My friend, burning documents is so... well, out of style.
I have worked not only for an insurance company, but an energy company as well. I *know* my shredders. When the lobby security people call you to tell you that the DA is on his way up with a subpeona, who has time to light a fire? Not to mention the field day that the fire marshal would have.
Computer printouts. Three-ring binders. Who has time to unclip them and feed a few sheets at a time when half a dozen ex-Andersen employees have mobbed the shredder and you can't get your Important Documents to it in time?
Because, much like building your own braking systems, it presents a hazard to the general public if done incorrectly.
> Who decided that any government "owns" the radio spectrum?
The radio spectrum is a public resource. We (the voters) depend on government agencies to regulate the use of it, to ensure that a limited resource is available to as many users as possible, as consistently as is reasonable.
>Who gives this organization such power to control the "airwaves"?
The RF spectrum is just like the visible light spectrum, the audible spectrum. I may enjoy the sound of a chevy small-block with open headers, but if I fire it up at 4am, the neighbors are going to take exception, even though all I'm doing is making "waves in the air".
When computers first hit the market, the RF emissions from them were pretty horrible; turning on an Apple II pretty much killed radio and TV's within 50 feet.
That said, one would assume that regulation should theoretically *prevent* abominations like broadcast television.
The challenge presented by new technologies is often broken down into "how do I slip this into my budget for next year without the boss noticing that it's a high-zoot gaming system?"
My first instinct is to point out the excellent opportunity for highly-intuitive presentations of complex data which will clearly increase sales through more clearly communicating to prospects the benefits of using (insert product or service here).
(on a related note, Nvidia needs to stop calling it's pro/workstation cards by names that STILL sound like they're intended for high-framerate gaming. Even if that IS why I buy them! "uh, yeah, see, telnet works a whole lot better in 1600x1200, really!")
I think one of the reasons the Divx (DVD's that worked more like PPV movies) system was complicated. People are used to the idea that when they buy a physical object, it belongs to them, and can be used when they want.
Even though I would have probably saved money with that idea (I've got a lot of $20 DVD's that I've watched once. And a few, not even once)... but when I get bored halfway through a movie, I like the idea that I can come back to it if I want, in a few days. Paying again to watch a movie I wasn't too thrilled about the first time?
Yep, I understand the need for content management (free TV will always be worth exactly what you pay for it).. but I hope they find a solution that gives viewers more control, rather than less, over what they watch.
I noticed the same thing. So now when I see that a movie "starts" at, say, 2:00pm, I make the assumption that I want to actually be in the theater around 2:15 or so.
(I mostly work nights, so I normally see movies during the daytime, when there are lots and lots of seats)
I also have a wireless PDA, so I browse the web until the movie starts. When you've got raving ADD, you kinda need to plan on this.:-)
Ah, but if you're a twisted nut like me, you almost enjoy seeing a telemarketer come up on your caller id box. It presents endless possibilities, the simplest of which is just to pick up the phone, scream loudly into it, and hang up.
I would think just the opposite. People in the advertising business (especially the sleazier end of it) know that ads are useless, annoying, and expensive (to consumers)
The RIAA is made up of pretty typical people; some wonderful, some awful, and most somewhere in between. But like any of us, they respond better to pain in the wallet than any other stimulus.
Who was the pundit that said "I don't care what you SAY about me, just spell my name right!"? Point well taken. Screaming about the injustice does little. Walking away from the deal does a lot.
Not sure if other companies are offering it, but my local telco offers a service which intercepts any calls with invalid caller ID ("out of area") and requests that the person identify themself, and then calls me up to ask whether I want the call or not.
Before I got it, even with unlisted numbers, I was getting 2-3 calls a day. Now, if I get one per month, it's unusual. The rest hang up when they get the intercept. (The rare in-duh-vidual who does persist gets an earful that will hopefully make them quit on the spot)
(I can also create PIN numbers for myself, spouse, etc. that allow us to bypass the system when we're calling from out of the country or the like)
I had a similar problem with an on-line brokerage; I gave them my pager address so they could send trade confirmations, and ONLY trade confirmations. A few months later, I started getting pager spams at 2am, 3am, etc. from them. I called their customer service people, told them to stop, and they promised it would.
When it started up a month or so later, I sent a registered letter to the CEO, calmly explaining that the first time is a mistake, the second time is harassment. I also filed complaints with the FCC, the NASD, the US attorney general, and their own attorney general.
I got a polite, written response from a representative of the company explaining why the error occured, and also outlining the steps they were taking to make sure that it could not occur again.
So... Be calm, be forgiving, and be factual. And then scream bloody murder.
There's lots of things to do besides see a movie. read a book. Write a story (even a bad one). Walk. Turn off your TV.
I don't like the terms that music is offered for sale under, so I don't buy it. I don't download it either, because I don't like stealing. I just let it pass into obscurity unnoticed.
Tivo costs, what, 12 bucks a month? That's well under what I make in an hour. If I watch one, one-hour TV show a week, I get back 20 minutes of time that I'd otherwise spend watching some insulting, hysterical commercial.
I know most of the people who read slashdot aren't old enough to have kids, but those of us who are consider an hour or two a week of extra free time to be worth a *lot* more than twelve bucks.
I won't punch you, but I will send you to bed with no dessert.:)
I read a newspaper every day that has lots of ads in it. probably a higher ratio (in content area) than a typical MSN or Yahoo page. The difference is that the ads are static. They don't suddenly obliterate my desktop, cancel my subscription to a competing newspaper, or hijack my address book to spam my friends.
Advertising is a legitimate way to pay for content. Pop-ups are not a legitimate form of advertising; they launch applications without my consent and use my resources without my permission. Any site that uses a pop-up has violated my trust (I won't steal your content; you won't steal my resources).
The best form of education against bigotry that I have ever experienced, is to listen to a bigot. It's one thing to be told that the KKK is a bunch of hate-filled thugs. It's another to actually hear them speak, and realize that they're not only filled with hate, they're just plain stupid.
Europe and the middle east are two pleces on earth that would strongly benefit from a free and open exchange of ideas, complete with open criticism of bad ideas.
Most of the time I can get up a good rant about how awful it would be to ban encryption, but then I realize that people don't want to use it to improve the lives of others, they just want to use it to download porn and pirated software.
I've never been present for a shuttle launch, but I was at Cape Canaveral for Apollo 14's liftoff. To properly simulate the sound, you need to have someone basically shake you senseless.:-)
At 5 miles away, the ground shook, and it made this cracking noise like I imagine you might hear inside a glacier as it slowly breaks in half. I was pretty young at the time, but that's not a sound or sight you forget.
I guess I could put my Definitive sub on my desk and hit the "play" button. Wife will beat me if I shake more trinkets off the shelves in here again, though.
A number of companies have tried their hand at this and found it challenging. One major obstacle is the inconsistent quality of telephone lines - at least, the last bit of copper from the hut to the house. In crowded metro areas, you may get wire plants that have outlived the people who installed them. In the 'burbs, you have lots of very loooooong runs of copper (mine's something like 2900 feet to the fiber hut).
The cable companies have an advantage in a higher-bandwidth medium, but the telcos have a larger installed base and higher reliability.
Twisted-pair copper is the "lowest common denominator" - it's slow, lossy, and doesn't work well with shared services, but it'll get a dial tone and maybe 20-40kb of data even to the middle of nowhere.
AT&T did introduce an interesting fixed wireless product a couple of years ago - phone service plus 512kb dsl-like data service, via a small house-mounted antenna with a service unit inside the home. I tried it out and was really impressed with the technology. Unfortunately, AT&T had such massive problems with the billing (we got charged anywhere from 49 cents/min to $3.60/min for domestic long distance!), and the number portability was botched so badly, that we had to drop it.
... But I think the disclaimer is saying that they are able (and may decide to) keep track of when you're using one of their web-based games.
Personally, I'm paranoid enough that I just don't install any web "add-ins" at all, but I'd have assumed that what Yahoo! describes is pretty much a default.
sigh... Anyone up for a quick round of "PRODIGY IS UPLOADING MY FILES!!!!!"?
You're assuming that the university, as an organization, is willing to commit time, money, and personnel to providing a centralized repository for pirated software.
Unless the management of Worldcom is also on the board of trustees, this seems unlikely.:-)
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I have worked not only for an insurance company, but an energy company as well. I *know* my shredders. When the lobby security people call you to tell you that the DA is on his way up with a subpeona, who has time to light a fire? Not to mention the field day that the fire marshal would have.
Computer printouts. Three-ring binders. Who has time to unclip them and feed a few sheets at a time when half a dozen ex-Andersen employees have mobbed the shredder and you can't get your Important Documents to it in time?
Here's where you go: Pacific Compactor
Just look at that baby. Able to turn an indictment worth of well-cooked books into environmentally-friendly waste in mere seconds.
When it's your next 3-5 years on the line, you don't want anything but the best.
only kidding
> Why is building your own transmitter ilegal?
Because, much like building your own braking systems, it presents a hazard to the general public if done incorrectly.
> Who decided that any government "owns" the radio spectrum?
The radio spectrum is a public resource. We (the voters) depend on government agencies to regulate the use of it, to ensure that a limited resource is available to as many users as possible, as consistently as is reasonable.
>Who gives this organization such power to control the "airwaves"?
The RF spectrum is just like the visible light spectrum, the audible spectrum. I may enjoy the sound of a chevy small-block with open headers, but if I fire it up at 4am, the neighbors are going to take exception, even though all I'm doing is making "waves in the air".
When computers first hit the market, the RF emissions from them were pretty horrible; turning on an Apple II pretty much killed radio and TV's within 50 feet.
That said, one would assume that regulation should theoretically *prevent* abominations like broadcast television.
That said.
The challenge presented by new technologies is often broken down into "how do I slip this into my budget for next year without the boss noticing that it's a high-zoot gaming system?"
My first instinct is to point out the excellent opportunity for highly-intuitive presentations of complex data which will clearly increase sales through more clearly communicating to prospects the benefits of using (insert product or service here).
(on a related note, Nvidia needs to stop calling it's pro/workstation cards by names that STILL sound like they're intended for high-framerate gaming. Even if that IS why I buy them! "uh, yeah, see, telnet works a whole lot better in 1600x1200, really!")
I think one of the reasons the Divx (DVD's that worked more like PPV movies) system was complicated. People are used to the idea that when they buy a physical object, it belongs to them, and can be used when they want.
Even though I would have probably saved money with that idea (I've got a lot of $20 DVD's that I've watched once. And a few, not even once)... but when I get bored halfway through a movie, I like the idea that I can come back to it if I want, in a few days. Paying again to watch a movie I wasn't too thrilled about the first time?
Yep, I understand the need for content management (free TV will always be worth exactly what you pay for it).. but I hope they find a solution that gives viewers more control, rather than less, over what they watch.
I think you meant to say "is". Or you've got some truly tortured grammar.
That said, even adults with ADD (like me) try to be more constructive than to suggest that you'd improve the human race by not reproducing.
I noticed the same thing. So now when I see that a movie "starts" at, say, 2:00pm, I make the assumption that I want to actually be in the theater around 2:15 or so.
:-)
(I mostly work nights, so I normally see movies during the daytime, when there are lots and lots of seats)
I also have a wireless PDA, so I browse the web until the movie starts. When you've got raving ADD, you kinda need to plan on this.
Ah, but if you're a twisted nut like me, you almost enjoy seeing a telemarketer come up on your caller id box. It presents endless possibilities, the simplest of which is just to pick up the phone, scream loudly into it, and hang up.
I would think just the opposite. People in the advertising business (especially the sleazier end of it) know that ads are useless, annoying, and expensive (to consumers)
One creative solution I've seen is to use IP tunneling or the like to make the server "answer" to both IP's.
If possible, you can bring up the new IP address, make sure it's running okay, cut over DNS, then bring down the "old" address.
I've done it in various linux installations... In the routers themselves it's a little different (esp. when changing loopback addresses)
The RIAA is made up of pretty typical people; some wonderful, some awful, and most somewhere in between. But like any of us, they respond better to pain in the wallet than any other stimulus.
Who was the pundit that said "I don't care what you SAY about me, just spell my name right!"? Point well taken. Screaming about the injustice does little. Walking away from the deal does a lot.
Not sure if other companies are offering it, but my local telco offers a service which intercepts any calls with invalid caller ID ("out of area") and requests that the person identify themself, and then calls me up to ask whether I want the call or not.
Before I got it, even with unlisted numbers, I was getting 2-3 calls a day. Now, if I get one per month, it's unusual. The rest hang up when they get the intercept. (The rare in-duh-vidual who does persist gets an earful that will hopefully make them quit on the spot)
(I can also create PIN numbers for myself, spouse, etc. that allow us to bypass the system when we're calling from out of the country or the like)
I think it's about six bucks a month.
I had a similar problem with an on-line brokerage; I gave them my pager address so they could send trade confirmations, and ONLY trade confirmations. A few months later, I started getting pager spams at 2am, 3am, etc. from them. I called their customer service people, told them to stop, and they promised it would.
When it started up a month or so later, I sent a registered letter to the CEO, calmly explaining that the first time is a mistake, the second time is harassment. I also filed complaints with the FCC, the NASD, the US attorney general, and their own attorney general.
I got a polite, written response from a representative of the company explaining why the error occured, and also outlining the steps they were taking to make sure that it could not occur again.
So... Be calm, be forgiving, and be factual. And then scream bloody murder.
There's lots of things to do besides see a movie. read a book. Write a story (even a bad one). Walk. Turn off your TV.
I don't like the terms that music is offered for sale under, so I don't buy it. I don't download it either, because I don't like stealing. I just let it pass into obscurity unnoticed.
Two years ago, making "Presidents Club" meant you got a free trip to Honolulu. This year.. it means you get to keep your job.
I got a modest salary increase, and a plea to continue helping to control costs and keep the ink from turning red again. And I'm grateful.
But yeah, I miss the days of having headhunters stalk me for a dozen positions at one time.
Tivo costs, what, 12 bucks a month? That's well under what I make in an hour. If I watch one, one-hour TV show a week, I get back 20 minutes of time that I'd otherwise spend watching some insulting, hysterical commercial.
:)
I know most of the people who read slashdot aren't old enough to have kids, but those of us who are consider an hour or two a week of extra free time to be worth a *lot* more than twelve bucks.
I won't punch you, but I will send you to bed with no dessert.
Non sequitir. What does one have to do with the other?
I read a newspaper every day that has lots of ads in it. probably a higher ratio (in content area) than a typical MSN or Yahoo page. The difference is that the ads are static. They don't suddenly obliterate my desktop, cancel my subscription to a competing newspaper, or hijack my address book to spam my friends.
Advertising is a legitimate way to pay for content. Pop-ups are not a legitimate form of advertising; they launch applications without my consent and use my resources without my permission. Any site that uses a pop-up has violated my trust (I won't steal your content; you won't steal my resources).
I imagine the drop had more to do with the assumption that fewer aircraft will be purchased due to a slump in the air travel business.
The best form of education against bigotry that I have ever experienced, is to listen to a bigot. It's one thing to be told that the KKK is a bunch of hate-filled thugs. It's another to actually hear them speak, and realize that they're not only filled with hate, they're just plain stupid.
Europe and the middle east are two pleces on earth that would strongly benefit from a free and open exchange of ideas, complete with open criticism of bad ideas.
I know, I know. Not in my lifetime.
But the sentences would run concurrently, at least.
Most of the time I can get up a good rant about how awful it would be to ban encryption, but then I realize that people don't want to use it to improve the lives of others, they just want to use it to download porn and pirated software.
I've never been present for a shuttle launch, but I was at Cape Canaveral for Apollo 14's liftoff. To properly simulate the sound, you need to have someone basically shake you senseless. :-)
At 5 miles away, the ground shook, and it made this cracking noise like I imagine you might hear inside a glacier as it slowly breaks in half. I was pretty young at the time, but that's not a sound or sight you forget.
I guess I could put my Definitive sub on my desk and hit the "play" button. Wife will beat me if I shake more trinkets off the shelves in here again, though.
A number of companies have tried their hand at this and found it challenging. One major obstacle is the inconsistent quality of telephone lines - at least, the last bit of copper from the hut to the house. In crowded metro areas, you may get wire plants that have outlived the people who installed them. In the 'burbs, you have lots of very loooooong runs of copper (mine's something like 2900 feet to the fiber hut).
The cable companies have an advantage in a higher-bandwidth medium, but the telcos have a larger installed base and higher reliability.
Twisted-pair copper is the "lowest common denominator" - it's slow, lossy, and doesn't work well with shared services, but it'll get a dial tone and maybe 20-40kb of data even to the middle of nowhere.
AT&T did introduce an interesting fixed wireless product a couple of years ago - phone service plus 512kb dsl-like data service, via a small house-mounted antenna with a service unit inside the home. I tried it out and was really impressed with the technology. Unfortunately, AT&T had such massive problems with the billing (we got charged anywhere from 49 cents/min to $3.60/min for domestic long distance!), and the number portability was botched so badly, that we had to drop it.
... But I think the disclaimer is saying that they are able (and may decide to) keep track of when you're using one of their web-based games.
Personally, I'm paranoid enough that I just don't install any web "add-ins" at all, but I'd have assumed that what Yahoo! describes is pretty much a default.
sigh... Anyone up for a quick round of "PRODIGY IS UPLOADING MY FILES!!!!!"?
You're assuming that the university, as an organization, is willing to commit time, money, and personnel to providing a centralized repository for pirated software.
:-)
Unless the management of Worldcom is also on the board of trustees, this seems unlikely.