As ICANN pointed out: "The overwhelming number of registrations produced significant logistical and financial problems for a system that was established and intended to deal with fewer than 10,000 registrations."
Given that ICANN received more than 30 times the number of expected membership signups - I think they did pretty well all in all in attempting to handle 158,000 new users.
I also support their decision to proceed with the elections on schedule, while continuing to evaluate the process (and the whole at-large idea).
The At-Large signup period is now over (July 31) but so long as the interest levels for the At-large program are there, and so long as ICANN gets a sense that this experiment is not just a huge waste of resources and money, it looks like they will reopen membership on an annual basis.
So, if you have an active membership -> go vote! Participate! Let's show ICANN that the At-large program has support!
TD VISA here in Canada recently had to re-issue a percentage of their cards due to credit card fraud.
I know many people (at least 2 dozen) who've had 100's of dollars nailed onto their account - Luckily - in most cases the cc company swallowed the loss. However, they do want to know about "online" use. As AbbyNormal pointed out, most multi-million/billion dollar companies don't like to sit by and watch themselves lose money - that includes missed opportunities from not allowing online use.
Just because cc companies have online services doesn't mean they've never had issues with their databases...
Sheesh.
Furthermore, when it gets to giving out your bank account number, banks are notoriously unsympathetic (here in Canada) if you lose money as a result - unless it is completely bank sanctioned.
So, I wouldn't give PayPal my bank account # either (assuming they ever expand beyond the US) unless my bank gave me the okay.
Furthermore, StarCraft is more than just the traditional game. Ever played the bunker command map, for instance?
In fact, many of the use map settings maps are very similar in concept to "classic" game play ideas. Heck, you could implement PacMan under StarCraft if you wanted to without too much effort - but you couldn't implement StarCraft under PacMan without doing some serious coding;-)
Re:Many "Microsoft" games were not written by MSFT
on
The Myth Of The Borg
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· Score: 1
The anonymous commentator I was replying to was saying that they were worried that the MSFT takeover of a games company meant boring game production.
I was just pointing out that there are some good games labelled Microsoft. Sure, tons of their stuff is produced by other companies - but MSFT (usually) has the good sense not to make the game horrible prior to releasing the game as Microsoft.
Re:My $0.02 from my talks with pals who work at MS
on
The Myth Of The Borg
·
· Score: 1
Anon Coward wrote: "There are tons of great games available for Windows. Curiously, Microsoft is not a dominant games house. I'm worried that their recent acquisition of a game company will eventually mean Solitaire or Minesweeper type (i.e., boring) games"
Just had to point out that there are actually some good Microsoft games - not just great games for Windows. Midtown Madness comes to mind (now if only there were more maps other than Chicago available here...
Having the MS logo on a game doesn't automatically make it bad...
The really cool thing about the size of the current writing area is that it is just big enough for a single letter.
So you write over and over and over again in the same area.
If you are able to get the hang of the writing (I have no difficulty here - 30 wpm adjusted, but I know some people give up because it's "different"), then you don't need to look at the screen very often.
UNLIKE a piece of paper, you can actually write stuff down without looking at the paper. Touch writing, in fact. You can maintain eye contact in a meeting, text you may be copying or whatever. A piece of paper (or anything bigger in fact) requires you to travel continuously from side to side.
"Many Napster users actually buy the CD's they pirate"
Although the above is often cited as a justification for using (and pirating) music (along with: many users are exposed to new bands and then go see them in concert) I'm not so sure about this!
I mean, you hear it a lot (I believe Napster is even using it as a defense). And CD sales are up. But the increased CD sales are not to new customers who would not have otherwise bought a CD.
And although I know a lot of Napster users - I don't know ANYONE who went out and bought a new CD as a RESULT of using Napster, nor who went to a concert for that matter. And on the flip side, I do know a ton of people who have stopped buying CDs because it is available for "free" on Napster...
So what gives? I mean, it all sounds great in theory - but you know - in practice - I also think MPAA has a point.
No one else has mentioned these folks - but particularly for any North American companies they are very good. They've been around 5 or 6 years, the charge on your credit card appears as: Company Name @ internetsecure. Reasonable rates (which are actually improving), gives you the ability to accept *multiple* cc's without actually having to go out yourself and get a whole bunch of "real" merchant accounts. But - if you do have a previous merchant account, you can use that number instead. InternetSecure also lets you link a custom cgi from your site to theirs for smooth shopping. And it will call a cgi of yours once the shopper completes the transaction, if desired. They also have "special" software that screens for unusual transaction patterns in order to avoid charges that will be "charged back" to you by the user.
Slashdot Mirror
As ICANN pointed out: "The overwhelming number of registrations produced significant logistical and financial problems for a system that was established and intended to deal with fewer than 10,000 registrations."
Given that ICANN received more than 30 times the number of expected membership signups - I think they did pretty well all in all in attempting to handle 158,000 new users.
I also support their decision to proceed with the elections on schedule, while continuing to evaluate the process (and the whole at-large idea).
The At-Large signup period is now over (July 31) but so long as the interest levels for the At-large program are there, and so long as ICANN gets a sense that this experiment is not just a huge waste of resources and money, it looks like they will reopen membership on an annual basis.
So, if you have an active membership -> go vote! Participate! Let's show ICANN that the At-large program has support!
But really, who cares anyway? The prices for the items discussed are all significantly below list price even at the highest of the random prices.
Excuse me?
TD VISA here in Canada recently had to re-issue a percentage of their cards due to credit card fraud.
I know many people (at least 2 dozen) who've had 100's of dollars nailed onto their account - Luckily - in most cases the cc company swallowed the loss. However, they do want to know about "online" use. As AbbyNormal pointed out, most multi-million/billion dollar companies don't like to sit by and watch themselves lose money - that includes missed opportunities from not allowing online use.
Just because cc companies have online services doesn't mean they've never had issues with their databases...
Sheesh.
Furthermore, when it gets to giving out your bank account number, banks are notoriously unsympathetic (here in Canada) if you lose money as a result - unless it is completely bank sanctioned.
So, I wouldn't give PayPal my bank account # either (assuming they ever expand beyond the US) unless my bank gave me the okay.
Furthermore, StarCraft is more than just the traditional game. Ever played the bunker command map, for instance?
In fact, many of the use map settings maps are very similar in concept to "classic" game play ideas. Heck, you could implement PacMan under StarCraft if you wanted to without too much effort - but you couldn't implement StarCraft under PacMan without doing some serious coding ;-)
The anonymous commentator I was replying to was saying that they were worried that the MSFT takeover of a games company meant boring game production.
I was just pointing out that there are some good games labelled Microsoft. Sure, tons of their stuff is produced by other companies - but MSFT (usually) has the good sense not to make the game horrible prior to releasing the game as Microsoft.
Anon Coward wrote: "There are tons of great games available for Windows. Curiously, Microsoft is not a dominant games house. I'm worried that their recent acquisition of a game company will eventually mean Solitaire or Minesweeper type (i.e., boring) games"
Just had to point out that there are actually some good Microsoft games - not just great games for Windows. Midtown Madness comes to mind (now if only there were more maps other than Chicago available here...
Having the MS logo on a game doesn't automatically make it bad...
The really cool thing about the size of the current writing area is that it is just big enough for a single letter.
So you write over and over and over again in the same area.
If you are able to get the hang of the writing (I have no difficulty here - 30 wpm adjusted, but I know some people give up because it's "different"), then you don't need to look at the screen very often.
UNLIKE a piece of paper, you can actually write stuff down without looking at the paper. Touch writing, in fact. You can maintain eye contact in a meeting, text you may be copying or whatever. A piece of paper (or anything bigger in fact) requires you to travel continuously from side to side.
"Many Napster users actually buy the CD's they pirate"
Although the above is often cited as a justification for using (and pirating) music (along with: many users are exposed to new bands and then go see them in concert) I'm not so sure about this!
I mean, you hear it a lot (I believe Napster is even using it as a defense). And CD sales are up. But the increased CD sales are not to new customers who would not have otherwise bought a CD.
And although I know a lot of Napster users - I don't know ANYONE who went out and bought a new CD as a RESULT of using Napster, nor who went to a concert for that matter. And on the flip side, I do know a ton of people who have stopped buying CDs because it is available for "free" on Napster...
So what gives? I mean, it all sounds great in theory - but you know - in practice - I also think MPAA has a point.
No one else has mentioned these folks - but particularly for any North American companies they are very good. They've been around 5 or 6 years, the charge on your credit card appears as: Company Name @ internetsecure. Reasonable rates (which are actually improving), gives you the ability to accept *multiple* cc's without actually having to go out yourself and get a whole bunch of "real" merchant accounts. But - if you do have a previous merchant account, you can use that number instead. InternetSecure also lets you link a custom cgi from your site to theirs for smooth shopping. And it will call a cgi of yours once the shopper completes the transaction, if desired. They also have "special" software that screens for unusual transaction patterns in order to avoid charges that will be "charged back" to you by the user.