Haha you are right, I shouldn't have made the World War 2 reference, though since its not actually a reference to Hitler I didnt actually break the rule!! =)
I agree with you that organizations do have a degree of responsibility for the behavior of their members, however I think this news peice was a little different because it almost deceptively left out the fact that this was something perpetrated by individuals, not "the government". Its presenting the actions of an individual as if they were the actions of the entire organization, without even acknowledging the role of the individual. Thats what I find reprehensible.
This is simply wild speculation based on unconfirmed and unreliable sources. Its absolute nonsense.
This is nothing more than a TROLL on a grand scale, and you are all guilty of feeding it.
Common sense would not allow any intelligent person to believe this even for a second.
I can tell you without a doubt that if Microsoft decided to shut down the software that I paid for and installed, there would be a large, lucrative class action lawsuit filed against them by individuals and many, many lawsuits filed by the corporations that would lose thousands upon thousands of dollars per day as a result of this. I just hope my firm could get a peice of that delicious and expensive pie.
Not only that, but in a market with emerging OS alternatives, why in the world would Microsoft risk a massive exodus from their software.
If government employees are doing something on government time in the process of doing their job, surely the government is doing that thing? (seeing as a government is, ultimately, just a group of people)
The article is alarmist - but that is a better for the press to be too alarmist than to be insufficently dilligent.
What?? This article is not alarmist, it is WRONG.
Just because we are members of a group of people (as you said) does not mean we lose our individuality. We retain our ability to make decisions and act for ourselves independently of the group. This is something we learned during World War Two. It is the reason we no longer trust racist assumptions. It is the justification behind the end of bigotry.
I actually find what you said to be offensive.
P.S., This news peice is total garbage - incorrect citations based on false news. This website has gone way downhill.
The beta 2 Vista release is actually getting pretty good reviews so far. Check out this guy http://vistabetablogger.blogspot.com/ he seems to like it so far, albeit it looks like he hasn't seen very much.
For all those that think that the microsoft blogs are noticably pro-microsoft, there are a lot of "normal" people that are blogging on Vista as well now that the beta 2 has been released... Like this guy, http://vistabetablogger.blogspot.com/
Some people seem are having good reactions to the intial beta 2 release.
This is the type of article that I hate. It is pure scare tactics in a not even veiled attempt to push a political agenda for big pharmacheutical companies - be afriad! Resistent bacteria are on the rise! We need leglistation that makes it easier for big pharm to make money!
Heres the catch 22 - there are bugs resistent to the drugs we currently have because of overuse of those drugs, so what we need is more new drugs to combat these? obviously they just become resistent to these drugs as well! Therefore the answer is definately not legislation to encourage more drugs, as the article would suggest, but rather it is likely better and more cautious use of drugs and the encouragement of building resistances.
Politically motivated corporatate garbage, thats what this article is.
Definitions are interesting, however it is the etymology of the word that will explain to the parent why his anger at the use of "gift" as a verb is a mistake.
Gift is a word that is originally derived from the ancient German word geban - which, incidently, is a verb. The word grew to be a noun, but kept its verb meaning as well.
The word gift has been used for a long time now as a verb in legal proceedings. When a person bequeths objects to people in a will, it generally is referred to as gifting. That meaning of the word has recently raised its head in major media where it seems to be a "new" use of the word, when actually it is only new to you.
Hi, my name is The Word Anthropomorphic, meaning the attribution of human characteristics to inanimate objects, animals or natural phenomena. Please spell me correctly, and note that Anthropomorphization is not a word.
Re:No, Google is only dictating how you Do No Evil
on
Google Delists BMW-Germany
·
· Score: 2, Informative
"BMW's site is still accessable, try this: Google Query: BMW. See, BMW's site is still acceptable from Deutschland. Now, quit whining."
Tell me, exactly where on that page do you see BMW.de? I had some time to kill so I went through the results a bit... In the first 250 (!) search results BMW.de still does not appear. I scrolled past BMW USA, BMW Canada.. even BMW korea! But no BMW.de.
So, in the future, before you tell people to "stop whining", I suggest you make sure you aren't completely and utterly wrong.
You are right, mail in rebates are definately a tactic that companies like Best Buy use to get people in the door, but there is another reason to use mail in rebates that most people probably dont realize.
When you deal with mass quantities of sales like Best Buy does, a lot of money flows in and out the doors. Keeping the money in the door for as long as possible before it has to flow back out allows for the corporation to maximize its use of the money while it has it.
If it takes a minimum of, say, 40 days to process a mail in rebate, thats about 30 days that Best Buy gets to hang on to your money. More correctly though, thats 30 days that it gets to USE your money. With the massive amounts of small purchases that come in, this really adds up, and the interest obtained from holding that money for those 30 days is a valuable source of income for Best Buy. Further to this, when you get a large cash float income for reinvestment like Best Buy can obtain through this process, the interest payments and investment returns go way, way up. I can gaurentee you that this is a revenue stream that Best Buy tries to maximize.
Don't want to pay your electric company? Invest in solar panels, a diesel or lp gas generator, thermocouples or whatever it takes.
A point that is heard on this and other message boards quite frequently is that today, the only true power, the only true vote, comes in the form of a dollar bill. You do reenforce the notion that dollars are all that counts, which is essentially WHY we are at the mercy of a unilateral power, the so called corporate "dictatorships".
Solar panels and gas generators are notoriously inefficient, and do I need to mention the large initial capital investment that is required? Money is essentially the "army" that keeps large corporate "dictatorships" in power. By the way, if you are running a gas powered generator you are simply playing into the hands of a different corporation.
Worth noting - if you question the stranglehold of these utility companies, see PG&E and the toxic pollution scandels in California (easiest way is to watch the movie "Erin Brokovich", but there is a lot of scholarly information on it). This is a perfect example of a corporation unilaterally submitting the population to atrocities in their quest for greater profits.
The question you ask is, why should we care? Whats the big deal anyways?
Language is critical to our world, and careful attention to its components - spelling and grammer - is not something that we should just "get over", as you would suggest.
Language is a gift. It is one of the greatest gifts that humankind has. To use a cliche, it seperates us from the animals. The complexity and versatility of our language is incredible and powerful. Nothing in this world would exist but for language, including the software you are using right now. In a situation where thousands of people are reading what you have written, to not pay attention to spelling and grammer is therefore somewhat of a tragedy.
More importantly, however, is that spelling and grammer is a matter of respect.
In that vein, constistently bad spelling and grammer is insulting. You know thousands of people are going to read it, you know they would like to be able to read something written well, but you don't take the 20 seconds to check for errors? It says you dont care about the readers. It says you cant be bothered to make it perfect for us. You are going to put it up as fast as possible and get it over with. You dont respect the reader, and this is an insult.
In addition, bad spelling and grammer shows a lack of self-respect. You cant be bothered to perfect that art which you purport to undertake? Why even bother in the first place then? Oh, right, you are getting paid. Not taking that time says to me that you have no respect for what you are doing and for the work you are completing. Therein lies the tragedy.
It would nice to see an RIAA lawyer disbarred and jailed.
So your position is that simply because they are RIAA lawyers, lets disbar them and put them in jail... even if they didnt do anything "wrong". God man, this is the 21st century. Get educated. Its the RIAA that is suing, not the lawyers. The lawyer's are just doing their job as EMPL0YEES of the RIAA.
If a lawyer does something wrong like perjury, yes, we punish them. But we dont punish them for getting employed by an organization that we dont agree with. That is arcane and downright ignorant.
Not a board meeting. He'd be nothing more than a shareholder, and shareholders rarely get to actually do much at shareholder meetings other than *possibly* ask one question.
Though given this is Jack Thompson there's a good chance they won't let him speak at all.
This is wrong. There are laws that dictate rules for shareholders. For those that dont know here is a summary:
I will assume that the corporation is incorporated in Delaware. Why? Because the vast majority of corporations in the United States are incorporated in Delaware. Why? Because Delware has the most advanced Business Corporations Act in the world, and 80% of the state income comes from incorporating businesses.
Shareholders have rights. They should! They are investors. If the company fails, they lose their money. The corporation therefore owes them a duty. One of their rights is to vote for the board. Another is to submit proposals for the consideration by the board, or to be voted on by the shareholders. The corporation has to pay for the circulation of these proposals. If they fail to circulate a proposaal they can be sued for oppressing the shareholder. Shareholders also get an annual general meeting (AGM). At the AGM, any shareholder can speak on a topic of his or her choice. The corporation itself does not "let" anyone speak - if someone wants to speak, they get to for an alloted time. If they are not allowed, the corporation, again, can be sued for oppression of the shareholder.
The purchase of shares simply for the opportunity to speak occurs all the time. Environmental organizations are well known for doing this: they buy one share, and then speak at the AGM on the company's overseas practices, for example. There is a caveat to the shareholder intiated votes and proposals though : they must be business related. These groups have tried to sue companies for not circulating their proposals1, and they have failed because they are not entitled to circulate non-business matter related items.
That is all I have time to write for now. Any more questions I will be glad to answer.
You are correct, it is. Some governments actually care about the effects of advertising on their population. The ones that don't are sad. And the argument that says, "oh well we dont know that advertising has any adverse effects, I certainly dont feel any" is crap. The argument is wrong on two counts. First, we had the same approach to the natural environment many years back and look what has happened. Do we want to take the same road regarding our mental environments? I think precaution is best. Second, the ill effects of advertising have been proven through research, and the insideous aspects of it can be seen through the mission statements of some of the bigger firms, for example one firm refered to itself as "architects of the mind", i.e. they want to shape the population's attitudes through advertising. Attitude forming is a well researched technique that occurs on the regular in America.
Right now the number of people who browse the Web from a PC greatly outweighs the number of people who do so from a phone/PDA.
Oh, so because thats what is happening RIGHT NOW, its better not to think about the future. And why would google be interest in the future anyways!??!?!
You present the most closed minded view of the mobile computing market possible.
Guess what? google isnt interested in earning cool points. IT IS GOOGLE. THEY ARE BEYOND COOL. Its GOOGLE for God's sake.
Opera is corning the mobile browser market and this is a very smart investment for Google, a FORWARD thinking company.
Thanks for long windedly confirming what I said, i.e. that X-rated films were generally not porn but instead had the association because of the XXX mark.
Whether XXX is a real rating doesnt matter. Whether XXX is a real rating doesnt matter. Whether XXX is a real rating doesnt matter. That sink in yet? Its the association that consumer make that matters. This is what advet
Your comment assumes that finding one way to solidify or increase the revenue stream is sufficient but in fact the media companies are satisfied only when they exhaust all possible such schemes.
Next time you watch a show, observe how quickly the show switches into commercials - this is done to not allow your brain to realize that a switch has been made, and there is an adjustment period where you are lulled into watching the commercial. They have done a lot of psychological research on this, and thats why that first commercial sells for a lot more money than the others. The storylines of these shows attempt to lull you into complacency, and commercials are used as an actual plot development device to keep those of you that are still concious around.
Think about it - how unnatural is it for your brain to be deeply and meaningfully engaged in something, and then forcefully and suddenly change the focal point of interest? This is something that television advertising has tried to capitalize on immensely, and is the reason why the vast majority of viewers will sit through commercials. This is not something these companies are going to give up.
What people have to keep in mind is that the entire structure of television is designed for commercials. This includes the programming, how it is arranged, how the plot procedes, etc. etc. Television used to have a commercial free format back in the 20s-40s, and big media took a look at it and found they were not "milking" the resource properly. So they designed it the way we have it today.
Slashdot Mirror
Haha you are right, I shouldn't have made the World War 2 reference, though since its not actually a reference to Hitler I didnt actually break the rule!! =)
I agree with you that organizations do have a degree of responsibility for the behavior of their members, however I think this news peice was a little different because it almost deceptively left out the fact that this was something perpetrated by individuals, not "the government". Its presenting the actions of an individual as if they were the actions of the entire organization, without even acknowledging the role of the individual. Thats what I find reprehensible.
From the article:
Thanks to the readers whose comments helped inform this discussion, especially those quoted above
"Discussion"? More like, Disgusting, because thats what I feel when I see how Slashdot has fallen for this TROLL.
I can't believe the "news" team is propagating this OBVIOUS troll to this level.
Every time I return to this site I am presented with even stronger signs of Slashdot's growing worthlessness.
To be perfectly honest, the claim is so bogus and unbelievable, and the effects of it on Microsoft trust so strong, I am ready to cry foul play.
This is simply wild speculation based on unconfirmed and unreliable sources. Its absolute nonsense.
This is nothing more than a TROLL on a grand scale, and you are all guilty of feeding it.
Common sense would not allow any intelligent person to believe this even for a second.
I can tell you without a doubt that if Microsoft decided to shut down the software that I paid for and installed, there would be a large, lucrative class action lawsuit filed against them by individuals and many, many lawsuits filed by the corporations that would lose thousands upon thousands of dollars per day as a result of this. I just hope my firm could get a peice of that delicious and expensive pie.
Not only that, but in a market with emerging OS alternatives, why in the world would Microsoft risk a massive exodus from their software.
This is utter nonsense. Shame on you all.
If government employees are doing something on government time in the process of doing their job, surely the government is doing that thing? (seeing as a government is, ultimately, just a group of people)
The article is alarmist - but that is a better for the press to be too alarmist than to be insufficently dilligent.
What?? This article is not alarmist, it is WRONG.
Just because we are members of a group of people (as you said) does not mean we lose our individuality. We retain our ability to make decisions and act for ourselves independently of the group. This is something we learned during World War Two. It is the reason we no longer trust racist assumptions. It is the justification behind the end of bigotry.
I actually find what you said to be offensive.
P.S., This news peice is total garbage - incorrect citations based on false news. This website has gone way downhill.
The beta 2 Vista release is actually getting pretty good reviews so far. Check out this guy http://vistabetablogger.blogspot.com/ he seems to like it so far, albeit it looks like he hasn't seen very much.
SG
For all those that think that the microsoft blogs are noticably pro-microsoft, there are a lot of "normal" people that are blogging on Vista as well now that the beta 2 has been released... Like this guy, http://vistabetablogger.blogspot.com/
Some people seem are having good reactions to the intial beta 2 release.
SG
This is the type of article that I hate. It is pure scare tactics in a not even veiled attempt to push a political agenda for big pharmacheutical companies - be afriad! Resistent bacteria are on the rise! We need leglistation that makes it easier for big pharm to make money!
Heres the catch 22 - there are bugs resistent to the drugs we currently have because of overuse of those drugs, so what we need is more new drugs to combat these? obviously they just become resistent to these drugs as well! Therefore the answer is definately not legislation to encourage more drugs, as the article would suggest, but rather it is likely better and more cautious use of drugs and the encouragement of building resistances.
Politically motivated corporatate garbage, thats what this article is.
Hahahahaa omg that was so good.
A person who dies rich is as dead as anyone else.
"All my possessions for a moment of time." - Elizabeth I, Queen of England (1533-1603)
This story reminded me of Internet2, something that has largely been forgotten about in the mainstream.
Check it out - they are achieving speeds of 167,400 terabit-meters per second!
Hmm, I guess no one really likes long-winded, half-arsed ramblings.
If this is the warmest in so many years, then back then it was hotter that what we have now.
It never ceases to amaze me how people will make snap judgements based on what they think is "logic" when they havent even bothered to read the facts.
Go back, read the article, and find out that "the warmest century in 1200 years" =/= "1200 years ago it was warmer"
Definitions are interesting, however it is the etymology of the word that will explain to the parent why his anger at the use of "gift" as a verb is a mistake.
Gift is a word that is originally derived from the ancient German word geban - which, incidently, is a verb. The word grew to be a noun, but kept its verb meaning as well.
The word gift has been used for a long time now as a verb in legal proceedings. When a person bequeths objects to people in a will, it generally is referred to as gifting. That meaning of the word has recently raised its head in major media where it seems to be a "new" use of the word, when actually it is only new to you.
Udi Manber is definately a geek.
Hi, my name is The Word Anthropomorphic, meaning the attribution of human characteristics to inanimate objects, animals or natural phenomena. Please spell me correctly, and note that Anthropomorphization is not a word.
"BMW's site is still accessable, try this: Google Query: BMW. See, BMW's site is still acceptable from Deutschland. Now, quit whining."
... In the first 250 (!) search results BMW.de still does not appear. I scrolled past BMW USA, BMW Canada.. even BMW korea! But no BMW.de.
Tell me, exactly where on that page do you see BMW.de?
I had some time to kill so I went through the results a bit
So, in the future, before you tell people to "stop whining", I suggest you make sure you aren't completely and utterly wrong.
You are right, mail in rebates are definately a tactic that companies like Best Buy use to get people in the door, but there is another reason to use mail in rebates that most people probably dont realize.
When you deal with mass quantities of sales like Best Buy does, a lot of money flows in and out the doors. Keeping the money in the door for as long as possible before it has to flow back out allows for the corporation to maximize its use of the money while it has it.
If it takes a minimum of, say, 40 days to process a mail in rebate, thats about 30 days that Best Buy gets to hang on to your money. More correctly though, thats 30 days that it gets to USE your money. With the massive amounts of small purchases that come in, this really adds up, and the interest obtained from holding that money for those 30 days is a valuable source of income for Best Buy. Further to this, when you get a large cash float income for reinvestment like Best Buy can obtain through this process, the interest payments and investment returns go way, way up. I can gaurentee you that this is a revenue stream that Best Buy tries to maximize.
Don't want to pay your electric company? Invest in solar panels, a diesel or lp gas generator, thermocouples or whatever it takes.
A point that is heard on this and other message boards quite frequently is that today, the only true power, the only true vote, comes in the form of a dollar bill. You do reenforce the notion that dollars are all that counts, which is essentially WHY we are at the mercy of a unilateral power, the so called corporate "dictatorships".
Solar panels and gas generators are notoriously inefficient, and do I need to mention the large initial capital investment that is required? Money is essentially the "army" that keeps large corporate "dictatorships" in power. By the way, if you are running a gas powered generator you are simply playing into the hands of a different corporation.
Worth noting - if you question the stranglehold of these utility companies, see PG&E and the toxic pollution scandels in California (easiest way is to watch the movie "Erin Brokovich", but there is a lot of scholarly information on it). This is a perfect example of a corporation unilaterally submitting the population to atrocities in their quest for greater profits.
The question you ask is, why should we care? Whats the big deal anyways?
Language is critical to our world, and careful attention to its components - spelling and grammer - is not something that we should just "get over", as you would suggest.
Language is a gift. It is one of the greatest gifts that humankind has. To use a cliche, it seperates us from the animals. The complexity and versatility of our language is incredible and powerful. Nothing in this world would exist but for language, including the software you are using right now. In a situation where thousands of people are reading what you have written, to not pay attention to spelling and grammer is therefore somewhat of a tragedy.
More importantly, however, is that spelling and grammer is a matter of respect.
In that vein, constistently bad spelling and grammer is insulting. You know thousands of people are going to read it, you know they would like to be able to read something written well, but you don't take the 20 seconds to check for errors? It says you dont care about the readers. It says you cant be bothered to make it perfect for us. You are going to put it up as fast as possible and get it over with. You dont respect the reader, and this is an insult.
In addition, bad spelling and grammer shows a lack of self-respect. You cant be bothered to perfect that art which you purport to undertake? Why even bother in the first place then? Oh, right, you are getting paid. Not taking that time says to me that you have no respect for what you are doing and for the work you are completing. Therein lies the tragedy.
It would nice to see an RIAA lawyer disbarred and jailed.
So your position is that simply because they are RIAA lawyers, lets disbar them and put them in jail... even if they didnt do anything "wrong". God man, this is the 21st century. Get educated. Its the RIAA that is suing, not the lawyers. The lawyer's are just doing their job as EMPL0YEES of the RIAA.
If a lawyer does something wrong like perjury, yes, we punish them. But we dont punish them for getting employed by an organization that we dont agree with. That is arcane and downright ignorant.
Not a board meeting. He'd be nothing more than a shareholder, and shareholders rarely get to actually do much at shareholder meetings other than *possibly* ask one question.
Though given this is Jack Thompson there's a good chance they won't let him speak at all.
This is wrong. There are laws that dictate rules for shareholders. For those that dont know here is a summary:
I will assume that the corporation is incorporated in Delaware. Why? Because the vast majority of corporations in the United States are incorporated in Delaware. Why? Because Delware has the most advanced Business Corporations Act in the world, and 80% of the state income comes from incorporating businesses.
Shareholders have rights. They should! They are investors. If the company fails, they lose their money. The corporation therefore owes them a duty. One of their rights is to vote for the board. Another is to submit proposals for the consideration by the board, or to be voted on by the shareholders. The corporation has to pay for the circulation of these proposals. If they fail to circulate a proposaal they can be sued for oppressing the shareholder. Shareholders also get an annual general meeting (AGM). At the AGM, any shareholder can speak on a topic of his or her choice. The corporation itself does not "let" anyone speak - if someone wants to speak, they get to for an alloted time. If they are not allowed, the corporation, again, can be sued for oppression of the shareholder.
The purchase of shares simply for the opportunity to speak occurs all the time. Environmental organizations are well known for doing this: they buy one share, and then speak at the AGM on the company's overseas practices, for example. There is a caveat to the shareholder intiated votes and proposals though : they must be business related. These groups have tried to sue companies for not circulating their proposals1, and they have failed because they are not entitled to circulate non-business matter related items.
That is all I have time to write for now. Any more questions I will be glad to answer.
You are correct, it is. Some governments actually care about the effects of advertising on their population. The ones that don't are sad. And the argument that says, "oh well we dont know that advertising has any adverse effects, I certainly dont feel any" is crap. The argument is wrong on two counts. First, we had the same approach to the natural environment many years back and look what has happened. Do we want to take the same road regarding our mental environments? I think precaution is best. Second, the ill effects of advertising have been proven through research, and the insideous aspects of it can be seen through the mission statements of some of the bigger firms, for example one firm refered to itself as "architects of the mind", i.e. they want to shape the population's attitudes through advertising. Attitude forming is a well researched technique that occurs on the regular in America.
Right now the number of people who browse the Web from a PC greatly outweighs the number of people who do so from a phone/PDA.
Oh, so because thats what is happening RIGHT NOW, its better not to think about the future. And why would google be interest in the future anyways!??!?!
You present the most closed minded view of the mobile computing market possible.
Guess what? google isnt interested in earning cool points. IT IS GOOGLE. THEY ARE BEYOND COOL. Its GOOGLE for God's sake.
Opera is corning the mobile browser market and this is a very smart investment for Google, a FORWARD thinking company.
Thanks for long windedly confirming what I said, i.e. that X-rated films were generally not porn but instead had the association because of the XXX mark.
Whether XXX is a real rating doesnt matter. Whether XXX is a real rating doesnt matter. Whether XXX is a real rating doesnt matter. That sink in yet? Its the association that consumer make that matters. This is what advet
Your comment assumes that finding one way to solidify or increase the revenue stream is sufficient but in fact the media companies are satisfied only when they exhaust all possible such schemes.
Next time you watch a show, observe how quickly the show switches into commercials - this is done to not allow your brain to realize that a switch has been made, and there is an adjustment period where you are lulled into watching the commercial. They have done a lot of psychological research on this, and thats why that first commercial sells for a lot more money than the others. The storylines of these shows attempt to lull you into complacency, and commercials are used as an actual plot development device to keep those of you that are still concious around.
Think about it - how unnatural is it for your brain to be deeply and meaningfully engaged in something, and then forcefully and suddenly change the focal point of interest? This is something that television advertising has tried to capitalize on immensely, and is the reason why the vast majority of viewers will sit through commercials. This is not something these companies are going to give up.
What people have to keep in mind is that the entire structure of television is designed for commercials. This includes the programming, how it is arranged, how the plot procedes, etc. etc. Television used to have a commercial free format back in the 20s-40s, and big media took a look at it and found they were not "milking" the resource properly. So they designed it
the way we have it today.