Maybe follow SBC's lead, where they are already joined at the hip to Yahoo. Apparently with your 'paid' SBC DSL line you get a yahoo.com email address.
Dont give any props to AT and T - the recently became part of another entity that uses the same tactics as BellSouth - SBC. In fact its hideously ironic that AT&T was once broken up for being a monopoly, and now the name is in use by yet another monopolist.
"The Court having entered judgment in accordance with the Findings of Fact and the Conclusions of Law on April 3, 2000, that Microsoft has violated 1 and 2 of the Sherman Act, 15 U.S.C., as well... "
1. Trusts, etc., in restraint of trade illegal; penalty
2. Monopolizing trade a felony; penalty
--
So under what set of FUD is it that you beleive MS is *not* a convicted monopolist? Pay close attention to #2 there of the Sherman Act.
I dunno about the OP, but I would prefer to have free and open competition for OS. Unfortunately, we havent had that for at least a decade now - MS has and continues to see to that by its use of monopolistic lock-in strategies that prevent potential customers from objectively evaluating multiple options - since their data is in secret-proprietary MS format, and/or their business partners are only willing/able to communicate using secret proprietary MS formats, they have no choice but to use MS, even if it is a royal suck-ass POS. Add in that MS has and continues to force OEM PC vendors to choose between offering only MS on most systems, paying probably ten times what they are now per machine to only offer it on some, or offering it on none, and you get a recipe for a market as far away from 'free and open competition' as is possible.
In case you hadn't noticed, Windows is MS Software. I'll grant that they probably meant '25% overall', so if they can reduce total expenditure by 25% just by reducing MS applications, then that would satisfy the requirement. But that certainly doesnt prohibit them from choosing non-MS opatering systems, either.
Just get three people to sign up, and each download the same file. Each will be slightly different, to allow for the unique watermarking. Just run a diff (or the video equivalent) between the files, and bingo, you've found the watermark.
Since this seems to include software that only runs on Windows and/or would be entirely pointless on anything else, using this software is neither a pre-requisite for my respect, nor does it add much. In fact, continuing to use MS crapware most likely have a negative impact on once's respectabilty, IMNSHO.
Why do I suspect that in order to actually use the code to obtain the 'free download', one would have to 1. Use the download service's proprietary software, 2. Register as a customer with the download service, including providing CC# and other private information, and that 3. The 'free download' will be DRM-crippled anyway.
For this to even BEGIN to be considerable as a reasonable settlement, the 'free download' would need to be provided as a standard http or ftp download, with no proprietary software or registration required, and be in a non-DRM'ed format. Otherwise, its net value would be $0 (or even negative, if registration with a CC was required)
.. about what MS decides to incorportate in its proprietary platform. The more user-hostile, privacy-invading, insecure, and unreliable it is, the more people will finally realize that MS completely sucks and will consider taking the bit of extra effort that MS currently makes necesarry for them to choose to use something *other* than MS. And once enough people choose away from MS, the more people will support the rights of end-users to have a market that isnt monopolized by one vendor.
So go ahead, MS, fuck over your customers in any way that you want to, or are paid by RIAA/MPAA/BSA to. The more you fuck them over, the less customers you will have, and the better the overall health of software technology will be.
You have to put up with a certain amount of fucking over to stick with MS, It just seems that some people are willing to take more than others and still remain loyal. Of course some poor ignorant fools will stick with them till the end, and I pity them.
iTMS does not fulfill the 'if only' you refer to. It works ONLY with ipods, requires you to pay by allowing them to suck money from your account, and on top of that you have to use their proprietary software on specific proprieaty platforms only. A total nonstarter.
If a company offered cards at (safeway, walmart, walgreens, mobil, shell, [insert your favorite mainstream retailer here]) in various denominations, and you could take one of those cards (valid only after scanned at register), scratch off a code, and go to a website and download a real MP3 that didnt require proprietary hardware or software to play, without having to provide your bank account information or otherwise violate your privacy, _then_ it might be worthwhile. But we both know that will never happen.
Ok, my mistake. One company is a greedy foot-dragging monopoly that can't stand allowing any chance for true competition to ever become reality, and the other is a greedy foot-dragging mono... Oh wait.. Which was which again?
And yes its quite ironic that SBC has become AT&T now. The evil beast rears its head again. We can only hope that it gets broken up again, and this time it gets done right (each wire center gets split into two competing dialtone providers, each with full rights to offer service to the same set customers, who can freely choose, and with no barriers for additional providers).
The copper in the ground should belong to each locality, or to the property owners, and the telcos (and yes I used plural there) should have equal access to it. The current situation where the ILEC's fight tooth and nail against sharing it just isnt viable. (google for 'structural seperation' - its really the only long term solution for a healthy competitive telecom market, unless some major advancement occurs in wireless tech)
The only difference between religion and mythology is that mythology was the nonsense that people used to beleive, and religion is the nonsense they beleive today.
Keep your religion out of our science! You beleive what you want, but anyone that thinks they have a right to force what they beleive on someone else needs a swift kick in the ass (and yes, that includes other people's children, its tragic enough that parents are allowed to brainwash their own children)
The person providing IP connectivity is the only one required to be responsible for abuse coming from those IP's. Also, most hosting companies put hundreds or thousands of domains on a server. There is no point in even trying to contact the *domain* - contact the company to which the IP addresses are assigned. Top-down rather than bottom-up. A particular host isnt "in" a domain. A host might have a name (or even several) which are in one or more domains. It might serve http, smtp, or any number of other services for any number of domains. It might provide only some services to some domains. There is no way (unless you are the owner/operator of the server, or manage to root the machine) to know what, if any, the 'primary' domain of a server is. Basically, IP addresses are king - domains are a facade built entirely upon IP connectivity.
Your point 4 only makes sense when applied to businesses - there is no justification to demand that every private citizen who has a domain registered give the world their personal contact phone number or private residence address. If its hosted at a webhost, or an ISP, then contact the the webhost or ISP if you have an abuse problem requring some sort of instant attention. Except for the largest, they are more likely to care and have the ability to take quick action, and except for the smallest, they are more likely to actually answer their phone during normal business hours.
1. Domain names arent property, no matter what rationalzation you use. (hosts, servers, and routers are property)
2. Abuse doesnt originate from a 'domain', it originates from an IP network - anytime you think abuse or misbehaviour is originating from a certain 'domain', there is at least a 50% chance that whatever information you are relying on is fake or forged - look at the numeric IP address, not anything related to a domain name. (for hosts, servers, and routers, there may be reasons to restrict access to yours from other specific hosts, servers or routers)
3. IP networks are pretty much always assigned to business entities (with public business addresses and contact info, which for legit businesses is what is listed in the WHOIS [ with some minor issues with info being sometimes out-of-date ] )
4. For personal addresses, PO boxes work great. You can receive mail, yet stalkers can't wait on your doorstep. As far as phone numbers, I list all zeros for my domain. I even had to switch away from NetSol becuase they demanded I provide a phone number, and couldn't explain what I should do if I didnt actually *have* a phone. Its like demanding the VIN # of your Maserati - what if you dont own a Maserati? It is a failure of the design of registration databases to take into account that a private individual might not have a phone number, yet still have legitimate reasons to register a domain.
My contention was that the anon OP was blasting the city for providing wireless net just because not everyone has power yet, as if they can only do one thing at a time. I'm sure that lots of rebuilding is being done simultaneously in many different areas. It just happens to take longer to deploy several square miles of new power transmission equipment than it does to stick an AP somewhere and cover the same area with wireless net. Why should those that either have power, or alternate means (battery/laptop) have to wait until everyone has power before they can have Internet?
They also seem to miss the point that wireless net may well greatly assist the rebuild of the other infrastructure (even if my original example isnt relevant).
You dont need any special hardware to print barcodes. An old Laserjet, or a new $19.95 Lexmark special from Circuit Shitty will do the job.
You dont need any special software to print barcodes. There is plenty of both free (as in Freeware) and Free (as in Free Software) programs that can generate barcode images, both UPC and a handful of others.
I had the same thing recently happen to me with a DVD burner. Bought it at walmart (heck it was a pretty good deal $60 for a multi 16x drive) I got it home and instead of the LiteON DVD Burner there was an LG DVD-ROM in it, and when I looked closer at the packaging I realized it had been opened.
Luckily, I was able to return it for a refund (and yes I told them the wrong drive was in the box) and I did go back in the store and was able to find another of the same item that I confirmed was still sealed in the factory packaging, and I now have the right drive.
You just described exactly how UPC codes work. The price is not in the code, its in a database. The guy wasnt putting a frying pan UPC on an iPod, he was putting a 'CD player' or 'headphones' UPC on an iPod, and then choosing the checkout he used carefully, trying to find someone who might not recognize the difference between a CD player and an iPod, or who might not check each item carefully. Heck you could put an 'iPod mini' barcode on a full iPod, and possibly even someone that knows what an iPod is might not even catch it. Or put the barcode of a $49 DVD player on a $149 DVD player. The register will probably just say "DVD PLAYER", and if you swap ones of the same brand name that might increase the odds.
In any case, this probably goes on all the time, and just isnt caught very often. Probably accounts for some portion of retail store inventory (in)accuracy.
Im not sure of the case in NO, but 'all these cities' wanting to do this, are NOT subsidizing it. They are accepting bids from private companies to finance and provide the service. All the winning bidder would get is some help avoiding red tape for right-of-way, tower access, permits, etc, as well as a designation of being the 'official' provider.
Too bad those power engineers have no way to access their HQ's infrastructure maps from out in the field while they are trying to restore power, even from their battery (or vehicle) powered laptop. If only someone could set up some wireless Internet access...
You completely underestimate the immediate need for telecommunications (which can be setup fairly quickly, and cost effectively if wireless is used rather than underground copper) in order for there to be anything in New Orleans to be worth the multi-year, multi-biliion dollar effort that building better hurricane protection that they will also need (but not immediately, since afaik hurricane season is mostly over)
Absolutely its understandable. After all, BellSouth realizes that its business is completely unviable unless it has absolute monopoly control over telecomunnications infrastruscture. It can allow no meaningful competition or alternate means of telecoms if it is to survive.
That said, I hope that, in the end, if SBC/BS tries to tie its donation to N.O. modifying or scaling back its wireless plans, that N.O. tells them to take their building and shove it where the sun don't shine. I am sure there will be plenty of abandonded buildings in N.O. and a company that owns one that is less dependent on monopoly status will be happy to step forward.
If you want to give a gift card, find one that is a prepaid visa/mastercard deal. It doesnt tie the recipient to a specific store, the recipient is more likely to spend it, and less likely to lose it.
Store-specific gift cards are really only appropriate if you know for *certain* that the intended recipient regularly makes purchases equal to or greater than the gift card amount at the specific store, *and* there is some very good reason why you need to give a 'value' gift as opposed to an actual gift item, *and* there is some very good reason why you can't just give them a cash or check. (And cash or check being tacky *isnt* a good one - the gift card is just as tacky, by that reasoning)
Sounds like the 'Video Professor' adverts on TV. They 'give away' the 'software' for free, but you have to pay $12 for shipping on a CD that probably doesnt get to you for '4 to 6 weeks'. Compare that to USPS priority mail, where you can pay 3.85 to the post office to mail anything up to a 16 ounces and have it arrive in at most 3 to 4 days, the VP is charging you $12 to mail you a CD that cost them pennies to duplicate and a couple bucks to ship.
Slashdot Mirror
Maybe follow SBC's lead, where they are already joined at the hip to Yahoo. Apparently with your 'paid' SBC DSL line you get a yahoo.com email address.
http://sbc.yahoo.com/
Dont give any props to AT and T - the recently became part of another entity that uses the same tactics as BellSouth - SBC. In fact its hideously ironic that AT&T was once broken up for being a monopoly, and now the name is in use by yet another monopolist.
--
... "
s c_sup_01_15_10_1.html (USC, TITLE 15 > CHAPTER 1, aka 'Sherman Act')
From http://www.usdoj.gov/atr/cases/f4900/4909.htm (Microsoft Conclusions of Law and Final Order, May 98)
"The Court having entered judgment in accordance with the Findings of Fact and the Conclusions of Law on April 3, 2000, that Microsoft has violated 1 and 2 of the Sherman Act, 15 U.S.C., as well
--
From http://www.law.cornell.edu/uscode/html/uscode15/u
1. Trusts, etc., in restraint of trade illegal; penalty
2. Monopolizing trade a felony; penalty
--
So under what set of FUD is it that you beleive MS is *not* a convicted monopolist? Pay close attention to #2 there of the Sherman Act.
I dunno about the OP, but I would prefer to have free and open competition for OS. Unfortunately, we havent had that for at least a decade now - MS has and continues to see to that by its use of monopolistic lock-in strategies that prevent potential customers from objectively evaluating multiple options - since their data is in secret-proprietary MS format, and/or their business partners are only willing/able to communicate using secret proprietary MS formats, they have no choice but to use MS, even if it is a royal suck-ass POS. Add in that MS has and continues to force OEM PC vendors to choose between offering only MS on most systems, paying probably ten times what they are now per machine to only offer it on some, or offering it on none, and you get a recipe for a market as far away from 'free and open competition' as is possible.
In case you hadn't noticed, Windows is MS Software. I'll grant that they probably meant '25% overall', so if they can reduce total expenditure by 25% just by reducing MS applications, then that would satisfy the requirement. But that certainly doesnt prohibit them from choosing non-MS opatering systems, either.
Easy to find, hard to hide.
Just get three people to sign up, and each download the same file. Each will be slightly different, to allow for the unique watermarking. Just run a diff (or the video equivalent) between the files, and bingo, you've found the watermark.
Since this seems to include software that only runs on Windows and/or would be entirely pointless on anything else, using this software is neither a pre-requisite for my respect, nor does it add much. In fact, continuing to use MS crapware most likely have a negative impact on once's respectabilty, IMNSHO.
Why do I suspect that in order to actually use the code to obtain the 'free download', one would have to 1. Use the download service's proprietary software, 2. Register as a customer with the download service, including providing CC# and other private information, and that 3. The 'free download' will be DRM-crippled anyway.
For this to even BEGIN to be considerable as a reasonable settlement, the 'free download' would need to be provided as a standard http or ftp download, with no proprietary software or registration required, and be in a non-DRM'ed format. Otherwise, its net value would be $0 (or even negative, if registration with a CC was required)
.. about what MS decides to incorportate in its proprietary platform. The more user-hostile, privacy-invading, insecure, and unreliable it is, the more people will finally realize that MS completely sucks and will consider taking the bit of extra effort that MS currently makes necesarry for them to choose to use something *other* than MS. And once enough people choose away from MS, the more people will support the rights of end-users to have a market that isnt monopolized by one vendor.
So go ahead, MS, fuck over your customers in any way that you want to, or are paid by RIAA/MPAA/BSA to. The more you fuck them over, the less customers you will have, and the better the overall health of software technology will be.
You have to put up with a certain amount of fucking over to stick with MS, It just seems that some people are willing to take more than others and still remain loyal. Of course some poor ignorant fools will stick with them till the end, and I pity them.
iTMS does not fulfill the 'if only' you refer to. It works ONLY with ipods, requires you to pay by allowing them to suck money from your account, and on top of that you have to use their proprietary software on specific proprieaty platforms only. A total nonstarter.
If a company offered cards at (safeway, walmart, walgreens, mobil, shell, [insert your favorite mainstream retailer here]) in various denominations, and you could take one of those cards (valid only after scanned at register), scratch off a code, and go to a website and download a real MP3 that didnt require proprietary hardware or software to play, without having to provide your bank account information or otherwise violate your privacy, _then_ it might be worthwhile. But we both know that will never happen.
Ok, my mistake. One company is a greedy foot-dragging monopoly that can't stand allowing any chance for true competition to ever become reality, and the other is a greedy foot-dragging mono... Oh wait.. Which was which again?
And yes its quite ironic that SBC has become AT&T now. The evil beast rears its head again. We can only hope that it gets broken up again, and this time it gets done right (each wire center gets split into two competing dialtone providers, each with full rights to offer service to the same set customers, who can freely choose, and with no barriers for additional providers).
The copper in the ground should belong to each locality, or to the property owners, and the telcos (and yes I used plural there) should have equal access to it. The current situation where the ILEC's fight tooth and nail against sharing it just isnt viable. (google for 'structural seperation' - its really the only long term solution for a healthy competitive telecom market, unless some major advancement occurs in wireless tech)
The only difference between religion and mythology is that mythology was the nonsense that people used to beleive, and religion is the nonsense they beleive today.
Keep your religion out of our science! You beleive what you want, but anyone that thinks they have a right to force what they beleive on someone else needs a swift kick in the ass (and yes, that includes other people's children, its tragic enough that parents are allowed to brainwash their own children)
people will be dissatisfied with underpowered $100 laptops. They'd be much happier having no computer at all. Idiot.
1. You are confusing property with identity.
The person providing IP connectivity is the only one required to be responsible for abuse coming from those IP's. Also, most hosting companies put hundreds or thousands of domains on a server. There is no point in even trying to contact the *domain* - contact the company to which the IP addresses are assigned. Top-down rather than bottom-up. A particular host isnt "in" a domain. A host might have a name (or even several) which are in one or more domains. It might serve http, smtp, or any number of other services for any number of domains. It might provide only some services to some domains. There is no way (unless you are the owner/operator of the server, or manage to root the machine) to know what, if any, the 'primary' domain of a server is. Basically, IP addresses are king - domains are a facade built entirely upon IP connectivity.
Your point 4 only makes sense when applied to businesses - there is no justification to demand that every private citizen who has a domain registered give the world their personal contact phone number or private residence address. If its hosted at a webhost, or an ISP, then contact the the webhost or ISP if you have an abuse problem requring some sort of instant attention. Except for the largest, they are more likely to care and have the ability to take quick action, and except for the smallest, they are more likely to actually answer their phone during normal business hours.
So many things wrong, where to start
1. Domain names arent property, no matter what rationalzation you use. (hosts, servers, and routers are property)
2. Abuse doesnt originate from a 'domain', it originates from an IP network - anytime you think abuse or misbehaviour is originating from a certain 'domain', there is at least a 50% chance that whatever information you are relying on is fake or forged - look at the numeric IP address, not anything related to a domain name. (for hosts, servers, and routers, there may be reasons to restrict access to yours from other specific hosts, servers or routers)
3. IP networks are pretty much always assigned to business entities (with public business addresses and contact info, which for legit businesses is what is listed in the WHOIS [ with some minor issues with info being sometimes out-of-date ] )
4. For personal addresses, PO boxes work great. You can receive mail, yet stalkers can't wait on your doorstep. As far as phone numbers, I list all zeros for my domain. I even had to switch away from NetSol becuase they demanded I provide a phone number, and couldn't explain what I should do if I didnt actually *have* a phone. Its like demanding the VIN # of your Maserati - what if you dont own a Maserati? It is a failure of the design of registration databases to take into account that a private individual might not have a phone number, yet still have legitimate reasons to register a domain.
Now if only the /. editors would learn that and stop linking to registration-required stories on NYT.
My contention was that the anon OP was blasting the city for providing wireless net just because not everyone has power yet, as if they can only do one thing at a time. I'm sure that lots of rebuilding is being done simultaneously in many different areas. It just happens to take longer to deploy several square miles of new power transmission equipment than it does to stick an AP somewhere and cover the same area with wireless net. Why should those that either have power, or alternate means (battery/laptop) have to wait until everyone has power before they can have Internet?
They also seem to miss the point that wireless net may well greatly assist the rebuild of the other infrastructure (even if my original example isnt relevant).
You dont need any special hardware to print barcodes. An old Laserjet, or a new $19.95 Lexmark special from Circuit Shitty will do the job.
You dont need any special software to print barcodes. There is plenty of both free (as in Freeware) and Free (as in Free Software) programs that can generate barcode images, both UPC and a handful of others.
I had the same thing recently happen to me with a DVD burner. Bought it at walmart (heck it was a pretty good deal $60 for a multi 16x drive) I got it home and instead of the LiteON DVD Burner there was an LG DVD-ROM in it, and when I looked closer at the packaging I realized it had been opened.
Luckily, I was able to return it for a refund (and yes I told them the wrong drive was in the box) and I did go back in the store and was able to find another of the same item that I confirmed was still sealed in the factory packaging, and I now have the right drive.
You just described exactly how UPC codes work. The price is not in the code, its in a database. The guy wasnt putting a frying pan UPC on an iPod, he was putting a 'CD player' or 'headphones' UPC on an iPod, and then choosing the checkout he used carefully, trying to find someone who might not recognize the difference between a CD player and an iPod, or who might not check each item carefully. Heck you could put an 'iPod mini' barcode on a full iPod, and possibly even someone that knows what an iPod is might not even catch it. Or put the barcode of a $49 DVD player on a $149 DVD player. The register will probably just say "DVD PLAYER", and if you swap ones of the same brand name that might increase the odds.
In any case, this probably goes on all the time, and just isnt caught very often. Probably accounts for some portion of retail store inventory (in)accuracy.
Im not sure of the case in NO, but 'all these cities' wanting to do this, are NOT subsidizing it. They are accepting bids from private companies to finance and provide the service. All the winning bidder would get is some help avoiding red tape for right-of-way, tower access, permits, etc, as well as a designation of being the 'official' provider.
Too bad those power engineers have no way to access their HQ's infrastructure maps from out in the field while they are trying to restore power, even from their battery (or vehicle) powered laptop. If only someone could set up some wireless Internet access...
You completely underestimate the immediate need for telecommunications (which can be setup fairly quickly, and cost effectively if wireless is used rather than underground copper) in order for there to be anything in New Orleans to be worth the multi-year, multi-biliion dollar effort that building better hurricane protection that they will also need (but not immediately, since afaik hurricane season is mostly over)
Absolutely its understandable. After all, BellSouth realizes that its business is completely unviable unless it has absolute monopoly control over telecomunnications infrastruscture. It can allow no meaningful competition or alternate means of telecoms if it is to survive.
That said, I hope that, in the end, if SBC/BS tries to tie its donation to N.O. modifying or scaling back its wireless plans, that N.O. tells them to take their building and shove it where the sun don't shine. I am sure there will be plenty of abandonded buildings in N.O. and a company that owns one that is less dependent on monopoly status will be happy to step forward.
If you want to give a gift card, find one that is a prepaid visa/mastercard deal. It doesnt tie the recipient to a specific store, the recipient is more likely to spend it, and less likely to lose it.
Store-specific gift cards are really only appropriate if you know for *certain* that the intended recipient regularly makes purchases equal to or greater than the gift card amount at the specific store, *and* there is some very good reason why you need to give a 'value' gift as opposed to an actual gift item, *and* there is some very good reason why you can't just give them a cash or check. (And cash or check being tacky *isnt* a good one - the gift card is just as tacky, by that reasoning)
Sounds like the 'Video Professor' adverts on TV. They 'give away' the 'software' for free, but you have to pay $12 for shipping on a CD that probably doesnt get to you for '4 to 6 weeks'. Compare that to USPS priority mail, where you can pay 3.85 to the post office to mail anything up to a 16 ounces and have it arrive in at most 3 to 4 days, the VP is charging you $12 to mail you a CD that cost them pennies to duplicate and a couple bucks to ship.