I'm willing to pay for content OR to have it infested with ads. Not both.
I'm guessing you don't subscribe to cable or satellite TV services, then? When you bought your car, did you get it without a radio? And have you been to see a movie lately?
I'm not saying I like having to pay for stuff and then getting ads shoved at me to boot, but it's getting harder and harder to avoid. But newspapers have followed their current business model for hundreds of years, and I think it's a little unfair to expect them to come up with an answer overnight -- especially when, as you pointed out, so many people in this day and age want their newspapers' content for free.
Unfortunately, "free" doesn't pay the journalists, editors, graphic designers, photographers, etc., to make a living. Some papers do follow a free-to-the-reader model -- The Onion and the Colorado Springs Independent are two good local (to me) examples -- but these are weekly papers, not daily ones, and the costs for printing a daily really do add up. If you can live without dailies like the Seattle Post-Intelligencer, the Rocky Mountain News, or any other of the dozens of newspapers that are struggling to stay in business, then more power to you, I guess... but I fear we'll see real news coverage dwindle as more and more papers go under.
I didn't know this article was going to be published, but when I found it, I was not surprised by the comments. I've been working on this program for more than 2 years. Users hate it. Developers loathe it. Network security staff loves it.
Microsoft doesn't need people to buy their OS. It's not like they have much of a choice anyway.
Actually, they do: they can stick with the Windows OS they're using now -- they don't have to upgrade. Vista's failure to penetrate the market illustrates that point. Windows' primary competition these days is itself.
What they really need is to get people to stop replacing it with an older version, and to stop trying to get the older one on their new hardware.
In other words, Microsoft does need people to buy their OS.
So you get people hooked in with a free release, then hijack them after a year with no good downgrade path and thus no access to their data...
One more reason why every family computer geek should stress the importance of regular backups, especially before taking major steps like upgrading one's operating system.
"I bought an 'unlimited' plan that turns out to actually have limits. Now I don't want to pay because I didn't understand the contract I was signing. I think I shouldn't have to pay because I'm not a lawyer."
You're presuming both that the limits were set into the original contract, that they haven't changed since the customer agreed to the contract, and that the Internet provider -- in the event that it changed these limits -- made a fair and reasonable effort to contact the customer. I don't think these are presumptions we can safely make in the age of click-through EULAs that often include phrases such as "We can change the conditions of the contract at any time with no notice to you."
I will say this: if you're applying for a job in law enforcement, I don't care how good your resume looks. When we google your name and up pops your MySpace page, detailing your love for the mighty marijuana plant, complete with pictures showing you ingesting it in many interesting ways, you're not getting the job.
I'd rather see that than a page that says, "Beating up drug dealers is fun," as the former is more likely to have the civil rights of his suspects in mind when he makes an arrest.
Let's say you do the urine test thing and hire me as a taxi driver. The next time I have a wreck while high you'll lose for failing to do "due diligence" in the hiring process.
This is a bad analogy given that, if I recall correctly, THC stays in your system for a couple of weeks -- and it stays in your hair even longer.
It will not attack Google at its core - Search. Instead it will invent new kind of search that will be more relevant to people (or so they will learn) and that, by the way, Twitter is best positioned to service - Real Time Search. "What Is Happening Right Now" kind of search.
But do most people really care what other anonymous (or pseudonymous) people are doing? I don't, so that sort of search would be worthless to me. Of course, then again, I find Twitter in general pretty worthless.
What a complete and utter crock. 3% of GDP dedicated to 480,000 scientists
Versus how much of GDP dedicated to about 750,000 people in the U.S. armed forces?
Foreclosures are still rising. Unemployment is still increasing. Wages are still falling. This money would be better spent on the people.
In what capacity, exactly, would you have it spent? A basic living stipend, perhaps? After all, what could possibly be wrong with just giving people money?
It's a cyber attack because of the overall effect it delivered... which, from a certain perspective, makes sense. Consider: If someone infects your computer with a virus that wipes your hard drive, your computer becomes just as useless as if someone had gone Office Space on its ass. Likewise for cutting these cables -- it's not the same methodology as a DDNS, but the outcome is the same.
And you are also paying a metric FUCKLOAD of money. It not too much to ask that the people you are paying upwards of $20,000 per year, not violate federal copyright law.
And that fuckload of money allows you to attend the class. Just because you pay to attend does not entitle you to an A, or even a passing grade.
If you want to distribute my work get my permission.
No paper, no grade. Not hard to understand, I trust?
Something tells me that attitudes would be quite different if this database stored the full text of academic journal papers they never bough the rights to have a copy of.
You know... maybe they should. Someone might've caught on to Ward Churchill long before his "Little Eichmanns" argument, and we'd get to see how many tenured professors practice what they preach.
Unless your upstream provider is stupid and or sucks, you pay a fixed rate per megabit every month for a fixed amount and a per megabit for bursting over.
My provider is Comcast, and I pay a flat rate. If you were using tiered pricing for Internet access, it's no wonder you're a former ISP.
For my remaining years I was considered somebody to watch thanks to brain dead people.
Fixed that for you.
Seriously, think of Turnitin as a hammer -- one you can use to build a house or bash in somebody's skull. Is the hammer an apprentice in the latter case?
These are all stolen unpublished works. They are the student's private papers.
The students always have the option not to turn in their essays at all. What's that... they'd fail? Yes, they would.
I get that people want to protect their creative works, but if you're in a college class, you are getting something in return: a passing grade, provided you didn't plagiarize someone else's material. Now, if there are records of colleges publishing student essays and profiting from it directly and without students' consent, give me a bucket and let me lead the charge to storm the gates of Hell, but until then, let's accept that this whole mess is overblown.
You could theoretically make excuses for the cameras, but, man, when the British are blocking porn, you know that island nation has hit a rough patch in its history.
Next BT will start blocking sites with really bad puns.
Slashdot Mirror
I'm guessing you don't subscribe to cable or satellite TV services, then? When you bought your car, did you get it without a radio? And have you been to see a movie lately?
I'm not saying I like having to pay for stuff and then getting ads shoved at me to boot, but it's getting harder and harder to avoid. But newspapers have followed their current business model for hundreds of years, and I think it's a little unfair to expect them to come up with an answer overnight -- especially when, as you pointed out, so many people in this day and age want their newspapers' content for free.
Unfortunately, "free" doesn't pay the journalists, editors, graphic designers, photographers, etc., to make a living. Some papers do follow a free-to-the-reader model -- The Onion and the Colorado Springs Independent are two good local (to me) examples -- but these are weekly papers, not daily ones, and the costs for printing a daily really do add up. If you can live without dailies like the Seattle Post-Intelligencer, the Rocky Mountain News, or any other of the dozens of newspapers that are struggling to stay in business, then more power to you, I guess ... but I fear we'll see real news coverage dwindle as more and more papers go under.
Which means the Air Force probably got it right.
You ignored the whole "Enterprise-E goes back in time and tinkers with history" part in "First Contact," didn't you?
If that is in fact the case, then the decision to put the World Trade Center on the front cover was a really stupid one.
Actually, they do: they can stick with the Windows OS they're using now -- they don't have to upgrade. Vista's failure to penetrate the market illustrates that point. Windows' primary competition these days is itself.
In other words, Microsoft does need people to buy their OS.
One more reason why every family computer geek should stress the importance of regular backups, especially before taking major steps like upgrading one's operating system.
About six feet. *Rimshot!*
I'm not familiar with what you're talking about, here -- can you point me to an example? Also, when would you need to do this?
PDF doesn't need to be a spreadsheet.
Seems like HTML/XML/Javascript would be a better solution to that, don't you think?
You're presuming both that the limits were set into the original contract, that they haven't changed since the customer agreed to the contract, and that the Internet provider -- in the event that it changed these limits -- made a fair and reasonable effort to contact the customer. I don't think these are presumptions we can safely make in the age of click-through EULAs that often include phrases such as "We can change the conditions of the contract at any time with no notice to you."
I'd rather see that than a page that says, "Beating up drug dealers is fun," as the former is more likely to have the civil rights of his suspects in mind when he makes an arrest.
This is a bad analogy given that, if I recall correctly, THC stays in your system for a couple of weeks -- and it stays in your hair even longer.
But do most people really care what other anonymous (or pseudonymous) people are doing? I don't, so that sort of search would be worthless to me. Of course, then again, I find Twitter in general pretty worthless.
I see what you did there!
Obviously not a lawyer ... but aren't irregularities like this good fodder for an appeal if the verdict ends up in favor of RIAA?
Versus how much of GDP dedicated to about 750,000 people in the U.S. armed forces?
In what capacity, exactly, would you have it spent? A basic living stipend, perhaps? After all, what could possibly be wrong with just giving people money?
Wow. Please, never have children.
I'll take "Irony" for $600, Alex.
It's a cyber attack because of the overall effect it delivered ... which, from a certain perspective, makes sense. Consider: If someone infects your computer with a virus that wipes your hard drive, your computer becomes just as useless as if someone had gone Office Space on its ass. Likewise for cutting these cables -- it's not the same methodology as a DDNS, but the outcome is the same.
And that fuckload of money allows you to attend the class. Just because you pay to attend does not entitle you to an A, or even a passing grade.
No paper, no grade. Not hard to understand, I trust?
You know ... maybe they should. Someone might've caught on to Ward Churchill long before his "Little Eichmanns" argument, and we'd get to see how many tenured professors practice what they preach.
My provider is Comcast, and I pay a flat rate. If you were using tiered pricing for Internet access, it's no wonder you're a former ISP.
Whereas nowadays, we know exactly how fast the traffic is going, but we have no clue where it is.
Fixed that for you.
Seriously, think of Turnitin as a hammer -- one you can use to build a house or bash in somebody's skull. Is the hammer an apprentice in the latter case?
The students always have the option not to turn in their essays at all. What's that ... they'd fail? Yes, they would.
I get that people want to protect their creative works, but if you're in a college class, you are getting something in return: a passing grade, provided you didn't plagiarize someone else's material. Now, if there are records of colleges publishing student essays and profiting from it directly and without students' consent, give me a bucket and let me lead the charge to storm the gates of Hell, but until then, let's accept that this whole mess is overblown.
Actually, if the government acted like the RIAA, the old Chinese guy wouldn't have a hard drive.
Next BT will start blocking sites with really bad puns.