What's wrong to request that a business introduces itself the good old fashioned way via snail mail at their expense?
I run a business and consider spam (defined as unsolicited bulk email and not as you incorrectly state as a sender that I don't recognize) as theft of my time and my resources. (I own a business).
Entities spamming me are blacklisted. I will never, ever consider doing business with them. If they are annoying enough I take the time to report them to their ISPs and (hopefully) have them kicked off the network.
If you want to advertise, then you better fucking pay for it. Otherwise (regardless of "introductary messages", which are as much spam as an invitation to park Ms. Abachas 70m $ on my bank account) you are stealing from me and my company.
They do sell (and charge quite a bit for) pressed copies of Redhat, Suse, etc.
Let's see. For ~80$ I get SuSE 8.1. Professional. This consists of a handbook, which is actually quite good and beats anything that Microsoft calls "Documentation" (and that with a straight face without laughing out loud), 7 CDs (and alternatively a DVD) with some 2000 applications, some of them easily competing or surpassing commercial offers, which run for 100s of $ per app / per seat.
You further get 90 days free installation support. I used it once a couple years ago and I don't know if they where able to maintain their standard. But let me assure you, it was far above industry average, even compared to commercial support offerings.
Your mileage may vary, but I wouldn't consider this charging quite a bit for their product, I'd actually call it a bargain.
The only drawback that I see is their really, really dreadful chameleon logo.
I'm in no way affiliated with SuSE, else then being quite a happy customer of theirs.
I bet the cell phone providers and manufacturers are getting paid to make sure that we can start viewing web ads on these phones ASAP.
Actually I don't think so. They have too much to lose:
First, mobile browsing is expensive. If my network provider stuffs my "browsing experience" with just one frigging add (for which I pay for) I'm off their network before they can say "herbal viagra".
Oh, you mean that I have no choice? Actually I have. I can chose not to mobile-browse at all (I have yet to see the usefulness of internet on the run) and use my mobile phone to make and receive calls only.
DECs Zurich office, which - aside that it was inbetween nothing and nowhere - was a great place to work.
What stunned me at that time was that they had sprinkler in a fairly modern building. I understood better when I got a hang of that companies general attitude towards its environment and its employees at that time.
NOC's have a fire *supression* system based on gas or (more likely these days) some form of liquid (gas has the nasty side-effect of potentially killing humans).
When I worked for DEC they actually had sprinkler systems in their data centers (I couldn't verify first hand that every data center had sprinkler, but I was told so).
The reasoning was, that even if they was one big, bad, evil, wicked water damage in a data center, that the company considered this to be better then one killed employee by gas extuinguishing systems.
Can't help pointing out that you could do the same with W2K or XP.
Except of course, that I'd have to pirate it and mom is really not too much into games.
But frankly, the GPL is worse
Sorry, I don't buy into this. The only thing that the GPL prevents is stealing the code. As a user the GPL is a non-issue. Where precisely does the GPL restrict me? In addition I don't have to grant RMS a license to fuck with my system when I download a security fix for media player.
What pisses me more off with windows then quality issues with Win2K is Microsofts tendency to take away my control of my computer and turning it into a dumbed down AOL style cable tv DRM hassled cable TV compliant box.
This is my first Slashdot comment.
And a fine job too. Even though we are in disagrement regarding licensing issues...
We are totally in agreement (in fact I just upgraded SuSE 7.3. to 8.1. it's a no brainer) as far it goes for the general desktop user. Photoshop is one of the extremely few applications, where you really need Windows or a Mac
As a matter of fact my mom - who has a ton of well intentioned friends and Windows 98 on her box - has a mess of a computer, which must be reinstalled in 6 month intervals ("what, you use Netscape, this is crap! You need IE", "why do you use Wordpad, let me install Word for you", etc, etc, ad nauseum).
I am seriously considering to instead of wiping her box clean next time, to install SuSE and KDE. Put the few applications she requires on the desktop of her user account (mail client, browser & text processing) and let her hack away happilly.
Now her well intentioned friends can go to hell, (which is the place where good intentions pave the way to anyway), since even if they would have a clue, they can't fuck up her machine, since she won't even know (and doesn't need to know) the root password.
I'm pretty convinced that this can work out to everybodies advantage (save for her friends, which can't tinker with her box anymore...)
What can't you do in Linux that you can do with Windows?
From the perspective of a graphics designer, who is dependent on print pre-processing: Photoshop (due to Pantone patents certain required features cannot be implemented in Gimp).
Else then that, I wouldn't know a helluva lot of things that you can do with Windows, but not with any modern Linux distribution.
No, the EU (or better, their competition commision) is mean to anybody who violates the law. Ask Volkswagen, Tetra Pack or Roche, which are all European companies (they are nummerous more).
Recall that the heavily subsidized Airbus was started by these people basically because they didn't like having to buy american planes.
Ah, here we go again. The Airbus consortium is a private company which received funding capital as a credit. Airbus is in no way subsidized nowadays as opposed to (e.g.) Boieng which relies heavily on defense contracts, which can be construed a subsidy in itself.
The reason why Airbus is vastly successful is that they sell better planes which are cheaper to maintain. At least that's the take of a lot of airlines, including major ones in the US.
and how europe has basically banned american GM food?
The issue is (same as with growth hormones, which are banned here) that European consumers just don't want to buy this crap. Don't you think it's a little bit odd that Novartis is heavily opposed towards GM crop in Europe and tell an entire different story in the US? In a nutshell: It's not an evil conspiracy towards the good people of the US (Novartis and Aventis are European companies after all) it's just that consumers - with the ultimate buying power - don't want this shit here; end of story.
I wouldn't count on microsoft getting off easy in europe.
If they violated the law, which is subject of an ongoing investigation, you can bank on it that they won't get off easy.
The EU decisions makers are also not as knowledgable in computer technical issues as even the virtually computer-illiterate american judges.
I'm sure you can provide us with data to back up this assessment; because otherwise: Go away, troll!
Chances are MS will be fined a comparatively small amount and told not to do it again...
If they are found guilty and (likely) fined it will be a hefty fine. Ask Tetra Pack, Volkswagen, Roche or Nintendo about the EUs take on anti competitive behavior.
Considering the (substantial) discounts offered to major companies using commercial software, I don't see that changing any time soon, unfortunately.
I could name you half a dozen companies (partially large ones) that are really, really pissed off with Microsoft and Licensing 6.0.
If you do not want to upgrade to the latest and greatest (and buggiest) every two years this deal smells like a rat, looks like a rat and is a rat.
Companies above all want predictability. By making costs unpredictable with such gimmicks due to Steve "Fester" Balmers $ per desktop mantra and licensing terms, which stop short of the obligation never, ever to masturbate again quite a few CIOs are seriously looking into free software as an alternative.
Without free markets and cutthroat competition, our economy will become stagnant and weak and eventually fall apart due to corruption and incompetence, like in the former Soviet Union and soon to be in socialist western Europe.
And then the US could wind up as a true police state with the highest prison population per capita in the entire western world?
1) In America, the first ammendment protects speech, even commercial speech. As tasteless as spam is, regulating sets a dangerous precedent. Unpopular political speech could be artfully labelled as spam to silent those with differing views.
Yeah, I know this really tired argument by just about every spammer; but:
Your right to speak ends where you infringe with my right to be left alone.
You should have the right to stand at a street corner and spew whatever you feel like spewing. You do not have the right to yell into my ear; you do not have the right to spew your message at 3am via loudspeakers in a residential area and you do not have the right to disseminate your message with a bullhorn during a Verdi opera at your local opera house.
If I consider shitting on a carpet as an art form, you'll probably agree that I shouldn't have the right to perform my art on your living room carpet.
In addition I make a point asking the shop clerk if the CD's I purchase are crippled or corrupted (mind you, not copy-protected) in any form.
The point is not so much to reassure possible refunds if they are, but to raise their awareness that more and more customers are simply not willing to take this kind of shit.
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Honestly, I'm actually surprised that it's "only" 3-4 million a day.
Your figure (127'000) is probably quite an accurate count for the number of people rushing through Tokyos Shinjuku station at any given second.
(For those who haven't experienced it yet, Shinjuku is the worlds busiest subway station with some 68 entrances or exits and on 7 or so levels ...)
I run a business and consider spam (defined as unsolicited bulk email and not as you incorrectly state as a sender that I don't recognize) as theft of my time and my resources. (I own a business).
Entities spamming me are blacklisted. I will never, ever consider doing business with them. If they are annoying enough I take the time to report them to their ISPs and (hopefully) have them kicked off the network.
If you want to advertise, then you better fucking pay for it. Otherwise (regardless of "introductary messages", which are as much spam as an invitation to park Ms. Abachas 70m $ on my bank account) you are stealing from me and my company.
It's as simple as that.
Let's see. For ~80$ I get SuSE 8.1. Professional. This consists of a handbook, which is actually quite good and beats anything that Microsoft calls "Documentation" (and that with a straight face without laughing out loud), 7 CDs (and alternatively a DVD) with some 2000 applications, some of them easily competing or surpassing commercial offers, which run for 100s of $ per app / per seat.
You further get 90 days free installation support. I used it once a couple years ago and I don't know if they where able to maintain their standard. But let me assure you, it was far above industry average, even compared to commercial support offerings.
Your mileage may vary, but I wouldn't consider this charging quite a bit for their product, I'd actually call it a bargain.
The only drawback that I see is their really, really dreadful chameleon logo.
I'm in no way affiliated with SuSE, else then being quite a happy customer of theirs.
Actually Apache has a impeccable track record in recognizing security issues extremely fast and having the patch out almost as fast.
On the opposite: Your employer isn't very good at admitting that they fucked up, unless a major public relations desaster lurks around the corner.
Too late. It's on the market since about a week in selected European countries.
The phone is manufactured for Microsoft and sold exclusively through a deal with Orange.
If it is a success, now that's a whole different question. I guess people prefer not having to reboot their phones.
Actually I don't think so. They have too much to lose:
First, mobile browsing is expensive. If my network provider stuffs my "browsing experience" with just one frigging add (for which I pay for) I'm off their network before they can say "herbal viagra".
Oh, you mean that I have no choice? Actually I have. I can chose not to mobile-browse at all (I have yet to see the usefulness of internet on the run) and use my mobile phone to make and receive calls only.
What stunned me at that time was that they had sprinkler in a fairly modern building. I understood better when I got a hang of that companies general attitude towards its environment and its employees at that time.
A terrorist with an economically sound attitude will anyway buy a return ticket (usually much cheaper then one-way) and then toss the return coupon.
When I worked for DEC they actually had sprinkler systems in their data centers (I couldn't verify first hand that every data center had sprinkler, but I was told so).
The reasoning was, that even if they was one big, bad, evil, wicked water damage in a data center, that the company considered this to be better then one killed employee by gas extuinguishing systems.
That was in the early 90ties
The term you are searching for is crooks
If they allow spam from their networks? Of course, what else?
No need to thank me...
Yeah, since the government can make so much better use of your tax dollars:
Like cruise missiles, napalm or a couple agencies specifically created to snoop upon you.
Except of course, that I'd have to pirate it and mom is really not too much into games.
Sorry, I don't buy into this. The only thing that the GPL prevents is stealing the code. As a user the GPL is a non-issue. Where precisely does the GPL restrict me? In addition I don't have to grant RMS a license to fuck with my system when I download a security fix for media player.
What pisses me more off with windows then quality issues with Win2K is Microsofts tendency to take away my control of my computer and turning it into a dumbed down AOL style cable tv DRM hassled cable TV compliant box.
And a fine job too. Even though we are in disagrement regarding licensing issues...
As a matter of fact my mom - who has a ton of well intentioned friends and Windows 98 on her box - has a mess of a computer, which must be reinstalled in 6 month intervals ("what, you use Netscape, this is crap! You need IE", "why do you use Wordpad, let me install Word for you", etc, etc, ad nauseum).
I am seriously considering to instead of wiping her box clean next time, to install SuSE and KDE. Put the few applications she requires on the desktop of her user account (mail client, browser & text processing) and let her hack away happilly.
Now her well intentioned friends can go to hell, (which is the place where good intentions pave the way to anyway), since even if they would have a clue, they can't fuck up her machine, since she won't even know (and doesn't need to know) the root password.
I'm pretty convinced that this can work out to everybodies advantage (save for her friends, which can't tinker with her box anymore...)
From the perspective of a graphics designer, who is dependent on print pre-processing: Photoshop (due to Pantone patents certain required features cannot be implemented in Gimp).
Else then that, I wouldn't know a helluva lot of things that you can do with Windows, but not with any modern Linux distribution.
No, the EU (or better, their competition commision) is mean to anybody who violates the law. Ask Volkswagen, Tetra Pack or Roche, which are all European companies (they are nummerous more).
Ah, here we go again. The Airbus consortium is a private company which received funding capital as a credit. Airbus is in no way subsidized nowadays as opposed to (e.g.) Boieng which relies heavily on defense contracts, which can be construed a subsidy in itself.
The reason why Airbus is vastly successful is that they sell better planes which are cheaper to maintain. At least that's the take of a lot of airlines, including major ones in the US.
The issue is (same as with growth hormones, which are banned here) that European consumers just don't want to buy this crap. Don't you think it's a little bit odd that Novartis is heavily opposed towards GM crop in Europe and tell an entire different story in the US? In a nutshell: It's not an evil conspiracy towards the good people of the US (Novartis and Aventis are European companies after all) it's just that consumers - with the ultimate buying power - don't want this shit here; end of story.
If they violated the law, which is subject of an ongoing investigation, you can bank on it that they won't get off easy.
I'm sure you can provide us with data to back up this assessment; because otherwise: Go away, troll!
If they are found guilty and (likely) fined it will be a hefty fine. Ask Tetra Pack, Volkswagen, Roche or Nintendo about the EUs take on anti competitive behavior.
Oh absolutely! Smashing British Rail into smithereens and a bankrupt infrastructure company was a master stroke.
Where else in Europe can you still get a sense of danger and adventure when riding the train?
Ah nostalgia: The service level and efficiency of what remains from the English rail system is now comparable with the one in Bulgaria in the 50s.
Yeah, your Ms. Thatcher sure had a clue...
They crippled the help facility intentionally in order to sell you a Clippy License.
You see, retiring Clippy was only an evil trick in order to re-invent him as clippy.XP(tm) and then licensing it for 3.95$ per month as an add-on.
In order for this diabolical plan to work Microsoft first has to render the help facility from "useless" to "abyssimal".
Hope this helps...
We like to refer to it as common sense
I could name you half a dozen companies (partially large ones) that are really, really pissed off with Microsoft and Licensing 6.0.
If you do not want to upgrade to the latest and greatest (and buggiest) every two years this deal smells like a rat, looks like a rat and is a rat.
Companies above all want predictability. By making costs unpredictable with such gimmicks due to Steve "Fester" Balmers $ per desktop mantra and licensing terms, which stop short of the obligation never, ever to masturbate again quite a few CIOs are seriously looking into free software as an alternative.
And then the US could wind up as a true police state with the highest prison population per capita in the entire western world?
Er, well! Never mind...
Yeah, I know this really tired argument by just about every spammer; but:
Your right to speak ends where you infringe with my right to be left alone.
You should have the right to stand at a street corner and spew whatever you feel like spewing. You do not have the right to yell into my ear; you do not have the right to spew your message at 3am via loudspeakers in a residential area and you do not have the right to disseminate your message with a bullhorn during a Verdi opera at your local opera house.
If I consider shitting on a carpet as an art form, you'll probably agree that I shouldn't have the right to perform my art on your living room carpet.
There's no need to thank me.
The point is not so much to reassure possible refunds if they are, but to raise their awareness that more and more customers are simply not willing to take this kind of shit.
Even nicer, you can configure the middle mouse button to open a new tab on a link.
I get a hard time with any other browser since. It's like using a TI calculator after getting used to the HP concepts (stack et al).