Because 30$ is still 30$ that I couldn't spend on the important things in life. I rarely use the phone, it's there for emergencies and making appointments. If I want to roam, I've got a cell, thank you very much.
Yup, you sure post flamebait and you should be modded as such...
Yup...it's not a proxy, it's a firewall/NAT. You need a ftp-proxy in that setup, but it is supposed to work transparently (as in: looks like a real direct connection and no username/password for the proxy) That entry didn't help me, and I read it before you linked it. Believe me, I don't give up very fast to get something running.
Yes, indeed...Just after I pushed "submit" on my post, the financial differences on a geographic scale sprang to my mind. You are right. On the other hand, I wouldn't want to order a DVD in India for the sole reason that it will come at best with an English version and a bunch of Indian languages and subtitles. I'm not a native english speaker, and I usually watch the english versions with english (or german/french/dutch) subtitles. There is no way I could do that with an Indian DVD.
Besides, even if DVD's are cheaper elsewhere you don't have to forget shipping and handling costs and the customs. I once imported CD's from CD-Now from the US (before e-commerce was big and amazon.de existed). Even though the CD's were about 5 a piece cheaper, after shipping and handling (and especially the customs), there wasn't much difference after all. Same with T-Shirts I once bought at ThinkGeek for my developer team. Due to the customs the price went up about 1/3. Outrageous, but comprehensible.
I don't know what "Swedish Fish" are, but you could always go to the movies as I described and invest in a nice bottle of wine to drink later before the fireplace with your girlfriend. I bet, that will be much more fun than she munching her "Swedisch Fish" at the theather. Just an idea. Of course, I couldn't know because I'm a single nerd that goes to the movies alone. So probably you are right not to listen to "Corporate Troll":-))
I have to reply to myself, because I was incorrect. It wasn't dependencies. Fink didn't want to go through my firewall. Actually it wouldn't download a thing. FTP works in some cases: with IE and Chimera for example, but not with Mozilla or the command line. I never understood why, I thought I setup ftp-proxy correctly on my OpenBSD machine.
Okay, so you think I should replace a completely functional phone with a cordless one just because it makes it easier to solve a problem I have on the computer? Come on, you don't buy a new car because you'd have airco. You won't buy a new television set, just because now there ate 16:9 TV's? Get a grip, please: normal people do not replace functional things when it is not needed.
We now have a cordless phone, because my brother smashed the old one against the wall after getting angry with his girlfriend (during a call). You know what? We have much more problems with that phone: like not finding where we left it, running out of batteries and calls that tend to be much longer (and thus huger bills) because you can call from your bed/the sofa/wherever it's comfortable.
Please, come back to the real world...
Yup, I know of that one... It's 30$ plus shipping and handling. So to get the CD to Europe it'll be 50$. For the occasional graphical editing I do, that's way overkill. (I told you I was cheap;-)) If it were 30$ for the download I'd consider it.
Mod the Guy up! You're completely right: it is nice to compliment people on their niceness/serviability/correctness on the phone...but it is *better* to let their superiors know that they have a good guy/gal in their ranks.
I'll most definately do that next time I have to call tech support and the service is good. Stupid I didn't think of it myself.
One of the things I'd like to run on my Mac (iBook with OS X) is The Gimp because I'm too cheap to pay for Photoshop and too honest to pirate software.
I didn't manage...yet...
XFree86 runs fine...
Would there be a way to put some pressure to the European Patent Office? After all we are thousands of voices...
And, no, I don't mean pressure in DoS style. More something like a petition.
The reason why I think this is that the revenue of both films didn't get a hit due to the fact that it was released worldwide. Everybody interested in the movie was going to watch it anyway. It just proves that people are willing to pay for a good experience, and region coding is not really what I call a "good experience".
Imagine a world were the DVD's are released simultaneously worldwide, with the correct subtitles and all per country, and the "extra features" everywhere the same. (Honestly, I never saw any extra feature that was worth it) At that point there would be *no* incentive to buy a DVD outside the US (or EU in my case), except perhaps if you wanted different subtitles (imagine a Chinese living on the eastcoast wanting Chinese subtitles). And the money goes after all to the distributors. It makes no damn difference where you buy it, it's the same people that get your money after all. If you look at the world that way, region code becomes effectively useless.
As for going cheaper to the movies: you can go to the movies without paying for popcorn/chips/drinks you know. I don't have a problem with that. I drive to the theather, park on the free parking, pay income, watch movie, go back to car, drive home. It's easy, and you had a good time. It's really cheap entertainment if you have the will to resist to the tempations of foods and drinks.
As for the home equipment: I have decent home equipent. A nice DVD player a 100cm TV screen, but no particular sound equipent. It's okay, but I suppose most videophiles would spit on it. Considering it has cost in total near 3500 (not counting the VCR), I can go *a lot* of times to the movies for that. Imagine what how many times I could go to the movies on what a typical videophile spends on his "home theather" (that will never rival a real theather anyway)
I have 7 DVD's... There is however only one I have watched more than 5 times, and it's "Pink Floyd - The Wall". And I only bought movies, I really, really, really, liked when I watched them in the theater. Considering my frequency of watching DVD's, going to the movies is cheaper, provides better experience, and gets me out of the house (eventually even with friends...who knows)
Oh, and there is no way in hell I'd buy a DVD that I didn't see in the theather. I have to know it is *good* before shelling out 30 for a DVD. The risk of not liking it is too big. If I didn't like a move in the theather I lost 7, if I didn't like the DVD I lost 30. It's really all just a matter of perspective.
A few years ago a Jaz disk would eject immediately after inserting it in the drive and I called Iomega. After going trough the automated stuff (push # for...), I finally got a live person on the line. After the usual (cables, drivers, etc....) stuff she exactly told me what to do to make it stay in there (easy: keep your hand the disk, until it snaps, it never had the problem after that occurence). She even was very patient with me because I had to walk to the computer each time to do something because the phone and computer were in different rooms. After being helped, I thanked her for her friendly and useful help, and she actually sounded astonished anyone would thank her for the help. And now you say they don't remember the good calls? *snif* (Oh, and she had one kind of sexy voice with a slight Irish accent)
...do as I do: start the DVD, the go to the bathroom, go fetch chips and beer in the basement, make some tea for mom who is going to watch the movie with you. Arrange everything around you so you can take it without moving (except mom and the tea), sit down. This takes 10 minutes and when you sit down you're at the main menu ready to rock 'n roll.
Yes, but it's a complete bogus argument. Most of the time they release a movie first in the US and then in Europe (can't talk for Asia). The region encoding prevents Europeans to order American DVD's while the movie is still in the theaters. So the idea is "less people will go and watch the movie in a theather". This of course is incorrect, I'd rather pay 7 to see it on a huge screen than 30 for a DVD to see it on my 100cm TV, besides: going to the teather is a social activity and is more fun than sitting on your couch munching chips.
I think (read: hope) that the simultaneous woldwide releases of Lord Of The Rings and Star Wars Episode II (major movies after all), will open the eyes of those who invented region coding (aka distribution channels) and that they actually are *losing* money on their stupid schemes.
Of course, I found it quite fun that I got to see "Le fabuleux déstin d'Amélie Poulain" before all Americans. Ha!;-) I want to buy it on DVD, but amazon.fr only has the french version, amazon.de just the french/german version and I actually need the french/english version just in case someone comes along and doesn't understand french (for me it doesn't matter: a french/german/english version would be great). Perhaps amazon.co.uk?;-)
That's not the point. American wine sells in Europe too, and if you see a French Cabris and a Californian Cabris side by side, how are you going to make the difference?
Most people not very knowledgable in wine will take the cheapest one, and guess which one that will be. Note, in defense of American wines: I didn't say the "best", I said the "cheapest". Some American wines are really much better than some French stuff they sell at horrendous prices. But that's probably just me, for I'm a beerdrinker not a winedrinker.
Yup, this indeed covers about any online financial transaction I can think off. However it seems it was granted in 1990 (earlier in the US). A long time before that you had "Minitel" in France (I actually never used the system). *if* Minitel offered banking services you have instant prior art. For some reason I find it quite a silly patent. Except for one single word (namely "Home terminal"), this could describe an Automatic Teller Machine.
Is it? Really? Wow, you mean I have been violating patents during the last few years by making e-banking software. I never ever heard anything about Online Banking being patented. Of, course I might be misinformed but do you have any pointers?
Yes, I had envisioned that possibility. I discarded it as a non-issue because most businesses have a fixed phone as contact point...you do not seem to. On the other hand, this problem is bound to happen to any publicly known phone. I have some solutions for you:
I believe some phones allow blocking on caller ID. This is of course not very effective since the harasser can disable caller ID
Since this is a bussiness phone, I suspect that SMS is not important. Bussinesses tend to use the "talking" part of the phone. Ask your phone company to disable the SMS service. This should be technically feasible
Last but not least: get a fixed phone and make it automatically forward to the cellphone. Change the cellphone number of course. No SMS will go from a fixed phone to the cell, and only give out the direct cellphone number to trusted people. Yes, it is more expensive but you can count it as bussiness, costs can't you.
For private people, the phone-number change is acceptable, for a publicily attainable bussiness the above three solutions are possible. See, you don't need the cellphone serial at all. Besides, if I would want to harras you, be sure that I'd find out how to change my serial myself. Not that I am that kind of person, but for an efficient stalker there are no boundaries.
Why? It's not offensive at all. If you want your privacy don't use a cellphone. The SIM card (not the IMEI, it identifies the phone, the hardware!) is your identity on the cell-network. The phone company needs it in orde to bill you at the end of the month. A credit card is the same: it has a number and for the credit card company *you* are that *number*. Simple, easy and efficient. Want me to go on: you use an ISP? Look, those guy have megabytes and megabytes of logs and they know very well when a certain IP address is attributed to a certain username. At any instance in time: you are that username. If it's timed (you pay by the minute or so), they will use this to bill you.
It's simply a fact that you need a handle to bill someone. If that handle is a number or a login, or an bank account...it does not matter.
The P-III ID thing was completely different: nobody needed to identify you for any good reason. The only exception would be to break your privacy. The P-III ID numbers made no sense, the IMEI numbers do make a sense.
What you describe is not an issue. You can always go to you phone company and ask a new phone number. Sometimes even a cutomized one: my dad and my bro both have their birthdays as phonenumbers. (I personally am inclined to do that too...but too many people know my number) Then the only thing the person has to do is give the new phone number to the people that require to know it. Done. You don't even need a new SIM card for it, let alone IMEI.
In short:
The SIM Card identifies you and your number. It is even possible to have two SIM cards linked to the same phonenumber (one for you cell, one for you car-instllation). Look at it as your "entrance ticket to the network". You change the SIM card, you change your identity.
The IMEI is nothing more than the serial number of you Phone. That's it. The only reason it is checked is, to detect stolen phones. Note that you'd need to declare the theft at your phone company. Phone companies could also not check it... Some people around here compare it to the MAC address of your network card, which is in a sense true (you can deny network access based on the MAC address of your network card)., but on the other hand: network cards don't tend to get stolen very often and usually are only used on intranets rarely provoking any clashes with other MAC addresses.
it's very annoying if you found out that you got dressed up on friday, invested a good hour on this chick and all she really wanted to talk to you for is to sell you a f*king phone.
Hmmm....I wouldn't mind, at least a cute chick would have talked to me. Usually I just sit there and talk to my beer.
No...Windows NT (and 2000 and XP) are pseudo-Multiuser. Without third-party tools you cannot login from a distance (yes, terminal services, VNC, yadda-yadda-yadda). Fact is that *NIX systems are multi-user in the most purest form: you just need a terminal and you can start using it. I know about the XP functionality that lets you switch from one user to the other without logging of the first user. This still is pseudo-multiuser because essentially ony *one person at a time* is using the system.
Oh, and don't get me started on the fact that so many Windows 2000 machines are set to boot up in Administrator mode without login. That's single user baby! And worst of all with full rights.
About the cruft (to stay a bit on topic): My Windows 2000 systems are essentially cruft-less in my eyes (not in the scale of the article). My WINNT folder is about 850Meg and that's it. This is simply for the fact that I managed to write some registry scripts who move modify the default folders for installation. I don't have something like "Program Files" on my machine (Lamest name for a folder after "My Documents"). It just sits on a different partition in a folder called "WinApp". Added benefit: if for whatever reason my WINNT partition dies, I just have to install Windows and a few Microsoft Applications, because strangely enough "other applications" don't use the registry extensively enough to be "too integrated with the system". One of the cruftiest things I find in the Windows world is the uglyness of the Start-Menu organisation. [CompanyName]/[Appname] and in that a link to the Help, README, Application itself and the uninstaller? Get real! What are the odds in the first place that I have a gazillion of products of the same company? It just adds another needless level in the hierarchy of the start menu. I simply categorize the applications on function: Tools, Programming, Internet, etc... Remove the links to readme and help files (and uninstallers...those are way to easily accidentally clicked by normal users). It makes your Start Menu look clean again, and makes it usable. Most users are very happy when you organize it that way because it makes *sense*. For me Windows is crufty by default and you need to make a lot of tweaks in order to force it in a camisole that makes it behave accordingly.
Hmmm...Well, I'm not sure, but you could open the case and see if it is possible to detach a wire or so. That's often done with floppy disks. I doubt it will work with USB though. Sorry, I don't know any other tricks.
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Yup, you sure post flamebait and you should be modded as such...
Yup...it's not a proxy, it's a firewall/NAT. You need a ftp-proxy in that setup, but it is supposed to work transparently (as in: looks like a real direct connection and no username/password for the proxy) That entry didn't help me, and I read it before you linked it. Believe me, I don't give up very fast to get something running.
Besides, even if DVD's are cheaper elsewhere you don't have to forget shipping and handling costs and the customs. I once imported CD's from CD-Now from the US (before e-commerce was big and amazon.de existed). Even though the CD's were about 5 a piece cheaper, after shipping and handling (and especially the customs), there wasn't much difference after all. Same with T-Shirts I once bought at ThinkGeek for my developer team. Due to the customs the price went up about 1/3. Outrageous, but comprehensible.
I don't know what "Swedish Fish" are, but you could always go to the movies as I described and invest in a nice bottle of wine to drink later before the fireplace with your girlfriend. I bet, that will be much more fun than she munching her "Swedisch Fish" at the theather. Just an idea. Of course, I couldn't know because I'm a single nerd that goes to the movies alone. So probably you are right not to listen to "Corporate Troll" :-))
I have to reply to myself, because I was incorrect. It wasn't dependencies. Fink didn't want to go through my firewall. Actually it wouldn't download a thing. FTP works in some cases: with IE and Chimera for example, but not with Mozilla or the command line. I never understood why, I thought I setup ftp-proxy correctly on my OpenBSD machine.
Yes, I have...
I told it to install the GIMP and it coudn't figure out the dependancies. Ooops.... Probably because I installed XFree86 myself.
Okay, so you think I should replace a completely functional phone with a cordless one just because it makes it easier to solve a problem I have on the computer? Come on, you don't buy a new car because you'd have airco. You won't buy a new television set, just because now there ate 16:9 TV's? Get a grip, please: normal people do not replace functional things when it is not needed.
We now have a cordless phone, because my brother smashed the old one against the wall after getting angry with his girlfriend (during a call). You know what? We have much more problems with that phone: like not finding where we left it, running out of batteries and calls that tend to be much longer (and thus huger bills) because you can call from your bed/the sofa/wherever it's comfortable.
Please, come back to the real world...
Yup, I know of that one... It's 30$ plus shipping and handling. So to get the CD to Europe it'll be 50$. For the occasional graphical editing I do, that's way overkill. (I told you I was cheap ;-)) If it were 30$ for the download I'd consider it.
Mod the Guy up! You're completely right: it is nice to compliment people on their niceness/serviability/correctness on the phone...but it is *better* to let their superiors know that they have a good guy/gal in their ranks.
I'll most definately do that next time I have to call tech support and the service is good. Stupid I didn't think of it myself.
One of the things I'd like to run on my Mac (iBook with OS X) is The Gimp because I'm too cheap to pay for Photoshop and too honest to pirate software.
I didn't manage...yet...
XFree86 runs fine...
Would there be a way to put some pressure to the European Patent Office? After all we are thousands of voices...
And, no, I don't mean pressure in DoS style. More something like a petition.
Imagine a world were the DVD's are released simultaneously worldwide, with the correct subtitles and all per country, and the "extra features" everywhere the same. (Honestly, I never saw any extra feature that was worth it) At that point there would be *no* incentive to buy a DVD outside the US (or EU in my case), except perhaps if you wanted different subtitles (imagine a Chinese living on the eastcoast wanting Chinese subtitles). And the money goes after all to the distributors. It makes no damn difference where you buy it, it's the same people that get your money after all. If you look at the world that way, region code becomes effectively useless.
As for going cheaper to the movies: you can go to the movies without paying for popcorn/chips/drinks you know. I don't have a problem with that. I drive to the theather, park on the free parking, pay income, watch movie, go back to car, drive home. It's easy, and you had a good time. It's really cheap entertainment if you have the will to resist to the tempations of foods and drinks.
As for the home equipment: I have decent home equipent. A nice DVD player a 100cm TV screen, but no particular sound equipent. It's okay, but I suppose most videophiles would spit on it. Considering it has cost in total near 3500 (not counting the VCR), I can go *a lot* of times to the movies for that. Imagine what how many times I could go to the movies on what a typical videophile spends on his "home theather" (that will never rival a real theather anyway)
I have 7 DVD's... There is however only one I have watched more than 5 times, and it's "Pink Floyd - The Wall". And I only bought movies, I really, really, really, liked when I watched them in the theater. Considering my frequency of watching DVD's, going to the movies is cheaper, provides better experience, and gets me out of the house (eventually even with friends...who knows)
Oh, and there is no way in hell I'd buy a DVD that I didn't see in the theather. I have to know it is *good* before shelling out 30 for a DVD. The risk of not liking it is too big. If I didn't like a move in the theather I lost 7, if I didn't like the DVD I lost 30. It's really all just a matter of perspective.
A few years ago a Jaz disk would eject immediately after inserting it in the drive and I called Iomega. After going trough the automated stuff (push # for ...), I finally got a live person on the line.
After the usual (cables, drivers, etc....) stuff she exactly told me what to do to make it stay in there (easy: keep your hand the disk, until it snaps, it never had the problem after that occurence). She even was very patient with me because I had to walk to the computer each time to do something because the phone and computer were in different rooms. After being helped, I thanked her for her friendly and useful help, and she actually sounded astonished anyone would thank her for the help.
And now you say they don't remember the good calls? *snif* (Oh, and she had one kind of sexy voice with a slight Irish accent)
...do as I do: start the DVD, the go to the bathroom, go fetch chips and beer in the basement, make some tea for mom who is going to watch the movie with you. Arrange everything around you so you can take it without moving (except mom and the tea), sit down. This takes 10 minutes and when you sit down you're at the main menu ready to rock 'n roll.
I think (read: hope) that the simultaneous woldwide releases of Lord Of The Rings and Star Wars Episode II (major movies after all), will open the eyes of those who invented region coding (aka distribution channels) and that they actually are *losing* money on their stupid schemes.
Of course, I found it quite fun that I got to see "Le fabuleux déstin d'Amélie Poulain" before all Americans. Ha! ;-) I want to buy it on DVD, but amazon.fr only has the french version, amazon.de just the french/german version and I actually need the french/english version just in case someone comes along and doesn't understand french (for me it doesn't matter: a french/german/english version would be great). Perhaps amazon.co.uk? ;-)
That's not the point. American wine sells in Europe too, and if you see a French Cabris and a Californian Cabris side by side, how are you going to make the difference?
Most people not very knowledgable in wine will take the cheapest one, and guess which one that will be. Note, in defense of American wines: I didn't say the "best", I said the "cheapest". Some American wines are really much better than some French stuff they sell at horrendous prices. But that's probably just me, for I'm a beerdrinker not a winedrinker.
Yup, this indeed covers about any online financial transaction I can think off. However it seems it was granted in 1990 (earlier in the US). A long time before that you had "Minitel" in France (I actually never used the system). *if* Minitel offered banking services you have instant prior art.
For some reason I find it quite a silly patent. Except for one single word (namely "Home terminal"), this could describe an Automatic Teller Machine.
Which ID represents the algorithm of DeCCS?
Is it? Really? Wow, you mean I have been violating patents during the last few years by making e-banking software. I never ever heard anything about Online Banking being patented. Of, course I might be misinformed but do you have any pointers?
For private people, the phone-number change is acceptable, for a publicily attainable bussiness the above three solutions are possible. See, you don't need the cellphone serial at all. Besides, if I would want to harras you, be sure that I'd find out how to change my serial myself. Not that I am that kind of person, but for an efficient stalker there are no boundaries.
Why? It's not offensive at all. If you want your privacy don't use a cellphone. The SIM card (not the IMEI, it identifies the phone, the hardware!) is your identity on the cell-network. The phone company needs it in orde to bill you at the end of the month.
A credit card is the same: it has a number and for the credit card company *you* are that *number*. Simple, easy and efficient.
Want me to go on: you use an ISP? Look, those guy have megabytes and megabytes of logs and they know very well when a certain IP address is attributed to a certain username. At any instance in time: you are that username. If it's timed (you pay by the minute or so), they will use this to bill you.
It's simply a fact that you need a handle to bill someone. If that handle is a number or a login, or an bank account...it does not matter.
The P-III ID thing was completely different: nobody needed to identify you for any good reason. The only exception would be to break your privacy. The P-III ID numbers made no sense, the IMEI numbers do make a sense.
In short:
Hmmm....I wouldn't mind, at least a cute chick would have talked to me. Usually I just sit there and talk to my beer.
I still do it that way...I wasn't even aware that there was a tool. I'll keep using regedt32, because regedt32 is your friend. :-)
I know about the XP functionality that lets you switch from one user to the other without logging of the first user. This still is pseudo-multiuser because essentially ony *one person at a time* is using the system.
Oh, and don't get me started on the fact that so many Windows 2000 machines are set to boot up in Administrator mode without login. That's single user baby! And worst of all with full rights.
About the cruft (to stay a bit on topic): My Windows 2000 systems are essentially cruft-less in my eyes (not in the scale of the article). My WINNT folder is about 850Meg and that's it. This is simply for the fact that I managed to write some registry scripts who move modify the default folders for installation. I don't have something like "Program Files" on my machine (Lamest name for a folder after "My Documents"). It just sits on a different partition in a folder called "WinApp". Added benefit: if for whatever reason my WINNT partition dies, I just have to install Windows and a few Microsoft Applications, because strangely enough "other applications" don't use the registry extensively enough to be "too integrated with the system".
One of the cruftiest things I find in the Windows world is the uglyness of the Start-Menu organisation. [CompanyName]/[Appname] and in that a link to the Help, README, Application itself and the uninstaller? Get real! What are the odds in the first place that I have a gazillion of products of the same company? It just adds another needless level in the hierarchy of the start menu.
I simply categorize the applications on function: Tools, Programming, Internet, etc... Remove the links to readme and help files (and uninstallers...those are way to easily accidentally clicked by normal users). It makes your Start Menu look clean again, and makes it usable. Most users are very happy when you organize it that way because it makes *sense*.
For me Windows is crufty by default and you need to make a lot of tweaks in order to force it in a camisole that makes it behave accordingly.
Hmmm...Well, I'm not sure, but you could open the case and see if it is possible to detach a wire or so. That's often done with floppy disks. I doubt it will work with USB though. Sorry, I don't know any other tricks.