If you signed up for theit America's Top 100 channel package and they take away 16 of them, do you think that $1.00 back makes up for the difference? I know that the "Top 100" includes more than 100 channels, but MTV and Comedy central are worth more to me than RFDTV and the Brigham Young University public access channel.
You could do wonderful things with them, from 1.7-1.8 meg floppies, that were a bit slower and less reliable, to some magic 1.22 meg format that mysteriously made my floppies faster.
I still have no concept of who killed of the 2.88 Mb Floppy and why they did it.
I have very *ahem* fond memories of spending the whole day formatting and copying Civ2 to 96 floppies... ouch!
One time I had a client who needed 600 copies of a floppy disk with the same 20k file on it. I charged them $0.25 per disk for the format and copy and $0.10 per disk to affix labels. My commission ended up being over $100 just for swapping out floppies every 90 seconds on about 6 Macs for like 3 hours.
Mmmm the good old days when being able to fix a computer just about guaranteed you a good job.
No sane company is going to sell a 150 GB drive as an 80 GB because they pay as much to manufacture platters and heads no matter how they're used. The cost of the unused parts would come right out of their profits.
You'd be correct if there was just one HDD maker in the marketplace, but that isn't so.
First off, let me say that I think this whole isue is bunk. But let's pretend for a moment.
Company A and Company B are both in the business of making and selling HDDs. Company A makes only 200 GB HDDs which cost them about $100 each to manufacture and they then sell them for $200. Company B makes a 200GB HDD which costs them $100 to make and they then sell it for $200. Company B also does this, they modify the firmware of the drive to that only 150 GB are usable. They sell these "150 GB" HDDs for $150.
Company A gets the business of people who are willing to shell out $200 for a 200 GB HDD. Company A does not get the business who have a budget of less than $200 for their HDD purchase.
Company B get the business of people who are willing to shell out $200 for 200 GB HDD and the business of people who have a smaller budget.
By crippling the drive they protect the value of their "high end" product while at the same time making some money on the "mid range" as well
Company A's profits can be calculated like this profit = (X1xP1) whereas X=The number of units sold and P=The profit margin on the unit. #=The model of the HDD
Company B's profits can be calculated like this profit = (X1xP1)+(X2xP2).
This same business principle is a part of the reason why some 2.4 Ghz processors will run at 3 Ghz when overclocked.
I have no doubt that there could be a fair bit of space on a drive that is unavailable to the user, but double or triple capacity? Of course not!
Call into one of their call centers 1-800-333-DISH and complain to the agent that you speak to. When they tell you about the $1 off of your bill, demand to speak to a supervisor.
Supervisors have a fair bit of authority. If you make it clear that there is some program on one of those channels that you NEED to watch if you are going to keep their service, they will be more than willing to write more money off of your account.
1 month of everything for free is not out of the question if you play it right and you get the right supervisor at the right time. Hold out, never accept their first offer and you'll go far.
The real leap forward will occur when this is built into camcorders and other media recording devices.
Have you ever tried to edit video using a camcorder?
Trust me, you don't want to.
The whole idea behind connecting the camera to a computer just so you can save the data on a disc that won't be played on a computer anyway, not to mention printing labels for the disc, is crazy and redundant.
I guess that if you shoot the video just like you want it,down to the frame, you'll never have to edit it.
Though it is a necessary stopgap until we get these technologies into the cameras, the computer is just another barrier to the development of user-created media.
Until we have huge stores of flash memory and a psychokinetic UI, the computer is the best way to manage and prepare "user-created" content.
My all time favorite videogame, Killer Instinct came with a warning sticker about the possibility of causing seizures in people who had certain medical conditions. That game was released nearly 10 years ago.
Nintendo may not be perfect, but come on now. People who have seizures know the risks of playing video games.
I've read so many posts on this thread blaming the evil lawyers for causing this problem. Let me break it to you, people. If the doctors weren't making mistakes and hurting people, there wouldn't be any medical malpractice lawyers.
Doctors are losing lawsuits because so many people in the jury pool know someone personally who has endured a medical error. In my family, I know of at least two. My great grandmother got a peritoneal infection because doctors left her abdomen packed with gauze after operating on her intestines. My mother was allergic to codeine, she advised her doctor of this, when the pain from cancer was too much for her to take, she asked for a pain releiver. This doctor went on to proscribe a pain reliever to her that contained codeine.
Neither my mother nor my great grandmother sued. I would have. If that means that I'd end up on some "list" for being a "troublemaker" so be it. In the end I bet I'd get better treatment because the doctors know that if they don't cross every "t" and dot every "i", I'm going to complaing. If a lack of awareness on their part causes me harm, they'll find themselves in court.
You want to fix this problem? Make it easier to revoke the medical licenses of doctors who are hurting people.
The fact that you child was born with down syndrome has just about as much to do with the doctor that delivered him\her as the sex of that child does.
If your child has Cerebral Palsy, that could be the fault of the medical team who attended the delivery.
As many as 98,000 or more Americans die evry year because of preventable medical errors. We all know the horror stories about doctors amputating the wrong leg. Or doctors leaving forceps and other medical instruments INSIDE OF PEOPLE!
The total crap part is that you can sue ANYTIME after birth and claim that the doctor that delivered you caused any problems that you have now.
A child can not sue. In most states the law says that you can sue for a "reasonable time" after you reach the age of majority, most states also interpret this to mean that you can sue until the age of 21 for malpractice done to you as a child. If a doctor fucks up your delivery and you're parents aren't smart enough to take legal action, you shouldn't have to suffer for the rest of your life without compensation.
My Great Grandmother had surgery on her intestines, and the doctors left her abdomen packed with gauze. They had to operate again because she got a peritoneal infection. This was a women in her 70s who had to go under the knife again because of a preventable medical error. She chose not to sue. I would have. There is no excuse for that level of incompetence.
Its really sad when doctors are sued so often and so frequently that they have been driven to do this type of blacklisting.
The real shame is that doctors protect their own to the extent of keeping people in the practice of medicine who shouldn't even be trusted to change the oil on a car.
Insurance costs and lawsuits have gotten totaly out of hand in this country. it has driven medical costs through the roof and something has to give.
Like it or not Battle Cruiser Millennium was a HUGE improvement over BC3K. It wasn't perfect, it's a very complicated game and the turorials were shit, but all in all a decent game. He then went on to fuck over all of us who bought it by only including multiplayer to Battle Cruiser Millennium Gold. But that's another story.
Sorry, but a low UID doesn't make your comments more profound, it just means you can tolerate dupes better.
A low UID means I've been here for a while. It means I remember Sig11. It means I remember JonKatz. It means I remember numeric Karma. It means I remember the days before metamoderation and the Karma cap.
So if PETA had beaten mcdonalds.com in registering that domain name, it would still take you to a protest site today.
Bad example, someone beat peta to the punch on registering peta.org, they sued him for it. Primarily because his "organization" was the People for the Eating of Tasty Animals. Eventually Peta won and they now control the domain name, but here is an archive of the original peta.org page.
He may have some very liberal ideas on some issues, but I wouldn't classify Maher as a liberal - he also has some true conservative ideas.
Please don't give me that "fiscal conservative" bullshit. Bill Mahr is pro gay marriage, pro abortion, pro gun control, anti tax cuts, anti SUV, he's a liberal.
My first "modern" computer was a Mac Plus. 1 MB or Ram and a 20 MB HDD that connected throught the external floppy port. I didn't even have HFS support until I cobbled together a system from the files on a few game disks that I had lying around. Falcon 2.0 provided me with a newer "System" file than I had before and I believe that I ripped off a new "Finder" from my HS. Oh, nostalgia, back in the days when I paid $80+ per month for Compuserve at home and had free internet access (FTP+Gopher+Usenet) access at college.
Slashdot Mirror
That's customer loyalty for ya!
If you signed up for theit America's Top 100 channel package and they take away 16 of them, do you think that $1.00 back makes up for the difference? I know that the "Top 100" includes more than 100 channels, but MTV and Comedy central are worth more to me than RFDTV and the Brigham Young University public access channel.
I don't.
And people complain about the legal system here in the US.
France is off its rocker. Paying royalties for what MIGHT happen? Using legal means to protect the "purity" of the French language?
Seems to me that politicians and law makers all over the world are afflicted by the same stupidity that lead to the Patriot Act and DMCA here.
LK
You could do wonderful things with them, from 1.7-1.8 meg floppies, that were a bit slower and less reliable, to some magic 1.22 meg format that mysteriously made my floppies faster.
I still have no concept of who killed of the 2.88 Mb Floppy and why they did it.
I have very *ahem* fond memories of spending the whole day formatting and copying Civ2 to 96 floppies... ouch!
One time I had a client who needed 600 copies of a floppy disk with the same 20k file on it. I charged them $0.25 per disk for the format and copy and $0.10 per disk to affix labels. My commission ended up being over $100 just for swapping out floppies every 90 seconds on about 6 Macs for like 3 hours.
Mmmm the good old days when being able to fix a computer just about guaranteed you a good job.
LK
No sane company is going to sell a 150 GB drive as an 80 GB because they pay as much to manufacture platters and heads no matter how they're used. The cost of the unused parts would come right out of their profits.
You'd be correct if there was just one HDD maker in the marketplace, but that isn't so.
First off, let me say that I think this whole isue is bunk. But let's pretend for a moment.
Company A and Company B are both in the business of making and selling HDDs. Company A makes only 200 GB HDDs which cost them about $100 each to manufacture and they then sell them for $200. Company B makes a 200GB HDD which costs them $100 to make and they then sell it for $200. Company B also does this, they modify the firmware of the drive to that only 150 GB are usable. They sell these "150 GB" HDDs for $150.
Company A gets the business of people who are willing to shell out $200 for a 200 GB HDD. Company A does not get the business who have a budget of less than $200 for their HDD purchase.
Company B get the business of people who are willing to shell out $200 for 200 GB HDD and the business of people who have a smaller budget.
By crippling the drive they protect the value of their "high end" product while at the same time making some money on the "mid range" as well
Company A's profits can be calculated like this profit = (X1xP1) whereas X=The number of units sold and P=The profit margin on the unit. #=The model of the HDD
Company B's profits can be calculated like this profit = (X1xP1)+(X2xP2).
This same business principle is a part of the reason why some 2.4 Ghz processors will run at 3 Ghz when overclocked.
I have no doubt that there could be a fair bit of space on a drive that is unavailable to the user, but double or triple capacity? Of course not!
LK
I just read the article
If you had then you wouldn't have typed the rest of your post. We're talking about Oranges, you're not even talking apples, you're talking starfish.
LK
Lord Of The Rings my foot, SHE deserves to win an Oscar for Best Picture.
End of story.
And not even I believe this one.
LK
Call into one of their call centers 1-800-333-DISH and complain to the agent that you speak to. When they tell you about the $1 off of your bill, demand to speak to a supervisor.
Supervisors have a fair bit of authority. If you make it clear that there is some program on one of those channels that you NEED to watch if you are going to keep their service, they will be more than willing to write more money off of your account.
1 month of everything for free is not out of the question if you play it right and you get the right supervisor at the right time. Hold out, never accept their first offer and you'll go far.
LK
dude, you're on the internet. why on earth are you paying for porn?
Somebody has to capture and encode all of those DivX movies we download.
LK
I don't fix mistakes made by her friends, neighbors or relatives. She looked hurt, but I made it stick. She's stopped asking me for support.
Where is she? I'd happily take your place in the will in exchange for a little tech support.
LK
You should stay far away from any doctor that has any first-hand knowledge of how to change the oil on your car.
They're not born doctors. They had other lives before college.
The real leap forward will occur when this is built into camcorders and other media recording devices.
Have you ever tried to edit video using a camcorder?
Trust me, you don't want to.
The whole idea behind connecting the camera to a computer just so you can save the data on a disc that won't be played on a computer anyway, not to mention printing labels for the disc, is crazy and redundant.
I guess that if you shoot the video just like you want it,down to the frame, you'll never have to edit it.
Though it is a necessary stopgap until we get these technologies into the cameras, the computer is just another barrier to the development of user-created media.
Until we have huge stores of flash memory and a psychokinetic UI, the computer is the best way to manage and prepare "user-created" content.
LK
The porn applications alone are mind-boggling.
Just imagine, 600+ megs of big bouncing titties with the flip side T@2d to look like a bumpy nipple. It's pure genius!
LK
Buy the kid his first six pack and lap dance. People will stop making fun of him, post haste.
My all time favorite videogame, Killer Instinct came with a warning sticker about the possibility of causing seizures in people who had certain medical conditions. That game was released nearly 10 years ago.
Nintendo may not be perfect, but come on now. People who have seizures know the risks of playing video games.
LK
I've read so many posts on this thread blaming the evil lawyers for causing this problem. Let me break it to you, people. If the doctors weren't making mistakes and hurting people, there wouldn't be any medical malpractice lawyers.
Doctors are losing lawsuits because so many people in the jury pool know someone personally who has endured a medical error. In my family, I know of at least two. My great grandmother got a peritoneal infection because doctors left her abdomen packed with gauze after operating on her intestines. My mother was allergic to codeine, she advised her doctor of this, when the pain from cancer was too much for her to take, she asked for a pain releiver. This doctor went on to proscribe a pain reliever to her that contained codeine.
Neither my mother nor my great grandmother sued. I would have. If that means that I'd end up on some "list" for being a "troublemaker" so be it. In the end I bet I'd get better treatment because the doctors know that if they don't cross every "t" and dot every "i", I'm going to complaing. If a lack of awareness on their part causes me harm, they'll find themselves in court.
You want to fix this problem? Make it easier to revoke the medical licenses of doctors who are hurting people.
LK
The fact that you child was born with down syndrome has just about as much to do with the doctor that delivered him\her as the sex of that child does.
If your child has Cerebral Palsy, that could be the fault of the medical team who attended the delivery.
As many as 98,000 or more Americans die evry year because of preventable medical errors. We all know the horror stories about doctors amputating the wrong leg. Or doctors leaving forceps and other medical instruments INSIDE OF PEOPLE!
The total crap part is that you can sue ANYTIME after birth and claim that the doctor that delivered you caused any problems that you have now.
A child can not sue. In most states the law says that you can sue for a "reasonable time" after you reach the age of majority, most states also interpret this to mean that you can sue until the age of 21 for malpractice done to you as a child. If a doctor fucks up your delivery and you're parents aren't smart enough to take legal action, you shouldn't have to suffer for the rest of your life without compensation.
My Great Grandmother had surgery on her intestines, and the doctors left her abdomen packed with gauze. They had to operate again because she got a peritoneal infection. This was a women in her 70s who had to go under the knife again because of a preventable medical error. She chose not to sue. I would have. There is no excuse for that level of incompetence.
Its really sad when doctors are sued so often and so frequently that they have been driven to do this type of blacklisting.
The real shame is that doctors protect their own to the extent of keeping people in the practice of medicine who shouldn't even be trusted to change the oil on a car.
Insurance costs and lawsuits have gotten totaly out of hand in this country. it has driven medical costs through the roof and something has to give.
Inept doctors are the cause. Not the lawyers.
LK
I figure if the other side can Google Bomb "Miserable Failure", we can do the same.
Like it or not Battle Cruiser Millennium was a HUGE improvement over BC3K. It wasn't perfect, it's a very complicated game and the turorials were shit, but all in all a decent game. He then went on to fuck over all of us who bought it by only including multiplayer to Battle Cruiser Millennium Gold. But that's another story.
LK
Sorry, but a low UID doesn't make your comments more profound, it just means you can tolerate dupes better.
A low UID means I've been here for a while. It means I remember Sig11. It means I remember JonKatz. It means I remember numeric Karma. It means I remember the days before metamoderation and the Karma cap.
Being jealous of my low UID benefits you nothing.
So if PETA had beaten mcdonalds.com in registering that domain name, it would still take you to a protest site today.
Bad example, someone beat peta to the punch on registering peta.org, they sued him for it. Primarily because his "organization" was the People for the Eating of Tasty Animals. Eventually Peta won and they now control the domain name, but here is an archive of the original peta.org page.
LK
Derek Smart is a good programmer, but the man is also an asshole. He lets his ego get in the way.
LK
He may have some very liberal ideas on some issues, but I wouldn't classify Maher as a liberal - he also has some true conservative ideas.
Please don't give me that "fiscal conservative" bullshit. Bill Mahr is pro gay marriage, pro abortion, pro gun control, anti tax cuts, anti SUV, he's a liberal.
LK
until I read this.
My first "modern" computer was a Mac Plus. 1 MB or Ram and a 20 MB HDD that connected throught the external floppy port. I didn't even have HFS support until I cobbled together a system from the files on a few game disks that I had lying around. Falcon 2.0 provided me with a newer "System" file than I had before and I believe that I ripped off a new "Finder" from my HS. Oh, nostalgia, back in the days when I paid $80+ per month for Compuserve at home and had free internet access (FTP+Gopher+Usenet) access at college.
LK
Now Bill Mahr and the other rich liberals will have a new conversation piece to drive around.
LK