The only way Netflix can get away with such a downgrade in service is that they've calculated the number of people that actually utilize that service and use that number to estimate the impact on general customer satisfaction and attrition - apparently it is a small percentage of users that employ multiple profiles. This is not surprising, most users probably have no idea how to set up multiple profiles and may be intimated by the added layer of complexity. The/. cohort represents a heavily biased but likely very small proportion of power-users that enjoy the profiles feature (I sure do!/did). There are a lot of insightful comments on this post, but I wonder if we're also taking the time to be as (if not more) outspoken where it matters. We're clearly a small cog in the Netflix machine, but perhaps if we squeak loudly enough we'll garner some attention.
why not? Is Bush incapable of doing further damage to the US in the next 7 months? I think not. Would an impeachment send a message to the current presidential candidates that they need to do something different and that they need to pay attention? I think so. If you had a family member in Iraq, and an impeachment led to a withdrawal of troops, would it have real benefit then?
do you have the "gold" or "platinum" or whatever it is special tech support they offer? I would agree that that service is pretty decent, but their default tech support is clearly horrendous on purpose to motivate people to pay for the "gold" service.
where do you live where BMI is not used seriously any more? we can dig up the BMI argument again (it's been discussed numerous times on/.), but regardless of whether or not it is "accurate," it is incorrect to state that it is "generally not used seriously any more." It is all over the modern medical literature, and is used clinically very frequently to make health-care decisions.
This is exactly the problem, and it seems especially difficult in a student organization where people are doing this sort of stuff just for fun or for resume building - irresponsibility runs rampant. I'm leaning towards giving only the secretary access to the account and just having her selectively forward incoming mail to the pertinent board members. Perhaps I'll start using a board accessible google documents as a storage space for old event fliers, databases, sample thank-you letters, etc. (instead of having to dig through our sent items folder). Outgoing announcements, letters to faculty etc. will have to be forwarded to the secretary who can then use our official group email to send these out and make sure that outgoing mail has a standardized appearance. What this system will come down to is the need to have a really kick-ass secretary, but I suppose that's the secret in most well-run organizations anyway.
I appreciate your skepticism, but at least for vision it does kind of work out that way for one reason or another. I think it's interesting to note though that to compensate for differences in sensitivities of the chromophores in our cones, we employ a ratiometric perception of color based on different chromophore activation.
indeed. it's insane how many CRT monitors are still operating at 60Hz when almost ALL of the hardware being used today is capable of higher rates.
For some of us with sensitive vision, looking at a 60Hz screen is like reading text written on a strobe light. Even if it doesn't subjectively bother you, it does cause increased eye strain. Apparently even OSHA cautions against 60Hz.
A good document on this issue ( show it to your librarian, IT pro, or whoever has locked you out of the control panel) is available here: http://www.nhpa.org/docs/ComputerMonitorFlicker.doc
"We know that people are going to use the printer to try to make weapons [and] sex toys and drug paraphernalia," he says. "This is obviously not what we're hoping they are going to build. We are hoping they are going to build more and better RepRaps."... so that we can then use those to build more and better weapons [and] sex toys, drug paraphernalia.
agreed, but some policy put in place could certainly help prevent at least some cases of unnecessary snooping. For starters, using a random collection of a users files for testing is not professional, nor is it the best way to run these kinds of tests - a standard file set should be used to minimize unknowns. Users of the service should be told a priori that their personal data will not be intentionally examined, but in rare cases it may be necessary and that techs are legally obligated to report content that may not be legal. Assuming that the computer is functional enough to do so, a very simple step by step encryption program should be given to users to encrypt personal files before handing over their systems.
since people here seem to like the automobile references - if I take my car in for an oil change and they decide to disassemble my door and find my stash of crack, well that just ain't right. There is an expected standard procedure that is typically followed. Such a standard is really lacking from computer techs, and I'd hazard to guess that snooping unnecessarily actually is the standard. It's an inefficient way to work and immoral to boot.
reading about penetration testing was really enlightening for me. I hope this show opens my eyes up to ways that I can become a professional penetration tester so that I can retire my wet suit and snorkel and move-on from being a professional muff diver.
i don't care what anybody says. I think this is the most best idea ever, and I can't think of anything wrong with this idea at all and it will work perfectly and no sportspeople will ever use drugs everagain and BarryBonds will never hit another homerun for the baseball team. And I will be able to login to a website - probably www.wherearetheathletes.com (and you bet it will be dot com and not dot org because only the gay people use dot org and it is not okay to put gps in them.... yet) and watch where all of my favorite squashball players are not buying drugs superimposed on google (tm, evilcorp dot com) maps!!
Pedro! where the fuck are you?! come refill my crack-pipe!
hah, I can't wait until "Sharing Wildly" becomes the new Reefer Madness. My kids will laugh at crusty old videos of people like you talking about "Pirate Dirtbags" and the dangers of sharing "electronic media" with reckless abandon, almost as if there were an endless supply of electrons.
I've been doing this for years, and finally it got some attention. Now I can focus my efforts on shaping cow-pies such that they vaguely resemble the cast of "friends" - it's going to drive people wild.
whoops, yeah, guess you're right, none of the shows in that center column looked remotely interesting to me, so I just clicked on scrubs in the left hand column. The direct feature does not in fact work in seamonkey (well, not without the IETab plugin). Seems like sticking with torrents would be the way to go if you enjoy these shows.
yes, photoshop is lacking in the wizards department. A few random wizards that pop up second-guessing what you're trying to do and that ask a bunch of silly questions ultimately resulting in the automatic execution of only two or three possible outcomes. Maybe they could even hire clippy to solicit help by drawing upon a database of five or six different help-topics incessantly.
yeah, you and this guy should get together and toss up a nice big FUD salad.
"It doesn't bode well for the future of the music industry," says Michael Laskow, CEO of TAXI, the world's leading independent A&R (Artist and Repertoire) company. "Radiohead has been bankrolled by their former label for the last 15 years. They've built a fan base in the millions with their label, and now they're able to cash in on that fan base with none of the income or profit going to the label this time around. That's great for the band and for fans who paid less than they would under the old school model. But at some point in the not too distant future, the music industry will run out of artists who have had major label support in helping them build a huge fan base. The question is: how will new artists be able to use this model in the future if they haven't built a fan base in the millions in the years leading up to the release of their album under the pay what you'd like model?"
This is of course horse-crap. Yes, the industry is capable of picking out just about anything with a partially intact larynx and turning it into an overnight "success", but the music world hardly needs this and will conceivably will fair much better overall without it.
i was going to release my teleportation prototype next week, but now I have to wait to Jan. so I can make the best of 2008 list. Either that or complete my time-machine project so I can go back and get my teleporter finished before the deadline for this award.
Slashdot Mirror
The only way Netflix can get away with such a downgrade in service is that they've calculated the number of people that actually utilize that service and use that number to estimate the impact on general customer satisfaction and attrition - apparently it is a small percentage of users that employ multiple profiles. This is not surprising, most users probably have no idea how to set up multiple profiles and may be intimated by the added layer of complexity. The /. cohort represents a heavily biased but likely very small proportion of power-users that enjoy the profiles feature (I sure do!/did). There are a lot of insightful comments on this post, but I wonder if we're also taking the time to be as (if not more) outspoken where it matters. We're clearly a small cog in the Netflix machine, but perhaps if we squeak loudly enough we'll garner some attention.
and how many bumper stickers do you have?
when GINA goes through the car wash will you get a glimpse of what's underneath like in a wet t-shirt contest?
given the history of the female form being used to sell cars, I'd love to be on the advertising team for this car.
why not? Is Bush incapable of doing further damage to the US in the next 7 months? I think not. Would an impeachment send a message to the current presidential candidates that they need to do something different and that they need to pay attention? I think so. If you had a family member in Iraq, and an impeachment led to a withdrawal of troops, would it have real benefit then?
do you have the "gold" or "platinum" or whatever it is special tech support they offer? I would agree that that service is pretty decent, but their default tech support is clearly horrendous on purpose to motivate people to pay for the "gold" service.
where do you live where BMI is not used seriously any more? we can dig up the BMI argument again (it's been discussed numerous times on /.), but regardless of whether or not it is "accurate," it is incorrect to state that it is "generally not used seriously any more." It is all over the modern medical literature, and is used clinically very frequently to make health-care decisions.
I do. Have you flown on commercial aircraft recently? I'd rather get tugged behind jet-man on a rope.
in other pertinent news, research shows several dozen people dislike cheese - my second cousin, doug, is blogging this hot story now.
This is exactly the problem, and it seems especially difficult in a student organization where people are doing this sort of stuff just for fun or for resume building - irresponsibility runs rampant. I'm leaning towards giving only the secretary access to the account and just having her selectively forward incoming mail to the pertinent board members. Perhaps I'll start using a board accessible google documents as a storage space for old event fliers, databases, sample thank-you letters, etc. (instead of having to dig through our sent items folder). Outgoing announcements, letters to faculty etc. will have to be forwarded to the secretary who can then use our official group email to send these out and make sure that outgoing mail has a standardized appearance. What this system will come down to is the need to have a really kick-ass secretary, but I suppose that's the secret in most well-run organizations anyway.
I appreciate your skepticism, but at least for vision it does kind of work out that way for one reason or another. I think it's interesting to note though that to compensate for differences in sensitivities of the chromophores in our cones, we employ a ratiometric perception of color based on different chromophore activation.
http://acept.asu.edu/PiN/rdg/color/color.shtml
indeed. it's insane how many CRT monitors are still operating at 60Hz when almost ALL of the hardware being used today is capable of higher rates.
For some of us with sensitive vision, looking at a 60Hz screen is like reading text written on a strobe light. Even if it doesn't subjectively bother you, it does cause increased eye strain. Apparently even OSHA cautions against 60Hz.
A good document on this issue ( show it to your librarian, IT pro, or whoever has locked you out of the control panel) is available here: http://www.nhpa.org/docs/ComputerMonitorFlicker.doc
and you don't think facebook.com could pay hell? I assure you they already have several accounts registered there.
"We know that people are going to use the printer to try to make weapons [and] sex toys and drug paraphernalia," he says. "This is obviously not what we're hoping they are going to build. We are hoping they are going to build more and better RepRaps."
it was called "Japanese Seizure Robots" - http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Z94jSRCCH-s
agreed, but some policy put in place could certainly help prevent at least some cases of unnecessary snooping. For starters, using a random collection of a users files for testing is not professional, nor is it the best way to run these kinds of tests - a standard file set should be used to minimize unknowns. Users of the service should be told a priori that their personal data will not be intentionally examined, but in rare cases it may be necessary and that techs are legally obligated to report content that may not be legal. Assuming that the computer is functional enough to do so, a very simple step by step encryption program should be given to users to encrypt personal files before handing over their systems.
since people here seem to like the automobile references - if I take my car in for an oil change and they decide to disassemble my door and find my stash of crack, well that just ain't right. There is an expected standard procedure that is typically followed. Such a standard is really lacking from computer techs, and I'd hazard to guess that snooping unnecessarily actually is the standard. It's an inefficient way to work and immoral to boot.
reading about penetration testing was really enlightening for me. I hope this show opens my eyes up to ways that I can become a professional penetration tester so that I can retire my wet suit and snorkel and move-on from being a professional muff diver.
i don't care what anybody says. I think this is the most best idea ever, and I can't think of anything wrong with this idea at all and it will work perfectly and no sportspeople will ever use drugs everagain and BarryBonds will never hit another homerun for the baseball team. And I will be able to login to a website - probably www.wherearetheathletes.com (and you bet it will be dot com and not dot org because only the gay people use dot org and it is not okay to put gps in them.... yet) and watch where all of my favorite squashball players are not buying drugs superimposed on google (tm, evilcorp dot com) maps!!
Pedro! where the fuck are you?! come refill my crack-pipe!
hah, I can't wait until "Sharing Wildly" becomes the new Reefer Madness. My kids will laugh at crusty old videos of people like you talking about "Pirate Dirtbags" and the dangers of sharing "electronic media" with reckless abandon, almost as if there were an endless supply of electrons.
Wild Sharing - it's public enemy, Number One!
I've been doing this for years, and finally it got some attention. Now I can focus my efforts on shaping cow-pies such that they vaguely resemble the cast of "friends" - it's going to drive people wild.
umm, no. the first time that happened was when the doll was invented, and it's been going on ever since.
whoops, yeah, guess you're right, none of the shows in that center column looked remotely interesting to me, so I just clicked on scrubs in the left hand column. The direct feature does not in fact work in seamonkey (well, not without the IETab plugin). Seems like sticking with torrents would be the way to go if you enjoy these shows.
works fine in seamonkey - can't imagine it wouldn't work in firefox as well.
yes, photoshop is lacking in the wizards department. A few random wizards that pop up second-guessing what you're trying to do and that ask a bunch of silly questions ultimately resulting in the automatic execution of only two or three possible outcomes. Maybe they could even hire clippy to solicit help by drawing upon a database of five or six different help-topics incessantly.
yeah, you and this guy should get together and toss up a nice big FUD salad.
"It doesn't bode well for the future of the music industry," says Michael Laskow, CEO of TAXI, the world's leading independent A&R (Artist and Repertoire) company. "Radiohead has been bankrolled by their former label for the last 15 years. They've built a fan base in the millions with their label, and now they're able to cash in on that fan base with none of the income or profit going to the label this time around. That's great for the band and for fans who paid less than they would under the old school model. But at some point in the not too distant future, the music industry will run out of artists who have had major label support in helping them build a huge fan base. The question is: how will new artists be able to use this model in the future if they haven't built a fan base in the millions in the years leading up to the release of their album under the pay what you'd like model?"
This is of course horse-crap. Yes, the industry is capable of picking out just about anything with a partially intact larynx and turning it into an overnight "success", but the music world hardly needs this and will conceivably will fair much better overall without it.
i was going to release my teleportation prototype next week, but now I have to wait to Jan. so I can make the best of 2008 list. Either that or complete my time-machine project so I can go back and get my teleporter finished before the deadline for this award.