Though you don't state it explicitly, you're on the track of what I was thinking: the best way to enjoy CS still outside a LAN party is to find a good server that is actively admined, as many now are not. Nothing improves gameplay like a good admin who wastes no time pulling the kick trigger. Vote kicking is a good idea but rarely seems to succeed. Make a list of these and stick to them. It can be a pain when they are full, but its better than playing on a server full of cheats.
Glad someone pointed this out amidst the sea of typical Slashdot 'profit is evil' posts. Economically speaking, price discrimination is the proper method to extract the optimal profit level out of a market of mixed price sensitivities. Unfortunatley many people only see half the story, that people willing to pay more could be paying less under a one price system. They overlook the fact that the opposite is also true, many who can only afford to pay less are forced to either pay more or stay out of the market.
Price discrimination only seems unfair to those who can properly afford to spend more. Of course, explicit price discrimination is illegal in the US and around the world. The fact that the industry found such a way to circumvent these controls could be viewed either as extremely clever and farsighted, or evil and exploitive.
My 6 year old eTower 533id is still kicking, with a fresh upgrade of 128mb of new ram. Otherwise all original equipment. It now dual boots Win98 and Debian with no problem.
But that's all anecdotal, I don't know if there's a better survey out there, but the most recent PC Magazine reliability survey showed eMachine down near the bottom, but as good as many others and better in some cases. Still their overall grade remains an E.
I admit, the upgradability of eMachines is weak, though I don't see how it is any worse than low end desktops from any maker - who all sell boards with everything integrated and thus, impossible to upgrade.
Ok, you may be right about Mozilla, I took another look at Konqueror and it seems fine, it just has a slightly different default style so the pages looked a little off. Everyone says Mozilla is slow, but it loads up decently on my crappy 533mhz eMachine, so I guess I must be a bit more patient that others.
Well I didn't notice Kopete, but now that I see it there (name did not suggest it was an IMer) thats great. The first thing I noticed was Kit (AIM client) so I assumed that was the default one. But who uses just AIM right?
I understand how difficult it is for experienced linux users to see from the viewpoint of new users, so I thought I'd share my experience as just such a novice. I was totally new to linux, but as a capable Windows 2000 user I figured I could make it work. I downloaded the Debian ISOs to try out on my machine. I chose Debian since it seemed like THE distro out there. I was fairly surprised, it wasn't that bad (who's afraid of text based installs?) and I quickly had it installed and running with a KDE desktop. However it failed to configure some key hardware (sound, NIC, modem) which made moving further difficult. So I was extremely happy to learn about the official Debian w/Anaconda installer. Unfortunately it also coincided with the compromise of Debians machines so I never got a chance to try it out.
Finally some/.er recommended Mepis as a good Debian based distro, which I promtly installed and am quite happy with. The install went perfectly, and the default desktop may not be ideal to linux veterans out there, but its just fine for a linux newbie to start off on.
A few tips/things I've noticed:
-Right off the bat, where the heck is the volume control? Should be on the default desktop, not deep in the application menu as 'kmix'.
-With all due respect to Konqueror, Mozilla should be the default browser on the desktop.
-I don't know what's up with Kpackage, but I love apt-get.
-IM is pretty important to the masses, why not make a good multiprotocol client like Gaim the default?
-Mepis does a good job putting a GUI face on many of the system config stuff, but they are still spread over a number of menus. It would help if they were consolidated under one heading, similar to Windows control panel, although come to think of it everythings not under that either.
Overall though I'd say Anaconda is a big step forward for Linux on the average users desktop. With a few minor tweaks this could easily be recommended for the clueless windows user.
The excellent old version archive site OldVersion.com has old versions of the K-lite client, plus many other 'out of print' apps. It is unclear if the 'legit' Kazaa will be able to block access even by existing K-lite installs, anyone more knowledgeable care to comment?
I could care less, I stopped downloading from it some time ago. Another/.er recommended iRate, which is quite good.
Re:I try to avoid them altogether.
on
Fake ATM Fraud Expose
·
· Score: 2, Informative
True, but with one qualifier. The law treats these losses quite differently, with the rules being slightly more lenient for credit cards. See:
It is important to report this as soon as possible, or else your exposure rises. In the case of ATM fraud like this, it is very unlikely the people would report the theft before the cards were used since they had no idea the info was stolen. Plus, from a purely beuracratic standpoint, it is more difficult to convince a retail bank that you are not liable vs a credit card company.
It is not incorrect strictly speaking, but you have a point, it is poorly worded. BTW it was supposed to be expose with the accent on the last 'e'. Seriously though, get a life.;)
It is fake in the sense that it was not set up as a legitimate ATM, but you're right, they are real manufactured units. Sorry, IANAJ (I am not a journalist) and not a great headline writer.
Ever so slightly off topic, but, I have a similar problem at my university (Michigan State is a total M$ shop) and once I started using Firebird it became extremely painful to be forced back into using IE. What I like about Firebird is that it is stand alone, all I do is extract it to my network drive and I can fire it up from any workstation on campus.
This reminds me of a marketing saying my economics professors have often recounted to us, it goes something like this:
"The job of marketing is to sell people things they don't really need to pay for. When we can convince people to pay for water and air, our job will be done."
Well they've sold us water, so air is next! But you hit the nail on the head, when you sell something that is essentially commodity, there are only two ways to achieve any kind of excess profit: create fake/perceived value, and information asymetry.
There are countless cases where individuals choose to pay for an item/service that they could otherwise get for free. Some other posters have hinted at it but not come out and said so quite so explicitly - the determinant is the time/difficulty involved with the free vs the paid, even when there is no question of legality.
Music, video, and software are all obvious examples. Why buy music one can record from the radio virtually free? Largely because its a hassle and takes time. Why go to the movies or rent a DVD when you can just wait for it to come out on TV? Again, time spent watching commercials and the inconvenience of scheduling are worth more than the few bucks. Why pay the M$ tax when you can just download linux for free? Because it takes time to both do it and acquire some technical knowledge.
"Guess which group Google considers its customers?"
It's not webmasters. It's not end-users. It's advertisers.
I have to disagree. While it's true Google's end users don't pay for their service directly, they are still the ultimate consumer of the service. Actually, if I were to apply a little economic thought to this, in Google's case advertisers are actually suppliers. Plus, since Google has so many advertisers, who each represent a small proportion of their total revenue, a Michael Porter 'Forces' analysis would conclude that their power over Google is extremely weak - unless of course they were to band together in some form of mass boycott/protest (unlikely).
What Google sells is accuracy and objectivity in their search results, to compromise this belief in users minds in favor of a few unhappy advertisers would be ruinous. Google can consider themselves relatively free of advertiser influence because everyone wants to advertise with them as the search authority - unlike a focused pure content based website which may have only a handfull of key advertisers to support it.
Actually to be clear, the Ford family holds a relatively small number of shares relative to the total outstanding. What they do own is a special voting class of shares that give them an uncommon level of control over the board and thus the company. This is the method most firms use to retain control of a company once it is taken public, and the method I would imagine the Google founders would eventually retain. To hold 51% of such a valuable company just doesn't make sense from a financing perspective. The funds those shares could generate would be irresistable. Oh and I don't think they would have much trouble sleeping if they were to sell out those shares, especially on a comfortable king sized bed made of stacks of $100 bills!
I believe the maximum antitrust penalty allowed by the EU is 10% of revenue from the offending product. Not exactly chump change, but hardly enough to discourage a company in such a strong monopoly position.
...I'm an MBA you insensitive clod! And I also know plenty about TCP/IP. Here at MSU we have a required technology class which actually goes into quite a bit of detail, although many of my classmates may not have found it very interesting.
Not to mention neither myself nor many other MBA's do much 'bean counting' which would be handled by better specialized accountant CPAs. Besides, bean counting is a real skill, and as everyone knows, MBAs posess no such tangible abilities.
That said, I agree commercializing the DNS and the rest of the net would be a bad idea, it would be like privatizing the FCC. Now if you'll excuse me, I have some heavily animated Powerpoint slides to create for my presentation on reorganizing paradigms.
The following text is printed at the bottom of the back cover:
THIS CD IS ENHANCED WITH MEDIAMAX SOFTWARE. Windows Compatible Instructions: Insert disc into CD-ROM drive. Software will automatically install. If it doesn't, click on "LaunchCd.exe." MacOS Instructions: Insert disc into CD-ROM drive. Click on "Start." Usage of the CD on your computer requires your acceptance of the End User License Agreement and installation of specific software contained on the CD. Windows System Requirements: Windows 98/2000/XP, Internet Explorer 5.5 or later, Windows Media Player 7.1 or compatible player. Mac System Requirements: Mac OSX 10.1, Power Mac G3/G4, iMac, eMac, Powerbook G3/G4, iBook with 128 Mb of RAM, Windows Media Player for Mac OSX, Internet Explorer 5.2, Monitor capable of displaying 800x600 screen resolution & 256 colors (64K colors recommended), 12x or faster multi-session-enabled CD-ROM drive, Flash Player 6. Digital files on this CD will also play on portable devices supporting secure WMA files. Certain computers may not be able to access the enhanced portion of this disc. None of the manufacturers, developers, or distributor make any representation or warranty, or assumes any responsibility, with respect to the enhanced portion of this disc.
The "Compact Disc Digital Audio" logo is absent from the printed jacket and the face of the disc, but it is embossed in the plastic on the inside of the jewel case. The CD itself bears the warning: "This disc is protected against unauthorized duplication."
You're absolutely right, big companies routinely achieve the 'cool' status, although I think you'll find it's much more difficult to 'buy' cool than you might think. Sure to some extenent every company 'buys' cool, advertising firms and products don't pay for themselves - but mostly it's about the effective use of those ad $$, not the amount. It also helps to have products that are themselves already fairly cool to begin with, I don't think all the advertising in the world will make a lame product cool.
Best example i can think of is the automotive industry. GM is the single largest consumer of advertising in the world, they try campaign after campaign to achieve coolness and therefore younger customers. But in reality, their image remains one of the worst in the industry, and their buying age has not improved. Reason? They hire lousy ad firms, and their products are uncool period.
Compare that to relatively tiny makes such as VW and Mitsubishi, but have consistently had the best ads and consequently a cool young image. My bet would be that M$ goes the GM route, big, expensive, and totally ineffective.
Slashdot Mirror
Though you don't state it explicitly, you're on the track of what I was thinking: the best way to enjoy CS still outside a LAN party is to find a good server that is actively admined, as many now are not. Nothing improves gameplay like a good admin who wastes no time pulling the kick trigger. Vote kicking is a good idea but rarely seems to succeed. Make a list of these and stick to them. It can be a pain when they are full, but its better than playing on a server full of cheats.
Pretty good theory, and it wouldn't be the first time the New York Times made up a story.
for people who have already settled as a result of prior subpoenas?
Glad someone pointed this out amidst the sea of typical Slashdot 'profit is evil' posts. Economically speaking, price discrimination is the proper method to extract the optimal profit level out of a market of mixed price sensitivities. Unfortunatley many people only see half the story, that people willing to pay more could be paying less under a one price system. They overlook the fact that the opposite is also true, many who can only afford to pay less are forced to either pay more or stay out of the market.
Price discrimination only seems unfair to those who can properly afford to spend more. Of course, explicit price discrimination is illegal in the US and around the world. The fact that the industry found such a way to circumvent these controls could be viewed either as extremely clever and farsighted, or evil and exploitive.
My 6 year old eTower 533id is still kicking, with a fresh upgrade of 128mb of new ram. Otherwise all original equipment. It now dual boots Win98 and Debian with no problem.
But that's all anecdotal, I don't know if there's a better survey out there, but the most recent PC Magazine reliability survey showed eMachine down near the bottom, but as good as many others and better in some cases. Still their overall grade remains an E.
I admit, the upgradability of eMachines is weak, though I don't see how it is any worse than low end desktops from any maker - who all sell boards with everything integrated and thus, impossible to upgrade.
Well I didn't notice Kopete, but now that I see it there (name did not suggest it was an IMer) thats great. The first thing I noticed was Kit (AIM client) so I assumed that was the default one. But who uses just AIM right?
Finally some /.er recommended Mepis as a good Debian based distro, which I promtly installed and am quite happy with. The install went perfectly, and the default desktop may not be ideal to linux veterans out there, but its just fine for a linux newbie to start off on.
A few tips/things I've noticed:
-Right off the bat, where the heck is the volume control? Should be on the default desktop, not deep in the application menu as 'kmix'.
-With all due respect to Konqueror, Mozilla should be the default browser on the desktop.
-I don't know what's up with Kpackage, but I love apt-get.
-IM is pretty important to the masses, why not make a good multiprotocol client like Gaim the default?
-Mepis does a good job putting a GUI face on many of the system config stuff, but they are still spread over a number of menus. It would help if they were consolidated under one heading, similar to Windows control panel, although come to think of it everythings not under that either.
Overall though I'd say Anaconda is a big step forward for Linux on the average users desktop. With a few minor tweaks this could easily be recommended for the clueless windows user.
I could care less, I stopped downloading from it some time ago. Another /.er recommended iRate, which is quite good.
http://www.ftc.gov/bcp/conline/pubs/credit/atmcard .htm
It is important to report this as soon as possible, or else your exposure rises. In the case of ATM fraud like this, it is very unlikely the people would report the theft before the cards were used since they had no idea the info was stolen. Plus, from a purely beuracratic standpoint, it is more difficult to convince a retail bank that you are not liable vs a credit card company.
It is not incorrect strictly speaking, but you have a point, it is poorly worded. BTW it was supposed to be expose with the accent on the last 'e'. Seriously though, get a life. ;)
It is fake in the sense that it was not set up as a legitimate ATM, but you're right, they are real manufactured units. Sorry, IANAJ (I am not a journalist) and not a great headline writer.
Ever so slightly off topic, but, I have a similar problem at my university (Michigan State is a total M$ shop) and once I started using Firebird it became extremely painful to be forced back into using IE. What I like about Firebird is that it is stand alone, all I do is extract it to my network drive and I can fire it up from any workstation on campus.
"The job of marketing is to sell people things they don't really need to pay for. When we can convince people to pay for water and air, our job will be done."
Well they've sold us water, so air is next! But you hit the nail on the head, when you sell something that is essentially commodity, there are only two ways to achieve any kind of excess profit: create fake/perceived value, and information asymetry.
Music, video, and software are all obvious examples. Why buy music one can record from the radio virtually free? Largely because its a hassle and takes time. Why go to the movies or rent a DVD when you can just wait for it to come out on TV? Again, time spent watching commercials and the inconvenience of scheduling are worth more than the few bucks. Why pay the M$ tax when you can just download linux for free? Because it takes time to both do it and acquire some technical knowledge.
It's not webmasters. It's not end-users. It's advertisers.
I have to disagree. While it's true Google's end users don't pay for their service directly, they are still the ultimate consumer of the service. Actually, if I were to apply a little economic thought to this, in Google's case advertisers are actually suppliers. Plus, since Google has so many advertisers, who each represent a small proportion of their total revenue, a Michael Porter 'Forces' analysis would conclude that their power over Google is extremely weak - unless of course they were to band together in some form of mass boycott/protest (unlikely).
What Google sells is accuracy and objectivity in their search results, to compromise this belief in users minds in favor of a few unhappy advertisers would be ruinous. Google can consider themselves relatively free of advertiser influence because everyone wants to advertise with them as the search authority - unlike a focused pure content based website which may have only a handfull of key advertisers to support it.
Dilbert: "You stole the entire idea from our competitors ad."
Ad Exec: "Ok, so I guess you do understand the creative process."
~paraphrased from the Gruntmaster 6000 episode
Actually to be clear, the Ford family holds a relatively small number of shares relative to the total outstanding. What they do own is a special voting class of shares that give them an uncommon level of control over the board and thus the company. This is the method most firms use to retain control of a company once it is taken public, and the method I would imagine the Google founders would eventually retain. To hold 51% of such a valuable company just doesn't make sense from a financing perspective. The funds those shares could generate would be irresistable. Oh and I don't think they would have much trouble sleeping if they were to sell out those shares, especially on a comfortable king sized bed made of stacks of $100 bills!
I believe the maximum antitrust penalty allowed by the EU is 10% of revenue from the offending product. Not exactly chump change, but hardly enough to discourage a company in such a strong monopoly position.
It's redundant, not an oxymoron. An oxymoron might be, 'a non bloated version of windows'.
Not to mention neither myself nor many other MBA's do much 'bean counting' which would be handled by better specialized accountant CPAs. Besides, bean counting is a real skill, and as everyone knows, MBAs posess no such tangible abilities.
That said, I agree commercializing the DNS and the rest of the net would be a bad idea, it would be like privatizing the FCC. Now if you'll excuse me, I have some heavily animated Powerpoint slides to create for my presentation on reorganizing paradigms.
Miranda, in case you were wondering, is a tiny (fits on a floppy) stand alone, low frills IM client.
Hey I don't like it either, my only point was you at least have some kind of warning.
Best example i can think of is the automotive industry. GM is the single largest consumer of advertising in the world, they try campaign after campaign to achieve coolness and therefore younger customers. But in reality, their image remains one of the worst in the industry, and their buying age has not improved. Reason? They hire lousy ad firms, and their products are uncool period.
Compare that to relatively tiny makes such as VW and Mitsubishi, but have consistently had the best ads and consequently a cool young image. My bet would be that M$ goes the GM route, big, expensive, and totally ineffective.
All in one server box yes, but can it vacuum your entire house on it's own?