Re:Betamax gets the last laugh
on
The VHS is Dead
·
· Score: 1
Yeah, cheap crappy players seem to have a lot of trouble with certain DVDs. There's also the issue of the layer change; when this happens, pretty much any DVD player is going to stop for a couple of seconds while it recalibrates the laser to the other layer. I wish they'd just put in buffering in the player to get around this, or redesign the DVD so that the layer change is somewhere unimportant, like between scenes, or even better, between titles.
There's a big difference between an ad that someone can choose to click on or ignore, and a program you install on their computer which sends all of their data to your servers for you to do with whatever you want.
First of all, your program probably didn't disclose to the users that it was collecting personal information, or if it did, it was buried near the bottom of the license, which is to say you may as well not have disclosed it.
You may not have hid your intentions, but I'll bet you didn't show them either. How many of your users would have installed your program if you said right on the first screen "We collect your personal information and do whatever the hell we want with it"? Uh huh, that's what I thought.
There's a huge difference between a banner ad on someone's site and your typical spyware program.
This guy's obviously got some talent...he needs to apply it to finding a web hosting provider that doesn't suck. Then again I've never been/.ed so what do I know?
My comment was indeed somewhat of an exaggeration. Though your comment is quite curious; I don't have any comments about MySQL on my blog, which, by the way, is MySQL driven. But not for long.:)
I think all the people who replied to my original post have well discussed the shortcomings with MySQL, so I won't repeat them again.
Keep in mind I use it myself, but I'm not going to put my company's 25,000,000 customer database into MySQL.
The yellow dots are extremely difficult to see under normal lighting conditions, even with a magnifying glass. You basically have to put the paper under a blacklight or some sort of strong blue light (LED?) to get enough contrast to see them. Essentially it's so that people can't see the tracking dots. If people COULD see them, they'd be throwing these printers at the salespeople.
LAMP is great for what it does, but MySQL has no place in the enterprise. There's way too much important stuff that it lacks. I'm sure the nice folks who run/. can tell you of their many misadventures with MySQL, if they chose to...
Now if you'll excuse me, I have to go find my asbestos suit.
Don't hate them because they're inscrutable. These are people who love the subtle power and intricacies of computers, yet who must spend their days incarcerated in windowless rooms telephonically holding the hands of 16-bit blockheads. One computer tech in Delaware recently had an urban legend spring to life when a user called to complain, apparently in all sincerity, that his computer's "coffee cup holder" (actually the CD drive) was broken. "We should all be issued sidearms so we can vent our frustration," she says. It's a lot to swallow for $35,000 a year. No matter--these jobs won't last long in the U.S.; they're being offshored to India in mega-numbers. RTFM indeed.
This is indeed one of the worst jobs I've ever had the displeasure of having. Though if I HAD been making $35,000, it would have been a LOT more tolerable.
OK, so I once got suckered in by one of those "free iPod" affiliate sites. And when my inbox went from one spam a week to 30 a day, I knew what happened.
Anyway, if you really want to get your free iPod, this is what you have to do:
Sign up for AOL 9.0 for Broadband
Buy $39.95 worth of miracle pills
Subscribe to the New Yourk (sic) Times
Opt in to about 412 "mailing lists"
Enroll in about 32 other shady programs
Wait 3 months
And if you've done all of that, you're a complete idiot who is going to get what you deserve, and if you think it's an iPod, ha yeah right. Enjoy your spam, sucka!
I think this doesn't get enough attention because most of the hardware Linux people use on a daily basis has drivers included with the kernel, and for the most part they work from version to version.
So what if a vendor puts out binary-only drivers. It's a free market; go buy their competitor's hardware. That's the only way to get their attention.
Hello, ${VENDOR}, I am writing to you today to let you know that I looked at your ${HARDWARE} and was very impressed. It's the best thing since sliced bread! However, I bought your competitor ${VENDOR_2}'s ${HARDWARE_2} today, because they provide source code with their Linux drivers, and you do not.
In short, don't like binary-only drivers? Don't give them any money.
I brought my Gentoo system up to date after I read this announcement. Took five minutes. Then I read this post:
Don't forget to update the/etc/make.profile link after an `emerge sync`. The sync will place the new profile in/usr/portage/profiles.
So I did. Then I tried to emerge -uD world again, and...done! No more packages. I usually just wait for it to warn me that I need to change the/etc/make.profile symlink.
Indeed. Searching cnn.com for Badnarik yields 0 results. Searching google.com for Badnarik site:cnn.com yields 3 results. It seems to have been suppressed somehow.
Ridiculous on its face. The founding fathers of this country didn't WANT career politicians. They wanted people running the country who came from ordinary lives just like you and I. Badnarik, at least, is a mainframe programmer, if I recall correctly. So everybody on/. should be voting for him.:-)
If somebody doesn't stand up for your rights, you're going to lose them completely.
How does it help the cause of privacy to use the "radical" PGP (or GPG these days)?
If you don't claim your rights, and you don't even know what they ARE, you will have them taken from you by force.
In any case, since this WAS service of a court order, they COULD have simply asked the sheriff nicely to accompany them. But that wouldn't have gotten them any media attention...
The debate is being paid for by the private ASU Foundation (which is distinct and separate from the state funded University), mostly with corporate donations. No state funds are being used, so I suspect the lawsuit will be quickly dispatched.
If only it were that simple. The ASU foundation hasn't received nearly the $2 million this debate is going to cost. The difference is going to be billed straight to Arizona taxpayers.
The foundation gets most of it's money from corporate sponsors (SRP, Motorola, etc), and the occasional private individual. Since the money doesn't go directly to the candidates, I can't imagine how it'll violate any campaign finanace laws.
It probably doesn't violate any campaign finance laws, but the lawsuit doesn't say that it does. The lawsuit DOES state that it violates the Arizona constitution, which it does. Arizona recognizes THREE major political parties: Republican, Democrat and Libertarian. Any money paid by the state to benefit one or two of them is a partisan campaign contribution or endorsement and is illegal in Arizona.
I really like the idea of being able to customize my browser to work just the way I want it to. And being able to pick and choose my plugins with Firefox gives me exactly that. I don't want ALL that junk thrown in! Just a few things, like Adblock, Session Saver, TinyURL Creator, User Agent Switcher and Firesomething (for fun).
SBC has always been a little underhanded when it has come to playing fair, ie giving our customers lines that they knew were of less than stellar quality, delaying the install process when they can get away with it, charging us for doing a "no trouble found" dispatch where the problem "mysteriously" diappears so as to cause an unnecessary dispatch chargeback to appear, etc. We try and get along, but it is not always that easy. We've had issues with their technicians disparaging our service as well, trying to get a "winback" so as to regain their previous customers' service. In fact, we keep a database of all the things that SBC has done to try and undermine our service so we can have an accurate record to present to the PSC (Public Service Commission). You'd be amazed at what SBC tries to do to steal back their customers. Thankfully we do provide cheaper service and better customer care IMHO.
And this is different from Verizon how?
I work for another one of those CLECs, only we're not so little. I get to deal with SBC, Verizon and BellSouth on a regular basis, and I can tell you for certain this strike will be no good for us or our customers in SBC-serviced areas. It's going to be One Really Bad Weekend.
Why God? Why of all people, do you, "The Man"-hating intellectuals, actually give them your business?
Starbucks hasn't really hurt the local coffee houses at all, from what I can see actually living in a town where Starbucks recently arrived. The coffee house I am always found in has one big advantage over Starbucks: free Wi-Fi. It's always full in here and sometimes hard to even find a seat. Maybe even more so since Starbucks opened.
A new stand-alone Starbucks store is not the only change that downtown Iowa City patrons will notice on the coffee front later this month.
The downtown Java House, 211 1/2 E. Washington St., is in the process of a $250,000 renovation to improve customer service, reduce waiting times and add seating options.
"We are doing a remodel, but it has nothing to do with Starbucks coming and everything to do with us stepping up our service," said owner Tara Cronbaugh, adding that renovation plans for the 10-year-old coffeehouse have been in place for several years. "We are in our last phase of renovations. Our only goal is to improve the speed of service."
Work on an extended coffee bar, which includes two more slots for brewed coffee, an additional register, a second espresso machine and more seating, should be complete by the time University of Iowa students resume classes for the spring semester Jan. 20.
Developer Marc Moen said the new Starbucks store at 228 S. Clinton St., eastern Iowa's first stand-alone location, should open about the same time.
"They look like they are ready to roll," Moen said, adding that he heard drinks will start flowing Jan. 20.
Cronbaugh said she is not worried about Starbucks' expansion into Iowa City and thinks it will strengthen the specialized coffee scene.
"Long-term, I think it's a good thing for the industry," she said. "And I think downtown is loyal to its local businesses."
David Meyers, co-owner of Terrapin Coffee Brewery, 257 E. Iowa Ave., agreed.
"Starbucks will make the game fun," Meyers said. "It will be really interesting to see how they play."
Meyers opened the downtown Terrapin with his brother, Robert Meyers, on Oct. 21, 2002. He said they are not planning store renovations but will expand their menu this month.
"There will be additional hot teas, desserts and other complimentary items," he said. "The reasoning is that we have been here over a year and we are taking our natural form."
The first of the Java House renovations began in July 2002 with a new window bar in the front of the store and an expansion to the service area.
Cronbaugh said crews made the majority of the Java House's recent changes on Christmas and the day after. In addition to expanding the front portion of the coffee bar, Java House crews are removing the elevated platform across from the coffee service area and replacing it with alternate seating options.
Officials also will add tables in the back of the coffeehouse, and Cronbaugh said the store will be able to accommodate a total of 18 to 20 more patrons.
Although Cronbaugh said she has not planned any immediate changes to the other Java House locations at 713 Mormon Trek Blvd. on the west side of town, 1555 S. First Ave. on the east side, and 15 S. Dubuque St. above Prairie Lights, she is planning to implement a new pre-paid card system linking all the stores.
The pre-paid coffee cards will allow regulars to pay a lump sum and subtract each purchase from the card as they purchase beverages or food items.
"They can use it so they don't have to get out $3 all the time," Cronbaugh said.
To accommodate changes, the downtown staff will increase by 10 employees and the east- and west-side stores will each add two to three workers.
Cronbaugh said she doesn't anticipate any price increases and said the last time she made cost adjustments was in October based on economic changes.
"We increased espressos, teas, anything having to do with milk cocoa or tea," she said. "But our brewed coffee stayed the same, our bakery line stayed the same."
$20,000 is a large chunk of change to be in debt. I personally use Gentoo and I'm going to have to go over and give him some money for putting together such a great system. I'd urge anybody who's happy with Gentoo to do the same.
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Yeah, cheap crappy players seem to have a lot of trouble with certain DVDs. There's also the issue of the layer change; when this happens, pretty much any DVD player is going to stop for a couple of seconds while it recalibrates the laser to the other layer. I wish they'd just put in buffering in the player to get around this, or redesign the DVD so that the layer change is somewhere unimportant, like between scenes, or even better, between titles.
I've rented so many staticky, scrambled VHS tapes that even a scratched DVD is an improvement. Besides, Netflix only sends DVDs.
First of all, your program probably didn't disclose to the users that it was collecting personal information, or if it did, it was buried near the bottom of the license, which is to say you may as well not have disclosed it.
You may not have hid your intentions, but I'll bet you didn't show them either. How many of your users would have installed your program if you said right on the first screen "We collect your personal information and do whatever the hell we want with it"? Uh huh, that's what I thought.
There's a huge difference between a banner ad on someone's site and your typical spyware program.
This guy's obviously got some talent...he needs to apply it to finding a web hosting provider that doesn't suck. Then again I've never been /.ed so what do I know?
Oh, sorry, try this one instead: buy the damned iPod
My comment was indeed somewhat of an exaggeration. Though your comment is quite curious; I don't have any comments about MySQL on my blog, which, by the way, is MySQL driven. But not for long. :)
I think all the people who replied to my original post have well discussed the shortcomings with MySQL, so I won't repeat them again.
Keep in mind I use it myself, but I'm not going to put my company's 25,000,000 customer database into MySQL.
The yellow dots are extremely difficult to see under normal lighting conditions, even with a magnifying glass. You basically have to put the paper under a blacklight or some sort of strong blue light (LED?) to get enough contrast to see them. Essentially it's so that people can't see the tracking dots. If people COULD see them, they'd be throwing these printers at the salespeople.
No way. I'm root. Everything I do is perfect. What was your username again?
LAMP is great for what it does, but MySQL has no place in the enterprise. There's way too much important stuff that it lacks. I'm sure the nice folks who run /. can tell you of their many misadventures with MySQL, if they chose to...
Now if you'll excuse me, I have to go find my asbestos suit.
True story: When I first put up Google ads I had a hell of a time figuring out why they weren't working. As it turned out, I had them Adblocked!
I both run ads and Adblock. What are you going to call me, a hypocrite?
This is indeed one of the worst jobs I've ever had the displeasure of having. Though if I HAD been making $35,000, it would have been a LOT more tolerable.
Perhaps, but the life of an incandescent bulb is about 1K hours.
I dunno what PalmOne does, but I go shopping for another PDA.
Anyway, if you really want to get your free iPod, this is what you have to do:
- Sign up for AOL 9.0 for Broadband
- Buy $39.95 worth of miracle pills
- Subscribe to the New Yourk (sic) Times
- Opt in to about 412 "mailing lists"
- Enroll in about 32 other shady programs
- Wait 3 months
And if you've done all of that, you're a complete idiot who is going to get what you deserve, and if you think it's an iPod, ha yeah right. Enjoy your spam, sucka!Save yourself the hassle and just go buy the damned iPod.
I use Session Saver with Firefox 1.0 and it works just fine. Probably needs an update, though, as it isn't perfect.
I brought my Gentoo system up to date after I read this announcement. Took five minutes. Then I read this post:
So I did. Then I tried to emerge -uD world again, and...done! No more packages. I usually just wait for it to warn me that I need to change the /etc/make.profile symlink.
Indeed. Searching cnn.com for Badnarik yields 0 results. Searching google.com for Badnarik site:cnn.com yields 3 results. It seems to have been suppressed somehow.
Ridiculous on its face. The founding fathers of this country didn't WANT career politicians. They wanted people running the country who came from ordinary lives just like you and I. Badnarik, at least, is a mainframe programmer, if I recall correctly. So everybody on /. should be voting for him. :-)
How does it help the cause of privacy to use the "radical" PGP (or GPG these days)?
If you don't claim your rights, and you don't even know what they ARE, you will have them taken from you by force.
In any case, since this WAS service of a court order, they COULD have simply asked the sheriff nicely to accompany them. But that wouldn't have gotten them any media attention...
If only it were that simple. The ASU foundation hasn't received nearly the $2 million this debate is going to cost. The difference is going to be billed straight to Arizona taxpayers.
It probably doesn't violate any campaign finance laws, but the lawsuit doesn't say that it does. The lawsuit DOES state that it violates the Arizona constitution, which it does. Arizona recognizes THREE major political parties: Republican, Democrat and Libertarian. Any money paid by the state to benefit one or two of them is a partisan campaign contribution or endorsement and is illegal in Arizona.
I really like the idea of being able to customize my browser to work just the way I want it to. And being able to pick and choose my plugins with Firefox gives me exactly that. I don't want ALL that junk thrown in! Just a few things, like Adblock, Session Saver, TinyURL Creator, User Agent Switcher and Firesomething (for fun).
Posted from Mozilla Spacemonkey
And this is different from Verizon how?
I work for another one of those CLECs, only we're not so little. I get to deal with SBC, Verizon and BellSouth on a regular basis, and I can tell you for certain this strike will be no good for us or our customers in SBC-serviced areas. It's going to be One Really Bad Weekend.
Starbucks hasn't really hurt the local coffee houses at all, from what I can see actually living in a town where Starbucks recently arrived. The coffee house I am always found in has one big advantage over Starbucks: free Wi-Fi. It's always full in here and sometimes hard to even find a seat. Maybe even more so since Starbucks opened.
From the Iowa City Press-Citizen:
A new stand-alone Starbucks store is not the only change that downtown Iowa City patrons will notice on the coffee front later this month.
The downtown Java House, 211 1/2 E. Washington St., is in the process of a $250,000 renovation to improve customer service, reduce waiting times and add seating options.
"We are doing a remodel, but it has nothing to do with Starbucks coming and everything to do with us stepping up our service," said owner Tara Cronbaugh, adding that renovation plans for the 10-year-old coffeehouse have been in place for several years. "We are in our last phase of renovations. Our only goal is to improve the speed of service."
Work on an extended coffee bar, which includes two more slots for brewed coffee, an additional register, a second espresso machine and more seating, should be complete by the time University of Iowa students resume classes for the spring semester Jan. 20.
Developer Marc Moen said the new Starbucks store at 228 S. Clinton St., eastern Iowa's first stand-alone location, should open about the same time.
"They look like they are ready to roll," Moen said, adding that he heard drinks will start flowing Jan. 20.
Cronbaugh said she is not worried about Starbucks' expansion into Iowa City and thinks it will strengthen the specialized coffee scene.
"Long-term, I think it's a good thing for the industry," she said. "And I think downtown is loyal to its local businesses."
David Meyers, co-owner of Terrapin Coffee Brewery, 257 E. Iowa Ave., agreed.
"Starbucks will make the game fun," Meyers said. "It will be really interesting to see how they play."
Meyers opened the downtown Terrapin with his brother, Robert Meyers, on Oct. 21, 2002. He said they are not planning store renovations but will expand their menu this month.
"There will be additional hot teas, desserts and other complimentary items," he said. "The reasoning is that we have been here over a year and we are taking our natural form."
The first of the Java House renovations began in July 2002 with a new window bar in the front of the store and an expansion to the service area.
Cronbaugh said crews made the majority of the Java House's recent changes on Christmas and the day after. In addition to expanding the front portion of the coffee bar, Java House crews are removing the elevated platform across from the coffee service area and replacing it with alternate seating options.
Officials also will add tables in the back of the coffeehouse, and Cronbaugh said the store will be able to accommodate a total of 18 to 20 more patrons.
Although Cronbaugh said she has not planned any immediate changes to the other Java House locations at 713 Mormon Trek Blvd. on the west side of town, 1555 S. First Ave. on the east side, and 15 S. Dubuque St. above Prairie Lights, she is planning to implement a new pre-paid card system linking all the stores.
The pre-paid coffee cards will allow regulars to pay a lump sum and subtract each purchase from the card as they purchase beverages or food items.
"They can use it so they don't have to get out $3 all the time," Cronbaugh said.
To accommodate changes, the downtown staff will increase by 10 employees and the east- and west-side stores will each add two to three workers.
Cronbaugh said she doesn't anticipate any price increases and said the last time she made cost adjustments was in October based on economic changes.
"We increased espressos, teas, anything having to do with milk cocoa or tea," she said. "But our brewed coffee stayed the same, our bakery line stayed the same."
$20,000 is a large chunk of change to be in debt. I personally use Gentoo and I'm going to have to go over and give him some money for putting together such a great system. I'd urge anybody who's happy with Gentoo to do the same.