I love that.. any reasonable costs. How about the cost of damage to someone's credit when a payment can't go through... are they going to write a million credit apology notices? Are they going to write paper letters so you can keep a copy when someone calls into question your credit? The credit system is very damaging in these cases and has no easy fix.... I recommend all people go their RBC branch and get a letter explaining why payments were missed. Have them give you as many registered copies as you need for all your creditors affected.
Yes.. just read the article and it does make a lot of good points. My favourite is the fact that Google is positioning itself as THE service provider... giving you access to you information anywhere.. anytime.. ability to store lots and potentially share it. Very cool.. not fraught without security/privacy concerns though.. but if they want to see their model work.. they have to address it. Any thoughts that they may start offering a secure token service??
Easy if you are technologically good. My father still can't remember his e-mail password. It really is an issue of convenience vs generally accepted method. Personally I have issues and I have been in IT since 1997. I am almost overwhelmed with the amount of information I have to 'save'. This is hard.. having to remember all those logins to all those vendor/support/warranty/news/forums/blog/banking.. . bah.
Sell it and buy a lot of pidgeons... think aboot it.. train all of 'eom to carry small hard drives long distance... can maximize capacity transfer at the sake of speed. OF course there may be data loss due to collisions and bad birds.. but if you stripe the data across multiple drievs you can rebuild the data! And thank god that pidgeons aren't migratory like swallows (European AND African!)... otherwise you may haev your network go south on ya! Oh.. weather proofing.. coconuts... wait... that means swallows... oh dammit.. this just won't work!
That's one thing I've learned. You make someone else's life easier.. get something of equal value in return. Massage is good, home made food, exotic items such as things from vacation travels(spirits, clothes, etc).. also good. If you do enough.. perhaps you can get a weekend away or some sort of event tickets.:) Dream on eh?
Hmm.. I think it would be prudent to document all the incoming calls/spam. Given that most companies charge per.. it now costs you money. It would be worthwhile to take up your cell provider's customer service time by requesting documentation on who is using up your paid resources. If you run into any roadblocks, IANAL, bring up your lawyer. You can use that effectively I think. Complain enough and you could be put on the do not call list.
You must remember.. some people in the lower United States do not know what a toque/tuque is... obligatory dictionary linkage: Canadjan-Toque-explanation-donchaknow?
What makes the difference is speaking with your money. So once this stuff gets out.. start talking to your family and friends. Educate them on fair use and what these limits may mean. Ask them to get information from the people they are buying things from. Imagine a Dell sales person spending an extra 30 minutes explaining the concept to someone who is expecting certain rights. This rapidly becomes uneconomical for Dell to support. Ultimately it becomes your time and effort vs theirs.
Personally, I check every CD I want to buy by asking the clerk if it has 'protection' on it. If they cannot answer I ask to see the manager and so on. As a consumer you have a right to information and to know. If they cannot tell you, ask follow up and an answer. If they choose not to, let them know you will be filing a complaint with the Better Business Bureau in your area. Let them know that you will be filing a complaint with the exact companies that sell them the CDs to state that the distributor is not informing customers appropriately. Be the person who disturbs the ant-hill.
Change happens when it becomes unprofitable to do something (and someone can't blame a hacker or a pirate).
5 REM AYBABTU NEVERENDING 10 PRINT "In A.D. 1963" 20 PRINT "Code was beginning." 30 PRINT "Programmer: What happen ?" 40 PRINT "User: Somebody set up us the code." 50 PRINT "Operator: We get signal." 60 PRINT "Programmer: What !" 70 PRINT "Operator: Main screen turn on." 80 PRINT "Programmer: It's You !!" 90 PRINT "Cats: How are you gentlemen !!" 100 PRINT "Cats: All your BASIC are belong to us." 110 PRINT "Cats: You are on the way to infinite loop." 120 PRINT "Programmer: What you say !!" 130 PRINT "Cats: You have no chance to survive make your time." 140 PRINT "Cats: HA HA HA HA...." 150 PRINT "Programmer: Take off every 'REM' !!" 160 PRINT "Programmer: You know what you doing." 170 PRINT "Programmer: Move 'GOSUB'." 180 PRINT "Programmer: For great coding." 190 GOTO 5
5 REM AYBABTU NEVERENDING 10 PRINT "In A.D. 2101" 20 PRINT "War was beginning." 30 PRINT "Captain: What happen ?" 40 PRINT "Mechanic: Somebody set up us the bomb." 50 PRINT "Operator: We get signal." 60 PRINT "Captain: What !" 70 PRINT "Operator: Main screen turn on." 80 PRINT "Captain: It's You !!" 90 PRINT "Cats: How are you gentlemen !!" 100 PRINT "Cats: All your base are belong to us." 110 PRINT "Cats: You are on the way to destruction." 120 PRINT "Captain: What you say !!" 130 PRINT "Cats: You have no chance to survive make your time." 140 PRINT "Cats: HA HA HA HA...." 150 PRINT "Captain: Take off every 'zig' !!" 160 PRINT "Captain: You know what you doing." 170 PRINT "Captain: Move 'zig'." 180 PRINT "Captain: For great justice." 190 GOTO 5
I agree. Trades are paying more... for now. That wave is good because of all the building that was done and may still be done... someone has to build and maintain.
a not-so-invulnerable non-slasdot-proff website....
Media - It's about choice and selection...
on
You're Watching Less TV
·
· Score: 2, Insightful
Years ago.. when CDs came out.. I loved the fact I could listen to music and skip to tracks I like quickly.. couldn't do that with tapes. We had the VCR which allowed me to access tv programs when I wanted to as well. Some call this time-shifting.. and some call it stealing because you don't see the commercials.
Why I stopped watching:
1) I lost the ability to have what I wanted at a reasonable cost and reasonable fair use. 2) Companies did not give me the choice to subscribe to the channels I wanted... so I saw that my value per dollar go down steadily through time. 3) Companies are running a relatively unviable business - it's dependant on selling advertising (or so they say).
I thought that if I paid for my shows.. I was paying for my shows... apparently the shows require a subsidy. So.. this whole industry requires subsidies from secondary industry. Does this not strike you as a precarious position? What hubris to think that your programming would continually survive without innovation.
My point is.. much like other traditional media industries in the United States, they are dependant on old systems and politics which give them money to keep them in business.
If something better comes along.. guess what.. people want it. They will do everything in their power and means to grab it.. to hold it.. to cherish it.
Don't spank them for wanting what they want. Offer them the choice... the new innovation.. the options and they will spend their time and their money.
To do otherwise is to insult your customers. Guess that's already happened... the customers are more saavy these days.. and they speak with their time and their money... they choose alternatives because someone else has figured out how to grab their attention.
So I vote with my wallet and support what I like... I don't like having to pay for channels I don't need. I don't like having to buy 18 songs when I only want 3. I guess I won't waste my time or my money on something I don't want.
I guess that those industries will suffer under their own weight because they can't support themselves due to a flawed business model.
I guess I'll go read my news and mail from the Internet... or maybe I'll stop buying fast food and start working out.. maybe I'll start being healthy again. Hmmm?
IBM, Novell - Aligned on Suse - Expect this to remain, perhaps become a tight partnership!
Oracle & Redhat - Redhat divested itself somewhat of desktop and Oracle now develops on Redhat cluster - see Oracle buy Redhat in the near future!
The server environment is a hard market and the only 'profitable' one. Desktop may continue to be handled by Microsoft.. it may not. Not everyone wants M$ to have their hands in all aspects.. so if business can divest itself of M$ and do it's job without all the M$ frills... perhaps IBM/Novell/Oracle/Linux may become the new standard.
Personally I plan to switch to Linux on the desktop once I get my new gaming system (yes.. M$ based) together. My old system would still scream with Linux.
Actually.. the estimates I read were upwards of 20% of a hard drive was technically there.. I.E. a 120GB drive actually had 24 GB of repair space in case of bad sectors. This is in part to reduce the number of returns of 'bad' drives. Effective though.
"We are seeing this because there is no real check on the power these distributors have over both their customer base and those who seek to distribute programming."I disagree! You control this system by paying for it or not... have no illusions that you can opt out of subscribing to a service.
Now... it means less TV for ya.. but then.. that's the only way a consumer can push back.
Just stop watching TV... speak with your wallet and stop watching TV. Notify your provider in writing that you object to this limitation of the service you enjoy. Write your MP or Senator and state that you do not enjoy the fact that someone is limiting your freedom to enjoy a product which you pay for.
My point being is that the TV/MPAA industry is bound and determined to make money whatever way they can in order to both profit and to 'subsidize' 'providing' broadcast television. This typically means advertising. It is up to you to determine whether you will put up with restrictions or not. The problem is that all of us viewers allow these corporations to do what they want because its not worth 'your time'. That's your choice.. your time. These days I am chosing to not use TV anymore. I live with the lack of entertainment.. but I am finding my way with.. gasp.. reading... exercise... developing social networks for work, friends, and family.
Its amazing what you can do when you plug those 4 to 8 hours a day into something other than watching television.
Admittedly there are a lot of folks quite happy to do so... hoorah for them. They've made their choice whether they actively did so or not.
Why wasn't this one mentioned? Sure.. it was a text based find-your-way adventure... but the box came with a manual (feaured a cool green spherical guy sticking his tongue out at ya), Peril Sensitive Sunglasses (really.. they stopped you from seeing anything perilous... or rather.. anything at all.. yes.. black cardboard glasses.. ok.. they were cool though!), and even some pocket lint! I nominate that package to number one!
While I laud the effort, it will be a long time before this becomes a proper human interface. Take computer voice recognition... it's still in it's infancy despite years of 'progress'. The issues at hand: i) How long it takes the computer to learn how to interpret the signals and what they relate to(its training). ii) The training involved for the human to keep a 'steady mind'. How does the system bypass clutter?
If those two issues are resolved or mitigated, this is a cool prospect.
It's news because it is still relevant and that's how things get done in this world.. rehashed until someone takes charge and changes things.. or gets relgated to the 'pile'. Slashdot is an excellent represenatation of the North American social structure and state. Very financially based and the only way something gets look at is if it's brought to the front, sabres are rattled, and cost to a business are shown.
Slashdot Mirror
I love that.. any reasonable costs. How about the cost of damage to someone's credit when a payment can't go through... are they going to write a million credit apology notices? Are they going to write paper letters so you can keep a copy when someone calls into question your credit? The credit system is very damaging in these cases and has no easy fix.... I recommend all people go their RBC branch and get a letter explaining why payments were missed. Have them give you as many registered copies as you need for all your creditors affected.
I think you mean.. two PRIMES...
Yes.. just read the article and it does make a lot of good points. My favourite is the fact that Google is positioning itself as THE service provider... giving you access to you information anywhere.. anytime.. ability to store lots and potentially share it. Very cool.. not fraught without security/privacy concerns though.. but if they want to see their model work.. they have to address it. Any thoughts that they may start offering a secure token service??
Easy if you are technologically good. My father still can't remember his e-mail password. It really is an issue of convenience vs generally accepted method. Personally I have issues and I have been in IT since 1997. I am almost overwhelmed with the amount of information I have to 'save'. This is hard.. having to remember all those logins to all those vendor/support/warranty/news/forums/blog/banking.. . bah.
And you can't win.
Sell it and buy a lot of pidgeons... think aboot it.. train all of 'eom to carry small hard drives long distance... can maximize capacity transfer at the sake of speed. OF course there may be data loss due to collisions and bad birds.. but if you stripe the data across multiple drievs you can rebuild the data! And thank god that pidgeons aren't migratory like swallows (European AND African!)... otherwise you may haev your network go south on ya! Oh.. weather proofing.. coconuts... wait... that means swallows... oh dammit.. this just won't work!
That's one thing I've learned. You make someone else's life easier.. get something of equal value in return. Massage is good, home made food, exotic items such as things from vacation travels(spirits, clothes, etc).. also good. If you do enough.. perhaps you can get a weekend away or some sort of event tickets. :) Dream on eh?
Hmm.. I think it would be prudent to document all the incoming calls/spam. Given that most companies charge per.. it now costs you money. It would be worthwhile to take up your cell provider's customer service time by requesting documentation on who is using up your paid resources. If you run into any roadblocks, IANAL, bring up your lawyer. You can use that effectively I think. Complain enough and you could be put on the do not call list.
You must remember.. some people in the lower United States do not know what a toque/tuque is... obligatory dictionary linkage: Canadjan-Toque-explanation-donchaknow?
What makes the difference is speaking with your money. So once this stuff gets out.. start talking to your family and friends. Educate them on fair use and what these limits may mean. Ask them to get information from the people they are buying things from. Imagine a Dell sales person spending an extra 30 minutes explaining the concept to someone who is expecting certain rights. This rapidly becomes uneconomical for Dell to support. Ultimately it becomes your time and effort vs theirs.
Personally, I check every CD I want to buy by asking the clerk if it has 'protection' on it. If they cannot answer I ask to see the manager and so on. As a consumer you have a right to information and to know. If they cannot tell you, ask follow up and an answer. If they choose not to, let them know you will be filing a complaint with the Better Business Bureau in your area. Let them know that you will be filing a complaint with the exact companies that sell them the CDs to state that the distributor is not informing customers appropriately. Be the person who disturbs the ant-hill.
Change happens when it becomes unprofitable to do something (and someone can't blame a hacker or a pirate).
As Monty would say... Riiiight!
...."
5 REM AYBABTU NEVERENDING
10 PRINT "In A.D. 1963"
20 PRINT "Code was beginning."
30 PRINT "Programmer: What happen ?"
40 PRINT "User: Somebody set up us the code."
50 PRINT "Operator: We get signal."
60 PRINT "Programmer: What !"
70 PRINT "Operator: Main screen turn on."
80 PRINT "Programmer: It's You !!"
90 PRINT "Cats: How are you gentlemen !!"
100 PRINT "Cats: All your BASIC are belong to us."
110 PRINT "Cats: You are on the way to infinite loop."
120 PRINT "Programmer: What you say !!"
130 PRINT "Cats: You have no chance to survive make your time."
140 PRINT "Cats: HA HA HA HA
150 PRINT "Programmer: Take off every 'REM' !!"
160 PRINT "Programmer: You know what you doing."
170 PRINT "Programmer: Move 'GOSUB'."
180 PRINT "Programmer: For great coding."
190 GOTO 5
5 REM AYBABTU NEVERENDING ...."
10 PRINT "In A.D. 2101"
20 PRINT "War was beginning."
30 PRINT "Captain: What happen ?"
40 PRINT "Mechanic: Somebody set up us the bomb."
50 PRINT "Operator: We get signal."
60 PRINT "Captain: What !"
70 PRINT "Operator: Main screen turn on."
80 PRINT "Captain: It's You !!"
90 PRINT "Cats: How are you gentlemen !!"
100 PRINT "Cats: All your base are belong to us."
110 PRINT "Cats: You are on the way to destruction."
120 PRINT "Captain: What you say !!"
130 PRINT "Cats: You have no chance to survive make your time."
140 PRINT "Cats: HA HA HA HA
150 PRINT "Captain: Take off every 'zig' !!"
160 PRINT "Captain: You know what you doing."
170 PRINT "Captain: Move 'zig'."
180 PRINT "Captain: For great justice."
190 GOTO 5
I agree. Trades are paying more... for now. That wave is good because of all the building that was done and may still be done... someone has to build and maintain.
Spelling does count! It's at an all-time low.
Mroe nesw latter...
a not-so-invulnerable non-slasdot-proff website....
Years ago.. when CDs came out.. I loved the fact I could listen to music and skip to tracks I like quickly.. couldn't do that with tapes. We had the VCR which allowed me to access tv programs when I wanted to as well. Some call this time-shifting.. and some call it stealing because you don't see the commercials.
Why I stopped watching:
1) I lost the ability to have what I wanted at a reasonable cost and reasonable fair use.
2) Companies did not give me the choice to subscribe to the channels I wanted... so I saw that my value per dollar go down steadily through time.
3) Companies are running a relatively unviable business - it's dependant on selling advertising (or so they say).
I thought that if I paid for my shows.. I was paying for my shows... apparently the shows require a subsidy. So.. this whole industry requires subsidies from secondary industry. Does this not strike you as a precarious position? What hubris to think that your programming would continually survive without innovation.
My point is.. much like other traditional media industries in the United States, they are dependant on old systems and politics which give them money to keep them in business.
If something better comes along.. guess what.. people want it. They will do everything in their power and means to grab it.. to hold it.. to cherish it.
Don't spank them for wanting what they want. Offer them the choice... the new innovation.. the options and they will spend their time and their money.
To do otherwise is to insult your customers. Guess that's already happened... the customers are more saavy these days.. and they speak with their time and their money... they choose alternatives because someone else has figured out how to grab their attention.
So I vote with my wallet and support what I like... I don't like having to pay for channels I don't need. I don't like having to buy 18 songs when I only want 3. I guess I won't waste my time or my money on something I don't want.
I guess that those industries will suffer under their own weight because they can't support themselves due to a flawed business model.
I guess I'll go read my news and mail from the Internet... or maybe I'll stop buying fast food and start working out.. maybe I'll start being healthy again. Hmmm?
What will YOU do?
Hmm.. as I speculate IANAL and TTWAGOS...
IBM, Novell - Aligned on Suse - Expect this to remain, perhaps become a tight partnership!
Oracle & Redhat - Redhat divested itself somewhat of desktop and Oracle now develops on Redhat cluster - see Oracle buy Redhat in the near future!
The server environment is a hard market and the only 'profitable' one. Desktop may continue to be handled by Microsoft.. it may not. Not everyone wants M$ to have their hands in all aspects.. so if business can divest itself of M$ and do it's job without all the M$ frills... perhaps IBM/Novell/Oracle/Linux may become the new standard.
Personally I plan to switch to Linux on the desktop once I get my new gaming system (yes.. M$ based) together. My old system would still scream with Linux.
Isn't half-life 2 supposed to fix all this?? Real environment.. real 'water', 'dirt'.. etc?
These independant game designers make games for MAC/PC/Linux.. very cool. I purchased the Bridge Construction Set. Go here: Garage Games
Actually.. the estimates I read were upwards of 20% of a hard drive was technically there.. I.E. a 120GB drive actually had 24 GB of repair space in case of bad sectors. This is in part to reduce the number of returns of 'bad' drives. Effective though.
"We are seeing this because there is no real check on the power these distributors have over both their customer base and those who seek to distribute programming." I disagree! You control this system by paying for it or not... have no illusions that you can opt out of subscribing to a service. Now... it means less TV for ya.. but then.. that's the only way a consumer can push back.
Just stop watching TV... speak with your wallet and stop watching TV. Notify your provider in writing that you object to this limitation of the service you enjoy. Write your MP or Senator and state that you do not enjoy the fact that someone is limiting your freedom to enjoy a product which you pay for.
My point being is that the TV/MPAA industry is bound and determined to make money whatever way they can in order to both profit and to 'subsidize' 'providing' broadcast television. This typically means advertising. It is up to you to determine whether you will put up with restrictions or not. The problem is that all of us viewers allow these corporations to do what they want because its not worth 'your time'. That's your choice.. your time. These days I am chosing to not use TV anymore. I live with the lack of entertainment.. but I am finding my way with.. gasp.. reading... exercise... developing social networks for work, friends, and family.
Its amazing what you can do when you plug those 4 to 8 hours a day into something other than watching television.
Admittedly there are a lot of folks quite happy to do so... hoorah for them. They've made their choice whether they actively did so or not.
Do I go forth and wave this in the face of every place I have bought something? I should go ask them to take me out of their system.
Why wasn't this one mentioned? Sure.. it was a text based find-your-way adventure... but the box came with a manual (feaured a cool green spherical guy sticking his tongue out at ya), Peril Sensitive Sunglasses (really.. they stopped you from seeing anything perilous... or rather.. anything at all.. yes.. black cardboard glasses.. ok.. they were cool though!), and even some pocket lint!
I nominate that package to number one!
While I laud the effort, it will be a long time before this becomes a proper human interface. Take computer voice recognition... it's still in it's infancy despite years of 'progress'. The issues at hand:
i) How long it takes the computer to learn how to interpret the signals and what they relate to(its training).
ii) The training involved for the human to keep a 'steady mind'. How does the system bypass clutter?
If those two issues are resolved or mitigated, this is a cool prospect.
It's news because it is still relevant and that's how things get done in this world.. rehashed until someone takes charge and changes things.. or gets relgated to the 'pile'. Slashdot is an excellent represenatation of the North American social structure and state. Very financially based and the only way something gets look at is if it's brought to the front, sabres are rattled, and cost to a business are shown.