- or more than likely they'll just buy a new PC that comes with Windows legally bundled.
Which isn't really all that great an option now that people are buying new PC's that start failing WGA after running a couple of legit MS online updates.
This is nothing more than a protection racket if you ask me. When is the EFF bringing up a class-action on this one? Are they going to wait until we're all victims, or are they secretly happy that this will drive some people into the arms of OSS?
That was my first thought as well. I (admittedly) don't know much about guns, but the last I knew a gun was a 100% analog mechanical device, which required a physical impact motion to fire the bullet. Seems to me it would add quite a bit of extra complexity to the bullet just to keep it from being able to be fired by a regular gun - at the least you'd have to move the firing mechanism into the casing and protect it to keep any possible impact action from initiating the discharge. The mechanical action of the gun would become nothing more than an aiming device with a button to transmit the fire command into the bullet. Presumably, this would cause the bullet to require a digital DRM'd gun just to be fired.
I can see the snowball now: Bullets and guns would be tied together when purchased, so that only that gun can fire those bullets. The NRA and the gun manufacturers would create a briber..., er, lobbying organization called the NRAA to force laws limiting the number of bullets that can tied to a specific gun. The same laws would eventually require you to buy a new gun when you run out of bullets.... etc.
- If you don't like their policies, DON'T BUY THEIR MUSIC! It's that simple. You don't need to explain why you're not buying it since you're not doing business with them anymore.
While I admire the statement, in practice it falls short. Right now the RIAA is FUDing that people aren't buying their music because of piracy. Why are they claiming this when it can be proven false? Because nobody is speaking up to claim otherwise! The RIAA can always ignore some anonymous "expert" proclaiming the truth, but they will have a much harder time ignoring potentially hundreds of thousands of customers saying the same thing. In this case, our silence is only golden to the RIAA.
I didn't think any rudeness occurred - I was simply answering a question. Personally, I'm still wondering why anyone would go through the trouble of purchasing a Dell at all...
In my company, we call them "Packard Dell" for a reason...:)
- If you know that much, why not just build your own system?
Some of us do. We have a multiple PC household - 6 (well, so far anyway...) and the only 'branded' one is a laptop we needed for home access while traveling. I actually deinstalled all the extra crap before I let it be used, but only because I didn't feel like hunting for the drivers after a wipe.
What I wouldn't give for the ability to make my own laptop the same way I make a desktop...
That may have been the case then, but it most certainly isn't now that MS owns it.
I work in the PC support department of my company, and most of us also sell our PC support services to individuals who need help. For the spyware infestations, we always try the decent "free" products first. Then we try MS anti-spyware and it usually fails to find anything more. If spyware still exists after that, then we try Webroot Spy Sweeper which successfully cleans up whatever is left.
Sometimes for giggles we actually try MS anti-spyware first, then Ad-aware (which catches quite a bit more than MS), then Spybot (which catches even more than Ad-aware). For spy-crippled systems, Spysweeper usually wipes the remainder just fine.
For the record, we usually suggest Spy Sweeper first, but since the software costs money that usually adds to the bill. The sad state is that most people don't want to spend money unless it's a last resort. These are the same people that don't think even once before they click on a popup to install spyware. These are the same people who are going to think MS bundling anti-spyware tools will be "good enough" - that if it catches most of them they should still be ok.
We live in a country (USA) where it is apparently OK to show footage on the evening news (ie: dinnertime) with victims and severed body parts from that day's suicide bombing in Iraq - but it is apparently NOT ok to show Janet Jackson's nipple for less than a second during halftime of the Super Bowl.
Guess which one will give my 8 year old daughter nightmares. On second thought - guess which one did give my daughter nightmares. I don't have an illegal immigrant nanny to console my child at 2 am and explain why there's so much violence in the world, so I have to do that myself.
Well, I can understand it for Geek Squad. Some l337 gamer comes in with his overclocked gaming rig and a custom 15-inch cpu fan running at 1200 rpm - that tie will get caught when checking out a suspicious noise...
- "Terrorism" is the new red scare, where a blanket term applies to anything unpatriotic and antigovernment.
These days - I hear the phrase "Terrorism" being thrown around as a blanket term that applies to anyone who disagrees with Fuhrer Bush. I also see the phrase "Unpatriotic" thrown around the same way.
Technically - terrorism exists whenever any person or group is using fear in an attempt to subjugate another as a means of control. Ironically, Dictator Bush's use of the term to scare us into being his flock and giving him unheard of presidential powers is - in fact - a form of terrorism itself.
... creating a well-publicized office that does nothing more than distract attention.
Misdirection: A classic stage-magician method. Watch the left hand say things like "we need to be careful of civil liberties", while the right hand performs the amazing "disappearing civil liberties" trick.
- The mouse model is a good starting point for research, but it's not always a great predictor of human response.
The next question: Why are we starting with mice if we can't always use promising developments on humans? Wouldn't that be a huge waste of initial effort and expectations?
- Where the fuck did people like these go? What happened to the United States?
They were introduced to reality shows and fast food. It's apparently much more fun to let your brain and your ass turn to Jello while watching the misfortune of others, rather than actually do anything to fix the country's problems. The new american dream is to become fat, stupid, and lazy. The less informed they are about something, the less they have to worry about it.
- something as critical like where I live isn't decided by work.
That also depends on what you do and how readily available a replacement job can be. I had the misfortune when I graduated college of being from a city where all the tech jobs were drying up the hard way - companies moving out and laying off wholesale. Hard on the employees, that is. I found myself applying for out of town jobs simply because nobody wanted a fresh college graduate when the remaining HR inboxes were overflowing with resumes boasting 10-30 years of experience that were willing to take entry level positions and 50-75% paycuts.
Back on topic: It's not quite the same situation, but the same logic still applies. I'm in the 10-30 year range now, but if I'm given a choice between moving to where the paycheck is or taking an unreasonable paycut finding a new job, I'd move again in a heartbeat. In fact, I did. It doesn't take that long to get over it...
- It amazes me that the voting box companies, who are paid disgusting amounts of taxpayer money to develop these things, can't figure out how to code properly.
Oh - they coded it properly. However, the spec was designed by government officials who work for politicians who want to keep their jobs.
Note: I'd be willing to bet that it isn't the same spec a random impartial group of voters would come up with...
- If I were so inclined I could use Google to find illegal materials and services - as mentioned by other posters, but the **AA is not suing Google (yet) probably because they're too big and expensive to sue. (After all, Google is refusing to turn over search records to the government even when handed a subpoena.)
This brings up an interesting idea. The comparison between the BT search engines and google is a valid one from a 'possible to search for illegal items' standpoint. Assuming the RIAA wins against the BT search engines with this argument, what's to stop some (as yet) unnamed government agency from suing google in the future using the RIAA logic as a legal precedent?
Maybe someone should try to get google to help them fight the RIAA on this, just to keep it from becoming a future problem for google...
- In the case of MPEG 4, there are dozens and dozens of patents that all the parties involved have thrown together to create that standard, and they all license them to each other. You can get a license for that whole patent pool relatively cheaply, and I guess for free if you supplied patents to the pool.
The problem here is that AT & T is not in the pool, and that they don't have any MPEG 4 products...
Something that's bothering me about this even after reading the FA. I'm sure it's a stupid question and has a really simple answer, but I don't see it...
If (as is the case of mp4), the consortium owns all of the patents required for the mp4 concept, which must be the case if they are allowed to bundle & license it legally, how can AT&T not be in the consortium if they have a valid patent? Or conversely: How can they have a valid patent if they're not in the consortium? If (which is probably the case), AT&T freely gave the consortium use of the patent, how is it legal for them to pull a reverse on a patent they freely gave up - especially by trying to license customers who most likely have already licensed its use through the consortium?
It's amazing. They feel they need tape delays to prevent possible nudity and obcenity, but nobody thinks twice about showing terrorist aggression or severed human body parts from the aftermath of a car bomb in Iraq.
The sheep can baa-aa-aa-lieve the FCC all they want, but I know from experience which one is likely to induce trauma in my 8 year old daughter...
Something of a rarity nowadays. It's a good thing not everyone in the US is a sheep. The bad thing is the sheep are being trained to ignore us as 'kooks'.
Propaganda is a wonderful tool. Just ask Hermann Göring. Techniques he described on how to sway public opinion for an unjust war worked for Germany about 70 years ago, and Bush has admitted to using the same techniques here in the US. Unfortunately for US, they still work.
Actually, it provides both. It's been argued to death which one is meant overall by supporters of both sides, but there are two parts to the 'religion' clause of the first amendment - the first part protects citizens FROM a state sponsored/approved religion, while the second protects a citizen's individual right to worship whichever big-man-in-the-sky they choose.
In context: It is perfectly legal for W Bush to worship a christian deity on his own time. It is NOT legal for him to pass his religious beliefs into federal law and force the citizens of this country to live by them.
No wonder he hates that goddamned piece of paper - although he wasn't above using it to drum up support for his war in a speech last week in Philadelphia...
Slashdot Mirror
- or more than likely they'll just buy a new PC that comes with Windows legally bundled.
Which isn't really all that great an option now that people are buying new PC's that start failing WGA after running a couple of legit MS online updates.
This is nothing more than a protection racket if you ask me. When is the EFF bringing up a class-action on this one? Are they going to wait until we're all victims, or are they secretly happy that this will drive some people into the arms of OSS?
- What about a criminal who uses a regular gun?
That was my first thought as well. I (admittedly) don't know much about guns, but the last I knew a gun was a 100% analog mechanical device, which required a physical impact motion to fire the bullet. Seems to me it would add quite a bit of extra complexity to the bullet just to keep it from being able to be fired by a regular gun - at the least you'd have to move the firing mechanism into the casing and protect it to keep any possible impact action from initiating the discharge. The mechanical action of the gun would become nothing more than an aiming device with a button to transmit the fire command into the bullet. Presumably, this would cause the bullet to require a digital DRM'd gun just to be fired.
I can see the snowball now: Bullets and guns would be tied together when purchased, so that only that gun can fire those bullets. The NRA and the gun manufacturers would create a briber..., er, lobbying organization called the NRAA to force laws limiting the number of bullets that can tied to a specific gun. The same laws would eventually require you to buy a new gun when you run out of bullets.... etc.
- If you don't like their policies, DON'T BUY THEIR MUSIC! It's that simple. You don't need to explain why you're not buying it since you're not doing business with them anymore.
While I admire the statement, in practice it falls short. Right now the RIAA is FUDing that people aren't buying their music because of piracy. Why are they claiming this when it can be proven false? Because nobody is speaking up to claim otherwise! The RIAA can always ignore some anonymous "expert" proclaiming the truth, but they will have a much harder time ignoring potentially hundreds of thousands of customers saying the same thing. In this case, our silence is only golden to the RIAA.
I didn't think any rudeness occurred - I was simply answering a question. Personally, I'm still wondering why anyone would go through the trouble of purchasing a Dell at all...
:)
In my company, we call them "Packard Dell" for a reason...
- If you know that much, why not just build your own system?
Some of us do. We have a multiple PC household - 6 (well, so far anyway...) and the only 'branded' one is a laptop we needed for home access while traveling. I actually deinstalled all the extra crap before I let it be used, but only because I didn't feel like hunting for the drivers after a wipe.
What I wouldn't give for the ability to make my own laptop the same way I make a desktop...
Considering the recent court ruling about whistleblowing, I doubt there will be anything similar soon.
That may have been the case then, but it most certainly isn't now that MS owns it.
I work in the PC support department of my company, and most of us also sell our PC support services to individuals who need help. For the spyware infestations, we always try the decent "free" products first. Then we try MS anti-spyware and it usually fails to find anything more. If spyware still exists after that, then we try Webroot Spy Sweeper which successfully cleans up whatever is left.
Sometimes for giggles we actually try MS anti-spyware first, then Ad-aware (which catches quite a bit more than MS), then Spybot (which catches even more than Ad-aware). For spy-crippled systems, Spysweeper usually wipes the remainder just fine.
For the record, we usually suggest Spy Sweeper first, but since the software costs money that usually adds to the bill. The sad state is that most people don't want to spend money unless it's a last resort. These are the same people that don't think even once before they click on a popup to install spyware. These are the same people who are going to think MS bundling anti-spyware tools will be "good enough" - that if it catches most of them they should still be ok.
We live in a country (USA) where it is apparently OK to show footage on the evening news (ie: dinnertime) with victims and severed body parts from that day's suicide bombing in Iraq - but it is apparently NOT ok to show Janet Jackson's nipple for less than a second during halftime of the Super Bowl.
Guess which one will give my 8 year old daughter nightmares. On second thought - guess which one did give my daughter nightmares. I don't have an illegal immigrant nanny to console my child at 2 am and explain why there's so much violence in the world, so I have to do that myself.
Well, I can understand it for Geek Squad. Some l337 gamer comes in with his overclocked gaming rig and a custom 15-inch cpu fan running at 1200 rpm - that tie will get caught when checking out a suspicious noise...
- "Terrorism" is the new red scare, where a blanket term applies to anything unpatriotic and antigovernment.
These days - I hear the phrase "Terrorism" being thrown around as a blanket term that applies to anyone who disagrees with Fuhrer Bush. I also see the phrase "Unpatriotic" thrown around the same way.
Technically - terrorism exists whenever any person or group is using fear in an attempt to subjugate another as a means of control. Ironically, Dictator Bush's use of the term to scare us into being his flock and giving him unheard of presidential powers is - in fact - a form of terrorism itself.
3.5) Blipverts!
Seriously - the best reference to come out of the whole Philips ad-patent topic...
... creating a well-publicized office that does nothing more than distract attention.
Misdirection: A classic stage-magician method. Watch the left hand say things like "we need to be careful of civil liberties", while the right hand performs the amazing "disappearing civil liberties" trick.
I am in awe...
People still use Real? I mean - aren't they already dead?
It's a good thing you didn't try - if Microsoft can't figure out how to secure Windows what chance would you have? :)
- The mouse model is a good starting point for research, but it's not always a great predictor of human response.
The next question: Why are we starting with mice if we can't always use promising developments on humans? Wouldn't that be a huge waste of initial effort and expectations?
- Where the fuck did people like these go? What happened to the United States?
They were introduced to reality shows and fast food. It's apparently much more fun to let your brain and your ass turn to Jello while watching the misfortune of others, rather than actually do anything to fix the country's problems. The new american dream is to become fat, stupid, and lazy. The less informed they are about something, the less they have to worry about it.
- something as critical like where I live isn't decided by work.
That also depends on what you do and how readily available a replacement job can be. I had the misfortune when I graduated college of being from a city where all the tech jobs were drying up the hard way - companies moving out and laying off wholesale. Hard on the employees, that is. I found myself applying for out of town jobs simply because nobody wanted a fresh college graduate when the remaining HR inboxes were overflowing with resumes boasting 10-30 years of experience that were willing to take entry level positions and 50-75% paycuts.
Back on topic: It's not quite the same situation, but the same logic still applies. I'm in the 10-30 year range now, but if I'm given a choice between moving to where the paycheck is or taking an unreasonable paycut finding a new job, I'd move again in a heartbeat. In fact, I did. It doesn't take that long to get over it...
- It amazes me that the voting box companies, who are paid disgusting amounts of taxpayer money to develop these things, can't figure out how to code properly.
Oh - they coded it properly. However, the spec was designed by government officials who work for politicians who want to keep their jobs.
Note: I'd be willing to bet that it isn't the same spec a random impartial group of voters would come up with...
- If I were so inclined I could use Google to find illegal materials and services - as mentioned by other posters, but the **AA is not suing Google (yet) probably because they're too big and expensive to sue. (After all, Google is refusing to turn over search records to the government even when handed a subpoena.)
This brings up an interesting idea. The comparison between the BT search engines and google is a valid one from a 'possible to search for illegal items' standpoint. Assuming the RIAA wins against the BT search engines with this argument, what's to stop some (as yet) unnamed government agency from suing google in the future using the RIAA logic as a legal precedent?
Maybe someone should try to get google to help them fight the RIAA on this, just to keep it from becoming a future problem for google...
- In the case of MPEG 4, there are dozens and dozens of patents that all the parties involved have thrown together to create that standard, and they all license them to each other. You can get a license for that whole patent pool relatively cheaply, and I guess for free if you supplied patents to the pool.
The problem here is that AT & T is not in the pool, and that they don't have any MPEG 4 products...
Something that's bothering me about this even after reading the FA. I'm sure it's a stupid question and has a really simple answer, but I don't see it...
If (as is the case of mp4), the consortium owns all of the patents required for the mp4 concept, which must be the case if they are allowed to bundle & license it legally, how can AT&T not be in the consortium if they have a valid patent? Or conversely: How can they have a valid patent if they're not in the consortium? If (which is probably the case), AT&T freely gave the consortium use of the patent, how is it legal for them to pull a reverse on a patent they freely gave up - especially by trying to license customers who most likely have already licensed its use through the consortium?
- Who said anything about a levy? We're talking about an optional payment here.
/. truly believes the xxAA will ever allow the payment to be optional... :)
We're making assumptions here: Nobody on
It's amazing. They feel they need tape delays to prevent possible nudity and obcenity, but nobody thinks twice about showing terrorist aggression or severed human body parts from the aftermath of a car bomb in Iraq.
The sheep can baa-aa-aa-lieve the FCC all they want, but I know from experience which one is likely to induce trauma in my 8 year old daughter...
- How? I read, I listen, I learn and I THINK!!
Something of a rarity nowadays. It's a good thing not everyone in the US is a sheep. The bad thing is the sheep are being trained to ignore us as 'kooks'.
Propaganda is a wonderful tool. Just ask Hermann Göring. Techniques he described on how to sway public opinion for an unjust war worked for Germany about 70 years ago, and Bush has admitted to using the same techniques here in the US. Unfortunately for US, they still work.
This is very timely...
With the 'analog hole' getting plugged in the near future, visually clocking you to get around the speed encryption will also be illegal.
Actually, it provides both. It's been argued to death which one is meant overall by supporters of both sides, but there are two parts to the 'religion' clause of the first amendment - the first part protects citizens FROM a state sponsored/approved religion, while the second protects a citizen's individual right to worship whichever big-man-in-the-sky they choose.
In context: It is perfectly legal for W Bush to worship a christian deity on his own time. It is NOT legal for him to pass his religious beliefs into federal law and force the citizens of this country to live by them.
No wonder he hates that goddamned piece of paper - although he wasn't above using it to drum up support for his war in a speech last week in Philadelphia...