I've got a box that says VA Research, I've got a box that says VA Linux. Same company.
So now it's VA Software. Only difference is now I can buy a box from someone else.
It's a shame, cause those are nice boxes. But that's all they are - boxes.
The good news is VA is still around, which in this industry is something to cheer about. Just like my now being able to order Mandrake 8.1 with The Sims in a bundle, and cut the legs out from under Microsoft.
1. linking a company's website (standard link):
totally bogus claim by KPMG - serves them right for our reaction.
2. linking deep into a company's website (deep link): totally bogus claim by KPMG - serves them right for our reaction.
3. storing the company song on your own website - ok, sorry guys, this is piracy. It's their song, it's even copyright, they can ask you to remove it. But they can't stop you from linking to it, just storing it on your website.
This story doesn't have a fairy-tale ending. I lasted 2 semesters and got kicked out, eventually coming enough out of the hole to apply at the New School in New York City and get a job. It's like being an alcoholic. Yes, I still play games, but spend a good portion of the time trying to avoid sitting in front of my computer. Every once in awhile I regress, stay up all night with Deus Ex or what have you, and seriously regret it in the morning.
Join the club. Got kicked out of SFU after three terms myself for much the same reason. Took going into the military to really turn myself around. That plus getting involved with a woman who really clicked - a lot easier to resist when you have your other basic needs met.
Find something else to do for a couple hours out of the day. Maybe exercise. Maybe read a book. Hell, take up drinking and go to a bar. Leave the game alone a while just to make sure that there's not something else out there you're missing.
Actually, in my personal experience, sex works best. Constant frequent sex with a partner of the appropriate gender for you. And a little food and alcohol thrown in at times.
Usually, game addiction is most prevelent in people who have no previously existing social context in an area other than thru gaming.
One of the reasons I first became a game developer, in the 80s, was that I had become addicted to gaming (RPGs mostly).
So we see it pop up more in people who gain socialization thru LAN parties, and especially when they go to a new High School or College where they have few friends who are not in the gaming community.
However, it's not an addiction that's easy to kick. Usually it can be solved by other more powerful drives (getting into a long-term relationship is one of the best), but in practice you may need to move away and not socialize with other game addicts and take up other interests if you wish to break the cycle.
My favorite view of it is what happens in The Sims at a LAN party... burning down the house!
Until it fully supports Exchange Server, it'll never be a serious competitor to Outlook.
I know, but they had to disable the automatic viral scripting features. For some reason, a few of the Outlook users think that's a bug, and not a feature.
The article's talking about a system that's being trialed on one small-time CD. To try to stop your whining whenever a new system's developed, the RIAA are labelling the disks, and offering returns if they don't work on your system.
It's not just one CD, it's an entire label, according to the article I read on the business wire.
Good point, it wouldn't qualify as virus code, but is deliberately defective audio data.
Couldn't they be charge under the Consumer Protection Act? I remember reading about it in High School in British Columbia - as I recall, Canada has stronger consumer protections than the US, and the DCMA was never passed in Canada so far as I know.
Ah. So if you have an iMac at home, pop the CD in, and since it doesn't work, return it to the store for a full refund. Make sure you use a credit card, and insist on a full reversal, including sales tax.
If they balk, talk to the manager, point out you will reverse the charges with the credit card company. If they balk, reverse the charges.
Then report them to your state attorney general (on the web) and the FTC (on the web).
There's justice - and there's revenge. Revenge is best served cold. In heaping spoonfuls.
First, use a credit card. Keep the receipt and the packaging.
Second, take it home. Do not play it on a standard CD player. Play it on your home PC, your MP3/CD player, something likely to not work "flawlessly".
Third, since it failed to work there - take it back to the store. Insist on a full credit card reversal of charges, including sales tax. If they balk, deny the charges via Visa or Mastercard. Point out that you will do this. Ask to see the manager at the first sign of hesitation. Do not accept an in-store credit or partial refund.
Fourth, file a complaint with your State Attorney General for misleading business practices. Use the info from the insert slip that you copied down when you bought it. Each of these must be investigated as attempted consumer fraud. Which they are. You can't sell shoddy or imperfect goods as if they were standard goods, and unless the ADVERTISEMENT pointed that out in large letters, they have committed an implicit fraud on you the innocent buyer.
Fifth, file with the FTC under the same claim.
Sixth, sue them in small claims court for time and trouble, travel expense (36 cents per mile to and from), postage, and any other expenses.
Seventh, send an email to the execs of the record company who did this.
Eighth, send a postcard to the artist who had their music polluted. Point out you will never buy their music again, you are so offended.
Think about your family, or anyone else you care about, and rethink your analogies. Yours trivializes a LOT of recent loss of life.
No it doesn't. My uncle worked in one of the towers and would have died if he hadn't been taking a plane to the west coast that afternoon. And my brother can see the site from his apartment.
And I say that RIAA is the moral equivalent of the Taliban. Look at their actions. Apply the law. Use RICO to bring them in for treble damages in acts colluding to instill fear and change legal behaviour by peaceful scientists in the USA.
RIAA is a terrorist organization. They survive only thru fear. They force victims to hand over money or they will make them thier next objects. And they live off the hard-earned money of the artists, just as the Taliban lives off the hard-earned money of poor Somalis who wire money home.
Sure sounds the same to me.
And since I've been under fire myself, and know what danger really is, I think I have more claim to call RIAA terrorists. Especially since I've been in units hunting down them before.
Seriously, let's think this thru. RIAA took an action against a specific professor, intending to cow any other educational research of it's illigitimate copy protection methods.
They succeeded in creating terror. Now, even though they "made whole" the professor, no other university or college will permit their researchers from investigating the watermarking techniques, as they will be dragged into court and subjected to aspersions against their institution.
This is what terrorists do. They get people scared it will happen to them.
Thus, RIAA is akin to the Taliban. They try to say "Forget 9-11", but we know they will keep attacking us.
And the judge fails to understand that RIAA should be charged as a terrorist organization threatening the peace and prosperity of American researchers.
Seriously. I wrote a lot of public domain code a while back, that I found in many systems later on.
And then for some of my political software work, I used the Freeware for Feminists license - basically free, so long as the user was sympathetic with a feminist cause, and not granted for anti-feminist usage. Kind of viral, but I did make a splash screen and gave out source code with the compiled code.
I don't see what's wrong with friends. Seems to me like it's a modern, wholesome, realistic portrayal of a New York City where people of color are never around in any capacity.
They have people of color in NYC?!? Man, how did I miss that!
Next thing you know you'll be telling me that each non-human character on Futurama represents an ethnic stereotype, and that Leela is really J.Lo done up for anime...
I guess I missed some of the latest ST films, which doesn't say much about them being good, since I'm a cinefile on a grand scale.
My first reaction to the script review and other details is: How Last Century.
I'm going to go out on a limb here and say that this probably won't be as good as some of the current Enterprise episodes are, which is a shame, cause I quite like the Enterprise series.
Wrong. The constitution and it's amendments (such as free speech) will always trump any law passed by Congress, excepting a constitutional amendment.
They will pry my right to delete useless files from my hands when they kill me. Just as I can describe DeCSS under free speech, I can delete files, I can rip pages out of manuals I don't need, and I can tear pages out of magazines that are useless ads.
Nothing can prevent me from using my constitutional rights as an American citizen. No law may be passed to do such, lest it be as a full constitutional amendment by the 50 states and Congress and Senate. Nothing.
I'm sorry, maybe I'm clueless, but how is "clicking on a program and dragging it into the Trash" modifying the software.
When I buy a book, it has 560 pages. I don't like a page I rip it out. I do this with my magazines all the time. I do this with my software all the time - I rip out Help and other useless space wasters and get a lean system.
You will take away my right to delete when you remove the chip from my brain!
Slashdot Mirror
change the ticker symbol from LNUX to VSFT?
No, they'll change it to VINV - VA Is Not VA.
Now that would be appropriate.
[got one VA Research box and one VA Linux box at home]
I've got a box that says VA Research, I've got a box that says VA Linux. Same company.
So now it's VA Software. Only difference is now I can buy a box from someone else.
It's a shame, cause those are nice boxes. But that's all they are - boxes.
The good news is VA is still around, which in this industry is something to cheer about. Just like my now being able to order Mandrake 8.1 with The Sims in a bundle, and cut the legs out from under Microsoft.
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OK, let me see now:
1. linking a company's website (standard link):
totally bogus claim by KPMG - serves them right for our reaction.
2. linking deep into a company's website (deep link): totally bogus claim by KPMG - serves them right for our reaction.
3. storing the company song on your own website - ok, sorry guys, this is piracy. It's their song, it's even copyright, they can ask you to remove it. But they can't stop you from linking to it, just storing it on your website.
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This story doesn't have a fairy-tale ending. I lasted 2 semesters and got kicked out, eventually coming enough out of the hole to apply at the New School in New York City and get a job. It's like being an alcoholic. Yes, I still play games, but spend a good portion of the time trying to avoid sitting in front of my computer. Every once in awhile I regress, stay up all night with Deus Ex or what have you, and seriously regret it in the morning.
Join the club. Got kicked out of SFU after three terms myself for much the same reason. Took going into the military to really turn myself around. That plus getting involved with a woman who really clicked - a lot easier to resist when you have your other basic needs met.
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Find something else to do for a couple hours out of the day. Maybe exercise. Maybe read a book. Hell, take up drinking and go to a bar. Leave the game alone a while just to make sure that there's not something else out there you're missing.
Actually, in my personal experience, sex works best. Constant frequent sex with a partner of the appropriate gender for you. And a little food and alcohol thrown in at times.
Fight fire with flamethrowers.
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Usually, game addiction is most prevelent in people who have no previously existing social context in an area other than thru gaming.
... burning down the house!
One of the reasons I first became a game developer, in the 80s, was that I had become addicted to gaming (RPGs mostly).
So we see it pop up more in people who gain socialization thru LAN parties, and especially when they go to a new High School or College where they have few friends who are not in the gaming community.
However, it's not an addiction that's easy to kick. Usually it can be solved by other more powerful drives (getting into a long-term relationship is one of the best), but in practice you may need to move away and not socialize with other game addicts and take up other interests if you wish to break the cycle.
My favorite view of it is what happens in The Sims at a LAN party
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If they don't have Linux, but wish they did, get them the Mandrake Linux 8.1 bundle with The Sims.
If they do have Linux, then get the Linux version of The Sims.
If they don't have Linux and like Windows. Umm. OK, they're probably relatives or something, you can't choose those. Then, get them The Sims Hot Date.
If they don't have a computer, get them a GameCube or a Sony PS2. And have another relative get a game for them with that.
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Until it fully supports Exchange Server, it'll never be a serious competitor to Outlook.
I know, but they had to disable the automatic viral scripting features. For some reason, a few of the Outlook users think that's a bug, and not a feature.
-
The article's talking about a system that's being trialed on one small-time CD. To try to stop your whining whenever a new system's developed, the RIAA are labelling the disks, and offering returns if they don't work on your system.
It's not just one CD, it's an entire label, according to the article I read on the business wire.
Unless you know something I don't.
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Good point, it wouldn't qualify as virus code, but is deliberately defective audio data.
Couldn't they be charge under the Consumer Protection Act? I remember reading about it in High School in British Columbia - as I recall, Canada has stronger consumer protections than the US, and the DCMA was never passed in Canada so far as I know.
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once you are it why not go to the local newspapers as well? that's gonna hurt the most!
Oh, sorry, you'd think I'd have remembered that one. But that can take more time.
Add it as the last step, after you've initiated all the other ones.
And it's ok to only get partway down the list - every action is a good one to take, and you don't have to do all of them to have an impact.
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If you have a credit card, insist on speaking to the manager. Insist on a full credit reversal or you will deny the charge on your credit card.
Then, if they balk, report them to BBB, your state attorney general (misleading advertising), and the FTC.
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Ah. So if you have an iMac at home, pop the CD in, and since it doesn't work, return it to the store for a full refund. Make sure you use a credit card, and insist on a full reversal, including sales tax.
If they balk, talk to the manager, point out you will reverse the charges with the credit card company. If they balk, reverse the charges.
Then report them to your state attorney general (on the web) and the FTC (on the web).
There's justice - and there's revenge. Revenge is best served cold. In heaping spoonfuls.
-
Not if you bought it with a credit card and kept the receipt.
Take it back to the store that sold it and insist on a full reversal of the charges, including sales tax.
Do not accept in-store credit.
If they balk, see the manager.
Point out you will phone the credit card company to reverse the charges if they don't make you whole forthwith. Today.
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Under the Electronic Privacy Act, I thought there was something that said you can't sell software with virus code in it.
This is virus code.
Sue them, as a True Canadian.
And have a Molson's on me!
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First, use a credit card. Keep the receipt and the packaging.
Second, take it home. Do not play it on a standard CD player. Play it on your home PC, your MP3/CD player, something likely to not work "flawlessly".
Third, since it failed to work there - take it back to the store. Insist on a full credit card reversal of charges, including sales tax. If they balk, deny the charges via Visa or Mastercard. Point out that you will do this. Ask to see the manager at the first sign of hesitation. Do not accept an in-store credit or partial refund.
Fourth, file a complaint with your State Attorney General for misleading business practices. Use the info from the insert slip that you copied down when you bought it. Each of these must be investigated as attempted consumer fraud. Which they are. You can't sell shoddy or imperfect goods as if they were standard goods, and unless the ADVERTISEMENT pointed that out in large letters, they have committed an implicit fraud on you the innocent buyer.
Fifth, file with the FTC under the same claim.
Sixth, sue them in small claims court for time and trouble, travel expense (36 cents per mile to and from), postage, and any other expenses.
Seventh, send an email to the execs of the record company who did this.
Eighth, send a postcard to the artist who had their music polluted. Point out you will never buy their music again, you are so offended.
Ninth, have a merry christmas!
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Think about your family, or anyone else you care about, and rethink your analogies. Yours trivializes a LOT of recent loss of life.
No it doesn't. My uncle worked in one of the towers and would have died if he hadn't been taking a plane to the west coast that afternoon. And my brother can see the site from his apartment.
And I say that RIAA is the moral equivalent of the Taliban. Look at their actions. Apply the law. Use RICO to bring them in for treble damages in acts colluding to instill fear and change legal behaviour by peaceful scientists in the USA.
RIAA is a terrorist organization. They survive only thru fear. They force victims to hand over money or they will make them thier next objects. And they live off the hard-earned money of the artists, just as the Taliban lives off the hard-earned money of poor Somalis who wire money home.
Sure sounds the same to me.
And since I've been under fire myself, and know what danger really is, I think I have more claim to call RIAA terrorists. Especially since I've been in units hunting down them before.
-
Seriously, let's think this thru. RIAA took an action against a specific professor, intending to cow any other educational research of it's illigitimate copy protection methods.
They succeeded in creating terror. Now, even though they "made whole" the professor, no other university or college will permit their researchers from investigating the watermarking techniques, as they will be dragged into court and subjected to aspersions against their institution.
This is what terrorists do. They get people scared it will happen to them.
Thus, RIAA is akin to the Taliban. They try to say "Forget 9-11", but we know they will keep attacking us.
And the judge fails to understand that RIAA should be charged as a terrorist organization threatening the peace and prosperity of American researchers.
-
Seriously. I wrote a lot of public domain code a while back, that I found in many systems later on.
And then for some of my political software work, I used the Freeware for Feminists license - basically free, so long as the user was sympathetic with a feminist cause, and not granted for anti-feminist usage. Kind of viral, but I did make a splash screen and gave out source code with the compiled code.
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Trash is violating DMCA. You can use it to bypass copyright protection...
No, the DCMA violates my constitutional rights. The constitution trumps everything.
And I can trash any file I darned well want, with the possible exception of the license file itself.
Noone can take away my right to delete code. They will remove my trash can from my cold dead hands.
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I don't see what's wrong with friends. Seems to me like it's a modern, wholesome, realistic portrayal of a New York City where people of color are never around in any capacity.
...
They have people of color in NYC?!? Man, how did I miss that!
Next thing you know you'll be telling me that each non-human character on Futurama represents an ethnic stereotype, and that Leela is really J.Lo done up for anime
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I guess I missed some of the latest ST films, which doesn't say much about them being good, since I'm a cinefile on a grand scale.
My first reaction to the script review and other details is: How Last Century.
I'm going to go out on a limb here and say that this probably won't be as good as some of the current Enterprise episodes are, which is a shame, cause I quite like the Enterprise series.
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It would be easier.
And if I go to a sports game, I'm on camera.
And if I drive on the freeway, I'm on camera.
And if I go to a govt agency, I'm on camera.
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Wrong. The constitution and it's amendments (such as free speech) will always trump any law passed by Congress, excepting a constitutional amendment.
They will pry my right to delete useless files from my hands when they kill me. Just as I can describe DeCSS under free speech, I can delete files, I can rip pages out of manuals I don't need, and I can tear pages out of magazines that are useless ads.
Nothing can prevent me from using my constitutional rights as an American citizen. No law may be passed to do such, lest it be as a full constitutional amendment by the 50 states and Congress and Senate. Nothing.
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I'm sorry, maybe I'm clueless, but how is "clicking on a program and dragging it into the Trash" modifying the software.
When I buy a book, it has 560 pages. I don't like a page I rip it out. I do this with my magazines all the time. I do this with my software all the time - I rip out Help and other useless space wasters and get a lean system.
You will take away my right to delete when you remove the chip from my brain!
-