Depending on the context, upwards 80% of all level one support contact is of the "password and printer" variety - dead easy questions which a suitably trained monkey can deal with.
Sure, it shows NLP is progressing - but it's more to do with the generally facile questions asked of support than the technology now available.
How about pulling your finger out for a moment and thinking about the situation for a moment. Just one moment, then you can fly off the handle again in a completely unnecessary and humourless way.
The guy creates a product. The guy builds a business around his product. Other people use the product to create a different product of their own.
I don't think he's being unreasonable in the slightest, it seems to me he's actively trying to avoid being too heavy handed.
... and whether or not the CLI would see a change is unclear.
As they say - the best decisions are made by committees of three people: comprising of one person who's away ill, one person who dislikes meetings and one person who has a clue and who turns up and who gets things done...
All of the best software/utilities (even Linux for crissakes) has its roots in a fortunate combination of someone both wanting a better way to fill a gap in what was currently available *and* being able to code something to plug it.
... unlike the number of Word-generated pages which are appalling.
LaTeX is the dog's for print documents, tables of contents, headings, indexing and the rest. Worry about the content, let the package worry about the look on the page.
not to confuse it with the ny times, or the [insert you're own reasonably large city here] times, etc.
What does it say on the masthead?
It says "The Times". Whether "The New York Times" is known by locals as "The Times" is irrelevant. If you need clarification as to which one, parenthesise it.
For a board that craves accuracy, you can't accept pedantry in one place but not in another.
This obviously is a tough concept.
</offtopic>
Bit like the concept of reducing output in the face of dire warnings. Whether the ozone hole will close up or not, it's pretty shameful of the developed world to be considering "buying" quota to force the third world into cleaner habits than we have.
in real life, i'm governed by the laws of my country. I might not agree with all of them, but they've been handed down the years and are added to/amended by the representatives of the country's choice. (Which is something that we've been able to manage without much hassle for about 700 years... sorry, unresistable cheap shot:)
ICANN's problem is its lack of actual representation. The @large system was a farce. It's managed to take things over without much in the way of an election - even a flawed one.
If we could dream up a way of accurately gauging want the internet community's beliefs were, then that would probably work well for running the beast...
To be fair, the lack of constitution was the problem to begin with. An unwritten constitution only works for as long as those living under it adhere to the concepts and traditions.
This was starting not to happen pre-ICANN.
Ironic this call for a constitution. ICANN and the the ccTLDs, colonists and Britain... "no taxation without representation"
Seems to me that *someone* (a single entity) needs to be in charge - just who, though, that's the key point.
Beats me why they should want you to remove the MP3s once you've got them there. After all, from an ISP's point of view, what they really want you to do is not even get them there in the first place.
A few 30Gb disks aren't going to set them back a huge amount, so storing the puppies isn't a problem.
It's the cost to them of you bringing in huge files. They pay serious money for the bandwidth.
The steganographic approaches advocated elsewhere are valid here, too. What happens when the ISP doesn't want you even napstering?
I had this myself. I have a shell account on a small-scale, large feature provider. He noticed I was napstering, he asked me not to as it was chewing his bandwidth, I agreed and now I do it from work:)
Would the ISPs be reacting in the same way if you download the mozilla milestone builds daily, or keep up with the huge Gnome distributions (or similar?)
It's a tax dodge. If it's programmable it's a computer which can be imported into the UK (and other countries) at a lower rate of duty than if it were classed as a luxury item, like the games machine it actually is.
I'm due my PS2 on Friday morning... and you can bet your bottom that I'm not going to waste my time coding in BASIC on it.
It might have satisfied the taxman, but there are better places to code than on a games machine.
a) use a mobile
or
b) dial 9 and have your boss foot the bill?
Pleenty of business routinely record *ALL* phone calls. Banks, for example, will record calls so that they have evidence if a trade goes pear shaped.
If you want a private, personal call, use your own private, personal equipment.
If your email can't wait until you get home to use your own equipment (assuming you can't SSH into your account via your work machine) then suck it up and exchange expedience for privacy.
Or go and become your own boss.
Besides which, most companies aren't interested in snooping - they're too busy staying afloat!
Yes it is extortion, yes it's illegal and, yes again, if Inspector Knacker gets his hands on them they are in seven shades of trouble for extortion, handling stolen goods and all the rest of it....
But.
They have the machine. They've basically said that they've paid money for it and that if they're going to be out of pocket on the deal then they're willing to have some fun destroying the thing first.
No-one's said it's not illegal, just that it's the situation.
What I love though is all this talk of the machine being in the hands of "The Master" - the news sounds more like Doctor Who every day:)
Napster will survive - at least in one form or another - if the material it provides is different to that which you can buy over the counter.
MP3 is not a format that is usable in all situations - it's fine for delivering content that you'll happily listen to on your walkman or in your car, environments which do not deliver quality sound.
Therefore the MP3 delivers the bare sounds of the song, but cannot be used in a decent listening setup. So if it is to survive it must deliver content which is unavailable to the paying consumer, so joke tracks like this one, live recordings (of which there are huge numbers of BNL ones out there and which they've said they have no problems with) and such.
Personally I bought Maroon straight off and the MP3s would only serve to reinforce my continual (financial) support for them through CD and ticket sales.
But then that's what the industry bodies don't understand.
Browse it once at one price, browse it a second time and the price has gone up. Customer thinks "market forces, better be quicker next time"
Next time. Browse it at one price... try and buy it before it goes up...
It doesn't matter what the cookie says the price is, the price you pay (especially with airline tickets) could be very different. If, in this case $500 is over the odds, go somewhere else. I've yet to find an on-line air booking site that can beat my travel agent who sits in their shop about 30 yards from my desk. The $400 offer is bait to make you bite before going away and coming back.
Cheap psychology - that's nothing new, only the medium changes.
If it could keep a list of the addresses that it knows might return dubious content, I'd rather it merely flagged these, telling me that it might well get bumped back...
Slashdot Mirror
Depends if you're willing to trust the first few things that your favoured search engine throws up.
At least with the Britannica they have a reputation for accuracy that you can rely on.
Something that the search engines don't have and something which new enterprises (like nupedia) will have to generate.
--
"I do not speak for my employers, though they are controlled from my Teddy's huge pulsating brain."
So MS UK will right it off under UK tax law.
We pay taxes here, too.
Depending on the context, upwards 80% of all level one support contact is of the "password and printer" variety - dead easy questions which a suitably trained monkey can deal with.
Sure, it shows NLP is progressing - but it's more to do with the generally facile questions asked of support than the technology now available.
How about pulling your finger out for a moment and thinking about the situation for a moment. Just one moment, then you can fly off the handle again in a completely unnecessary and humourless way.
The guy creates a product. The guy builds a business around his product. Other people use the product to create a different product of their own.
I don't think he's being unreasonable in the slightest, it seems to me he's actively trying to avoid being too heavy handed.
... and whether or not the CLI would see a change is unclear.
As they say - the best decisions are made by committees of three people: comprising of one person who's away ill, one person who dislikes meetings and one person who has a clue and who turns up and who gets things done ...
All of the best software/utilities (even Linux for crissakes) has its roots in a fortunate combination of someone both wanting a better way to fill a gap in what was currently available *and* being able to code something to plug it.
That is truly the freedom to innovate.
nice work. really enjoyed that with people loitering around my desk.
:)
i don't read slashdot so as to view those kinds of links.
i wait until my own time for that
If you don't like it - don't sign it.
Mind you, they obviously think that they will be left with enough subscribers after all the complainants have gone to make the system viable.
It's like using e-mail at work - if you don't want someone else to control your machine, move.
At least, for these people, there is a choice. There's enough Big Brother gear out there already (or coming) that is a hell of a lot more worrying
Ok, so Napster plans to charge for use.
How's it planning to distribute the spoils? It surely won't be using the ID tags? Naah, it'll just heft over a wedge to the recording companies.
They'll get richer and not one artist will receive a penny.
... unlike the number of Word-generated pages which are appalling.
LaTeX is the dog's for print documents, tables of contents, headings, indexing and the rest. Worry about the content, let the package worry about the look on the page.
"The Times" is inspecific, regardless of its official nature, or who had it first.
Bzzzzzt.
"I'm going to have to stop you there, as you're already wrong and the rest of what you say is based on an already proven incorrect premise."
"The Times" is perfectly specific, if you want to confuse the issue by abbreviating other titles to one that has no other title, that's your look out.
You would be wrong, but that's your perogative.
<offtopic>
not to confuse it with the ny times, or the [insert you're own reasonably large city here] times, etc.
What does it say on the masthead?
It says "The Times". Whether "The New York Times" is known by locals as "The Times" is irrelevant. If you need clarification as to which one, parenthesise it.
For a board that craves accuracy, you can't accept pedantry in one place but not in another.
This obviously is a tough concept.
</offtopic>
Bit like the concept of reducing output in the face of dire warnings. Whether the ozone hole will close up or not, it's pretty shameful of the developed world to be considering "buying" quota to force the third world into cleaner habits than we have.
"our internet community beliefs"
... sorry, unresistable cheap shot :)
...
what's this "our" business?
in real life, i'm governed by the laws of my country. I might not agree with all of them, but they've been handed down the years and are added to/amended by the representatives of the country's choice. (Which is something that we've been able to manage without much hassle for about 700 years
ICANN's problem is its lack of actual representation. The @large system was a farce. It's managed to take things over without much in the way of an election - even a flawed one.
If we could dream up a way of accurately gauging want the internet community's beliefs were, then that would probably work well for running the beast
To be fair, the lack of constitution was the problem to begin with. An unwritten constitution only works for as long as those living under it adhere to the concepts and traditions.
... "no taxation without representation"
This was starting not to happen pre-ICANN.
Ironic this call for a constitution. ICANN and the the ccTLDs, colonists and Britain
Seems to me that *someone* (a single entity) needs to be in charge - just who, though, that's the key point.
Beats me why they should want you to remove the MP3s once you've got them there. After all, from an ISP's point of view, what they really want you to do is not even get them there in the first place.
A few 30Gb disks aren't going to set them back a huge amount, so storing the puppies isn't a problem.
It's the cost to them of you bringing in huge files. They pay serious money for the bandwidth.
The steganographic approaches advocated elsewhere are valid here, too. What happens when the ISP doesn't want you even napstering?
I had this myself. I have a shell account on a small-scale, large feature provider. He noticed I was napstering, he asked me not to as it was chewing his bandwidth, I agreed and now I do it from work
Would the ISPs be reacting in the same way if you download the mozilla milestone builds daily, or keep up with the huge Gnome distributions (or similar?)
They're appealing to no-one.
... and you can bet your bottom that I'm not going to waste my time coding in BASIC on it.
It's a tax dodge. If it's programmable it's a computer which can be imported into the UK (and other countries) at a lower rate of duty than if it were classed as a luxury item, like the games machine it actually is.
I'm due my PS2 on Friday morning
It might have satisfied the taxman, but there are better places to code than on a games machine.
I frequently have to give a landline number rather than a mobile number, if nothing else but to prove I am who I say I am - and I am where I say I am.
Not to mention that the killer app for WAP and bluetooth and the whole "mobile internet" thing will be mobility based.
If you can prove where you are, your provider can use that information to be able to return information based on your locale.
They were just annoyed that he called it beer.
If he'd have registered guinness-stout-sucks.com then they probably wouldn't have minded so much.
If you want to make a call on company time do you
a) use a mobile
or
b) dial 9 and have your boss foot the bill?
Pleenty of business routinely record *ALL* phone calls. Banks, for example, will record calls so that they have evidence if a trade goes pear shaped.
If you want a private, personal call, use your own private, personal equipment.
If your email can't wait until you get home to use your own equipment (assuming you can't SSH into your account via your work machine) then suck it up and exchange expedience for privacy.
Or go and become your own boss.
Besides which, most companies aren't interested in snooping - they're too busy staying afloat!
Yes it is extortion, yes it's illegal and, yes again, if Inspector Knacker gets his hands on them they are in seven shades of trouble for extortion, handling stolen goods and all the rest of it ....
:)
But.
They have the machine. They've basically said that they've paid money for it and that if they're going to be out of pocket on the deal then they're willing to have some fun destroying the thing first.
No-one's said it's not illegal, just that it's the situation.
What I love though is all this talk of the machine being in the hands of "The Master" - the news sounds more like Doctor Who every day
A program discussing how great MP3 is not being available in MP3 ....
Yee-har.
of the future coming up to meet where Neal Stephenson ("Cryptonomicon"), Iain Banks ("The Business") and others have trod before.
...
But that was only fiction
If the government of your country doesn't represent you, do you change the government or do you make your own country?
Napster will survive - at least in one form or another - if the material it provides is different to that which you can buy over the counter.
MP3 is not a format that is usable in all situations - it's fine for delivering content that you'll happily listen to on your walkman or in your car, environments which do not deliver quality sound.
Therefore the MP3 delivers the bare sounds of the song, but cannot be used in a decent listening setup. So if it is to survive it must deliver content which is unavailable to the paying consumer, so joke tracks like this one, live recordings (of which there are huge numbers of BNL ones out there and which they've said they have no problems with) and such.
Personally I bought Maroon straight off and the MP3s would only serve to reinforce my continual (financial) support for them through CD and ticket sales.
But then that's what the industry bodies don't understand.
If they told us *exactly* how it all worked, then they'd lose the ability to sell spots on the front results pages to specific sites ...
Browse it once at one price, browse it a second time and the price has gone up. Customer thinks "market forces, better be quicker next time"
... try and buy it before it goes up ...
Next time. Browse it at one price
It doesn't matter what the cookie says the price is, the price you pay (especially with airline tickets) could be very different. If, in this case $500 is over the odds, go somewhere else. I've yet to find an on-line air booking site that can beat my travel agent who sits in their shop about 30 yards from my desk. The $400 offer is bait to make you bite before going away and coming back.
Cheap psychology - that's nothing new, only the medium changes.
If it could keep a list of the addresses that it knows might return dubious content, I'd rather it merely flagged these, telling me that it might well get bumped back ...