Uh, I'm still using win98... I never did find a reason to upgrade. I will try an OEM of win xp, but I'm not looking forward to it...
As I recall, win 98se and ME were released with great hype, but the public was ho-hum.
I seriously think most people upgrade when they buy a new PC... I feel queasy even saying this, but these days, the OSes seem to outlast the hardware. Four years ago you could buy win 98... four years ago maybe a Pentium II 350 was the bleeding edge.
Did I read that correctly? Who would actually demo an OS?... they are not exactly the easiest thing to uninstall (maybe that is the rub after the "demo period" ends... for only $99 you can restore your PC to working condition).
It still is a very strange marketing ploy when you consider WHY people upgrade OSes... it is generally not an impulse move. Half the outboard hardware on my DAW is not yet supported by XP.
"A recent report by the state Department of Justice showed that California law enforcement requested 88 wiretap orders in 2000. Judges granted every request.
The wiretaps cost an average of $56,767 and resulted in the arrests of 271 people. Of those, 17 were convicted. Most were used in drug investigations and involved home phones, cellular phones and pagers. "
I'm just spitballing here, so bear with me...
88 wiretaps = 271 arrests = 17 convictions, 254 that were NOT convicted
88 wiretaps requested = 88 wiretaps granted (not a bad percentage)
88 wiretaps X $56,767 = $4,995,496
$56,767 / $40hr = 1419 "man" hours per case on average (OK... I just made up $40 for maintaining an employee with benefits, etc...)
That is a hell of a lot of time put into wiretaps. If taps are anything like most businesses, the real cost goes into employee time. I probably spend a total of 25 hrs./month on the phone (including work time... and one might assume criminals might consider crime as part of their job?). If an investigation takes 10 months, we are up to 250 hours. If we consider the ratio of 88 taps yielding 271 arrests, that is about 3 people per tap. If we multiply our 250 hours X 3 we are at 750 hours... and that is just real time phone monitoring. Add all the support staff and forensics- we'd have to double that staff time to bring it to 1500 hours per case. It might actually be plausible.
More significantly I find it disturbing that 100% taps are granted by the courts, but the conviction rate is about 19%. The arrest to conviction rate is 6%. That is a low return for giving up civil liberties.
I find it ironic, since Logic and all the higher end DAW apps support 24-32 bit audio and 2 to 4 times the sample rates that CD audio does.
I seriously have a difficult time believing they can achieve that level of compression in a lossless manner... mainly because as you say,.zip and.sat provide very little compression... in fact the only real use of zipping is to be able to send multiple files at once (which doesn't make too much sense when dealing with large audio files).
With hard drives so inexpensive....? Anything wrong with.wav files?
Um... what about Apple? They've been playing the same "clock" game and still dominate the graphics arts scene- marketing ploy or not! Some times a hz is just a hz, sometimes it is not.
Speaking of marketing ploys, Intel's gaffe with Rambus has pretty much shattered high end consumers' faith in the company... in several benchmarks, much slower P3s were blowing away the P4s... until the benchmarks were "optimized" (I ask you "how much software is actually *optimized* for any specific cpu?").
I'm at the point where I won't believe ANYTHING. Of course you can make the argument at the lower end that the customer base may not be "enlightened" enough to see through marketing on either side of the fence, but AMDs reputation is light years beyond were it was two or three years ago- and that sells more chips then anything else- IMHO.
Why not take it a step further and browse through a foreign proxy... take it even further and encrypt everything.
I seriously think things might actually head in this direction, where there will be a "virtual private internet" within the internet. This would of course be a pay service, but your own ISP would have no clue what you are looking at. The issue would be actually trusting that third party.
I've been thinking of fooling around with this idea to get through this content filtering firewall at work that blocks some strange material from time to time by browsing through my home PC.
I know this isn't an "agony aunt" column, and that I'm not the only one to use Qwest... but I've had DSL for several years in Minneapolis- first through USWest- back in the early days when they gave me a free Cisco 675, and there was no hookup charge if I did my own "installation." I received considerably more bandwidth than I actually paid for.... those were the days. They just simply wanted DSL customers.
When USWest became Qwest, "they told me" I'd be forced to change to a qwest.net email address... well over a year later I still can access mail through both my uswest.net AND qwest.net... I still wasn't happy about the change (see other current topics about the headaches of switching addresses)
When I moved a few blocks away, DSL was interrupted for over SIX weeks. I never received a reasonable explanation why this was the case... and I fought for months over being BILLED during the transition. The Qwest bozos thoroughly melted down my account, and it took considerable effort to have my username (email address issue again) back...
The second I heard that MSN was assimilating us, I left for a local ISP- who BTW allows static IP for no additional charge (are you listening Qwest?). It took a few months to actually cancel Qwest billing me for ISP charges, but eventually they creditted the money, AND somehow they didn't screw up the actual DSL line.
I don't think Qwest knows what is going on... I STILL can access my qwest and uswest email- months after the accounts were cancelled- and I'm no longer billed... but whatever.
The real issue I have is that all the literature about the transition is spun to give the impression that the switch to MSN is a very positive thing for customers. I understand that is why we have "marketing," but the point I tried to impress to everyone at Qwest while I was jumping ship is that if I had wanted MSN, I would have gone with them in the first place. I knew even before I started with DSL that I could use a different ISP, but there were so few players that could piggy back (probably even fewer now) and the local press ran a bunch of stories about incredible hassles and waits for customers opting for non-USWest customers (even though it is still their line), etc... that I chickened out and took the easy road.
The local ISP has been absolutely wonderful. I had difficulties reconfiguring the router because they sent me some wrong info, but they actually knew what they were talking about and were not reading from scripts, and the whole issue was sorted out in less time than anyone would ever even spend on hold with Qwest.
The people I feel sorry for are like a co-worker who purchased his first PC at the age of 55 and purchased DSL..."kids these days" don't even have to listen to a modem dialing... Anyway, of course I had to set up his internal DSL modem (yuck) and hold his hand every step of hookup. He says he'll likely switch to MSN because (in my words) it is the decision forcing the least amount of action or effort on his part. He also doesn't really care about the "principles" behind the issue. Four years ago it was likely the case that only "power users" had DSL, but this has definitely changed.
The final irony is if I ever wanted to switch to cable modem, there is always Time/Warner... as in AOL!
It IS a big deal when software activation codes, hard disk keys (for copy protected software), all sorts of "account info," etc. are tied to email addresses. I don't exactly trust a forwarding service such as yahoo mail for a more permanent solution. Sure, it is not the end of the world, but it can be a real pain to prove you are who you are to some vendors after your email changes.
It also simply sucks if you have an email address you actually like (rather than epd54346@blahblahblah.com). I went through this whole nightmare when MSN assimilated Qwest customers. I am NOT having a hotmail or MSN account- so I switched to a local ISP out of principle- and that was not without its bumps considering I use DSL and there are few people at Qwest who have a clue what they are talking about (they obviously give tech support from a script). Granted this is a different company, but it is the same set of issues. If you vote with your feet, you still get spanked.
More like 2,600 ?... and George Bush (SR.) thought it was such a big deal that he not only refused to institute sanctions against China, but vetoed a bill that would have permitted Chinese students to extend their stay in America to avoid "persecution" in their homeland.
My parents live in a small town and have only ONE dial-up provider to "choose" from... and that is through the town bank!
Ironically, many small towns had cable TV long before cities because they had such limited access to broadcast TV and it was simply easier to bury the cable. But there is no digital cable or cable broadband available.
But still, you really go rural and there is no cable TV- it is all dish TV (much of it BIG dish... sometimes several).
On the flip side, in IA, where my parents live, there is a fat fiber pipeline in town connecting the school and courthouse to schools and courts across the state- the entire state is fibered. The infrastructure is there, but ordinary citizens are deprived of its benefits. In a town of 2000 people, how much of that bandwidth would the handful of people online actually consume?
I know with my phone company, living in the city I help SUBSIDIZE phone service in outstate communities (I receive notices to that effect every once in awhile). On the flip side, I can call millions of people in my local calling area compared to a few thousand in a rural area... so it is a small price to pay. I would not mind subsidizing broadband to rural areas. It is like fax machines. One fax machine in the world is useless... there is nobody to fax to. The more fax machines there are, the more valuable it becomes/the more people you can communicate with.
Yet again, if you want to live near an international airport, or a freeway, they won't just build one hear you... maybe it is just all about "location, location, location."
That's a pretty sophisticated argument you have going there: "Chinese Communism = Evil." Look at the diversity in the number of ethnic groups, religions, and even languages; the sheer number of people living in China, etc... China has arguably done very well with their "communist yok."
The Europeans seem to have a view of US human rights and foreign policy as being quite shady, and many mid-Easterns view the US as being dowright evil.
"Evil" seems to be a relative concept. There are plenty of right-wingers living in the US who would just as soon burn the Constitution, and it is already starting to smolder after the Sept. "attacks."
All they need to do is ADD VALUE to what they pedal- MAKE people WANT to buy it. Already there are audio cards that sample at over four times (@192 khz) CD quality audio - and at 24 bits... (and I'm NOT talking about oversampling... I'm talking hi-res audio, deeper bit depths) next we'll have surround sound. If they keep the quality so high and the files so huge, any digital portable copy will be a pathetic compressed comprimise.
As someone who works with audio production, I can only imagine the nightmare of production... production is all about manipulating and editing audio. I can't imagine having to unlock each audio track to edit it... but alas- when DATs hit the street years ago, there was a "consumer" version that was hardware locked with copy protection. All of my DAT interfaces now have a software switch to override this protection... and its entirely legal. I can switch over to the "pro" setting. I'm sure we'll eventually see the same thing.
Sure, but we just might be at that point where more people actually do "care about computers."
Clearly there is more diversity in the workplace with PC "brands"- even a few years ago I would see predominantly IBM PCs in offices. Larger companies would rarely "mix brands" fearing it would cost more to support both IBM and brand x. The company I work for bought nothing but white boxes the last round of purchases. This is a first for us. The attitude has changed.
Finally, 10 years ago the concept of a home computer was not entrenched in the average person's mind... the only people who had computers at home were "people who care about computers." Market saturation IS an issue. There is a much higher percentage of people who consider themselves PC hobbiest/enthusiasts who want more out of their boxes- from the 10 yr. old kid who knows the performance specs of every graphics card to the 55 yr. old who wants to connect his digital video cam by firewire so he can edit the Christmas videos. 10 years ago "Ma and Pop" were just trying to enter the text into their family tree software and their son was playing Oregon Trail... OK, maybe I'm exaggerating a bit...
...was letting the computer get away in the first place. The irony is astounding...
Regardless of the encryption used, I can't help but wonder if the mere fact that encryption IS used raises suspicion... that someone is trying to hide something (or is simply paranoid).
What does HP or Dell ADD to create the "value" behind the name?
I only buy white box PCs where I hand pick the specific MoBo (with the chipset I need), graphics card, every last part... including the brand of floppy drive (like it makes a difference). The point is I am making the choice, and I know I won't be stuck with a VIA chipset that doesn't play well with my audiocard in my DAW. I can purchase it prebuilt for cheaper than I can buy all the parts individually (for some odd reason). It ends up being a better PC than a "branded" one- I know I haven't cut corners on the motherboard (God only knows what you get in a branded PC), I'm not PAYING for preinstalled software that I'll never use (and it truly is NOT free), and I actually receive an OEM CD of the OS- something you cannot find with a branded PC... and with Windows, you really don't want a "recovery CD" that will wipe the HD.
What does that leave us? TECH SUPPORT! So branded PCs supply their own support. In a business environment, I doubt most companies go to outside support like Dell or HP. Tech support for home PCs usually consists of, "insert recovery CD and start fresh" (from what people tell me... adding "there has to be a better way...I mean, my modem just won't dial...." )
And speaking of tech support, the BIG push into the sub-$1000 market where margins are lowest invited the least computer savvy into the forray, and that customer base must certainly be the most expensive segment to support. I envision that the point where they need tech support the most, where the learning curve is the steepest and 99% of their problems are "user error" they are faced with a rude awakening that poisons them from ever being a repeat customer with that company. Troll any windows support newsgroup and you quickly see how restless the natives are.
If anyone knows anything about PCs, they never need tech support... yet many branded makers can charge an extra $100 or so for "deluxe support," making me wonder how much money is already imbedded in the price of a new PC for support... whether it is used or not.
Add the fact that many bozo retailers such as Best Buy will simply replace an entire PC for the tiniest problem (often operator error from anecdotes co-workers have told me). The sheer number of "refurbished" PCs at Dell tells exactly how quick Dell is to keep customers happy... and their own policies are a bit warped. A co-worker was "told by tech support" she needed a new hard drive on her new Dell PC, that she should "send it back"- the entire PC. A fifth grader can replace a HD... she ended up with a new, different PC at Dell's expense. It is like getting a new car because you have gum stuck to the floormat! They must simply bleed money trying to provide support to everyday customers.
Finally, I think waaay back, "IBM clones" had a bad reputation for assorted compatibility issues... and ordinary people equated a white box PC with meaning "generic" or a cheap "knock-off." There is nothing generic about a white box. I am actually guaranteed MORE compatibility than buying a branded PC- every single part in the white box is "brand name" if I build it that way.
I agree that the tide will turn as the market is saturated with PCs, and people realize they don't need a new monitor, etc... every time they upgrade (the branded companies really push package deals to consumers), people realize tech support is a joke (and rely on friends and the informal network of tech support that naturally develops... "I'll just call my nephew"), and people realize they receive more for their money elsewhere.
PCs are simply too easy to build. Anyone can do it. The real issue becomes PRICE, and the big companies are caught between having the power to leverage incredible prices out of vendors, and being to big to move the product out the door before the price loses its luster.
It is a matter of time before there are no pre-built PCs at the mid-level on up- that they are all built-to-order and sold at the price of the components at that exact moment. I'm not going to make any quotes, but there is (obviously) an incredible level of depreciation per week for a PC sitting on a store shelf. Is anyone making money these days selling pre-built PCs? I know HP also sells built-to-order boxes...but who would pay their relatively high price?
As a bit of an aside: and this says as much about Sam's Club (I hate that store, they could do Springer auditions there... but I had to go there for work purchases occasionally) but I'd see these HPs that were at least a year old on the shelves... with their year old price tag (still at a premium). What an undignified way to sell PCs!
Both companies seem to have made serious blunders at its lower level consumer lines that would certainly make me think twice about their server/networking products.
Imagine a world with nothing but white box builders.... OK, that will never happen.... imagine a world where everyone just builds their own PC.... no, that will never happen either- not that it couldn't.
I think *true* AI would not have the programmer(s) assign the "scoring positions." A system of mixing the programmers "scoring" agenda with permutations of moves still plays to the bias of the programmer. The good/bad position argument should ideally be resolved by the program itself, and the game's own "learned" experience. Obviously the rules themselves dictate which moves are stronger/weaker.
What about "learning" the opponent? Of studying previously played games? (Which was one of the issues with the Deep Blue match).
Theoretically two well designed game engines should always end in a draw when playing against each other.
My Palm has a pretty tough chess game... on the easier settings, it literally lets people win by tossing in a random obviously "dumb" move. At its best level, it is very difficult to beat by most mortals. I wonder how fast that processor is... or how many KB the game is? 15 years ago there were decent chess games on relatively primitive equipment. Not that these will win some fancy tournament... and not that there aren't corners being cut... but these definitely are not AI!
"The CD should automatically start playing in most PCs. If it does not start playing in yours, open the CD-ROM drive's window and click on the music player application. Once in the player you can "Play" or open the "Playlist", choose a track and click on it."
and
"The compact disc you are using contains copy protection technology. When you use the compact disc in a conventional CD player, it operates like any other CD. When you use the compact disc in a CD ROM drive, the technology launches an audio player (the "Player"), and plays compressed audio files (the "Content"). "
This insinuates that it plays on a player already installed on the PC? I see nothing about installing a player...
What is the compression? What codec? Does my player already have whatever proprietary codec in place? ALSO- this is NOT truly playing a "CD" (as in CD QUALITY audio) on my PC.. unless you have a tin ear. It plays their compressed audio files- definitely not the same thing.
I STILL would love to test their CD with Wavelab- an app that burns actual red book spec CDs (unlike Roxio or Nero that burns fake red book spec).
Is their error oriented copy protection based on the hardware limitations of the CD vs. CR ROM drive, or the error correction of the players?
I don't know- I just read an article that says those godaweful AOL CDs cost a nickle each to produce... it can't cost that much more for a jewel case when you purchase them by the billions
The article is slanted as far I'm concerned: I'll quote you first:
"All this article is saying is that a sense of egalitarianism is an important factor in human decision making. That sometimes "the bottom line" is prioritized lower than "fairness". "
and the article states:
"People will pay to punish - suggesting that their notions of fairness outweigh selfish considerations. "
and
"In an investment game with shared profits, players punish those who do not contribute to the group's good, despite the personal cost. The emotional satisfaction of dispensing justice seems to spur them on: "People say, 'I like to punish'," "
"The fear of being fined keeps potential defectors in line..."
Sorry to cite so much of the article... but it seems to me that if people are punishing people for their own emotional reasons, they ARE getting something out of the transaction.
The article mentions the word "altrusism"- but in my book, there is nothing altrustic about being motivated through fear of punishment, and there is nothing altrustic about paying to dish out punishment to others.
Call me very cynical, but I think humans are very non-altruistic once we peel back all the layers that motivate our behaviors. It seems to me that many "do gooders" do good to feel a bit better about themselves, or to assuage any sideways guilt about living a more priviledged or comfortable existence.
When it comes to "social justice" issues, or issues of the egalitarian issues raised in the article, the if people pay to punish a freeloader (ostensibly offended by the principle of their freeloading) I would argue that they are actually punishing because of selfish reasons (ie. "I had to pay, so should you!" or "we all had to do this, what makes you think you don't?") At any rate it all comes back to "I". People pay all the time to give others their comeuppance, their just deserts (the pissing contests people even get into around here come to mind). I don't disagree with the premise of the article at all, but I find that it has a very bizarre spin to it that may or may not have been a part of the findings themselves (altruism? I don't think so).
I know what you are saying- the point I am making is that "the alleged source" of the spam would simply end up being a "legitimate" server with a legitimate return address... that the alleged sender would indeed exist. Spammers would merely have to change their tactics.
I appreciate everything you are saying, and it makes perfect sense. However, it is easy enough to set up a fly-by-night server, dump a boatload of spam that directs people to yet another third party site, be shut down for violating TOS, and set up another operation through another ISP. I don't think spammers would have any issue with revealing their IP address for purposes of spamming. The site that they direct users to for purposes of their business is already revealed- although the lowbrow spam is just as often on a geocities page as it is a registered site. I've reported a few violations like this to Yahoo just to see how long it takes to respond- and it can take weeks! The oddest thing this they could use their own technology to notice there are a bunch of spam sites sitting on THEIR own servers that are requesting credit card info, etc. (But these sites obviously are not even using their own IP addresses, etc...)
That would just force spammers to use their own servers to spam, and there is enough of that going on already... or it is contracted out to third party "media services."
It seriously pisses me off that in the year 2002, MS Outlook does not provide message filtering based on header content. I could filter out that remaining one percent of spam that sneaks through... but I digress.
I hate the boilerplate disclaimer that insinuates that I have signed up for spam through the spammer or a partner company... I get a ton of spam directed to my default username through my ISP- and I've NEVER used that email (you know the name where they take your name and add a few numbers that none of your friends can ever remember?). My work used the same ISP for awhile, and there were already spams waiting for me before I sent even a single email... which tells me a little something about the ISP.... but again, I digress.
I don't know that there are any technological solutions that I am comfortable with. On one hand, I appreciate the ability to send certain email anonymously, or to use a yahoo mail address that doesn't give my name.
The other issue with using a handshake is that it seems a lot of email is cached. It has taken several hours for me to receive emails at work, whether I've emailed myself at home, or whether a co-worker has phoned to follow up with something sent to me. I've received Fed-Ex packages faster than some emails. It seems conceivable that emails could be lost in transit while the other server is waiting for confirmation (seems it could go both ways).
Let's see.... a proper Protools system will run about $10,000 to get you in the door. Their $500 version is not quite the same thing.
http://www.soundthinking.com/digi_products.htm
Any proper "audio" card should have Mac drivers... in fact Mac was ahead of PCs for years for DAW equipment. A Creative card is regarded as a "gamer's" card, and will produce more headaches than you can imagine if used in a DAW.
There are very few (if any?) legit cards under $500 that also have a midi port- FYI. Most people at the upper end would likely seek a midi bay with 64 to 128 channels anyway. A decent mic preamp alone can cost $500- but there are cards with basic preamps, XLR connections, etc...
I spend about $100 for phone and DSL each month, and about $90 for digital cable. Throw in a few movies on demand.......however, who really wants to use AOL for broadband? It wouldn't surprise me if they used a proprietary system to discourage actual www activity. It strikes me that their average customer cares less about connection speed than ease of use, and I wonder if this targets the wrong market. Hardcore internet users do NOT use AOL.
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Uh, I'm still using win98... I never did find a reason to upgrade. I will try an OEM of win xp, but I'm not looking forward to it...
As I recall, win 98se and ME were released with great hype, but the public was ho-hum.
I seriously think most people upgrade when they buy a new PC... I feel queasy even saying this, but these days, the OSes seem to outlast the hardware. Four years ago you could buy win 98... four years ago maybe a Pentium II 350 was the bleeding edge.
Did I read that correctly? Who would actually demo an OS?... they are not exactly the easiest thing to uninstall (maybe that is the rub after the "demo period" ends... for only $99 you can restore your PC to working condition).
It still is a very strange marketing ploy when you consider WHY people upgrade OSes... it is generally not an impulse move. Half the outboard hardware on my DAW is not yet supported by XP.
"A recent report by the state Department of Justice showed that California law enforcement requested 88 wiretap orders in 2000. Judges granted every request. The wiretaps cost an average of $56,767 and resulted in the arrests of 271 people. Of those, 17 were convicted. Most were used in drug investigations and involved home phones, cellular phones and pagers. "
I'm just spitballing here, so bear with me...
88 wiretaps = 271 arrests = 17 convictions, 254 that were NOT convicted
88 wiretaps requested = 88 wiretaps granted (not a bad percentage)
88 wiretaps X $56,767 = $4,995,496
$56,767 / $40hr = 1419 "man" hours per case on average (OK... I just made up $40 for maintaining an employee with benefits, etc...)
That is a hell of a lot of time put into wiretaps. If taps are anything like most businesses, the real cost goes into employee time. I probably spend a total of 25 hrs./month on the phone (including work time... and one might assume criminals might consider crime as part of their job?). If an investigation takes 10 months, we are up to 250 hours. If we consider the ratio of 88 taps yielding 271 arrests, that is about 3 people per tap. If we multiply our 250 hours X 3 we are at 750 hours... and that is just real time phone monitoring. Add all the support staff and forensics- we'd have to double that staff time to bring it to 1500 hours per case. It might actually be plausible.
More significantly I find it disturbing that 100% taps are granted by the courts, but the conviction rate is about 19%. The arrest to conviction rate is 6%. That is a low return for giving up civil liberties.
I find it ironic, since Logic and all the higher end DAW apps support 24-32 bit audio and 2 to 4 times the sample rates that CD audio does.
.zip and .sat provide very little compression... in fact the only real use of zipping is to be able to send multiple files at once (which doesn't make too much sense when dealing with large audio files).
.wav files?
I seriously have a difficult time believing they can achieve that level of compression in a lossless manner... mainly because as you say,
With hard drives so inexpensive....? Anything wrong with
Um... what about Apple? They've been playing the same "clock" game and still dominate the graphics arts scene- marketing ploy or not! Some times a hz is just a hz, sometimes it is not.
Speaking of marketing ploys, Intel's gaffe with Rambus has pretty much shattered high end consumers' faith in the company... in several benchmarks, much slower P3s were blowing away the P4s... until the benchmarks were "optimized" (I ask you "how much software is actually *optimized* for any specific cpu?").
I'm at the point where I won't believe ANYTHING. Of course you can make the argument at the lower end that the customer base may not be "enlightened" enough to see through marketing on either side of the fence, but AMDs reputation is light years beyond were it was two or three years ago- and that sells more chips then anything else- IMHO.
Why not take it a step further and browse through a foreign proxy... take it even further and encrypt everything.
I seriously think things might actually head in this direction, where there will be a "virtual private internet" within the internet. This would of course be a pay service, but your own ISP would have no clue what you are looking at. The issue would be actually trusting that third party.
I've been thinking of fooling around with this idea to get through this content filtering firewall at work that blocks some strange material from time to time by browsing through my home PC.
I know this isn't an "agony aunt" column, and that I'm not the only one to use Qwest... but I've had DSL for several years in Minneapolis- first through USWest- back in the early days when they gave me a free Cisco 675, and there was no hookup charge if I did my own "installation." I received considerably more bandwidth than I actually paid for.... those were the days. They just simply wanted DSL customers.
When USWest became Qwest, "they told me" I'd be forced to change to a qwest.net email address... well over a year later I still can access mail through both my uswest.net AND qwest.net... I still wasn't happy about the change (see other current topics about the headaches of switching addresses)
When I moved a few blocks away, DSL was interrupted for over SIX weeks. I never received a reasonable explanation why this was the case... and I fought for months over being BILLED during the transition. The Qwest bozos thoroughly melted down my account, and it took considerable effort to have my username (email address issue again) back...
The second I heard that MSN was assimilating us, I left for a local ISP- who BTW allows static IP for no additional charge (are you listening Qwest?). It took a few months to actually cancel Qwest billing me for ISP charges, but eventually they creditted the money, AND somehow they didn't screw up the actual DSL line.
I don't think Qwest knows what is going on... I STILL can access my qwest and uswest email- months after the accounts were cancelled- and I'm no longer billed... but whatever.
The real issue I have is that all the literature about the transition is spun to give the impression that the switch to MSN is a very positive thing for customers. I understand that is why we have "marketing," but the point I tried to impress to everyone at Qwest while I was jumping ship is that if I had wanted MSN, I would have gone with them in the first place. I knew even before I started with DSL that I could use a different ISP, but there were so few players that could piggy back (probably even fewer now) and the local press ran a bunch of stories about incredible hassles and waits for customers opting for non-USWest customers (even though it is still their line), etc... that I chickened out and took the easy road.
The local ISP has been absolutely wonderful. I had difficulties reconfiguring the router because they sent me some wrong info, but they actually knew what they were talking about and were not reading from scripts, and the whole issue was sorted out in less time than anyone would ever even spend on hold with Qwest.
The people I feel sorry for are like a co-worker who purchased his first PC at the age of 55 and purchased DSL..."kids these days" don't even have to listen to a modem dialing... Anyway, of course I had to set up his internal DSL modem (yuck) and hold his hand every step of hookup. He says he'll likely switch to MSN because (in my words) it is the decision forcing the least amount of action or effort on his part. He also doesn't really care about the "principles" behind the issue. Four years ago it was likely the case that only "power users" had DSL, but this has definitely changed.
The final irony is if I ever wanted to switch to cable modem, there is always Time/Warner... as in AOL!
Have you been living in a cave?
It IS a big deal when software activation codes, hard disk keys (for copy protected software), all sorts of "account info," etc. are tied to email addresses. I don't exactly trust a forwarding service such as yahoo mail for a more permanent solution. Sure, it is not the end of the world, but it can be a real pain to prove you are who you are to some vendors after your email changes.
It also simply sucks if you have an email address you actually like (rather than epd54346@blahblahblah.com). I went through this whole nightmare when MSN assimilated Qwest customers. I am NOT having a hotmail or MSN account- so I switched to a local ISP out of principle- and that was not without its bumps considering I use DSL and there are few people at Qwest who have a clue what they are talking about (they obviously give tech support from a script). Granted this is a different company, but it is the same set of issues. If you vote with your feet, you still get spanked.
More like 2,600 ? ... and George Bush (SR.) thought it was such a big deal that he not only refused to institute sanctions against China, but vetoed a bill that would have permitted Chinese students to extend their stay in America to avoid "persecution" in their homeland.
Broadband is now our god-given right?
My parents live in a small town and have only ONE dial-up provider to "choose" from... and that is through the town bank!
Ironically, many small towns had cable TV long before cities because they had such limited access to broadcast TV and it was simply easier to bury the cable. But there is no digital cable or cable broadband available.
But still, you really go rural and there is no cable TV- it is all dish TV (much of it BIG dish... sometimes several).
On the flip side, in IA, where my parents live, there is a fat fiber pipeline in town connecting the school and courthouse to schools and courts across the state- the entire state is fibered. The infrastructure is there, but ordinary citizens are deprived of its benefits. In a town of 2000 people, how much of that bandwidth would the handful of people online actually consume?
I know with my phone company, living in the city I help SUBSIDIZE phone service in outstate communities (I receive notices to that effect every once in awhile). On the flip side, I can call millions of people in my local calling area compared to a few thousand in a rural area... so it is a small price to pay. I would not mind subsidizing broadband to rural areas. It is like fax machines. One fax machine in the world is useless... there is nobody to fax to. The more fax machines there are, the more valuable it becomes/the more people you can communicate with.
Yet again, if you want to live near an international airport, or a freeway, they won't just build one hear you... maybe it is just all about "location, location, location."
That's a pretty sophisticated argument you have going there: "Chinese Communism = Evil." Look at the diversity in the number of ethnic groups, religions, and even languages; the sheer number of people living in China, etc... China has arguably done very well with their "communist yok."
The Europeans seem to have a view of US human rights and foreign policy as being quite shady, and many mid-Easterns view the US as being dowright evil.
"Evil" seems to be a relative concept. There are plenty of right-wingers living in the US who would just as soon burn the Constitution, and it is already starting to smolder after the Sept. "attacks."
All they need to do is ADD VALUE to what they pedal- MAKE people WANT to buy it. Already there are audio cards that sample at over four times (@192 khz) CD quality audio - and at 24 bits... (and I'm NOT talking about oversampling... I'm talking hi-res audio, deeper bit depths) next we'll have surround sound. If they keep the quality so high and the files so huge, any digital portable copy will be a pathetic compressed comprimise.
As someone who works with audio production, I can only imagine the nightmare of production... production is all about manipulating and editing audio. I can't imagine having to unlock each audio track to edit it... but alas- when DATs hit the street years ago, there was a "consumer" version that was hardware locked with copy protection. All of my DAT interfaces now have a software switch to override this protection... and its entirely legal. I can switch over to the "pro" setting. I'm sure we'll eventually see the same thing.
Sure, but we just might be at that point where more people actually do "care about computers."
Clearly there is more diversity in the workplace with PC "brands"- even a few years ago I would see predominantly IBM PCs in offices. Larger companies would rarely "mix brands" fearing it would cost more to support both IBM and brand x. The company I work for bought nothing but white boxes the last round of purchases. This is a first for us. The attitude has changed.
Finally, 10 years ago the concept of a home computer was not entrenched in the average person's mind... the only people who had computers at home were "people who care about computers." Market saturation IS an issue. There is a much higher percentage of people who consider themselves PC hobbiest/enthusiasts who want more out of their boxes- from the 10 yr. old kid who knows the performance specs of every graphics card to the 55 yr. old who wants to connect his digital video cam by firewire so he can edit the Christmas videos. 10 years ago "Ma and Pop" were just trying to enter the text into their family tree software and their son was playing Oregon Trail... OK, maybe I'm exaggerating a bit...
"The United States plans to impose sanctions on Ukraine's metals and footwear industries on Jan. 23. "
I'm sure the US has made every effort to impose sanctions that will do the least amount of damage to our own industries. Ukranian footwear? WTF?!
...was letting the computer get away in the first place. The irony is astounding...
Regardless of the encryption used, I can't help but wonder if the mere fact that encryption IS used raises suspicion... that someone is trying to hide something (or is simply paranoid).
What even IS a "name brand" PC ?
What does HP or Dell ADD to create the "value" behind the name?
I only buy white box PCs where I hand pick the specific MoBo (with the chipset I need), graphics card, every last part... including the brand of floppy drive (like it makes a difference). The point is I am making the choice, and I know I won't be stuck with a VIA chipset that doesn't play well with my audiocard in my DAW. I can purchase it prebuilt for cheaper than I can buy all the parts individually (for some odd reason). It ends up being a better PC than a "branded" one- I know I haven't cut corners on the motherboard (God only knows what you get in a branded PC), I'm not PAYING for preinstalled software that I'll never use (and it truly is NOT free), and I actually receive an OEM CD of the OS- something you cannot find with a branded PC... and with Windows, you really don't want a "recovery CD" that will wipe the HD.
What does that leave us? TECH SUPPORT! So branded PCs supply their own support. In a business environment, I doubt most companies go to outside support like Dell or HP. Tech support for home PCs usually consists of, "insert recovery CD and start fresh" (from what people tell me... adding "there has to be a better way...I mean, my modem just won't dial...." )
And speaking of tech support, the BIG push into the sub-$1000 market where margins are lowest invited the least computer savvy into the forray, and that customer base must certainly be the most expensive segment to support. I envision that the point where they need tech support the most, where the learning curve is the steepest and 99% of their problems are "user error" they are faced with a rude awakening that poisons them from ever being a repeat customer with that company. Troll any windows support newsgroup and you quickly see how restless the natives are.
If anyone knows anything about PCs, they never need tech support... yet many branded makers can charge an extra $100 or so for "deluxe support," making me wonder how much money is already imbedded in the price of a new PC for support... whether it is used or not.
Add the fact that many bozo retailers such as Best Buy will simply replace an entire PC for the tiniest problem (often operator error from anecdotes co-workers have told me). The sheer number of "refurbished" PCs at Dell tells exactly how quick Dell is to keep customers happy... and their own policies are a bit warped. A co-worker was "told by tech support" she needed a new hard drive on her new Dell PC, that she should "send it back"- the entire PC. A fifth grader can replace a HD... she ended up with a new, different PC at Dell's expense. It is like getting a new car because you have gum stuck to the floormat! They must simply bleed money trying to provide support to everyday customers.
Finally, I think waaay back, "IBM clones" had a bad reputation for assorted compatibility issues... and ordinary people equated a white box PC with meaning "generic" or a cheap "knock-off." There is nothing generic about a white box. I am actually guaranteed MORE compatibility than buying a branded PC- every single part in the white box is "brand name" if I build it that way.
I agree that the tide will turn as the market is saturated with PCs, and people realize they don't need a new monitor, etc... every time they upgrade (the branded companies really push package deals to consumers), people realize tech support is a joke (and rely on friends and the informal network of tech support that naturally develops... "I'll just call my nephew"), and people realize they receive more for their money elsewhere.
PCs are simply too easy to build. Anyone can do it. The real issue becomes PRICE, and the big companies are caught between having the power to leverage incredible prices out of vendors, and being to big to move the product out the door before the price loses its luster.
It is a matter of time before there are no pre-built PCs at the mid-level on up- that they are all built-to-order and sold at the price of the components at that exact moment. I'm not going to make any quotes, but there is (obviously) an incredible level of depreciation per week for a PC sitting on a store shelf. Is anyone making money these days selling pre-built PCs? I know HP also sells built-to-order boxes...but who would pay their relatively high price?
As a bit of an aside: and this says as much about Sam's Club (I hate that store, they could do Springer auditions there... but I had to go there for work purchases occasionally) but I'd see these HPs that were at least a year old on the shelves... with their year old price tag (still at a premium). What an undignified way to sell PCs!
Both companies seem to have made serious blunders at its lower level consumer lines that would certainly make me think twice about their server/networking products.
Imagine a world with nothing but white box builders.... OK, that will never happen.... imagine a world where everyone just builds their own PC.... no, that will never happen either- not that it couldn't.
AI, huh?
I think *true* AI would not have the programmer(s) assign the "scoring positions." A system of mixing the programmers "scoring" agenda with permutations of moves still plays to the bias of the programmer. The good/bad position argument should ideally be resolved by the program itself, and the game's own "learned" experience. Obviously the rules themselves dictate which moves are stronger/weaker.
What about "learning" the opponent? Of studying previously played games? (Which was one of the issues with the Deep Blue match).
Theoretically two well designed game engines should always end in a draw when playing against each other.
My Palm has a pretty tough chess game... on the easier settings, it literally lets people win by tossing in a random obviously "dumb" move. At its best level, it is very difficult to beat by most mortals. I wonder how fast that processor is... or how many KB the game is? 15 years ago there were decent chess games on relatively primitive equipment. Not that these will win some fancy tournament... and not that there aren't corners being cut... but these definitely are not AI!
"The CD should automatically start playing in most PCs. If it does not start playing in yours, open the CD-ROM drive's window and click on the music player application. Once in the player you can "Play" or open the "Playlist", choose a track and click on it."
and
"The compact disc you are using contains copy protection technology. When you use the compact disc in a conventional CD player, it operates like any other CD. When you use the compact disc in a CD ROM drive, the technology launches an audio player (the "Player"), and plays compressed audio files (the "Content"). "
This insinuates that it plays on a player already installed on the PC? I see nothing about installing a player...
What is the compression? What codec? Does my player already have whatever proprietary codec in place? ALSO- this is NOT truly playing a "CD" (as in CD QUALITY audio) on my PC.. unless you have a tin ear. It plays their compressed audio files- definitely not the same thing.
I STILL would love to test their CD with Wavelab- an app that burns actual red book spec CDs (unlike Roxio or Nero that burns fake red book spec).
Is their error oriented copy protection based on the hardware limitations of the CD vs. CR ROM drive, or the error correction of the players?
I want more information!
I don't know- I just read an article that says those godaweful AOL CDs cost a nickle each to produce... it can't cost that much more for a jewel case when you purchase them by the billions
The article is slanted as far I'm concerned: I'll quote you first:
"All this article is saying is that a sense of egalitarianism is an important factor in human decision making. That sometimes "the bottom line" is prioritized lower than "fairness". "
and the article states:
"People will pay to punish - suggesting that their notions of fairness outweigh selfish considerations. "
and "In an investment game with shared profits, players punish those who do not contribute to the group's good, despite the personal cost. The emotional satisfaction of dispensing justice seems to spur them on: "People say, 'I like to punish'," "
"The fear of being fined keeps potential defectors in line..."
Sorry to cite so much of the article... but it seems to me that if people are punishing people for their own emotional reasons, they ARE getting something out of the transaction.
The article mentions the word "altrusism"- but in my book, there is nothing altrustic about being motivated through fear of punishment, and there is nothing altrustic about paying to dish out punishment to others.
Call me very cynical, but I think humans are very non-altruistic once we peel back all the layers that motivate our behaviors. It seems to me that many "do gooders" do good to feel a bit better about themselves, or to assuage any sideways guilt about living a more priviledged or comfortable existence.
When it comes to "social justice" issues, or issues of the egalitarian issues raised in the article, the if people pay to punish a freeloader (ostensibly offended by the principle of their freeloading) I would argue that they are actually punishing because of selfish reasons (ie. "I had to pay, so should you!" or "we all had to do this, what makes you think you don't?") At any rate it all comes back to "I". People pay all the time to give others their comeuppance, their just deserts (the pissing contests people even get into around here come to mind). I don't disagree with the premise of the article at all, but I find that it has a very bizarre spin to it that may or may not have been a part of the findings themselves (altruism? I don't think so).
I know what you are saying- the point I am making is that "the alleged source" of the spam would simply end up being a "legitimate" server with a legitimate return address... that the alleged sender would indeed exist. Spammers would merely have to change their tactics.
I appreciate everything you are saying, and it makes perfect sense. However, it is easy enough to set up a fly-by-night server, dump a boatload of spam that directs people to yet another third party site, be shut down for violating TOS, and set up another operation through another ISP. I don't think spammers would have any issue with revealing their IP address for purposes of spamming. The site that they direct users to for purposes of their business is already revealed- although the lowbrow spam is just as often on a geocities page as it is a registered site. I've reported a few violations like this to Yahoo just to see how long it takes to respond- and it can take weeks! The oddest thing this they could use their own technology to notice there are a bunch of spam sites sitting on THEIR own servers that are requesting credit card info, etc. (But these sites obviously are not even using their own IP addresses, etc...)
That would just force spammers to use their own servers to spam, and there is enough of that going on already... or it is contracted out to third party "media services." It seriously pisses me off that in the year 2002, MS Outlook does not provide message filtering based on header content. I could filter out that remaining one percent of spam that sneaks through... but I digress. I hate the boilerplate disclaimer that insinuates that I have signed up for spam through the spammer or a partner company... I get a ton of spam directed to my default username through my ISP- and I've NEVER used that email (you know the name where they take your name and add a few numbers that none of your friends can ever remember?). My work used the same ISP for awhile, and there were already spams waiting for me before I sent even a single email... which tells me a little something about the ISP.... but again, I digress. I don't know that there are any technological solutions that I am comfortable with. On one hand, I appreciate the ability to send certain email anonymously, or to use a yahoo mail address that doesn't give my name. The other issue with using a handshake is that it seems a lot of email is cached. It has taken several hours for me to receive emails at work, whether I've emailed myself at home, or whether a co-worker has phoned to follow up with something sent to me. I've received Fed-Ex packages faster than some emails. It seems conceivable that emails could be lost in transit while the other server is waiting for confirmation (seems it could go both ways).
Let's see.... a proper Protools system will run about $10,000 to get you in the door. Their $500 version is not quite the same thing.
http://www.soundthinking.com/digi_products.htm
Any proper "audio" card should have Mac drivers... in fact Mac was ahead of PCs for years for DAW equipment. A Creative card is regarded as a "gamer's" card, and will produce more headaches than you can imagine if used in a DAW. There are very few (if any?) legit cards under $500 that also have a midi port- FYI. Most people at the upper end would likely seek a midi bay with 64 to 128 channels anyway. A decent mic preamp alone can cost $500- but there are cards with basic preamps, XLR connections, etc...
I spend about $100 for phone and DSL each month, and about $90 for digital cable. Throw in a few movies on demand.... ...however, who really wants to use AOL for broadband? It wouldn't surprise me if they used a proprietary system to discourage actual www activity. It strikes me that their average customer cares less about connection speed than ease of use, and I wonder if this targets the wrong market. Hardcore internet users do NOT use AOL.