You're sort of missing the point here though. This statement is pretty common in the Linux world... "all you have to do is recompile..." ALL you have to do? Really? All I have to do is re-compile? Assuming I have the proper kernel to begin with, and the proper libraries, along with all their dependencies... I just want to run a program man, I don't want to become a programmer just to use my computer. (90% of office workers speaking, I.T. specific roles excluded)
The truth is that compiling a program (under ANY platform) IS rocket science level stuff as far as computers are concerned. Yes, a programmer does it in his sleep (as do most Linux daily users). But Joe CEO and Jack employee can click next all day but the moment he has to type./configure or./make or whatever, his eyes will glaze over and he'd rather spend a million dollars on a setup wizard app than have to go to school just to learn how to install a free app. Not to mention the fact that 6 times out of 10, you'll get an error and have to track down what went wrong and fix something before you can attempt to compile again.
Compiling source to a binary IS complex stuff despite what any mainstream Linux supporters might think. And having to re-compile something EVER, WILL keep it from being accepted main stream.
I've even heard people say "well all ya gotta do is just make your own kernel and there ya go, piece of cake". As easy as that might sound for the Linux guru, that is exactly equal to telling a driver to build their own car. Plenty of mechanics out there that can do it, yes, but EVERYONE isn't a mechanic nor should they be. People who build their own kernels and compile software are the mechanics of the computer world and shouldn't expect all computer users to be mechanics.
I for one do not ever want my bosses to be as 'smart' as us I.T. guys are. Why then would they have any use for me if THEY know how to compile a kernel? If the world was so enlightened as some people seem to want it to be, then a lot of people would be without jobs because their skills wouldn't be needed.
Don't get me wrong though, I'm not saying one way is the end all better way, I'm just saying that as long as the corporate world is run by people who just 'want it to work' (which will be forever) software that requires the user to do the programmers job will not fly. All my servers are Linux servers, but that's only because myself and the other techs here are skilled at making them work. I wouldn't DREAM of putting Linux on our desktops. Are you crazy?! Will YOU then be the one who baby sit every soccer mom who comes to work for us and teach them how to use it for free?
If products could be packaged such that they get compiled during install, but in the background with the user being none the wiser, then it might fly. Like say your installer went out and did all the work on its own of gathering the required libraries while the user only ever saw a wizard with a next button.
I'm sure some people are hessitant to embrace new safety tech like this because it can breed carelessness. What if a job site has 3 table saws, 2 of which were brought by the company and have this stop mechanism in them. One is the standard table saw without the stop.
The crew has been working on the new saws with the stop for months and have stopped wearing their gloves and stopped using a piece of wood to push the piece being cut across the table. They have all seen the stop work in action and have become used to knowing that they cannot loose a finger no matter how hard they try.
Cue the accident.
We aren't all so lazy, but a gun safety is quite often thought to be on when someone is accidentally shot. And how many people do YOU think don't wear seatbelts because 'the airbags will save me'...
That's why new tech like this is really hard to embrace.
That being said, I'm all for it. But the training being done needs to stress, much like we stress now about airbags, that this new stop is there as an added benefit of your prior safety training and should not be relied upon over your own common sense.
I do agree that the current game market seems diluted somewhat of unique games, but I think it is unfair to attack games specifically with this charge and call them dead for it.
In the human experience there are only a few real different 'modes' if you will. Happy, sad, scared, excited, love, hate... (not a complete list of course). These modes translate to story telling in only a few ways really. The classic love story, a hero saving the world, an evil over-running the world, pure good vs evil, the heist, the grand adventure... (again, not complete).
There isn't really an unlimited number of ways to smash those up to make a unique story. The main story components of most any movie or book can boil down to a well known baseline. Yet with games, that's not enough for us.
Movies and games both I think are playing with a stacked deck in a way because we as consumers keep demanding things of them that we don't demand of their origins. We don't demand that authors churn out brand new never read before ideas every single week of the year. We accept one new story from a given author every few years sometimes, often with the exact same setting, characters, and overall idea. We travel with an author through the telling and re-telling and continued telling of the same story. Don't hear me say that's bad, I enjoy it as much as the next reader, I'm just making a point.
Yet when it comes to games and movies, heaven forbid that two games or movies come out that are both set in wartime or for a good war game be followed by several more games set in the same war. How many books are there about World War 2? Isn't the subject played out by now in print? How many movies are about a boy and a girl? Why is this still an option for a movie? (once again, making a point, I don't specifically think we should stop with either of those)
The saving grace in books and movies seems to be giving the subject a contemporary spin and a twist of some kind. Then we eat it all up. Casablanca was a love story, Romeo and Juliet was too, and so many years later The Break Up is simply a love story. But with a modern setting and a dose of reality we eat up the same story over again. Just how many romance novel books are there???
Games however, are cursed to never repeat any element of anything that came before it. Got an idea for a game? If it's an FPS then you can't have aliens, a war, hell, drugs, the mob, or any number of other things that have been done because without even considering the game on it's own, if it has anything to do with hell then it will be trying to be Quake and it's screwed... or if it has aliens it's trying to be Halo or Half-Life and we'll skip it just the same.
Game makers thought that we wanted our game spin to be higher resolutions and more eye candy, but although we scream for that, we don't buy what they deliver claiming some higher calling of needing unique stories. All the while, hundreds of games a year come out that are so unique they could make their own genre category but because they weren't in hi-def we won't buy them. And because we didn't buy them, but we bought Halo 5, then you better believe that Halo 6 is on the way.
Movies suffered a similar bout with consumers in recent years, as consumers demanded more and more CGI effects. Once we got them though, we figured out that we really didn't want them as much as we were asking for them. A movie today that comes out and is chock full of effects usually won't do too well at the box office. Effects that we can't tell are effects exactly are still good things, like entire movies in space and the like where the effect isn't a big explosion but a light overtone.
I think movies are starting to come around and figure out just what should be CGI and what shouldn't. They've learned when to say NO to CGI and actually dial it down for effect instead of up. Games will get there too if we'll let them. But in order for the creative leaders out there to keep their jobs we need to buy their games. Nex
I don't mean to be on 'their side' here, but IMHO I think there are two safe assumptions here:
1. If you are visiting a MS beta download site, you have experience with Windows and MS products in general and will have no problem opening a MS Word document.
2. If you cannot figure out how to open a MS Word document, you probably have no business looking at Vista in it's beta form.
If YOU created a new image format, and then proceded to make all the images on your website in your format, that would essentially be the same thing, would it not? Whether or not it's a smart move or not because of how few users at first would be able to see it is beside the point, we're not talking about being smart or using one's brain. We're talking legal, and it's just sensationalism to jump all the way to anti-trust every time MS does anything. Crying wolf is what gets your voice muted.
I mean come on now. It's one thing for MS to buy a library or something and lock the doors and only hand out MS Word digital versions (with DRM of course) of all the books. THAT would be crossing a big line obviously. But when a company makes something that is BY them, FOR them, and ABOUT them, why shouldn't they use their own format to display it?
The worst case scenario here is that a non MS software user is prevented from reading about a MS product. So someone who has sworn off MS isn't able to read about an upcomming MS product? Yes, surely tons of laws have been broken here.
There are plenty of legit reasons for a non MS user to want to study Vista, I know that. However, such a person would have no problem reading a word document.
Lastly, what's so special about PDF anyway? I love it, don't get me wrong, but TXT, RTF, straight ASCII all are actually more open, are they not? I don't need any third-party readers to read those, but a PDF requires me to have said reader. Even if a user is a MS Windows user, unless they have purchased the addon MS Office product, they cannot read the Word DOC either. Free products exist to read both PDF and Word DOCs, but both require admin rights to a machine and the installation of software. IMHO both a Word Doc and a PDF suffer from the same limitations and have the same resolutions available given that they both require aditional software to read and that they both have free software to do so.
PDF is great, but if the argument is really about open vs closed formats, then you cannot specifically say the omission of PDF means it's closed. The omission of ANY open version would be the position.
At some point they stopped puting that on the cards. My card does not carry that warning, however my Dad's and grandpa's cards do. None of my siblings cards carry the warning either.
I'm making this one reply and posting it here, hopefully everyone is watching the entire thread.
I should point out that new signups are treated with the same STRESS on the international mail system we have in place and are set up on the appropriate server from the beginning. New customers (or any customer making ANY change to their email by way of our support personnel) are told and explained to about how this works and why. If a customer is even slightly unsure, then they get the unfiltered mail as a just in case. But I'll tell you that most of our customers are sure enough to not even think twice about it.
We also stress that it is easy to fix if they so choose and they have several ways to change it. They can call or email support, they can send a blank email our switchbox (switchme@ourdomain) and that will toggle them back and forth, they can visit our website and follow the obvious link to manage their account and then the obvious link to switch their mail. We allow them to switch back and forth at will.
Now, on to the comments.
Are you aware that the US depends on it's trading partners like Japan and Canada? Do you feel you were being responsive of your customers present and future needs?
Oh, I'm greatly aware of our trading relationships. And when I myself to BUSINESS with entities overseas (which I do now and again), I'm going to their WEB SITE.
Web traffic, IRC, IM, etc... are not blocked, only mail. And only IN coming mail for that matter, so they could freely send to overseas if they liked. (although the reply would be blocked) but we're working on that to be fixed by making an allow list for domains based on who our customers send to. More on that at the end.
That being said, sure, once I make a purchase from that company and they send me a receipt it would be blocked, or would it? All of the overseas purchases I personally make go through PayPal or some US based CC processor, so I've gotten all those as well without any issues.
I call bullshit on your story as the majority of spam I receive at home (in Canada) is from the US.
The premise stands though, you're in Canada complaining about US spam... stop accepting international mail and you'd stop the 'majority of your spam' (your words). Unfortunately in your case though, that may block too much legit mail as well, I don't know. But an allow list based on who you send to could counter-act that. Once again though, the focus is on CUSTOMERS, not us power users. If you were our customer, you'd be on the unfiltered server, there is nothing forced here. If you want it you have it, if you don't then you don't.
I am in France and 99% of spam I get is from the USA, for US products.
The actual machines being used to transmit ARE NOT in the USA. The problem is at the source - i.e. the companies who are doing the spamming. The secondary problem is that people in China don't know how to secure their machines.
This one just made me pause... once again, just as above, the same premise would work for you too. Although you have the same issues if you deal with the US on a legit basis. I've already addressed that though, what got me was your last comment. 'actual machines being used to transmit ARE NOT in the USA' EXACTLY! While I do CARE about dealing with the underlying issue and stopping the dis-reputable companies in the US from starting the process and then going outside the US to actually send the mail, I myself cannot do anything to help my customers in the immediate future if I only TALK about how much I wish it would stop. I can however stop the problem instantly by blocking those servers. Does it solve the bigger problem? NO. But my customers only have 1 spam a day to delete instead of 1,000. That's quite a good enough reason to do it this way until a better solution comes around.
(various) user doesn't know their sending internationally comments
I worked for an ISP for about 5 years... started doing tech support and moved up and on to the NOC and web design. While in the NOC were were fighting spam for our users pretty much non-stop with various black lists / filters. My job was basically to come in each day and clean out the garbage disposal as it were.
Until the glorious day we segragated our mail users. We set up a new beta mail server and split our users into two groups. Those needing international mail, and those not needing it. Over the course of 3 months, we informed users of the change and provided an easy opt-in one-click process to make sure they could send/recieve international mail.
After that grace period, we simply shut off international mail on our main server by blocking any IP space outside the US.
The load on our mail servers (4 dual CPU machines) went from averaging around 50% down to 5% and stayed there.
In our polling of our own customers, we found that 90% or more of them never had any intention or desire to send/recieve international mail. Our spam load went from several thousand spam messages a minute to less than a thousand per day.
The people that needed international mail were put on the new server and left open to all mail.
For the next few months, the staff at our office didn't have to buy lunch or snacks because that corny AOL commercial actually happened. We had customers in all the time taking us out to lunch and dropping off brownies, cupcakes, etc... our satifaction rate was never higher and I would venture to guess that we would not have been that loved had we sent everyone $50 cash.
Why isn't this a more popular choice? Is there really that much of a NEED in the general internet population for international mail? There wasn't at our company.
I think we could make international mail a feature add-on much like web hosts make CGI, PHP, or mySQL a feature add-on. Sure, to me those are just staples, but not everyone needs all that.
Sure, there's still in-country spam sources... but NOTHING like what comes from outside.
Yes, PC games are around the $60 mark, but they have to combat piracy. At least that's what they'll tell you about why their prices are that high... what's the console's excuse?
Of course, if I had made a game, I'm sure I'd think it worth at least $60 a pop... when I look at it from the other side, I don't really mind the $60.
The thing is, should we as consumers be able to afford to buy 1,000 games and only like and play 100 of them? Or is the better situation to only be able to buy 20 games and play them all?
I personally think the latter is a better world. Maybe the higher price and fewer releases in general would promote better quality... Today we NEED 1,000 games to get 20 good ones. But what if we bought 20 and they were ALL good? We can dream can't we?
Re:It's not $299.99 from Wal-Mart...
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Xbox 360 for $300
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Many stores have policies about certain numbers in prices... for different reasons though.
For example, at Radio Shack, any item priced with a 7 at the end is a discontinued item and is likely to continue to drop until it's all gone just to clear stock.
So if you're a haggler, then look for the 7s at the Shack and you'll probably have a good chance at talking a manager down... that is, unless it's already marked under cost. But even then, some managers will go down to the scrap price just to get rid of some things.
Target those things on tables... a huge percentage of that gets thrown away in the end.
That was my first thought too... I can see this being set up in every mall arcade... then right next to every IMAX movie theatre.
It may or may not help us to get to a fully simulated reality, but it's a heck of a jump toward COOL 'next gen' ways of displaying video.
Look how much we pay for a plasma or LCD TV these days... and they aren't THAT far ahead of the 'ol CRT. They are all still a static display structure showing a roughly rectangle picture in front of us of a limited size. Regardless of quality or resolution, it's still the same basic principle. (not that I don't hugely appreciate the new quality or resolution, I'm just making a point)
Breaking out of that box is a good step I think toward truly 'next gen' display technology. With a way to display it, now producers can start thinking about how to record a much larger scene for movies. 16x9 advocates will tell you how much producers rely on the increased screen space... what if they could tell the story with the entire room at once...?
New TVs vs old TVs are much like today's cars vs the first cars. Lots of new stuff, but the same controlled explosion on 4 wheels basic principle. A person from the 1900s would recognize a modern car today without too much trouble. Wouldn't it be great if a person from the 50s couldn't recognize a TV from 2010? Wouldn't it be wonderful if a person from 2005 couldn't recognize a TV from 2010?
Not that I think we could move that fast, but we can dream...
I personally use Delorme's Street software to get around here in the states and it's been pretty good. I know that wouldn't work your purpose, but delorme also makes some great GIS tools. Their page doesn't elaborate on whether it's all for the US only though.
As for the hardware, I'm pretty sure that any GPS will work anywhere to give you lat/lon whether you've got a local map or not.
It's got to be one of the oldest tricks in the book, but remember that pesky shell= line in your Windows config?
Only a year ago at a large eastern ISP I did this small hack to one of the 'senior' tech's computer. Thinking that he'd laugh when he saw calculator come up instead of his desktop and fix it.
THE ENTIRE IT DEPT of the ISP got in on it and for the life of them could not fix it so they started a re-install!
It took me a week to fess up because I was afraid of the wrath I would catch, but when I finally told a supervisor about it he laughed and all had a good time.
I still can't believe that they hadn't seen that before... but you never know just how deep some of our modern day techs roots go (or don't go).
Ever try to have a new college grad try to load an app on a C64? *smile*
They must be getting their ques from RIAA... if at first you make bogus claims and the public doesn't bow to you, then sue!
RIAA did it with their sales numbers, and Infinium is doing it with their product as a whole. They're lucky anyone as taken notice of them for this long at all.
If they had any forthought at all, they would have been raking in the cash from Amazon ads on their site and maybe actually got 25 Mil to start on something....oo, oo, or what if they set up a Cafe Express shop with Phantom gear! That would be sweet!!
I mean, think about it... we all watch Cops now and then. How many drunk drivers are out driving brand new cars? Honestly, I don't think I've seen too many of them driving anything newer than 10 years even.
Unless you're going to require all drivers to get new cars, this isn't even a 'quick fix' except in some politicians convoluted mind.
My main problem with any cable company is inturrupting a program for sports, news, or weather (and the occasional non reason, just to inturrupt for the sake of doing it). Sure, those things are important sometimes, but DirecTV gives me hundreds of channels where that stuff is on all the time, so leave my regular scheduled programming alone! I can see the weather get bad and I'll check the weather channel if I want to.
On a more technical note, most cable companies still use an analog carrier even with their digital programming. This creates a slightly less clear picture and is just tacky. DirecTV is all digital and I've never had a better looking picture.
Although at times I've had weather issues with DirecTV (heavy rain is the only cause really, snow has never knocked me out) - my Cable internet has had 10 times more outages because of physical line issues where cable TV would have gone out as well if I had it.
Lastly, I can't watch tv without a DVR anymore and DirecTV made that very easy to do. The reciever was only $180 and the subscription is only an extra $4 a month. With a cable version, the box is $250 and the monthly price is $13.
There's my nickel... accepted everywhere Visa/Mastercard/AMEX isn't.
...While this book prefers not to discuss the burned-up Ferraris on Highway 101 and personal jet fighters...
I don't know about you guys, but those sound like good parts.
He tried to buy a Russian MiG jet fighter, but US customs wouldn't allow it and he blatantly upset San Jose-area officials by landing his private jet after the 11pm curfew imposed in the area. When you have $50 billion in the bank, a $10,000 fine seems like pocket change. Any guy who likes to defy convention and authorities, and flies fighter jets for fun, has to be cool. It's part of the definition
I want more of those kinds of stories. For those of of un in the technology sector (most of the slashdot readership, I'm sure) we've seen most of Larry's career develop I think. Sure, a biography like this will have some stuff we all missed, but juicy tidbits like the jet fighter can't be left out.
With speedpass (and the other toll systems I would have to imagine) your credit card number isn't sent, only an acct number that can be referenced to your charge information on file.
So, one can't capture credit card numbers, but one could capture your acct number and transmit it manually to pay for tolls or gas on your dime.
Meanwhile....meaning until it's sorted out. It may take a few days, or even a week to get it sorted out. Not that I'll be out the money forever, just that I have to go through a process to get it back.
Also, legally you are right about being liable for $50 on a credit card. The legal Debit Card liability in the US is $500. Each bank handles it differently, but in the end, there is a process to go through either way. Especially if the perp is smart about it and uses the card right before a weekend or holiday then it's just lost time to nail it all down.
If my card required ID or a PIN, the process wouldn't have been started in the first place.
The whole idea of using the signature to validate the purchase is stupid if you ask me. Let's step through the process.
step 1: bad guy steals my card step 2: bad guy goes to store step 3: bad guy grabs a $1000 worth of stuff step 4: clerk rings it up and swipes my card step 5: CARD CLEARS - money gone step 6: bad guy signs name step 7: clerk then compares signatures step 8: they're close, or could be close, but he doesn't really know because he's not an FBI handwriting expert. So what the heck does he do? He assumes it's OK. Then it's up to me to figure out what went wrong, PROVE IT, and fight for my money back. It will eventually come down to comparing signatures and will all be fixed.
Even if the clerk does think the signature is bad enough that it might be a bad guy, he can hold the card, but the stuff and the bad guy go right out the door. Then, let's start the process of getting my money back. Meanwhile, I'm out $1000
Say it is me with my own card, but I've had a bad day and I have a cold and my signature looks nothing like it did when I signed the card. Then what?
Signature comparing equals zero security. Only if a handwriting expert was the clerk would it be anywhere close to making sense.
All cards should require PINS and/or require photo ID. No exceptions. Online purchases should be governed by a list of changing PINS that your bank gives you via ATM reciepts or monthly bank statements. You'd have to remember the next two PINS maybe each day, but I'd rather do that than deal with fraud. Or we could go to biometrics, but I think we're closer to the PIN solution than refiting all the terminals with scanners.
I personally have opted for a DVR computer instead of one of the pre-built boxes. Just a 400 or 500Mhz machine with IDE Raid striping on two 60G HDs, two capture cards, and any one of a handful of free or cheap to register software programs.
Sure it costs around $600, the hard drives are the only thing over $100 each, but I also throw on a few games and use that computer for friends at LAN parties.
I can set the quality as high as I like for the initial recording, then re-encode it if I want to keep it long term.
The nice part is that it works with any system. The tuner cards tune normal cable or broadcast, and every satelite system I've seen so far has an analog out for VCRs that ties with a scheduled recording routine on the tuner. That schedule and the software's own schedule are easy to sync up and make recording happen automatically daily. Even though the signal is analog from the satelite tuner, I rarely see even a hint of static. Most of the static from traditional systems comes from the source transmission anyway, not whether it is analog or digital.
If you are all woried about an 'analog' system, then just remember that most of todays big screen movies are recorded and played back in 'analog' form. Only the special effects shots are digital. Except of course, for the movie god himsself, George Lucas...but that's an exception to the rule up there with fully animated films.
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You're sort of missing the point here though. This statement is pretty common in the Linux world... "all you have to do is recompile..." ALL you have to do? Really? All I have to do is re-compile? Assuming I have the proper kernel to begin with, and the proper libraries, along with all their dependencies... I just want to run a program man, I don't want to become a programmer just to use my computer. (90% of office workers speaking, I.T. specific roles excluded)
./configure or ./make or whatever, his eyes will glaze over and he'd rather spend a million dollars on a setup wizard app than have to go to school just to learn how to install a free app. Not to mention the fact that 6 times out of 10, you'll get an error and have to track down what went wrong and fix something before you can attempt to compile again.
The truth is that compiling a program (under ANY platform) IS rocket science level stuff as far as computers are concerned. Yes, a programmer does it in his sleep (as do most Linux daily users). But Joe CEO and Jack employee can click next all day but the moment he has to type
Compiling source to a binary IS complex stuff despite what any mainstream Linux supporters might think. And having to re-compile something EVER, WILL keep it from being accepted main stream.
I've even heard people say "well all ya gotta do is just make your own kernel and there ya go, piece of cake". As easy as that might sound for the Linux guru, that is exactly equal to telling a driver to build their own car. Plenty of mechanics out there that can do it, yes, but EVERYONE isn't a mechanic nor should they be. People who build their own kernels and compile software are the mechanics of the computer world and shouldn't expect all computer users to be mechanics.
I for one do not ever want my bosses to be as 'smart' as us I.T. guys are. Why then would they have any use for me if THEY know how to compile a kernel? If the world was so enlightened as some people seem to want it to be, then a lot of people would be without jobs because their skills wouldn't be needed.
Don't get me wrong though, I'm not saying one way is the end all better way, I'm just saying that as long as the corporate world is run by people who just 'want it to work' (which will be forever) software that requires the user to do the programmers job will not fly. All my servers are Linux servers, but that's only because myself and the other techs here are skilled at making them work. I wouldn't DREAM of putting Linux on our desktops. Are you crazy?! Will YOU then be the one who baby sit every soccer mom who comes to work for us and teach them how to use it for free?
If products could be packaged such that they get compiled during install, but in the background with the user being none the wiser, then it might fly. Like say your installer went out and did all the work on its own of gathering the required libraries while the user only ever saw a wizard with a next button.
My two cents, take it or leave it...
I'm sure some people are hessitant to embrace new safety tech like this because it can breed carelessness. What if a job site has 3 table saws, 2 of which were brought by the company and have this stop mechanism in them. One is the standard table saw without the stop.
The crew has been working on the new saws with the stop for months and have stopped wearing their gloves and stopped using a piece of wood to push the piece being cut across the table. They have all seen the stop work in action and have become used to knowing that they cannot loose a finger no matter how hard they try.
Cue the accident.
We aren't all so lazy, but a gun safety is quite often thought to be on when someone is accidentally shot. And how many people do YOU think don't wear seatbelts because 'the airbags will save me'...
That's why new tech like this is really hard to embrace.
That being said, I'm all for it. But the training being done needs to stress, much like we stress now about airbags, that this new stop is there as an added benefit of your prior safety training and should not be relied upon over your own common sense.
I should have included a smiley face or something... the sarcasm didn't come through like it should have...
Suppose one buys equipment on the company dime and then sells it on eBay and pockets the profit... no problem there, right?
Maybe I shouldn't have named my fake vendor company Enron...
I do agree that the current game market seems diluted somewhat of unique games, but I think it is unfair to attack games specifically with this charge and call them dead for it.
In the human experience there are only a few real different 'modes' if you will. Happy, sad, scared, excited, love, hate... (not a complete list of course). These modes translate to story telling in only a few ways really. The classic love story, a hero saving the world, an evil over-running the world, pure good vs evil, the heist, the grand adventure... (again, not complete).
There isn't really an unlimited number of ways to smash those up to make a unique story. The main story components of most any movie or book can boil down to a well known baseline. Yet with games, that's not enough for us.
Movies and games both I think are playing with a stacked deck in a way because we as consumers keep demanding things of them that we don't demand of their origins. We don't demand that authors churn out brand new never read before ideas every single week of the year. We accept one new story from a given author every few years sometimes, often with the exact same setting, characters, and overall idea. We travel with an author through the telling and re-telling and continued telling of the same story. Don't hear me say that's bad, I enjoy it as much as the next reader, I'm just making a point.
Yet when it comes to games and movies, heaven forbid that two games or movies come out that are both set in wartime or for a good war game be followed by several more games set in the same war. How many books are there about World War 2? Isn't the subject played out by now in print? How many movies are about a boy and a girl? Why is this still an option for a movie? (once again, making a point, I don't specifically think we should stop with either of those)
The saving grace in books and movies seems to be giving the subject a contemporary spin and a twist of some kind. Then we eat it all up. Casablanca was a love story, Romeo and Juliet was too, and so many years later The Break Up is simply a love story. But with a modern setting and a dose of reality we eat up the same story over again. Just how many romance novel books are there???
Games however, are cursed to never repeat any element of anything that came before it. Got an idea for a game? If it's an FPS then you can't have aliens, a war, hell, drugs, the mob, or any number of other things that have been done because without even considering the game on it's own, if it has anything to do with hell then it will be trying to be Quake and it's screwed... or if it has aliens it's trying to be Halo or Half-Life and we'll skip it just the same.
Game makers thought that we wanted our game spin to be higher resolutions and more eye candy, but although we scream for that, we don't buy what they deliver claiming some higher calling of needing unique stories. All the while, hundreds of games a year come out that are so unique they could make their own genre category but because they weren't in hi-def we won't buy them. And because we didn't buy them, but we bought Halo 5, then you better believe that Halo 6 is on the way.
Movies suffered a similar bout with consumers in recent years, as consumers demanded more and more CGI effects. Once we got them though, we figured out that we really didn't want them as much as we were asking for them. A movie today that comes out and is chock full of effects usually won't do too well at the box office. Effects that we can't tell are effects exactly are still good things, like entire movies in space and the like where the effect isn't a big explosion but a light overtone.
I think movies are starting to come around and figure out just what should be CGI and what shouldn't. They've learned when to say NO to CGI and actually dial it down for effect instead of up. Games will get there too if we'll let them. But in order for the creative leaders out there to keep their jobs we need to buy their games. Nex
I don't mean to be on 'their side' here, but IMHO I think there are two safe assumptions here:
1. If you are visiting a MS beta download site, you have experience with Windows and MS products in general and will have no problem opening a MS Word document.
2. If you cannot figure out how to open a MS Word document, you probably have no business looking at Vista in it's beta form.
If YOU created a new image format, and then proceded to make all the images on your website in your format, that would essentially be the same thing, would it not? Whether or not it's a smart move or not because of how few users at first would be able to see it is beside the point, we're not talking about being smart or using one's brain. We're talking legal, and it's just sensationalism to jump all the way to anti-trust every time MS does anything. Crying wolf is what gets your voice muted.
I mean come on now. It's one thing for MS to buy a library or something and lock the doors and only hand out MS Word digital versions (with DRM of course) of all the books. THAT would be crossing a big line obviously. But when a company makes something that is BY them, FOR them, and ABOUT them, why shouldn't they use their own format to display it?
The worst case scenario here is that a non MS software user is prevented from reading about a MS product. So someone who has sworn off MS isn't able to read about an upcomming MS product? Yes, surely tons of laws have been broken here.
There are plenty of legit reasons for a non MS user to want to study Vista, I know that. However, such a person would have no problem reading a word document.
Lastly, what's so special about PDF anyway? I love it, don't get me wrong, but TXT, RTF, straight ASCII all are actually more open, are they not? I don't need any third-party readers to read those, but a PDF requires me to have said reader. Even if a user is a MS Windows user, unless they have purchased the addon MS Office product, they cannot read the Word DOC either. Free products exist to read both PDF and Word DOCs, but both require admin rights to a machine and the installation of software. IMHO both a Word Doc and a PDF suffer from the same limitations and have the same resolutions available given that they both require aditional software to read and that they both have free software to do so.
PDF is great, but if the argument is really about open vs closed formats, then you cannot specifically say the omission of PDF means it's closed. The omission of ANY open version would be the position.
That's not always true.
At some point they stopped puting that on the cards. My card does not carry that warning, however my Dad's and grandpa's cards do. None of my siblings cards carry the warning either.
(btw... I'm 27 - card issued in 1978 in Kansas)
I'm making this one reply and posting it here, hopefully everyone is watching the entire thread.
I should point out that new signups are treated with the same STRESS on the international mail system we have in place and are set up on the appropriate server from the beginning. New customers (or any customer making ANY change to their email by way of our support personnel) are told and explained to about how this works and why. If a customer is even slightly unsure, then they get the unfiltered mail as a just in case. But I'll tell you that most of our customers are sure enough to not even think twice about it.
We also stress that it is easy to fix if they so choose and they have several ways to change it. They can call or email support, they can send a blank email our switchbox (switchme@ourdomain) and that will toggle them back and forth, they can visit our website and follow the obvious link to manage their account and then the obvious link to switch their mail. We allow them to switch back and forth at will.
Now, on to the comments.
Are you aware that the US depends on it's trading partners like Japan and Canada? Do you feel you were being responsive of your customers present and future needs?
Oh, I'm greatly aware of our trading relationships. And when I myself to BUSINESS with entities overseas (which I do now and again), I'm going to their WEB SITE.
Web traffic, IRC, IM, etc... are not blocked, only mail. And only IN coming mail for that matter, so they could freely send to overseas if they liked. (although the reply would be blocked) but we're working on that to be fixed by making an allow list for domains based on who our customers send to. More on that at the end.
That being said, sure, once I make a purchase from that company and they send me a receipt it would be blocked, or would it? All of the overseas purchases I personally make go through PayPal or some US based CC processor, so I've gotten all those as well without any issues.
I call bullshit on your story as the majority of spam I receive at home (in Canada) is from the US.
The premise stands though, you're in Canada complaining about US spam... stop accepting international mail and you'd stop the 'majority of your spam' (your words). Unfortunately in your case though, that may block too much legit mail as well, I don't know. But an allow list based on who you send to could counter-act that. Once again though, the focus is on CUSTOMERS, not us power users. If you were our customer, you'd be on the unfiltered server, there is nothing forced here. If you want it you have it, if you don't then you don't.
I am in France and 99% of spam I get is from the USA, for US products.
The actual machines being used to transmit ARE NOT in the USA. The problem is at the source - i.e. the companies who are doing the spamming. The secondary problem is that people in China don't know how to secure their machines.
This one just made me pause... once again, just as above, the same premise would work for you too. Although you have the same issues if you deal with the US on a legit basis. I've already addressed that though, what got me was your last comment. 'actual machines being used to transmit ARE NOT in the USA' EXACTLY! While I do CARE about dealing with the underlying issue and stopping the dis-reputable companies in the US from starting the process and then going outside the US to actually send the mail, I myself cannot do anything to help my customers in the immediate future if I only TALK about how much I wish it would stop. I can however stop the problem instantly by blocking those servers. Does it solve the bigger problem? NO. But my customers only have 1 spam a day to delete instead of 1,000. That's quite a good enough reason to do it this way until a better solution comes around.
(various) user doesn't know their sending internationally comments
This is indeed the biggest flaw with ou
I worked for an ISP for about 5 years... started doing tech support and moved up and on to the NOC and web design. While in the NOC were were fighting spam for our users pretty much non-stop with various black lists / filters. My job was basically to come in each day and clean out the garbage disposal as it were.
Until the glorious day we segragated our mail users. We set up a new beta mail server and split our users into two groups. Those needing international mail, and those not needing it. Over the course of 3 months, we informed users of the change and provided an easy opt-in one-click process to make sure they could send/recieve international mail.
After that grace period, we simply shut off international mail on our main server by blocking any IP space outside the US.
The load on our mail servers (4 dual CPU machines) went from averaging around 50% down to 5% and stayed there.
In our polling of our own customers, we found that 90% or more of them never had any intention or desire to send/recieve international mail. Our spam load went from several thousand spam messages a minute to less than a thousand per day.
The people that needed international mail were put on the new server and left open to all mail.
For the next few months, the staff at our office didn't have to buy lunch or snacks because that corny AOL commercial actually happened. We had customers in all the time taking us out to lunch and dropping off brownies, cupcakes, etc... our satifaction rate was never higher and I would venture to guess that we would not have been that loved had we sent everyone $50 cash.
Why isn't this a more popular choice? Is there really that much of a NEED in the general internet population for international mail? There wasn't at our company.
I think we could make international mail a feature add-on much like web hosts make CGI, PHP, or mySQL a feature add-on. Sure, to me those are just staples, but not everyone needs all that.
Sure, there's still in-country spam sources... but NOTHING like what comes from outside.
Yes, PC games are around the $60 mark, but they have to combat piracy. At least that's what they'll tell you about why their prices are that high... what's the console's excuse?
Of course, if I had made a game, I'm sure I'd think it worth at least $60 a pop... when I look at it from the other side, I don't really mind the $60.
The thing is, should we as consumers be able to afford to buy 1,000 games and only like and play 100 of them? Or is the better situation to only be able to buy 20 games and play them all?
I personally think the latter is a better world. Maybe the higher price and fewer releases in general would promote better quality... Today we NEED 1,000 games to get 20 good ones. But what if we bought 20 and they were ALL good? We can dream can't we?
Many stores have policies about certain numbers in prices... for different reasons though.
For example, at Radio Shack, any item priced with a 7 at the end is a discontinued item and is likely to continue to drop until it's all gone just to clear stock.
So if you're a haggler, then look for the 7s at the Shack and you'll probably have a good chance at talking a manager down... that is, unless it's already marked under cost. But even then, some managers will go down to the scrap price just to get rid of some things.
Target those things on tables... a huge percentage of that gets thrown away in the end.
That was my first thought too... I can see this being set up in every mall arcade... then right next to every IMAX movie theatre.
It may or may not help us to get to a fully simulated reality, but it's a heck of a jump toward COOL 'next gen' ways of displaying video.
Look how much we pay for a plasma or LCD TV these days... and they aren't THAT far ahead of the 'ol CRT. They are all still a static display structure showing a roughly rectangle picture in front of us of a limited size. Regardless of quality or resolution, it's still the same basic principle. (not that I don't hugely appreciate the new quality or resolution, I'm just making a point)
Breaking out of that box is a good step I think toward truly 'next gen' display technology. With a way to display it, now producers can start thinking about how to record a much larger scene for movies. 16x9 advocates will tell you how much producers rely on the increased screen space... what if they could tell the story with the entire room at once...?
New TVs vs old TVs are much like today's cars vs the first cars. Lots of new stuff, but the same controlled explosion on 4 wheels basic principle. A person from the 1900s would recognize a modern car today without too much trouble. Wouldn't it be great if a person from the 50s couldn't recognize a TV from 2010? Wouldn't it be wonderful if a person from 2005 couldn't recognize a TV from 2010?
Not that I think we could move that fast, but we can dream...
I personally use Delorme's Street software to get around here in the states and it's been pretty good. I know that wouldn't work your purpose, but delorme also makes some great GIS tools. Their page doesn't elaborate on whether it's all for the US only though.
As for the hardware, I'm pretty sure that any GPS will work anywhere to give you lat/lon whether you've got a local map or not.
It's got to be one of the oldest tricks in the book, but remember that pesky shell= line in your Windows config?
Only a year ago at a large eastern ISP I did this small hack to one of the 'senior' tech's computer. Thinking that he'd laugh when he saw calculator come up instead of his desktop and fix it.
THE ENTIRE IT DEPT of the ISP got in on it and for the life of them could not fix it so they started a re-install!
It took me a week to fess up because I was afraid of the wrath I would catch, but when I finally told a supervisor about it he laughed and all had a good time.
I still can't believe that they hadn't seen that before... but you never know just how deep some of our modern day techs roots go (or don't go).
Ever try to have a new college grad try to load an app on a C64? *smile*
They must be getting their ques from RIAA... if at first you make bogus claims and the public doesn't bow to you, then sue!
...oo, oo, or what if they set up a Cafe Express shop with Phantom gear! That would be sweet!!
RIAA did it with their sales numbers, and Infinium is doing it with their product as a whole. They're lucky anyone as taken notice of them for this long at all.
If they had any forthought at all, they would have been raking in the cash from Amazon ads on their site and maybe actually got 25 Mil to start on something.
I mean, think about it... we all watch Cops now and then. How many drunk drivers are out driving brand new cars? Honestly, I don't think I've seen too many of them driving anything newer than 10 years even.
Unless you're going to require all drivers to get new cars, this isn't even a 'quick fix' except in some politicians convoluted mind.
My main problem with any cable company is inturrupting a program for sports, news, or weather (and the occasional non reason, just to inturrupt for the sake of doing it). Sure, those things are important sometimes, but DirecTV gives me hundreds of channels where that stuff is on all the time, so leave my regular scheduled programming alone! I can see the weather get bad and I'll check the weather channel if I want to.
On a more technical note, most cable companies still use an analog carrier even with their digital programming. This creates a slightly less clear picture and is just tacky. DirecTV is all digital and I've never had a better looking picture.
Although at times I've had weather issues with DirecTV (heavy rain is the only cause really, snow has never knocked me out) - my Cable internet has had 10 times more outages because of physical line issues where cable TV would have gone out as well if I had it.
Lastly, I can't watch tv without a DVR anymore and DirecTV made that very easy to do. The reciever was only $180 and the subscription is only an extra $4 a month. With a cable version, the box is $250 and the monthly price is $13.
There's my nickel... accepted everywhere Visa/Mastercard/AMEX isn't.
...While this book prefers not to discuss the burned-up Ferraris on Highway 101 and personal jet fighters...
I don't know about you guys, but those sound like good parts.
He tried to buy a Russian MiG jet fighter, but US customs wouldn't allow it and he blatantly upset San Jose-area officials by landing his private jet after the 11pm curfew imposed in the area. When you have $50 billion in the bank, a $10,000 fine seems like pocket change. Any guy who likes to defy convention and authorities, and flies fighter jets for fun, has to be cool. It's part of the definition
I want more of those kinds of stories. For those of of un in the technology sector (most of the slashdot readership, I'm sure) we've seen most of Larry's career develop I think. Sure, a biography like this will have some stuff we all missed, but juicy tidbits like the jet fighter can't be left out.
Finally, I can make sure my pesky mail doesn't slow down my pop-up ads!
With speedpass (and the other toll systems I would have to imagine) your credit card number isn't sent, only an acct number that can be referenced to your charge information on file.
So, one can't capture credit card numbers, but one could capture your acct number and transmit it manually to pay for tolls or gas on your dime.
Meanwhile....meaning until it's sorted out. It may take a few days, or even a week to get it sorted out. Not that I'll be out the money forever, just that I have to go through a process to get it back.
Also, legally you are right about being liable for $50 on a credit card. The legal Debit Card liability in the US is $500. Each bank handles it differently, but in the end, there is a process to go through either way. Especially if the perp is smart about it and uses the card right before a weekend or holiday then it's just lost time to nail it all down.
If my card required ID or a PIN, the process wouldn't have been started in the first place.
The whole idea of using the signature to validate the purchase is stupid if you ask me. Let's step through the process.
step 1: bad guy steals my card
step 2: bad guy goes to store
step 3: bad guy grabs a $1000 worth of stuff
step 4: clerk rings it up and swipes my card
step 5: CARD CLEARS - money gone
step 6: bad guy signs name
step 7: clerk then compares signatures
step 8: they're close, or could be close, but he doesn't really know because he's not an FBI handwriting expert. So what the heck does he do? He assumes it's OK. Then it's up to me to figure out what went wrong, PROVE IT, and fight for my money back. It will eventually come down to comparing signatures and will all be fixed.
Even if the clerk does think the signature is bad enough that it might be a bad guy, he can hold the card, but the stuff and the bad guy go right out the door. Then, let's start the process of getting my money back. Meanwhile, I'm out $1000
Say it is me with my own card, but I've had a bad day and I have a cold and my signature looks nothing like it did when I signed the card. Then what?
Signature comparing equals zero security. Only if a handwriting expert was the clerk would it be anywhere close to making sense.
All cards should require PINS and/or require photo ID. No exceptions. Online purchases should be governed by a list of changing PINS that your bank gives you via ATM reciepts or monthly bank statements. You'd have to remember the next two PINS maybe each day, but I'd rather do that than deal with fraud. Or we could go to biometrics, but I think we're closer to the PIN solution than refiting all the terminals with scanners.
Where I live this technology is already in use. There are gas pumps here in Kansas labeled with a square area and a SPEEDPASS logo.
Speedpass Site
I don't know anything about the underlying technology, but it would seem phillips and visa have been beat to the punch.
I personally have opted for a DVR computer instead of one of the pre-built boxes. Just a 400 or 500Mhz machine with IDE Raid striping on two 60G HDs, two capture cards, and any one of a handful of free or cheap to register software programs.
Sure it costs around $600, the hard drives are the only thing over $100 each, but I also throw on a few games and use that computer for friends at LAN parties.
I can set the quality as high as I like for the initial recording, then re-encode it if I want to keep it long term.
The nice part is that it works with any system. The tuner cards tune normal cable or broadcast, and every satelite system I've seen so far has an analog out for VCRs that ties with a scheduled recording routine on the tuner. That schedule and the software's own schedule are easy to sync up and make recording happen automatically daily. Even though the signal is analog from the satelite tuner, I rarely see even a hint of static. Most of the static from traditional systems comes from the source transmission anyway, not whether it is analog or digital.
If you are all woried about an 'analog' system, then just remember that most of todays big screen movies are recorded and played back in 'analog' form. Only the special effects shots are digital. Except of course, for the movie god himsself, George Lucas...but that's an exception to the rule up there with fully animated films.