The UW Medical Center (an UW Physicians Network, where my wife works) are already paperless when it comes to patient charting. It's all electronic. The UWMC is using some of our products, while the UWPN is using a different product. So don't fret... what you want IS possible, and is being done.
First, you'll have to excuse me for posting something that many may see as self-serving. But I really hope that some of the products that my company provides might help Bolus reach his goal.
My company is Data Critical, we specialize in wireless and internet solutions for healthcare. I'm not as versed on our products as I could be, being that I am just a lowly webmaster. but in a nut shell, we have a couple of products that I think would be perfect for this sort of application.
First, our WebChart product is a web-based charting system for patient data. Complimentary to that is PocketChart, a WindowsCE program you can use while interacting with patients, then upload the data into WebChart. (We demo with the Compaq iPAQ, and Cisco wireless products.)
All data is sent securely, that's something we've been trying VERY hard to ensure. We know that this is people's chief concern.
We have other products as well, but I don't know very much about them... more for hospitals than anything else.
If anyone is interested, shoot me an e-mail, and I'll put you in touch with someone that can give you more information.
The Hollywood Stock Exchange is an online game where you trade Movie Stocks and Star Bonds. Lots of fun, and while the game is "technically" scored, there is never a winner, as the game never ends. It's a psuedo-real life simulation, mimicking the stock market with the movie industry as a basis.
This wouldn't be Slashdot without an anti-Microsoft reference in a story that had nothing to so with Bill and the Empire.
Come on, people. It's one thing to slam Microsoft in a story ABOUT Microsoft, but it another thing entirely to bring up your personal biases in a completely tangential way.
Is "tangential" even a word, or did I just make it up?
Anyway, for all of the Slashdotter's that complained that Anti-Trust portrayed the open-source movement in a negative light (like it's all that they ever say)... THIS IS WHY. Lighten up. There is more to life than open-source.
What it looks like will happen is that in a year or so, we will hear Nintendo barely hanging on as the X-box comes out. Unless Nintendo pulls a power move, probably in the handheld gaming market (which will probably be the rumored upcoming GameBoy Advance), they will bow out soon also.
Actually, there is little truth to this statement. Nintendo is still selling well in IT's market, which is different from the market for PS2 and DC. Nintendo has never killed a machine before the natural end of it's product cycle, and usually supports it well into it's twilight years. (I'm not counting Virtual Boy... which was a collosal failure.)
When X-Box launches, Gameboy Advance (NOT a rumor, I might add, it's well past confirmed) should launch (June-ish), and Gamecube either at Christmas, or Q1 2002.
Now then, Microsoft has NEVER made a date for a major release, and there's little reason to suspect that X-Box will break the trend. Microsoft themselves have even suggested that Christmas might be more realistic, meaning GBA will beat it to market, and Gamecube should launch at approximately the same time.
Unfortunately, what probably will happen is that Sony will drop the ball this year. Microsoft will release the X-box to a small audience and start out slow. The X-box and PS2 will be in competition for about a year, maybe 18 months, with Microsoft gaining ground as Sony loses ground.
This is mostly correct. Sony's already pissing off third parties by not having enough installed base, and they are eager to see X-Box succeed. The rest of the paragraph is a bit wrong though. X-Box will not be priced lower... I see it having price parity with PS2. As for PC integration... that's a pipe dream. MS KNOWS that X-Box needs to be a console, not a PC, and is pushing down that road. Ask any developer... X-Box is about games, and games only.
Nintendo and Microsoft will likely end up the major players unless Sony pulls it's head out of it's ass, but just like the last "war," Nintendo will probably end up grabbing the younger end of the market, and Microsoft will embrace the older generation.
And in case anyone wonders about my perceptions, I worked in the game industry for a while, and have studied it thoroughly. There is always a cycle to these things, and sometimes the players make them happen while denying that they will fall into the trap.
If you're upset at the lack of access points, help the cause and ADD ONE! My best friend and I both have one, and my office has a couple. While the office one is encrypted (and thus, unavailable) I'll add mine as soon as I find out what standard settings to give it.
Wireless won't take off unless the SSIDs and Channel info is set to some standard. But once it does... whee!
By the way... wireless has come a long way since Ricochet. It's fast enough now (and hceap enough) where I've set up every computer in the apartment to use Wireless. As soon as Bluetooth allows me to have wireless keyboards and mice, we should start getting rid of that cord glut.
They're missing the crucial Aliens "Whazzup!" ad! What the fuck... I mean, probably one of the funniest ads and they don't even have it up to be rated. This is like the Florida Fucking Recount all over again...
... assuming you can FIND one. The damned things are sold out everywhere. My boss has been lording his over us, teasing us as he walks around our office with his PC Card backback and his Cisco 802.11 card, checking his e-mail from the break room. I've been looking everywhere, to no avail. It makes me want to cry.:(
Hughes has the right to damage their own cards, even in your home, through the use of their FCC-licensed class and power of signals.
The FCC is a US body, and has no jurisdiction over, say, Canada. That's the point of this battle... most of the so-called "hackers" are in Canada, because they cannot legally pay for DirecTV due to stupid Canadian legislation. But since they can't pay for it, it's technically legal (if not morally ambiguous) to "steal" the service.
Still, everything else you said is right on. Hughes handled this PERFECTLY. Just because Canadians are allowed by their law to "steal" the service, doesn't mean Hughes has to lay down and take it. Fight, man!
Ok, so what makes a hacker a hacker?
IMO, a "script kiddie" is someone who uses a tool to "mostly" auotmate the "hacking" and has a moderate amount of knowledge to be able to use it effectively. They may know how the tool works, but could NEVER make the tool to do it.
Hackers make the tools. Hackers have the skill to know how to fix a problem, and make the tools to make that job easier.
If you didn't make the tools, you are NOT a hacker. If you can't write code, you are not a hacker.
I say this because in your statement, you say that we "have no idea the amount of skill it takes to crack cards." Wrong. I've cracked them myself, using scripts and programmers. But I don't know HOW they work, even if I know WHY they work. Just because I can use those tools effectively doesn't mean that I am a hacker.
You "hackers" are nothing more than the equivilent of "script kiddies." I will admit that there are a few legitimate hackers out there, but if you are buying H-Cards and using a programmer with someone else's code on them to steal the signal... you are NOT a hacker. You're a User. Totally different.
There is no real skill involved in what the Canadian hackers are doing. DirecTV was just toying with the hackers, inconvienencing them with looping the cards while they devised the latest scheme.
Hughes are the real hackers... they were sending packets you couldn't figure out until the damage was done... and they did it right before the biggest viewing time of the year. Bravo to Hughes... they beat the "hackers" at thier own game.
You can justify your acts anyway you want, I suppose. But calling yourself "hackers" is an insult to those that truly do possess the skills. Just because I can take someone else's code and write it onto a CD doesn't make me a hacker. Just because you can take someone else's code and write it onto an H-Card doesn't make you a hacker either.
It's a completely arbitrary standard. The speakers are THX certified, but that's about it. The rest of the machine is a fairly cookie-cutter Dell multimedia machine.
The black & silver case and the black Trinitron monitor are very slick looking, though. If it weren't a fuckin' P4, I'd get one.
By the way, Altec Lansing has better speakers available... the ADA-890. Same THX certification.
Re:Screw Katz ... I LIKED Antitrust!
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eg. truckloads of gold driving around
You referring to Die Hard: With a Vengeance? I thought they did a good job with that... having Sam Jackson struggling to carry his ONE bar, and commenting on how "fuckin' heavy" it was.
Re:I thought it did a good job, though
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Antitrust
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Ryan Philippe owned the screen last year in Varsity Blues. He's followed up that performance with a real gem in Antitrust.
Ryan Phillipe wasn't in "Varsity Blues." That guy from Dawson's Creek was. Ryan Phillipe was in "Studio 54" and "Cruel Intentions."
Screw Katz ... I LIKED Antitrust!
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My wife, best friend, and I all went to see it last Friday night. We thought the movie was rather good, we liked the plot twists, we liked the not-so-subtle jabs at Microsoft, and we found the movie overall to be rather believeable, but not to the point of ruining the entertainment of it.
Personally, I think anyone who came out not enjoying this movie was too busy analyzing it to let themselves enjoy it.
While open-source zealots may have thought that the "open-source" movement may have sounded like a one-liner repeated over and over until the kid was beaten to death, I hate to say it but that's what you all sound like. I hear a lot about open-source, but it's mostly about how everything sucks if it's not. That was captured perfectly in the movie. Everything would be better if it were open-source, regardless of what that means.
I liked the way Robbins portrayed the Winston character, just a bit over the top at times, but showed some of the manicness that Gates is known to display at times. Eloquence when "on camera," quiet wonderment when with other geniouses, and flashes of frustration and anger at any lack of creativity.
And I definitely liked the idea that things were not quite where Milo expected them to be, and it kept me guessing as well.
It was a good movie, not spectacular, but definitely one I'll see again (and probably own), and well worth the money. Loosen up a bit, don't go into it expecting too much, and you'll come away pleased.
The real problem with Internet Advertising is that the advertisers are going about it all wrong. Just because it's the net doesn't mean you change the way you advertise, or the way you pay for it. Web pages are like TV stations. Advertisers don't get to charge the TV station per "click-through", so why should the net change that? Click-through should be treated like commission.
Right now, the current paradigm is that advertisers make shitty ads, and the web hosts suffer because no one clicks on the shitty ads. The web host goes under, so people assume that internet ads don't work. WRONG. You need to make your ads compelling enough to drive response rate. If you're not getting click-through, it doesn't mean that the web host isn't doing their job... they shouldn't have to BEG for clicks just to pay the bills. It means your AD isn't doing it's job.
Sales for ads should go like this: The advertiser pays x amount for posting the ad on your site per month (determined by average traffic, just like the networks), and an additional nickel per click commission.
This is fair to the web host (who needs to increase their reader base to get more "guaranteed" money) and to the advertiser, who only pays more when they are getting customers.
My point is, the onus should NOT be on the web host, but on the advertiser, just like it is everywhere else.
And please... stop thos friggin' ads that look like system notifications, and pop-up windows. That's what's souring net users on Ads.
So, when my NIC breaks and I install a new one in the same computer, I can't reinstall windows, right?
If your NIC breaks, and you replace it, why would you reinstall Windows? It's just the NIC. Your hard drive is fine.
This clearly sucks. Btw, many NICs allow the MAC-address to be changed:-)
At which point, you're not a "casual copier" anymore, are you?
Folks, it all comes down to the same reason that Nintendo went with cartridges as their main form of copy protection for the N64. (Yes, I know there are OTHER reasons, like controlling manufacturing, and recouping their investment in their fabs, but I'm talking STRICTLY about the copy protection facet, so back off.) The cartridge format makes it more difficult for the casual copier to make a copy of the game with little effort. It's all about keeping the honest people honest.
That's where Sony screwed up with the original PSX. It was WAY too easy to just drop a CD into a burner and get a working copy of it. Hell, when I bought my first CD burner, copying a PSX disc was the FIRST thing I did, just to see if it worked.
Micrsoft understands that determined pirates are always going to find away around the copy protection. Microsoft is just making it so that the act of copying the software can't be mindless.
It's getting blown WAY out of proportion. No one except folks at Microsoft knows how it works, and it was quite quickly removed from the 2410 build.
Reportedly, it's going to work like this. (I don't know for sure... I've never seen it, and I haven't installed this build.) The MAC address of your NIC is trasmitted with your PID when you register. That's ALL. If you try to install the software with the same PID on another machine, and the MAC address doesn't match up, you're denied. If you have built a new machine, and need to install it, you've have a toll-free number to call where you can re-activate the PID. This same number can be used to register the PID if you don't have a modem line.
Now, in the Beta newsgroup, Micrsoft has specifically told us not to get our panties in a bunch... most of the internet reports are WRONG (including mine above) in some form or another... no one has it right yet, and not to believe them. We'll have more info closer to Beta 2. But the system is going to be non-invasive, and all of the arguments we're having have already been had within MS.
Personally, while I don't LIKE the idea, I understand why it's being done. They've let casual copying go WAY too long, and many small companies are not license compliant. Mine just bought over $100K in licenses that we owed through several buyouts. It's easy to fall out of compliance... this should stop that.
I do MOST of my shopping on the Internet now, but I'm not NEARLY as anal about it as you are. I have a set idea in my mind (sub-consciously, most of the time) on what something should cost. Once it reaches that level, I start bargain-hunting. If I can't find a reasonable deal in a reasonable amount of time, I just buy it at the most convienient place.
I rarely buy anything locally anymore, due to Washington State's oppressive 8.6% sales tax. Shipping usually works out to be cheaper.
Anyway, I only buy at reputable dealers, like Buy.com, or places that have what look to be class-act operations. I don't know about the rest of you, but I've been on the web for a long time, and I can spot a fly-by-night operation from a mile away.
Plus... and this should be obvious... I don't buy CRAP. I'm not going to buy an expensive anything from a company I've never heard of. I don't care if this company is supposed to be the next Micrsoft. I'm about as wired as it gets, and if I don't know anything about them, they aren't getting my money. Sony, Panasonic, Dell... big name companies with proven products and decent value. But I rarely pay retail on that stuff. There's always a good deal to be found if you look around.
And dude... the PayPal thing is SO obvious. PayPal is primarily for C2C transactions. BUSINESSES don't transact through PayPal. Anyone that got taken by that scam probably deserved to. They won't get burned like that again, and it makes them a wiser shopper.
IANAL, but from what I gather from my Law TV Shows, Punitive damages have to be enough to actually PUNISH the company. $1M is not enough to punish Microsoft... the company as a whole is too rich. $5B sounds high to me, maybe $1B is good enough, but if the intended effect is to punish the actions of the company, than the dollar amount is supposed to make people cringe.
That said, aren't damages assigned by the JURY? It's up to them to decide damages, not the plaintiffs. Plus, the Judge can set aside the judgement in favor of a lower amount if need be.
The Internet is NOT the whole Tech Industry ...
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Racism At Microsoft?
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Of course, as a pasty white boy I probably wouldn't even notice even though I've always thought of the internet as colorblind.
The tech-industry is NOT just the Internet. There are a lot of sectors in the tech-industry, and the internet is a fairly small part of it. Everyone seems to have the opinion that if you're high-tech, that means you're a dot.com, and that's just not accurate.
That's probably why the NASDAQ as a whole tanks when a dot.com goes under, even thought many companies in the exchange don't do "business" over the internet.
Of course, I wouldn't expect a pasty white boy to know the difference.:)
University Park has a LOT of information on PUBLIC wireless access initiatives in various communities. Other than Colleges, it appears that Seattle is leading the way...
Luckily for me... I live in Seattle, and my Linksys card is on the way.
Slashdot Mirror
The UW Medical Center (an UW Physicians Network, where my wife works) are already paperless when it comes to patient charting. It's all electronic. The UWMC is using some of our products, while the UWPN is using a different product. So don't fret ... what you want IS possible, and is being done.
First, you'll have to excuse me for posting something that many may see as self-serving. But I really hope that some of the products that my company provides might help Bolus reach his goal. My company is Data Critical, we specialize in wireless and internet solutions for healthcare. I'm not as versed on our products as I could be, being that I am just a lowly webmaster. but in a nut shell, we have a couple of products that I think would be perfect for this sort of application. First, our WebChart product is a web-based charting system for patient data. Complimentary to that is PocketChart, a WindowsCE program you can use while interacting with patients, then upload the data into WebChart. (We demo with the Compaq iPAQ, and Cisco wireless products.) All data is sent securely, that's something we've been trying VERY hard to ensure. We know that this is people's chief concern. We have other products as well, but I don't know very much about them ... more for hospitals than anything else.
If anyone is interested, shoot me an e-mail, and I'll put you in touch with someone that can give you more information.
The Hollywood Stock Exchange is an online game where you trade Movie Stocks and Star Bonds. Lots of fun, and while the game is "technically" scored, there is never a winner, as the game never ends. It's a psuedo-real life simulation, mimicking the stock market with the movie industry as a basis.
Come on, people. It's one thing to slam Microsoft in a story ABOUT Microsoft, but it another thing entirely to bring up your personal biases in a completely tangential way.
Is "tangential" even a word, or did I just make it up?
Anyway, for all of the Slashdotter's that complained that Anti-Trust portrayed the open-source movement in a negative light (like it's all that they ever say) ... THIS IS WHY. Lighten up. There is more to life than open-source.
Actually, there is little truth to this statement. Nintendo is still selling well in IT's market, which is different from the market for PS2 and DC. Nintendo has never killed a machine before the natural end of it's product cycle, and usually supports it well into it's twilight years. (I'm not counting Virtual Boy ... which was a collosal failure.)
When X-Box launches, Gameboy Advance (NOT a rumor, I might add, it's well past confirmed) should launch (June-ish), and Gamecube either at Christmas, or Q1 2002.
Now then, Microsoft has NEVER made a date for a major release, and there's little reason to suspect that X-Box will break the trend. Microsoft themselves have even suggested that Christmas might be more realistic, meaning GBA will beat it to market, and Gamecube should launch at approximately the same time.
Unfortunately, what probably will happen is that Sony will drop the ball this year. Microsoft will release the X-box to a small audience and start out slow. The X-box and PS2 will be in competition for about a year, maybe 18 months, with Microsoft gaining ground as Sony loses ground.
This is mostly correct. Sony's already pissing off third parties by not having enough installed base, and they are eager to see X-Box succeed. The rest of the paragraph is a bit wrong though. X-Box will not be priced lower ... I see it having price parity with PS2. As for PC integration ... that's a pipe dream. MS KNOWS that X-Box needs to be a console, not a PC, and is pushing down that road. Ask any developer ... X-Box is about games, and games only.
Nintendo and Microsoft will likely end up the major players unless Sony pulls it's head out of it's ass, but just like the last "war," Nintendo will probably end up grabbing the younger end of the market, and Microsoft will embrace the older generation.
And in case anyone wonders about my perceptions, I worked in the game industry for a while, and have studied it thoroughly. There is always a cycle to these things, and sometimes the players make them happen while denying that they will fall into the trap.
Wireless won't take off unless the SSIDs and Channel info is set to some standard. But once it does ... whee!
By the way ... wireless has come a long way since Ricochet. It's fast enough now (and hceap enough) where I've set up every computer in the apartment to use Wireless. As soon as Bluetooth allows me to have wireless keyboards and mice, we should start getting rid of that cord glut.
They're missing the crucial Aliens "Whazzup!" ad! What the fuck ... I mean, probably one of the funniest ads and they don't even have it up to be rated. This is like the Florida Fucking Recount all over again ...
... assuming you can FIND one. The damned things are sold out everywhere. My boss has been lording his over us, teasing us as he walks around our office with his PC Card backback and his Cisco 802.11 card, checking his e-mail from the break room. I've been looking everywhere, to no avail. It makes me want to cry. :(
Now THESE Transformers, the new Car Robots series from Takara in Japan, are SWEET. Word is, Hasbro is bringing them to America.
The FCC is a US body, and has no jurisdiction over, say, Canada. That's the point of this battle ... most of the so-called "hackers" are in Canada, because they cannot legally pay for DirecTV due to stupid Canadian legislation. But since they can't pay for it, it's technically legal (if not morally ambiguous) to "steal" the service.
Still, everything else you said is right on. Hughes handled this PERFECTLY. Just because Canadians are allowed by their law to "steal" the service, doesn't mean Hughes has to lay down and take it. Fight, man!
Ok, so what makes a hacker a hacker? IMO, a "script kiddie" is someone who uses a tool to "mostly" auotmate the "hacking" and has a moderate amount of knowledge to be able to use it effectively. They may know how the tool works, but could NEVER make the tool to do it. Hackers make the tools. Hackers have the skill to know how to fix a problem, and make the tools to make that job easier. If you didn't make the tools, you are NOT a hacker. If you can't write code, you are not a hacker. I say this because in your statement, you say that we "have no idea the amount of skill it takes to crack cards." Wrong. I've cracked them myself, using scripts and programmers. But I don't know HOW they work, even if I know WHY they work. Just because I can use those tools effectively doesn't mean that I am a hacker.
There is no real skill involved in what the Canadian hackers are doing. DirecTV was just toying with the hackers, inconvienencing them with looping the cards while they devised the latest scheme.
Hughes are the real hackers ... they were sending packets you couldn't figure out until the damage was done ... and they did it right before the biggest viewing time of the year. Bravo to Hughes ... they beat the "hackers" at thier own game.
You can justify your acts anyway you want, I suppose. But calling yourself "hackers" is an insult to those that truly do possess the skills. Just because I can take someone else's code and write it onto a CD doesn't make me a hacker. Just because you can take someone else's code and write it onto an H-Card doesn't make you a hacker either.
The black & silver case and the black Trinitron monitor are very slick looking, though. If it weren't a fuckin' P4, I'd get one.
By the way, Altec Lansing has better speakers available ... the ADA-890. Same THX certification.
eg. truckloads of gold driving around You referring to Die Hard: With a Vengeance? I thought they did a good job with that ... having Sam Jackson struggling to carry his ONE bar, and commenting on how "fuckin' heavy" it was.
Ryan Phillipe wasn't in "Varsity Blues." That guy from Dawson's Creek was. Ryan Phillipe was in "Studio 54" and "Cruel Intentions."
Personally, I think anyone who came out not enjoying this movie was too busy analyzing it to let themselves enjoy it.
While open-source zealots may have thought that the "open-source" movement may have sounded like a one-liner repeated over and over until the kid was beaten to death, I hate to say it but that's what you all sound like. I hear a lot about open-source, but it's mostly about how everything sucks if it's not. That was captured perfectly in the movie. Everything would be better if it were open-source, regardless of what that means.
I liked the way Robbins portrayed the Winston character, just a bit over the top at times, but showed some of the manicness that Gates is known to display at times. Eloquence when "on camera," quiet wonderment when with other geniouses, and flashes of frustration and anger at any lack of creativity.
And I definitely liked the idea that things were not quite where Milo expected them to be, and it kept me guessing as well.
It was a good movie, not spectacular, but definitely one I'll see again (and probably own), and well worth the money. Loosen up a bit, don't go into it expecting too much, and you'll come away pleased.
Right now, the current paradigm is that advertisers make shitty ads, and the web hosts suffer because no one clicks on the shitty ads. The web host goes under, so people assume that internet ads don't work. WRONG. You need to make your ads compelling enough to drive response rate. If you're not getting click-through, it doesn't mean that the web host isn't doing their job ... they shouldn't have to BEG for clicks just to pay the bills. It means your AD isn't doing it's job.
Sales for ads should go like this: The advertiser pays x amount for posting the ad on your site per month (determined by average traffic, just like the networks), and an additional nickel per click commission. This is fair to the web host (who needs to increase their reader base to get more "guaranteed" money) and to the advertiser, who only pays more when they are getting customers.
My point is, the onus should NOT be on the web host, but on the advertiser, just like it is everywhere else.
And please ... stop thos friggin' ads that look like system notifications, and pop-up windows. That's what's souring net users on Ads.
If your NIC breaks, and you replace it, why would you reinstall Windows? It's just the NIC. Your hard drive is fine.
This clearly sucks. Btw, many NICs allow the MAC-address to be changed :-)
At which point, you're not a "casual copier" anymore, are you?
Folks, it all comes down to the same reason that Nintendo went with cartridges as their main form of copy protection for the N64. (Yes, I know there are OTHER reasons, like controlling manufacturing, and recouping their investment in their fabs, but I'm talking STRICTLY about the copy protection facet, so back off.) The cartridge format makes it more difficult for the casual copier to make a copy of the game with little effort. It's all about keeping the honest people honest.
That's where Sony screwed up with the original PSX. It was WAY too easy to just drop a CD into a burner and get a working copy of it. Hell, when I bought my first CD burner, copying a PSX disc was the FIRST thing I did, just to see if it worked.
Micrsoft understands that determined pirates are always going to find away around the copy protection. Microsoft is just making it so that the act of copying the software can't be mindless.
Because it's a consumer-level product ... not an enthusiast, or early-adopter level product. It's not being made for the Slashdot crowd.
Personally, I'd rather have no keyboard and WebTV, and just a nice holder/tray for my laptop.
Fuck IT. I don't give a shIT what IT is.
Reportedly, it's going to work like this. (I don't know for sure ... I've never seen it, and I haven't installed this build.) The MAC address of your NIC is trasmitted with your PID when you register. That's ALL. If you try to install the software with the same PID on another machine, and the MAC address doesn't match up, you're denied. If you have built a new machine, and need to install it, you've have a toll-free number to call where you can re-activate the PID. This same number can be used to register the PID if you don't have a modem line.
Now, in the Beta newsgroup, Micrsoft has specifically told us not to get our panties in a bunch ... most of the internet reports are WRONG (including mine above) in some form or another ... no one has it right yet, and not to believe them. We'll have more info closer to Beta 2. But the system is going to be non-invasive, and all of the arguments we're having have already been had within MS.
Personally, while I don't LIKE the idea, I understand why it's being done. They've let casual copying go WAY too long, and many small companies are not license compliant. Mine just bought over $100K in licenses that we owed through several buyouts. It's easy to fall out of compliance ... this should stop that.
I rarely buy anything locally anymore, due to Washington State's oppressive 8.6% sales tax. Shipping usually works out to be cheaper.
Anyway, I only buy at reputable dealers, like Buy.com, or places that have what look to be class-act operations. I don't know about the rest of you, but I've been on the web for a long time, and I can spot a fly-by-night operation from a mile away.
Plus ... and this should be obvious ... I don't buy CRAP. I'm not going to buy an expensive anything from a company I've never heard of. I don't care if this company is supposed to be the next Micrsoft. I'm about as wired as it gets, and if I don't know anything about them, they aren't getting my money. Sony, Panasonic, Dell ... big name companies with proven products and decent value. But I rarely pay retail on that stuff. There's always a good deal to be found if you look around.
And dude ... the PayPal thing is SO obvious. PayPal is primarily for C2C transactions. BUSINESSES don't transact through PayPal. Anyone that got taken by that scam probably deserved to. They won't get burned like that again, and it makes them a wiser shopper.
That said, aren't damages assigned by the JURY? It's up to them to decide damages, not the plaintiffs. Plus, the Judge can set aside the judgement in favor of a lower amount if need be.
The tech-industry is NOT just the Internet. There are a lot of sectors in the tech-industry, and the internet is a fairly small part of it. Everyone seems to have the opinion that if you're high-tech, that means you're a dot.com, and that's just not accurate.
That's probably why the NASDAQ as a whole tanks when a dot.com goes under, even thought many companies in the exchange don't do "business" over the internet.
Of course, I wouldn't expect a pasty white boy to know the difference. :)
Luckily for me ... I live in Seattle, and my Linksys card is on the way.