Ok, I respect that, but here's a minor warning. You really shouldn't get in the habit of thinking this way:
> Napster kiddies need to be put on trial and jailed and made examples of.
No matter how much you don't like Napster kiddies, script kiddies, whatever, it is necessary in a fair society that people get reasonable treatment under the law. Fines? OK. Sending a bunch of 12-year olds to jail for copying songs? When you want to "make examples" of people, you invite the fascist attitude - let's scare everybody enough to keep them in line for even minor things. Unless, of course, you don't mind being the one with the $10,000 speeding ticket because somebody got mad at the bad drivers in your area.
> I don't own a car, and only use one a few times a year.
But I already said:
> I can see the use for pay-per-use for trying things out, but why on earth would I want to have to pay a subscription fee for software that I use all the time??
It's not that I'm totally against the idea of being able to subscribe to software, I don't like the idea of having to subscribe so there's no maximum cost... it just bleeds you of money indefinitely
And the car analogy? I guess it works for me more b/c most of the cars I've driven have been >8 years old. Even leased cars eventually give you the option to buy. Having to keep paying a monthly charge to the manufacturer for the lifetime of the car - which is really long with good maintenance - seems really dumb to me. Subscription = you never own. Good if you want to use something for a short period of time. Crappy if you hang on to things for a bit longer... I know, I know, but I still have a lot of old software, bundled or otherwise, in case I want to use it again (Even though I have a copy of Quake III, I dusted off Wolfenstein 3D a while back. Still fun after all these years)
Hey, please tell me that someone else out there thinks pay-per-use is a terrible idea. Am I the only one who wants to actually own my tools? I can see the use for pay-per-use for trying things out, but why on earth would I want to have to pay a subscription fee for software that I use all the time?? It's just another way to squeeze more money out of the consumer.
The car analogy may be heavily used, but I think it fits. If Nissan tried to charge me a per-year fee for my long-since-paid-for car, I'd be furious. (it's bad enough to pay for maintenance...) Yet MS is thinking about doing something similar with their software. *sigh*.. I guess I'll be hanging on to my copy of Win98 for a long time, and dual-booting with a new release of Linux...
Hi, hope this isn't too unpopular to bring up, but a better way to screw with the anti-privacy people is if you can port such a thing to as many OSes as possible.
I'd like to see a browser for Win9x that would actually *tell* me what info it was sending out. I already run Zone Alarm to tell me when programs such as RealPlayer are trying to connect to the 'net without my asking, but I.E. and Netscape still love to announce my operating system, etc., to every webpage I visit. Not to be too paranoid, but I like to know when such info is being sent, you know? I mean, why is it necessary to give more info than necessary out? IP I get, but... oh well.
Oh, and I can't deny that I'd like it even better I could configure the info it sent, so the next one of those pages that repeats your info back to you would say something like:
Operating System: MS-DOS version 0.01a Browser: Screwyou v. 1.1.5 ... if only for the fun of wondering if anyone bothers to log these things.
heh heh... I know what you mean. It's just too quiet. Not to mention too dark. I got really used to having a zillion LEDs (on my case, on my surge protector, on my roommate's stuff...)
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> Napster kiddies need to be put on trial and jailed and made examples of.
No matter how much you don't like Napster kiddies, script kiddies, whatever, it is necessary in a fair society that people get reasonable treatment under the law. Fines? OK. Sending a bunch of 12-year olds to jail for copying songs? When you want to "make examples" of people, you invite the fascist attitude - let's scare everybody enough to keep them in line for even minor things. Unless, of course, you don't mind being the one with the $10,000 speeding ticket because somebody got mad at the bad drivers in your area.
> I don't own a car, and only use one a few times a year.
But I already said:
> I can see the use for pay-per-use for trying things out, but why on earth would I want to have to pay a subscription fee for software that I use all the time??
It's not that I'm totally against the idea of being able to subscribe to software, I don't like the idea of having to subscribe so there's no maximum cost... it just bleeds you of money indefinitely
And the car analogy? I guess it works for me more b/c most of the cars I've driven have been >8 years old. Even leased cars eventually give you the option to buy. Having to keep paying a monthly charge to the manufacturer for the lifetime of the car - which is really long with good maintenance - seems really dumb to me. Subscription = you never own. Good if you want to use something for a short period of time. Crappy if you hang on to things for a bit longer... I know, I know, but I still have a lot of old software, bundled or otherwise, in case I want to use it again (Even though I have a copy of Quake III, I dusted off Wolfenstein 3D a while back. Still fun after all these years)
The car analogy may be heavily used, but I think it fits. If Nissan tried to charge me a per-year fee for my long-since-paid-for car, I'd be furious. (it's bad enough to pay for maintenance...) Yet MS is thinking about doing something similar with their software. *sigh*.. I guess I'll be hanging on to my copy of Win98 for a long time, and dual-booting with a new release of Linux...
I'd like to see a browser for Win9x that would actually *tell* me what info it was sending out. I already run Zone Alarm to tell me when programs such as RealPlayer are trying to connect to the 'net without my asking, but I.E. and Netscape still love to announce my operating system, etc., to every webpage I visit. Not to be too paranoid, but I like to know when such info is being sent, you know? I mean, why is it necessary to give more info than necessary out? IP I get, but... oh well.
Oh, and I can't deny that I'd like it even better I could configure the info it sent, so the next one of those pages that repeats your info back to you would say something like:
Operating System: MS-DOS version 0.01a
... if only for the fun of wondering if anyone bothers to log these things.
Browser: Screwyou v. 1.1.5
heh heh...
I know what you mean. It's just too quiet. Not to mention too dark. I got really used to having a zillion LEDs (on my case, on my surge protector, on my roommate's stuff...)