"one of its major primetime shows, Canada's Next Great Prime Minister."
Not exactly.
This isn't as big a deal as it sounds. Canada's Next Great Prime Minister isn't even a series: it is a single-episode special with an audience of mainly university students that covers a contest for aspiring young leaders which used You Tube videos as its main vehicle.
So let's not over-hype this as proof why Canada is heaven and the United States is hell.
Actually, you didn't have to choose between AM and FM in the "early" days because RCA--whose scientist invented FM radio--buried FM for years so it would not threaten the AM business, which they dominated.
After all the hype and cheers I read on Slashdot about the Serentiy movie a couple of years ago, I was stunned when nobody went to see it. Serenity grossed $38.9 million worldwide last year, which makes it the 113th most popular movie of the year. (http://boxofficemojo.com/yearly/chart/?view2=worl dwide&yr=2005&p=.htm)
Combined with the demoralizing turnout for Star Trek: Nemesis, this makes me wonder whether the ratio of influence to noise by the Slashdot crowd is not overrated by some scary multiplier. Either the views of everyone here really don't matter, or there are far fewer of us than I thought, or there's a lot of people here who won't put their money where their mouth is. Either way, I think Joss Whedon would be a fool to try another Serenity movie, after he got so thoroughly hung out to dry by us "fans" on his last one.
My grandmother is 88 years old and is an active and intelligent Internet user. She bought her first computer at the age of 77 and has upgraded it twice since then. She walks into the computer store and the salespeople try to steer her toward little useless beginner machines, until she straigtens them out and tells them the specs she needs.
She uses scanners and digital cameras, and does almost everything a normal Internet user does. Email is still the best way to reach her.
For people who pride themselves for being on the cutting edge, a lot of your opinions on this issue are retrograde to say the least. Welcome to the 1960s, everyone.
RIM won this in major fashion. They get out of their trouble for a pittance more than the 450 million dollars or so that they had settled for before all this controversy erupted. And serious trouble it could have been. RIM stood to lose billions of dollars over this, most of it through the complete decimation of their customer base and brand stature. I think it would have finished them, unless they won, in which case the damage would have been less, but still considerable. Instead, it seems to me that NTP saw the way their prospects were going, panicked, and cut their losses before the case finished them.
Some people here are saying that despite fiduciary responsibilities, they wish that RIM would have fought it out to the end regardless of the cost. But that's ridiculous. Fiduciary responsibilities are all that really matter, and no other principles can compete with that, ever.
And I don't think we will be hearing from NTP for some time. There must certainly be sighs of relief in their boardroom that they didn't end up dead and buried over this. They will be far more careful and modest in the future.
This is your friendly neighbourhood Sony human resources department. Please be advised that we have engaged S.P.E.C.T.R.E. to track you down. Seventy-five AIBO drones are currently circling your position and are preparing to terminate your employment forthwith.
Shortly after the comments were made, the following article was printed in the Danish newspaper Jyllands Posten:
Copenhagen (9 February 2006) -- In order to avoid any accusations of possible insensitivity towards important international icons, the government of Denmark today issued a rapid response to the comments by the Red Cross regarding the use of its symbol in video games.
"Denmark always exercises extreme caution when it comes to respectful use of international symbols," explained Danish Prime Minister Anders Fogh Rasmussen. "Beginning today, all Danish-made video games will eliminate the use of a red cross emblem as requested. While we are not yet certain what image will be authorized to replace the red cross, the leading contender is a red crescent moon," he said. Once the red crescent image is ready, he explained, Denmark will call on newspapers from across Europe to join them in support of this deliberately meaningful gesture."
Now all they have to do over at AOL is to give users the ability to add their own tax on top of the incoming mail fee. Wouldn't it be great to be paid for every piece of junk mail that you receive?
In fact, that would make it worthwhile for me to consider paying for an AOL subscription.
I'll bet they are wishing they took the $400 million now. I'm sorry, but for all the talk about the government siding with RIM because they all have Blackberries, perhaps it has something to do with them having a product.
Patent-banking companies, or whatever they're called, exist only to make money by suing people. That's just not right. Good for RIM.
It ain't gonna happen because after all the hype, especially here on Slashdot, nobody bothered to watch the movie. The film made only $38.8 million worldwide, making it the 102nd highest grossing film of the year. That's behind both Unleashed ($50.6M) and Elektra ($56.6M)! No doubt they lost a ton of money on it.
Either we didn't put our money where our mouth is, or there aren't as many of us as we think. Why would they take another bad risk?
Today, Juniper Networks has sued a particularly prolific anonymous poster on the well-known news site Slashdot.
In the suit filing documents, Juniper names "Anonymous Coward" as the defendent. Juniper admits in the complaint that it doesn't yet know the names of any of the folks it's suing, but it will update its complaint with the courts as it gets details.
I hope I won't get screamed at here for not reading the above comments, but I don't have time to read 25 comments right now and want to say this.
Remember that we never knew the kids died until the very end of the book, and it is that revelation that reveals to us Ender's key qualities and the criteria by which he was chosen.
This means that you don't have to show the depth of violence that we imagine existed during each of the two fights, becuase the point is that we are not supposed to realize he is a killer until the very end, and that shock is a critical part of the story.
...that's from a New York Times retrospective from 1976.
The part of the article they edited out was:
"The 21-year-old Mr. Gates, on a family Christmas vacation to India, explained his vision to the 5,000 cotton, soybean, and bajra crop developers gathered in the capital of the southern Indian state of Karnataka: 'The winner of our contest will receive an invitation to the United States, a place to live in my friend Paul's basement, and a position on my team.'
"Sources close to Microsoft told the New York Times that although there are plenty of qualified candidates for the new position in the United States, the current company budget required a more creative approach to find one."
Don't you think it's really interesting that the moment something like del.icio.us is bought, the knee-jerk reaction of most of us can almost be counted on to follow this pattern:
(i) How do I get away from them?
(ii) When is Google going to welcome me home?
I think it is amazing how much trust we automatically place in Google. I always find myself thinking, "Oh, Google wants this information about me? Sure, here you go. Have my phone number and social security number too."
Honestly, if Google offered an on-line password-management service, millions of us would flock to it. But if Yahoo! or Microsoft, or any other company did it? Forget it.
And all this for a company who scans our email in order to serve us ads. Someone should do a sociological study of this phenomenon.
This is trust, this is customer loyalty, this is why Google just...
Susano is right. In fact, most of the shows produced by Canadians in Canada you would never have heard of.
Of the others, it happens simply because the tax breaks offered by Toronto and Vancouver are so financially compelling. The X-Files was made in Vancouver, as is Smallville. But these are American productions (and I think you can tell from their quality).
I'm from Canada, but I hardly watch any Canadian TV except for some specialty cooking and design shows. One such show that has had significant American success is Designer Guys, a Canadian interior design show produced in Toronto.
I have edited a few controversial articles where the same person pretends to be a bunch of different people in order to overcome the 3-revert rule or otherwise impose their parochial perspectives on everyone else.
Displaying all IP addresses seems like a good idea to me. At least it will require an extra level of effort on their part to remain anonymous.
"Another thing to note. A DIN slot (car radio standard size) is 2"x7", the mini mac is 2"x6.5"."
Combine that with the integration of the iPod with additional car models--Volvo, Nissan, and Mercedes Benz were mentioned today--and you reach an inescapable conclusion: Apple is set to blow away the market for in-car computing.
I was just in a taxi the other day here in Como, Italy, where I live, and the driver had a brand new navigation computer, complete with TV and DVD capabilities. Of course, car navigation computers are not new in Europe, providing GPS and all kinds of other in-car services. I have a friend living in Switzerland who had to drive to Luxembourg for work once a week, and he is so dependent on his in-car navigation system that once when it crashed, he couldn't find his way back home.
Think about it. It would take Apple only a baby step or two with the new Mac Mini to completely take over this market. Installing a car navigation system can cost you thousands of dollars, but Apple's core component would only cost you $499.
Imagine not only being able to plan a trip, but to have your kids do it on your desktop Mac, and then beam the instructions through AirPort to your car in the driveway. Car media centre? No problem, with a Bluetooth keyboard and a screen attached to your stereo slot. Or what about a snap-on interface connected to the USB and video-out ports on the back of the Mac Mini? But the greatest potential lies in the business uses of a car that is fitted as a fully-capable mobile office for less than a thousand bucks: the term "working remotely" takes on a whole new meaning.
Now you can be serious about taking your work to the beach.
About Opera--Switched 3 days ago
on
Analysis of Spyware
·
· Score: 2, Interesting
I moved to Opera three days ago after finally getting cheesed off with having IE launch spyware apps and then crash virtually every time I opened it.
I have the free version right now, in which I can even choose whether I prefer Google ads or big, noisy banners. I went with Google, since I am a Gmail fan anyway. One of my friends thinks I am a wuss for thinking this, but I actually like the text ads by Google. They are becoming familiar, and they virtually disappear on the Opera interface unless I need them, and then they are actually relevant!
What I like best about Opera is, well, many things:
1. Never had a popup since I have used it.
2. Easy to read RSS feeds, including a customized Opera newsfeed that brings Slashdot, Salon and some other feeds together as one.
3. Easy password fill-in (I know IE has something like this too, but I just never trusted it, given all the security holes.)
4. Easy, comprehensive toolbar customization. You can also customize your menus and toolbars with single-click "Setups". The toolbars are also far more intelligent than IE. You can set them to appear only when you need them, like the download status bar, which disappears as soon as your page is completed.
5. I imagine the mail and newsgroup features of Opera are also excellent, although I am married to Outlook and don't intend to switch.
6. Not the least important thing is that the design of the interface shows some visual design sensibility; a trained graphic designer of two must have actually designed it!
Basically, it feels like a much more sophisticated, softer Internet experience. I have Firefox installed as well, but mainly for testing my Web pages. It seems too simplified for me. I like complex but well-designed interfaces.
Are there rumours about Opera selling out? If so, I hope Google buys them (and then makes Gmail Opera-compatible.)
There are many possibilities. One would be to make spyware a Homeland Security concern. Maybe your anti-malware can rewrite parts of the spyware that cause it to ask for funding for certain terror operations or something. That would be a very painful bite back. For example: "Welcome to Internet Optimizer. To give money to al-Qaeda, click here." (If it is illegal to include the previous quote, moderators, please edit.)
The basic idea is to rain hell on all spyware apps so it becomes a national security concern to stop people from making it. Raises the ante for the spyware makers, don't you think?
We need a way to make it too expensive a prospect to even consider. Call it the "War on Spyware." I think the challenge of this could even attract some of those virus makers to redirect their energy.
Slashdot Mirror
Alright, that was hilarious! Obviously no one is awake yet, or you would have had hundreds of responses by now.
"one of its major primetime shows, Canada's Next Great Prime Minister."
Not exactly.
This isn't as big a deal as it sounds. Canada's Next Great Prime Minister isn't even a series: it is a single-episode special with an audience of mainly university students that covers a contest for aspiring young leaders which used You Tube videos as its main vehicle.
So let's not over-hype this as proof why Canada is heaven and the United States is hell.
No thanks. I like having a life of my own.
Actually, you didn't have to choose between AM and FM in the "early" days because RCA--whose scientist invented FM radio--buried FM for years so it would not threaten the AM business, which they dominated.
After all the hype and cheers I read on Slashdot about the Serentiy movie a couple of years ago, I was stunned when nobody went to see it. Serenity grossed $38.9 million worldwide last year, which makes it the 113th most popular movie of the year. (http://boxofficemojo.com/yearly/chart/?view2=worl dwide&yr=2005&p=.htm)
Combined with the demoralizing turnout for Star Trek: Nemesis, this makes me wonder whether the ratio of influence to noise by the Slashdot crowd is not overrated by some scary multiplier. Either the views of everyone here really don't matter, or there are far fewer of us than I thought, or there's a lot of people here who won't put their money where their mouth is. Either way, I think Joss Whedon would be a fool to try another Serenity movie, after he got so thoroughly hung out to dry by us "fans" on his last one.
My grandmother is 88 years old and is an active and intelligent Internet user. She bought her first computer at the age of 77 and has upgraded it twice since then. She walks into the computer store and the salespeople try to steer her toward little useless beginner machines, until she straigtens them out and tells them the specs she needs.
She uses scanners and digital cameras, and does almost everything a normal Internet user does. Email is still the best way to reach her.
For people who pride themselves for being on the cutting edge, a lot of your opinions on this issue are retrograde to say the least. Welcome to the 1960s, everyone.
You're right.
RIM won this in major fashion. They get out of their trouble for a pittance more than the 450 million dollars or so that they had settled for before all this controversy erupted. And serious trouble it could have been. RIM stood to lose billions of dollars over this, most of it through the complete decimation of their customer base and brand stature. I think it would have finished them, unless they won, in which case the damage would have been less, but still considerable. Instead, it seems to me that NTP saw the way their prospects were going, panicked, and cut their losses before the case finished them.
Some people here are saying that despite fiduciary responsibilities, they wish that RIM would have fought it out to the end regardless of the cost. But that's ridiculous. Fiduciary responsibilities are all that really matter, and no other principles can compete with that, ever.
And I don't think we will be hearing from NTP for some time. There must certainly be sighs of relief in their boardroom that they didn't end up dead and buried over this. They will be far more careful and modest in the future.
Dear Mr U.C. Blockhead,
This is your friendly neighbourhood Sony human resources department. Please be advised that we have engaged S.P.E.C.T.R.E. to track you down. Seventy-five AIBO drones are currently circling your position and are preparing to terminate your employment forthwith.
Please prepare for beam-out.
Now all they have to do over at AOL is to give users the ability to add their own tax on top of the incoming mail fee. Wouldn't it be great to be paid for every piece of junk mail that you receive?
In fact, that would make it worthwhile for me to consider paying for an AOL subscription.
I'll bet they are wishing they took the $400 million now. I'm sorry, but for all the talk about the government siding with RIM because they all have Blackberries, perhaps it has something to do with them having a product.
Patent-banking companies, or whatever they're called, exist only to make money by suing people. That's just not right. Good for RIM.
It ain't gonna happen because after all the hype, especially here on Slashdot, nobody bothered to watch the movie. The film made only $38.8 million worldwide, making it the 102nd highest grossing film of the year. That's behind both Unleashed ($50.6M) and Elektra ($56.6M)! No doubt they lost a ton of money on it.
Either we didn't put our money where our mouth is, or there aren't as many of us as we think. Why would they take another bad risk?
. . . I can't wait to get all the new Google Earth placemarks!
Today, Juniper Networks has sued a particularly prolific anonymous poster on the well-known news site Slashdot.
In the suit filing documents, Juniper names "Anonymous Coward" as the defendent. Juniper admits in the complaint that it doesn't yet know the names of any of the folks it's suing, but it will update its complaint with the courts as it gets details.
Actually, it is his head smashing Bonzo's nose that kills him by driving the bone into his brain.
I hope I won't get screamed at here for not reading the above comments, but I don't have time to read 25 comments right now and want to say this.
Remember that we never knew the kids died until the very end of the book, and it is that revelation that reveals to us Ender's key qualities and the criteria by which he was chosen.
This means that you don't have to show the depth of violence that we imagine existed during each of the two fights, becuase the point is that we are not supposed to realize he is a killer until the very end, and that shock is a critical part of the story.
I think this can be done without an R rating.
The part of the article they edited out was:
"The 21-year-old Mr. Gates, on a family Christmas vacation to India, explained his vision to the 5,000 cotton, soybean, and bajra crop developers gathered in the capital of the southern Indian state of Karnataka: 'The winner of our contest will receive an invitation to the United States, a place to live in my friend Paul's basement, and a position on my team.'
"Sources close to Microsoft told the New York Times that although there are plenty of qualified candidates for the new position in the United States, the current company budget required a more creative approach to find one."
I thought it was so well-thought-out, I just had to post it on my blog. Hope you don't mind. Slashdotter wit
Don't you think it's really interesting that the moment something like del.icio.us is bought, the knee-jerk reaction of most of us can almost be counted on to follow this pattern:
...just wins.
(i) How do I get away from them?
(ii) When is Google going to welcome me home?
I think it is amazing how much trust we automatically place in Google. I always find myself thinking, "Oh, Google wants this information about me? Sure, here you go. Have my phone number and social security number too."
Honestly, if Google offered an on-line password-management service, millions of us would flock to it. But if Yahoo! or Microsoft, or any other company did it? Forget it.
And all this for a company who scans our email in order to serve us ads. Someone should do a sociological study of this phenomenon.
This is trust, this is customer loyalty, this is why Google just...
Susano is right. In fact, most of the shows produced by Canadians in Canada you would never have heard of.
Of the others, it happens simply because the tax breaks offered by Toronto and Vancouver are so financially compelling. The X-Files was made in Vancouver, as is Smallville. But these are American productions (and I think you can tell from their quality).
I'm from Canada, but I hardly watch any Canadian TV except for some specialty cooking and design shows. One such show that has had significant American success is Designer Guys, a Canadian interior design show produced in Toronto.
I wonder how many patents that Anonymous Coward guy has. He's pretty prolific around here.
I have edited a few controversial articles where the same person pretends to be a bunch of different people in order to overcome the 3-revert rule or otherwise impose their parochial perspectives on everyone else. Displaying all IP addresses seems like a good idea to me. At least it will require an extra level of effort on their part to remain anonymous.
"Another thing to note. A DIN slot (car radio standard size) is 2"x7", the mini mac is 2"x6.5"."
Combine that with the integration of the iPod with additional car models--Volvo, Nissan, and Mercedes Benz were mentioned today--and you reach an inescapable conclusion: Apple is set to blow away the market for in-car computing.
I was just in a taxi the other day here in Como, Italy, where I live, and the driver had a brand new navigation computer, complete with TV and DVD capabilities. Of course, car navigation computers are not new in Europe, providing GPS and all kinds of other in-car services. I have a friend living in Switzerland who had to drive to Luxembourg for work once a week, and he is so dependent on his in-car navigation system that once when it crashed, he couldn't find his way back home.
Think about it. It would take Apple only a baby step or two with the new Mac Mini to completely take over this market. Installing a car navigation system can cost you thousands of dollars, but Apple's core component would only cost you $499.
Imagine not only being able to plan a trip, but to have your kids do it on your desktop Mac, and then beam the instructions through AirPort to your car in the driveway. Car media centre? No problem, with a Bluetooth keyboard and a screen attached to your stereo slot. Or what about a snap-on interface connected to the USB and video-out ports on the back of the Mac Mini? But the greatest potential lies in the business uses of a car that is fitted as a fully-capable mobile office for less than a thousand bucks: the term "working remotely" takes on a whole new meaning.
Now you can be serious about taking your work to the beach.
I moved to Opera three days ago after finally getting cheesed off with having IE launch spyware apps and then crash virtually every time I opened it.
I have the free version right now, in which I can even choose whether I prefer Google ads or big, noisy banners. I went with Google, since I am a Gmail fan anyway. One of my friends thinks I am a wuss for thinking this, but I actually like the text ads by Google. They are becoming familiar, and they virtually disappear on the Opera interface unless I need them, and then they are actually relevant!
What I like best about Opera is, well, many things:
1. Never had a popup since I have used it.
2. Easy to read RSS feeds, including a customized Opera newsfeed that brings Slashdot, Salon and some other feeds together as one.
3. Easy password fill-in (I know IE has something like this too, but I just never trusted it, given all the security holes.)
4. Easy, comprehensive toolbar customization. You can also customize your menus and toolbars with single-click "Setups". The toolbars are also far more intelligent than IE. You can set them to appear only when you need them, like the download status bar, which disappears as soon as your page is completed.
5. I imagine the mail and newsgroup features of Opera are also excellent, although I am married to Outlook and don't intend to switch.
6. Not the least important thing is that the design of the interface shows some visual design sensibility; a trained graphic designer of two must have actually designed it!
Basically, it feels like a much more sophisticated, softer Internet experience. I have Firefox installed as well, but mainly for testing my Web pages. It seems too simplified for me. I like complex but well-designed interfaces.
Are there rumours about Opera selling out? If so, I hope Google buys them (and then makes Gmail Opera-compatible.)
The basic idea is to rain hell on all spyware apps so it becomes a national security concern to stop people from making it. Raises the ante for the spyware makers, don't you think?
We need a way to make it too expensive a prospect to even consider. Call it the "War on Spyware." I think the challenge of this could even attract some of those virus makers to redirect their energy.