You see, there's a problem with your theory. First, email isn't that reliable in the first place. Second, if you're recieiving enough spam, you are likely to delete ham inadvertantly anyway. The best fiters are actually more accurate than manual sorting.
The suspend and sleep features are fairly crappy for Windows; at least not on par with Mac.
I used to use the sleep feature on my Win laptop (used to travel around and install and configure routers and such) and it's fine for a few awakenings but you can't keep a bunch of apps loaded without the system being buggy. I eventually would reboot in the morning and load the essential before venturing out and do it daily. Daily reboots that is.
My Mac has gone months without reboots and might add that it is operational within 2 seconds of opening the lid. I've only manually rebooted when it was time for security related patches that affected me. One thing that I use Windows for is the USB to serial for a console port which is why I use both platforms.
My Windows Laptop has been going for weeks without problems. When it's not suspended, it's hibernated (suspend-to-disk). Not once has it ever failed to resume (except for the time that it ran out of battery power beecause I forgot about it for 6 days).
My Windows Laptop resumes in about 2.5 seconds. My friend's PowerBook G4 takes about twice as long. And, yes, I tested this while writing this post.
You see, the thing about anecdotal evidince is that it's not reliabile.
If Vista does require this, and I hear someone turn on their laptop with "welcome to Windows Vista!", I'm going to throw their laptop out a window, no pun intended.
That's not a pun, it's hyperbole. And I certainly hope that you did intend it to be hyperbole, because if you did anything like that to me, I'd sure as hell be filing charges against you for property damage.
Of course, my laptop never has that problem - Windows persists mixer settings accross reboots, unlike, say, Ubuntu 6.06.
In part 4, it is brought up that a theoretical solar power plant 100 miles long by 100 miles wide in the Mojave desert would cover 100% of U.S. energy demands. This is using existing technology and under existing energy standards. You wouldn't even need to change bulbs!
That's 2.59 * 10^10 m^2. At approximately $600 per square meter, that's 15.5 TRILLION dollars - and that's not even including installation, grid integration (inverters, etc.), and other costs and efficency losses.
This sheet may prove helpful. In summary, CFLs prevent enough mercury emissions (from coal power) to offset their own mercury content. A typical CFL contains 4mg of mercury, over 100x less than a typical thermometer and almost 1000x less than the mercury switches frequently used in older thermostats.
Yes, recycling programs are in place in many areas. But you have to understand that CFL bulbs contain a minimal quantity of mercury. One statistic I saw indicated that a CFL reduced mercury pollution (from coal power) enough to offset the quantity that it contained when it was disposed of.
Clearly, understanding the environmental impact of the whole process is essential. That's why I am selective in what I recycle (many products actually require more energy to recycle than to produce from raw materials; others, such as aluminum and steel, have huge energy benefits). It's why I take the "dirty" bus rather than driving a "clean" hybrid (don't get me wrong - hybrids are a great step forward, but they still use immense amounts of energy). It's why every bulb I own is a CFL and why my computer draws under 60W at idle.
Here's a point: ALL Mac OS X sales are upgrades because Mac OS X only runs on Macs which were already preloaded with OS X in the first place.
Here's another point: Most people get their copy of Windows preloaded on a system. OEMs don't pay anywhere near retail for Windows XP. Windows XP Home, for example, is around $85-$90 for OEM System Builders and about 1/2 that for the big tier-1 OEMs.
Meanwhile, T-Mobile is deploying UMA in the US this fall. And most Americans don't even know what a SIM is (considering that 2/3 of our phones use CDMA, that's not a surprise).
We have a choice of standards hare in the US, and people are choosing CDMA over GSM.
Understanding human speech is quite difficult. Directory assistance requires the computer to parse pretty much arbitrary words, which is the most difficult task in understanding speech--you have an entire lexicon and can't weight any set of words much.
Yes, although humans are remarkably bad in this regard as well. When was the last time that you tried to read an address to a person over the phone.
The real answer is better online support and better integration. Give me a direct number for what I need. Remember my phone number and let me enter a PIN to access my account. Don't make me tell my info to the person on the phone.
411 is largely obsolote for me, and it should be for everyone else. Why can't we have an app on cellphones that lets you do number lookups (my phone does - it's called Google).
The problem with WOW is simple - Blizzard listened to their fanbase. Too much. Casual players don't spend hours a day complaining on the forums. Many hardcore players do. Thus, any feedback that Blizzard recieves is invariably from the hardcore players.
Of course, hardcore players only represent about 2% of the overall WOW population (look at Census data; only about 10% level 60, and that's slanted because hardcore players are on more often and are thus more likely to be counted).
Blizzard should have been adding more content for lower levels (to increase the replay value of the game) and for casual level-60 players (e.g. more 5-man instances with decent loot). Instead, they add an honor system that is essentially a ranking system, more pointless reputation crap, and instances that are so challenging that only the most hardcore and organized guilds have a chance.
I quit WOW for a lot of reasons, but more than anything else it was because I took one look at 40-man instances and decided that they felt all too much like a second job.
Also IMO, they should add in an auto-level system so that the game can, say, run Deadmines as a higher level dungeon by bumping up the levels of all the monsters. When you enter with your group, the instance would create monsters designed to give you at least a little challenge. (This scheme works in Oblivion; why not put it in an MMO?) That would make it so when you're level 60, you can run any instance in the game and have a good time.
Yes, of course the loot would also have to be modified to make the run useful. Also, it's sometimes fun to "powerrun" lower-level instances (sometimes with random PUGs) and just screw around.
Really, I had more fun in WOW when I was just screwing around with PUGs and doing random quests (and exploring the world) then when I would run instances with the guild. And raiding is even worse - it's far too organized, far too scripted, and far too repetitive to be much fun for long.
Maybe Blizzard believes that running the same instances over and over is fun. For 2% of their population, they may be right. But I think that it would be wiser for Blizz to focus on the 98%. Hardcore or casual, we all pay the same monthly fee.
And any time that someone posts this response I point out this flaw in their logic: IIS6 is more secure than Apache2. IIS6 has had very few known vulnerabilities compared to Apache2.
Also, Mac OS is about 2% of the market. IIS is over 20%. That's an order of magnitude of difference.
It seems to work over here, too - and I have T-Mobile, which is widely regarded as having the worst coverage. You have to understand that coverage is never going to be good with a cellphone in rural Wyoming (excluding major roads), for example, because it's simply not rational to put up a tower that covers 2 houses. Nor should we expect coverage to be perfect in basements, tunnels, and other underground structures, though even here coverage is remarkably good thanks to microcells and repeaters.
You also have to remember that the US has multiple cellular networks on two different technologies (GSM/CDMA2000). This is good because it encourages technology development and lowers prices, but it's bad because we have a large degree of redundancy in terms of coverage. The US has over 140,000 cell sites, many supporting more than one carrier.
Vendor lock-in is a common thing in business. Cable companies have to standardize on SA or Motorola systems. HVAC systems are often proprietary. So are alarm systems. So are airplanes (you can't put a 777 pilot in an A340 unless they are certified for both).
The power supplies I've used (PC supplies) cut out immediately if shorted and need to be unplugged before they will provide any more current.
The Apple supply design is not good. A fault can exist and be undetected by the user for some time, until eventually someone uses their power supply around flammable materials.
Hardcore players stole our game. WoW started as a nice, easy to play, fun and casual game. It had a wonderful world and a lot of fun quests, and a unique style.
Then the hardcore players started complaining. "We reached 60, and there's nothing left to do", they said. They were right. Blizzard game them more. But soon the hardcore players grew tired of the new content, and Blizzard decided to give them even more. And more.
18 months later, WoW is still the same game for 60 players. Yes, there are battlegrounds, and a lot of nice new features, but for the casual player, WoW has never really changed.
See, the problem is that level 60 players represent about 5-10% of the total userbase. Hardcore players who enjoy the high-level content are a fraction of those players. Why should 2% of a userbase get all of the new content?
What do you do when you get to 60 in WoW if you're not a hardcore player? You quit. PvP is no fun when you are playing against opponents who are so much better equipped.
Casual players don't spam the forums with compliants. We don't play the game for hours a day, so we aren't going to invest time in complaining. But we do exist. We are most of the community. But Blizzard has ignored us.
Is WoW a good game for new players? Yes. But there isn't any major new content for casual players than there was when the game was released. WoW, like many games, has low replay value for casual players. And, like all games of its type, it eventually gets old.
Right on. I played WoW (Kel Thuzad, Night Elf Priest) for around 9 months casually (total around 14 days playtime), and I have friends who have essentially "beaten" the endgame (4-6 hours every night since the game shipped, both around 130 days now and in serious raiding guilds).
Around level 52, I got in a casual guild (Legion of Fate), which, over time, became less casual. We started mass recruiting (which is, of course, stupid, since you neither know nor trust the others in your guild). We started running MC weekly.
I hit 60 and started running MC. I stayed in the guild for another month (We got to, but never defeated Rag), until I realized the simple truth: raiding isn't fun. There's nothing fun about being 'locked in' to raids on specific days at specific times. Don't feel like raiding that day? Too bad - most high end raiding guilds have attendence requirements.
What kind of insanity is that? And what is your reward for raiding? Better gear, so that you can do more raiding. Raiding is boring, repetitive, and formulaic. Once you get good enough, it's almost scripted.
The worst part is that good drops are rare. Maybe 3 or 4 per class per raid, if you're lucky. I did 6 or 7 MC runs and got nothing. Absolutely nothing. Not one item. You see, in raids, if you want anything, you need dkp. And you need to raid to get dkp. Thus the problem - to get anything from raiding, you ned to raid a lot. There's no "taking it slow" - if you do, your guild will invariably leave you in the dust. Casual play - or even pseudo-casual (10 hours a week) just isn't an option.
I decided that I didn't want to venture down that path. I have better things to do than raid 20 hours a week. I don't want to have to choose between mising a nighttime review session with a TA (which they are doing for my benefit) or falling behind my guild in dkp. My job never forces me to make that choice - why should a game?
As much as I hate the iPod / iTunes / iTMS monopoly, I have come to realize:
- There is no iPod killer - Even if there were, Zune isn't it
The iPod has what Google has - an excellent product with widespread brand recognition. Unless something else comes out that is significantly better (and, let's be honest, all of the competition to date has been lacking in the features that most users care about), the iPod will be king.
Five minutes on Google would have told you that this is how UAC is supposed to work. "Administrator" accounts are still limited by UAC, but instead of requiring a separate "root" account, UAC allows elevation using your existing credentials.
Anyone who has been flying very often for very long knows:
- Flights have gotten dramatically cheaper in the past few years. With the discount carriers (Southwest) and competition from the big carriers, round-trips under $150 are not uncommon. - Flying is easier than ever. Security has gotten more annoying, but everything else is better. - Gone are the days when you had to go to the counter (or tip a skycap) to check in (even if you don't have checked baggage). - - Gone are the days when you had to wait for your tickets in the mail (or go to the airport or a travel agent). - Gone are the days when you had to spend countless minutes (sometimes hours) in line or on the phone just to book a flight. Today, you can book online easily and get your boarding pass from an easy-check-in kiosk. - There are more flights to more places from more places at more times. Non-stop is the norm if you are in a decently large city.
So, I guess the only real complaints are: - Services have been reduced. No more free meals, for one - often no hot meals at all. But, hey, airplane food was never good, and at least you don't have to pay for headphones anymore. And, if it lowers my fares more, I'm all for cutting the frils. - Security takes longer. It's always been a joke, it still is, and I suspect that it always will be. Guess what, though? It's standardized now, so you know what to expect, and the inspectors are paid better, so they usually aren't asleep on the job. In a well-managed airport (e.g. Denver), the lines are short or nonexistant during off hours, reasonable during normal times, and acceptable during peak hours.
So, air travel is available to more people than ever before, and it's easier than ever in most regards. I think that you can put your toothpaste in your checked luggage.
Funny how an optional addon to a console is compared to something that is forced upon users.
If you want a 360 to play games, it's $300 - every 360 game works on the $300 core system. If you want to play PS3 games, even if you don't care about playing movies or anything else, it's a minimum of $500.
Most people didn't even buy a PS2 for $300 - they waited for the $200 unit. Expecting gamers to pay $500 is a bit excessive.
now if file versioning was in Linux natively, or Windows, or OS/2, or the Amiga, or some other desktop operating system like BeOS I'd think you'd have a point
Windows Vista has native file versioning, and it has been working in the betas for some time now.
Having actually worked in many of the campaigns in my area (northern CO), I can confirm that we used real volunteers in addition to (openly) paid staffers. Paid staffers pretending to be volunteers may exist, but they are certainly not the norm in my area.
Slashdot Mirror
You see, there's a problem with your theory. First, email isn't that reliable in the first place. Second, if you're recieiving enough spam, you are likely to delete ham inadvertantly anyway. The best fiters are actually more accurate than manual sorting.
1st reason - This is also true on Windows, including Windows Vista.
2nd reason - Sleep works on Windows as well. Perhaps you should try it some time.
The suspend and sleep features are fairly crappy for Windows; at least not on par with Mac.
I used to use the sleep feature on my Win laptop (used to travel around and install and configure routers and such) and it's fine for a few awakenings but you can't keep a bunch of apps loaded without the system being buggy. I eventually would reboot in the morning and load the essential before venturing out and do it daily. Daily reboots that is.
My Mac has gone months without reboots and might add that it is operational within 2 seconds of opening the lid. I've only manually rebooted when it was time for security related patches that affected me. One thing that I use Windows for is the USB to serial for a console port which is why I use both platforms.
My Windows Laptop has been going for weeks without problems. When it's not suspended, it's hibernated (suspend-to-disk). Not once has it ever failed to resume (except for the time that it ran out of battery power beecause I forgot about it for 6 days).
My Windows Laptop resumes in about 2.5 seconds. My friend's PowerBook G4 takes about twice as long. And, yes, I tested this while writing this post.
You see, the thing about anecdotal evidince is that it's not reliabile.
If Vista does require this, and I hear someone turn on their laptop with "welcome to Windows Vista!", I'm going to throw their laptop out a window, no pun intended.
That's not a pun, it's hyperbole. And I certainly hope that you did intend it to be hyperbole, because if you did anything like that to me, I'd sure as hell be filing charges against you for property damage.
Of course, my laptop never has that problem - Windows persists mixer settings accross reboots, unlike, say, Ubuntu 6.06.
In part 4, it is brought up that a theoretical solar power plant 100 miles long by 100 miles wide in the Mojave desert would cover 100% of U.S. energy demands. This is using existing technology and under existing energy standards.
You wouldn't even need to change bulbs!
That's 2.59 * 10^10 m^2. At approximately $600 per square meter, that's 15.5 TRILLION dollars - and that's not even including installation, grid integration (inverters, etc.), and other costs and efficency losses.
This sheet may prove helpful. In summary, CFLs prevent enough mercury emissions (from coal power) to offset their own mercury content. A typical CFL contains 4mg of mercury, over 100x less than a typical thermometer and almost 1000x less than the mercury switches frequently used in older thermostats.
Yes, recycling programs are in place in many areas. But you have to understand that CFL bulbs contain a minimal quantity of mercury. One statistic I saw indicated that a CFL reduced mercury pollution (from coal power) enough to offset the quantity that it contained when it was disposed of.
Clearly, understanding the environmental impact of the whole process is essential. That's why I am selective in what I recycle (many products actually require more energy to recycle than to produce from raw materials; others, such as aluminum and steel, have huge energy benefits). It's why I take the "dirty" bus rather than driving a "clean" hybrid (don't get me wrong - hybrids are a great step forward, but they still use immense amounts of energy). It's why every bulb I own is a CFL and why my computer draws under 60W at idle.
Here's a point: ALL Mac OS X sales are upgrades because Mac OS X only runs on Macs which were already preloaded with OS X in the first place.
Here's another point: Most people get their copy of Windows preloaded on a system. OEMs don't pay anywhere near retail for Windows XP. Windows XP Home, for example, is around $85-$90 for OEM System Builders and about 1/2 that for the big tier-1 OEMs.
Meanwhile, T-Mobile is deploying UMA in the US this fall. And most Americans don't even know what a SIM is (considering that 2/3 of our phones use CDMA, that's not a surprise).
We have a choice of standards hare in the US, and people are choosing CDMA over GSM.
Understanding human speech is quite difficult. Directory assistance requires the computer to parse pretty much arbitrary words, which is the most difficult task in understanding speech--you have an entire lexicon and can't weight any set of words much.
Yes, although humans are remarkably bad in this regard as well. When was the last time that you tried to read an address to a person over the phone.
The real answer is better online support and better integration. Give me a direct number for what I need. Remember my phone number and let me enter a PIN to access my account. Don't make me tell my info to the person on the phone.
411 is largely obsolote for me, and it should be for everyone else. Why can't we have an app on cellphones that lets you do number lookups (my phone does - it's called Google).
The problem with WOW is simple - Blizzard listened to their fanbase. Too much. Casual players don't spend hours a day complaining on the forums. Many hardcore players do. Thus, any feedback that Blizzard recieves is invariably from the hardcore players.
Of course, hardcore players only represent about 2% of the overall WOW population (look at Census data; only about 10% level 60, and that's slanted because hardcore players are on more often and are thus more likely to be counted).
Blizzard should have been adding more content for lower levels (to increase the replay value of the game) and for casual level-60 players (e.g. more 5-man instances with decent loot). Instead, they add an honor system that is essentially a ranking system, more pointless reputation crap, and instances that are so challenging that only the most hardcore and organized guilds have a chance.
I quit WOW for a lot of reasons, but more than anything else it was because I took one look at 40-man instances and decided that they felt all too much like a second job.
Also IMO, they should add in an auto-level system so that the game can, say, run Deadmines as a higher level dungeon by bumping up the levels of all the monsters. When you enter with your group, the instance would create monsters designed to give you at least a little challenge. (This scheme works in Oblivion; why not put it in an MMO?) That would make it so when you're level 60, you can run any instance in the game and have a good time.
Yes, of course the loot would also have to be modified to make the run useful. Also, it's sometimes fun to "powerrun" lower-level instances (sometimes with random PUGs) and just screw around.
Really, I had more fun in WOW when I was just screwing around with PUGs and doing random quests (and exploring the world) then when I would run instances with the guild. And raiding is even worse - it's far too organized, far too scripted, and far too repetitive to be much fun for long.
Maybe Blizzard believes that running the same instances over and over is fun. For 2% of their population, they may be right. But I think that it would be wiser for Blizz to focus on the 98%. Hardcore or casual, we all pay the same monthly fee.
And any time that someone posts this response I point out this flaw in their logic: IIS6 is more secure than Apache2. IIS6 has had very few known vulnerabilities compared to Apache2.
Also, Mac OS is about 2% of the market. IIS is over 20%. That's an order of magnitude of difference.
It seems to work over here, too - and I have T-Mobile, which is widely regarded as having the worst coverage. You have to understand that coverage is never going to be good with a cellphone in rural Wyoming (excluding major roads), for example, because it's simply not rational to put up a tower that covers 2 houses. Nor should we expect coverage to be perfect in basements, tunnels, and other underground structures, though even here coverage is remarkably good thanks to microcells and repeaters.
You also have to remember that the US has multiple cellular networks on two different technologies (GSM/CDMA2000). This is good because it encourages technology development and lowers prices, but it's bad because we have a large degree of redundancy in terms of coverage. The US has over 140,000 cell sites, many supporting more than one carrier.
You can play/buy XBLA games with a silver membership, which is free.
Vendor lock-in is a common thing in business. Cable companies have to standardize on SA or Motorola systems. HVAC systems are often proprietary. So are alarm systems. So are airplanes (you can't put a 777 pilot in an A340 unless they are certified for both).
The power supplies I've used (PC supplies) cut out immediately if shorted and need to be unplugged before they will provide any more current.
The Apple supply design is not good. A fault can exist and be undetected by the user for some time, until eventually someone uses their power supply around flammable materials.
Hardcore players stole our game. WoW started as a nice, easy to play, fun and casual game. It had a wonderful world and a lot of fun quests, and a unique style.
Then the hardcore players started complaining. "We reached 60, and there's nothing left to do", they said. They were right. Blizzard game them more. But soon the hardcore players grew tired of the new content, and Blizzard decided to give them even more. And more.
18 months later, WoW is still the same game for 60 players. Yes, there are battlegrounds, and a lot of nice new features, but for the casual player, WoW has never really changed.
See, the problem is that level 60 players represent about 5-10% of the total userbase. Hardcore players who enjoy the high-level content are a fraction of those players. Why should 2% of a userbase get all of the new content?
What do you do when you get to 60 in WoW if you're not a hardcore player? You quit. PvP is no fun when you are playing against opponents who are so much better equipped.
Casual players don't spam the forums with compliants. We don't play the game for hours a day, so we aren't going to invest time in complaining. But we do exist. We are most of the community. But Blizzard has ignored us.
Is WoW a good game for new players? Yes. But there isn't any major new content for casual players than there was when the game was released. WoW, like many games, has low replay value for casual players. And, like all games of its type, it eventually gets old.
Right on. I played WoW (Kel Thuzad, Night Elf Priest) for around 9 months casually (total around 14 days playtime), and I have friends who have essentially "beaten" the endgame (4-6 hours every night since the game shipped, both around 130 days now and in serious raiding guilds).
Around level 52, I got in a casual guild (Legion of Fate), which, over time, became less casual. We started mass recruiting (which is, of course, stupid, since you neither know nor trust the others in your guild). We started running MC weekly.
I hit 60 and started running MC. I stayed in the guild for another month (We got to, but never defeated Rag), until I realized the simple truth: raiding isn't fun. There's nothing fun about being 'locked in' to raids on specific days at specific times. Don't feel like raiding that day? Too bad - most high end raiding guilds have attendence requirements.
What kind of insanity is that? And what is your reward for raiding? Better gear, so that you can do more raiding. Raiding is boring, repetitive, and formulaic. Once you get good enough, it's almost scripted.
The worst part is that good drops are rare. Maybe 3 or 4 per class per raid, if you're lucky. I did 6 or 7 MC runs and got nothing. Absolutely nothing. Not one item. You see, in raids, if you want anything, you need dkp. And you need to raid to get dkp. Thus the problem - to get anything from raiding, you ned to raid a lot. There's no "taking it slow" - if you do, your guild will invariably leave you in the dust. Casual play - or even pseudo-casual (10 hours a week) just isn't an option.
I decided that I didn't want to venture down that path. I have better things to do than raid 20 hours a week. I don't want to have to choose between mising a nighttime review session with a TA (which they are doing for my benefit) or falling behind my guild in dkp. My job never forces me to make that choice - why should a game?
As much as I hate the iPod / iTunes / iTMS monopoly, I have come to realize:
- There is no iPod killer
- Even if there were, Zune isn't it
The iPod has what Google has - an excellent product with widespread brand recognition. Unless something else comes out that is significantly better (and, let's be honest, all of the competition to date has been lacking in the features that most users care about), the iPod will be king.
Five minutes on Google would have told you that this is how UAC is supposed to work. "Administrator" accounts are still limited by UAC, but instead of requiring a separate "root" account, UAC allows elevation using your existing credentials.
Anyone who has been flying very often for very long knows:
- Flights have gotten dramatically cheaper in the past few years. With the discount carriers (Southwest) and competition from the big carriers, round-trips under $150 are not uncommon.
- Flying is easier than ever. Security has gotten more annoying, but everything else is better.
- Gone are the days when you had to go to the counter (or tip a skycap) to check in (even if you don't have checked baggage). - - Gone are the days when you had to wait for your tickets in the mail (or go to the airport or a travel agent).
- Gone are the days when you had to spend countless minutes (sometimes hours) in line or on the phone just to book a flight. Today, you can book online easily and get your boarding pass from an easy-check-in kiosk.
- There are more flights to more places from more places at more times. Non-stop is the norm if you are in a decently large city.
So, I guess the only real complaints are:
- Services have been reduced. No more free meals, for one - often no hot meals at all. But, hey, airplane food was never good, and at least you don't have to pay for headphones anymore. And, if it lowers my fares more, I'm all for cutting the frils.
- Security takes longer. It's always been a joke, it still is, and I suspect that it always will be. Guess what, though? It's standardized now, so you know what to expect, and the inspectors are paid better, so they usually aren't asleep on the job. In a well-managed airport (e.g. Denver), the lines are short or nonexistant during off hours, reasonable during normal times, and acceptable during peak hours.
So, air travel is available to more people than ever before, and it's easier than ever in most regards. I think that you can put your toothpaste in your checked luggage.
Funny how an optional addon to a console is compared to something that is forced upon users.
If you want a 360 to play games, it's $300 - every 360 game works on the $300 core system. If you want to play PS3 games, even if you don't care about playing movies or anything else, it's a minimum of $500.
Most people didn't even buy a PS2 for $300 - they waited for the $200 unit. Expecting gamers to pay $500 is a bit excessive.
What, automatic, free, version controlled backup isn't a leap forward?
Not when Microsoft beat you to it by several months, and VMS by many, many years.
now if file versioning was in Linux natively, or Windows, or OS/2, or the Amiga, or some other desktop operating system like BeOS I'd think you'd have a point
Windows Vista has native file versioning, and it has been working in the betas for some time now.
Who's copying who, now?
Having actually worked in many of the campaigns in my area (northern CO), I can confirm that we used real volunteers in addition to (openly) paid staffers. Paid staffers pretending to be volunteers may exist, but they are certainly not the norm in my area.