IBM Software is turning up the noise on its open-source contributions.
What it's about:
An interesting bit on the transition and recovery of IBM was on the BBC a couple days back, refreshing and adding a layer of
information to my memory of experience with the behemoth IT company. IBM's core business is selling service, not hardware (they sold
the PC unit to Lenovo) and big iron doesn't sell much anymore, so they've come to the point of making some hardware, but throwing their
weight behind systems and services. Why so much given to Open Source? IBM is more than just friendly to Linux and Open Source, but see
them as their life blood. They won't make money pushing systems built around Microsoft Windows, because that leaves too much leverage
in an external (and sometimes unfriendly) camp. Not to overlook the taint associated over the past few years with gaping security holes in
Microsoft products, which could reflect very negatively on IBM having to go in and clean up the mess. A couple years ago IBM had already broken
the 1G$ barrier on Linux systems, in one quarter. I haven't looked at their company statements lately, but it's clear this is their planned direction of growth.
however, I wouldn't bash Spielberg's adaptation of War of the Worlds just yet.
Atleast wait to see it before you do.
1) I'll bash it anyway, as it's about the martians, about the firey orange explosions, the goodlooking actor and his disfunctional movie family brought together very formulaically by the upheaval, etc. It'll probably be lots of eye-candy CGI, but that's probably where my enjoyment of it will end.
2) From an early age it was always a dream, if I won a fat lottery pot I'd do a film true to the original H.G. Wells story. Pendragon has done that and I look forward to it with baited (and popcorn-scented) breath. The story isn't about martians and incredible weapons they have, but of the world's superpower (Victorian England) struck at it's heart by a vastly superior force and the impact it has on the survivors. The hope of watching the iron-clad Thunderchild take on the invaders, the discussion with the man on putney hill, the encounter and eventual confict with the curate. That's what it's about. I read it in 2 nights as a 13 year old and it jarred me and I've often come back to read the tale.
You may recall Independence Day was originally styled and planned to be titled as a remake of War of the Worlds. Awful.
(resisting the joke about rendering Alex Trebek) I think anyone who says that is nuts, as nuts as the producers who need star-power to keep them warm at night. Bird just did the job right. There were some pretty insightful comments back in the Discworld movie topic, regarding writing a movie you can make. I become more a cynic when I read people's opinions that such and such can't be done. It's an illusion, dumbasses. Bird's gifted enough to take the intelligent approach. To see the wrong approach taken again, watch Tom Cruise in Spielberg's WoW. Or see a class act, the Pendragon version late March. Bug your theater to carry it! Hopefully it'll live up to expectations and make Wired's list next year.
I went to the theater to see the click, but there was this big guy with long read hair and long arms taking up the whole front row. He had a huge sack of banged grains, too, and kept throwing them at the screen.
Really, I love you guys, but "The interview is a 30MB MP3 file." is telling me you're fscking nuts. For how many days is he talking here? Is this 5.1 surround or something? How high a sampling rate is necessary for this kind of thing?
The other option in this situation is for ebay to allow only the highest bid that fits the increment amount.
Which as a buyer, you'd hate, but as a seller you'd like. Who's being catered to here?
Personally, I liked the way other sites handled closing, snipes meant an extension of 10 minutes or so, which is good for the seller, good for other bidders who may wish to reconsider and good for eBay because it increases their revenues. I wish it were even an option in listing. I scarcely snipe anymore as it became a pain to be home in time to snipe and I didn't trust sniping services.
Is it just me, or do others here feel that Ebay is a better place to sell than to buy? We have sold plenty on Ebay and always feel like we are getting top dollar. But when it comes to buying, most items look to be top price and it is very hard to find a bargin.
I've been a seller many times and am utterly fascinated with the ability of similar items to go for vastly different amounts. Even when there's something identical up for auction, people will club each other to win an auction. As a seller, however, I feel it's become harder to sell as there's more crap all the time to do in a listing, which once was a one page form. The footprint of each page is staggering, as well and for someone trying to do listings over 56K it takes a real act of patience to put up 30 items.
I agree the practice is bunk, but would hate to see eBay thrown into bankruptcy over something like this.
Don't worry, they're making money hand over fist and a few hundred million, if it came to that, would be a drop in the bucket. They should probably worry more about class actions suits in regard to PayPal's practices.
Personally I'm not sure I could live in a world without eBay.
Je suis d'accord. But as they keep fscking around with their formula I loathe them more and more each day.
The seller has to pay a fee to get an item listed, the seller has to pay another fee when money is sent via PayPal. That is the real price gouging.
You forgot that the seller also has to cough up a % of the final sale price.
One thing I can say is good, though, is that eBay doesn't nail bidders for a fee as well. I've had to shell some $$ in the past on other auctions and thought that was pretty scurvy, but it actually is practice at many large auction houses. Sothebys and the like didn't become famous for their charity to buyers and sellers.
"Based on what we know about what's being alleged, it appears the plaintiff completely misunderstands the functionality of the eBay bidding system," eBay spokesman Hani Durzy said. He said the company had not yet seen the lawsuit.
Bullshit. This happened to me once.
I had a max of say 100.01 and another bidder had bid 100.00 while the current high was substantially lower, so it showed 'You have been outbid the current high bid is 100.01' Now, they could bid at least 102.51 and take the lead or had
figured that was just too much, either way, I see that they have homed in and I raise my cap to 125.00, suddenly my high bid is 102.50 rather than 100.01.
To shed a different light on this, there was another time a similar thing happened, but when I reloaded the page later it would revert back to my prior high bid, which can be handy for disguising what your actual new cap is. I'm sure they know all about it and had fiddled with the way it works.
It happened once to my knowledge, so I'm probably only entitled to a couple bucks, but it will be interesting to see how this plays out.
If the plaintiff wins this class action suit could cost eBay tens or hundreds of millions of dollars."
I think that's a gross exaggeration of the problem, however it could cost eBay a lot in man-hours auditting the results of every auction since the beginning to determine who is entitled to a refund.
... a mobile turbine which generates around 3 to 4 watts of energy - sufficient
to charge a mobile phone. It costs around $4, fits in your pocket and runs on air;-).
What else do you want ?"
First impression of "in your pocket and runs on air" is this is charged by hydrocarbon emissions, i.e.
I am not "just" farting, I'm recharging my phone, and it's a renewable resource!"
Logically followed by
"Now you're going to hold that thing to your face?!?!"
The device is best suited for coastal areas where the wind flows almost continuously.
Wow.. what a coincidence... I walk in the door from going to the Gigante to buy some food, and find this story. To think my change might help make a (much needed) dent in the Microsoft mindset here in Mexico makes me smile
You return from a supermercado and find this story. What 'change' are you refering to? Did you drop a few centavos in a charity box for Linux in schools or are you intending to play an active part in introducing the 'mindset' to alternatives?
"Now what the monster is really trying to do here, is beat up the other monster without taking too much damage himself."
John, I didn't know you read/.
"You see that big banner saying 'Go Human' overhanging a vent, they really shouldn't allow these big banners, they're alright, of course because they show the fans' enthusiasm for the match, but if that banner on the other side of the arena covers the air it'll get really bad in here and.. oh, something happened on the field, the match is over"
Re:Bad reviews on Vampire: Bloodlines the cause?
on
Troika Games Closes
·
· Score: 1
Give me great gameplay...
Sigh. How's it feel to be in the minority?
The more I mine old games, the less I appreciate too many of today's offerings. Remember when some game with rotating geometric elements took the game world by storm? Original thinking is a scarce commodity.
we had the pleasure of working with the some of the most dedicated, hard working, creative people in the industry, and we really appreciate all that they did for Troika."
Meanwhile the ruthlessprosper while throwing breadcrumbs to their employees. Seems one more failure ensures the continued trend.
Maybe, but the real question is "what were the environmental conditions that led them to die out, or at least go into amber frozen bee gut hibernation?" If today's conditions are more favorable, they will do just fine.
I didn't read the article, but heard all about it on the BBC, how they were digging these tunnels under the permafrost, tusks and jaws of long dead animals jutting out of the walls, and this layer from what must have been a pond or marsh being sampled. The question is, what caused this to suddenly be overlayed with a layer of earth? Frozen then flooded?
Hasn't anyone ever read Andromeda?? Don't thaw them out!!
More likely these things aren't up to the 1337 5ki112 today's evolved fauna (bacteria,virii,fungi) and wouldn't last long outside the petri dish. Makes for some what sci-fi, but what you have today is the stuff tough enough to last through whatever nature and errant meteorites have chucked at it.
On another note, immortality is overrated. Survive 32K years and you get to swim around a petri dish among strangers. Hmph.
if its too hard for you to click on the rating to get an expanded view, its your own damn fault you spent the money.
I actually watched it close to opening date, while visiting my family during a Christmas break. It was certainly a grim experience. Critical reviews were mixed and I hadn't seen the critic comparison chart in the Detroit Free Press (if it was still part of the features section) where I generally agree with a couple critics from certain media sources.
A nice feature would be for Google to allow me to establish a list of critics I most agree with and see their assessments of a prospective film. Some films I see anyway, but now and then I'll skip one if the critics I trust most give it a bomb.
To demonstrate, it gives the first paragraph from GAIM's EULA, seen here: "which will display Pop-Up, Pop-Under, and other types of ads on your computer based on the information we collect as stated in this Privacy Statement."
Which is why, EULA's aside, I don't install anything I don't understand. I try to keep a minimum of apps on my computer, uninstall what I'm not using and limit my internet connection time. Also helpful is a firewall that watches for any traffic, so I may be aware that something is gathering information (he who harvests my information, harvests trash) and trying to send it out.
Most of 'em are text files stuck somewhere. Just grep them for phone numbers, email addresses, and if you're feeling clever, mailing addresses.;)
most of them are pretty straightforward and honest: You accept risks, no guarantee implied, we own the software but grant you permission to use, you don't distribute it for Profit!!!.
Are there any particularly egregious examples of an EULA ripping someone off, i.e.
Amubbum nuoth questor ernst boffle gu gromp wordel hur dreft the end user agrees to give up all rights granted them in their constitution, any treaties and united nations codes and must turn over all their assets to us upon demand yuop erunt wik gissop jomp si rothing kellor eth wombat fer dunel lave lithnor ruttle
I think you are missing the point. The point they are making here us that even a cursory overview of the EULA will tell you if an application is spyware or not. Or if you will be rendered legally sterilizeable if you install this software.
I think the point they're making is that people don't read EULA's and in terms of research, the $1K prize was worth it for the PC Pitstop people to demonstrate that they could pretty much do anything they liked and have the user agreeing to all conditions as a precondition to use. The only real outs for the end user are 1) proving the eventual end user agreed (rather than it was all pre-installed stuff) 2) that EULA's hold any real legal weight, which some haven't.
Think of Rumplestiltskin, without the princess even knowing what her end of the deal is.
And yet the princess was pretty venal, expecting to take advantage of the little dude. Ain't no saints in that story.
However a good rule of thumb is that if you cant understand the EULA, dont agree to it. I mean would you sign somthing you didn't understand?
Like pretty much everyone else, if I took the time to read them all the way through and understand them then I wouldn't have time to use the product.
The only long documents I make sure I read and understand are the ones doctors give me before performing some test, like MRI or such. Hate to think I may have a staple or something and have one of those things turn my guts to hamburger because I didn't take time to understand fully the procedure and it's risks. Besides, you usually have lots of extra time in a waiting room, assuming you didn't arrive via Emergency Entrance.
Slashdot Mirror
What it's about:
An interesting bit on the transition and recovery of IBM was on the BBC a couple days back, refreshing and adding a layer of information to my memory of experience with the behemoth IT company. IBM's core business is selling service, not hardware (they sold the PC unit to Lenovo) and big iron doesn't sell much anymore, so they've come to the point of making some hardware, but throwing their weight behind systems and services. Why so much given to Open Source? IBM is more than just friendly to Linux and Open Source, but see them as their life blood. They won't make money pushing systems built around Microsoft Windows, because that leaves too much leverage in an external (and sometimes unfriendly) camp. Not to overlook the taint associated over the past few years with gaping security holes in Microsoft products, which could reflect very negatively on IBM having to go in and clean up the mess. A couple years ago IBM had already broken the 1G$ barrier on Linux systems, in one quarter. I haven't looked at their company statements lately, but it's clear this is their planned direction of growth.
Atleast wait to see it before you do.
1) I'll bash it anyway, as it's about the martians, about the firey orange explosions, the goodlooking actor and his disfunctional movie family brought together very formulaically by the upheaval, etc. It'll probably be lots of eye-candy CGI, but that's probably where my enjoyment of it will end.
2) From an early age it was always a dream, if I won a fat lottery pot I'd do a film true to the original H.G. Wells story. Pendragon has done that and I look forward to it with baited (and popcorn-scented) breath. The story isn't about martians and incredible weapons they have, but of the world's superpower (Victorian England) struck at it's heart by a vastly superior force and the impact it has on the survivors. The hope of watching the iron-clad Thunderchild take on the invaders, the discussion with the man on putney hill, the encounter and eventual confict with the curate. That's what it's about. I read it in 2 nights as a 13 year old and it jarred me and I've often come back to read the tale.
You may recall Independence Day was originally styled and planned to be titled as a remake of War of the Worlds. Awful.
(resisting the joke about rendering Alex Trebek) I think anyone who says that is nuts, as nuts as the producers who need star-power to keep them warm at night. Bird just did the job right. There were some pretty insightful comments back in the Discworld movie topic, regarding writing a movie you can make. I become more a cynic when I read people's opinions that such and such can't be done. It's an illusion, dumbasses. Bird's gifted enough to take the intelligent approach. To see the wrong approach taken again, watch Tom Cruise in Spielberg's WoW. Or see a class act, the Pendragon version late March. Bug your theater to carry it! Hopefully it'll live up to expectations and make Wired's list next year.
Not to worry. Microsoft is dying. ;-)
I went to the theater to see the click, but there was this big guy with long read hair and long arms taking up the whole front row. He had a huge sack of banged grains, too, and kept throwing them at the screen.
There's alwasy some pricks trying to ruin the web for everyone else.
Really, I love you guys, but "The interview is a 30MB MP3 file." is telling me you're fscking nuts. For how many days is he talking here? Is this 5.1 surround or something? How high a sampling rate is necessary for this kind of thing?
Which as a buyer, you'd hate, but as a seller you'd like. Who's being catered to here?
Personally, I liked the way other sites handled closing, snipes meant an extension of 10 minutes or so, which is good for the seller, good for other bidders who may wish to reconsider and good for eBay because it increases their revenues. I wish it were even an option in listing. I scarcely snipe anymore as it became a pain to be home in time to snipe and I didn't trust sniping services.
I've been a seller many times and am utterly fascinated with the ability of similar items to go for vastly different amounts. Even when there's something identical up for auction, people will club each other to win an auction. As a seller, however, I feel it's become harder to sell as there's more crap all the time to do in a listing, which once was a one page form. The footprint of each page is staggering, as well and for someone trying to do listings over 56K it takes a real act of patience to put up 30 items.
Don't worry, they're making money hand over fist and a few hundred million, if it came to that, would be a drop in the bucket. They should probably worry more about class actions suits in regard to PayPal's practices.
Personally I'm not sure I could live in a world without eBay.
Je suis d'accord. But as they keep fscking around with their formula I loathe them more and more each day.
You forgot that the seller also has to cough up a % of the final sale price.
One thing I can say is good, though, is that eBay doesn't nail bidders for a fee as well. I've had to shell some $$ in the past on other auctions and thought that was pretty scurvy, but it actually is practice at many large auction houses. Sothebys and the like didn't become famous for their charity to buyers and sellers.
Bullshit. This happened to me once.
I had a max of say 100.01 and another bidder had bid 100.00 while the current high was substantially lower, so it showed 'You have been outbid the current high bid is 100.01' Now, they could bid at least 102.51 and take the lead or had figured that was just too much, either way, I see that they have homed in and I raise my cap to 125.00, suddenly my high bid is 102.50 rather than 100.01.
To shed a different light on this, there was another time a similar thing happened, but when I reloaded the page later it would revert back to my prior high bid, which can be handy for disguising what your actual new cap is. I'm sure they know all about it and had fiddled with the way it works.
It happened once to my knowledge, so I'm probably only entitled to a couple bucks, but it will be interesting to see how this plays out.
If the plaintiff wins this class action suit could cost eBay tens or hundreds of millions of dollars."
I think that's a gross exaggeration of the problem, however it could cost eBay a lot in man-hours auditting the results of every auction since the beginning to determine who is entitled to a refund.
First impression of "in your pocket and runs on air" is this is charged by hydrocarbon emissions, i.e.
Logically followed by The device is best suited for coastal areas where the wind flows almost continuously.They must eat more lentils there...
"ahhhhh, go blow yer phone!"
You return from a supermercado and find this story. What 'change' are you refering to? Did you drop a few centavos in a charity box for Linux in schools or are you intending to play an active part in introducing the 'mindset' to alternatives?
John, I didn't know you read /.
"You see that big banner saying 'Go Human' overhanging a vent, they really shouldn't allow these big banners, they're alright, of course because they show the fans' enthusiasm for the match, but if that banner on the other side of the arena covers the air it'll get really bad in here and .. oh, something happened on the field, the match is over"
Sigh. How's it feel to be in the minority?
The more I mine old games, the less I appreciate too many of today's offerings. Remember when some game with rotating geometric elements took the game world by storm? Original thinking is a scarce commodity.
Meanwhile the ruthless prosper while throwing breadcrumbs to their employees. Seems one more failure ensures the continued trend.
It's a hard world.
New form EA: Mail Order Monsters: John Madden Edition! Listen to John's witty repartee as your monster slugs it out for survival!
I didn't read the article, but heard all about it on the BBC, how they were digging these tunnels under the permafrost, tusks and jaws of long dead animals jutting out of the walls, and this layer from what must have been a pond or marsh being sampled. The question is, what caused this to suddenly be overlayed with a layer of earth? Frozen then flooded?
More likely these things aren't up to the 1337 5ki112 today's evolved fauna (bacteria,virii,fungi) and wouldn't last long outside the petri dish. Makes for some what sci-fi, but what you have today is the stuff tough enough to last through whatever nature and errant meteorites have chucked at it.
On another note, immortality is overrated. Survive 32K years and you get to swim around a petri dish among strangers. Hmph.
I actually watched it close to opening date, while visiting my family during a Christmas break. It was certainly a grim experience. Critical reviews were mixed and I hadn't seen the critic comparison chart in the Detroit Free Press (if it was still part of the features section) where I generally agree with a couple critics from certain media sources.
A nice feature would be for Google to allow me to establish a list of critics I most agree with and see their assessments of a prospective film. Some films I see anyway, but now and then I'll skip one if the critics I trust most give it a bomb.
Which is why, EULA's aside, I don't install anything I don't understand. I try to keep a minimum of apps on my computer, uninstall what I'm not using and limit my internet connection time. Also helpful is a firewall that watches for any traffic, so I may be aware that something is gathering information (he who harvests my information, harvests trash) and trying to send it out.
most of them are pretty straightforward and honest: You accept risks, no guarantee implied, we own the software but grant you permission to use, you don't distribute it for Profit!!!.
Are there any particularly egregious examples of an EULA ripping someone off, i.e.
I think the point they're making is that people don't read EULA's and in terms of research, the $1K prize was worth it for the PC Pitstop people to demonstrate that they could pretty much do anything they liked and have the user agreeing to all conditions as a precondition to use. The only real outs for the end user are 1) proving the eventual end user agreed (rather than it was all pre-installed stuff) 2) that EULA's hold any real legal weight, which some haven't.
Think of Rumplestiltskin, without the princess even knowing what her end of the deal is.
And yet the princess was pretty venal, expecting to take advantage of the little dude. Ain't no saints in that story.
Like pretty much everyone else, if I took the time to read them all the way through and understand them then I wouldn't have time to use the product.
The only long documents I make sure I read and understand are the ones doctors give me before performing some test, like MRI or such. Hate to think I may have a staple or something and have one of those things turn my guts to hamburger because I didn't take time to understand fully the procedure and it's risks. Besides, you usually have lots of extra time in a waiting room, assuming you didn't arrive via Emergency Entrance.
Mmmm. That's a tough one, but I'll have to pass on the $1,000.
Too many look like that Gator one - pages and pages of gobbledy-gook and mumbo jumbo which ultimately translate to all your base are belong to us.