Why do they think its so difficult. Go to google.com and search for Warez.
Anyone who spends ten minutes actually looking should be able to find enough to choke a hard drive. Go look in USENET groups, Google for it, get into chatrooms and ask 'Where can I get a copy of X' or even just look on eBay. Piracy and Knock-offs are rampant on there, despite their lame attempts to curtail it.
I haven't had much of this lately, but I used to see before I'd be somewhere I'd never been, people in place and all. I wasn't sure it was the same as Deja Vu as I'd actually see these places in my dreams and be stunned when I saw them come together. I think something works, but I haven't had one of these episodes for years.
Ah, so you are the one funding the MPAA's and RIAA's lawyers?! And a Slashdot user too?! I'm a bit shocked and ashamed.
They're not getting rich off me, I buy about 2 CDs a year now. DVDs sparingly, too. If the MPAA is tied up with a lot of indie films then guilty as charged, I see about 1 Hollywood flick to 8 Indie. The last Hollywood flik I saw and felt guilty about handing over my hard earned money into their undeserving clutches was Speilberg's War of the Worlds (CGI: **** Story and acting: -2 *) prior to that regrettable were Cat In the Hat (Worst movie EVER) As a result I'm not very trusting of Hollywood. I'm also greatly concerned about the direction Pixar is taking as the story was weak and predictable in Cars. As for music most of it comes from Satellite these days.
I know, I'm showing my age, but back when I was in my first year of college I fell for the 10 albums for 1 cent ploy of Columbia Record Club.
I paid my couple of $ for the 14 records (you get 10 for one cent, another for putting in some code and for a dollar a piece two more, at the time)
and found how they worked. By purchasing you agreed to buy so many records over a two or three year period at "regular prices" which tended to be a bit
more than at the local record store. They also sent out, based upon your choice (something Amazon and everyone else tries to do in the decades since) what their
computer recommended, which was invariable exactly the music you didn't want, like some universal law, so you had to send back or pay for.
Now Netflix doesn't work exactly that way, as far as I know, but stuff coming in like clockwork isn't the way my tastes for music or
film are sated. On impulse I'll suddenly whip out and buy an Etta James collection, because I like some tune she sang back in the days of yor or I'll
buzz down to the Bijou and check out Superman Returns From Wherever He Buggered Off To, but I don't do these with any chartable frequency. I tend to buy music, DVDs or old
radio plays to listen to on trips or when I feel like it. Having stuff come in on a robotic schedule just isn't going to work, no matter how good the deal.
No, he's complaining of being constantly suspected to be a thief by Microsoft, as well as, sometimes, being a collateral victim of malfunctionning paranoid DRM
That's preposterous, who in their right mind would beli
Microsoft have determined your installation of Windows includes non-registered components. Failure to comply will result in the shutdown of your operating system and a visit from the BSA Stormtroopers.
ike it was something out of Star Wars with Darth Vader and all. Sheesh, get real!
My BMW 3 series (E46) has at least 2, on the rear windows
It wasn't such an uncommon practise to use the dope used on picture tubes or the metalic substance used to patch rear window defoggers on a sheet of plastic, plexiglass, cardboard, etc. for designing high frequency antennae. I've even seen examples where an antenna was etched on printed-circuit board.
This isn't so much Slow News Day fodder as mundane
The Department of Justice did at one point (I mean, they did win the antitrust case against Microsoft you know) but when the regime change occurred their priority system got readjusted. At least, that's how it appeared to me at the time.
Oh, obviously. It's like Bush hung out the shingle "Open for Business with Business" when the greatly watered down justice was finally meted out, and astoundingly Microsoft continues to violate even those terms with seeming impunity.
[Microsoft's] obligations in the decision are not clear, or that the obligations have changed
to imagine that a company like Microsoft does not understand the principles of how to document protocols in order to achieve interoperability.
What's so hard to understand about this? This is a company which regards their software as "most secure ever" just before
a several years of gaping security flaws are revealed and exploited. Many of the security flaws are in the gaps between
divisions, where one division sees the appropriate way to validate passed paremeters is to trust everything is just peachy.
It's a cultural thing, sieze markets today, and bluff your way past the carnage tomorrow. e.g. revealing Windows
security flaws should be halted by the Department of Homeland Security as it represents a threat to businesses which use the software (no
liability is expressed or implied by the jokers who make billions selling it, however)
Microsoft should license rights to use those egg-headed Precious Moments figurines and release one each time they're caught
bullshitting on trying to quash other markets with bundled give-aways or why some open standard isn't for the best. "Me sowwy!" It always has been and
always will be about promoting Microsoft, to keep it relevent and necessary to guarantee the gravy train never ends. Thanks EU for having some balls, which
the US DoJ doesn't.
Ahhh, the Peter Principle [wikipedia.org] in all its glory.
Not quite. It became apparent after the doors were closed and people could speak freely that the company was being squeezed on purpose. A shrinking company is more profitable than a growing one, but only so far. This lined someone's pockets with "administrative fees" while they lose other people's money and livelihoods.
There's always the possibility a retiring employee thought they wouldn't be missed. Or some overefficient bureacratic paper shuffler elected to do something about all those dusty boxes on the shelf which look utterly horrid (ever have one of these people sweep into your office and suggest your desk needs cleaning?) and would win some kind of medal if they could only dispose of them and put a spit shine on those shelves.
..Its called marketing. Put a hare-brained idea out there and get people writing articles mentioning your company name.
Back in the late 80's or early 90's a friend of mine was seeking out home appliances which had some sort of network ability already. They were pretty hard to find, but the one which amazed me was a toaster. These were probably sometihng meant for an early theme of home network and information and control of appliances, but IIRC these had an EIA or sommat specification already worked out and manufacturers had bought into, believing the world would beat a path to their doors.
Apparently not many people went for that level of sophistication so, as I said, they were hard to find and didn't hang around for long.
I worked for a company that went through 7 rounds of layoffs in about 14 months. They started with paring away a few middle managers, including mine, to "streamline" the company. It did anything but that. The remaining rounds were hacking away at necessary people until there were only keystones left. When suddenly a customer (Hint: Think big computer company in Austin, TX) proclaimed they were happy with the level of service they were getting and wanted to step it up, which would have put the company very far into the black, the executives had to confess they no longer had sufficient staff to handle the load. The customer elected to dump us and that was all she wrote.
Well, I don't think it's that simple. If you reduce employee benefits, you risk having some of your best people (the people who could most easily get jobs elsewhere) start leaving. By having a layoff, you're hopefully going to be getting rid of some of your worst people. So, it may be wiser (from a business perspective) to lay off people rather than cut benefits, even though it's not very nice.
When I've seen layoffs good people often do depart because being in a company, never knowing if you're next to clean desk, is very stressful. Some simply don't wait for the severence, but proactively find somewhere else to go. It's all part of the risk that the company may lose a keystone employee here or there.
I worked one place for years and rather than layoffs they offered early retirement bonuses. They didn't just lose dead wood, heck dead wood with an easy ticket loves to stay around, but many excellent people, too. Ultimately some had to be contracted back. Similar to another place I worked.
Unlike the company I work for that creates an entire new layer of management, then does layoffs for all its technical (read: non-management) workers.
Top-heavy companies do topple. Usually just a matter of time. If their business is profitable enough to sustain significant inefficiencies, a competitor will eventually arrive who runs a tighter ship. I'm watching something like this happen right now - several vendors have had it good for years and haven't provided the best service or the most timely fixes and improvements, now some little shop picking up very sharp developers and using open source tools is about to eat their lunch.
I said Intel would have its down days, just as I say today that someone will beat Microsoft fair and square some day, too.
Could it simply be a matter of action was necessary to keep the playing field level, so a fair competitor such as AMD with an excellent product would even have a chance? If Intel simply dropped CPU prices each time AMD looked like they were about to turn enough profit to channel investment into better products, you would still have AMD following Intel's shadow with cheap knock-offs of the lower end of the product line.
In my experience it's middle-managers who go first, then after consolidating groups and departments, headcount follows. If this is 1% of Intel's
workforce then there's likely 5% or more to follow, which would be 5,000 or more when the next boot hits the Linoleum.
It's inevitable when a business loses a significant amount of market share and only the most ignorant Intel employee wouldn't see this coming. I wish them
luck. This is probably more a move to maintain profitability and stock value (got to convince those anaylists on Wall Street you're minding your P's and Q's) than "streamlining
for growth", which is exactly what you hear when they are doing major houseclearing no matter whether the house is merely smoldering or engulfed in flames.
The pity is those most responsible rarely are held to account for keeping a business trundling along only to be blindsided something some from the inside saw coming, but
weren't taken very seriously (Yamhill). Intel may pare their losses, but
they'll never enjoy 90% market dominance again.
'We killed Fear and Respect... because we have enough data-points to know the hood thing is basically dead. It would be dead before it came out. And you don't want to come out on a dead vibe.' Do people really not care about GTA-style urban shooters any more?"
Data-Points. Ugh, that carries a bit of weight in telling me the writer/speaker is too much into a suit. But to the point, yeah, I've never thought urban was that cool to begin with. Heck, I live there and always thought it was a blah setting. Gimme open meadows, forests deep, caves and crypts, forboding empty space stations where you know there should be living people, but they've all suddently gone missing...
There's also the rural setting, which I don't think has been adequately explored...
The rains are coming and the crop is in the field, only you can get it into the barn before the storm breaks in
It's just your perception that newer-flashier eye candy is superior and preferable to the simple, eligent graphics of yor. Honestly, Pac-man rendered with crisp graphics would actually look tawdry, losing it's original charm.
Was there already an article about Microsoft releasing classic arcade games such as Frogger and pac-man for the XBox 360? It's in the news anyway. All it really needs is PC emulation as the games have been on PC's for ages.
It sounds like science is catching up with the glass blades Raven carries in Neal Stephenson's book Snow Crash
I prefer the scythe Death wields in the Diskworld books, so delicate it can havest the soul of a deep-sea organism, yet able to harvest a field of wheat, one straw at a time. And he tries to sharpen the blade with everything even sun light, but it is still far to dull for the job when he must confront his replacement.
any sufficiently advanced science is indistinguishable from magic
You guys can't gamble on the internet? [Takes long drag from joint]. I thought the USA was the land of freedom..?
Actually it is, the Politicians can get away with pretty much anything, so long as they don't get exposed by the press and their political cronies protect them.
You see, in the United States it's just fine for your employer to seek labor overseas to replace you. Just you try exerting your own muscle at seeking overseas businesses (in this case bookmakers and other gambling) to deal with. It's free, but simply less free for the minnows than for the big fish.
They recover the whole booster, not just the camera.
As I understand it they do reuse at least part of the booster for a number of launches.
Well, yeah, didn't you see the big RETURN FOR DEPOSIT sticker on the side of the SRB? Just imagine the CRV on one of those babies if you found it on the beach...
I have to admit I find it funny that the solution seems to be to leave the planet.
I didn't say Leave the Planet - I said colonise the solar system. Eventually something may make earth uninhabitable, but expanding into space would keep mankind alive.
Slashdot Mirror
Why do they think its so difficult. Go to google.com and search for Warez.
Anyone who spends ten minutes actually looking should be able to find enough to choke a hard drive. Go look in USENET groups, Google for it, get into chatrooms and ask 'Where can I get a copy of X' or even just look on eBay. Piracy and Knock-offs are rampant on there, despite their lame attempts to curtail it.
Anti-Piracy Merit Badges!
To earn one you must:
Breaking news: Chairman Moa is doing 3,500 RPM in his grave.
I haven't had much of this lately, but I used to see before I'd be somewhere I'd never been, people in place and all. I wasn't sure it was the same as Deja Vu as I'd actually see these places in my dreams and be stunned when I saw them come together. I think something works, but I haven't had one of these episodes for years.
Score: -5 Daft?!? I didn't foresee that!
Ah, so you are the one funding the MPAA's and RIAA's lawyers?! And a Slashdot user too?! I'm a bit shocked and ashamed.
They're not getting rich off me, I buy about 2 CDs a year now. DVDs sparingly, too. If the MPAA is tied up with a lot of indie films then guilty as charged, I see about 1 Hollywood flick to 8 Indie. The last Hollywood flik I saw and felt guilty about handing over my hard earned money into their undeserving clutches was Speilberg's War of the Worlds (CGI: **** Story and acting: -2 *) prior to that regrettable were Cat In the Hat (Worst movie EVER) As a result I'm not very trusting of Hollywood. I'm also greatly concerned about the direction Pixar is taking as the story was weak and predictable in Cars. As for music most of it comes from Satellite these days.
I know, I'm showing my age, but back when I was in my first year of college I fell for the 10 albums for 1 cent ploy of Columbia Record Club. I paid my couple of $ for the 14 records (you get 10 for one cent, another for putting in some code and for a dollar a piece two more, at the time) and found how they worked. By purchasing you agreed to buy so many records over a two or three year period at "regular prices" which tended to be a bit more than at the local record store. They also sent out, based upon your choice (something Amazon and everyone else tries to do in the decades since) what their computer recommended, which was invariable exactly the music you didn't want, like some universal law, so you had to send back or pay for.
Now Netflix doesn't work exactly that way, as far as I know, but stuff coming in like clockwork isn't the way my tastes for music or film are sated. On impulse I'll suddenly whip out and buy an Etta James collection, because I like some tune she sang back in the days of yor or I'll buzz down to the Bijou and check out Superman Returns From Wherever He Buggered Off To, but I don't do these with any chartable frequency. I tend to buy music, DVDs or old radio plays to listen to on trips or when I feel like it. Having stuff come in on a robotic schedule just isn't going to work, no matter how good the deal.
No, he's complaining of being constantly suspected to be a thief by Microsoft, as well as, sometimes, being a collateral victim of malfunctionning paranoid DRM
That's preposterous, who in their right mind would beli
Microsoft have determined your installation of Windows includes non-registered components. Failure to comply will result in the shutdown of your operating system and a visit from the BSA Stormtroopers.
ike it was something out of Star Wars with Darth Vader and all. Sheesh, get real!
My BMW 3 series (E46) has at least 2, on the rear windows
It wasn't such an uncommon practise to use the dope used on picture tubes or the metalic substance used to patch rear window defoggers on a sheet of plastic, plexiglass, cardboard, etc. for designing high frequency antennae. I've even seen examples where an antenna was etched on printed-circuit board.
This isn't so much Slow News Day fodder as mundane
The Department of Justice did at one point (I mean, they did win the antitrust case against Microsoft you know) but when the regime change occurred their priority system got readjusted. At least, that's how it appeared to me at the time.
Oh, obviously. It's like Bush hung out the shingle "Open for Business with Business" when the greatly watered down justice was finally meted out, and astoundingly Microsoft continues to violate even those terms with seeming impunity.
What's so hard to understand about this? This is a company which regards their software as "most secure ever" just before a several years of gaping security flaws are revealed and exploited. Many of the security flaws are in the gaps between divisions, where one division sees the appropriate way to validate passed paremeters is to trust everything is just peachy.
It's a cultural thing, sieze markets today, and bluff your way past the carnage tomorrow. e.g. revealing Windows security flaws should be halted by the Department of Homeland Security as it represents a threat to businesses which use the software (no liability is expressed or implied by the jokers who make billions selling it, however)
Microsoft should license rights to use those egg-headed Precious Moments figurines and release one each time they're caught bullshitting on trying to quash other markets with bundled give-aways or why some open standard isn't for the best. "Me sowwy!" It always has been and always will be about promoting Microsoft, to keep it relevent and necessary to guarantee the gravy train never ends. Thanks EU for having some balls, which the US DoJ doesn't.
Ahhh, the Peter Principle [wikipedia.org] in all its glory.
Not quite. It became apparent after the doors were closed and people could speak freely that the company was being squeezed on purpose. A shrinking company is more profitable than a growing one, but only so far. This lined someone's pockets with "administrative fees" while they lose other people's money and livelihoods.
I knew I forgot to return those rental tapes.
More like they'll show up on eBay.
There's always the possibility a retiring employee thought they wouldn't be missed. Or some overefficient bureacratic paper shuffler elected to do something about all those dusty boxes on the shelf which look utterly horrid (ever have one of these people sweep into your office and suggest your desk needs cleaning?) and would win some kind of medal if they could only dispose of them and put a spit shine on those shelves.
Back in the late 80's or early 90's a friend of mine was seeking out home appliances which had some sort of network ability already. They were pretty hard to find, but the one which amazed me was a toaster. These were probably sometihng meant for an early theme of home network and information and control of appliances, but IIRC these had an EIA or sommat specification already worked out and manufacturers had bought into, believing the world would beat a path to their doors.
Apparently not many people went for that level of sophistication so, as I said, they were hard to find and didn't hang around for long.
Your soiled shorts, CowboyNeal Underoos and Ring-around-the-Collar are now on full view on the internet.
7 more shoes to go? (as in huge octopus?)
I worked for a company that went through 7 rounds of layoffs in about 14 months. They started with paring away a few middle managers, including mine, to "streamline" the company. It did anything but that. The remaining rounds were hacking away at necessary people until there were only keystones left. When suddenly a customer (Hint: Think big computer company in Austin, TX) proclaimed they were happy with the level of service they were getting and wanted to step it up, which would have put the company very far into the black, the executives had to confess they no longer had sufficient staff to handle the load. The customer elected to dump us and that was all she wrote.
Well, I don't think it's that simple. If you reduce employee benefits, you risk having some of your best people (the people who could most easily get jobs elsewhere) start leaving. By having a layoff, you're hopefully going to be getting rid of some of your worst people. So, it may be wiser (from a business perspective) to lay off people rather than cut benefits, even though it's not very nice.
When I've seen layoffs good people often do depart because being in a company, never knowing if you're next to clean desk, is very stressful. Some simply don't wait for the severence, but proactively find somewhere else to go. It's all part of the risk that the company may lose a keystone employee here or there.
I worked one place for years and rather than layoffs they offered early retirement bonuses. They didn't just lose dead wood, heck dead wood with an easy ticket loves to stay around, but many excellent people, too. Ultimately some had to be contracted back. Similar to another place I worked.
Unlike the company I work for that creates an entire new layer of management, then does layoffs for all its technical (read: non-management) workers.
Top-heavy companies do topple. Usually just a matter of time. If their business is profitable enough to sustain significant inefficiencies, a competitor will eventually arrive who runs a tighter ship. I'm watching something like this happen right now - several vendors have had it good for years and haven't provided the best service or the most timely fixes and improvements, now some little shop picking up very sharp developers and using open source tools is about to eat their lunch.
I said Intel would have its down days, just as I say today that someone will beat Microsoft fair and square some day, too.
Could it simply be a matter of action was necessary to keep the playing field level, so a fair competitor such as AMD with an excellent product would even have a chance? If Intel simply dropped CPU prices each time AMD looked like they were about to turn enough profit to channel investment into better products, you would still have AMD following Intel's shadow with cheap knock-offs of the lower end of the product line.
In my experience it's middle-managers who go first, then after consolidating groups and departments, headcount follows. If this is 1% of Intel's workforce then there's likely 5% or more to follow, which would be 5,000 or more when the next boot hits the Linoleum.
It's inevitable when a business loses a significant amount of market share and only the most ignorant Intel employee wouldn't see this coming. I wish them luck. This is probably more a move to maintain profitability and stock value (got to convince those anaylists on Wall Street you're minding your P's and Q's) than "streamlining for growth", which is exactly what you hear when they are doing major houseclearing no matter whether the house is merely smoldering or engulfed in flames.
The pity is those most responsible rarely are held to account for keeping a business trundling along only to be blindsided something some from the inside saw coming, but weren't taken very seriously (Yamhill). Intel may pare their losses, but they'll never enjoy 90% market dominance again.
'We killed Fear and Respect... because we have enough data-points to know the hood thing is basically dead. It would be dead before it came out. And you don't want to come out on a dead vibe.' Do people really not care about GTA-style urban shooters any more?"
Data-Points. Ugh, that carries a bit of weight in telling me the writer/speaker is too much into a suit. But to the point, yeah, I've never thought urban was that cool to begin with. Heck, I live there and always thought it was a blah setting. Gimme open meadows, forests deep, caves and crypts, forboding empty space stations where you know there should be living people, but they've all suddently gone missing...
There's also the rural setting, which I don't think has been adequately explored...
It's just your perception that newer-flashier eye candy is superior and preferable to the simple, eligent graphics of yor. Honestly, Pac-man rendered with crisp graphics would actually look tawdry, losing it's original charm.
Was there already an article about Microsoft releasing classic arcade games such as Frogger and pac-man for the XBox 360? It's in the news anyway. All it really needs is PC emulation as the games have been on PC's for ages.
It sounds like science is catching up with the glass blades Raven carries in Neal Stephenson's book Snow Crash
I prefer the scythe Death wields in the Diskworld books, so delicate it can havest the soul of a deep-sea organism, yet able to harvest a field of wheat, one straw at a time. And he tries to sharpen the blade with everything even sun light, but it is still far to dull for the job when he must confront his replacement.
any sufficiently advanced science is indistinguishable from magic
You guys can't gamble on the internet? [Takes long drag from joint]. I thought the USA was the land of freedom..?
Actually it is, the Politicians can get away with pretty much anything, so long as they don't get exposed by the press and their political cronies protect them.
You see, in the United States it's just fine for your employer to seek labor overseas to replace you. Just you try exerting your own muscle at seeking overseas businesses (in this case bookmakers and other gambling) to deal with. It's free, but simply less free for the minnows than for the big fish.
They recover the whole booster, not just the camera.
As I understand it they do reuse at least part of the booster for a number of launches.
Well, yeah, didn't you see the big RETURN FOR DEPOSIT sticker on the side of the SRB? Just imagine the CRV on one of those babies if you found it on the beach...
I agree. This is a similar argument to the one for Net Neutrality. We're paying once, why make us pay again.
The simple and same answer for why so many things aren't as they should be: Lobbying and Campaign Contributions.
I have to admit I find it funny that the solution seems to be to leave the planet.
I didn't say Leave the Planet - I said colonise the solar system. Eventually something may make earth uninhabitable, but expanding into space would keep mankind alive.