After I explained that I had already been approached, she told me that I should probably get a memory card and xbox live, and that the console only came with one controller.
They want you to get these items before you have a chance to shop around. I bought a router. They suggested Cat 5 cables to connect it. I asked if they had a good price on cables. They really had good prices on the cables - for them! A 6 foot cable was about $12. I said "no thanks, I have enough cables at home" and proceded to a local geek shop and picked up the cables for $2 for 3 foot and $3 for 7 foot instead.
Shameless plug - Prices are here; http://www.enuinc.com/
I just discovered this by looking at the Amazon site....
In stock soon. Order now to get in line. First come, first served.
It may be close, but it still does not meet the critera I mentioned of "in stock". It's still vaporware until it ships.
It may turn into vaporware if they don't get enough pre-orders.
Back to my original post. Anybody know of a Digital TV that is in stock to replace a 20 - 25 inch analog set? Please reply to my original grandparant post.
Wow. After several years of trolling for someone to mention a set, there is realy a set now. It's still a little big for a motorhome or dorm room and it's about 4X the price of the set it's to replace. At least the sets are starting to appear on the market. Are there any other small sets on the market? Is my choice limited to one set that's too big and costs too much? I don't need HDTV, just DTV for the evening news.
The player has no user control unless the content provider provides it.
If the player simply had a always there set of user controls including close, stop, rewind, etc, then I might consider flash.
Hitting Yahoo or other site and have some flash thing jump out of it's sandbox and spill all over the content I'm trying to read with absolutely way to tell it to stop is unacceptable. It's as welcome as the 3 year old that jumps up in front of the TV everytime there is about to be a touchdown just to get your attention. Sorry, but get that kid outta here during the game. I told flash to stop the only way left, it's removal. Until they fix the end user player, it's staying off. Are you old enough to remeber ANSI BBS'es? Remember the hated blink tag? Flash can be like a blink tag on steroids. User abuse by advertisers is the problem.
There are NO RESTRICTIONS ON ANALOG OUTPUT in the broadcast flag ruling. There are restrictions on digital outputs only. You will still be able to use your analog outputs to record signals at the full resolution possible.
The important part missed by some readers is Flagged content must be output only to "protected outputs"
Some readers skipped the important bit to read on that sometimes a degraded output is there, but it is possible that the analog output is simply shut off with use of the flag. The VCR does not get a degraded signal, it gets NOTHING.
What stops you from intercepting the video/audio over the RCA or Coaxial cables, just like people do now with their VCRs?
The same thing that keeps you from hooking up the sub15 D connector from your PC to the monitor and hooking up a VCR. Analog NTSC TV over the air is going away, or have you missed the Digital TV FCC changes?
Look up DTV (Not Disney TV, but Digital Television) and FCC.
Free market economics and artifical controls when mixed produce unexpected results.
A little history.. There was a government that wanted to raise some revenue. They put a tax on luxery items. The rich can afford it. They budgeted spending the income on their favorite projects. The rich stopped buying yachts from that country. The yacht makers failed as a business.
Shift to today.. Allow content users to change the rules regarding the over the air broadcasts. Good programming migrates to subscription instead of advertiser supported. Cheap to produce content fills the void. (TV today)
Shift to tomorrow.. Allow content producers to protect their content over the air. All content becomes encrypted. Users don't buy many of the much more expensive sets. Advertisers are not reaching the audiance and stop funding content. Over the air broadcasters fold due to lack of viewership or move to web based to increase viewership.
Sorry for the doom and gloom, but I don't see much of a future for over the air programming unless they start releasing good content to attract viewers to attract advertisers. Content producers are simply putting on too many restrictions on content trying to squeeze the last buck out of content. It has strangled the industry.
How many people actualy watch over the air programming? Most over the air programming has deterioated to the least common denominator and saturated with advertising to the point little value is left. I don't even bother with TV any more unless there is someting big on the news that gives it 24 hour coverage such as 9/11 in New York. What good is restriction free if it's mostly infomercials? The Internet has made an end run past the broadcasters. It's truly delivered on the promise of video on demand that network operators have hinted at. Those media PHB's that wanted to protect their content have simply not put it on over the air network TV. That is why Satelite TV and Cable has such a large market penetration. Stuff that used to be on the networks is on pay TV. Free TV is mostly dead. That is why nobody is making true Digital Televisions. Nobody is spending the bucks on a TV to replace their 20 - 25 inch TV. DTV (the true television that includes a digital tuner) is simply not being sold because nobody is willing to pay that much for a set to watch over the air TV. When analog goes away, the rest of us will get the news off the Internet and feed DTV ready monitors from the digital outputs from the cable or satelite box. We are definately not buying digital TV's that can pick up the network 6:00 new off the air.
If you think I'm off base, as I have in the past, and am doing again now, please list a chain store that has a small digital television set in stock. Requirements are it must replace a 20 to 25 inch set (motorhome, mobile home, mom's basement, apartment, & dorm room, dwellers) which includes built in (not DTV ready) DTV tuner. I'm looking for a plug in a UHF yagi antenna and a power cord and get DTV broadcasts. As an added bonus, it shouldn't cost more than double the analog set it replaces. Nobody's spending tons of money to watch over the air broadcasting. There is no value.
Please reply to this post with price, make and model of set, and name of chain carying the DTV in stock. NTSC tuners and home theatre don't count.
I have to laugh at the name of the website. Software-blowouts dot com. They are charging more for the blow out priced software than I paid for mine new. (PC Heidens, Hillsboro, OR July 21 1997) bought my copy of Lables Unlimited localy for $12.00 without any S&H cost. Maybe you have to order online now after checking my purchase date, it might be no longer on your local retailer's shelf.
This is probably off topic, but the topic is doing labels on a Non-Windows platform, so I don't need to know where to buy another copy.;-)
What if the power company were to send tinfoil hats to local ARRL members? Wouldn't that solve the problem?
Yep, it'll solve the problem. It works just the same as cutting your phone line, or cable to filter porn spam from your e-mail. It's 100% effective. The false positive rate is also 100% just as the intended communications link is now down.
It's amazing to think that there are actually people who still believe this stuff... and it still continues on...amazing.. well atleast amusing to say the least.
A lot of people were skeptical. However since it cost nothing to try it.... Better to have tried it becasue if in the remote chance it was true, you wouldn't want to be the one who missed the easy money. That's why it was forwarded so much. If they truly believed it, there would have been many more people lined up in Redmond to collect.
Many people didn't set their modems with appropriate timeout space before and after +++,
In some BBS programs, you could change the escape charactor and change it in the modem by an S register. Changing the +++ to ^V^V^V (control V in place of +) disabled a lot of remote pranks. I got the idea from the Motorola Alphamate paging protocol my text paging terminal software used. In this case security via obscurity worked for me. Users of the BBS just knew that a remote +++ did nothing.
Wow, I'm impressed. The older Prius has a 1.5 liter engine with about 40KW of electric. The sports car uses a 3.3 liter engine with 300KW capacity. Wow. That's not bad for technology to use a 3.3 liter engine that can out run a Ford Mustang 5.0 Liter car.
Wow, I get better millage and have AC, heat, protection from the rain, seatbelts, air bags, traction control, sound system, NAV system, and I can take 3 passangers and luggage for a weekend. I just don't get the kick in the pants when I open the throttle. At current gas prices, I'll keep the hybrid.
I strongly suggest test driving one before buying it, to make sure you like it.
My wife is tech phobic. She has no interest in most of my expensive toys. When I got my used hybrid, it came with the NAV system. All my wife thought is great another driver distraction to cause an accident.
Now that she learned it is simple to use (enter an address, intersection, or point of interest), she borrows my car anytime she needs to go someplace unfamiliar. Having the car prompt by voice the exit is in two miles on the right is less of a distraction than going down the freeway while looking for the exit needed. Is it the next one or is it still a few miles away, or did I already pass the Halsey street exit? With the nav the uncertain driving and trying to make U turns is eliminated as well as saving gas simply by not getting lost. In bad traffic, taking the nearest exit for a detour and having the routing automaticaly update is less of a distraction than trying to find a detour in an unfamiliar neighborhood. Driving fewer miles by not being lost doesn't change the EPA MPG rating, but it does cut down the total miles driven.
Something I've noticed (I drive an 02 Prius) is the hybrids get a lot of flack because driving habbits and AC use can cut 30% off the millage. A big engined car, the AC is a lower percentage of the consumption but is still generaly more gallons per hour to run the AC. A 30% drop in millage in a 15 MPG car is a drop of only 4.5 MPG. A 30% drop in a 50 MPG car is 15 MPG which gets more attention even though it's still a 30% drop. If your 15 MPG car started getting 10.5 MPG, you would notice, but not as much as having a 50 MPG car get 35 MPG.
(in cold weather I've gotten 35MPG in the 02 Prius in some short trips)
In cold weather the Prius got between 35-40. Now that the weather is nice, I've been getting 48-52 for my commute. My wife who does more short trips and sits at lights with the AC on gets quite a bit less. The first 5 minutes in the Prius is very poor (about 25) as it is agressive in maintaining the engine coolant temprature for the low emissions. If it was designed for millage instead of emissions, it could do a lot better. Where the car does a fantastic job is in stop and crawl driving if you are not using the AC. It does that with the engine off 90% of the time. Conventional cars don't fare nearly as well as you are stopped too short to shut off the engine and sitting idling is zero MPG. An extra bonus is the car doesn't overheat in those conditions like my old car did. A warm day and stop and crawl traffic would usualy result in some loss of coolant.
That's great. I've been using an inexpensive program that's called Labels Unlimited 2 that did a great job handeling graphics, bar codes, database, and serial number functions. That's one less reason to keep a Win box. Now if only they can get National Geographic Back Roads Explorer and the state series TOPO maps ported...
A better quote to explain chapter 2 from the article mentioned in my other post;
The software giant, probably through the auspices of the alliance, demanded that the school district perform an audit to account for each and every copy of Microsoft software. Either proof of purchase or compensation for pirated copies was sought. The school district, however, barely had enough money to operate, much less to perform an expensive audit, and the negative publicity finally forced Microsoft to reconsider its demands. But aggressive actions often have unintended consequences. In this case, several programmers from the community approached Barnhart and offered to replace all Microsoft products with Linux and other open source software. Coincidentally, low-cost open source software had already been embraced by several other school districts likewise threatened with audits.
The BSA and MS didn't expect that response. They could have won the audit once, but not twice. They understood they had only one option to keep receiving upgrade fees, and that wasn't by forcing an audit.
They've done this to Philadelphia and Portland Oregon that I know of and probably many other places as well.
Update, you missed chapter 2. They requested the audit. The local news media was informed. The cost of the audit and the burden just to do the audit was calculated (not counting any possiblilty of finding any copyright violations) and the public outcry was heard in Redmond and Nationwide. Geeks in force volunteered to upgrade the entire school district so a repeat audit would be impossible as they would become MS free.
This outcome was unexpected by Redmond. There was no way they could permit a bunch of geeks replace the MS cash cow in the school district. If it were sucessful, other school districts may also want to limit their liablity in the same way now that a template was created and the technology proved cost effective and stable (and mostly virus proof)
Needless to say, the audit was called off because it would have cost Redmont way too much future revenue.
An excelent write up of the threat of Open Source being used to fend off the expensive audit can be found here;
The kicker was the introduction of a bill that basicly was "The idea behind the legislation is a simple one. In a time of budgetary crisis, the bill would require state agencies to consider open source alternatives to proprietary products. And while they would not be compelled to choose open source software, agencies would be required to justify proprietary purchases.
"
MS could have used the BSA to win the battle that year, but would have lost big time in the years following as the changes would be more than just a school district responding to the higher proven TCO of propritory software and it's legal costs. It would have been businesses and government shifting away from high TCO software.
Just to show that I'm not making this up, here is a link I found via Google explaining the copy protection.
http://www.hobbytheater.com/guides/cabling/dvi.p hp
The important text is; DVI offers enhanced copyprotection through HDCP. HDCP is a specification developed by Intel Corporation to protect digital entertainment content across the DVI interface.
This is because Slashdot is a community for people who don't realize that "doing something nobody else does" is worth it to many consumers.
Welcome to the new order of DRM.
Have we forgotten what DVI is? It's Digital Video Initiative. Great, we have a label on a new hot technology, but since the acronim DVI, we have forgotten what it means. It's copy protection and a 2 way encryption handshake. That alone is enough to have me look for another interface for a display. This technology is incompatible with a video splitter for a multi display. Let the buyer beware that this interface is good for only connecting a single monitor to a display card. Forget recording, splitting, or otherwise using a signal from this interface for anything else. Expandability of this technology is zero.
I'm with the FCC on this. Think about it.. Wireless networking isn't the only thing that users of the common space use. Imagine if cell phone and pager use were also prohibited so you had to use the pay phones. How would you be reached? The person to person wireless network that is not monopolized is a good thing. Just like getting bumped off a cell connection happens, it's better than prohibiting cell phones so the monopoly landlord won't experience the stress of some interferance once in a while.
Microsoft releases their fixes free of charge, just like a dealer service recall on an automobile.
I'll probably get flamed for this, but a better example would be not that the system breaks on it's own such as the faulty ignition switch given in the example, (BSOD defect) but both the Honda and the MS OS are favorites for thieves simply because they are both easy to break into and steal. When was the last time your Honda dealer had a recall simply because the car was a popular target for car thieves? The dealer may recommend a third party alarm system the same as MS may recommend one of the well known firewall or anti-virus packages. Many cars now have higher tech security to make them mostly useless to thieves and expensive to make run without the original keys. A lockpick no longer gets joyriders a easy to steal ride in many cars. (My car has no way to even crank it without a transponder key) MS is simply slow in implimenting transponder keys and other security.
Am I off base here, or somewhat on track? Windows wasn't built to be attack proof. That idea is a reality that struck MS that they are no longer in a small town where nobody locks the doors. The system is being attacked by big city crime and they were a little slow preparing for it. It's time those who are exposed to the big city use a system properly fenced and locked instead of the small town the key is under the floor mat security model.
There should be some notice on the disk that playing this disk in a computer (as many of us would do anyway), apart from a standalone disk player, leads to a "less calories" version of the music
It's very descreet, but the absence of the Compact Disk logo is a clue the shiny plastic thing might be something other than a redbook standard Compact Disk worthy of Philips registered trademark.
Ask the clueless guy behind the counter about the absence of the logo. No logo = no sale. If everyone did that, DRM would go away as only real music would sell.
Slashdot Mirror
After I explained that I had already been approached, she told me that I should probably get a memory card and xbox live, and that the console only came with one controller.
They want you to get these items before you have a chance to shop around. I bought a router. They suggested Cat 5 cables to connect it. I asked if they had a good price on cables. They really had good prices on the cables - for them! A 6 foot cable was about $12. I said "no thanks, I have enough cables at home" and proceded to a local geek shop and picked up the cables for $2 for 3 foot and $3 for 7 foot instead.
Shameless plug - Prices are here;
http://www.enuinc.com/
I just discovered this by looking at the Amazon site....
In stock soon. Order now to get in line. First come, first served.
It may be close, but it still does not meet the critera I mentioned of "in stock". It's still vaporware until it ships.
It may turn into vaporware if they don't get enough pre-orders.
Back to my original post.
Anybody know of a Digital TV that is in stock to replace a 20 - 25 inch analog set? Please reply to my original grandparant post.
Zenith C32V37 32" HDTV Integrated TV
Wow. After several years of trolling for someone to mention a set, there is realy a set now. It's still a little big for a motorhome or dorm room and it's about 4X the price of the set it's to replace. At least the sets are starting to appear on the market. Are there any other small sets on the market? Is my choice limited to one set that's too big and costs too much?
I don't need HDTV, just DTV for the evening news.
so what exactly is your problem with flash?
Flash advertising.
The player has no user control unless the content provider provides it.
If the player simply had a always there set of user controls including close, stop, rewind, etc, then I might consider flash.
Hitting Yahoo or other site and have some flash thing jump out of it's sandbox and spill all over the content I'm trying to read with absolutely way to tell it to stop is unacceptable. It's as welcome as the 3 year old that jumps up in front of the TV everytime there is about to be a touchdown just to get your attention. Sorry, but get that kid outta here during the game. I told flash to stop the only way left, it's removal. Until they fix the end user player, it's staying off. Are you old enough to remeber ANSI BBS'es? Remember the hated blink tag? Flash can be like a blink tag on steroids. User abuse by advertisers is the problem.
There are NO RESTRICTIONS ON ANALOG OUTPUT in the broadcast flag ruling. There are restrictions on digital outputs only. You will still be able to use your analog outputs to record signals at the full resolution possible.
The important part missed by some readers is Flagged content must be output only to "protected outputs"
Some readers skipped the important bit to read on that sometimes a degraded output is there, but it is possible that the analog output is simply shut off with use of the flag. The VCR does not get a degraded signal, it gets NOTHING.
What stops you from intercepting the video/audio over the RCA or Coaxial cables, just like people do now with their VCRs?
The same thing that keeps you from hooking up the sub15 D connector from your PC to the monitor and hooking up a VCR. Analog NTSC TV over the air is going away, or have you missed the Digital TV FCC changes?
Look up DTV (Not Disney TV, but Digital Television) and FCC.
Free market economics and artifical controls when mixed produce unexpected results.
A little history.. There was a government that wanted to raise some revenue. They put a tax on luxery items. The rich can afford it. They budgeted spending the income on their favorite projects. The rich stopped buying yachts from that country. The yacht makers failed as a business.
Shift to today.. Allow content users to change the rules regarding the over the air broadcasts. Good programming migrates to subscription instead of advertiser supported. Cheap to produce content fills the void. (TV today)
Shift to tomorrow.. Allow content producers to protect their content over the air. All content becomes encrypted. Users don't buy many of the much more expensive sets. Advertisers are not reaching the audiance and stop funding content. Over the air broadcasters fold due to lack of viewership or move to web based to increase viewership.
Sorry for the doom and gloom, but I don't see much of a future for over the air programming unless they start releasing good content to attract viewers to attract advertisers. Content producers are simply putting on too many restrictions on content trying to squeeze the last buck out of content. It has strangled the industry.
How many people actualy watch over the air programming? Most over the air programming has deterioated to the least common denominator and saturated with advertising to the point little value is left. I don't even bother with TV any more unless there is someting big on the news that gives it 24 hour coverage such as 9/11 in New York. What good is restriction free if it's mostly infomercials? The Internet has made an end run past the broadcasters. It's truly delivered on the promise of video on demand that network operators have hinted at. Those media PHB's that wanted to protect their content have simply not put it on over the air network TV. That is why Satelite TV and Cable has such a large market penetration. Stuff that used to be on the networks is on pay TV. Free TV is mostly dead. That is why nobody is making true Digital Televisions. Nobody is spending the bucks on a TV to replace their 20 - 25 inch TV. DTV (the true television that includes a digital tuner) is simply not being sold because nobody is willing to pay that much for a set to watch over the air TV. When analog goes away, the rest of us will get the news off the Internet and feed DTV ready monitors from the digital outputs from the cable or satelite box. We are definately not buying digital TV's that can pick up the network 6:00 new off the air.
If you think I'm off base, as I have in the past, and am doing again now, please list a chain store that has a small digital television set in stock. Requirements are it must replace a 20 to 25 inch set (motorhome, mobile home, mom's basement, apartment, & dorm room, dwellers) which includes built in (not DTV ready) DTV tuner. I'm looking for a plug in a UHF yagi antenna and a power cord and get DTV broadcasts. As an added bonus, it shouldn't cost more than double the analog set it replaces. Nobody's spending tons of money to watch over the air broadcasting. There is no value.
Please reply to this post with price, make and model of set, and name of chain carying the DTV in stock. NTSC tuners and home theatre don't count.
Get it here for US$13.95
;-)
I have to laugh at the name of the website. Software-blowouts dot com. They are charging more for the blow out priced software than I paid for mine new. (PC Heidens, Hillsboro, OR July 21 1997) bought my copy of Lables Unlimited localy for $12.00 without any S&H cost. Maybe you have to order online now after checking my purchase date, it might be no longer on your local retailer's shelf.
This is probably off topic, but the topic is doing labels on a Non-Windows platform, so I don't need to know where to buy another copy.
What if the power company were to send tinfoil hats to local ARRL members? Wouldn't that solve the problem?
Yep, it'll solve the problem. It works just the same as cutting your phone line, or cable to filter porn spam from your e-mail. It's 100% effective. The false positive rate is also 100% just as the intended communications link is now down.
It's amazing to think that there are actually people who still believe this stuff... and it still continues on...amazing.. well atleast amusing to say the least.
A lot of people were skeptical. However since it cost nothing to try it.... Better to have tried it becasue if in the remote chance it was true, you wouldn't want to be the one who missed the easy money. That's why it was forwarded so much. If they truly believed it, there would have been many more people lined up in Redmond to collect.
Many people didn't set their modems with appropriate timeout space before and after +++,
In some BBS programs, you could change the escape charactor and change it in the modem by an S register. Changing the +++ to ^V^V^V (control V in place of +) disabled a lot of remote pranks. I got the idea from the Motorola Alphamate paging protocol my text paging terminal software used. In this case security via obscurity worked for me. Users of the BBS just knew that a remote +++ did nothing.
Wow, I'm impressed. The older Prius has a 1.5 liter engine with about 40KW of electric. The sports car uses a 3.3 liter engine with 300KW capacity. Wow. That's not bad for technology to use a 3.3 liter engine that can out run a Ford Mustang 5.0 Liter car.
My DL1000 only gets around 30-34MPG
Wow, I get better millage and have AC, heat, protection from the rain, seatbelts, air bags, traction control, sound system, NAV system, and I can take 3 passangers and luggage for a weekend. I just don't get the kick in the pants when I open the throttle. At current gas prices, I'll keep the hybrid.
I strongly suggest test driving one before buying it, to make sure you like it.
My wife is tech phobic. She has no interest in most of my expensive toys. When I got my used hybrid, it came with the NAV system. All my wife thought is great another driver distraction to cause an accident.
Now that she learned it is simple to use (enter an address, intersection, or point of interest), she borrows my car anytime she needs to go someplace unfamiliar. Having the car prompt by voice the exit is in two miles on the right is less of a distraction than going down the freeway while looking for the exit needed. Is it the next one or is it still a few miles away, or did I already pass the Halsey street exit? With the nav the uncertain driving and trying to make U turns is eliminated as well as saving gas simply by not getting lost. In bad traffic, taking the nearest exit for a detour and having the routing automaticaly update is less of a distraction than trying to find a detour in an unfamiliar neighborhood.
Driving fewer miles by not being lost doesn't change the EPA MPG rating, but it does cut down the total miles driven.
Something I've noticed (I drive an 02 Prius) is the hybrids get a lot of flack because driving habbits and AC use can cut 30% off the millage. A big engined car, the AC is a lower percentage of the consumption but is still generaly more gallons per hour to run the AC. A 30% drop in millage in a 15 MPG car is a drop of only 4.5 MPG. A 30% drop in a 50 MPG car is 15 MPG which gets more attention even though it's still a 30% drop. If your 15 MPG car started getting 10.5 MPG, you would notice, but not as much as having a 50 MPG car get 35 MPG.
(in cold weather I've gotten 35MPG in the 02 Prius in some short trips)
In cold weather the Prius got between 35-40. Now that the weather is nice, I've been getting 48-52 for my commute. My wife who does more short trips and sits at lights with the AC on gets quite a bit less. The first 5 minutes in the Prius is very poor (about 25) as it is agressive in maintaining the engine coolant temprature for the low emissions. If it was designed for millage instead of emissions, it could do a lot better. Where the car does a fantastic job is in stop and crawl driving if you are not using the AC. It does that with the engine off 90% of the time. Conventional cars don't fare nearly as well as you are stopped too short to shut off the engine and sitting idling is zero MPG. An extra bonus is the car doesn't overheat in those conditions like my old car did. A warm day and stop and crawl traffic would usualy result in some loss of coolant.
That's great. I've been using an inexpensive program that's called Labels Unlimited 2 that did a great job handeling graphics, bar codes, database, and serial number functions. That's one less reason to keep a Win box. Now if only they can get National Geographic Back Roads Explorer and the state series TOPO maps ported...
A better quote to explain chapter 2 from the article mentioned in my other post;
The software giant, probably through the auspices of the alliance, demanded that the school district perform an audit to account for each and every copy of Microsoft software. Either proof of purchase or compensation for pirated copies was sought. The school district, however, barely had enough money to operate, much less to perform an expensive audit, and the negative publicity finally forced Microsoft to reconsider its demands. But aggressive actions often have unintended consequences. In this case, several programmers from the community approached Barnhart and offered to replace all Microsoft products with Linux and other open source software. Coincidentally, low-cost open source software had already been embraced by several other school districts likewise threatened with audits.
The BSA and MS didn't expect that response. They could have won the audit once, but not twice. They understood they had only one option to keep receiving upgrade fees, and that wasn't by forcing an audit.
They've done this to Philadelphia and Portland Oregon that I know of and probably many other places as well.
r y0 5.html
Update, you missed chapter 2. They requested the audit. The local news media was informed. The cost of the audit and the burden just to do the audit was calculated (not counting any possiblilty of finding any copyright violations) and the public outcry was heard in Redmond and Nationwide. Geeks in force volunteered to upgrade the entire school district so a repeat audit would be impossible as they would become MS free.
This outcome was unexpected by Redmond. There was no way they could permit a bunch of geeks replace the MS cash cow in the school district. If it were sucessful, other school districts may also want to limit their liablity in the same way now that a template was created and the technology proved cost effective and stable (and mostly virus proof)
Needless to say, the audit was called off because it would have cost Redmont way too much future revenue.
An excelent write up of the threat of Open Source being used to fend off the expensive audit can be found here;
http://www.midrangeserver.com/tfh/tfh051903-sto
The kicker was the introduction of a bill that basicly was
"The idea behind the legislation is a simple one. In a time of budgetary crisis, the bill would require state agencies to consider open source alternatives to proprietary products. And while they would not be compelled to choose open source software, agencies would be required to justify proprietary purchases.
"
MS could have used the BSA to win the battle that year, but would have lost big time in the years following as the changes would be more than just a school district responding to the higher proven TCO of propritory software and it's legal costs. It would have been businesses and government shifting away from high TCO software.
Just to show that I'm not making this up, here is a link I found via Google explaining the copy protection.
p hp
http://www.hobbytheater.com/guides/cabling/dvi.
The important text is;
DVI offers enhanced copyprotection through HDCP. HDCP is a specification developed by Intel Corporation to protect digital entertainment content across the DVI interface.
This is because Slashdot is a community for people who don't realize that "doing something nobody else does" is worth it to many consumers.
Welcome to the new order of DRM.
Have we forgotten what DVI is? It's Digital Video Initiative. Great, we have a label on a new hot technology, but since the acronim DVI, we have forgotten what it means. It's copy protection and a 2 way encryption handshake. That alone is enough to have me look for another interface for a display. This technology is incompatible with a video splitter for a multi display. Let the buyer beware that this interface is good for only connecting a single monitor to a display card. Forget recording, splitting, or otherwise using a signal from this interface for anything else. Expandability of this technology is zero.
I'm with the FCC on this. Think about it.. Wireless networking isn't the only thing that users of the common space use. Imagine if cell phone and pager use were also prohibited so you had to use the pay phones. How would you be reached? The person to person wireless network that is not monopolized is a good thing. Just like getting bumped off a cell connection happens, it's better than prohibiting cell phones so the monopoly landlord won't experience the stress of some interferance once in a while.
Microsoft releases their fixes free of charge, just like a dealer service recall on an automobile.
I'll probably get flamed for this, but a better example would be not that the system breaks on it's own such as the faulty ignition switch given in the example, (BSOD defect) but both the Honda and the MS OS are favorites for thieves simply because they are both easy to break into and steal. When was the last time your Honda dealer had a recall simply because the car was a popular target for car thieves? The dealer may recommend a third party alarm system the same as MS may recommend one of the well known firewall or anti-virus packages. Many cars now have higher tech security to make them mostly useless to thieves and expensive to make run without the original keys. A lockpick no longer gets joyriders a easy to steal ride in many cars. (My car has no way to even crank it without a transponder key) MS is simply slow in implimenting transponder keys and other security.
Am I off base here, or somewhat on track? Windows wasn't built to be attack proof. That idea is a reality that struck MS that they are no longer in a small town where nobody locks the doors. The system is being attacked by big city crime and they were a little slow preparing for it. It's time those who are exposed to the big city use a system properly fenced and locked instead of the small town the key is under the floor mat security model.
There should be some notice on the disk that playing this disk in a computer (as many of us would do anyway), apart from a standalone disk player, leads to a "less calories" version of the music
It's very descreet, but the absence of the Compact Disk logo is a clue the shiny plastic thing might be something other than a redbook standard Compact Disk worthy of Philips registered trademark.
Ask the clueless guy behind the counter about the absence of the logo. No logo = no sale. If everyone did that, DRM would go away as only real music would sell.