Right after Microsoft offers to pay for anyone intellectual propery claims against it's users, someone comes along and claims that MS is violating their IP rights. Theoretically, this company could send out cease and desist letters to all users demanding that they stop using all MS products containing the infringements, and then we could all hand our legal bills to MS to pay off for us, per their new program
Did you guys even read the news after 9/11? They found notes that the guys had been handed by their 'leaders' reminding them to shave so they wouldn't look like terrorists...
Auction Heading: Single most powerful weapon in game, usable by any class, any race, $500.
Player "IveGotTooMuchMoola" buys said weapon and goes to pick it up in game and finds that the seller has just handed him a rock - and not even a +1 Rock, just "a rock".
"IveGotTooMuchMoola" complains to the seller, and the seller responds by saying "hey, just take that to the top of [insert highest point in your favorite MMORPG here] and drop it on any NPC, player or monster and it will kill them instantly - at least in theory - which makes it the most powerful weapon in the world and usable by everybody".
"IveGotTooMuchMoola" then petitions/files complaint/etc with the GMs/Administrators/Developers/etc and demands his $500 back because he's been ripped off and threatens to sue (in this case) Sony/Verant for allowing such corruption in their gaming environment.
Can player "IveGotTooMuchMoola" win such a case? No way in hell, but it's an administrative/legal nightmare just waiting to happen, and by banning the sale of such items in your EULA you can simply point to the agreement and say "we told you not to do that", and if they continue to press the issue they can legally say "no seriously, we told you not to do that" and then cancel their account.
I was a volunteer in-game support rep for both Anarchy Online and Asheron's Call, and this is the reason why, at least as it was described to me by the support teams.
I'm still downloading, but I'm moving the files out of my shared directory once noone else is downloading it from me. I guess that makes me a wussy lamer leech.:-(
I work for a major medical device company. We make small, portable medical diagnostic devices that can be attached to a PC so data can be downloaded to the PC for graphing, reporting, etc.
There is an incredibly small chance that someone could be touching a drop of blood on their fingertip to an electrically conductive test strip in the meter while it's connected to their PC at the same instant that lightning strikes nearby - coursing through the electrical system in the house - and if the PC has a bad ground it's possible the user could receive a potentially deadly shock. It's also possible that monkeys could fly out of my butt, but I won't hold my breath waiting for either to happen.
In order to get FDA clearance, we have to include in the manual a warning and offer to sell a special 'electro-optical isolation cable' to anyone who is worried this might happen. Further, we had to actually design, develop and build such cables (although we actually outsourced it all). In the end, we ended up with 200 of these cables with a total cost of $200+ per cable (they include some special UL approved transformers that are (45+ each), and since we're a corporation, we're in the money-making business so we're not going to *give* these cables away below cost, but since we're relatively nice guys, we are willing to *sell* them at our cost.
In the 7+ years that these cables have been available for sale, we've received a total of maybe 3 calls from consumers who were concerned, and when they discovered the cost, realized they weren't *that* concerned, so we still have 200 $200+ cables sitting in inventory.
Even though that may seem like a waste, $40,000 in un-used cables is a heck of a lot less than the cost to just do the paperwork for a recall, so it's a pretty good deal. Maybe Sony should just offer a prohibitively expensive shock-proof phone cord to cover their asse(t)s?
Several years back I stayed at the Circus-Circus casino in Las Vegas and the in-room air conditioners are on motion sensors!
We'd leave the room to go gamble and come back to a sweltering hot room, move towards the AC to turn it on/up and it would suddenly start working. Go to sleep, it gets hot, get up to go turn it on/up and it would suddenly start working.
By day two we figured it out and just hung a shirt on a hanger from the overhead light nearest the AC so the air would blow on the shirt, generate movement, and keep the room cool 24/7.
I've been back to Vegas at least 15x since then (been there a lot on business) and I haven't stayed at the Circus-Circus since - cheaper isn't always better, and the Luxor doesn't cost that much more and is much nicer (IMHO).
Ok, just for the sake of argument, assume you never have to pay an electricity bill again. How would your life differ?
Sure, you might turn the AC down a couple more degrees, replace low wattage bulbs with higher wattage bulbs, never turn your car off, etc., but can you realistically increase your current energy consumption by any more than 5x? 10x? Even 20x?
I seriously doubt that you could increase your energy utilization by 100x (let alone the 1000x you propose) without doing some seriously stupid stuff. Even if energy is free, you don't leave the door on the regrigerator open, the compressor will burn out just that much faster. You won't turn the AC down that much as you'll get uncomfortably cold. You won't put that much higher wattage of bulbs in your house because it will become uncomfortably bright, and you'll still turn them off when you sleep, right?
I'm playing Eve-Online, and although I enjoy it, it's not exactly a content-fest, either. It's a good game with great graphics, but it needs more work.
I mean seriously, what good is a spaceship vs. spaceship fighting game where you can't actually steer or maneuver your ship? You choices are 1) Point your ship in a direction by double clicking in space and adjusting your throttle, or 2) Right-click on a target and either select Approach or Orbit - although with Orbit you do get to control the distance at which you orbit...
Yeah, I'd never use the word mediocre to describe Kirsten Dunst. She may not be the hottest chick in the world, but I'd pay good money to see her naked.
Cost of a Lexmark printer on sale minus (cost of color replacement cartridge + cost of black replacement cartridge) is most times less than $20 (usually $10). It seems to me they are priced to be throw aways.
It's almost worth the extra few bucks to buy the new printer so you don't have to worry about making sure you bought the right cartridges.
I bought a kit for use with a Windows PC and a SoundBlaster sound card, called Voice Commander or something like that.
Within one hour of setting it up, I was working in a Word document and the phone rang. I picked up the phone and said "hello" which the new software interpreted as 'file close', I saw what was happening and said "uh-oh" which the software interpreted as "No - I don't want to save my changes" and lost my document.
I put the headset, hardware dongle and floppies back in the box and put it on a shelf where it sat until this time last year when I sold it at a computer show.
Hopefully they've made advancements since then.
There are treaties in effect that limit the number and types of ICBMs we can have and use. AFAIK, there is no treaty that currently limits the number of bombers we can have ready to use.
I'm trying to think of any large business valued at over a few mill that doesn't bend over backwards to lick the collective asses of law enforcement agencies.
Also, try this. You get convicted by something that eBay submits to law enforcement. What rights do you have to retaliate against eBay for not following legal procedure.
Ok, so if you're doing something illegal enough to be convicted for, why shouldn't they be able to release your information to LEOs?
If instead you meant to say 'What if ebay reports you to the law and you are wrongfully arrested and later released, what rights do you have to retaliate?' which is a different story altogether.
Re:Looks like an interesting book.
on
Hacking the XBox
·
· Score: 5, Interesting
but from the business perspective these consoles are being sold at a loss -- if we can turn them into PCs, both the console manufacturer and the PC manufacturers are going to feel the hurt.
Tough.
If businesses feel that the best way to get your product out there is to give it away for less than actual cost, then that is their shoddy business plan (anyone remember:CueCat?).
Most grocery stores offer what are called loss-leaders, these are the items you see advertised in the weekly newspaper insert that shows 1 gallon of milk for $0.99 and 2 liter Colas for $0.99 each. The stores know that if you come in to buy those items, you'll probably pick up other items while you are there and they can make their profit on those items. Do we really need a law that requires you to purchase X number of non-loss-leaders every time you go to the store for a gallon of milk so the store can continue to sell milk below cost? Nope.
Most groceries (at least where I live) now require a $10 minimum purchase in order to take advantage of the loss-leaders (alocohol and cigarette purchases do not count towards the $10). There - they found a perfectly legal way to ensure they don't take a huge loss without requiring government intervention.
If Microsoft wants to continue to sell $500 computer for $180 under the assumption that you're going to come back to them for more software, then that is their problem.
Didn't Pamela have her implants removed? I don't really follow celebrity implant news, but I seem to recall hearing about this on the radio at one time. Maybe she just had them replaced, or something...
10 = Your independently wealthy, nymphomaniac, computer literate, console game playing girlfriend who looks like a genetic combination of Pamela Anderson, Natalie Portman and Lara Croft (only with bigger boobs) crashes your new Porsche into a school bus full of nuns and orphans on their way back from rescuing puppies and kittens from the animal shelter, resulting in a huge explosion with no survivors, two days before your wedding after which you would have been a rich man and sole remaining heir to the (insert company of your choice) corporate empire.
Thanks for the information about CLIT. It's a great program. Too bad I tripped the 'naughty' alarm when I did a Google search for it at work...
I have to agree that a WinCE based ebook reader is about the best option and that $199 deal from Dell makes it almost irresistable. The screen on a WinCE or color PalmOS PDA is much better for text (black on white instead of almost-black on grey) and it's hard to find a color PalmOS that is less expensive than the $199 Dell WinCE product.
There seems to be a greater variety of Compact Flash Type II products available which also make the WinCE systems a better deal, with the exception of the HP Jornada systems (what I have) that for some reason are 0.5mm too small and will only accept CF Type I cards, so no micro-drives, no wireless ethernet, etc.:-(
I immagine the system would have to have an on/off switch anyway.
Of course there will have to be a black box that records the status of the switch so your insurance company can legally deny your claim because 'you disabled an integrated safety feature that your policy requires be enabled "for your own protection"'.
But what if your device can only support the 400 speed but it works with a Firewire 800 port? Can you label it as Firewire 800 compatible? Would that be any less confusing?
I recently bought a Sony USB thumb drive that claims to support USB 2.0, and now I'm wondering if that just means it's compatible or if it really would be faster in a USB 2.0 port?
I've got USB 1.1 in my PC at work and USB 2.0 (Full or High, who knows?) at home, I guess I need to do some tests...
Slashdot Mirror
Would you rather have one employee working from home or 10 employees in India? Who will be more productive?
Base on my experience with Indian development work?
One local person (regardless of ethnicity, country of origin, religion, etc.) who speaks fluent and clear English.
Right after Microsoft offers to pay for anyone intellectual propery claims against it's users, someone comes along and claims that MS is violating their IP rights. Theoretically, this company could send out cease and desist letters to all users demanding that they stop using all MS products containing the infringements, and then we could all hand our legal bills to MS to pay off for us, per their new program
Wow, and if that isn't anti-competitive behaviour, what is?
Did you guys even read the news after 9/11? They found notes that the guys had been handed by their 'leaders' reminding them to shave so they wouldn't look like terrorists...
Why does Sony/Verant not want auctions on ebay?
It goes a little something like this:
Auction Heading: Single most powerful weapon in game, usable by any class, any race, $500.
Player "IveGotTooMuchMoola" buys said weapon and goes to pick it up in game and finds that the seller has just handed him a rock - and not even a +1 Rock, just "a rock".
"IveGotTooMuchMoola" complains to the seller, and the seller responds by saying "hey, just take that to the top of [insert highest point in your favorite MMORPG here] and drop it on any NPC, player or monster and it will kill them instantly - at least in theory - which makes it the most powerful weapon in the world and usable by everybody".
"IveGotTooMuchMoola" then petitions/files complaint/etc with the GMs/Administrators/Developers/etc and demands his $500 back because he's been ripped off and threatens to sue (in this case) Sony/Verant for allowing such corruption in their gaming environment.
Can player "IveGotTooMuchMoola" win such a case? No way in hell, but it's an administrative/legal nightmare just waiting to happen, and by banning the sale of such items in your EULA you can simply point to the agreement and say "we told you not to do that", and if they continue to press the issue they can legally say "no seriously, we told you not to do that" and then cancel their account.
I was a volunteer in-game support rep for both Anarchy Online and Asheron's Call, and this is the reason why, at least as it was described to me by the support teams.
I'm still downloading, but I'm moving the files out of my shared directory once noone else is downloading it from me. I guess that makes me a wussy lamer leech. :-(
I just got a new Nigerian Porn Dialer that offers a 1.5% cash back bonus and a higher credit limit, why would I want to give that up?
You forgot one thing, it should say:
... ANOTHER ad for the same thing [that you get to pay the bandwidth bill for!]"
"If you look at this ad, you may be rewarded with
I work for a major medical device company. We make small, portable medical diagnostic devices that can be attached to a PC so data can be downloaded to the PC for graphing, reporting, etc.
There is an incredibly small chance that someone could be touching a drop of blood on their fingertip to an electrically conductive test strip in the meter while it's connected to their PC at the same instant that lightning strikes nearby - coursing through the electrical system in the house - and if the PC has a bad ground it's possible the user could receive a potentially deadly shock. It's also possible that monkeys could fly out of my butt, but I won't hold my breath waiting for either to happen.
In order to get FDA clearance, we have to include in the manual a warning and offer to sell a special 'electro-optical isolation cable' to anyone who is worried this might happen. Further, we had to actually design, develop and build such cables (although we actually outsourced it all). In the end, we ended up with 200 of these cables with a total cost of $200+ per cable (they include some special UL approved transformers that are (45+ each), and since we're a corporation, we're in the money-making business so we're not going to *give* these cables away below cost, but since we're relatively nice guys, we are willing to *sell* them at our cost.
In the 7+ years that these cables have been available for sale, we've received a total of maybe 3 calls from consumers who were concerned, and when they discovered the cost, realized they weren't *that* concerned, so we still have 200 $200+ cables sitting in inventory.
Even though that may seem like a waste, $40,000 in un-used cables is a heck of a lot less than the cost to just do the paperwork for a recall, so it's a pretty good deal. Maybe Sony should just offer a prohibitively expensive shock-proof phone cord to cover their asse(t)s?
And again raises my demand for a [+1 Anal-Retentive] moderation category...
Several years back I stayed at the Circus-Circus casino in Las Vegas and the in-room air conditioners are on motion sensors!
We'd leave the room to go gamble and come back to a sweltering hot room, move towards the AC to turn it on/up and it would suddenly start working. Go to sleep, it gets hot, get up to go turn it on/up and it would suddenly start working.
By day two we figured it out and just hung a shirt on a hanger from the overhead light nearest the AC so the air would blow on the shirt, generate movement, and keep the room cool 24/7.
I've been back to Vegas at least 15x since then (been there a lot on business) and I haven't stayed at the Circus-Circus since - cheaper isn't always better, and the Luxor doesn't cost that much more and is much nicer (IMHO).
Ok, just for the sake of argument, assume you never have to pay an electricity bill again. How would your life differ?
Sure, you might turn the AC down a couple more degrees, replace low wattage bulbs with higher wattage bulbs, never turn your car off, etc., but can you realistically increase your current energy consumption by any more than 5x? 10x? Even 20x?
I seriously doubt that you could increase your energy utilization by 100x (let alone the 1000x you propose) without doing some seriously stupid stuff. Even if energy is free, you don't leave the door on the regrigerator open, the compressor will burn out just that much faster. You won't turn the AC down that much as you'll get uncomfortably cold. You won't put that much higher wattage of bulbs in your house because it will become uncomfortably bright, and you'll still turn them off when you sleep, right?
I'm playing Eve-Online, and although I enjoy it, it's not exactly a content-fest, either. It's a good game with great graphics, but it needs more work.
I mean seriously, what good is a spaceship vs. spaceship fighting game where you can't actually steer or maneuver your ship? You choices are 1) Point your ship in a direction by double clicking in space and adjusting your throttle, or 2) Right-click on a target and either select Approach or Orbit - although with Orbit you do get to control the distance at which you orbit...
Tie-Fighter vs. X-Wing it is not.
Yeah, I'd never use the word mediocre to describe Kirsten Dunst. She may not be the hottest chick in the world, but I'd pay good money to see her naked.
Cost of a Lexmark printer on sale minus (cost of color replacement cartridge + cost of black replacement cartridge) is most times less than $20 (usually $10). It seems to me they are priced to be throw aways.
It's almost worth the extra few bucks to buy the new printer so you don't have to worry about making sure you bought the right cartridges.
I bought a kit for use with a Windows PC and a SoundBlaster sound card, called Voice Commander or something like that. Within one hour of setting it up, I was working in a Word document and the phone rang. I picked up the phone and said "hello" which the new software interpreted as 'file close', I saw what was happening and said "uh-oh" which the software interpreted as "No - I don't want to save my changes" and lost my document. I put the headset, hardware dongle and floppies back in the box and put it on a shelf where it sat until this time last year when I sold it at a computer show. Hopefully they've made advancements since then.
One good reason for this vs. ICBMs.
There are treaties in effect that limit the number and types of ICBMs we can have and use. AFAIK, there is no treaty that currently limits the number of bombers we can have ready to use.
I'm trying to think of any large business valued at over a few mill that doesn't bend over backwards to lick the collective asses of law enforcement agencies.
Verizon perhaps?
Also, try this. You get convicted by something that eBay submits to law enforcement. What rights do you have to retaliate against eBay for not following legal procedure.
Ok, so if you're doing something illegal enough to be convicted for, why shouldn't they be able to release your information to LEOs?
If instead you meant to say 'What if ebay reports you to the law and you are wrongfully arrested and later released, what rights do you have to retaliate?' which is a different story altogether.
but from the business perspective these consoles are being sold at a loss -- if we can turn them into PCs, both the console manufacturer and the PC manufacturers are going to feel the hurt.
:CueCat?).
Tough.
If businesses feel that the best way to get your product out there is to give it away for less than actual cost, then that is their shoddy business plan (anyone remember
Most grocery stores offer what are called loss-leaders, these are the items you see advertised in the weekly newspaper insert that shows 1 gallon of milk for $0.99 and 2 liter Colas for $0.99 each. The stores know that if you come in to buy those items, you'll probably pick up other items while you are there and they can make their profit on those items. Do we really need a law that requires you to purchase X number of non-loss-leaders every time you go to the store for a gallon of milk so the store can continue to sell milk below cost? Nope.
Most groceries (at least where I live) now require a $10 minimum purchase in order to take advantage of the loss-leaders (alocohol and cigarette purchases do not count towards the $10). There - they found a perfectly legal way to ensure they don't take a huge loss without requiring government intervention.
If Microsoft wants to continue to sell $500 computer for $180 under the assumption that you're going to come back to them for more software, then that is their problem.
Didn't Pamela have her implants removed? I don't really follow celebrity implant news, but I seem to recall hearing about this on the radio at one time. Maybe she just had them replaced, or something...
This made my year. How sad is that?
On the sadness scale of 1 to 10 where:
1 = A Rainy Day, and
10 = Your independently wealthy, nymphomaniac, computer literate, console game playing girlfriend who looks like a genetic combination of Pamela Anderson, Natalie Portman and Lara Croft (only with bigger boobs) crashes your new Porsche into a school bus full of nuns and orphans on their way back from rescuing puppies and kittens from the animal shelter, resulting in a huge explosion with no survivors, two days before your wedding after which you would have been a rich man and sole remaining heir to the (insert company of your choice) corporate empire.
I'd say you're about a 12, maybe 12.5.
Thanks for the information about CLIT. It's a great program. Too bad I tripped the 'naughty' alarm when I did a Google search for it at work... I have to agree that a WinCE based ebook reader is about the best option and that $199 deal from Dell makes it almost irresistable. The screen on a WinCE or color PalmOS PDA is much better for text (black on white instead of almost-black on grey) and it's hard to find a color PalmOS that is less expensive than the $199 Dell WinCE product. There seems to be a greater variety of Compact Flash Type II products available which also make the WinCE systems a better deal, with the exception of the HP Jornada systems (what I have) that for some reason are 0.5mm too small and will only accept CF Type I cards, so no micro-drives, no wireless ethernet, etc. :-(
I immagine the system would have to have an on/off switch anyway.
Of course there will have to be a black box that records the status of the switch so your insurance company can legally deny your claim because 'you disabled an integrated safety feature that your policy requires be enabled "for your own protection"'.
But what if your device can only support the 400 speed but it works with a Firewire 800 port? Can you label it as Firewire 800 compatible? Would that be any less confusing? I recently bought a Sony USB thumb drive that claims to support USB 2.0, and now I'm wondering if that just means it's compatible or if it really would be faster in a USB 2.0 port? I've got USB 1.1 in my PC at work and USB 2.0 (Full or High, who knows?) at home, I guess I need to do some tests...