I'm tired of the half-truths and deception of marketing. I'm tired of the sugarcoating of a poor product. I'm tired of the 20-easy-payments-of-$49-a-month sales pitch that some moron fails to do the math before he realizes he paid $1000 for a cucumber slicer. I'm tired of the sale prices that print "after rebate" in small unreadable font on a fast ticker tape scrollbar because I refuse to use rebates. I'm tired of the "some restrictions apply" that is the devil in the details in which that great sales price no longer applies.
I'm tired of being deluged with ads at every turn. Billboards on tractor trailers, vans, and other rolling stock. Billboards on sports clothing. Billboards on racing cars. Animated billboards digitally overlayed on sports fields and borders. Billboards in the doctors office and pharmacies. Billboards on the public school football field scoreboard. Billboards in the restaurants. Billboards on the platemats in restaurants. Junk mail in my mailbox and inbox. Sales pitches at my phone. Text spam messages. Billboards at the urinals and bathroom stall doors for crying out loud!
I'm tired of the ads on broadcast radio. There is a lot of decent music not getting on radio because radio wants three minute song formats that can fit into their advertising format. I'm tired of ads being blared at higher volume than the songs. I'm tired of turning down the volume knob or station surfing until the ad is over.
I'm tired of TV displaying ads in the bottom border during a program. I'm tired of ads on the news broadcast disguised as stories. I'm tired of the "ticker tape" scrolling ad banners distracting me. I'm tired of that itty bitty TV screen being split into multiple frames where ads are displayed on one of them. I'm tired of the worsening program-to-ad ratio where there are increasing ad time per hour and more frequent interruptions in the program. I'm tired of ads being blared at higher volume than the program. I'm tired of channel surfing until the ads are over.
Yeah, we're burned out. I unplugged from broadcast TV since 2000. I quit listening to broadcast radio and ripped all my CDs to mp3s and play them on my car CD player. I got an unpublished phone number to keep telemarketers out. I signed up to get off junk mail lists and previewed credit card offers. I refuse to install Flash and any other application that can deliver animated ads on my computer. I refuse to divulge my email, physical address, or phone number to retailers.
XP did not come with a way to play DVD's unless you purchased software
Not true. XP did come with a player. dvdplay.exe can be found in the system32 directory although it never appeared on the desktop or anywhere under START, not even under accessories.
Read case history of $cientology triying to bully the dutch into submitting their freedoms and rights when they publically posted forbidden Co$ doctrine. Co$ got their ass handed to them by the dutch courts.
Netscape? They are so 2000. If any patent was granted to Netscape that would be twelve years ago, patents have a 14 year life. They're due to expire soon. And if the Mozilla organization was infringing on these patents then AOL would had litigated long ago. Smells like a non-issue.
For years, companies have been remotely bricking mobile devices that have been hacked. Why didn't these idiots do the same for devices that were reported stolen?!?
I'd just like to thank everybody who got paid $$$ to see this film for funding the MAFIAA's legal warchest that saw laws such as ACTA/SOPA/PIPA become a reality.
When was the last time you studied the ingredients and nutrition table of microwave popcorn?
Any of the butter flavored ones are LOADED with trans fat.
I buy the unflavored popcorn and add my own melted butter at smaller dosages - tastes much better, the dairy product has zero trans fat, and you can don't need the ridiculous amount that is packaged with the buttered ones.
Legal federal precedent has already established that the practice of filing "John Doe" lawsuits en masse in a single jurisdiction friendly to their interests is a violation of jurisdiction policy in that the plaintiff must file cases in separate jurisdictions where the defendent resides. This puts a financial burden on the MAFIAA as they now must pay court costs for each venue.
What this article highlights is that the MAFIAA are using state courts to evade the hurdles established by federal courts. They are twisting a state law out of the spirit of its original intention to expedite disclosure of true identities of "John Does". And once again they are attempting to pursue their case out of a single jurisdiction in direct contempt to federal legal precedent, even though the majority of ISPs named are outside the local jurisdiction. When certain ISPs opted to oppose their efforts, the MAFIAA merely removed the ISPs from their list rather than having their tactics exposed in a court of law.
These intentionally evasive tactics violated defendents' rights in the interest of minimizing legal expenses, expedited turnaround, and shielding lower courts from knowledge of case law. It is also a bullying tactic in that ISPs with weak spines had submitted when they were served with a subpeona obtained under shaky circumstances.
If this doesn't smell like a RICO lawsuit, I don't know what does.
Years ago I got tired of airplane food and started carrying my own stuff - granola bars, cheese-n-crackers, nuts, dry stuff. I noticed zero difference in how it tasted.
One of them, for reasons unknown to me, had a personal vendetta against me. The first project that I worked with her on, she put me under performance counseling because I wasn't meeting my goals. The second project under her she did the same thing, but this time I found that she was withholding information that was vital to my job.
I wrote her up and reported that this was behavior unbecoming of a supervisor. Some years later at a christmas party another manager told me she was relieved of her supervisory role and demoted, then left the company. I have never worked for that manager, had never communicated what I did to anyone in the company, and his information was unsolicited.
The other woman I worked under was no problem at all.
I don't slam women because of one bad apple because there are male managers who are just as bad.
But the claim that female bosses promote better communication is just not true.
I once had a business trip to Germany and bought a cuckoo clock there with my credit card to have shipped home. When I got back to the US there was a voicemail at home from my credit union regarding a suspicious transaction in Germany and they were putting it on hold. I confirmed the transaction and they released it. Apparently this was caught by their theft detection system.
Credit card companies CAN collect what you purchased and where. If your card is stolen, they can track purchase patterns against your history and the system will flag an abrupt discrepancy as card theft and alert the owner.
I am officially boycotting Hollywood, including their ISP cronies who happen to be affiliated with Hollywood. I refuse to patronize any business that sidesteps the legal process and shifts the financial burden of copyright infringement detection to others.
Judging from Sony's Rootkit fiasco and the content industry's push toward pay-per-view, tethered content, and self-destructing media I no longer trust any application or service from content providers.
Turn the ship around and go back to the floating iceberg, board it, and wait for help there?
Because icebergs are not stationary objects. As they melt, their bouyancy shifts and the iceberg flips over. Plus it is near impossible to maintain a steady footing on the slippery surface of an ocean borne iceberg, much less board it.
Another fact contributing to the sinking is the report from the lookouts (they survived the sinking) that the iceberg was very dark. If the iceberg had recently flipped over, its new face above water would be darker. Zero moonlight and lack of waves on the calm sea presented a deadly combination making the berg extremely hard to spot.
I hate robocalls. I hate the exemption from the Do Not Call list that frees political candidates to use them at will. If I get one robocall from a political candidate, they lose my vote. Forever.
When I was at RIT during the mid 1980s, the CS students knew better to stay away from the IBM recruiters.
I did some co-op work at an IBM plant during those days (I was an EE not a CS). The new hires were top-of-the-class 4.0 GPA students. Some of them demonstrated beautifully that they were really good at college studies but absolutely terrible in the real world workplace.
My dad was a manager there and he was competent with computers. He and his colleagues said most of the blame was laid squarely at HR. Managers would find a qualified candidate, then HR would submit resumes of other candidates who had 4.0 GPA grades and met "diversity" rules laid out by federal regulations.
If laws like this p#ss you off, then follow the money.
Are you still buying DVDs? CDs? Seeing movies in the theater? On Netflix or other streaming service? Renting from a video rental service such as Blockbuster? Watching entertainment on Cable TV?
If you want to stop corporate-centric laws such as SOPA/PIPA, then you must cut off their lobbying revenue. When you buy entertainment you are contributing to the lobbying warchest. SOPA/PIPA exists because of YOU!
Hit the **AA where it hurts. Boycott cable TV, boycott DVDs, boycott movie theaters, boycott CDs, boycott any entertainment distribution center.
I cut off cable TV since 2000, that wasn't hard at all. Now I am going to cut off CDs and DVDs.
If you're recoiling in horror about how difficult that is, there is a whole other life waiting for you out there.
I work at a company where we are protective of our IP yet knowledge sharing in internal channels is encouraged and you are actually rewarded for the effort.
I have always commented my code. In my line of work I am often asked to come back to debug a system six months since I last touched the code. The comments are there to clear the cobwebs that develop in my brain after six months. They are also there for knowledge sharing, especially when someone else can resolve a problem when I am out of the office and can enjoy a vacation without interruptions.
I have seen "engineers" who refuse to document their code in the interest of job security. They only make their own lives harder and more than once I have seen cases where they are let go and not asked to come back. I have also seen companies with a turnover history due to replacing experienced workers with cheaper labor and this kind of culture will frighten engineers into a protective mode, and they won't comment their code for fear of getting replaced.
Microsoft has a huge R&D division, larger than any other company in the industry has.
I doubt that. MS has never innovated much of anything. All of their software products were a result of acquisitions of other companies and their IP, not innovation.
What jobs? Those jobs have been leaving the country. With fewer young workers bringing SS deductions into the system, that is fewer income tax dollars paying for your retirement check and medicare. The feds have been raiding the system to pay for their pet projects. Anybody who has faith in the ponzi scheme called social security is in for a rude awakening when they collect. I'm not banking on the system being around when I retire so I have been funding my own retirement through my 401(k) which is NOT invested in the skittish stock market.
Slashdot Mirror
Why are we burned out?
I'm tired of the half-truths and deception of marketing. I'm tired of the sugarcoating of a poor product. I'm tired of the 20-easy-payments-of-$49-a-month sales pitch that some moron fails to do the math before he realizes he paid $1000 for a cucumber slicer. I'm tired of the sale prices that print "after rebate" in small unreadable font on a fast ticker tape scrollbar because I refuse to use rebates. I'm tired of the "some restrictions apply" that is the devil in the details in which that great sales price no longer applies.
I'm tired of being deluged with ads at every turn. Billboards on tractor trailers, vans, and other rolling stock. Billboards on sports clothing. Billboards on racing cars. Animated billboards digitally overlayed on sports fields and borders. Billboards in the doctors office and pharmacies. Billboards on the public school football field scoreboard. Billboards in the restaurants. Billboards on the platemats in restaurants. Junk mail in my mailbox and inbox. Sales pitches at my phone. Text spam messages. Billboards at the urinals and bathroom stall doors for crying out loud!
I'm tired of the ads on broadcast radio. There is a lot of decent music not getting on radio because radio wants three minute song formats that can fit into their advertising format. I'm tired of ads being blared at higher volume than the songs. I'm tired of turning down the volume knob or station surfing until the ad is over.
I'm tired of TV displaying ads in the bottom border during a program. I'm tired of ads on the news broadcast disguised as stories. I'm tired of the "ticker tape" scrolling ad banners distracting me. I'm tired of that itty bitty TV screen being split into multiple frames where ads are displayed on one of them. I'm tired of the worsening program-to-ad ratio where there are increasing ad time per hour and more frequent interruptions in the program. I'm tired of ads being blared at higher volume than the program. I'm tired of channel surfing until the ads are over.
Yeah, we're burned out. I unplugged from broadcast TV since 2000. I quit listening to broadcast radio and ripped all my CDs to mp3s and play them on my car CD player. I got an unpublished phone number to keep telemarketers out. I signed up to get off junk mail lists and previewed credit card offers. I refuse to install Flash and any other application that can deliver animated ads on my computer. I refuse to divulge my email, physical address, or phone number to retailers.
TOO MUCH!
Not true. XP did come with a player. dvdplay.exe can be found in the system32 directory although it never appeared on the desktop or anywhere under START, not even under accessories.
How do I find the re-election campaign paypal account for my representatives?
If I add a girlfriend, subtract her clothes, and divide her legs will the brain scan predict if I'm going to multiply?
Read case history of $cientology triying to bully the dutch into submitting their freedoms and rights when they publically posted forbidden Co$ doctrine. Co$ got their ass handed to them by the dutch courts.
Netscape? They are so 2000. If any patent was granted to Netscape that would be twelve years ago, patents have a 14 year life. They're due to expire soon. And if the Mozilla organization was infringing on these patents then AOL would had litigated long ago. Smells like a non-issue.
For years, companies have been remotely bricking mobile devices that have been hacked. Why didn't these idiots do the same for devices that were reported stolen?!?
I'd just like to thank everybody who got paid $$$ to see this film for funding the MAFIAA's legal warchest that saw laws such as ACTA/SOPA/PIPA become a reality.
When was the last time you studied the ingredients and nutrition table of microwave popcorn?
Any of the butter flavored ones are LOADED with trans fat.
I buy the unflavored popcorn and add my own melted butter at smaller dosages - tastes much better, the dairy product has zero trans fat, and you can don't need the ridiculous amount that is packaged with the buttered ones.
Legal federal precedent has already established that the practice of filing "John Doe" lawsuits en masse in a single jurisdiction friendly to their interests is a violation of jurisdiction policy in that the plaintiff must file cases in separate jurisdictions where the defendent resides. This puts a financial burden on the MAFIAA as they now must pay court costs for each venue.
What this article highlights is that the MAFIAA are using state courts to evade the hurdles established by federal courts. They are twisting a state law out of the spirit of its original intention to expedite disclosure of true identities of "John Does". And once again they are attempting to pursue their case out of a single jurisdiction in direct contempt to federal legal precedent, even though the majority of ISPs named are outside the local jurisdiction. When certain ISPs opted to oppose their efforts, the MAFIAA merely removed the ISPs from their list rather than having their tactics exposed in a court of law.
These intentionally evasive tactics violated defendents' rights in the interest of minimizing legal expenses, expedited turnaround, and shielding lower courts from knowledge of case law. It is also a bullying tactic in that ISPs with weak spines had submitted when they were served with a subpeona obtained under shaky circumstances.
If this doesn't smell like a RICO lawsuit, I don't know what does.
They are.
Years ago I got tired of airplane food and started carrying my own stuff - granola bars, cheese-n-crackers, nuts, dry stuff. I noticed zero difference in how it tasted.
I've worked under two women.
One of them, for reasons unknown to me, had a personal vendetta against me. The first project that I worked with her on, she put me under performance counseling because I wasn't meeting my goals. The second project under her she did the same thing, but this time I found that she was withholding information that was vital to my job.
I wrote her up and reported that this was behavior unbecoming of a supervisor. Some years later at a christmas party another manager told me she was relieved of her supervisory role and demoted, then left the company. I have never worked for that manager, had never communicated what I did to anyone in the company, and his information was unsolicited.
The other woman I worked under was no problem at all.
I don't slam women because of one bad apple because there are male managers who are just as bad.
But the claim that female bosses promote better communication is just not true.
I once had a business trip to Germany and bought a cuckoo clock there with my credit card to have shipped home. When I got back to the US there was a voicemail at home from my credit union regarding a suspicious transaction in Germany and they were putting it on hold. I confirmed the transaction and they released it. Apparently this was caught by their theft detection system.
Credit card companies CAN collect what you purchased and where. If your card is stolen, they can track purchase patterns against your history and the system will flag an abrupt discrepancy as card theft and alert the owner.
Yeah and everybody is moving towards a paperless toilet
...will fail because this violates wiretap laws.
I am officially boycotting Hollywood, including their ISP cronies who happen to be affiliated with Hollywood. I refuse to patronize any business that sidesteps the legal process and shifts the financial burden of copyright infringement detection to others.
Judging from Sony's Rootkit fiasco and the content industry's push toward pay-per-view, tethered content, and self-destructing media I no longer trust any application or service from content providers.
Yup, and you need a player with a crank on the side.
Because icebergs are not stationary objects. As they melt, their bouyancy shifts and the iceberg flips over. Plus it is near impossible to maintain a steady footing on the slippery surface of an ocean borne iceberg, much less board it.
Another fact contributing to the sinking is the report from the lookouts (they survived the sinking) that the iceberg was very dark. If the iceberg had recently flipped over, its new face above water would be darker. Zero moonlight and lack of waves on the calm sea presented a deadly combination making the berg extremely hard to spot.
I hate robocalls. I hate the exemption from the Do Not Call list that frees political candidates to use them at will. If I get one robocall from a political candidate, they lose my vote. Forever.
When I was at RIT during the mid 1980s, the CS students knew better to stay away from the IBM recruiters.
I did some co-op work at an IBM plant during those days (I was an EE not a CS). The new hires were top-of-the-class 4.0 GPA students. Some of them demonstrated beautifully that they were really good at college studies but absolutely terrible in the real world workplace.
My dad was a manager there and he was competent with computers. He and his colleagues said most of the blame was laid squarely at HR. Managers would find a qualified candidate, then HR would submit resumes of other candidates who had 4.0 GPA grades and met "diversity" rules laid out by federal regulations.
Keep it down with the "P"s, willya? My shirt is soaked, I had to wipe my face, and I had to disinfect my keyboard.
If laws like this p#ss you off, then follow the money.
Are you still buying DVDs? CDs? Seeing movies in the theater? On Netflix or other streaming service? Renting from a video rental service such as Blockbuster? Watching entertainment on Cable TV?
If you want to stop corporate-centric laws such as SOPA/PIPA, then you must cut off their lobbying revenue. When you buy entertainment you are contributing to the lobbying warchest. SOPA/PIPA exists because of YOU!
Hit the **AA where it hurts. Boycott cable TV, boycott DVDs, boycott movie theaters, boycott CDs, boycott any entertainment distribution center.
I cut off cable TV since 2000, that wasn't hard at all. Now I am going to cut off CDs and DVDs.
If you're recoiling in horror about how difficult that is, there is a whole other life waiting for you out there.
I work at a company where we are protective of our IP yet knowledge sharing in internal channels is encouraged and you are actually rewarded for the effort.
I have always commented my code. In my line of work I am often asked to come back to debug a system six months since I last touched the code. The comments are there to clear the cobwebs that develop in my brain after six months. They are also there for knowledge sharing, especially when someone else can resolve a problem when I am out of the office and can enjoy a vacation without interruptions.
I have seen "engineers" who refuse to document their code in the interest of job security. They only make their own lives harder and more than once I have seen cases where they are let go and not asked to come back. I have also seen companies with a turnover history due to replacing experienced workers with cheaper labor and this kind of culture will frighten engineers into a protective mode, and they won't comment their code for fear of getting replaced.
I doubt that. MS has never innovated much of anything. All of their software products were a result of acquisitions of other companies and their IP, not innovation.
What jobs? Those jobs have been leaving the country. With fewer young workers bringing SS deductions into the system, that is fewer income tax dollars paying for your retirement check and medicare. The feds have been raiding the system to pay for their pet projects. Anybody who has faith in the ponzi scheme called social security is in for a rude awakening when they collect. I'm not banking on the system being around when I retire so I have been funding my own retirement through my 401(k) which is NOT invested in the skittish stock market.