Before my bank's introduced their online banking, you could submit your email address on their site if you wanted to be notified of their beta test. Well, one late Friday afternoon I got an email notifying myself and all the others of the beta test progress. Unfortunately the person sending out the email put as many people as they could fit into the To: address. People started reply-ing to all, saying things like "Please unsubscribe" and complaining about getting so many emails, etc.. Of course because this was sent out on a friday, so this went on all weekend. Hundreds of replies went out by monday, when they asked nicely for everyone to stop hitting reply-all.
Epilogue: I wrote the VP of the company and expressed my concern that if they weren't competent enough to use email, how was I going to trust them with my money online. The VP sent me an apology and a $50 traveler check gift!
I'm not a lawyer (sometimes I wish I was so I could understand the real world), but isn't liability based on someone's neglect in fixing a problem or situation? I heard someone call it the 'dirty banana peel' concept. You're in a grocery store and slip on a banana peel that recently fell on the floor, you'd have trouble sueing the store because they didn't have time to know about it and clean it up. But if the peel had been out for a while (hence, the dirty banana peel), and they did have a chance to clean it but were negligent, you could have a good case.
Anyway, the same would (or should) apply to software. If you could show that the company knew about the bug but sat on their hands, I imagine that's a pretty good case for a lawsuit.
These days, law abiding citizens are being treated like criminals in so many parts of their lives, with the increasing use of not only copy protection technology, but security screenings, identifications, background and credit checks, etc. I really wonder if someday someone is going to do a study and find that the psychological effects of going through most of life not being trusted is causing all sorts of issues, like incrased stress, depression, family problems, etc... At the very least, one has to wonder if being treated like a criminal would start to make someone act like a criminial.
--- Please give me the strength to turn off my TV!
I can't believe people still think MS Blue Screen jokes are funny. Here, let me get it all out of the way for you:
- New MS toaster OS: "huh, why is my toast blue." - New MS space shuttle OS: "ground control, we have a blue screen of death." "roger that". - MS OS used in making of Star Wars Episode 3 no doubt entitled "wait till the clones come home" or something): "huh, too bad they didn't blue screen when they made Jar-Jar" - New 'Back Massager' to include MS OS: (I'll leave that one alone) - Remake of six-million dollar man, with bionics based on a MS OS: "Steve just bluescreened."
The method to use 64Gb of memory by the OS is called PAE (Physical Address Extension), and available since Pentium Pro. why am I suddenly reminded of DOS memory hacks like expanded memory and extended memory..:)
Not to mention that sun's been 64 bit for how many years now? Plus half of the sun's I run in production have well over 4 gigs of ram, something Intel/Linux still can't handle last time I checked.
Spam is theft. Deleting it takes up time that eventually accumulates...time that can't be billed out. So, unlike postal junk mail, where the sender pays for postage, *you* pay for spam.
I dunno. it takes me less time to determine if an email is spam (1 second) and throw it out (200 ms to click on the delete button) compared to junk mail (determine if it's junk, average 10 seconds since most are contained in official looking envelopes), and discard (1 second to aim and toss into a wastebasket).
Not that I'm a big fan of spam. I work for a major ISP that has 130,000 customers, and when we get hit with spam, it overloads our servers so bad sometimes that the lights practically dim.
Companies get favorable bulk rates because bulk prebarcoded mail is easier to process. I don't think you "subsidize" it. *nod* Mass mailings actually subsidize residential mail. If it weren't for the 'big bad corporations' that people around here bitch about, postage would be somewhere around a dollar per letter. It's a similar situation to the airlines, where they make most of their profit off of business travelers, and loose money on standard consumers.
Personally I find their lack of design sense more annoying than a few advertisments.
Should Aunt Tillie Build Her Car Engine?
Should Aunt Tillie Change Her Own Break Pads?
Should Aunt Tillie Change Her Own Oil?
Should Aunt Tillie Change Her Own Tires?
Should Aunt Tillie Wash Her Own Car?
Should Aunt Tillie Think Her Own Thoughts?
Some people don't want to build a kernel. I keep a journal and looked at how many hours I spent futzing around with linux trying to get things to work in one year: 120 hours. My Aunt Tillie and I have much better things to do.
I think if Aunt Tillie can create a swap partition during installation, pick a window manager, download compile + install the latest mozilla browser update (or maybe she prefers Opera), configure her firewall, and set up lpr for her printer, she can recompile her kernel. I just don't want to be around when she starts looking for "Freecell."
Cuz remember programmers: in the real world you are fired if you consult with a co-worker I guess the university wants to guarentee that there will be well educated people that workplace cheaters can consult with.
I have a question. From what I've read patent laws were recently loosened to allow for software and business-plan patenting. Does anyone know who created and passed these laws? Are there any records as to who lobbied for such changes?
It would be interesting to see who initiated this and how their profiting. I love capitalism as a system only until people start abusing government power.
yeah, i'm mostly talking about the stupid ones that are scripted and animated to be fake bloopers. i'm mostly afraid of the people (er, mindless sheep) that look at it and think it's a real blooper.
Slashdot Mirror
Before my bank's introduced their online banking, you could submit your email address on their site if you wanted to be notified of their beta test. Well, one late Friday afternoon I got an email notifying myself and all the others of the beta test progress. Unfortunately the person sending out the email put as many people as they could fit into the To: address. People started reply-ing to all, saying things like "Please unsubscribe" and complaining about getting so many emails, etc.. Of course because this was sent out on a friday, so this went on all weekend. Hundreds of replies went out by monday, when they asked nicely for everyone to stop hitting reply-all.
Epilogue: I wrote the VP of the company and expressed my concern that if they weren't competent enough to use email, how was I going to trust them with my money online. The VP sent me an apology and a $50 traveler check gift!
You have probably the single most intelligent cmoment out of the thousands posted on this item. I wish I were a moderator so I could mod this up..
Is that a violation of DMCA for Slashdot to provide information on how to circumvent copyright protection devices? (I'm half joking)
I'm not a lawyer (sometimes I wish I was so I could understand the real world), but isn't liability based on someone's neglect in fixing a problem or situation? I heard someone call it the 'dirty banana peel' concept. You're in a grocery store and slip on a banana peel that recently fell on the floor, you'd have trouble sueing the store because they didn't have time to know about it and clean it up. But if the peel had been out for a while (hence, the dirty banana peel), and they did have a chance to clean it but were negligent, you could have a good case.
Anyway, the same would (or should) apply to software. If you could show that the company knew about the bug but sat on their hands, I imagine that's a pretty good case for a lawsuit.
damb you beat me to it!
These days, law abiding citizens are being treated like criminals in so many parts of their lives, with the increasing use of not only copy protection technology, but security screenings, identifications, background and credit checks, etc. I really wonder if someday someone is going to do a study and find that the psychological effects of going through most of life not being trusted is causing all sorts of issues, like incrased stress, depression, family problems, etc... At the very least, one has to wonder if being treated like a criminal would start to make someone act like a criminial.
---
Please give me the strength to turn off my TV!
Better stick with woman. If properly timed she will become obsolete at the same time you do.
I though the next release was going to show Al Gore as the actual inventer of Replicants.
hardy har-har
I can't believe people still think MS Blue Screen jokes are funny. Here, let me get it all out of the way for you:
- New MS toaster OS: "huh, why is my toast blue."
- New MS space shuttle OS: "ground control, we have a blue screen of death." "roger that".
- MS OS used in making of Star Wars Episode 3 no doubt entitled "wait till the clones come home" or something): "huh, too bad they didn't blue screen when they made Jar-Jar"
- New 'Back Massager' to include MS OS: (I'll leave that one alone)
- Remake of six-million dollar man, with bionics based on a MS OS: "Steve just bluescreened."
For god sakes get a life/job/girlfriend/pet.
holy shit i remember that!
The method to use 64Gb of memory by the OS is called PAE (Physical Address Extension), and available since Pentium Pro. :)
why am I suddenly reminded of DOS memory hacks like expanded memory and extended memory..
Not to mention that sun's been 64 bit for how many years now? Plus half of the sun's I run in production have well over 4 gigs of ram, something Intel/Linux still can't handle last time I checked.
I think we can chalk this up as a win.
Who's this 'we', white-boy? Don't assume all Slashdot readers are Linux Lovers.
Spam is theft. Deleting it takes up time that eventually accumulates...time that can't be billed out. So, unlike postal junk mail, where the sender pays for postage, *you* pay for spam.
I dunno. it takes me less time to determine if an email is spam (1 second) and throw it out (200 ms to click on the delete button) compared to junk mail (determine if it's junk, average 10 seconds since most are contained in official looking envelopes), and discard (1 second to aim and toss into a wastebasket).
Not that I'm a big fan of spam. I work for a major ISP that has 130,000 customers, and when we get hit with spam, it overloads our servers so bad sometimes that the lights practically dim.
sarchasm
Haha, Wheels of Zeus. It's an acronym for WOZ. I feel so smart now. *eyeroll*
Companies get favorable bulk rates because bulk prebarcoded mail is easier to process. I don't think you "subsidize" it.
*nod* Mass mailings actually subsidize residential mail. If it weren't for the 'big bad corporations' that people around here bitch about, postage would be somewhere around a dollar per letter. It's a similar situation to the airlines, where they make most of their profit off of business travelers, and loose money on standard consumers.
Personally I find their lack of design sense more annoying than a few advertisments.
Should Aunt Tillie Build Her Car Engine?
Should Aunt Tillie Change Her Own Break Pads?
Should Aunt Tillie Change Her Own Oil?
Should Aunt Tillie Change Her Own Tires?
Should Aunt Tillie Wash Her Own Car?
Should Aunt Tillie Think Her Own Thoughts?
Some people don't want to build a kernel. I keep a journal and looked at how many hours I spent futzing around with linux trying to get things to work in one year: 120 hours. My Aunt Tillie and I have much better things to do.
I think if Aunt Tillie can create a swap partition during installation, pick a window manager, download compile + install the latest mozilla browser update (or maybe she prefers Opera), configure her firewall, and set up lpr for her printer, she can recompile her kernel. I just don't want to be around when she starts looking for "Freecell."
Cuz remember programmers: in the real world you are fired if you consult with a co-worker
I guess the university wants to guarentee that there will be well educated people that workplace cheaters can consult with.
I have a question. From what I've read patent laws were recently loosened to allow for software and business-plan patenting. Does anyone know who created and passed these laws? Are there any records as to who lobbied for such changes?
It would be interesting to see who initiated this and how their profiting. I love capitalism as a system only until people start abusing government power.
agreed on all points.
Publicly funded Universities are making money off of their sports team by charging admission to games and procedes from advertising.
You're afraid of stupid people being stupid? You must spend a whole lot of time being afraid.
:)
sadly i spend upwards of 20 hours a day cowering under my bed
yeah, i'm mostly talking about the stupid ones that are scripted and animated to be fake bloopers. i'm mostly afraid of the people (er, mindless sheep) that look at it and think it's a real blooper.