Not entirely true. The homeowner is responsable for keeping the sidewalk clear, but the homeowner is not responsable for upkeep. The government has to fix cracks and such. The homeowner just has to plow snow.
Even though DVDs are protected, every movie released on DVD is also released on VHS. Add to that the fact that not every movie available on VHS is available on DVD yet. The entertainment industry is not stupid. They know that a lot of voters will be very pissed if they suddenly stopped supporting VHS tomorrow. And pissed voters are much more likely to dislodge the MPAA's puppets.
The same will be true about DVD. The MPAA cannot suddenly stop supporting DVD without a major backlash.
If you enjoy something, why deprive yourself for 45 years for some mythical retirement fund. You may not live 45 more years. The stock market can tank and take the money you saved with you. Or any number of other things.
I'm not saying that you shouldn't save. You should plan for the future. Just remember, you can always earn more money, time comes in a fixed amount.
I tend to get between 2-3mbps down and between 400-500kbps up from Time Warner now. I disagree with you about the techs, but that could just be due to being in different locations. I'm in the central Ohio area.
You are focusing only on the AOL and ignoring the TW. I currently have cable from TW and I use Road Runner, TW's cable ISP. The service is good. The cable and RoadRunner, with 2 premium channels, costs us about $80/month.
I've never seen the so called cable bandwidth hog problem with RoadRunner. The tech support is 24/7, and they usually know what they're talking about.
The AOL part of TW has gotten a lot smaller in recent time. Most of the execs are from the TW side, many top AOL execs were passed over. I think it is unfair to lambast AOL/TW for the AOL part and look past the benifits of the TW part.
Also, most of us have nothing to gain by voting. Microsoft employees are bound to get large bonuses if.NET does well. On the other hand, if Linux suddenly took off and replaced Windows on every computer, I have not really gained anything more than I had before. The reverse is true as well, if Linux suddenly dropped off the Earth, I would have lost only a very little. Microsoft employees have their jobs to worry about if.NET dies.
I agree with you except for D2. When the D2 patch v1.01 came out, it broke the game for *many* CD-ROM and DVD-ROM drives. It wasn't until very recently that Blizzard finally owned up to that fact and fixed the problem.
Until recently, I had to run a cracked version of D2 because it wouldn't detect the CD in the drive. Solid and well polished do not come to mind when thinking of a description.
Another really good one, at least here in Columbus, Ohio is Time Warner's Road Runner. I called them because my connection would often go into mad packet loss (between 85-99%) for about 10 minutes every other hour or so. They sent three different techs out. One with a laptop to verify the problem existed on a machine other than my own. He called in the second tech who came out the next day. The second tech replaced the modem and replaced all of the cable ends. A few days later, I was still having the problem, they sent the third tech the next day. He rewired the outside cabling and put in a new outlet.
I even had a call a few days after the third tech to check and see if the problem was gone and ask for my impression of the service as a whole. I was floored, not only was this a company that went through a pretty hefty expense (three techs and a new modem) to fix my problem, but they called to see if it was working right yet. I would strongly recommend them to anyone.
An easy way for these eBay sellers to sell seemingly "legit" gift cards is to simply program them back. Buy the card, store the original info, reprogram the card and steal lots and lots of money, program the card back to the original, sell it on eBay so it's no longer in your possession. Repeat.
You liken the virus writing to stealing a car. My example was closer to joy riding. The person took his parent's car, went out with it, and got in an accident.
Think of this. A person writes a pretty harmless virus and only passes it to his/her ex-SO. The ex-SO triggers something that causes the virus to spread in massive numbers. Just like the joy rider, this person meant no real harm, and had no idea of what damage his/her act would cause.
No one in thier right mind would label the joy rider as a terrorist. Why should the digital equivilant be?
Mind you, I'm not saying that all virus writers are innocent. Many of them are criminals. My point is only that America has been quick to label anyone and everyone who is "disagreeable" as a terrorist, without even considering why.
An interesting conversation I had with my dad went on similar lines. Consider this:
You are in a car accident, your fault. The other guy was wearing a seat belt and suffers minor injuries. You are charged with failure to control. You pay a minor fine and maybe do some community service.
Now consider your same action:
You are in a car accident, your fault. The other guy was not wearing a seat belt and dies. You are charged with vehicular homiside. You spend a few years in jail.
Your same actions caused two different events based solely on someone else's choice. Is it truly fair that you should be punished more severely for the second result than the first? The same situation exists in your example. You wrote some stupid virus that spreads, but doesn't do much more. Clearly, you're not a saint. However, because some putz in charge of the airport control system left out the patch, your "innocent" virus spread through the airport control system, and unfortunately DOSed it offline. This brought down planes.
Should you really be charged with terrorism when the intent was not there? Where is the responsibility for the other person who allowed this to happen?
Yes, people are not dying... but sit down beside some not so computer savvy user and watch their reaction when they get a [BSOD]... That look on their face is usually sheer terror. Followed by panic, yells for help, etc...
Looking at it this way, I completely fail to see your point. Lots of things scare people. Having your hard drive crash a day before your final CIS project is due is pretty damn terrifying. Is the hard drive manufacture a terrorist?
Or even on the darker side of things. Another poster brought up the hypothetical woman who was raped because she was in a short skirt. Was it her fault, no. On the other hand, was the guy a terrorist or a criminal? The woman would surely be terrified.
I'm not saying that virus writers are not criminals. However, before 9/11 very very few people were labeled as terrorists. Now everyone wanting to push their agenda calls the other side terrorists to invoke an emotional response. Pushing agendas is not bad in and of itself, but doing so on the backs of thousands of dead people is just plain wrong.
Such a plan is sure to backfire. There would be a similiar clause that would state the individual must pay a certain amount to the corp for losing as well. It would then make it impossible for the individual to fight back for their rights as the loss would ruin them and their family for decades.
Personally, I would like to see corps be treated as "full" individuals. By that, I mean that I would not mind seeing officers of a company rot in jail when they break laws. If I, as a person, murder someone, I go to jail for the rest of my life. If I, as say... Ford, murder people by refusing to recall and redesign my products, I pay only a fine and it's back to business as usual.
Reminds me when IE finally had the ability to block third party cookies. The media when crazy over this new and great idea to protect privacy... then promptly backpedaled when they realized Netscape had that ability in for over a year before IE.
Good point. I have Mozilla set on all of my computers to ignore all third party images. This makes surfing much faster. As a result, I would not show up in the stats from any of my computers either.
You're kidding yourself if you think you are going to get 5 nines for $80-100. As a home user, I'm happy with 90% uptime. As a person working from home, a 99% would be fine by me for the given cost. At 99%, the service would be down no more than 15 minutes a day. That equates to a coffee & crap break. Not a big deal, and the cost is still *way* below a T1.
You have to try and keep your faith in the judicial system. It works slowly, but I do think it works. Congress has been bought (err... lobbied), the pres smokes crack (literally), and the AG wants to see the world convicted of terrorism. You have to keep your faith in the judicial system, they're all we have left.
Woah man, lay off the caffene a little. I really fail to see how this is as much of an issue as you make it to be. They are including another codec. Just like may DVD players can play VCDs, they will now be able to play WMF. Have you ever seen a DVD player hacked by a VCD, or for that matter, ever see a computer hacked through WMF or Windows Media Player?
You are way off base with any OSS arguement here too. This is not an OSS issue. Repeat after me, not everything has to be OSS. I for one, would be perfectly happy with an open documented standared. I could care less if the actual source to play it was open or not.
Also, if they change format away from DVD so soon after it was released, consumers will backlash. It took years for DVD to finally be accepted, and only recently has become cheap enough for the average home user. DVD is past the infant stage, and the industry will have a very hard time displacing it anytime soon.
Many spammers are already stealing service by using third party mail servers. It is a lot easier to do that than it is to set up a web script. Once you have a web site up, it is a whole lot easier to trace you and have your ISP pull the plug on you.
Slashdot Mirror
Not entirely true. The homeowner is responsable for keeping the sidewalk clear, but the homeowner is not responsable for upkeep. The government has to fix cracks and such. The homeowner just has to plow snow.
Even though DVDs are protected, every movie released on DVD is also released on VHS. Add to that the fact that not every movie available on VHS is available on DVD yet. The entertainment industry is not stupid. They know that a lot of voters will be very pissed if they suddenly stopped supporting VHS tomorrow. And pissed voters are much more likely to dislodge the MPAA's puppets.
The same will be true about DVD. The MPAA cannot suddenly stop supporting DVD without a major backlash.
If you enjoy something, why deprive yourself for 45 years for some mythical retirement fund. You may not live 45 more years. The stock market can tank and take the money you saved with you. Or any number of other things.
I'm not saying that you shouldn't save. You should plan for the future. Just remember, you can always earn more money, time comes in a fixed amount.
I tend to get between 2-3mbps down and between 400-500kbps up from Time Warner now. I disagree with you about the techs, but that could just be due to being in different locations. I'm in the central Ohio area.
You are focusing only on the AOL and ignoring the TW. I currently have cable from TW and I use Road Runner, TW's cable ISP. The service is good. The cable and RoadRunner, with 2 premium channels, costs us about $80/month.
I've never seen the so called cable bandwidth hog problem with RoadRunner. The tech support is 24/7, and they usually know what they're talking about.
The AOL part of TW has gotten a lot smaller in recent time. Most of the execs are from the TW side, many top AOL execs were passed over. I think it is unfair to lambast AOL/TW for the AOL part and look past the benifits of the TW part.
Also, most of us have nothing to gain by voting. Microsoft employees are bound to get large bonuses if .NET does well. On the other hand, if Linux suddenly took off and replaced Windows on every computer, I have not really gained anything more than I had before. The reverse is true as well, if Linux suddenly dropped off the Earth, I would have lost only a very little. Microsoft employees have their jobs to worry about if .NET dies.
I agree with you except for D2. When the D2 patch v1.01 came out, it broke the game for *many* CD-ROM and DVD-ROM drives. It wasn't until very recently that Blizzard finally owned up to that fact and fixed the problem.
Until recently, I had to run a cracked version of D2 because it wouldn't detect the CD in the drive. Solid and well polished do not come to mind when thinking of a description.
Another really good one, at least here in Columbus, Ohio is Time Warner's Road Runner. I called them because my connection would often go into mad packet loss (between 85-99%) for about 10 minutes every other hour or so. They sent three different techs out. One with a laptop to verify the problem existed on a machine other than my own. He called in the second tech who came out the next day. The second tech replaced the modem and replaced all of the cable ends. A few days later, I was still having the problem, they sent the third tech the next day. He rewired the outside cabling and put in a new outlet.
I even had a call a few days after the third tech to check and see if the problem was gone and ask for my impression of the service as a whole. I was floored, not only was this a company that went through a pretty hefty expense (three techs and a new modem) to fix my problem, but they called to see if it was working right yet. I would strongly recommend them to anyone.
I wonder if these people will change their focuse when this is released. :)
Take your engine past the redline and you're stupid. Take your CPU past the redline and it's fun and cool?
I just don't get it...
An easy way for these eBay sellers to sell seemingly "legit" gift cards is to simply program them back. Buy the card, store the original info, reprogram the card and steal lots and lots of money, program the card back to the original, sell it on eBay so it's no longer in your possession. Repeat.
You liken the virus writing to stealing a car. My example was closer to joy riding. The person took his parent's car, went out with it, and got in an accident.
Think of this. A person writes a pretty harmless virus and only passes it to his/her ex-SO. The ex-SO triggers something that causes the virus to spread in massive numbers. Just like the joy rider, this person meant no real harm, and had no idea of what damage his/her act would cause.
No one in thier right mind would label the joy rider as a terrorist. Why should the digital equivilant be?
Mind you, I'm not saying that all virus writers are innocent. Many of them are criminals. My point is only that America has been quick to label anyone and everyone who is "disagreeable" as a terrorist, without even considering why.
An interesting conversation I had with my dad went on similar lines. Consider this:
You are in a car accident, your fault. The other guy was wearing a seat belt and suffers minor injuries. You are charged with failure to control. You pay a minor fine and maybe do some community service.
Now consider your same action:
You are in a car accident, your fault. The other guy was not wearing a seat belt and dies. You are charged with vehicular homiside. You spend a few years in jail.
Your same actions caused two different events based solely on someone else's choice. Is it truly fair that you should be punished more severely for the second result than the first? The same situation exists in your example. You wrote some stupid virus that spreads, but doesn't do much more. Clearly, you're not a saint. However, because some putz in charge of the airport control system left out the patch, your "innocent" virus spread through the airport control system, and unfortunately DOSed it offline. This brought down planes.
Should you really be charged with terrorism when the intent was not there? Where is the responsibility for the other person who allowed this to happen?
Yes, people are not dying... but sit down beside some not so computer savvy user and watch their reaction when they get a [BSOD]... That look on their face is usually sheer terror. Followed by panic, yells for help, etc...
Looking at it this way, I completely fail to see your point. Lots of things scare people. Having your hard drive crash a day before your final CIS project is due is pretty damn terrifying. Is the hard drive manufacture a terrorist?
Or even on the darker side of things. Another poster brought up the hypothetical woman who was raped because she was in a short skirt. Was it her fault, no. On the other hand, was the guy a terrorist or a criminal? The woman would surely be terrified.
I'm not saying that virus writers are not criminals. However, before 9/11 very very few people were labeled as terrorists. Now everyone wanting to push their agenda calls the other side terrorists to invoke an emotional response. Pushing agendas is not bad in and of itself, but doing so on the backs of thousands of dead people is just plain wrong.
if you break into my car, should you be tried as a terrorist?
Depends... Is the car theif middle-eastern?
Hate to say it, but that's the direction this country is going if we don't wise up and remember the past.
Such a plan is sure to backfire. There would be a similiar clause that would state the individual must pay a certain amount to the corp for losing as well. It would then make it impossible for the individual to fight back for their rights as the loss would ruin them and their family for decades.
Personally, I would like to see corps be treated as "full" individuals. By that, I mean that I would not mind seeing officers of a company rot in jail when they break laws. If I, as a person, murder someone, I go to jail for the rest of my life. If I, as say... Ford, murder people by refusing to recall and redesign my products, I pay only a fine and it's back to business as usual.
Reminds me when IE finally had the ability to block third party cookies. The media when crazy over this new and great idea to protect privacy... then promptly backpedaled when they realized Netscape had that ability in for over a year before IE.
Good point. I have Mozilla set on all of my computers to ignore all third party images. This makes surfing much faster. As a result, I would not show up in the stats from any of my computers either.
You're kidding yourself if you think you are going to get 5 nines for $80-100. As a home user, I'm happy with 90% uptime. As a person working from home, a 99% would be fine by me for the given cost. At 99%, the service would be down no more than 15 minutes a day. That equates to a coffee & crap break. Not a big deal, and the cost is still *way* below a T1.
You have to try and keep your faith in the judicial system. It works slowly, but I do think it works. Congress has been bought (err... lobbied), the pres smokes crack (literally), and the AG wants to see the world convicted of terrorism. You have to keep your faith in the judicial system, they're all we have left.
so boycott it, and I and half of slashdot will do the same until they've forgotten about it (should take about a week going by past experience)...
<sarcastic>Why is this even an issue? Isn't slashdot already boycotting all DVD stuff because of the DeCSS case?</sarcastic>
Woah man, lay off the caffene a little. I really fail to see how this is as much of an issue as you make it to be. They are including another codec. Just like may DVD players can play VCDs, they will now be able to play WMF. Have you ever seen a DVD player hacked by a VCD, or for that matter, ever see a computer hacked through WMF or Windows Media Player?
You are way off base with any OSS arguement here too. This is not an OSS issue. Repeat after me, not everything has to be OSS. I for one, would be perfectly happy with an open documented standared. I could care less if the actual source to play it was open or not.
Also, if they change format away from DVD so soon after it was released, consumers will backlash. It took years for DVD to finally be accepted, and only recently has become cheap enough for the average home user. DVD is past the infant stage, and the industry will have a very hard time displacing it anytime soon.
It's not a but, it's a feature. (tm)
:)
Now they can start advertising the duel boards as space heaters as well.
Many spammers are already stealing service by using third party mail servers. It is a lot easier to do that than it is to set up a web script. Once you have a web site up, it is a whole lot easier to trace you and have your ISP pull the plug on you.