It's also worth noting that the Verizon CEO wants to eliminate as much regulation as possible at the state level and give it to Congress and the FCC. Yikes!
That would most likely be because it's cheaper to pay off Congress and the FCC than it is to pay the affore mentioned plus those in power in each state to get what you want.
See? He'd already be saving his shareholders money if he had his way!
In my area, we have CableONE for the cable service.
People complained (and still complain) about the service CableONE provides (supposedly, they don't even offer a non-digital "Basic" package any longer - according to one of my co-workers who has their 'service').
He had no idea that there was a wireless cable-TV provider in town and is now checking them out. The guy that owns the wireless cable-TV service started the company because he was fed up with CableONE and all their crap.
I am lucky, in a sense. I live outside of CableONE's grasp. Funny thing about Charter, though. I've seen these generic cable advertisements on TV that claim how much better service the cable companies can provide when compared to satellite.
Well, that isn't exactly funny. What *IS* funny is that for Charter to make available all the 'digital' channels, they deliver it --- wait wait --- via SATELLITE!
Not to mention the fact that if we had to sit down and research *everything* we do in our lives, we would not have time for family or the job to pay for the thing we are researching.
Yes, *some* reasearch should be done by the customer, but you can't expect them to do the work that the companies that want us to buy their crap should be helping with. (if that made any sense)...
Problem with your idea is that it's too expensive to have a device in your car to listen to your music on a DVD. If the parts are resonably cheap, they are more than likely not setup to just "plug in" to your car stereo (many people haven't even upgraded beyind the OEM unit in their vehicle!)
What I'd like to see (and I'm sure one exists, although I'll bet it's exensive as hell) is a standard head unit that can read MP3's (and whatever other sound formats) from DVD (either - or +, or both), but not have all the flashy movie playing crap along with it. That would be something I'd be interested in..:)
I recently started toying with LaunchCast. So far, I like it. It's playing songs I don't like at the moment, but I'm training it..:)
I haven't paid for the service yet, so I'm stuck with Medium quality, but it sounds almost as good as the 96kbps stream I was doing from my house, so I'll see what happens.:)
I don't mind the quality - it sounds fine to me. What I do mind is that I have a 6mbit DSL line and have VERY frequent skips in the stream. And I'm PAYING for this.
I'm getting rather close to canceling my XM account - though I use it in my car very frequently, so I'll just have to decide if having the music available in my car (I drive about 3000 miles a month for work, with my own personal driving adding to that) for the extra $3 or so they are forcing me to pay.
First thing I'm going to do is see if I can drop the online crap and go back to my previous $9.99 rate... Failing that, I'll probably cancel it and get myself a huge MP3 player...
They get away with infesting a PC's computer because of hidden agreements with the owner of the PC.
Hijacking an audio stream to insert their own ads is theft of services and you can bet your ass that AOL's lawyers will be tracking down and dealing with ANY company/person who does this.
IF it ever happens, I doubt it will last very long at all.
If XM's music stations get much worse with the advertisements for other XM channels, let alone normal adverts, I'll be canceling my account.
I PAY them for what I was promised. AD FREE music. Plugs for other stations are still commercials, but last only a few seconds. I will not pay a monthly fee (not to mention the up front cost of the receiver) to listen to advertisements.
Advertisements are why I stopped going to movie theaters. I refuse to pay to be advertised at.
I have repaired dozens of these. The main problem is that these sockets are not usually held down by anything other than the solder. If the pins of the socket that get soldered to the mainboard came off of the board, or snapped somewhere in the middle (I've seen both), I usually re-solder after using an epoxy to hold the socket in place (as should have been done by the factory).
In the case of the pins actually breaking somewhere in the middle, I usually remove what's left of the pins that are still soldered to the board, take a very small piece of solid core wire (somewhere around 16 gague or smaller) and use it as a 'patch' to fix the pins. Then I solder in place.
This should serve as a lesson to those of you who aren't careful with your laptops. DON'T leave them plugged in when you put them into it's bag. DON't position the laptop such that the cord can be stumbled over. And for Pete's Sake, PLEASE don't pick up the laptop to walk away and leave it plugged in. (These are the most common excuses I hear. The others usualy involved 'the children', but I have a feeling most of those (at least 60%) are really the adults blaming the children so as to not look so foolish)
As I mentioned in a previous story, I have stopped going to the theater all together because of the commercials.
What you need to do is make sure that you (and anyone else you've run into that is doing the same) make sure the management/ownership of the theater knows why you are no longer attending.
If no one does this, they will never know and things will never change.
I also have a projector at home -- though not THX (Dolby 6.1, and DTS, though). So I just buy a movie on DVD and watch it at home..:)
Unfortunately, no. While I boycott buying DVDs (I will rent them once in a while, though), most people out there don't even know what DRM is or what's up with the CSS stuff.
That is why we have education. Education is one way (which, unfortunatly, will take money) we can get the public to care. The only other way to get the public to care is for the media companies to do something the public doesn't like, and I'd rather not let it get that far.
Even if we all stop buying DVDs, the industry will give a shit.
Ummm.. I think you meant to say "won't give a shit", and I dissagree. What if one of your main sources of income were DVD sales and over the course of a few months (6 at most), the sales pretty much dried up? I think you would take notice. So would the media companies. To think otherwise is obsurd.
Look at it this way. When the varied P2P networks started being used MAJORLY to steal the Big Media Company content, what did they do? They did what they thought was needed to protect the incoming money. They will do EXACTLY the same thing if everyone suddenly stopped buying DVD's and going to movie theaters? I predict that DRM type stuff will pretty much vanish and movie theater owners will win much cheaper distribution/viewing costs.
Yeah, the media companies can blame P2P networks for it, but only a few lawsuits would show that P2P being the reason(s) for dried up sales are BS. Surveys done by any neutral survey companies (IE: Those not on the payrole of the RIAA/MPAA or for any group that is anti-drm) would prove the same (possibly a court-appointed group).
The only possibility is to fight for fair use on the legal front and to actively circumvent DRM and advertise that (and to advertise that circumventing "protection" doesn't mean you copy/steal content).
While fighting on a legal front (for fair use) is and will be usefull to us, it is not the only possibility. Educating the 'dvd/movie going public' is another thing that needs to be done. When it comes down to it, more people need to start writing/calling the media companies to let them know where they can shove DRM and all the commercials we are forced into seeing (amongst whatever else they don't like).
Yeah, companies never cut costs (HUGE lay-offs, cuts in benifits, etc, while the Exec's raise their own pay and keep customer prices exactly the same).
Nope.., Never happens...
Of course, less than one minute on google will show you news article after news article that proves the opposite, but hey, this is Slashdot, so lets ignore all the facts, eh?
Before you go off on me, yes they are similar, in that you buy a movie in a format that is chosen by someone else. You can't control the previews, nor can you control the commercials.
This is where you are wrong.
I can control them via not purchasing them. If enough of us had the self control/will power to do the same, things WILL change. Especially if you voice your view/position to those that own the theater.
I have not been to a movie theater in around a year because of the forced previews and commercials (well, mainly the commercials -- I like seeing what movies are coming up, but some people may not).
As for your rant about purchasing a license to view a movie, not the movie itself. There is no written agreement in the packaging or displayed on screen (even accessable via the DVD's menu!) that states what my rights are with regards to how I view the movie. The ONLY agreement displayed is that I may not rent it out myself, charge others to see it, or copy and distribute it to anyone. PERIOD.
The thing everyone needs to take into consideration with all this 'time travel' nonsense in Enterprise is that there weren't individual "episodes" that dealt with time travel. There were simply a few story arcs. Yes, those took multiple episodes to play out -- which I believe was the best way to do it instead of running into the problem and solving it all in one episode. It's just not the same thing, in my opinion.
Does that mean I think the time travel stuff was something that should have been in Enterprise in the first place? No. I liked a few of the pieces of the time travel stuff, but I think it was used too much.
Funny, I don't recall having seen any advertisements (or movies, for that matter) that had the Deep Space 9 or Voyager cast in them (and no, Worf doesn't count (or was it Warf, or something totally different? I dunno)).
I think it'd be neat to see what they can come up with, movie-wise, for those two casts.
As far as an "Enterprise" based Star Trek movie, I think one that deals with the Romulan/Human war would be quite interesting (so long as there is no time travel involved). Maybe even some expansion on those remotely-piloted drones the Romulans were working on thrown in for good measure.:) It certianly would help fill in the multi-year gap that is going to happen in the TV series and make it feel less empty.
Slashdot Mirror
It's also worth noting that the Verizon CEO wants to eliminate as much regulation as possible at the state level and give it to Congress and the FCC. Yikes!
That would most likely be because it's cheaper to pay off Congress and the FCC than it is to pay the affore mentioned plus those in power in each state to get what you want.
See? He'd already be saving his shareholders money if he had his way!
In my area, we have CableONE for the cable service.
People complained (and still complain) about the service CableONE provides (supposedly, they don't even offer a non-digital "Basic" package any longer - according to one of my co-workers who has their 'service').
He had no idea that there was a wireless cable-TV provider in town and is now checking them out. The guy that owns the wireless cable-TV service started the company because he was fed up with CableONE and all their crap.
I am lucky, in a sense. I live outside of CableONE's grasp. Funny thing about Charter, though. I've seen these generic cable advertisements on TV that claim how much better service the cable companies can provide when compared to satellite.
Well, that isn't exactly funny. What *IS* funny is that for Charter to make available all the 'digital' channels, they deliver it --- wait wait --- via SATELLITE!
Guess that arguement is about useless now...
Mike
Not to mention the fact that if we had to sit down and research *everything* we do in our lives, we would not have time for family or the job to pay for the thing we are researching.
Yes, *some* reasearch should be done by the customer, but you can't expect them to do the work that the companies that want us to buy their crap should be helping with. (if that made any sense)...
I don't believe it's possible for a woman to not be grouchy.
Sure, sometimes they seem like they are in a good mood -- but behind that facade, they are just waiting for the right time to blow up.
DVD burners are cheaper than you think
:)
Problem with your idea is that it's too expensive to have a device in your car to listen to your music on a DVD. If the parts are resonably cheap, they are more than likely not setup to just "plug in" to your car stereo (many people haven't even upgraded beyind the OEM unit in their vehicle!)
What I'd like to see (and I'm sure one exists, although I'll bet it's exensive as hell) is a standard head unit that can read MP3's (and whatever other sound formats) from DVD (either - or +, or both), but not have all the flashy movie playing crap along with it. That would be something I'd be interested in..
I recently started toying with LaunchCast. So far, I like it. It's playing songs I don't like at the moment, but I'm training it.. :)
:)
I haven't paid for the service yet, so I'm stuck with Medium quality, but it sounds almost as good as the 96kbps stream I was doing from my house, so I'll see what happens.
I don't mind the quality - it sounds fine to me. What I do mind is that I have a 6mbit DSL line and have VERY frequent skips in the stream. And I'm PAYING for this.
I'm getting rather close to canceling my XM account - though I use it in my car very frequently, so I'll just have to decide if having the music available in my car (I drive about 3000 miles a month for work, with my own personal driving adding to that) for the extra $3 or so they are forcing me to pay.
First thing I'm going to do is see if I can drop the online crap and go back to my previous $9.99 rate... Failing that, I'll probably cancel it and get myself a huge MP3 player...
Plus, every time I've tuned in (no matter the time of day), all I see are "Worst Of..." for their show. I don't recall ever having heard them live..
They get away with infesting a PC's computer because of hidden agreements with the owner of the PC.
Hijacking an audio stream to insert their own ads is theft of services and you can bet your ass that AOL's lawyers will be tracking down and dealing with ANY company/person who does this.
IF it ever happens, I doubt it will last very long at all.
If XM's music stations get much worse with the advertisements for other XM channels, let alone normal adverts, I'll be canceling my account.
I PAY them for what I was promised. AD FREE music. Plugs for other stations are still commercials, but last only a few seconds. I will not pay a monthly fee (not to mention the up front cost of the receiver) to listen to advertisements.
Advertisements are why I stopped going to movie theaters. I refuse to pay to be advertised at.
There are many companies like that (Premio, SysteMaxx, and Pionex immediatly come to mind)...
You can find these brands with a google search.
Depends on how the connector was broken.
:)
I have repaired dozens of these. The main problem is that these sockets are not usually held down by anything other than the solder. If the pins of the socket that get soldered to the mainboard came off of the board, or snapped somewhere in the middle (I've seen both), I usually re-solder after using an epoxy to hold the socket in place (as should have been done by the factory).
In the case of the pins actually breaking somewhere in the middle, I usually remove what's left of the pins that are still soldered to the board, take a very small piece of solid core wire (somewhere around 16 gague or smaller) and use it as a 'patch' to fix the pins. Then I solder in place.
This should serve as a lesson to those of you who aren't careful with your laptops. DON'T leave them plugged in when you put them into it's bag. DON't position the laptop such that the cord can be stumbled over. And for Pete's Sake, PLEASE don't pick up the laptop to walk away and leave it plugged in. (These are the most common excuses I hear. The others usualy involved 'the children', but I have a feeling most of those (at least 60%) are really the adults blaming the children so as to not look so foolish)
I ramble. That's my two cents..
It was another DBS provider that boasted how they had more HDTV channels than any other DBS provider.
I had heard that either DirecTV or Dish Network were at least in talks to buy them out. Either that has happened, or the talks have fallen through.
This is *exactly* the kind of comment that makes my previous statements about people needing to complain about the commercials correct.
Complain enough about something and a company (That wants to stay in business) WILL change their ways...
Out of curiosity, did they change any of their pricing (tickets/candy/etc) to compensate?
As I mentioned in a previous story, I have stopped going to the theater all together because of the commercials.
:)
What you need to do is make sure that you (and anyone else you've run into that is doing the same) make sure the management/ownership of the theater knows why you are no longer attending.
If no one does this, they will never know and things will never change.
I also have a projector at home -- though not THX (Dolby 6.1, and DTS, though). So I just buy a movie on DVD and watch it at home..
Yeah, but he is teh evil bang bang bang one one one bang bang bang!1
Unfortunately, no. While I boycott buying DVDs (I will rent them once in a while, though), most people out there don't even know what DRM is or what's up with the CSS stuff.
That is why we have education. Education is one way (which, unfortunatly, will take money) we can get the public to care. The only other way to get the public to care is for the media companies to do something the public doesn't like, and I'd rather not let it get that far.
Even if we all stop buying DVDs, the industry will give a shit.
Ummm.. I think you meant to say "won't give a shit", and I dissagree. What if one of your main sources of income were DVD sales and over the course of a few months (6 at most), the sales pretty much dried up? I think you would take notice. So would the media companies. To think otherwise is obsurd.
Look at it this way. When the varied P2P networks started being used MAJORLY to steal the Big Media Company content, what did they do? They did what they thought was needed to protect the incoming money. They will do EXACTLY the same thing if everyone suddenly stopped buying DVD's and going to movie theaters? I predict that DRM type stuff will pretty much vanish and movie theater owners will win much cheaper distribution/viewing costs.
Yeah, the media companies can blame P2P networks for it, but only a few lawsuits would show that P2P being the reason(s) for dried up sales are BS. Surveys done by any neutral survey companies (IE: Those not on the payrole of the RIAA/MPAA or for any group that is anti-drm) would prove the same (possibly a court-appointed group).
The only possibility is to fight for fair use on the legal front and to actively circumvent DRM and advertise that (and to advertise that circumventing "protection" doesn't mean you copy/steal content).
While fighting on a legal front (for fair use) is and will be usefull to us, it is not the only possibility. Educating the 'dvd/movie going public' is another thing that needs to be done. When it comes down to it, more people need to start writing/calling the media companies to let them know where they can shove DRM and all the commercials we are forced into seeing (amongst whatever else they don't like).
Yeah, companies never cut costs (HUGE lay-offs, cuts in benifits, etc, while the Exec's raise their own pay and keep customer prices exactly the same).
Nope.., Never happens...
Of course, less than one minute on google will show you news article after news article that proves the opposite, but hey, this is Slashdot, so lets ignore all the facts, eh?
Before you go off on me, yes they are similar, in that you buy a movie in a format that is chosen by someone else. You can't control the previews, nor can you control the commercials.
This is where you are wrong.
I can control them via not purchasing them. If enough of us had the self control/will power to do the same, things WILL change. Especially if you voice your view/position to those that own the theater.
I have not been to a movie theater in around a year because of the forced previews and commercials (well, mainly the commercials -- I like seeing what movies are coming up, but some people may not).
As for your rant about purchasing a license to view a movie, not the movie itself. There is no written agreement in the packaging or displayed on screen (even accessable via the DVD's menu!) that states what my rights are with regards to how I view the movie. The ONLY agreement displayed is that I may not rent it out myself, charge others to see it, or copy and distribute it to anyone. PERIOD.
I never said that it wasn't a real article (as opposed to the number of April Fools articles). I was just pointing out that it *could* be fake...
Yes, because no one who can create a web page can also add in a line that *says* it was modified on a different day than it really was....
Wouldn't matter. Servers with content that would be deemed 'morally wrong' in the US will just move to another country.
A cameo does not a movie make.
The thing everyone needs to take into consideration with all this 'time travel' nonsense in Enterprise is that there weren't individual "episodes" that dealt with time travel. There were simply a few story arcs. Yes, those took multiple episodes to play out -- which I believe was the best way to do it instead of running into the problem and solving it all in one episode. It's just not the same thing, in my opinion.
Does that mean I think the time travel stuff was something that should have been in Enterprise in the first place? No. I liked a few of the pieces of the time travel stuff, but I think it was used too much.
Oh well...
Funny, I don't recall having seen any advertisements (or movies, for that matter) that had the Deep Space 9 or Voyager cast in them (and no, Worf doesn't count (or was it Warf, or something totally different? I dunno)).
:) It certianly would help fill in the multi-year gap that is going to happen in the TV series and make it feel less empty.
I think it'd be neat to see what they can come up with, movie-wise, for those two casts.
As far as an "Enterprise" based Star Trek movie, I think one that deals with the Romulan/Human war would be quite interesting (so long as there is no time travel involved). Maybe even some expansion on those remotely-piloted drones the Romulans were working on thrown in for good measure.