Re:excellent promotion for alternate browsers
on
Next-Gen Pop-up Ads
·
· Score: 5, Informative
Phoenix has a pretty nice feature concerning this.
Whenever a window wants to pop up although you didn't click any link (so, most likely it was an ad), Phoenix will inform you that this has happened with a small exclamation mark in the left corner of the status bar.
Clicking on this exclamation mark will bring you to a window with more detailed information about the popup window, and the possibility to add this site to your list of sites that are allowed to open popups.
Sure, that goes with your warning that you might then also allow ad popups, while allowing the good, needed popups, but I think it does the job quite well. Had no problems with it.
My E-Mail address is far too important for me to lose it. The address didn't change the last 3 years, and I would be happy not to change it in the near future.
My problem is that the address is from a Freemailer service (GMX). So if they start to charge for their mail service, and I want to keep my mail address, I will have to pay.
I think that's true for most people using Yahoo's mail service.
There actually are consumer unions here in Europe (called "consumer protection organisation"), I can't believe there are none in the US?
The problem with these organisations, though, is that while they were heavily struggling with companies about higher prices just after the Euro was introduced, I never heard about them doing anything against unfair CD-pricing or copy-protection mechanisms preventing people to make use of their Fair Use rights (creating backups and stuff).
I guess the problem is that it's too few people moaning about the CD prices and the crippling of Fair Use rights, so the consumer protection organisations are not jumping in.
2. Because some people have ethics, and choose not to steal.
Read my comment again. My whole comment was arranged about having either a cracked "pirated" version or a normal "pirated" version (like DivX).
I was just trying to show that the movie companies can't prove that everything digital gets copied - because nobody will copy a bought, then cracked version of a movie... people who do this would rather make it easy and download it off Kazaa/Gnutella/whatever.
Why should people (or many people) get their crappy WMV version with cracked DRM when they can have a free uncracked DivX of it?
I guess even the quality of the "original" unlicensed version is better than the new one...
Of course there'll be people illegitimately copying this version, and cracking it just "because they can". But most movie downloaders will already have it, or get a version that's easier to use.
Fair use is still there. DRM can't keep you from reading the material, as long as you pay the price. Some say, Well, how can you take a paragraph and copy it anymore? That's what we normally consider to be fair use. But the fact is, you can still do that. You might not be able to cut and paste but as long as you can read it, you can type it.
They talk about media in general, not only about books. Still he thinks that DRM won't kill creations derived from DRM'd material.
For a book, it might be true that you can just read and then type it. But what about music or movies? I can't just watch a movie or listen to some music and then transfer it from my brain to my own work again.:)
Maybe I misunderstood what he wanted to say?
What makes you so sure that DRM won't turn off consumers and make them focus on the rogue file-sharing services?
If it turns off consumers, they'll have to remove it or lower the price. The people selling these things want to make money, which means they want to give people whatever it is that they want to pay the most for. They want to maximize profits and if they change their product and no one wants to buy it, they'll change it back in a heartbeat. That's the beauty of the market. That's why it can't get too far afield. If they get every consumer mad at them, they'll be in big trouble.
The fact that the big companies holding the rights to creative works are monopolies renders this way useless. Of course people will be turned off by DRM'd media. But what would you do in a media company boss's wet dream of a world without unlicensed copies?
Stop buying movies and music altogether? That would be a boring world.
Stop buying movies/music until the prices drop? Sure, have fun waiting some years until the media companies run out of money.
Legislation (DMCA) and monopolies make it hard for a "consumer" to use their money politically...
I'm pretty sure that Eudora is still around, but what is out there for windows-based, user friendly software? It'd almost be worth the switch just to avoid all these damn Outlook-friendly virii.
You are calling Eudora not user friendly?
I don't want to be offensive, but it sounds like You used Outlook way too long... I know that some people don't like Eudora because of the many windows inside it for each mail and mailbox... but hey - this is no reason not to switch to it and use it.
I started using Eudora in version 3.0 and have never changed. I never had any single problem with it. My first Eudora eMail dates back to "Mon, 12 May 97".
I would really suggest Eudora. Of course it's a change, but I don't think it will be more than two days getting used to it for you.
The Ministry for Security and Information Technology has another CD on their CeBIT stand - and for free (I guess "as in beer") order. I don't know if that's the same CD, but this one is about security in Internet/eMail, too.
It was an interesting story-twist in the game Blade Runner, where you actually faced the same situation. You are in Deckard's job... you hunt some replicants... after some time you get fired and accused to be a replicant.
Whether you play as a replicant, accept it, or deny it, and play as a human is the choice of the player. Your actions decide how the story ends. I have played it around 10 times now, and I know that there's still one ending I've never seen.
If you like a good adventure you should get it - plus, if you like Blade Runner, there'll be some scenes known from the movie... whether you're analyzing a photo and see Deckard somewhere in it, or investigate the case in the same hotel Deckard was in, or visit J.F. Sebastian...
In Germany, the episodes get voice-synchronized to German. I don't know if they do this in other countries too, but I don't like it for most of the time. Not only do we have to wait for 2003 to see Enterprise, it will also be with bad German translation again (although it's okay sometimes). I prefer watching the shows in English.
I just read on Heise, that a study of Infora considers Windows as the better solution for the Bundestag.
According to Infora, Linux indeed has the better server abilities, and should be used for eMail servers and groupware solutions in Bundestag. But for the parliamentarians it would be much better to stay on Windows.
Seems like one of Linux's biggest problems again: It's not as good as Windows on the desktop.
There really isn't a lot of information except that if you're running Morpheus, you might as well consider your hard drive world readable;)
If you're on the Internet, even if you have a strong firewall and only use software that doesn't feature spyware, you should always consider your hard drive world readable. This is the Internet and there's no way of ever being 100% secure. Of course everyone has a certain level of security for his files now with well-developed Internet security software, but a fact is, that you shouldn't keep files on your disk that shouldn't be seen by others... or you should at least encrypt them (would render the Morpheus hole useless, too).
In another story (rejected by Slashdot), Philips were starting a working group on Digital Rights Management in Home networks... I guess you probably won't support a company that wants you to be able to copy CDs but not to send them over your network.
The interviewer asked Huey what he thought of the whole "downloading thing", and his answer was that it was "complicated", but that his son downloads stuff all the time (that's hearsay, you Feds, you leave Huey's kid alone!) and when he finds something he likes he buys the album.
Here we see it again... the record companies want the kids to buy stuff they don't like. It's all about the hype of having the CD... but not about owning something worth the money.
We've had it with people working in medicinal areas (they developed the Hippocratic oath to make sure only to help the people), and with scientists (remember Hiroshima?).
It seems like programmers are in the focus now. Would you write software that will be used in military devices (to kill people)? To observe people and violate their privacy? How can you know what your software is used for?
We should take care of what we are doing when we publish and/or write a piece of software.
This also has some interesting aspects for open source licenses like the GPL. There's no part of the GPL forbidding the use of the licensed software for militaristic purposes (wrong?) or privacy intrusion (to stay on topic). Since most hackers are friendly people and the GPL reflects a big part of the hacker ethics, it should probably restrict the use of your software for the "wrong" purposes.
On the other hand, if you're not as pacifistic and freedom-loving as I am, you might say that the GPL shouldn't restrict the use of software so much. But then I think programmers should consider NOT to release a program if it could be used in a bad way.
Hackers are putting so much love and work and spare time into their projects that they are thinking about its possibilities anyway, so maybe the only danger here is commercial software, written only to earn money.
Re:Give me some targetted marketing
on
Slashdot Updates
·
· Score: 1
Opera (ad-version) has this targetted marketing.
Although I am always concerned about privacy, I trust Slashdot as much as the coders of Opera, and that's why I would give them information like where I live, how old I am, what subjects I am interested in.
Ads can be really good with this type of marketing. The day I changed my Opera ads to my preferences, I found many things worth clicking on them. And this is what pays for my Opera license. I am German, and now I get only German ads... that's one way to improve my click rate: I have more interest in German stuff than in some Internet megastore on the other side of the world.
Ad preferencing can be great for both users and admins, if they have enough interesting banners.
Well, what should I say about this?
There's much stuff that's bad about Germany (I should know it, I am German), but one thing I love about this country: The "Datenschutzgesetz" (Data Protection Act).
No ISP here is legally allowed to monitor my data. The only one who would be allowed are the executive forces (police / law enforcement), and only if they had found out about me doing illegal stuff before.
They need to know about any illegal activities before - then I can be monitored.
This one's from Christian Antkow of id Software (don't sue me please, if you sue me you will feel the power of MY disclaimer;)
Don't know why, but I like it:-)
Here it is:
*** Disclaimer: Opinions are my own and in no way reflect those of id Software
This disclaimer does not cover misuse, accident, lightning, flood, tornado,
tsunami, volcanic eruption, earthquake, hurricanes and other Acts of God,
neglect, incorrect line voltage, improper or unauthorized use, broken antenna
or marred cabinet, missing or altered serial numbers, removal of tag,
electromagnetic radiation from nuclear blasts, sonic boom vibrations, customer
adjustments that are not covered in this list, and incidents owing to an
airplane crash, ship sinking or taking on water, motorvehicle crashing,
dropping the item, falling rocks, thieving lawyers, crazy ex-girlfriends,
leaky roof, broken glass, Y2K bug, mud slides, forest fire, or projectile
(which can include, but not be limited to, arrows, bullets, shot, BB's,
paintball, shrapnel, lasers, napalm, torpedoes, or emissions of X-rays, Alpha,
Beta and Gamma rays, knives, stones, etc.).
I know... LAN parties should be about playing games primarily.
But when I was on my last LAN party (also my first one), I downloaded several GBs of stuff (No, I won't tell you what I got there...:).
So while the people at that EA Lan will be happy to play some of the games they like most (NBA, NHL & FIFA, how cool... *yawn*) there will be no file transfer.
Thinking about the stuff that you can get at a LAN party... maybe this is even what EA wants it to be? A LAN party with gaming but no "file transfer"?;)
Slashdot Mirror
What a coincidence... something similar just happened to the German university of Münster.
k .src.rpm". Now *that's* one pirated office!
The BSA sent the university a cease&desist-letter and told them to stop distributing MS Office over their FTP server.
Unfortunately, the file mentioned in the letter is "/mandrake_current/SRPMS/OpenOffice.org-1.0.1-9md
Read more about it on Heise (sorry, German).
Phoenix has a pretty nice feature concerning this.
Whenever a window wants to pop up although you didn't click any link (so, most likely it was an ad), Phoenix will inform you that this has happened with a small exclamation mark in the left corner of the status bar.
Clicking on this exclamation mark will bring you to a window with more detailed information about the popup window, and the possibility to add this site to your list of sites that are allowed to open popups.
Sure, that goes with your warning that you might then also allow ad popups, while allowing the good, needed popups, but I think it does the job quite well. Had no problems with it.
My E-Mail address is far too important for me to lose it. The address didn't change the last 3 years, and I would be happy not to change it in the near future.
My problem is that the address is from a Freemailer service (GMX). So if they start to charge for their mail service, and I want to keep my mail address, I will have to pay.
I think that's true for most people using Yahoo's mail service.
There actually are consumer unions here in Europe (called "consumer protection organisation"), I can't believe there are none in the US?
The problem with these organisations, though, is that while they were heavily struggling with companies about higher prices just after the Euro was introduced, I never heard about them doing anything against unfair CD-pricing or copy-protection mechanisms preventing people to make use of their Fair Use rights (creating backups and stuff).
I guess the problem is that it's too few people moaning about the CD prices and the crippling of Fair Use rights, so the consumer protection organisations are not jumping in.
2. Because some people have ethics, and choose not to steal.
Read my comment again. My whole comment was arranged about having either a cracked "pirated" version or a normal "pirated" version (like DivX).
I was just trying to show that the movie companies can't prove that everything digital gets copied - because nobody will copy a bought, then cracked version of a movie... people who do this would rather make it easy and download it off Kazaa/Gnutella/whatever.
Why should people (or many people) get their crappy WMV version with cracked DRM when they can have a free uncracked DivX of it?
I guess even the quality of the "original" unlicensed version is better than the new one...
Of course there'll be people illegitimately copying this version, and cracking it just "because they can". But most movie downloaders will already have it, or get a version that's easier to use.
Orbit diagram page temporarily unavailable due to high server load.
:-)
Fair use is still there. DRM can't keep you from reading the material, as long as you pay the price. Some say, Well, how can you take a paragraph and copy it anymore? That's what we normally consider to be fair use. But the fact is, you can still do that. You might not be able to cut and paste but as long as you can read it, you can type it.
:)
They talk about media in general, not only about books.
Still he thinks that DRM won't kill creations derived from DRM'd material.
For a book, it might be true that you can just read and then type it.
But what about music or movies? I can't just watch a movie or listen to some music and then transfer it from my brain to my own work again.
Maybe I misunderstood what he wanted to say?
What makes you so sure that DRM won't turn off consumers and make them focus on the rogue file-sharing services?
If it turns off consumers, they'll have to remove it or lower the price. The people selling these things want to make money, which means they want to give people whatever it is that they want to pay the most for. They want to maximize profits and if they change their product and no one wants to buy it, they'll change it back in a heartbeat. That's the beauty of the market. That's why it can't get too far afield. If they get every consumer mad at them, they'll be in big trouble.
The fact that the big companies holding the rights to creative works are monopolies renders this way useless.
Of course people will be turned off by DRM'd media. But what would you do in a media company boss's wet dream of a world without unlicensed copies?
Stop buying movies and music altogether? That would be a boring world.
Stop buying movies/music until the prices drop? Sure, have fun waiting some years until the media companies run out of money.
Legislation (DMCA) and monopolies make it hard for a "consumer" to use their money politically...
When the last LAN party has been closed,
when Counterstrike is banned,
when the Internet is censored,
only then will parents discover that they still have to educate their children...
I'm pretty sure that Eudora is still around, but what is out there for windows-based, user friendly software? It'd almost be worth the switch just to avoid all these damn Outlook-friendly virii.
You are calling Eudora not user friendly?
I don't want to be offensive, but it sounds like You used Outlook way too long... I know that some people don't like Eudora because of the many windows inside it for each mail and mailbox... but hey - this is no reason not to switch to it and use it.
I started using Eudora in version 3.0 and have never changed. I never had any single problem with it. My first Eudora eMail dates back to "Mon, 12 May 97".
I would really suggest Eudora. Of course it's a change, but I don't think it will be more than two days getting used to it for you.
If you, for example, kill IRC, you upset 99% of the populatoin and script kiddies go elsewhere
Reminds me of the copy protection stuff... "If you kill 'Fair Use', you upset 99% of the population and pirates get their music elsewhere"
The Ministry for Security and Information Technology has another CD on their CeBIT stand - and for free (I guess "as in beer") order. I don't know if that's the same CD, but this one is about security in Internet/eMail, too.
Here's the link from the BSI: http://www.bsi.de/presse/aktuell/sich_cd.htm.
I wonder if it's still doing something... like distributed.net.
:-)
Or is it just flying through space, 100% idle?
It was an interesting story-twist in the game Blade Runner, where you actually faced the same situation. You are in Deckard's job... you hunt some replicants... after some time you get fired and accused to be a replicant.
Whether you play as a replicant, accept it, or deny it, and play as a human is the choice of the player. Your actions decide how the story ends. I have played it around 10 times now, and I know that there's still one ending I've never seen.
If you like a good adventure you should get it - plus, if you like Blade Runner, there'll be some scenes known from the movie... whether you're analyzing a photo and see Deckard somewhere in it, or investigate the case in the same hotel Deckard was in, or visit J.F. Sebastian...
In Germany, the episodes get voice-synchronized to German. I don't know if they do this in other countries too, but I don't like it for most of the time. Not only do we have to wait for 2003 to see Enterprise, it will also be with bad German translation again (although it's okay sometimes). I prefer watching the shows in English.
I just read on Heise, that a study of Infora considers Windows as the better solution for the Bundestag.
According to Infora, Linux indeed has the better server abilities, and should be used for eMail servers and groupware solutions in Bundestag. But for the parliamentarians it would be much better to stay on Windows.
Seems like one of Linux's biggest problems again: It's not as good as Windows on the desktop.
There really isn't a lot of information except that if you're running Morpheus, you might as well consider your hard drive world readable ;)
If you're on the Internet, even if you have a strong firewall and only use software that doesn't feature spyware, you should always consider your hard drive world readable.
This is the Internet and there's no way of ever being 100% secure.
Of course everyone has a certain level of security for his files now with well-developed Internet security software, but a fact is, that you shouldn't keep files on your disk that shouldn't be seen by others... or you should at least encrypt them (would render the Morpheus hole useless, too).
In another story (rejected by Slashdot), Philips were starting a working group on Digital Rights Management in Home networks... I guess you probably won't support a company that wants you to be able to copy CDs but not to send them over your network.
The interviewer asked Huey what he thought of the whole "downloading thing", and his answer was that it was "complicated", but that his son downloads stuff all the time (that's hearsay, you Feds, you leave Huey's kid alone!) and when he finds something he likes he buys the album.
Here we see it again... the record companies want the kids to buy stuff they don't like. It's all about the hype of having the CD... but not about owning something worth the money.
I saw it... I was shocked and scared... and it made my paranoia against the government even stronger. :)
We've had it with people working in medicinal areas (they developed the Hippocratic oath to make sure only to help the people), and with scientists (remember Hiroshima?).
It seems like programmers are in the focus now. Would you write software that will be used in military devices (to kill people)? To observe people and violate their privacy? How can you know what your software is used for?
We should take care of what we are doing when we publish and/or write a piece of software.
This also has some interesting aspects for open source licenses like the GPL. There's no part of the GPL forbidding the use of the licensed software for militaristic purposes (wrong?) or privacy intrusion (to stay on topic). Since most hackers are friendly people and the GPL reflects a big part of the hacker ethics, it should probably restrict the use of your software for the "wrong" purposes.
On the other hand, if you're not as pacifistic and freedom-loving as I am, you might say that the GPL shouldn't restrict the use of software so much. But then I think programmers should consider NOT to release a program if it could be used in a bad way.
Hackers are putting so much love and work and spare time into their projects that they are thinking about its possibilities anyway, so maybe the only danger here is commercial software, written only to earn money.
Opera (ad-version) has this targetted marketing.
;-)
Although I am always concerned about privacy, I trust Slashdot as much as the coders of Opera, and that's why I would give them information like where I live, how old I am, what subjects I am interested in.
Ads can be really good with this type of marketing. The day I changed my Opera ads to my preferences, I found many things worth clicking on them. And this is what pays for my Opera license. I am German, and now I get only German ads... that's one way to improve my click rate: I have more interest in German stuff than in some Internet megastore on the other side of the world.
Ad preferencing can be great for both users and admins, if they have enough interesting banners.
Just don't sell my profile to DoubleClick.
There's much stuff that's bad about Germany (I should know it, I am German), but one thing I love about this country: The "Datenschutzgesetz" (Data Protection Act).
No ISP here is legally allowed to monitor my data. The only one who would be allowed are the executive forces (police / law enforcement), and only if they had found out about me doing illegal stuff before.
They need to know about any illegal activities before - then I can be monitored.
This one's from Christian Antkow of id Software (don't sue me please, if you sue me you will feel the power of MY disclaimer ;)
:-)
Don't know why, but I like it
Here it is:
*** Disclaimer: Opinions are my own and in no way reflect those of id Software
This disclaimer does not cover misuse, accident, lightning, flood, tornado,
tsunami, volcanic eruption, earthquake, hurricanes and other Acts of God,
neglect, incorrect line voltage, improper or unauthorized use, broken antenna
or marred cabinet, missing or altered serial numbers, removal of tag,
electromagnetic radiation from nuclear blasts, sonic boom vibrations, customer
adjustments that are not covered in this list, and incidents owing to an
airplane crash, ship sinking or taking on water, motorvehicle crashing,
dropping the item, falling rocks, thieving lawyers, crazy ex-girlfriends,
leaky roof, broken glass, Y2K bug, mud slides, forest fire, or projectile
(which can include, but not be limited to, arrows, bullets, shot, BB's,
paintball, shrapnel, lasers, napalm, torpedoes, or emissions of X-rays, Alpha,
Beta and Gamma rays, knives, stones, etc.).
I know... LAN parties should be about playing games primarily.
But when I was on my last LAN party (also my first one), I downloaded several GBs of stuff (No, I won't tell you what I got there... :).
So while the people at that EA Lan will be happy to play some of the games they like most (NBA, NHL & FIFA, how cool... *yawn*) there will be no file transfer.
Thinking about the stuff that you can get at a LAN party... maybe this is even what EA wants it to be? A LAN party with gaming but no "file transfer"? ;)