While I agree that the terms of the "click-through" license are fairly ridiculous...
We ARE talking about a computer game, here. There is no *real* harm done to anyone if their account is terminated.
And more importantly, the makers/administrators of giant multiplayer games (or worlds) kind of NEED to be able to terminate accounts at will. What if a player/group of players find a bug in the game and are able to use it to cheat? Or worse, use it to gain access to the personal computers of OTHER players without their permission? If they had to go through a whole "termination process", players could wreak havoc at will in those kinds of situations. And what could the admins of the servers do? They can't terminate the accounts. They can't just shut off the servers (because that would be the equivalent of terminating *everybody's* account). The only recourse it to quickly try and patch the software before the problem gets entirely out of hand. They do that anyway, really, but it's a lot harder when the entire server is going to hell because of the exploit.
I won't even get into the whole idea of Second Life property being equivalent to "real" property. That's just ridiculous, and I expect this guy to lose his case because of that anyway.
I love the fact that the only qualification you need to be on the Board of Directors at a billion-dollar company is to have once been on the Board of Directors at *another* billion dollar company. Doesn't matter if you wrecked that company, or got fired for incompetence, or were successfully prosecuted for some white-collar crime you committed while you were there.
HP deserves whatever they get. Talk about a fall from grace. HP was, at one time, one of the most important and successful and innovative technology companies in the world. Now what do they do? Sell cheap PCs and expensive ink.
In my experience, the whole reason that you have to "test" patches on corporate machines is that the vast majority of the custom-made and "niche" software that many businesses rely on is HORRIBLE. Bug-ridden, non-standard, breaks every rule. Hell, a lot of it is still 16-bit Windows (and even DOS) software with only minor modifications to keep it working under modern OSs. And so, every update causes problems, because it only barely works anyway.
If corporations were better at updating their software (and determining which software to use in the first place), they wouldn't have to be scared of "Patch Tuesday".
I think notebooks are here to stay. The market will only get bigger.
The thing is, even the low-end notebooks are powerful enough for almost anything, except modern games. And they're CHEAP. And you can surf on your couch with a wireless router. And you can take it with you on vacation. There are just a million advantages. And, of course, you can plug in a real keyboard/mouse/monitor if you want.
Notebooks are really how computers *should* be. Yes, they are hard to repair, but so what? They're cheap, and they last long enough if you don't abuse them.
As far as standardization of notebooks goes...they're already pretty standardized in many ways. I think what you are hoping for is a way to "custom order" a notebook and get exactly what you want. There are a few places that do that, kind of. The problem is, notebooks are hard to assemble, and case design and motherboard design are dependent on each other. And once you've got the motherboard/case picked out, what else is there to add? Not much. It just doesn't make sense to offer notebook customization. Not until all the innards are so tiny, and battery power is so huge, that it just doesn't matter what you stuff into the case.
Having all the typefaces look *exactly* right is one of those things that only printers really care about. Don't get me wrong, it's worth the trouble, for the *printed page*.
But on the web? I don't think anyone would really notice or care that much. Plus, it'd be hard to achieve, since you can't rely on all machines rendering fonts at the same resolution, and you can't rely on fonts actually being present on all machines, and you can't rely on all the *versions* of a typeface actually being the same across different platforms. None of this is news. The web was designed to sort-of deal with these problems. Or at least, ignore them.
Someday, when we're all running ultra-high-res displays, and someone releases a shitload of completey free (as in beer and freedom), high-quality fonts (I think this is the biggest issue, personally), then we'll all see the same nice fonts on our computers.
Who cares about small, independent music shops? Who cares about the big music stores?
They don't offer anything. If I want an easy-to-find CD, I can go to Wal-Mart or BestBuy and get it cheaper. If I want a hard-to-find CD, I can get it on the internet, for less money. AND have it delivered.
The music stores, and for that matter MOST "specialty" retail stores, had their fun. They got to be nothing but a "middle-man", and take their cut at retail for doing basically nothing but running cash registers. That's fine, but it only works in the long-term if you can get HUGE like Wal-Mart.
I always here about the death of "mom and pop" stores, and how sad it is. You know what? FUCK "mom and pop". Mom and pop pay their employees minimum wage. Mom and pop make sure all of their employees only work part-time. Mom and pop don't offer any kind of health benefits to their employees. They also have higher prices, a smaller selection, and are located in out-of-the-way places. MAYBE they have good return policies. That's IT.
In my experience, the only people that benefit from "mom and pop" stores is MOM AND POP. They make a decent living by selling stuff in locations that don't have a Wal-Mart yet. Good for them. Bad for the people that have to buy stuff there, or work there.
Now that Verizon has more-or-less successfully defended their BROAD patents on VoIP stuff, I wonder how long it will be before AT&T/Cingular starts suing ALL of the other phone companies for violating THEIR patents.
I imagine that AT&T owns MANY of the patents on much of the phone technology currently in use. Or at least, owns patents that are "close enough" to successfully sue everybody for infringement.
It's all so crazy. The telecom industry in the US is fucked.
I *have* used Vista extensively, and you are pretty much correct with your evaluation.
It's not that Vista is *bad*, it's just that it's not an improvement over XP. There are some nice new GUI elements, and UAC probably makes it more secure (though it is damn annoying), but other than that, it's just a slower version of XP, with more compatability issues.
The same could be said of the move from Win2K to XP, but XP was basically 2K with a new GUI. If you turned off the effects, it was Win2K with some improvements.
The only people that TRULY bring in money are the marketing people, who don't work at the individual stores, anyway.
"Good salespeople" are kind of an un-necessary evil these days at the retail level. Most consumer products are cheap, and most of them are approximately the same. What can a salesperson do besides try an "upsell" you on stuff you don't need? Which really only works on electronics, and only works on people that don't know better, and most of those people DO eventually learn how to not get ripped-off.
If you want to make money as a salesperson, you need to get a job selling expensive stuff to *other businesses*.
The music industry used to be BUILT on the sales of singles. It really wasn't until the mid-to-late 80s that they started focusing on trying to sell entire albums.
It was the CD that did it. The "coolness" of CDs made everyone kind-of forget about singles, and how handy they were. And they were more expensive, which the record companies obviously loved. Yeah, they did/do sell CD singles, but it's obvious that they don't want anyone to buy them. They're overpriced, and there aren't many of them available.
But at this point, CDs are NOT cool. They're old and busted, and dull. And they're STILL expensive. More expensive.
The record companies just can't give it up, though. They had this 20-year-run of making WAY more money than they had any right to (thanks to the CD revolution), but now it's over, and they're trying to freeze the clock.
But a machien without Windows would likely cost *more*.
All the big OEMs have marketing deals with Microsoft. And Network Associates (McAfee). And Google. And Symantec. And Adobe. Or did you think all of that crap they install was just to annoy you? No. The OEMs get paid for every piece of third-party "trial" software they install. That reduces the price of the machines, or at least increases their profits. The OEMs would lose money if they didn't ship Windows and all that crapware with every machine sold.
It'll probably never happen. But ONLY because it's completely impractical from a technical standpoint.
Also, if you've never heard of CALEA, do a search. ISPs are already (as of this month) required to help law-enforcement spy on users. At great expense and hassle.
The RIAA's argument against paying "attorney's fees" boils down to this-
The defendant should've just let the RIAA win. She didn't *have* to go to court, and hire a lawyer. And so, they shouldn't have to pay her fees. Even though the judge said they *did* have to pay her fees.
Unbelievable. If that isn't enough to get the Feds to start investigating the RIAA for RICO violations, I don't know what is. They really *are* trying to blackmail people.
While I agree with you in principle, you seem to be confused about the "unnecessary second income".
For a LOT of families, that second income is ABSOLUTELY NECESSARY. Mortgage payments are higher than they've ever been. Gas prices are higher than they've ever been. Work for a company that doesn't provide insurance? Insurance prices are ASTRONOMICALLY high.
Throw a couple of kids into the mix, and anyone at or below the "lower-middle-class" income bracket is struggling, big-time.
Yes, a lot of those families probably don't manage their money particularly well. But even if they did, they probably wouldn't be saving much. They'd still live paycheck-to-paycheck, they just wouldn't be going into debt every month to pay bills.
Attention all D&D players who think that they are better than the rest of us:
You're not. D&D is *stupid*. It's the world's most anti-social social activity. Get a gym membership. Get a girlfriend. Get a hobby that doesn't involve playing fucking PRETEND. You're an adult for Christ's sake.
Those audio tapes were "recoverable", but I bet they didn't sound all that great. Good enough to be understood, but nowhere near the original quality. An analog signal that is "garbled" is still usable.
If there had been *digital* data on those tapes, then it's pretty likely that enough of the data had been corrupted that the files would have been *unusable*. Once the bits are gone, they're gone. Throw in the fact that there no guaranteed that the encoding and file formats (never mind encryption) we use today will be in use even 20 years from now, and you start to realize how ephemeral digital data is.
I understand what you're saying. Ubuntu installs a full suite of desktop stuff, which on a server is of little use.
BUT...by the same token, since it's a desktop distro, there's hardly ANY "server-y" apps installed. YOU get to pick what server stuff you want installed. And the GUI comes in handy for this. Just hit Synaptic, pick your packages, and you're done.
Really, Ubuntu has made Debian obsolete in most ways. Why would anyone even bother installing "true" Debian at this point? Ubuntu is easier and better in almost every way. And, even though it's a "desktop distro", I find that it works great for servers. Just shut off the GUI.
The *local* network in a cablemodem network could run at 50Mbps, if they were using DOCSIS 2.0 modems and CMTSs.
But, once again, you are ignoring the fact that it's the INTERNET BANDWIDTH that counts. And that isn't cheap.
Do you really think that your cable provider can afford enough bandwidth to GUARANTEE that all of their users have 10Mb/second of bandwidth available to them at all times? Well, they can't. And honestly, even if they COULD afford all that bandwidth, most servers on the Internet couldn't provide that kind of bandwidth to an individual user, anyway. VERY few servers on the internet are capable of providing their users with more than a couple megabits of bandwidth at a time. And even those are generally running off of Akamai boxes anyway.
End-users just don't have any concept of how expensive bandwidth is. 5 megabits of bandwidth costs your ISP HUNDREDS of dollars, at the very least. If your ISP isn't in a big city, that 5 megabits of bandwidth costs THOUSANDS of dollars.
If you want to bitch about bandwidth prices/limits, then talk to the big telcos. They're the ones that charge ridiculous rates for access to their mostly unused fiber, and then charge ridiculous rates for the bandwidth on top of that.
So, Sony's big announcement is that they are doing cheesy "Second Life"-type stuff on the PS3?
Jesus. What planet do they live on? NOBODY CARES! We want good games, and good multiplayer. That's it. But no, instead we get some worthless service that is designed to appeal to the "I spend $50 per month on ringtones" market. Fucking ridiculous.
Am I the only one that thought all the interviewees were idiots?
There's a huge number of so-called "IT Professionals" that just don't have a clue. Lots of middle-aged guys who managed to get a job running the FAX machines at some corporation 20 years ago, and eventually ended up being the "IT guy". But they don't know ANYTHING. They buy whatever new hardware they think is neat, and that the salesmen from their vendors tell them they need. And then they pay for all-encompassing support contracts, so that they don't have to configure anything, or troubleshoot anything, because they don't actually know how to do that stuff.
I sometimes wonder if those guys are the majority of the IT employees in the United Stats. Guys that use the company's money to hire other people to do their jobs. The only reason they get away with it is because their boss is even MORE clueless about how IT should work.
Sorry, kind of off-topic, but I just can't stand the attitude of rags like "Information Week".
Slashdot Mirror
You kids.
Do a Google search for "acoustic coupler" and educate yourself. That ad isn't bamboozling anybody.
While I agree that the terms of the "click-through" license are fairly ridiculous...
We ARE talking about a computer game, here. There is no *real* harm done to anyone if their account is terminated.
And more importantly, the makers/administrators of giant multiplayer games (or worlds) kind of NEED to be able to terminate accounts at will. What if a player/group of players find a bug in the game and are able to use it to cheat? Or worse, use it to gain access to the personal computers of OTHER players without their permission? If they had to go through a whole "termination process", players could wreak havoc at will in those kinds of situations. And what could the admins of the servers do? They can't terminate the accounts. They can't just shut off the servers (because that would be the equivalent of terminating *everybody's* account). The only recourse it to quickly try and patch the software before the problem gets entirely out of hand. They do that anyway, really, but it's a lot harder when the entire server is going to hell because of the exploit.
I won't even get into the whole idea of Second Life property being equivalent to "real" property. That's just ridiculous, and I expect this guy to lose his case because of that anyway.
BSG sucks. It always has. I'll never understand how people can like that show. It's poorly-written and poorly-acted melodrama.
I love the fact that the only qualification you need to be on the Board of Directors at a billion-dollar company is to have once been on the Board of Directors at *another* billion dollar company. Doesn't matter if you wrecked that company, or got fired for incompetence, or were successfully prosecuted for some white-collar crime you committed while you were there.
HP deserves whatever they get. Talk about a fall from grace. HP was, at one time, one of the most important and successful and innovative technology companies in the world. Now what do they do? Sell cheap PCs and expensive ink.
In my experience, the whole reason that you have to "test" patches on corporate machines is that the vast majority of the custom-made and "niche" software that many businesses rely on is HORRIBLE. Bug-ridden, non-standard, breaks every rule. Hell, a lot of it is still 16-bit Windows (and even DOS) software with only minor modifications to keep it working under modern OSs. And so, every update causes problems, because it only barely works anyway.
If corporations were better at updating their software (and determining which software to use in the first place), they wouldn't have to be scared of "Patch Tuesday".
I think notebooks are here to stay. The market will only get bigger.
The thing is, even the low-end notebooks are powerful enough for almost anything, except modern games. And they're CHEAP. And you can surf on your couch with a wireless router. And you can take it with you on vacation. There are just a million advantages. And, of course, you can plug in a real keyboard/mouse/monitor if you want.
Notebooks are really how computers *should* be. Yes, they are hard to repair, but so what? They're cheap, and they last long enough if you don't abuse them.
As far as standardization of notebooks goes...they're already pretty standardized in many ways. I think what you are hoping for is a way to "custom order" a notebook and get exactly what you want. There are a few places that do that, kind of. The problem is, notebooks are hard to assemble, and case design and motherboard design are dependent on each other. And once you've got the motherboard/case picked out, what else is there to add? Not much. It just doesn't make sense to offer notebook customization. Not until all the innards are so tiny, and battery power is so huge, that it just doesn't matter what you stuff into the case.
Having all the typefaces look *exactly* right is one of those things that only printers really care about. Don't get me wrong, it's worth the trouble, for the *printed page*.
But on the web? I don't think anyone would really notice or care that much. Plus, it'd be hard to achieve, since you can't rely on all machines rendering fonts at the same resolution, and you can't rely on fonts actually being present on all machines, and you can't rely on all the *versions* of a typeface actually being the same across different platforms. None of this is news. The web was designed to sort-of deal with these problems. Or at least, ignore them.
Someday, when we're all running ultra-high-res displays, and someone releases a shitload of completey free (as in beer and freedom), high-quality fonts (I think this is the biggest issue, personally), then we'll all see the same nice fonts on our computers.
Who cares about small, independent music shops? Who cares about the big music stores?
They don't offer anything. If I want an easy-to-find CD, I can go to Wal-Mart or BestBuy and get it cheaper. If I want a hard-to-find CD, I can get it on the internet, for less money. AND have it delivered.
The music stores, and for that matter MOST "specialty" retail stores, had their fun. They got to be nothing but a "middle-man", and take their cut at retail for doing basically nothing but running cash registers. That's fine, but it only works in the long-term if you can get HUGE like Wal-Mart.
I always here about the death of "mom and pop" stores, and how sad it is. You know what? FUCK "mom and pop". Mom and pop pay their employees minimum wage. Mom and pop make sure all of their employees only work part-time. Mom and pop don't offer any kind of health benefits to their employees. They also have higher prices, a smaller selection, and are located in out-of-the-way places. MAYBE they have good return policies. That's IT.
In my experience, the only people that benefit from "mom and pop" stores is MOM AND POP. They make a decent living by selling stuff in locations that don't have a Wal-Mart yet. Good for them. Bad for the people that have to buy stuff there, or work there.
Now that Verizon has more-or-less successfully defended their BROAD patents on VoIP stuff, I wonder how long it will be before AT&T/Cingular starts suing ALL of the other phone companies for violating THEIR patents.
I imagine that AT&T owns MANY of the patents on much of the phone technology currently in use. Or at least, owns patents that are "close enough" to successfully sue everybody for infringement.
It's all so crazy. The telecom industry in the US is fucked.
I *have* used Vista extensively, and you are pretty much correct with your evaluation.
It's not that Vista is *bad*, it's just that it's not an improvement over XP. There are some nice new GUI elements, and UAC probably makes it more secure (though it is damn annoying), but other than that, it's just a slower version of XP, with more compatability issues.
The same could be said of the move from Win2K to XP, but XP was basically 2K with a new GUI. If you turned off the effects, it was Win2K with some improvements.
But their prices are *ridiculous*.
It would be much cheaper to just buy a Dell and put Ubuntu on it yourself.
We have a Fortigate 400, and we love it. It's damn near perfect. I recommend them to EVERYONE who is in the market for a high-end firewall appliance.
Truly, it the best thing on the market, right now. Much better than a PIX, or Netscreen, or anything else. And cheaper. And it does more.
They really need better marketing, because few people even know they exist, which is too bad.
So yeah, you should get one.
Yeah, but this is a RETAIL SALES business.
The only people that TRULY bring in money are the marketing people, who don't work at the individual stores, anyway.
"Good salespeople" are kind of an un-necessary evil these days at the retail level. Most consumer products are cheap, and most of them are approximately the same. What can a salesperson do besides try an "upsell" you on stuff you don't need? Which really only works on electronics, and only works on people that don't know better, and most of those people DO eventually learn how to not get ripped-off.
If you want to make money as a salesperson, you need to get a job selling expensive stuff to *other businesses*.
The music industry used to be BUILT on the sales of singles. It really wasn't until the mid-to-late 80s that they started focusing on trying to sell entire albums.
It was the CD that did it. The "coolness" of CDs made everyone kind-of forget about singles, and how handy they were. And they were more expensive, which the record companies obviously loved. Yeah, they did/do sell CD singles, but it's obvious that they don't want anyone to buy them. They're overpriced, and there aren't many of them available.
But at this point, CDs are NOT cool. They're old and busted, and dull. And they're STILL expensive. More expensive.
The record companies just can't give it up, though. They had this 20-year-run of making WAY more money than they had any right to (thanks to the CD revolution), but now it's over, and they're trying to freeze the clock.
But a machien without Windows would likely cost *more*.
All the big OEMs have marketing deals with Microsoft. And Network Associates (McAfee). And Google. And Symantec. And Adobe. Or did you think all of that crap they install was just to annoy you? No. The OEMs get paid for every piece of third-party "trial" software they install. That reduces the price of the machines, or at least increases their profits. The OEMs would lose money if they didn't ship Windows and all that crapware with every machine sold.
They are trying to do just that:
a ck+users/2100-7348_3-6126877.html
http://news.com.com/FBI+director+wants+ISPs+to+tr
It'll probably never happen. But ONLY because it's completely impractical from a technical standpoint.
Also, if you've never heard of CALEA, do a search. ISPs are already (as of this month) required to help law-enforcement spy on users. At great expense and hassle.
The RIAA's argument against paying "attorney's fees" boils down to this-
The defendant should've just let the RIAA win. She didn't *have* to go to court, and hire a lawyer. And so, they shouldn't have to pay her fees. Even though the judge said they *did* have to pay her fees.
Unbelievable. If that isn't enough to get the Feds to start investigating the RIAA for RICO violations, I don't know what is. They really *are* trying to blackmail people.
While I agree with you in principle, you seem to be confused about the "unnecessary second income".
For a LOT of families, that second income is ABSOLUTELY NECESSARY. Mortgage payments are higher than they've ever been. Gas prices are higher than they've ever been. Work for a company that doesn't provide insurance? Insurance prices are ASTRONOMICALLY high.
Throw a couple of kids into the mix, and anyone at or below the "lower-middle-class" income bracket is struggling, big-time.
Yes, a lot of those families probably don't manage their money particularly well. But even if they did, they probably wouldn't be saving much. They'd still live paycheck-to-paycheck, they just wouldn't be going into debt every month to pay bills.
Attention all D&D players who think that they are better than the rest of us:
You're not. D&D is *stupid*. It's the world's most anti-social social activity. Get a gym membership. Get a girlfriend. Get a hobby that doesn't involve playing fucking PRETEND. You're an adult for Christ's sake.
But it *is* that the content is digital.
Those audio tapes were "recoverable", but I bet they didn't sound all that great. Good enough to be understood, but nowhere near the original quality. An analog signal that is "garbled" is still usable.
If there had been *digital* data on those tapes, then it's pretty likely that enough of the data had been corrupted that the files would have been *unusable*. Once the bits are gone, they're gone. Throw in the fact that there no guaranteed that the encoding and file formats (never mind encryption) we use today will be in use even 20 years from now, and you start to realize how ephemeral digital data is.
I understand what you're saying. Ubuntu installs a full suite of desktop stuff, which on a server is of little use.
BUT...by the same token, since it's a desktop distro, there's hardly ANY "server-y" apps installed. YOU get to pick what server stuff you want installed. And the GUI comes in handy for this. Just hit Synaptic, pick your packages, and you're done.
Really, Ubuntu has made Debian obsolete in most ways. Why would anyone even bother installing "true" Debian at this point? Ubuntu is easier and better in almost every way. And, even though it's a "desktop distro", I find that it works great for servers. Just shut off the GUI.
Uh, no.
The *local* network in a cablemodem network could run at 50Mbps, if they were using DOCSIS 2.0 modems and CMTSs.
But, once again, you are ignoring the fact that it's the INTERNET BANDWIDTH that counts. And that isn't cheap.
Do you really think that your cable provider can afford enough bandwidth to GUARANTEE that all of their users have 10Mb/second of bandwidth available to them at all times? Well, they can't. And honestly, even if they COULD afford all that bandwidth, most servers on the Internet couldn't provide that kind of bandwidth to an individual user, anyway. VERY few servers on the internet are capable of providing their users with more than a couple megabits of bandwidth at a time. And even those are generally running off of Akamai boxes anyway.
End-users just don't have any concept of how expensive bandwidth is. 5 megabits of bandwidth costs your ISP HUNDREDS of dollars, at the very least. If your ISP isn't in a big city, that 5 megabits of bandwidth costs THOUSANDS of dollars.
If you want to bitch about bandwidth prices/limits, then talk to the big telcos. They're the ones that charge ridiculous rates for access to their mostly unused fiber, and then charge ridiculous rates for the bandwidth on top of that.
So, Sony's big announcement is that they are doing cheesy "Second Life"-type stuff on the PS3?
Jesus. What planet do they live on? NOBODY CARES! We want good games, and good multiplayer. That's it. But no, instead we get some worthless service that is designed to appeal to the "I spend $50 per month on ringtones" market. Fucking ridiculous.
Am I the only one that thought all the interviewees were idiots?
There's a huge number of so-called "IT Professionals" that just don't have a clue. Lots of middle-aged guys who managed to get a job running the FAX machines at some corporation 20 years ago, and eventually ended up being the "IT guy". But they don't know ANYTHING. They buy whatever new hardware they think is neat, and that the salesmen from their vendors tell them they need. And then they pay for all-encompassing support contracts, so that they don't have to configure anything, or troubleshoot anything, because they don't actually know how to do that stuff.
I sometimes wonder if those guys are the majority of the IT employees in the United Stats. Guys that use the company's money to hire other people to do their jobs. The only reason they get away with it is because their boss is even MORE clueless about how IT should work.
Sorry, kind of off-topic, but I just can't stand the attitude of rags like "Information Week".