Blizzard got away without paying any damages to Kopp. I would say they owed tens of thousands of dollars to him minimum. I don't call that much of a victory for Kopp.
If I was the Evil Overlord, Blizzard would be roasting over an open fire right about now.
And just how fair is Dell being to Linux purchasers?
1: Are non-Windows preloaded Linux servers as easy to find as Windows 2003 Server machines?
2: Does Dell try to convince you go buy Windows software anyway, even when you don't want it (to keep Microsoft happy)?
3: Has Dell ever reported purchases of non-Windows based hardware to the BSA, or any other such organization (haven't heard of it myself, but it's a valid question)?
4: Are comparable Dell Linux machines without Windows installed truly available at a price that fully reflects the lack of the Microsoft Tax?
5: Does Dell preload adware/advertising crap on their Linux boxes?
6: Do you get the same level of customer support for a non-Windows box as you do for a Windows loaded one?
That's some of what I'd like to know to assess just how well Dell treats its Linux purchasers.
We already know how well it doesn't treat those customers who must not be demanding AMD processors yet.
I heard google was buying up all sorts of surplus network capacity.
Would you want Google as your new ISP, instead of your telco, cableco, AOLco, MSNco? All things considered, I very well might. Lack of net neutrality could easily push me over to them if they were available at an acceptable speed and competitive price.
(The following example is typical method of proving when a law (or lack of) is a bad law. Like those Life Begins at Conception attempts where pregnant women were driving in the carpool lanes and claiming their unborn children on their tax returns. You get the idea.)
Just suppose the following.
1: I surf over to Google to get a video.
2: Google refuses to pay my ISP's extortion rate for delivering their packets to me in a timely manner.
3: Although I'm doing nothing else on the Internet at the time, my Google download runs at 1/10th (or worse) of my download bandwidth that I'm promised and pay for.
4: I sue my BB provider for not providing the service level (download speeds) they've promised me.
5: PROFIT???
When I'm paying for my connection I want to be the one who determines what I see and don't' see. I want to be the one who determines which packets get QoS priority and which ones don't. I want anyone who has essentially monopoly rights to serve me to simply provide a neutral service for me to use as I see fit!
Any questions?
Not since F-Secure "discovered" the Sony RootKit and decided "work with Sony" rather than remove that crap from my system have I trusted them. In fact, as a litmus test ANY anti-virus software that still doesn't immediately and completely remove all known Sony and other DRM infections is just shy of useless in my opinion. They clearly do not have my own user's interests at heart -- and we're the ones paying these jokers! Removing StarForce would be nice too!
I heard one of their spokesmen put the case that given a choice between Google being banned, and google giveing censored results with a note on them saying "this was censored", it seemed that the latter might be more helpful to the cause of freedom in China, and I can't help but think that there was something in that point.
and also because it stealthed itself from attempts to read the first sector of the disk.
Programs like RootKit Revealer (the program that discovered the Sony RootKit for the rest of us when the Anti-Virus companies showed they care more about big corporate profits than the users who buy their software) works by bypassing the OS and reading the disc directly, then comparing what it finds in the file system directories against what the OS returns, shows that you can get past cloaking if you're willing to spend the effort to learn how to access the hardware directly.
posted letters to representatives (written on actual paper) are the best way to let politicians know your opinion.
Are you sure about this. Last I heard, and after the anthrax scares, paper mail isn't even delivered to your representatives any longer. Perhaps faxs are better.
Intel's processor sales dropped 52 percent this April as compared with April one year ago.
And seriously folks, why would you buy a 32-bit only, non-VT enabled, hot running, substantially slower Intel chip today if you can possibly delay until Conroe comes out?
Heck, even if you don't want a Conroe Core 2 Duo 64-bit VT chip, the prices on the old stuff are going to drop through the floor. Golly, they're already through the floor. How about drop to the center of the Earth.
An Intel PC -- including all Macs -- is just not a good buy today with the next generation so close at hand.
What I want to keep my PC reasonably virus free is a bootable CD that can update in-memory virus signatures from the Internet and scan my hard drives as simple data discs before any programs are loaded from them, or any viruses are triggered.
Having this in one's write-protected BIOS would be even better.
make an image of your clean system, and periodically restore from that.
Right. And this assumes you never install new software, never update existing software, never install system patches. Never save data files on your system volume. Never change your options in any program that saves them to the registry...
I keep hearing this solution offered, and it just doesn't play well in the real world.
So he had a problem with malware that disables virus scanners.
What about mounting the disc remotely and scanning from a secure computer?
Or installing it as a second drive in that computer first.
OR WRITING A D@MN OPERATING SYSTEM THAT CAN'T BE SO EASILY COMPROMISED!
Unless this is the backdoor to annual subscriptions for all Windows users. 1) Write insecure operating system. 2) Charge users yearly fees to keep it running.
Microsoft has a lot of gall to charge now for what they should have fixed in the first place. Feels like Bait & Switch to me.
When Yahoo! China in Beijing was required to provide information about the user, who we later learned was Shi Tao, we had no information about the nature of the investigation.
1. Would it have made a difference if you had such information?
2. Since all any government has to say is "Child Porn" in an investigation and you'll cough up everything you have anywhere in the world, do you see how you'll never be able to have a policy that could ever allow you to decide which demands you will honor, and which you should refuse?
3. Is it just possibly not worth doing business with China and emerging with unclean hands while things like this can happen there?
This is exactly the reason I'm not buying a Sony digital camera this week. They want to run it off of a Memory Stick, which is useless to me anywhere else. One criteria for my next digital camera is that it use an SD memory card since I already use SD memory in other places. I don't find that this has negatively impacted my overall choices in the final analysis.
the RIAA has some bizarre credo, something along the lines of, "No matter what!, we MUST stop any sharing, enjoyment, distribution of ANYTHING that we can possible stamp with OUR ownership!"
I'm certain that the final goal of the RIAA is to own every note in the musical scale, and collect a payment for every time any of those notes are played.
The propaganda is getting blatant. It least this one is not my tax dollars at work. Maybe there's a reason the almighty Canadian dollar coin is referred to as the loonie.
Slashdot Mirror
If I was the Evil Overlord, Blizzard would be roasting over an open fire right about now.
1: Are non-Windows preloaded Linux servers as easy to find as Windows 2003 Server machines?
2: Does Dell try to convince you go buy Windows software anyway, even when you don't want it (to keep Microsoft happy)?
3: Has Dell ever reported purchases of non-Windows based hardware to the BSA, or any other such organization (haven't heard of it myself, but it's a valid question)?
4: Are comparable Dell Linux machines without Windows installed truly available at a price that fully reflects the lack of the Microsoft Tax?
5: Does Dell preload adware/advertising crap on their Linux boxes?
6: Do you get the same level of customer support for a non-Windows box as you do for a Windows loaded one?
That's some of what I'd like to know to assess just how well Dell treats its Linux purchasers.
We already know how well it doesn't treat those customers who must not be demanding AMD processors yet.
Would you want Google as your new ISP, instead of your telco, cableco, AOLco, MSNco? All things considered, I very well might. Lack of net neutrality could easily push me over to them if they were available at an acceptable speed and competitive price.
And yes Google, we know you're reading this!
Just suppose the following.
1: I surf over to Google to get a video.
2: Google refuses to pay my ISP's extortion rate for delivering their packets to me in a timely manner.
3: Although I'm doing nothing else on the Internet at the time, my Google download runs at 1/10th (or worse) of my download bandwidth that I'm promised and pay for.
4: I sue my BB provider for not providing the service level (download speeds) they've promised me.
5: PROFIT???
When I'm paying for my connection I want to be the one who determines what I see and don't' see. I want to be the one who determines which packets get QoS priority and which ones don't. I want anyone who has essentially monopoly rights to serve me to simply provide a neutral service for me to use as I see fit! Any questions?
Back in the days when PCs had Turbo buttons, it was easy to select the level of difficulity in game.
Not since F-Secure "discovered" the Sony RootKit and decided "work with Sony" rather than remove that crap from my system have I trusted them. In fact, as a litmus test ANY anti-virus software that still doesn't immediately and completely remove all known Sony and other DRM infections is just shy of useless in my opinion. They clearly do not have my own user's interests at heart -- and we're the ones paying these jokers! Removing StarForce would be nice too!
Excuse me, but that seems pretty lame for fiber to the curb. At 15MBS, I doubt the cable companies are shaking in their boots yet.
The lesser of two evils is still evil!
Programs like RootKit Revealer (the program that discovered the Sony RootKit for the rest of us when the Anti-Virus companies showed they care more about big corporate profits than the users who buy their software) works by bypassing the OS and reading the disc directly, then comparing what it finds in the file system directories against what the OS returns, shows that you can get past cloaking if you're willing to spend the effort to learn how to access the hardware directly.
Are you sure about this. Last I heard, and after the anthrax scares, paper mail isn't even delivered to your representatives any longer. Perhaps faxs are better.
And seriously folks, why would you buy a 32-bit only, non-VT enabled, hot running, substantially slower Intel chip today if you can possibly delay until Conroe comes out?
Heck, even if you don't want a Conroe Core 2 Duo 64-bit VT chip, the prices on the old stuff are going to drop through the floor. Golly, they're already through the floor. How about drop to the center of the Earth.
An Intel PC -- including all Macs -- is just not a good buy today with the next generation so close at hand.
This week is a good one, John.
Having this in one's write-protected BIOS would be even better.
Right. And this assumes you never install new software, never update existing software, never install system patches. Never save data files on your system volume. Never change your options in any program that saves them to the registry...
I keep hearing this solution offered, and it just doesn't play well in the real world.
What about mounting the disc remotely and scanning from a secure computer?
Or installing it as a second drive in that computer first.
OR WRITING A D@MN OPERATING SYSTEM THAT CAN'T BE SO EASILY COMPROMISED!
Unless this is the backdoor to annual subscriptions for all Windows users. 1) Write insecure operating system. 2) Charge users yearly fees to keep it running.
Microsoft has a lot of gall to charge now for what they should have fixed in the first place. Feels like Bait & Switch to me.
That last sentence seems so incomplete. To boot from. To boot off of. To make boot discs on. The possibilities are endless.
And just what does CG cost the user? Just extra time and effort on his/her part, or out-of-pocket money for some of the modules and/or instructions?
1. Would it have made a difference if you had such information?
2. Since all any government has to say is "Child Porn" in an investigation and you'll cough up everything you have anywhere in the world, do you see how you'll never be able to have a policy that could ever allow you to decide which demands you will honor, and which you should refuse?
3. Is it just possibly not worth doing business with China and emerging with unclean hands while things like this can happen there?
This is exactly the reason I'm not buying a Sony digital camera this week. They want to run it off of a Memory Stick, which is useless to me anywhere else. One criteria for my next digital camera is that it use an SD memory card since I already use SD memory in other places. I don't find that this has negatively impacted my overall choices in the final analysis.
Yeah. Put my whole filesharing website in my pocket and let the RIAA just try and catch me.
(Note: there should be a RANT -1 moderation as well.)
I'm certain that the final goal of the RIAA is to own every note in the musical scale, and collect a payment for every time any of those notes are played.
My God! Second post, and by Godwin's Law this discussion is already over!
Of course this begs the question of will the record companies last until these kids grow up into nice, well-controlled, consumers.
And when did 'hitler' become a lower-case adjective?
The propaganda is getting blatant. It least this one is not my tax dollars at work. Maybe there's a reason the almighty Canadian dollar coin is referred to as the loonie.