Yes, but you need to be clear on *WHY* they're doing this - this is not to stick up for consumers but because of the additional cost of providing equipment & staff to do more detailed monitoring of their subscribers.
There are purely financial reasons behind this, albeit it's ultimately in our interests.
The VoIP world is going the way of open standards with SIP - if Skype don't adapt to embrace SIP, they'll just edge themselves out of the marketplace.
The biggest VoIP business provider Avaya has been moving to SIP for years and, interestingly though maybe not relevant, are owned mostly by the Silver Lake investors, who also own most of Skype.
Oh, okay. So you mean you get up in the morning, start doing productive work and don't stop until your head touches the pillow at night?
Sorry, my friend, but just because I enjoy the occasional bit of fun (which most employers actually encourage as long as it's not too excessive or extreme), it does not mean I am not productive and hard working when I need to be. As a technical consultant, I'm not in a job that can expose you to extreme situations like, say, a traffic cop or a surgeon, but even those people learn to develop good humour just to get them through their working day.
So please don't make out you understand me because you don't - I'm 48 years old, very happy with my work, love and social lives, have a good career I've done well at and attribute most of that to having a sense of humour so as not to take life too seriously all of the time.
As to the rest of your response, it has always amazed me how flame wars start and how much bickering there is over the Internet between people who wouldn't know each other if they passed each other on the street - is it really *THAT* important what an anonymous person thinks about you?
I find a PC works well and is easy to use - and much cheaper.
Apple do not have exclusivity on products that work well and are easy to use - else why isn't *EVERY* Joe Sickpack with an Internet connection these days using a Mac?
Look, I'm no OS zealot and I believe people should use computing devices that they find the easiest to use, whether that's Windows, Linux, OS X or whatever.
However, here's what annoys me.
If someone wants to stop using Windows but still wants "simplified" computing (and, again, I have no problem with people who just want to surf the Internet, write a few documents and edit a few photos without worrying about how a computer works), then they're probably going to go with a Mac and OS X.
But then the Apple people start touting on about the wonders of a BSD core to OS X and this strikes me as a complete contradiction - after all, how many of those people know how to use tools like grep or awk, how many of can edit in vi, how many can do complicated text manipulation using complicated regular expressions?
Yes, BSD is stable, but so is Windows XP in my experience (and I am, by far, more Linux than Windows user) and I don't use Linux just because it's "cool or hip", I use it because it's the most appropriate tool for what I need a computer to do and because I want as much of my computing as possible to be open computing using open, not proprietary standards.
I'm sorry but these days, far too many people are far too self-conscious and seem to spend their lives trying to impress everyone around them by turning everything into a fashion accessory. Apple has capitalised on this by paying a lot of attention by creating a host of computing devices that "look nice" with a premium price to make them exclusive.
Again, if someone needs a gadget to be a fashion accessory then good luck to them - but please don't expect me to take them seriously when it comes to deeply technical discussions here on Slashdot, because clearly, as an Apple user, that person places how something looks as being at least equally as important as its functionality - otherwise, a PC platform running BSD or Linux is a much cheaper way of getting the same UNIX power and reliability than buying an Apple product.
As an old bloke, one of my few pleasures in life is going onto YouTube, watching some kid's video with a crappy modern pop soundtrack and then explaining to them politely how rap music is no different to karaoke music because it's a bloke who can't sing using someone else's backing track......and when they reply with a tirade of badly spelled and badly punctuated abuse, you then reel them by politely asking them if they can really afford so much time on YouTube when they clearly should be spending more time in English grammar classes.
It's impossible to say because "desktop" means different things to different people.
I've been using Linux for about 15 years now, UNIX for about 20 and Windows since 3.11.
In all honesty, the point at which Linux did everything I need a desktop to do was about 18 months ago when I changed away from a Windows-based mobile phone to one based on Android - at that point, I didn't need Outlook or ActivSync to sync to my mobile phone any more and could get rid of Windows.
I do write a lot of documents and presentations but I don't need VisualBasic or MS Office macros, so OpenOffice does me.
I do take photos and edit them but I wouldn't know how to begin using Adobe Photoshop, GIMP & Picasa do all the photo editing I need to do.
I do some programming in Bash and PERL, if I need to mess about with any files on a Windows machine then I generally mount a Windows share onto the Linux file system and run scripts from there.
I do play some games and is the sole reason I keep a Windows XP installation around - but, quite frankly, these days I'm only interested in releases from Valve or Stardock, or any new Fallout games as new releases, otherwise I replay old titles with updated game engines and mods (Duke Nukem 3D, the Quakes, the Unreal Tournaments, etc.) and any of those that don't now have native Linux ports do run well in WINE.
Yes, I know some people like to do advanced graphics or video editing, in which case the tools they can get for Windows are probably more suitable than those in Linux - but I think for most people, Linux would work perfectly well as a desktop replacement if they gave themselves a little time to get accustomed to it.
To start developing games on Windows PCs you need a few Windows licenses and some development tools, but on a console you need development tools and then pay a licensing fee to the console producer, presumably on each game copy you sell.
It therefore sounds like Activision are looking to get the best of both worlds - namely development on a fixed platform (where they don't have to worry about countless different CPUs, graphics cards, etc.) but without having to pay the licensing fees.
I'm not an X-Box owner but as I understand it, it runs a cut-down/customised version of Windows under the hood - not much different at that level to a TV-pluggable gaming PC.
You really do need to not takes things so personally.
Did I say anything like "all people who use SSDs are idiots"? No, I did not, which is why your "limited usage of computers" comment was a cheap shot.
Incidentally, for your information, I have been working with operating systems and computers for over thirty years now, I suspect I probably know more than you do about them - but I'm not here to compare penile dimensions with you.
However, you comments still leave me unconvinced based on the price of SSDs:
1. I would still, at the moment, put more trust in the longevity of a hard disk than of an SSD. Sure, in 4 or 5 years time it may well be proven that SSDs are better but at the moment they are still new technology and wear-and-tear on them is very much determined by the filesystem being used on them by virtue of how many writes are made to them. And, yes, as per my original posting, I have backups and therefore do not need your advice on the subject, thanks all the same. Incidentally, what's going to hack you off more - a £50 hard disk that wears out in 18 months or a £400 SSD that wears out in 3 years? Do the maths...
2. You do not need a separate battery charger for most devices since the battery charges in-situ in the device itself - the only exception I can think of is the digital camera I own where the battery is charged in a special charger. Since I'm talking mainly about netbooks and laptops, which are usually carried in a bag anyway, putting an extra charged battery in the bag is no big deal.
3. I'm still unconvinced. If you don't maintain a machine properly or don't have high-enough specification hardware/memory/CPU/etc. for what you are trying to run then, yes, you may get excessive loading times. But my life isn't that busy that I particularly care whether an application is instant on or whether I have to wait 5 or 6 seconds for it to start.
Can I suggest you read posts more carefully in future? I've re-read what I wrote and it clearly expresses a personal opinion about why *I* (not *everyone else*) cannot justify the expense of an SSD based on *MY* perceived performance improvements - if others think or do differently then so be it.
Speaking of bootup speed, what's the situation with ACPI and Suspend on laptops with Vista or Windows 7?
This is a genuine question, I don't know the answer because I use Linux and XP, and I've always found it very hit or miss on both - these days I tend to assume it's probably broken anyway and just don't use it.
But does anyone know if some particular chipsets or laptop vendors are better than others?
I played Dungeons & Dragons for about 12 years of my life and there was a time I could have told you, off the top of my head, not only what a water nymph was but also how many hit points it had, what its Armour Class was and what dice you rolled when working out how many of them appeared as random encounters.
No, I agree with you and I'm sure very few, if any, companies are trying advertising by the browser pop-up method these days as a result of all the blocking.
But at the same time, Google (by virtue of their market lead at the moment) must have had considerable success with the "unobtrusive" advertising they use, which says to me that advertisers now use that rather than some even more evil mechanism than web pop-ups.
Apart from that, I'm a total tech-head anyway and advertising/marketing people will be the first against the wall come the revolution.
Can I ask how long you have actually been using the Internet for?
Because as recent as around 5-10 years ago, when Google were a lot smaller incidentally, I can recall using web browsers (mainly IE) where it was getting almost impossible to browse anywhere without 8 or 9 pop-up windows appearing that advertised all manner of sexual and non-sexual services and products - nowadays it's an unobtrusive Google ad at the side of the page or maybe an Adobe Flash advert or two at the top or bottom.
I don't believe Google is perfect by any means but ultimately they do make some pretty cool, good & free stuff that they let me use in return for finding out a bit about where I am and what I'm doing. I know this to be the case *BEFORE* I make the choice of using their stuff and, because I keep myself informed and check these things out, I have a fair degree of control over what information I do and don't choose to reveal about myself - because I consider myself a responsible adult.
Unfortunately, stuff you put on the Internet has to be paid for somehow which means financing it through advertising/marketing, making the user pay for it or a combination of the two. I'm sure that if Google wasn't there in its number one position, then Microsoft, Apple or A. N. Other would be there doing the same thing, and more than likely with closed, locked-in standards meaning that you can never go anywhere else.
Even in my case, having gone away from Windows Mobile-based phones to an Android one in the past 18 months, as a mainly Linux user anyway, for the first time I have been able to get rid of the necessity of a Windows and MS Office installation purely because I *HAD* to use Outlook & Activsync to synchronise with my mobile phone. The fact is, I use both Windows XP and Linux, managed to ditch MS Office in favour of OpenOffice and now have pretty good transparency across both OSes.
So, no, I'm not a Google fanboi but I do credit them with having done more to assist me in getting to using open standards and Open Source software than any other company has - a more than fair swap for sometimes wanting a bit of information about me.
Firstly, let me state that I think Monsanto are evil fucks.
However, why has nobody mentioned the greater impact on agriculture that McDonald's and other food-related corporations have had on agriculture? If anything, Monsanto just provides the seed, animal feed & pesticides that allow the likes of McDonald's to implement highly intensive, mechanised agriculture to churn out millions of hamburgers across the world daily, whilst sticking two fingers up to animal welfare & fair salaries.
And do you really have a right to moan about Monsanto if you're stuffing McDonald's burgers or KFC down your throat 2 or 3 times a week?
I agree that the current global economic model has it flaws but there are benefits also - money being paid to food producers & workers means they can afford to put in pipes for fresh running water, build schools for education & to get an improved standard of living.
No, it's not perfect and exploitation of workers and pay is still rampant - but those same people wouldn't work out in fields picking foodstuffs if they didn't get some benefits themselves from it.
I must admit that the title immediately got me thinking about opalescent pools of water surrounded by trees and then wondering if it would be so healthy if said pool contained an overly territorial venomous water snake or an alligator having a bad day...
I started off with computers in college (here in the UK) by assembly programming Z80 CPUs with LCD digit displays and probably no more than about 1K of memory - at the time we were amazed at what could be accomplished in that amount of memory...
Of course, assembly programming has little interest these days because it just takes far too long to program anything in it and debugging is a pig - hence the need for programming languages, in-built libraries and layer upon layer of interfaces, APIs and whatever.
...too many people are far too full of their own self-importance these days to "never have the time" for anything - this is one thing you start to realise when you get to middle-age like me.
As soon as you hand over too much personal responsibility to big, evil corporations like Monsanto, they will exploit you for financial gain - that is the purpose of a corporation.
The solution is to take your head out of your backside and make time to grow a few things yourself - in plastic tubs, on a small patch of soil, whatever. No, you don't need to be self-sufficient, grow a few things so that you can feed yourself to a degree, then with the money you save use it to buy better produced home-grown foodstuffs.
Companies like Monsanto exist because there are certain problems that are created when you try to grow foodstuffs in places where it wouldn't normally grow or when it's only economical to grow it there in the first place if there is a certain minimum yield per acre, hectare, etc. We ourselves create those problems because we expect food at a certain price and refuse to eat based on seasonal produce.
Monsanto is a demon created by our own consumer demand - go back 40 years and foodstuffs were transported less, more of it was homegrown and took up a higher proportion of incomes because local producers had to pay reasonable pay to their workers.
I'm not one of these green "loonies" either, I'm more scared about the power we willingly give to huge corporations over what we may or may not be doing to the planet.
Slashdot Mirror
Yes, but that's the point... a true SIP endpoint should work with any provider.
Yes, but you need to be clear on *WHY* they're doing this - this is not to stick up for consumers but because of the additional cost of providing equipment & staff to do more detailed monitoring of their subscribers.
There are purely financial reasons behind this, albeit it's ultimately in our interests.
The VoIP world is going the way of open standards with SIP - if Skype don't adapt to embrace SIP, they'll just edge themselves out of the marketplace.
The biggest VoIP business provider Avaya has been moving to SIP for years and, interestingly though maybe not relevant, are owned mostly by the Silver Lake investors, who also own most of Skype.
Oh, okay. So you mean you get up in the morning, start doing productive work and don't stop until your head touches the pillow at night?
Sorry, my friend, but just because I enjoy the occasional bit of fun (which most employers actually encourage as long as it's not too excessive or extreme), it does not mean I am not productive and hard working when I need to be. As a technical consultant, I'm not in a job that can expose you to extreme situations like, say, a traffic cop or a surgeon, but even those people learn to develop good humour just to get them through their working day.
So please don't make out you understand me because you don't - I'm 48 years old, very happy with my work, love and social lives, have a good career I've done well at and attribute most of that to having a sense of humour so as not to take life too seriously all of the time.
As to the rest of your response, it has always amazed me how flame wars start and how much bickering there is over the Internet between people who wouldn't know each other if they passed each other on the street - is it really *THAT* important what an anonymous person thinks about you?
I find a PC works well and is easy to use - and much cheaper.
Apple do not have exclusivity on products that work well and are easy to use - else why isn't *EVERY* Joe Sickpack with an Internet connection these days using a Mac?
Look, I'm no OS zealot and I believe people should use computing devices that they find the easiest to use, whether that's Windows, Linux, OS X or whatever.
However, here's what annoys me.
If someone wants to stop using Windows but still wants "simplified" computing (and, again, I have no problem with people who just want to surf the Internet, write a few documents and edit a few photos without worrying about how a computer works), then they're probably going to go with a Mac and OS X.
But then the Apple people start touting on about the wonders of a BSD core to OS X and this strikes me as a complete contradiction - after all, how many of those people know how to use tools like grep or awk, how many of can edit in vi, how many can do complicated text manipulation using complicated regular expressions?
Yes, BSD is stable, but so is Windows XP in my experience (and I am, by far, more Linux than Windows user) and I don't use Linux just because it's "cool or hip", I use it because it's the most appropriate tool for what I need a computer to do and because I want as much of my computing as possible to be open computing using open, not proprietary standards.
I'm sorry but these days, far too many people are far too self-conscious and seem to spend their lives trying to impress everyone around them by turning everything into a fashion accessory. Apple has capitalised on this by paying a lot of attention by creating a host of computing devices that "look nice" with a premium price to make them exclusive.
Again, if someone needs a gadget to be a fashion accessory then good luck to them - but please don't expect me to take them seriously when it comes to deeply technical discussions here on Slashdot, because clearly, as an Apple user, that person places how something looks as being at least equally as important as its functionality - otherwise, a PC platform running BSD or Linux is a much cheaper way of getting the same UNIX power and reliability than buying an Apple product.
No! Don't say that, please!
As an old bloke, one of my few pleasures in life is going onto YouTube, watching some kid's video with a crappy modern pop soundtrack and then explaining to them politely how rap music is no different to karaoke music because it's a bloke who can't sing using someone else's backing track... ...and when they reply with a tirade of badly spelled and badly punctuated abuse, you then reel them by politely asking them if they can really afford so much time on YouTube when they clearly should be spending more time in English grammar classes.
It's evil, I know, but great fun also!
It's impossible to say because "desktop" means different things to different people.
I've been using Linux for about 15 years now, UNIX for about 20 and Windows since 3.11.
In all honesty, the point at which Linux did everything I need a desktop to do was about 18 months ago when I changed away from a Windows-based mobile phone to one based on Android - at that point, I didn't need Outlook or ActivSync to sync to my mobile phone any more and could get rid of Windows.
I do write a lot of documents and presentations but I don't need VisualBasic or MS Office macros, so OpenOffice does me.
I do take photos and edit them but I wouldn't know how to begin using Adobe Photoshop, GIMP & Picasa do all the photo editing I need to do.
I do some programming in Bash and PERL, if I need to mess about with any files on a Windows machine then I generally mount a Windows share onto the Linux file system and run scripts from there.
I do play some games and is the sole reason I keep a Windows XP installation around - but, quite frankly, these days I'm only interested in releases from Valve or Stardock, or any new Fallout games as new releases, otherwise I replay old titles with updated game engines and mods (Duke Nukem 3D, the Quakes, the Unreal Tournaments, etc.) and any of those that don't now have native Linux ports do run well in WINE.
Yes, I know some people like to do advanced graphics or video editing, in which case the tools they can get for Windows are probably more suitable than those in Linux - but I think for most people, Linux would work perfectly well as a desktop replacement if they gave themselves a little time to get accustomed to it.
To start developing games on Windows PCs you need a few Windows licenses and some development tools, but on a console you need development tools and then pay a licensing fee to the console producer, presumably on each game copy you sell.
It therefore sounds like Activision are looking to get the best of both worlds - namely development on a fixed platform (where they don't have to worry about countless different CPUs, graphics cards, etc.) but without having to pay the licensing fees.
Corporate greed in action...
I was wondering that also...
I'm not an X-Box owner but as I understand it, it runs a cut-down/customised version of Windows under the hood - not much different at that level to a TV-pluggable gaming PC.
You really do need to not takes things so personally.
Did I say anything like "all people who use SSDs are idiots"? No, I did not, which is why your "limited usage of computers" comment was a cheap shot.
Incidentally, for your information, I have been working with operating systems and computers for over thirty years now, I suspect I probably know more than you do about them - but I'm not here to compare penile dimensions with you.
However, you comments still leave me unconvinced based on the price of SSDs:
1. I would still, at the moment, put more trust in the longevity of a hard disk than of an SSD. Sure, in 4 or 5 years time it may well be proven that SSDs are better but at the moment they are still new technology and wear-and-tear on them is very much determined by the filesystem being used on them by virtue of how many writes are made to them. And, yes, as per my original posting, I have backups and therefore do not need your advice on the subject, thanks all the same. Incidentally, what's going to hack you off more - a £50 hard disk that wears out in 18 months or a £400 SSD that wears out in 3 years? Do the maths...
2. You do not need a separate battery charger for most devices since the battery charges in-situ in the device itself - the only exception I can think of is the digital camera I own where the battery is charged in a special charger. Since I'm talking mainly about netbooks and laptops, which are usually carried in a bag anyway, putting an extra charged battery in the bag is no big deal.
3. I'm still unconvinced. If you don't maintain a machine properly or don't have high-enough specification hardware/memory/CPU/etc. for what you are trying to run then, yes, you may get excessive loading times. But my life isn't that busy that I particularly care whether an application is instant on or whether I have to wait 5 or 6 seconds for it to start.
Can I suggest you read posts more carefully in future? I've re-read what I wrote and it clearly expresses a personal opinion about why *I* (not *everyone else*) cannot justify the expense of an SSD based on *MY* perceived performance improvements - if others think or do differently then so be it.
As long as you don't say "chillax" or don't call something "sick" because you think it's good, I promise not to scream.
I never said I agreed with it - but I quite like the option of either paying for something without ads or having it free with ads.
Speaking of bootup speed, what's the situation with ACPI and Suspend on laptops with Vista or Windows 7?
This is a genuine question, I don't know the answer because I use Linux and XP, and I've always found it very hit or miss on both - these days I tend to assume it's probably broken anyway and just don't use it.
But does anyone know if some particular chipsets or laptop vendors are better than others?
Wow! Get a sense of humour, please!
I was just playing on the words "forest bathing" and whether or not it could be deemed as healthy for you, nothing more than that!
Are you having a really bad day or something???
It was a weak attempt at a joke.
I played Dungeons & Dragons for about 12 years of my life and there was a time I could have told you, off the top of my head, not only what a water nymph was but also how many hit points it had, what its Armour Class was and what dice you rolled when working out how many of them appeared as random encounters.
No, I agree with you and I'm sure very few, if any, companies are trying advertising by the browser pop-up method these days as a result of all the blocking.
But at the same time, Google (by virtue of their market lead at the moment) must have had considerable success with the "unobtrusive" advertising they use, which says to me that advertisers now use that rather than some even more evil mechanism than web pop-ups.
Apart from that, I'm a total tech-head anyway and advertising/marketing people will be the first against the wall come the revolution.
As in "helluva number".
What's that? Some sort of toad?
Can I ask how long you have actually been using the Internet for?
Because as recent as around 5-10 years ago, when Google were a lot smaller incidentally, I can recall using web browsers (mainly IE) where it was getting almost impossible to browse anywhere without 8 or 9 pop-up windows appearing that advertised all manner of sexual and non-sexual services and products - nowadays it's an unobtrusive Google ad at the side of the page or maybe an Adobe Flash advert or two at the top or bottom.
I don't believe Google is perfect by any means but ultimately they do make some pretty cool, good & free stuff that they let me use in return for finding out a bit about where I am and what I'm doing. I know this to be the case *BEFORE* I make the choice of using their stuff and, because I keep myself informed and check these things out, I have a fair degree of control over what information I do and don't choose to reveal about myself - because I consider myself a responsible adult.
Unfortunately, stuff you put on the Internet has to be paid for somehow which means financing it through advertising/marketing, making the user pay for it or a combination of the two. I'm sure that if Google wasn't there in its number one position, then Microsoft, Apple or A. N. Other would be there doing the same thing, and more than likely with closed, locked-in standards meaning that you can never go anywhere else.
Even in my case, having gone away from Windows Mobile-based phones to an Android one in the past 18 months, as a mainly Linux user anyway, for the first time I have been able to get rid of the necessity of a Windows and MS Office installation purely because I *HAD* to use Outlook & Activsync to synchronise with my mobile phone. The fact is, I use both Windows XP and Linux, managed to ditch MS Office in favour of OpenOffice and now have pretty good transparency across both OSes.
So, no, I'm not a Google fanboi but I do credit them with having done more to assist me in getting to using open standards and Open Source software than any other company has - a more than fair swap for sometimes wanting a bit of information about me.
Firstly, let me state that I think Monsanto are evil fucks.
However, why has nobody mentioned the greater impact on agriculture that McDonald's and other food-related corporations have had on agriculture? If anything, Monsanto just provides the seed, animal feed & pesticides that allow the likes of McDonald's to implement highly intensive, mechanised agriculture to churn out millions of hamburgers across the world daily, whilst sticking two fingers up to animal welfare & fair salaries.
And do you really have a right to moan about Monsanto if you're stuffing McDonald's burgers or KFC down your throat 2 or 3 times a week?
I agree that the current global economic model has it flaws but there are benefits also - money being paid to food producers & workers means they can afford to put in pipes for fresh running water, build schools for education & to get an improved standard of living.
No, it's not perfect and exploitation of workers and pay is still rampant - but those same people wouldn't work out in fields picking foodstuffs if they didn't get some benefits themselves from it.
Oh, and Monsanto are still nasty evil fucks also.
I must admit that the title immediately got me thinking about opalescent pools of water surrounded by trees and then wondering if it would be so healthy if said pool contained an overly territorial venomous water snake or an alligator having a bad day...
I started off with computers in college (here in the UK) by assembly programming Z80 CPUs with LCD digit displays and probably no more than about 1K of memory - at the time we were amazed at what could be accomplished in that amount of memory...
Of course, assembly programming has little interest these days because it just takes far too long to program anything in it and debugging is a pig - hence the need for programming languages, in-built libraries and layer upon layer of interfaces, APIs and whatever.
And that's where your power goes! :-)
...too many people are far too full of their own self-importance these days to "never have the time" for anything - this is one thing you start to realise when you get to middle-age like me.
As soon as you hand over too much personal responsibility to big, evil corporations like Monsanto, they will exploit you for financial gain - that is the purpose of a corporation.
The solution is to take your head out of your backside and make time to grow a few things yourself - in plastic tubs, on a small patch of soil, whatever. No, you don't need to be self-sufficient, grow a few things so that you can feed yourself to a degree, then with the money you save use it to buy better produced home-grown foodstuffs.
Companies like Monsanto exist because there are certain problems that are created when you try to grow foodstuffs in places where it wouldn't normally grow or when it's only economical to grow it there in the first place if there is a certain minimum yield per acre, hectare, etc. We ourselves create those problems because we expect food at a certain price and refuse to eat based on seasonal produce.
Monsanto is a demon created by our own consumer demand - go back 40 years and foodstuffs were transported less, more of it was homegrown and took up a higher proportion of incomes because local producers had to pay reasonable pay to their workers.
I'm not one of these green "loonies" either, I'm more scared about the power we willingly give to huge corporations over what we may or may not be doing to the planet.