they'll probably stop calling it beta when they figure out how to bloat it into total uselessness (so far they've made it auto start without option to turn off, and have a long and annoying splash screen)
After burning tens of thousands of R&D hours, the brains at MS labs will be adding add a dancing, blinking magnifying glass that will pop up with the caption "I see you're trying to get rid of spyware!"
Whups, yeah you've got me on a technicality. It's actually a freeware notepad replacement called Edit Pad that you can designate "always on top" (handy for taking notes while looking at something else on most of the screen).
Opera has policy against animated ads that I recall reading on their site.
Once in a while, an animated one slips through. When they become aware of it, they will get it stopped (AFIK, the ads are served by advertising.com). I've seen animated ads on maybe 3 occasions in the last 12 months (I average 4 hours on line each day). They never last more than a day and even then the ads get changed out several times an hour. If an ad is distracting, I just create a little window with notepad, and place it over the ad - problem solved.
Given the wealth of features and remarkable flexibility that Opera provides, getting it for "free" in exchange for an occasional animated ad is a negligible nuisance to me.
All they have to do is get slightly better than IE, and them MS will buy them out.
I know that you're trying to be funny, but Opera has been significantly better than IE for years. It's like comparing a Ferrari to a Yugo.
I got so fed up with the limitations of IE at my (very large multinational) employer that I finally violated their IT policy and installed (non-approved) Opera. If and when I get challenged over this, I'm willing to go to battle over it and make the case that Opera is much more secure and infinitely more useful and flexible and that it makes me a far more productive employee, thereby saving the company money.
Lets face it, you're not going to "see" very detailed pictures on your cell phone.
That's why I'm going to wait for the High Definition version.
It's in currently in testing - I saw the Sprint test geek walking down the road muttering "I can see it now... I can see it now...". He didn't look happy though - that 60-inch screen must be a bear to carry around all day.
"We were total fools back in the 80's", a spokesmouth for the RSPC-RIAA proclaimed. "We listened to what customers wanted and gave them the better quality sound reproduction of digital CD's. Other than shitloads of money, this is how they thank us. We should have just raised the prices again and taught them a lesson. But no more - we're gonna stuff the digital genie back in and keep him there. We are announcing, today, the elimination of the digital CD as a distribution medium . All future recordings will be released on analog wax cylinders only."
When asked for any additional comments, he would only say "Let them play wax - we'll show the customer who is king."
We stopped several members of the audience after they left the theatre through a peculiar looking portal that had various hoses and cables connected to it and made an audible whirring noise. When we asked them how they liked the film, they all responded in a similar fashion:
(Reporter): Excuse me sir, do you have a minute?
(Man with family): Sure.
(Reporter): How was the film? Does it live up to the previous releases?
(Man with family): What film is that?
(Reporter): The new Harry Potter film, of course.
(Man with family): Oh yes, we're looking forward to seeing that soon!
Well, here we have proof that the brain can be insidiously rewired by means of a simple repetitive challenge / reward cycle (Google search -> Google search found -> increase in endorphin levels -> addiction to Google -> more Google).
This will probably lead to a sort of cultural phenomenon: GoogleFans -> GoogleMania -> GoogleAddicts -> Google plays Shea Stadium -> It's Been a Hard Day's Search -> Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Google Hit -> The Walrus is Google -> The White Search Page -> Google Splits - >... -> "Oh yeah, Kid. I remember Google when they first started out".
The reason music is dead is very simple. There is no innovation.
That is so wrong that it hurts.
Fine dining is not "dead" because there is no culinary innovation. Fine dining is "dead" because, for the average slob, McBurger is good enough. Music is not "dead" because there is no musical innovation, it is just that people accept McMusic as good enough. People these days are generally lazy and will accept whatever sort of crap is mass-marketed at them by corporations that have a mass-production, lowest-manufacturing-cost, "if one is good, a thousand just like it must be great", profit over all quality mentality.
I have found dozens of incredibly talented artists by searching the Internet. But I had to work at it and look for them. Just turning on the McRadio or expecting them to show up at my door doesn't do it.
Put effort into your searches and you'll probably be delighted in what you find and amazed that talent and creativity still exit.
(I'd like to polish this post and give some links, and have much more to say, but I'm quite late for work...)
Altavista put out a Windows search app based on their engine technology around 1998 (during their part-of-DEC, better-than-most-search-engines of the time phase). It indexed all documents and provided keyword searches that included Word docs, PDF's and more. It was free and a little buggy but showed promise. Then it just kind of disappeared.
Perhaps Google can fill this void in the pathetic Windows power tool-set ("Windows power tool-set" being close to an oxymoron).
But, despite my love for Google, in these more Orwellian times, I'm glad that I have the tools (not from MS) to monitor port activity.
Article Poster asks:
Do they really understand why there are laws?
Laws are for controlling the common folk.
I'm not sure exactly who the "they" is in your question, but this default case covers most situations:
In this supposedly enlightened age, as the roots of globalization branch, grow and strengthen and nations install governments that are little more than paid operatives of corporations, said corporations develop a sense of omnipotence and the companion view that laws that do not work in their favor are mere repairable obstacles on the road to greater corporate wealth; an artifact of a less enlightened time that can be removed with the judicious application of money and, until they are removed, the penalties for the violation of which are entered into ledgers as just another "cost of doing business" that will ultimately passed on to the consumer. The sad, albeit anthropological, fact is that since greed and vanity are key characteristics of most politicians, many politicians are happy to accept deferred positions on that road repair crew in exchange for assistance in their appointment. They may end up repairing the road to hell, but that is irrelevant to them since they probably won't be around to see it completed and would likely never be held accountable for the impact of their work, since they tend to control the formation of laws that would hold them accountable.
So, to answer you question: to many corporations, understanding why there are laws is moot. They understands very effective means to deal with them. Among the those means:
1) Affix a surcharge to the cost of all goods
2) Return a small portion of that surcharge to people in positions to influence laws and treaties to the corporations' benefit
Slashdot Mirror
After burning tens of thousands of R&D hours, the brains at MS labs will be adding add a dancing, blinking magnifying glass that will pop up with the caption "I see you're trying to get rid of spyware!"
I ... repeat ... can .... you ... hear ... me ... now,... damn it!
Let's hope the probe's designers had lots of Landingvergnugen.
Tent Depot.
Whups, yeah you've got me on a technicality. It's actually a freeware notepad replacement called Edit Pad that you can designate "always on top" (handy for taking notes while looking at something else on most of the screen).
Just the llama, who always carried most of the load anyway.
Once in a while, an animated one slips through. When they become aware of it, they will get it stopped (AFIK, the ads are served by advertising.com). I've seen animated ads on maybe 3 occasions in the last 12 months (I average 4 hours on line each day). They never last more than a day and even then the ads get changed out several times an hour. If an ad is distracting, I just create a little window with notepad, and place it over the ad - problem solved.
Given the wealth of features and remarkable flexibility that Opera provides, getting it for "free" in exchange for an occasional animated ad is a negligible nuisance to me.
I know that you're trying to be funny, but Opera has been significantly better than IE for years. It's like comparing a Ferrari to a Yugo.
I got so fed up with the limitations of IE at my (very large multinational) employer that I finally violated their IT policy and installed (non-approved) Opera. If and when I get challenged over this, I'm willing to go to battle over it and make the case that Opera is much more secure and infinitely more useful and flexible and that it makes me a far more productive employee, thereby saving the company money.
Who are you?
The new Number Two
Who is Number One?
You are Number Six
I am not a number - I am a free man!
Ha, ha, ha, ha....
Smoooooth pun.
Lets face it, you're not going to "see" very detailed pictures on your cell phone.
That's why I'm going to wait for the High Definition version.
It's in currently in testing - I saw the Sprint test geek walking down the road muttering "I can see it now ... I can see it now ...". He didn't look happy though - that 60-inch screen must be a bear to carry around all day.
Second: Meta tag illegal
Next: HTML tag declared unconstutional
How about a ruling against Flash? Now there's something I could get behind.
My guess is that most people here will miss the joke by about 2 generations. For those who don't get it: Pete Best.
Here are some more for you:
besonic
mp3.de
soundclick
garageband
france mp3
vitaminic(free + pay)
Washington Post (yup)
Online Rock
Peoplesound
Download.com from the old mp3.com's new owners
Emusic (pay)
Artistlaunch
When asked for any additional comments, he would only say "Let them play wax - we'll show the customer who is king."
.
.
.
.
* Total Crap As Content.
Conan says:
(...in the year 2000......): 18:59:30 Run out of cash
(...in the year 2004......): 18:59:30 Take the cash and run
[ducks]
(Reporter): Excuse me sir, do you have a minute?
(Man with family): Sure.
(Reporter): How was the film? Does it live up to the previous releases?
(Man with family): What film is that?
(Reporter): The new Harry Potter film, of course.
(Man with family): Oh yes, we're looking forward to seeing that soon!
(Studio exec lurking off to side): Priceless!
Well, here we have proof that the brain can be insidiously rewired by means of a simple repetitive challenge / reward cycle (Google search -> Google search found -> increase in endorphin levels -> addiction to Google -> more Google).
This will probably lead to a sort of cultural phenomenon: GoogleFans -> GoogleMania -> GoogleAddicts -> Google plays Shea Stadium -> It's Been a Hard Day's Search -> Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Google Hit -> The Walrus is Google -> The White Search Page -> Google Splits - > ... -> "Oh yeah, Kid. I remember Google when they first started out".
I know because I looked this up with, er, Google.
Either that or he just made a mistake.
That is so wrong that it hurts.
Fine dining is not "dead" because there is no culinary innovation. Fine dining is "dead" because, for the average slob, McBurger is good enough. Music is not "dead" because there is no musical innovation, it is just that people accept McMusic as good enough. People these days are generally lazy and will accept whatever sort of crap is mass-marketed at them by corporations that have a mass-production, lowest-manufacturing-cost, "if one is good, a thousand just like it must be great", profit over all quality mentality.
I have found dozens of incredibly talented artists by searching the Internet. But I had to work at it and look for them. Just turning on the McRadio or expecting them to show up at my door doesn't do it.
Put effort into your searches and you'll probably be delighted in what you find and amazed that talent and creativity still exit.
(I'd like to polish this post and give some links, and have much more to say, but I'm quite late for work ...)
Thank goodness you didn't you didn't embed that link, since less people will check it. I'd hate to see them get Slashdotted.
You misspelled the word "misspelled".
Perhaps Google can fill this void in the pathetic Windows power tool-set ("Windows power tool-set" being close to an oxymoron).
But, despite my love for Google, in these more Orwellian times, I'm glad that I have the tools (not from MS) to monitor port activity.
Laws are for controlling the common folk.
I'm not sure exactly who the "they" is in your question, but this default case covers most situations:
In this supposedly enlightened age, as the roots of globalization branch, grow and strengthen and nations install governments that are little more than paid operatives of corporations, said corporations develop a sense of omnipotence and the companion view that laws that do not work in their favor are mere repairable obstacles on the road to greater corporate wealth; an artifact of a less enlightened time that can be removed with the judicious application of money and, until they are removed, the penalties for the violation of which are entered into ledgers as just another "cost of doing business" that will ultimately passed on to the consumer. The sad, albeit anthropological, fact is that since greed and vanity are key characteristics of most politicians, many politicians are happy to accept deferred positions on that road repair crew in exchange for assistance in their appointment. They may end up repairing the road to hell, but that is irrelevant to them since they probably won't be around to see it completed and would likely never be held accountable for the impact of their work, since they tend to control the formation of laws that would hold them accountable.
So, to answer you question: to many corporations, understanding why there are laws is moot. They understands very effective means to deal with them. Among the those means:
1) Affix a surcharge to the cost of all goods
2) Return a small portion of that surcharge to people in positions to influence laws and treaties to the corporations' benefit
3) Profit. ;-)
True - there is incontrovertible evidence that artists and consumers have been getting escheated by the recording industry for a long time.