There is an increasing trend going on among businesses that I find extremely disturbing. Well, maybe it's not an increasing trend -- maybe I'm just young. But what I am noticing is that corporations expect their business models
to work, and if they fail, then the underlying system -- the law -- needs to be adjusted so as to make them more profitable. That is the thinking that I keep seeing in many quotes from executives.
It's as if they no longer see the world as a place to try new ideas and put in effort to make them work. They seem to think that if they have a lot of money tied up in a particular idea, the law needs to protect them -- no matter how poor the idea is.
That is nonsense. The design suggestions made were mostly right on the mark. I tried GNOME a while back and it is very poorly designed from a usability perspective. If you want to read about Microsoft's usability woes, search for the Interface Hall of Shame. Obviously, any system that you use for a longer period of time is one that you will be more familar with, but that doesn't necessarily mean that they should not be intutive. Reading this study convinced me that usability has (for the time being) low priority among the GNOME developers.
The worst people are these yuppies who drive into a parking lot for just a few minutes, not realizing that it costs $5 to park. Then when they try to leave and see that there's a gate and an attendant, they scream and yell at the attendant. I have actually seen this happen in Chicago (Webster Place, by the Loews Theaters). This woman acted like it was her God-given right to park wherever she pleased, for free. She spat out a string of profanities. Some people are just completely rude. There was a similar story on http://www.salon.com recently, too. It seems to be a bit of an epidemic.
Amen. I don't own a TV either, and I'm just as glad. It amazes me how much people I know are glued to the TV and what a TV culture we have. People are always talking about what happened on Survivor or whatever. I spend a lot more time reading, listening to music, and throwing a baseball around in the park.
I watch some TV when I'm visiting my parents and every time I see that I have been missing nothing important at all.
I see all these posts about people's freedoms. How free are people who are slaves to their TVs?
I have never liked User Friendly because it just isn't funny and never was. It's a boring comic aimed at people who are predisposed to thinking that condescension is funny. Dilbert is an example of a very funny comic. User Friendly is just tripe.
It's a good idea, but the problem with it is the same problem that described in the article: legal fees are prohibitively expensive. Unless you know a good lawyer who will do it pro bono, you are going to be neck deep in debt just to prove your innocence. And it's a risk, because no matter how great you think your case is, you never know what some oddball judge is going to decide. If you've been reading/. for any length of time, you'll know that there are judges that rule against some extremely solid arguments.
You do have a good point, though. It would only take a few times for this to happen before we could use the previous outcomes as precedence and make defending these kinds of suits easier.
That said, I can't stand it when the media portrays corporate bullies (lawyers and the like) as heroes of some sort. I quote from the article:
"But since he started CCS three years ago, Powell has distinguished himself as a bare-knuckled enforcer when it comes to defending the rights of his clients."
It's easy to protect the corporation. They're able to pay your extortionist fees. Help the individual? No way. I am not talking about helping pirates. But why not start a company to help people who are subject to unnecessary corporate intimidation and abuse of the court system? Individuals are the underdogs.
I rarely, if ever, hear of lawyers who protect individuals against corporations portayed in this light. I realize that Powell is not a lawyer, but he might as well be.
This article is filled with all the pro-corporation propaganda. We need to protect the "right" to inflate "losses" due to piracy, etc.
...with this is that Referee magazine is considering a lawsuit for lost business because of the boycotts and subscription cancellations by angry eReferee members. WTF?
Not only that, but after eReferee changed its name to officiating.com, Referee magazine wants an injuction against them to prevent them from operating. What a bunch of assholes.
The ultimate question underlying the controversiality of cloning and other genetic technology is really a question about how far we should go with applying medicine.
The problem I see with cloning is not that people wouldn't find it ethically bankrupt, it's that people are so bent on perfection that they will try to conceal ideas behind the notion of applying medicine. Right now we are all so comfortable with frivolous surgeries and manipulation of ourselves that the "should we?" question about cloning has really already been answered. Look at our entire philosophy on medicine: we believe in learning technology and applying it. When you really consider the kinds of medical procedures we have been practicing, it does not seem unthinkable that we have been playing God for some time.
The sad truth is that disease and disability are just nature's way of maintaining balance; they will not render us extinct, we will.
Right, especially if those same credit card holders also shop online at a lot of other retailers, which is likely. Who's to say that EggHead's data was stolen and not someone else's?
Lately KDE 2.0 has been locking up everything for me. It seems to crash if I don't touch the mouse for about 5 minutes. Alt + SysRq + combos don't even work.
--
You don't become a failure until you are content with being one.
Actually, ZapMe's model is a very good business model! No risk! Yeah, it reeks of corporate greed, and there is no way these losers should get refunds. As per Microsoft, hey -- if you sign the dotted line, you pay the price. Maybe more people will start realizing that in the future.
--
You don't become a failure until you are content with being one.
Slashdot Mirror
What does connect this to Columbine is that we'll blame everyone but ourselves, as usual.
Yesterday, 9/11, was also the release date of Slayer's new album, "God Hates Us All."
It doesn't matter if they don't want to produce it. What we're talking about here is use of the recipe.
It's as if they no longer see the world as a place to try new ideas and put in effort to make them work. They seem to think that if they have a lot of money tied up in a particular idea, the law needs to protect them -- no matter how poor the idea is.
That is nonsense. The design suggestions made were mostly right on the mark. I tried GNOME a while back and it is very poorly designed from a usability perspective. If you want to read about Microsoft's usability woes, search for the Interface Hall of Shame. Obviously, any system that you use for a longer period of time is one that you will be more familar with, but that doesn't necessarily mean that they should not be intutive. Reading this study convinced me that usability has (for the time being) low priority among the GNOME developers.
Macs are ok, except for the completely lame and nonintuitive idea of dragging a disk icon into the trash in order to eject the disk.
The worst people are these yuppies who drive into a parking lot for just a few minutes, not realizing that it costs $5 to park. Then when they try to leave and see that there's a gate and an attendant, they scream and yell at the attendant. I have actually seen this happen in Chicago (Webster Place, by the Loews Theaters). This woman acted like it was her God-given right to park wherever she pleased, for free. She spat out a string of profanities. Some people are just completely rude. There was a similar story on http://www.salon.com recently, too. It seems to be a bit of an epidemic.
I watch some TV when I'm visiting my parents and every time I see that I have been missing nothing important at all.
I see all these posts about people's freedoms. How free are people who are slaves to their TVs?
...the only device left that will be able to copy music will be Sean "Puffy" Combs!
I have never liked User Friendly because it just isn't funny and never was. It's a boring comic aimed at people who are predisposed to thinking that condescension is funny. Dilbert is an example of a very funny comic. User Friendly is just tripe.
You do have a good point, though. It would only take a few times for this to happen before we could use the previous outcomes as precedence and make defending these kinds of suits easier.
That said, I can't stand it when the media portrays corporate bullies (lawyers and the like) as heroes of some sort. I quote from the article:
"But since he started CCS three years ago, Powell has distinguished himself as a bare-knuckled enforcer when it comes to defending the rights of his clients."
It's easy to protect the corporation. They're able to pay your extortionist fees. Help the individual? No way. I am not talking about helping pirates. But why not start a company to help people who are subject to unnecessary corporate intimidation and abuse of the court system? Individuals are the underdogs.
I rarely, if ever, hear of lawyers who protect individuals against corporations portayed in this light. I realize that Powell is not a lawyer, but he might as well be.
This article is filled with all the pro-corporation propaganda. We need to protect the "right" to inflate "losses" due to piracy, etc.
Not only that, but after eReferee changed its name to officiating.com, Referee magazine wants an injuction against them to prevent them from operating. What a bunch of assholes.
The problem I see with cloning is not that people wouldn't find it ethically bankrupt, it's that people are so bent on perfection that they will try to conceal ideas behind the notion of applying medicine. Right now we are all so comfortable with frivolous surgeries and manipulation of ourselves that the "should we?" question about cloning has really already been answered. Look at our entire philosophy on medicine: we believe in learning technology and applying it. When you really consider the kinds of medical procedures we have been practicing, it does not seem unthinkable that we have been playing God for some time.
The sad truth is that disease and disability are just nature's way of maintaining balance; they will not render us extinct, we will.
Biotech is Godzilla
Right, especially if those same credit card holders also shop online at a lot of other retailers, which is likely. Who's to say that EggHead's data was stolen and not someone else's?
--
You don't become a failure until you are content with being one.
There will probably be a day when every move we make has some kind of license agreement.
--
You don't become a failure until you are content with being one.
--
You don't become a failure until you are content with being one.
--
You don't become a failure until you are content with being one.
--
You don't become a failure until you are content with being one.
Gore: "whatever Bush says."
--
You don't become a failure until you are content with being one.
--
You don't become a failure until you are content with being one.
--
You don't become a failure until you are content with being one.