Seemed that way to me to. I was especially troubled by his apparent acceptance of the fact that politicians are always going to work on behalf of the lobbies that provide the most lining for their pockets.
I realize that it is tough to survive in politics, and that their is a lot of pressure to constantly raise money. However, that is NOT and excuse to abandon your oaths of office (or whatever they take, if anything) and prostitute yourself to the private sector. Jamie acts as though it is our responsibility to sweeten the pot if we want our interests represented, as if electing them and paying for their salaries and perks were not enough.
Frankly, it sounds to me like he has been in the game too long. Perahps he has contracted a touch of the Stokholm Syndrome.
Are you guys gonna be making trips to Europe to buy non-crippled hardware or will economies of scale ensure that everyone gets copy-protecting hardware?
My money is on the latter, though not due to any kind of economy. You can already get arrested in Sweden for defying the MPAA, and South Korean college students are carrying their MP3 collections on portable hard drives to evade the local equivalent of the RIAA. Rest assured that the Copyright Industry is bent on world domination.
It seems the RIAA is not only determined to run itself into the ground, but now wants to sink the entire PC industry by robbing it of the utilities that people actually want? I was fine when they were only trying to dissuade me from buying new CDs, but now they want to discourage me from upgrading my sound card and/or entire computer.
Especially now, PC manufactureres need the RIAA like a hole in the head.
You'd think that ANY plonker who's used the web for more than 15 minutes would just right click and select save as.
Doesn't work if there are multiple frames.
Let me get this straight: your web server people make the same mistakes repeatedly, and you maintain ignorance of a platform that your content is served to.
a right-click should not be considered the primary way to get at a function
And why not? It is right there next to the Left mouse button. Why is it a less valid as a primary way to get at a function? It is only bad GUI design if you can't wrap your brain around more than one button. I suggest you unplug your keyboard and stay away from any mouse with a wheel on it.
How about a change where "Open With" does not require that the shift button be held? And turning Open With into a drop-down menu with primary, secondary (etc) and "other" options?
Of course, you could just run RegEdit and set up all of this yourself in a few minutes. But heaven forbid someone should learn how to use their computer instead of whining about how it can't read their minds.
Not likely if it is RealPlayer. Just opening that program will prompt it to add itself to your systray and start automatically and attempt to connect to the internt every time you start your computer. No warnings, no requests for permission. The only way to stop it that i've found is to us msconfig. This must be done every time you open the damn thing.
I have never had it not appear if I highlight the file first, and then Shift-Right-Click.
A better solution would be to associate *multiple* applications to a given extension, and then have it list that set upon Open With (with the option of adding to the set from the entire pool of applications.)
This is incredibly easy to accomplish with a few simple registry edits. Just clone the existing Open/Open With entries and point them to the apps you want to use.
Doesn't it come across just a little like (Pardon the inflammatory language, but it exaggerates the argument appropriately.) fat Western capitalist pigs trying to keep the Third World down?
Yes it does. There is a reason for this kind of behavior. What the Third World lacks in resources, it makes up for in population. The only reason the industrialized world is at all interested in the Third World is that it sees billions of potential consumers. So what if they are dirt-poor? If you could just sell one cigarette lighter to every person in Southern Asia, imagine the revenue! Of course, that only works until they have the know-how to manufacture their own lighters, so better cash in quick!
Seems to me that patents and trade restrictions are the antithesis of standards. Charging people for a something makes it less likely that they will use it, no?
Slashdot Mirror
Seemed that way to me to. I was especially troubled by his apparent acceptance of the fact that politicians are always going to work on behalf of the lobbies that provide the most lining for their pockets.
I realize that it is tough to survive in politics, and that their is a lot of pressure to constantly raise money. However, that is NOT and excuse to abandon your oaths of office (or whatever they take, if anything) and prostitute yourself to the private sector. Jamie acts as though it is our responsibility to sweeten the pot if we want our interests represented, as if electing them and paying for their salaries and perks were not enough.
Frankly, it sounds to me like he has been in the game too long. Perahps he has contracted a touch of the Stokholm Syndrome.
XP reportedly stands for eXtended Performance rather than eXPerience a la Windows.
And you seriously believe this? Do you really think that this wasn't a concious decisions to ride M$'s coat-tails?
Are you guys gonna be making trips to Europe to buy non-crippled hardware or will economies of scale ensure that everyone gets copy-protecting hardware?
My money is on the latter, though not due to any kind of economy. You can already get arrested in Sweden for defying the MPAA, and South Korean college students are carrying their MP3 collections on portable hard drives to evade the local equivalent of the RIAA. Rest assured that the Copyright Industry is bent on world domination.
It seems the RIAA is not only determined to run itself into the ground, but now wants to sink the entire PC industry by robbing it of the utilities that people actually want? I was fine when they were only trying to dissuade me from buying new CDs, but now they want to discourage me from upgrading my sound card and/or entire computer.
Especially now, PC manufactureres need the RIAA like a hole in the head.
Recording Industry Ass. of America
Gotta love it!
Not sure about Win2K, but in Win98 you can add as many "&Open with" keys as you want.
I hate having to take my hands off the keyboard to find the mouse.
So do I, which is why I love my ThinkPad. If only they made standard keyboards with that little nub for pointing.
Or some kind of direct line from the brain is the next logical step. Any device that relies on the hands will wear out the muscles over time.
At least if you are weraing out your brain, you might not notice as dementia sets in.
It doesn't suck! Watching video of this quality stimulates the imagination and motivates viewers to pay close attention to the news.
Pixelriffic!
This setup looks a little chunky, but when you consider the capability to beam video information from anywhere in the world, it's very impressive.
All the footage I have seen has been a pixely mess.
Ah, but the Registry only keeps a one to one mapping of file types to applications.
I must admit i'm not sure what you mean here. You can have Open With options pointing to several applications for a single file type.
Well shit. . .don't I look like the asshole.
So you need a central database of what file types correspond to what applications.
It's called the Registry folks.
Why not just write your own app and distribute the extension yourself? It ain't rocket science.
You'd think that ANY plonker who's used the web for more than 15 minutes would just right click and select save as.
Doesn't work if there are multiple frames.
Let me get this straight: your web server people make the same mistakes repeatedly, and you maintain ignorance of a platform that your content is served to.
Kudos!
a right-click should not be considered the primary way to get at a function
And why not? It is right there next to the Left mouse button. Why is it a less valid as a primary way to get at a function? It is only bad GUI design if you can't wrap your brain around more than one button. I suggest you unplug your keyboard and stay away from any mouse with a wheel on it.
Highlight first, then Shift-Right-Click. This works regardless of the current file associations.
How about a change where "Open With" does not require that the shift button be held? And turning Open With into a drop-down menu with primary, secondary (etc) and "other" options?
Of course, you could just run RegEdit and set up all of this yourself in a few minutes. But heaven forbid someone should learn how to use their computer instead of whining about how it can't read their minds.
If I install an audio application, it won't hijack my file associations so all my MP3 files will open with it, instead of iTunes.
Doesn't that also make it more difficult to install new audio app? Seems worse to me.
Maybe the program warns you
Not likely if it is RealPlayer. Just opening that program will prompt it to add itself to your systray and start automatically and attempt to connect to the internt every time you start your computer. No warnings, no requests for permission. The only way to stop it that i've found is to us msconfig. This must be done every time you open the damn thing.
Just edit the damn registry.
As the fine article correctly notes, say "right-click" to most Windows users and all you'll get are blank looks.
Give these people Macs and be done with them.
I don't always see the Open With option.
I have never had it not appear if I highlight the file first, and then Shift-Right-Click.
A better solution would be to associate *multiple* applications to a given extension, and then have it list that set upon Open With (with the option of adding to the set from the entire pool of applications.)
This is incredibly easy to accomplish with a few simple registry edits. Just clone the existing Open/Open With entries and point them to the apps you want to use.
Doesn't it come across just a little like (Pardon the inflammatory language, but it exaggerates the argument appropriately.) fat Western capitalist pigs trying to keep the Third World down?
Yes it does. There is a reason for this kind of behavior. What the Third World lacks in resources, it makes up for in population. The only reason the industrialized world is at all interested in the Third World is that it sees billions of potential consumers. So what if they are dirt-poor? If you could just sell one cigarette lighter to every person in Southern Asia, imagine the revenue! Of course, that only works until they have the know-how to manufacture their own lighters, so better cash in quick!
Seems to me that patents and trade restrictions are the antithesis of standards. Charging people for a something makes it less likely that they will use it, no?
(Then again, there is Windows. Never mind.)