I'm going to build me one of these. And the first thing I'm going to set one to doing is keeping a daily count of how many dupes appear in the stories on Slashdot...starting with this one.
Windows XP's slower adoption illustrates Microsoft's difficulty in competing with the popularity of its own software platform
I don't think the "popularity" of Windows 2000 is a factor. I think its more of businesses have a hard time justifying that hit for another $199 to Microsoft for an updated version when the version they've already paid for meets their needs.
Now that someone else has given you a useless wise-ass grammar nazi reply, I'll try to give you one that actually answers your (very valid) question.
Because Marconi knew how to work public relations and his supporters. Its the same reason that Edison gets so much credit when Tesla had more to do with how we use electricty today than Edison ever did.
For a good example, look at how the Smithsonian treats Marconi and Edison in relation to how they treat Tesla. Then look at the records and see how much money Marconi and Edison supporters and family donate to the Smithsonian.
Tesla was so busy actually inventing useful things that he didn't have time to work the press. Since Marconi and Edison didn't do all that much themselves, they had plenty of time to "press the flesh".
Besides mouthing off in Slashdot, now is the time you need to contact your senators and express (in a polite and professional way) your displeasure with this bill. Chances are your senators do not read Slashdot, so they don't know what you're thinking if you don't contact them.
So either pick up the phone, or get out pen, paper, and a postage stamp.
I'll explain to my shareholders why I wasted $50 or so thousand a year paying an employee or two to check email.
And while I'm doing that, you can explain to your shareholders why the company lost millions of dollars on a new product because someone inside the company sent company secrets to a competitor.
Or you can explain to the shareholders why the company is now paying a multimillion dollar settlement for sexual harrassment via an employee's email.
Paying someone to read email is vastly cheaper than the alternatives. If you drive 20 years without an accident, do you consider the insurance payments you made to be "wasted"?
In addition, employers don't need another trick to sack an employee. Unless you signed a very unusual contract, or you are an empoyee that is covered by a union, your employer can already fire you because the sky is blue, the grass is green, or they didn't like the color of your socks last Tuesday. Most tech employees are hired "at will". They can be fired just as easily.
Finally, as far as privacy issues go, you have no privacy on work place computers. The company owns the hardware and software and pays for the power to run it, you don't. And in the United States, there are multiple Supreme Court rulings to back that up.
Apparently the settlement documents have changed slightly over time. The ones I printed out the day I received notice do indeed state one claim per address. But upon looking just now, you are correct that the current forms do not contain that limit. Thanks for pointing that out since I have two of them.
I'm not sure I'm going to bother sending in my m105s. The way I read it, first you send in the claim form, then Palm decides whether or not they will accept your claim. If they accept, they send you a shipping label to send in your old Palm. You send in the old model, and then they send you back another one. That's all well and good...but how long am I going to be without the PDA? My m105s don't sit in a desk drawer, they are actively used on a daily basis. I'd rather just live with the annoyance of data loss than give them up for a few weeks...unless I hear they are sending out T5s:-)
Just because a machine has never been infected by a virus or other malicious software is absolutely NO indication of what OS its running.
I've had a PC of one brand or another since they first came out. And every one of my machines has run versions of Windows the majority of the time. I've had the machine I'm typing this from for three years. It runs Windows XP and has since the day I purchased it.
In 20+ years of PC use I have never been infected by malicious software of any kind. Ever.
Whether or not you've been infected is determined more by the component between your ears and less by your choice of operating system.
First, while the players involved with the suit have reached a settlement, it has not been approved by the court. While chances are the court will approve, its not a done deal. And the notice I got says that court hearing is not until August.
Second, before you all go looking for dead PDAs at yardsales and on eBay, the settlement also says its limited to m100, m105, and m125 PDAs that have that battery problem BUT ARE OTHERWISE FUNCTIONAL, and Palm(One) has the right to physically check your PDA to make sure that is the only problem.
Third, it says your unit will be replaced with a new or refurbed m100, m105, or m125. While you might end up having your m100 replaced with an m125, they are not going to take your banged up m100 and give you a shiny new T5 still in the shrinkwrapped retail box.
And forth, it also states the settlement is limited to one per address. While obviously there are ways around this one, its not hardly worth the trouble for such an outdated PDA.
Finally, I've seen a lot of posts here to the effect of "if Palms are so bad, why do you want another one?". The reason you see comments about Palms sucking is because the people who have them and like them don't comment. Its like complaints about PayPal...while the hundreds of people who have problems with PayPal make the evening news, you don't hear about the hundreds of thousands of people who never have a problem and are happy.
I have two m105s and a Zire 71. Other than losing the data while changing batteries in the m105s (which is why I synced daily), I have been extremely happy with all of them. And when I decide I need some additional function not in my Zire 71 and I need to replace it, it will be with another Palm product.
For a company that has approximately 50 billion in *cash* laying around, controls 95 percent of the world market, and still has additional billions in sales per year, they can easily afford to pile up $1.8 billion a year in Bill Gates' back yard, set it on fire just to watch it burn, and write it off as an "operational expense".
Where is this '5% of its daily sales' fine figure coming from? Every previous article I've seen on this topic, including the one pointed to by this story, says a flat $5 million a day fine.
And $5 million a day is chump change for Microsoft. Anyone who thinks otherwise needs to start looking at Microsoft's financial statements.
I bet they spend more than that on toilet paper for company restrooms.
If I had a dollar for every time I've heard someone predict the death of Microsoft, I could buy the entire company myself. Anyone who thinks Microsoft is in any way hurting or in danger needs to quit sniffing so much PC dust.
The only company I can think of who has redefined themselves more than Microsoft is IBM, and they both come out smelling like roses every time.
Your heart is in the right place, but I'll bet money that not even 1 store would take you up on your idea. Why? Because your idea does nothing to make them more money, and in fact could reduce what they do make because of fewer software sales and fewer customers needing their systems de-virused.
Its like going to a Baptist church and asking if you can give out some literature pushing Buddhism.
The only way I can see a store letting you do anything like that is if they already sell machines with Linux installed...in which case they don't need your evangelism.
The last time I looked at the figures of Microsoft's *cash* holdings, a few months ago, they were $47 Billion (that's 'Billion' with a 'B', kids). Assuming Microsoft never made another penny profit and simply broke even from here on out, they would have slightly over 25 *years* to pay that fine every day before they ran out of cash.
I just finished watching the first episode of Systm. Although I'm not really that interested in war spying, the show wasn't bad. Especially for something being done by a group of people without corporate backing, and then put out for free.
I can only think of two possible criticisms.
Dan Huard is not really comfortable yet being in front of a camera, and it shows. That will pass with more experience.
The other one would be that while viewing the large xvid version the audio is out of sync with the video. At least on my system. Hey, I do a lot of video editing for commercial projects, and that's one of those things that I can't help but notice. I may burn a video CD later and see if the problem is just something unique about my hardware, or if its really out of sync.
In the blurb about "These Are The Voyages" on Trek Nation, Brannon Braga says:
"Some of the Enterprise cast members were very hurt that we would put Next Generation cast members on Enterprise."
They should have been more hurt that Braga and Company gave them such drek to perform in.
Maybe the next series or movie will be something actually *good*, instead of what ever rejected story line Paramount happened to have laying around the day someone said "Let's make a new Trek series!!!"
I'm not meaning to sound like a politician myself here, but "blocked hundreds of bills" makes it sound much more ominous than it really was. I believe the exact number was 137. We don't get in to "hundreds" with an "s" until the first digit is larger than "1".
Also, in fairness to Democrats who pulled the stunt in this session (and remember, I think both parties are a bunch of idiots), the Republican party did the *exact* same thing in the session before this one when they were the minority party. I think the number of bills that died for that session was 84.
Although I was, and still am, opposed to the sillyness of Daylight Savings Time, I'm actually glad it did finally pass. Now maybe next year the state legislature will focus on things that really matter, like education and Indiana's sucky public school systems, instead of pointless bullshit like DST. But I doubt it...
Hilary Rosen speaking out for consumer rights and anti-monopoly tactics is like Jerry Falwell coming out in support of tolerance, understanding, and gay rights. She has to have been misquoted. There is no other possible explanation.
You're not being argumentative here, and in fact I agree with you almost entirely.
Although I probably should have been more specific, and in that regard am just as guilty of a generalization, the posts I was directing my post at were those that were giving a blanket condemnation of all forms of hunting of animals without exception or distinction...and that type of post, at the time I was posting, were by far the majority type of post. Likewise most posts at that point were condeming all hunters for using high-powered equipment...even though a great many hunters use archery or black powder equipment. Not everyone hunts with a MAC-10 full auto machine gun:-)
And for the record, you can put me down as opposed to trophy hunting. If you hunt an animal and it puts food on your table, even if it also puts a head on the wall, I have no problems with that and will do what ever I can to defend your right to hunt. I'd even let you hunt on my property if you asked (especially if you give me a nice hunk of deer meat in return). But I think those who hunt an animal, cut off the trophy head, and leave the rest of the carcass in the woods to rot are the lowest of the low, regardless of their choice of hunting equipment.
I assume, of course, that everyone here who is objecting to hunting in general is also vegitarian, right?
If so, while I disagree with you, I can respect your feelings.
But if not, you're a grocery store hunter and a fucking hypocrite.
I don't hunt. I do eat meat. And I'm smart enough to know that, regardless of method used at the slaughter house, it ain't "sporting", and an animal died for that nice t-bone steak I'm having for dinner tonight.
ratings dropped due to the show competing against other Trek re-runs
The ratings droped for "Enterprise" because, quite frankly, it sucked.
Likewise, "Star Trek: Nemesis" tanked because, quite frankly, it sucked.
Paramount and The Powers That Be apparently decided that they could slap the name "Star Trek" on any old turd pile and it would sell. Only now are they realizing the truth...now that its almost too late.
When even actors in the series think it sucks, that should have told them something about "Enterprise". While I will watch the end just to see how it wraps up, I'm not at all sorry to see it go. I'm not sure I'll even bother to buy the DVDs of "Enterprise".
This was my only complaint with RoTSS, their selection of MP3pro. The way Leo, Patrick and Kevin pushed Linux and open source, I thought OGG would have been a lot better choice.
I read the comments in the blog to get opinion. I expect news only in the paragraph pushing the story. As I said to the other person who replied to this, if the Powers That Be at Slashdot do not wish to be viewed as a news site, then they need to quit calling themselves "News For Nerds". That tagline doesn't say "Opinion for Nerds".
When I go to McDonalds and get a double cheeseburger, Ronald himself does not come out and preach to me about the evils of PETA.
Then why is the catch phrase for this site "News for Nerds"? If the Powers That Be do not intend for this to be looked at as a news site, then they need to stop pushing it as one.
Slashdot Mirror
I'm going to build me one of these. And the first thing I'm going to set one to doing is keeping a daily count of how many dupes appear in the stories on Slashdot...starting with this one.
Windows XP's slower adoption illustrates Microsoft's difficulty in competing with the popularity of its own software platform
I don't think the "popularity" of Windows 2000 is a factor. I think its more of businesses have a hard time justifying that hit for another $199 to Microsoft for an updated version when the version they've already paid for meets their needs.
Now that someone else has given you a useless wise-ass grammar nazi reply, I'll try to give you one that actually answers your (very valid) question.
Because Marconi knew how to work public relations and his supporters. Its the same reason that Edison gets so much credit when Tesla had more to do with how we use electricty today than Edison ever did.
For a good example, look at how the Smithsonian treats Marconi and Edison in relation to how they treat Tesla. Then look at the records and see how much money Marconi and Edison supporters and family donate to the Smithsonian.
Tesla was so busy actually inventing useful things that he didn't have time to work the press. Since Marconi and Edison didn't do all that much themselves, they had plenty of time to "press the flesh".
Besides mouthing off in Slashdot, now is the time you need to contact your senators and express (in a polite and professional way) your displeasure with this bill. Chances are your senators do not read Slashdot, so they don't know what you're thinking if you don't contact them.
So either pick up the phone, or get out pen, paper, and a postage stamp.
I'll explain to my shareholders why I wasted $50 or so thousand a year paying an employee or two to check email.
And while I'm doing that, you can explain to your shareholders why the company lost millions of dollars on a new product because someone inside the company sent company secrets to a competitor.
Or you can explain to the shareholders why the company is now paying a multimillion dollar settlement for sexual harrassment via an employee's email.
Paying someone to read email is vastly cheaper than the alternatives. If you drive 20 years without an accident, do you consider the insurance payments you made to be "wasted"?
In addition, employers don't need another trick to sack an employee. Unless you signed a very unusual contract, or you are an empoyee that is covered by a union, your employer can already fire you because the sky is blue, the grass is green, or they didn't like the color of your socks last Tuesday. Most tech employees are hired "at will". They can be fired just as easily.
Finally, as far as privacy issues go, you have no privacy on work place computers. The company owns the hardware and software and pays for the power to run it, you don't. And in the United States, there are multiple Supreme Court rulings to back that up.
Apparently the settlement documents have changed slightly over time. The ones I printed out the day I received notice do indeed state one claim per address. But upon looking just now, you are correct that the current forms do not contain that limit. Thanks for pointing that out since I have two of them.
:-)
I'm not sure I'm going to bother sending in my m105s. The way I read it, first you send in the claim form, then Palm decides whether or not they will accept your claim. If they accept, they send you a shipping label to send in your old Palm. You send in the old model, and then they send you back another one. That's all well and good...but how long am I going to be without the PDA? My m105s don't sit in a desk drawer, they are actively used on a daily basis. I'd rather just live with the annoyance of data loss than give them up for a few weeks...unless I hear they are sending out T5s
Just because a machine has never been infected by a virus or other malicious software is absolutely NO indication of what OS its running.
I've had a PC of one brand or another since they first came out. And every one of my machines has run versions of Windows the majority of the time. I've had the machine I'm typing this from for three years. It runs Windows XP and has since the day I purchased it.
In 20+ years of PC use I have never been infected by malicious software of any kind. Ever.
Whether or not you've been infected is determined more by the component between your ears and less by your choice of operating system.
Some of you are overlooking a few points.
First, while the players involved with the suit have reached a settlement, it has not been approved by the court. While chances are the court will approve, its not a done deal. And the notice I got says that court hearing is not until August.
Second, before you all go looking for dead PDAs at yardsales and on eBay, the settlement also says its limited to m100, m105, and m125 PDAs that have that battery problem BUT ARE OTHERWISE FUNCTIONAL, and Palm(One) has the right to physically check your PDA to make sure that is the only problem.
Third, it says your unit will be replaced with a new or refurbed m100, m105, or m125. While you might end up having your m100 replaced with an m125, they are not going to take your banged up m100 and give you a shiny new T5 still in the shrinkwrapped retail box.
And forth, it also states the settlement is limited to one per address. While obviously there are ways around this one, its not hardly worth the trouble for such an outdated PDA.
Finally, I've seen a lot of posts here to the effect of "if Palms are so bad, why do you want another one?". The reason you see comments about Palms sucking is because the people who have them and like them don't comment. Its like complaints about PayPal...while the hundreds of people who have problems with PayPal make the evening news, you don't hear about the hundreds of thousands of people who never have a problem and are happy.
I have two m105s and a Zire 71. Other than losing the data while changing batteries in the m105s (which is why I synced daily), I have been extremely happy with all of them. And when I decide I need some additional function not in my Zire 71 and I need to replace it, it will be with another Palm product.
For a company that has approximately 50 billion in *cash* laying around, controls 95 percent of the world market, and still has additional billions in sales per year, they can easily afford to pile up $1.8 billion a year in Bill Gates' back yard, set it on fire just to watch it burn, and write it off as an "operational expense".
Where is this '5% of its daily sales' fine figure coming from? Every previous article I've seen on this topic, including the one pointed to by this story, says a flat $5 million a day fine.
And $5 million a day is chump change for Microsoft. Anyone who thinks otherwise needs to start looking at Microsoft's financial statements.
I bet they spend more than that on toilet paper for company restrooms.
If I had a dollar for every time I've heard someone predict the death of Microsoft, I could buy the entire company myself. Anyone who thinks Microsoft is in any way hurting or in danger needs to quit sniffing so much PC dust.
The only company I can think of who has redefined themselves more than Microsoft is IBM, and they both come out smelling like roses every time.
Your heart is in the right place, but I'll bet money that not even 1 store would take you up on your idea. Why? Because your idea does nothing to make them more money, and in fact could reduce what they do make because of fewer software sales and fewer customers needing their systems de-virused.
Its like going to a Baptist church and asking if you can give out some literature pushing Buddhism.
The only way I can see a store letting you do anything like that is if they already sell machines with Linux installed...in which case they don't need your evangelism.
The last time I looked at the figures of Microsoft's *cash* holdings, a few months ago, they were $47 Billion (that's 'Billion' with a 'B', kids). Assuming Microsoft never made another penny profit and simply broke even from here on out, they would have slightly over 25 *years* to pay that fine every day before they ran out of cash.
I just finished watching the first episode of Systm. Although I'm not really that interested in war spying, the show wasn't bad. Especially for something being done by a group of people without corporate backing, and then put out for free.
I can only think of two possible criticisms.
Dan Huard is not really comfortable yet being in front of a camera, and it shows. That will pass with more experience.
The other one would be that while viewing the large xvid version the audio is out of sync with the video. At least on my system. Hey, I do a lot of video editing for commercial projects, and that's one of those things that I can't help but notice. I may burn a video CD later and see if the problem is just something unique about my hardware, or if its really out of sync.
In the blurb about "These Are The Voyages" on Trek Nation, Brannon Braga says:
"Some of the Enterprise cast members were very hurt that we would put Next Generation cast members on Enterprise."
They should have been more hurt that Braga and Company gave them such drek to perform in.
Maybe the next series or movie will be something actually *good*, instead of what ever rejected story line Paramount happened to have laying around the day someone said "Let's make a new Trek series!!!"
Considering that in its history Indiana once tried to legislate that pi was 3.1416, that wouldn't surprise me :-)
I'm not meaning to sound like a politician myself here, but "blocked hundreds of bills" makes it sound much more ominous than it really was. I believe the exact number was 137. We don't get in to "hundreds" with an "s" until the first digit is larger than "1".
Also, in fairness to Democrats who pulled the stunt in this session (and remember, I think both parties are a bunch of idiots), the Republican party did the *exact* same thing in the session before this one when they were the minority party. I think the number of bills that died for that session was 84.
Although I was, and still am, opposed to the sillyness of Daylight Savings Time, I'm actually glad it did finally pass. Now maybe next year the state legislature will focus on things that really matter, like education and Indiana's sucky public school systems, instead of pointless bullshit like DST. But I doubt it...
Hilary Rosen speaking out for consumer rights and anti-monopoly tactics is like Jerry Falwell coming out in support of tolerance, understanding, and gay rights. She has to have been misquoted. There is no other possible explanation.
You're not being argumentative here, and in fact I agree with you almost entirely.
:-)
Although I probably should have been more specific, and in that regard am just as guilty of a generalization, the posts I was directing my post at were those that were giving a blanket condemnation of all forms of hunting of animals without exception or distinction...and that type of post, at the time I was posting, were by far the majority type of post. Likewise most posts at that point were condeming all hunters for using high-powered equipment...even though a great many hunters use archery or black powder equipment. Not everyone hunts with a MAC-10 full auto machine gun
And for the record, you can put me down as opposed to trophy hunting. If you hunt an animal and it puts food on your table, even if it also puts a head on the wall, I have no problems with that and will do what ever I can to defend your right to hunt. I'd even let you hunt on my property if you asked (especially if you give me a nice hunk of deer meat in return). But I think those who hunt an animal, cut off the trophy head, and leave the rest of the carcass in the woods to rot are the lowest of the low, regardless of their choice of hunting equipment.
I assume, of course, that everyone here who is objecting to hunting in general is also vegitarian, right?
If so, while I disagree with you, I can respect your feelings.
But if not, you're a grocery store hunter and a fucking hypocrite.
I don't hunt. I do eat meat. And I'm smart enough to know that, regardless of method used at the slaughter house, it ain't "sporting", and an animal died for that nice t-bone steak I'm having for dinner tonight.
Speaking as a Trek fan since forever...
ratings dropped due to the show competing against other Trek re-runs
The ratings droped for "Enterprise" because, quite frankly, it sucked.
Likewise, "Star Trek: Nemesis" tanked because, quite frankly, it sucked.
Paramount and The Powers That Be apparently decided that they could slap the name "Star Trek" on any old turd pile and it would sell. Only now are they realizing the truth...now that its almost too late.
When even actors in the series think it sucks, that should have told them something about "Enterprise". While I will watch the end just to see how it wraps up, I'm not at all sorry to see it go. I'm not sure I'll even bother to buy the DVDs of "Enterprise".
I wish I had a mod point to give you this week.
This was my only complaint with RoTSS, their selection of MP3pro. The way Leo, Patrick and Kevin pushed Linux and open source, I thought OGG would have been a lot better choice.
You read a blog to get news without opinion?
I read the comments in the blog to get opinion. I expect news only in the paragraph pushing the story. As I said to the other person who replied to this, if the Powers That Be at Slashdot do not wish to be viewed as a news site, then they need to quit calling themselves "News For Nerds". That tagline doesn't say "Opinion for Nerds".
When I go to McDonalds and get a double cheeseburger, Ronald himself does not come out and preach to me about the evils of PETA.
there is no "reporting the news" here
Then why is the catch phrase for this site "News for Nerds"? If the Powers That Be do not intend for this to be looked at as a news site, then they need to stop pushing it as one.
Whichever side you're on in the copyright debate, you have to agree this legislation is draconian and excessive, to say the least.
No I don't have to agree with you. And in fact, I don't.
Now, could we have a little more reporting of the news, and a lot less fucking editorialization? If I want a slant on things, I'd watch network news.