We aren't talking the "main" Opera browser here. Opera Mini is for mobile phones that aren't powerful enough to support their full mobile client. Opera Mini proxy servers compress and optimize web pages so that it's easier and faster for your mobile phone to show them.
This doesn't affect Opera on computers or the full-scale Opera Mobile client.
This is only true if you are actually using those services. There's Opera Turbo in the main browser, that compresses the data between their proxy and your browser. Obviously theres no much need to use it on faster connection than lets say gprs. and HTTPS sites will still go without the proxy. Google had a very similar service btw.
Wikipedia articles are licensed under Creative Commons license, everyone is free to use it the way they want to, as long as attributed (and Wikipedia articles are created by everyone after all).
Opera does a lot more business than just ads in a browser. They get income from Google to include them as default search engine and additional income for every ad click made by Opera user. Their other sources of income also include mobile phones clients (manufacturers and telco's might pay them to include their browser), Wii, other media equipment. For example lots of hotel's seem to be using Opera as embedded browser for their systems and to give visitor ability to browse internet from TV (this isn't always shown everywhere, but I was visiting a hotel once and the hotel tv rebooted and showed Opera logo on startup).
And considering China has 1.5 billion people, it would be quite stupid to ignore that market area.
I really doubt this is something Opera did on its own. But if you want to do business in China, you have to go by their goverment's rules there like everyone else.
Interesting thing is that this will also limit how much Google can spend on their side products, which are direct competition against Office. About Chrome OS vs. Windows I wouldn't worry so much, as Chrome OS wont run any other programs on the computer than a web browser.
Lots of people always seem to note that this wouldn't hurt Google because if people want news from certain sites they just go to the site directly. But truth is, it's a lot easier to find the news you're looking for from search engine. If you spot theres a news site you think is good quality, then you go to it.
Now if the big news sites suddenly drop from Google but can be found via Bing, people are going to change there. This is even more true with both Bing's and Google's News search. Bing is starting to be nicer to use than Google, has nifty features (like providing useful results from Wolfram Alpha, integrating Wikipedia nicely, etc) and the search results quality is on par with Google. Bing is also more stylish than Google for "casual people", but while maintaining Google-like simple interface.
And before someone has to jump on the "but only reason people use Bing is because it's default search engine in IE8!". This is no different tactic to gain users what Google uses too. They pay Firefox, Opera and other browsers and even computer manufacturers like Dell to have Google as the default search engine. But neither party overwrites the previous setting, like many seem to say about IE8 - it doesn't change it if Google is already set there.
Google is even more problematic because of the amount of datamining they do. Their analytics tracking code is everywhere on the internet, with Android and Chrome OS you are always logged-in to your Google account (just to use your phone, wtf?). Both Bing and Google do some hidden datamining on back too (like when you click a link, theres javascript that sends info about what link you clicked on the back). But this is worse with Google, as their complete business model relies around datamining to provide info and services to advertisers.
It's actually interesting how much they have improved their search engine from MSN/Live age. Seems they're going after Google at full force now and it seems to make sense to attack them from every direction now.
You must be new here. Every patent story on Slashdot is like this, and in every case theres tons of people jumping in who can't seem to understand the abstract is just that.. an abstract. You need to read the actual claims and description to see what is being patented.
But lets not get into way of some good sensationalism journalism.
I don't think Google is here who is to blame. We see these kinds of news everyday by Microsoft etc too. It's just how the (broken) US patent system works and companies have to cope with that too.
Ironically, Google Patents can't seem to find the new Google patent for Google Patents.
To be fair, there's no translation of the papers online everywhere else either.
Also;
The copyright owner has no objection to the facsimile reproduction by anyone of the patent document or the patent disclosure, as it appears in the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office patent file or records, but reserves all other copyrights whatsoever.
So like with many other computer patents, they just seem to be covering their own asses against patent trolls. Blame the system, not those who need to work with it.
Usually the downloaders don't get sued but the uploaders. And if you've uploaded to hundreds or even thousands of people, it's easily argued that you've contributed for that kind of losses.
The thing is that the actual Windows license is most likely sold as a much cheaper price and the other components are making the profit for that. It is the same issue how consoles are sold (at least first) - the actual hardware profit is negative, but the console manufacturer gets their income in game sales.
When things are sold in millions counts, and when theres incentives and cheaper prices available for manufacturers, it's not as black and white.
The manufacturers are getting the licenses at different price than consumers, and it can be different price for different companies too. Besides that like someone said, the ~$30 per OEM license price is taken from a blog post from over 3 years ago - the price is most definitely different now.
Even if it's just that sticker and license you hold, it still contains the value. If you decline it, you are not legally allowed to use the software.
Also to begin with you are not required to buy a computer that comes with Windows. Or you can read the EULA online before buying it. Or ask to read it in store.
Windows XP has started to lose its value because the support is discontinued, so the "software doesn't get old during time" doesn't fully hold.
What, we are talking about XP here? It was released in 2001, 8 years ago. As much as I'd like to join for a good bash, 8 year old software that since then has got several new versions will lose its value over time. And you also have to remember that major manufacturers who sell millions of Windowses have got the licenses cheaper, hence the actual cost and the refund being a lot less than if you bought it yourself.
I dont except to get a same kind of refund value for my 15 year old SDTV either than I would get for my new HDTV.
Second, is she the one that posted the photos? If someone else posted photos of her on a public page, anyone can see them.
Exactly, and because of tag-a-person-in-photo feature it's quite easy to find the photos too.
She said her insurance agent described several pictures Blanchard posted on the popular social networking site, including ones showing her having a good time at a Chippendales bar show, at her birthday party and on a sun holiday — evidence that she is no longer depressed, Manulife said.
This is evidence that she is no longer depressed? Depression is a lot deeper thing than that. Obviously you have happy moments and can smile on birthday party or on holiday. But in no way that mean that you really feel good and like that always. And I think you're supposed to try to have fun, so that said depression would actually go away.
"We can't ignore it, wherever the source of the information is," she said. "We can't ignore it."
Like a depressed person wants to always show everyone that she is depressed? Facebook isn't a complete picture in to your life. It is what the person posts there, and usually people like to make themself look good and not like a depressed wreck.
You seem to overestimate wise thinking when it comes to military and wars. Even Russians had a system that would launch nuclear weapons by a single push of a button if connectivity to Moscow was lost (so that even if nuclear weapon was dropped to Moscow, Russia could still hit back - but of course nothing can go wrong by allowing launch of your nuclear weapons when connectivity is lost!)
But that is lost money. US spends that in Iraq and makes profit by taking the oil. Oh, you though they went there for some other reason?
And China doesn't even need to play any of this cyber attacks game with US. Like a fellow Slashdotter said; "Hello, my name is China and I wish to liquidate all my US Treasury Bonds." That is even more true with the current economy. Interestingly that doesn't affect China or Russia so much because they're living on more realistic costs - US lives with debt and it can't go on forever.
The minute China asks to pay back the debt US is fucked. If they pay that trillions of dollars, economy will collapse like never before. If they don't, no one will loan money anymore and economy will collapse because the nation has been living on loaned money to sustain that style.
What would be interesting to know is that if these are targeted attacks specifically against US military networks, or just random scanning for vulnerabilities by every day botnets? I think it's the later case, because if they were targeted attacks they would be stupid not to hide their origins and you wouldn't know they are from china or similar country. Or maybe they're just playing with people's image of bad china and north korea.
Yeah sure. I have been using Ad Muncher for years and can recommend it as a great piece of software for what I have commented. But since I have an partner account with them already, I can just use that on my links. But if you are really worried about that, just go to www.admuncher.com directly - its the same price.
You cant do the same kind of URL filtering on DNS level since the only thing you can filter is the domain/subdomain part. Theres lots of cases where you need to be able to filter more specifically (like if the website is hosting the ads itself, or just to make some more general rules), and Opera+Ad Muncher is perfect for that.
While Opera has the full-scale ad blocking tools in itself, I've found Ad Muncher to be a lot better on it, and it works with all the other browsers you have installed and gives more options too.
This whole MW2 release on PC has been notoriously shitty. First the removal of dedicated servers and leaning (that still pisses me off so much in multiplayer). The matchmaking system works nicely, but they could had still added.. eh, enabled the support for dedicated servers, since it's already build-in to the engine. Now it also seems that pirates and hackers are running rampanton the legit servers, and they also hacked support for dedicated servers. If you do this with a legit version, you'll probably get banned for cheating.
And yesterday they removed MW2 from everyones Steam account that had bought the game from different region or sites like g2play.net that sell it cheaper. This happened for me too, so now I'm unable to play my legitly bought game. This is a response from Steam support:
Your Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2 CD Key has been purchased from an unauthorized re-seller of Steam CD Keys. Your CD Key has been revoked. Please do not complete any purchases with this vendor.
Only CD Keys included with retail copies or purchased from authorized retailers will be allowed.
Still it's a legit version of the game, just that it comes from a reseller instead of Walmart or Steam. And all Activision, IW and Steam made money on the purchase - only one that lost was me and I cant even play it anymore. It's great when legit, paying customers are treated that way while pirates get more off the game for free and don't risk losing their money and game.
Slashdot Mirror
We aren't talking the "main" Opera browser here. Opera Mini is for mobile phones that aren't powerful enough to support their full mobile client. Opera Mini proxy servers compress and optimize web pages so that it's easier and faster for your mobile phone to show them.
This doesn't affect Opera on computers or the full-scale Opera Mobile client.
This is only true if you are actually using those services. There's Opera Turbo in the main browser, that compresses the data between their proxy and your browser. Obviously theres no much need to use it on faster connection than lets say gprs. and HTTPS sites will still go without the proxy. Google had a very similar service btw.
Wikipedia articles are licensed under Creative Commons license, everyone is free to use it the way they want to, as long as attributed (and Wikipedia articles are created by everyone after all).
To be fair Google also pays browser makers to include them as the default search engine instead of competitors.
Opera does a lot more business than just ads in a browser. They get income from Google to include them as default search engine and additional income for every ad click made by Opera user. Their other sources of income also include mobile phones clients (manufacturers and telco's might pay them to include their browser), Wii, other media equipment. For example lots of hotel's seem to be using Opera as embedded browser for their systems and to give visitor ability to browse internet from TV (this isn't always shown everywhere, but I was visiting a hotel once and the hotel tv rebooted and showed Opera logo on startup).
And considering China has 1.5 billion people, it would be quite stupid to ignore that market area.
I really doubt this is something Opera did on its own. But if you want to do business in China, you have to go by their goverment's rules there like everyone else.
Interesting thing is that this will also limit how much Google can spend on their side products, which are direct competition against Office. About Chrome OS vs. Windows I wouldn't worry so much, as Chrome OS wont run any other programs on the computer than a web browser.
Lots of people always seem to note that this wouldn't hurt Google because if people want news from certain sites they just go to the site directly. But truth is, it's a lot easier to find the news you're looking for from search engine. If you spot theres a news site you think is good quality, then you go to it.
Now if the big news sites suddenly drop from Google but can be found via Bing, people are going to change there. This is even more true with both Bing's and Google's News search. Bing is starting to be nicer to use than Google, has nifty features (like providing useful results from Wolfram Alpha, integrating Wikipedia nicely, etc) and the search results quality is on par with Google. Bing is also more stylish than Google for "casual people", but while maintaining Google-like simple interface.
And before someone has to jump on the "but only reason people use Bing is because it's default search engine in IE8!". This is no different tactic to gain users what Google uses too. They pay Firefox, Opera and other browsers and even computer manufacturers like Dell to have Google as the default search engine. But neither party overwrites the previous setting, like many seem to say about IE8 - it doesn't change it if Google is already set there.
Google is even more problematic because of the amount of datamining they do. Their analytics tracking code is everywhere on the internet, with Android and Chrome OS you are always logged-in to your Google account (just to use your phone, wtf?). Both Bing and Google do some hidden datamining on back too (like when you click a link, theres javascript that sends info about what link you clicked on the back). But this is worse with Google, as their complete business model relies around datamining to provide info and services to advertisers.
It's actually interesting how much they have improved their search engine from MSN/Live age. Seems they're going after Google at full force now and it seems to make sense to attack them from every direction now.
You must be new here. Every patent story on Slashdot is like this, and in every case theres tons of people jumping in who can't seem to understand the abstract is just that.. an abstract. You need to read the actual claims and description to see what is being patented.
But lets not get into way of some good sensationalism journalism.
I don't think Google is here who is to blame. We see these kinds of news everyday by Microsoft etc too. It's just how the (broken) US patent system works and companies have to cope with that too.
Ironically, Google Patents can't seem to find the new Google patent for Google Patents.
To be fair, there's no translation of the papers online everywhere else either.
Also;
The copyright owner has no objection to the facsimile reproduction by anyone of the patent document or the patent disclosure, as it appears in the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office patent file or records, but reserves all other copyrights whatsoever.
So like with many other computer patents, they just seem to be covering their own asses against patent trolls. Blame the system, not those who need to work with it.
OEM's can sell it at that price - of course, they usually sell it with hardware that they make the actual profit from.
Usually the downloaders don't get sued but the uploaders. And if you've uploaded to hundreds or even thousands of people, it's easily argued that you've contributed for that kind of losses.
The thing is that the actual Windows license is most likely sold as a much cheaper price and the other components are making the profit for that. It is the same issue how consoles are sold (at least first) - the actual hardware profit is negative, but the console manufacturer gets their income in game sales.
When things are sold in millions counts, and when theres incentives and cheaper prices available for manufacturers, it's not as black and white.
The manufacturers are getting the licenses at different price than consumers, and it can be different price for different companies too. Besides that like someone said, the ~$30 per OEM license price is taken from a blog post from over 3 years ago - the price is most definitely different now.
Even if it's just that sticker and license you hold, it still contains the value. If you decline it, you are not legally allowed to use the software.
Also to begin with you are not required to buy a computer that comes with Windows. Or you can read the EULA online before buying it. Or ask to read it in store.
Windows XP has started to lose its value because the support is discontinued, so the "software doesn't get old during time" doesn't fully hold.
What, we are talking about XP here? It was released in 2001, 8 years ago. As much as I'd like to join for a good bash, 8 year old software that since then has got several new versions will lose its value over time. And you also have to remember that major manufacturers who sell millions of Windowses have got the licenses cheaper, hence the actual cost and the refund being a lot less than if you bought it yourself.
I dont except to get a same kind of refund value for my 15 year old SDTV either than I would get for my new HDTV.
Second, is she the one that posted the photos? If someone else posted photos of her on a public page, anyone can see them.
Exactly, and because of tag-a-person-in-photo feature it's quite easy to find the photos too.
She said her insurance agent described several pictures Blanchard posted on the popular social networking site, including ones showing her having a good time at a Chippendales bar show, at her birthday party and on a sun holiday — evidence that she is no longer depressed, Manulife said.
This is evidence that she is no longer depressed? Depression is a lot deeper thing than that. Obviously you have happy moments and can smile on birthday party or on holiday. But in no way that mean that you really feel good and like that always. And I think you're supposed to try to have fun, so that said depression would actually go away.
"We can't ignore it, wherever the source of the information is," she said. "We can't ignore it."
Like a depressed person wants to always show everyone that she is depressed? Facebook isn't a complete picture in to your life. It is what the person posts there, and usually people like to make themself look good and not like a depressed wreck.
well lets see slashdot
chinese here ->
russian here ->
censored.
image
Big numbers are more convincing and sounds better.
You seem to overestimate wise thinking when it comes to military and wars. Even Russians had a system that would launch nuclear weapons by a single push of a button if connectivity to Moscow was lost (so that even if nuclear weapon was dropped to Moscow, Russia could still hit back - but of course nothing can go wrong by allowing launch of your nuclear weapons when connectivity is lost!)
But that is lost money. US spends that in Iraq and makes profit by taking the oil. Oh, you though they went there for some other reason?
And China doesn't even need to play any of this cyber attacks game with US. Like a fellow Slashdotter said; "Hello, my name is China and I wish to liquidate all my US Treasury Bonds." That is even more true with the current economy. Interestingly that doesn't affect China or Russia so much because they're living on more realistic costs - US lives with debt and it can't go on forever.
The minute China asks to pay back the debt US is fucked. If they pay that trillions of dollars, economy will collapse like never before. If they don't, no one will loan money anymore and economy will collapse because the nation has been living on loaned money to sustain that style.
What would be interesting to know is that if these are targeted attacks specifically against US military networks, or just random scanning for vulnerabilities by every day botnets? I think it's the later case, because if they were targeted attacks they would be stupid not to hide their origins and you wouldn't know they are from china or similar country. Or maybe they're just playing with people's image of bad china and north korea.
And since when North Korean's have had internet?
Yeah sure. I have been using Ad Muncher for years and can recommend it as a great piece of software for what I have commented. But since I have an partner account with them already, I can just use that on my links. But if you are really worried about that, just go to www.admuncher.com directly - its the same price.
You cant do the same kind of URL filtering on DNS level since the only thing you can filter is the domain/subdomain part. Theres lots of cases where you need to be able to filter more specifically (like if the website is hosting the ads itself, or just to make some more general rules), and Opera+Ad Muncher is perfect for that.
While Opera has the full-scale ad blocking tools in itself, I've found Ad Muncher to be a lot better on it, and it works with all the other browsers you have installed and gives more options too.
This whole MW2 release on PC has been notoriously shitty. First the removal of dedicated servers and leaning (that still pisses me off so much in multiplayer). The matchmaking system works nicely, but they could had still added.. eh, enabled the support for dedicated servers, since it's already build-in to the engine. Now it also seems that pirates and hackers are running rampant on the legit servers, and they also hacked support for dedicated servers. If you do this with a legit version, you'll probably get banned for cheating.
And yesterday they removed MW2 from everyones Steam account that had bought the game from different region or sites like g2play.net that sell it cheaper. This happened for me too, so now I'm unable to play my legitly bought game. This is a response from Steam support:
Your Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2 CD Key has been purchased from an unauthorized re-seller of Steam CD Keys. Your CD Key has been revoked. Please do not complete any purchases with this vendor.
Only CD Keys included with retail copies or purchased from authorized retailers will be allowed.
Still it's a legit version of the game, just that it comes from a reseller instead of Walmart or Steam. And all Activision, IW and Steam made money on the purchase - only one that lost was me and I cant even play it anymore. It's great when legit, paying customers are treated that way while pirates get more off the game for free and don't risk losing their money and game.