My oldest account on Hotmail (about4 or 5 years old) is plagued with SPAM. I keep it because people still use it to send me MSN conversations.
While Microsoft is suing the spammers, they're not doing much to block them. Are they? Some bayesian filters and RBLing with a bit of context analysis (50K people get the same email in 2 minutes) might just prevent them the agony of having to sue people.
These people seem to have their act together, considering that they will deliver virtually anywhere in the world. Its rare to see a startup offer its products (specially video.. as I assume they've got to make their product multi-standard) on such a wide basis.
Bittorrent?? I cant figure out how the heck to make it work (actually cant be bothered once I look at the instructions).
Here's the deal. I use Kazaa to download and watch episodes of Friends, West Wing and about 3 or 4 other TV shows which are not easily available here in Hong Kong. I've heard great things about bittorrent but their website and instructions turn me off. Their windows FAQ mentions setting up mime types in webservers and other stuff, which I really don't want to do.
Until things get point and click easy with some of the software you've mentioned, I'm unlikely to use them.
On an offtopic note, I've written to various TV networks in the US, stating that I'd be willing to pay a dollar or two per episode, if they allowed me to download it from their website or through some secure file sharing application. I don't care if its a time limited / DRM protected thingy. I don't care if they have adverts in the download (figure if people are paying for the download some companies would be able to target ads into those downloads).
I was a subscriber about 5 years ago of Hong Kong telecom's Video on Demand which delivered VHS quality content to your televsion. I watched a total of 3 or 4 movies in the 2 years I had it (it was also Hong Kong's first broad band internet service).
The strengths that VoD has are * Access anytime * Access "anonymously" (atleast the store owner does not know your perverted viewing habits, which I must mention I do not have!)
The strenths of DVD are * Its everywhere now... * Its cheap -- US$50 players can be found (they sell for US$20 here on the border in Hong Kong) * Its international and not legislated by telco / Disney / whoever * Its collectible. I have two 300 DVD players stacked with DVDs I've purchased over the last 4 years for the simple reason that I love movies and want to keep them around for a bit. * You can pass your DVD along to friends to watch * Progressive SCAN + DTS / Dolby 6.1 * Amazing data transfer rates * Rentals are getting cheaper. In the US you can rent using Netflix (quasi anonymous again)
A big weakness with the VoD service that I had subscribed to was the ability to watch the movie again in a couple of days time (or pause and continue watching the next day) as the "rental period" was 24 hours.
I really don't think VoD is going to replace DVD. It has potential in the pr0n industry for ummm impluse viewing, but not in the mainstream world. Sorry... been there done that, paid the bills and don't see myself going back.
Sorry.. real DVDs without the subtitles (I suspect that is where the studios put their tracking codes).
Handheld cameras are not the problem....
on
Foiling Cinema Pirates
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· Score: 4, Insightful
The latest batch of pirated movies that I've seen around Hong Kong and southern china are DVD quality ripoffs from DVDs that the movie studios send to journalists, academy / awards voters and other folks that need to be appeased in the PR process.
Video cameras in movie theaters are now obsolete. The process of pirating movies has been perfected with social engineering.
Friends of mine in the US Govt would laugh about how the Korean students would spend most of their year in front of the embassy.. half the year throwing rocks and the second half of the year applying for student visas.
I'm now on day 3 of my Linux install. I think I'm pretty close to bringing it upto par with what XP does on my Sony VAIO desktop... which I tend to use for a fair amount of multimedia stuff.
I've been looking at linux as an OS for server platforms since '92-93 and have never considered it on the desktop, until, well, a couple of days ago.
To its benefit, even if I screw up a driver or three, the machine still boots. Every couple of months on XP, when I add or remove or update a driver I've got to deal with mysterious freezes.:)
Definately not as important as a senator's memo if it was written by members a LUG. I do not in my wildest dreams want to undermine the authors, but would be good to know who they were.
I do belive Linux will be one of the mainstream operating systems in India, but not until the govt cracks down hard on piracy. Not until security becomes a major issue (I'm still getting virii on an email address I used 2 years ago to email people who visit one of my websites). Not until a major vendor in India goes all out to support Linux and shows a significant cost differential on the purchase of a PC. Not until a major SI (Tata, HCL etc) comes out with a authorative study which shows a significant difference in TCO. Not until Indian programmers from the SI start contributing to the various OSS development efforts.
Oops.. don't mean to sound too negative, but there is a long way to go before a nationally important figure comes out and pens a memo as eloquent as the Peruvian Senator. On yeah.. in other news the Indian Prime Minister has switched to using a BMW as his primary mode of transport.:)
Everyone knows where the money went. The guy who sold the camera. The original email has the name of the person.
While I am not in anyway condoning what happened... folks this is similar to leaving a blank check (signed) lying around. You leave your password around.. people are going to use it. Is there any indication that Abiword lost the money because of Paypal's negligence?
>> Regular users will develop a sense of community ownership. As a whole, their content contributions probably outweigh yours.
This has to be one of the facts that I've had to face, going into my third community site. You create and direct when the community is starting up. Once its established, your role becomes more understated and less direct. You guide and influence. You don't direct.
This was the model adopted by most dot-coms that went out of business. Make a loss on the first few transactions and hope that you could then find a way to increase your margins as the number of transactions grew. Was a bad idea and still remains a bad idea.
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My oldest account on Hotmail (about4 or 5 years old) is plagued with SPAM. I keep it because people still use it to send me MSN conversations.
While Microsoft is suing the spammers, they're not doing much to block them. Are they? Some bayesian filters and RBLing with a bit of context analysis (50K people get the same email in 2 minutes) might just prevent them the agony of having to sue people.
Ahh.. the moron Senator has not though this through, or, I'm being the moron here.
Create a Virus, copyright it, email it to someone -- they downloaded it your honor! -- and destroy their computer!
These people seem to have their act together, considering that they will deliver virtually anywhere in the world. Its rare to see a startup offer its products (specially video .. as I assume they've got to make their product multi-standard) on such a wide basis.
Yeah, but we're watching the current season. :) Also, been watching the current season of The Sheild, 24 etc...
Bittorrent?? I cant figure out how the heck to make it work (actually cant be bothered once I look at the instructions).
Here's the deal. I use Kazaa to download and watch episodes of Friends, West Wing and about 3 or 4 other TV shows which are not easily available here in Hong Kong. I've heard great things about bittorrent but their website and instructions turn me off. Their windows FAQ mentions setting up mime types in webservers and other stuff, which I really don't want to do.
Until things get point and click easy with some of the software you've mentioned, I'm unlikely to use them.
On an offtopic note, I've written to various TV networks in the US, stating that I'd be willing to pay a dollar or two per episode, if they allowed me to download it from their website or through some secure file sharing application. I don't care if its a time limited / DRM protected thingy. I don't care if they have adverts in the download (figure if people are paying for the download some companies would be able to target ads into those downloads).
No responses at all.
I was a subscriber about 5 years ago of Hong Kong telecom's Video on Demand which delivered VHS quality content to your televsion. I watched a total of 3 or 4 movies in the 2 years I had it (it was also Hong Kong's first broad band internet service).
The strengths that VoD has are
* Access anytime
* Access "anonymously" (atleast the store owner does not know your perverted viewing habits, which I must mention I do not have!)
The strenths of DVD are
* Its everywhere now...
* Its cheap -- US$50 players can be found (they sell for US$20 here on the border in Hong Kong)
* Its international and not legislated by telco / Disney / whoever
* Its collectible. I have two 300 DVD players stacked with DVDs I've purchased over the last 4 years for the simple reason that I love movies and want to keep them around for a bit.
* You can pass your DVD along to friends to watch
* Progressive SCAN + DTS / Dolby 6.1
* Amazing data transfer rates
* Rentals are getting cheaper. In the US you can rent using Netflix (quasi anonymous again)
A big weakness with the VoD service that I had subscribed to was the ability to watch the movie again in a couple of days time (or pause and continue watching the next day) as the "rental period" was 24 hours.
I really don't think VoD is going to replace DVD. It has potential in the pr0n industry for ummm impluse viewing, but not in the mainstream world. Sorry... been there done that, paid the bills and don't see myself going back.
Sorry .. real DVDs without the subtitles (I suspect that is where the studios put their tracking codes).
The latest batch of pirated movies that I've seen around Hong Kong and southern china are DVD quality ripoffs from DVDs that the movie studios send to journalists, academy / awards voters and other folks that need to be appeased in the PR process.
Video cameras in movie theaters are now obsolete. The process of pirating movies has been perfected with social engineering.
What about the 17s. :)
Actually its a good thing there is no bathroom. Imagine a buffer overflow exploit being let loose on your toilet. :)
It's not all that glamorous. There is rampant corruption in all levels of the government and industry, women still have very little access to good jobs, racism and a lot of other things that need to be fixed. Trade and technology are all fine from an armchair perspective, but try to go there and sell a product. Its a whole different ball game if you're a foreigner.
Friends of mine in the US Govt would laugh about how the Korean students would spend most of their year in front of the embassy.. half the year throwing rocks and the second half of the year applying for student visas.
I'm now on day 3 of my Linux install. I think I'm pretty close to bringing it upto par with what XP does on my Sony VAIO desktop... which I tend to use for a fair amount of multimedia stuff.
:)
I've been looking at linux as an OS for server platforms since '92-93 and have never considered it on the desktop, until, well, a couple of days ago.
To its benefit, even if I screw up a driver or three, the machine still boots. Every couple of months on XP, when I add or remove or update a driver I've got to deal with mysterious freezes.
Why did the folks at Volunteermatch make the site US only? Did they figure other countries might not need a similar facility?
The first thing that came to my mind was the silly game Chandler and Joey played on Friends, when I read about CUPS. :)
Imagine if advertisements prevented you from viewing the website every 10 minutes for 2 or 3 minutes.
:)
Imagine if (gasp!) your whole screen was interupted by an ad.
Those heathen! The ones that advertise and pay for your content!!
God, I'd be so happy without advertising on telly!
Wait... thats called cable and I pay to view the programs. Never mind... what was I talking about again?
Definately not as important as a senator's memo if it was written by members a LUG. I do not in my wildest dreams want to undermine the authors, but would be good to know who they were.
.. don't mean to sound too negative, but there is a long way to go before a nationally important figure comes out and pens a memo as eloquent as the Peruvian Senator. On yeah.. in other news the Indian Prime Minister has switched to using a BMW as his primary mode of transport. :)
I do belive Linux will be one of the mainstream operating systems in India, but not until the govt cracks down hard on piracy. Not until security becomes a major issue (I'm still getting virii on an email address I used 2 years ago to email people who visit one of my websites). Not until a major vendor in India goes all out to support Linux and shows a significant cost differential on the purchase of a PC. Not until a major SI (Tata, HCL etc) comes out with a authorative study which shows a significant difference in TCO. Not until Indian programmers from the SI start contributing to the various OSS development efforts.
Oops
http://www.top500.org/
.. I have to wait 20 seconds before I hit submit!)
(Dammit
see the word "vibrating". I can think of atleast one better application for this technology. :)
I'm surprised you didn't add a quip about regime change in there. :)
Ugh! Bad time to be asking for donations via Paypal!
Everyone knows where the money went. The guy who sold the camera. The original email has the name of the person.
While I am not in anyway condoning what happened... folks this is similar to leaving a blank check (signed) lying around. You leave your password around.. people are going to use it. Is there any indication that Abiword lost the money because of Paypal's negligence?
>> Regular users will develop a sense of community ownership. As a whole, their content contributions probably outweigh yours.
This has to be one of the facts that I've had to face, going into my third community site. You create and direct when the community is starting up. Once its established, your role becomes more understated and less direct. You guide and influence. You don't direct.
Rewrite the GPL preventing the govt from using it and watch the fun begin. At this point, guess who has more to loose?
This was the model adopted by most dot-coms that went out of business. Make a loss on the first few transactions and hope that you could then find a way to increase your margins as the number of transactions grew. Was a bad idea and still remains a bad idea.