How come noone complains that pianos don't have an intuitive user interface. They aren't much more expensive than computers.
I had ten years of lessons to learn how to play the piano and didn't feel I had to sue the maker because it wasn't obvious.
That said, at least the maker warranties a piano so if it doesn't perform as specified they fix it for free. [I had to have a string replaced that was incorrectly put in.] Pianos are also open, anyone can take them apart, fix them, copy the design and make it into a T-Shirt if they wish.
"
I think the main problem with a lot of managers simply stems from the fact that they were promoted into that position from being a normal worker. This means they have no experience or education in the field of management.
"
...and the problem with the other half is they have no experience of being a normal worker.
"
Microsoft does NOT call it's incremental updates "new OSes." They call them service packs. They did not even call Win98SE a new OS, they called it a new version of the OS.
"
The difference between 98 -> 98SE is about the same as 98SE -> ME
How come ME is a new OS and 98SE isn't?
Because market research says that 3 years is the correct interval between OS's.
If Microsoft thought they could maximise their profit by releasing a new OS based on each internal build they would.
Yes, it's probably difficult to hack, yes you can force updates to the software, no it won't retroactively work.
If the current software version is 3.5, 3.4 has been sucessfully hacked then all files created with a versions = 3.4 will all be hackable on a machine that has not had 3.5 installed yet.
Anyone know if VMware will let you round this - Presumably the document could be read straight out of memory of the virtual machine.
Would the following attack work? Load up word + document on a low memory machine, minimize, load a huge application. Power off machine without shutdown, read data from swapfile off disk.
A trojaned copy of the application that duplicates the data to disk?
However, I suspect version incompatibilies will kill this, I suspect each service pack you download will automagically render you unable to read protected documents until the protected software is upgraded to match. Expect an upgrade an hour.
You choose to use Microsoft because you can link to the libraries for free, you don't have to release your source and you can make a decent profit.
Good for you.
I hope you continue to make a profit.
I give away my source code to anyone who wants it. The only condition is they must give it away too. I get paid to modify it and to customize it. If you wish to use my code in your application you have two choices
1: Abide by my restrictions, you must give your code away for free.
2: Pay for a copy with a different license.
If you don't want to pay me, you can use a different vendor.
"Actually it wouldn't make a good mp3 player. It is next to impossible to play mp3's on a 486 and instead of a hard drive they are using flash so you can fit like 10 songs maybe? Sounds like a fairly cool project but not worth doing the way they did. If you put in a bit of NEW hardware it might be cool. Sorry but anyone can put a 486 in a small box."
It should make a fairly good MP3 player :
It's got no fans so the room noise will be quiet,
It has ethernet so all the songs can live on a noisey server a long way away. It's probably just about fast enough to decode in real time. It will display the tracknames quite nicely on the front panel display.
"
Bullshit. There is something close to 5,000 drivers that come with a default installation. When I installed Windows 2000 on my main box, absolutely everything was recognized. Correctly. And the sound works. And the printer works. Etc.
"
I'm suspect about this, the windows installer is not as good as Microsoft says. On my work machine - P3 500, 2x GeForce, 2x19inch monitor, 2xSCSI disks, Zip drive, tape drive, cdrom, floppy, 512MB, 100Mbit network,
win2k installed perfectly [in three hours!], Redhat 7.1beta also installed perfectly but it took about 10 minutes to get the multiple monitors working using a helpful clear HOWTO - however the inital install was 15 minutes over the network rather than CD.
On my home machine it's a different question, Celeron 500, 320Mb ram, TNT2 and ATI Rage 128, Soundblaster Live and Soundblaster 16, 100Mbit network, TV card, cdrom , cdwriter, 2xide hd, floppy, scanner, digital camera - admittedly a non-standard machine, however RedHat 6.2 / 7.0 installs with hardware not working and requires fiddling to make it go. Win 98 does not install, no matter what I do, Win 2k insists on me removing all the hardware and putting it in in order [2nd video card -> 2nd sound card -> cdwriter -> TV card -> USB devices] or it randomly bluescreens and dies - sometimes taking the disk with it. I still have the problem that win2K randomly alters the default soundcard, and, if the machine is hibernated the TV card loses all sound output. Oh, the scanner still doesn't work because the digitally signed driver claims it's a not supported OS. Works under linux though.
All in all, I suspect that for a first time installer it's toss up between why doesn't X work, and, why do I have to remove various bits of hardware and install them in a specific order.
However, if I'm installing someone elses machine - or being telephoned from a long way away to install someone elses machine I prefer them to install linux - remote administration is wonderful.
Maybe this is the tech support business model - people who will pay extra for ease of use get remote admin by the company - it's much better than giving point and click instructions over the phone.
"
The only people who will refuse to buy this stuff will be us geeks.
"
Perhaps, I don't know about you but I frequently get asked for advice over buying computers by new and semi-experienced computer users, whilst I've only bought about 3 machines myself, I've been primarily responsible for the hardware choice on about 10-12. Not to mention the influence I have on hardware buying at the company I work for. As someone who is considered knowledgeable about computers I hold a disproportinate amount of influence.
"It's possible to create CDs that use polymers that degrade after they are exposed to laser light."
"I seem to recall some company was accidentally making CDs this way after an accident at the plant several years back.:-)"
Wasn't this the PDO plants in the UK, they used silver / random cellulose stuff to make the disks from, it reacts quickly with sulphur causing discoloration and corruption of the CD's. Problem was, the produced lots of singles with it in suphur rich cardboard packaging.
"
His best revenge at this point may be release the code under GPL. This way his company can not at least claim an exclusive lock on his code.
"
I've seen this done over a payment dispute before. Purely verbal contracts - the company suspected they could pull a fast one over the developer until he casually mentioned that they didn't have a copy of the source code and he was quite prepared to GPL it and release to the appropriate clients for free instead.
He got paid more than he originally expected for it:)
"
What could possibly be wrong with allowing the originator of a piece of data to control its distribution.
"
Two issues,
1: I create a piece of data and my hard disk forbids me to copy it / play it / turn it into cream cheese.
2: I purchase a piece of data to play on hardware owned by me in my house and my hard disk forbids me to copy it onto other hardware owned by me in my house.
(1) already occurs with minidisc and DAT machines - analog recordings are marked as copyrighted and you are forbidden to copy them digitally even if you are the rightful copyright holder.
(2) is planned - purchase music for your PC, another copy for the laptop, one for the car, one for your walkman, another for the stereo in the lounge etc. etc. etc.
My response to your comment would be
"
What could possibly be wrong with allowing me to purchase a hard disk which would allow me to read and write data as I choose.
"
"I really wish someone would explain to me why artists and distribution companies shouldn't be allowed to control how their property is used.
"
It's something to do with fair use rights. For example, if you buy a book you should be allowed to read it. However, if your book came with a EULA inside the package that said reading it was forbidden the person who bought it has been ripped off. This applies to electronic books you are not allowed to read aloud [famous case - Alice in Wonderland from Adobe's E-books site].
Oh, if copying is theft, then if I come to your house and note down what posessions you have in the lounge, the decor and go home and produce an idnetical lounge without asking you - did I steal the lounge from you?
"
1. improved productivity, thanks to the improvements in software effected between upgrades
"
BigCompany Inc has noticed your software is out of date. We are upgrading it automatically for you to version 365. You are currently number 7890 in the queue and your computer should be reenabled in the next 4 weeks, 3 days, 12 hours, 4 minutes and 8 seconds.
[wait]
Unfortunatly your computer does not have enough memory to run version 365. Please contact your hardware vendor for an upgrade.
Seriously - If the software version I am using now works perfectly why should I have to upgrade it to a newer version which may have bugs in that I don't know about and don't want.
"
2. no compatibility issues - again these cost money; by constantly being up-to-date, we have no risk of not being able to read that vital document.
"
Congratulations on upgrading to dull office software version 365.
Unfortunatly compatibility with verions prior to 362 has now been removed. You will find the dustbin by the door for your CD document backups.
"
3. better budgeting. If we know that our software will cost $x/year, every year, we can budget for that. There is then no risk of unseen costs.
"
Vicious Software company Inc regrets to inform you that we have gone bust. All copies of our software will now be disabled. Regretfully no conversion filters exist to rival software manufacturers.
"
4. reduced impact on cashflow. Subscriptions mean that there is a lower initial cost - this means there is more money available to develop the business *now*.
"
You have a point there, but only if you're talking about non-free software.
"
The thing is, subscriptions are just being realistic - if you pretend that you're still going to be using those P3's running Office xxxx in 5 years time, you're wrong.
"
Ever been to a university / school / educational / public sector computer.
Many of these are still Pentiums with the odd 486 lying around.
"
All the subscription/ASP approach acknowledges is that we have to upgrade anyway - companies are always upgrading hardware and software in order to gain the productivity benefits they attract.
"
The subscription model changes it from
we choose to upgrade for a benefit we want
to
we must upgrade for benefits we may or may not want
"
I never said you couldn't make good art at home. I just said it'll never sound as good as the big boys.
"
I strongly contend that home stuff can sound better that the big boys.
Recording live gigs to 2 track DAT + bundle of SM57s + SM58s + a few condensors + Soundcraft Live4 mixer gives a good result.
The big boys when recording a live gig compress the final output to buggery - just to make it sound better on cheap reproduction equipment.
I don't care about cheap equipment - I have expensive equipment so I end up with a more natural sounding live recording than any 'professional' live recording I've ever bought because I've not had reams of compression and EQ added to the final mix to beef out the sound.
Admittedly this is in the semi-pro level, the equipment is owned by College for the student gigs and has a much larger budget than I could manage plus the advantage of soudn engineers that have done a variety of venues and different bands rather than recording their own stuff, but it is still possible to get some excellent results.
1: Write dumb business plan that will never work.
2: Get $X in funding where X is a large number
3: Extract $Y from $X where Y X and won't be noticed
4: Allow company to go bust.
5: Let media laugh at you becuase you lose $(X-Y) in virtual money. Not let on that you now have $Y money left over.
Providing $Y is a reasonable sum of money e.g. $1million then your average Geek has done OK for a years work, even if he has lost $499 in virtual money.
Slashdot Mirror
I assume you don't need to provide censorware if you don't include a network card with the machine.
Time to open a network card reseller in Texas.
I've said this before too.
How come noone complains that pianos don't have an intuitive user interface. They aren't much more expensive than computers.
I had ten years of lessons to learn how to play the piano and didn't feel I had to sue the maker because it wasn't obvious.
That said, at least the maker warranties a piano so if it doesn't perform as specified they fix it for free. [I had to have a string replaced that was incorrectly put in.] Pianos are also open, anyone can take them apart, fix them, copy the design and make it into a T-Shirt if they wish.
"
I think the main problem with a lot of managers simply stems from the fact that they were promoted into that position from being a normal worker. This means they have no experience or education in the field of management.
"
...and the problem with the other half is they have no experience of being a normal worker.
$10 / month for guaranteed high bandwidth, guaranteed connection server.
Yep, I can see companies paying for that.
"
Microsoft does NOT call it's incremental updates "new OSes." They call them service packs. They did not even call Win98SE a new OS, they called it a new version of the OS.
"
The difference between 98 -> 98SE is about the same as 98SE -> ME
How come ME is a new OS and 98SE isn't?
Because market research says that 3 years is the correct interval between OS's.
If Microsoft thought they could maximise their profit by releasing a new OS based on each internal build they would.
I hope this isn't blanket blocking.
I have material to which I own the copyright which is entered into the CDDB.
So now I'm blocked from distributing my own music over napster because someone who bought a CD typed the information into Napster?
Hopefully the record industries will have to supply a full CD signature to CDDB and then they block all tracknames with a matching signature.
Now is the time for independent producer to make albums with identical CDDB signatures to RIAA music.
People never learn,
Yes, it's probably difficult to hack, yes you can force updates to the software, no it won't retroactively work.
If the current software version is 3.5, 3.4 has been sucessfully hacked then all files created with a versions = 3.4 will all be hackable on a machine that has not had 3.5 installed yet.
Anyone know if VMware will let you round this - Presumably the document could be read straight out of memory of the virtual machine.
Would the following attack work? Load up word + document on a low memory machine, minimize, load a huge application. Power off machine without shutdown, read data from swapfile off disk.
A trojaned copy of the application that duplicates the data to disk?
However, I suspect version incompatibilies will kill this, I suspect each service pack you download will automagically render you unable to read protected documents until the protected software is upgraded to match. Expect an upgrade an hour.
You choose to use Microsoft because you can link to the libraries for free, you don't have to release your source and you can make a decent profit.
Good for you.
I hope you continue to make a profit.
I give away my source code to anyone who wants it. The only condition is they must give it away too. I get paid to modify it and to customize it. If you wish to use my code in your application you have two choices
1: Abide by my restrictions, you must give your code away for free.
2: Pay for a copy with a different license.
If you don't want to pay me, you can use a different vendor.
"Actually it wouldn't make a good mp3 player. It is next to impossible to play mp3's on a 486 and instead of a hard drive they are using flash so you can fit like 10 songs maybe? Sounds like a fairly cool project but not worth doing the way they did. If you put in a bit of NEW hardware it might be cool. Sorry but anyone can put a 486 in a small box."
It should make a fairly good MP3 player :
It's got no fans so the room noise will be quiet,
It has ethernet so all the songs can live on a noisey server a long way away. It's probably just about fast enough to decode in real time. It will display the tracknames quite nicely on the front panel display.
"
Bullshit. There is something close to 5,000 drivers that come with a default installation. When I installed Windows 2000 on my main box, absolutely everything was recognized. Correctly. And the sound works. And the printer works. Etc.
"
I'm suspect about this, the windows installer is not as good as Microsoft says. On my work machine - P3 500, 2x GeForce, 2x19inch monitor, 2xSCSI disks, Zip drive, tape drive, cdrom, floppy, 512MB, 100Mbit network,
win2k installed perfectly [in three hours!], Redhat 7.1beta also installed perfectly but it took about 10 minutes to get the multiple monitors working using a helpful clear HOWTO - however the inital install was 15 minutes over the network rather than CD.
On my home machine it's a different question, Celeron 500, 320Mb ram, TNT2 and ATI Rage 128, Soundblaster Live and Soundblaster 16, 100Mbit network, TV card, cdrom , cdwriter, 2xide hd, floppy, scanner, digital camera - admittedly a non-standard machine, however RedHat 6.2 / 7.0 installs with hardware not working and requires fiddling to make it go. Win 98 does not install, no matter what I do, Win 2k insists on me removing all the hardware and putting it in in order [2nd video card -> 2nd sound card -> cdwriter -> TV card -> USB devices] or it randomly bluescreens and dies - sometimes taking the disk with it. I still have the problem that win2K randomly alters the default soundcard, and, if the machine is hibernated the TV card loses all sound output. Oh, the scanner still doesn't work because the digitally signed driver claims it's a not supported OS. Works under linux though.
All in all, I suspect that for a first time installer it's toss up between why doesn't X work, and, why do I have to remove various bits of hardware and install them in a specific order.
However, if I'm installing someone elses machine - or being telephoned from a long way away to install someone elses machine I prefer them to install linux - remote administration is wonderful.
Maybe this is the tech support business model - people who will pay extra for ease of use get remote admin by the company - it's much better than giving point and click instructions over the phone.
"
The only people who will refuse to buy this stuff will be us geeks.
"
Perhaps, I don't know about you but I frequently get asked for advice over buying computers by new and semi-experienced computer users, whilst I've only bought about 3 machines myself, I've been primarily responsible for the hardware choice on about 10-12. Not to mention the influence I have on hardware buying at the company I work for. As someone who is considered knowledgeable about computers I hold a disproportinate amount of influence.
"It's possible to create CDs that use polymers that degrade after they are exposed to laser light."
:-)"
"I seem to recall some company was accidentally making CDs this way after an accident at the plant several years back.
Wasn't this the PDO plants in the UK, they used silver / random cellulose stuff to make the disks from, it reacts quickly with sulphur causing discoloration and corruption of the CD's. Problem was, the produced lots of singles with it in suphur rich cardboard packaging.
"
:)
His best revenge at this point may be release the code under GPL. This way his company can not at least claim an exclusive lock on his code.
"
I've seen this done over a payment dispute before. Purely verbal contracts - the company suspected they could pull a fast one over the developer until he casually mentioned that they didn't have a copy of the source code and he was quite prepared to GPL it and release to the appropriate clients for free instead.
He got paid more than he originally expected for it
"
What could possibly be wrong with allowing the originator of a piece of data to control its distribution.
"
Two issues,
1: I create a piece of data and my hard disk forbids me to copy it / play it / turn it into cream cheese.
2: I purchase a piece of data to play on hardware owned by me in my house and my hard disk forbids me to copy it onto other hardware owned by me in my house.
(1) already occurs with minidisc and DAT machines - analog recordings are marked as copyrighted and you are forbidden to copy them digitally even if you are the rightful copyright holder.
(2) is planned - purchase music for your PC, another copy for the laptop, one for the car, one for your walkman, another for the stereo in the lounge etc. etc. etc.
My response to your comment would be
"
What could possibly be wrong with allowing me to purchase a hard disk which would allow me to read and write data as I choose.
"
"
Err, I hope nobody interprets this as me wanting to have sex with Marge Simpson, because she's NOTHING compared to Wilma Flintstone.
"
I'd sleep with Betty Rubble - but I'd be thinking of Wilma.
Point still stands - I was responding to
"
Why can't copyright owners dictate what you do with stuff you buy after you've bought it.
"
This would allow the restriction [even if it hasn't been done yet] and many others more restrictive that we haven't yet thought of.
"I really wish someone would explain to me why artists and distribution companies shouldn't be allowed to control how their property is used.
"
It's something to do with fair use rights. For example, if you buy a book you should be allowed to read it. However, if your book came with a EULA inside the package that said reading it was forbidden the person who bought it has been ripped off. This applies to electronic books you are not allowed to read aloud [famous case - Alice in Wonderland from Adobe's E-books site].
Oh, if copying is theft, then if I come to your house and note down what posessions you have in the lounge, the decor and go home and produce an idnetical lounge without asking you - did I steal the lounge from you?
Let me get this straight,
Redhat doesn't have apt because otherwise people would upgrade to the latest version simply by downloading all the upgrades. Instead they buy the CDs.
What stops people downloading floppy install image and upgrading over ftp to stay up to date?
"
Now help your mom download, apply, configure, compile and install a source code patch!
"
Mum,
can you dial the internet please?
$ ssh mumsbox.herisp.net
$ login :
.....
"
1. improved productivity, thanks to the improvements in software effected between upgrades
"
BigCompany Inc has noticed your software is out of date. We are upgrading it automatically for you to version 365. You are currently number 7890 in the queue and your computer should be reenabled in the next 4 weeks, 3 days, 12 hours, 4 minutes and 8 seconds.
[wait]
Unfortunatly your computer does not have enough memory to run version 365. Please contact your hardware vendor for an upgrade.
Seriously - If the software version I am using now works perfectly why should I have to upgrade it to a newer version which may have bugs in that I don't know about and don't want.
"
2. no compatibility issues - again these cost money; by constantly being up-to-date, we have no risk of not being able to read that vital document.
"
Congratulations on upgrading to dull office software version 365.
Unfortunatly compatibility with verions prior to 362 has now been removed. You will find the dustbin by the door for your CD document backups.
"
3. better budgeting. If we know that our software will cost $x/year, every year, we can budget for that. There is then no risk of unseen costs.
"
Vicious Software company Inc regrets to inform you that we have gone bust. All copies of our software will now be disabled. Regretfully no conversion filters exist to rival software manufacturers.
"
4. reduced impact on cashflow. Subscriptions mean that there is a lower initial cost - this means there is more money available to develop the business *now*.
"
You have a point there, but only if you're talking about non-free software.
"
The thing is, subscriptions are just being realistic - if you pretend that you're still going to be using those P3's running Office xxxx in 5 years time, you're wrong.
"
Ever been to a university / school / educational / public sector computer.
Many of these are still Pentiums with the odd 486 lying around.
"
All the subscription/ASP approach acknowledges is that we have to upgrade anyway - companies are always upgrading hardware and software in order to gain the productivity benefits they attract.
"
The subscription model changes it from
we choose to upgrade for a benefit we want
to
we must upgrade for benefits we may or may not want
0K != No energy,
there is such a thing as zero-point energy.
I'm not going in to it now but basically it's all Heisenbergs fault.
Does it implement HTCPCP ?
It's name would suggest yes but it doesn't seem to be apparent on the specs.
"
I never said you couldn't make good art at home. I just said it'll never sound as good as the big boys.
"
I strongly contend that home stuff can sound better that the big boys.
Recording live gigs to 2 track DAT + bundle of SM57s + SM58s + a few condensors + Soundcraft Live4 mixer gives a good result.
The big boys when recording a live gig compress the final output to buggery - just to make it sound better on cheap reproduction equipment.
I don't care about cheap equipment - I have expensive equipment so I end up with a more natural sounding live recording than any 'professional' live recording I've ever bought because I've not had reams of compression and EQ added to the final mix to beef out the sound.
Admittedly this is in the semi-pro level, the equipment is owned by College for the student gigs and has a much larger budget than I could manage plus the advantage of soudn engineers that have done a variety of venues and different bands rather than recording their own stuff, but it is still possible to get some excellent results.
I thought the business model was
1: Write dumb business plan that will never work.
2: Get $X in funding where X is a large number
3: Extract $Y from $X where Y X and won't be noticed
4: Allow company to go bust.
5: Let media laugh at you becuase you lose $(X-Y) in virtual money. Not let on that you now have $Y money left over.
Providing $Y is a reasonable sum of money e.g. $1million then your average Geek has done OK for a years work, even if he has lost $499 in virtual money.
"
Not to mention that every computer user on the planet has a floppy drive.
"
... that won't read these disks.