I've been a member of Netflix since August, 2001. The main reason I joined was because Blockbuster and Hollywood Video had a crappy selection of DVDs. If I ever wanted to see anything older than 6 months I was screwed... but Netflix has every DVD ever released. The selection is awesome.
I live in southern California and it takes 2 days to get a DVD from them when it's shipped. Out of the 100+ of so DVDs I've received, only one was cracked. Maybe 1-2 had some minor defects that caused the DVD to freeze at some part in the movie but was easily fixed by skipping that 30 seconds.
They are pretty good on sending new releases. I actually received some movies before the in-store release date.:) Although, if you want to see "Ghost in the Shell", you need to be prepared to wait in line 6+ months... It's been near the top of my list since I joined and it's still there.
If I had to bitch about anything with them... It would be that they don't rent porn.;p
Unlike (most) OSS projects, most commercial software projects programmers have these guys called bosses/managers above them. They tell them what to do and the programmer obeys if they want to keep their job.:)
My take on it is that each game has a theme that if the hero (you) doesn't go on this massive quest/adventure that the world will be torn to pieces or destroyed in some fashion.
In the old games it was normally just some powerful enemy who tries to collect [special item here - crytals, etc] to take over the world and ends up plunging it into chaos. The new games are a little more out there with alternate worlds merging with our world and other crazy stuff...
Microsoft (and all other console makers) sell the actual hardware at a loss and make it up via the software/games. Do they care if someone creates an emulator for the PC that will run X-box titles? Nope... well, they probably would... because people will figure out a way to pirate games and play them on the computer. That's a whole other issue though.
Annoying flash banner that makes noise...
on
Web Ads with Sound?
·
· Score: 1
I use TVGuide.com all the time and recently the banners have been changed to very annoying flash banners that turn on when you accidently mouseover them (they also expand to fill most of the friggin' screen).
Example URL: http://www.tvguide.com/Listings/index.asp?I=61286& Zip=92627
It should be the Michael Jackson banner:o
They also designed to the interface so that 99% of the time you will accidently mouseover it while navigating the different times and start the ad sounds.
IBM is really pushing Linux for their servers. I'm guessing they probably have Linux desktops/workstations available as well. You'll end up paying a high mark-up on the hardware but you should receive or have the option to buy some nice warranty/service contracts.
I'd also recommend Dell systems with no installed OS.
The Draw Carey Show has been doing musicals and "special" shows since the first season. Hell, next week's show is the Live #3, they do 4 different shows all live, each for the different timezones... It has the Who's Line is it Anyway? people in it as well... They also do all kinds of strange opening scenes and April fool's versions where there are a bunch of mistakes.. then they do a pop-up video of that episode later..:)
Sometimes you can get away with a massive ban of a group of IPs.. but if your site gets a lot of hits you end up pissing off normal visitors.
If your problems stem from some kind of forum where the person is posting crap, spamming, etc. you might try requiring people to create a simple account where they need to supply a valid e-mail address.
The disadvantage to that is that having to register for an account is pretty annoying and many users won't sign up for them if they don't visit the site all the time... Other (non-registering) solutions would require you to program some advanced filters on forum posts, or having a limit on how many messages a person can post in X amount of time.
I'm really suprised by the benchmarks they came up with... On my system XP runs all applications much faster than 2000. Outlook, Internet Explorer, a big increase in Photoshop 6...
It takes half as long to boot and I've even left some of the fancy GUI stuff on.
Hmm.. the article didn't address how much ram each of the systems had. If they had anything under 256 (most OEM systems come w/ 64 or 128), that would explain why 2000 was so much faster. XP need a good amount of memory to work right. Oh, and before someone screams that their linux box only needs 8 ram... a 256MB dimm is only $30 bucks!
"Even Symantec's pcAnywhere doesn't support XP yet"
Why bother supporting an operating system that has built-in terminal services 10x better than the product you're currently selling? PcAnywhere is gonna disappear soon when everyone is running XP... same with Winzip, considering.zip is built into the windows shell now.:)
Where did you come up with a flash rom on the X-box? All operating system files/libraries are loaded off of each game disc so that you'll never have incompatibility problems.
Software is much cheaper than the price of a good car (except Oracle/other expensive software...) You must also take into account that the car industry has been around close to 100 years and there are multiple laws and regulations that force them to perform recalls.
My brother and I used to drink a can or two each day, normally in the morning because it gives you a quick sugar-like rush and would help wake you up. I even drank a few bulldozers (the red bull/vodka mixed drink) and it never seems to effect me anymore than normal alchohol.
Anyway, soon after my brother started drinking red bulls he began getting periods of dizziness/blurred vision while driving his car! It happened at least 4 times before we figured out it was the red bulls (He/I figured he was stressed, sick or else).
On the way back from a long 4 hour drive he drank a red bull in the car and maybe 30 mins later he had another blur/dizzy spell (NOT good while driving in heavy traffic on the freeway). I had to basically steer the car for a minute or two while he was immobilized.
I commented maybe it was the red bull, so he stopped drinking them... it's been 6+ months and he's never had another dizzy spell.
I'd hope Mozilla loads faster since it's eating an extra 15MB of ram without a browser window even open. It jumps up to around 23MB with just one window open...
Slashdot Mirror
I've been a member of Netflix since August, 2001. The main reason I joined was because Blockbuster and Hollywood Video had a crappy selection of DVDs. If I ever wanted to see anything older than 6 months I was screwed... but Netflix has every DVD ever released. The selection is awesome.
:) Although, if you want to see "Ghost in the Shell", you need to be prepared to wait in line 6+ months... It's been near the top of my list since I joined and it's still there.
;p
I live in southern California and it takes 2 days to get a DVD from them when it's shipped. Out of the 100+ of so DVDs I've received, only one was cracked. Maybe 1-2 had some minor defects that caused the DVD to freeze at some part in the movie but was easily fixed by skipping that 30 seconds.
They are pretty good on sending new releases. I actually received some movies before the in-store release date.
If I had to bitch about anything with them... It would be that they don't rent porn.
Unlike (most) OSS projects, most commercial software projects programmers have these guys called bosses/managers above them. They tell them what to do and the programmer obeys if they want to keep their job. :)
My take on it is that each game has a theme that if the hero (you) doesn't go on this massive quest/adventure that the world will be torn to pieces or destroyed in some fashion.
In the old games it was normally just some powerful enemy who tries to collect [special item here - crytals, etc] to take over the world and ends up plunging it into chaos. The new games are a little more out there with alternate worlds merging with our world and other crazy stuff...
Microsoft (and all other console makers) sell the actual hardware at a loss and make it up via the software/games. Do they care if someone creates an emulator for the PC that will run X-box titles? Nope... well, they probably would... because people will figure out a way to pirate games and play them on the computer. That's a whole other issue though.
I use TVGuide.com all the time and recently the banners have been changed to very annoying flash banners that turn on when you accidently mouseover them (they also expand to fill most of the friggin' screen).
& Zip=92627
:o
Example URL: http://www.tvguide.com/Listings/index.asp?I=61286
It should be the Michael Jackson banner
They also designed to the interface so that 99% of the time you will accidently mouseover it while navigating the different times and start the ad sounds.
IBM is really pushing Linux for their servers. I'm guessing they probably have Linux desktops/workstations available as well. You'll end up paying a high mark-up on the hardware but you should receive or have the option to buy some nice warranty/service contracts.
I'd also recommend Dell systems with no installed OS.
What a fair comparison... a 6 (almost 7) year old OS versus something probably coded in the last 2-3 months.
The Draw Carey Show has been doing musicals and "special" shows since the first season. Hell, next week's show is the Live #3, they do 4 different shows all live, each for the different timezones... It has the Who's Line is it Anyway? people in it as well... They also do all kinds of strange opening scenes and April fool's versions where there are a bunch of mistakes.. then they do a pop-up video of that episode later.. :)
Sometimes you can get away with a massive ban of a group of IPs.. but if your site gets a lot of hits you end up pissing off normal visitors.
If your problems stem from some kind of forum where the person is posting crap, spamming, etc. you might try requiring people to create a simple account where they need to supply a valid e-mail address.
The disadvantage to that is that having to register for an account is pretty annoying and many users won't sign up for them if they don't visit the site all the time... Other (non-registering) solutions would require you to program some advanced filters on forum posts, or having a limit on how many messages a person can post in X amount of time.
I'm really suprised by the benchmarks they came up with... On my system XP runs all applications much faster than 2000. Outlook, Internet Explorer, a big increase in Photoshop 6...
It takes half as long to boot and I've even left some of the fancy GUI stuff on.
Hmm.. the article didn't address how much ram each of the systems had. If they had anything under 256 (most OEM systems come w/ 64 or 128), that would explain why 2000 was so much faster. XP need a good amount of memory to work right. Oh, and before someone screams that their linux box only needs 8 ram... a 256MB dimm is only $30 bucks!
"Even Symantec's pcAnywhere doesn't support XP yet"
.zip is built into the windows shell now. :)
Why bother supporting an operating system that has built-in terminal services 10x better than the product you're currently selling? PcAnywhere is gonna disappear soon when everyone is running XP... same with Winzip, considering
Where did you come up with a flash rom on the X-box? All operating system files/libraries are loaded off of each game disc so that you'll never have incompatibility problems.
Software is much cheaper than the price of a good car (except Oracle/other expensive software...) You must also take into account that the car industry has been around close to 100 years and there are multiple laws and regulations that force them to perform recalls.
Anyway, soon after my brother started drinking red bulls he began getting periods of dizziness/blurred vision while driving his car! It happened at least 4 times before we figured out it was the red bulls (He/I figured he was stressed, sick or else).
On the way back from a long 4 hour drive he drank a red bull in the car and maybe 30 mins later he had another blur/dizzy spell (NOT good while driving in heavy traffic on the freeway). I had to basically steer the car for a minute or two while he was immobilized.
I commented maybe it was the red bull, so he stopped drinking them... it's been 6+ months and he's never had another dizzy spell.
I'd hope Mozilla loads faster since it's eating an extra 15MB of ram without a browser window even open. It jumps up to around 23MB with just one window open...