But would the owner of a pro-choice site in Canada be extradited to the US if it gave information on how and where to get an abortion to a web surfer who lived in a state where abortion was illegal?
A. Gordon Gecko also stole Ivan Boesky's line that "Greed is Good". Which I guess makes stealing satellite signals ok. In any case, Gordon Gecko is a fictitious character, so I doubt anyone with a brain will be sending him an e-mail with any questions soon. B. To get someone else's credit card number, you need a pen, paper and to look over the guy's shoulder. Write down credit card number, name, expiry number. (Yes, that's all you need) Woops, the FBI's going to come after me for posting that information. DUH. C. Woops, VISA/AMEX/MC are going to try to shut down Slashdot for allowing me to post information on how to illegally acquire someone else's CC info.
Re:It's because of the women
on
Nokia 5100 Reviewed
·
· Score: 2, Interesting
Unlike the Samsung TGH-500, which is really targeted at women. I don't think many men have use for the menstruation calendar that this phone offers unless it's... um don't shoot me... for tracking the mood swings of his female companion.
What's with their dialpads these days?
on
Nokia 5100 Reviewed
·
· Score: 4, Insightful
Out of all the cell phones I've ever had, I've always admired the usability of Nokia's menus.
But what the heck are they thinking with these stupid non-standard dialpad layouts? Do they assume that everyone likes using voice dial? I like the ability to be able to blindly use my phone without looking at it, navigating by feel and memory.
Yeah, but if Celine Dion came out and said she were ashamed that Jean Chretien came from Quebec, she'd be unlikely to be called Un-Canadian, have her CDs trampled by bulldozers, and receive death threats.
Our Prime Minister can strangle his own detractors, thank you. (I tried to find a link with the picture of him doing that, but couldn't... oh well)
I don't know what you're smoking, and IANAL, but Canada isn't like America when it comes to stuff like this.
If you look at the argument that DirecTV is trying to use to threaten the site, it doesn't have a leg to stand on (with respect to shutting down the site), even if the owner of the site himself has a Dish stealing signal (very likely). They can stop him from using a dish, but not hosting a discussion board.
Broadcasting this information, or talking about it isn't illegal. Otherwise news organizations wouldn't be able to talk about how a criminal may have, say committed a clever home invasion... that would be aiding and abetting some "potential" criminal who is consuming the news to steal ideas.
If they were smart, they would have just complained to the ISP to shut down the site. Many ISPs don't allow these types of discussion boards in their terms of service.
DirecTV is talking about applying some criminal laws in Canada that to those stealing signal. I don't think that DirecTV can get much from a civil case standpoint (unlike the US, I have yet to see a civil case to extract further penalty than the criminal punishments -- heck, OJ was found not guilty but still liable in civil court... why even bother having a criminal system?) DirecTV can't find any civil claim, since it's already illegal for Canadians to PAY them for programming. Hence, no lost revenues. Arguably, DirecTV can't really claim any psychological damage either (hehe), unless they can provide doctors' bills.
DirecTV does have a leg on identifying the so-called "anonymous" users and chasing them down one by one and getting them tossed in jail (unlikely) or having them fined heavily by the Canadian government (hehe, and none of this money would go to DirecTV, and I don't believe that DirecTV would be able recover any of their legal costs, which would be substantial). I think it's pretty unlikely for the Canadian government to want to spend money chasing down pirates of an American company that isn't really allowed to sell in Canada in the first place.
Ultimately, the crime of stealing the signal is very different from the intellectual masturbation of discussing how to steal it.
There may be ample laws in both jurisdictions, but so far, the Canadian government has turned a blind eye to stealing American signals. Go to any new housing development in Canada, and you'll see tons of houses with "grey market" dishes stealing American and European signals. It is, however, illegal to steal signal from Canadian providers.
A lot of "deep thinkers" in the Government probably are working under the impression that American culture is "hijacking" Canadian minds, and are secretly grinning that the American dish companies can't profit from Canadians. It will be interesting how much sympathy the courts will provide.
I don't think the situation will change much until the Canadian cable and dish companies really start lobbying and show how many "imaginary" Canadian jobs as well as how much tax revenue is being lost by not banning use of foreign dishes, thereby forcing them to use a Canadian provider.
The situation would be similar if Hillary Rosen, remaining the bitch that she is, was really hot and liked to give me blowjobs...
I thought I read an article in Wired about her that said she was a lesbian. In this case, the only way the scenario would happen is if your name is Kramer.
GEORGE: He stole your girlfriend? Susan: Yes. She's in love with him. GEORGE: Amazing. I drive them to lesbianism, he brings 'em back.
At risk of getting modded down as a troll, I'd have to agree with you on this.
There is something to be said about having the ability (be it a good idea or not) to build your own machine. As an ex-mac user myself, I gotta say that the first time I built my own x86 PC, I felt great. Definitely more rewarding than the sensation of opening up a carton and putting the Mac on the desk. Sure, it's not rocket science, but the sense of accomplishment has to be worth something.
If I still wanted a Mac, AND I could build my own Mac (sure it may not be a good $$ value, but that's not the point), I think it would be a totally fun exercise.
I'm a Windows user (no,I'm not going to apologize!) who lives in Canada. I'm doubly missing out, since I've heard you have to have a US billing address in addition to the Mac to be able to have access to iTunes Store.
I just spent around $130 CDN (tax and shipping included) for 5 CDs to catch up on one of my favorite UK artists who just happens to not have North American distribution (go figure, I thought Lisa Stansfield was popular in the US). That means paying a premium for imported CDs. Because one of the particular imports isn't in stock, I have to add 8-9 days for my entire shipment to arrive.
If those albums were available on iTunes (I can't tell without a Mac), I would have spent $50 US ($75 CDN, no tax - i hope - and no shipping) for the five CDs, had all the tunes downloaded within hours and burned onto CDs.
I'm no audiophile, so the 128kb AAC doesn't worry me too much. I'd rather know I'm getting quality than deal with some misnamed MP3 (albeit free) file with misspelled tags that has "mp3 chirps" in it because some teenager didn't do a good job ripping the CD. Ultimately you get what you pay for.
When the Windoze version of iTunes comes out, and Apple makes the store available to Canadian customers, I'll definitely sign up and buy tunes.
My interpretation from Ellison's comments in the article is about the enterprise software industry. We're talking about products, not internal projects or software developed out of service engagements. I don't think Ellison's comments would even include consumer level software.
The enterprise software industry imho is in a whole world of hurt. Who can tell the difference between all the acronyms these days? ERP/CRM/PSA/SFA... Same old crap, just slightly different smell.
This is especially true in the small/medium enterprise segment. I think the days are gone where some sales guy can walk in, ask for $50K licence plus an additional $50K in services to customize a content management system that could be built using freely available open source code (for less than half the price, I might add).
At my last company, we developed a Windows automation program that we thought we could sell for $15K plus services plus a PER SEAT license. Meanwhile, some companies were selling very similar "macro" software for $45/CPU. Mysteriously the powers that be didn't consider them competition. Not hard to figure out the rationale for Ellison's comments there, is it?
I think all other forms of software development don't really have much to fear from Ellison's comments. There are a lot of jobs that are safe outside of the scope of what I believe Ellison meant when he said "software industry".
No longer will a cpu sci degree be enough. It's sad how things have changed so badly in the last four years.....
Sorry Charlie, but if you expected a degree to entitle you to a job in your field, then you've just had a bitter taste of the real world.
Greed aside, things were BAD four years ago, not today. The industry was loaded with companies that had no real value, and they inflated both salaries and EXPECTATIONS beyond what should have been considered reasonable. IMHO, the industry has corrected itself to more reasonable levels... a Good Thing.
If you got suckered by the greedy expectations of an exaggerated boom (everyone at the time knew the bubble was going to burst sooner or later), then you're the only one to blame.
The film may not necessarily be pan and scan actually. I don't know how the Matrix 2/3 were filmed, but it all depends on the camera being used to film the stuff.
I heard that while lot of James Cameron's stuff is shown at 2.35, but he actually films it on film with a 4:3 ratio and blocks the tops and bottoms to make it widescreen. That's why some "pan and scan" films actually "add" image to the top and bottom. Apparently this is how some of the DVD 4:3 versions were made. No pan and scan, just removal of the matte at the top and bottom of the widescreen versions. Usually the hope is that you don't see the boom mike at the top though.
If I tell you too much about your future, you won't become me.
The 32 year old you isn't perfect, made a lot of mistakes in life that he's learned from, and tries hard to be a good person. But, he's also happy.
If I tell you anything now that will change your future, you won't necessarily learn the same lessons, meet the same people, or do the same things.
So don't worry. You may not be happy with yourself for the moment, but one day you will be. And all you need to know is that there is such a thing as hope.
My last company's advertised methodology was SCRUM. We told all of our customers we used it, and management even convinced themselves that we were using it.
The funniest thing is that SCRUM isn't necessarily a bad model, it's the people who think that it's a quick fix to their process that is the problem.
These KISS methodologies seem pretty hard to screw up, but when you have a team constructed of the wrong people (micromanagers, pigheads, and big-methodology freaks), it's a recipe for failure. Because of the team composition (and team member apathy for that matter), our sprints rarely (if ever) yielded the expected or desired results.
The thing I couldn't stand the most about SCRUM, however, was the silly terminology lifted from rugby. Sports metaphors in a field dominated by nerds? Ugh.
I'm sorry, but that's a load of crap. If you were right, EVERYONE would own an unbranded whitebox. Sony would have already been driven out of the PC market by their losses.
The fact that Dell, Gateway, HP/Compaq and IBM can still hawk a few PCs at prices above your average white box. Admittedly, I don't have a PC put together by an integrator like Dell, but I've always bought only name brand components from manufacturers I trust (i.e., Asus, 3COM, ATI, nVidia, Creative, etc.). You won't find some $5 noname network card or sound card in my PC. And I'm sure there are plenty of people in the same boat as me.
I don't know where you've been, but there are tons of people who are paying $100+ for spanky Lian Li aluminum cases.
Apple could easily limit their compatibility to a few brands of motherboards and offer a certification program. Don't you remember when there was something called the Windows 95 Hardware Certification program?
Besides, isn't Apple already competing with Joe Clonebaker and the Crappy Componentbuilders? If they weren't there would be no purpose to their Switch campaign.
YES, Apple is a hardware company, but I would also not ignore the fact that software is an important part of their business as well.
They're a solid company that is an "early adopter" when it comes to inclusion into their systems. To suggest that they could not be just as innovative in creating x86 boxen is selling Apple's capabilities short.
I'm one of those nutbars who thinks that Apple could actually kick some MS butt by moving towards x86. How many people wouldn't die to have an x86 based powerbook? There is a cachet to Apple hardware, and it is well earned.
If Apple moved over to x86, how many Linux users would switch? I think there would be some significant numbers there. How many Windows users would switch? I think the numbers would be surprisingly large here.
I'm a Windows user, and I'd gladly pay $100 for OSX, and an additional $100 for those wonderful iApps. The only reason why I don't switch to Mac is because I like the commodity hardware platform.
Having said that, I would (and many people I know) would have no qualms about spending a few extra bucks to buy Apple x86 hardware. Apple has one of the strongest brands out there.
Think of it this way, when you spend $100 on a Burberry scarf, are you any warmer than you would be with a $15 scarf? Probably not. Just like a Burberry scarf, the "warm and fuzzies" you can get with Apple hardware would in my mind would give Apple hardware sales the same if not better revenues than with their current fare.
I think Apple could _easily_ eat away at some of Linux's market share... if they moved onto the x86 platform.
Yeah, it did. The Game Boy had infinitely better battery life and a much larger selection of games. While better in the A/V department, the Game Gears still sucked juice from batteries so fast it wasn't funny.
Re:So when the robot gets to old for
on
Tai Chi Robots
·
· Score: 2
Those don't sound like exciting shows.
How about the The Mighty Falun Gong Fighting Cyber-Force? I'd almost watch that. Can you imagine the geek following the Pink Robot would have?
Everyone should already know that the American mass media disseminates FUD because FUD sells. It's about money - increased viewer/readership means more revenue.
If it bleeds, it leads, right?
Having high expectations of the media may not be unreasonable, but it is a bit unrealistic.
Slashdot Mirror
My point was hypothetical, although I tend to think that if Bush gets re-elected, Roe vs. Wade could also disappear.
Actually most Nokias I've seen have shortcut menus. You can see the number codes in the upper right hand corner of the phone screen.
Duh, where do you think your fancy schmancy cruise missiles were tested in the early days? Canada!
Yeah, it's really sticky.
But would the owner of a pro-choice site in Canada be extradited to the US if it gave information on how and where to get an abortion to a web surfer who lived in a state where abortion was illegal?
A. Gordon Gecko also stole Ivan Boesky's line that "Greed is Good". Which I guess makes stealing satellite signals ok. In any case, Gordon Gecko is a fictitious character, so I doubt anyone with a brain will be sending him an e-mail with any questions soon.
B. To get someone else's credit card number, you need a pen, paper and to look over the guy's shoulder. Write down credit card number, name, expiry number. (Yes, that's all you need) Woops, the FBI's going to come after me for posting that information. DUH.
C. Woops, VISA/AMEX/MC are going to try to shut down Slashdot for allowing me to post information on how to illegally acquire someone else's CC info.
Unlike the Samsung TGH-500, which is really targeted at women. I don't think many men have use for the menstruation calendar that this phone offers unless it's... um don't shoot me... for tracking the mood swings of his female companion.
Out of all the cell phones I've ever had, I've always admired the usability of Nokia's menus.
But what the heck are they thinking with these stupid non-standard dialpad layouts? Do they assume that everyone likes using voice dial? I like the ability to be able to blindly use my phone without looking at it, navigating by feel and memory.
Yeah, but if Celine Dion came out and said she were ashamed that Jean Chretien came from Quebec, she'd be unlikely to be called Un-Canadian, have her CDs trampled by bulldozers, and receive death threats.
Our Prime Minister can strangle his own detractors, thank you. (I tried to find a link with the picture of him doing that, but couldn't... oh well)
I don't know what you're smoking, and IANAL, but Canada isn't like America when it comes to stuff like this.
If you look at the argument that DirecTV is trying to use to threaten the site, it doesn't have a leg to stand on (with respect to shutting down the site), even if the owner of the site himself has a Dish stealing signal (very likely). They can stop him from using a dish, but not hosting a discussion board.
Broadcasting this information, or talking about it isn't illegal. Otherwise news organizations wouldn't be able to talk about how a criminal may have, say committed a clever home invasion... that would be aiding and abetting some "potential" criminal who is consuming the news to steal ideas.
If they were smart, they would have just complained to the ISP to shut down the site. Many ISPs don't allow these types of discussion boards in their terms of service.
DirecTV is talking about applying some criminal laws in Canada that to those stealing signal. I don't think that DirecTV can get much from a civil case standpoint (unlike the US, I have yet to see a civil case to extract further penalty than the criminal punishments -- heck, OJ was found not guilty but still liable in civil court... why even bother having a criminal system?) DirecTV can't find any civil claim, since it's already illegal for Canadians to PAY them for programming. Hence, no lost revenues. Arguably, DirecTV can't really claim any psychological damage either (hehe), unless they can provide doctors' bills.
DirecTV does have a leg on identifying the so-called "anonymous" users and chasing them down one by one and getting them tossed in jail (unlikely) or having them fined heavily by the Canadian government (hehe, and none of this money would go to DirecTV, and I don't believe that DirecTV would be able recover any of their legal costs, which would be substantial). I think it's pretty unlikely for the Canadian government to want to spend money chasing down pirates of an American company that isn't really allowed to sell in Canada in the first place.
Ultimately, the crime of stealing the signal is very different from the intellectual masturbation of discussing how to steal it.
There may be ample laws in both jurisdictions, but so far, the Canadian government has turned a blind eye to stealing American signals. Go to any new housing development in Canada, and you'll see tons of houses with "grey market" dishes stealing American and European signals. It is, however, illegal to steal signal from Canadian providers.
A lot of "deep thinkers" in the Government probably are working under the impression that American culture is "hijacking" Canadian minds, and are secretly grinning that the American dish companies can't profit from Canadians. It will be interesting how much sympathy the courts will provide.
I don't think the situation will change much until the Canadian cable and dish companies really start lobbying and show how many "imaginary" Canadian jobs as well as how much tax revenue is being lost by not banning use of foreign dishes, thereby forcing them to use a Canadian provider.
The situation would be similar if Hillary Rosen, remaining the bitch that she is, was really hot and liked to give me blowjobs...
I thought I read an article in Wired about her that said she was a lesbian. In this case, the only way the scenario would happen is if your name is Kramer.
GEORGE: He stole your girlfriend?
Susan: Yes. She's in love with him.
GEORGE: Amazing. I drive them to lesbianism, he brings 'em back.
At risk of getting modded down as a troll, I'd have to agree with you on this.
There is something to be said about having the ability (be it a good idea or not) to build your own machine. As an ex-mac user myself, I gotta say that the first time I built my own x86 PC, I felt great. Definitely more rewarding than the sensation of opening up a carton and putting the Mac on the desk. Sure, it's not rocket science, but the sense of accomplishment has to be worth something.
If I still wanted a Mac, AND I could build my own Mac (sure it may not be a good $$ value, but that's not the point), I think it would be a totally fun exercise.
An eMac is cool, yes. But a MeMac is cooler.
That's a very good point.
I'm a Windows user (no,I'm not going to apologize!) who lives in Canada. I'm doubly missing out, since I've heard you have to have a US billing address in addition to the Mac to be able to have access to iTunes Store.
I just spent around $130 CDN (tax and shipping included) for 5 CDs to catch up on one of my favorite UK artists who just happens to not have North American distribution (go figure, I thought Lisa Stansfield was popular in the US). That means paying a premium for imported CDs. Because one of the particular imports isn't in stock, I have to add 8-9 days for my entire shipment to arrive.
If those albums were available on iTunes (I can't tell without a Mac), I would have spent $50 US ($75 CDN, no tax - i hope - and no shipping) for the five CDs, had all the tunes downloaded within hours and burned onto CDs.
I'm no audiophile, so the 128kb AAC doesn't worry me too much. I'd rather know I'm getting quality than deal with some misnamed MP3 (albeit free) file with misspelled tags that has "mp3 chirps" in it because some teenager didn't do a good job ripping the CD. Ultimately you get what you pay for.
When the Windoze version of iTunes comes out, and Apple makes the store available to Canadian customers, I'll definitely sign up and buy tunes.
My interpretation from Ellison's comments in the article is about the enterprise software industry. We're talking about products, not internal projects or software developed out of service engagements. I don't think Ellison's comments would even include consumer level software.
The enterprise software industry imho is in a whole world of hurt. Who can tell the difference between all the acronyms these days? ERP/CRM/PSA/SFA... Same old crap, just slightly different smell.
This is especially true in the small/medium enterprise segment. I think the days are gone where some sales guy can walk in, ask for $50K licence plus an additional $50K in services to customize a content management system that could be built using freely available open source code (for less than half the price, I might add).
At my last company, we developed a Windows automation program that we thought we could sell for $15K plus services plus a PER SEAT license. Meanwhile, some companies were selling very similar "macro" software for $45/CPU. Mysteriously the powers that be didn't consider them competition. Not hard to figure out the rationale for Ellison's comments there, is it?
I think all other forms of software development don't really have much to fear from Ellison's comments. There are a lot of jobs that are safe outside of the scope of what I believe Ellison meant when he said "software industry".
No longer will a cpu sci degree be enough. It's sad how things have changed so badly in the last four years.....
Sorry Charlie, but if you expected a degree to entitle you to a job in your field, then you've just had a bitter taste of the real world.
Greed aside, things were BAD four years ago, not today. The industry was loaded with companies that had no real value, and they inflated both salaries and EXPECTATIONS beyond what should have been considered reasonable. IMHO, the industry has corrected itself to more reasonable levels... a Good Thing.
If you got suckered by the greedy expectations of an exaggerated boom (everyone at the time knew the bubble was going to burst sooner or later), then you're the only one to blame.
The film may not necessarily be pan and scan actually. I don't know how the Matrix 2/3 were filmed, but it all depends on the camera being used to film the stuff.
I heard that while lot of James Cameron's stuff is shown at 2.35, but he actually films it on film with a 4:3 ratio and blocks the tops and bottoms to make it widescreen. That's why some "pan and scan" films actually "add" image to the top and bottom. Apparently this is how some of the DVD 4:3 versions were made. No pan and scan, just removal of the matte at the top and bottom of the widescreen versions. Usually the hope is that you don't see the boom mike at the top though.
You will of course, run the USB Floppy Disk Striped RAID on OS-X!
So when the letter "i" sponsors a Sesame Street show does that mean Apple is really the sponsor?
If I tell you too much about your future, you won't become me.
The 32 year old you isn't perfect, made a lot of mistakes in life that he's learned from, and tries hard to be a good person. But, he's also happy.
If I tell you anything now that will change your future, you won't necessarily learn the same lessons, meet the same people, or do the same things.
So don't worry. You may not be happy with yourself for the moment, but one day you will be. And all you need to know is that there is such a thing as hope.
My last company's advertised methodology was SCRUM. We told all of our customers we used it, and management even convinced themselves that we were using it.
The funniest thing is that SCRUM isn't necessarily a bad model, it's the people who think that it's a quick fix to their process that is the problem.
These KISS methodologies seem pretty hard to screw up, but when you have a team constructed of the wrong people (micromanagers, pigheads, and big-methodology freaks), it's a recipe for failure. Because of the team composition (and team member apathy for that matter), our sprints rarely (if ever) yielded the expected or desired results.
The thing I couldn't stand the most about SCRUM, however, was the silly terminology lifted from rugby. Sports metaphors in a field dominated by nerds? Ugh.
Nice design and high quality doesn't sell.
I'm sorry, but that's a load of crap. If you were right, EVERYONE would own an unbranded whitebox. Sony would have already been driven out of the PC market by their losses.
The fact that Dell, Gateway, HP/Compaq and IBM can still hawk a few PCs at prices above your average white box. Admittedly, I don't have a PC put together by an integrator like Dell, but I've always bought only name brand components from manufacturers I trust (i.e., Asus, 3COM, ATI, nVidia, Creative, etc.). You won't find some $5 noname network card or sound card in my PC. And I'm sure there are plenty of people in the same boat as me.
I don't know where you've been, but there are tons of people who are paying $100+ for spanky Lian Li aluminum cases.
Apple could easily limit their compatibility to a few brands of motherboards and offer a certification program. Don't you remember when there was something called the Windows 95 Hardware Certification program?
Besides, isn't Apple already competing with Joe Clonebaker and the Crappy Componentbuilders? If they weren't there would be no purpose to their Switch campaign.
YES, Apple is a hardware company, but I would also not ignore the fact that software is an important part of their business as well.
They're a solid company that is an "early adopter" when it comes to inclusion into their systems. To suggest that they could not be just as innovative in creating x86 boxen is selling Apple's capabilities short.
I'm one of those nutbars who thinks that Apple could actually kick some MS butt by moving towards x86. How many people wouldn't die to have an x86 based powerbook? There is a cachet to Apple hardware, and it is well earned.
If Apple moved over to x86, how many Linux users would switch? I think there would be some significant numbers there. How many Windows users would switch? I think the numbers would be surprisingly large here.
I'm a Windows user, and I'd gladly pay $100 for OSX, and an additional $100 for those wonderful iApps. The only reason why I don't switch to Mac is because I like the commodity hardware platform.
Having said that, I would (and many people I know) would have no qualms about spending a few extra bucks to buy Apple x86 hardware. Apple has one of the strongest brands out there.
Think of it this way, when you spend $100 on a Burberry scarf, are you any warmer than you would be with a $15 scarf? Probably not. Just like a Burberry scarf, the "warm and fuzzies" you can get with Apple hardware would in my mind would give Apple hardware sales the same if not better revenues than with their current fare.
I think Apple could _easily_ eat away at some of Linux's market share... if they moved onto the x86 platform.
Yeah, it did. The Game Boy had infinitely better battery life and a much larger selection of games. While better in the A/V department, the Game Gears still sucked juice from batteries so fast it wasn't funny.
Those don't sound like exciting shows.
How about the The Mighty Falun Gong Fighting Cyber-Force? I'd almost watch that. Can you imagine the geek following the Pink Robot would have?
Everyone should already know that the American mass media disseminates FUD because FUD sells. It's about money - increased viewer/readership means more revenue.
If it bleeds, it leads, right?
Having high expectations of the media may not be unreasonable, but it is a bit unrealistic.