BECAUSE THERE IS NO SUCH THING AS AN ARM MOTHERBOARD CONSUMER MARKET!
Jezus fucking christ, what has happened to slashdot?
First off, if Intel is REALLY going to snub the custom PC market and give every motherboard maker a fucking heart attack, the logical alternative is AMD who already does very well in this segment as a real enthusiast PC nowadays is about raid and SSD and video cards. CPU power is only needed for over-clocking pissing contests.
And Linux has nothing to do with enthusiasts building their own PC's. If anything, Linux is the low-end of the market simply because Linux requires fewer resources, who is going to put a black edition CPU in a Linux box? My own Linux machines are all low power machines as they are there for stability and always on, not for high powered instant computing (gaming).
Yes, I could see them going from x86 to ARM but my custom PC is AMD machine because it is for gaming. The atom linux machines? (Actually one is Atom and one is the AMD equivelant) ALREADY come with the CPU soldered onto the mother board.
If this story is true then AMD shares are about to sky-rocket. The enthusiast market isn't just nerds building their own PC from scrap, it the thousands of small system builders who make their profit by offering a basic machine with a LOW LOW PRICE in advertising and then upselling their customers on a faster CPU in the shop. Now they need to sell them a an entire motherboard. And stock it to. A motherboard for every CPU speed... hello inventory nightmare.
And forget upgrading a server by slotting in just a new CPU. Are they also going to do this with their server chips? No hot swappable CPU's but hot swappable motherboards? Rebuy an entire motherboard with 8 CPU's because one failed?
I think either Intel decided that poor AMD needed a huge boost, has gone completely insane or the story is missing an important detail: for instance, is this a full product replacement or a product sideline. WILL IT REPLACE traditional CPU's or is it just a sidestep like the atom chips are?
If we build it, it is because the user, may his children be cursed for a thousand generations, told us to do so. In fact, that is pretty much the reason ANY crap building has been up to cheaply in a dangerous area. ONLY because THE LAW and BIG GOVERNMENT stops users from demanding high rises build out of mud on top of mud in a flood plane on a fault line, has this stopped... and then only when THE LAW and BIG GOVERNMENT do their job really really well. Just google engineering disasters for examples when THE LAW and BIG GOVERNMENT were stopped from doing their job.
Remember that Engineers have strict laws governing their actions. Software Engineers (HAHA) don't. You want to have the same quality from Software Engineers as real engineers? PAY FOR IT! And WAIT FOR IT.
There are good reasons for building codes and there MIGHT be a cause for coding codes BUT it won't happen when "cheapest" wins out every time. I have seen it far to often when a project was reduced in quality by the customer insisting it be done cheaper and faster. Well guess what, then you get buildings oops code that fall down when someone sneezes.
Want an installer that works in more then one near perfect situation? Sure that will be X on the total bill. User: oops no and I want to save Y amount as well, so cut some more corners please.
Is there a patent on administering electric shocks every time a user demands a shortcut but expects quality?
Flash and Java and such run a small program at start to check for updates. They do this because if they don't even fewer people will upgrade their software this century BUT you can be CERTAIN that those who update never, SCREAM the hardest when they are affected by a bug fixed ten years ago.
You can rant gently or hard about software developers, but about [ulûk/users] *thunderclap*, you can only curse in black speech.
I am a developer myself and have had quite literally had to debug configurations where it turned out people never configured anything. Yeah, I did X and it doesn't work and they didn't do X. This is like complaining your car doesn't start when you haven't got a car. Your are correct but still an idiot.
Yes, developers are morons but users are malicious morons who predate on fools who utter the lines as "quick fix", "work around" or worst of all "quick win". But only when the shit has not just hit the fan but they are actively drowning in it. Every other time ANY thing that sounds like "permanent solution", "investment in the future" and "decision" is avoided like a... well like a user avoids making a decision or doing anything NOW to avoid trouble in the future.
The whole "fiscal cliff" doom the fox network is spreading (check who owns redneck eh discovery) just means that if congress digs in its heels and does nothing the President gets his way by default because tax breaks that the repubicans want to extend and increase for the rich will END!
Obama can just sit back and relax if he has the balls, he can get far more taxes by simply waiting out the republicans then trying to bargain with them. The smarter republicans know this (both of them) and are not at all please with their redneck counterparts trying to create a crisis that only exist in republican eyes.
To lazy to look it up but just a few days ago ANOTHER german court ruled that parents could NOT be held accountable for the file sharing of their children if they had a talk with the child that it shouldn't do it. The parents could NOT be expected to police their childs online activities all the time.
So... are you or are you NOT responsible for the actions of another on your system?
Lower court rulings ain't worth the paper they are written on unless you don't appeal.
it was this whore who allows the dutch railway to not count routes it didn't want in their performance figures, allowed them to not count a canceled train as a delay and conduct their own customer satisfaction surveys were they can drop low results as being unrepresentative.
She is a VVD whore who sells voters to big business everytime she gets the chance. Just that sometimes her true masters interests seem to coincide by accident with those of the average man. But when she was a minister she was a disaster and the railways are still a mess thanks to her policies.
If Slashdot editors weren't just after cheap headlines they might have picked up on this:
Domain: Capitol
Australian objection: The useofgeographicnamesat the secondlevel:Thestring(.capital) is a generic geographicterm,and
DeltaMillLLCdoesnotappeartohaveproposedsufficientmechanismstoallowcommunitiesto
protecttheirnamesandreputationsfrommisuseatthesecondlevel.
So it seems that Australia is actually trying to prevent what many here fear, that there will be a ton of meaningless top domains which will force people either to register their sub domain to protect their brand/identity or have it exploited by someone else.
As for the giggles about.sucks wanna bet the company behind that isn't about protesting or free speech but "you want to prevent [your name here].sucks from appearing in search result, why not register it yourself, that will be 1000 dollars please. A tiny amount to the internationals, costs of doing business but feed a leech and it will only suck more.
I am with Australia on this and I think they should use their power to block ALL requests. Get the whole idea shutdown. Someone in government in Australia seems to be awake and the rest of world is asleep at the wheel as usual or to interested in just their own tiny section to see the big picture.
Seriously, second part of the above video, "don't use ice to cool the oil" over the video of a fireman dumping a saucepan of ice into boiling oil.
DID ANYONE EVER DO THIS? Think, this oil is to hot, why not dump in some frozen water to cool it down...
I can understand people trying to put out burning oil with water and needing to be told that isn't the best of ideas but that at least makes some basic sense, you put out fires with water is pretty basic. of course the next part to learn is "NOT ALL FIRES" but that is advanced learning, though education for 5yr olds.
The USSR never developed the means for a large scale invasion. In fact, the only country with the means to land a large army on another continent is... the USA!
D-Day showed what it takes to land an army on an enemies shore and the Channel is a cakewalk compared to the ocean between the USSR and the USA.
The USSR did develop the means to airdrop a large force but not nearly large enough to even remotely threaten the USA on its own ground.
So... what enemy?
But you do need shield if YOU plan to attack first and want to stop people from firing back at you.
Now lets see, what country has done a lot of invasions in recent history?
One of the Israeli dead is a Bedouin, nomadic Muslims. But I suppose the wrong kind of Muslims (Historically there has been no conflict with Bedouin in Israel as for the Bedouin it just meant a different government was short changing them, forget Palestines, the racism against Bedouins is undeserved as they have served in Israels army with distinction yet get the flack for the actions of others).
The trick is that Israel is like the west, there might be a lot of Muslims who think western society is foul but life for the average Muslim is infinitely better under Jews/Christians then it is under Muslims. We hear a lot about the Palestinians who really are just the Muslims who fled from Israel when they knew the Arab armies were about to attack, hoping to come back when Israel had been destroyed. The faith of the Muslims who stayed and threw in their lot with the rest of Israel, that one is seldom heared. But it is a sizable group.
Many a nazi sympathizer fled from the fighting they knew was coming to Germany hoping to get back and get everything back once the battle had been won. They were not shown any mercy. I wonder why people expect Israel to treat the Palestines ANY different. Look into the origin of the refuge camps, these people weren't fleeing from violence inflicted onto them, but from violence they hoped would be inflicted onto others.
Yeah, Northern Ireland is a bright light to the world, just ignore the segregation and constant troubles. Have the fences come down? No? Are there still incidents of people attacking each other for being the wrong faith?
Northern Ireland is as much a beacon for resolving conflict as the former Yugoslavian countries. Sure, it is peaceful, because everyone is separated.
You are talking total war, the parent is talking incidents, like the recent incident of the north firing a few grenades killing a few people. Not total war but an incident that IF it could have been neutralized, would have reduced the need to retaliation and the risk of escalation.
For the same see Syria/Turkey. A mortar goes wrong and Turkey has to answer with fire. If it could have been destroyed in flight, there would have been no incident.
This is about the prevention of war not about dealing with a full assault.
If the Palestines get their way, the gaza strip becomes a sovereign nation and it is perfectly legal to close the borders between nations. THAT is the HUGE elephant in the room in this conflict. The Palestines NEED Israel more then Israel needs them and the arabs don't want them at all.
You see, the occupied territories BELONG to someone. The arab neighbours of Israel who lost it after Israel didn't get wiped out when the Arab nations ganged up together to wipe it out and instead Israel took sizable chunks of their land. If Israel withdraws, possession of those lands should naturally revert to those nations.
Right now all the occupied territories have TWO borders. One with Israel and one with an Arab nation. BOTH sides are closed. In fact the Muslim side tends to be FAR more closed. Egypt has lost many a live dealing with smuggling into Gaza. None of its neighbours WANT a Palestine state on their border or they could have created one ANY TIME THEY WANTED TO. Palestines are trouble, they are the one group who so far has achieved a lot through armed resistance. There is not a single neighbour to Israel that doesn't have its own trouble groups that could take inspiration from this. Hell, just ask Khaddafi. Did he enjoy the people taking power through armed resistance? Didn't think so. A Palestine victory will send the message that armed rebellion works, with the Arab spring a lot know this already but it is a message those in power would care not to reinforce.
An indepedent Palestine state would need to exist on its own, without relying on Israeli resources and infrastructure. The border would be 100% closed. Canadians can't just wander into the US as they please either can they? And those are somewhat friendly nations that just think the other is silly. The border between a palestine state and Israel would be closer to the border between north and south korea and that one is PERFECTLY legal. Sovereign nations do NOT have to deal with each other if they don't want to. And any attack from one may be answered with force by the other, as much force as the attacked side pleases. That is what war is all about after all. Real war, not police actions however twisted they might get.
Do you REALLY THINK that Russia, China and Iran want to send the message that armed resistance by Muslims against a more powerful opponent can work in the long run? The first already has exactly the same problem with Tjetnie, China has its muslims who want independence and Iran is supressing its own population harshly. Why do you THINK that Hamas rockets are still so primitive? Iran wants to build nukes but it can't even build a decent rocket? It ain't rocket science anymore. Hamas gets the absolute minimum support to keep them going but not enough to actually achieve anything. Why do you think the west is the biggest donator of humanitarian support? It is no secret Israel got its economy going on bad land thanks to enormous donations, Israel is the only nations were the taxpayers live abroad and WANT to pay taxes freely. But Muslims ain't poor either, were is the Golf State Marshall plane to kickstart the Palestine economy with a few billions?
No, having the conflict brewing suits most Muslims just fine, shows they are not just rolling over and giving in, that they are making a fist against the great Satans but actually finishing it, one way or another, that would risk the cozy lifestyles of the powers that be.
And if you want to resolve this, why not start on something simpler first.
Sort out the United Kingdom, it is easy, just sort out Ireland, Schotland, Wales and Brittain. They all speak the same language (HA!) so it should be a cakewalk!
Next, the basks, Belgium and oh sort out the European tax havens. Then you can start thinking about Tibet, Korea and maybe then you will be ready to sort out the middle east.
Ban cars and make people drive motorscycles instead, that will soon sort out the stoners, texters and drunks.
As someone who for a long time had to take serious pain medication, (50mg morphin shots), I knew that it was perfectly legal for me to take the drugs but it was also simply not done to drive or even to walk alone. Hallucinations, a general "wheee!" feeling just made it not safe.
Life is about choices and they ain't always fair. You want to smoke? You stand outside in the rain. You loose an eye, you loose your driver license. On pain med that can only be given by a doctor, you don't go in traffic alone.
Those who can't do this are simple the over entitled and you know the biggest problem with that? They feel entitled to EVERYTHING. They drive to fast, while stoned and drunk with to little sleep while texting but don't you DARE hold them accountable for accidents.
There is money to be made already, solar panels. But it is the Chinese who are making the money.
Republicans are not interested in making money, they are interested in maintaining the Status Quo. If things change, someone else might get their hands on some money, ordinary people even. Can't have that. Better to be the richest man on a sinking ship then for everyone on an intact ship to be better off but the rich man misses a single penny.
Your right, Sony SHOULD have created the iPod. In fact, during the Samsung/Apple trial it became clear BOTH had been looking at work Sony was doing for inspiration. So... where did these Sony phones that inspired the iPhone end up?
Sony had done their own tech before the management take over but they did because they thought they had the superior system. Afterwards they did it for pure lockin reasons, like the mini-disc fiasco. It should have just supported MP3, I had one that I purely used with selfmade discs and it was damned good (still works) considering the alternatives (tapes, HD, CD and very small flash). But they didn't until it was way to late. Because management wanted to combine business interests instead of going for the best solution.
That was his name: Nobuyuki Idei, wasn't sure and to lazy to google.
Pure management who basically payed his knowledge workers to give their knowledge to his competitors.
To me it remains funny every time MS or Google is blasted for having to many side projects. I hate MS with a passion too but their attempts with the Zune were bad BUT necessary. Sure, it is fun to laugh at their failures but that they tried shows they still got the right idea, just the wrong execution.
Your part of the reason IT has such a high churn rate.
30c is NOT an acceptable temperature for an office, sure it can happen during extreme weather from time to time but in normal companies, everybody then works together to make conditions tolerable. Extra ventilators, portable AC's.
IT needs all the people it can get and being a programmer is NOT supposed to be a stock exchange trader type job. Constant stress is not good for a job that relies a lot on creativity and deep thought.
Your arguments don't even hold any water because Autonomy ended up failing. If all their mis management and "though guy" attitude had worked it might have been a different story, but it wasn't. Instead a once promising IT company was middle managed to death. The story has had far more exposure in the British press, the above story might be a bit extreme but it doesn't stand alone.
If you ever get to have to manage people and I hope you never do, you will have to learn it involves dealing with all kinds including people who don't think a developers job should involve Seal type hazing. A good manager can manage all kinds, adjust to their needs to get the best performance out of them.
These managers obviously couldn't. Hint? Why did you think they went after him? Because they couldn't deal with the spanish and dutch guy so they unloaded on him. It is a typical weak managers solution, put the blame on the employee you can crack, either he fixes it and you look good or he breaks and you got a scapegoat.
A lot has been written about Sony, especially in Japan where it was THEIR giant taking on the world. Sony USED to be a tech company run by techs. Googles 20% work on your own project sound nice? Pah! At Sony entire teams could work 100% on stuff that nobody knew could ever work. Then around the millennium a new guy was put in charge and he did not come up through the company as a tech but was strictly management. He too wanted to streamline the business and get rid of dead wood old engineers. It worked BRILLIANTLY. Not only was the package VERY attractive so all who could, took it but new jobs were waiting with little upstart companies like Samsung but I don't suppose you ever heard of them. Oh wait, isn't that the dingy Korean company that makes cheap Japanese knock-offs. Well, they can never compete because Japan has all the know-how locked up in job contracts... OOOOPS!
It was an epic brain drain and one Sony never really recovered from. It wasn't their only mistake but it was a hell of a nail in the coffin. Sharp did better, Sharp still has a reputation for Japanese made (and for the very old and very young, there was a time when Japanese made meant quality of an insane degree even the swiss found hard to beat. A Sony TV just worked, yes it was expensive but it just worked. And then management took over, streamlined the business and that stopped. Samsung quality is catching up but only because Japanese quality is going down.
Note that the asian giants on the rise are NOT streamlining their business and all the western ex-giants have streamlined themselves to dead. The simple fact is that pure managers can't see the next hit, the Walkman and the PS were things no manager could have seen. For sony to enter the console industry against the giants in that sector was considered insane.
When the techs left and management took over, Sony lost its edge. In the west people only know Sony the electronics giant same as say Nintendo. Did you know Nintendo once made a vacuum cleaner? Post WW2 Japan grew a tradition of little workplaces were people were busy trying to come up with anything to produce and export. Because with no natural resources and a devastated economy, that was the only way Japan was going to make money. Building thingies, firs cheap and crap, then cheap and okay and finally expensive and bloody good. And they did this at the cost of western companies that were to busy stream lining their businesses.
If your young, name a WESTERN TV maker. That actually still makes TV's. Every western household has a TV but who supplies them? The asians. Yeah, that worked out well, for the asians but the likes of Philips? Shadows of their former self as they focussed on their core compentency in existing shareholder meetings. PIty that it turned out loosing money is their core compentency.
You can see it with Hostess. I said it before, as a EU person I can't see the big deal, their snacks just ain't that good. When was the last time they extended their product range in a significant way? And I don't mean a chocolate twinkie but as a TV company, making a walkman, producing a game console. Look at how much flack MS is getting for daring to go into hardware. Streamlining your business is just another way of saying "we are closing down". In tech, the next big thing needs to be researched yesterday if you want to launch it tomorrow. Except the real time line is measured in decades and you will have many failed research projects in the mean time. But you got to do that if you want that massive hit.
Another reason that racing to the bottom never works is because there is always someone at the bottom waiting to take your place. Sharp can't keep in the display race, that just means the next iPad's displays will be all Samsung, now boosted by the free to hire Sharp engineers.
Surely Sharp knows the history of its major rival. Things must be dire indeed to follow the path of certain doom.
Well, no. For me, my world view changed on the day I recognized a person in Utrecht demonstrating the first Gulf War as one who had I seen before protest the gassing the Kurds. First she wanted the west to intervene, then when they did, she was against it.
It is the NIMBY syndrome on a global schizophrenic scale. Arm-chair environmentalist: We shouldn't build nuclear, coal, gas, wind, tidal, water and any other kind of power stations and why does the light keep flickering?
You can't rely on everyone just being nice, history has shown that inevitably someone will rise and not be nice to others and do very well out of it. People will go to war, if not for pure profits then because nothing rallies the people together against THEM and not YOU like a war. You don't think the Falklands were about land did you? BOTH sides desperately needed something to get the newspapers to write about THEM and not US screwing up the economy. Thatcher would have been out a lot sooner if not for her "popularity" for winning that war.
Conflicts might start out over seemingly "logical" ideas but they drag on and escalate because their is money and power to be had in doing so. And no, I am not just talking about the obvious big arms industries. Watch "Dads Army" for a far simpler example. Mainwaring, the platoon leader is a nobody but the war turns him into a leader. He is harmless but how many a wartribe leader was a twobit hoodlum before war allowed him to rise up?
You can see this in extreme in China and North-Korea. Changing of the guard? Power up for grabs? Lock up the dissidents and rattle those sabers boys to show I am in charge!
It is not that different from Japan still catching whales. They have no logical reason to do so EXCEPT the logical reasons for those in control to want to show they are in control. Whaling has become a symbol of Japan not giving into the rest of the world, that despite the fact it has no real army and is still occupied (guns that are labeled to protect Japan can so easily be relabeled "kill them if they think of becoming an empire again". Look behind the pressure to keep whaling and you find the same old men in power you always expect to find.
Same with all that fuzz about a few Islands in the region. Natural resources are certainly a good reason but it would be trivial for diplomats to work out a deal that profits all sides. And not harm the exports you so desperately need by reminding people of the raping of entire provinces. End result Japan doesn't have those Island natural resources and its exports are down but the old men are still in power.
Same with the middle east. Hamas is slowly turning into Fatah (corrupt and acknowledging endless conflict does not work) and bam some new subgroup fires a single missle just when diplomatic means are an option and the smuggling of weapons at high profits can continue.
But of course at no point can anything be done about anything because to do anything means to take a stand and that requires you to make a choice. Between two evils perhaps but a choice and your average peace protestor is TERRIFIED of doing that. They carefully shield themselves from all information so they can convince themselves there is only one option. And so the west should intervene to save the kurds but not actually do anything because that would be bad to.
And behind it all? Rich men on both sides getting a bit richer.
The suicide bomber is pretty much a drone. What is the difference between an operator who sits behind a controller and explodes a bomb and a suicide bomber who has brainwashed himself to see those around him not as human beings but as targets? Because one dies and the other gets to go home? Oh maybe I should have said "suicide bomber recruiter vs drone operator". Someone sent that suicide bomber and he gets to go home at the end of the day having earned his salary. The economics of war don't exist on just one side. (This is actually a huge problem, there is a lot of money to be made in war and conflict, on both sides. It isn't just smuggling in the middle east, resistance fighters in WW2 were not unknown to turn to smuggling after the war and some might even say that those who already had criminal experience were the best suited to initiate the resistance. How does a normal law abiding citizen know how to get guns, use them and forge passports? Ireland had the same issue. War = Money Stopping war means stopping someone's income, someone who has experience with violence.)
Our western world biggest problem is that we want the world to be nice. And it isn't. Did you know that the real (initial) upset about Darwins "The Origin of Species" was NOT about humans being descended from apes but that nature was a nasty place of kill or be killed and the fastest shagger was the survivor? Didn't quit fit with the Victorian view of the world, they could see the logic in evolution but HOW evolution happened, ewh! All those Victorian gardens filled with nothing but sex and murder.
You can see it with the idea that civilians shouldn't be harmed in a war. It is a nice idea but almost ANYTHING can be considered harm. You can't bomb them, you can't sanction them but meanwhile they can do anything they want, including supporting the system that is waging war on you. Note that human rights watchers only look at one side. How many human right watch groups have you seen condemn the effect on Israeli children with the constant missile attacks?
For that matter, it is known that in Yugoslavia, all factions engaged in atrocities and ethnic cleansing. Yet one leader of such cleansing was just cleared "the innocence of Croatia" it was hailed as in some dutch newspaper. My ass. It is just the arm-chair humanist who wants to believe that if X is bad, Y must be good. All sides are cleansed of the other just one side was stronger in battle so they are the baddie.
"The first victim of war is innocence", people hear that phrase and think it is about the brutality of war. It isn't, it is about the problem of what you do with the person who feeds, shelters and cares for that soldier. An army marches on its stomach is only partially true, it exists on the civilian infrastructure that allows it to exist. If I hold the executioners hand am I not part of the execution? If I raise money with my community for a weapon, when it is fired, am I not part of it?
Note how many here are perfectly willing to excuse Arab terrorists attacking civilian targets because of perceived slights against their way of life but the west can't retaliate in kind. There is really no point in going on about who started it, although history blame black people for kicking a few dozen other black people out who would become the ancestors of all other humans around the globe. When you are talking about vendetta's you can't just arbitrarily point at a calender and say "I say it started on this day". America the colonialist? True enough but everyone was trying like hell as well, even Belgium had colonies and the Ottoman empire didn't stop because they wanted to play nice after all. Remember that Alexander the Great and others rampaged throughout the world and spread their genes around. No group really stayed where it started and saying for instance Egyptians of today are the Egyptians of old is silly in the extreme. To much greek and roman influences. At the point of sword and penis. And vice versa, you don't think Ottoman soldiers in say Spain kept themselves
She sells a product, TO THE RADIOSTATION, who then sells it to us. I am quite sure that say, Hostess, would like to have the demographic data from each supermarket, but they can't have it because it is NOT their data.
It is only the odd nature of content (infinitely replicatable unlike physical products) and bought laws that even has music being counted (number of times played). Physical product makers sell X amount to resellers and that is all the data they get. Why do you THINK they hold product promotions requiring you to send in your address? To get some data on were their products end up because the supermarkets are NOT just going to tell them for the fun of it. The product maker delivers his goods to the supermarket and his involvement ends there. He wants more, he pays for it. Through the nose.
A supermarket has no obligation, legal or moral to even record, let alone report, how that pallet of cookies was distributed amongst its shops let alone its customers. The amount of entitlement in this Zoe the Freeloading cellist demand is staggering. You want to get in touch with your customers, engage them yourself. It is NOT a broadcasters job to do that for you. Setup a youtube channel or whatever and get people to give them your details, expecting a radiostation to do that for you is everything that is wrong with the content industry today.
Content is a product nothing more, I buy it the same as toilet paper and frankly I be a lot more upset running out of toilet paper then out of commercial content.
What next, MP3 players have to upload logs of the play history, so the bills can be send correctly? She wants to force the use of kinect with Pandora to count the number of listeners?
She wants private consumer data from a commercial entity for free. If it wasn't the content industry this would be instantly discarded in the waste basket of bloody stupid ideas. Really, would you be okay with Hostess getting your address from the supermarket that they got from your credit card?
NO! Hell, in Holland at least, the supermarket itself ain't even allowed to use its payment data to find out peoples addresses, they have the bank numbers but are not allowed to match them in anyway. That is why loyalty cards are not simply tied to your bank pas which would be far simpler then having a separate card and give far more reliable tracking data (you didn't think loyalty cards existed for any other reason did you).
Patents cost money, the more patents are granted the more money the patent office makes. The less money it needs from government, the lower you can keep taxes (for the rich if you don't spend it straight on politicians).
You get the patent system you paid for. Republicans want it to be self-sufficient so the patent office sells its product, patents, as fast as it can and lets other worry about the cleanup.
Gosh, it is almost as if Republicans care more about money then society. How odd.
Slashdot Mirror
BECAUSE THERE IS NO SUCH THING AS AN ARM MOTHERBOARD CONSUMER MARKET!
Jezus fucking christ, what has happened to slashdot?
First off, if Intel is REALLY going to snub the custom PC market and give every motherboard maker a fucking heart attack, the logical alternative is AMD who already does very well in this segment as a real enthusiast PC nowadays is about raid and SSD and video cards. CPU power is only needed for over-clocking pissing contests.
And Linux has nothing to do with enthusiasts building their own PC's. If anything, Linux is the low-end of the market simply because Linux requires fewer resources, who is going to put a black edition CPU in a Linux box? My own Linux machines are all low power machines as they are there for stability and always on, not for high powered instant computing (gaming).
Yes, I could see them going from x86 to ARM but my custom PC is AMD machine because it is for gaming. The atom linux machines? (Actually one is Atom and one is the AMD equivelant) ALREADY come with the CPU soldered onto the mother board.
If this story is true then AMD shares are about to sky-rocket. The enthusiast market isn't just nerds building their own PC from scrap, it the thousands of small system builders who make their profit by offering a basic machine with a LOW LOW PRICE in advertising and then upselling their customers on a faster CPU in the shop. Now they need to sell them a an entire motherboard. And stock it to. A motherboard for every CPU speed... hello inventory nightmare.
And forget upgrading a server by slotting in just a new CPU. Are they also going to do this with their server chips? No hot swappable CPU's but hot swappable motherboards? Rebuy an entire motherboard with 8 CPU's because one failed?
I think either Intel decided that poor AMD needed a huge boost, has gone completely insane or the story is missing an important detail: for instance, is this a full product replacement or a product sideline. WILL IT REPLACE traditional CPU's or is it just a sidestep like the atom chips are?
If we build it, it is because the user, may his children be cursed for a thousand generations, told us to do so. In fact, that is pretty much the reason ANY crap building has been up to cheaply in a dangerous area. ONLY because THE LAW and BIG GOVERNMENT stops users from demanding high rises build out of mud on top of mud in a flood plane on a fault line, has this stopped... and then only when THE LAW and BIG GOVERNMENT do their job really really well. Just google engineering disasters for examples when THE LAW and BIG GOVERNMENT were stopped from doing their job.
Remember that Engineers have strict laws governing their actions. Software Engineers (HAHA) don't. You want to have the same quality from Software Engineers as real engineers? PAY FOR IT! And WAIT FOR IT.
There are good reasons for building codes and there MIGHT be a cause for coding codes BUT it won't happen when "cheapest" wins out every time. I have seen it far to often when a project was reduced in quality by the customer insisting it be done cheaper and faster. Well guess what, then you get buildings oops code that fall down when someone sneezes.
Want an installer that works in more then one near perfect situation? Sure that will be X on the total bill. User: oops no and I want to save Y amount as well, so cut some more corners please.
Is there a patent on administering electric shocks every time a user demands a shortcut but expects quality?
Flash and Java and such run a small program at start to check for updates. They do this because if they don't even fewer people will upgrade their software this century BUT you can be CERTAIN that those who update never, SCREAM the hardest when they are affected by a bug fixed ten years ago.
You can rant gently or hard about software developers, but about [ulûk/users] *thunderclap*, you can only curse in black speech.
I am a developer myself and have had quite literally had to debug configurations where it turned out people never configured anything. Yeah, I did X and it doesn't work and they didn't do X. This is like complaining your car doesn't start when you haven't got a car. Your are correct but still an idiot.
Yes, developers are morons but users are malicious morons who predate on fools who utter the lines as "quick fix", "work around" or worst of all "quick win". But only when the shit has not just hit the fan but they are actively drowning in it. Every other time ANY thing that sounds like "permanent solution", "investment in the future" and "decision" is avoided like a... well like a user avoids making a decision or doing anything NOW to avoid trouble in the future.
The whole "fiscal cliff" doom the fox network is spreading (check who owns redneck eh discovery) just means that if congress digs in its heels and does nothing the President gets his way by default because tax breaks that the repubicans want to extend and increase for the rich will END!
Obama can just sit back and relax if he has the balls, he can get far more taxes by simply waiting out the republicans then trying to bargain with them. The smarter republicans know this (both of them) and are not at all please with their redneck counterparts trying to create a crisis that only exist in republican eyes.
To lazy to look it up but just a few days ago ANOTHER german court ruled that parents could NOT be held accountable for the file sharing of their children if they had a talk with the child that it shouldn't do it. The parents could NOT be expected to police their childs online activities all the time.
So... are you or are you NOT responsible for the actions of another on your system?
Lower court rulings ain't worth the paper they are written on unless you don't appeal.
it was this whore who allows the dutch railway to not count routes it didn't want in their performance figures, allowed them to not count a canceled train as a delay and conduct their own customer satisfaction surveys were they can drop low results as being unrepresentative.
She is a VVD whore who sells voters to big business everytime she gets the chance. Just that sometimes her true masters interests seem to coincide by accident with those of the average man. But when she was a minister she was a disaster and the railways are still a mess thanks to her policies.
If Slashdot editors weren't just after cheap headlines they might have picked up on this:
Domain: Capitol
Australian objection: The useofgeographicnamesat the secondlevel:Thestring(.capital) is a generic geographicterm,and DeltaMillLLCdoesnotappeartohaveproposedsufficientmechanismstoallowcommunitiesto protecttheirnamesandreputationsfrommisuseatthesecondlevel.
So it seems that Australia is actually trying to prevent what many here fear, that there will be a ton of meaningless top domains which will force people either to register their sub domain to protect their brand/identity or have it exploited by someone else.
As for the giggles about .sucks wanna bet the company behind that isn't about protesting or free speech but "you want to prevent [your name here].sucks from appearing in search result, why not register it yourself, that will be 1000 dollars please. A tiny amount to the internationals, costs of doing business but feed a leech and it will only suck more.
I am with Australia on this and I think they should use their power to block ALL requests. Get the whole idea shutdown. Someone in government in Australia seems to be awake and the rest of world is asleep at the wheel as usual or to interested in just their own tiny section to see the big picture.
Seriously, second part of the above video, "don't use ice to cool the oil" over the video of a fireman dumping a saucepan of ice into boiling oil.
DID ANYONE EVER DO THIS? Think, this oil is to hot, why not dump in some frozen water to cool it down...
I can understand people trying to put out burning oil with water and needing to be told that isn't the best of ideas but that at least makes some basic sense, you put out fires with water is pretty basic. of course the next part to learn is "NOT ALL FIRES" but that is advanced learning, though education for 5yr olds.
But cooling oil with ice?
The USSR never developed the means for a large scale invasion. In fact, the only country with the means to land a large army on another continent is... the USA!
D-Day showed what it takes to land an army on an enemies shore and the Channel is a cakewalk compared to the ocean between the USSR and the USA.
The USSR did develop the means to airdrop a large force but not nearly large enough to even remotely threaten the USA on its own ground.
So... what enemy?
But you do need shield if YOU plan to attack first and want to stop people from firing back at you.
Now lets see, what country has done a lot of invasions in recent history?
One of the Israeli dead is a Bedouin, nomadic Muslims. But I suppose the wrong kind of Muslims (Historically there has been no conflict with Bedouin in Israel as for the Bedouin it just meant a different government was short changing them, forget Palestines, the racism against Bedouins is undeserved as they have served in Israels army with distinction yet get the flack for the actions of others).
The trick is that Israel is like the west, there might be a lot of Muslims who think western society is foul but life for the average Muslim is infinitely better under Jews/Christians then it is under Muslims. We hear a lot about the Palestinians who really are just the Muslims who fled from Israel when they knew the Arab armies were about to attack, hoping to come back when Israel had been destroyed. The faith of the Muslims who stayed and threw in their lot with the rest of Israel, that one is seldom heared. But it is a sizable group.
Many a nazi sympathizer fled from the fighting they knew was coming to Germany hoping to get back and get everything back once the battle had been won. They were not shown any mercy. I wonder why people expect Israel to treat the Palestines ANY different. Look into the origin of the refuge camps, these people weren't fleeing from violence inflicted onto them, but from violence they hoped would be inflicted onto others.
It changes a lot in my eyes.
Yeah, Northern Ireland is a bright light to the world, just ignore the segregation and constant troubles. Have the fences come down? No? Are there still incidents of people attacking each other for being the wrong faith?
Northern Ireland is as much a beacon for resolving conflict as the former Yugoslavian countries. Sure, it is peaceful, because everyone is separated.
You are talking total war, the parent is talking incidents, like the recent incident of the north firing a few grenades killing a few people. Not total war but an incident that IF it could have been neutralized, would have reduced the need to retaliation and the risk of escalation.
For the same see Syria/Turkey. A mortar goes wrong and Turkey has to answer with fire. If it could have been destroyed in flight, there would have been no incident.
This is about the prevention of war not about dealing with a full assault.
What have you got against sys admins anyway that you go out of your way to make them cry like that?
If the Palestines get their way, the gaza strip becomes a sovereign nation and it is perfectly legal to close the borders between nations. THAT is the HUGE elephant in the room in this conflict. The Palestines NEED Israel more then Israel needs them and the arabs don't want them at all.
You see, the occupied territories BELONG to someone. The arab neighbours of Israel who lost it after Israel didn't get wiped out when the Arab nations ganged up together to wipe it out and instead Israel took sizable chunks of their land. If Israel withdraws, possession of those lands should naturally revert to those nations.
Right now all the occupied territories have TWO borders. One with Israel and one with an Arab nation. BOTH sides are closed. In fact the Muslim side tends to be FAR more closed. Egypt has lost many a live dealing with smuggling into Gaza. None of its neighbours WANT a Palestine state on their border or they could have created one ANY TIME THEY WANTED TO. Palestines are trouble, they are the one group who so far has achieved a lot through armed resistance. There is not a single neighbour to Israel that doesn't have its own trouble groups that could take inspiration from this. Hell, just ask Khaddafi. Did he enjoy the people taking power through armed resistance? Didn't think so. A Palestine victory will send the message that armed rebellion works, with the Arab spring a lot know this already but it is a message those in power would care not to reinforce.
An indepedent Palestine state would need to exist on its own, without relying on Israeli resources and infrastructure. The border would be 100% closed. Canadians can't just wander into the US as they please either can they? And those are somewhat friendly nations that just think the other is silly. The border between a palestine state and Israel would be closer to the border between north and south korea and that one is PERFECTLY legal. Sovereign nations do NOT have to deal with each other if they don't want to. And any attack from one may be answered with force by the other, as much force as the attacked side pleases. That is what war is all about after all. Real war, not police actions however twisted they might get.
Do you REALLY THINK that Russia, China and Iran want to send the message that armed resistance by Muslims against a more powerful opponent can work in the long run? The first already has exactly the same problem with Tjetnie, China has its muslims who want independence and Iran is supressing its own population harshly. Why do you THINK that Hamas rockets are still so primitive? Iran wants to build nukes but it can't even build a decent rocket? It ain't rocket science anymore. Hamas gets the absolute minimum support to keep them going but not enough to actually achieve anything. Why do you think the west is the biggest donator of humanitarian support? It is no secret Israel got its economy going on bad land thanks to enormous donations, Israel is the only nations were the taxpayers live abroad and WANT to pay taxes freely. But Muslims ain't poor either, were is the Golf State Marshall plane to kickstart the Palestine economy with a few billions?
No, having the conflict brewing suits most Muslims just fine, shows they are not just rolling over and giving in, that they are making a fist against the great Satans but actually finishing it, one way or another, that would risk the cozy lifestyles of the powers that be.
And if you want to resolve this, why not start on something simpler first.
Sort out the United Kingdom, it is easy, just sort out Ireland, Schotland, Wales and Brittain. They all speak the same language (HA!) so it should be a cakewalk!
Next, the basks, Belgium and oh sort out the European tax havens. Then you can start thinking about Tibet, Korea and maybe then you will be ready to sort out the middle east.
Ban cars and make people drive motorscycles instead, that will soon sort out the stoners, texters and drunks.
As someone who for a long time had to take serious pain medication, (50mg morphin shots), I knew that it was perfectly legal for me to take the drugs but it was also simply not done to drive or even to walk alone. Hallucinations, a general "wheee!" feeling just made it not safe.
Life is about choices and they ain't always fair. You want to smoke? You stand outside in the rain. You loose an eye, you loose your driver license. On pain med that can only be given by a doctor, you don't go in traffic alone.
Those who can't do this are simple the over entitled and you know the biggest problem with that? They feel entitled to EVERYTHING. They drive to fast, while stoned and drunk with to little sleep while texting but don't you DARE hold them accountable for accidents.
There is money to be made already, solar panels. But it is the Chinese who are making the money.
Republicans are not interested in making money, they are interested in maintaining the Status Quo. If things change, someone else might get their hands on some money, ordinary people even. Can't have that. Better to be the richest man on a sinking ship then for everyone on an intact ship to be better off but the rich man misses a single penny.
Your right, Sony SHOULD have created the iPod. In fact, during the Samsung/Apple trial it became clear BOTH had been looking at work Sony was doing for inspiration. So... where did these Sony phones that inspired the iPhone end up?
Sony had done their own tech before the management take over but they did because they thought they had the superior system. Afterwards they did it for pure lockin reasons, like the mini-disc fiasco. It should have just supported MP3, I had one that I purely used with selfmade discs and it was damned good (still works) considering the alternatives (tapes, HD, CD and very small flash). But they didn't until it was way to late. Because management wanted to combine business interests instead of going for the best solution.
Sad.
That was his name: Nobuyuki Idei, wasn't sure and to lazy to google.
Pure management who basically payed his knowledge workers to give their knowledge to his competitors.
To me it remains funny every time MS or Google is blasted for having to many side projects. I hate MS with a passion too but their attempts with the Zune were bad BUT necessary. Sure, it is fun to laugh at their failures but that they tried shows they still got the right idea, just the wrong execution.
Your part of the reason IT has such a high churn rate.
30c is NOT an acceptable temperature for an office, sure it can happen during extreme weather from time to time but in normal companies, everybody then works together to make conditions tolerable. Extra ventilators, portable AC's.
IT needs all the people it can get and being a programmer is NOT supposed to be a stock exchange trader type job. Constant stress is not good for a job that relies a lot on creativity and deep thought.
Your arguments don't even hold any water because Autonomy ended up failing. If all their mis management and "though guy" attitude had worked it might have been a different story, but it wasn't. Instead a once promising IT company was middle managed to death. The story has had far more exposure in the British press, the above story might be a bit extreme but it doesn't stand alone.
If you ever get to have to manage people and I hope you never do, you will have to learn it involves dealing with all kinds including people who don't think a developers job should involve Seal type hazing. A good manager can manage all kinds, adjust to their needs to get the best performance out of them.
These managers obviously couldn't. Hint? Why did you think they went after him? Because they couldn't deal with the spanish and dutch guy so they unloaded on him. It is a typical weak managers solution, put the blame on the employee you can crack, either he fixes it and you look good or he breaks and you got a scapegoat.
A lot has been written about Sony, especially in Japan where it was THEIR giant taking on the world. Sony USED to be a tech company run by techs. Googles 20% work on your own project sound nice? Pah! At Sony entire teams could work 100% on stuff that nobody knew could ever work. Then around the millennium a new guy was put in charge and he did not come up through the company as a tech but was strictly management. He too wanted to streamline the business and get rid of dead wood old engineers. It worked BRILLIANTLY. Not only was the package VERY attractive so all who could, took it but new jobs were waiting with little upstart companies like Samsung but I don't suppose you ever heard of them. Oh wait, isn't that the dingy Korean company that makes cheap Japanese knock-offs. Well, they can never compete because Japan has all the know-how locked up in job contracts... OOOOPS!
It was an epic brain drain and one Sony never really recovered from. It wasn't their only mistake but it was a hell of a nail in the coffin. Sharp did better, Sharp still has a reputation for Japanese made (and for the very old and very young, there was a time when Japanese made meant quality of an insane degree even the swiss found hard to beat. A Sony TV just worked, yes it was expensive but it just worked. And then management took over, streamlined the business and that stopped. Samsung quality is catching up but only because Japanese quality is going down.
Note that the asian giants on the rise are NOT streamlining their business and all the western ex-giants have streamlined themselves to dead. The simple fact is that pure managers can't see the next hit, the Walkman and the PS were things no manager could have seen. For sony to enter the console industry against the giants in that sector was considered insane.
When the techs left and management took over, Sony lost its edge. In the west people only know Sony the electronics giant same as say Nintendo. Did you know Nintendo once made a vacuum cleaner? Post WW2 Japan grew a tradition of little workplaces were people were busy trying to come up with anything to produce and export. Because with no natural resources and a devastated economy, that was the only way Japan was going to make money. Building thingies, firs cheap and crap, then cheap and okay and finally expensive and bloody good. And they did this at the cost of western companies that were to busy stream lining their businesses.
If your young, name a WESTERN TV maker. That actually still makes TV's. Every western household has a TV but who supplies them? The asians. Yeah, that worked out well, for the asians but the likes of Philips? Shadows of their former self as they focussed on their core compentency in existing shareholder meetings. PIty that it turned out loosing money is their core compentency.
You can see it with Hostess. I said it before, as a EU person I can't see the big deal, their snacks just ain't that good. When was the last time they extended their product range in a significant way? And I don't mean a chocolate twinkie but as a TV company, making a walkman, producing a game console. Look at how much flack MS is getting for daring to go into hardware. Streamlining your business is just another way of saying "we are closing down". In tech, the next big thing needs to be researched yesterday if you want to launch it tomorrow. Except the real time line is measured in decades and you will have many failed research projects in the mean time. But you got to do that if you want that massive hit.
Another reason that racing to the bottom never works is because there is always someone at the bottom waiting to take your place. Sharp can't keep in the display race, that just means the next iPad's displays will be all Samsung, now boosted by the free to hire Sharp engineers.
Surely Sharp knows the history of its major rival. Things must be dire indeed to follow the path of certain doom.
I have an agreement with Pandora, NOT the artist.
Well, no. For me, my world view changed on the day I recognized a person in Utrecht demonstrating the first Gulf War as one who had I seen before protest the gassing the Kurds. First she wanted the west to intervene, then when they did, she was against it.
It is the NIMBY syndrome on a global schizophrenic scale. Arm-chair environmentalist: We shouldn't build nuclear, coal, gas, wind, tidal, water and any other kind of power stations and why does the light keep flickering?
You can't rely on everyone just being nice, history has shown that inevitably someone will rise and not be nice to others and do very well out of it. People will go to war, if not for pure profits then because nothing rallies the people together against THEM and not YOU like a war. You don't think the Falklands were about land did you? BOTH sides desperately needed something to get the newspapers to write about THEM and not US screwing up the economy. Thatcher would have been out a lot sooner if not for her "popularity" for winning that war.
Conflicts might start out over seemingly "logical" ideas but they drag on and escalate because their is money and power to be had in doing so. And no, I am not just talking about the obvious big arms industries. Watch "Dads Army" for a far simpler example. Mainwaring, the platoon leader is a nobody but the war turns him into a leader. He is harmless but how many a wartribe leader was a twobit hoodlum before war allowed him to rise up?
You can see this in extreme in China and North-Korea. Changing of the guard? Power up for grabs? Lock up the dissidents and rattle those sabers boys to show I am in charge!
It is not that different from Japan still catching whales. They have no logical reason to do so EXCEPT the logical reasons for those in control to want to show they are in control. Whaling has become a symbol of Japan not giving into the rest of the world, that despite the fact it has no real army and is still occupied (guns that are labeled to protect Japan can so easily be relabeled "kill them if they think of becoming an empire again". Look behind the pressure to keep whaling and you find the same old men in power you always expect to find.
Same with all that fuzz about a few Islands in the region. Natural resources are certainly a good reason but it would be trivial for diplomats to work out a deal that profits all sides. And not harm the exports you so desperately need by reminding people of the raping of entire provinces. End result Japan doesn't have those Island natural resources and its exports are down but the old men are still in power.
Same with the middle east. Hamas is slowly turning into Fatah (corrupt and acknowledging endless conflict does not work) and bam some new subgroup fires a single missle just when diplomatic means are an option and the smuggling of weapons at high profits can continue.
But of course at no point can anything be done about anything because to do anything means to take a stand and that requires you to make a choice. Between two evils perhaps but a choice and your average peace protestor is TERRIFIED of doing that. They carefully shield themselves from all information so they can convince themselves there is only one option. And so the west should intervene to save the kurds but not actually do anything because that would be bad to.
And behind it all? Rich men on both sides getting a bit richer.
The suicide bomber is pretty much a drone. What is the difference between an operator who sits behind a controller and explodes a bomb and a suicide bomber who has brainwashed himself to see those around him not as human beings but as targets? Because one dies and the other gets to go home? Oh maybe I should have said "suicide bomber recruiter vs drone operator". Someone sent that suicide bomber and he gets to go home at the end of the day having earned his salary. The economics of war don't exist on just one side. (This is actually a huge problem, there is a lot of money to be made in war and conflict, on both sides. It isn't just smuggling in the middle east, resistance fighters in WW2 were not unknown to turn to smuggling after the war and some might even say that those who already had criminal experience were the best suited to initiate the resistance. How does a normal law abiding citizen know how to get guns, use them and forge passports? Ireland had the same issue. War = Money Stopping war means stopping someone's income, someone who has experience with violence.)
Our western world biggest problem is that we want the world to be nice. And it isn't. Did you know that the real (initial) upset about Darwins "The Origin of Species" was NOT about humans being descended from apes but that nature was a nasty place of kill or be killed and the fastest shagger was the survivor? Didn't quit fit with the Victorian view of the world, they could see the logic in evolution but HOW evolution happened, ewh! All those Victorian gardens filled with nothing but sex and murder.
You can see it with the idea that civilians shouldn't be harmed in a war. It is a nice idea but almost ANYTHING can be considered harm. You can't bomb them, you can't sanction them but meanwhile they can do anything they want, including supporting the system that is waging war on you. Note that human rights watchers only look at one side. How many human right watch groups have you seen condemn the effect on Israeli children with the constant missile attacks?
For that matter, it is known that in Yugoslavia, all factions engaged in atrocities and ethnic cleansing. Yet one leader of such cleansing was just cleared "the innocence of Croatia" it was hailed as in some dutch newspaper. My ass. It is just the arm-chair humanist who wants to believe that if X is bad, Y must be good. All sides are cleansed of the other just one side was stronger in battle so they are the baddie.
"The first victim of war is innocence", people hear that phrase and think it is about the brutality of war. It isn't, it is about the problem of what you do with the person who feeds, shelters and cares for that soldier. An army marches on its stomach is only partially true, it exists on the civilian infrastructure that allows it to exist. If I hold the executioners hand am I not part of the execution? If I raise money with my community for a weapon, when it is fired, am I not part of it?
Note how many here are perfectly willing to excuse Arab terrorists attacking civilian targets because of perceived slights against their way of life but the west can't retaliate in kind. There is really no point in going on about who started it, although history blame black people for kicking a few dozen other black people out who would become the ancestors of all other humans around the globe. When you are talking about vendetta's you can't just arbitrarily point at a calender and say "I say it started on this day". America the colonialist? True enough but everyone was trying like hell as well, even Belgium had colonies and the Ottoman empire didn't stop because they wanted to play nice after all. Remember that Alexander the Great and others rampaged throughout the world and spread their genes around. No group really stayed where it started and saying for instance Egyptians of today are the Egyptians of old is silly in the extreme. To much greek and roman influences. At the point of sword and penis. And vice versa, you don't think Ottoman soldiers in say Spain kept themselves
She sells a product, TO THE RADIOSTATION, who then sells it to us. I am quite sure that say, Hostess, would like to have the demographic data from each supermarket, but they can't have it because it is NOT their data.
It is only the odd nature of content (infinitely replicatable unlike physical products) and bought laws that even has music being counted (number of times played). Physical product makers sell X amount to resellers and that is all the data they get. Why do you THINK they hold product promotions requiring you to send in your address? To get some data on were their products end up because the supermarkets are NOT just going to tell them for the fun of it. The product maker delivers his goods to the supermarket and his involvement ends there. He wants more, he pays for it. Through the nose.
A supermarket has no obligation, legal or moral to even record, let alone report, how that pallet of cookies was distributed amongst its shops let alone its customers. The amount of entitlement in this Zoe the Freeloading cellist demand is staggering. You want to get in touch with your customers, engage them yourself. It is NOT a broadcasters job to do that for you. Setup a youtube channel or whatever and get people to give them your details, expecting a radiostation to do that for you is everything that is wrong with the content industry today.
Content is a product nothing more, I buy it the same as toilet paper and frankly I be a lot more upset running out of toilet paper then out of commercial content.
What next, MP3 players have to upload logs of the play history, so the bills can be send correctly? She wants to force the use of kinect with Pandora to count the number of listeners?
She wants private consumer data from a commercial entity for free. If it wasn't the content industry this would be instantly discarded in the waste basket of bloody stupid ideas. Really, would you be okay with Hostess getting your address from the supermarket that they got from your credit card?
NO! Hell, in Holland at least, the supermarket itself ain't even allowed to use its payment data to find out peoples addresses, they have the bank numbers but are not allowed to match them in anyway. That is why loyalty cards are not simply tied to your bank pas which would be far simpler then having a separate card and give far more reliable tracking data (you didn't think loyalty cards existed for any other reason did you).
But this bitch wants that data. Fuck OFF.
Patents cost money, the more patents are granted the more money the patent office makes. The less money it needs from government, the lower you can keep taxes (for the rich if you don't spend it straight on politicians).
You get the patent system you paid for. Republicans want it to be self-sufficient so the patent office sells its product, patents, as fast as it can and lets other worry about the cleanup.
Gosh, it is almost as if Republicans care more about money then society. How odd.