Palladium/TCPA/etc have 2 fundamental flaws that its supporters will not admit:
1. They must be mandatory and you must not be able to defeat them or turn them off, otherwise what's the point.
2. They are based on a lie. The Lie being used to sell this crap is the claim that content providers must be able to secure their content form "theft", "piracy" and other evils. This is a blatant lie.
The true purpose is to eliminate Fair Use and, even worse, the eliminate the private ownership of property.
A very interesting reply. But then I guess the question becomes: Why spend $125,000 on a robot if you still have to have people there too? Where's the cost savings?
Don't get me wrong, I'm not in favour of eliminating Pharmacists -- I just don't understand where the incentive is for a Pharmacy to spend such a large sum of money unless they realize a substantial cost savings. If the robot can fill twice as many prescriptions per hour, that's fine, but by itself that generates no cost savings.
>> "Do you honestly think that the sales they've made through Mozilla browsers (the 1.7% you talked about) is more money than the other 98.3%?"
That's not what they are saying. Nobody is claiming that the Mozilla 1.7% spends more than the other 98.3%
However, I do believe it would be reasonable that if you picked at random, any 1.7% of the people who use IE and compared them to the people using Mozilla, you would find the Mozilla users to be more computer and Internet savvy -- a demographic that should be attractive to business trying to sell things on the Internet.
Here's an actual conversation I had with a co-worker who just bought his first computer a little over a year ago:
He asks me a question out MS IE and Outlook Express. Me: I don't know. I use Mozilla. Him: Oh, I thought you HAD to use IE and Outlook Express.
Making Linux look more like Windows doesn't change the fact that Linux is inferior and totally gay.
Unlike Linux, Windows runs all the software you want, supports all the hardware you want and it's free -- -- get it from usenet or from a friend.
The Grateful Dead always allowed people to tape their shows and made concert recordings widely available. Why? Because nobody cares about their crap music anyway, so people disributing their music doesn't hurt them. Ditto Phish.
I'm sure mandrake was hoping everyone had forgotten. From the Mandrake website, May 2001:
May 22, 2001
In order to quell further rumours regarding MandrakeSoft's alleged pressing needs for financial liquidity, recent layoffs of part of its senior management team and planned layoffs in its Development team, MandrakeSoft Co-Founder, Chairman and CEO Jacques Le Marois explains that "former CEO Henri Poole and himself mutually agreed on the management change over a month ago as a result of a divergence of views regarding the Company's strategic outlook.
Le Marois further points out that "MandrakeSoft's prospects have never looked so good: In 2000, Linux-Mandrake took #1 slot in US Linux retail sales (Source: PC Data). The recent management changes and refocusing of our strategy on our core distribution and related online and offline services have allowed us to make major savings and we are on course to break even within a few months. The announcement of the latest release of the Linux-Mandrake operating system - version 8.0 - has met with unprecedented success, both in terms of user adoption, which is made obvious by the hundreds of thousands of versions downloaded from our Web site since the announcement, and in terms of positive media coverage and pre-sales to our business partners throughout the world. The imminent launch of MandrakeStore, our online store, will create a solid new revenue stream: we've already pre-sold thousands of PowerPack Editions online.
In addition, there are already more than 35,000 registered users on MandrakeExpert and MandrakeCampus, which represents massive revenue potential for us going forward: we will shortly be introducing an online 'tipping' system, allowing users to reward those Experts who provide them with useful responses to their Linux-Mandrake related questions, and MandrakeSoft will take a commission on each transaction.
Besides, a paying user registration system to MandrakeExpert will also shortly be introduced, which represents yet another source of revenue for the Company". Le Marois concludes that "all these positive elements, together with the fact that we have built a very large individual and professional user community at very little expense, and have an experienced and highly committed management team to execute our strategy, are playing in our favour for our plans to IPO in the coming months, so watch this space!"
I work for a large chemical company that's been in business for a very long time. Although there were always competitors with lower prices, we survived and did quite well by offering higher quality products. Many customers would stop buying from us because someone offered them a lower price, but they always returned to us a few months later because of low quality and/or poor performance.
But now that's changing. More and more customers are buying based on price alone and are willing to accept lower quality products -- in many cases because they've reduced the quality of their own products.
Lower quality products for the same price = higher profits = bigger raises for top executives.
Why have hard drives gone from $100 per megabyte to $1 per gigabyte? Why have VCRs gone from $500 to $50?
Increasing technology can only explain part of this. Musc of the cost reduction comes from cutting corners and reducing quality (third world slave labor doesn't hurt, either).
Everyone keeps talking about a "Better GUI" but nothing ever emerges. Why? Because there's really nothing wrong with the Windows GUI (or the various GUIs for Linux that are essentially knock-offs of Windows). The real problem is that nobody can stop hating Microsoft long enough to admit that they've done something well.
If you're using Mozilla, go to XULPlanet.com and download "Prefbar". Set your user agent to "IE 6.0/Win XP" and Capital One's web site will work just fine.
When I first started reading this article I thought it was just another example of how Dell sells crap to it's customers. Ho-Hum, Dell is is a rip-off -- tell me something I don't already know.
But then I looked at the benchmarks they ran and one of them got my attention - using WinAce to compress a 178 meg wav file. I was curious, so I decided to try this same test on my computer. I didn't have a 178 meg wav file but I did have a folder containing 25 wav files that added up to over 180 meg.
The results: Their Dell notebook with 2.2 ghz P4 -- 268 seconds.
My homemade computer with 1.47 ghz AMD Athlon (Athlon XP 1700+) -- 168 seconds.
I can't believe that Dell or Intel gets away with selling this crap.
Those of us who have been around a while are thrilled by the tremendous increase in capacity and decrease in price for hard drives (having once paid over $400 for a 400 MEG drive).
However, the decrease in price isn't entirely due to technological advances. Using cheap components, shoddy manufacturing and slave labor helps.
On average, the Maxtor drives I've purchased over the last few years have lasted less than 2 years before dying and having to be returned for replacement under warranty.
Slashdot Mirror
Didn't you ever hear the saying "man, that chick can really hoover!"
Palladium/TCPA/etc have 2 fundamental flaws that its supporters will not admit:
1. They must be mandatory and you must not be able to defeat them or turn them off, otherwise what's the point.
2. They are based on a lie. The Lie being used to sell this crap is the claim that content providers must be able to secure their content form "theft", "piracy" and other evils. This is a blatant lie.
The true purpose is to eliminate Fair Use and, even worse, the eliminate the private ownership of property.
Half the perfromance for twice the price.
Send $5000 directly to Steve Jobs and I better he can tell you how to solve the problem.
Wow. 1 whole Ghz!!
You can get a notebook with a 1.8Ghz AMD or 2.0Ghz Pentium for half that price.
Further proof that Mac users are dorks.
A very interesting reply. But then I guess the question becomes: Why spend $125,000 on a robot if you still have to have people there too? Where's the cost savings?
Don't get me wrong, I'm not in favour of eliminating Pharmacists -- I just don't understand where the incentive is for a Pharmacy to spend such a large sum of money unless they realize a substantial cost savings. If the robot can fill twice as many prescriptions per hour, that's fine, but by itself that generates no cost savings.
>> Your GPS reading said you went 80 miles in 1 hour? Here's your speeding ticket.
So what's wrong with that?
Oh, I forgot -- it's perfectly OK to break the law, as long as you don't get caught.
How nice.
>> "Do you honestly think that the sales they've made through Mozilla browsers (the 1.7% you talked about) is more money than the other 98.3%?"
That's not what they are saying. Nobody is claiming that the Mozilla 1.7% spends more than the other 98.3%
However, I do believe it would be reasonable that if you picked at random, any 1.7% of the people who use IE and compared them to the people using Mozilla, you would find the Mozilla users to be more computer and Internet savvy -- a demographic that should be attractive to business trying to sell things on the Internet.
Here's an actual conversation I had with a co-worker who just bought his first computer a little over a year ago:
He asks me a question out MS IE and Outlook Express.
Me: I don't know. I use Mozilla.
Him: Oh, I thought you HAD to use IE and Outlook Express.
What version of Windows is this?
Making Linux look more like Windows doesn't change the fact that Linux is inferior and totally gay. Unlike Linux, Windows runs all the software you want, supports all the hardware you want and it's free -- -- get it from usenet or from a friend.
Apple will make one even gayer in no time.
The Grateful Dead always allowed people to tape their shows and made concert recordings widely available. Why? Because nobody cares about their crap music anyway, so people disributing their music doesn't hurt them. Ditto Phish.
I'm sure mandrake was hoping everyone had forgotten. From the Mandrake website, May 2001:
May 22, 2001
In order to quell further rumours regarding MandrakeSoft's alleged
pressing needs for financial liquidity, recent layoffs of part of
its senior management team and planned layoffs in its Development team,
MandrakeSoft Co-Founder, Chairman and CEO Jacques Le Marois explains
that "former CEO Henri Poole and himself mutually agreed on the
management change over a month ago as a result of a divergence of views
regarding the Company's strategic outlook.
Le Marois further points out that "MandrakeSoft's prospects have never
looked so good: In 2000, Linux-Mandrake took #1 slot in US Linux retail
sales (Source: PC Data). The recent management changes and refocusing
of our strategy on our core distribution and related online and offline
services have allowed us to make major savings and we are on course to
break even within a few months. The announcement of the latest release
of the Linux-Mandrake operating system - version 8.0 - has met with
unprecedented success, both in terms of user adoption, which is made
obvious by the hundreds of thousands of versions downloaded from our Web
site since the announcement, and in terms of positive media coverage and
pre-sales to our business partners throughout the world. The imminent
launch of MandrakeStore, our online store, will create a solid new revenue
stream: we've already pre-sold thousands of PowerPack Editions
online.
In addition, there are already more than 35,000 registered users on
MandrakeExpert and MandrakeCampus, which represents massive revenue
potential for us going forward: we will shortly be introducing an online
'tipping' system, allowing users to reward those Experts who provide them
with useful responses to their Linux-Mandrake related questions, and
MandrakeSoft will take a commission on each transaction.
Besides, a paying user registration system to MandrakeExpert will also
shortly be introduced, which represents yet another source of revenue
for the Company". Le Marois concludes that "all these positive elements,
together with the fact that we have built a very large individual and
professional user community at very little expense, and have an experienced
and highly committed management team to execute our strategy, are playing
in our favour for our plans to IPO in the coming months, so watch this space!"
Beg
is still Spam
Just as Multi-Level Marketers try to hide behind other names (Network Marketing, etc), viral marketing is just another name for Spam.
They started running commercials for Taken in June. With that much advance hype you just knew it was going to suck.
I work for a large chemical company that's been in business for a very long time. Although there were always competitors with lower prices, we survived and did quite well by offering higher quality products. Many customers would stop buying from us because someone offered them a lower price, but they always returned to us a few months later because of low quality and/or poor performance.
But now that's changing. More and more customers are buying based on price alone and are willing to accept lower quality products -- in many cases because they've reduced the quality of their own products.
Lower quality products for the same price = higher profits = bigger raises for top executives.
Why have hard drives gone from $100 per megabyte to $1 per gigabyte? Why have VCRs gone from $500 to $50? Increasing technology can only explain part of this. Musc of the cost reduction comes from cutting corners and reducing quality (third world slave labor doesn't hurt, either).
Everyone keeps talking about a "Better GUI" but nothing ever emerges. Why? Because there's really nothing wrong with the Windows GUI (or the various GUIs for Linux that are essentially knock-offs of Windows). The real problem is that nobody can stop hating Microsoft long enough to admit that they've done something well.
If you're using Mozilla, go to XULPlanet.com and download "Prefbar". Set your user agent to "IE 6.0/Win XP" and Capital One's web site will work just fine.
Programmers show their software to Microsoft, writers show their ideas to Hollywood studios and then they are shocked when their ideas get ripped off.
You would think people would have caught on by now.
When I first started reading this article I thought it was just another example of how Dell sells crap to it's customers. Ho-Hum, Dell is is a rip-off -- tell me something I don't already know.
But then I looked at the benchmarks they ran and one of them got my attention - using WinAce to compress a 178 meg wav file. I was curious, so I decided to try this same test on my computer. I didn't have a 178 meg wav file but I did have a folder containing 25 wav files that added up to over 180 meg.
The results: Their Dell notebook with 2.2 ghz P4 -- 268 seconds.
My homemade computer with 1.47 ghz AMD Athlon (Athlon XP 1700+) -- 168 seconds.
I can't believe that Dell or Intel gets away with selling this crap.
Windows XP ... "first boot to full desktop" in 18 minutes.
Those of us who have been around a while are thrilled by the tremendous increase in capacity and decrease in price for hard drives (having once paid over $400 for a 400 MEG drive).
However, the decrease in price isn't entirely due to technological advances. Using cheap components, shoddy manufacturing and slave labor helps.
On average, the Maxtor drives I've purchased over the last few years have lasted less than 2 years before dying and having to be returned for replacement under warranty.
A one year warranty will really suck.
for farmers to have sex with sheep?
to include a few ^H^H^H^H in my post so that I can pass ^H^H^H^H as a true Lunux hax0r