I believe he's in the Benson area. I live in Tucson, and I checked his map coordinates... my city mapbook stops east at 110 E 24 M which is about Mescal, seven miles west of Benson. There is, by the way, a Bed & Beakfast in Benson that caters to starwatchers. I figure he's on the east side of the San Pedro River. Great spot. Not that the skywatching in Northern AZ sucks at all, either. Get a bit away from the Flagstaff lights, and the view is awesome.
because of course, Acacia has so many companies to thoroughly investigate, and so many videos to review to make sure they know exactly which videos violate this patent. In the name of being truly thorough, they'll have to view many of these videos numerous times. All in the name of legal research, of course.
In a few years, TV stations are supposedly going to begin transmitting digital-only signals. And those who don't want to go buy a new TV will have to buy a set-top box to convert the signal so their old TV can handle the signal. Here's what I'd like to know - if the signal gets converted to analog, can't it be swiped at that point, or from the TV's output jacks?
But, this whole system will be worked around soon enough...
there will need to be some kind of standardization. The type of standardization where tech support is easily reachable, and the kind of standardization that will allow the person who, while not a complete computer geek, can still get common problems fixed for friends and family. (I'm assuming that most of you here are the person that gets called first when Aunt Gretchen can't get her computer to work, only to find she left a disk in the a: drive last time she shut down.)
Linux, however, doesn't have that kind of standardization yet. And a huge percentage of the PC market turns on the Aunt Gretchen type of people - those who get a computer at Best Buy or wherever and expect to plug it in and have it "just work." Against its independent underpinnings, Linux will need a standardized presentation of some sort that will enable a big player somewhere in the home PC market to sell computers with Linux pre-installed. (On a side note, I'm eagerly awaiting seeing a "Penguin Inside" label on new computers.) Most Linux users are a computer savvy bunch, seeing that unless you get your computer from wal-mart.com or build one yourself you've generally actually got to hunt down your OS. Most Windows users use Windows because that's what you get when you buy a computer. If you can get a desktop distro of Linux that a major vendor (someone who has REAL market share) is willing to support and ship pre-installed, then you'll see more market share for Linux on the desktop.
A while back, I naively applied for a job doing tech support for AOL. Turns out they were just looking for "Saves" people, who are the guys that take cancellation calls and beg and implore people to stay with AOL. I'm glad I didn't get the job. The tour they give of the place reinforces something that most people smart enough not to use AOL already know:
AOL's customers are not the 30+ million people paying for access. AOL's customers are the advertisers that are told, "We have over thirty million captive people you can reach, whether through popups, banner ads, sales pitches on tech support calls, and email!"
Lately this business model has bitten AOL and now Time Warner in the ass. Considering how many other sources there are for getting information, I think this will heavily dilute the value of the offered properties. There's not going to be enough value to entice any significant amount of people to either subscribe to AOL or pay the fee for the content.
Also, most people who use AOL aren't using it because they can get exclusive content. They're using it because they see AOL as the internet. This isn't going to bump subscriber numbers significantly either up or down. I don't see a huge amount of risk for AOL/TW, but I don't see any real payoff either.
Celeron 400, 160 MB RAM, ATI Rage Fury 128 8 MB graphics card, 10 GB hard drive.
And I have no problems running the few games I want to with it (nothing's really come out in the last year that I've been dying for) and no lag in performance on any apps. I use Photoshop, several desktop publishing programs, OpenOffice, Word 97, Mozilla, and a few other programs, all on Windows 98. The only reason I see for spending money on new hardware soon is that I'm going to school for graphic design, and a new Mac is definitely in order. But my little old Celeron surfs the net, burns my CD-R's, and does everything I ask of it.
Actually, $45 is 15 percent of $300. If the cost is $45, then that means that 85 percent of the $300 is profit. That's how they do it in business. When they say to sell something at 30 percent profit, they mean that 30 percent of the total price is profit.
This shows the potential danger that StarOffice and OpenOffice pose to Microsoft if they ever get off the ground in the way that many would like them to. Especially if OpenOffice gains a large foothold in the business world - it would put serious pressure on all Microsoft divisions to make up the lost Office profits. If Linux ever gains a significant desktop share, this could get good.
"software piracy fell $US1 billion to $10.97 billion due to a "decline in software prices making the benefits of original software more compelling against the risks of software piracy and the effects of a worldwide economic slowdown", the groups say" You mean that bringing the price of a product down more in line with its real value makes people more likely to buy it? Unbelievable.
Some people aren't going to learn how to use things, no matter how easy you make it. I was repeatedly called to help my wife's grandmother do very simple things with her computer, because she simply wouldn't remember, even after writing things down. I've also been going through the same thing with my grandfather. I built him a computer to replace his old Packard Bell that literally went up in smoke. It had been running Windows 3.1, and he would occasionally get online to check his stocks. He couldn't remember how to use his email. The new computer has 98 on it (and yes, M$ sucks, but it's what we had handy) and I set it up with a desktop icon that says "Click here to use the internet." I've written down step-by-step instructions in simple from for everything. And I still have to show him how to connect every time I'm over there. This is a guy who is, even in his mid-70's, pretty mentally sharp. It just seems certain folks can't make the leap into computers. (He's buying a new cordless phone - digital answering machine - caller ID unit today. I'm sure I'll be there tomorrow.) And the rest of us pay the price when software companies keep dumbing down apps and make the old manual way of doing things impossible to get around to. All reasons I'm headed in the open source direction...
If you're running a software firewall that allows you to choose which programs can access the net, you should be OK. WMP comes with a separate update utility that will try to do the updating. It's under a separate name from the actual media player. When your firewall asks you if the setup program can access the internet, you just tell it no.
I always make a point of reading EULA's (and yes, I do have way too much time on my hands) just to make sure I'm not going to be required to download anything or give anyone access to my system, or that I may have to sacrifice my beloved cat on the Altar Of Bill Gates. I did see that part about downloading updates. I just made sure I took the liberty of instructing my software firewall to not allow the setup program to access the internet. (It has a separate component it uses to attempt upgrades.) But it was also the first thing I thought about when I saw that M$ was telling people that they have absolutely got to update...
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I believe he's in the Benson area. I live in Tucson, and I checked his map coordinates... my city mapbook stops east at 110 E 24 M which is about Mescal, seven miles west of Benson. There is, by the way, a Bed & Beakfast in Benson that caters to starwatchers. I figure he's on the east side of the San Pedro River. Great spot. Not that the skywatching in Northern AZ sucks at all, either. Get a bit away from the Flagstaff lights, and the view is awesome.
because of course, Acacia has so many companies to thoroughly investigate, and so many videos to review to make sure they know exactly which videos violate this patent. In the name of being truly thorough, they'll have to view many of these videos numerous times. All in the name of legal research, of course.
In a few years, TV stations are supposedly going to begin transmitting digital-only signals. And those who don't want to go buy a new TV will have to buy a set-top box to convert the signal so their old TV can handle the signal. Here's what I'd like to know - if the signal gets converted to analog, can't it be swiped at that point, or from the TV's output jacks? But, this whole system will be worked around soon enough...
there will need to be some kind of standardization. The type of standardization where tech support is easily reachable, and the kind of standardization that will allow the person who, while not a complete computer geek, can still get common problems fixed for friends and family. (I'm assuming that most of you here are the person that gets called first when Aunt Gretchen can't get her computer to work, only to find she left a disk in the a: drive last time she shut down.)
Linux, however, doesn't have that kind of standardization yet. And a huge percentage of the PC market turns on the Aunt Gretchen type of people - those who get a computer at Best Buy or wherever and expect to plug it in and have it "just work." Against its independent underpinnings, Linux will need a standardized presentation of some sort that will enable a big player somewhere in the home PC market to sell computers with Linux pre-installed. (On a side note, I'm eagerly awaiting seeing a "Penguin Inside" label on new computers.)
Most Linux users are a computer savvy bunch, seeing that unless you get your computer from wal-mart.com or build one yourself you've generally actually got to hunt down your OS. Most Windows users use Windows because that's what you get when you buy a computer. If you can get a desktop distro of Linux that a major vendor (someone who has REAL market share) is willing to support and ship pre-installed, then you'll see more market share for Linux on the desktop.
can I program it to widdle on my annoying neighbor's lawn? I need features I can use, you know...
A while back, I naively applied for a job doing tech support for AOL. Turns out they were just looking for "Saves" people, who are the guys that take cancellation calls and beg and implore people to stay with AOL. I'm glad I didn't get the job. The tour they give of the place reinforces something that most people smart enough not to use AOL already know: AOL's customers are not the 30+ million people paying for access. AOL's customers are the advertisers that are told, "We have over thirty million captive people you can reach, whether through popups, banner ads, sales pitches on tech support calls, and email!" Lately this business model has bitten AOL and now Time Warner in the ass. Considering how many other sources there are for getting information, I think this will heavily dilute the value of the offered properties. There's not going to be enough value to entice any significant amount of people to either subscribe to AOL or pay the fee for the content. Also, most people who use AOL aren't using it because they can get exclusive content. They're using it because they see AOL as the internet. This isn't going to bump subscriber numbers significantly either up or down. I don't see a huge amount of risk for AOL/TW, but I don't see any real payoff either.
Celeron 400, 160 MB RAM, ATI Rage Fury 128 8 MB graphics card, 10 GB hard drive. And I have no problems running the few games I want to with it (nothing's really come out in the last year that I've been dying for) and no lag in performance on any apps. I use Photoshop, several desktop publishing programs, OpenOffice, Word 97, Mozilla, and a few other programs, all on Windows 98. The only reason I see for spending money on new hardware soon is that I'm going to school for graphic design, and a new Mac is definitely in order. But my little old Celeron surfs the net, burns my CD-R's, and does everything I ask of it.
Actually, $45 is 15 percent of $300. If the cost is $45, then that means that 85 percent of the $300 is profit. That's how they do it in business. When they say to sell something at 30 percent profit, they mean that 30 percent of the total price is profit.
This shows the potential danger that StarOffice and OpenOffice pose to Microsoft if they ever get off the ground in the way that many would like them to. Especially if OpenOffice gains a large foothold in the business world - it would put serious pressure on all Microsoft divisions to make up the lost Office profits. If Linux ever gains a significant desktop share, this could get good.
"software piracy fell $US1 billion to $10.97 billion due to a "decline in software prices making the benefits of original software more compelling against the risks of software piracy and the effects of a worldwide economic slowdown", the groups say"
You mean that bringing the price of a product down more in line with its real value makes people more likely to buy it? Unbelievable.
Some people aren't going to learn how to use things, no matter how easy you make it. I was repeatedly called to help my wife's grandmother do very simple things with her computer, because she simply wouldn't remember, even after writing things down. I've also been going through the same thing with my grandfather. I built him a computer to replace his old Packard Bell that literally went up in smoke. It had been running Windows 3.1, and he would occasionally get online to check his stocks. He couldn't remember how to use his email. The new computer has 98 on it (and yes, M$ sucks, but it's what we had handy) and I set it up with a desktop icon that says "Click here to use the internet." I've written down step-by-step instructions in simple from for everything. And I still have to show him how to connect every time I'm over there. This is a guy who is, even in his mid-70's, pretty mentally sharp. It just seems certain folks can't make the leap into computers. (He's buying a new cordless phone - digital answering machine - caller ID unit today. I'm sure I'll be there tomorrow.) And the rest of us pay the price when software companies keep dumbing down apps and make the old manual way of doing things impossible to get around to. All reasons I'm headed in the open source direction...
As far as custom fabbing each chip for a crypto key... if they can run processor serial numbers, I think they can fab unique keys.
If you're running a software firewall that allows you to choose which programs can access the net, you should be OK. WMP comes with a separate update utility that will try to do the updating. It's under a separate name from the actual media player. When your firewall asks you if the setup program can access the internet, you just tell it no.
I always make a point of reading EULA's (and yes, I do have way too much time on my hands) just to make sure I'm not going to be required to download anything or give anyone access to my system, or that I may have to sacrifice my beloved cat on the Altar Of Bill Gates. I did see that part about downloading updates. I just made sure I took the liberty of instructing my software firewall to not allow the setup program to access the internet. (It has a separate component it uses to attempt upgrades.) But it was also the first thing I thought about when I saw that M$ was telling people that they have absolutely got to update...