The POP3 access was never "free". Before, you had to agree to allow them to spam that POP3 account with "Yahoo Delivers!" mail
Wait, okay, let me get this straight. You're saying, "it wasn't free, you just didn't have to pay for it." Is that right? Advertising supported counts as free in my book. I consider Slashdot to be free, and I consider broadcast TV to be free. Also, the "Yahoo Delivers!" spam was very infrequent, once a week if memory serves, which was hardly a drop in the spam bucket (and easily filterable anyway).
First of all, they're constantly fiddling with the restrictions on attachments. I know that it wasn't that long ago that, as long as you had the email space, you could send and receive attachments of any size. Now, I believe, it's less than 1 MB.
Second, 4 MB total size is fairly recent, as in, sometime in the last 18 months. When I signed up for Yahoo, a couple years ago, I was given 5 MB, and this was upgraded to 6 MB about 2 and a half years ago.
Third, there were a number of reductions in service earlier this year, including, most notably, loss of POP3 access.
You are correct that there are no particular losses of service that prompted this article. However, the article is correct that over the past year or two, Yahoo has been slowly degrading their free mail service.
As far as I read the article, Marvel may not be claiming the movie did not turn a profit. As I read it, the article states three facts:
1. Stan Lee believes he has a contract with Marvel that entitles him to 10% of all profits from all tv shows and movies based on his creations.
2. Stan Lee has not been paid for the Spider-Man movie.
3. Stan Lee is suing Marvel.
Nothing in the article explains why Marvel has not paid Stan Lee. Perhaps Stan Lee misunderstood or misremembers his contract. Or maybe Marvel has no explanation whatsoever, and was just hoping that Stan Lee was too old and senile to remember the contract. Who knows? Clearly, more information is needed.
Absolutely, I think it's a useful feature. When doing a search, not only is it good to have those pages listed that a computer thinks are "the best," it's also useful to know which sites are willing to pay the most to be listed. Especially when you're looking to buy something (doing a search for, say, "skis" might turn up a lot of informational sites, but the ads are likely to be for places that sell skis). Hopefully, it also reduces the incentive to cheat, because you can just buy an ad placement.
If they continue to grow at the same rate, the Earth's dipole will disappear within just two millennia.
I think this is the greatest indication that the original story is just meant to sell a movie plot. "Just" two millennia? Yeah, time to start panicing about the destruction of our GPS satallites (which of course, we probably won't even be using 100 years from now).
Maybe a "National Internet Access Initiative" would be a good idea, but not yet, I don't think. The technology is still growing by leaps and bounds. What happens if we wire them up with DSL this year only to see fiberoptic, gigabit connections become standard 5-10 years from now? Those farmers with their DSL would seem just as behind then as they do now with thier 14.4 modems. Do we have a new NIAI, or do we tell them to just make due?
Right now, they have Internet access, and while it's slow, many people even in urban areas are still making due with analog modems. Until they fall really far behind, or technological growth starts to level off, I think we should hold off on trying to wire up rural areas.
Okay, this is something of a tangent, I'll admit, but this would be my ideal vision of a "tablet computer." First, you have your computer. This should be no bigger than a walkman, something you could keep in your pocket or clipped to your belt. This would have parts designed for low heat and low power consumption, like a PDA, except hopefully if it doesn't incorporate a screen, and doesn't have to be quite so thin, it could be a tad more powerful.
Then, you'd have your peripherals. They'd be wireless (presumably bluetooth or somesuch), communicating with the computer over an encrypted channel (even without the security concerns, you'd obviously want your devices to only be trying to connect to your computer). So, if you want to use a tablet, you just pull the tablet out of your briefcase, switch it on, and it connects with your computer. If you want an eyeglasses-type display and a handykey, you switch those on instead. If you're most comfortable with the laptop paradigm, an ultrathin lcd screen plus keyboard should be availabe too (possibly the screen would double as a tablet, above).
This is, as I see it, the ultimate solution. Rather than carrying around a half dozen different but somewhat redundant devices (cell phone, pda, mp3 player, laptop, etc.), wouldn't it be great if we could just have one always on processor, and just had to bring whatever input/output devices we wanted along with us?
I'm pretty tired here, sorry if this is a little incoherent, but what do people think?
Not for a long time. So long as PVRs continue to be upgraded, having it integrated into the TV is a bad idea. The only way to expand the hard drive would be to take the whole tv into the shop, and that really doesn't make sense. Maybe 15+ years from now, when the technology's fully mature, but not anytime soon.
Okay, on your (and others) advice, I just gave it a try. It doesn't seem to have very many files. "Babylon" (to find Babylon 5 episodes) turned up 0 results. "Terminator" only showed 1 result, and that was supposedly a screener copy of T3: Rise of the Machines.
Kazaa-lite, on the other hand, has enabled me to watch virtually all of Babylon 5 (I've just got the last half season to go). What am I missing, how is eDonkey better?
Nuclear devices cannot be detonated by random shots. They require very precise triggers. The most you'd get would be radioactive shrapnel from the destroyed bomb.
We're drifting pretty far offtopic here, but how is being born into a disadvantaged family any different than being born stupid and lazy? Genetics and environmental factors in infancy certainly aren't the person's "fault" any more than his family's income.
Hey, genius-boy, the disclaimer is FOR the AAdvantage enrollment. Take a look at the URL: https://www.aa.com/apps/AAdvantage/InstantEnrollme nt.jhtml.
So how is it "quicker" to get dumped back to the reservation page (the page you came from initially), when you're trying to enroll in the AAdvantage program? Oh, that's right, it's not, you're just a fucking moron.
Why should it? Because those clauses are what produce these absurdly long "agreements" that no one ever reads. If the invalidation of a single clause invalidated the contract, then companies would have to be careful to only put things in that were really important to them, and which were likely to hold up in court. The result would be much shorter agreements, and fewer attempts to deprive consumers of their rights.
You know, the more I think about this, the more I like it. Economic theory states that the capitalist system breaks down if there is asymmetry of information. For example, if a car dealer knows he's selling you a lemon, which is why we have anti-fraud laws and the like. Lawyers create an asymmetry of information too, though, because a corporation can afford to have lawyers look at every document they draft or sign, but the average citizen cannot. Often the result is the creation of the onerous "agreements" which essentially state, if you'll pardon the old joke, "all your base are belong to us." People agree anyway, because they don't have the time or ability to check other companies to compare agreements, and see which is the least restrictive. So, if this reduced the ability of corporations to abuse this superior information, I think it'd be great.
You're right, drug laws as a whole can work as "interstate commerce," but the particular case I was referring to was overturning the California medicinal marijuana law. In that case, it seems a pretty big stetch to say that people growing marijuana in California, to be sold to those in California with prescriptions, affects interstate commerce. Remember, it's not just that it's commerce, intrastate commerce is still off limits to the federal government.
Actually, to a large extent, they've already been doing it. I remember a case a while back where the SCOTUS overturned a federal anti-spousal abuse law on the basis that it had no bearing on interstate commerce. Of course, they upheld anti-drug lawas, so I guess they're a little hypocritical about the issue.
Actually, I think it's a strong bet that if the Confederates had broken away, the two would have ended up on opposite sides of WWI. That being the case, it would make more sense for the USA than the CSA to be German allies, because of the high numbers of German immigrants in the north. With the north fighting for the Germans, the British and the French would have been in an awful lot of trouble. So, if the Germans had won WWI, it seems unlikely that Hitler ever would have risen to power. Who knows, maybe he had a British or French equivalent?
Yeah, they've been "working" on it for at least 5 or 6 years now, maybe more. It does look like they're finally finishing things up, but to some degree, I'm still taking an "I'll believe it when I see it" position.
Okay, question: why don't SWAT teams and the like have laser sniper rifles? Sure, they'd be bulky, and require external power supplies. Sure, you'd have to make sure they fire OUTSIDE the visual spectrum to prevent blindness. But, for a hostage standoff sitation, where you've got hours to get your people into place, wouldn't having a weapon that would be 100% accurate by virtue of traveling at the speed of light, unaffected by gravity or air currents, be really useful?
The solution is obvious: decoy missiles. It's a lot easier to build an empty decoy missile than it is to build a real nuke (lower payload weight, in addition to not having to manufacture the nuke itself). So, you fire thousands of decoys at thousands of different targets, meaning that the only way to ensure adequate protection is to have all of those sites defended with their own lasers.
As it says in the article, some blogs have automated lists of the top referrers, so that visitors can see who links to the blog. And yes, we're talking about bots sending fake referrers.
What, are you saying that, by virtue of being on a computer, traditional laws of supply and demand don't apply? I would say that "any Economic 101 student" should be able to tell you that economics can be applied to anything, you just have to adjust the rules. MMORPGs may have some very bizarre economic rules, like constant devaluation of formerly valuable items due to expansion packs, or an in game currency that is almost totally worthless, but that doesn't render the system impervious to economic analysis. In fact, that makes it all the more interesting. By testing our models of economic analysis on social situations very different from those that exist in the real world, we can see how flexible they are.
Actually, according to the Media Play webpage, the Linkin Park CD is $14.99. I'm guessing the same goes for all the other prices you quoted. Add 8.5% sales tax (most of California is between 8 and 9%), and that yields a price of $16.27(tax always rounds up). If you order online, that'd be more like $5 in shipping instead, for a total of $19.99
You're right, unless you go to somewhere absurdly overpriced, CDs don't cost $18. But they're not far off, either.
All "amateur" means is that they don't play for money. Tiger Woods was still a world class golfer, even though it took a long time before he finally decided to move up to professional. That doesn't necessarily support or refute what you read in the article, but it wouldn't overly surprise me if child prodigies could be very good, but not quite good enough to compete at an adult, professional level, because of lack of experience.
Slashdot Mirror
Wait, okay, let me get this straight. You're saying, "it wasn't free, you just didn't have to pay for it." Is that right? Advertising supported counts as free in my book. I consider Slashdot to be free, and I consider broadcast TV to be free. Also, the "Yahoo Delivers!" spam was very infrequent, once a week if memory serves, which was hardly a drop in the spam bucket (and easily filterable anyway).
Second, 4 MB total size is fairly recent, as in, sometime in the last 18 months. When I signed up for Yahoo, a couple years ago, I was given 5 MB, and this was upgraded to 6 MB about 2 and a half years ago.
Third, there were a number of reductions in service earlier this year, including, most notably, loss of POP3 access.
You are correct that there are no particular losses of service that prompted this article. However, the article is correct that over the past year or two, Yahoo has been slowly degrading their free mail service.
1. Stan Lee believes he has a contract with Marvel that entitles him to 10% of all profits from all tv shows and movies based on his creations.
2. Stan Lee has not been paid for the Spider-Man movie.
3. Stan Lee is suing Marvel.
Nothing in the article explains why Marvel has not paid Stan Lee. Perhaps Stan Lee misunderstood or misremembers his contract. Or maybe Marvel has no explanation whatsoever, and was just hoping that Stan Lee was too old and senile to remember the contract. Who knows? Clearly, more information is needed.
Absolutely, I think it's a useful feature. When doing a search, not only is it good to have those pages listed that a computer thinks are "the best," it's also useful to know which sites are willing to pay the most to be listed. Especially when you're looking to buy something (doing a search for, say, "skis" might turn up a lot of informational sites, but the ads are likely to be for places that sell skis). Hopefully, it also reduces the incentive to cheat, because you can just buy an ad placement.
I think this is the greatest indication that the original story is just meant to sell a movie plot. "Just" two millennia? Yeah, time to start panicing about the destruction of our GPS satallites (which of course, we probably won't even be using 100 years from now).
Right now, they have Internet access, and while it's slow, many people even in urban areas are still making due with analog modems. Until they fall really far behind, or technological growth starts to level off, I think we should hold off on trying to wire up rural areas.
Then, you'd have your peripherals. They'd be wireless (presumably bluetooth or somesuch), communicating with the computer over an encrypted channel (even without the security concerns, you'd obviously want your devices to only be trying to connect to your computer). So, if you want to use a tablet, you just pull the tablet out of your briefcase, switch it on, and it connects with your computer. If you want an eyeglasses-type display and a handykey, you switch those on instead. If you're most comfortable with the laptop paradigm, an ultrathin lcd screen plus keyboard should be availabe too (possibly the screen would double as a tablet, above).
This is, as I see it, the ultimate solution. Rather than carrying around a half dozen different but somewhat redundant devices (cell phone, pda, mp3 player, laptop, etc.), wouldn't it be great if we could just have one always on processor, and just had to bring whatever input/output devices we wanted along with us?
I'm pretty tired here, sorry if this is a little incoherent, but what do people think?
Not for a long time. So long as PVRs continue to be upgraded, having it integrated into the TV is a bad idea. The only way to expand the hard drive would be to take the whole tv into the shop, and that really doesn't make sense. Maybe 15+ years from now, when the technology's fully mature, but not anytime soon.
Kazaa-lite, on the other hand, has enabled me to watch virtually all of Babylon 5 (I've just got the last half season to go). What am I missing, how is eDonkey better?
Nuclear devices cannot be detonated by random shots. They require very precise triggers. The most you'd get would be radioactive shrapnel from the destroyed bomb.
We're drifting pretty far offtopic here, but how is being born into a disadvantaged family any different than being born stupid and lazy? Genetics and environmental factors in infancy certainly aren't the person's "fault" any more than his family's income.
So how is it "quicker" to get dumped back to the reservation page (the page you came from initially), when you're trying to enroll in the AAdvantage program? Oh, that's right, it's not, you're just a fucking moron.
Idiot...
You know, the more I think about this, the more I like it. Economic theory states that the capitalist system breaks down if there is asymmetry of information. For example, if a car dealer knows he's selling you a lemon, which is why we have anti-fraud laws and the like. Lawyers create an asymmetry of information too, though, because a corporation can afford to have lawyers look at every document they draft or sign, but the average citizen cannot. Often the result is the creation of the onerous "agreements" which essentially state, if you'll pardon the old joke, "all your base are belong to us." People agree anyway, because they don't have the time or ability to check other companies to compare agreements, and see which is the least restrictive. So, if this reduced the ability of corporations to abuse this superior information, I think it'd be great.
You're right, drug laws as a whole can work as "interstate commerce," but the particular case I was referring to was overturning the California medicinal marijuana law. In that case, it seems a pretty big stetch to say that people growing marijuana in California, to be sold to those in California with prescriptions, affects interstate commerce. Remember, it's not just that it's commerce, intrastate commerce is still off limits to the federal government.
The reference is here.
Actually, to a large extent, they've already been doing it. I remember a case a while back where the SCOTUS overturned a federal anti-spousal abuse law on the basis that it had no bearing on interstate commerce. Of course, they upheld anti-drug lawas, so I guess they're a little hypocritical about the issue.
Actually, I think it's a strong bet that if the Confederates had broken away, the two would have ended up on opposite sides of WWI. That being the case, it would make more sense for the USA than the CSA to be German allies, because of the high numbers of German immigrants in the north. With the north fighting for the Germans, the British and the French would have been in an awful lot of trouble. So, if the Germans had won WWI, it seems unlikely that Hitler ever would have risen to power. Who knows, maybe he had a British or French equivalent?
Yeah, they've been "working" on it for at least 5 or 6 years now, maybe more. It does look like they're finally finishing things up, but to some degree, I'm still taking an "I'll believe it when I see it" position.
Yup, and "strike down," as far as I can see, is not used in any of the versions. So he was, in fact, making shit up.
Okay, question: why don't SWAT teams and the like have laser sniper rifles? Sure, they'd be bulky, and require external power supplies. Sure, you'd have to make sure they fire OUTSIDE the visual spectrum to prevent blindness. But, for a hostage standoff sitation, where you've got hours to get your people into place, wouldn't having a weapon that would be 100% accurate by virtue of traveling at the speed of light, unaffected by gravity or air currents, be really useful?
The solution is obvious: decoy missiles. It's a lot easier to build an empty decoy missile than it is to build a real nuke (lower payload weight, in addition to not having to manufacture the nuke itself). So, you fire thousands of decoys at thousands of different targets, meaning that the only way to ensure adequate protection is to have all of those sites defended with their own lasers.
As it says in the article, some blogs have automated lists of the top referrers, so that visitors can see who links to the blog. And yes, we're talking about bots sending fake referrers.
What, are you saying that, by virtue of being on a computer, traditional laws of supply and demand don't apply? I would say that "any Economic 101 student" should be able to tell you that economics can be applied to anything, you just have to adjust the rules. MMORPGs may have some very bizarre economic rules, like constant devaluation of formerly valuable items due to expansion packs, or an in game currency that is almost totally worthless, but that doesn't render the system impervious to economic analysis. In fact, that makes it all the more interesting. By testing our models of economic analysis on social situations very different from those that exist in the real world, we can see how flexible they are.
You're right, unless you go to somewhere absurdly overpriced, CDs don't cost $18. But they're not far off, either.
All "amateur" means is that they don't play for money. Tiger Woods was still a world class golfer, even though it took a long time before he finally decided to move up to professional. That doesn't necessarily support or refute what you read in the article, but it wouldn't overly surprise me if child prodigies could be very good, but not quite good enough to compete at an adult, professional level, because of lack of experience.