Quelle horreur! This is precisely what ISPs want to avoid. The support calls that counter-logs, faked router reports, real router reports, cell loss on regional DSL/ATM networks not connected to the backbone, noise on the cable line, mice eating inside wire, the Napster user next door consuming all bandwidth, etc., etc. would cause are a huge disincentive to metered rate service.
Remember when Sprint announced ION for home users, with metered bandwidth? It went over like a lead balloon.
Instituting any metering system will raise the operating costs due to the trouble it takes to track usage.
I work for a major national ISP, and this is absolutely true. Metering usage requires large amounts of engineering, significant new equipment, support systems, etc. - and leads to vast amounts of customer support calls for a few bucks in service charges. Just not worth it. Even in dial-up service, you only meter usage if you have to - e.g. 800 dial-up, where costs are fairly high - not in basic service.
Also, it's a competitive market, and customers want flat rate, so that's what we give them.
It's interesting: every couple of months, some fancy-pants vendor sends me a package in the mail promising "You can charge for usage! Make money on QoS! Decommoditize Internet access with VPNs, traffic shaping, etc.!" I don't have a single customer willing to pay for such a thing, so into the can they go. So the vendor names keep changing, and not because they sell out to Cisco.
The old KISS rule makes the most sense in the ISP biz. Avoid confusing your customers and they'll be more likely to buy and upgrade.
I would prefer to have some assurance that this money went at least somewhat to the right place, and that non-RIAA artists would be compensated directly and without RIAA taking any cut.
But ultimately it's about the service. If the service works and I can get the music, I'm happy.
Well... actually what you want is higher productivity, so you can get more work done in less time. (Productivity = work done / time, generally measured as value added / employee hour.) If you can do this, you can get some of that time back as free time. Of course, if your employer doesn't give you this flexibility, a change may be in order...
The impact on other cases such as DeCSS may be quite substantial and positive. After all, what are LiVid and related tools but a VGS-like implementation to play DVDs? And if so, is not css-descramble just a component of such a solution? If this sort of reverse engineering is protected under fair use, then so also DVDs, methinks.
They will certainly work, if the problem of authentication can be convincingly solved. Having circulated a popular initiative petition in California, I am convinced that given the opportunity people would gladly sign a petition online.
The problem with e-petitions is not response rate; it's the integrity of the signature. People handwrite passphrases on Post-Its and keep them in "passphrase.txt" files; as long as this happens, forgery will be very easy.
Now forgery of an electronic signature on an initative petition would be election fraud, punishable by severe fines, but would this be an effective deterrent? Unclear at best.
True, but not everyone is using win2K. Win98 lusers like me have to reboot all the time & it's a major pain. I end up having to cold boot my Toshiba laptop 1-2x per day, with a paper clip or pen on that little recessed button.
What, you didn't see the new EULA update?
By using the:Cue:Cat, you agree to refrain from the following:
- Burning the:Cue:Cat;
- Smashing the:Cue:Cat to bits;
- Shoving the:Cue:Cat up your ass.
The value of InterNap is directly related to the poor quality of peering between the major (tier 1) carriers. Content providers use InterNap because they feel that they can bypass this peering (private and public) and reduce congestion / latency. This will go away if/when the majors get peering right.
So the question is: will the majors peer with sufficient bandwidth, and keep upgrading as traffic increases, or will they intentionally keep peering poor to sell their own backbone connections as the best way to reach their "eyeballs"? If you believe the former, InterNap and competitors are dead. If you believe the latter, they'll probably still lose money for a while, but this business will have a niche.
Most CLEC DSL providers provide a small router or bridge with the service. If you purchase routed service, the ISP can ping you to see how you're doing. Otherwise they will ping your PC.
Steve's Shields Up tool is an excellent way to find out if your Windows PC is open to common attacks from the internet. I tried it before I got a personal firewall and all sorts of things were exposed... once I got ZoneAlarm, most common attacks didn't work.
This is particularly important for DSL/cable users - remember the 911 Worm!
I have tested some WAP devices and agree wholeheartedly that they're very difficult to use. Having to page through menu after menu after menu to get much of anything is a major pain and just not worth it - it's a text reminder of those godawful VRU systems that call centers use to make you go away.
Palm VII and its cousins are a much better choice for "wireless web" (or wireless whatever) than phones. The larger screen and pen input are much more useful and user-friendly.
Perhaps there ought to be a system of article moderation that lets users vote on an article's relevance. If an article gets too many "Redundant" points it gets a dead horse; if it gets too many "Old News" points it gets a crumpled up newspaper; if it gets too many "Annoying" points it gets Mr. Clippy; and so on.
Of course there would be a positive side to this too; Insightful stories would get a light bulb; Funny stories would get a foot (even if they weren't classified as humor); etc.
You could also sort by article moderation, exclude redundant articles, and get emails notifying you of good articles.
Anyone familiar with Slashcode want to write such a module and pitch it to the powers that be?
Pretty amusing, if you think about it, that they didn't bother to use any protection behind their click-thru agreement. Oh well, they didn't really expect SDMI to be any better, did they?
Note (at the risk of sounding like a broken, um, MP3): SDMI is toast. MP3 has already won. Unless they stop shipping CDs, and completely destroy the revenue they're trying to protect, the SDMI people are wasting their time.
sulli
Lots of older companies
on
Me-Commerce
·
· Score: 2
IBM, AT&T, HP, et al.
These days Microsoft is famous for no or few layoffs, but if Win2K and/or.NET severely tank, you may see a different scene. They have, however, been smart enough not to boast excessively about it.
I too found this article shrill and tiresome. I mean, come on, folks, it's not like everything that's now off patent will suddenly become patentable anytime in our lifetimes!
DMCA and UCITA are crap. Fine. Work to repeal them, or work around them.
Wouldn't someone (like me) who has worked at one fairly Old Economy company since 1996 be viewed as damaged goods instead, since such a person clearly let great opportunities for advancement and so on pass by? Sure, the training has paid for itself from the employer's standpoint, but many long-term employees have fewer skills due to a lack of exposure to what's needed out there.
I guess it's a balancing act, like everything. But I learned much more per day as a contractor than I have as a full-time employee.
Slashdot Mirror
Remember when Sprint announced ION for home users, with metered bandwidth? It went over like a lead balloon.
I work for a major national ISP, and this is absolutely true. Metering usage requires large amounts of engineering, significant new equipment, support systems, etc. - and leads to vast amounts of customer support calls for a few bucks in service charges. Just not worth it. Even in dial-up service, you only meter usage if you have to - e.g. 800 dial-up, where costs are fairly high - not in basic service.
Also, it's a competitive market, and customers want flat rate, so that's what we give them.
It's interesting: every couple of months, some fancy-pants vendor sends me a package in the mail promising "You can charge for usage! Make money on QoS! Decommoditize Internet access with VPNs, traffic shaping, etc.!" I don't have a single customer willing to pay for such a thing, so into the can they go. So the vendor names keep changing, and not because they sell out to Cisco.
The old KISS rule makes the most sense in the ISP biz. Avoid confusing your customers and they'll be more likely to buy and upgrade.
No problem! I applied a while ago and it worked fine. I think /.'s recommendations make sense, but will think a bit harder before actually voting...
I would prefer to have some assurance that this money went at least somewhat to the right place, and that non-RIAA artists would be compensated directly and without RIAA taking any cut.
But ultimately it's about the service. If the service works and I can get the music, I'm happy.
Well... actually what you want is higher productivity, so you can get more work done in less time. (Productivity = work done / time, generally measured as value added / employee hour.) If you can do this, you can get some of that time back as free time. Of course, if your employer doesn't give you this flexibility, a change may be in order...
Thank heavens for the Ninth Circuit.
The problem with e-petitions is not response rate; it's the integrity of the signature. People handwrite passphrases on Post-Its and keep them in "passphrase.txt" files; as long as this happens, forgery will be very easy.
Now forgery of an electronic signature on an initative petition would be election fraud, punishable by severe fines, but would this be an effective deterrent? Unclear at best.
Sigh.
Really you need to do a cold boot. Does Slashdot have that little Reset button you can press with the end of a pen?
- Burning the
- Smashing the
- Shoving the
sulli
So the question is: will the majors peer with sufficient bandwidth, and keep upgrading as traffic increases, or will they intentionally keep peering poor to sell their own backbone connections as the best way to reach their "eyeballs"? If you believe the former, InterNap and competitors are dead. If you believe the latter, they'll probably still lose money for a while, but this business will have a niche.
sulli
sulli
Plain text. File extension "TXT." 'Nuff said.
Toast.
sulli
This is particularly important for DSL/cable users - remember the 911 Worm!
sulli
sulli
Palm VII and its cousins are a much better choice for "wireless web" (or wireless whatever) than phones. The larger screen and pen input are much more useful and user-friendly.
sulli
Is this why every Discman I buy dies after only 1.5 years on average?
Of course there would be a positive side to this too; Insightful stories would get a light bulb; Funny stories would get a foot (even if they weren't classified as humor); etc.
You could also sort by article moderation, exclude redundant articles, and get emails notifying you of good articles.
Anyone familiar with Slashcode want to write such a module and pitch it to the powers that be?
sullu
This link, http://www.securityfocus.com/news/89, led to no fewer than fourteen URLs:
http://www.securityfocus.com/frames/ad.html?group= secnews? &_ref=19861971m l?id=89&_ref=19861971e f=19861971m l?&_ref=19861971l ?&_ref=19861971m l?&_ref=19861971m l?&_ref=19861971m l?&_ref=19861971s =home&_ref=19861971t ml?&_ref=19861971m l?&_ref=19861971= home&_ref=19861971t ml?&_ref=19861971
http://www.securityfocus.com/focus/home/menu.html
http://www.securityfocus.com/templates/article.ht
http://www.securityfocus.com/frames/logo.html?&_r
http://www.securityfocus.com/frames/upper_left.ht
http://www.securityfocus.com/frames/left_edge.htm
http://www.securityfocus.com/frames/lower_left.ht
http://www.securityfocus.com/frames/right_edge.ht
http://www.securityfocus.com/frames/upper_edge.ht
http://www.securityfocus.com/frames/top.html?focu
http://www.securityfocus.com/frames/upper_right.h
http://www.securityfocus.com/frames/lower_edge.ht
http://www.securityfocus.com/frames/ad.html?group
http://www.securityfocus.com/frames/lower_right.h
Someone tell these guys to read some basic web design docs. (You can't even link to a printable text-only version!)
sulli
Note (at the risk of sounding like a broken, um, MP3): SDMI is toast. MP3 has already won. Unless they stop shipping CDs, and completely destroy the revenue they're trying to protect, the SDMI people are wasting their time.
sulli
These days Microsoft is famous for no or few layoffs, but if Win2K and/or .NET severely tank, you may see a different scene. They have, however, been smart enough not to boast excessively about it.
sulli
DMCA and UCITA are crap. Fine. Work to repeal them, or work around them.
sulli
I guess it's a balancing act, like everything. But I learned much more per day as a contractor than I have as a full-time employee.
sulli
I was pretty pleased about it! It meant I didn't have to worry about any license crapola.
OT: Hey, are you the lizrd I think you are?
sulli