I was gonna use my mod points on this discussion, but what the heck...
A few days after 9/11 happened, do any of you remember how the FBI pieced together much of what transpired aboard the hijacked airplanes just before they crashed? That's right, from recorded cell-phone conversations. We've even heard snippets of those conversations in the mainstream media, haven't we? Consider that the next time you're talking on your wireless phone or using your PDA to send information.
Do you really think that your communications are private now? If you do, you need to wake up and realize that much of your supposed 'privacy' has already fallen by the wayside in this digital age in which we now live.
Personally, I don't like it much. But it's reality. Our energies are much better used watch-dogging our governmental leadership and crime-fighting forces to make sure that they are using the information properly to perform their jobs - and not to abuse our rights. Which speaks directly to your point about being a prime candidate for some type of 'profiling'.
Finally, too many of my CDs are starting to skip these days. How about making a CD format that I can't scratch to death?
So you're the guy who keeps renting those DVD's ahead of me at Hollywood Video. Sux when I'm trying to slomo a Denise Richards sex scene only to find that the disk is scratched. Silver side up you moron!;-]
I'm not in Britain, but can tell you that here in the states, the MicroTel PC's are only available via Wal-Mart's website. As for international orders, here's what their site had to say about that...
"International Shipping
We're sorry, at this time we do not ship internationally. The only exceptions are APO/ FPO addresses and major offshore territories and possessions of the United States."
Maybe you can see if ASDA has a website and if the MicroTel's are available from there?
i think i'll walk over to my local walmart and check them out..
FYI - you can't. They are only available through the walmart website. I went into my local walmart to take a looksee at these things a couple of weeks ago. All I found were HP's and Compaq's with WinXP pre-installed. I asked, and was told that the OS-less machines are only available via online order.
After I got burned a few times by Norton coming out with an upgrade 2 hours AFTER I got infected, I stopped relying on it.
This is the whole problem with anti-virus software. Your best defense is your brain, not relying on someone else to write a defense program for you.
I have a novice friend who recently asked me about viruses. He runs Win98, IE5, OE5. I helped him with security settings and explained the significance of file extensions to him. Even my beginner buddy easily understood that having a secondary extension on an e-mail attachment is a red flag to not open that attachment. That knowledge, along with some logical security settings, (scripting host 'off', please), is your best defense against these viruses. My brother-in-law OTOH, opened a virus recently and is waiting for me to come over and clean it off for him. It's an 80-mile drive so I think I'll let him stew for a couple days. Hopefully, he's learned his lesson.
Sidebar - One of the biggest complaints I have about the default Windows install is that it hides extensions of known file types. Who was the genius at Microsoft that made that decision?
Now if a company like IBM bought 1 copy of office and installed on every corporate desktop then I think that is a real problem.
Hmmmm. I wonder if Microsoft paid for every copy of Windows, Office, etc. that they're running? I'm sure their stockholders would be interested in the answer to that one!;-]
I would even take it a step further and submit that this is exactly what Microsoft wanted. Originally, they didn't care that people 'pirated' Windows because it achieved the goal of giving them desktop supremacy in the market. They were perfectly happy making their money off applications. If they were at all concerned about people copying windows, they wouldn't have made it so easy to do. They would have implemented some attempt at copy-protection long ago. Now that they have attained such a large user base, it's time to tighten the screws. This is why I'm migrating everything I can to Linux and holding off on upgrading from Win98 for as long as possible.
Didn't realize that hyperlinking was so prevalent way back when I was still in 3-corner pants:-)
That aside;
"Deep-linking is the nature of the Internet. It is without question the killer application for the World Wide Web," Thorborg added. "It will be a very sad day for the entire Internet if the Danish Newspaper Association wins this case."
This quote says it all. When will these idiots realize that they aren't helping themselves? Don't they want traffic driven to their site? I thought that was the whole idea of having a web-site.
I dunno, maybe I'm the one who's missing something here...
It doesn't say that Microsoft will receive any of your personal info as a result of this. Merely that the government is considering licensing Passport technology from MS for use in a federal online ID program.
It seems to me that the government needs to standardize on something to make it easier to offer the kinds of services that you describe. So... if we don't want Passport, what's a better solution? That, IMHO, is what the discussion should be about. The rest is just FUD.
I don't know where Lawrence_Bird gets that, but I get.05-24/7 through GTC Telecom, (except in my home state of WA). I don't use them much these days since I can get.029/minute through BigZoo, (with a 0.75/month fee), Washington calling included. Hawaii & Alaska are more for some reason so I use the cell phone to call there. YMMV...
Are you sure they'll eventually reduce the rates? Sometimes providers start you off with low-cost or free services to hook you in only to raise prices later. Like all theseformerlyfree e-mail providers have recently done.
Granted, cost of long distance has gone down in recent years, but cost of home service has increased. Cell phone charges have also spiked up lately for per minute charges when you exceed your monthly quota. With the 200 anytime, 2000 weekend plan, for instance, how many times do you manage to stay within the limits? If you exceed those limits, what are you really paying per minute? And you're somewhat locked into it since cell plans usually involve at least a one-year contract agreement. Buying out of those is never worth it no matter how schweeet of a deal you can get elsewhere.
Which brings up an interesting point; Here is what the Vonage website has to say about the term of the agreement...
"b. Term The term of this Agreement depends on the plan, feature or promotion you select and is described in separate subscription or calling plan ("Calling Plan") materials provided by Vonage."
Ok, I'd like to know what that really means. I couldn't find any calling plan details anywhere on their site, and I would be very interested to know how long I'm locked into something like this and if there's a way out if I end up not liking what I've signed up for. I'm sure this information is available to you before you sign the agreement, but they really should state the terms clearly up front. Makes for better PR, IMHO.
It's called C.O.D. - Cash On Delivery. Most freight carriers will collect your money for you for a nominal fee. I think UPS and Fed Ex charge $6.00. Most buyers would probably be happy to pay the COD fee since they also wouldn't have to pay for the item until they received an actual package. However, the buyer would have to accept and pay for a package without being able to inspect the contents. This would make me a little nervous about handing my money over to the delivery person.
Sounds like you just dealt with a clueless dumbass. At times, it seems that there is a never-ending supply of those out there!
I had a similar experience recently from the other side of the fence. It also involved a guitar purchase on Ebay. It was the first time the seller had done an Ebay deal so I was a little nervous about it. But, he was very communicative, sent the guitar with additional foam protection per my request, etc., etc. Turned out to be an excellent seller. When the guitar arrived, it had what I would guess were the original strings that were on it when he bought it. Totally corroded, greasy residue on the fingerboard. Really fairly disgusting. So, did I send him a nasty, threatening e-mail? No. I cleaned the fingerboard, changed the strings, and went on with life. Does this mean I'm not a 'stupid buyer'? If so, hooray for me, I suppose.
The guy you describe sounds like he was just looking for a problem. And you're right, it's people like that who will impact these kinds of statistics with their unneccesary, self-centered whining. Which is not to say that there aren't legitimate complaints. What you describe just doesn't sound legit.
Way to over-simplify the point. There's progress. And then there's destructive progress. It seems to me that many times we choose the destructive path. Seemingly out of disregard for our own environment and ultimate safety. My question is; why are we more concerned with the environment of Europa (or other bodies millions of miles away), than we are with our own 'back yard'? Don't get me wrong. I'm glad that the people talking about this exploration are concerned about keeping the test environment as pristine as possible. I just don't get why we can't approach things here on Earth the same way.
Assuming we go with the first option, our stance should be to do as much as possible to avoid contamination.
Well said. I just wonder why we aren't this careful when exploring/acquiring resources here on Earth? Socio-economic forces seem to step right in and destroy otherwise pristine areas for the sake of profit. Drilling for oil in the Alaskan wilderness anyone?
What makes us think that, if the exploration phase finds something of 'value', that the exploitation phase won't begin? If this happens, concerns about the 'contamination' of Europa will be lost amid the scramble for possible windfalls.
I saw one of these in use at Northwest Hospital in Seattle, Washington exactly six years ago this week. Every so often the robot would roll through the Hospice ward carrying pharmacy refills for the staff. Hard to believe that it's taken this long for the story to break.
OTOH, how do artists put food on the table and continue to produce quality music for us to consume?
When's the last time you did a recording project? Or filmed a movie? My band just finished a 4-song demo. At a cheap studio, the tracking alone was $1000.00. Mixdown and fixes were done largely on my home system using cakewalk. The instruments and other equipment to produce the music, and the equipment/software to record and mix it had to be purchased at some point. Our day jobs have to pay for all this. And it can be some expensive stuff, (e.g., I bought a guitar last year that retails for $1500.00 USD). Do I just pull that money out of my a$$? In a word... No. I hafta work for it. Sure, some money comes from local & regional gigs, but not enough to supplant all our day jobs. If there was a good mechanism in place to compensate us, (RIAA/MPAA is clearly not it), we could devote more time to producing and promoting our music. Instead, I'm sitting here at a job that pretty much sux so I can pay my bills and hopefully get enough money together for the next recording project. (Ok, and posting to/. while I'm at it - heh:)
Don't get me wrong. I'm totally against copy protection laws, the RIAA/MPAA the DCMA, et. al. I also don't mind giving my music away to those who want to hear it. I write music because I love to do it. But at some point, without income, many potentially great artists will just end up flipping burgers and driving buses.
2) How much of your cd's that you paid for went to the artist?
Well... I don't really know. Do you? What I can tell you is that very little of my money has gone into the RIAA/MPAA's coffers lately. In the past five years or so, I've bought used CD's almost exclusively. How much of that goes to the artists? Again, I don't really know. I believe they get the bulk of their income from concerts, merchandise, and airplay royalties, (at least those artists I listen to that get airplay anyway:). I suppose selling a couple million copies of a CD can't hurt the artist's bank account, but I agree with you that the percentage they receive is pretty low.
I have no problem with people checking out music before they buy it. I do it all the time. If I like it, I go buy it (again, used). If I don't like it enough to buy it, it ends up getting deleted at some point to free up disk space. No loss for the artist, since I wouldn't have bought it in the first place anyway. There's not much difference between doing that and sitting around at your buddie's house listening to the new CD he bought and then picking up your own copy if you like it. Or not, if you don't
The point here is; the guy says, "I have ~ 15 gigs of mp3's (perhaps 3 gigs are ripped from cd's that I own)". Even if that's not strictly illegal according to which side of the IP argument you're on, it just strikes me as a slimy way to be.
And yeah, he's only 20 and in college. Probably can't afford to buy all those CD's to fill his hard drive. Boo-fucking-hoo. Been plenty of times I couldn't afford stuff either. I didn't go take it anyway just because I could. I still think he's a loser.
OTOH, his post could just be a really successful troll and we all fell for it.... dammit!:-)
Somebody please mod this up - should be at least +3: Insightful. I have about 10 gigs of music ripped to MP3 - all bought & paid for by me. I mean, c'mon you luzer. Only 3 outta 15 paid for?
Slashdot Mirror
I was gonna use my mod points on this discussion, but what the heck...
A few days after 9/11 happened, do any of you remember how the FBI pieced together much of what transpired aboard the hijacked airplanes just before they crashed? That's right, from recorded cell-phone conversations. We've even heard snippets of those conversations in the mainstream media, haven't we? Consider that the next time you're talking on your wireless phone or using your PDA to send information.
Do you really think that your communications are private now? If you do, you need to wake up and realize that much of your supposed 'privacy' has already fallen by the wayside in this digital age in which we now live.
Personally, I don't like it much. But it's reality. Our energies are much better used watch-dogging our governmental leadership and crime-fighting forces to make sure that they are using the information properly to perform their jobs - and not to abuse our rights. Which speaks directly to your point about being a prime candidate for some type of 'profiling'.
Just my 40% of a nickel...
Finally, too many of my CDs are starting to skip these days. How about making a CD format that I can't scratch to death?
;-]
So you're the guy who keeps renting those DVD's ahead of me at Hollywood Video. Sux when I'm trying to slomo a Denise Richards sex scene only to find that the disk is scratched. Silver side up you moron!
I'm not in Britain, but can tell you that here in the states, the MicroTel PC's are only available via Wal-Mart's website. As for international orders, here's what their site had to say about that...
"International Shipping
We're sorry, at this time we do not ship internationally. The only exceptions are APO/ FPO addresses and major offshore territories and possessions of the United States."
Maybe you can see if ASDA has a website and if the MicroTel's are available from there?
Talk about scuzzy! What is it with all these old rock/folk has-beens making comebacks lately, anyway?
What? Simson Garfinkel? Who the hell is that? I thought it said... oh hell, never mind...
i think i'll walk over to my local walmart and check them out..
FYI - you can't. They are only available through the walmart website. I went into my local walmart to take a looksee at these things a couple of weeks ago. All I found were HP's and Compaq's with WinXP pre-installed. I asked, and was told that the OS-less machines are only available via online order.
Don't know if this will help you or not. Google returned this link that has detailed info on Hybris and suggestions for cleaning your system.
Good luck!
After I got burned a few times by Norton coming out with an upgrade 2 hours AFTER I got infected, I stopped relying on it.
This is the whole problem with anti-virus software. Your best defense is your brain, not relying on someone else to write a defense program for you.
I have a novice friend who recently asked me about viruses. He runs Win98, IE5, OE5. I helped him with security settings and explained the significance of file extensions to him. Even my beginner buddy easily understood that having a secondary extension on an e-mail attachment is a red flag to not open that attachment. That knowledge, along with some logical security settings, (scripting host 'off', please), is your best defense against these viruses. My brother-in-law OTOH, opened a virus recently and is waiting for me to come over and clean it off for him. It's an 80-mile drive so I think I'll let him stew for a couple days. Hopefully, he's learned his lesson.
Sidebar - One of the biggest complaints I have about the default Windows install is that it hides extensions of known file types. Who was the genius at Microsoft that made that decision?
So use Gnome. Or a console. With Linux you at least have choices. Last time I checked there's only one window manager on a winbox.
Also, on most distros that I'm aware of, Konqueror is not the only browser installed with KDE.
Now if a company like IBM bought 1 copy of office and installed on every corporate desktop then I think that is a real problem.
;-]
Hmmmm. I wonder if Microsoft paid for every copy of Windows, Office, etc. that they're running? I'm sure their stockholders would be interested in the answer to that one!
So true.
I would even take it a step further and submit that this is exactly what Microsoft wanted. Originally, they didn't care that people 'pirated' Windows because it achieved the goal of giving them desktop supremacy in the market. They were perfectly happy making their money off applications. If they were at all concerned about people copying windows, they wouldn't have made it so easy to do. They would have implemented some attempt at copy-protection long ago. Now that they have attained such a large user base, it's time to tighten the screws. This is why I'm migrating everything I can to Linux and holding off on upgrading from Win98 for as long as possible.
Didn't realize that hyperlinking was so prevalent way back when I was still in 3-corner pants :-)
That aside;
"Deep-linking is the nature of the Internet. It is without question the killer application for the World Wide Web," Thorborg added. "It will be a very sad day for the entire Internet if the Danish Newspaper Association wins this case."
This quote says it all. When will these idiots realize that they aren't helping themselves? Don't they want traffic driven to their site? I thought that was the whole idea of having a web-site.
I dunno, maybe I'm the one who's missing something here...
Sigh...
It doesn't say that Microsoft will receive any of your personal info as a result of this. Merely that the government is considering licensing Passport technology from MS for use in a federal online ID program.
It seems to me that the government needs to standardize on something to make it easier to offer the kinds of services that you describe. So... if we don't want Passport, what's a better solution? That, IMHO, is what the discussion should be about. The rest is just FUD.
I don't know where Lawrence_Bird gets that, but I get .05-24/7 through GTC Telecom, (except in my home state of WA). I don't use them much these days since I can get .029/minute through BigZoo, (with a 0.75/month fee), Washington calling included. Hawaii & Alaska are more for some reason so I use the cell phone to call there. YMMV...
HTH
Are you sure they'll eventually reduce the rates? Sometimes providers start you off with low-cost or free services to hook you in only to raise prices later. Like all these formerly free e-mail providers have recently done.
Granted, cost of long distance has gone down in recent years, but cost of home service has increased. Cell phone charges have also spiked up lately for per minute charges when you exceed your monthly quota. With the 200 anytime, 2000 weekend plan, for instance, how many times do you manage to stay within the limits? If you exceed those limits, what are you really paying per minute? And you're somewhat locked into it since cell plans usually involve at least a one-year contract agreement. Buying out of those is never worth it no matter how schweeet of a deal you can get elsewhere.
Which brings up an interesting point; Here is what the Vonage website has to say about the term of the agreement...
"b. Term
The term of this Agreement depends on the plan, feature or promotion you select and is described in separate subscription or calling plan ("Calling Plan") materials provided by Vonage."
Ok, I'd like to know what that really means. I couldn't find any calling plan details anywhere on their site, and I would be very interested to know how long I'm locked into something like this and if there's a way out if I end up not liking what I've signed up for. I'm sure this information is available to you before you sign the agreement, but they really should state the terms clearly up front. Makes for better PR, IMHO.
This is pretty cool. But would've been a lot cooler if it was a Lego concert hall with these guys playing.
It's called C.O.D. - Cash On Delivery. Most freight carriers will collect your money for you for a nominal fee. I think UPS and Fed Ex charge $6.00. Most buyers would probably be happy to pay the COD fee since they also wouldn't have to pay for the item until they received an actual package. However, the buyer would have to accept and pay for a package without being able to inspect the contents. This would make me a little nervous about handing my money over to the delivery person.
Sounds like you just dealt with a clueless dumbass. At times, it seems that there is a never-ending supply of those out there!
I had a similar experience recently from the other side of the fence. It also involved a guitar purchase on Ebay. It was the first time the seller had done an Ebay deal so I was a little nervous about it. But, he was very communicative, sent the guitar with additional foam protection per my request, etc., etc. Turned out to be an excellent seller. When the guitar arrived, it had what I would guess were the original strings that were on it when he bought it. Totally corroded, greasy residue on the fingerboard. Really fairly disgusting. So, did I send him a nasty, threatening e-mail? No. I cleaned the fingerboard, changed the strings, and went on with life. Does this mean I'm not a 'stupid buyer'? If so, hooray for me, I suppose.
The guy you describe sounds like he was just looking for a problem. And you're right, it's people like that who will impact these kinds of statistics with their unneccesary, self-centered whining. Which is not to say that there aren't legitimate complaints. What you describe just doesn't sound legit.
Way to over-simplify the point. There's progress. And then there's destructive progress. It seems to me that many times we choose the destructive path. Seemingly out of disregard for our own environment and ultimate safety. My question is; why are we more concerned with the environment of Europa (or other bodies millions of miles away), than we are with our own 'back yard'?
Don't get me wrong. I'm glad that the people talking about this exploration are concerned about keeping the test environment as pristine as possible. I just don't get why we can't approach things here on Earth the same way.
Assuming we go with the first option, our stance should be to do as much as possible to avoid contamination.
Well said. I just wonder why we aren't this careful when exploring/acquiring resources here on Earth? Socio-economic forces seem to step right in and destroy otherwise pristine areas for the sake of profit. Drilling for oil in the Alaskan wilderness anyone?
What makes us think that, if the exploration phase finds something of 'value', that the exploitation phase won't begin? If this happens, concerns about the 'contamination' of Europa will be lost amid the scramble for possible windfalls.
What the difference between contaminating Europe today, or doing it a million years from now?
;-)
Actually, Europe has been contaminated for a long, long time already.
I saw one of these in use at Northwest Hospital in Seattle, Washington exactly six years ago this week. Every so often the robot would roll through the Hospice ward carrying pharmacy refills for the staff. Hard to believe that it's taken this long for the story to break.
Move along, nothing to see here...
OTOH, how do artists put food on the table and continue to produce quality music for us to consume?
/. while I'm at it - heh :)
When's the last time you did a recording project? Or filmed a movie? My band just finished a 4-song demo. At a cheap studio, the tracking alone was $1000.00. Mixdown and fixes were done largely on my home system using cakewalk. The instruments and other equipment to produce the music, and the equipment/software to record and mix it had to be purchased at some point. Our day jobs have to pay for all this. And it can be some expensive stuff, (e.g., I bought a guitar last year that retails for $1500.00 USD). Do I just pull that money out of my a$$? In a word... No. I hafta work for it. Sure, some money comes from local & regional gigs, but not enough to supplant all our day jobs. If there was a good mechanism in place to compensate us, (RIAA/MPAA is clearly not it), we could devote more time to producing and promoting our music. Instead, I'm sitting here at a job that pretty much sux so I can pay my bills and hopefully get enough money together for the next recording project. (Ok, and posting to
Don't get me wrong. I'm totally against copy protection laws, the RIAA/MPAA the DCMA, et. al. I also don't mind giving my music away to those who want to hear it. I write music because I love to do it. But at some point, without income, many potentially great artists will just end up flipping burgers and driving buses.
So, how does that work in your non-IP world?
2) How much of your cd's that you paid for went to the artist?
:). I suppose selling a couple million copies of a CD can't hurt the artist's bank account, but I agree with you that the percentage they receive is pretty low.
:-)
Well... I don't really know. Do you? What I can tell you is that very little of my money has gone into the RIAA/MPAA's coffers lately. In the past five years or so, I've bought used CD's almost exclusively. How much of that goes to the artists? Again, I don't really know. I believe they get the bulk of their income from concerts, merchandise, and airplay royalties, (at least those artists I listen to that get airplay anyway
I have no problem with people checking out music before they buy it. I do it all the time. If I like it, I go buy it (again, used). If I don't like it enough to buy it, it ends up getting deleted at some point to free up disk space. No loss for the artist, since I wouldn't have bought it in the first place anyway. There's not much difference between doing that and sitting around at your buddie's house listening to the new CD he bought and then picking up your own copy if you like it. Or not, if you don't
The point here is; the guy says, "I have ~ 15 gigs of mp3's (perhaps 3 gigs are ripped from cd's that I own)". Even if that's not strictly illegal according to which side of the IP argument you're on, it just strikes me as a slimy way to be.
And yeah, he's only 20 and in college. Probably can't afford to buy all those CD's to fill his hard drive. Boo-fucking-hoo. Been plenty of times I couldn't afford stuff either. I didn't go take it anyway just because I could. I still think he's a loser.
OTOH, his post could just be a really successful troll and we all fell for it.... dammit!
Somebody please mod this up - should be at least +3: Insightful. I have about 10 gigs of music ripped to MP3 - all bought & paid for by me. I mean, c'mon you luzer. Only 3 outta 15 paid for?
Jeez... is right!
Hi, how are you? I send you this pigeon in order to have your advice. See you later. Thanks.