I worked at one of those god awful hellholes for 3 months, and they had just implemented the name collection enforcement there... in other words our managers told us if we didn't get the names and addresses of 80% of all transactions we'd be fired.
As much as I'd like to get the phone number and address of the cute co-ed who came in to buy a cell phone battery, I'd refrain from asking women for their info. Especially after one freaks out in the store asking if you want the information so you can follow her home or stalk her.
So I got pink slipped.
Best thing that coulda happened:)
I think that the reason this hasn't been done already is that the companies don't really *want* a niche group of users who want to pay having the old classics anyway. Not when you can take the intellectual property, jazz it up a bit with a bargain basement 3d engine, and sell it for retail to the masses. Look at how many copies of the new Frogger and Asteroids sold... I bet the return on investment was very very nice.
More than they'd ever see reselling roms.
Then you can go all the way back to the chip manufacturers who rate a single chunk of silicon as capable of different speeds. Sure it's just to be safe as purity of the substance can degrade near the edges, but the fact that your paying for a 1ghz slab of silicon and your neighbor is paying for a 500 mHz one is just as bad:)
So the chipmakers shaft us, and we shaft them right back trying to overclock every new CPU:) Symbiosis!
So I call up the local anime movie shop and ask if they've got Blood in yet. Nope, I'm told, it will arrive Friday and there's a strict no-sell policy from the publishers until September 4th here.
Fug.
That would explain why you can't order the DVD from their website directly if you live in Canada either.
Now I gotta wait another week. Argh.
Hope this saves a few people from running down to the local shop only to be disappointed.
Actually you waited with bated breath, unless you were into munching worms and crickets at the time:)
As for reporters and their fancies, I did an interview with the Ottawa citizen 10 years ago that ended up on the front page. The reporter used every word of our conversation, unfortunately not in even remotely the same order. What began as a discussion on failures within the local social assistance branch of the government and the abuses I'd seen soon became a twisted version of the original where I bragged of helping others perpetuate fraud.
There were seven witnesses to my interview with him, so I could easily have sued the prick and won, but my parents wanted me to let it slide before their peers found out and it cost them their jobs.
Revenge was sweet though. A TV show doing a followup story contacted a friend of mine about the article and when he explained the truth of the matter they investigated the reporters practices. Last I'd heard he'd been fired:)
If you were duping a VHS macrovision protected tape then Beta was ALL about the quality. Your Beta backup would be a very nice dupe, while the VHS backup would have that weak signal fade all over it.
ah, but bank robbery doesn't tend to be a compulsion in people unless you count financial desire.
because he was only 13, when caught and put into counseling I'd be willing to give him the benefit of the doubt... as we did the person who took advantage of the fact that I was 5 when they were 16.
if he were an adult, I'd have no problem beating him to death with a shovel, forget the life-long stigma.
if counselling is able to help him, good. if not, he'd best stay out of my city.
Heh, sounds like what Morris intended years ago (89?) when he set that worm loose and got his math wrong. And it replicated thousands of times a second:)
It would not surprise me if the numbers of "stranger" crimes saw a phenomenal climb in the next decade, as the bait-and-lure tactics of the net take their toll. Hopefully there will be more education for kids about the dangers of the net without the scare tactics that numb them to the danger. (re: smoking, drinking, drugs {like any of those stories stopped us} )
Still, the number of "familiar" crimes is disturbingly high. Where I grew up, you didn't talk about such stuff. When I moved a more developed part of the country I discovered that about 90% of my friends had been molested at some point in their lives. That's a disturbing number.
And it wasn't necessarily one guy working the neighborhood. Living around an army base, most of the kids were from different places, so it creates a picture of a very active subculture of what was once an isolationists practice. Now they have the tech to become organized.
It makes one shudder to think.
Too bad the police frown on people pretending to be 12 year olds to lure out the sickos:)
Strange as it may sound, university isn't what makes you good at a job. Some companies hire people strictly on that basis, but you wouldn't want to work for them anyway, not if you wanted to enjoy your work.
None of our programmers consider their university years to be of any use. What they learned to get here, they learned on their own. The slip of paper was handy, but then when they found the job they wanted, it was on their abilities that they were chosen. Not some sheepskin with printing on it. Which is good, cuz I'm a 4 (yes FOUR) time college dropout:)
Let's hear it for equitable hiring practices!
I emailed the Canadian PM last night, and got mail back from his offices already that the letter has been forwarded to Foreign Affairs Minister John Manley...
Sure, we're not Americans, but as a trade partner we do have some influence. (trolls and flamebait will be ignored).
The fact that my letter was even read by someone and considered worthy of passing on is a small victory in itself. Someone else is now aware of Dmitri.
As a foreigner, is he granted the rights an American expects to take for granted. If he is not, how long can he be held without being found guilty of a crime.
As for being lucky about being arrested over here, Russia doesn't have a DMCA. So why would they arrest him?:P
What first amendment right? He's Russian.
Is there anything in the first amendment that includes citizens of Non-US countries?
Also what about the right to a fair and timely trial? If this makes its way to a trial by jury, who's to say that it will happen in an even slightly reasonable amount of time.
What rights are available to Dmitri as a guest of the US penal system?
In order for the media to cover something it has to reach a state of 'newsworthyness'. The people who give a damn about Skylarov come here to read about his plight and bitch about what's happening to him. That's not newsworthy.
Unless enough people catch the attention of a news network, Skylarov remains just another "computer criminal" whose only relevance to John Q. Public is if he writes viruses that tell people "I love you" or offer naked pictures of Britney Spears.
Anyone remember the "Free Kevin" web campaign? That got some news.
Having it generate an auto-reply to notify or mock the spammer is well and good, but then it also contributes to the bouncing, and flooding of crap on email servers as spammers tend to spoof their email addy.
"is it a bit odd to be reporting on the disappearance of items that never existed in the first place".
Heh, 29 years ago i didn't exist either. This line of thought could have interesting implications in murder trials. Time to dig out the old grudge book!
Chances are it's just a bully-boy technique that a lot of companies use. Talk to the admins at any large free web provider. Every week individuals and companies threaten lawsuits if something is not removed from the directories. Not that these emails are followed up, often the first one is enough to scare the provider in the first place. I've seen this happen with my friend's company, and when they refused the litigators would back down. Still, having most of the companies you threatened take down websites from a 2-minute-to-write email is a pretty effective form of corporate warfare.
I remember coming across an article on pronunciation in newscasts, and that CNN also has their own methodology to finding the proper accent for broadcasting.
Apparently Canadian reporters can do well in the US because the natural accent suits the needs of the broadcasting industry there well.
(note: for the ignorant, this does not involve pronouncing about like aboot.:) like any country, localized accents become the stereotype of a nation)
Slashdot Mirror
I worked at one of those god awful hellholes for 3 months, and they had just implemented the name collection enforcement there... in other words our managers told us if we didn't get the names and addresses of 80% of all transactions we'd be fired. :)
As much as I'd like to get the phone number and address of the cute co-ed who came in to buy a cell phone battery, I'd refrain from asking women for their info. Especially after one freaks out in the store asking if you want the information so you can follow her home or stalk her.
So I got pink slipped.
Best thing that coulda happened
I think that the reason this hasn't been done already is that the companies don't really *want* a niche group of users who want to pay having the old classics anyway. Not when you can take the intellectual property, jazz it up a bit with a bargain basement 3d engine, and sell it for retail to the masses. Look at how many copies of the new Frogger and Asteroids sold... I bet the return on investment was very very nice.
More than they'd ever see reselling roms.
Guess it's time to take Apple down for making Quicktime their default media player too?
Bah.
Then you can go all the way back to the chip manufacturers who rate a single chunk of silicon as capable of different speeds. Sure it's just to be safe as purity of the substance can degrade near the edges, but the fact that your paying for a 1ghz slab of silicon and your neighbor is paying for a 500 mHz one is just as bad :)
:) Symbiosis!
So the chipmakers shaft us, and we shaft them right back trying to overclock every new CPU
So I call up the local anime movie shop and ask if they've got Blood in yet. Nope, I'm told, it will arrive Friday and there's a strict no-sell policy from the publishers until September 4th here.
Fug.
That would explain why you can't order the DVD from their website directly if you live in Canada either.
Now I gotta wait another week. Argh.
Hope this saves a few people from running down to the local shop only to be disappointed.
Will we be able to come up with content in real time too? Whew, talk about your huge dev teams for games :)
You're playing Black and White at work? You're fired! :)
Wanna know what the two most common phrases are in a goal-free 3D world?
:)
1. Age, sex, location?
2. Wanna cyber?
Sigh.
Then again, I guess that's a goal for some people
http://www.physics.nyu.edu/faculty/sokal/weinberg. html
:)
An interesting article on the Sokal host, in cleartext for the goatse wary
Actually you waited with bated breath, unless you were into munching worms and crickets at the time :)
:)
As for reporters and their fancies, I did an interview with the Ottawa citizen 10 years ago that ended up on the front page. The reporter used every word of our conversation, unfortunately not in even remotely the same order. What began as a discussion on failures within the local social assistance branch of the government and the abuses I'd seen soon became a twisted version of the original where I bragged of helping others perpetuate fraud.
There were seven witnesses to my interview with him, so I could easily have sued the prick and won, but my parents wanted me to let it slide before their peers found out and it cost them their jobs.
Revenge was sweet though. A TV show doing a followup story contacted a friend of mine about the article and when he explained the truth of the matter they investigated the reporters practices. Last I'd heard he'd been fired
If you were duping a VHS macrovision protected tape then Beta was ALL about the quality. Your Beta backup would be a very nice dupe, while the VHS backup would have that weak signal fade all over it.
ah, but bank robbery doesn't tend to be a compulsion in people unless you count financial desire.
because he was only 13, when caught and put into counseling I'd be willing to give him the benefit of the doubt... as we did the person who took advantage of the fact that I was 5 when they were 16.
if he were an adult, I'd have no problem beating him to death with a shovel, forget the life-long stigma.
if counselling is able to help him, good. if not, he'd best stay out of my city.
Heh, sounds like what Morris intended years ago (89?) when he set that worm loose and got his math wrong. And it replicated thousands of times a second :)
It would not surprise me if the numbers of "stranger" crimes saw a phenomenal climb in the next decade, as the bait-and-lure tactics of the net take their toll. Hopefully there will be more education for kids about the dangers of the net without the scare tactics that numb them to the danger. (re: smoking, drinking, drugs {like any of those stories stopped us} )
:)
Still, the number of "familiar" crimes is disturbingly high. Where I grew up, you didn't talk about such stuff. When I moved a more developed part of the country I discovered that about 90% of my friends had been molested at some point in their lives. That's a disturbing number.
And it wasn't necessarily one guy working the neighborhood. Living around an army base, most of the kids were from different places, so it creates a picture of a very active subculture of what was once an isolationists practice. Now they have the tech to become organized.
It makes one shudder to think.
Too bad the police frown on people pretending to be 12 year olds to lure out the sickos
Strange as it may sound, university isn't what makes you good at a job. Some companies hire people strictly on that basis, but you wouldn't want to work for them anyway, not if you wanted to enjoy your work. :)
None of our programmers consider their university years to be of any use. What they learned to get here, they learned on their own. The slip of paper was handy, but then when they found the job they wanted, it was on their abilities that they were chosen. Not some sheepskin with printing on it. Which is good, cuz I'm a 4 (yes FOUR) time college dropout
Let's hear it for equitable hiring practices!
Remember the past?
3DFX only games came and went, then again so did 3DFX.
I emailed the Canadian PM last night, and got mail back from his offices already that the letter has been forwarded to Foreign Affairs Minister John Manley...
Sure, we're not Americans, but as a trade partner we do have some influence. (trolls and flamebait will be ignored).
The fact that my letter was even read by someone and considered worthy of passing on is a small victory in itself. Someone else is now aware of Dmitri.
Two Words: Devil's Advocate.
:P
As a foreigner, is he granted the rights an American expects to take for granted. If he is not, how long can he be held without being found guilty of a crime.
As for being lucky about being arrested over here, Russia doesn't have a DMCA. So why would they arrest him?
What first amendment right? He's Russian.
Is there anything in the first amendment that includes citizens of Non-US countries?
Also what about the right to a fair and timely trial? If this makes its way to a trial by jury, who's to say that it will happen in an even slightly reasonable amount of time.
What rights are available to Dmitri as a guest of the US penal system?
In order for the media to cover something it has to reach a state of 'newsworthyness'. The people who give a damn about Skylarov come here to read about his plight and bitch about what's happening to him. That's not newsworthy.
Unless enough people catch the attention of a news network, Skylarov remains just another "computer criminal" whose only relevance to John Q. Public is if he writes viruses that tell people "I love you" or offer naked pictures of Britney Spears.
Anyone remember the "Free Kevin" web campaign? That got some news.
Having it generate an auto-reply to notify or mock the spammer is well and good, but then it also contributes to the bouncing, and flooding of crap on email servers as spammers tend to spoof their email addy.
"is it a bit odd to be reporting on the disappearance of items that never existed in the first place".
Heh, 29 years ago i didn't exist either. This line of thought could have interesting implications in murder trials. Time to dig out the old grudge book!
Chances are it's just a bully-boy technique that a lot of companies use. Talk to the admins at any large free web provider. Every week individuals and companies threaten lawsuits if something is not removed from the directories. Not that these emails are followed up, often the first one is enough to scare the provider in the first place. I've seen this happen with my friend's company, and when they refused the litigators would back down. Still, having most of the companies you threatened take down websites from a 2-minute-to-write email is a pretty effective form of corporate warfare.
From the country that bought us Ebonics and David Spade movies! *shudder*
I remember coming across an article on pronunciation in newscasts, and that CNN also has their own methodology to finding the proper accent for broadcasting.
:) like any country, localized accents become the stereotype of a nation)
Apparently Canadian reporters can do well in the US because the natural accent suits the needs of the broadcasting industry there well.
(note: for the ignorant, this does not involve pronouncing about like aboot.