Pretty much. Doesn't matter if you're legally right or ethically right. Cut off the roommate and make him get his own internet connection. Problem solved.
Years ago, I bought a Counterstrike Anthology because my new roommate was addicted and wanted me to play. I bought the physical media and was forced to install the Valve client to activate it. I played maybe 20 hours then forgot about it. Tried to play again a year or two later and my account was locked. Jumped thru the hoops like a good dog (write this code next to the activation code for your game and take a picture of it) and they reactivated my account but never explained why it was shut off in the firs place. Again, a few hours of play then I got bored with it. Another year or so later, they gave away a free copy of Portal. Fired up the Steam client and my account was locked AGAIN. So I jumped through the hoops again and got my account reactivated with no explanation.
That's twice I've been locked out of my content with no warning or explanation and that was an account I was forced to create in order to play a game I bought on physical media in a Brick-n-Mortar store. I'm definitely not a fan of the way Valve/Steam treats its customers.
OTOH, it's the Wave of the Future(tm)(r)(c). This is the way content will be delivered and this process is still in its Wild West phase. The sad reality is that things won't settle down until enough precedent-setting cases have made their way through the court system. The sellers of content think that they can sell you a revokable license and cut off your access to the content at any time for any reason they want. You know it's bullshit and I know it's bullshit but, until it's declared to be bullshit by SCotUS, we're at their mercy.
The shitty part is that there are almost no games being published today that aren't subject to some sort of remote kill switch. Even if you're holding a DVD-ROM in your hand, you'll need to be connected to the internet to get your installation blessed (authorized) during the installation at the very least. Likely every time you launch the game as well. Sometimes constant authentication is required. Even for single-player games. But at least "they" can only revoke access to a single key at a time if you go that route.
Or you can get a bottom-end eMachines dual core 15.4" laptop for $230. It ain't fancy but, unlike the article's $200 desktop, it includes monitor, optical drive, input devices, and even a UPS. And it comes with an operating system that will have support for or be supported by whatever peripherals or software the user wants to add without having to call their weird nephew for help.
"alternative high school". Those are dumping ground for kids on probation. I know teachers in that field and the first thought that would go through their heads is "stolen". The kids don't end up there for being honest or trustworthy.
Where do you people get the idea that it was broken or that she repaired it or paid to have it repaired? The seller claimed it was "messed up" as part of his justification for the low price. Maybe. That's what SHE claims. Even if he did say it, that doesn't mean it's true. He also said it was his to sell and we know that was a lie. The "messed up" claim is part of HER justification for the low price. Absolutely no proof of any kind that it had any basis in reality.
How broken could it be if the tracking software was still intact and functioning while she was using it? Do you think they re-loaded and configured the tracking software during the repair? And it doesn't make any sense for her to buy a broken laptop if she didn't have the skills to repair it herself. Any visit to a repair shop is going to push the price beyond the price of a brand new low-end laptop. If she did have the skills to do the repairs herself, she would have been (should have been) smart enough to wipe the drive and load a fresh copy of the operating system without the tracking software.
The whole "it was broken" think is a red herring with no evidence to back it up and plenty to contradict it.
TFA said nothing about it _needing_ repair. The seller claimed it was "messed up" and his parents had given him a new laptop but we already know he's lying because he's presenting the stolen laptop as his own property. The teacher was clearly able to use it without much repair work because the theft-recovery software was still installed and functioning. I have no trouble believing that she was either aware that it was stolen or she thought she was taking advantage of the student by getting an incredible deal. It's downright shady and gets even worse when you factor in the school's "alternative" status. She should have known the deal wasn't kosher and she should have been glad to dodge the bullet when the charges against her were dropped. (You know, the whole "receiving stolen property" thing.) She's trying to make this into a "righteous anger" thing but anyone with two brain cells to rub together knows there's nothing righteous in her involvement.
Pretty much came here to say the same thing. There is no way a reasonable person would think that there wasn't something fishy about buying a working laptop from one of their students for $60. Especially when you work at an "alternative high school". That's feel-good code for a school that has a student body made up of juvenile delinquents. I know a few teachers in that career path and none of them would be dumb enough to buy anything at all from their students. If one of them tried, they'd say, "Dude, don't bring your stolen shit to school. Do it again and we'll be having a talk with your PO."
Either she was trying to take advantage of the student by purchasing a laptop at 1/4 to 1/3 of its actual value (I'm guessing it was one of those $250 specials or a couple years old) or she assumed she was a step or two removed from the actual theft. Or she's too naive to be working with a bunch of little thugs.
I'm too lazy to do the research but $1000 is probably a greater percentage of the reporter's net worth than the million is a percentage of Musk's net worth. (Yeah, that's horrible grammar but I'm too lazy to fix it.)
Yeah, but gaming rigs are hitting the plateau that office PCs hit years ago. I'm still running a pair of GTX 260 video cards from back in the day and an old quad-core AMD processor and I can max out the graphics quality settings on most games no problem at 1920x1080. That's going to be true for just about ever PC game as long as publishers are cranking out the same titles for both PC and consoles. I could build a new gaming rig with killer specs but it wouldn't make my games any better. Maybe if I wanted to set up a triple-head 30" display combo but that'd really be pushing for an excuse to spend money.
People are going to buy what works for them. The over-40 crowd at my last company loved ipads for traveling. The fact that a cheaper laptop could do all the same things and much more was irrelevant. The ipad had their two killer apps. Email and surfing. And it's dead-simple. Press a button and it's on instantly. Press an icon and email's running. Press the first button again and it's off. No startup. No 30 second grind for Outlook to fire up and get its bearings. No shutdown. Don't even have to close the application first.
For me, the ideal portable (as of a 5 or 6 months ago, when I bought it) is Acer's 11.6" TimelineX. i7 processor, 500 gig drive, 4 gigs of ram, 6+ hours of real-world use on a charge, 3 pounds. Is that an ultrabook? If so, you've now heard from one person who's excited about this type of portable computer. [Checks entartubes] Ah. So my system is almost a proof-of-concept for the ultrabooks. A thicker, slightly heavier version. Now that I've looked, I can confirm that I am indeed excited about ultrabooks. Probably not excited enough to retire my TimelineX early but, if I was still rocking my Atom netbook, I'd be ready to buy one in a heartbeat.
That's what I'm wondering unless they're talking about the outer boroughs or something. I'm working on a plan to spend 6-8 months in NYC and the plan for my car is to park it in a garage in the sticks and use it for a day trip once a month to keep the battery charged and fluids moving. If I was planning to live there indefinitely, I'd just sell the car.
Actually, I think the bandwidth is pretty darn high. 6mbps is pretty impressive given the distance. I had no idea they could pump data that fast between planets.
What part of "grandfathered in" is difficult to understand? Back in the before time, unlimited really was unlimited for in-phone use. My plan is about 2 years old and I have two data metering sections on my bill. "UNLIMITED MEGABYTE ALLOW" which shows "xxxx KB/Unlimited" usage and "5GB $.05MB TETHER W/VOICE" which shows "xxxx KB/5242880 KB" usage. Tethering only comes into play when connecting a computer via USB using Verizon's connection software.
When I upgrade my phone, I'll be able to keep that unlimited in-phone data plan. People who signed up after July 7, 2011 are the ones who got hosed with that 5 gig hard cap on phone data.
I'm just gonna point out that we've already read this book. Centralized computing was the wave of the future decades ago and look what happened. The mainframe age came and went. Computing power shifted from central servers to departmental servers and desktops. Now we're going back to the mainframe model on a larger scale, consolidating computing power and resources in central locations with dumb terminals in userland. In 10-20 years, the corporate hive-mind will want control back from The Cloud and power will shift back to their own private systems.
Yeah. This decision actually makes sense. And California's state sales tax just dropped by 1%. And their vehicle license fees were cut almost in half. Did Alan Funt rise from the dead or something?
Seriously, tho, the decision makes sense. In this day of cloud computing and redundant data centers, it could be hard to tell just where your active data is residing at any given time. Okay, it's still pretty easy right now but ten years from now, it won't be such an easy thing to know.
Ya know, I dislike DRM as much as the next guy (actually way more than most next guys since I know what it is and what it represents) but, at some point, you're just going to have to get over it and remove the DRM from whatever you decide to purchase. Once a DRM scheme is standardized, The Man is locked into a specific method of protection which can be easily bypassed.
1) DRM exists and it's not going away any time soon. What the smart consumer wants is fast adoption within the industry so hackers can get busy making tools to circumvent the chosen "protection" ASAP. Removing the DRM from my ePub purchases takes all of several seconds per title. After that, I can use Calibre to convert it to any format I want so I can move it to new platforms in the future. Beats the hell out of refusing to move forward because the path isn't laid out exactly the way I want.
2) If you don't mind pirating, you can find just about every popular book available online for free. The lack of popular titles in online storefronts is the fault of back-asswards publishers who think they're selling paper rather than content. If they won't pull their heads out, buy a paperback copy and download a pirated version. At least the author is still getting their miniscule cut of the action if you do that. I've even found a few particularly popular titles which have better pirated ebooks than legitimate ebooks because fans have taken the time to do a good job with the layout.
3) Layout is something you'll have to take up with the publishers. Until they pull their heads out, there will be problems in this area. Also, the current generation of dedicated book readers don't have the pixel density necessary to properly simulate a printed page. Until you start seeing pixel counts that match what you get on a laser printer, it will be difficult to create ebooks that look as good as the printed versions without significantly reducing the amount of content on the page. The FORMAT is not the problem. It's the lack of effort put into creating a proper LAYOUT that looks good on the available readers. All of the major formats are quite capable of being used to present a quality reading experience when an effort is made to design a presentation that is tailored to the output device. Shit in, shit out. It doesn't matter what format publishers use if they don't make a proper effort to create a layout that looks good on the final output device.
Also, DRM doesn't have a darn thing to do with being "open". All sorts of "open" projects involve encryption and access controls. I don't know where people get the idea that a project or product can't be considered open if it involves controlling data access and distribution.
Slashdot Mirror
Let's ask Mr. Owl!
...is successful.
Yeah, because distribution is always restricted to a 100 mile radius of the vendor's location.
Pretty much. Doesn't matter if you're legally right or ethically right. Cut off the roommate and make him get his own internet connection. Problem solved.
I agree. I used to listen to audiobooks while commuting and found music and sound effects distracting in the few titles that had it.
Right now if you've got the $$$. Don't expect to find it at Newegg, tho.
Years ago, I bought a Counterstrike Anthology because my new roommate was addicted and wanted me to play. I bought the physical media and was forced to install the Valve client to activate it. I played maybe 20 hours then forgot about it. Tried to play again a year or two later and my account was locked. Jumped thru the hoops like a good dog (write this code next to the activation code for your game and take a picture of it) and they reactivated my account but never explained why it was shut off in the firs place. Again, a few hours of play then I got bored with it. Another year or so later, they gave away a free copy of Portal. Fired up the Steam client and my account was locked AGAIN. So I jumped through the hoops again and got my account reactivated with no explanation.
That's twice I've been locked out of my content with no warning or explanation and that was an account I was forced to create in order to play a game I bought on physical media in a Brick-n-Mortar store. I'm definitely not a fan of the way Valve/Steam treats its customers.
OTOH, it's the Wave of the Future(tm)(r)(c). This is the way content will be delivered and this process is still in its Wild West phase. The sad reality is that things won't settle down until enough precedent-setting cases have made their way through the court system. The sellers of content think that they can sell you a revokable license and cut off your access to the content at any time for any reason they want. You know it's bullshit and I know it's bullshit but, until it's declared to be bullshit by SCotUS, we're at their mercy.
The shitty part is that there are almost no games being published today that aren't subject to some sort of remote kill switch. Even if you're holding a DVD-ROM in your hand, you'll need to be connected to the internet to get your installation blessed (authorized) during the installation at the very least. Likely every time you launch the game as well. Sometimes constant authentication is required. Even for single-player games. But at least "they" can only revoke access to a single key at a time if you go that route.
Or you can get a bottom-end eMachines dual core 15.4" laptop for $230. It ain't fancy but, unlike the article's $200 desktop, it includes monitor, optical drive, input devices, and even a UPS. And it comes with an operating system that will have support for or be supported by whatever peripherals or software the user wants to add without having to call their weird nephew for help.
Just use whatever presentation would be appropriate for your board of directors. Maybe bump it up a notch or two so the kids don't feel insulted.
I keed! I keed! I know a lowly programmer would never be permitted to speak to board members.
What's your problem? You act like I broke into your house and pissed on your sofa. I didn't call you names.
"alternative high school". Those are dumping ground for kids on probation. I know teachers in that field and the first thought that would go through their heads is "stolen". The kids don't end up there for being honest or trustworthy.
Where do you people get the idea that it was broken or that she repaired it or paid to have it repaired? The seller claimed it was "messed up" as part of his justification for the low price. Maybe. That's what SHE claims. Even if he did say it, that doesn't mean it's true. He also said it was his to sell and we know that was a lie. The "messed up" claim is part of HER justification for the low price. Absolutely no proof of any kind that it had any basis in reality.
How broken could it be if the tracking software was still intact and functioning while she was using it? Do you think they re-loaded and configured the tracking software during the repair? And it doesn't make any sense for her to buy a broken laptop if she didn't have the skills to repair it herself. Any visit to a repair shop is going to push the price beyond the price of a brand new low-end laptop. If she did have the skills to do the repairs herself, she would have been (should have been) smart enough to wipe the drive and load a fresh copy of the operating system without the tracking software.
The whole "it was broken" think is a red herring with no evidence to back it up and plenty to contradict it.
TFA said nothing about it _needing_ repair. The seller claimed it was "messed up" and his parents had given him a new laptop but we already know he's lying because he's presenting the stolen laptop as his own property. The teacher was clearly able to use it without much repair work because the theft-recovery software was still installed and functioning. I have no trouble believing that she was either aware that it was stolen or she thought she was taking advantage of the student by getting an incredible deal. It's downright shady and gets even worse when you factor in the school's "alternative" status. She should have known the deal wasn't kosher and she should have been glad to dodge the bullet when the charges against her were dropped. (You know, the whole "receiving stolen property" thing.) She's trying to make this into a "righteous anger" thing but anyone with two brain cells to rub together knows there's nothing righteous in her involvement.
Pretty much came here to say the same thing. There is no way a reasonable person would think that there wasn't something fishy about buying a working laptop from one of their students for $60. Especially when you work at an "alternative high school". That's feel-good code for a school that has a student body made up of juvenile delinquents. I know a few teachers in that career path and none of them would be dumb enough to buy anything at all from their students. If one of them tried, they'd say, "Dude, don't bring your stolen shit to school. Do it again and we'll be having a talk with your PO."
Either she was trying to take advantage of the student by purchasing a laptop at 1/4 to 1/3 of its actual value (I'm guessing it was one of those $250 specials or a couple years old) or she assumed she was a step or two removed from the actual theft. Or she's too naive to be working with a bunch of little thugs.
Hell, I'm too lazy to _drive_ that far.
I'm too lazy to do the research but $1000 is probably a greater percentage of the reporter's net worth than the million is a percentage of Musk's net worth. (Yeah, that's horrible grammar but I'm too lazy to fix it.)
Yeah, but gaming rigs are hitting the plateau that office PCs hit years ago. I'm still running a pair of GTX 260 video cards from back in the day and an old quad-core AMD processor and I can max out the graphics quality settings on most games no problem at 1920x1080. That's going to be true for just about ever PC game as long as publishers are cranking out the same titles for both PC and consoles. I could build a new gaming rig with killer specs but it wouldn't make my games any better. Maybe if I wanted to set up a triple-head 30" display combo but that'd really be pushing for an excuse to spend money.
People are going to buy what works for them. The over-40 crowd at my last company loved ipads for traveling. The fact that a cheaper laptop could do all the same things and much more was irrelevant. The ipad had their two killer apps. Email and surfing. And it's dead-simple. Press a button and it's on instantly. Press an icon and email's running. Press the first button again and it's off. No startup. No 30 second grind for Outlook to fire up and get its bearings. No shutdown. Don't even have to close the application first.
For me, the ideal portable (as of a 5 or 6 months ago, when I bought it) is Acer's 11.6" TimelineX. i7 processor, 500 gig drive, 4 gigs of ram, 6+ hours of real-world use on a charge, 3 pounds. Is that an ultrabook? If so, you've now heard from one person who's excited about this type of portable computer. [Checks entartubes] Ah. So my system is almost a proof-of-concept for the ultrabooks. A thicker, slightly heavier version. Now that I've looked, I can confirm that I am indeed excited about ultrabooks. Probably not excited enough to retire my TimelineX early but, if I was still rocking my Atom netbook, I'd be ready to buy one in a heartbeat.
That's what I'm wondering unless they're talking about the outer boroughs or something. I'm working on a plan to spend 6-8 months in NYC and the plan for my car is to park it in a garage in the sticks and use it for a day trip once a month to keep the battery charged and fluids moving. If I was planning to live there indefinitely, I'd just sell the car.
Actually, I think the bandwidth is pretty darn high. 6mbps is pretty impressive given the distance. I had no idea they could pump data that fast between planets.
What part of "grandfathered in" is difficult to understand? Back in the before time, unlimited really was unlimited for in-phone use. My plan is about 2 years old and I have two data metering sections on my bill. "UNLIMITED MEGABYTE ALLOW" which shows "xxxx KB/Unlimited" usage and "5GB $.05MB TETHER W/VOICE" which shows "xxxx KB/5242880 KB" usage. Tethering only comes into play when connecting a computer via USB using Verizon's connection software.
When I upgrade my phone, I'll be able to keep that unlimited in-phone data plan. People who signed up after July 7, 2011 are the ones who got hosed with that 5 gig hard cap on phone data.
I'm just gonna point out that we've already read this book. Centralized computing was the wave of the future decades ago and look what happened. The mainframe age came and went. Computing power shifted from central servers to departmental servers and desktops. Now we're going back to the mainframe model on a larger scale, consolidating computing power and resources in central locations with dumb terminals in userland. In 10-20 years, the corporate hive-mind will want control back from The Cloud and power will shift back to their own private systems.
So am I a right bastard for wondering how long it will be before a fleshlight attachment is developed?
Yeah. This decision actually makes sense. And California's state sales tax just dropped by 1%. And their vehicle license fees were cut almost in half. Did Alan Funt rise from the dead or something?
Seriously, tho, the decision makes sense. In this day of cloud computing and redundant data centers, it could be hard to tell just where your active data is residing at any given time. Okay, it's still pretty easy right now but ten years from now, it won't be such an easy thing to know.
Ya know, I dislike DRM as much as the next guy (actually way more than most next guys since I know what it is and what it represents) but, at some point, you're just going to have to get over it and remove the DRM from whatever you decide to purchase. Once a DRM scheme is standardized, The Man is locked into a specific method of protection which can be easily bypassed.
1) DRM exists and it's not going away any time soon. What the smart consumer wants is fast adoption within the industry so hackers can get busy making tools to circumvent the chosen "protection" ASAP. Removing the DRM from my ePub purchases takes all of several seconds per title. After that, I can use Calibre to convert it to any format I want so I can move it to new platforms in the future. Beats the hell out of refusing to move forward because the path isn't laid out exactly the way I want.
2) If you don't mind pirating, you can find just about every popular book available online for free. The lack of popular titles in online storefronts is the fault of back-asswards publishers who think they're selling paper rather than content. If they won't pull their heads out, buy a paperback copy and download a pirated version. At least the author is still getting their miniscule cut of the action if you do that. I've even found a few particularly popular titles which have better pirated ebooks than legitimate ebooks because fans have taken the time to do a good job with the layout.
3) Layout is something you'll have to take up with the publishers. Until they pull their heads out, there will be problems in this area. Also, the current generation of dedicated book readers don't have the pixel density necessary to properly simulate a printed page. Until you start seeing pixel counts that match what you get on a laser printer, it will be difficult to create ebooks that look as good as the printed versions without significantly reducing the amount of content on the page. The FORMAT is not the problem. It's the lack of effort put into creating a proper LAYOUT that looks good on the available readers. All of the major formats are quite capable of being used to present a quality reading experience when an effort is made to design a presentation that is tailored to the output device. Shit in, shit out. It doesn't matter what format publishers use if they don't make a proper effort to create a layout that looks good on the final output device.
Also, DRM doesn't have a darn thing to do with being "open". All sorts of "open" projects involve encryption and access controls. I don't know where people get the idea that a project or product can't be considered open if it involves controlling data access and distribution.