Here's why lack of competition in any given market is bad:
I've owned my iPod mini for two weeks, and already it won't sync with iTunes anymore. Apple says it's broken, and I need to send it in. They also tell me that this is my one free support call. If the iPod they send me is also defective, the support call will cost me $50.00. Why should I pay a lot of money for an iPod, then pay again when it's defective? If I had known this I defiantely would not have bought an iPod.
Having just paid more than $200.00 for a defective iPod pisses me off. Knowing that I will pay an additional $50.00 if the replacement is defective means that I won't buy Apple products again if at all possible.
I bought a Sony Walkman 20 years ago that still works. I'm listening that on the treadmill while I wait for a replacement iPod.
Just like what I've experience with Microsoft for years. It works, but.....
Is anyone else just flat sick and tired of the "entertainment industry"? Isn't the purpose of "entertainment" to make life more enjoyable? Does anyone find being sued for ridiculous amounts of money entertaining?
We should refer to these people as the "litigation" industry to be more accurate. I hereby vow never to be entertained by the litigation industry again.
Yes, I realize that nobody likes the litigation industry, but I'm just sick of it, and needed a vent. If I ran across an "entertainment industry" scumbag dying in an alley, I would only stop to kick their teeth in.
So what you're telling us is that everyone should be able to read all source code in all programming languages, just to learn how a piece of software works? Whatever. That's just absurd. The program is useless without documentation, even for people able to read source code because WHO THE FUCK WANTS TO POUR THROUGH SOMEONE ELSES CODE JUST TO LEARN HOW TO USE A PROGRAM??? Not me.
There are shareware licenses (like the one used for Forte Agent newsreader) which disable critical parts of the program in the free version (like sorting news articles by author). After paying for a license from Forte, the previously disabled features are then enabled. Documentation is a critical part of any complex software package. Since this software "disables" an obviously critical part of the program (documentation) in the free version, maybe it's more accurately described as shareware?
Does anyone other than me consider the RIAA hostile towards the American people? We have had used record stores in this country since there have been records. The record store I worked at in high school has been open since 1965, and is STILL open. And just now, all of a sudden, they're criminals? That's not how it works.
The RIAA is being allowed to run roughshod over our rights, and in retalliation, I will NEVER purchase another new CD, and have not done so for over 2 years. Before the RIAA I bought quite a few CD's. Probably 10 - 20 a year.
I'm not the only one boycotting new music purchases either. Many of my friends are completely turned off by the RIAA's aggressive practices, and have stopped buying CD's.
Another thing - Before the RIAA, I really didn't even use P2P very often. A song every now and again, and if I liked the song, I would purchase a CD sometimes. Now I download in much larger numbers, and leave my p2p program on at all times so that people can leech from me.
So if you're sick of the RIAA, just stop buying new CD's. Burn all of your current CD's to.mp3 and put them on p2p. Shop in used record stores. Just don't give these Nazi's another dime. They do NOT have our best interests at heart.
I'm sure most sci-fi fiction fans love Asimov stories as much as I do. I'm sure most sci-fi movie fans at least appreciate Alex Proyas movies. What I'm not sure of is how Will Smith was chosen to star in I, Robot. I'm sorry, but this guy is not a good actor, and was probably not Alex Proyas first choice.
Why not someone like Gary Oldman, Tim Roth, Lawrence Fishburn, Kevin Spacey, Sam Jackson, or Edward Norton? Hell, even Bruce Willis or Brad Pitt would be better choices for this role.
This looks like a clear case of movie marketing people trying to sell tickets with a popular name, and potentially ruining what should be a good movie in the process.
How many companies have you seen cut IT staff for financial reasons, realize that the company actually NEEDED the terminated job functions, and then hire contract workers or consultants? I've worked in the IT department for 4 small to large sized corporations, and have seen the above scenario happen 2 times. I've actually had a company recruit me from an existing job, only to downsize me (along with several co-workers) a year later. A good friend of mine was recruited by a company with no IT staff, cleaned up their network and userland, then was promptly "downsized". There are a million horror stories. Some companies seem to now realize that if you continually cycle IT consultants and contract workers through a complex infrastructure, the quality and efficiency of support will drop dramatically, and in most cases the salaries will actually increase.
Of course the ugly side of forming a union would be that eventually the standard industry qualification for joining would be "MS Union Certification.NET".
Do we really need a union? How many of our lazy IT buddies are willing to go on strike, and walk a picket line? Is Dilbert really up to "scrub busting"?
All of my home servers (nfs (I use the SFU product for workstation connectivity), www, sql, etc are Linux, but stuck with Windows 2k for my worksation (reasons below). If I were not using Windows, I would probably try to use Linux, but there are several essential things I can not accomplish with Linux (and refuse to drop the money on a decent Mac):
1. My company uses the Checkpoint "Secure Remote" VPN client, and there is no Linux port. Not practical to have this on another computer, or dual boot, etc. It's got to be right there at the touch of a button.
2. Company uses Funk Software "Proxy" remote control software. Same reason as #1.
3. Last time I checked there was no way to watch DVD's on the computer, which I like to do while surfing. Is there a Linux DVD player now?
4. Lack of Linux support for the integrated Promise ATA RAID card on my workstation mobo. It works well. I like it. Unfortunately Linux support for Promise ATA RAID hasn't been the best thus far.
5. Lack of support for the advanced features of my ATI All-In-Wonder Radeon 8500 card. I like the extra features like being able to watch VCR movies on my Workstation, and last I checked ATI wasn't creating those apps for Linux.
6. I know where everything is on Win2k workstation. Sorry, lame reason I know, but not knowing where things are on my workstation drives me batty. I only use CLI on my many linux boxes. Plus Win2k workstation has been a very useable, and reliable desktop for me. I like it.
Linux, and other OSS have been efficient, reliable performers for my server computers, but I'm a long ways away from switching to the Linux desktop, although I hear Red Hat 8, and Gentoo are both nice.
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Here's why lack of competition in any given market is bad: I've owned my iPod mini for two weeks, and already it won't sync with iTunes anymore. Apple says it's broken, and I need to send it in. They also tell me that this is my one free support call. If the iPod they send me is also defective, the support call will cost me $50.00. Why should I pay a lot of money for an iPod, then pay again when it's defective? If I had known this I defiantely would not have bought an iPod. Having just paid more than $200.00 for a defective iPod pisses me off. Knowing that I will pay an additional $50.00 if the replacement is defective means that I won't buy Apple products again if at all possible. I bought a Sony Walkman 20 years ago that still works. I'm listening that on the treadmill while I wait for a replacement iPod. Just like what I've experience with Microsoft for years. It works, but.....
Is anyone else just flat sick and tired of the "entertainment industry"? Isn't the purpose of "entertainment" to make life more enjoyable? Does anyone find being sued for ridiculous amounts of money entertaining?
We should refer to these people as the "litigation" industry to be more accurate. I hereby vow never to be entertained by the litigation industry again.
Yes, I realize that nobody likes the litigation industry, but I'm just sick of it, and needed a vent. If I ran across an "entertainment industry" scumbag dying in an alley, I would only stop to kick their teeth in.
So what you're telling us is that everyone should be able to read all source code in all programming languages, just to learn how a piece of software works? Whatever. That's just absurd. The program is useless without documentation, even for people able to read source code because WHO THE FUCK WANTS TO POUR THROUGH SOMEONE ELSES CODE JUST TO LEARN HOW TO USE A PROGRAM??? Not me.
There are shareware licenses (like the one used for Forte Agent newsreader) which disable critical parts of the program in the free version (like sorting news articles by author). After paying for a license from Forte, the previously disabled features are then enabled. Documentation is a critical part of any complex software package. Since this software "disables" an obviously critical part of the program (documentation) in the free version, maybe it's more accurately described as shareware?
Does anyone other than me consider the RIAA hostile towards the American people? We have had used record stores in this country since there have been records. The record store I worked at in high school has been open since 1965, and is STILL open. And just now, all of a sudden, they're criminals? That's not how it works.
.mp3 and put them on p2p. Shop in used record stores. Just don't give these Nazi's another dime. They do NOT have our best interests at heart.
The RIAA is being allowed to run roughshod over our rights, and in retalliation, I will NEVER purchase another new CD, and have not done so for over 2 years. Before the RIAA I bought quite a few CD's. Probably 10 - 20 a year.
I'm not the only one boycotting new music purchases either. Many of my friends are completely turned off by the RIAA's aggressive practices, and have stopped buying CD's.
Another thing - Before the RIAA, I really didn't even use P2P very often. A song every now and again, and if I liked the song, I would purchase a CD sometimes. Now I download in much larger numbers, and leave my p2p program on at all times so that people can leech from me.
So if you're sick of the RIAA, just stop buying new CD's. Burn all of your current CD's to
I'm sure most sci-fi fiction fans love Asimov stories as much as I do. I'm sure most sci-fi movie fans at least appreciate Alex Proyas movies. What I'm not sure of is how Will Smith was chosen to star in I, Robot. I'm sorry, but this guy is not a good actor, and was probably not Alex Proyas first choice.
Why not someone like Gary Oldman, Tim Roth, Lawrence Fishburn, Kevin Spacey, Sam Jackson, or Edward Norton? Hell, even Bruce Willis or Brad Pitt would be better choices for this role.
This looks like a clear case of movie marketing people trying to sell tickets with a popular name, and potentially ruining what should be a good movie in the process.
How many companies have you seen cut IT staff for financial reasons, realize that the company actually NEEDED the terminated job functions, and then hire contract workers or consultants? I've worked in the IT department for 4 small to large sized corporations, and have seen the above scenario happen 2 times. I've actually had a company recruit me from an existing job, only to downsize me (along with several co-workers) a year later. A good friend of mine was recruited by a company with no IT staff, cleaned up their network and userland, then was promptly "downsized". There are a million horror stories. Some companies seem to now realize that if you continually cycle IT consultants and contract workers through a complex infrastructure, the quality and efficiency of support will drop dramatically, and in most cases the salaries will actually increase.
Of course the ugly side of forming a union would be that eventually the standard industry qualification for joining would be "MS Union Certification.NET".
Do we really need a union? How many of our lazy IT buddies are willing to go on strike, and walk a picket line? Is Dilbert really up to "scrub busting"?
All of my home servers (nfs (I use the SFU product for workstation connectivity), www, sql, etc are Linux, but stuck with Windows 2k for my worksation (reasons below). If I were not using Windows, I would probably try to use Linux, but there are several essential things I can not accomplish with Linux (and refuse to drop the money on a decent Mac): 1. My company uses the Checkpoint "Secure Remote" VPN client, and there is no Linux port. Not practical to have this on another computer, or dual boot, etc. It's got to be right there at the touch of a button. 2. Company uses Funk Software "Proxy" remote control software. Same reason as #1. 3. Last time I checked there was no way to watch DVD's on the computer, which I like to do while surfing. Is there a Linux DVD player now? 4. Lack of Linux support for the integrated Promise ATA RAID card on my workstation mobo. It works well. I like it. Unfortunately Linux support for Promise ATA RAID hasn't been the best thus far. 5. Lack of support for the advanced features of my ATI All-In-Wonder Radeon 8500 card. I like the extra features like being able to watch VCR movies on my Workstation, and last I checked ATI wasn't creating those apps for Linux. 6. I know where everything is on Win2k workstation. Sorry, lame reason I know, but not knowing where things are on my workstation drives me batty. I only use CLI on my many linux boxes. Plus Win2k workstation has been a very useable, and reliable desktop for me. I like it. Linux, and other OSS have been efficient, reliable performers for my server computers, but I'm a long ways away from switching to the Linux desktop, although I hear Red Hat 8, and Gentoo are both nice.