If you're having trouble playing them on the legit side, why not just rip them?
I've been doing that for a while.
My set-top player seems to have trouble with the copy protection that Disney uses on most of their DVDs. So I end up ripping , and re-burning them. Those play just fine in the player.
Don't be so dense. As complexity increases, thorough testing becomes difficult and eventually impossible. We already went through this with software in its early days.
Difficult doesn't mean undesirable.
Shouldn't quality, or at least a reasonable chance of working properly be a goal for any company wanting repeat customers?
I see this as just another short-sighted rush for short term Max_Profits at the expense of the future survivability of the business. Kinda like shutting down all your factories to boost this quarter's profitability, to hell with the future.
I drive by a sewage treatment plant, and a landfill a few times a week, and wonder just how much methane is just escaping into the atmosphere. Methane which could be captured fairly easily, and used anywhere natural gas or propane are currently used.
Announcing the grand opening of www.everythingalwaysonsale.ca
That's right! Just because your government won't let you shop around for the best deal, doesn't mean that you can't save money. Stop buying from those overpriced American stores, and get started cross-border shopping!
Our friendly agents are standing by to serve you, eh.
(nobody cares how the job gets done as long as it gets done.)
In the competition, the organizers phrased the removal of "illegal" tools as being the result of a BSA style audit. I expect companies who have been the subjects/victims of such an audit care greatly about the legality of the tools their admins (even contracted ones) are using.
I think it's more about making a point: security is not simple;
I expect the contestants came away with a heightened respect for just how much work it is to implement effective security.
Which will make them better admins when they graduate and join the workforce.
I'm guessing that maybe this is because a seasoned veteran would expect for the network to be maintained correctly?
Clearly you've never been a contractor.
Starting a contract to "upgrade and secure our network" for a small company who doesn't have any IT staff, and only brings in contractors on a one-off basis a couple of times a year.
The competition scenario sounds fairly plausible to me.
My current opinion is "If I want to rewire a phone, I'll look it up online."
Not trying to bust your chops, but what if the question is "how do I rewire this Ethernet jack"? If you need said Ethernet connection to get online and look up the instructions...
I'm in a similar position as the GP (although maybe a few hairs greyer). When I was a kid, my dad helped the local TV repair guy clean up his shop, and he brought home a few "not worth the effort to repair" TVs for me to tinker with. After a few months, I had stripped parts out of most of them, and had 2 of them working. How many teenagers had a pair of 26" TVs in their room? In the late 70's?
I'm making sure my kids grow up knowing that "almost anything can be fixed, all you need to know is how it's supposed to work".
Why does nearly everyone on/. assume that every company is out to deceive them? or that every press release (unless it's from Google or Apple) is a marketing lie?
I assume that because that is exactly what my life experience has taught me.
Marketing is about increasing a company's ability to get money out of my pocket and into theirs. Hype, empty promises, pseudo-scientific claims, and outright deception are among the tools they use to accomplish that goal.
Hmm... you sure that isn't just an effect of NTSC/PAL transfer? Converting 24fps film to 25fps PAL can cause a 4% speedup.
There is technology to stretch the timing of live video. The ad I saw (in a broadcast industry magazine a few years ago) claimed that the equipment could stretch out a live football game by up to 3 minutes, allowing for more commercial time, and without the viewers noticing.
I just tried searching for it, but my Google-fu seems weak the evening.
Yes, for the simple reason that one must always buy a new cell phone if one wants to change providers.
Well, you certainly do if you are changing from a CDMA based carrier to a GSM based one.
Unlike Europe, and much of Asia, here in North America, there are 2 very different technologies being used by various competing cell companies.
That alone is one reason why moving your phone to another carrier isn't universally possible.
As someone else already said, the reason phone companies lock phones to their network is the hardware subsidy.
Example - (numbers pulled outta thin air for demonstration purposes only):
Phone Company X buys phones from Nokia for $100 each, (full retail $200), and sells them in a package for $20, and a service contract for 2-3 years@25$/month. Clearly they don't want you taking that phone that you just bought from them way under cost, and going to another carrier.
I was told by a friend who works in marketing at a cell company that it costs ~ $180 to acquire a new customer (commissions, hardware subsidy, marketing, etc, etc). On a $25/month plan that's a good chunk of a year before they make a penny of profit from that new customer. And that doesn't take into account paying for the network infrastructure.
The video has be preserved for posterity and their refusal to accept this only makes people like me want to rub their noses in it.
One of the several places I just found it (not any of the well-known video hosting sites) had the video, and their counter showed 1173323 hits.
Ya can't put the cat back in the bag.
I would hope that the only wiring that was shared between critical and non-critical systems would be the +12V and GND.
While I suppose a massive hardware failure in the entertainment system could cause a brownout (And it'd be hard to blame that on Microsoft), the fuses should take care of that.
- data should be stored on the server (centralised backup, provision for web mail when you need it, ability to have an administrator control it, access from multiple hosts)
It's a good option to have, but I prefer to have the data stored at the client.
I use a laptop, and spend a significant amount of time off-line, yet I still need the information contained in my e-mail history. When I'm at the office there is a major bottleneck between our LAN segment and the mail server. Talk about painful having to wait every time you look at the next message if it has to be pulled from the server every time. And then there's foolishly low quotas on mailbox size.
I realize the last 2 can be solved, but not by me (or most normal users).
My point exactly.
If they had kept their new model accessory compatible with the old model, they would have sold me a new phone.
Since they didn't, I had no reason to not look at their competitors.
And since they pissed me off, I had a reason to look away from them.
I've always wondered what the logic is for any given manufacturer to change interfaces between their own models?
<scenario>
I have a phone of Brand X. I also have a desk charger, a car charger, data cable, and a wired headset.
My phone breaks/dies/needs to be replaced.
I want to get something that is compatible with the accessories that I have already bought. That means I probably want to buy another new phone from the same manufacturer.
Except that their new phones aren't compatible with *ANY* of the accessories from my current phone of the same brand. So, now since I'm having to buy new accessories anyway, and I have a bitter taste in my mouth about that, I look at all the other brands of phone when I make my selection. </scenario>
I've asked this of reps from Nokia, Motorola and RIM, and none of them have been able to come up with an answer.
Slashdot Mirror
My set-top player seems to have trouble with the copy protection that Disney uses on most of their DVDs. So I end up ripping , and re-burning them.
Those play just fine in the player.
Difficult doesn't mean undesirable.
Shouldn't quality, or at least a reasonable chance of working properly be a goal for any company wanting repeat customers?
I see this as just another short-sighted rush for short term Max_Profits at the expense of the future survivability of the business.
Kinda like shutting down all your factories to boost this quarter's profitability, to hell with the future.
It's not an unconscious realization, it's common freakin' curtesy
Doesn't exist.
Like "common sense".
It just ain't common.
I drive by a sewage treatment plant, and a landfill a few times a week, and wonder just how much methane is just escaping into the atmosphere. Methane which could be captured fairly easily, and used anywhere natural gas or propane are currently used.
Announcing the grand opening of www.everythingalwaysonsale.ca
That's right!
Just because your government won't let you shop around for the best deal, doesn't mean that you can't save money.
Stop buying from those overpriced American stores, and get started cross-border shopping!
Our friendly agents are standing by to serve you, eh.
Like maybe the AI from the Andromeda Ascendant?
In the competition, the organizers phrased the removal of "illegal" tools as being the result of a BSA style audit. I expect companies who have been the subjects/victims of such an audit care greatly about the legality of the tools their admins (even contracted ones) are using.
I think it's more about making a point: security is not simple;
I expect the contestants came away with a heightened respect for just how much work it is to implement effective security.
Which will make them better admins when they graduate and join the workforce.
Clearly you've never been a contractor.
Starting a contract to "upgrade and secure our network" for a small company who doesn't have any IT staff, and only brings in contractors on a one-off basis a couple of times a year.
The competition scenario sounds fairly plausible to me.
At this time it's still a pre-release, still being tested product, and is known by it's "codename".
I'm led to believe that this is pretty common practice in software development.
Not trying to bust your chops, but what if the question is "how do I rewire this Ethernet jack"?
If you need said Ethernet connection to get online and look up the instructions...
I'm in a similar position as the GP (although maybe a few hairs greyer). When I was a kid, my dad helped the local TV repair guy clean up his shop, and he brought home a few "not worth the effort to repair" TVs for me to tinker with. After a few months, I had stripped parts out of most of them, and had 2 of them working.
How many teenagers had a pair of 26" TVs in their room? In the late 70's?
I'm making sure my kids grow up knowing that "almost anything can be fixed, all you need to know is how it's supposed to work".
Marketing is about increasing a company's ability to get money out of my pocket and into theirs. Hype, empty promises, pseudo-scientific claims, and outright deception are among the tools they use to accomplish that goal.
Hmm... you sure that isn't just an effect of NTSC/PAL transfer? Converting 24fps film to 25fps PAL can cause a 4% speedup.
There is technology to stretch the timing of live video. The ad I saw (in a broadcast industry magazine a few years ago) claimed that the equipment could stretch out a live football game by up to 3 minutes, allowing for more commercial time, and without the viewers noticing.
I just tried searching for it, but my Google-fu seems weak the evening.
I don't know about the IRS, but I can tell you that Revenue Canada doesn't *ask* anyone for anything. I suspect it's the same in the States.
Revenuers don't *ask* for nothing; they *tell*.
The last *ahem* request I got from Revenue Canada was entitled "Demand for payment".
And that was their initial correspondence.
Well, you certainly do if you are changing from a CDMA based carrier to a GSM based one.
Unlike Europe, and much of Asia, here in North America, there are 2 very different technologies being used by various competing cell companies.
That alone is one reason why moving your phone to another carrier isn't universally possible.
As someone else already said, the reason phone companies lock phones to their network is the hardware subsidy.
Example - (numbers pulled outta thin air for demonstration purposes only):
Phone Company X buys phones from Nokia for $100 each, (full retail $200), and sells them in a package for $20, and a service contract for 2-3 years@25$/month. Clearly they don't want you taking that phone that you just bought from them way under cost, and going to another carrier.
I was told by a friend who works in marketing at a cell company that it costs ~ $180 to acquire a new customer (commissions, hardware subsidy, marketing, etc, etc). On a $25/month plan that's a good chunk of a year before they make a penny of profit from that new customer. And that doesn't take into account paying for the network infrastructure.
*shrug*
Don't think that western Canada (or the east coast, for that matter) is going to be too upset by that kinda threat.
Memory matters.
Processor load matters.
Page size (bandwidth) matters.
Maybe where you live.
Here, we generate enough electricity to be a net exporter, and the majority of it comes from water turbines.
Other places get a significant amount of electricity from the wind
One of the several places I just found it (not any of the well-known video hosting sites) had the video, and their counter showed 1173323 hits.
Ya can't put the cat back in the bag.
but the best has to be the crocodile warning sign showing a swimmer and a crocodiles open jaws.
I was at a resort in Florida which had a large sign beside the lake which read:
"Do not feed or play with the alligators"
Seemed pretty obvious to me.
Of course not. If you buy something it's yours to do with as you see fit.
No one has ever truly bought an OS from Microsoft.
I would hope that the only wiring that was shared between critical and non-critical systems would be the +12V and GND.
While I suppose a massive hardware failure in the entertainment system could cause a brownout (And it'd be hard to blame that on Microsoft), the fuses should take care of that.
I hope.
- data should be stored on the server (centralised backup, provision for web mail when you need it, ability to have an administrator control it, access from multiple hosts)
It's a good option to have, but I prefer to have the data stored at the client.
I use a laptop, and spend a significant amount of time off-line, yet I still need the information contained in my e-mail history.
When I'm at the office there is a major bottleneck between our LAN segment and the mail server. Talk about painful having to wait every time you look at the next message if it has to be pulled from the server every time.
And then there's foolishly low quotas on mailbox size.
I realize the last 2 can be solved, but not by me (or most normal users).
My point exactly. If they had kept their new model accessory compatible with the old model, they would have sold me a new phone. Since they didn't, I had no reason to not look at their competitors. And since they pissed me off, I had a reason to look away from them.
I've always wondered what the logic is for any given manufacturer to change interfaces between their own models?
<scenario>
I have a phone of Brand X.
I also have a desk charger, a car charger, data cable, and a wired headset.
My phone breaks/dies/needs to be replaced.
I want to get something that is compatible with the accessories that I have already bought. That means I probably want to buy another new phone from the same manufacturer.
Except that their new phones aren't compatible with *ANY* of the accessories from my current phone of the same brand.
So, now since I'm having to buy new accessories anyway, and I have a bitter taste in my mouth about that, I look at all the other brands of phone when I make my selection.
</scenario>
I've asked this of reps from Nokia, Motorola and RIM, and none of them have been able to come up with an answer.