The reason that seemingly stupid things are made illegal is so that the state earns more revenue. They do it big here in NY with "No Turn On Red" signs. These signs are seen a lot of times on corners where it is perfectly safe to make a right on red. They put the signs there because they know that some poor moron who doesn't pay attention is gonna make the right on red with a police officer right behind him. It's basically free money. It's no different with cell phones, smoking, seatbelts, etc. The state doesn't really CARE about your safety. They just make these stupid laws in the disguise of safety so that they can increase their revenue.
Then setup your complaints against Motorola and Scientific Atlanta. They signed the contracts. It's not Time Warner Cable's (or any other service provider for that matter) responsibility to make sure that cable boxes get sold in consumer markets. It's the responsibility of the companies that make the cable boxes.
They want the contracts anyway. They make more money that way because now they don't have to worry about advertisements, customer support, or anything. All they do is develop boxes and sell them to the companies.
The other thing, that everyone needs to realize, is that that $7 a month is called a box rental fee, but that's also to cover support costs for that box. When a customer has a problem with the box itself, are they calling Scientific Atlanta, or Time Warner Cable? They call Time Warner Cable.
So fine, get your own box, but then, just like the phone company, if a customer is having technical issues with that cable box that is unrelated to Time Warner's cable signal, then that customer calls the manufacturer of the cable box.
What you are comparing is apple to oranges. The difference with phones, is that consumers have a multitude of choices when it comes to phones. You want a Panasonic, get a Panasonic. You want a Vtech, get a Vtech.
There are no choices with cable boxes. Cause the companies that make the boxes are under contract with the service providers to only distribute their boxes to those companies. But that isn't stopping Panasonic from designing and distributing a cable box to the general population that is sold in retail locations. The reason is, is because Panasonic doesn't see cable boxes as a lucrative market. No other company at the moment does.
Why is it Time Warner's fault that no other company wants to develop cable boxes and sell them in retail locations? It's not. Time Warner Cable (or any other cable provider for that matter) cannot control Panasonics decision on whether or not to make and sell cable boxes.
You tell me to get a clue, but you are the one obviously oblivious to basic economics and business management. A company is not going to go into a market unless they know they can make enough profit to justify the costs of being in that market. And right now, no other company sees the benefit of joining the cable settop box consumer market. That's not Time Warner's fault, and they aren't working in a way to stop companies from doing that. They aren't helping either, but it's not their responsibility to do so.
I agree, that is bullshit. However, that is a problem with your local division, not TWC as a whole. Why should my division be punished for actions and policies that your division has? I agree, that action should probably be taken, but that action should be taken against your local division... not the whole company. You would actually have a better chance succeeding, because there aren't nearly as many lawyers protecting that one division as there are protecting the whole TWC umbrella.
Again, what problem is it of Time Warner, if no one sells digital boxes with cable inserts in your area? It's not. Now, the issue with TWC getting the cable card to work, I can understand. Having a cable card, yes, it was a bit of a pain to get working with my TiVo box. Definitely a few calls into my local office. But eventually they got it working, and now I am all set. But that support and setup does need improvement.
It costs me $1.50 a month to rent that cable card. I also see a lot of people saying why do I need a cable box with a digital tuner in my TV. Most of those TVs, have cable card slots in them. Again, get a cable card, now you're not paying $7+ a month to rent a box you don't need.
Also, if it's Time Warner's equipment, they should have the right to charge a rental fee.
This is absolutely stupid, cause he can get his own cable box. As long as it has a cable card slot to accept TWC cable card, he can get whatever settop box he wants. I have a TiVo box that I use for my DVR service, and a cable card from TWC. I own the TiVo box, and it works fine on TWC's network. TWC can't control if no company in his local area sells cable boxes... and then he is even more retarded, because its called buying the box on the Internet. What an idiot.
Nuclear power is by far a misunderstood energy source. I am in full support of 45 new nuclear power plants. They could put one in my neighborhood, and I would not care in the slightest.
I think what a lot of people forget, is that yes, you can save money by buying a Windows PC, and then formatting it, or returning it via your EULA rights. However, this does nothing for proving the increase of Linux users.
You need to remember, that popularity is driven by numbers. Software companies that don't develop for Linux do so because they don't see a substantial market of Linux users. Because there is no hard proven facts or figures that the amount of Linux users that are out there really exist.
These numbers are proven and shown in sales numbers. How much of a particular product did a particular company sell? And it doesn't matter if any of them were returned. The numbers never show that, or if they do, they are in such a small proportion to the sales numbers, nobody really gives return rates a second look. For example, when Microsoft released the Xbox 360, and 1 million of them were sold on the first day, that's the number that Microsoft released. Even if 100,000 were returned on the following day, it doesn't matter. Microsoft sold 1 million 360's on it's first day on the market and that's what everybody knows or cares about. I just used this as an example, as I don't really know the sales figures for the 360's first day. The point is numbers.
The same thing goes for Windows. Even if you go through the hassle of actually returning the Windows license back to Microsoft, you still purchased it first. That is a sale number that Microsoft can and will use when Steve Ballmer goes to an interview and says, "We sold 900,000 Windows licenses in the month of March".
I personally would pay the extra money for the computer that has Linux pre-installed to avoid giving a sales number to Microsoft. I would probably still format since I am a Slackware user, but I would prefer to give my sale number to Linux instead of Microsoft. Just my two cents.
Malware is not defined anywhere in the article. I know from experience that some "malware" scanners tend to mark even cookies (such as Doubleclick's) as malware, which will appear on any computer.
I would also like to see how many of these "infected" computers had UAC and automated updates turned off.
Looks like just another Vista bashing article (so it will no doubt be really popular here). Exactly... they probably didn't have UAC and Automatic Updates turned off. That's why they would get infected: they had UAC and Automatic Updates on. I think you hit the nail right on the head.
I for one, prefer the glossy screen to the matte. There are a couple of downsides to having a glossy, such as the glare, and also when the screen is off, or when you are looking at a full screen of black, having fingerprints and dust on it. But in practice, like many others have said, these are non-issues.
You get used to moving the screen to avoid a major glare, and I don't even notice the small ones. And as for dirt and fingerprints, when using it, and looking at websites (like Slashdot), you don't see them.
I have had a glossy screen for the last three years, and I would personally never go back to matte. I feel the matte gives images on the screen a fuzzy feeling, and when hit with direct sunlight, the matte finished monitors are completely washed out. I do not get that on my glossy. It's hard to see the screen, but I can still see it.
Finally, glossy allows for a much brighter, much clearer picture. I get a lot more detail and clarity in my games and in general use.
I absolutely agree with you... I think it is really sad that an 11-year old was able to do a better job than the first guy. One can only hope that our kids are like him...
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I would think so... It's a good question to ask. Same way with IDE ports on motherboards... I mean does ANYONE ever use a floppy disk anymore?
Don't you mean the State of the Coonion speech? Like or not, you dimwits, you're stuck with this empty-headed africoon.
And how exactly is he empty headed? How about you present actual arguments rather than uneducated racist remarks.
You are aware that the "smoke" coming out of the cooling tower is nothing more than steam, right?
This is really scary stuff.... I am going to have to watch my wristwatch and make sure that it is not effected by this virus.
The reason that seemingly stupid things are made illegal is so that the state earns more revenue. They do it big here in NY with "No Turn On Red" signs. These signs are seen a lot of times on corners where it is perfectly safe to make a right on red. They put the signs there because they know that some poor moron who doesn't pay attention is gonna make the right on red with a police officer right behind him. It's basically free money. It's no different with cell phones, smoking, seatbelts, etc. The state doesn't really CARE about your safety. They just make these stupid laws in the disguise of safety so that they can increase their revenue.
Then setup your complaints against Motorola and Scientific Atlanta. They signed the contracts. It's not Time Warner Cable's (or any other service provider for that matter) responsibility to make sure that cable boxes get sold in consumer markets. It's the responsibility of the companies that make the cable boxes.
They want the contracts anyway. They make more money that way because now they don't have to worry about advertisements, customer support, or anything. All they do is develop boxes and sell them to the companies.
The other thing, that everyone needs to realize, is that that $7 a month is called a box rental fee, but that's also to cover support costs for that box. When a customer has a problem with the box itself, are they calling Scientific Atlanta, or Time Warner Cable? They call Time Warner Cable.
So fine, get your own box, but then, just like the phone company, if a customer is having technical issues with that cable box that is unrelated to Time Warner's cable signal, then that customer calls the manufacturer of the cable box.
What you are comparing is apple to oranges. The difference with phones, is that consumers have a multitude of choices when it comes to phones. You want a Panasonic, get a Panasonic. You want a Vtech, get a Vtech.
There are no choices with cable boxes. Cause the companies that make the boxes are under contract with the service providers to only distribute their boxes to those companies. But that isn't stopping Panasonic from designing and distributing a cable box to the general population that is sold in retail locations. The reason is, is because Panasonic doesn't see cable boxes as a lucrative market. No other company at the moment does.
Why is it Time Warner's fault that no other company wants to develop cable boxes and sell them in retail locations? It's not. Time Warner Cable (or any other cable provider for that matter) cannot control Panasonics decision on whether or not to make and sell cable boxes.
You tell me to get a clue, but you are the one obviously oblivious to basic economics and business management. A company is not going to go into a market unless they know they can make enough profit to justify the costs of being in that market. And right now, no other company sees the benefit of joining the cable settop box consumer market. That's not Time Warner's fault, and they aren't working in a way to stop companies from doing that. They aren't helping either, but it's not their responsibility to do so.
I agree, that is bullshit. However, that is a problem with your local division, not TWC as a whole. Why should my division be punished for actions and policies that your division has? I agree, that action should probably be taken, but that action should be taken against your local division... not the whole company. You would actually have a better chance succeeding, because there aren't nearly as many lawyers protecting that one division as there are protecting the whole TWC umbrella.
Again, what problem is it of Time Warner, if no one sells digital boxes with cable inserts in your area? It's not. Now, the issue with TWC getting the cable card to work, I can understand. Having a cable card, yes, it was a bit of a pain to get working with my TiVo box. Definitely a few calls into my local office. But eventually they got it working, and now I am all set. But that support and setup does need improvement.
It costs me $1.50 a month to rent that cable card. I also see a lot of people saying why do I need a cable box with a digital tuner in my TV. Most of those TVs, have cable card slots in them. Again, get a cable card, now you're not paying $7+ a month to rent a box you don't need. Also, if it's Time Warner's equipment, they should have the right to charge a rental fee.
This is absolutely stupid, cause he can get his own cable box. As long as it has a cable card slot to accept TWC cable card, he can get whatever settop box he wants. I have a TiVo box that I use for my DVR service, and a cable card from TWC. I own the TiVo box, and it works fine on TWC's network. TWC can't control if no company in his local area sells cable boxes... and then he is even more retarded, because its called buying the box on the Internet. What an idiot.
Nuclear power is by far a misunderstood energy source. I am in full support of 45 new nuclear power plants. They could put one in my neighborhood, and I would not care in the slightest.
I think what a lot of people forget, is that yes, you can save money by buying a Windows PC, and then formatting it, or returning it via your EULA rights. However, this does nothing for proving the increase of Linux users. You need to remember, that popularity is driven by numbers. Software companies that don't develop for Linux do so because they don't see a substantial market of Linux users. Because there is no hard proven facts or figures that the amount of Linux users that are out there really exist. These numbers are proven and shown in sales numbers. How much of a particular product did a particular company sell? And it doesn't matter if any of them were returned. The numbers never show that, or if they do, they are in such a small proportion to the sales numbers, nobody really gives return rates a second look. For example, when Microsoft released the Xbox 360, and 1 million of them were sold on the first day, that's the number that Microsoft released. Even if 100,000 were returned on the following day, it doesn't matter. Microsoft sold 1 million 360's on it's first day on the market and that's what everybody knows or cares about. I just used this as an example, as I don't really know the sales figures for the 360's first day. The point is numbers. The same thing goes for Windows. Even if you go through the hassle of actually returning the Windows license back to Microsoft, you still purchased it first. That is a sale number that Microsoft can and will use when Steve Ballmer goes to an interview and says, "We sold 900,000 Windows licenses in the month of March". I personally would pay the extra money for the computer that has Linux pre-installed to avoid giving a sales number to Microsoft. I would probably still format since I am a Slackware user, but I would prefer to give my sale number to Linux instead of Microsoft. Just my two cents.
I for one, prefer the glossy screen to the matte. There are a couple of downsides to having a glossy, such as the glare, and also when the screen is off, or when you are looking at a full screen of black, having fingerprints and dust on it. But in practice, like many others have said, these are non-issues. You get used to moving the screen to avoid a major glare, and I don't even notice the small ones. And as for dirt and fingerprints, when using it, and looking at websites (like Slashdot), you don't see them. I have had a glossy screen for the last three years, and I would personally never go back to matte. I feel the matte gives images on the screen a fuzzy feeling, and when hit with direct sunlight, the matte finished monitors are completely washed out. I do not get that on my glossy. It's hard to see the screen, but I can still see it. Finally, glossy allows for a much brighter, much clearer picture. I get a lot more detail and clarity in my games and in general use.
I absolutely agree with you... I think it is really sad that an 11-year old was able to do a better job than the first guy. One can only hope that our kids are like him...