Wal-Mart does exist in Europe, they just don't open stores under that name having understood that we Brits are quite attached to our quaint old supermarket chains.
BP would be British Petroleum, the worlds second largest oil company.
Please try and have an awareness of global industry next time you try and rebuke someone.
The reason you care about Microsoft's monopolistic tendancies is because they're acting in a field you care about. The reason the governments of the US and the ECC care is because they have to pay for IT resources and MS was shafting them. Simple as that.
YEs, which is why they release Terminator 3 in the States a month before they do over here, and then they wonder why people download films. The fact of the matter is most of the films I download I do so because I can't currently buy them. Maybe if they provided an actual product for us to "steal" sales from then they could have some sort of complaint.
What else are (were) they going to spend that money on exactly? You have to remember this is a culture completely untouched by western values suddenly having them thrown at it - as the article points out, lots of adverts focus on "The holiday you've always dreamed of" and "The shoes you've always wanted". While we are quite capable of judging these adverts, those with no experience should never be expected to be. I was told the other week that a young child, when being put to bed asked his mother "Are you a homeowner?", the mother, not wanting to complicated matters with mortgages, said "yes", and the young child proceeded to offer a personal loan. There are currently a plethora of these style adverts in the UK, usually run during childrens TV to target the parents of young children. Can you honestly say that TV had no effect?
While most Americans consider blimps only suitable for promotional purposes and overhead golf shots, the merry olde English are trying to find some use for the obsolete gasbags.
Yes, we all know what a crime it is to be innovative and thoughtful in America, unless you have the funding of a large company behind you and you#ve been garanteed by market research that your project will have a large return.
It's really no surprise, the country loves it's eccentrics, from Sinclair's little electric scooter to the Osborne luggable to the Robin Reliant to their steam powered subway trains.
I'd love to see one of these steam powered subway trains you speak of, by my recollection they were put out of service quite some time ago. Of course when it opened on the 10th of January in 1863 steam was the norm, but that was phased out by 1961. You see, our underground train system is half the age of your whole damn country, and has inspired systems like it the world over and still it carrys more people than any other.
Their standard of living would improve if they ever upgrade their technology to at least 1970's level, but then their little country wouldn't have the Disneyesque appeal.
Have you ever actually been to the UK for more than tourism? The school I went to is older than the united states, by almost twice as much. Our country has great herritage and we like to preserve that herritage, and we do so while modernising our services. The touristy areas make these modernisations less apparent because they're less attractive to tourists. I suggest you come live here for a few years and make your mind up on the "Disneyesqe Appeal".
I think you'll find the US has far more luddite encampments dotted around the place, who embrace guns and spurn any sort of government or technology that there are over here, maybe they should be dealt with?
The word joke implies humour, or for the eloquence-impaired, funniness. This article was about as amusing as banging your head on a keyboard for several hours... which usually would mean not at all, unless you like that sort of thing. Need I say more?
The problem is that the internet and digital media (this is more for music than films) creates an enviroment where the record lable industry has become irrelevent. I would quite happilly send the artist 15 quid (the typical price of a CD over here) directly, and have a CD sent out to me as wave files, which i can then put on a CD for playing in the car, and convert to ogg for listening to at my PC. The artist doesnt have to go through a record lable to have it distributed, he can set it up himself. the problem comes when they copy protect CDs - I listen to all my music (most of it legal) as mp3 and ogg files on my PC - I don't own a CD player and havent for many years - I'm not going to pay for something I can't use.
The fact is that the internet and digital media destroy the RIAA's business model, so rather than addapting what they are trying to do is remove the problem by making it illegal to change the way they work.
The problem is that people dont see why they should have to pay the same ammount for an inferior product - if I pay £15 to get a CD, I can do what I want (within fair use rights); if I get some DRM locked file for which I have to pay the same ammount, it isn't the same quality and I can't use it however I want to. Therein lies the fundamental problem.
Well, current precedents being set would tend to indicate that regardless of local law concerning computer use you can be prosecuted wherever they want to prosecute you - ie wherever was affected by the crime. So in other words, you're screwed.
This has actually already happened - Real Media has in the past sued Nullsoft over the inclusion of real format support in winamp. Both are owned by the same parent - AOLTW.
I would point out that I'm currently ill and can't be bothered finding any references for you.
Most people here seem to be blaiming the HTML author for sites which use tags improperly. The problem however is much deeper rooted than that. Your average member of the public likes interfaces with lots of pictures and little text. They also like interfaces that look nice.
While it is possible In Theory to write HTML using <div>s and CSS Positioning (indeed I do so), the problem is that the mainstream browsers do not properly implement the standard to do this. In particular, IE doesnt (Moz rocks, opera is slightly buggy, but usable, IE just... sucks) and the majority of web users who are targeted by the majority of sites (particularly for comercial stuff) use IE. Would you tell them to cut out the majority of their market? I wouldn't. Blame where blame is due, and admitedly not using alt tags is a true evil, but its not all the coder's fault.
Organic != biodegradable, it means containing carbon, like a diamond
Organic does not mean containing carbon, and diamond and other puter-carbon compounts such as graphite or bucky balls are not organic. Organic means containing a hydrocarbon compount such as those found in oil, ie compounds with Hydrogen and Carbon (and also other elements).
Actually, Office 4.3 came on CD as well. I still have it. I still used it until i upgraded to Office 9 (aka 2000). And 2hrs is about the same time it takes to install office 2000 premium, and as an added bonuc the completion bars on 4.3 didnt go backwards, and actually meant something(!)
In reply to the parent, there is nothing wrong with using an old pc with win3.11 is all you want to do is type the occasional document up. You dont even need office for that, you could quite easilly use Write (which is called Wordpad in newer windows versions).
Personally, I think this is a very good idea. However, there are problems with it. The servers on which the content is hosted are located (frequently) in countries that have signed the agreement, and so are subject to local law; to set up the internet as a nation-state, the content would have to be stroed in a new country, or not stored in any one location in particular.
There are other problems as well - how would the corporations react? How would such a nation-state defend it self? America is not the only source of attack - countries like China would also be against such an easily accesible free resource... How would access be controled - ISPs located in another country could be forced to comply with local law, effectively a blockade of the 'net. If an ISP was located outside of existing countries, the technology to use it could be controled
So, to do this all these things would be nigh on impossible without huge sums of money and the support of large numbers of people... But if we had that the governments would have to listen to us anyway. Sorry to damage the thought, but with enough time and support this could be done- does anybody know of any sites devoted to this?
MS Mice are great. The original (without the 33% improvement) had a bug, and so when mine died I got it replaced under warrenty. MSUK had no stock, until the guy on the phone said - "ooh - i've found some".
I now have 5 mice. I even tried to return them. The Fax and Phone number on the invoice didnt even exist. You think MS are bad; but just think what they could do if they got their act together....
The reason? Prohibitive costs for licensing, of course.
This is only true for Windows. My school was able to negotiate a very good licence from Apple for both the Hardware (G4 Server, latest iMacs) and the OS - a mix of 7, 8 and 9. Additionally, the school has a licence which enables it to give copies of FileMaker Pro to all pupils and staff (about 1000 people).
And for what schools use computers for - primarily the Internet, it's a great solution.
In what way? The browsers aren't a patch on IE5, believe me - we've been using Netscape for the past year an there are a whole host of sites that don't work (notably a friends online interface for his email sever on his cable modem) because netscape can't handle the Javascript.
Also, our school has a wireless network and 8mbit ADSL connection, but the primary use of the network is for the schools Database, all in filemaker, containing all the data on pupils, staff and the like, which is used from everything to the school address list to creating cirtificates for winners of races in the Swimming and Athletics competitions
Using macs when everybody uses PCs at home is no problem, but it in no way makes pupils more computer literate. IMHO being computer literate is more being able to adapt to new software based on your experiances in other software - I can use MS Office, so I can use appleworks, I can use Mozilla, so I can use IE and so on. But even so, there are some whos ability with computers consists of turining it on, logging in and connecting to the internet or running a game - one guy I know has to get one of his brothers to install software for him - even though there are IT lessons at school.
It odesn't matter what you use, people will not bother to learn more than they have to to get on the internet or to their favorite apps.
This should hardly come as a suprise - we all know Microsoft is as power mad as it is arogant.
I tried to sign up for an account about a year ago. On entering my name (John Linford), I was told that I was unable to create an account with that name 'because the sirname field contains inelegible or restricted word' - I welcome any ideas as to why.
I gave up after this, but there are plenty of alternatives - I use mail.ru, a free russian service with web and POP3 access
If you don't like it, don't use it - that's why they give you the coice to decline.
We have had finger print scanners in our school, the Royal Grammar School (Guildford) for about three years. The school is on Guildford High street, and we have had problems with people simpl walking in and stealing stuff out of the cloak rooms and music rooms.
To rectify this a security system is being introduced in phases - first a finger print scanner for the Music Rooms, and now timed locks on all side doors and a scanner on the main one.
This scanner works by just using key points on the finger. 0.005% of the time a reading that should allow entry won't, and 0.0001% of the time the opposite occurs (you may want to check those).In addition barriers to prevent vehicle access have been introduced to any vehicle acces points, which require a security card, and CCTV has been in opperation for about 5 years.
The school is private, and so there is very little chance of any information being released to the government (particually while Blair's still in power), and the school is, in my experiance, very good at confidentiality - all pupils details are stored on an extensive database that has never, to my knowledge, been hacked. The only problem is that the school runs iMacs, which are substatially hardeer than windows to hack.
I agree. Why the hell should international users of an international group (the internet community) have what they can do on it imposed by one country. It's time for an international body to govern the internet, not just America.
I dissagree. Having seen it in my early teens I can say that it is overall the worst of the four, although the lightsabre battle is good.
Most people I know agree that Jar Jar was a waste of time, which could have been spent better else where. But, EP1 was supposed to (re)introduce people to the Star Wars Universe as it was before the clone wars, which it did quite well
Slashdot Mirror
Wal-Mart does exist in Europe, they just don't open stores under that name having understood that we Brits are quite attached to our quaint old supermarket chains.
BP would be British Petroleum, the worlds second largest oil company.
Please try and have an awareness of global industry next time you try and rebuke someone.
The reason you care about Microsoft's monopolistic tendancies is because they're acting in a field you care about. The reason the governments of the US and the ECC care is because they have to pay for IT resources and MS was shafting them. Simple as that.
YEs, which is why they release Terminator 3 in the States a month before they do over here, and then they wonder why people download films. The fact of the matter is most of the films I download I do so because I can't currently buy them. Maybe if they provided an actual product for us to "steal" sales from then they could have some sort of complaint.
What else are (were) they going to spend that money on exactly? You have to remember this is a culture completely untouched by western values suddenly having them thrown at it - as the article points out, lots of adverts focus on "The holiday you've always dreamed of" and "The shoes you've always wanted". While we are quite capable of judging these adverts, those with no experience should never be expected to be. I was told the other week that a young child, when being put to bed asked his mother "Are you a homeowner?", the mother, not wanting to complicated matters with mortgages, said "yes", and the young child proceeded to offer a personal loan. There are currently a plethora of these style adverts in the UK, usually run during childrens TV to target the parents of young children. Can you honestly say that TV had no effect?
Whoops, so it does. Doesn't change anything though :)
While most Americans consider blimps only suitable for promotional purposes and overhead golf shots, the merry olde English are trying to find some use for the obsolete gasbags.
Yes, we all know what a crime it is to be innovative and thoughtful in America, unless you have the funding of a large company behind you and you#ve been garanteed by market research that your project will have a large return.
It's really no surprise, the country loves it's eccentrics, from Sinclair's little electric scooter to the Osborne luggable to the Robin Reliant to their steam powered subway trains.
I'd love to see one of these steam powered subway trains you speak of, by my recollection they were put out of service quite some time ago. Of course when it opened on the 10th of January in 1863 steam was the norm, but that was phased out by 1961. You see, our underground train system is half the age of your whole damn country, and has inspired systems like it the world over and still it carrys more people than any other.
Their standard of living would improve if they ever upgrade their technology to at least 1970's level, but then their little country wouldn't have the Disneyesque appeal.
Have you ever actually been to the UK for more than tourism? The school I went to is older than the united states, by almost twice as much. Our country has great herritage and we like to preserve that herritage, and we do so while modernising our services. The touristy areas make these modernisations less apparent because they're less attractive to tourists. I suggest you come live here for a few years and make your mind up on the "Disneyesqe Appeal".
I think you'll find the US has far more luddite encampments dotted around the place, who embrace guns and spurn any sort of government or technology that there are over here, maybe they should be dealt with?
The word joke implies humour, or for the eloquence-impaired, funniness. This article was about as amusing as banging your head on a keyboard for several hours... which usually would mean not at all, unless you like that sort of thing. Need I say more?
Yeah, they were really lacking things to put on BBC3, or BBC4.
Though BBC Radio 7 rocks :)
The problem is that the internet and digital media (this is more for music than films) creates an enviroment where the record lable industry has become irrelevent. I would quite happilly send the artist 15 quid (the typical price of a CD over here) directly, and have a CD sent out to me as wave files, which i can then put on a CD for playing in the car, and convert to ogg for listening to at my PC. The artist doesnt have to go through a record lable to have it distributed, he can set it up himself. the problem comes when they copy protect CDs - I listen to all my music (most of it legal) as mp3 and ogg files on my PC - I don't own a CD player and havent for many years - I'm not going to pay for something I can't use.
The fact is that the internet and digital media destroy the RIAA's business model, so rather than addapting what they are trying to do is remove the problem by making it illegal to change the way they work.
The problem is that people dont see why they should have to pay the same ammount for an inferior product - if I pay £15 to get a CD, I can do what I want (within fair use rights); if I get some DRM locked file for which I have to pay the same ammount, it isn't the same quality and I can't use it however I want to. Therein lies the fundamental problem.
Well, current precedents being set would tend to indicate that regardless of local law concerning computer use you can be prosecuted wherever they want to prosecute you - ie wherever was affected by the crime. So in other words, you're screwed.
This has actually already happened - Real Media has in the past sued Nullsoft over the inclusion of real format support in winamp. Both are owned by the same parent - AOLTW.
I would point out that I'm currently ill and can't be bothered finding any references for you.
Most people here seem to be blaiming the HTML author for sites which use tags improperly. The problem however is much deeper rooted than that. Your average member of the public likes interfaces with lots of pictures and little text. They also like interfaces that look nice.
While it is possible In Theory to write HTML using <div>s and CSS Positioning (indeed I do so), the problem is that the mainstream browsers do not properly implement the standard to do this. In particular, IE doesnt (Moz rocks, opera is slightly buggy, but usable, IE just... sucks) and the majority of web users who are targeted by the majority of sites (particularly for comercial stuff) use IE. Would you tell them to cut out the majority of their market? I wouldn't. Blame where blame is due, and admitedly not using alt tags is a true evil, but its not all the coder's fault.
Organic != biodegradable, it means containing carbon, like a diamond
Organic does not mean containing carbon, and diamond and other puter-carbon compounts such as graphite or bucky balls are not organic. Organic means containing a hydrocarbon compount such as those found in oil, ie compounds with Hydrogen and Carbon (and also other elements).
The rest of the comment I agree with ;)
Actually, Office 4.3 came on CD as well. I still have it. I still used it until i upgraded to Office 9 (aka 2000). And 2hrs is about the same time it takes to install office 2000 premium, and as an added bonuc the completion bars on 4.3 didnt go backwards, and actually meant something(!)
In reply to the parent, there is nothing wrong with using an old pc with win3.11 is all you want to do is type the occasional document up. You dont even need office for that, you could quite easilly use Write (which is called Wordpad in newer windows versions).
Personally, I think this is a very good idea. However, there are problems with it. The servers on which the content is hosted are located (frequently) in countries that have signed the agreement, and so are subject to local law; to set up the internet as a nation-state, the content would have to be stroed in a new country, or not stored in any one location in particular.
There are other problems as well - how would the corporations react? How would such a nation-state defend it self? America is not the only source of attack - countries like China would also be against such an easily accesible free resource... How would access be controled - ISPs located in another country could be forced to comply with local law, effectively a blockade of the 'net. If an ISP was located outside of existing countries, the technology to use it could be controled
So, to do this all these things would be nigh on impossible without huge sums of money and the support of large numbers of people... But if we had that the governments would have to listen to us anyway. Sorry to damage the thought, but with enough time and support this could be done- does anybody know of any sites devoted to this?
MS Mice are great. The original (without the 33% improvement) had a bug, and so when mine died I got it replaced under warrenty. MSUK had no stock, until the guy on the phone said - "ooh - i've found some".
I now have 5 mice. I even tried to return them. The Fax and Phone number on the invoice didnt even exist. You think MS are bad; but just think what they could do if they got their act together....
The reason? Prohibitive costs for licensing, of course.
This is only true for Windows. My school was able to negotiate a very good licence from Apple for both the Hardware (G4 Server, latest iMacs) and the OS - a mix of 7, 8 and 9. Additionally, the school has a licence which enables it to give copies of FileMaker Pro to all pupils and staff (about 1000 people).
And for what schools use computers for - primarily the Internet, it's a great solution.
In what way? The browsers aren't a patch on IE5, believe me - we've been using Netscape for the past year an there are a whole host of sites that don't work (notably a friends online interface for his email sever on his cable modem) because netscape can't handle the Javascript.
Also, our school has a wireless network and 8mbit ADSL connection, but the primary use of the network is for the schools Database, all in filemaker, containing all the data on pupils, staff and the like, which is used from everything to the school address list to creating cirtificates for winners of races in the Swimming and Athletics competitions
Using macs when everybody uses PCs at home is no problem, but it in no way makes pupils more computer literate. IMHO being computer literate is more being able to adapt to new software based on your experiances in other software - I can use MS Office, so I can use appleworks, I can use Mozilla, so I can use IE and so on. But even so, there are some whos ability with computers consists of turining it on, logging in and connecting to the internet or running a game - one guy I know has to get one of his brothers to install software for him - even though there are IT lessons at school.
It odesn't matter what you use, people will not bother to learn more than they have to to get on the internet or to their favorite apps.
This should hardly come as a suprise - we all know Microsoft is as power mad as it is arogant.
I tried to sign up for an account about a year ago. On entering my name (John Linford), I was told that I was unable to create an account with that name 'because the sirname field contains inelegible or restricted word' - I welcome any ideas as to why.
I gave up after this, but there are plenty of alternatives - I use mail.ru, a free russian service with web and POP3 access
If you don't like it, don't use it - that's why they give you the coice to decline.
We have had finger print scanners in our school, the Royal Grammar School (Guildford) for about three years. The school is on Guildford High street, and we have had problems with people simpl walking in and stealing stuff out of the cloak rooms and music rooms.
To rectify this a security system is being introduced in phases - first a finger print scanner for the Music Rooms, and now timed locks on all side doors and a scanner on the main one. This scanner works by just using key points on the finger. 0.005% of the time a reading that should allow entry won't, and 0.0001% of the time the opposite occurs (you may want to check those).In addition barriers to prevent vehicle access have been introduced to any vehicle acces points, which require a security card, and CCTV has been in opperation for about 5 years.
The school is private, and so there is very little chance of any information being released to the government (particually while Blair's still in power), and the school is, in my experiance, very good at confidentiality - all pupils details are stored on an extensive database that has never, to my knowledge, been hacked. The only problem is that the school runs iMacs, which are substatially hardeer than windows to hack.
I agree. Why the hell should international users of an international group (the internet community) have what they can do on it imposed by one country. It's time for an international body to govern the internet, not just America.
I dissagree. Having seen it in my early teens I can say that it is overall the worst of the four, although the lightsabre battle is good.
Most people I know agree that Jar Jar was a waste of time, which could have been spent better else where. But, EP1 was supposed to (re)introduce people to the Star Wars Universe as it was before the clone wars, which it did quite well
But it Does belong no M$. All you get is the license to use their software. (See the copyrant srticle for more on this subject./P