I don't think so. They're just coming into their own, as a light and fast mobile browser. I use Opera Mini all the time on my XDA, it makes mobile web browsing less of an annoyance and more of a useful tool.
Sure, and the beige box builders get a browser how then?
I, personally, have no qualms with Microsoft shipping IE with Windows. It is their product, after all. BUT they should give OEMs the option to strip it out and replace it with Firefox/Opera/Safari/K-Meleon if they so desire. Which, really, is what this is all about.
Congratulations, you win the world award for spite; not only are you going to spite someone you've never met, you're going to spend money to spite them too! Fantastic. You should get a trophy.
Also; OT, but "spite" is definitely one of those words which sounds weird when you say it loads of times.
The problem with Windows Update / Microsoft Update is that, aside from the app that automatically checks for critical updates, it runs inside a web browser.
Hah, my second post to this thread in this vein, but here goes:
Since Vista, Windows Update has been a control panel applet, and not a web page.
If Finnish law allows for taking media in that sort of way, then that's fine, and I'm sorry for arguing seeing as I was ignorant of that vital fact... Frankly, all I believe in is people respecting both the law and copyright holder's wishes. That's all.;)
The entire point of fair use is to allow you to decide yourself what to do, irrespective of the copyright holder's wishes, with copyrighted materials you have legally been given a copy of, which occurs when using imeem as intended by imeem.
No, the point of fair use is that you have rights to use material in certain ways, for purposes of backup or criticism. NOT "Hey, look, they're streaming MP3s for free, I'm going to rip them to my PC."
More to the point, you haven't been given a copy of a song through Imeem, you've been lent it for the explicit purpose of listening to it through Imeem. Ripping it for your own personal use IS leeching, and certainly doesn't fall under fair use when you don't actually own a copy of it.
Actually, my last reply to this was fairly glib and slightly trollish. So I'll try again...
All the time all I hear on Slashdot is how all people want is to try before they buy and want to use their own fair use rights to shift from PC to iPod to car stereo etc. Which is fine, dandy, not a court in the land would convict you for the latter and there's enough services for the former that provide 30 second song previews etc (e.g. iTunes).
Now, Imeem comes out with something which allows people to listen to any music they want, and already the record industry's fears are being proven completely correct; within a couple of hours of this being posted on Slashdot, ALREADY people are thinking up ways of just leeching music intended for streaming. TO KEEP, FOR FREE. And then, insult to injury, you try and wrap it in the flag by calling it "fair use".
Seriously, why should they even bother trying to become more liberal when all that happens is everyone will say "fuck you" and take their stuff for free anyway? Doesn't this really just prove their point about DRM, that it's necessary to stop people just taking stuff for free and never paying, ever? All this sort of thing does, in the end, is show the labels that this sort of model just can't be trusted because people just leech from it. Good going, there.
Actually it's me donating the $100, if not to an orphanage. Every time I receive an email forward, I like to "donate" $100 to a hitman to hunt down and kill whoever keeps sending me the asinine emails.
Similarly, Valve Software (makers of Half-Life etc, for the two people that don't know) have an opt in hardware survey, where they collect and then publicly aggregate statistics on the hardware people use to run their games. They also recently started a system where you can see how many people died in a location on a specific map in their more recent games. Quite cool, and the statistics are interesting (interestingly, there's only about 1k people using anything below Windows 2000, and 82k Vista users).
I assume Microsoft's aims are similar to Valve's; they want to know who to target and what they did wrong. Never know, might end up being a good thing.
Or it could be pandering to people who have no idea what a binary format is, and need a simple explanation. Don't tell me you've never given a quick, snappy (if lacking) summary of something to someone not very technically inclined...
Well, if you think of it logically, the points are really a pseudo-currency used only on the XBox system; not really worth their while to give out discounts.
Put it another way: if you have a prepay mobile phone, you don't get a bulk discount if you top up loads during the month. And if I top up my prepay Starbucks card by £100 they won't give me another £10 just because the transaction costs are lower than me topping up with a tenner ten times. Same deal.
set up a bank. don't charge yourself for credit card processing.
Doesn't work that way, I'm afraid; if you want to accept Visa, Mastercard... any cards that exist, basically, they'll want a cut and will take fees. Then there's the infrastructure cost of setting up a whole damn bank... no, makes far more sense than selling points in blocks of 500.;)
Anyway, banks are bad enough without Microsoft running one...:P
Well, yes, but then there isn't really a viable infrastructure for micropayments. The closest we have is the credit/debit card systems, Visa/Mastercard/American Express et al, and they charge transaction fees on all payments, making it a rather expensive proposition. I can see why Microsoft would rather spend 50 cents on a 10 dollar debit card payment than 50 cents on a 10 cent debit card payment.
Why? Lots of people on Slashdot are willing to come up and state they like Vista, and while I personally don't use it I have used it in the past and could find nothing overtly objectionable about it. So, I'll ask again: why, when discussing Vista, does the concept of independent thought cease to exist, and instead anyone saying anything positive gets labelled as being paid by Microsoft? The article is from Consumer Reports, for christ's sake, widely held as putting independence and integrity above all else; so why the sudden turnaround? Because they recommend something you don't like for nebulous reasons?
Your post seems to be more about that; you don't agree with them, so it's "sloppy". Right.
And sorry to reply to my own comment (mea culpa) but since when did "Independent" automatically mean "Hates Microsoft"? Some people independently like and recommend Windows. I hate this attitude if they recommend everyone buy a Mac Mini/install Linux they're free-thinking individualists, but if they recommend a cheap Dell with Vista they're being bribed by Microsoft.
Slashdot Mirror
Sure, cos EVERYONE can do that.
I think Opera's time has long passed.
I don't think so. They're just coming into their own, as a light and fast mobile browser. I use Opera Mini all the time on my XDA, it makes mobile web browsing less of an annoyance and more of a useful tool.
Sure, and the beige box builders get a browser how then?
I, personally, have no qualms with Microsoft shipping IE with Windows. It is their product, after all. BUT they should give OEMs the option to strip it out and replace it with Firefox/Opera/Safari/K-Meleon if they so desire. Which, really, is what this is all about.
Congratulations, you win the world award for spite; not only are you going to spite someone you've never met, you're going to spend money to spite them too! Fantastic. You should get a trophy.
Also; OT, but "spite" is definitely one of those words which sounds weird when you say it loads of times.
given that he went to the South Pole at the end of Opposing Force
Er, no he didn't. Shepherd was detained by the G-Man. How you got "the South Pole" from OpFor's ending, I have no idea.
Considering the series has been consistently excellent, I can't really say I want to stop them.
The problem with Windows Update / Microsoft Update is that, aside from the app that automatically checks for critical updates, it runs inside a web browser.
Hah, my second post to this thread in this vein, but here goes:
Since Vista, Windows Update has been a control panel applet, and not a web page.
Since Vista, as far as I know, Internet Explorer and Windows Explorer are entirely seperate programs.
Haha, I am SO bookmarking that for future giggling :D
I was waiting until the first person who didn't realise I was joking showed up... I mean the ";)" at the end could have been a bigger clue. :P
If Finnish law allows for taking media in that sort of way, then that's fine, and I'm sorry for arguing seeing as I was ignorant of that vital fact... Frankly, all I believe in is people respecting both the law and copyright holder's wishes. That's all. ;)
The entire point of fair use is to allow you to decide yourself what to do, irrespective of the copyright holder's wishes, with copyrighted materials you have legally been given a copy of, which occurs when using imeem as intended by imeem.
No, the point of fair use is that you have rights to use material in certain ways, for purposes of backup or criticism. NOT "Hey, look, they're streaming MP3s for free, I'm going to rip them to my PC."
More to the point, you haven't been given a copy of a song through Imeem, you've been lent it for the explicit purpose of listening to it through Imeem. Ripping it for your own personal use IS leeching, and certainly doesn't fall under fair use when you don't actually own a copy of it.
Actually, my last reply to this was fairly glib and slightly trollish. So I'll try again...
All the time all I hear on Slashdot is how all people want is to try before they buy and want to use their own fair use rights to shift from PC to iPod to car stereo etc. Which is fine, dandy, not a court in the land would convict you for the latter and there's enough services for the former that provide 30 second song previews etc (e.g. iTunes).
Now, Imeem comes out with something which allows people to listen to any music they want, and already the record industry's fears are being proven completely correct; within a couple of hours of this being posted on Slashdot, ALREADY people are thinking up ways of just leeching music intended for streaming. TO KEEP, FOR FREE. And then, insult to injury, you try and wrap it in the flag by calling it "fair use".
Seriously, why should they even bother trying to become more liberal when all that happens is everyone will say "fuck you" and take their stuff for free anyway? Doesn't this really just prove their point about DRM, that it's necessary to stop people just taking stuff for free and never paying, ever? All this sort of thing does, in the end, is show the labels that this sort of model just can't be trusted because people just leech from it. Good going, there.
That's not fair use, that's just leeching, ffs.
In his cubicle, he has a stuffed [...] Linux penguin mascot. And he's highly likely to be a gamer
;)
10 points for whoever can spot the huge flaw in this quote!
I think there's one more word that should be considered. ;)
Actually it's me donating the $100, if not to an orphanage. Every time I receive an email forward, I like to "donate" $100 to a hitman to hunt down and kill whoever keeps sending me the asinine emails.
It's the least I could do.
Similarly, Valve Software (makers of Half-Life etc, for the two people that don't know) have an opt in hardware survey, where they collect and then publicly aggregate statistics on the hardware people use to run their games. They also recently started a system where you can see how many people died in a location on a specific map in their more recent games. Quite cool, and the statistics are interesting (interestingly, there's only about 1k people using anything below Windows 2000, and 82k Vista users).
I assume Microsoft's aims are similar to Valve's; they want to know who to target and what they did wrong. Never know, might end up being a good thing.
Or it could be pandering to people who have no idea what a binary format is, and need a simple explanation. Don't tell me you've never given a quick, snappy (if lacking) summary of something to someone not very technically inclined...
Well, if you think of it logically, the points are really a pseudo-currency used only on the XBox system; not really worth their while to give out discounts.
Put it another way: if you have a prepay mobile phone, you don't get a bulk discount if you top up loads during the month. And if I top up my prepay Starbucks card by £100 they won't give me another £10 just because the transaction costs are lower than me topping up with a tenner ten times. Same deal.
set up a bank. don't charge yourself for credit card processing.
;)
:P
Doesn't work that way, I'm afraid; if you want to accept Visa, Mastercard... any cards that exist, basically, they'll want a cut and will take fees. Then there's the infrastructure cost of setting up a whole damn bank... no, makes far more sense than selling points in blocks of 500.
Anyway, banks are bad enough without Microsoft running one...
Well, yes, but then there isn't really a viable infrastructure for micropayments. The closest we have is the credit/debit card systems, Visa/Mastercard/American Express et al, and they charge transaction fees on all payments, making it a rather expensive proposition. I can see why Microsoft would rather spend 50 cents on a 10 dollar debit card payment than 50 cents on a 10 cent debit card payment.
Sorry to disappoint you, but I'm a Brit.
(Albeit one that doesn't watch Dr Who.)
Yes, but not Vista.
Why? Lots of people on Slashdot are willing to come up and state they like Vista, and while I personally don't use it I have used it in the past and could find nothing overtly objectionable about it. So, I'll ask again: why, when discussing Vista, does the concept of independent thought cease to exist, and instead anyone saying anything positive gets labelled as being paid by Microsoft? The article is from Consumer Reports, for christ's sake, widely held as putting independence and integrity above all else; so why the sudden turnaround? Because they recommend something you don't like for nebulous reasons?
Your post seems to be more about that; you don't agree with them, so it's "sloppy". Right.
And sorry to reply to my own comment (mea culpa) but since when did "Independent" automatically mean "Hates Microsoft"? Some people independently like and recommend Windows. I hate this attitude if they recommend everyone buy a Mac Mini/install Linux they're free-thinking individualists, but if they recommend a cheap Dell with Vista they're being bribed by Microsoft.