"Wait a second, Bush was given money, and then he told the DOJ to seek a settlement as soon as possible, and you're saying this is evidence of a lack of collusion? I think it's time for you to reexamine your logic."
To be fair, this sort of logic is used all the time against Microsoft. Microsoft is so large with so many people working for it with so much money going in every which way that this sort of logic can be used to prove Microsoft is behind every evil thing that happens in this world.
For example: If Walmart were to suddenly stop carrying PCs that came with Lindows pre-installed, somebody would be able to find some sort of evidence that money came from MS and landed in Walmart's bank account at the right time.
I'm not defending MS in the case you brought up. I'm simply saying that the existence or non-existence of collusion here is dependent on more info. I've heard a million theories of how Dr Evil over at Microsoft was going to take over the world, yet I have not seen one actually come into being.
Why would somebody spend >24 hours downloading a non-guaranteed movie to watch on their tiny computer screen?
- It's cheaper to buy a DVD than it is to take a friend/date to a movie. Sadly, DVDs are not available at time of movie launch.
- The movie is released somewhere else >1 monthes before it'll arrive at your locale.
- People can be obnoxious at theaters at times.
- Too many previews/ads before movies.
- No guarantee of satisfaction of a movie. You pay for a movie ticket without really know what you're buying. (Anybody who's ever seen the recent Rollerball movie can sympathize with me here.)
- Forget about getting food/drink at the theater, prices are way too high. It's not like watching at home where you can have dinner during the movie....etc...
Seems to me the industry should be alleviating each of these issues instead of hoping one day they can guard theaters with ED-209.
copies of it already exist on most if not all p2p networks anyways"
They are making people think twice about going into a theater with a camera. The more they catch, the less people would say "Im willing to do that and risk getting caught!"
It won't stop it, but it will make it more difficult. If you ask me, they should take the money that they used to do all this crap and just lower the ticket prices. That'll have a much bigger effect on internet piracy than some dude with night vision goggles.
"Although, it seems to me like it would be a nice project to send a Comcast truck around the neighborhood with a list of comprimised machines, armed with a laptop running an ethernet sniffer, then use that information to track down who's controlling the machines."
Heh I doubt Comcast will ever do that. That's a bit spendy. However, I wonder if Comcast has the means to flag a particular account in such a way that no matter what web page they visit, they're taken to a Comcast page that reads "your machine is causing problems. Call us." or something like that. It'd be annoying to the victims, but I personally wouldn't mind an inconvenience like that which would force me to troubleshoot my machine. There are a few little hiccups in an approach like that (like how would one get virus updates if they only go to Comcast's site?), but I imagine they're solvable.
"Saying this game influences kids to act violent while playing sports is like saying that when your friend calls you a knuckle head you poke his eyes out and hit him with a 2x4..."
There was a story a couple of weeks ago about lightning strikes. Somebody in that thread described a friend of his wife's dying due to a strike. I play UT2004 a LOT. The lightning gun is my favorite weapon. Sniping with it was fun as heck for me. (still is! just haven't had time to play...) Despite finding so much pleasure in shooting video game sprites with lightning, reading the "A friend of my wife's was killed by lightning" really jolted me. I found that heart breaking. I have to ask: How desensitizing can games be if I react like that to somebody dying?
I'm at a point now where I don't even think 'scientific proof' will convince me that video game violence is dangerous.
"If the NBA, NFL and MBA are appropriate for children, then so are these games."
The E-for-everybody rating overrides this statement. Video games and television shows are not rated the same way. For a fight to happen in a video game, it has to be put in. A fight during a sporting event, however, cannot be prevented.
"So what, do they want the game to be a lie and pretend that these sports franchises are wholesome and goodnatured? "
Games are meant to be fun, not to be true reflections of what they're recreating.
"And besides.. IT IS A FUCKING GAME."
Normally I'd agree. However, if they're rated as E-for-everybody, they really should respect that as well as they can. The last thing video games need right now is attempts at heavy handed legislation due to complaints that the ratings system isn't an effective babysitter.
"How do more people on cell phoes relieve disaster? I don't mean to be cynical, but there are much better tools for disaster workers, like radios and such."
So are they going to hand out radios to victims so they can be found?
"If you had bothered to RTFA, you would know that the case in question didn't involve an ISP (inaccurate headline notwithstanding)."
Here's a quote from the F'inA
"By interpreting the Wiretap Act's privacy protections very narrowly, this court has effectively given Internet communications providers free rein to invade the privacy of their users for any reason and at any time"
"You can't leave a message for a user that's offline"
This is not insolvable. All the client app has to do is to keep an eye on who's on-line, and deliver it when it sees them. Not as nice as email, but it still works.
"You generally are subjected to a limit on how much text you can transfer in one message."
Yep. However, since it's meant to be a real time discussion, this isn't such a bfd. I rely on IM for >95% of my online communication. The rest of it is either to get notifications from forums, or to talk with people that have nfi what instant messaging is. (like my parents, for example.)
"File transfer doesn't work a lot of the time if someone is behind a router or firewall."
Yeah, that takes a little fiddling. Counter point: No mailbox to fill up.
"The list goes on and on..."
Yeah it's easy to find reasons not to do stuff. The problem is, none of them are definitive "no I can't move over to this" type of reasons. I know this since I've already done it.
Screw that. Use instant messaging. The reason why ISPs can read the mail is because it sits on their servers. Find an IM program that doesn't use a server to store the messages (i.e. I think that rules out ICQ...) and you're set. The only real problem then is packet sniffing.
" But if you could index a TV season and access easily I see your point."
Pity the industry thinks I need to re-buy all my content when something new comes along. If only they made adopting this stuff exciting. Give me that ability, that'll hook me as an early adopter. When new stuff comes down the pipeline, blammo, I've got my new blu-ray unit ready to get the higher quality stuff at a higher price.
"I would not think that current DVD owners would burn multiple movies into 1 DVD backup."
Those of us that have entire seasons of Television shows might be interested. Depending on how easy it is to do, yadda yadda yadda. (Transcoding sucks!)
Slashdot Mirror
Until Real Player works on Linux, I'd say porn is sufficiently filtered!
"Wait a second, Bush was given money, and then he told the DOJ to seek a settlement as soon as possible, and you're saying this is evidence of a lack of collusion? I think it's time for you to reexamine your logic."
To be fair, this sort of logic is used all the time against Microsoft. Microsoft is so large with so many people working for it with so much money going in every which way that this sort of logic can be used to prove Microsoft is behind every evil thing that happens in this world.
For example: If Walmart were to suddenly stop carrying PCs that came with Lindows pre-installed, somebody would be able to find some sort of evidence that money came from MS and landed in Walmart's bank account at the right time.
I'm not defending MS in the case you brought up. I'm simply saying that the existence or non-existence of collusion here is dependent on more info. I've heard a million theories of how Dr Evil over at Microsoft was going to take over the world, yet I have not seen one actually come into being.
Why would somebody spend >24 hours downloading a non-guaranteed movie to watch on their tiny computer screen?
...etc...
- It's cheaper to buy a DVD than it is to take a friend/date to a movie. Sadly, DVDs are not available at time of movie launch.
- The movie is released somewhere else >1 monthes before it'll arrive at your locale.
- People can be obnoxious at theaters at times.
- Too many previews/ads before movies.
- No guarantee of satisfaction of a movie. You pay for a movie ticket without really know what you're buying. (Anybody who's ever seen the recent Rollerball movie can sympathize with me here.)
- Forget about getting food/drink at the theater, prices are way too high. It's not like watching at home where you can have dinner during the movie.
Seems to me the industry should be alleviating each of these issues instead of hoping one day they can guard theaters with ED-209.
"All bullshit. Do NOT follow the newspeak and misuse of the word 'stealing' when something else is meant."
Your comment would be a lot more interesting if you wre contrasting something that was illegal with something that was legal.
"and now what?
copies of it already exist on most if not all p2p networks anyways"
They are making people think twice about going into a theater with a camera. The more they catch, the less people would say "Im willing to do that and risk getting caught!"
It won't stop it, but it will make it more difficult. If you ask me, they should take the money that they used to do all this crap and just lower the ticket prices. That'll have a much bigger effect on internet piracy than some dude with night vision goggles.
"Although, it seems to me like it would be a nice project to send a Comcast truck around the neighborhood with a list of comprimised machines, armed with a laptop running an ethernet sniffer, then use that information to track down who's controlling the machines."
Heh I doubt Comcast will ever do that. That's a bit spendy. However, I wonder if Comcast has the means to flag a particular account in such a way that no matter what web page they visit, they're taken to a Comcast page that reads "your machine is causing problems. Call us." or something like that. It'd be annoying to the victims, but I personally wouldn't mind an inconvenience like that which would force me to troubleshoot my machine. There are a few little hiccups in an approach like that (like how would one get virus updates if they only go to Comcast's site?), but I imagine they're solvable.
"Over 500 spam messages so far today on a domain I've had since the mid 90s. This is about normal and what I've come to expect at this point."
I'm disappointed. The gov't raised interest rates by half a percent, but my bank account is exactly the same as it was yesterday.
" If you want someone to whom to complain about the spread of worms, you might want to direct your anger at the blameworthy [microsoft.com]."
Funny, I blame the guys that write those worms. Not even Linux is invulnerable to worms.
"Those numbers are all really nice, but isn't this just putting one of those little dot band-aids on a stab wound?"
Somehow I doubt Comcast was trying to play anything but a small part in dealing with SPAM.
"Saying this game influences kids to act violent while playing sports is like saying that when your friend calls you a knuckle head you poke his eyes out and hit him with a 2x4..."
There was a story a couple of weeks ago about lightning strikes. Somebody in that thread described a friend of his wife's dying due to a strike. I play UT2004 a LOT. The lightning gun is my favorite weapon. Sniping with it was fun as heck for me. (still is! just haven't had time to play...) Despite finding so much pleasure in shooting video game sprites with lightning, reading the "A friend of my wife's was killed by lightning" really jolted me. I found that heart breaking. I have to ask: How desensitizing can games be if I react like that to somebody dying?
I'm at a point now where I don't even think 'scientific proof' will convince me that video game violence is dangerous.
"If the NBA, NFL and MBA are appropriate for children, then so are these games."
The E-for-everybody rating overrides this statement. Video games and television shows are not rated the same way. For a fight to happen in a video game, it has to be put in. A fight during a sporting event, however, cannot be prevented.
"So what, do they want the game to be a lie and pretend that these sports franchises are wholesome and goodnatured? "
Games are meant to be fun, not to be true reflections of what they're recreating.
"And besides.. IT IS A FUCKING GAME."
Normally I'd agree. However, if they're rated as E-for-everybody, they really should respect that as well as they can. The last thing video games need right now is attempts at heavy handed legislation due to complaints that the ratings system isn't an effective babysitter.
" While this isn't an option for everyone, its a good solution to keeping your mail secure"
It's only half a solution. If the person you're talking to doesn't have their own mail server (or using yours...) then you go right back to square 1.
"Verizon already uses a larger version of the system known as a Cell On Wheels (or COW; gotta love these acronyms)"
Oh neat, they named it after my ex! Why do ya suppose they changed what the C stood for?
"How do more people on cell phoes relieve disaster? I don't mean to be cynical, but there are much better tools for disaster workers, like radios and such."
So are they going to hand out radios to victims so they can be found?
"European GSM operators have been doing this for years."
Well that certainly defeats the claim that America is the first to do it.
"If you had bothered to RTFA, you would know that the case in question didn't involve an ISP (inaccurate headline notwithstanding)."
Here's a quote from the F'inA
"By interpreting the Wiretap Act's privacy protections very narrowly, this court has effectively given Internet communications providers free rein to invade the privacy of their users for any reason and at any time"
"You can't leave a message for a user that's offline"
This is not insolvable. All the client app has to do is to keep an eye on who's on-line, and deliver it when it sees them. Not as nice as email, but it still works.
"You generally are subjected to a limit on how much text you can transfer in one message."
Yep. However, since it's meant to be a real time discussion, this isn't such a bfd. I rely on IM for >95% of my online communication. The rest of it is either to get notifications from forums, or to talk with people that have nfi what instant messaging is. (like my parents, for example.)
"File transfer doesn't work a lot of the time if someone is behind a router or firewall."
Yeah, that takes a little fiddling. Counter point: No mailbox to fill up.
"The list goes on and on..."
Yeah it's easy to find reasons not to do stuff. The problem is, none of them are definitive "no I can't move over to this" type of reasons. I know this since I've already done it.
".. to start using strong crypto for our email? "
Screw that. Use instant messaging. The reason why ISPs can read the mail is because it sits on their servers. Find an IM program that doesn't use a server to store the messages (i.e. I think that rules out ICQ...) and you're set. The only real problem then is packet sniffing.
It has been ruled that ISPs are simply a carrier, but they can read the email?
"Nigeria Detains 500 419 Fraudsters"
I want to make a joke about that reading like >500,000 people, but I can't think of a snazzy punchline. Now I know how Bob Saget must have felt.
What do the cool people read? I wanna claim I read that.
" But if you could index a TV season and access easily I see your point."
Pity the industry thinks I need to re-buy all my content when something new comes along. If only they made adopting this stuff exciting. Give me that ability, that'll hook me as an early adopter. When new stuff comes down the pipeline, blammo, I've got my new blu-ray unit ready to get the higher quality stuff at a higher price.
*sigh*
"And after we get Linux on one disk, once each blu-ray DVDr becomes cheap enough, what's to stop us from mailing them all over the place, AOL-style?"
The basic fundamental premise that OSS is free? There's no money to spend on marketing it.
"I would not think that current DVD owners would burn multiple movies into 1 DVD backup."
Those of us that have entire seasons of Television shows might be interested. Depending on how easy it is to do, yadda yadda yadda. (Transcoding sucks!)
"I wonder if there's gonna be a Knoppix version that takes advantage of this..."
Screw Knoppix, we'll finally be able to get Redhat down to one disc!!