True, but even when we reach the point where anyone with a cheap camera and a computer can produce a blockbuster quality movie in their den, Hollywood will still have a monopoly on distribution. Unlike music, which is primarily a personal experience (is packaged and sold to be experienced by a single or small group of people), films are still largely a social experience. Even now where we have home theatre setups which can rival movie theatres in sound and picture quality, people flock to the theatres because of the (largely) social experience.
Imagine if Stanley Kubrick was starting out with online distribution today. He would have never yielded the kind of artistic acknowledgement he gained due to the Hollywood distribution system, because (and this is my opinion), the true genius of his work can never be appreciated on anything other then the giant screens of the theatre.
It's as if he saw MTV for the first time and claimed "people will never listen to music the same. Children born now will never be able to listen to popular music without a moving picture accompanying it. They will have to relearn how to listen to music".
New forms of media traditionally start in their infancy through a convergence of old forms of media. Many of the first motion pictures were adaptation of plays. Many of the earlier organized plays were retellings of traditional written or verbal folklore. Many of both still are. But that doesn't mean either haven't evolved into their own unique style, and the forms of media they borrowed from haven't been dramatically changed.
Film as a non interactive media is here to stay. Because the new and still developing genre of interactive media seems to be--at least at this moment--closely tied to film won't degrade the entertainment or social aspects of the cinema. And interactive media will most likely evolve into its own right.
Re:CD sales and concert attendance both down
on
RIAA vs The Economy
·
· Score: 3, Interesting
I think you've touched on something there that's right on. Personally, I think CD sales would be down regardless of the economy, and regardless of online file swapping.
First, CD sales and concert attendance are both down. That's an indication of a problem other than CDs. . . . exactly, which has a lot to do with Fourth, the consolidation of radio station ownership has resulted in major changes in the way music is promoted. That effect has been inadequately analyzed. Clear Channel is quite open about the fact their business is selling ads, not music.
I would argue that it's not just the consolidation of radio stations, but the entire way music is discovered, packaged and promoted. Music is a business, and the larger a business gets, the more they will focus on profit.
The current process of "launching" bands resulting from the increasing commercialization of the music industry has become an expensive investment. No longer can an A&R scout use his better judgment, hear a band he finds 'good', throw them in the studio to cut a few tracks and put them on the radio to see if they stick.
Instead he faces a well defined marketing procedure that starts in the millions of dollars, and is faced with the question of "Will this band sell?" instead of "Is this band any good?" while that question of "Will this band sell?" is increasingly being answered by businessmen who have little to do with music.
So more and more over the last 10 years, that process of discovery, packaging and promoting has become boilerplate. The end result (and this is arguable), is that music has just become more bland.
For quick proof of this, note the explosion of specialty radio stations catering to very specific sub-genres of dated material like "Classic Rock" or "All 80s". Again, this is arguable, but personally this seems to be more of a reaction of people just not liking what's being produced these days. Or at least they are finding older, more familiar tracks a better alternative to the new stuff.
Of course, I'm not a music insider, and my opinions are simply based on my own impressions of the music industry. I mean, somebody has to actually go out and buy this crap that is played on the radio. Otherwise the RIAA would be gone over night. So it's easy to assume that at least somebody has to like it. But what I'm afraid of is the average consumer makes his music buying decisions based on targeted marketing and perceived impressions of bands rather then his own actual tastes.
And I believe this ultimately is the reason the RIAA is so scared of file sharing: That eventually a globally connected peer group on the Internet will supersede the music marketing machine in influence over buying practices.
When you can suddenly discover new bands from recommendations from those with similar tastes and preferences completely outside of the sanitized and tightly controlled world of the radio or chain record store, you're going to take them out of the loop all together. And consequently, their profits.
This hasn't happened . . . Yet. At least on a large scale. But eventually, hopefully in a few years, some band will rise out of relative obscurity to become a household name due to the power of massive word of mouth on the Internet. And they will do so outside of the "system".
Ok. I get it. It's a good show. I never watched it, and I probably missed out on it. Heck, I missed out on "Babylon 5" too, despite being told by everyone how it was the best sci-fi show ever and was a million times better then star trek. And yet, I don't feel any worse off for missing it.
So despite the fact that it's got a stupid name, and the commercials make it look stupid, I'll concede that it may be pretty good. Oh well. It's over now. And as soon as this episode airs and the hullabaloo of whatever super great DVDs of season whatever are released, I'll never have to hear about it again.
why are all the evil characters white guys and almsot everyone else black.
I noticed that also during Reloaded. And after watching it, it occurred to me that there is a very powerful, though (probably) unintentional racial message going on within this movie.
Here is how the world is painted: The good, powerful and virtuous are almost always black/asian/various minority. The white man is always devious, inept, or unimportant. In our PC world, that seems quite a bit like how the media tries to paint the world. (Whether or not this is true is certainly open to debate, but as a white man myself, it sure as heck feels that way).
Enter Neo: The ultimate in evil--the white, heterosexual man--who somehow is painted as good. And suddenly, within the context of the white man demonizing world of the Matrix, the "One", the true hero, is white. When you look at it from that perspective, it has a very interesting subconscious effect: We cheer Neo on as being the great white hope.
Of course, this could all be a bunch of BS, but it at least tries to answer for the rather unusual loading of minority characters in positions of power in Zion.
A: The internet was invented. It was all text. B: The web was invented. It had pretty pictures. Some people thought they could make money from it. They failed. C: Spam and pop-ups.
I tend to be cynical, because I don't trust spammers. I have never consciously opted in to get on any spam mailing list. So I look at their plan with a great deal of reservation, and can see immediately what they plan to do.
Certification to ascertain the mailer's identity in order to provide transparency.
This from the people who hide a 'I agree to receive spam' deep inside otherwise boilerplate documents then claim "But you told us you wanted to receive this!" without blinking an eye when people complain.
The only way you can be 100% sure is through a no holds barred certification and authentication. Starting with a clear "Do you want to receive unsolicited email from us?: Yes or no", then a verification email sent to the address saying "If you really want to be on our list, please reply to this email". And you have to do this separately from any offers or services the consumer initially wanted to take part in.
Volume mail standards, including standardization of all sender information in the mail header and the use of an identifiable, trackable unsubscribe Web address.
This just looks like an inconvenient trap. By 'standardizing' bulk mailing headers, this simply makes it easier for spam to masquerade as legitimate, wanted bulk email (a subscription to a mailing list, for example), and places more difficulty on anti-spam filters.
Secure identity, an authentication process that provides secure proof of the sender's identity in the Simple Mail Transfer Protocol header.
Yes. And let's also call for a magic wand to end world hunger. The basic architecture of the SMTP, as I understand it, does not provide for a fool proof, secure identification. At least one that can't be easily spoofed.
Performance monitoring, a process that captures, monitors and reports performance data for all senders and mailers.
Isn't that called 'market research?' This seems on it's surface to be nothing more then putting an additional strain on ISP and mail providers to provide spammers with hard, factual data on the success of spammers e-mail campaigns. "Hey, hot mail is reporting that only 52% of our spam messages or getting through. Thanks hotmail! We will adjust our plans accordingly"
Again, this may seem a bit cynical, but again, I really don't trust these spam marketers. If they were completely honest with their clients they would be out of business, because a very small portion of the Internet population enjoys, or even wants to receive unsolicited bulk email. Regardless of how 'cool' or 'amazing' the offers they have are.
Could it be that online file sharing, while technically illegal, hurts only big giant corperations who have no interest in representing either the artists who feed them or their customers, while online spam hurts the average person and only benifits questionable businesses?
Since anti-spam and pro file sharing are both pro-consumer and anti bad business, I'm not sure that mindsest as sypocritical.
I've got my form fitting PVC outfit already on order just for the movie. I only weight 380 lbs, and I think the outfit will have a very nice slimming effect on me.
I'm also bringing my lightsaber. I'm not sure why, but it seems to be a good idea to play around with a lightsaber while waiting in line.
And because I know it will be a long line, I'll bring my copy of lotr and challege everyone else in line to some hard core hobbit trivia.
Planning a little vacation for next month from Sacramento to Los Angeles, I came up with the following prices on the web for round trip:
greyhound:$95
Amtrak:$110
Southwest:$95
The obivous answer seems to be to fly. But I'm still shooting for the train. Why? Because if you take into account the drive to the airport (and having to find somebody pick you up at LAX--Amtrak takes you downtown where you can then jump on the subway), the time differences aren't that much different. And with airport parking, the prices work out far more even.
In addition, the Amtrak train has more leg room then Southwest's cattle cars, you can stand up and walk around, nobody asks you to take off your shoes...
All around, at least for short trips, the train still wins even if it is a few dollars more (and you can get the same price even if your traveling tommorow).
Remember folks, there are surly looking spammers driving through your surburbian neighborhood right now just looking to abuse your DSL connection through your unsecured access point to send spam.
So if your router gives out a DHCP address in the middle of the night, run outside in your pajamas with a baseball bat. There are spammers you need to teach a lesson.
I too find it woefully irresponsable that small websites that can't handle traffic don't inform slashdot when they are shutting down right after slashdot links to them. It harms slashdot and all of their users. A little warning would be nice.
I thought the same thing, and I can only come up with two answers.
1. Ease of development of applications on the embedded products (of course, if they are embedded, why would they need... oh, never mind)
2. Branding. Let's face it. Linux in and of itself has become a buzzword. What sounds better, 'Buy this new toaster that runs a new and efficent OS to handle everything your toast could need', or 'Buy this toaster... it's powered by Linux!'
Actually, the correct thing to do is 'Don't be fooled by a GC'. There are rare execptions, but most of them are greedy slimeballs. Get a good PM/CM firm to look after them. Tell them you want a house that will last for 200 years, they will make you a house that looks like it will last for 20 years. 'We are doing you a favor!! Look at our prices!!'.
If you put any money into the project, get somebody who is on your side to look after the contractors to make sure they are actually doing the job you want.
Of course, every American will want one. It's our constitutional right.. you know, just in case our government gets out from the control of the people. After all, the government is born of the people, and it's every American's right.. ney, DUTY to take up arms against their government when they have over stepped their bounds.
So if that happens, well, when the black storm troopers try to take away ma and pa's surburban homestead, we'll protect it.... what? 'central control has declaired use of this firearm unauthorized???' WTF????
Not that it's worth anything, but who knows. When I get spam from a reputable company, I typically try to find their customer service email address and send them this little form letter. I doubt that it does any good, but if enough people showed the larger corporations that we don't want spam, perhaps the meat and potatoes of the spam mailing list scumbags would be dropped just a little.
Dear: Company
Today I received an unwanted, unsolicited email from your company (spam). I always believed that your corporation was honest and forthright, and it is beyond my comprehension why you would decide to set yourself alongside pornographers and scam artists by using unsolicited spam email.
Regardless of what your spam mailing company has told you, I have never consciously 'opted in' to receive email from them, you, or any of their partners. They have either gained my 'approval' using deception or trickery, or they have simply lied and found the email address somewhere on the Internet. In either event, I have never, nor will ever want to receive unsolicited spam email. In other words, I don't want to get this type of mail. Ever. And I have never actively asked to receive it.
Spam mailing companies such as the one you use are corrupt and crooked. These are not honest businesses. And I cannot with good conscious do business with any company that chooses to partner with near criminals to conduct marketing. As such, I will not do business with you until you stop associating with these shady organizations.
Please do not forward this to your spam mailing list provider in a show of 'good faith' to 'opt me out'. All this will do is inform them that this is a valid email address, and place me on numerous other mailing lists. Like I said, these are not honest business people. If you doubt this, ask them exactly where and where I 'opted in' to get this junk. Ask them why they often use different and misleading domains to get around my 'block sender list'. They will be unable to provide you with an answer, because I have never actively 'opted-in', and they will try every trick in the book to get their junk through. Again, this is because they are dishonest.
If you decide to stop using this sort of unethical marketing, please inform me. I would be more then happy to continue doing business with you.
And I don't think Microsoft really understands the real reasons why. The interview hints at the mentality of MS that its detractors are somehow upset because the company is succesful.
I don't dislike MS because it's been so succesful, I dislike MS because A: Its preditory business practices and B: Its disdain for its users.
It would be like Al Capone saying the only reason why people don't like him is because he was so rich and powerful.
I saw about 2 million of them stacked up in the aisles at Fry's Electronics yesterday, but that sure is a lot of drives.
Of those, 1.4 million were already sold but returned and poorly refurbished and sent to Fry's, and.5 million were already sold by Fry's (.3 million with the sticker,.2 with the sticker 'forgotten').
When everything is said and done, aprox. 20,000 of the 2 million will be sold and NOT returned. So it's difficult to use Fry's as a guage of total drive sales.
* based on my own personal experience. Your expreience of purchasing a drive from Fry's that works will vary depending on the mood and comfort with English the guy at the Fry's return counter has.
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Fanball Football Fanball Football Newsbreakers... mind you, this is with hotmails spam filter on max.
Actually, no. I'm a law student. I reread all of their AUPs. They violate everything they stand for. If I was a scumbag, I could sue them and win. Sadly, I'm not a scumbag.
Does this make Microsoft a bad company?
no. Hotmail is a good, free service (despite all of their other transgressions)
Now if I could only get hotmail to stop spamming me. About once a month I get spam from hotmail under the guise of 'hotmail member services'. These junk emails have ads for all sorts of things, have little to do with the opperation of my email, and are annoying.
You can't block this address (staff@hotmail.com), and there is no 'opt out' other then to stop using the hotmail service.
Mildly tolerable and acceptable if you are getting the email for free, but unacceptable if you sign up for a years service and pay them. Needless to say, I did not renew my pay subscription.
Slashdot Mirror
True, but even when we reach the point where anyone with a cheap camera and a computer can produce a blockbuster quality movie in their den, Hollywood will still have a monopoly on distribution. Unlike music, which is primarily a personal experience (is packaged and sold to be experienced by a single or small group of people), films are still largely a social experience. Even now where we have home theatre setups which can rival movie theatres in sound and picture quality, people flock to the theatres because of the (largely) social experience.
Imagine if Stanley Kubrick was starting out with online distribution today. He would have never yielded the kind of artistic acknowledgement he gained due to the Hollywood distribution system, because (and this is my opinion), the true genius of his work can never be appreciated on anything other then the giant screens of the theatre.
..does not diminish the old media.
It's as if he saw MTV for the first time and claimed "people will never listen to music the same. Children born now will never be able to listen to popular music without a moving picture accompanying it. They will have to relearn how to listen to music".
New forms of media traditionally start in their infancy through a convergence of old forms of media. Many of the first motion pictures were adaptation of plays. Many of the earlier organized plays were retellings of traditional written or verbal folklore. Many of both still are. But that doesn't mean either haven't evolved into their own unique style, and the forms of media they borrowed from haven't been dramatically changed.
Film as a non interactive media is here to stay. Because the new and still developing genre of interactive media seems to be--at least at this moment--closely tied to film won't degrade the entertainment or social aspects of the cinema. And interactive media will most likely evolve into its own right.
I think you've touched on something there that's right on. Personally, I think CD sales would be down regardless of the economy, and regardless of online file swapping.
First, CD sales and concert attendance are both down. That's an indication of a problem other than CDs. . . . exactly, which has a lot to do with Fourth, the consolidation of radio station ownership has resulted in major changes in the way music is promoted. That effect has been inadequately analyzed. Clear Channel is quite open about the fact their business is selling ads, not music.
I would argue that it's not just the consolidation of radio stations, but the entire way music is discovered, packaged and promoted. Music is a business, and the larger a business gets, the more they will focus on profit.
The current process of "launching" bands resulting from the increasing commercialization of the music industry has become an expensive investment. No longer can an A&R scout use his better judgment, hear a band he finds 'good', throw them in the studio to cut a few tracks and put them on the radio to see if they stick.
Instead he faces a well defined marketing procedure that starts in the millions of dollars, and is faced with the question of "Will this band sell?" instead of "Is this band any good?" while that question of "Will this band sell?" is increasingly being answered by businessmen who have little to do with music.
So more and more over the last 10 years, that process of discovery, packaging and promoting has become boilerplate. The end result (and this is arguable), is that music has just become more bland.
For quick proof of this, note the explosion of specialty radio stations catering to very specific sub-genres of dated material like "Classic Rock" or "All 80s". Again, this is arguable, but personally this seems to be more of a reaction of people just not liking what's being produced these days. Or at least they are finding older, more familiar tracks a better alternative to the new stuff.
Of course, I'm not a music insider, and my opinions are simply based on my own impressions of the music industry. I mean, somebody has to actually go out and buy this crap that is played on the radio. Otherwise the RIAA would be gone over night. So it's easy to assume that at least somebody has to like it. But what I'm afraid of is the average consumer makes his music buying decisions based on targeted marketing and perceived impressions of bands rather then his own actual tastes.
And I believe this ultimately is the reason the RIAA is so scared of file sharing: That eventually a globally connected peer group on the Internet will supersede the music marketing machine in influence over buying practices.
When you can suddenly discover new bands from recommendations from those with similar tastes and preferences completely outside of the sanitized and tightly controlled world of the radio or chain record store, you're going to take them out of the loop all together. And consequently, their profits.
This hasn't happened . . . Yet. At least on a large scale. But eventually, hopefully in a few years, some band will rise out of relative obscurity to become a household name due to the power of massive word of mouth on the Internet. And they will do so outside of the "system".
I can't wait.
Ok. I get it. It's a good show. I never watched it, and I probably missed out on it. Heck, I missed out on "Babylon 5" too, despite being told by everyone how it was the best sci-fi show ever and was a million times better then star trek. And yet, I don't feel any worse off for missing it.
So despite the fact that it's got a stupid name, and the commercials make it look stupid, I'll concede that it may be pretty good. Oh well. It's over now. And as soon as this episode airs and the hullabaloo of whatever super great DVDs of season whatever are released, I'll never have to hear about it again.
Yay.
why are all the evil characters white guys and almsot everyone else black.
I noticed that also during Reloaded. And after watching it, it occurred to me that there is a very powerful, though (probably) unintentional racial message going on within this movie.
Here is how the world is painted: The good, powerful and virtuous are almost always black/asian/various minority. The white man is always devious, inept, or unimportant. In our PC world, that seems quite a bit like how the media tries to paint the world. (Whether or not this is true is certainly open to debate, but as a white man myself, it sure as heck feels that way).
Enter Neo: The ultimate in evil--the white, heterosexual man--who somehow is painted as good. And suddenly, within the context of the white man demonizing world of the Matrix, the "One", the true hero, is white. When you look at it from that perspective, it has a very interesting subconscious effect: We cheer Neo on as being the great white hope.
Of course, this could all be a bunch of BS, but it at least tries to answer for the rather unusual loading of minority characters in positions of power in Zion.
Regardin Migor.
Presumabaly, he would eat your soul.
A: The internet was invented. It was all text.
B: The web was invented. It had pretty pictures. Some people thought they could make money from it. They failed.
C: Spam and pop-ups.
The end.
I tend to be cynical, because I don't trust spammers. I have never consciously opted in to get on any spam mailing list. So I look at their plan with a great deal of reservation, and can see immediately what they plan to do.
Certification to ascertain the mailer's identity in order to provide transparency.
This from the people who hide a 'I agree to receive spam' deep inside otherwise boilerplate documents then claim "But you told us you wanted to receive this!" without blinking an eye when people complain.
The only way you can be 100% sure is through a no holds barred certification and authentication. Starting with a clear "Do you want to receive unsolicited email from us?: Yes or no", then a verification email sent to the address saying "If you really want to be on our list, please reply to this email". And you have to do this separately from any offers or services the consumer initially wanted to take part in.
Volume mail standards, including standardization of all sender information in the mail header and the use of an identifiable, trackable unsubscribe Web address.
This just looks like an inconvenient trap. By 'standardizing' bulk mailing headers, this simply makes it easier for spam to masquerade as legitimate, wanted bulk email (a subscription to a mailing list, for example), and places more difficulty on anti-spam filters.
Secure identity, an authentication process that provides secure proof of the sender's identity in the Simple Mail Transfer Protocol header.
Yes. And let's also call for a magic wand to end world hunger. The basic architecture of the SMTP, as I understand it, does not provide for a fool proof, secure identification. At least one that can't be easily spoofed.
Performance monitoring, a process that captures, monitors and reports performance data for all senders and mailers.
Isn't that called 'market research?' This seems on it's surface to be nothing more then putting an additional strain on ISP and mail providers to provide spammers with hard, factual data on the success of spammers e-mail campaigns. "Hey, hot mail is reporting that only 52% of our spam messages or getting through. Thanks hotmail! We will adjust our plans accordingly"
Again, this may seem a bit cynical, but again, I really don't trust these spam marketers. If they were completely honest with their clients they would be out of business, because a very small portion of the Internet population enjoys, or even wants to receive unsolicited bulk email. Regardless of how 'cool' or 'amazing' the offers they have are.
I have to take issue with rule #3. From what I can tell, spammers are very clever when it comes to circumventing anti-spam measures.
But everything else is right. The spammer's mindset is not unlike that of a car salesman. Very convoluted ethics.
Could it be that online file sharing, while technically illegal, hurts only big giant corperations who have no interest in representing either the artists who feed them or their customers, while online spam hurts the average person and only benifits questionable businesses?
Since anti-spam and pro file sharing are both pro-consumer and anti bad business, I'm not sure that mindsest as sypocritical.
Oh you betcha!
I've got my form fitting PVC outfit already on order just for the movie. I only weight 380 lbs, and I think the outfit will have a very nice slimming effect on me.
I'm also bringing my lightsaber. I'm not sure why, but it seems to be a good idea to play around with a lightsaber while waiting in line.
And because I know it will be a long line, I'll bring my copy of lotr and challege everyone else in line to some hard core hobbit trivia.
Well, it certiantly makes you wonder.
Planning a little vacation for next month from Sacramento to Los Angeles, I came up with the following prices on the web for round trip:
greyhound:$95
Amtrak:$110
Southwest:$95
The obivous answer seems to be to fly. But I'm still shooting for the train. Why? Because if you take into account the drive to the airport (and having to find somebody pick you up at LAX--Amtrak takes you downtown where you can then jump on the subway), the time differences aren't that much different. And with airport parking, the prices work out far more even.
In addition, the Amtrak train has more leg room then Southwest's cattle cars, you can stand up and walk around, nobody asks you to take off your shoes...
All around, at least for short trips, the train still wins even if it is a few dollars more (and you can get the same price even if your traveling tommorow).
Remember folks, there are surly looking spammers driving through your surburbian neighborhood right now just looking to abuse your DSL connection through your unsecured access point to send spam.
So if your router gives out a DHCP address in the middle of the night, run outside in your pajamas with a baseball bat. There are spammers you need to teach a lesson.
I too find it woefully irresponsable that small websites that can't handle traffic don't inform slashdot when they are shutting down right after slashdot links to them. It harms slashdot and all of their users. A little warning would be nice.
I thought the same thing, and I can only come up with two answers.
1. Ease of development of applications on the embedded products (of course, if they are embedded, why would they need... oh, never mind)
2. Branding. Let's face it. Linux in and of itself has become a buzzword. What sounds better, 'Buy this new toaster that runs a new and efficent OS to handle everything your toast could need', or 'Buy this toaster... it's powered by Linux!'
Actually, the correct thing to do is 'Don't be fooled by a GC'. There are rare execptions, but most of them are greedy slimeballs. Get a good PM/CM firm to look after them. Tell them you want a house that will last for 200 years, they will make you a house that looks like it will last for 20 years. 'We are doing you a favor!! Look at our prices!!'.
If you put any money into the project, get somebody who is on your side to look after the contractors to make sure they are actually doing the job you want.
Of course, every American will want one. It's our constitutional right.. you know, just in case our government gets out from the control of the people. After all, the government is born of the people, and it's every American's right.. ney, DUTY to take up arms against their government when they have over stepped their bounds.
So if that happens, well, when the black storm troopers try to take away ma and pa's surburban homestead, we'll protect it.... what? 'central control has declaired use of this firearm unauthorized???' WTF????
Seriosuly, can I get mine without 802.11x??
I am not a gun nut
Not that it's worth anything, but who knows. When I get spam from a reputable company, I typically try to find their customer service email address and send them this little form letter. I doubt that it does any good, but if enough people showed the larger corporations that we don't want spam, perhaps the meat and potatoes of the spam mailing list scumbags would be dropped just a little.
Dear: Company
Today I received an unwanted, unsolicited email from your company (spam). I always believed that your corporation was honest and forthright, and it is beyond my comprehension why you would decide to set yourself alongside pornographers and scam artists by using unsolicited spam email.
Regardless of what your spam mailing company has told you, I have never consciously 'opted in' to receive email from them, you, or any of their partners. They have either gained my 'approval' using deception or trickery, or they have simply lied and found the email address somewhere on the Internet. In either event, I have never, nor will ever want to receive unsolicited spam email. In other words, I don't want to get this type of mail. Ever. And I have never actively asked to receive it.
Spam mailing companies such as the one you use are corrupt and crooked. These are not honest businesses. And I cannot with good conscious do business with any company that chooses to partner with near criminals to conduct marketing. As such, I will not do business with you until you stop associating with these shady organizations.
Please do not forward this to your spam mailing list provider in a show of 'good faith' to 'opt me out'. All this will do is inform them that this is a valid email address, and place me on numerous other mailing lists. Like I said, these are not honest business people. If you doubt this, ask them exactly where and where I 'opted in' to get this junk. Ask them why they often use different and misleading domains to get around my 'block sender list'. They will be unable to provide you with an answer, because I have never actively 'opted-in', and they will try every trick in the book to get their junk through. Again, this is because they are dishonest.
If you decide to stop using this sort of unethical marketing, please inform me. I would be more then happy to continue doing business with you.
And I don't think Microsoft really understands the real reasons why. The interview hints at the mentality of MS that its detractors are somehow upset because the company is succesful.
I don't dislike MS because it's been so succesful, I dislike MS because A: Its preditory business practices and B: Its disdain for its users.
It would be like Al Capone saying the only reason why people don't like him is because he was so rich and powerful.
I see two imediate problems with that.
1. What's to stop a spam 'robot' to be programed to create an automated response and get past the measure, and
2. It could potentially place an undue burden on mailing list administrators who send out legitmate (actually wanted) bulk emails.
I saw about 2 million of them stacked up in the aisles at Fry's Electronics yesterday, but that sure is a lot of drives.
.5 million were already sold by Fry's (.3 million with the sticker, .2 with the sticker 'forgotten').
Of those, 1.4 million were already sold but returned and poorly refurbished and sent to Fry's, and
When everything is said and done, aprox. 20,000 of the 2 million will be sold and NOT returned. So it's difficult to use Fry's as a guage of total drive sales.
* based on my own personal experience. Your expreience of purchasing a drive from Fry's that works will vary depending on the mood and comfort with English the guy at the Fry's return counter has.
oh, you may find this interesting:
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mind you, this is with hotmails spam filter on max.
Actually, no. I'm a law student. I reread all of their AUPs. They violate everything they stand for. If I was a scumbag, I could sue them and win. Sadly, I'm not a scumbag.
Does this make Microsoft a bad company?
no. Hotmail is a good, free service (despite all of their other transgressions)
Does this make hotmail a crummy email provider?
Perhaps.
Does this mean Microsoft Hotmail lawyers suck?
Uh, yeah.
Now if I could only get hotmail to stop spamming me. About once a month I get spam from hotmail under the guise of 'hotmail member services'. These junk emails have ads for all sorts of things, have little to do with the opperation of my email, and are annoying.
You can't block this address (staff@hotmail.com), and there is no 'opt out' other then to stop using the hotmail service.
Mildly tolerable and acceptable if you are getting the email for free, but unacceptable if you sign up for a years service and pay them. Needless to say, I did not renew my pay subscription.
Net surfers use the back button more than any other key.
There's a back button on my keyboard? Here and all this time I've been using the oh so difficult 'alt-left arrow'.