Unless they pull an Internet Explorer and give the software away with Windows (even then, the next version of Windows is years away), I don't see how they could steal users away from Apple's service without actually making their service better than Apple's - which would actually be a great thing. Two huge corporations battling to make music services better and cheaper - nice.
They likely aren't representative of the group, and their actions may be distasteful to the group they claim to be a part of.
No, but no matter how much you try and reinforce this, people will still think they are. How many people have you heard about that now think all people from the middle east are terrorists, or all muslims? How many times have you heard "just nuke the whole middle east, turn it into glass, they're all terrorists"? It seems like the natural reactions of a lot of people are to blame the entire group for a few crazy members of it.
Gaming is only one aspect of it. There's a lot of people out there who would pay $300 for the PDA features alone, and gaming on it is quite an added bonus.
A 3 month window gives you plenty of options. Most of the time you won't need the data anymore. If you do, 3 months gives you plenty of time to rerequest the data from whoever sent it to you in the first place. Also, this all depends on if MS kills the free service.
Anyways, keep in mind that this is only on protected files. If there's no way for you to get it back 3 months later, there's a pretty good chance that whoever sent it to you doesn't WANT you to have it 3 months later and that's pretty much the whole point of the system - giving the creator control over the contents.
"Actually, according to another poster here, you won't be able to screen capture things - printscreen is disabled. Copy/Paste are disabled as well. You'd have to type it all in manually." I suppose it might be possible to get another program to screencap it, but they could probably get around that as well - ever try to take a screencap through media player while hardware acceleration was turned on? It just comes out as a black square. Of course, you'd have to have a supported video card...
So anyway, you'd have to go through even greater trouble to do it - take pictures with a digital camera or something. It seems like they actually thought this through pretty well.
Don't want the FY04 budget leaked? Put a do-not-forward flag on it... Sure, you'll be able to screen-cap things, but casual copying will be prevented.
Actually, according to another poster here, you won't be able to screen capture things - printscreen is disabled. Copy/Paste are disabled as well. You'd have to type it all in manually.
You know, if I buy software and/or music, I don't want it to be gone eventually - I want to be able to hand it down to my relatives (well, maybe not software...).
Does anyone else find it strange that two old versions of programs - Windows 9x and VB6 are on that list? Maybe not strange so much as OBVIOUS. Of COURSE they're dying, newer and much better versions of the software are out - why wouldn't the old versions go away?
This is like saying that Quake is dying when Quake 2 and 3 have been out for years. Isn't it to be expected that old, obsolete versions die off?
1. Expanded Criminal Penalties Would Send Non-Commercial Infringers to Prison
a) Threatens to Mandate Prison for P2P File-Sharing
Wow. Now, I'm not in the camp of people that says "FREE STUFF FOR EVERYONE, SCREW IP!" and I actually support (reasonable) penalties for the people who get caught (after all, they ARE breaking copyright law, whether they atually cost the company anything or not). This, though, is just crazy. Why should Joe Schmoe, who is sharing a bunch of Linkin Park and Limp Bizkit MP3s, spend time in PRISON for doing so?
It would be understandable if he were making copies of the CDs and selling thousands of them, but it says non-commercial infringers.
Well, assuming that the first point (lots of money) is true, usually the second one (gorgeous women) follows soon after. He may have sent out millions of e-mails advertising pheromone cologne to attract women and millions more about penis enlargement, but it's the smell of money and a fat wallet that really does it.
No, that's later. Right now they're being issued to the ones who can provide substantial service by the time the license period ends. THEN they'll be sold to the highest bidder.
So, you have to get this thing implanted in your body in order for it to release the stuff into your bloodstream... So, what's the advantage of having this thing instead of, say, a dermal patch? (Besides not having a patch on your body...)
Seems to me that this thing would be quite annoying. You'd have to make sure you didn't fall on it, you'd have to go through the initial pain of getting it in there, etc. Why?
Gap? There is no gap. Sure, you may have to pay more initially, but there are ALWAYS rebates on cell phones. Sometimes you even get more money BACK than what you paid. For instance, look at Amazon's cell phone section - they have $300 phones free after rebates with activation. One of the Nokia phones you end up getting $100 cash back on. You won't find any rebates like those on the Palm.
I'd have thought that the people who write the e-mail address harvesters would program in all the variations they know of like that. Wouldn't be too difficult, and they'd most likely get a bunch more valid addresses.
Er, usually if you're a professor or businessman there's a webpage out there with your e-mail address on it. I don't think that students or business contacts would specifically sign you up for anything...
Well, maybe if they were grade school students. "Dude, wouldn't it be funny to sign Mr. Roberts up for this gay mailing list?!"
Thus, I have a theory. Gamers who play a lot are probably less likely to be affected by games than people who just play a few minutes in passing.
He's found the solution! MORE gaming for everyone! They should have mandatory gaming classes at schools, and everybody should get a 1 hour "game break" during work. Sounds good to me.
One of the biggest issues, however, is not necessarily intra-office compatibility, but inter-office compatibility. If you're sending out Word documents and Powerpoint presentations to a company who only uses Linux it causes some problems.
... and then you have to take into account the fact that they use the words "most popular" when practically nobody has even heard of it. Most used, sure, but isn't a requriement for popularity having people actually know about it?
Pretty soon everything you buy that needs to be plugged in will have one of these things in it (running Linux of course) and every Slashdot nerd's dream will have finally come true - Linux running on EVERYTHING.
Slashdot Mirror
Unless they pull an Internet Explorer and give the software away with Windows (even then, the next version of Windows is years away), I don't see how they could steal users away from Apple's service without actually making their service better than Apple's - which would actually be a great thing. Two huge corporations battling to make music services better and cheaper - nice.
-- Dr. Eldarion --
They likely aren't representative of the group, and their actions may be distasteful to the group they claim to be a part of.
No, but no matter how much you try and reinforce this, people will still think they are. How many people have you heard about that now think all people from the middle east are terrorists, or all muslims? How many times have you heard "just nuke the whole middle east, turn it into glass, they're all terrorists"? It seems like the natural reactions of a lot of people are to blame the entire group for a few crazy members of it.
-- Dr. Eldarion --
Gaming is only one aspect of it. There's a lot of people out there who would pay $300 for the PDA features alone, and gaming on it is quite an added bonus.
-- Dr. Eldarion --
A 3 month window gives you plenty of options. Most of the time you won't need the data anymore. If you do, 3 months gives you plenty of time to rerequest the data from whoever sent it to you in the first place. Also, this all depends on if MS kills the free service.
Anyways, keep in mind that this is only on protected files. If there's no way for you to get it back 3 months later, there's a pretty good chance that whoever sent it to you doesn't WANT you to have it 3 months later and that's pretty much the whole point of the system - giving the creator control over the contents.
-- Dr. Eldarion --
Posted this before, but it fits here, too.
"Actually, according to another poster here, you won't be able to screen capture things - printscreen is disabled. Copy/Paste are disabled as well. You'd have to type it all in manually." I suppose it might be possible to get another program to screencap it, but they could probably get around that as well - ever try to take a screencap through media player while hardware acceleration was turned on? It just comes out as a black square. Of course, you'd have to have a supported video card...
So anyway, you'd have to go through even greater trouble to do it - take pictures with a digital camera or something. It seems like they actually thought this through pretty well.
-- Dr. Eldarion --
Don't want the FY04 budget leaked? Put a do-not-forward flag on it... Sure, you'll be able to screen-cap things, but casual copying will be prevented.
Actually, according to another poster here, you won't be able to screen capture things - printscreen is disabled. Copy/Paste are disabled as well. You'd have to type it all in manually.
-- Dr. Eldarion --
Exactly how is it not good news? Would you rather have them deleted immediately or not be accessible unless you pay more?
-- Dr. Eldarion --
You know, if I buy software and/or music, I don't want it to be gone eventually - I want to be able to hand it down to my relatives (well, maybe not software...).
AOL discs on the other hand...
-- Dr. Eldarion --
"Do" you think "you" could "use" "quotes" "any" "more" """"""""""""?"
-- Dr. "Eldarion" "--"
Does anyone else find it strange that two old versions of programs - Windows 9x and VB6 are on that list? Maybe not strange so much as OBVIOUS. Of COURSE they're dying, newer and much better versions of the software are out - why wouldn't the old versions go away?
This is like saying that Quake is dying when Quake 2 and 3 have been out for years. Isn't it to be expected that old, obsolete versions die off?
-- Dr. Eldarion --
1. Expanded Criminal Penalties Would Send Non-Commercial Infringers to Prison
a) Threatens to Mandate Prison for P2P File-Sharing
Wow. Now, I'm not in the camp of people that says "FREE STUFF FOR EVERYONE, SCREW IP!" and I actually support (reasonable) penalties for the people who get caught (after all, they ARE breaking copyright law, whether they atually cost the company anything or not). This, though, is just crazy. Why should Joe Schmoe, who is sharing a bunch of Linkin Park and Limp Bizkit MP3s, spend time in PRISON for doing so?
It would be understandable if he were making copies of the CDs and selling thousands of them, but it says non-commercial infringers.
Scary.
-- Dr. Eldarion --
Well, assuming that the first point (lots of money) is true, usually the second one (gorgeous women) follows soon after. He may have sent out millions of e-mails advertising pheromone cologne to attract women and millions more about penis enlargement, but it's the smell of money and a fat wallet that really does it.
-- Dr. Eldarion --
No, that's later. Right now they're being issued to the ones who can provide substantial service by the time the license period ends. THEN they'll be sold to the highest bidder.
-- Dr. Eldarion --
So, you have to get this thing implanted in your body in order for it to release the stuff into your bloodstream... So, what's the advantage of having this thing instead of, say, a dermal patch? (Besides not having a patch on your body...)
Seems to me that this thing would be quite annoying. You'd have to make sure you didn't fall on it, you'd have to go through the initial pain of getting it in there, etc. Why?
-- Dr. Eldarion --
Gap? There is no gap. Sure, you may have to pay more initially, but there are ALWAYS rebates on cell phones. Sometimes you even get more money BACK than what you paid. For instance, look at Amazon's cell phone section - they have $300 phones free after rebates with activation. One of the Nokia phones you end up getting $100 cash back on. You won't find any rebates like those on the Palm.
-- Dr. Eldarion --
I'd have thought that the people who write the e-mail address harvesters would program in all the variations they know of like that. Wouldn't be too difficult, and they'd most likely get a bunch more valid addresses.
-- Dr. Eldarion --
Er, usually if you're a professor or businessman there's a webpage out there with your e-mail address on it. I don't think that students or business contacts would specifically sign you up for anything...
Well, maybe if they were grade school students. "Dude, wouldn't it be funny to sign Mr. Roberts up for this gay mailing list?!"
-- Dr. Eldarion --
But then there'd be no room for such important headlines as "What Linus ate for breakfast this morning"!
-- Dr. Eldarion --
Oh yeah, I can just see watching UT2k3 matches on TV. Espeically in the face of all the "VIOLENT GAMES ARE BAD" soccer moms...
-- Dr. Eldarion --
Thus, I have a theory. Gamers who play a lot are probably less likely to be affected by games than people who just play a few minutes in passing.
He's found the solution! MORE gaming for everyone! They should have mandatory gaming classes at schools, and everybody should get a 1 hour "game break" during work. Sounds good to me.
-- Dr. Eldarion --
Hm, I must be a bit out of date, then. Of course, give it a year or so until the next version of Office screws everything up again.
-- Dr. Eldarion --
One of the biggest issues, however, is not necessarily intra-office compatibility, but inter-office compatibility. If you're sending out Word documents and Powerpoint presentations to a company who only uses Linux it causes some problems.
-- Dr. Eldarion --
Fron what you read here it sure seems like it.
... and then you have to take into account the fact that they use the words "most popular" when practically nobody has even heard of it. Most used, sure, but isn't a requriement for popularity having people actually know about it?
-- Dr. Eldarion --
Pretty soon everything you buy that needs to be plugged in will have one of these things in it (running Linux of course) and every Slashdot nerd's dream will have finally come true - Linux running on EVERYTHING.
-- Dr. Eldarion --