How about 40 hours a week reading? Or 40 hours a week painting? Why are these activities - which are arguably LESS social - seen as better than 40 hours a week chatting with friends. That's basically what online RPG's amount to. If you are going to argue that 40 hours a week at BLAH is too much, then please start lobbying for those 25 hour work weeks. After all, I can't think of anything that interferes with my life more than those blasted 40 hours/week at work.:P
2. For the love of God, NEVER put it in unadulterated form (i.e. user@domain.com) in a Usenet posting or in a publicly-accessible HTML page-- even in the comments or other places that it won't appear on the final, rendered web page. If you do, it WILL get picked up and you WILL get an assload of spam.
Just an observation... You may want to tell that to mailing lists that archive all their messages in searchable HTML format. I had been subscribed to an sys-admin list and unsubscribed a couple of years back. All my questions and replies are now online in HTML format as a searchable archive. Great for newbies looking for info, but sucky for everyone who's e-mail shows up there. On a mailing list, you are expected to give a VALID e-mail address since people have to hit reply, so there wasn't the option of "masquerading" my e-mail from the list.
oh well. I did a receive couple of nice "thank yous" for posting a solution that someone else found useful.
Just had a thought. Do robots work for dynamically generated web pages like a PHP/MySQL combo? After all, the page doesn't exist until you actually click on the link - unlike a static site. Would that help reduce address harvesting? Hmmm...
I disagree. For one thing, none of our comments (sorry/.'s) are going to make a lick of difference to someone's career or income. Studio folks have to deal with making or losing millions of dollars. It tends to change the tone of the comments from the "I'll follow the herd mentality" to an "I don't give a shit what you think. You are so gay, blah blah" mentality.;)
This is a reply to both you and the guy worried about "increasing the work for teachers".
We have implemented PowerSchool in our school and I can tell you that it handles scheduling issues just fine. Our middle school uses a rotating A-B schedule with anywhere from 6-12 periods, including an advisory period that must always come first. Second, Powerschool allows you to create any grade scale you want and assign any numbers to them, thus you can create "My Blah School's Grade Scale" and use that when storing and calculating grades. Issues of security: PowerSchool is actually written in 4D - a longtime Mac and PC based relational database program - and runs as a webserver for the "cross-platform" part of it. Permissions can be assigned to groups or users on a per page/per user basis. Teacher passwords are kept in clear text so the admins can see them, but admin passwords are encrypted. It supports SSL. I only heard of one school where Powerschool could not do its schedule - becuase they had no defined pattern to their schedule. It changed on a daily basis based on room availability. It must also be mentioned that of all the schedule programs they looked at, NONE of them could do their schedule. PowerSchool came the closest. Finally, in response to another poster who worried that PowerSchool would increase the workload of teachers, I must disagree. Teachers use a desktop application called Powergrade where they keep track of all assignments and tests and that are automatically backed up to the server. This is something that teacers have to do anyways - why not do it on a system that can automatically calculate their grades for them and restore from backup if necessary? From a teacher's perspective, powerschool does not ADD anything to their workload, but it does change how they input the information. On to my own POV's: Things I like: centralized data management - no more of this "so and so has the current address/phone for that parent". Easy backups - Powerschool is a standalone application and all its data and documents reside neatly in one folder. Did your server blow up? Move the data folder to any Mac or NT server and start it up again. Object reports - you can specify almost any box, line, field, simple calc, graphic, etc. you can imagine to create customized reports.
Things I don't like: Object reports: Reports don't autoflow to the next page. If you want to go over a page, you must create a new page and clearly delineate where the first page of your report ends. This is *REALLY* annoying for report cards with teachers comments where you can't possible predict how long or short a teacher's comments will be. Result - either large blanks or cut-off comments.
Not OS X native - Boo! I know they are working on it, but one of the glitches is that Powerschool will sometimes quit from random memory errors in Mac OS 9. We're hoping the OS X version fixes this issue.
Other than that, anyone who is planning on implementing should be aware that its usually a full year before you are fully transitioned from your old system to Powerschool. Mostly because people are still gettin gused to the "new" way of doing things. Good planning is essential, followed closely by data integrity. After all, garbage in, garbage out.:)
I'm pretty sure the Everquest has already figured out a good business model for MMORGsm the subscription. Judging by the way many players are fanatically devoted to their particular game, "mmorgasm" might just be the appropriate term.;)
For those who are not familiar with Samba, I recall reading that Windows does not recognize upper/lower case in a password. Thus, smbclient converts the password to all upper case. Meanwhile, OS X, being unixy-like, is case-sensitive. The reverse of this problem sometimes shows up when Windows clients are trying to log into a Samba server and they have a mixed upper/lowercase in their passwords. In all those cases, changing the password to have either all upper or all lowercase fixed the problem of logging in from a Win machine. Is this a limitation of the SMB implementation in OS X, or of Samba itself, or of Windows?
That will be great - for the next group of new students. Unfortunately, the current group of students is screwed. Their only hope is in having such marginal credit anyways that no one would want to apply for credit in their name.:p
If SSNs were only supposed to be used by the IRS, and the current system is so ripe for abuse, why hasn't there been a law against using SSNs for non-tax purposes?
It's a little-known and often-ignored-anyways fact that businesses and schools, etc. are NOT supposed to use your SSN for identity purposes. You have the legal right to DECLINE giving your SSN for any reason other than tax purposes (i.e. employer records, etc.) When it started becoming more and more common to ask for SSN as an identifier, people just forgot that they could say "No", and presto! instant "standard". FYI, if you are ever the victim of "identity theft" - credit cards issued in your name, bank accounts opened with your SSN, etc. - be aware that you are NOT allowed to change your SSN for any reason other than your life is in danger, i.e witness protection program. Harrassing bills for stuff you never bought? Hundreds of dollars spent faxing, duplicating, and mailing off documents to all the credit agencies explaining that your identity has been stolen? Tough cookies. Another FYI, I have never had a fraud investigation department have anything more than a passing interest in WHO might have perpetrated the crime. The only thing you can do is re-new the flag on your credit report so that people HAVE to at least contact you by voice to allow a credit app. My advice to anyone who has had their identity stolen - don't procrastinate in notifying the police and the major credit agencies, in writing, about your situation. Cancel any credit/store cards you don't use - make ESPECIALLY sure the account is permanently closed and not simply dormant to be reopened at a later date. I know for a fact, SEARS is guilty of that. Finally, periodically request copies of your credit records to check for any unusual activity. It'll be a looong time before the problem goes away.
"CIOs and IT managers need to focus the lion's share of their IT resources on innovation rather than maintenance of the status quo. Otherwise, said Mott, companies and even entire industries will never realize their full potential."
For my part, I view this as good news. Coming from a middling-to-small-company background, we already went with Linux for server OS a long time ago. Maybe Dell is planning on adding more software Linux support?
Where CD's only cost a few bucks instead of $13-15.
If you really look at the article all you really get out of it is that some artists expect to make a few hit songs and be able to live in luxury for the rest of their years off the millions they supposedly make.
Aren't the majority of China's people considered to be living at poverty level? Has it occurred to anyone over there that music might be a considered a luxury item? When you have a choice between your rent and a music CD, what do you pick? Or better yet, what if you can pay your rent and afford a lower-quality knock-off CD of the music you like? Maybe lowering the price of music is something they should have done a long time ago. Now, everyone is used to buying the music from the "black market" and, too late, the industry is complaining about "piracy" hurting sales.
Sounds more like they were priced out of the market by a competing distributor (the article mentioned "little old ladies") that had a cheaper distribution method. I'm going to go out on a limb and say that the US industry could increase CD sales by simply cutting in half the cost of the CD's and utilizing the distributed networks as a way to promote artists. Geez, that's already happening. They are just too blinded by their greed to notice.
The RIAA needs to go back to "Economics 101" and remember that the consumer is only willing to pay so much for a CD - especially if there is another more affordable way to get songs.
blue
Er, how 'bout file-sharing with non-US buddies
on
File-sharing and AOL
·
· Score: 3, Insightful
Does the reach of the RIAA extend to, say, Europe, Asia, Australia, South America, etc.?? Last I heard, they had people over there who file share music also. Maybe I can just make sure I download from non-American owned IP blocks. Or better yet, it can be built into the next release of LimeWire, Kazaa, etc. (Check this box if you live in the U.S. and only wish to download from people outside U.S!)
This is very silly of them. I see a couple of problems if they do start attempting mass-enforcement
Try and subpeona someone outside the US.
Try and explain to average, white upper-middle-class parents that their "little angel" is a "criminal" and NOT have a bad publicity stink about it when parents complain of "needless harrassment".
Try and keep the egg off your face as people start to use proxies outside the US to reroute the download to their computer.
Am I missing something here?? I feel like we're being scared by the big, ominous shadow on the wall and missing the little dork casting the shadow with his hand.
I brought home my Ti OS X PowerBook from work one day. My Solaris/Linux loving spouse immediately downloaded OroborX (sp?), turned on the wireless networking, fired up iTunes and accessed remote Xterm apps for his job. I have asked him to stop greeting me at the door with "Hi Honey! Did you bring your PowerBook?", as it makes me feel he loves me only for my laptop.
Negotiations are currently underway for his own PowerBook, so that I might eventually recover mine.
I must mention that many lawyers and law firms are waaay behind the times when it comes to computers and automation - never mind the field of computer security. Most lawyers spend their time practicing their debate, public speaking skills and thinking of clever ways to convince the jury, and haven't a clue about computer security.
How do I know this? I had reason to hire a criminal lawyer at one point. After he handled my case, he grilled me at length about computers in general and graphics in particular and informed as to the sad state of affairs between lawyers and computers. Many of them are surprisingly low-tech. And I'll lay odds most don't even *have* IT departments.
Having played several MMORPG's, regardless of whether they are level based or skill-based, I have noticed one basic flaw - you cannot choose who you will and will not play with, nor can you prevent others from interfering with the game you are trying to play!
Imagine that in real-life you enjoy playing basketball. Now imagine that there was only one basketball court so that all age groups from 6-65 use this same court to play on. Of course, the oldy,moldy 50-year olds *could* try to form a team and try to have a polite game, but there's nothing stopping the group of 16-year-old rude, hormonal punks from stealing the ball, hanging on the basket, shoving aside other players, etc. After all, there's only one basketball court, everyone loves to play basketball, and they all have a right to use it, yes? This is particularly true if everyone is a paying customer.
IMHO, being unable to escape from players or player-behavior that you find obnoxious is the most detrimental feature of *all* the MMORPGs. To date, though I have yet to play it extensively, only NeverWinter Nights seems to even attempt to address this issue by providing a single-player or multi-player format, along with a server and client format.
I don't have a solution to this situation. I'm only making an observation. While it might make sense game-wise to segregate by age group, gender, etc., it certainly doesn't make sense business-wise.
The point is that the ruling handed down by Judge CKK would encourage Microsoft to do this with ALL its competitors - not just Adobe and PDF.
Given the ferocious efficiency with which Microsoft undermines the market of other software companies by using its superior financial position to copy their innovations, then tweaking the software to "work best with Windows XXX", I don't think that's an unreasonable concern. But contrary to the previous poster, once Microsoft controls all the software, I tend to think that will encourage more people to try alternatives.
Slashdot Mirror
chocolate covered Linux? I'm sooo there....
blue
How about 40 hours a week reading? Or 40 hours a week painting? Why are these activities - which are arguably LESS social - seen as better than 40 hours a week chatting with friends. That's basically what online RPG's amount to. :P
If you are going to argue that 40 hours a week at BLAH is too much, then please start lobbying for those 25 hour work weeks. After all, I can't think of anything that interferes with my life more than those blasted 40 hours/week at work.
blue
2. For the love of God, NEVER put it in unadulterated form (i.e. user@domain.com) in a Usenet posting or in a publicly-accessible HTML page-- even in the comments or other places that it won't appear on the final, rendered web page. If you do, it WILL get picked up and you WILL get an assload of spam.
Just an observation...
You may want to tell that to mailing lists that archive all their messages in searchable HTML format. I had been subscribed to an sys-admin list and unsubscribed a couple of years back. All my questions and replies are now online in HTML format as a searchable archive. Great for newbies looking for info, but sucky for everyone who's e-mail shows up there. On a mailing list, you are expected to give a VALID e-mail address since people have to hit reply, so there wasn't the option of "masquerading" my e-mail from the list.
oh well. I did a receive couple of nice "thank yous" for posting a solution that someone else found useful.
blue
if the admins are really freaked out over the load /. creates on their servers, they could always just do a meta refresh to the fabled goatse site.
*snort!*
Groovy. Imagine the reaction of parents who try to hit our school website...
Just had a thought. Do robots work for dynamically generated web pages like a PHP/MySQL combo? After all, the page doesn't exist until you actually click on the link - unlike a static site. Would that help reduce address harvesting? Hmmm...
blue
I disagree. For one thing, none of our comments (sorry /.'s) are going to make a lick of difference to someone's career or income. Studio folks have to deal with making or losing millions of dollars. It tends to change the tone of the comments from the "I'll follow the herd mentality" to an "I don't give a shit what you think. You are so gay, blah blah" mentality. ;)
blue
2)You can't use CGI for close ups.
yes you can -- more precisely, you cut from the CGI to the actor in closeup, who could be seated comforatbly in front of a blue-screen.
Close-ups and CGI - hello?
Gollum, LOTR: Two Towers
'Nuff said.
blue
It doesn't hurt that Jake Gyllenhaal is currently Kirsten Dunst's boyfriend. :)
blue
This is a reply to both you and the guy worried about "increasing the work for teachers".
:)
We have implemented PowerSchool in our school and I can tell you that it handles scheduling issues just fine. Our middle school uses a rotating A-B schedule with anywhere from 6-12 periods, including an advisory period that must always come first. Second, Powerschool allows you to create any grade scale you want and assign any numbers to them, thus you can create "My Blah School's Grade Scale" and use that when storing and calculating grades.
Issues of security: PowerSchool is actually written in 4D - a longtime Mac and PC based relational database program - and runs as a webserver for the "cross-platform" part of it. Permissions can be assigned to groups or users on a per page/per user basis. Teacher passwords are kept in clear text so the admins can see them, but admin passwords are encrypted. It supports SSL.
I only heard of one school where Powerschool could not do its schedule - becuase they had no defined pattern to their schedule. It changed on a daily basis based on room availability. It must also be mentioned that of all the schedule programs they looked at, NONE of them could do their schedule. PowerSchool came the closest.
Finally, in response to another poster who worried that PowerSchool would increase the workload of teachers, I must disagree. Teachers use a desktop application called Powergrade where they keep track of all assignments and tests and that are automatically backed up to the server. This is something that teacers have to do anyways - why not do it on a system that can automatically calculate their grades for them and restore from backup if necessary? From a teacher's perspective, powerschool does not ADD anything to their workload, but it does change how they input the information.
On to my own POV's:
Things I like: centralized data management - no more of this "so and so has the current address/phone for that parent".
Easy backups - Powerschool is a standalone application and all its data and documents reside neatly in one folder. Did your server blow up? Move the data folder to any Mac or NT server and start it up again.
Object reports - you can specify almost any box, line, field, simple calc, graphic, etc. you can imagine to create customized reports.
Things I don't like:
Object reports: Reports don't autoflow to the next page. If you want to go over a page, you must create a new page and clearly delineate where the first page of your report ends. This is *REALLY* annoying for report cards with teachers comments where you can't possible predict how long or short a teacher's comments will be. Result - either large blanks or cut-off comments.
Not OS X native - Boo! I know they are working on it, but one of the glitches is that Powerschool will sometimes quit from random memory errors in Mac OS 9. We're hoping the OS X version fixes this issue.
Other than that, anyone who is planning on implementing should be aware that its usually a full year before you are fully transitioned from your old system to Powerschool. Mostly because people are still gettin gused to the "new" way of doing things. Good planning is essential, followed closely by data integrity. After all, garbage in, garbage out.
Just my $.02
blue
I'm pretty sure the Everquest has already figured out a good business model for MMORGsm the subscription. ;)
Judging by the way many players are fanatically devoted to their particular game, "mmorgasm" might just be the appropriate term.
blue
For those who are not familiar with Samba, I recall reading that Windows does not recognize upper/lower case in a password. Thus, smbclient converts the password to all upper case. Meanwhile, OS X, being unixy-like, is case-sensitive. The reverse of this problem sometimes shows up when Windows clients are trying to log into a Samba server and they have a mixed upper/lowercase in their passwords. In all those cases, changing the password to have either all upper or all lowercase fixed the problem of logging in from a Win machine. Is this a limitation of the SMB implementation in OS X, or of Samba itself, or of Windows?
blue
That will be great - for the next group of new students. Unfortunately, the current group of students is screwed. Their only hope is in having such marginal credit anyways that no one would want to apply for credit in their name. :p
Mod this AC up please. The fact that SSN's are not proof of ID needs to be more commonly known.
blue
It's a little-known and often-ignored-anyways fact that businesses and schools, etc. are NOT supposed to use your SSN for identity purposes. You have the legal right to DECLINE giving your SSN for any reason other than tax purposes (i.e. employer records, etc.)
When it started becoming more and more common to ask for SSN as an identifier, people just forgot that they could say "No", and presto! instant "standard".
FYI, if you are ever the victim of "identity theft" - credit cards issued in your name, bank accounts opened with your SSN, etc. - be aware that you are NOT allowed to change your SSN for any reason other than your life is in danger, i.e witness protection program. Harrassing bills for stuff you never bought? Hundreds of dollars spent faxing, duplicating, and mailing off documents to all the credit agencies explaining that your identity has been stolen? Tough cookies.
Another FYI, I have never had a fraud investigation department have anything more than a passing interest in WHO might have perpetrated the crime. The only thing you can do is re-new the flag on your credit report so that people HAVE to at least contact you by voice to allow a credit app.
My advice to anyone who has had their identity stolen - don't procrastinate in notifying the police and the major credit agencies, in writing, about your situation. Cancel any credit/store cards you don't use - make ESPECIALLY sure the account is permanently closed and not simply dormant to be reopened at a later date. I know for a fact, SEARS is guilty of that.
Finally, periodically request copies of your credit records to check for any unusual activity.
It'll be a looong time before the problem goes away.
blue
I just wanted to know with whom I had to specifically include "no backdoors" in the contract.
blue
This can't be right! Everyone knows that innovations are the death of companies! Aargh! Dell is DEAD!
For my part, I view this as good news. Coming from a middling-to-small-company background, we already went with Linux for server OS a long time ago. Maybe Dell is planning on adding more software Linux support?
blue
What an interesting argument for NOT having your government be a nanny - it ends up with "childish" citizens.
blue
I read that and thought, "Aaaiieee! STOP THAT!!! Don't add memory to a running computer!!"
Though I do need to shut down to add the memory)
Oh, ok then. Phew!
If you really look at the article all you really get out of it is that some artists expect to make a few hit songs and be able to live in luxury for the rest of their years off the millions they supposedly make.
Aren't the majority of China's people considered to be living at poverty level? Has it occurred to anyone over there that music might be a considered a luxury item? When you have a choice between your rent and a music CD, what do you pick? Or better yet, what if you can pay your rent and afford a lower-quality knock-off CD of the music you like? Maybe lowering the price of music is something they should have done a long time ago. Now, everyone is used to buying the music from the "black market" and, too late, the industry is complaining about "piracy" hurting sales.
Sounds more like they were priced out of the market by a competing distributor (the article mentioned "little old ladies") that had a cheaper distribution method. I'm going to go out on a limb and say that the US industry could increase CD sales by simply cutting in half the cost of the CD's and utilizing the distributed networks as a way to promote artists. Geez, that's already happening. They are just too blinded by their greed to notice.
The RIAA needs to go back to "Economics 101" and remember that the consumer is only willing to pay so much for a CD - especially if there is another more affordable way to get songs.
blue
This is very silly of them. I see a couple of problems if they do start attempting mass-enforcement
Try and subpeona someone outside the US.
Try and explain to average, white upper-middle-class parents that their "little angel" is a "criminal" and NOT have a bad publicity stink about it when parents complain of "needless harrassment".
Try and keep the egg off your face as people start to use proxies outside the US to reroute the download to their computer.
Am I missing something here?? I feel like we're being scared by the big, ominous shadow on the wall and missing the little dork casting the shadow with his hand.
blue
Hah! I'd like to see that "thick plastic" survive the mad "Apple" pie baking woman!
I brought home my Ti OS X PowerBook from work one day. My Solaris/Linux loving spouse immediately downloaded OroborX (sp?), turned on the wireless networking, fired up iTunes and accessed remote Xterm apps for his job. I have asked him to stop greeting me at the door with "Hi Honey! Did you bring your PowerBook?", as it makes me feel he loves me only for my laptop.
Negotiations are currently underway for his own PowerBook, so that I might eventually recover mine.
bluesangria
I must mention that many lawyers and law firms are waaay behind the times when it comes to computers and automation - never mind the field of computer security. Most lawyers spend their time practicing their debate, public speaking skills and thinking of clever ways to convince the jury, and haven't a clue about computer security.
How do I know this? I had reason to hire a criminal lawyer at one point. After he handled my case, he grilled me at length about computers in general and graphics in particular and informed as to the sad state of affairs between lawyers and computers. Many of them are surprisingly low-tech. And I'll lay odds most don't even *have* IT departments.
blue
Imagine that in real-life you enjoy playing basketball. Now imagine that there was only one basketball court so that all age groups from 6-65 use this same court to play on. Of course, the oldy,moldy 50-year olds *could* try to form a team and try to have a polite game, but there's nothing stopping the group of 16-year-old rude, hormonal punks from stealing the ball, hanging on the basket, shoving aside other players, etc. After all, there's only one basketball court, everyone loves to play basketball, and they all have a right to use it, yes? This is particularly true if everyone is a paying customer.
IMHO, being unable to escape from players or player-behavior that you find obnoxious is the most detrimental feature of *all* the MMORPGs.
To date, though I have yet to play it extensively, only NeverWinter Nights seems to even attempt to address this issue by providing a single-player or multi-player format, along with a server and client format.
I don't have a solution to this situation. I'm only making an observation. While it might make sense game-wise to segregate by age group, gender, etc., it certainly doesn't make sense business-wise.
The point is that the ruling handed down by Judge CKK would encourage Microsoft to do this with ALL its competitors - not just Adobe and PDF.
Given the ferocious efficiency with which Microsoft undermines the market of other software companies by using its superior financial position to copy their innovations, then tweaking the software to "work best with Windows XXX", I don't think that's an unreasonable concern. But contrary to the previous poster, once Microsoft controls all the software, I tend to think that will encourage more people to try alternatives.