Funny. My girlfriend's cats like to crawl behind the computer and attack the mouse wires. It sounds funny until they yank the mouse out from under your hand and start gnawing on the wires.
CDs are a funny example since one of the alternatives is the Liberty Alliance which was founded by AOL (among others). I remember getting many more cds from them.
I don't think it has gotten any harder. I mean you can get a motherboard that supports PIII's from 450 to 1ghz. That's a pretty big range. Much bigger than the PII, Pentium and 486.
That is true but there is no way of knowing that they did vote the way you paid them. It is a risky business. If everything was online, I could buy somebody's password and I vote for them.
Streets are safer? Come to New York. There are parts of New York that I wouldn't walk through during the day that are now like Disneyland even at night.
You forgot the last part - "And here is a driver's license with my name and your photo." It is a lot harder to lie about being somebody else in person that it is online.
You are assuming that most car thieves would make the step from GTA to Armed Robbery, Assault with a Deadly Weapon, and even murder. Most car thieves are looking to get in and out as quickly as possible with as little hassle as possible.
Why? Is there a particular car that you would like to steal? They actually do state that they use the most popular cars to steal (Honda Accord, Toyota Camry, etc.)
Lawsuits? I am pretty sure that Grand Theft Auto (not the game) is a criminal offense and the scumbag lawyers would be paid out of the criminals pocket unless he goes with the public defender, who would probably just make a deal with the DA for a lesser charge.
How is it entrapment? If an undercover cop went up to a guy and said "Man. Look at that car. It would be so easy to steal" then that might be entrapment. But leaving a car parked on the street with tracking hardware is hardly encouraging somebody to commit a crime they may not have committed otherwise.
If you remember, right after the election they talked about this. Each district is responsible for determining how voting will be done (punchcards, machines, etc.). They would either have to absorb the costs of purchasing the computers, network and internet access or the government would have to spend several billions of dollars to do it for them. This was all talked to death after the election.
Just wait until online voting happens and you can only vote if you register with their online services
A troll posting with a +1?. Let's see what's wrong with your theory:
1) To force online voting every citizen would have to have a computer and an internet connection. Either that or every district would have to have terminals available for voters.
2) An absolute secure system would need to be built. An online voting system would be priority one for most hackers.
3) A system for insuring that people are who they say they are would be needed. Bioinformatics would have to be involved. Otherwise what is to stop somebody from selling their votes?
This is a topic that has been discussed over and over since the last Presidential election. Most of the same problems arise with forcing online tax payments. It will be a very long time before you see paper tax forms disappear.
It is not always like that. Several years ago, my grandfather became very ill and was near death. He had completely given up living. For whatever reason he found the will to survive but he still needs continuing attention. We put him in a home that a friend recommended and not only is he doing better now but he actually has a "girlfriend." I actually think that he is more social now that when my grandmother was still alive.
As for the robot, the eldery aren't just looking for affection, they are looking for affection from their family. At the home where my grandfather is, there is a woman who is a spinster. To make her life more fulfilling they actually have a program where a family "adopted" her.
Of course, AOLTW happens to have a former board member who is now Secretary of State (Colin Powell) who's son also happens to be the FCC Chairman (Michael Powell). You should also know that AOLTW COO, Richard Parsons, is very good friends with Colin Powell.
Steve Case is also part of the President's Tech Advisory board.
If you do some research and put a pause on your Microsoft hating, you will find that AOL has many more friends and much more influence in Washington than Microsoft could ever dream of. This is why Microsoft has to spend twice as much money.
Most slashdotters are so ardant in the bashing of Microsoft that they are entirely ignorant of the fact that Microsoft is actually just a piss in the pot compared to Disney, AOLTW, Vivendi, GE, Walmart, Philip Morris, etc.
Sometimes payments are not necessary. AOLTW for instance seems to get a lot of support from New York Senator Chuck Schumer. AOLTW just happens to be headquartered in NYC (75 Rock Plaza) and has operations in several other locations (Time Life Building, HBO Building, etc.).
Several companies have moved to Jersey City and a simple hint that AOLTW is looking to move also is enough to encourage a Senator to support your case.
I also chose those 3 companies because they were instrumental in bringing the Microsoft case to the attention of the Justice Department in the first place.
3) $40 billion in the bank buys you lots of senators, and congressmen, and judges, etc,etc.
I always love this argument. Besides the fact that Microsoft has actually only $3B in cash and cash equivalents (those ignorant of Finance count Short-Term investments to get to $40B), what makes you think that AOLTW (around $1B), Sun Microsystems ($1B), and Oracle (around $2.5B) couldn't also buy some senators?
Also, Microsoft is Number 72 in the Fortune 500. Companies like IBM (9), HP (28), AOLTW (37), Compaq (47), Dell (53), Intel (65) would all seem to be in a better position to buy politicians and judges. Internationally Microsoft is actually 201 and a lot of those international companies (like Vivendi) have a very large presence in this country.
Trust me. Install just the browser and you will see that it is 4.08. Take a look in the logs for a webserver some time - This is how Netscape 4 series shows up:
Mozilla/4.08+[en]
All that other crap is just Communicator stuff. The browser rendering isn't changed.
No matter what, Netscape 4 is only surpassed by IE 3 as crappiest browser ever. I highly recommend going to 6 or Mozilla.
Look who's trolling now. What the hell is Netscape 4.9? The last version of Netscape Navigator in the 4 series was 4.08. Don't believe me? Then do a help - about navigator. You are confusing the browser with the full blown package (aka Communicator).
Second, CSS and JavaScript support in the 4 series is abysmal. Mozilla, the 6 series and even IE blow it out of the water. You can see how bad it is Here
Plus electricity costs. You can get a lot of long distance phone calls for that price.
The difference is that the electricity cost is the same if I am IM'ing somebody in Korea or somebody two blocks away. I also can hold several IM conversations at one time which is not very easy with the telephone. Finally, IM conversations can be held throughout the day - starting and stopping as needed.
I can't tell if you are flamebaiting or just ignorant of the big picture. The problem is not as simple as some geeks stealing music. There were millions of non-geeks who downloaded music off of Napster not just because it was free but also because it was easy.
What you need to do is look at what the consumer wants and compare it to the current business model:
1) The ability to download any song recorded in the modern era (including live recordings, "b" sides, and radio-only versions) easily and quickly from the Internet.
2) To be able to take that song and play it in any type of device they desire (CD, Computer, MP3 Player, etc.)
3) To able to include that song on compilation CD's, mix tapes, etc.
4) To be able to ourchase/download only one song from an album without being penalized.
Now how does that stack up with the current model. First, even with online stores such as CDNow and Amazon, it is often difficult to find some titles. When you do you are usually forced to buy an entire CD even if you only want the one song. CD singles are usually only available for recent titles and may cost as much as half the price of the entire CD. The record industry is addressing this by allowing you to buy the music online but in some cases the music is in a different format that is incompatible with exsiting MP3 players. In other cases you are only allowed a certain amount of "burns" which means that you can't include one song you really like on all your mix cds. Add to that the fact that if you buy the CD you can't rip it yourself because of CD protection and must buy separately the digital copy.
The moral of the story is that the record industry dropped the ball. They underestimated the popularity of online distribution and failed to provided a working business model. Napster filled that gap by providing a system that was easy enough to use that even non-geeks used it. The industry is trying to catch up but instead of working together to build a system that would be fair to users and artists alike they are introducing multiple systems that don't meet the users' needs and, supposedly, rips off the artists.
Slashdot Mirror
Funny. My girlfriend's cats like to crawl behind the computer and attack the mouse wires. It sounds funny until they yank the mouse out from under your hand and start gnawing on the wires.
CDs are a funny example since one of the alternatives is the Liberty Alliance which was founded by AOL (among others). I remember getting many more cds from them.
I don't think it has gotten any harder. I mean you can get a motherboard that supports PIII's from 450 to 1ghz. That's a pretty big range. Much bigger than the PII, Pentium and 486.
That is true but there is no way of knowing that they did vote the way you paid them. It is a risky business. If everything was online, I could buy somebody's password and I vote for them.
Streets are safer? Come to New York. There are parts of New York that I wouldn't walk through during the day that are now like Disneyland even at night.
You forgot the last part - "And here is a driver's license with my name and your photo." It is a lot harder to lie about being somebody else in person that it is online.
You are assuming that most car thieves would make the step from GTA to Armed Robbery, Assault with a Deadly Weapon, and even murder. Most car thieves are looking to get in and out as quickly as possible with as little hassle as possible.
Why? Is there a particular car that you would like to steal? They actually do state that they use the most popular cars to steal (Honda Accord, Toyota Camry, etc.)
Lawsuits? I am pretty sure that Grand Theft Auto (not the game) is a criminal offense and the scumbag lawyers would be paid out of the criminals pocket unless he goes with the public defender, who would probably just make a deal with the DA for a lesser charge.
How is it entrapment? If an undercover cop went up to a guy and said "Man. Look at that car. It would be so easy to steal" then that might be entrapment. But leaving a car parked on the street with tracking hardware is hardly encouraging somebody to commit a crime they may not have committed otherwise.
If you remember, right after the election they talked about this. Each district is responsible for determining how voting will be done (punchcards, machines, etc.). They would either have to absorb the costs of purchasing the computers, network and internet access or the government would have to spend several billions of dollars to do it for them. This was all talked to death after the election.
Just wait until online voting happens and you can only vote if you register with their online services
A troll posting with a +1?. Let's see what's wrong with your theory:
1) To force online voting every citizen would have to have a computer and an internet connection. Either that or every district would have to have terminals available for voters.
2) An absolute secure system would need to be built. An online voting system would be priority one for most hackers.
3) A system for insuring that people are who they say they are would be needed. Bioinformatics would have to be involved. Otherwise what is to stop somebody from selling their votes?
This is a topic that has been discussed over and over since the last Presidential election. Most of the same problems arise with forcing online tax payments. It will be a very long time before you see paper tax forms disappear.
It is not always like that. Several years ago, my grandfather became very ill and was near death. He had completely given up living. For whatever reason he found the will to survive but he still needs continuing attention. We put him in a home that a friend recommended and not only is he doing better now but he actually has a "girlfriend." I actually think that he is more social now that when my grandmother was still alive.
As for the robot, the eldery aren't just looking for affection, they are looking for affection from their family. At the home where my grandfather is, there is a woman who is a spinster. To make her life more fulfilling they actually have a program where a family "adopted" her.
Of course, AOLTW happens to have a former board member who is now Secretary of State (Colin Powell) who's son also happens to be the FCC Chairman (Michael Powell). You should also know that AOLTW COO, Richard Parsons, is very good friends with Colin Powell.
Steve Case is also part of the President's Tech Advisory board.
If you do some research and put a pause on your Microsoft hating, you will find that AOL has many more friends and much more influence in Washington than Microsoft could ever dream of. This is why Microsoft has to spend twice as much money.
Most slashdotters are so ardant in the bashing of Microsoft that they are entirely ignorant of the fact that Microsoft is actually just a piss in the pot compared to Disney, AOLTW, Vivendi, GE, Walmart, Philip Morris, etc.
I also noticed that Chuck Schumer has been receiving about $50K from TW each election since 98. Hillary Clinton also received $50K from AOLTW.
In total for the 2000 election AOLTW gave around $1M - mostly to Democrats. Microsoft gave $2.3M split almost 50/50.
Great site by the way. Glad you pointed it out.
Sometimes payments are not necessary. AOLTW for instance seems to get a lot of support from New York Senator Chuck Schumer. AOLTW just happens to be headquartered in NYC (75 Rock Plaza) and has operations in several other locations (Time Life Building, HBO Building, etc.).
Several companies have moved to Jersey City and a simple hint that AOLTW is looking to move also is enough to encourage a Senator to support your case.
I also chose those 3 companies because they were instrumental in bringing the Microsoft case to the attention of the Justice Department in the first place.
3) $40 billion in the bank buys you lots of senators, and congressmen, and judges, etc,etc.
I always love this argument. Besides the fact that Microsoft has actually only $3B in cash and cash equivalents (those ignorant of Finance count Short-Term investments to get to $40B), what makes you think that AOLTW (around $1B), Sun Microsystems ($1B), and Oracle (around $2.5B) couldn't also buy some senators?
Also, Microsoft is Number 72 in the Fortune 500. Companies like IBM (9), HP (28), AOLTW (37), Compaq (47), Dell (53), Intel (65) would all seem to be in a better position to buy politicians and judges. Internationally Microsoft is actually 201 and a lot of those international companies (like Vivendi) have a very large presence in this country.
For those of you interested in Synchronicity - read CG Jung.
That is so weird. My response went to the wrong post and I am positive I clicked on the right reply. This was supposed to go to the 404 guy.
Go out and download an ftp client and you will notice that 350 out of the 350 available anonymous users are already logged on.
and once thought the characters were chasing him,
Read the article again. Jay Parker, a chemical dependency, is talking about a client of his, not the boy in question.
Trust me. Install just the browser and you will see that it is 4.08. Take a look in the logs for a webserver some time - This is how Netscape 4 series shows up:
Mozilla/4.08+[en]
All that other crap is just Communicator stuff. The browser rendering isn't changed.
No matter what, Netscape 4 is only surpassed by IE 3 as crappiest browser ever. I highly recommend going to 6 or Mozilla.
Look who's trolling now. What the hell is Netscape 4.9? The last version of Netscape Navigator in the 4 series was 4.08. Don't believe me? Then do a help - about navigator. You are confusing the browser with the full blown package (aka Communicator).
Second, CSS and JavaScript support in the 4 series is abysmal. Mozilla, the 6 series and even IE blow it out of the water. You can see how bad it is Here
Plus electricity costs. You can get a lot of long distance phone calls for that price.
The difference is that the electricity cost is the same if I am IM'ing somebody in Korea or somebody two blocks away. I also can hold several IM conversations at one time which is not very easy with the telephone. Finally, IM conversations can be held throughout the day - starting and stopping as needed.
I can't tell if you are flamebaiting or just ignorant of the big picture. The problem is not as simple as some geeks stealing music. There were millions of non-geeks who downloaded music off of Napster not just because it was free but also because it was easy.
What you need to do is look at what the consumer wants and compare it to the current business model:
1) The ability to download any song recorded in the modern era (including live recordings, "b" sides, and radio-only versions) easily and quickly from the Internet.
2) To be able to take that song and play it in any type of device they desire (CD, Computer, MP3 Player, etc.)
3) To able to include that song on compilation CD's, mix tapes, etc.
4) To be able to ourchase/download only one song from an album without being penalized.
Now how does that stack up with the current model. First, even with online stores such as CDNow and Amazon, it is often difficult to find some titles. When you do you are usually forced to buy an entire CD even if you only want the one song. CD singles are usually only available for recent titles and may cost as much as half the price of the entire CD. The record industry is addressing this by allowing you to buy the music online but in some cases the music is in a different format that is incompatible with exsiting MP3 players. In other cases you are only allowed a certain amount of "burns" which means that you can't include one song you really like on all your mix cds. Add to that the fact that if you buy the CD you can't rip it yourself because of CD protection and must buy separately the digital copy.
The moral of the story is that the record industry dropped the ball. They underestimated the popularity of online distribution and failed to provided a working business model. Napster filled that gap by providing a system that was easy enough to use that even non-geeks used it. The industry is trying to catch up but instead of working together to build a system that would be fair to users and artists alike they are introducing multiple systems that don't meet the users' needs and, supposedly, rips off the artists.