I respect all of that...
However, I wouldn't be caught sailing around the world in a boat too small to be struck by lighting and not absorb it. I also wouldn't do it without enough backups to not need to worry about a sextent.
You DO know the US Navy no longer trains all their navigators to use them, right?
Yes, and sometimes hard decisions have to be made that you won't like.
For example, if your house is on fire, you get out, the fire engines show up, and you then realize that your kid is still inside, you WILL try to run back in and save him/her, and the firemen WILL tackle you and stop you, because it serves no purpose in having you die in the fire, or worse they then have to try and save both of you. You won't be very happy about that decision either, even more so if your kid dies, but it will have been the right one.
You're right, when it is your father, any amount of money is acceptable, and if you personally have it to spend, go for it. The problem is when people want "other people's money" to be spent in such a case. I don't want half a million tax payer dollars spent to give an 80 year old another month, however you're more than welcome to spend your own money on your dad, if you have it.
Cold decision, but cold decisions have to be made when demand is unlimited and resources are limited.
Amen to that... I've spent many thousands at NewEgg, almost everything is always fine, but a year ago I got a bad ASUS motherboard, had parts of the board rolling around in the box when I opened it. I needed it pretty quick, so I called and without even asking hard the NewEgg rep send me a replacement overnight for no extra charge, and paid return shipping on the board I had.
Yep, the replacement board was bad as well. Had a third board the next day, which worked.
I will ALWAYS buy at NewEgg, even if it is $20 cheaper everywhere else. That kind of service is work it when you need it. I don't even shop around anymore, I know sometimes NewEgg is a few $$$ more than Amazon or another on-line retailer, but I don't care, the service is second to none at the Egg.
That is true, but in that case there are fixed, known future payments due. You also are signing an actual contract. What is on that web page is not a signed contract and I doubt has the same force of law as something you actually have signed.
A car also has a title and a lien filed against it. This item up on eBay has neither. There are established systems in place to repossess a car, put in place to induce lenders to loan money for cars. Nothing similar exists for this.
You can write anything in a contract that you want, doesn't make it enforceable.
First, you have the first sale doctrine. You can licence IP, you can't licence a physical good.
This is a physical good that is shipped, once you get it you can do anything you want with it. The software inside might be subject to a licence agreement, however if you don't run it (supply power), then you wouldn't be bound by it.
To give you a comparison, if you bought a car, and part of the contract of the car said that when you resold it, you had to pay the car maker 15% of the sales price each time the car was resold. Such a contract would never be enforced by a court.
Meh? You can keep your cable shared bandwith, I'll keep my FioS...
When (not if) I'm downloading a multi-gb file, I want it now, not in an hour. Heck, the patches to Adobe CS4 alone on a fresh install are 1GB in size. Between Windows updates for multiple machines, netflix, online games, and everything in the house that auto-updates now, I do not want part of a high speed connection, I want all of it.
Right now I have 20 up / 20 down, and love every minute of it. I dumped time warner cable and never looked back. My Mom has AT&T DSL, 3 up / 512 down. I was there the other night upgrading her computer from Office 2003 to Office 2007 (she works from home, the company was upgrading), and had to download the updates and service packs... That was just painful...
This is why I keep an old P4 system with Win98SE on it and a SoundBlaster Live 24 card in it...
Too many old games just don't work right on the NT line of Windows. One of my favories is Star Trek: Armada (the first one). It never did run right on Windows XP, regardless of the tricks I tried.
It works perfectly on my old Dell 8200 with Win98SE and the SoundBlaster card (the onboard audio sucks in that old computer, it cracks and pops).
I do have a 386 in the closet as well, for really old Dos stuff, but to be honest, it hasn't been turned on in a few years, and probably won't get turned on again. Why keep it? *shrug* Why throw it out?
First off, I have no love for spammers, but to wish death upon them? Don't you think wishing death upon another human being is a bit extreme for anything other then capitol offenses?
No, I don't... Someone like this is not going to change their behavior. His past shows no interest in changing his ways.
The only way to stop this behavior is to take him out back and shoot him in the head.
He'll never stop, he will never care, removing him from the gene pool is the only remaining option.
Putting him in prison costs money and changes nothing, you can never let him out again, or he'll do it again.
To get the point across to people like this, you have to take them out back and shoot them in the head.
It is the only way to stop them; putting them in jail is a waste of money. They won't change their ways. If we as a society have decided we do not want this behavior, removing him from the gene pool is the only option.
Shame we lack the courage to do that.
(note: this does not mean I don't want him to have his due process, he deserves that. If he has had it, then off with his head)
"Yet rational argument will lead us to "it's legal, they're a profit-oriented entity, so they should do it". And yet we can't shake the feeling that it's not ok."
Here is the problem...
Microsoft is a legal entity with the obligation to its shareholders to maximize profit. The board of directors is legally bound to do whatever possible to make the shareholders as much money as possible.
What you suggest would be illegal, because it would be acting against the interests of the shareholders...
That implies they are lying about it, which they are not.
immoral?
That is a value judgement. Are you sure you're qualified to make that on everyone's behalf?
...and it should be stopped?
So lobby your congressmen and have them change the laws. You are also free to not do business with Microsoft, you're free to think they are idiots, however complaining about it here or calling it "wrong or immoral" is pointless.
Be careful when you say something is "wrong", rather than illegal.
"wrong" is an opinion, your version of right and wrong may or may not be shared by everyone else. Trying to impose your version of a "social contract" is exactly what is "wrong" with much of the world today.
Carbonite has the benefit of backing everything up in real time (a 10 minute delay anyway).
Mozy has the benefit of speed, they backup 10 times as fast as Carbonite.
We use Carbonite to backup our family photos, music collection, documents, etc.
Mozy backs up everything, it took 3 months to backup 4TB of data, but it did the job. Carbonite would take several years to do it because they slow down the more you backup.
The downside to both of course is that if we ever had to restore the data, it would take forever. The upside is that most of that data is not needed quickly. The stuff that would be needed right away could be gotten in a few hours.
It would be nice if either service offered the option to run a backup on DVD-R and mail it to them, then do updates online. However I don't think either service was really meant for 4TB backups for $50/year, even if they do say "unlimited".:)
You are correct about what Congress can do in practice, doesn't make it legal however...
Not everything Congress does is legal, however since they have all the guns and there is no one above them (other than the people), they can pretty much do whatever the people will let them get away with.
It would be legal to build your own gun, and even sell it. You'll still go to jail. Before you worry too much about what Congress says is legal, consider that the elections in Iran were "legal".
You are assuming that it will boot from a USB drive...
If they lock it down at the hardware level, restrict the BIOS into only booting from an encrypted hard drive, and require it to be online to work, it could be pretty hard to break into.
Not impossible mind you, the minute you physically have access to the computer, all bets are off, but they can make it quite hard. They can also make it a real crime to do so, and with the tracking hardware installed, why take the chance?
No, noone was gaming at 1600x1200 back then, even if it was possible.
I had a Viewsonic 21" CRT back then (I bought it for video editing, something I was doing at the time), it cost more than my Dell 30" LCD did this year, but for its day, it was amazing. Even then, I do not recall ever running it at 1600x1200, usually I ran it at 1152x864, or 1280x1024, but that was it. And yes, many games back then were 640x480, or maybe 800x600.
Huh?
We have a Toshiba 40" 1080P LCD in the kids bedroom and a Sharp AQUOS 46" 1080P in the game room now. The PS3 is hooked up to the 46", but it used to be on the Toshiba until it was moved a few months ago when we bought the 46" to replace it. (the family room has a 46" Sony XBR2 bought 2 1/2 years ago for a stupid amount of money, but we have enjoyed it)
Who owns a 19" TV anymore? We haven't had one of those in 15 years...
"Cheap, easy, reliable. Choose any two"
I disagree... I use Mozy, it is cheap ($5/month), easy (it runs in the background), reliable (I have tested restores, they work).
What more could you want?
Now, I'm not backing up CIA info here... If I was I'd do more. This is family pictures, and this is a better solution than I used to have, which was none.
Slashdot Mirror
I respect all of that... However, I wouldn't be caught sailing around the world in a boat too small to be struck by lighting and not absorb it. I also wouldn't do it without enough backups to not need to worry about a sextent. You DO know the US Navy no longer trains all their navigators to use them, right?
SSDs are your friend... :)
Yes, and sometimes hard decisions have to be made that you won't like.
For example, if your house is on fire, you get out, the fire engines show up, and you then realize that your kid is still inside, you WILL try to run back in and save him/her, and the firemen WILL tackle you and stop you, because it serves no purpose in having you die in the fire, or worse they then have to try and save both of you. You won't be very happy about that decision either, even more so if your kid dies, but it will have been the right one.
You're right, when it is your father, any amount of money is acceptable, and if you personally have it to spend, go for it. The problem is when people want "other people's money" to be spent in such a case. I don't want half a million tax payer dollars spent to give an 80 year old another month, however you're more than welcome to spend your own money on your dad, if you have it.
Cold decision, but cold decisions have to be made when demand is unlimited and resources are limited.
+10
Amen to that... I've spent many thousands at NewEgg, almost everything is always fine, but a year ago I got a bad ASUS motherboard, had parts of the board rolling around in the box when I opened it. I needed it pretty quick, so I called and without even asking hard the NewEgg rep send me a replacement overnight for no extra charge, and paid return shipping on the board I had.
Yep, the replacement board was bad as well. Had a third board the next day, which worked.
I will ALWAYS buy at NewEgg, even if it is $20 cheaper everywhere else. That kind of service is work it when you need it. I don't even shop around anymore, I know sometimes NewEgg is a few $$$ more than Amazon or another on-line retailer, but I don't care, the service is second to none at the Egg.
I welcome our new self learning, walking, flying, shooting, robot AI overlords...
That is true, but in that case there are fixed, known future payments due. You also are signing an actual contract. What is on that web page is not a signed contract and I doubt has the same force of law as something you actually have signed.
A car also has a title and a lien filed against it. This item up on eBay has neither. There are established systems in place to repossess a car, put in place to induce lenders to loan money for cars. Nothing similar exists for this.
You can write anything in a contract that you want, doesn't make it enforceable.
First, you have the first sale doctrine. You can licence IP, you can't licence a physical good.
This is a physical good that is shipped, once you get it you can do anything you want with it. The software inside might be subject to a licence agreement, however if you don't run it (supply power), then you wouldn't be bound by it.
To give you a comparison, if you bought a car, and part of the contract of the car said that when you resold it, you had to pay the car maker 15% of the sales price each time the car was resold. Such a contract would never be enforced by a court.
But why is it illegal for Intel to sell their processers for less to someone who agrees to use them only, compared to someone who uses Intel and AMD?
Because Intel is a monopoly? Hardly, AMD sells plenty of CPUs.
I'm just trying to understand how anything Intel did is illegal. I would have been inclined to do exactly what they did, had I been in their shoes.
Meh? You can keep your cable shared bandwith, I'll keep my FioS...
When (not if) I'm downloading a multi-gb file, I want it now, not in an hour. Heck, the patches to Adobe CS4 alone on a fresh install are 1GB in size. Between Windows updates for multiple machines, netflix, online games, and everything in the house that auto-updates now, I do not want part of a high speed connection, I want all of it.
Right now I have 20 up / 20 down, and love every minute of it. I dumped time warner cable and never looked back. My Mom has AT&T DSL, 3 up / 512 down. I was there the other night upgrading her computer from Office 2003 to Office 2007 (she works from home, the company was upgrading), and had to download the updates and service packs... That was just painful...
Rant mode off...
Amen to that...
:)
I have bought a lot on Steam in the past few years, just because it is easy, I don't have to find the CD/DVD, I won't lose the product key, etc.
Yea, yea, I can't resell it. Let me check... um, right... The last time I resold a game was... wait for it... never...
I can redownload it as much as I want, to any computer I want, forever... I can make local backups, play offline, etc.
Theft is too much work now...
This is why I keep an old P4 system with Win98SE on it and a SoundBlaster Live 24 card in it...
Too many old games just don't work right on the NT line of Windows. One of my favories is Star Trek: Armada (the first one). It never did run right on Windows XP, regardless of the tricks I tried.
It works perfectly on my old Dell 8200 with Win98SE and the SoundBlaster card (the onboard audio sucks in that old computer, it cracks and pops).
I do have a 386 in the closet as well, for really old Dos stuff, but to be honest, it hasn't been turned on in a few years, and probably won't get turned on again. Why keep it? *shrug* Why throw it out?
First off, I have no love for spammers, but to wish death upon them? Don't you think wishing death upon another human being is a bit extreme for anything other then capitol offenses?
No, I don't... Someone like this is not going to change their behavior. His past shows no interest in changing his ways.
The only way to stop this behavior is to take him out back and shoot him in the head.
He'll never stop, he will never care, removing him from the gene pool is the only remaining option.
Putting him in prison costs money and changes nothing, you can never let him out again, or he'll do it again.
To get the point across to people like this, you have to take them out back and shoot them in the head.
It is the only way to stop them; putting them in jail is a waste of money. They won't change their ways. If we as a society have decided we do not want this behavior, removing him from the gene pool is the only option.
Shame we lack the courage to do that.
(note: this does not mean I don't want him to have his due process, he deserves that. If he has had it, then off with his head)
"Yet rational argument will lead us to "it's legal, they're a profit-oriented entity, so they should do it". And yet we can't shake the feeling that it's not ok."
Here is the problem...
Microsoft is a legal entity with the obligation to its shareholders to maximize profit. The board of directors is legally bound to do whatever possible to make the shareholders as much money as possible.
What you suggest would be illegal, because it would be acting against the interests of the shareholders...
dishonest?
...and it should be stopped?
That implies they are lying about it, which they are not.
immoral?
That is a value judgement. Are you sure you're qualified to make that on everyone's behalf?
So lobby your congressmen and have them change the laws. You are also free to not do business with Microsoft, you're free to think they are idiots, however complaining about it here or calling it "wrong or immoral" is pointless.
Be careful when you say something is "wrong", rather than illegal.
"wrong" is an opinion, your version of right and wrong may or may not be shared by everyone else. Trying to impose your version of a "social contract" is exactly what is "wrong" with much of the world today.
We use both Mozy and Carbonite in our home.
:)
Carbonite has the benefit of backing everything up in real time (a 10 minute delay anyway).
Mozy has the benefit of speed, they backup 10 times as fast as Carbonite.
We use Carbonite to backup our family photos, music collection, documents, etc.
Mozy backs up everything, it took 3 months to backup 4TB of data, but it did the job. Carbonite would take several years to do it because they slow down the more you backup.
The downside to both of course is that if we ever had to restore the data, it would take forever. The upside is that most of that data is not needed quickly. The stuff that would be needed right away could be gotten in a few hours.
It would be nice if either service offered the option to run a backup on DVD-R and mail it to them, then do updates online. However I don't think either service was really meant for 4TB backups for $50/year, even if they do say "unlimited".
You are correct about what Congress can do in practice, doesn't make it legal however...
Not everything Congress does is legal, however since they have all the guns and there is no one above them (other than the people), they can pretty much do whatever the people will let them get away with.
It would be legal to build your own gun, and even sell it. You'll still go to jail. Before you worry too much about what Congress says is legal, consider that the elections in Iran were "legal".
You are assuming that it will boot from a USB drive...
If they lock it down at the hardware level, restrict the BIOS into only booting from an encrypted hard drive, and require it to be online to work, it could be pretty hard to break into.
Not impossible mind you, the minute you physically have access to the computer, all bets are off, but they can make it quite hard. They can also make it a real crime to do so, and with the tracking hardware installed, why take the chance?
I'm surprised that Google doesn't do this, it would be SO much faster than scanning each page one at a time.
Another option, see if Amazon sells the book in digital format. Sometimes a few bucks saves a world of headache.
Now if these are expensive textbooks or reference books, or don't belong to you, the above may not apply, just my first thought on the subject.
http://www.amazon.com/Toshiba-40RV525R-40-Inch-1080p-HDTV/dp/B001TA1DOC/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&s=electronics&qid=1252484927&sr=8-1 $650 is too much? If you can afford a PS3, you can afford this TV.
I had a Viewsonic 21" CRT back then (I bought it for video editing, something I was doing at the time), it cost more than my Dell 30" LCD did this year, but for its day, it was amazing. Even then, I do not recall ever running it at 1600x1200, usually I ran it at 1152x864, or 1280x1024, but that was it. And yes, many games back then were 640x480, or maybe 800x600.
Huh? We have a Toshiba 40" 1080P LCD in the kids bedroom and a Sharp AQUOS 46" 1080P in the game room now. The PS3 is hooked up to the 46", but it used to be on the Toshiba until it was moved a few months ago when we bought the 46" to replace it. (the family room has a 46" Sony XBR2 bought 2 1/2 years ago for a stupid amount of money, but we have enjoyed it) Who owns a 19" TV anymore? We haven't had one of those in 15 years...
"Cheap, easy, reliable. Choose any two" I disagree... I use Mozy, it is cheap ($5/month), easy (it runs in the background), reliable (I have tested restores, they work). What more could you want? Now, I'm not backing up CIA info here... If I was I'd do more. This is family pictures, and this is a better solution than I used to have, which was none.