...as a foreign government body meant it was immune from lawsuits
IANAL but I thought that if you are immune to suits you also cannot bring them. I know from experience that if you have diplomatic immunity you cannot be sued in a country of your accredited residence (nice), but you also cannot bring suit there. Also did I read correctly that this suit started when MS Intel et al brought suit to have the patent invalidated and that the Australians simply counter sued and then won. Talk about putting a foot in it! The article left much unsaid. The whole thing seems odd for a govt lab to get into. Why such a long time to protect their rights?
Interested to see how this shakes out. That district in East Texas is, I believe, famous for civil suits against companies; that is, if it is the one I am thinking of...
Does anyone have a link with more depth on this? It is a great business story and more to it than meets the eye.
When you buy a mobo and hdd and case etc. from Newegg you can (or perhaps could) buy XP Pro at a not-very-discounted but reasonable OEM price (I recall about 130 USD). This was about two years ago. I know it was OEM because the CD Key was on a sticker on the plastic wrapper of the disk. Yikes! If I had not been on my toes it would have been too easy to toss. Not packaged for retail that's for sure. But you could not get it unless you bought a system to build. I think other vendors of components do this as well. One more reason to build your own.
All I got was the system disk. No box. No manuals. No Nothin' And, yes, I installed it. It now rests, along with all the other docs and resources for that system, in a little plastic briefcase dedicated to that purpose.
However, in practical terms the OEM disk would be hard to sell on its own. That is, if, say, I put Vista (not bloody likely) on this rig. The catch is that MS would not activate the system for the new buyer if it was on different hardware. They would know as soon as the box logged on for updates that the OS had migrated. And now with WGA it's hopeless. I could of course call MS and get permission to migrate the system claiming the new platform (the OS buye's)to be my own. But that is just sleazy and I wouldn't do it. Really. The other option would be to take them to court. Hmmmmmmm? Nope. Maybe some other time. To practically sell the system I would have to sell the whole rig, which is obviously something I can do -- with MS bundled. I am a manufaturer after all. Output = one computer per year. Woo Hoo.
I think one reason that DRM and Activation is getting popular is that these EULAs are legally weak. Knowing this the companies have turned to technical restraint. And because of the DMCA they can keep you from unlocking whatever they sold you. Sooner or later we will see if that is unconstitutional. I think not.
So, theoretically at least, Microsoft's claim that I can't sell the OEM copy of XP that I bought to install on my rig may well be null and void because of the doctrine of first sale. I like it.
The fact is that I bought it before I agreed to anything. Just paid Newegg. So, now they say by my using it I am agreeing to the license? I don't think so. Pretty specious... What? I am going to pay full price and then not use something? I own it already so I can certainly agree to anything. At the very least I should be made to agree before they take my money.
BTW I say "sell" instead of "transfer license". I own it. I got the OEM disk. As long as I remove it from my system I can sell it. Makes sense to me.
I always thought these EULAs were better founded. But they are kind of bogus put-up jobs, like the signs in paid parking garages that disclaim responsibility. Sure, if you leave your briefcase and it gets swiped they can disclaim. But the radio? Part of the car you paid them to protect? No way! They are liable. They put the signs up in hope that people will not even present a claim. Same way these EULAs are put-up jobs to keep people from exercising their rights under first sale.
Since my days working in Asia where noise is a constant I have always had earplugs. I like the good ones that printers use in the pressroom. They are great on trains and planes. The only bad thing is that sometimes you don't have them when you need them. Recently I just bought a big assortment of earplugs from http://www.earplugstore.com/ I seeded them into my carry-on and my shaving kit. Even gave some to my wife for her handbag. A lot cheaper to buy them in bulk. And as for those expensive kind they sell in airports? Well they did not work well for me. The soft compressable foam plugs work great. The assortment I bought has a variety of shapes and sizes that have different DB ratings.
I have never tried it but I think plugs under noise cancelling headphones (good ones) would be blissfully silent. However the plugs alone are great. They really reduce the irritation of a flight or a sleeper on a train. Never used them in an office.
As for this software? Looks dicey to my eyes. Just a mask. And if somebody was playing New Age frog songs in a cubicle next to mine I would probably have to epoxy their CD/ROM drive closed...or worse.
Seriously. We need nukes, big ones and fast. For energy independence and greenhous gas reduction. Have been to Chernobyl. There the earth abides. No biggie. There were some early deaths, measured in the thousands, but it is now hard to discern cancers caused by exposure from the general cancer death rate (see quote). The French get 75 percent of their juice from nukes. How many coal miners have died in Ukraine since 1991?
"More than 4,000 coal miners have died in accidents in Ukraine since 1991." Radio Free Europe
Thats Ukraine alone. Worldwide? In China? God knows.
Now for Chernobyl:
"Total eventual deaths due to radiation could reach 4,000, including those of evacuees, a statistical prediction based on estimated doses they received. But, "as about a quarter of people die from spontaneous cancer not caused by Chernobyl radiation, the radiation-induced increase of only about 3 per cent will be difficult to observe". Times of London
Since Chernobyl was by far the worst that death count is close to the number of people killed ever in Nuclear accidents (There were some secret problems in the USSR but no one knows.). Throw in the cancers caused by radiation from soft coal combustion and nukes win hands down as a safe alternative. Okay, the pollution is dirty but it is point source and manageable, whereas CO2 is dispersed and systemic and no one knows how dangerous.
Very frustrating to see how fear of nuclear weapons (a legitimate concern) spilled over into irrational fear of nuclear power.
Nevertheless economic and political forces conspire to prevent the nuclear industry from making a comeback. I think a major political PR initiative is need. Homer Simpson your country calls.
When Microsoft was making its bones in the early 1980s one of their big advantages was their no-copy-protection software philosophy. Copy protection was a big swinging deal back then. Everyone had it. Software manufacturers were paranoid to a fault over piracy and user reproduction. The protection was very breakable, but ordinary users found it impossible to deal with. Lotus 1-2-3, other operating systems, they all did it. It was a mess. Backups were a nightmare, system recovery was hard.
One company didn't do it. Microsoft got miles of cool points for making their operating system, and eventually their applications, easy to copy. There were legal barriers to reproduction but no technical barriers. People bought MS at premium prices because they could copy. System administrators knew they would have no difficulty making backups, or "educational" copies to take home to put on their systems. They also knew that things would not be difficult if they had to do a reinstallation. It was viral marketing at its most effective. The license agreement of course forbade such practices, but Microsoft winked at personal duplication. Licenses had to be bought, of course, because support was needed, especially in a large enterprise. My personal opinion is that the bugs in early iterations of Microsoft software were their insurance against wholesale ripoff. This is just a feeling.
I thought activation was a big mistake. I actually do think it slowed the adoption of XP if you can recall back that far. However it was easy to crack so the viral thing happened. Anyway Microsoft continued to thrive. I was living in Eastern Europe at the time of XP's introduction and cracked copies were everywhere. Pirate copies of the beta were in the electronics market in the months running up to final release. I am in Western Europe now so I don't know what the Russian and Ukrainian guys have done with WGA, but I can only guess. Vista will be zooted as soon as it hits the market. The Russian and Chinese pirates will not be slowed down at all from putting cracked versions onto hardware. Legitimate customers however will have no end of headaches. It's a crying shame.
The fact that this WGA is vulnerable to hacks is merely the bitter coating on the poison pill of this new form of copy protection, which is always a bad idea because it hurts your customers. DRM and copy protection are ideas that corporate lawyers dream up. Marketing men instinctively know they suck.
I actually think Vista might not even fly very well. Net services are coming. Linux could be attractive to eterprise in some circumstances. And there is always Apple waiting in the wings with good stuff. Corporate prejudice against the "toy computer" might well melt now that the OS is riding on an Intel platform. And there is also the iPod effect. Nothing sells like success.
Meanwhile, Microsoft's latest patch automatically installed itself and rebooted my computer even though I have set the update options to stop at the download. Feh! I didn't have any process running, so I skated, but that is practically a crime in my book. If Vista is going to walk all over me like that I won't want the thing. Certainly I am going to wait as long as I can before I get it. And if I can get away without getting it I won't get it.
Didn't think your comment was snotty at all. I was just worried mine might be perceived as such.
I think you will be pleasantly surprised if you try Dragon Systems. Dragon Systems is special among speech engines. It is the long-term pet project of a couple of gifted scientists who decided to solve the problem of speech recognition a generation ago. They filed hundreds of patents over a couple of decades and solved many engineering problems one at a time. IBM took a long term interest in speech recognition, but none of their products have even approached the steadfast genius of the Dragon. ViaVoice never touched Dragon in capability even on the same machines.
A few years ago Wired magazine wrote a beautiful article on the development of this sublime piece of software. David Pogue, the technology guru of the New York Times, occasionally waxes ecstatic about it. He uses it exclusively for all his writing since he suffers from carpal tunnel syndrome. Wonder no more why the guy is so prolific.
The story of Dragon Systems has an ironic ending. The couple, a married couple by the way, thought they hit the jackpot when they sold Dragon Systems to Learnout and Hauspie for a fortune in stock; this just before the European company disintegrated in a scandal that rivaled Enron's. This transformed their hard-earned fortune into ashes. ScanSoft (now Nuance) bought the package at a fire-sale price and, bless them, they have upgraded and supported it beautifully. This latest release is astonishing.
I dictated this entire post in a very few minutes with very few corrections. If you do get this program I recommend the 'preferred' version. If I'm not mistaken DS version 9 does not require any training. But it does learn beautifully as you dictate. Also, you can suck in text that you've already produced. And even if it has weird words in it, or proper names, Dragon will do a pretty good job of reproducing them when it hears them next.
And what about homonyms like 'there' and 'their'? Dragon has some contextual algorithms that try to sort them out, but obviously it doesn't always guess correctly. Nevertheless it's easily corrected on the fly. You simply say "select their" the offending word gets highlighted and a pop up list appears of its homonyms and near misses with numbers. "There" would probably be right at the top and you would simply say "choose 1" Then the wrong "their" would be replaced.
Once you get used to this baby you can go on for hours. But I ramble...
Not trying to be snotty. Just informative. Dragon Systems has been pretty good since version 7. Eight was a real improvement. Nine is totally awesome. Almost magic. There is a user learning curve, however. One does have to dictate the punctuation for example. Nine works with Firefox very nicely.
Wordos do happen from time to time when you 'wreck a nice beach' (sic) , but then so do typos. Everything needs to be edited no matter how it was entered. It's fair to say that speech recognition has come of age with Dragon Systems nine.
Let me also add that I am not a shill. I am not connected with Dragon Systems in any way shape or form. Just a very happy and satisfied user.
I was a fairly early adopter of Skype. I downloaded 1.0 and loved it. This was about two years ago. I'm from the United States, but currently live in Europe and like to call home. I have a very good broadband account and Skype worked a treat... I really liked it for Skype Out, since I could call my 90-year-old mother on the landline and let her talk away. Skype worked great for a while. But after an upgrade I began to have terrible technical problems with it. I upgraded my soundcard driver, as Skype technical support instructed. Indeed, there was a complex list of tweaks and file replacements that came from Skype customer service. Clean installs, driver upgrades, registry edits. It was a nightmare -- even for somebody who usually takes mild pleasure in working through a computer glitch. All to no avail.
I hit their forum with some well-crafted questions and one kind soul finally had mercy (and the decency) to tell me that the North American Gateway was having difficulties and was giving Skype Out (the paid PC to phone service) a bad case of hiccups. I had but to wait and my service would work. (Had the company been honest with me I would have been spared hours of pointless geeking around.) I waited a couple of weeks, meanwhile paying the Norwegian telephone monopoly their pound of flesh for the few calls I needed to make, and tried again. Still the same old interference. I was not happy with the Norwegian telephone monopoly's long-distance rate card, so I downloaded Gizmo Project. It installed very easily and configured itself. The sound quality is a hair lower than Skype's at its best. But really they are on a par. But I find that Gizmo is extremely reliable. I would get dropped calls with Skype. Not so with gizmo. Note: I tried Skype out a few months later and still had the same screeching interference. It was worse for my recipients. But I could hear it.
In all of my reading about Skype --- I was all over their documentation trying to solve my problem --- I never tumbled to the fact that they were using my system in a distributed way. Not that I particularly mind that sort of thing if I am made aware of it. I am happy to share bandwidth as part of a peer-to-peer community. I mean, I'm as happy to seed a Linux distribution as anyone. I am sure that somewhere Skype lets it be known that it uses your resources. And perhaps they are right up front about it and I just missed it.
Okay, this has been noted, but it's worth saying again. Even torrent client software lets you choose your level of participation. If you want to be a dirty leech (and you can live with yourself) then you can configure the software accordingly and be a dirty leech. But Skype not only doesn't tell you, they also don't give you control.
But here's the kicker. Recently I downloaded a new version of Skype at the behest of an old friend who had installed it on his Mac in California and ordered a headset. We hadn't talked in years, although we had been in e-mail communication, but I was able to have a palaver with him Skype to Skype. There were no technical problems and the sound quality was excellent. Now, as I said, I learn on Slashdot that Skype is sucking bandwidth and performance. I was considering trying again with Skype Out since their service worked Skype to Skype so well. But now I think I'll stick with Gizmo Project.
Skype has been running as a TSR since I installed it. And I have noticed some performance degradation recently. I suspected it might have to do with Skype -- especially since I get a "Range error" message that is apparently due to my dual monitor setup. I generally don't like TSRs. Now I know that Skype is Skyping me as well as the telcos and it's buggy. It would have been polite to tell me. I HATE rude software. Time to hit MS config and remove the booger from the starting lineup. You're on the bench Skype. I will call you up when I need you. (FYI I went around the block with the "range error" message. Some guy in Japan with a kludgey patch. His site was down.
Been a Wired subscriber since 94. Pretty sure it's Sterling. Sounds like him. But I don't remember the piece, although it had a familiar ring. Wish I could help more. I keep back issues, but some are in storage. And when I was in Russia delivery was spotty so I missed a few. Did you see that Wired News and Wired mag have remerged. Should be cool. Cheers. B
Greatly appreciated your comment. Wish I could confirm its origin.
I think it nicely points up the difference between freedom, which protects the rights of all, and license, which protects the rights of none. This, against the "free" acts of others. Too often license, as in a TAZ, is mistaken for freedom. This was (and still is) very much the case in post Soviet space, where the concept of freedom is poorly understood. Or when teens get into their first apartment or dorm room. Freedom is like a kite. It needs a length of string to hold it down so it can fly.
Youtube, Wikipedia, you name it, give license not freedom. To be centers of free information they will need have to add some controls to protect the community from the rude, the self-interested and the mean. It's a hard string measure out right. Wikipedia has been wrestling with this and Youtube will have to also or let the jungle choke it out of existence.
But it can be done. I have been impressed with the community moderation system on Slashdot, which achieves this to some extent. It strikes a good balance... Well, mostly.
letter to a mutual 'tard of a boss as a Power Point presentation. I laughed until I cried when I saw it. That video had the same feel. Saw it when it came out but watched it again. Funny. Thanks.
Can I also note that IMHO any kid who bought something called a 'Zune' will find himself in a living hell.
I look forward to the day when this DRM issue moves more into the center of popular politics. It will (I hope) when the people who really understand these issues grow up (literally) and vote. Then maybe we can vote out the entertainment industry whores who gave us unconstitutional trash like the DMCA and 75 year copyright protection in the first place.
Slashdot Mirror
IANAL but I thought that if you are immune to suits you also cannot bring them. I know from experience that if you have diplomatic immunity you cannot be sued in a country of your accredited residence (nice), but you also cannot bring suit there. Also did I read correctly that this suit started when MS Intel et al brought suit to have the patent invalidated and that the Australians simply counter sued and then won. Talk about putting a foot in it! The article left much unsaid. The whole thing seems odd for a govt lab to get into. Why such a long time to protect their rights?
Interested to see how this shakes out. That district in East Texas is, I believe, famous for civil suits against companies; that is, if it is the one I am thinking of...
Does anyone have a link with more depth on this? It is a great business story and more to it than meets the eye.
All I got was the system disk. No box. No manuals. No Nothin' And, yes, I installed it. It now rests, along with all the other docs and resources for that system, in a little plastic briefcase dedicated to that purpose.
However, in practical terms the OEM disk would be hard to sell on its own. That is, if, say, I put Vista (not bloody likely) on this rig. The catch is that MS would not activate the system for the new buyer if it was on different hardware. They would know as soon as the box logged on for updates that the OS had migrated. And now with WGA it's hopeless. I could of course call MS and get permission to migrate the system claiming the new platform (the OS buye's)to be my own. But that is just sleazy and I wouldn't do it. Really. The other option would be to take them to court. Hmmmmmmm? Nope. Maybe some other time. To practically sell the system I would have to sell the whole rig, which is obviously something I can do -- with MS bundled. I am a manufaturer after all. Output = one computer per year. Woo Hoo.
I think one reason that DRM and Activation is getting popular is that these EULAs are legally weak. Knowing this the companies have turned to technical restraint. And because of the DMCA they can keep you from unlocking whatever they sold you. Sooner or later we will see if that is unconstitutional. I think not.
So, theoretically at least, Microsoft's claim that I can't sell the OEM copy of XP that I bought to install on my rig may well be null and void because of the doctrine of first sale. I like it.
The fact is that I bought it before I agreed to anything. Just paid Newegg. So, now they say by my using it I am agreeing to the license? I don't think so. Pretty specious... What? I am going to pay full price and then not use something? I own it already so I can certainly agree to anything. At the very least I should be made to agree before they take my money.
BTW I say "sell" instead of "transfer license". I own it. I got the OEM disk. As long as I remove it from my system I can sell it. Makes sense to me.
I always thought these EULAs were better founded. But they are kind of bogus put-up jobs, like the signs in paid parking garages that disclaim responsibility. Sure, if you leave your briefcase and it gets swiped they can disclaim. But the radio? Part of the car you paid them to protect? No way! They are liable. They put the signs up in hope that people will not even present a claim. Same way these EULAs are put-up jobs to keep people from exercising their rights under first sale.
I prefer maple, cherry or oak.
Slow news day indeed.
Man, you asked for it. But then you were taking the hour off.
Heil Strunk!
What's the worst... setup?
or
What are the worst... setups?
Heil Strunk
(Do I get a medal?)
I have never tried it but I think plugs under noise cancelling headphones (good ones) would be blissfully silent. However the plugs alone are great. They really reduce the irritation of a flight or a sleeper on a train. Never used them in an office.
As for this software? Looks dicey to my eyes. Just a mask. And if somebody was playing New Age frog songs in a cubicle next to mine I would probably have to epoxy their CD/ROM drive closed...or worse.
Now, Where's that Stones CD?
"More than 4,000 coal miners have died in accidents in Ukraine since 1991." Radio Free Europe
Thats Ukraine alone. Worldwide? In China? God knows.
Now for Chernobyl:
"Total eventual deaths due to radiation could reach 4,000, including those of evacuees, a statistical prediction based on estimated doses they received. But, "as about a quarter of people die from spontaneous cancer not caused by Chernobyl radiation, the radiation-induced increase of only about 3 per cent will be difficult to observe". Times of London
Since Chernobyl was by far the worst that death count is close to the number of people killed ever in Nuclear accidents (There were some secret problems in the USSR but no one knows.). Throw in the cancers caused by radiation from soft coal combustion and nukes win hands down as a safe alternative. Okay, the pollution is dirty but it is point source and manageable, whereas CO2 is dispersed and systemic and no one knows how dangerous.
Very frustrating to see how fear of nuclear weapons (a legitimate concern) spilled over into irrational fear of nuclear power.
Nevertheless economic and political forces conspire to prevent the nuclear industry from making a comeback. I think a major political PR initiative is need. Homer Simpson your country calls.
One company didn't do it. Microsoft got miles of cool points for making their operating system, and eventually their applications, easy to copy. There were legal barriers to reproduction but no technical barriers. People bought MS at premium prices because they could copy. System administrators knew they would have no difficulty making backups, or "educational" copies to take home to put on their systems. They also knew that things would not be difficult if they had to do a reinstallation. It was viral marketing at its most effective. The license agreement of course forbade such practices, but Microsoft winked at personal duplication. Licenses had to be bought, of course, because support was needed, especially in a large enterprise. My personal opinion is that the bugs in early iterations of Microsoft software were their insurance against wholesale ripoff. This is just a feeling.
I thought activation was a big mistake. I actually do think it slowed the adoption of XP if you can recall back that far. However it was easy to crack so the viral thing happened. Anyway Microsoft continued to thrive. I was living in Eastern Europe at the time of XP's introduction and cracked copies were everywhere. Pirate copies of the beta were in the electronics market in the months running up to final release. I am in Western Europe now so I don't know what the Russian and Ukrainian guys have done with WGA, but I can only guess. Vista will be zooted as soon as it hits the market. The Russian and Chinese pirates will not be slowed down at all from putting cracked versions onto hardware. Legitimate customers however will have no end of headaches. It's a crying shame.
The fact that this WGA is vulnerable to hacks is merely the bitter coating on the poison pill of this new form of copy protection, which is always a bad idea because it hurts your customers. DRM and copy protection are ideas that corporate lawyers dream up. Marketing men instinctively know they suck.
I actually think Vista might not even fly very well. Net services are coming. Linux could be attractive to eterprise in some circumstances. And there is always Apple waiting in the wings with good stuff. Corporate prejudice against the "toy computer" might well melt now that the OS is riding on an Intel platform. And there is also the iPod effect. Nothing sells like success.
Meanwhile, Microsoft's latest patch automatically installed itself and rebooted my computer even though I have set the update options to stop at the download. Feh! I didn't have any process running, so I skated, but that is practically a crime in my book. If Vista is going to walk all over me like that I won't want the thing. Certainly I am going to wait as long as I can before I get it. And if I can get away without getting it I won't get it.
Puts fresh meaning to the phrase "letter bomb".
I went there once for a laugh. Food was okay, but I never gamble.
Wonder if it is still there.
Maybe we could rename it the "Chuck Norris Family Values Gaming Room"
Nice to know that your campaign contributions come from respectable businessmen.
I think you will be pleasantly surprised if you try Dragon Systems. Dragon Systems is special among speech engines. It is the long-term pet project of a couple of gifted scientists who decided to solve the problem of speech recognition a generation ago. They filed hundreds of patents over a couple of decades and solved many engineering problems one at a time. IBM took a long term interest in speech recognition, but none of their products have even approached the steadfast genius of the Dragon. ViaVoice never touched Dragon in capability even on the same machines.
A few years ago Wired magazine wrote a beautiful article on the development of this sublime piece of software. David Pogue, the technology guru of the New York Times, occasionally waxes ecstatic about it. He uses it exclusively for all his writing since he suffers from carpal tunnel syndrome. Wonder no more why the guy is so prolific.
The story of Dragon Systems has an ironic ending. The couple, a married couple by the way, thought they hit the jackpot when they sold Dragon Systems to Learnout and Hauspie for a fortune in stock; this just before the European company disintegrated in a scandal that rivaled Enron's. This transformed their hard-earned fortune into ashes. ScanSoft (now Nuance) bought the package at a fire-sale price and, bless them, they have upgraded and supported it beautifully. This latest release is astonishing.
I dictated this entire post in a very few minutes with very few corrections. If you do get this program I recommend the 'preferred' version. If I'm not mistaken DS version 9 does not require any training. But it does learn beautifully as you dictate. Also, you can suck in text that you've already produced. And even if it has weird words in it, or proper names, Dragon will do a pretty good job of reproducing them when it hears them next.
And what about homonyms like 'there' and 'their'? Dragon has some contextual algorithms that try to sort them out, but obviously it doesn't always guess correctly. Nevertheless it's easily corrected on the fly. You simply say "select their" the offending word gets highlighted and a pop up list appears of its homonyms and near misses with numbers. "There" would probably be right at the top and you would simply say "choose 1" Then the wrong "their" would be replaced.
Once you get used to this baby you can go on for hours. But I ramble...
recognize speech
Entered with Dragon Systems 9.
Not trying to be snotty. Just informative. Dragon Systems has been pretty good since version 7. Eight was a real improvement. Nine is totally awesome. Almost magic. There is a user learning curve, however. One does have to dictate the punctuation for example. Nine works with Firefox very nicely.
Wordos do happen from time to time when you 'wreck a nice beach' (sic) , but then so do typos. Everything needs to be edited no matter how it was entered. It's fair to say that speech recognition has come of age with Dragon Systems nine.
Let me also add that I am not a shill. I am not connected with Dragon Systems in any way shape or form. Just a very happy and satisfied user.
It explained why Why Software Sucks sucks.
I hit their forum with some well-crafted questions and one kind soul finally had mercy (and the decency) to tell me that the North American Gateway was having difficulties and was giving Skype Out (the paid PC to phone service) a bad case of hiccups. I had but to wait and my service would work. (Had the company been honest with me I would have been spared hours of pointless geeking around.) I waited a couple of weeks, meanwhile paying the Norwegian telephone monopoly their pound of flesh for the few calls I needed to make, and tried again. Still the same old interference. I was not happy with the Norwegian telephone monopoly's long-distance rate card, so I downloaded Gizmo Project. It installed very easily and configured itself. The sound quality is a hair lower than Skype's at its best. But really they are on a par. But I find that Gizmo is extremely reliable. I would get dropped calls with Skype. Not so with gizmo. Note: I tried Skype out a few months later and still had the same screeching interference. It was worse for my recipients. But I could hear it.
In all of my reading about Skype --- I was all over their documentation trying to solve my problem --- I never tumbled to the fact that they were using my system in a distributed way. Not that I particularly mind that sort of thing if I am made aware of it. I am happy to share bandwidth as part of a peer-to-peer community. I mean, I'm as happy to seed a Linux distribution as anyone. I am sure that somewhere Skype lets it be known that it uses your resources. And perhaps they are right up front about it and I just missed it.
Okay, this has been noted, but it's worth saying again. Even torrent client software lets you choose your level of participation. If you want to be a dirty leech (and you can live with yourself) then you can configure the software accordingly and be a dirty leech. But Skype not only doesn't tell you, they also don't give you control.
But here's the kicker. Recently I downloaded a new version of Skype at the behest of an old friend who had installed it on his Mac in California and ordered a headset. We hadn't talked in years, although we had been in e-mail communication, but I was able to have a palaver with him Skype to Skype. There were no technical problems and the sound quality was excellent. Now, as I said, I learn on Slashdot that Skype is sucking bandwidth and performance. I was considering trying again with Skype Out since their service worked Skype to Skype so well. But now I think I'll stick with Gizmo Project.
Skype has been running as a TSR since I installed it. And I have noticed some performance degradation recently. I suspected it might have to do with Skype -- especially since I get a "Range error" message that is apparently due to my dual monitor setup. I generally don't like TSRs. Now I know that Skype is Skyping me as well as the telcos and it's buggy. It would have been polite to tell me. I HATE rude software. Time to hit MS config and remove the booger from the starting lineup. You're on the bench Skype. I will call you up when I need you. (FYI I went around the block with the "range error" message. Some guy in Japan with a kludgey patch. His site was down.
ROTFL Why anonymously? That was FUNNY.
Dr. Doo Doo's Snot Bot.
Barney Fife at the airport security checkpoint will have a field day with this baby.
Been a Wired subscriber since 94. Pretty sure it's Sterling. Sounds like him. But I don't remember the piece, although it had a familiar ring. Wish I could help more. I keep back issues, but some are in storage. And when I was in Russia delivery was spotty so I missed a few. Did you see that Wired News and Wired mag have remerged. Should be cool. Cheers. B
I think it nicely points up the difference between freedom, which protects the rights of all, and license, which protects the rights of none. This, against the "free" acts of others. Too often license, as in a TAZ, is mistaken for freedom. This was (and still is) very much the case in post Soviet space, where the concept of freedom is poorly understood. Or when teens get into their first apartment or dorm room. Freedom is like a kite. It needs a length of string to hold it down so it can fly.
Youtube, Wikipedia, you name it, give license not freedom. To be centers of free information they will need have to add some controls to protect the community from the rude, the self-interested and the mean. It's a hard string measure out right. Wikipedia has been wrestling with this and Youtube will have to also or let the jungle choke it out of existence.
But it can be done. I have been impressed with the community moderation system on Slashdot, which achieves this to some extent. It strikes a good balance... Well, mostly.
Feed me...... Feeeeeeeeeeeed me. I'm hungry. I want NEWS. Aaaaaaaaaaaagh!
Can I also note that IMHO any kid who bought something called a 'Zune' will find himself in a living hell.
I never eat an Apple with a fork.
I look forward to the day when this DRM issue moves more into the center of popular politics. It will (I hope) when the people who really understand these issues grow up (literally) and vote. Then maybe we can vote out the entertainment industry whores who gave us unconstitutional trash like the DMCA and 75 year copyright protection in the first place.