>now groups.google.com is blocked, and they tell me they won't unblock it.
Easy solution.
You research the answers on your own time at home and print them out.
When you come back to work the next day explain you now know the answers from groups.google, maybe even flash the printouts, but as you learned them on your own time you'll need your home DSL connection company-funded if you are to continue working in this manner.
If they refuse, then you simply do the one day productively with your new answers and the rest you do without groups.google, as poorly as will happen without it. The company obviously values blocking groups.google more than having solutions, so you needn't worry (except for the viability of the company and what that means to your employment).
In the mean time perhaps find another job and send resumes out while you're at it if it bugs you enough.
>However, I had to hit them hard (possibly because of the fact that they were no longer powered), and I didn't feel safe on the winter streets of Buffalo (think snow 10 months a year) without ABS.
Oddly enough, I do recall having watched a show which demonstrated how a good driver can stop quicker with threshold braking on ice and snow rather than ABS... Here's a group that agrees.
That's helped justify me being a cheap bastard.;-)
>Copyright violation is Theft; the "No Electronic Theft" bill was signed into law a good 7 years ago, the usage is established, stop playing games about it.
Okay. Let's say I agree with you. If it's theft I'm certain you can find me at least one instance of the word "theft" in the US copyright act. Come on, at least one. Just a tiny instance. There's thousands of words there. You can squeeze at least *one* instance of "theft" from there, can't you? It's not hard, the button is right there! Just click it! Don't be afraid!
Oh wait, I know you can't because I already did the search and it comes up with zilch. The closest word "steal" is regarding theft of physical property.
>Give the standard programming away, and charge those who want more (this could probably be acconplished by encrypting certain streams, and sending out the free ones as unencrypted or something. I'm not satellite techie, but it seems fairly straight-forward).
This is how it works in Europe.
Unfortunately, in North America, things are generally screwed up so badly between laws and moronic satellite companies that everyone is screwed.
For example, Canadians have been barred for a lifetime from paying a cent for any US based satellite service, and so were forced to pirate it (which, up until two years ago, was completely legal -- stores in my city advertised their latest HU hack offerings), so the idea of a free/premium service breaks down because countries and companies can't agree.
Not to mention that unlike Europe, we have too many completely incompatible systems competing:
- 4DTV - C-Band, 6+ foot dish, DigiCipher II
- VOOM - 18" DigiCipher II 8PSK circular Ku setup
- StarChoice - Dual 30" DigiCipher II linear Ku setup
- ExpressVu/DishNetwork - 18" circular Ku DVB MPEG-2.0 setup (proprietary switching, "pretend" proprietary system in that they won't authorize equipment they don't sell, even though they could)
- DishNetwork HDTV - 8PSK variant of above, also using 30" linear Ku setup (again). MPEG-2.0 DVB Standard.
- ExpressVu HDTV - Non-8PSK, using HDTV supporting receivers
- DirecTV - 18" totally proprietary (including switches) circular Ku non-DVB non-DCII MPEG-1.9 setup
- FTA (Free To Air, generally encompasses what's left) C-Band - Mostly Analog, 6+ foot dish
- Digital FTA (sometimes encrypted) - All DVB MPEG-2.0, mostly using 30" Ku linear dishes. Most similar to european systems, and can use a CI slot for encrypted access.
- VideoCipher based systems - Still available, but almost dead. C-band, 6+ foot dish, special VC II+ board required.
Notable mentions of the now deceased:
- AlphaStar - Canadian DVB MPEG-2 system that lasted 6 months. 30" Ku Linear dish with proprietary receiver.
- PrimeStar - Proprietary system. Used non-standard 36" Ku linear dish (separate Horizontal and Vertical outputs).
Way too much equipment and BS for the average consumer. Too bad nobody could agree here...
>But if you sell bank robbery kits and tools, and advertise the fact, and such tools are generally, but not always, purchased by bank robbers only, it is reasonable to assume that it is likely a large portion of your client base are robbing banks.
Yes, but criminal law doesn't require "Reasonable Proof" or assumptions. It requires beleif beyond a shadow of a doubt that it was done.
Assuming something is a gauaranteed way to lose your case, every time.
Yes, they work at the DirecTV NOC. They steal once quiet airwaves and fill them with unwanted trash and beam them at my once quiet home without my permission.
There's theives all over if you choose to define the word incorrectly.
I posted it once before, but a second time can't hurt...
The World Record! (Ok, I'm not sure about it being a world record, but it's still pretty good).
Someone pointed out an interesting fact. Divide the number of viruses by the number of files scanned...
We once had a larger number reported by Ad Aware, but never got a chance to screen cap it. As you can imagine, the machine was far too unstable to get a chance at it.:-)
I'll use random shuffle by album only, but when I do, it's only on unmixed albums. Of course, the oddest thing is, the mixed albums tend to actually be best, so I'm rarely using random shuffle. Probably has something to do with the artist actually taking care and time over their music so it all fits together well enough to make a mixed album rather than just slapping it all together and hoping the cash comes in (which, sadly, it usually does).
>I thought TV Ontario was privatized by the Mike "The Knife" Harris?
Good question. I don't know if it was because the station is boring as hell and I haven't tuned into it for at least a decade (although I know it's still there).
If it is, that's great. Just the behemoth (CBC) to go, then. Well, there's still TeleFilm Canada and a few others, but you have to start somewhere.
>DirecTV isn't available in Canada anyway
Huh? Sure is! My meter picks up the signals strong and clear. The signals boom into Ontario far stronger than the "legit" ExpressVu does.
In fact, for the longest time, their 800 numbers were working in Canada. Odd, huh?
>Typically, an American company partners with a local Canadian company to enter the market, and even then, yes, the channels carried are limited by the CRTC and the channels themselves.
Yes. ExpressVu buys CRTC laws, too, you know. Of course, the "ethnic cleansing" laws of the CRTC are something that is hotly debated, and, in the eyes of most other countries (apart from Iran, Syria, and Iraq -- are there others still practicing ethnic cleansing of the airwaves?) are absolutely wrong.
Now the Liberals have created team Canada to assist small business with exports, and who have the Liberals named as chief of team Canada? Why, BCE chairman Lynton Wilson. Surprise. Surprise. And who has contributed over $70,000 to the Liberals in the past two years? BCE. Surprise. Surprise.
>Everytime a cable channel is carried in Canada, the original channel must pay extra for their new Canadian viewers to the studios & producers. Currently, the way American specialty channels get around this is by forcing the Canadian cable companies to negotiate with the studios directly. That way A&E can come to Canada, but they don't have to fork out an extra dime for airing rights of certain movies in Canada. Thus the occasional blackout.
Yes, that is known. Also what is known is that DirecTV was far more than interested in joining the Canadian market legally if it weren't for our ethnic cleansing laws. In fact, DirecTV has had "Possible Canadian Subscribers" on their subscribers list for years, happily. They are willing to deal with Canada, tonight, if it weren't for our total lack of interest in Free Speech for television stations.
Also, 4DTV systems have been available in Canada (and never prosecuted) for the longest time, carrying almost identical programming to DirecTV, but requiring a cumbersome, and, for most, outlawed 6 foot dish. Therefore, I feel quite confident in saying all the "deals" needed with the other channels have been worked out.
So, it isn't the footwork involved. It's the laws. Laws that ExpressVu buys. DirecTV would find it too hard to compete with a company which is largely owned by the political power of Canada.
Of course, let's not forget how the CRTC stole people's satellite dishes without even making them illegal. The CRTC is not a corporation to look up to in any manner.
If you didn't have access to cable tough, you can't watch anything. Well a lot of people didn't agree with their ruling. Who were they to tell people what they could watch on TV. So the CRTC decided to get a bunch of ole' boys together and round up these self proclaimed "illegal" dishes. After all its OK to steal other people property as long as the government does it right?
* - By ethnic cleansing I mean cleansing the airwaves of all ethnic programming for 35% - 50% of viewing time. Pretty simple use of the most obvious words describing the situation, really. For some government comment on the issue, check this out.
>I'm not even going to bother trying to argue against this, I'm just going to track you down and take your computer. And heaven help you if you have a locked door in my way, I'll go to your city hall or apartment owner and demand you lose rights to your property for implementing a security device to keep me out.
If he sold you the door, I think he'd say "Feel Free". He'd probably also be laughing along with the police officer when you tell them that.
Oh, yeah, you forgot about the fact that all of this discussion is about stuff people have paid for... right?
To use this utility, and generally any DRM-stripping utility, you need to have the original DRMed item in hand. Which pretty much means you paid for it.
Since when did it become right for someone to sell a door locked into a frame, and at the same time tell people that after installing the door, they have to pay a fee each time they unlock it?
You bought it. It's yours. You can crush it, wipe your ass with it, or give it to a a bum on the street.
>I don't think any of these people think DRM can't be circumvented; they just know that the content providers want it
And so, rather than letting them starve, and having them eventually succumb to market will (or simply disappear -- either way is good), Apple just gives in and lets them have whatever they want so they can make a quick buck?
Remember the phrase: "Spare the rod, spoil the child".
That's *all* we need. A petulant child of a corporation, but instead with the power to crush lives.
>Err, how can you be paying for it when it's not sold in Canada?
USA PO Box + address fudging or via friends in the US. It's not hard. There are even companies in Canada that actually specialize in it (underground, of course).
Old, but since paying for it has been illegal for much longer than pirating it [odd, huh?] it's a much more underground activity, and therefore under-reported. Which is even more odd -- I can go to a flea market and pick up lots of hacked cards [which are about to be dead, but hey, whatever] today, but I can't even think of where I could find someone to pay for it properly -- although I did know one at one time.
(2.1) Every person who contravenes paragraph 9(1)(c) or (d) is guilty of an offence punishable on summary conviction and is liable, in the case of an individual, to a fine not exceeding $25,000 or to imprisonment for a term not exceeding one year , or to both, or, in the case of a corporation, to a fine not exceeding $200,000.
For those of you wondering, section 9 outlaws DirecTV in Canada. Those will be the punishments for paying for DirecTV. Yes, paying for it gets you that punishment.
You'll also note that the government will control what satellite receivers you can and can't use with that bill. Of couse, as it already notes, the only companies that will be allowed to have them are ExpressVu and StarChoice.
There's a reason Canada has a la carte. And that's because Canadian TV blows huge chunks and, depending on the channel (I'm looking at you CBC & TV Ontario), is socially funded already. Not to mention the fact that Bell ExpressVu basically own our government.
The new.net software downloads and silently executes arbitrary code from its controlling server, as an update feature.
Stay the hell away from anything that includes NewDotNet. It's a HORRID little piece of software and at my former job 50% of the service calls were related to WebShots downloads (against policy, but *you* try to make Win95 usable and locked tight without DeepFreeze or similar products) and malfunctioning network stacks (in that case it seemed to hose Novell Netware Client pretty good, which made no sense, but hey, this *is* Win95 here). NewDotNet was, of course, the real reason why. Not to mention that it hogs resources even worse than Internet Explorer.
>The percentage of people with two computers, one with Linux another with Windows or Mac has to pale into insignificance compared to the broader general music buying population.
Yes, just the same way as the percentage of Mac users to Windows users is vanishingly small.
>Iomega has offerred free tech support with an 800 number for years, I'm not sure how long ago your experience was, but I think it's not sensible to hold that sort of history against them
Well, as I mentioned, it was in 1995 (perhaps 1996). Heck, it could have been 1994. A long time ago but bad enough to poison me against that company forever.
>So...maybe bad history, but where's the problem now?
All their old users hate them with a passion. So it's up to you to deal with the product. People like me hate them and wouldn't even offer support to other.
We're a small group, but we do hate them. And they deserve it. You don't get sued for having long distance long wait technical support for nothing (which is why they have an 800 number now -- court mandated, I'm pretty sure).
If you want to deal with a company that gets sued into compliance, that's your risk to take. I won't.
It's not just the reliability of their products that sucks ass.
It was their repair system.
It took a 1 hour, 45 minute long distance call from Ontario, Canada to Utah, USA to get someone on the line. That call cost $70 (at the time long distance was expensive) because their crap company couldn't even afford an 800 number. I had a couple the click of death happening on the drive.
I send the drive to them, again, at high expense (unless you are in the US they require international shipping to them in Utah -- DON'T SELL WHAT YOU AREN'T WILLING TO SUPPORT!). They say there's no fault with it and return it with a new faceplate (clearly the old ones broke off too easily). Turns out that the disks supplied and 30% of the other disks I had purchased for that drive were defective.
At well over $100 per support incident, I wasn't about to send the $20 disks back. Instead I ditched their shit products forever.
BTW: Let's not forget the abysmal website they had. So slow that it took over 8 hours to do a 5 megabyte download of their latest software. Yes, literally, my old 2400 baud modem well outpaced their website, which, in 1995/1996, didn't even use the ALT tag -- that's like cutting out 20% of your market RIGHT THERE.
Note that later they were sued for their absolutely unacceptable product repair support, and I technically have a $5 rebate with their company as a result of their court case loss (fat chance I'll use it).
In short, Iomega can burn in hell. I wouldn't *EVER* buy anything associated with them again. Period. Hell, if it where free I'd trash it. Even if they PAID me I'd trash it. I wouldn't want to accidentally rely on their company in the future. Fool me once, shame on you. Fool me twice...
160 GB drives (currently the best bang for the buck) sell for less than $130 CDN wholesale. OEM versions (yes, large customers can make deals with HDD manufactures to get drives without a brand name) often wholesale for 10 - 30% less than that.
>So if you went and bought The Matrix DVD, got it home and played it, discovering that you actually got The Sound of Music, you'd be just fine with that, since you weren't actually trying to get any director's vision, just a disc.
No, but if I tried returning it I wouldn't get a refund. I'd be lucky to even get an exchange.
The MPAA sold me what they said they'd sell me. It's all a big scam. Yes, it sucks, but welcome to the Berne Convention!
>Censoring even one word from the movie is detracting from the vision the director had when the movie was made.
I didn't pay for a "vision" of the director. I paid for a piece of polycabonate with an aluminum sheet sandwiched in. According to the MPAA and RIAA *THAT'S IT*. I didn't pay for anything else at all, apart from the shiny box it came in.
Since they take such a hard line on that then it's fair to return the favour. Since I didn't pay for the vision of the director, I have every right to complain about it being there and ignore it at my choice. Just the same way that if I buy a box of cereal and it turns out there's a prize inside that didn't get mentioned on the box, I have every right to phone up Kellog's and bitch about it displacing my cereal.
Stupid, but hey, give and take is a two way street.
On the same vein, do you believe it is censorship if I cut holes in a piece of paper so that someone may overlay a page in a book and block out words they don't like?
Note: I didn't make the original book and the "holy sheet" (pun intended) is removeable.
Slashdot Mirror
>now groups.google.com is blocked, and they tell me they won't unblock it.
Easy solution.
You research the answers on your own time at home and print them out.
When you come back to work the next day explain you now know the answers from groups.google, maybe even flash the printouts, but as you learned them on your own time you'll need your home DSL connection company-funded if you are to continue working in this manner.
If they refuse, then you simply do the one day productively with your new answers and the rest you do without groups.google, as poorly as will happen without it. The company obviously values blocking groups.google more than having solutions, so you needn't worry (except for the viability of the company and what that means to your employment).
In the mean time perhaps find another job and send resumes out while you're at it if it bugs you enough.
Actually, putty works through HTTP and SOCKS proxies, so NZs post does work for all places.
Five words for the invoice:
"As sold with all faults"
>However, I had to hit them hard (possibly because of the fact that they were no longer powered), and I didn't feel safe on the winter streets of Buffalo (think snow 10 months a year) without ABS.
;-)
Oddly enough, I do recall having watched a show which demonstrated how a good driver can stop quicker with threshold braking on ice and snow rather than ABS... Here's a group that agrees.
That's helped justify me being a cheap bastard.
>Copyright violation is Theft; the "No Electronic Theft" bill was signed into law a good 7 years ago, the usage is established, stop playing games about it.
Okay. Let's say I agree with you. If it's theft I'm certain you can find me at least one instance of the word "theft" in the US copyright act. Come on, at least one. Just a tiny instance. There's thousands of words there. You can squeeze at least *one* instance of "theft" from there, can't you? It's not hard, the button is right there! Just click it! Don't be afraid!
Oh wait, I know you can't because I already did the search and it comes up with zilch. The closest word "steal" is regarding theft of physical property.
Hoisted by your own petard, as they would say.
>Give the standard programming away, and charge those who want more (this could probably be acconplished by encrypting certain streams, and sending out the free ones as unencrypted or something. I'm not satellite techie, but it seems fairly straight-forward).
This is how it works in Europe.
Unfortunately, in North America, things are generally screwed up so badly between laws and moronic satellite companies that everyone is screwed.
For example, Canadians have been barred for a lifetime from paying a cent for any US based satellite service, and so were forced to pirate it (which, up until two years ago, was completely legal -- stores in my city advertised their latest HU hack offerings), so the idea of a free/premium service breaks down because countries and companies can't agree.
Not to mention that unlike Europe, we have too many completely incompatible systems competing:
- 4DTV - C-Band, 6+ foot dish, DigiCipher II
- VOOM - 18" DigiCipher II 8PSK circular Ku setup
- StarChoice - Dual 30" DigiCipher II linear Ku setup
- ExpressVu/DishNetwork - 18" circular Ku DVB MPEG-2.0 setup (proprietary switching, "pretend" proprietary system in that they won't authorize equipment they don't sell, even though they could)
- DishNetwork HDTV - 8PSK variant of above, also using 30" linear Ku setup (again). MPEG-2.0 DVB Standard.
- ExpressVu HDTV - Non-8PSK, using HDTV supporting receivers
- DirecTV - 18" totally proprietary (including switches) circular Ku non-DVB non-DCII MPEG-1.9 setup
- FTA (Free To Air, generally encompasses what's left) C-Band - Mostly Analog, 6+ foot dish
- Digital FTA (sometimes encrypted) - All DVB MPEG-2.0, mostly using 30" Ku linear dishes. Most similar to european systems, and can use a CI slot for encrypted access.
- VideoCipher based systems - Still available, but almost dead. C-band, 6+ foot dish, special VC II+ board required.
Notable mentions of the now deceased:
- AlphaStar - Canadian DVB MPEG-2 system that lasted 6 months. 30" Ku Linear dish with proprietary receiver.
- PrimeStar - Proprietary system. Used non-standard 36" Ku linear dish (separate Horizontal and Vertical outputs).
Way too much equipment and BS for the average consumer. Too bad nobody could agree here...
>But if you sell bank robbery kits and tools, and advertise the fact, and such tools are generally, but not always, purchased by bank robbers only, it is reasonable to assume that it is likely a large portion of your client base are robbing banks.
Yes, but criminal law doesn't require "Reasonable Proof" or assumptions. It requires beleif beyond a shadow of a doubt that it was done.
Assuming something is a gauaranteed way to lose your case, every time.
...read my post from last week for more ExpressVu insight. Note this will probably be the last time I discuss them.
BTW: The story on those units is there.
>There are DirecTV Thieves.
Yes, they work at the DirecTV NOC. They steal once quiet airwaves and fill them with unwanted trash and beam them at my once quiet home without my permission.
There's theives all over if you choose to define the word incorrectly.
...That this comes out the premiere of Kill Bill.
So much alike, Jobs and Bill.
>Record so far is 500+ items tagged by AdAware
:-)
I posted it once before, but a second time can't hurt...
The World Record! (Ok, I'm not sure about it being a world record, but it's still pretty good).
Someone pointed out an interesting fact. Divide the number of viruses by the number of files scanned...
We once had a larger number reported by Ad Aware, but never got a chance to screen cap it. As you can imagine, the machine was far too unstable to get a chance at it.
I'll use random shuffle by album only, but when I do, it's only on unmixed albums. Of course, the oddest thing is, the mixed albums tend to actually be best, so I'm rarely using random shuffle. Probably has something to do with the artist actually taking care and time over their music so it all fits together well enough to make a mixed album rather than just slapping it all together and hoping the cash comes in (which, sadly, it usually does).
>I thought TV Ontario was privatized by the Mike "The Knife" Harris?
Good question. I don't know if it was because the station is boring as hell and I haven't tuned into it for at least a decade (although I know it's still there).
If it is, that's great. Just the behemoth (CBC) to go, then. Well, there's still TeleFilm Canada and a few others, but you have to start somewhere.
>DirecTV isn't available in Canada anyway
Huh? Sure is! My meter picks up the signals strong and clear. The signals boom into Ontario far stronger than the "legit" ExpressVu does.
In fact, for the longest time, their 800 numbers were working in Canada. Odd, huh?
>Typically, an American company partners with a local Canadian company to enter the market, and even then, yes, the channels carried are limited by the CRTC and the channels themselves.
Yes. ExpressVu buys CRTC laws, too, you know. Of course, the "ethnic cleansing" laws of the CRTC are something that is hotly debated, and, in the eyes of most other countries (apart from Iran, Syria, and Iraq -- are there others still practicing ethnic cleansing of the airwaves?) are absolutely wrong.
Now the Liberals have created team Canada to assist small business with exports, and who have the Liberals named as chief of team Canada? Why, BCE chairman Lynton Wilson. Surprise. Surprise. And who has contributed over $70,000 to the Liberals in the past two years? BCE. Surprise. Surprise.
>Everytime a cable channel is carried in Canada, the original channel must pay extra for their new Canadian viewers to the studios & producers. Currently, the way American specialty channels get around this is by forcing the Canadian cable companies to negotiate with the studios directly. That way A&E can come to Canada, but they don't have to fork out an extra dime for airing rights of certain movies in Canada. Thus the occasional blackout.
Yes, that is known. Also what is known is that DirecTV was far more than interested in joining the Canadian market legally if it weren't for our ethnic cleansing laws. In fact, DirecTV has had "Possible Canadian Subscribers" on their subscribers list for years, happily. They are willing to deal with Canada, tonight, if it weren't for our total lack of interest in Free Speech for television stations.
Also, 4DTV systems have been available in Canada (and never prosecuted) for the longest time, carrying almost identical programming to DirecTV, but requiring a cumbersome, and, for most, outlawed 6 foot dish. Therefore, I feel quite confident in saying all the "deals" needed with the other channels have been worked out.
So, it isn't the footwork involved. It's the laws. Laws that ExpressVu buys. DirecTV would find it too hard to compete with a company which is largely owned by the political power of Canada.
Of course, let's not forget how the CRTC stole people's satellite dishes without even making them illegal. The CRTC is not a corporation to look up to in any manner.
If you didn't have access to cable tough, you can't watch anything. Well a lot of people didn't agree with their ruling. Who were they to tell people what they could watch on TV. So the CRTC decided to get a bunch of ole' boys together and round up these self proclaimed "illegal" dishes. After all its OK to steal other people property as long as the government does it right?
* - By ethnic cleansing I mean cleansing the airwaves of all ethnic programming for 35% - 50% of viewing time. Pretty simple use of the most obvious words describing the situation, really. For some government comment on the issue, check this out.
>I'm not even going to bother trying to argue against this, I'm just going to track you down and take your computer. And heaven help you if you have a locked door in my way, I'll go to your city hall or apartment owner and demand you lose rights to your property for implementing a security device to keep me out.
If he sold you the door, I think he'd say "Feel Free". He'd probably also be laughing along with the police officer when you tell them that.
Oh, yeah, you forgot about the fact that all of this discussion is about stuff people have paid for... right?
To use this utility, and generally any DRM-stripping utility, you need to have the original DRMed item in hand. Which pretty much means you paid for it.
Since when did it become right for someone to sell a door locked into a frame, and at the same time tell people that after installing the door, they have to pay a fee each time they unlock it?
You bought it. It's yours. You can crush it, wipe your ass with it, or give it to a a bum on the street.
>I don't think any of these people think DRM can't be circumvented; they just know that the content providers want it
And so, rather than letting them starve, and having them eventually succumb to market will (or simply disappear -- either way is good), Apple just gives in and lets them have whatever they want so they can make a quick buck?
Remember the phrase: "Spare the rod, spoil the child".
That's *all* we need. A petulant child of a corporation, but instead with the power to crush lives.
>Err, how can you be paying for it when it's not sold in Canada?
USA PO Box + address fudging or via friends in the US. It's not hard. There are even companies in Canada that actually specialize in it (underground, of course).
More info
Old, but since paying for it has been illegal for much longer than pirating it [odd, huh?] it's a much more underground activity, and therefore under-reported. Which is even more odd -- I can go to a flea market and pick up lots of hacked cards [which are about to be dead, but hey, whatever] today, but I can't even think of where I could find someone to pay for it properly -- although I did know one at one time.
>You just need some political backbone.
.
Backbone like this?
(2.1) Every person who contravenes paragraph 9(1)(c) or (d) is guilty of an offence punishable on summary conviction and is liable, in the case of an individual, to a fine not exceeding $25,000 or to imprisonment for a term not exceeding one year , or to both, or, in the case of a corporation, to a fine not exceeding $200,000
For those of you wondering, section 9 outlaws DirecTV in Canada. Those will be the punishments for paying for DirecTV. Yes, paying for it gets you that punishment.
You'll also note that the government will control what satellite receivers you can and can't use with that bill. Of couse, as it already notes, the only companies that will be allowed to have them are ExpressVu and StarChoice.
There's a reason Canada has a la carte. And that's because Canadian TV blows huge chunks and, depending on the channel (I'm looking at you CBC & TV Ontario), is socially funded already. Not to mention the fact that Bell ExpressVu basically own our government.
Backbone indeed.
Beware! WebShots may hose your TCP/IP stack (if it doesn't make backups -- it replaces it) and allows remote code execution! It also may be uninstallable.
WebShots installs the NewDotNet program...
The new.net software downloads and silently executes arbitrary code from its controlling server, as an update feature.
Stay the hell away from anything that includes NewDotNet. It's a HORRID little piece of software and at my former job 50% of the service calls were related to WebShots downloads (against policy, but *you* try to make Win95 usable and locked tight without DeepFreeze or similar products) and malfunctioning network stacks (in that case it seemed to hose Novell Netware Client pretty good, which made no sense, but hey, this *is* Win95 here). NewDotNet was, of course, the real reason why. Not to mention that it hogs resources even worse than Internet Explorer.
In other words, use it at your own risk!
>The percentage of people with two computers, one with Linux another with Windows or Mac has to pale into insignificance compared to the broader general music buying population.
Yes, just the same way as the percentage of Mac users to Windows users is vanishingly small.
Zing!
>Iomega has offerred free tech support with an 800 number for years, I'm not sure how long ago your experience was, but I think it's not sensible to hold that sort of history against them
Well, as I mentioned, it was in 1995 (perhaps 1996). Heck, it could have been 1994. A long time ago but bad enough to poison me against that company forever.
>So...maybe bad history, but where's the problem now?
All their old users hate them with a passion. So it's up to you to deal with the product. People like me hate them and wouldn't even offer support to other.
We're a small group, but we do hate them. And they deserve it. You don't get sued for having long distance long wait technical support for nothing (which is why they have an 800 number now -- court mandated, I'm pretty sure).
If you want to deal with a company that gets sued into compliance, that's your risk to take. I won't.
>Really, I don't see the problem with Iomega.
It's not just the reliability of their products that sucks ass.
It was their repair system.
It took a 1 hour, 45 minute long distance call from Ontario, Canada to Utah, USA to get someone on the line. That call cost $70 (at the time long distance was expensive) because their crap company couldn't even afford an 800 number. I had a couple the click of death happening on the drive.
I send the drive to them, again, at high expense (unless you are in the US they require international shipping to them in Utah -- DON'T SELL WHAT YOU AREN'T WILLING TO SUPPORT!). They say there's no fault with it and return it with a new faceplate (clearly the old ones broke off too easily). Turns out that the disks supplied and 30% of the other disks I had purchased for that drive were defective.
At well over $100 per support incident, I wasn't about to send the $20 disks back. Instead I ditched their shit products forever.
BTW: Let's not forget the abysmal website they had. So slow that it took over 8 hours to do a 5 megabyte download of their latest software. Yes, literally, my old 2400 baud modem well outpaced their website, which, in 1995/1996, didn't even use the ALT tag -- that's like cutting out 20% of your market RIGHT THERE.
Note that later they were sued for their absolutely unacceptable product repair support, and I technically have a $5 rebate with their company as a result of their court case loss (fat chance I'll use it).
In short, Iomega can burn in hell. I wouldn't *EVER* buy anything associated with them again. Period. Hell, if it where free I'd trash it. Even if they PAID me I'd trash it. I wouldn't want to accidentally rely on their company in the future. Fool me once, shame on you. Fool me twice...
160 GB drives (currently the best bang for the buck) sell for less than $130 CDN wholesale. OEM versions (yes, large customers can make deals with HDD manufactures to get drives without a brand name) often wholesale for 10 - 30% less than that.
;-)
Just to let you know...
>So if you went and bought The Matrix DVD, got it home and played it, discovering that you actually got The Sound of Music, you'd be just fine with that, since you weren't actually trying to get any director's vision, just a disc.
No, but if I tried returning it I wouldn't get a refund. I'd be lucky to even get an exchange.
The MPAA sold me what they said they'd sell me. It's all a big scam. Yes, it sucks, but welcome to the Berne Convention!
>You don't have the right to go editing it to suit your own desires though and then resell the edited version for cash.
Are you saying that if I scratch a CD, I'm not allowed to sell it?
How odd!
>Censoring even one word from the movie is detracting from the vision the director had when the movie was made.
I didn't pay for a "vision" of the director. I paid for a piece of polycabonate with an aluminum sheet sandwiched in. According to the MPAA and RIAA *THAT'S IT*. I didn't pay for anything else at all, apart from the shiny box it came in.
Since they take such a hard line on that then it's fair to return the favour. Since I didn't pay for the vision of the director, I have every right to complain about it being there and ignore it at my choice. Just the same way that if I buy a box of cereal and it turns out there's a prize inside that didn't get mentioned on the box, I have every right to phone up Kellog's and bitch about it displacing my cereal.
Stupid, but hey, give and take is a two way street.
On the same vein, do you believe it is censorship if I cut holes in a piece of paper so that someone may overlay a page in a book and block out words they don't like?
Note: I didn't make the original book and the "holy sheet" (pun intended) is removeable.