yes, I understand that he wasn't alone at transferring all of that data; that wasn't my point. My point was that regardless how it was done, it's noteworthy that he was able to do it over a regular *residential* connection (yes it's FIOS, but it's still a regular consumer-grade service that anyone could sign up to for a reasonable amount of money per month). My point was that this was undreamed of just a short while ago.
I know of a lot of oldsk00l botted warez hosts that moved that much data back in the day
Over a residential connection?? 77TB is an average of 250Mbps continuously over a month. I find it very hard to believe that anything close to this rate was possible for a residential connection "back in the day", whenever that was.
No, violating the ToS isn't newsworthy in itself, but the way in which he did it certainly is. I find it incredible that someone was actually able to consume 77TB of bandwidth in a month on a residential connection. That would have been inconceivable even a short while ago. Maybe in a couple of years this sort of thing will become mundane, but at the moment it's quite impressive regardless of how it was done, and certainly deserves to be mentioned on a site that supposedly caters to nerds.
Maybe you just aren't nerdy enough to appreciate this and should hand in your nerd card.
I suppose it's also possible that you are some sort of super-nerd that does this kind of thing regularly and has become so jaded that you won't be impressed until someone streams petabytes of data to their smart watch in less than 10 minutes. If true, prove it, then I'll hand you my nerd card...
Close inspection of the nose of the missile shows the warhead's surface is undulated. Some analysts suggest the wrinkles mean the material is a thin metal sheet, unable to withstand flight pressures.
Maybe they're speed ridges, you know, to make them go faster. Sort of like speed holes on a sports car, but different...
No, in case I fooled you, I'm not a rocket scientist.
Exactly. The original post was meant to be a bit of a joke (the whole extrapolation from two points thing) but the one person I was thinking of (my father-in-law; 65 but still programs for a living and does amature photography and photo manipulation) hates loss of control. He'd rather pay twice as much for something than be locked in some scheme where he has no control. He was the most die-hard apple fan since the apple ii (always buying the latest hw; stupid apple stickers on everything), but he's never wanted anything to do with the iPod because it wouldn't play ogg; same thing for iPhone and all of the other igadgets I thought for sure he would buy. The guy has his principles and sticks to them, even if it's more expensive. That being said, he stands mostly alone in that regard, as most other people just do what is easiest or most convenient to them even if it means bending or changing their principles.
I know two people that use photoshop and *always* eventually upgrade to the latest version within a year or two (stupid fanatics; no offense). I can tell you right now that neither of them is going to stand for this and one of them is definitely going to send Adobe one or more very scathing emails to tell them that he will never buy anything of theirs again and to explain to them how they are a bunch of idiots making a very stupid mistake (and is highly likely to call them up in person and yell at them to drill the point home) .
Extrapolating from there, Adobe will lose all of their Photoshop customers within a couple of years, but it will be a boon to their customer service department which will have to hire more hard-as-nails customer service reps to answer angry phone calls and to answer hate mail...
Like Biff, Microsoft used to be so easy to hate (being the bully and all), but now, at the end of the story, they've become so reduced from their former self and are nothing more than a pathetic, blithering idiot, you almost feel sorry for them. Almost.
Anyway, I wonder if all of this negative news is enough to get Balmer tossed out.... Isn't that what is supposed to happen to CEOs when things go this wrong this fast?
I totally agree jms about this one. That was a pretty good book.
Interesting story: the only reason I read that book was because a couple of years ago somebody posted an "Ask Slashdot" asking for opinions about good SF books that he should read, and several people responded with "A Canticle for Liebowitz". I pretty much went out that same day to buy the book. I've found and read a few good books because of that Ask Slashdot thread or other similar threads; Blindsight and Cryptomomicon being two that I remember, but there were others...
I suppose I should be happy they aren't removing support for rendering tasteless backgrounds and crappy fonts... My ugly MySpace page is safe. For now.
As far as I'm concerned, this is Slashdot's way of saying that they don't want me frequenting the site and reading the posted articles today. I'm happy to oblige you Slashdot. See you tomorrow. Maybe.
So now we have a Google watch to add to the existing Google Spectacles and Google Wallet. I still feel like there's something missing to make the series feel complete...
Slashdot Mirror
So, my single purchase (or non-purchase) is insignificant, and Microsoft won't care.
Everyone knows they don't, but they definitively should care. Because you and everyone who thinks like you (myself included) could be a bellwether for how things might turn out for Microsoft if they don't listen. Just look at how things have turned out with Windows 8. MS could have saved themselves a lot of trouble and humiliation if they had just listened to the bellwethers before trying to cram that POS down people's throat. MS isn't the company it used to be, and they'll probably learn the hard way that they can no longer strong-arm people into buying into their shitty visions. They don't have a monopoly anymore and competition in the game (and OS) space is growing every day.
Instead of playing their old dirty tricks, they should instead be using their size and power to beat down the game publishers (who are the ones forcing the issue of phone-home consoles and crippled or disabled resale games) so that they can release a product that people might actually want to buy. Instead, by peddling to and promoting the publisher's greedy desires, all of them will end up losing.
Will these explode more or less violently than Li-ion batteries?
More! And when it does explode and you've got a flaming smartphone in your pocket, it will both feel *and smell* like you're in hell!
By the way, I hereby claim the name "BeelzeBATT" (TM).
You're not the only one that thinks so. From TFA:
Head of Structures for WSP Middle East, Bart Leclercq, told Middle East Architect, “I don’t think it’s possible to build [an 838m tower] as quickly as they claim. If they manage to build this structure in three months then I will give up structural engineering. I will hang my hat and retire. I will be eating humble pie as well.”
Leclercq likes the idea of prefabrication but says concrete poured onsite in tall buildings provides stiffness, and the time it takes concrete to cure is non-negotiable. He thinks the five-year mark set by the Burj Khalifa is about as good as it gets with current techniques and technologies.
Because they are steadfastly denying that there are instructions on how to dump piss out of a boot and instead are claiming to everyone that in the boot is where the piss belongs?
Great expression, by the way. I'm definitively going to have to remember that one?
As chance would have it, I'm actually right in the middle of reading this book!
While the general premise of the book is the same as the movie (androids/replicants being hunted by a bounty hunter/blade runner), there are already enough differences between the two (so far) that I can definitely see them diverging from each other to the point where they have "very little to do with" each other... or perhaps not.
It's been many years since I've seen Blade Runner, but the principal theme (or moral, or whatever) that I recall from the movie is the confusion/tension between human (or "life") and machine and the underlying themes of what it actually means to be "alive" vs being a mechanical automaton. In the movie, Deckard, a human (or so I recall. As I understand it, there exists a theory that he was actually a replicant...) spends all of his energy chasing down and retiring what we are led to believe are nothing more than machines, but at the end we (and him) discover that these so-called lifeless androids have lived more than he ever has. You are left wondering what the real difference is between being "alive" as a human or being "alive" as an android, especially since the androids, owing to their shorter lifespan, seemed to appreciate life more, and lived it more fully than their human counterparts (that go though life living like machines) do.
While the book (so far) has a lot of difference between it and the movie, and hasn't indicated that androids have an artificially shorter lifespan (like in the movie), it has already introduced some themes that set up confusion/tension between things that are "alive" vs ones that are artificial and mechanical. Therefore, like I said earlier, I can definitely see it finishing in the same way as the movie: with us questioning if there is a real difference, and wondering if the androids were actually more "human" and more "alive" than the humans themselves. If that's true, then I wouldn't really say that one had very little to do with the other.
One thing's for sure though; it's an interesting book, and regardless of how things turn out, I think that so far it's definitely worth reading.
Yes, as other comments also indicate, due to my lack of not knowing German, my German is pretty bad. Count yourself lucky I didn't use my amazing Swedish, which I've learned through years of watching the muppet show!
Due to a misunderstanding with European contractors, Oklahoma City's new data centre was only designed to handle very light breezes of up to 310 meters per hour (m/h), and collapsed moments after construction was completed. When asked how they could confuse "MPH" with "m/h", the response was "wast ist eine 'mile'?". Full story at 11...
I didn't read the summary or the TFA, but everyone knows it's the other way around: consumption of too much beer can ruin fracking. While the consumption of some beer may very well increase desire, reduce inhibitions and can make someone undesirable look very frackable indeed (google "beer goggles"), it is well documented that having too much beer reduces activity and performance and can very much ruin a good frack. In the extreme, having way too much beer will just make you pass out in the middle of fracking, making it prone for you to have the money from your wallet stolen in retribution by the girl that you were with.
As usual, I don't know what the hell the Germans are talking about.
Anyway, all this fracking business reminds me that I haven't seen Battlestar Galactica in a while.
I hate it when a summary repeats itself. I hate it when a summary repeats itself.
Yes, I understand that he wasn't alone at transferring all of that data; that wasn't my point. My point was that regardless how it was done, it's noteworthy that he was able to do it over a regular *residential* connection (yes it's FIOS, but it's still a regular consumer-grade service that anyone could sign up to for a reasonable amount of money per month). My point was that this was undreamed of just a short while ago.
I know of a lot of oldsk00l botted warez hosts that moved that much data back in the day
Over a residential connection?? 77TB is an average of 250Mbps continuously over a month. I find it very hard to believe that anything close to this rate was possible for a residential connection "back in the day", whenever that was.
No, violating the ToS isn't newsworthy in itself, but the way in which he did it certainly is. I find it incredible that someone was actually able to consume 77TB of bandwidth in a month on a residential connection. That would have been inconceivable even a short while ago. Maybe in a couple of years this sort of thing will become mundane, but at the moment it's quite impressive regardless of how it was done, and certainly deserves to be mentioned on a site that supposedly caters to nerds.
Maybe you just aren't nerdy enough to appreciate this and should hand in your nerd card.
I suppose it's also possible that you are some sort of super-nerd that does this kind of thing regularly and has become so jaded that you won't be impressed until someone streams petabytes of data to their smart watch in less than 10 minutes. If true, prove it, then I'll hand you my nerd card...
True, but I'd take a C4 volcano over your grade-school peroxide and soda volcano any day.
When in doubt, C4! (heh, heh, heh...)
This is very insightful. Why do my mod points always run out just before I need them...?
Close inspection of the nose of the missile shows the warhead's surface is undulated. Some analysts suggest the wrinkles mean the material is a thin metal sheet, unable to withstand flight pressures.
Maybe they're speed ridges, you know, to make them go faster. Sort of like speed holes on a sports car, but different...
No, in case I fooled you, I'm not a rocket scientist.
Exactly. The original post was meant to be a bit of a joke (the whole extrapolation from two points thing) but the one person I was thinking of (my father-in-law; 65 but still programs for a living and does amature photography and photo manipulation) hates loss of control. He'd rather pay twice as much for something than be locked in some scheme where he has no control. He was the most die-hard apple fan since the apple ii (always buying the latest hw; stupid apple stickers on everything), but he's never wanted anything to do with the iPod because it wouldn't play ogg; same thing for iPhone and all of the other igadgets I thought for sure he would buy. The guy has his principles and sticks to them, even if it's more expensive. That being said, he stands mostly alone in that regard, as most other people just do what is easiest or most convenient to them even if it means bending or changing their principles.
I know two people that use photoshop and *always* eventually upgrade to the latest version within a year or two (stupid fanatics; no offense). I can tell you right now that neither of them is going to stand for this and one of them is definitely going to send Adobe one or more very scathing emails to tell them that he will never buy anything of theirs again and to explain to them how they are a bunch of idiots making a very stupid mistake (and is highly likely to call them up in person and yell at them to drill the point home) .
Extrapolating from there, Adobe will lose all of their Photoshop customers within a couple of years, but it will be a boon to their customer service department which will have to hire more hard-as-nails customer service reps to answer angry phone calls and to answer hate mail...
worst idea in UI design since the rubber eraser joystick that was on lap tops from people too cheap to buy a track pad.
Hey! Leave me and my clit-mouse out of this discussion, thank you. Long live the clit-mouse!
Like Biff, Microsoft used to be so easy to hate (being the bully and all), but now, at the end of the story, they've become so reduced from their former self and are nothing more than a pathetic, blithering idiot, you almost feel sorry for them. Almost.
Anyway, I wonder if all of this negative news is enough to get Balmer tossed out.... Isn't that what is supposed to happen to CEOs when things go this wrong this fast?
Oh, stupid fat fingers...
Anyway, ha, ha, that's funny (no, really!). If I wrote that sequel, this would be my inspiration
I totally agree jms about this one. That was a pretty good book.
Interesting story: the only reason I read that book was because a couple of years ago somebody posted an "Ask Slashdot" asking for opinions about good SF books that he should read, and several people responded with "A Canticle for Liebowitz". I pretty much went out that same day to buy the book. I've found and read a few good books because of that Ask Slashdot thread or other similar threads; Blindsight and Cryptomomicon being two that I remember, but there were others...
I suppose I should be happy they aren't removing support for rendering tasteless backgrounds and crappy fonts... My ugly MySpace page is safe. For now.
As far as I'm concerned, this is Slashdot's way of saying that they don't want me frequenting the site and reading the posted articles today. I'm happy to oblige you Slashdot. See you tomorrow. Maybe.
Signing off.
Gaaaa! You bastard! I didn't see that coming and you got me!
Talk about the cure being worse than the disease...
Dumb ways to die. It's been stuck in my head for about a week now...
So now we have a Google watch to add to the existing Google Spectacles and Google Wallet. I still feel like there's something missing to make the series feel complete...