I can just imagine someone getting enraged at their computer, then going into BFM and inadvertently blowing away a whole bunch of critical system files.
"RRRRRRRRGH - " *blam blam blam* "Nooooo! Not inetd.conf! I didn't mean it!!"
Now that I think about it, some of those banana plugs are terribly terribly sexy. I might not mind them interrupting my double-headed-anal-dildo browsing experience.
"We introduced a concept called time shifting with the idea of letting readers get access to content unencumbered by banners and pop-ups," Smith said. "Instead, they would install our software, and then, when they are shopping or looking for something online, they would get ads that are relevant and timely."
So, something more relevant than, say, ads for coitus when I'm browsing for male and female DB-25 connectors?
Or vice-versa? I mean, if I were browsing for DB-25 connectors, a relevant ad would be "What century are you from?"
Highlighting the trend, 180solutions this week will begin promoting a downloadable program that purports to offer a gentler twist on "adware,"
If by "downloadable" they mean my browser might automatically download and install it if I don't configure my security settings correctly, I'm not going to download it.
If they mean it's just something I can manually download from their website if I so choose, I'm still not going to download it.
That takes care of me and pretty much every other tech-savvy surfer out there.
Now we just have to worry about that rather large chunk of population that constitutes "everyone else."
Other computers, especially older models with the minimum amount of RAM, gave the organizers trouble even if they succeeded in running the FlashMob software. The computers couldn't process data fast enough, or make enough memory available, to keep up with the group and had to be taken offline.
We're paying more for more channels, not more good programs.
Exactly. Out of the 60+ channels available to me, I'm only interested in a few (Sci-Fi, CC, CN). But I don't get them, because I refuse to pay ~$45/month and watch only those. I guess I could force myself to watch equal amounts of all the other channels, but that would be ten gallons of crazy.
One way to improve the quality of programming is to let the public dictate it by voting for channels with their dollars. I won't go so far as to say it's the best way (we've seen what the unwashed masses like, Joe Millionaire etc.) but it's definitely an option.
However, less-watched channels that serve distinct but smaller audiences, such as TechTV and BET, may not survive, because not enough viewers would pay for them.
Which is fine. TechTV and BET are both complete garbage. What better way to improve the quality of programming than to mandate it through public dollar votes?
(Just give me Sci-Fi, Cartoon Network, Comedy Central, and the Playbo--er, Discovery, and I'll be good to go. Heck, maybe NBC as well, if for no other reason than this year's feisty presidential election.)
"The ratio of original titles to sequels is dropping dramatically," said Ryoichi Hasegawa,
"We have to think very carefully about the type of audience we're reaching with our games," Andrew House,
These two quotes sum it up perfectly.
It's not that new, original, refreshing mechanics of gameplay aren't -- it's that they're not what's marketable. By far, the largest chunk of the gaming public is that which loves sports games, racing games, FPS's, and traditional RPGs.
Games like those can only deviate from their core gameplay so much before they stop appealing to that chunk. Furthermore, it's not just about mechanics, but style. Except for RPGs, nitty-gritty "realism" is what dominates; just look at Need for Speed, Project Gotham, Unreal Tournament, Halo, Madden. That style dominates and will continue to dominate until a large-scale shift in gaming culture happens, something on the scale of the transition from 2D SNES cuteness to grim-and-cool 3D PlayStation.
What of titles like Pikmin, Fusion Frenzy, Cubivore, or that one game where you go down tunnels and match up music with what's written on the walls? Marginalized, utterly marginalized. They are all fantastic games -- and had they come out during the golden age, the '70s and '80s, when game mechanics were just beginning to be explored and there were very few established norms, they might have become classics.
Companies bow down and kiss the asses of consumers.
Corporations exert a high level of control over consumers, by the simple fact that they are the providers of what defines consumers as consumers.
In order to establish and maintain this control, however, they must understand what methods and products will succeed, and cater accordingly.
Ultimately, consumers control themselves both directly, through their own decisions, and through their own actions that drive the forces of those who produce for them.
The current trend is that once a industry has a stranglehold on the consumer, we become the enemy, the opponent, since no natural opponent no longer exists.
The natural opponent of corporations is themselves. Though they control a lot, they do not control mass market trends. The forces behind those are more cultural and sociological than anything else -- highly nebulous things that companies spend their entire existences continuously puzzling out, so that they can attempt to take advantage of them. Some companies successfully adapt and survive. Others are either obstinate, imperceptive, or both, and die.
"Corporations are completely and utterly in charge of every aspect of our daily lives,
Well, in some sense they always will be. We're consumers, the objects of our consumption need an origin, and corporations are that origin. How they choose to design products, manufacture products, market products, and lobby for legislation regarding products will always exert an incredible level of completely transparent control over our lives.
It's up to individual consumers to render that control opaque -- but total opacity is very, very, very difficult.
I'd never heard of REXX before. Looking at the FAQ, I found my explanation:
This FAQ is for REXX/MVS, that is, REXX for IBM mainframes (MVS, OS/390 and VM).
Okay... but is this language at the forefront of modern computing, or even close to it? That's not a cynical inquiry; I'd literally never heard of this language before and I'm curious to know whether it's making some kind of progressive, hidden impact that was just totally unknown to me.
Google, the most popular Internet search engine, "has a near-religious quality in the minds of many users,"
And that is exactly why Microsoft will have a hell of a time toppling it with any MSN Search. Lord, Google is a verb now. The kind of entrenchment that Google has in our culture is extraordinarily difficult to overcome.
Look who holds the top ten spots for price/performance: Microsoft SQL Server 2000 on Microsoft Windows Server 2003.
I would advise anyone making technical/economic arguments against Microsoft to examine this list, if for no other reason than being able to explain it.
The planned system, which would focus on the chips' overall performance and de-emphasize how fast its chips run,
One of the effects I foresee is that consumers (and corporate management) will latch onto Intel's new system and use it to make hasty decisions and brag -- except this time, they have a better chance of being right. In a sense, Intel will have already done the work for them.
I see no problem with a marketing machine that actually helps to dispose of the "Megahertz Myth" in favor of a more accurate measurement of a chip's performance.
Wow, they requested this?
on
Spam Bits
·
· Score: 4, Insightful
e-mail recipients risk losing newsletters and promotions they've requested.
Who with an ounce of sense would request any sort of e-mail promotion, given the tendency those things have to multiply of those accord? Don't answer that.
It would certainly benefit us to learn about these technologies and leverage them, rather than to unilaterally declare them evil, wrong, stupid, etc. and just bury our heads in the sand and pretend they dont exist.
I think that about a lot of Microsoft technologies -- but to be fair, I'd say that the mere existence of Mono is evidence that a process such as you have described is already in motion.
Slashdot Mirror
I can just imagine someone getting enraged at their computer, then going into BFM and inadvertently blowing away a whole bunch of critical system files.
"RRRRRRRRGH - " *blam blam blam*
"Nooooo! Not inetd.conf! I didn't mean it!!"
Or vice-versa?
Now that I think about it, some of those banana plugs are terribly terribly sexy. I might not mind them interrupting my double-headed-anal-dildo browsing experience.
"We introduced a concept called time shifting with the idea of letting readers get access to content unencumbered by banners and pop-ups," Smith said. "Instead, they would install our software, and then, when they are shopping or looking for something online, they would get ads that are relevant and timely."
So, something more relevant than, say, ads for coitus when I'm browsing for male and female DB-25 connectors?
Or vice-versa? I mean, if I were browsing for DB-25 connectors, a relevant ad would be "What century are you from?"
Highlighting the trend, 180solutions this week will begin promoting a downloadable program that purports to offer a gentler twist on "adware,"
If by "downloadable" they mean my browser might automatically download and install it if I don't configure my security settings correctly, I'm not going to download it.
If they mean it's just something I can manually download from their website if I so choose, I'm still not going to download it.
That takes care of me and pretty much every other tech-savvy surfer out there.
Now we just have to worry about that rather large chunk of population that constitutes "everyone else."
Other computers, especially older models with the minimum amount of RAM, gave the organizers trouble even if they succeeded in running the FlashMob software. The computers couldn't process data fast enough, or make enough memory available, to keep up with the group and had to be taken offline.
Computer Darwinism in action, folks.
Light that thing up and you wouldn't have to worry at all about being a road hazard when trick-or-treating.
"Don't hit the program!"
Okay, so the categories are:
Arts/Cinema
Business/Industries
Computers
Health
Home
Kids/Teens
Music
News
Recreation
Science
Society
Sports
Regions
There should be a subcategory of "Porn" under each and every one of those.
We're paying more for more channels, not more good programs.
Exactly. Out of the 60+ channels available to me, I'm only interested in a few (Sci-Fi, CC, CN). But I don't get them, because I refuse to pay ~$45/month and watch only those. I guess I could force myself to watch equal amounts of all the other channels, but that would be ten gallons of crazy.
One way to improve the quality of programming is to let the public dictate it by voting for channels with their dollars. I won't go so far as to say it's the best way (we've seen what the unwashed masses like, Joe Millionaire etc.) but it's definitely an option.
However, less-watched channels that serve distinct but smaller audiences, such as TechTV and BET, may not survive, because not enough viewers would pay for them.
Which is fine. TechTV and BET are both complete garbage. What better way to improve the quality of programming than to mandate it through public dollar votes?
(Just give me Sci-Fi, Cartoon Network, Comedy Central, and the Playbo--er, Discovery, and I'll be good to go. Heck, maybe NBC as well, if for no other reason than this year's feisty presidential election.)
"The ratio of original titles to sequels is dropping dramatically," said Ryoichi Hasegawa,
"We have to think very carefully about the type of audience we're reaching with our games," Andrew House,
These two quotes sum it up perfectly.
It's not that new, original, refreshing mechanics of gameplay aren't -- it's that they're not what's marketable. By far, the largest chunk of the gaming public is that which loves sports games, racing games, FPS's, and traditional RPGs.
Games like those can only deviate from their core gameplay so much before they stop appealing to that chunk. Furthermore, it's not just about mechanics, but style. Except for RPGs, nitty-gritty "realism" is what dominates; just look at Need for Speed, Project Gotham, Unreal Tournament, Halo, Madden. That style dominates and will continue to dominate until a large-scale shift in gaming culture happens, something on the scale of the transition from 2D SNES cuteness to grim-and-cool 3D PlayStation.
What of titles like Pikmin, Fusion Frenzy, Cubivore, or that one game where you go down tunnels and match up music with what's written on the walls? Marginalized, utterly marginalized. They are all fantastic games -- and had they come out during the golden age, the '70s and '80s, when game mechanics were just beginning to be explored and there were very few established norms, they might have become classics.
Companies bow down and kiss the asses of consumers.
Corporations exert a high level of control over consumers, by the simple fact that they are the providers of what defines consumers as consumers.
In order to establish and maintain this control, however, they must understand what methods and products will succeed, and cater accordingly.
Ultimately, consumers control themselves both directly, through their own decisions, and through their own actions that drive the forces of those who produce for them.
The current trend is that once a industry has a stranglehold on the consumer, we become the enemy, the opponent, since no natural opponent no longer exists.
The natural opponent of corporations is themselves. Though they control a lot, they do not control mass market trends. The forces behind those are more cultural and sociological than anything else -- highly nebulous things that companies spend their entire existences continuously puzzling out, so that they can attempt to take advantage of them. Some companies successfully adapt and survive. Others are either obstinate, imperceptive, or both, and die.
"Corporations are completely and utterly in charge of every aspect of our daily lives,
Well, in some sense they always will be. We're consumers, the objects of our consumption need an origin, and corporations are that origin. How they choose to design products, manufacture products, market products, and lobby for legislation regarding products will always exert an incredible level of completely transparent control over our lives.
It's up to individual consumers to render that control opaque -- but total opacity is very, very, very difficult.
Tens of thousands of continuing civil enforcement actions might be needed to generate the necessary deterrence.
I'll be damned if that doesn't sound just a bit like SCO.
Chris Lilik is a one-man political action committee. Powered by a high-speed computer he assembled himself,
Now, that's a rather casual way of revealing he's a cyborg, isn't it?
Novell is latching onto anything they think can make them money because they certainly haven't made a penny in years.
What about HP? HP-UX is dying, they need to jump on something.
Red Hat will help push Linux to desktops. HP is wandering in the woods.
Windows dominance is already threatened by Linux existence. Keeping that threat manageable is the key to Windows survival.
I'd never heard of REXX before. Looking at the FAQ, I found my explanation:
This FAQ is for REXX/MVS, that is, REXX for IBM mainframes (MVS, OS/390 and VM).
Okay... but is this language at the forefront of modern computing, or even close to it? That's not a cynical inquiry; I'd literally never heard of this language before and I'm curious to know whether it's making some kind of progressive, hidden impact that was just totally unknown to me.
Anyone? Anyone? Bueller?
Google, the most popular Internet search engine, "has a near-religious quality in the minds of many users,"
And that is exactly why Microsoft will have a hell of a time toppling it with any MSN Search. Lord, Google is a verb now. The kind of entrenchment that Google has in our culture is extraordinarily difficult to overcome.
After all, Apple has, hasn't it?
Well, there's SPEC and TPC.
e sults.asp
http://www.tpc.org/tpcc/results/tpcc_price_perf_r
Look who holds the top ten spots for price/performance: Microsoft SQL Server 2000 on Microsoft Windows Server 2003.
I would advise anyone making technical/economic arguments against Microsoft to examine this list, if for no other reason than being able to explain it.
The planned system, which would focus on the chips' overall performance and de-emphasize how fast its chips run,
One of the effects I foresee is that consumers (and corporate management) will latch onto Intel's new system and use it to make hasty decisions and brag -- except this time, they have a better chance of being right. In a sense, Intel will have already done the work for them.
I see no problem with a marketing machine that actually helps to dispose of the "Megahertz Myth" in favor of a more accurate measurement of a chip's performance.
Who the hell is Cory Doctorow and why would we care?
He's the author of Eastern Standard Tribe. And, apparently, a gadget geek worthy of Techno-Bill himself.
I didn't see "a girlfriend" in that list...
e-mail recipients risk losing newsletters and promotions they've requested.
Who with an ounce of sense would request any sort of e-mail promotion, given the tendency those things have to multiply of those accord? Don't answer that.
It would certainly benefit us to learn about these technologies and leverage them, rather than to unilaterally declare them evil, wrong, stupid, etc. and just bury our heads in the sand and pretend they dont exist.
I think that about a lot of Microsoft technologies -- but to be fair, I'd say that the mere existence of Mono is evidence that a process such as you have described is already in motion.