I agree that the BBC does a pretty good job of reporting the news without the "Fair & Balanced", aka "Myopic & Distorted", view of Fox or the sadness that you get from watching CNN now knowing that it once was actually decent.
However, why bother? I can pick up a paper and read some news. Yes, a bit dated but still even the Weekly World News is better than most TV news. Or better yet go online and get some news there and in most cases have a forum where you can actually have a discussion about what you think about the news.
Anyway, for me about the only "news" I watch on TV is the occasional Weather channel and C-Span sometimes to keep tabs on congress critters rants.
1. Entertainment -- Questionable at best sometimes. And rivled strongly by other media and the now very strong gaming industry.
2. News -- Nearly a joke at this point. I cringe at the thought of watching any TV news and do so at this point only when I don't have control of the remote. (Normally I still have control of my feet luckily and proceed to leave the room at that point.)
3. Ads -- Wow, here is a big suprise. People don't care to subject themselves to countless ads about stuff they may or may not want to buy. Small wonder TiVo and the likes do so well.
4. Sports -- While this catagory could be lumped in with entertainment and news it really can be considered almost seperate to a degree. It's one of TV's few saving graces as sports fans can watch things that might otherwise not be able to see.
About once ever few months my cable provider calls me up to offer digital cable to go with my cable modem. I tell them thank you no.
All the points you made are there and the overall good things that you get from digital cable are so limited I'm suprised it sells at all right now. (Goes to show how you can sell a pretty poor product when you are granted a monopoly I think.)
I would sooner go back to broadcast TV before I switched to digital at this point. Lets hope that if some sort of mandate forcing digital cable on us that they improve all of these. However, due to the monopolistic nature of this beast I'm not too optimistic.
"...or will the ubiquitous need and superior user input of the PC keep it as a viable game platform?"
While with modern consoles having USB ports they could add a keyboard/mouse, the most obvious missing input devices missing, the major point about consoles is really not that. Rather it's all about the video.
Console video is pretty much all about TVs. And while TVs have become far better than those in the past, they still arn't designed to the level of computer monitors.
Get a copy of FarCry and bump up the video modes, on a suitable computer, from it's lowest resolution to it's highest. The change is dramatic. And the best part is that if you can't see it, or any modern game, at a resolution that pleases you that display is only a new video card away.
And while I suppose there is something to be said about playing on a bigscreen TV, any computer gamer worth their salt will know how to hook up their latest video card's TV out and play it like that if they so desire. However I'm betting that most would rather have 1600x1280 at 32bits with their 5.1 sound card pumping out the frags from their desk rather than trying to mess around with anything else.
I truely have no real clue why these moronic pundets keep hypeing the death of PC gaming by the hands of consoles. Over time I think we have a tendency to keep all the games we can. Cards, chess, go, board games, and all forms of sports are still being played and show no signs of dying. Console games will be around but saying that PC games are going away or will even be dimished is silly at best.
FPS and RTS games are fun to a point, but there is so much more out there, including many consoles games that simply destroy PC equivalents in the area of gameplay depth. This 'console game = must be shallow' nonsense hasn't been true for a very, very long time, and only the most ignorant PC gamers still parrot it like it was some holy law.
Please list some examples. Beacuse I'm quite sure that overall PC games still have quite the overall edge when it comes to game sophistication. (Mind you that I am aware that 'console game == must be shallow' is nonsence but from the titles that are available for consoles the 'shallow console games > non-shallow console games' does seem to be the rule.)
(And various consoles have had internet play for well more than 3+ years, so please spare us that complaint until PC games start reliably also supporting 2-4 players on the same system.)
Not sure what rock you have been living under but PC games have been doing a little more than 2-4 players for a while now. (Hint hint, ever hear of MMORPGs?)
1. Care Assistants -- Someone dies on you. Odd #1. 2. Hairdressers -- Bad hair day. 3. Plumbers -- Septic tank backs up. 4. Chefs -- Deflated mousse. 5. Florists -- Thorn between the eyes. (Hey, it could happen!) 6. Engineers -- No sex, ever. 7. Lawyers -- One day that Shakespearean saying comes true. 8. Mechanics -- Women learn how cars work. 9. IT Specialists -- See Engineers. 10. Scientists/R&D -- Hulk finds out your really his dad. 11. Secretaries / receptionists -- Engineers/IT professionals become so mad about never getting any they write a small shell script to replace you. 12. Butchers -- Slicer accident gone horrably horrably wrong. 13. Builders -- Figure out how to build stuff without Architects. 14. Teachers -- Kids start bringing guns to school. (Doh!) 15. Architects -- Figure out how to build stuff without Builders. 16. Electricians -- Forget to put one hand in pocket. 17. Accountants -- Most exciting thing that happens all day is the trip to the supply room. 18. Pharmacists -- Who cares, we got all these killer pills! 19. Media -- Public wakes up and realizes we are all a bunch of whores. 20. Estate agents -- The Johnson house really was haunted and the ghost is now moving into your office.
I've had a few consoles over the years. Starting with the early 8 bit ones that most "gamers" are too young to remember. I've had fun with them but as time as wore on and my desire for games has grown more sophisticated I have moved firmly away from the console camp.
And so it gets me a little upset when some pundent starts go on about how PC games are doomed and consoles will eventually take over. Smacks of the "Apple is dying!" nonsence we have been hearing for how many years now?
PC games, while they can be as simple and mindless as a generic FPS, also can be mindnumbingly complicated as the latest Simulation or RTS type game. I personally would give up video gaming if I was forced to try and play a RTS on a console. The video mode for one would be totally unacceptable, trying to play with a standard console controler vs a keyboard and mouse would also be an excersise in futility, and finally while MP is finally coming to consoles it has no where near the polish or community that you have with the PC.
One of the main complaints I hear from the console camp about PC games is often how PC games don't work right. How sometimes it takes a patch and some tweaking to get PC games to work vs the console where it works right out of the box every time. And it's a valid complaint but a double edged sword as I see it. Traditionally console games are sold as is. If there is a bug or balance issue you pretty much have to live with it as there is no real update system in place. However with a PC games, patches are common. Not only to fix bugs but to often time add new features and fix balance issues.
Basicly I see consoles as a type of gaming system for those who don't really know enough about computers to understand how to make one a true gaming system, and there is nothing wrong with that. I've done enough troubleshooting on common issues to know that some people should just get a console and use it rather than trying to figure out how to setup their box such that it will run the dozen (or more) games that they wish to play. But for some of us, and we are not all that small, computer games are what we want and play.
While I realize it's an ongoing joke here about Windows and blue screens, and I'm not above them myself really. What I want to know is are they running NT v4.0 or something!?
Since W2K and XP I've personally never seen a bluescreen on my boxes that run those OSes, and beat them up pretty good.
So what is the deal? Is Diebold running old software or are they just that bad at doing anything that they are managing to get W2K or XP to bluescreen?
This happens all the time. In fact, I would say that it is almost expected.
How many threads on/. here have we had about the exportation of jobs in the US to other countries? More than I can remember but all of the economics aside if we just focus on the politics of it what we are asking is for the goverment to favor our country over others.
I think that it's a normal thing to expect your local goverment to stick up for your own more than others. Not that it is always right but it's nothing new.
In MS's minds there are I would say 3 diffrent types of computers.
1. End User -- Should be running Windows Meida Center edition, turning it into a glorified TV with the ability to play some games and write an email. All power user options should be carefully hidden from the consumer. (Example, in Win9x you could turn off auto-insert via a checkbox. In WinXP you have to actually hack the registry to do so.)
2. Workstation -- These PCs are ones that are admined by MCSEs and should be locked down by them to make sure that they only do what the company wants them to do. If they are doing something other than that, well, you need more MCSEs then don't you?
3. Servers -- Pretty self explanatory. Again, boxen that should be admined by "professionals" who know what they are doing.
Broadband providers say the FBI's request would, for the first time, force cable providers that sell broadband to come under the jurisdiction of 1994's Communications Assistance for Law Enforcement Act (CALEA), which further defined the already existing statutory obligations of telecommunications carriers to help police conduct electronic surveillance. Telephone companies that use their networks to sell broadband have already been following CALEA rules.
Ok, fair enough I suppose. But the fact however, as has been pointed out here, is that not all programs are being written in the US. To make IM, VoIP, IRC, and or whatever other type of program that allows communication over IP have backdoors is bad enough. But to expect that every program on the planet has one is just downright silly. But, thats not really the bad part...
Under CALEA, police must still follow legal procedures when wiretapping Internet communications. Depending on the situation, such wiretaps do not always require court approval, in part because of expanded wiretapping powers put in place by the USA Patriot Act.
Bad, bad, bad. Is it so much to ask for due process here? I mean it's part of our own set of friggen laws. Is it so much to ask that the Feds follow the laws before they make new ones?
Classmate: What's your schedule look like this semester Bill? Bill: Lets see. English Lit, Speech, Business Ethics...Business Ethics?! Classmate: Oh yeah, Smith is teaching that one. It's not bad. Bill: Not BAD?! Screw this noise, I'm outta here.
The total crap part is that you can sue ANYTIME after birth and claim that the doctor that delivered you caused any problems that you have now. I personally talked to a doctor that is being sued by some parents because their child didnt get into the college they were planning on, so they sued the doctor for causing long lasting brain damage 18 years after the birth. The really sad part is the doctor lost the lawsuit and is now repsonsible for paying millions of dollars of damages to the family. And let me say, this is a totaly normal kid who simply didnt get high enough grades on his entrance exams to a college, not some highly deformed retarded human being.
You make some points and I'm well aware that some crazy things happen in our fscked up legal system but come on.
If you are going to cite something as outrageous as that you need to provide some sort of proof or at the very least a little bit more information into the story. Because right now it's just not passing my BS meter. (Asking the mods to do the same on the other hand heh...)
No, they'll adopt an old standard of sending messages: SMTP.
While you could very well be right, I would exect any ISP that were to try and force any sort of new email protocal on users would tend to block SMTP.
While savvy users would be able to get around that if they so wanted, we arn't really dealing with savvy users. Were the the case I doubt this problem would be so severe right now.
Paying for email would do one thing
on
Gates on Spam
·
· Score: 2, Informative
Forcing some sort of email "stamp" in any way will do one thing, fragment the email standard as those who don't want to pay/can't afford to pay will adopt a new standard of sending messages.
Then I'm sure the lawyers would muck it up even more by trying to enforce ISPs to regulate the new email/message sending system and we would get into the very thorny issue of what constitutes an email?
What about IRC chat, or Instant Messaging, or message board messaging systems? Would those fall under the email stamp tax?
Spam is annoying but I personally will not pay again for my service. I pay for my bandwidth and I know how to filter my email properly. Forcing me to pay again for email will only insure that I will be one of those who switches to another standard.
Thank you. I thought I was the only one who thought that in the ROTK that when that wood flute came on I thought I was going to die.
I'm not sure how those parts got past anyone but truely they were very bad for anyone who has watched film for any length of time.
Sadly, I think simply because it was joined with such a superb score as well as the rest of the high values that went with this triogy that it was overlooked but personally I found those parts very odd at best.
I've read a few comments here and then had to go look to actually see for myself that Verisign is a public company.
To everyone who is shocked and dismayed over their actions I have to say you need look no further than this to understand why they are doing such ridiculous things.
The mentality of C level execs today is constant growth. And this is only exacerbated when you deal with a public company. The thought of just sitting on a business model that does not require any tinkering is just too much for them to deal with. They feel that without growth they will perish, and nevermind that they are in a given legal monopoly. That just gives them all the more steam to think that they can do whatever they want to feed that growth mentality.
I think the anwser for this particular problem is to give these contracts to a privately held company that does not have to report to anyone but the people who they serve. Better that than a publicly held one who's execs view the world though stock colored glasses.
Well, since I posted with my real UID rather than as an AC I'm a bit loath to say who my actual employer was. (Friggen NDA and all that.)
However, without directly giving it away I can say that they are one of the big boys when it comes to call center outsourcing. Handeling contracts from such companys as: SBC, Dell, Gateway, Palm, and AT&T just to name a few.
And also in response to both yourself and the other person who replied to me, don't be under the impression that I feel that call center work is very good. I've witnessed the "Kens" of the call call callcenter. Witnessed shameless political moveups from being on the floor, to TL, to Level 2 tech's (IE Mentors from the artical), to actual managment.
My personal fav guy who me and my friends would always talk about was John. (Name changed to protect the guilty.) John would, to use my vernacular, turn and burn calls with such shameless efficiency that his ACT was anywhere between 2-3 mins during any given week. He had this method, and you really almost had to hear it to believe it, of turning any problem around such that it made the caller just want to get off the phone with him because they just knew he was not going to do anything. When I was made TL (One of the guys who "drops by" your cube if your call goes over 10 mins, yeah heh.) I would always shudder when I had to peer review him. His scores where dreadful but nobody cared since he was part of the mix that made money. Never mind that if you actually wanted to solve someones problem and their case # reflected that John had been there they were likely to be rather irate after his ministrations but oh well.
Anyway, good points as well all around I think in this thread. I think it all goes back to the actual account contract specs as to what level of service you will see in a call center. Co's that actually seemed to care seeming made the metrics reasonable and backed it up with good traning. Others, and I'm guessing they truely just didn't care if their customers got any real support at all; which is scary, might just have well put the calls on hold and then had someone tell them, "Sorry! Your screwed, hahaha! "
Those who have read my posts before might recognize that I happen to know a thing or two about NWN. And as such I've had the needs for good DMs on my servers.
Now over time I've had a lot of players come and go from my mod and some of them were some of the best players I've seen bar none. However often their temperments and or mannerisms made them unsutable, in my judgement, to make them a DM. And guess what, most of the ones that might have had a shot were guys but it was often those "guy" tendencys that lost them the job at the same time.
Now enter in the girl RPG gamers. Since nearly everyone has made a female RPG PC (Player Chararacter for the uninitiated.) its not as easy as picking out the female avitars to find the girl gamers but after chatting with someone for a bit it typically becomes apparent. And suprise suprise, what the girl gamers sometimes lack in sheer skill they make up for in being nice, fair, and dedicated to the game!
Anyway, while from my perspective there are still some genres that are pretty much male domniated and I don't see that changing. The girl gamers are coming, and I for one welcome them with open arms.
Slashdot Mirror
I agree that the BBC does a pretty good job of reporting the news without the "Fair & Balanced", aka "Myopic & Distorted", view of Fox or the sadness that you get from watching CNN now knowing that it once was actually decent.
However, why bother? I can pick up a paper and read some news. Yes, a bit dated but still even the Weekly World News is better than most TV news. Or better yet go online and get some news there and in most cases have a forum where you can actually have a discussion about what you think about the news.
Anyway, for me about the only "news" I watch on TV is the occasional Weather channel and C-Span sometimes to keep tabs on congress critters rants.
1. Entertainment -- Questionable at best sometimes. And rivled strongly by other media and the now very strong gaming industry.
2. News -- Nearly a joke at this point. I cringe at the thought of watching any TV news and do so at this point only when I don't have control of the remote. (Normally I still have control of my feet luckily and proceed to leave the room at that point.)
3. Ads -- Wow, here is a big suprise. People don't care to subject themselves to countless ads about stuff they may or may not want to buy. Small wonder TiVo and the likes do so well.
4. Sports -- While this catagory could be lumped in with entertainment and news it really can be considered almost seperate to a degree. It's one of TV's few saving graces as sports fans can watch things that might otherwise not be able to see.
About once ever few months my cable provider calls me up to offer digital cable to go with my cable modem. I tell them thank you no.
All the points you made are there and the overall good things that you get from digital cable are so limited I'm suprised it sells at all right now. (Goes to show how you can sell a pretty poor product when you are granted a monopoly I think.)
I would sooner go back to broadcast TV before I switched to digital at this point. Lets hope that if some sort of mandate forcing digital cable on us that they improve all of these. However, due to the monopolistic nature of this beast I'm not too optimistic.
As the old saying goes: Words are cheap!
"...or will the ubiquitous need and superior user input of the PC keep it as a viable game platform?"
While with modern consoles having USB ports they could add a keyboard/mouse, the most obvious missing input devices missing, the major point about consoles is really not that. Rather it's all about the video.
Console video is pretty much all about TVs. And while TVs have become far better than those in the past, they still arn't designed to the level of computer monitors.
Get a copy of FarCry and bump up the video modes, on a suitable computer, from it's lowest resolution to it's highest. The change is dramatic. And the best part is that if you can't see it, or any modern game, at a resolution that pleases you that display is only a new video card away.
And while I suppose there is something to be said about playing on a bigscreen TV, any computer gamer worth their salt will know how to hook up their latest video card's TV out and play it like that if they so desire. However I'm betting that most would rather have 1600x1280 at 32bits with their 5.1 sound card pumping out the frags from their desk rather than trying to mess around with anything else.
I truely have no real clue why these moronic pundets keep hypeing the death of PC gaming by the hands of consoles. Over time I think we have a tendency to keep all the games we can. Cards, chess, go, board games, and all forms of sports are still being played and show no signs of dying. Console games will be around but saying that PC games are going away or will even be dimished is silly at best.
FPS and RTS games are fun to a point, but there is so much more out there, including many consoles games that simply destroy PC equivalents in the area of gameplay depth. This 'console game = must be shallow' nonsense hasn't been true for a very, very long time, and only the most ignorant PC gamers still parrot it like it was some holy law.
Please list some examples. Beacuse I'm quite sure that overall PC games still have quite the overall edge when it comes to game sophistication. (Mind you that I am aware that 'console game == must be shallow' is nonsence but from the titles that are available for consoles the 'shallow console games > non-shallow console games' does seem to be the rule.)
(And various consoles have had internet play for well more than 3+ years, so please spare us that complaint until PC games start reliably also supporting 2-4 players on the same system.)
Not sure what rock you have been living under but PC games have been doing a little more than 2-4 players for a while now. (Hint hint, ever hear of MMORPGs?)
Hrm, what's the worst that could happen?
1. Care Assistants -- Someone dies on you. Odd #1.
2. Hairdressers -- Bad hair day.
3. Plumbers -- Septic tank backs up.
4. Chefs -- Deflated mousse.
5. Florists -- Thorn between the eyes. (Hey, it could happen!)
6. Engineers -- No sex, ever.
7. Lawyers -- One day that Shakespearean saying comes true.
8. Mechanics -- Women learn how cars work.
9. IT Specialists -- See Engineers.
10. Scientists/R&D -- Hulk finds out your really his dad.
11. Secretaries / receptionists -- Engineers/IT professionals become so mad about never getting any they write a small shell script to replace you.
12. Butchers -- Slicer accident gone horrably horrably wrong.
13. Builders -- Figure out how to build stuff without Architects.
14. Teachers -- Kids start bringing guns to school. (Doh!)
15. Architects -- Figure out how to build stuff without Builders.
16. Electricians -- Forget to put one hand in pocket.
17. Accountants -- Most exciting thing that happens all day is the trip to the supply room.
18. Pharmacists -- Who cares, we got all these killer pills!
19. Media -- Public wakes up and realizes we are all a bunch of whores.
20. Estate agents -- The Johnson house really was haunted and the ghost is now moving into your office.
I've had a few consoles over the years. Starting with the early 8 bit ones that most "gamers" are too young to remember. I've had fun with them but as time as wore on and my desire for games has grown more sophisticated I have moved firmly away from the console camp.
And so it gets me a little upset when some pundent starts go on about how PC games are doomed and consoles will eventually take over. Smacks of the "Apple is dying!" nonsence we have been hearing for how many years now?
PC games, while they can be as simple and mindless as a generic FPS, also can be mindnumbingly complicated as the latest Simulation or RTS type game. I personally would give up video gaming if I was forced to try and play a RTS on a console. The video mode for one would be totally unacceptable, trying to play with a standard console controler vs a keyboard and mouse would also be an excersise in futility, and finally while MP is finally coming to consoles it has no where near the polish or community that you have with the PC.
One of the main complaints I hear from the console camp about PC games is often how PC games don't work right. How sometimes it takes a patch and some tweaking to get PC games to work vs the console where it works right out of the box every time. And it's a valid complaint but a double edged sword as I see it. Traditionally console games are sold as is. If there is a bug or balance issue you pretty much have to live with it as there is no real update system in place. However with a PC games, patches are common. Not only to fix bugs but to often time add new features and fix balance issues.
Basicly I see consoles as a type of gaming system for those who don't really know enough about computers to understand how to make one a true gaming system, and there is nothing wrong with that. I've done enough troubleshooting on common issues to know that some people should just get a console and use it rather than trying to figure out how to setup their box such that it will run the dozen (or more) games that they wish to play. But for some of us, and we are not all that small, computer games are what we want and play.
While I realize it's an ongoing joke here about Windows and blue screens, and I'm not above them myself really. What I want to know is are they running NT v4.0 or something!?
Since W2K and XP I've personally never seen a bluescreen on my boxes that run those OSes, and beat them up pretty good.
So what is the deal? Is Diebold running old software or are they just that bad at doing anything that they are managing to get W2K or XP to bluescreen?
This happens all the time. In fact, I would say that it is almost expected.
/. here have we had about the exportation of jobs in the US to other countries? More than I can remember but all of the economics aside if we just focus on the politics of it what we are asking is for the goverment to favor our country over others.
How many threads on
I think that it's a normal thing to expect your local goverment to stick up for your own more than others. Not that it is always right but it's nothing new.
You mean people under 60 actually watch CBS?
In MS's minds there are I would say 3 diffrent types of computers.
1. End User -- Should be running Windows Meida Center edition, turning it into a glorified TV with the ability to play some games and write an email. All power user options should be carefully hidden from the consumer. (Example, in Win9x you could turn off auto-insert via a checkbox. In WinXP you have to actually hack the registry to do so.)
2. Workstation -- These PCs are ones that are admined by MCSEs and should be locked down by them to make sure that they only do what the company wants them to do. If they are doing something other than that, well, you need more MCSEs then don't you?
3. Servers -- Pretty self explanatory. Again, boxen that should be admined by "professionals" who know what they are doing.
I could go on but I'm offtopic enough allready.
"It's embarrassing," said City Manager David J. Norman. "We had a paralegal who did bad research."
You have to love the world today when the best that they can come up with is some lame excuse about how it was someone else's fault.
Sorry David, if you have to rely on everyone for even some of the most basic knowladge then you really don't deserve to be a public offical.
Broadband providers say the FBI's request would, for the first time, force cable providers that sell broadband to come under the jurisdiction of 1994's Communications Assistance for Law Enforcement Act (CALEA), which further defined the already existing statutory obligations of telecommunications carriers to help police conduct electronic surveillance. Telephone companies that use their networks to sell broadband have already been following CALEA rules.
Ok, fair enough I suppose. But the fact however, as has been pointed out here, is that not all programs are being written in the US. To make IM, VoIP, IRC, and or whatever other type of program that allows communication over IP have backdoors is bad enough. But to expect that every program on the planet has one is just downright silly. But, thats not really the bad part...
Under CALEA, police must still follow legal procedures when wiretapping Internet communications. Depending on the situation, such wiretaps do not always require court approval, in part because of expanded wiretapping powers put in place by the USA Patriot Act.
Bad, bad, bad. Is it so much to ask for due process here? I mean it's part of our own set of friggen laws. Is it so much to ask that the Feds follow the laws before they make new ones?
Why Bill dropped out of collage.
Classmate: What's your schedule look like this semester Bill?
Bill: Lets see. English Lit, Speech, Business Ethics...Business Ethics?!
Classmate: Oh yeah, Smith is teaching that one. It's not bad.
Bill: Not BAD?! Screw this noise, I'm outta here.
The total crap part is that you can sue ANYTIME after birth and claim that the doctor that delivered you caused any problems that you have now. I personally talked to a doctor that is being sued by some parents because their child didnt get into the college they were planning on, so they sued the doctor for causing long lasting brain damage 18 years after the birth. The really sad part is the doctor lost the lawsuit and is now repsonsible for paying millions of dollars of damages to the family. And let me say, this is a totaly normal kid who simply didnt get high enough grades on his entrance exams to a college, not some highly deformed retarded human being.
You make some points and I'm well aware that some crazy things happen in our fscked up legal system but come on.
If you are going to cite something as outrageous as that you need to provide some sort of proof or at the very least a little bit more information into the story. Because right now it's just not passing my BS meter. (Asking the mods to do the same on the other hand heh...)
No, they'll adopt an old standard of sending messages: SMTP.
While you could very well be right, I would exect any ISP that were to try and force any sort of new email protocal on users would tend to block SMTP.
While savvy users would be able to get around that if they so wanted, we arn't really dealing with savvy users. Were the the case I doubt this problem would be so severe right now.
Forcing some sort of email "stamp" in any way will do one thing, fragment the email standard as those who don't want to pay/can't afford to pay will adopt a new standard of sending messages.
Then I'm sure the lawyers would muck it up even more by trying to enforce ISPs to regulate the new email/message sending system and we would get into the very thorny issue of what constitutes an email?
What about IRC chat, or Instant Messaging, or message board messaging systems? Would those fall under the email stamp tax?
Spam is annoying but I personally will not pay again for my service. I pay for my bandwidth and I know how to filter my email properly. Forcing me to pay again for email will only insure that I will be one of those who switches to another standard.
What kind of things have you rejected?
We rejected some mascaras from Sally Ride. She was the first American female astronaut and we tested a lot of things for her.
From the New Scientist artical.
Hell yeah I want some cheesy poofs?
In german?
...embarrassing use of wood flute.
Thank you. I thought I was the only one who thought that in the ROTK that when that wood flute came on I thought I was going to die.
I'm not sure how those parts got past anyone but truely they were very bad for anyone who has watched film for any length of time.
Sadly, I think simply because it was joined with such a superb score as well as the rest of the high values that went with this triogy that it was overlooked but personally I found those parts very odd at best.
I've read a few comments here and then had to go look to actually see for myself that Verisign is a public company.
To everyone who is shocked and dismayed over their actions I have to say you need look no further than this to understand why they are doing such ridiculous things.
The mentality of C level execs today is constant growth. And this is only exacerbated when you deal with a public company. The thought of just sitting on a business model that does not require any tinkering is just too much for them to deal with. They feel that without growth they will perish, and nevermind that they are in a given legal monopoly. That just gives them all the more steam to think that they can do whatever they want to feed that growth mentality.
I think the anwser for this particular problem is to give these contracts to a privately held company that does not have to report to anyone but the people who they serve. Better that than a publicly held one who's execs view the world though stock colored glasses.
Customer: How much for an order of Windows?
... How many bugs do I get with that?
MS: (With a big smile.) $2.50
Customer: $2.50!?
MS: Uhhhhh...About 5 bugs.
Customer: Ahhh... (Counts change.) Well, I guess thats about 50 cents a bug?
MS: Uh yeah, about. But they are some doozys!
Customer: Ok, lemme get 1.
MS: Right on, (calls into the back) 1 order of Windows!
(Back): One order!
Customer: No no...1 bug.
MS: (Smile fadeing.) One bug?
Customer: (Rubs belly.) I sure need a server!
MS: (Calls to back again, smile is gone.) Make that 1 bug in the server.
(Back): One bug?!
MS: (To back.) One bug. (To customer.) What else?
Customer: Do you have any webservers?
MS: (With thinly veiled patience.) One dollar!
Customer: Awww, come on now look out for a brother. Linux costs less than that. Why don't you just let me get some http for 15 cents?
MS: (With anger.) My middle mangers cost more than 15 cents!
Customer: Allright, fuck the http, just give me the source for a dime!
Well, since I posted with my real UID rather than as an AC I'm a bit loath to say who my actual employer was. (Friggen NDA and all that.)
However, without directly giving it away I can say that they are one of the big boys when it comes to call center outsourcing. Handeling contracts from such companys as: SBC, Dell, Gateway, Palm, and AT&T just to name a few.
And also in response to both yourself and the other person who replied to me, don't be under the impression that I feel that call center work is very good. I've witnessed the "Kens" of the call call callcenter. Witnessed shameless political moveups from being on the floor, to TL, to Level 2 tech's (IE Mentors from the artical), to actual managment.
My personal fav guy who me and my friends would always talk about was John. (Name changed to protect the guilty.) John would, to use my vernacular, turn and burn calls with such shameless efficiency that his ACT was anywhere between 2-3 mins during any given week. He had this method, and you really almost had to hear it to believe it, of turning any problem around such that it made the caller just want to get off the phone with him because they just knew he was not going to do anything. When I was made TL (One of the guys who "drops by" your cube if your call goes over 10 mins, yeah heh.) I would always shudder when I had to peer review him. His scores where dreadful but nobody cared since he was part of the mix that made money. Never mind that if you actually wanted to solve someones problem and their case # reflected that John had been there they were likely to be rather irate after his ministrations but oh well.
Anyway, good points as well all around I think in this thread. I think it all goes back to the actual account contract specs as to what level of service you will see in a call center. Co's that actually seemed to care seeming made the metrics reasonable and backed it up with good traning. Others, and I'm guessing they truely just didn't care if their customers got any real support at all; which is scary, might just have well put the calls on hold and then had someone tell them, "Sorry! Your screwed, hahaha! "
Those who have read my posts before might recognize that I happen to know a thing or two about NWN. And as such I've had the needs for good DMs on my servers.
Now over time I've had a lot of players come and go from my mod and some of them were some of the best players I've seen bar none. However often their temperments and or mannerisms made them unsutable, in my judgement, to make them a DM. And guess what, most of the ones that might have had a shot were guys but it was often those "guy" tendencys that lost them the job at the same time.
Now enter in the girl RPG gamers. Since nearly everyone has made a female RPG PC (Player Chararacter for the uninitiated.) its not as easy as picking out the female avitars to find the girl gamers but after chatting with someone for a bit it typically becomes apparent. And suprise suprise, what the girl gamers sometimes lack in sheer skill they make up for in being nice, fair, and dedicated to the game!
Anyway, while from my perspective there are still some genres that are pretty much male domniated and I don't see that changing. The girl gamers are coming, and I for one welcome them with open arms.