I run into this problem with entering phone numbers into web forms. Some want them as xxxxxxxxxx, some as xxx-xxx-xxxx, some as (xxx)xxx-xxxx, and even other weirdness. Some sites take whatever I put in and mold it to their desired format; others tell me my input is invalid and make me enter it again (some even tell me the desired format). Some sites actually break it up into three input fields with appropriate limits on the number of characters.
I've seen similar cases with SSNs.
It's pretty obvious that some sites have no trouble parsing the input data and making it fit what's expected. How is this a novel concept to be patented?
But what has happened online is that if it is 'beyond store hours' and the shop is closed, a lot of people just smash the window and steal what they want.
That is not a fair comparison. "Beyond store hours" is expected, reasonable, and understandable for a physical retail store. The people running the store have lives, and at the very least must eat and sleep sometime.
For an automated online presence, it makes no sense. For an online environment, any artificial scarcity or restrictions are unreasonable and often met with attempts to get around those restrictions.
At a physical store, they can only stock a limited quantity due to space limitations, and many places will place special orders as needed. At an online store, there is only the "special order" for delivery from the warehouse. For downloadable content, there can be no "out of stock".
For downloadable content, it is not reasonable to set artificial limits on when it can be downloaded or who can download it. A lot of "piracy" is because the content owners refuse to allow the content to be available, so other people make it available. As numerous experiments and studies have shown, many people are willing to pay reasonable prices for the content; those same people will obtain an illegitimate copy for free if a legitimate copy is not available for purchase. Putting an excessive price or excessive restrictions on the legitimate content will also drive people to obtain an illegitimate copy.
Yes, many people will still go for the free content just because it is free, but how many of those would have paid if the free content were not available? How many can you really count as a lost sale? Probably not very many of them.
So, instead of guardrails to keep the consumers in line, how about improving the roadways (stores/producers) to better meet the needs of the consumers? Instead of guardrails, paint lines, build exits, build rest stops, build stores, put up signs, etc. Give the consumers options to meet their needs, and most won't even think of smashing windows to get want they want.
The rest of the drivers can use feedback mechanisms such as "the speedometer" and "vision" to realize they are driving fast.
The speedometer only tells you how fast you are moving, it tells you nothing about whether that is too fast for current conditions.
The feel of the car provides the best clues about whether you're going too fast, but modern cars do their best to mask that as much as possible, because it interferes with your other distractions.
I am a suscriber, and so far this year, other than confirmation they they have received my returned movies and have sent new movies, I have received a total of 6 emails from them. All 6 of those are ads telling me to add certain movies to my list. This article on slashdot is the first I've heard of this change to my plan. Regardless of my feelings for the change itself (which I do find a bit annoying), the lack of notice really irritates me.
There are very few justifications for hiding the number. If you want to talk with me, you *sould* have to reveal your number.
At the moment (not being an abuser) I can not think of ANY reason for you to call me without identifying yourself where I would have any interest in talking with you.
My cell phone is already programmed with a "silence" ring tone for the number "UNKNOWN", so I never even know if you call. Any number not in my phonebook gets a default ringtone that I seldom answer. So, you can leave a messsage, and if it catches my interest and you provide useful identification, then maybe I'll call back.
I've always disagreed with having to pay to NOT be listed in the phone book. That's a completely different issue, though. Just the fact that I have a phone does not mean that everyone should be able to look up my number and address.
However, if you call someone, they *should* get your real phone number (but not your address). If you don't want them to have your number, then don't call them. Or, get a pre-paid disposable cell phone.
They sell one product to expose the caller and one to block the caller? How hypocritical. I wonder which one takes precedence when the caller pays to block and the person called pays to unblock.
Personally, I don't think it should be possible to block caller ID. If you want to be anonymous, find a different phone to use. Pick up a temporary pre-paid cell phone. Get a new one every month. For things where there is a truly legitimate need for anonymity, like domestic abuse, have an option for blocking that requires a court order to enable.
I'm in North Carolina and was affected by this. No trouble with my cell phone, but lost internet access for hours. I would never have associated it with a storm in Michigan!
At first, all but relatively local sites quit responding, them eventually DNS quit resolving altogether. Tracerouts to some IP addresses I knew all stopped at a router *.washington.level3.net (which I figured is Washington DC). About 4-5 hours later, everything started working again.
I still wouldn't have associated this with the AT&T outage and storm in Michigan if it weren't for that comment about Level 3 being affected and that my traceroutes all stopped at level3.net.
This story is the first I've heard to explain what happened here yesterday!
I'm in North Carolina, where the weather was pretty good (it broke 70 yesterday)with only light rain. I had no trouble with my cell phone, but completely lost useful internet access for hours. I was unable to get anything but local news, which had no mention of the problem. At first, many sites I frequent failed to respond, and soon even DNS was failing to resolve. Traceroutes on IP addresses I knew all stopped at some router *.washington.level3.net (which I figured was Washington DC). About six hours into the outage, everything started working again. I never heard any reports about this problem until now! I certainly would not have associated a storm in Michigan with the cause of that trouble.
In the RDU area in North Carolina, I subscribe to earthlink which uses Time-Warner's cable lines. I do not subscribe to cable (analog-to-digital TV converter) or any landline phone service (cell phones only). I didn't think that was all that unusual anymore.
At the store, I see a lot of displays that show 1/2 screen normal and 1/2 screen HD. I can barely tell the difference between the two, and even then only by getting within a couple feet of the screen and staring at it closely for a while. I have not yet felt any need to go HD; maybe when they stop putting movies on DVD, I'll consider it...
Whoever said that can't do math. If 10 million units is just 3 month's production, that is about 3.33 million a month, far in excess of their ramped up 2.4 million a month.
Most people do care less (than we do).
Many people couldn't care less (than they currently do).
Some of us could care less (then we currently do), meaning that we do care a bit.
Some of us care enough to say something about it, but we're in a minute minority.
It's not just for foreigners coming in. It's also for us traveling abroad then returning.
I had to travel out of the country last week. Upon my return to the US, I was pretty nervous due to all the horror stories I've been reading about over the past few years. I had nothing on me to be worried about, but all the horror stories had me nervous anyway.
However, nothing at all happened! At customs, they did not even have me open my bags. The only search was the routine scanner upon re-entering the secure area to catch my connecting flight home. It didn't look like anyone else was having any trouble either. The customs folks all looked incredibly bored.
A lot of people are looking towards the Wii as the savior of the genre.
I don't get it. The wii is an interface not a game. The games run on the wii. Those same games could be written on any other platform just as well. The same can be said for the DS, or PSP, or xbox, or whatever fad console you can think of.
Personally, I much prefer using a mouse to move the cursor around (a lot more precisely, I might add!) than using a motion sensing wii device that seems to lag about a half-second behind my action. And the modern console game controllers, though they may have a lot more buttons, just don't have the solid feel of my old Atari 2600 joystick.
Really though, it's not the platform that's the problem; it's the lack of creativity along with the easy access to puzzle solutions over the internet. In my early computer gaming days, you had to figure out the puzzles (however stupid, pointless, tedious, boring they may be) to make any progress in the rest of the game; now you just go look up the answer and move on. I didn't draw maps because I wanted to draw maps; I drew maps because that was the only way to figure it out. Now I can go look up the map and figure out the solution.
I'm not sure which way is better, but I sure don't miss trying to solve puzzles with such twisted logic that you can't even figure out what you need to do to get the clues that give you hints. Except of course by clicking on everything in sight.
Yeah, that's the way it's supposed to work. I have had the FBI actually tell me my case was not big enough to concern them; they wouldn't even open an official report. Contacting an organization more local to where the criminal was got the problem taken care of. For me, it was the police (it wasn't computer-related). For the OP's case, the SBI would probably be a good place to start. He could always try the FBI, I'm not saying don't; I'm just saying I wouldn't expect much to come of that.
Good luck getting the FBI interested unless large values (well over $10,000) is involved. However, you might have good luck contacting the relevant state's State Bureau of Investigation (the state equivalent of the FBI). They almost definitely would have a cyber-crime department which would have the knowledge to locate the computer with the info you have.
Despite having to show my boarding pass to get into the security line and again to get to advance to the scanners, I also had to have it to pick up my bag after the scanner. Oh yeah, and show my ID each time. What in the world are they so scared of?
It's not like *anyone* could have passed through the walls to enter the line and skip the first ID check. Heck, if I could do that, I'd skip the whole security check altogether. I still think that's a much more likely place for someone with a bomb to target. Get us so scared to queue up at the security points, and we'll never get on the planes.
Don't do this. They aren't wasting your time. They are still paying you. Instead, consider talking to your boss about leaving sooner (if you are ready to move to the new job) since they have nothing for you to do.
And before you say that the company could make the license agreement available online so the consumer could read it before going to make the purchase
I wouldn't suggest that. I'd be even less likely to purchase something if I had to run home to read the contract, then come back. I just want all the contracts to be presented up front before the purchase, so I have the opportunity to read them before the sale is complete. And specifically that anything not in those contracts will NOT be presented later as a requirement for being able to use what was purchased.
That's part of the point. They're tying access to the service to the physical product that is sold. If you can transfer the product, then the right it provides to access the service should transfer with it, otherwise you are failing to transfer the complete product.
Perhaps they should disassociate the software product from the service. I can already download the full game client direct from the official site. Why should I have to buy the CDs and box and manual, etc. just to get another key? Since the key is part of the box set, the right to use that key should transfer to the new owner of the box set along with the rest of the box set. Note that the EULA specifically says "transfer all of your rights and obligations"...
The requirements you're implying should be imposed on contract and licensing law with these statements are staggering. You're basically demanding that all agreements be completely performed in person simultaneously or else they are unconscionable.
No, I'm suggesting that the terms of the contract should be agreed upon before the sale is completed, by which I mean money changing hands and me leaving the store with the item I purchased. Anything after that point is unreasonable.
Hell, the current regime still permits post-purchase refusal and refund, but what you're suggesting would make it worse for the average consumer.
Yes it does, but they make it difficult to get the refund, they make it time consuming, and you usually don't get a complete refund, even if you don't count the time wasted. It may make it worse for the average consumer in the short term. In the long term, outrage over that would likely cause the publishers to reduce the contracts to the minimum possible and present more reasonable terms that both parties agree with. As it is now, most people click the let-me-use-what-I-purchased button whether they agree with (or even read) the EULA or not.
Finally, the time of the sale is not the end of the license formation process, and it does not have to be. Again, how do you think people in faraway lands have done business for decades? By mailing contracts back and forth, and including partial performance as part of the deal. You buying the software is partial performance of the agreement. Later, when you click "agree," that's the rest of the performance. The agreement is not finalized until you've fully performed. It's basic, black-letter contract law.
There's a significant disconnect then. I consider the agreement complete when I say "I'll give you this money for that item" and the cashier says "done". The piece of paper hidden inside the box is not part of the agreement; that is something that comes after and says "you can't use this thing you've already paid for until you agree to our amendments to your purchase."
This has never been a valid argument for why a contract or license is crap. Consider this: you read a contract before signing it. You decide you don't like it. Do you now get to say all contracts are unconscionable because they waste your time since you have to read them?
The waste of time is the change of the terms of the agreement after the sale is complete. I have completed the purchase. I have returned home. I have installed the software. Only then is the EULA presented. If it had been presented at the time of purchase, so I could consider it then, if I should decide the EULA was not acceptable I could walk away right then. Now I have to uninstall it (in some cases), return it to the store, convince customer service that the EULA says I have the right to a refund and that they have somehow agreed to that EULA.
For example, I spent considerable time reading through all the contracts when I bought my house. The contracts were signed before payment was made. The same is true for my car. I did not consider that time wasted. In both cases, after the sale is complete, nobody came running up denying me entry to my house/car until I signed an extra contract that had not been presented and agreed to before the sale completed.
Slashdot Mirror
I run into this problem with entering phone numbers into web forms. Some want them as xxxxxxxxxx, some as xxx-xxx-xxxx, some as (xxx)xxx-xxxx, and even other weirdness. Some sites take whatever I put in and mold it to their desired format; others tell me my input is invalid and make me enter it again (some even tell me the desired format). Some sites actually break it up into three input fields with appropriate limits on the number of characters.
I've seen similar cases with SSNs.
It's pretty obvious that some sites have no trouble parsing the input data and making it fit what's expected. How is this a novel concept to be patented?
That is not a fair comparison. "Beyond store hours" is expected, reasonable, and understandable for a physical retail store. The people running the store have lives, and at the very least must eat and sleep sometime.
For an automated online presence, it makes no sense. For an online environment, any artificial scarcity or restrictions are unreasonable and often met with attempts to get around those restrictions.
At a physical store, they can only stock a limited quantity due to space limitations, and many places will place special orders as needed. At an online store, there is only the "special order" for delivery from the warehouse. For downloadable content, there can be no "out of stock".
For downloadable content, it is not reasonable to set artificial limits on when it can be downloaded or who can download it. A lot of "piracy" is because the content owners refuse to allow the content to be available, so other people make it available. As numerous experiments and studies have shown, many people are willing to pay reasonable prices for the content; those same people will obtain an illegitimate copy for free if a legitimate copy is not available for purchase. Putting an excessive price or excessive restrictions on the legitimate content will also drive people to obtain an illegitimate copy.
Yes, many people will still go for the free content just because it is free, but how many of those would have paid if the free content were not available? How many can you really count as a lost sale? Probably not very many of them.
So, instead of guardrails to keep the consumers in line, how about improving the roadways (stores/producers) to better meet the needs of the consumers? Instead of guardrails, paint lines, build exits, build rest stops, build stores, put up signs, etc. Give the consumers options to meet their needs, and most won't even think of smashing windows to get want they want.
Industrial versions already exist. This doesn't have to be quite that heavy-duty, but a step up from doll-house level would be nice.
your water pump is hand/solar/wind powered?
if it uses electricity (solar/wind), are you sure it protected against this?
The rest of the drivers can use feedback mechanisms such as "the speedometer" and "vision" to realize they are driving fast.
The speedometer only tells you how fast you are moving, it tells you nothing about whether that is too fast for current conditions.
The feel of the car provides the best clues about whether you're going too fast, but modern cars do their best to mask that as much as possible, because it interferes with your other distractions.
I am a suscriber, and so far this year, other than confirmation they they have received my returned movies and have sent new movies, I have received a total of 6 emails from them. All 6 of those are ads telling me to add certain movies to my list. This article on slashdot is the first I've heard of this change to my plan. Regardless of my feelings for the change itself (which I do find a bit annoying), the lack of notice really irritates me.
There are very few justifications for hiding the number. If you want to talk with me, you *sould* have to reveal your number.
At the moment (not being an abuser) I can not think of ANY reason for you to call me without identifying yourself where I would have any interest in talking with you.
My cell phone is already programmed with a "silence" ring tone for the number "UNKNOWN", so I never even know if you call. Any number not in my phonebook gets a default ringtone that I seldom answer. So, you can leave a messsage, and if it catches my interest and you provide useful identification, then maybe I'll call back.
I've always disagreed with having to pay to NOT be listed in the phone book. That's a completely different issue, though. Just the fact that I have a phone does not mean that everyone should be able to look up my number and address.
However, if you call someone, they *should* get your real phone number (but not your address). If you don't want them to have your number, then don't call them. Or, get a pre-paid disposable cell phone.
Personally, I don't think it should be possible to block caller ID. If you want to be anonymous, find a different phone to use. Pick up a temporary pre-paid cell phone. Get a new one every month. For things where there is a truly legitimate need for anonymity, like domestic abuse, have an option for blocking that requires a court order to enable.
At first, all but relatively local sites quit responding, them eventually DNS quit resolving altogether. Tracerouts to some IP addresses I knew all stopped at a router *.washington.level3.net (which I figured is Washington DC). About 4-5 hours later, everything started working again.
I still wouldn't have associated this with the AT&T outage and storm in Michigan if it weren't for that comment about Level 3 being affected and that my traceroutes all stopped at level3.net.
This story is the first I've heard to explain what happened here yesterday!
I'm in North Carolina, where the weather was pretty good (it broke 70 yesterday)with only light rain. I had no trouble with my cell phone, but completely lost useful internet access for hours. I was unable to get anything but local news, which had no mention of the problem. At first, many sites I frequent failed to respond, and soon even DNS was failing to resolve. Traceroutes on IP addresses I knew all stopped at some router *.washington.level3.net (which I figured was Washington DC). About six hours into the outage, everything started working again. I never heard any reports about this problem until now! I certainly would not have associated a storm in Michigan with the cause of that trouble.
In the RDU area in North Carolina, I subscribe to earthlink which uses Time-Warner's cable lines. I do not subscribe to cable (analog-to-digital TV converter) or any landline phone service (cell phones only). I didn't think that was all that unusual anymore.
At the store, I see a lot of displays that show 1/2 screen normal and 1/2 screen HD. I can barely tell the difference between the two, and even then only by getting within a couple feet of the screen and staring at it closely for a while. I have not yet felt any need to go HD; maybe when they stop putting movies on DVD, I'll consider it...
Whoever said that can't do math. If 10 million units is just 3 month's production, that is about 3.33 million a month, far in excess of their ramped up 2.4 million a month.
Most people do care less (than we do).
Many people couldn't care less (than they currently do).
Some of us could care less (then we currently do), meaning that we do care a bit.
Some of us care enough to say something about it, but we're in a minute minority.
and while they're at it, forward all those fractions of pennies off to some other account.....
Watch for one of those new employees to suddenly drive up in a Ferrari. :)
If your new PCs have USB ports, check out a USB floppy drive...
http://www.cdw.com/shop/search/results.aspx?key=usb+floppy+drive&searchscope=All&sr=1&cm_mmc=sendtec-_-adwords-_-Data_Storage-_-Usb_Floppy_Drive&SendTecID=10277050
Solve the problem for 19.95 + shipping.
I had to travel out of the country last week. Upon my return to the US, I was pretty nervous due to all the horror stories I've been reading about over the past few years. I had nothing on me to be worried about, but all the horror stories had me nervous anyway.
However, nothing at all happened! At customs, they did not even have me open my bags. The only search was the routine scanner upon re-entering the secure area to catch my connecting flight home. It didn't look like anyone else was having any trouble either. The customs folks all looked incredibly bored.
I don't get it. The wii is an interface not a game. The games run on the wii. Those same games could be written on any other platform just as well. The same can be said for the DS, or PSP, or xbox, or whatever fad console you can think of.
Personally, I much prefer using a mouse to move the cursor around (a lot more precisely, I might add!) than using a motion sensing wii device that seems to lag about a half-second behind my action. And the modern console game controllers, though they may have a lot more buttons, just don't have the solid feel of my old Atari 2600 joystick.
Really though, it's not the platform that's the problem; it's the lack of creativity along with the easy access to puzzle solutions over the internet. In my early computer gaming days, you had to figure out the puzzles (however stupid, pointless, tedious, boring they may be) to make any progress in the rest of the game; now you just go look up the answer and move on. I didn't draw maps because I wanted to draw maps; I drew maps because that was the only way to figure it out. Now I can go look up the map and figure out the solution.
I'm not sure which way is better, but I sure don't miss trying to solve puzzles with such twisted logic that you can't even figure out what you need to do to get the clues that give you hints. Except of course by clicking on everything in sight.
Yeah, that's the way it's supposed to work. I have had the FBI actually tell me my case was not big enough to concern them; they wouldn't even open an official report. Contacting an organization more local to where the criminal was got the problem taken care of. For me, it was the police (it wasn't computer-related). For the OP's case, the SBI would probably be a good place to start. He could always try the FBI, I'm not saying don't; I'm just saying I wouldn't expect much to come of that.
Good luck getting the FBI interested unless large values (well over $10,000) is involved. However, you might have good luck contacting the relevant state's State Bureau of Investigation (the state equivalent of the FBI). They almost definitely would have a cyber-crime department which would have the knowledge to locate the computer with the info you have.
It's not like *anyone* could have passed through the walls to enter the line and skip the first ID check. Heck, if I could do that, I'd skip the whole security check altogether. I still think that's a much more likely place for someone with a bomb to target. Get us so scared to queue up at the security points, and we'll never get on the planes.
Don't do this. They aren't wasting your time. They are still paying you. Instead, consider talking to your boss about leaving sooner (if you are ready to move to the new job) since they have nothing for you to do.
I wouldn't suggest that. I'd be even less likely to purchase something if I had to run home to read the contract, then come back. I just want all the contracts to be presented up front before the purchase, so I have the opportunity to read them before the sale is complete. And specifically that anything not in those contracts will NOT be presented later as a requirement for being able to use what was purchased.
That's part of the point. They're tying access to the service to the physical product that is sold. If you can transfer the product, then the right it provides to access the service should transfer with it, otherwise you are failing to transfer the complete product. Perhaps they should disassociate the software product from the service. I can already download the full game client direct from the official site. Why should I have to buy the CDs and box and manual, etc. just to get another key? Since the key is part of the box set, the right to use that key should transfer to the new owner of the box set along with the rest of the box set. Note that the EULA specifically says "transfer all of your rights and obligations"...
No, I'm suggesting that the terms of the contract should be agreed upon before the sale is completed, by which I mean money changing hands and me leaving the store with the item I purchased. Anything after that point is unreasonable.
Hell, the current regime still permits post-purchase refusal and refund, but what you're suggesting would make it worse for the average consumer.
Yes it does, but they make it difficult to get the refund, they make it time consuming, and you usually don't get a complete refund, even if you don't count the time wasted. It may make it worse for the average consumer in the short term. In the long term, outrage over that would likely cause the publishers to reduce the contracts to the minimum possible and present more reasonable terms that both parties agree with. As it is now, most people click the let-me-use-what-I-purchased button whether they agree with (or even read) the EULA or not.
Finally, the time of the sale is not the end of the license formation process, and it does not have to be. Again, how do you think people in faraway lands have done business for decades? By mailing contracts back and forth, and including partial performance as part of the deal. You buying the software is partial performance of the agreement. Later, when you click "agree," that's the rest of the performance. The agreement is not finalized until you've fully performed. It's basic, black-letter contract law.
There's a significant disconnect then. I consider the agreement complete when I say "I'll give you this money for that item" and the cashier says "done". The piece of paper hidden inside the box is not part of the agreement; that is something that comes after and says "you can't use this thing you've already paid for until you agree to our amendments to your purchase."
This has never been a valid argument for why a contract or license is crap. Consider this: you read a contract before signing it. You decide you don't like it. Do you now get to say all contracts are unconscionable because they waste your time since you have to read them?
The waste of time is the change of the terms of the agreement after the sale is complete. I have completed the purchase. I have returned home. I have installed the software. Only then is the EULA presented. If it had been presented at the time of purchase, so I could consider it then, if I should decide the EULA was not acceptable I could walk away right then. Now I have to uninstall it (in some cases), return it to the store, convince customer service that the EULA says I have the right to a refund and that they have somehow agreed to that EULA. For example, I spent considerable time reading through all the contracts when I bought my house. The contracts were signed before payment was made. The same is true for my car. I did not consider that time wasted. In both cases, after the sale is complete, nobody came running up denying me entry to my house/car until I signed an extra contract that had not been presented and agreed to before the sale completed.