Correct me if I'm wrong, but wouldn't consumer protection laws prevent this? You cannot sell someone something that is defective and just tell them to go shove it up their ass when they come back to you complaining about it.
The manager is gonna get pissed off at you, not the disk maker
The point is that they will start to see a pattern of these defective CDs being returned, realize that people aren't happy with them, and that this will work its way up to Universal. Will the manager be pissed off at you? Possibly. But that's something you'll have to put up with if you want to do your part.
I've downloaded a couple of shareware programs that use the sound card for input, but they weren't really useful
You can measure low-amplitude AC signals from a few Hertz to a couple dozen kilohertz (and easily do fancy tricks such as FFT analysis), but if you're talking about using this setup as a real oscilloscope, you're not going to get very good results. Sound cards have lots of filters on them, many of which are active filters, and this would have the potential to tinker with your input signal. Also, feed too large a signal into your sound card, and poof -- no more soundcard.
Times have changed, our kids are getting worse
They won't obey their parents, they just want to fart and curse
Should we blame the government? Or blame society?
Or should we blame the images on TV? No...
Blame Microsoft! Blame Microsoft!
With all their beady little eyes and their flappin heads so full of lies
Blame Microsoft! Blame Microsoft!
We need to form a full assault, it's Microsoft's fault!
Don't blame me for my son Stan
He saw the darn cartoon and now he's off to join the clan!
And my boy Eric once had my picture on his shelf
But now when I see him he tells me to fsck myself! Well...
Blame Microsoft! Blame Microsoft!
It seems that everything's gone wrong since Microsoft came along
Blame Microsoft! Blame Microsoft!
They're not even a real company anyway!
My son could have been a doctor or a lawyer, it's true
Instead he burned up like a piggy on a barbeque
Should we blame the matches? Should we blame the fire?
Or the doctors who allowed him to expire? Heck no!
Blame Microsoft! Blame Microsoft!
With all their hockey hullabaloo and that bitch Anne Murray too
Blame Microsoft! Shame on Microsoft!
For the smiling must stop, the laughter and fun must all be undone
We must blame them and cause a fuss
Before somebody thinks of blaming us!
who take ALL OF THE OTHER COMMENTS SERIOUSLY and go off like idiot kneejerk monkees...
I specifically said that I wasn't taking the comment seriously. In fact, in case you didn't read my comment, I *explicitly* stated that I knew it was sarcasm. And now *you're* the one talking about kneejerk monkees? (What do the Monkees have to do with this anyway...)
It's just emailing lots of people who don't want to be e-mailed.
In other words, it's just gaining access to people's computers who do not want you to have access to do that. Or to put it differently, it is gaining unauthorized access to their computers. Computer intrusion, as you would put it.
If spamming was labeled as hacking under the current law, e-mailing would be too.
Wrong again. If someone wants to contact me for a valid reason, they are certainly authorized to do so. Spam, however, is NOT a valid reason. You could set out concrete rules if you wanted to, but again, spam is not an authorized use of my inbox.
Well, there is a shock. After all, YOU NASTY LITTLE HACKERS, don't deserve any input.
I realize you were probably being sarcastic, but this is the kind of misconception that is causing our civil rights to go down the toilet (even without all the post-Sept 11 hoopla). Contrary to what corporations and the government that they help run believe, not everybody in the technological community is an "evil little hacker." In fact, "evil little hackers" constitute an extremely small percentage of the tech community, probably less than 1%.
Take the recording industry for example. Contrary to what the government^WRIAA would have you believe, the vast majority of tech-oriented people are people who respect the right of artists to make money. But, of course, some of them have a problem with the cartels that are in place to enforce this. Some of them choose to make their displeasure known in different ways; for example, some of them choose to bypass the system and share mp3s directly between each other. This causes a chain reaction that snowballs into the situation we have now. No telling where it could go next. Regardless of what you think about trading mp3s, the fact is that the situation we have now is a result of a tit-for-tat that has been going on for quite some time between the industry and its consumers. One feels that the other is screwing them over, and takes action. The other doesn't like this action, and takes action of its own in response. Repeat from step 1.
Despite how blatantly false it is, many people in the government honestly believe that all techies are evil hackers. They then use this to justify passing all sorts of legislation restricting technology. Can you say "DMCA"? Legislators -- even the ones who haven't already been bought out by big corporations -- honestly believe that they are doing good by passing the crap they've been passing. But like I said, this is the result of a huge misconception.
As sad as it is, our government is run on one thing: money. Legislators tend to listen to whoever pays them the most, and this inevitably turns out to be big corporations. Because the corporations tend to have a strong dislike for techies because of tit-for-tats such as the one mentioned above, they portray them as evil hackers to both the government and the public. This propaganda is quite effective too. Large sections of the population have a negative view of techies, viewing them as "dirty little hackers," which the vast majority are certainly not.
The only thing I'm wondering now is when big corporations will pull their heads out of their asses and start to actually listen to their customers for a change. If that happens, then hopefully the government will follow suit.
How hard would it be to add a keylogger to Windows XP's millions of lines of code? Not hard
Of course it won't be hard. The hard part (for Microsoft, anyway) will be explaining what is going on to people when their PC suddenly blue-screens with a cryptic message about Big Brother. "bigbrother.vxd caused a General Protection Fault in module fbigov.exe at 3248:3489."
Has microsoft actually improved their spam filters lately for hotmail? I seem to be getting alot less spam through them.
I've had a Hotmail address as my primary address (don't laugh, please) since before M$ bought them out. Somewhere around five years now. So it follows that I get so much spam it isn't even remotely funny.
Anyway, in response to your comment, my inbox spam seems to have been narrowing itself down into a few specific categories/spammers lately, including:
* Some company repeatedly trying to sell me pharmaceuticals
* University Diplomas
* A few others
I would get a kick out of sending some legit cease-and-desist letters to these people, but I don't really have the time or money to get the necessary legal counsel. Yes, I have looked into changing my email provider, but I don't want to pick a company only to have it become the next dotcom of doom. So I guess I'm screwed:[
People pay for cable television, but I don't hear too much complaining about commercial breaks on ESPN/TNT/other cable stations
Correction. You pay for the right to access the local cable company's network. You are not paying ESPN/CSPAN/TWC, or even the producers of the programs they run, for the right to watch what they are putting out. They provide this service to you at no charge, and in return, you "agree" to watch their commercials. It's somewhat like electricity -- you can have the lines going into your house, but unless there is somebody on the other end of those lines to provide 'content', it won't do you a damn bit of good. The analogy is that you are paying for the lines here with $$$, but are paying for the actual service with your eyes.
Fine Microsoft for every undocumented API that should be disclosed under the agreement
And you trust Microsoft to not lie about the number of undocumented API calls that are in Windows? Of course they exist (I have personally verified this using programs that monitor known API calls), but as an example, say that 500 such API calls exist. What's to say that Microsoft won't say something like "Oh, there are exactly 73 of those"? Remember, Microsoft has proven that they aren't afraid to mislead at all, even in court.
Low power is great, there is a definite need for using less power and producing less heat in some systems. As for MHZ increases, I truly wonder what is driving the need for speed anymore other than media types and gamers. Where are the next generation apps that will utilize this kind of firepower? Media producers, avid gamers, engineers, and server roles excluded, who else needs or even wants this kind of power? What will you do with it, besides *everything* you do today "faster"?
With recent legal pushes such as the DMCA and proposed SSSCA, what do you see in the future of our legal system? Do you see more pro-corporate laws being passed or do you see potential for a change in the government's traditional bend towards protecting corporate interests? It seems that you are in a position that would grant more insight into this than most of us would have.
I've never seen a fan that weighed more than a couple of ounces at the most
I have a large desktop fan pointed into my system right now (don't laugh, it reduces the CPU temperature by 15-20 degrees). I would guess its weight at 3-5 pounds.
Copyright law shouldn't need to be used to stifle innovation.
Agreed. And the ironic thing is that copyright law was originally intended to promote innovation. But the Founding Fathers had a far different view of what copyright should be than what the corporate bosses^W^W lawmakers of today do.
Slashdot Mirror
Let me get this straigt... What CAN you use their service for?
Finding a new service?
Correct me if I'm wrong, but wouldn't consumer protection laws prevent this? You cannot sell someone something that is defective and just tell them to go shove it up their ass when they come back to you complaining about it.
The manager is gonna get pissed off at you, not the disk maker
The point is that they will start to see a pattern of these defective CDs being returned, realize that people aren't happy with them, and that this will work its way up to Universal. Will the manager be pissed off at you? Possibly. But that's something you'll have to put up with if you want to do your part.
I've downloaded a couple of shareware programs that use the sound card for input, but they weren't really useful
You can measure low-amplitude AC signals from a few Hertz to a couple dozen kilohertz (and easily do fancy tricks such as FFT analysis), but if you're talking about using this setup as a real oscilloscope, you're not going to get very good results. Sound cards have lots of filters on them, many of which are active filters, and this would have the potential to tinker with your input signal. Also, feed too large a signal into your sound card, and poof -- no more soundcard.
To the tune of "Blame Canada":
Times have changed, our kids are getting worse
They won't obey their parents, they just want to fart and curse
Should we blame the government? Or blame society?
Or should we blame the images on TV? No...
Blame Microsoft! Blame Microsoft!
With all their beady little eyes and their flappin heads so full of lies
Blame Microsoft! Blame Microsoft!
We need to form a full assault, it's Microsoft's fault!
Don't blame me for my son Stan
He saw the darn cartoon and now he's off to join the clan!
And my boy Eric once had my picture on his shelf
But now when I see him he tells me to fsck myself! Well...
Blame Microsoft! Blame Microsoft!
It seems that everything's gone wrong since Microsoft came along
Blame Microsoft! Blame Microsoft!
They're not even a real company anyway!
My son could have been a doctor or a lawyer, it's true
Instead he burned up like a piggy on a barbeque
Should we blame the matches? Should we blame the fire?
Or the doctors who allowed him to expire? Heck no!
Blame Microsoft! Blame Microsoft!
With all their hockey hullabaloo and that bitch Anne Murray too
Blame Microsoft! Shame on Microsoft!
For the smiling must stop, the laughter and fun must all be undone
We must blame them and cause a fuss
Before somebody thinks of blaming us!
Disclaimer: The above is intended to be parody.
who take ALL OF THE OTHER COMMENTS SERIOUSLY and go off like idiot kneejerk monkees...
I specifically said that I wasn't taking the comment seriously. In fact, in case you didn't read my comment, I *explicitly* stated that I knew it was sarcasm. And now *you're* the one talking about kneejerk monkees? (What do the Monkees have to do with this anyway...)
It's just emailing lots of people who don't want to be e-mailed.
In other words, it's just gaining access to people's computers who do not want you to have access to do that. Or to put it differently, it is gaining unauthorized access to their computers. Computer intrusion, as you would put it.
If spamming was labeled as hacking under the current law, e-mailing would be too.
Wrong again. If someone wants to contact me for a valid reason, they are certainly authorized to do so. Spam, however, is NOT a valid reason. You could set out concrete rules if you wanted to, but again, spam is not an authorized use of my inbox.
Well, there is a shock. After all, YOU NASTY LITTLE HACKERS, don't deserve any input.
I realize you were probably being sarcastic, but this is the kind of misconception that is causing our civil rights to go down the toilet (even without all the post-Sept 11 hoopla). Contrary to what corporations and the government that they help run believe, not everybody in the technological community is an "evil little hacker." In fact, "evil little hackers" constitute an extremely small percentage of the tech community, probably less than 1%.
Take the recording industry for example. Contrary to what the government^WRIAA would have you believe, the vast majority of tech-oriented people are people who respect the right of artists to make money. But, of course, some of them have a problem with the cartels that are in place to enforce this. Some of them choose to make their displeasure known in different ways; for example, some of them choose to bypass the system and share mp3s directly between each other. This causes a chain reaction that snowballs into the situation we have now. No telling where it could go next. Regardless of what you think about trading mp3s, the fact is that the situation we have now is a result of a tit-for-tat that has been going on for quite some time between the industry and its consumers. One feels that the other is screwing them over, and takes action. The other doesn't like this action, and takes action of its own in response. Repeat from step 1.
Despite how blatantly false it is, many people in the government honestly believe that all techies are evil hackers. They then use this to justify passing all sorts of legislation restricting technology. Can you say "DMCA"? Legislators -- even the ones who haven't already been bought out by big corporations -- honestly believe that they are doing good by passing the crap they've been passing. But like I said, this is the result of a huge misconception.
As sad as it is, our government is run on one thing: money. Legislators tend to listen to whoever pays them the most, and this inevitably turns out to be big corporations. Because the corporations tend to have a strong dislike for techies because of tit-for-tats such as the one mentioned above, they portray them as evil hackers to both the government and the public. This propaganda is quite effective too. Large sections of the population have a negative view of techies, viewing them as "dirty little hackers," which the vast majority are certainly not.
The only thing I'm wondering now is when big corporations will pull their heads out of their asses and start to actually listen to their customers for a change. If that happens, then hopefully the government will follow suit.
IIRC, treaties approved by legislature and the executive branch carry the same weight as the Constitution itself
Since the Constitution sets out terms for the mere existence of the legislative and executive branches, it would tend to have more weight.
How hard would it be to add a keylogger to Windows XP's millions of lines of code? Not hard
Of course it won't be hard. The hard part (for Microsoft, anyway) will be explaining what is going on to people when their PC suddenly blue-screens with a cryptic message about Big Brother. "bigbrother.vxd caused a General Protection Fault in module fbigov.exe at 3248:3489."
Does this mean it will now be illegal to use a secure system?
:P
Pending its approval, wouldn't that make the SSSCA illegal?
Here in Canada I go to Radio Shack to get some batteries and they want my mailing address to send me their retarded flyers
Tell them "I choose not to reveal that." That's what I always do.
Has microsoft actually improved their spam filters lately for hotmail? I seem to be getting alot less spam through them.
:[
I've had a Hotmail address as my primary address (don't laugh, please) since before M$ bought them out. Somewhere around five years now. So it follows that I get so much spam it isn't even remotely funny.
Anyway, in response to your comment, my inbox spam seems to have been narrowing itself down into a few specific categories/spammers lately, including:
* Some company repeatedly trying to sell me pharmaceuticals
* University Diplomas
* A few others
I would get a kick out of sending some legit cease-and-desist letters to these people, but I don't really have the time or money to get the necessary legal counsel. Yes, I have looked into changing my email provider, but I don't want to pick a company only to have it become the next dotcom of doom. So I guess I'm screwed
Wahington State went after spammers. The state was the first to pass anti-spamming legislation.
And many states have followed suit. Check spamlaws.com to see if your state (or country) is on the list.
Does a GPS tell you which roads are one way only, or where the next highway interchange is?
Some do.
People pay for cable television, but I don't hear too much complaining about commercial breaks on ESPN/TNT/other cable stations
Correction. You pay for the right to access the local cable company's network. You are not paying ESPN/CSPAN/TWC, or even the producers of the programs they run, for the right to watch what they are putting out. They provide this service to you at no charge, and in return, you "agree" to watch their commercials. It's somewhat like electricity -- you can have the lines going into your house, but unless there is somebody on the other end of those lines to provide 'content', it won't do you a damn bit of good. The analogy is that you are paying for the lines here with $$$, but are paying for the actual service with your eyes.
Fine Microsoft for every undocumented API that should be disclosed under the agreement
And you trust Microsoft to not lie about the number of undocumented API calls that are in Windows? Of course they exist (I have personally verified this using programs that monitor known API calls), but as an example, say that 500 such API calls exist. What's to say that Microsoft won't say something like "Oh, there are exactly 73 of those"? Remember, Microsoft has proven that they aren't afraid to mislead at all, even in court.
Low power is great, there is a definite need for using less power and producing less heat in some systems. As for MHZ increases, I truly wonder what is driving the need for speed anymore other than media types and gamers. Where are the next generation apps that will utilize this kind of firepower? Media producers, avid gamers, engineers, and server roles excluded, who else needs or even wants this kind of power? What will you do with it, besides *everything* you do today "faster"?
The same thing was said ten years ago.
Other than the fact that BillG's birthday is on October 28, why does it seem that a lot of significant things seem to happen to them during Halloween?
Or is it a coincidence that BillG's birthday is so close to Halloween? Maybe THAT'S why he and his company are so like they are.
With recent legal pushes such as the DMCA and proposed SSSCA, what do you see in the future of our legal system? Do you see more pro-corporate laws being passed or do you see potential for a change in the government's traditional bend towards protecting corporate interests? It seems that you are in a position that would grant more insight into this than most of us would have.
So what if a little extra heat can kill your CPU more quickly. What does an 1.4GHz T-bird cost now? $115?
/. added space is removed) 404s.
Trouble is, not everybody can afford to buy a new CPU every few weeks when their old one burns out.
Incidentally, your sig (even when the
I've never seen a fan that weighed more than a couple of ounces at the most
I have a large desktop fan pointed into my system right now (don't laugh, it reduces the CPU temperature by 15-20 degrees). I would guess its weight at 3-5 pounds.
Copyright law shouldn't need to be used to stifle innovation.
Agreed. And the ironic thing is that copyright law was originally intended to promote innovation. But the Founding Fathers had a far different view of what copyright should be than what the corporate bosses^W^W lawmakers of today do.
Does the DMCA ban reverse engineering as well
Yes, except for purposes of interoperability
Sometimes not even that is allowed, depending on who's paying what judge. Remember, DeCSS case...
That is an excellent question, can anyone on here give an estimate of what a vanilla win32 release with source would be
Windows itself: 1 CD
Source: 3 CDs (maybe only 1 or 2)
Electronic file containing MS Source EULA: 441 CDs
So I'd put it at about 445 CDs.