Um, yes, I would say it is much different. Since theatres operate on a 'one viewing per ticket' model, and release the movies to DVD a few months after the theatre run is over, recording movies in theatres is very obviously theft.
Lets compare it to a musical performance. The music in concert sounds very different than the studio tracks. The movie? Its the same every time. If you appreciate the difference between studio/live, this makes a concert bootleg a very different product. A bootleg theatre recording? The difference between home/theatre is the experience; but watching the recording at home removes that difference, and its just watching it at home. Also, the DVD is a far superior product.
Im not a fan of the RIAA, but the movie industry has a very honest point regarding recording in theatres, which are going to be sold on street corners, flea markets, and given away over the internet. BTW, I had thought this was already illegal?
They're finding that, in many ways, open-source development can be faster, better and cheaper than the 'textbook' software engineering often used in corporate settings
When big companies use Open Source, the pointy-haired boss is the real winnner.
Are you just joking? Because I run Win2k, and can count the number of lockups Ive ever had with it on one hand (we are talking lockups where I couldnt do anything but hit reset). The worst that happens is crashing to desktop or having to ctrl-alt-delete, kill the task, then reboot, which doesnt happen much either.
Heck, they can put the tower on top of my apartment if they want, as long as it gets me reception...
Anyway, I was just going by something else I read. The article claimed that phone companies werent working on portability because they were hoping to defeat the bill, and also because they could delay it further by working on it only when/if it was mandated. How true this was, I cant say personally (IANAPG- I am not a phone guy).
However, when you are looking at what console is the best-looking, it is always the XBox.
Likewise, MS probably has some kind of technical involvement in helping them make this happen; Sony is most likely not contributing resources to help our troops (nor do I expect them to).
I think that will be the time to start worrying. Once it becomes trivially easy to kill people, and you can do it without even seeing it 'in real life', it will take any remaining shreads of humanity out of war.
I like ATT as well, but their TDMA service is awful where I live (but good elsewhere, strangely). Mostly, I like their honesty in pricing and plans. Its been a while since I did price comparisons, but at the time I looked they were also cheaper overall.
However, one issue not just with ATT but with the whole wireless phone industry in general was this- they spent more time/money fighting number portability than implimenting would have cost. Also, they didnt even BEGIN looking into how to do it until last month; thus, the issue of number portability needs to be planned, troubleshot, and implimented, all in one month... not likely to happen!
This is the same strategy the phone companies used to starve out DSL companies- they do even less than they are legally required to do, and only resolve the issues when it is in their own best interest. Since portability is only important when they are acquiring a customer, I would imagine that was the only area which any company put significant resources into- meaning 'leaving' customers arent being taken care of. This is an issue lawmakers should have obviously forseen, but Im sure they were being paid to turn a blind eye...
I realize the problem with people leaving SMTP relays open, but I was addressing pr0ntab's original post, to wit-
Then there's the unpatched systems that get r00ted and turned into spam zombies.
I don't think the spammers are installing linux that much. (At least not the BIG ones, and they may be knowledgable/paranoid enough to go with OpenBSD or something) The majority probably got some Alienware rig bought off a stolen CC, running a cracked 2003 server. It's just that they offload the mail to some other cracked Unix host to do the work. That doesn't surprise me.
So, *nix security is really, really bad, and/or spammers are using mostly Linux. Im not supporting either claim, I am just addressing the ramifications of his comments.
Actually, if they get admin (root) access, and can install whatever they want, than there are a great many SMTP relay programs they can up on a Windows machine (Exchange isnt the only package which does email on Windows- its just the only one MS actively maintains).
So again, if you are saying the majority of those Linux boxes are 'compromised' machines, than Linux security is FAR worse than that of Windows. But honestly it wouldnt surprise me; unless somebody had gotten bold and cracked Debian, there would still be an unknown kernel exploit in the wild. I would imagine there are a lot more which smarter crackers are using on the down-low and just keeping to themselves.
No, ATT does it as well. I like ATT because they are upfront about their costs/billing, but their TDMA service is *horrible* around my house.
Im going to look around, but may give GSM a try (and yes, I have heard the horror stories).
Re:If this shipped with Lindows instead...
on
AOL's $299 PC
·
· Score: 1
If this shipped with Lindows instead... maybe they could get the price down to $199, hmmm?
Thats your holy war, not theirs.
Also, I would imagine the bulk of that cost is hardware related; its very unlikely an XP Home license is going to cost them $500. And finally, Im sure their support people might be somewhat competant with Windows; very unlikely anyone there (or anywhere) has even USED Lindows, much less supported it. So whatever money they saved would be more than offset by their support costs.
I don't think the spammers are installing linux that much. (At least not the BIG ones, and they may be knowledgable/paranoid enough to go with OpenBSD or something) The majority probably got some Alienware rig bought off a stolen CC, running a cracked 2003 server. It's just that they offload the mail to some other cracked Unix host to do the work. That doesn't surprise me.
I doubt that. Spammers hire very tech-savy people, and I would imagine they also pay them very well. The 'dark side', indeed.
Honestly, it doesnt surprise me that spammers are using Linux; they dont have to concern themselves with licensing issues, it gives them better profit margins, better remote management (especially when most spammer's have their operations outside the USA), etc.
Also, I find it curious that you claim the majority of Linux servers which are doing the spam are 'compromised' systems. That would basically make MS machines the safest ones on the net, if we go by the article's statistics...
Are there some game titles or genres where a vocal minority's agitation for change has resulted in an inferior title?
"Everquest" and "Dark Age of Camelot" stand out as two clear examples. They both catered to a very vocal user base who would obsess over the dumbest things. Essentially, people had their prefered way of playing, and any other classes which were viewed (often incorrectly) as 'better' ended up getting dumbed down (or "nerfed", as the process was refered). This created a game where the most vocal groups were catered to, generally to the exclusion of game balance and the enjoyment of other players.
I think its better when developers basically DONT listen to the player community regarding design considerations. The only real use for feedback would be to resolve technical issues, and take suggestions for additional features.
Thats why I really enjoy Final Fantasy XI: the developers are all Japanese, and can effectively ignore the habitual complainers in the US. Then they are just free to design a good, balanced game, according to their vision of how things should be.
As soon as I say this on Google News, I thought "oh wow, Bush is doing all the election-year politics he can!"
First he goes to Iraq long enough for a photo op, now he is going thru NATO for military support (something his opponents have said he should have done in the first place), now we have a JFK-esque drive to space.
One good thing about Bush: you can always count on him to distract people while he plunders the USA!
This is a pretty big dis for Half-Life, which probably has the biggest mod community ever. However, I believe HL was based upon the Quake II engine (although it was heavily modified), so perhaps that is the reason for the omission.
Perhaps the article was just focusing on the current generations of engines, so Unreal would be a good choice, now that it is getting yearly updates. I hope the vehicles in UT2k4 are going to be good...
Phone Support Guy: ok, can you see the hard drive after you boot with a floppy?
Me: Um, ya, let me see... [put phone down, go get some coffee, hit on secretary, return to desk] No, it didnt show up. Can you have that new drive out here by tomorrow?
I have found that if you set up a computer to be dummy-proof (making sure they have a virus scanner which auto-runs and auto-updates, telling them programs to use or avoid, etc), it will take away most of the calls. I treat my friends like I treat my users, and do my best to prevent issues from happening in the first place.
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Lets compare it to a musical performance. The music in concert sounds very different than the studio tracks. The movie? Its the same every time. If you appreciate the difference between studio/live, this makes a concert bootleg a very different product. A bootleg theatre recording? The difference between home/theatre is the experience; but watching the recording at home removes that difference, and its just watching it at home. Also, the DVD is a far superior product.
Im not a fan of the RIAA, but the movie industry has a very honest point regarding recording in theatres, which are going to be sold on street corners, flea markets, and given away over the internet. BTW, I had thought this was already illegal?
When big companies use Open Source, the pointy-haired boss is the real winnner.
Are you just joking? Because I run Win2k, and can count the number of lockups Ive ever had with it on one hand (we are talking lockups where I couldnt do anything but hit reset). The worst that happens is crashing to desktop or having to ctrl-alt-delete, kill the task, then reboot, which doesnt happen much either.
Its called R&D meets marketting meets accounting.
Real men use Desert Eagles!
Anyway, I was just going by something else I read. The article claimed that phone companies werent working on portability because they were hoping to defeat the bill, and also because they could delay it further by working on it only when/if it was mandated. How true this was, I cant say personally (IANAPG- I am not a phone guy).
Likewise, MS probably has some kind of technical involvement in helping them make this happen; Sony is most likely not contributing resources to help our troops (nor do I expect them to).
I think that will be the time to start worrying. Once it becomes trivially easy to kill people, and you can do it without even seeing it 'in real life', it will take any remaining shreads of humanity out of war.
BTW, I say Linus gets a 24-hr webcam in his house. He would make billions!
Are you saying their lawyers are all carpet munchers?
He is now working at EB; he had the regional high sales for N-Gage's!
However, one issue not just with ATT but with the whole wireless phone industry in general was this- they spent more time/money fighting number portability than implimenting would have cost. Also, they didnt even BEGIN looking into how to do it until last month; thus, the issue of number portability needs to be planned, troubleshot, and implimented, all in one month... not likely to happen!
This is the same strategy the phone companies used to starve out DSL companies- they do even less than they are legally required to do, and only resolve the issues when it is in their own best interest. Since portability is only important when they are acquiring a customer, I would imagine that was the only area which any company put significant resources into- meaning 'leaving' customers arent being taken care of. This is an issue lawmakers should have obviously forseen, but Im sure they were being paid to turn a blind eye...
Then there's the unpatched systems that get r00ted and turned into spam zombies.
I don't think the spammers are installing linux that much. (At least not the BIG ones, and they may be knowledgable/paranoid enough to go with OpenBSD or something) The majority probably got some Alienware rig bought off a stolen CC, running a cracked 2003 server. It's just that they offload the mail to some other cracked Unix host to do the work. That doesn't surprise me.
So, *nix security is really, really bad, and/or spammers are using mostly Linux. Im not supporting either claim, I am just addressing the ramifications of his comments.
So again, if you are saying the majority of those Linux boxes are 'compromised' machines, than Linux security is FAR worse than that of Windows. But honestly it wouldnt surprise me; unless somebody had gotten bold and cracked Debian, there would still be an unknown kernel exploit in the wild. I would imagine there are a lot more which smarter crackers are using on the down-low and just keeping to themselves.
Well, thinking Linux is going to somehow overwhelm Windows on the desktop is one that has been in the making for several years. Highly amusing indeed.
Im going to look around, but may give GSM a try (and yes, I have heard the horror stories).
Thats your holy war, not theirs.
Also, I would imagine the bulk of that cost is hardware related; its very unlikely an XP Home license is going to cost them $500. And finally, Im sure their support people might be somewhat competant with Windows; very unlikely anyone there (or anywhere) has even USED Lindows, much less supported it. So whatever money they saved would be more than offset by their support costs.
I doubt that. Spammers hire very tech-savy people, and I would imagine they also pay them very well. The 'dark side', indeed.
Honestly, it doesnt surprise me that spammers are using Linux; they dont have to concern themselves with licensing issues, it gives them better profit margins, better remote management (especially when most spammer's have their operations outside the USA), etc.
Also, I find it curious that you claim the majority of Linux servers which are doing the spam are 'compromised' systems. That would basically make MS machines the safest ones on the net, if we go by the article's statistics...
"Everquest" and "Dark Age of Camelot" stand out as two clear examples. They both catered to a very vocal user base who would obsess over the dumbest things. Essentially, people had their prefered way of playing, and any other classes which were viewed (often incorrectly) as 'better' ended up getting dumbed down (or "nerfed", as the process was refered). This created a game where the most vocal groups were catered to, generally to the exclusion of game balance and the enjoyment of other players.
I think its better when developers basically DONT listen to the player community regarding design considerations. The only real use for feedback would be to resolve technical issues, and take suggestions for additional features.
Thats why I really enjoy Final Fantasy XI: the developers are all Japanese, and can effectively ignore the habitual complainers in the US. Then they are just free to design a good, balanced game, according to their vision of how things should be.
By contrast, explioting voters will get you elected president.
First he goes to Iraq long enough for a photo op, now he is going thru NATO for military support (something his opponents have said he should have done in the first place), now we have a JFK-esque drive to space.
One good thing about Bush: you can always count on him to distract people while he plunders the USA!
Perhaps the article was just focusing on the current generations of engines, so Unreal would be a good choice, now that it is getting yearly updates. I hope the vehicles in UT2k4 are going to be good...
Me: Um, ya, let me see... [put phone down, go get some coffee, hit on secretary, return to desk] No, it didnt show up. Can you have that new drive out here by tomorrow?
But thats because Im an expert, not a hobbyist.