If you are one of the unfortunate people to be stuck with Comcast (or probably a bunch of other cable companies,) Comcast will charge you to update their records.
With a cable modem under Comcast, your Mac address is your login key.
I agree, but my main concern is how I am sure that the *artists* will get paid. Sure we will send the money to the producing company, but what will keep them from taking 95% of the profit themselves in this day of ever decreasing production costs.
I do not trust the record company to give more than a pittance to the artist and without that trust I would never support it.
To play devils advocate, I can support Konqueror, Mozilla, Seamonkey, Safari, Opera, Firefox, Galleon, Lynx, Flock, and many others just by simply supporting web standards.
In order to support IE6, I need to code specifically for IE6.
Unfortunately, the philosophy of "the customer is always right" went out the door with "congressmen listen to their constituents."
The good corporate citizens started screwing the system at the same time they learned use lobbyists have congressmen look the other way. Legislation made it harder for new companies to compete and the existing corporations said fuck you customers, there is no where else for you to go.
There are still a few good companies out there but they are unfortunately hard to find in this day and age.
...MS's achievements have been broad and they've paved the way for multiple industries. Maybe I wouldn't be writing this on a Linux box if it wasn't for Windows:)
I do not agree with that assumption. First off, Unix was not created because of MS and/or Windows and Linux was created as a Unix clone, not specifically to compete with windows. If the pc hardware was not around it would have been built on different hardware.
Next, even without MS, IBM would have still been looking for an OS for its new computing platform. Because it was IBM, which at the time was the de facto standard/monopoly, there still would have been a clone market even without MS's help. If the clone market did not provide enough cheap hardware, there would have been cheap hardware from either the computers running CP/M or even the home market (Amiga and/or older 8bits computers)
Linux evolved from someone's desire to clone minix, not from a need to use something other than windows.
... a Microsoft representative, Stuart McKee, admitted that ODF had 'clearly won.'
Clearly the summary of this article is wrong. After all, if a employee of Microsoft was caught inferring that their own product was somehow inferior to open source, said employee would be looking for a new job.
The only reason why I logged in was to see if I had any mod points to give you. However, it is obvious I do not so I am limited to a sophomoric "MOD PARENT UP!!!"
Chinese corps accountable for their actions? Are you blind?
The reason why there are some many lead-based product recalls, that huge liver drug problem over the last 18 months, and things like the pet food recall is because many chinese companies operate in an environment without repercussions where they can use toxins as "filler material."
If you are in a Pinto, and Comcast is in a Hummer, do the rest of the world a favor, cut him off in traffic and force him to rear end you. You will both die in the resulting explosion but everyone will sing praises of your sacrifice to take out one more evil (local) monopolist.
You are absolutely right, they target the big market(windows) with their limited budget. Also many Linux users have a second machine running windows (or at least dual boot.) I am a gamer and if there is something I must have, I will relent and buy it on windows. How many Linux users that are gamers can say that they are not tempted and always avoid that temptation.
I use wine, but many times wine does not support the latest games.
I may be modded down for this, but as much as would love to live without windows, the above truth hurts.
I can only hope that a combination of people not wanting Vista combined with Microsoft pushing publishers to DX10, breaks the platform dependence and will force publishers to recognize Linux as a gaming platform too.
$435/month? That is probably a young healthy non-smoker.
When I last went to buy insurance, I admitted to having sleep apnea. I was immediately told there would be a 3 year pre-existing condition clause on apnea treatment and an automatic 15% premium increase. The sad thing is it was still a bargain and I accepted the conditions.
I do not think it will ever go truly obsolete. I have learned assembly programming on three different Microprocessor architectures and I do not think it will ever be truly obsolete.
I admit I never write assembly code anymore and I only did write it in a classroom. However, learning assembly taught me a lot about a computer's architecture that I probably would not have learned otherwise.
When you know how a computer works on a basic level, you better understand what goes wrong when you are debugging problems. A very simple example of this is if you add two positive integers together and wind up with a negative result, you understand that you are overflowing the result. I may not directly use my assembler skills, but knowing them helps me indirectly and makes me a more efficient developer than someone that does not understand the computer like I do.
I disagree. The current administration loves a police state and took advantage of a tragic situation (9-11) to turn the US into one virtually overnight.
The article fails to mention my reason for avoiding a new format: I do not want the extra features that the manufacturers put into the players., including: 1) DRM 2) The ability for the players to "phone home". 3) Any other "feature" that makes it more difficult for the consumer. By this I mean anything that forces the user to do something he does not want to like the PUOPs on standard DVDs. You can be forced to watch previews when you start a disk without having the option to skip forward or advance the track. I expect HD and Blu Ray to be worse in this matter.
Why should I pay a lot of money for a new player and shell out more money per movie? For the insignificant increase in video quality? Do I need that level of resolution to watch a tv series or most movies? Maybe I will like the difference on a few action movies, but until the price is under $200 for a player and the cost of movies is on par with standard def, I will not upgrade.
Slashdot Mirror
As far as I am concerned, this is an invasion of privacy.
Symantec and McAfee have both announced a version of Anti Virus package for these babies...
They also promise that their software won't take more then 85% of the processor power.
You're right... But the same investors that like this idea are the same ones that liked backing junk mortgages...
But certain Microsoft products use your MAC address.
In addition to WGA, I thought that MS-Word used to store your MAC address in the meta-data of the document.
That way you can trace an anonymous doc to a location.
Change your MAC?
If you are one of the unfortunate people to be stuck with Comcast (or probably a bunch of other cable companies,) Comcast will charge you to update their records.
With a cable modem under Comcast, your Mac address is your login key.
...and I'd have the time, money, and skills to try to get the cops involved."
So you would be willing to go into a police station and make a report claiming you have a small penis?
I agree, but my main concern is how I am sure that the *artists* will get paid. Sure we will send the money to the producing company, but what will keep them from taking 95% of the profit themselves in this day of ever decreasing production costs.
I do not trust the record company to give more than a pittance to the artist and without that trust I would never support it.
The Prius is ugly. My 1969 Cadillac Coupe DeVille Convertible is cool.
However my 69 Caddy only gets 7mpg of super.
To play devils advocate, I can support Konqueror, Mozilla, Seamonkey, Safari, Opera, Firefox, Galleon, Lynx, Flock, and many others just by simply supporting web standards.
In order to support IE6, I need to code specifically for IE6.
Unfortunately, the philosophy of "the customer is always right" went out the door with "congressmen listen to their constituents."
The good corporate citizens started screwing the system at the same time they learned use lobbyists have congressmen look the other way. Legislation made it harder for new companies to compete and the existing corporations said fuck you customers, there is no where else for you to go.
There are still a few good companies out there but they are unfortunately hard to find in this day and age.
...MS's achievements have been broad and they've paved the way for multiple industries. Maybe I wouldn't be writing this on a Linux box if it wasn't for Windows :)
I do not agree with that assumption. First off, Unix was not created because of MS and/or Windows and Linux was created as a Unix clone, not specifically to compete with windows. If the pc hardware was not around it would have been built on different hardware.
Next, even without MS, IBM would have still been looking for an OS for its new computing platform. Because it was IBM, which at the time was the de facto standard/monopoly, there still would have been a clone market even without MS's help. If the clone market did not provide enough cheap hardware, there would have been cheap hardware from either the computers running CP/M or even the home market (Amiga and/or older 8bits computers)
Linux evolved from someone's desire to clone minix, not from a need to use something other than windows.
Nothing. I have already given him enough money by paying for his OS when I want to run linux.
Clearly the summary of this article is wrong. After all, if a employee of Microsoft was caught inferring that their own product was somehow inferior to open source, said employee would be looking for a new job.
The only reason why I logged in was to see if I had any mod points to give you. However, it is obvious I do not so I am limited to a sophomoric "MOD PARENT UP!!!"
Chinese corps accountable for their actions? Are you blind? The reason why there are some many lead-based product recalls, that huge liver drug problem over the last 18 months, and things like the pet food recall is because many chinese companies operate in an environment without repercussions where they can use toxins as "filler material."
Damn, 21 - craps again...
If you are in a Pinto, and Comcast is in a Hummer, do the rest of the world a favor, cut him off in traffic and force him to rear end you. You will both die in the resulting explosion but everyone will sing praises of your sacrifice to take out one more evil (local) monopolist.
For the ever present "young people" on slashdot you can read about the pinto's reputation here: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ford_Pinto
You are absolutely right, they target the big market(windows) with their limited budget. Also many Linux users have a second machine running windows (or at least dual boot.) I am a gamer and if there is something I must have, I will relent and buy it on windows. How many Linux users that are gamers can say that they are not tempted and always avoid that temptation.
I use wine, but many times wine does not support the latest games.
I may be modded down for this, but as much as would love to live without windows, the above truth hurts.
I can only hope that a combination of people not wanting Vista combined with Microsoft pushing publishers to DX10, breaks the platform dependence and will force publishers to recognize Linux as a gaming platform too.
It looks to me like it is a internet in space.
$435/month? That is probably a young healthy non-smoker. When I last went to buy insurance, I admitted to having sleep apnea. I was immediately told there would be a 3 year pre-existing condition clause on apnea treatment and an automatic 15% premium increase. The sad thing is it was still a bargain and I accepted the conditions.
I do not think it will ever go truly obsolete. I have learned assembly programming on three different Microprocessor architectures and I do not think it will ever be truly obsolete.
I admit I never write assembly code anymore and I only did write it in a classroom. However, learning assembly taught me a lot about a computer's architecture that I probably would not have learned otherwise.
When you know how a computer works on a basic level, you better understand what goes wrong when you are debugging problems. A very simple example of this is if you add two positive integers together and wind up with a negative result, you understand that you are overflowing the result. I may not directly use my assembler skills, but knowing them helps me indirectly and makes me a more efficient developer than someone that does not understand the computer like I do.
Is there any way to elect him and then have him avoid the mandatory lobotomy that is forced on all our politicians? :)
I disagree. The current administration loves a police state and took advantage of a tragic situation (9-11) to turn the US into one virtually overnight.
Taunting tigers at the Zoo. Well of course he deserved to die.
He gives all of us something to email each other with the title of "Darwin Award Winners"
The article fails to mention my reason for avoiding a new format: I do not want the extra features that the manufacturers put into the players., including:
1) DRM
2) The ability for the players to "phone home".
3) Any other "feature" that makes it more difficult for the consumer. By this I mean anything that forces the user to do something he does not want to like the PUOPs on standard DVDs. You can be forced to watch previews when you start a disk without having the option to skip forward or advance the track. I expect HD and Blu Ray to be worse in this matter.
Why should I pay a lot of money for a new player and shell out more money per movie? For the insignificant increase in video quality? Do I need that level of resolution to watch a tv series or most movies? Maybe I will like the difference on a few action movies, but until the price is under $200 for a player and the cost of movies is on par with standard def, I will not upgrade.