My biggest problem with the MythTV route was reliable scheduling information. I don't want to have to bother with the tedium of tweaking screen scraper scripts every other day. I gave up on the homemade TV box a long time ago and went with a TiVo. I bought in on one of their deals that with a three year commitment, the box was free. I like the TiVo method...tell it which programs I want at the start of the season, and then I can forget about it.
If there were a *reliable* alternative for scheduling information that I didn't have to tweak every time I turned around, even if there is a fee, I'd be tempted to try MythTV again.
How do you feel about subsidizing Microsoft's bandwidth costs?
Exactly the same way I feel about subsidizing anyone's bandwidth.
If its an open source project I have no problems with it, and do it all the time. I'm a Mandriva Club member and regularly host various forms of the Mandriva distributions on a server with a fat pipe.
If its a closed source project or something that costs money, then those companies who distribute it by leaching bandwidth from others are just that, leaches. Actually, I take that back...they aren't leaches, and I should find a new comparison. Even leaches have a use in the medical world...leaches in the bandwidth world have no use.
This isn't the perfect or ideal way to do things. But its about damned time the ISPs did something.
There is simply **NO** excuse for a bot to be running on any ISP for more than the time it takes to detect it pumping out massive volumes of email. My solution, as I've stated several times, would be to disconnect the offending computer, and then fire them off a snailmail letter stating that they will not be permitted back until their computer is disinfected. But since that would cost them customers, no one will do that.
Actually, your first point might be right. I happen to live in the state where this happened (Indiana), and within a hundred miles or so of the particular casino it happened at. I've read so many articles about this over the last couple of months that they are starting to all blend together.
So let me rephrase. It may not be so much that the Slashdot editor is wrong as it is that Yahoo news is guilty of sensationalist reporting and leaving out important facts.
The people who got the money were not "playing" the machine. They were merely walking up, inserting their money, and then telling the machine to cash them out. For every dollar stuck in that particular machine, the machine was giving $10 in credits. Automatically. No game play what so ever involved. No one was "winning" anything.
If the people were indeed playing the machine, and the machine had been set up to play with faulty odds to make it let them win more or something like that, I would have more sympathy for the players and less for the casino. But in this case, only a total moron, or a crook, would not know *immediately* that something was whacked.
Would your average user be able to distinguish 'faulty software' from 'lucky'?
When all the average Joe had to do was insert a dollar to get back $10 or $20, as in *no* game play at all, that's not "luck", that's "a stupid idiot who thinks he can rip off a casino".
If someone came up to a machine, and stuck a buck in and got back $10 without doing anything *or knowing the situation* and only did it once, I'd say the casino needs to suck it up and eat it.
But when people are lining up and (some of them) shoving $100 in to get $1000 out, that's not "luck" or "the way it goes", that's called "theft". And those who knowingly did it need to be knowingly prosecuted and knowingly be required to knowingly pay the piper.
I've read all the Comcast installation and horror stories here, and I have to toss in I didn't have any of these.
When I had Comcast internet installed several years ago, I opted to buy my own cable modem, and had it bought before Installation Dude showed up. He checked the connections on the outside of the house, etc. He came inside and checked the connection from that end. Then he pointed at the computers sitting on my desk and asked "Which one of these is the hookup?" And I replied with "If you don't mind, I'd prefer to do my own install on the computer itself." He smiled and said "Hey, less work for me! Here's a CD, and if you have any problems, here's the phone number for the help desk. Sign here please (hands me clipboard with form). Can I pet your dogs on the way out?"
As far as the Comcast website goes, I've never had a problem there either, even though I use Firefox. Since their own pages have absolutely no useful content, I never go there:-)
Of the replies I've read here so far, everyone is over looking one thing. Someone made a joke about Microsoft giving Dell kickbacks.
Well, of course Microsoft gives Dell kickbacks. So does Yahoo, so does AOL, so does McAfee or Norton, and so does everyone else who has their software pre-installed on Dell's Windows machines. You think Dell puts all that crapware there out of the kindness of their heart, or because they think its useful? Hell no, they put it there because they are being paid to put it there. And that kickback money makes the final cost of the Windows machine cheaper to produce.
In the meantime, how much does Ubuntu/GNU/Linus etc pay Dell for every Ubuntu-installed machine they kick out the door?
Its pure economics people. Welcome to the real world. Please see our kind hostess for your complimentary rose-colored glasses.
Then why does anyone buy Sprint? If they don't discount the phones, and at least around here, their network sucks, so just about anyone else would be a better choice.
With phones other than the iPhone, this is probably not much of a valid issue. Most other phones are sold at a greatly reduced price, if not for free, for you signing the contract. When I renewed my Verizon contract last year, I got a LG Chocolate (an otherwise $300+ phone at that time) totally free...I didn't even have to pay sales tax. Thus if Verizon were to terminate me, I don't think I'd get very far whining to a judge about the expense of the now useless (unless I hack it) phone.
The iPhone is the only phone that I am aware of where there has been absolutely no discounting, and Real Money has to be paid. Of course, on the other side of the coin, Apple fans are the only people I know of who would pay $600 for a phone that has been way over-hyped and actually has very little revolutionary about it, instead of just using the free or discounted phones from their carrier.
Damn...wish I had mod points this week. Your post needs to be moded +100 "Most intelligent post made this year".
I have nothing against the iPhone, and people are welcome to buy them all they want. But I don't want one (I won't even consider buying a phone that does not work with Verizon Wireless), nor do I want to read 4700 articles a day about them.
You show me someone who is shocked by the revelation that a technician is looking at their personal files, and I'll show you a woefully naive idiot. I'm not saying its right, I'm not saying its ethical, and I'm not saying its okay. But I am saying that I'd bet money that in any service similar to Geek Squad (Firedog, etc), its done, and done regularly. Now, I'm not saying they all take anything for their own use, and in fact most probably don't. But I guarantee they all look. And that goes for the girls too, not just the guys.
And further, I won't even claim that I don't do it myself. In fact, I warn new clients straight up that if there are any files they really don't want me to see, they should remove them, and if I find obvious hording of kiddie porn on their machine (I'll try to give them benefit of the doubt if its only a few images in the cache or if its obvious that their machine has been owned), I will immediately shut down the computer and my next phone call will be to the county prosecutor's office. Thankfully, that's only happened once.
Let me rephrase. I should have said major Christian religions. That I am aware of, and I grew up in a conservative Baptist church, Christianity teaches that life (as we know it on Earth) is unique.
This eliminates all debate, since we all know that old people who are in the process of dying never hallucinate, and they always remember perfectly something that happened 60 years before. I hope this "confession" is written on toilet paper, because at least then it would have a useful purpose. Obviously its another slow news day.
I agree with what other posters have said. I want to believe aliens exist. If nothing else, I want to see how the major religions deal with it when it is conclusively proven that we are not the only life in the universe. But our government has shown time and time again it couldn't keep a secret if it were placed in a hermetically sealed mayonnaise jar on Funk & Wagnall's porch. There is no way they could keep a secret of this magnitude and cover it up for 60 years.
I'm not a big Apple fanboy, and quite honestly I don't see anything that revolutionary about the iPhone. But even so, I did take a look at getting one just because I like gadgets. But the fact that Apple went with AT&T was an instant deal breaker.
I live out in the proverbial sticks. And as the saying goes, its the network, stupid. Where I live, T-mobile barely works, AT&T never works, but Verizon Wireless has never let me down. And while traveling in a 4-state area to service clients, Verizon Wireless is also the only one to never let me down. So for me, any answer other than "we're going with Verizon" is the wrong answer if you want me to buy your phone, and it doesn't matter how revolutionary it is. At the end of the day if I can't make a phone call, your gadget is useless, and its feature set is irrelevant.
I agree that the ratings systems suck and this company is probably being unfairly punished. But other than that, Mrs. Lincoln, what's the problem here?
Release it with the adult rating. If the traditional outlets won't sell it, find new ones or sell it online yourselves. If its such an awesome game, where you sell it should make absolutely no difference and buyers will beat a path to your door/website. But if it blows chunks, then the ratings really don't matter.
I love tech, but I'm going to surprise you and agree with you. I want a browser that browses web pages...and nothing more. I don't want it to handle my email, I don't want it to handle RSS feeds, I don't want seven hundred and eleventy million plugins. I just want a fucking browser.
Simplicity is why I switched to Firefox and Opera from MSIE in the first place. And now both Firefox and Opera have expanded to become the same bloated fatware as MSIE. And Firefox has become just as buggy also.
Slashdot Mirror
I really do hope this succeeds.
My biggest problem with the MythTV route was reliable scheduling information. I don't want to have to bother with the tedium of tweaking screen scraper scripts every other day. I gave up on the homemade TV box a long time ago and went with a TiVo. I bought in on one of their deals that with a three year commitment, the box was free. I like the TiVo method...tell it which programs I want at the start of the season, and then I can forget about it.
If there were a *reliable* alternative for scheduling information that I didn't have to tweak every time I turned around, even if there is a fee, I'd be tempted to try MythTV again.
But until then, my TiVo is my best friend.
$15,000 *without* the battery?! A $100 - $200 monthly fee?!
Bawhahahahaha!!!
That's a good joke, they should take this act to Vegas.
How do you feel about subsidizing Microsoft's bandwidth costs?
Exactly the same way I feel about subsidizing anyone's bandwidth.
If its an open source project I have no problems with it, and do it all the time. I'm a Mandriva Club member and regularly host various forms of the Mandriva distributions on a server with a fat pipe.
If its a closed source project or something that costs money, then those companies who distribute it by leaching bandwidth from others are just that, leaches. Actually, I take that back...they aren't leaches, and I should find a new comparison. Even leaches have a use in the medical world...leaches in the bandwidth world have no use.
And AndrAIa turned in to quite the little hottie...for a CGI character, anyway...
Just imagine a Beowulf Cluster of those...
Wahh!!! Only a handful of comments and still all the good jokes are already taken!
This isn't the perfect or ideal way to do things. But its about damned time the ISPs did something.
There is simply **NO** excuse for a bot to be running on any ISP for more than the time it takes to detect it pumping out massive volumes of email. My solution, as I've stated several times, would be to disconnect the offending computer, and then fire them off a snailmail letter stating that they will not be permitted back until their computer is disinfected. But since that would cost them customers, no one will do that.
Why do all these stories keep calling this the "$100 laptop", when it actually costs $176 even in quantity?
Actually, your first point might be right. I happen to live in the state where this happened (Indiana), and within a hundred miles or so of the particular casino it happened at. I've read so many articles about this over the last couple of months that they are starting to all blend together.
So let me rephrase. It may not be so much that the Slashdot editor is wrong as it is that Yahoo news is guilty of sensationalist reporting and leaving out important facts.
The people who got the money were not "playing" the machine. They were merely walking up, inserting their money, and then telling the machine to cash them out. For every dollar stuck in that particular machine, the machine was giving $10 in credits. Automatically. No game play what so ever involved. No one was "winning" anything.
If the people were indeed playing the machine, and the machine had been set up to play with faulty odds to make it let them win more or something like that, I would have more sympathy for the players and less for the casino. But in this case, only a total moron, or a crook, would not know *immediately* that something was whacked.
Would your average user be able to distinguish 'faulty software' from 'lucky'?
When all the average Joe had to do was insert a dollar to get back $10 or $20, as in *no* game play at all, that's not "luck", that's "a stupid idiot who thinks he can rip off a casino".
If someone came up to a machine, and stuck a buck in and got back $10 without doing anything *or knowing the situation* and only did it once, I'd say the casino needs to suck it up and eat it.
But when people are lining up and (some of them) shoving $100 in to get $1000 out, that's not "luck" or "the way it goes", that's called "theft". And those who knowingly did it need to be knowingly prosecuted and knowingly be required to knowingly pay the piper.
Nah. Scooby Doo at least had the redeeming feature of being funny :-)
I have a hard time believing that any "security researcher" would keep calling the application in question a "virus".
It sounds to me like the story is about *two* wannabes, not just one.
I've read all the Comcast installation and horror stories here, and I have to toss in I didn't have any of these.
:-)
When I had Comcast internet installed several years ago, I opted to buy my own cable modem, and had it bought before Installation Dude showed up. He checked the connections on the outside of the house, etc. He came inside and checked the connection from that end. Then he pointed at the computers sitting on my desk and asked "Which one of these is the hookup?" And I replied with "If you don't mind, I'd prefer to do my own install on the computer itself." He smiled and said "Hey, less work for me! Here's a CD, and if you have any problems, here's the phone number for the help desk. Sign here please (hands me clipboard with form). Can I pet your dogs on the way out?"
As far as the Comcast website goes, I've never had a problem there either, even though I use Firefox. Since their own pages have absolutely no useful content, I never go there
FreeNas does encryption now?
Of the replies I've read here so far, everyone is over looking one thing. Someone made a joke about Microsoft giving Dell kickbacks.
Well, of course Microsoft gives Dell kickbacks. So does Yahoo, so does AOL, so does McAfee or Norton, and so does everyone else who has their software pre-installed on Dell's Windows machines. You think Dell puts all that crapware there out of the kindness of their heart, or because they think its useful? Hell no, they put it there because they are being paid to put it there. And that kickback money makes the final cost of the Windows machine cheaper to produce.
In the meantime, how much does Ubuntu/GNU/Linus etc pay Dell for every Ubuntu-installed machine they kick out the door?
Its pure economics people. Welcome to the real world. Please see our kind hostess for your complimentary rose-colored glasses.
Then why does anyone buy Sprint? If they don't discount the phones, and at least around here, their network sucks, so just about anyone else would be a better choice.
With phones other than the iPhone, this is probably not much of a valid issue. Most other phones are sold at a greatly reduced price, if not for free, for you signing the contract. When I renewed my Verizon contract last year, I got a LG Chocolate (an otherwise $300+ phone at that time) totally free...I didn't even have to pay sales tax. Thus if Verizon were to terminate me, I don't think I'd get very far whining to a judge about the expense of the now useless (unless I hack it) phone.
The iPhone is the only phone that I am aware of where there has been absolutely no discounting, and Real Money has to be paid. Of course, on the other side of the coin, Apple fans are the only people I know of who would pay $600 for a phone that has been way over-hyped and actually has very little revolutionary about it, instead of just using the free or discounted phones from their carrier.
Damn...wish I had mod points this week. Your post needs to be moded +100 "Most intelligent post made this year".
I have nothing against the iPhone, and people are welcome to buy them all they want. But I don't want one (I won't even consider buying a phone that does not work with Verizon Wireless), nor do I want to read 4700 articles a day about them.
You show me someone who is shocked by the revelation that a technician is looking at their personal files, and I'll show you a woefully naive idiot. I'm not saying its right, I'm not saying its ethical, and I'm not saying its okay. But I am saying that I'd bet money that in any service similar to Geek Squad (Firedog, etc), its done, and done regularly. Now, I'm not saying they all take anything for their own use, and in fact most probably don't. But I guarantee they all look. And that goes for the girls too, not just the guys.
And further, I won't even claim that I don't do it myself. In fact, I warn new clients straight up that if there are any files they really don't want me to see, they should remove them, and if I find obvious hording of kiddie porn on their machine (I'll try to give them benefit of the doubt if its only a few images in the cache or if its obvious that their machine has been owned), I will immediately shut down the computer and my next phone call will be to the county prosecutor's office. Thankfully, that's only happened once.
Let me rephrase. I should have said major Christian religions. That I am aware of, and I grew up in a conservative Baptist church, Christianity teaches that life (as we know it on Earth) is unique.
This eliminates all debate, since we all know that old people who are in the process of dying never hallucinate, and they always remember perfectly something that happened 60 years before. I hope this "confession" is written on toilet paper, because at least then it would have a useful purpose. Obviously its another slow news day.
I agree with what other posters have said. I want to believe aliens exist. If nothing else, I want to see how the major religions deal with it when it is conclusively proven that we are not the only life in the universe. But our government has shown time and time again it couldn't keep a secret if it were placed in a hermetically sealed mayonnaise jar on Funk & Wagnall's porch. There is no way they could keep a secret of this magnitude and cover it up for 60 years.
I'm not a big Apple fanboy, and quite honestly I don't see anything that revolutionary about the iPhone. But even so, I did take a look at getting one just because I like gadgets. But the fact that Apple went with AT&T was an instant deal breaker.
I live out in the proverbial sticks. And as the saying goes, its the network, stupid. Where I live, T-mobile barely works, AT&T never works, but Verizon Wireless has never let me down. And while traveling in a 4-state area to service clients, Verizon Wireless is also the only one to never let me down. So for me, any answer other than "we're going with Verizon" is the wrong answer if you want me to buy your phone, and it doesn't matter how revolutionary it is. At the end of the day if I can't make a phone call, your gadget is useless, and its feature set is irrelevant.
with all the hype associated with the iPhone
The more hype I see and hear about the iPhone, the more it reminds me of the hype surrounding the Segway.
I agree that the ratings systems suck and this company is probably being unfairly punished. But other than that, Mrs. Lincoln, what's the problem here?
Release it with the adult rating. If the traditional outlets won't sell it, find new ones or sell it online yourselves. If its such an awesome game, where you sell it should make absolutely no difference and buyers will beat a path to your door/website. But if it blows chunks, then the ratings really don't matter.
I love tech, but I'm going to surprise you and agree with you. I want a browser that browses web pages...and nothing more. I don't want it to handle my email, I don't want it to handle RSS feeds, I don't want seven hundred and eleventy million plugins. I just want a fucking browser.
Simplicity is why I switched to Firefox and Opera from MSIE in the first place. And now both Firefox and Opera have expanded to become the same bloated fatware as MSIE. And Firefox has become just as buggy also.