The name alone is enough to drive me away. What kind of an illiterate would name his business "Yahoo!"?
I don't know, I like the Yahoo name. The local NFL team is looking to sell naming rights for its stadium. I'd LOVE to see Yahoo buy it.
As for last time using Yahoo for search -- no idea. The "Personal/"Links" toolbars on my various pooters consist of Yahoo Mail, Yahoo Calendar, Yahoo Addresses, Yahoo Notepad, Yahoo News, and Google.
Wait for someone to have a great idea, then steal it.
I don't think this would be a good place to look for ideas to steal. There seems to be a fair number of these "submit your idea" contests. Off hand, I can't think of a single interesting thing to come from them. I always assumed them to be marketing gimmicks -- if something of interest is spawned, well that's just a nice bonus.
Or is the comment that they stole the contest idea?
provided directions for getting it to work, but in German unfortunately, and I cannot translate German and linux at the same time yet
Was at a friends a couple years ago. He was looking for some software to do some obscure task for his linux laptop. I found what he was looking for mentioned on an English website, but the software was in German.
Neither of us knew German, but managed our way just by looking for familiar linux commands and file names, and a bit of guess work. Overall, wasn't any worse than installing and learning any new app.
And then they pull a Ralsky and sue your pants off...
Yep. Recently been forwarding child porn and beastialty spam to the hosting company and their business partners. Attaching a simple note stating "I don't like UBE, and the remove option doesn't work for this sender of spam. Please help"
One or more of the companies complained to MY ISP and my account was killed for harrassment. Go figure? At least it ended the spam:P
Spews is EVIL. Plain and simple. They block IPs based soley on the fact your upstream provider hosts or has hosted in the past
I think too many hosting companies are far too lenient when it comes to booting spammers -- if they do anything at all. Honestly, I think going overboard on blocking will be a great asset in getting these clowns off their behinds.
It is impossible to get off their list
That is lame, if they have cleaned up their act. I'd say make it easy to be taken off once. After that, forget about it. Having little anti-spam programs running on every PC is just silly. Unless serious action is going to be taken, it's just wasted effort.
You said older parts are more likely to fail. I have to disagree.
Understatement. I have a couple old NeXT computers, one of which gets used fairly regularly. They have original HDs and CD drives. I have a two year old Dell server which has had two HDs and a CD drive die.
In general I think new hardware is flaky -- maybe because I deal with too many folks wanting to buy cheap, but I digress. I'll take crusty old solid components over this modern day mamsy pansy stuff any day:) It's like comparing a fine wine to a bottle of Boones.
Does crime take a special function in the brain? is it like a complicated SQL database?
I once wrote a Bank Robbers HOWTO using the Linux HOWTO model. Hosting company pulled it after two weeks:P I was going to put it up again for you, but alas, it appears I didn't save it.
Other than the above "practical" things, show some neat stuff. Show a few windowmanagers.
I couldn't agree more. Tools to change the appearance of Windows are hugely popular. And, of course, the first thing every dork wants to know about the next version is how it's going to look. Despite being a turn-off to business, I think fancy WMs have helped bring a fair number of people to Linux -- and of course, it looks cool on TV.
And, well, rather than posting yet another Me2, I'll put 'em both here. Running Linux by Matt Welsh is THE best book. I can not say enough good things about it.
Re:Love/Hate... screw it, I love my Powerbook.
on
The Apple Name Game
·
· Score: 1
Its not the company its Steve, he's a power hungry attention grabbing tyrant.
While, in general, I do agree with that statement, I wonder how true it is in this context.
Apple Computer is a relatively large company. Everything doesn't go by Steve for approval. With any BFC, a law firm is hired and runs its business largely independent of the company that hired them. The lawyers simply go out and try to enforce whatever they were hired to enforce. The Board of Directors has more important things to worry about than every little potential tm violation out there.
When something is big enough to make the radar screen of the big dogs, they most often will take the advice of the lawyers they hired. Decision makers usually aren't schooled in every possible aspect of law. Not everyone knows everything and anything like the brilliant slashdot crowd:)
Steve may know a bit about computers and advertising, although he probably thinks he knows more than he really does. However, I can't believe even Almighty Steve is going to pretend to grasp the details of all the laws out there.
While lawyers tend to be hypersensitive, I'm sure they would rather error on the side of over-protection. Wasn't that long ago Sony shut down a little local restraunt owned by a person who happened to be named Sony. How many screaming about this little Apple flap continue to support Sony?
This is similar to the complaints made during the early industrial revolution about how hard and terrible factory work was. But the choice then was factory work or farm work.
Actaully, I don't know what the deal is with factory work, or farm work. Isn't television much closer to the actual field of computers?
I always hear people say computers need to be as user friendly as a television. And I think the computer workers are very much like those in the television profession. Got your TV repair folks, content providers, advertisers, etc. Don't hear much complaining from camera people, or those putting the news shows together behind the scenes.
The stars get the big bucks, the heads of the companies get big bucks. Lots of "little people" who do lots of work to bring your shows to you who get paid next to nothing. Not a big deal. Just the way it is. You get into the field because you think it's cool. If you want the big money, you simply need to pursue a different path.
Microsoft doesn't think computer users should have to use one program to read and write a word-processing file, another to use a spreadsheet, and a third to correspond via e-mail. Rather, the company thinks, a single program should handle it all.
If Microsoft is going to put everything into a single program...
-----
O.k. I'll admit I read at +2, but I saw no comments on this, MS already has one big ol' app, and had it for a very long time. It comes bundled with many PCs. MSWorks anyone?
Personally, I always liked Works apps from a teaching perspective, especially V2 of what is now AppleWorks.
Speadsheet, WP, drawing, paint, comm rolled into one -- been around forever, and only ever been marginally popular with the press.
Just ran into this last week. Been getting spam pointing to the same domain for about a month boasting beastiality, rape and child porn. The content they are actually selling is legal, however, I don't like the spam. As such, I was forwarding it to the host company, but they refused to reply. So I contacted AT&T and the reply was that there was no "definate proof" of wrong doing. Lets see, bulk mail with no remove option sent from fictious addresses, claims of illegal content, all pointing to URLs burried deep within a domain that one can not reach via links from the top of the site. (The top level index page contains no links what so ever) A hosting company that completely ignores abuse complaints.
What "definate proof" exactly is AT&T looking for?
I think AT&T is just as guilty as the rest by their acceptance of spam claiming to offer child porn and such. Just got their reply today, and I am strongly considering dropping my personal AT&T service over this "definate proof" comment.
Many users are just burnt out on ads...
block out the crap. In fact it might even improve some of the ads getting seen since the users aren't overloaded with so much some of it might actually register
Too true! Now I work in the online porn industry. Most annoying spammers, popup artists, and what not, I know.
Recently did an ad campaign using free sites you find on link lists. Two pages of nudie pics, and the only ad was a single standard banner with the site name and catch phrase. 80% of the people who went to the free website visited the pay site. That is incedibley high, if you were wondering:P
My theory in the design was that either people would appreciate the ad free approach and visit out of appreciation (for lack of a better word), or that they would think the pay site was so good it didn't need to fill every pixel with some BS hype. Don't know what it was, but it worked.
I'm in the process of converting all my sites using this approach, and will definately use it more in future promotions.
FWIW I never did popups, "free" sites with hidden fees, or any of that other crap. Honestly got into the biz because I loved porn but hated what was offered:P
they would have HUGE bandwidth bills, and think twice about using the same marketting technique again
Actually, any smart spammer won't host the web page on a real server (at least in most countries). Even in the adult industry spam is strictly forbidden by service providers and sponsors.
The web page you are hitting almost always is on a temporary account with the intent of being shut down quickly. The web server is probably sitting in an apartment somewhere and bandwidth bills are no concern. In a couple of days the computer will be unplugged, reformatted, and connected to a different internet service provider.
Spammers usually aren't computer illiterate. By day they are highly skilled sys admins or consultants in the corporate work place. They send spam by night because it pays better.
Quite simply, if people didn't make purchases the spam would go away. But, alas, that is not the case.
Two: Where do you get off assuming United Linux owes you anything? And what precisely do they owe you?
The point of the article wasn't that UL owes the community a binary distro. The point was that they would be more successful with a binary distro.
UnitedLinux wants a standard that will run all linux apps. But how can a developer who may be using RedHat or Slackware or Debian, know if the app will run on UL? The good folks of UnitedLinux could limit themselves to distributing apps that run by accident. Or rewrite them so they do run for the initial ditribution. But then the customer may want to use program XYZ on a platform that they were told was designed to allow a binary to run on any linux distro--unfortunately it won't because the developers of the program don't want to fork over the money for a copy of UnitedLinux.
Basically all you have is another incompatible flavor of linux -- only this one will be delivered under a couple of different names ala Suse UL, or Caldera UL. Neato Neato. It's not about unity, it's merely clever name that sounds pleasant, but it's just another ugly division.
I suspect it will be as successful as the Open Software Foundation attempt to battle Sun/ATT. They created a unified unix which
OSF. Or I guess I could go on to name a gaggle of other failed attempts, if you want to pick nits with this one. But it's past my bed time:)
People are so accepting of insecurity that they are even willing to spend cash
Actually, from what I hear, not only are they accepting, but they prefer insecurity. Security takes away convenience.
The web company I work for upgraded security and now requires customers to use 128 bit encryption when making purchases. We continue to receive way too many phone calls every day from people using IE who don't want to take the two minutes (on a 56k modem) to download the update.
(Ignoring agruements of effectiveness of patch, and our failure to provide 56 bit option for those who want it.)
No, I don't think security will have much of an impact on MS. There just aren't enough people who understand or care.
For one box I have a STACK of books, the other.. not a single one.;-) You can guess which one is for which? You got it.. Linux/UNIX.
You have not a single book for Linux? Me neither! And like you, I have piles of three ring binders from the Microsoft Official Curriculum which cost me $15,000! Not to mention a half dozen other $75 books and a few magazine subscriptions too as I'm trying to complete the MCSE. Man, you are SO right. Linux is way easier than Windows. Like 7 or 8 years ago I read the first edition of Running Linux, and since then, well, computer life had been a joy. Until I had to learn Windows. Before linux I used a Mac, so the command line stuff was kind of strange at first, but easy enough to learn. But Windows, man, there are so many exceptions, so many inconsistencies, so many things that are just wrong. I thought I was the only one who found Windows a royal pain in the behind to try to learn after years of linux. Glad I'm not the only one, brother.
I think 90% of the people don't get the fact that they are only limited to 60 stem cells for Goverment Funding. You can use as many stem cells as you would like if you get funding from somewhere else.
I think 90% of the people don't realize that tax dollars pay for government funding, and, therefore, those who pay taxes pay for the government funded research. Hence, if so many people support said research, they should donate freely. This would end the fighting, and the research could continue unhindered. (Bush limited funding, he did not limit privately funded research.) But, if the fear is that not many people really support the research, well, then, we may need to use the force of taxation...which is how things look to me at this time. In other words, show me the money.
Many conspiracy theorists say that Amelia Earhart was shot down and/or captured by the Japanese because she would have seen their military activity in the pacific.
Read that theory in a little newspaper quiz. But it was stated as though it were well known fact. I was shocked. Did a little search. This is the only article that I kept bookmarked:
Funny game to play with your friends: take their favorite music that they hear all the time, and play a CD of it on a very expensive system. 9 times out of 10, they'll tell you that it 'sounds wrong', because they've probably never even really HEARD it before!
A somewhat off topic note:
I am all for low quality sound! An MP3 just can't reproduce a CD the same way a cassette can reproduce an LP.
In the 80's friend once taped an XTC album for me. Never heard XTC before. Kinda liked it. Especially loved "Dear God". Eventually bought the CD without ever hearing any XTC songs other than from my tape. Couldn't stand the CD -- sounded like a crappy "Chipmunks Christmas" thing.
Seems that something went wrong in the recording process of my cassette, and the taped version played significantly slower than the original version. One of these days I'll figure out a way to slow down my MP3 of "Dear God" to restore that dark, creepy sound of the original cassette that I loved so much:) Might even figure out a way to insert the scratches and random pops from the vinyl.
In the case of prima donna programmers, they're probably getting paid exactly what they're worth to the company anyway.
Yup. Everyone mentions working with the prima donna's (PD's). So, there are lots of 'em out there. Yet, pretty much ALL software sucks. Way more than the 90% alotted.
Let's pretend. You start a software company. The only programmers you hire are PD's. You pay each of them a minimum of $1,000,000 per year. Any guess on the results? My bet is that the code would suck.
Feel free to make variations. You'll get low quality code in the eyes of the PD's who didn't write the code. And the PD's who did write the code, most likely won't produce a sellable product. I am quite confident that if the secret to writing a great software package could be achieved via PD, MS would have a flawless OS.
Slashdot Mirror
I don't know, I like the Yahoo name. The local NFL team is looking to sell naming rights for its stadium. I'd LOVE to see Yahoo buy it.
As for last time using Yahoo for search -- no idea. The "Personal/"Links" toolbars on my various pooters consist of Yahoo Mail, Yahoo Calendar, Yahoo Addresses, Yahoo Notepad, Yahoo News, and Google.
I don't think this would be a good place to look for ideas to steal. There seems to be a fair number of these "submit your idea" contests. Off hand, I can't think of a single interesting thing to come from them. I always assumed them to be marketing gimmicks -- if something of interest is spawned, well that's just a nice bonus.
Or is the comment that they stole the contest idea?
Was at a friends a couple years ago. He was looking for some software to do some obscure task for his linux laptop. I found what he was looking for mentioned on an English website, but the software was in German.
Neither of us knew German, but managed our way just by looking for familiar linux commands and file names, and a bit of guess work. Overall, wasn't any worse than installing and learning any new app.
Yep. Recently been forwarding child porn and beastialty spam to the hosting company and their business partners. Attaching a simple note stating "I don't like UBE, and the remove option doesn't work for this sender of spam. Please help"
One or more of the companies complained to MY ISP and my account was killed for harrassment. Go figure? At least it ended the spam :P
I think too many hosting companies are far too lenient when it comes to booting spammers -- if they do anything at all. Honestly, I think going overboard on blocking will be a great asset in getting these clowns off their behinds.
It is impossible to get off their list
That is lame, if they have cleaned up their act. I'd say make it easy to be taken off once. After that, forget about it. Having little anti-spam programs running on every PC is just silly. Unless serious action is going to be taken, it's just wasted effort.
P.S. Ever notice spew is oops backwards :)
Understatement. I have a couple old NeXT computers, one of which gets used fairly regularly. They have original HDs and CD drives. I have a two year old Dell server which has had two HDs and a CD drive die.
In general I think new hardware is flaky -- maybe because I deal with too many folks wanting to buy cheap, but I digress. I'll take crusty old solid components over this modern day mamsy pansy stuff any day :) It's like comparing a fine wine to a bottle of Boones.
I once wrote a Bank Robbers HOWTO using the Linux HOWTO model. Hosting company pulled it after two weeks :P I was going to put it up again for you, but alas, it appears I didn't save it.
I couldn't agree more. Tools to change the appearance of Windows are hugely popular. And, of course, the first thing every dork wants to know about the next version is how it's going to look. Despite being a turn-off to business, I think fancy WMs have helped bring a fair number of people to Linux -- and of course, it looks cool on TV.
And, well, rather than posting yet another Me2, I'll put 'em both here. Running Linux by Matt Welsh is THE best book. I can not say enough good things about it.
While, in general, I do agree with that statement, I wonder how true it is in this context.
Apple Computer is a relatively large company. Everything doesn't go by Steve for approval. With any BFC, a law firm is hired and runs its business largely independent of the company that hired them. The lawyers simply go out and try to enforce whatever they were hired to enforce. The Board of Directors has more important things to worry about than every little potential tm violation out there.
When something is big enough to make the radar screen of the big dogs, they most often will take the advice of the lawyers they hired. Decision makers usually aren't schooled in every possible aspect of law. Not everyone knows everything and anything like the brilliant slashdot crowd :)
Steve may know a bit about computers and advertising, although he probably thinks he knows more than he really does. However, I can't believe even Almighty Steve is going to pretend to grasp the details of all the laws out there.
While lawyers tend to be hypersensitive, I'm sure they would rather error on the side of over-protection. Wasn't that long ago Sony shut down a little local restraunt owned by a person who happened to be named Sony. How many screaming about this little Apple flap continue to support Sony?
Actaully, I don't know what the deal is with factory work, or farm work. Isn't television much closer to the actual field of computers?
I always hear people say computers need to be as user friendly as a television. And I think the computer workers are very much like those in the television profession. Got your TV repair folks, content providers, advertisers, etc. Don't hear much complaining from camera people, or those putting the news shows together behind the scenes.
The stars get the big bucks, the heads of the companies get big bucks. Lots of "little people" who do lots of work to bring your shows to you who get paid next to nothing. Not a big deal. Just the way it is. You get into the field because you think it's cool. If you want the big money, you simply need to pursue a different path.
Lead, follow, or get out of the way.
O.k. I'll admit I read at +2, but I saw no comments on this, MS already has one big ol' app, and had it for a very long time. It comes bundled with many PCs. MSWorks anyone?
Personally, I always liked Works apps from a teaching perspective, especially V2 of what is now AppleWorks.
Speadsheet, WP, drawing, paint, comm rolled into one -- been around forever, and only ever been marginally popular with the press.
That is modded as interesting instead of funny?! Why?
Other than the motor, the transmission, and the steering, what is wrong with the Ford XYZ
>and its uplink AT&T Canada
Just ran into this last week. Been getting spam pointing to the same domain for about a month boasting beastiality, rape and child porn. The content they are actually selling is legal, however, I don't like the spam. As such, I was forwarding it to the host company, but they refused to reply. So I contacted AT&T and the reply was that there was no "definate proof" of wrong doing. Lets see, bulk mail with no remove option sent from fictious addresses, claims of illegal content, all pointing to URLs burried deep within a domain that one can not reach via links from the top of the site. (The top level index page contains no links what so ever) A hosting company that completely ignores abuse complaints.
What "definate proof" exactly is AT&T looking for?
I think AT&T is just as guilty as the rest by their acceptance of spam claiming to offer child porn and such. Just got their reply today, and I am strongly considering dropping my personal AT&T service over this "definate proof" comment.
Too true! Now I work in the online porn industry. Most annoying spammers, popup artists, and what not, I know.
Recently did an ad campaign using free sites you find on link lists. Two pages of nudie pics, and the only ad was a single standard banner with the site name and catch phrase. 80% of the people who went to the free website visited the pay site. That is incedibley high, if you were wondering :P
My theory in the design was that either people would appreciate the ad free approach and visit out of appreciation (for lack of a better word), or that they would think the pay site was so good it didn't need to fill every pixel with some BS hype. Don't know what it was, but it worked.
I'm in the process of converting all my sites using this approach, and will definately use it more in future promotions.
FWIW I never did popups, "free" sites with hidden fees, or any of that other crap. Honestly got into the biz because I loved porn but hated what was offered :P
they would have HUGE bandwidth bills, and think twice about using the same marketting technique again
Actually, any smart spammer won't host the web page on a real server (at least in most countries). Even in the adult industry spam is strictly forbidden by service providers and sponsors.
The web page you are hitting almost always is on a temporary account with the intent of being shut down quickly. The web server is probably sitting in an apartment somewhere and bandwidth bills are no concern. In a couple of days the computer will be unplugged, reformatted, and connected to a different internet service provider.
Spammers usually aren't computer illiterate. By day they are highly skilled sys admins or consultants in the corporate work place. They send spam by night because it pays better.
Quite simply, if people didn't make purchases the spam would go away. But, alas, that is not the case.
The point of the article wasn't that UL owes the community a binary distro. The point was that they would be more successful with a binary distro.
UnitedLinux wants a standard that will run all linux apps. But how can a developer who may be using RedHat or Slackware or Debian, know if the app will run on UL? The good folks of UnitedLinux could limit themselves to distributing apps that run by accident. Or rewrite them so they do run for the initial ditribution. But then the customer may want to use program XYZ on a platform that they were told was designed to allow a binary to run on any linux distro--unfortunately it won't because the developers of the program don't want to fork over the money for a copy of UnitedLinux.
Basically all you have is another incompatible flavor of linux -- only this one will be delivered under a couple of different names ala Suse UL, or Caldera UL. Neato Neato. It's not about unity, it's merely clever name that sounds pleasant, but it's just another ugly division.
I suspect it will be as successful as the Open Software Foundation attempt to battle Sun/ATT. They created a unified unix which OSF. Or I guess I could go on to name a gaggle of other failed attempts, if you want to pick nits with this one. But it's past my bed time :)
Actually, from what I hear, not only are they accepting, but they prefer insecurity. Security takes away convenience.
The web company I work for upgraded security and now requires customers to use 128 bit encryption when making purchases. We continue to receive way too many phone calls every day from people using IE who don't want to take the two minutes (on a 56k modem) to download the update.
(Ignoring agruements of effectiveness of patch, and our failure to provide 56 bit option for those who want it.)
No, I don't think security will have much of an impact on MS. There just aren't enough people who understand or care.
You have not a single book for Linux? Me neither! And like you, I have piles of three ring binders from the Microsoft Official Curriculum which cost me $15,000! Not to mention a half dozen other $75 books and a few magazine subscriptions too as I'm trying to complete the MCSE. Man, you are SO right. Linux is way easier than Windows. Like 7 or 8 years ago I read the first edition of Running Linux, and since then, well, computer life had been a joy. Until I had to learn Windows. Before linux I used a Mac, so the command line stuff was kind of strange at first, but easy enough to learn. But Windows, man, there are so many exceptions, so many inconsistencies, so many things that are just wrong. I thought I was the only one who found Windows a royal pain in the behind to try to learn after years of linux. Glad I'm not the only one, brother.
I think 90% of the people don't realize that tax dollars pay for government funding, and, therefore, those who pay taxes pay for the government funded research. Hence, if so many people support said research, they should donate freely. This would end the fighting, and the research could continue unhindered. (Bush limited funding, he did not limit privately funded research.) But, if the fear is that not many people really support the research, well, then, we may need to use the force of taxation...which is how things look to me at this time. In other words, show me the money.
Read that theory in a little newspaper quiz. But it was stated as though it were well known fact. I was shocked. Did a little search. This is the only article that I kept bookmarked:
Saipan and Amelia Earhart
A little long, but worth the time to read.
A somewhat off topic note:
I am all for low quality sound! An MP3 just can't reproduce a CD the same way a cassette can reproduce an LP.
In the 80's friend once taped an XTC album for me. Never heard XTC before. Kinda liked it. Especially loved "Dear God". Eventually bought the CD without ever hearing any XTC songs other than from my tape. Couldn't stand the CD -- sounded like a crappy "Chipmunks Christmas" thing.
Seems that something went wrong in the recording process of my cassette, and the taped version played significantly slower than the original version. One of these days I'll figure out a way to slow down my MP3 of "Dear God" to restore that dark, creepy sound of the original cassette that I loved so much :) Might even figure out a way to insert the scratches and random pops from the vinyl.
Yup. Everyone mentions working with the prima donna's (PD's). So, there are lots of 'em out there. Yet, pretty much ALL software sucks. Way more than the 90% alotted.
Let's pretend. You start a software company. The only programmers you hire are PD's. You pay each of them a minimum of $1,000,000 per year. Any guess on the results? My bet is that the code would suck.
Feel free to make variations. You'll get low quality code in the eyes of the PD's who didn't write the code. And the PD's who did write the code, most likely won't produce a sellable product. I am quite confident that if the secret to writing a great software package could be achieved via PD, MS would have a flawless OS.
Yes, the restraurant "racks" hold something like 300 lbs. Got three of 'em. Don't look pretty, but they work great.
pic 1
pic 2