"A legislative staff employee who would lose his job if he were quoted here by name said, 'By the time those lobbyists were done talking, it sounded like ODF (Open Document Format, the free and open format used by OpenOffice.org and other free software) was proprietary and the Microsoft format was the open and free one.'
OK. But when looking at the disputed text of this legislation as shown on the linked article, it would seem that anyone believing this ODF=proprietary MS=open hullubaloo, would also believe that this MS=open should be compatible with that same text, and not see a reason to change it.
One would hope that politicians being told that MS's format is the most open one, and also being told that MS wants this "open format" legislation text removed, would notice some degree of conflict between the two things. If you want me to believe you're the open guy, then why do you also want the open text removed from the legislation? Hmmm...
Right, because who's next in line is so much better.
Couldn't we do a preemptive impeachment on anyone else involved as part of any "get rid of Bush because of this situation" process? If we impeach the president because of some scandal, why should we keep around the VP to replace him if the VP was also involved in that same scandal? Or anyone else down the line?
So, this is our government acting like the Enron guys and their accountants. Are we going to let these guys get away with it because they are politicians, or are they going to face consequences comparable to the people responsible for the Enron thing?
I was looking to replace my laptop with something that had longer battery life. Unfortunately for me it seems impossible to buy a laptop with XP since "Vista Day". I do know that some of what I want to do will not run on Vista, so there's now no point in buying anything. Ordinarily I'd "upgrade" if a new computer came with, but with that being the only option I'm not even doing that.
Quote from my current billing statement BroadbandAccess insert from Verizon Wireless:
If more than 5 GB/line/month, we presume use is for non-permitted uses and will terminate service; see brochure for details.
This billing statement insert does not define what uses are permitted or non-permitted, so I presume it itself is not the brochure it's referring to. I haven't bothered to look around on the mentioned web page verizonwireless.com/bba to see if anything is defined further there.
It doesn't say movies, it's a more vague "non-permitted uses" category. Non-permitted by whom? By Verizon? By "content owners"? Illegal things? Or just things Verizon or someone else decides you aren't allowed to do on your phone? Movies could very well be some part of this, but I imagine they left it open to other interpretations for a reason.
And they're presuming this. If they're wrong about it being non-permitted, do you get to prove yourself and regain your service? Or are you totally unworthy at that point?
Getting rid of DST altogether would leave us on winter time. I'd rather get rid of "real time" altogether and forever stay on DST. But I'm not awake early in the morning so I'd rather have my daylight in the afternoon, and I don't have kids to care about at the bus stop.
What exactly was the reasoning at the time they invented this DST shift anyway? I always thought it was for the farmers to have more light for chores before kids went to school in the morning, but everyone seems to have a different reason for it around here.
The LA Times accuses PayPerPost of paying bloggers to make up fictional testimonials. For instance, the Times reports that a law firm is using PayPerPost to pay bloggers to write that a certain birth control patch is killing and injuring young women.
What's so fictional about the idea that birth control kills or injured young women. It's birth control. The entire intention is that it kills young women, as well as young men. So young they haven't even been born yet.
Besides, this is just a clever conspiracy to get us privacy nuts to believe there's a reason to hunt down fakers and bring honesty back to the net.How many Slashdot privacy advocaes want to be able to detect and filter such postings, as well as find out who did them to prevent them from repeating their misdeeds?
After a retailer/distributor buys an item, the manufacturer already has whatever money he wanted in his bank account. At that point, what difference does the retailers price for consumers have on the manufacturer's bank account? If consumers don't want this item anymore, manufacturer would be crazy to continue making it, so it shouldn't even impact new sales. I don't get it. How does pissing off the retailers and the consumers benefit the manufacturer's bank account?
I'm redoing my PC after scraping he hard drive clean. Things were getting weird, my wireless network card isn't as dead as I thought it was, something really wasn't right. But last time around my regular user was an administrator user, which is probably a bad idea. So this time I'm trying to do better, have an admin user to do all installing and configuring, regular user accounts I actually use to do stuff would only be limited users under XP.
Hah! You can't freakin even do that. Half-Life 2 and/or Steam requires you to be an administrator for it to run. TaxCut requires you to be an administrator for it to run. How the heck am I supposed to secure my machine in a more responsible way if none of my software is allowed to run that way? WTF?
I doubt I'd be able to get this sort of Vista, even if it was decided that it was a good configuration. Considering compatibility, resource requirements, slowdowns, etc. I don't want Vista at all right now anyway, maybe in a year or two. Sucks that I can't buy a laptop with XP anymore, I should have got something before Vista Day.:(
plug-in series hybrid with about 60 miles of electric-only range and the ability to run maybe 400 more with the engine providing generator power.
And have inductive field charging pads built into parking lot spaces which can be used to recharge the battery without having to plug in a cord. Have some RFID or other form of automatic vehicle and/or account identification which can enable/disable the charging pad depending on payment authorization if it's a commercial charging configuration and to monitor battery health and other interesting data. Could be useful for companies with fleets of such cars so workers don't forget to plug them in between uses, so you don't forget to unplug the thing when you leave and tear something apart or hurt anyone, etc.
Hopefully this can be considered prior art publication in case some nut job tries to patent the idea and rip us all off later.
I see this going nowhere. Really. Why? Because different Linux fans wil want different things. Some want Debian. Some want Gentoo. Some want Ubuntu. Some want Kubuntu. Some want KDE. Some want Gnome. Some want Fedora. Some want 2.4* kernels. (The EDA software at work isonly qualified for 2.4, not for 2.6) Some want 2.6* kernels. Some want Enterprise. Some want something else.
That's an awful lot of permutations, and Dell isn't going to support everything. Will Linux fans be happy with the one distro/configuration Dell chooses to ship? What percentage will be unhapy with Dell's choice and decide not to buy the preinstalled systems that way? Will that happy percentage of Linux fans be worth the trouble compared to leaving us to do it ourselves the way we choose to have it done? I doubt it.
I mean, you can already get cards with DVI and HDCP which means you just need a DVI to HDMI cable to connect it to a TV anyway.
I have a crappy video card which does not work DVI adapted to my projector's inputs. Doesn't work with digital DVI input on my LCD monitor either. Sucks, as I bought it specifically becaise it said HDTV output on the description. But it seems they did not connect the digital signals to the DVI port. I'd think that an HDMI port would be 100% guaranteed to work properly with a HDMI input, regardless of what DVI adaptors are supposed to do.
And yes, the same adaptors/cables work fine with other cards.
I guess this is good for folks who build home theatres out of their computers, but then why do they need a 3D accelerator to show TV or videos?
I don't. But I want to hook my HTPC to my projector via the HDMI input, so that the VGA input is free for my laptop or something else. For some reason my current Nvidia card does not work withthe projector HDMI input, I sortof think the digital stuff is not connected to the DVI port because nothing at all shows up, not even BIOS on the projector. Another computer does show BIOS display on the projector via the same DVI->HDMI adaptor. If I trash this card and get a new one, might as well get one with an HDMI output, indicating a better possibility for compatibility than what I have now. I'm kindof pissed about the card I got, it said HDTV ready but does not have any component adaptor included and is not HDMI compatible. WTF?? Stupid XFX PVT72PPANG GeForce 7300LE card with its "HDTV output". Waste of money...
The 3d accelerator is something I don't know how to leave out of my video card purchase today. Maybe I'll try out Cedega and play a couple games on the big-screen, which would be impossible without the 3d part these days.
So, anyone submitting to these requirements can hope to become part of the Inner Party at some point, and those who do not become the proles?
Interesting that there is something resembling a choice there. I assume that my government in USA is doing all that without my "permission" or knowledge.
What of the MS/Novell alliance is governed by GPL3? I thought it was all GPL2. Is the "or newer" phrase in some GPL source notices mandatory or can Novell choose to consider all of those items to be GPL2 even after GPL3 is "released"? Or does every such file automatically become GPL3? How important or useful is the "or" in that compared to instead writing such text as "whatever the most recent GPL revision happens to be"?
if these elements are for real, this is the reason to buy PlayStation 3.
So, I can finally watch some 3d rendered character watching a DVD? Sweet! You're right, we finally do have a reason to buy PS3!
Eh, sorry. A built-in SecondLife with better graphics is not a reason to buy a PS3. Not for me anyway. Nor is the development stuff. I just don't care. It's a game machine as well as the cheapest Blueray movie player. I don't care about blueray movies right now. As for games, I've got an XB360 and will most likely buy a Wii before I buy a PS3.
Mainly I wanted to be able to tell people that I know SQUAT.
I don't know this language, so apparently I get to tell people that I don't do SQUAT around here.
DIY laptops not easy situation
on
DIY Laptop
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· Score: 1
Ever felt like building your own laptop from (almost literally) scratch?
Yes. It's a freakin pain too. But if you're a fan of an obscure computer platform like I am, you can't just go out and buy one. MiniITX has a decent footprint for the idea, but most boards are too thick/high/tall to make a sleek/trendy looking laptop out of, and you have to fiture out how to deal with all the rear-panel stuff that needs hooked up to keyboard, touchpad, LCD, etc. Making a new motherboard to fit an existing laptop is a pain and pretty expensive, especially in a nanoscopic market like what I'm into. Making amodular board to fit an existing laptop in such a way that you can use the core system module in other applications, and maybe find other uses for hte laptop-shaped carrier board is still a pain and expensive, and can end up being too thick/high to fit into a nice existing laptop after you stack up all the modular bits. Part of what I find interesting about the current state of the Amiga market is that there's plenty of things to do. But much of what interests me is also what I'm growing weary of there. I'd like a laptop for AmigaOS4, but the resources required to make such a thing don't make much sense, and thus I cannot have what I want there. Emulators exist for older 680x0-based Amigas exist, but not for the more recent PowerPC stuff. Won't be ported to Mac PPC laptops, which would be the easiest and probably best possible solution. Things I'd like to have make for neat engineering ideas, but the lack of resources or viable market to carry them out is frustrating as heck. At this point I just want to go out and buy something, and that has me using Windows or OSX a lot more than I did a year ago.
But I wouldn't want to use a wooden box, I'd want it to look like a laptop, and a reasonably nice one at that. Using a wooden briefcase would make a DIY project a great deal easier. But for what I want it's not ideal. But I also want more than 96 bytes of RAM, so call me picky.:)
Verizon now has an injunction against the Marketing firm, another win for a company that has developed a reputation for going after spammers."
Good for Verizon. But what about the peasants who use Verizon? I got a wrong-number text message once (no texting in my plan, I have to pay 10cents per tet received), and Verizon made me pay for it. OK, only a few cents, but a few cents times how many wrong numbers or spams can add up to some nice income for Verizon. Do the people receiving these spams have to pay for them like I had to pay for that wrong number text? If so, do they get a refund now?
After paying my 10 cents for that unwanted wrong-number text sent to me, I blocked all text messages, from anyone and everyone. If Verizon had credited that dime, texting would still be possible on my phone, and they could still be making money off legitimate texts. They chose for it not to be possible to make money from texting on my phone.
The California legislature may want to revisit the wording of their proposed ban on incandescents (AB 722).
Anyone else find it curious that the timing of this announcement comes so close after California's proposal was announced? Is it really coincidence that these two things happen together, or did California's proposal create motivation for these guys to actualy do something with this tech that's been laying around going nowhere, perhaps it was thought to be too expensive or something for consumers to go for it without some "encouragment" such as what California is talking about? Was it found a while ago, and not developed to it's full capabilities, but now it's suddenly worth taking further?
With so many cable TV HD (and other SD digital channels) being encrypted, how about tuners that support cablecards? 2nd-gen cablecard with bidi support for more features? I heard about one that will only work with Vista. What about anyone else, for WinXP, Linux, etc? What about FIOS "tuners"? What about Satellite receiver cards with the subscription card slots? (I've heard Europe has Satellite tuner cards, but I'm in USA and haven't seen any here)
I'm sick of Comcast and would like to switch to FIOS which is supposed to be coming soon (They've already completed "phase 1" in my neighborhood, whatever that means), but I'd also like to continue using my MythTV box.
I've been wanting to get a new laptop for a while now. But now that Vista is released, it seems impossible to get XP anymore, it's not even an option. (Sorry guys, Linux is not suitable to my computing needs at the moment, and Wine is not a good solution for some of my needs) Since I cannot get XP right now, I may end up waiting a long time before getting new hardware until Vista becomes acceptable to the same level that XP is to me today. Just don't use it is not an easy answer to implement, a lot of us are stuck under MS's thumb even if we don't want to be there. I also have an iBook, but there's a lot that I simply cannot do with it. Same for Linux. XP is currently my best solution, but MS took that option away from me as well, and I feel very screwed because of it.
The RIAA also argues that should the attorneys' fees award stand, it would deter other copyright owners from pursuing infringement claims.
Maybe it's time to end the "let's sue innocent people" business model, and find a new one which has less risk of paying out instead of cashing in.
My office quit using blockers
on
From Bess to Worse
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· Score: 3, Insightful
My employer used to have one of these blockers in place. It didn't block any of the web sites that distracted me during the day such as Slashdot, cnn, and (believe it or not) Amiga computer forums.It did block some videogame sites and other stuff like that. But a few people were constantly calling in for exceptions on web sites they were looking stuff up on for work-related stuff. And one time our admin wanted to go to the blocker's own web site to download an update, and found that even that was blocked, and hilarity ensued. Eventually someone important enough decided that it was more hassle than it was worth and quit using it.
Slashdot Mirror
"A legislative staff employee who would lose his job if he were quoted here by name said, 'By the time those lobbyists were done talking, it sounded like ODF (Open Document Format, the free and open format used by OpenOffice.org and other free software) was proprietary and the Microsoft format was the open and free one.'
OK. But when looking at the disputed text of this legislation as shown on the linked article, it would seem that anyone believing this ODF=proprietary MS=open hullubaloo, would also believe that this MS=open should be compatible with that same text, and not see a reason to change it.
One would hope that politicians being told that MS's format is the most open one, and also being told that MS wants this "open format" legislation text removed, would notice some degree of conflict between the two things. If you want me to believe you're the open guy, then why do you also want the open text removed from the legislation? Hmmm...
Right, because who's next in line is so much better.
Couldn't we do a preemptive impeachment on anyone else involved as part of any "get rid of Bush because of this situation" process? If we impeach the president because of some scandal, why should we keep around the VP to replace him if the VP was also involved in that same scandal? Or anyone else down the line?
So, this is our government acting like the Enron guys and their accountants. Are we going to let these guys get away with it because they are politicians, or are they going to face consequences comparable to the people responsible for the Enron thing?
I was looking to replace my laptop with something that had longer battery life. Unfortunately for me it seems impossible to buy a laptop with XP since "Vista Day". I do know that some of what I want to do will not run on Vista, so there's now no point in buying anything. Ordinarily I'd "upgrade" if a new computer came with, but with that being the only option I'm not even doing that.
Quote from my current billing statement BroadbandAccess insert from Verizon Wireless:
If more than 5 GB/line/month, we presume use is for non-permitted uses and will terminate service; see brochure for details.
This billing statement insert does not define what uses are permitted or non-permitted, so I presume it itself is not the brochure it's referring to. I haven't bothered to look around on the mentioned web page verizonwireless.com/bba to see if anything is defined further there.
It doesn't say movies, it's a more vague "non-permitted uses" category. Non-permitted by whom? By Verizon? By "content owners"? Illegal things? Or just things Verizon or someone else decides you aren't allowed to do on your phone? Movies could very well be some part of this, but I imagine they left it open to other interpretations for a reason.
And they're presuming this. If they're wrong about it being non-permitted, do you get to prove yourself and regain your service? Or are you totally unworthy at that point?
we can just get rid of DST altogether
Getting rid of DST altogether would leave us on winter time. I'd rather get rid of "real time" altogether and forever stay on DST. But I'm not awake early in the morning so I'd rather have my daylight in the afternoon, and I don't have kids to care about at the bus stop.
What exactly was the reasoning at the time they invented this DST shift anyway? I always thought it was for the farmers to have more light for chores before kids went to school in the morning, but everyone seems to have a different reason for it around here.
The LA Times accuses PayPerPost of paying bloggers to make up fictional testimonials. For instance, the Times reports that a law firm is using PayPerPost to pay bloggers to write that a certain birth control patch is killing and injuring young women.
What's so fictional about the idea that birth control kills or injured young women. It's birth control. The entire intention is that it kills young women, as well as young men. So young they haven't even been born yet.
Besides, this is just a clever conspiracy to get us privacy nuts to believe there's a reason to hunt down fakers and bring honesty back to the net.How many Slashdot privacy advocaes want to be able to detect and filter such postings, as well as find out who did them to prevent them from repeating their misdeeds?
After a retailer/distributor buys an item, the manufacturer already has whatever money he wanted in his bank account. At that point, what difference does the retailers price for consumers have on the manufacturer's bank account? If consumers don't want this item anymore, manufacturer would be crazy to continue making it, so it shouldn't even impact new sales. I don't get it. How does pissing off the retailers and the consumers benefit the manufacturer's bank account?
I'm redoing my PC after scraping he hard drive clean. Things were getting weird, my wireless network card isn't as dead as I thought it was, something really wasn't right. But last time around my regular user was an administrator user, which is probably a bad idea. So this time I'm trying to do better, have an admin user to do all installing and configuring, regular user accounts I actually use to do stuff would only be limited users under XP.
:(
Hah! You can't freakin even do that. Half-Life 2 and/or Steam requires you to be an administrator for it to run. TaxCut requires you to be an administrator for it to run. How the heck am I supposed to secure my machine in a more responsible way if none of my software is allowed to run that way? WTF?
I doubt I'd be able to get this sort of Vista, even if it was decided that it was a good configuration. Considering compatibility, resource requirements, slowdowns, etc. I don't want Vista at all right now anyway, maybe in a year or two. Sucks that I can't buy a laptop with XP anymore, I should have got something before Vista Day.
plug-in series hybrid with about 60 miles of electric-only range and the ability to run maybe 400 more with the engine providing generator power.
And have inductive field charging pads built into parking lot spaces which can be used to recharge the battery without having to plug in a cord. Have some RFID or other form of automatic vehicle and/or account identification which can enable/disable the charging pad depending on payment authorization if it's a commercial charging configuration and to monitor battery health and other interesting data. Could be useful for companies with fleets of such cars so workers don't forget to plug them in between uses, so you don't forget to unplug the thing when you leave and tear something apart or hurt anyone, etc.
Hopefully this can be considered prior art publication in case some nut job tries to patent the idea and rip us all off later.
I see this going nowhere. Really. Why? Because different Linux fans wil want different things. Some want Debian. Some want Gentoo. Some want Ubuntu. Some want Kubuntu. Some want KDE. Some want Gnome. Some want Fedora. Some want 2.4* kernels. (The EDA software at work isonly qualified for 2.4, not for 2.6) Some want 2.6* kernels. Some want Enterprise. Some want something else.
That's an awful lot of permutations, and Dell isn't going to support everything. Will Linux fans be happy with the one distro/configuration Dell chooses to ship? What percentage will be unhapy with Dell's choice and decide not to buy the preinstalled systems that way? Will that happy percentage of Linux fans be worth the trouble compared to leaving us to do it ourselves the way we choose to have it done? I doubt it.
I mean, you can already get cards with DVI and HDCP which means you just need a DVI to HDMI cable to connect it to a TV anyway.
I have a crappy video card which does not work DVI adapted to my projector's inputs. Doesn't work with digital DVI input on my LCD monitor either. Sucks, as I bought it specifically becaise it said HDTV output on the description. But it seems they did not connect the digital signals to the DVI port. I'd think that an HDMI port would be 100% guaranteed to work properly with a HDMI input, regardless of what DVI adaptors are supposed to do.
And yes, the same adaptors/cables work fine with other cards.
I guess this is good for folks who build home theatres out of their computers, but then why do they need a 3D accelerator to show TV or videos?
I don't. But I want to hook my HTPC to my projector via the HDMI input, so that the VGA input is free for my laptop or something else. For some reason my current Nvidia card does not work withthe projector HDMI input, I sortof think the digital stuff is not connected to the DVI port because nothing at all shows up, not even BIOS on the projector. Another computer does show BIOS display on the projector via the same DVI->HDMI adaptor. If I trash this card and get a new one, might as well get one with an HDMI output, indicating a better possibility for compatibility than what I have now. I'm kindof pissed about the card I got, it said HDTV ready but does not have any component adaptor included and is not HDMI compatible. WTF?? Stupid XFX PVT72PPANG GeForce 7300LE card with its "HDTV output". Waste of money...
The 3d accelerator is something I don't know how to leave out of my video card purchase today. Maybe I'll try out Cedega and play a couple games on the big-screen, which would be impossible without the 3d part these days.
So, anyone submitting to these requirements can hope to become part of the Inner Party at some point, and those who do not become the proles?
Interesting that there is something resembling a choice there. I assume that my government in USA is doing all that without my "permission" or knowledge.
Embrace, extend, extinguish?
That's what Dubya is doing in the Middle East, and we brought him back for a second term.
What of the MS/Novell alliance is governed by GPL3? I thought it was all GPL2. Is the "or newer" phrase in some GPL source notices mandatory or can Novell choose to consider all of those items to be GPL2 even after GPL3 is "released"? Or does every such file automatically become GPL3? How important or useful is the "or" in that compared to instead writing such text as "whatever the most recent GPL revision happens to be"?
if these elements are for real, this is the reason to buy PlayStation 3.
So, I can finally watch some 3d rendered character watching a DVD? Sweet! You're right, we finally do have a reason to buy PS3!
Eh, sorry. A built-in SecondLife with better graphics is not a reason to buy a PS3. Not for me anyway. Nor is the development stuff. I just don't care. It's a game machine as well as the cheapest Blueray movie player. I don't care about blueray movies right now. As for games, I've got an XB360 and will most likely buy a Wii before I buy a PS3.
Mainly I wanted to be able to tell people that I know SQUAT.
I don't know this language, so apparently I get to tell people that I don't do SQUAT around here.
Ever felt like building your own laptop from (almost literally) scratch?
:)
Yes. It's a freakin pain too. But if you're a fan of an obscure computer platform like I am, you can't just go out and buy one. MiniITX has a decent footprint for the idea, but most boards are too thick/high/tall to make a sleek/trendy looking laptop out of, and you have to fiture out how to deal with all the rear-panel stuff that needs hooked up to keyboard, touchpad, LCD, etc. Making a new motherboard to fit an existing laptop is a pain and pretty expensive, especially in a nanoscopic market like what I'm into. Making amodular board to fit an existing laptop in such a way that you can use the core system module in other applications, and maybe find other uses for hte laptop-shaped carrier board is still a pain and expensive, and can end up being too thick/high to fit into a nice existing laptop after you stack up all the modular bits. Part of what I find interesting about the current state of the Amiga market is that there's plenty of things to do. But much of what interests me is also what I'm growing weary of there. I'd like a laptop for AmigaOS4, but the resources required to make such a thing don't make much sense, and thus I cannot have what I want there. Emulators exist for older 680x0-based Amigas exist, but not for the more recent PowerPC stuff. Won't be ported to Mac PPC laptops, which would be the easiest and probably best possible solution. Things I'd like to have make for neat engineering ideas, but the lack of resources or viable market to carry them out is frustrating as heck. At this point I just want to go out and buy something, and that has me using Windows or OSX a lot more than I did a year ago.
But I wouldn't want to use a wooden box, I'd want it to look like a laptop, and a reasonably nice one at that. Using a wooden briefcase would make a DIY project a great deal easier. But for what I want it's not ideal. But I also want more than 96 bytes of RAM, so call me picky.
Verizon now has an injunction against the Marketing firm, another win for a company that has developed a reputation for going after spammers."
Good for Verizon. But what about the peasants who use Verizon? I got a wrong-number text message once (no texting in my plan, I have to pay 10cents per tet received), and Verizon made me pay for it. OK, only a few cents, but a few cents times how many wrong numbers or spams can add up to some nice income for Verizon. Do the people receiving these spams have to pay for them like I had to pay for that wrong number text? If so, do they get a refund now?
After paying my 10 cents for that unwanted wrong-number text sent to me, I blocked all text messages, from anyone and everyone. If Verizon had credited that dime, texting would still be possible on my phone, and they could still be making money off legitimate texts. They chose for it not to be possible to make money from texting on my phone.
The California legislature may want to revisit the wording of their proposed ban on incandescents (AB 722).
Anyone else find it curious that the timing of this announcement comes so close after California's proposal was announced? Is it really coincidence that these two things happen together, or did California's proposal create motivation for these guys to actualy do something with this tech that's been laying around going nowhere, perhaps it was thought to be too expensive or something for consumers to go for it without some "encouragment" such as what California is talking about? Was it found a while ago, and not developed to it's full capabilities, but now it's suddenly worth taking further?
With so many cable TV HD (and other SD digital channels) being encrypted, how about tuners that support cablecards? 2nd-gen cablecard with bidi support for more features? I heard about one that will only work with Vista. What about anyone else, for WinXP, Linux, etc? What about FIOS "tuners"? What about Satellite receiver cards with the subscription card slots? (I've heard Europe has Satellite tuner cards, but I'm in USA and haven't seen any here)
I'm sick of Comcast and would like to switch to FIOS which is supposed to be coming soon (They've already completed "phase 1" in my neighborhood, whatever that means), but I'd also like to continue using my MythTV box.
I've been wanting to get a new laptop for a while now. But now that Vista is released, it seems impossible to get XP anymore, it's not even an option. (Sorry guys, Linux is not suitable to my computing needs at the moment, and Wine is not a good solution for some of my needs) Since I cannot get XP right now, I may end up waiting a long time before getting new hardware until Vista becomes acceptable to the same level that XP is to me today. Just don't use it is not an easy answer to implement, a lot of us are stuck under MS's thumb even if we don't want to be there. I also have an iBook, but there's a lot that I simply cannot do with it. Same for Linux. XP is currently my best solution, but MS took that option away from me as well, and I feel very screwed because of it.
The RIAA also argues that should the attorneys' fees award stand, it would deter other copyright owners from pursuing infringement claims.
Maybe it's time to end the "let's sue innocent people" business model, and find a new one which has less risk of paying out instead of cashing in.
My employer used to have one of these blockers in place. It didn't block any of the web sites that distracted me during the day such as Slashdot, cnn, and (believe it or not) Amiga computer forums.It did block some videogame sites and other stuff like that. But a few people were constantly calling in for exceptions on web sites they were looking stuff up on for work-related stuff. And one time our admin wanted to go to the blocker's own web site to download an update, and found that even that was blocked, and hilarity ensued. Eventually someone important enough decided that it was more hassle than it was worth and quit using it.