"So what? Its their service. They could if they wanted ban all people with 'e's in their name.
I'd agree with this statement, but only if Microsoft were refunding the $50 to people that they've banned. As it is, they're banning people without telling them (making people wonder if there's a network problem or a problem with their setup), and they're keeping the $50."
Er... what if you've actually gone out and bought an X-Box because you want to play online?
So they're down the cost of the console, the games as well as the Live fee.
I think is problem is that he just didn't get a simple thankyou. He wasn't motivated by money, but considering it was really a business asking for his knowlege and experience, he should have been.
The problem is, his arrogant bitch of a boss, treated him like a hankie, blew her nose on him, then threw him away without a second thought, and he didn't pick up on the clues that her initial attitude should have given him that she was going to treat him like thisbr>
What he should do is recognise such character traits, and not do favours for such a person in future, unless it's in his own interests.
And never do a favour for a bloody business: she'll have saved hundreds/a few thousand, and she couldn't have spared a simple thankyou, which is all he wanted....?
You are older and wiser now, my friend, your enemy has just taught you something; reflect on it well.
The democracy in Taiwan is a joke. The political platform in Taiwan look like a bad Jerry Springer show with meaningless and sensational catching pharse spiting [sic] out from smart ass politicians in the TV talk show.
So, er, we're supposed to have less respect for Taiwan, now that we know it has the same form of democracy as the rest of us?:o/
Maybe Bill Wyman [musician] should sue his stupid ass lawyer, for bringing his reputation into disrepute by making arrogant, and bullying lawsuits up in his name?
Oh, hang on... this is the Bill Wyman who fucks underage girls, [Mandy Smith] isn't it?
I guess Bill Wyman [journalist] should sue Bill Wyman [musician] for bringing his name into disrepute, then.
I don't understand why the manufacturers don't include the means to circumvent this "hostage-taking" technique used by Hollywood, et al.
If they can give me a dvd player that takes region-coding, and wipes it's arse with it, they can give me back control of my FF button, I'd have thought.
"So speaks the optimist. In reality, it's a lose-lose situation.
Eolas wins, stupid pantent-wavers gain more power.
Microsoft wins, no further comments needed."
So speaks the pessimist. It may be a win-win situation.
Eolas wins; Microsoft realises the crippling power of stupid patents and campaigns for a fairer patent system.
Microsoft wins; stupid patents are discredited and [yet] more light is shed on the issue, hastening change.
"If you want a 512kbit connection all to yourself, you should be paying the same an ISP pays for 512k- roughly 650 to 800 dollars a month for the port charge and data hookup. ISPs make money by overselling their service. They dont have to sell to a person, and if a person breaks their model, they can stop selling them service."
But isn't this a kind of deception. They don't really state this up-front to their customers.
What I want is a pipe of a given bandwidth that I can do what I want with, and I'm willing to pay £n. If an ISP syas I can only have it for £n2, then I'll look for competition.
Surely that's the way it's supposed to work, not fannying around with, you can't do this with your BW, you can't do that?
Does censoring this material, however, not create a false world, where such speech is not seen and dealt with in an appropriate way?
To take the example of a virus [biological], going and living in Antarctica will rid you of exposure to such viruses [IANAScientist] but the moment you enter another country, or the real world, if you like, you've no defenses to the multitude of virii there.
There's a saying in Scotland [at least]: "A little bit of dirt, does you good." It keeps your bodily defence system fit. There are suggestions that children develop allergic reactions due to too clean a household.
Anyway, all my pop-science aside, hate speech will always exist, until we humans purify our hearts, as a species, develop enlightnment etc. So long as we havent done that, creating a rarefied environment, without hatred, where we can't learn how to accept it and deal with it well, will leave us culturally and personally weak.
To quote a Buddhist saying, "You don't cover the whole world in leather, you wear a pair of shoes."
Hate speech, malicious and deliberate encitement to violence and discrimination needs to be dealt with not by censoring it from the public's view, but in giving people the counter-case, the truth, the facts, and creating an environment where hate cannot flourish.
And that way, we don't become weakened, frail creatures; hothouse flowers unable to withstand the slightest chill. And we don't become oppressed by the ignorant pc-nazi-language-fascists, who, I would suggest, don't really know what they're doing, and are quite happy to trample on all of us, under the glazed zeal of protecting people.
"And people won't stop paying for music in the copy protected future anymore than they don't buy macrovision protected DVD's now.
"
Macrovision on DVDs, you say?
But my DVD Player, has Marovision disabled (I can copy to VHS with no probs, for example) and it has a region-less region, and infinite region changes to get around the anti-regionless-software on some newer DVDs.
Maybe cd players will start being made with such unofficial circumvention "easter-eggs?"
Why do they need to translate "D'oh" into anything? It's not like it means anything other than ""D'oh!"" in English, anyway.
I mean, the first time I heard Homer say it, I got the meaning without having to consult a dictionary, despite never having heard the expression before, ever.
"More often (I forget my student ID, ticket counter woman is evil, etc.) I end up paying $6.25 for a movie ticket. This, plus the cost of drinks, popcorn, etc. at extortional prices, can bring the cost of a movie up to between $10 and $20/person."
You haven't heard of the "take your own supermarket-bought drinks/popcorn into the theatre," extortion-circumvention technique, then?
"The point being missed is that the cost of a CD has to cover much more than just the manufacturing and distribution of that disk. It has to cover the expenses in finding and developing talent, recording and touring, marketing and advertising. These expenses far exceed the costs of pressing a CD.
You're ignoring the fact that tapes, while costing much more to produce, have significantly lower retail prices than CDs. Yet tapes are still produced so obviously must still be profitable for the record companies, despite the indirect costs you bring up..."
You're also forgetting the costs the retailers factor in (for floor-space, rents, power, staff, pure-profit, etc.)
What is the retail mark-up, 40%? 50%?
I have to say that your comment is insightful, but that I'd go further in saying that people who describe albums as being full of "filler" material, are basically just saying that they only like instantly catchy tunes, or whatever comes on Top of the Pops, or whatever.
Some music is instantly accessible, and is just as quickly irritating, and some music is slow-burn as well; slow to make it's charms known and long-lasting in it's delight.
I bought an album a while ago and hated it, but for a couple of tracks; now the giddy heights of love I felt for those tracks has faded, and the songs I disliked have grown on me.
"Filler" is a political term, not a factual one (generally.)
That all said, however, some tracks an artist creates transcend the normal limited appeal that their regular work has, and would appeal to people who would not enjoy their regular works.
I can't see anything wrong with a 75p (50 cent)dowload for a single piece of music, and the selling of regular albums, along-side, to please everyone.
http://www.oft.gov.uk/Business/Legal+Powers/unfair +what+is.htm [what the OFT of the UK considers unfair]
http://www.oft.gov.uk/NR/rdonlyres/extyc76c3zvz6n5 pvdac3u3obr637fs3mbynvd2qhkyzgrgenny6xridnc2mwasb3 2trgh4si4gdg2bt2gp5viz4jvh/oft311-annexea.pdf [a 192kb pdf of examples of unfair terms that the OFT corrected or removed from contracts... worth a read, it includes a couple from Microsoft, most from Double-Glazing companies, and a couple from Scan.co.uk, a company who I've been made out of pocket by, because of their contract, and their lies that they'd re-imburse me despite them (they didn't).... anyway some of the examples are very funny.]
Actually, I think the original poster got it right, but the important thing, at least here in England, would be that if any reasonable person couldn't understand it [and I'll say that several reasonable people seem to be having difficulty understanding it's meaning] then (IANAL) the meaning upheld shall be that which is most favourable to the consumer.
Of course the whole thing is based on the entirely unresonable belief that any reasonable or average consumer would a) read it all and b) read it all and understand it, before clicking "I accept."
IMHO, these EULAs are lawyer power-trip wet-dreams; they're what people would give themselves if they could give themselves indemnity from any risk whatsoever, and make everyone else carry the buck, responsibility etc.
It's all "kids saying what they would do if they were God/King/Ruler of The World.
In the UK the Office of Fair Trading would strike out about half this eula, if you ask me. They have on their website a pdf of stuff they made companies change in their on-line contracts, some of it is hilarious.
"You know, I would put her in my friend's list, not for content, but just for interesting posts. However, I'm afraid it would taint my Friends of Friends list. In any case, it's refreshing to have intelligent females posting in this raving forum of male techs.
"
So let me get this straight... you like her posts, think she's interesting, but you're scared to "associate" with her, in case some other people think you're a twat, because she has dodgy friends???
This is going to sound like a troll, but, stop being such a gosh-darn pussy!
Slashdot Mirror
"So what? Its their service. They could if they wanted ban all people with 'e's in their name.
I'd agree with this statement, but only if Microsoft were refunding the $50 to people that they've banned. As it is, they're banning people without telling them (making people wonder if there's a network problem or a problem with their setup), and they're keeping the $50."
Er... what if you've actually gone out and bought an X-Box because you want to play online?
So they're down the cost of the console, the games as well as the Live fee.
I can envisage an awful lot of angry lesbians, frustrated by their MSvibrator® telling them it needs to re-boot, half-way through an orgasm.
:oS
Bill doesn't want to get on the wrong side of some of theose butch dykes.
I think is problem is that he just didn't get a simple thankyou. He wasn't motivated by money, but considering it was really a business asking for his knowlege and experience, he should have been.
The problem is, his arrogant bitch of a boss, treated him like a hankie, blew her nose on him, then threw him away without a second thought, and he didn't pick up on the clues that her initial attitude should have given him that she was going to treat him like thisbr>
What he should do is recognise such character traits, and not do favours for such a person in future, unless it's in his own interests.
And never do a favour for a bloody business: she'll have saved hundreds/a few thousand, and she couldn't have spared a simple thankyou, which is all he wanted....?
You are older and wiser now, my friend, your enemy has just taught you something; reflect on it well.
The Register voted number 17 in a poll of top 100 favourite UK websites conducted for The Mirror [newspaper] and Practical Internet [magazine.]
The democracy in Taiwan is a joke. The political platform in Taiwan look like a bad Jerry Springer show with meaningless and sensational catching pharse spiting [sic] out from smart ass politicians in the TV talk show.
:o/
So, er, we're supposed to have less respect for Taiwan, now that we know it has the same form of democracy as the rest of us?
Maybe Bill Wyman [musician] should sue his stupid ass lawyer, for bringing his reputation into disrepute by making arrogant, and bullying lawsuits up in his name?
Oh, hang on... this is the Bill Wyman who fucks underage girls, [Mandy Smith] isn't it?
I guess Bill Wyman [journalist] should sue Bill Wyman [musician] for bringing his name into disrepute, then.
I don't understand why the manufacturers don't include the means to circumvent this "hostage-taking" technique used by Hollywood, et al.
If they can give me a dvd player that takes region-coding, and wipes it's arse with it, they can give me back control of my FF button, I'd have thought.
"...western (god I hate that term) democracies..."
Try "Northern Economic Bloc," instead.
"So speaks the optimist. In reality, it's a lose-lose situation.
...Who the f*** knows?
Eolas wins, stupid pantent-wavers gain more power.
Microsoft wins, no further comments needed."
So speaks the pessimist. It may be a win-win situation.
Eolas wins; Microsoft realises the crippling power of stupid patents and campaigns for a fairer patent system.
Microsoft wins; stupid patents are discredited and [yet] more light is shed on the issue, hastening change.
OR
Screw the content producers! My DVD player maker has done away with region coding for them! :)
Next: disable the FF lock-out on the copyright notice/Studio-splash...
"If you want a 512kbit connection all to yourself, you should be paying the same an ISP pays for 512k- roughly 650 to 800 dollars a month for the port charge and data hookup. ISPs make money by overselling their service. They dont have to sell to a person, and if a person breaks their model, they can stop selling them service."
But isn't this a kind of deception. They don't really state this up-front to their customers.
What I want is a pipe of a given bandwidth that I can do what I want with, and I'm willing to pay £n. If an ISP syas I can only have it for £n2, then I'll look for competition.
Surely that's the way it's supposed to work, not fannying around with, you can't do this with your BW, you can't do that?
Does censoring this material, however, not create a false world, where such speech is not seen and dealt with in an appropriate way?
To take the example of a virus [biological], going and living in Antarctica will rid you of exposure to such viruses [IANAScientist] but the moment you enter another country, or the real world, if you like, you've no defenses to the multitude of virii there.
There's a saying in Scotland [at least]: "A little bit of dirt, does you good." It keeps your bodily defence system fit. There are suggestions that children develop allergic reactions due to too clean a household.
Anyway, all my pop-science aside, hate speech will always exist, until we humans purify our hearts, as a species, develop enlightnment etc. So long as we havent done that, creating a rarefied environment, without hatred, where we can't learn how to accept it and deal with it well, will leave us culturally and personally weak.
To quote a Buddhist saying, "You don't cover the whole world in leather, you wear a pair of shoes."
Hate speech, malicious and deliberate encitement to violence and discrimination needs to be dealt with not by censoring it from the public's view, but in giving people the counter-case, the truth, the facts, and creating an environment where hate cannot flourish.
And that way, we don't become weakened, frail creatures; hothouse flowers unable to withstand the slightest chill. And we don't become oppressed by the ignorant pc-nazi-language-fascists, who, I would suggest, don't really know what they're doing, and are quite happy to trample on all of us, under the glazed zeal of protecting people.
Or something like that.
You can still call people "niggers," you just can't be white and do it.
This is not a troll, it's a bloody fact.
[Necessary disclaimer?: Not a racist, just dislike hypocrisy.]
I'd have thought politeness was even more necessary in The Land of the Gun(TM)
I wonder if they'll have to coin a new term soon:
"Going Corporate" instead of "Going Postal?"
"And people won't stop paying for music in the copy protected future anymore than they don't buy macrovision protected DVD's now. "
Macrovision on DVDs, you say?
But my DVD Player, has Marovision disabled (I can copy to VHS with no probs, for example) and it has a region-less region, and infinite region changes to get around the anti-regionless-software on some newer DVDs.
Maybe cd players will start being made with such unofficial circumvention "easter-eggs?"
Why do they need to translate "D'oh" into anything? It's not like it means anything other than ""D'oh!"" in English, anyway.
I mean, the first time I heard Homer say it, I got the meaning without having to consult a dictionary, despite never having heard the expression before, ever.
Unnecessary translation = D'oh!
"More often (I forget my student ID, ticket counter woman is evil, etc.) I end up paying $6.25 for a movie ticket. This, plus the cost of drinks, popcorn, etc. at extortional prices, can bring the cost of a movie up to between $10 and $20/person."
You haven't heard of the "take your own supermarket-bought drinks/popcorn into the theatre," extortion-circumvention technique, then?
"Does anyone have an argument as to why companies should continue to develop such technologies?"
False Hope?
"The point being missed is that the cost of a CD has to cover much more than just the manufacturing and distribution of that disk. It has to cover the expenses in finding and developing talent, recording and touring, marketing and advertising. These expenses far exceed the costs of pressing a CD.
You're ignoring the fact that tapes, while costing much more to produce, have significantly lower retail prices than CDs. Yet tapes are still produced so obviously must still be profitable for the record companies, despite the indirect costs you bring up..."
You're also forgetting the costs the retailers factor in (for floor-space, rents, power, staff, pure-profit, etc.)
What is the retail mark-up, 40%? 50%?
I have to say that your comment is insightful, but that I'd go further in saying that people who describe albums as being full of "filler" material, are basically just saying that they only like instantly catchy tunes, or whatever comes on Top of the Pops, or whatever.
Some music is instantly accessible, and is just as quickly irritating, and some music is slow-burn as well; slow to make it's charms known and long-lasting in it's delight.
I bought an album a while ago and hated it, but for a couple of tracks; now the giddy heights of love I felt for those tracks has faded, and the songs I disliked have grown on me.
"Filler" is a political term, not a factual one (generally.)
That all said, however, some tracks an artist creates transcend the normal limited appeal that their regular work has, and would appeal to people who would not enjoy their regular works.
I can't see anything wrong with a 75p (50 cent)dowload for a single piece of music, and the selling of regular albums, along-side, to please everyone.
"Its a dicey issue to be certian, balancing rights with the need for the authorities to protect Americans from their enemies."
I thought about it, and this came out:
Its a dicey issue to be certian, balancing rights with the need for the "enemies" to protect Americans from their authorities.
Oh. Ok I obviously completely misunderstood your motives. My appologies.
Tracked down the urls of the site:
r +what+is.htm [what the OFT of the UK considers unfair]
5 pvdac3u3obr637fs3mbynvd2qhkyzgrgenny6xridnc2mwasb3 2trgh4si4gdg2bt2gp5viz4jvh/oft311-annexea.pdf [a 192kb pdf of examples of unfair terms that the OFT corrected or removed from contracts... worth a read, it includes a couple from Microsoft, most from Double-Glazing companies, and a couple from Scan.co.uk, a company who I've been made out of pocket by, because of their contract, and their lies that they'd re-imburse me despite them (they didn't).... anyway some of the examples are very funny.]
http://www.oft.gov.uk/Business/Legal+Powers/unfai
http://www.oft.gov.uk/NR/rdonlyres/extyc76c3zvz6n
Actually, I think the original poster got it right, but the important thing, at least here in England, would be that if any reasonable person couldn't understand it [and I'll say that several reasonable people seem to be having difficulty understanding it's meaning] then (IANAL) the meaning upheld shall be that which is most favourable to the consumer.
Of course the whole thing is based on the entirely unresonable belief that any reasonable or average consumer would a) read it all and b) read it all and understand it, before clicking "I accept."
IMHO, these EULAs are lawyer power-trip wet-dreams; they're what people would give themselves if they could give themselves indemnity from any risk whatsoever, and make everyone else carry the buck, responsibility etc.
It's all "kids saying what they would do if they were God/King/Ruler of The World.
In the UK the Office of Fair Trading would strike out about half this eula, if you ask me. They have on their website a pdf of stuff they made companies change in their on-line contracts, some of it is hilarious.
"You know, I would put her in my friend's list, not for content, but just for interesting posts. However, I'm afraid it would taint my Friends of Friends list. In any case, it's refreshing to have intelligent females posting in this raving forum of male techs. "
So let me get this straight... you like her posts, think she's interesting, but you're scared to "associate" with her, in case some other people think you're a twat, because she has dodgy friends???
This is going to sound like a troll, but, stop being such a gosh-darn pussy!
Please.
You'll be doing yourself a favour.