Stop assuming that everyone using Linux (or who wants to use Linux) is a Linux expert.
Expert? Maybe not. But as with anything in life, people should have some sort of fundamental understanding of how things work. Things that are easy to do now get taken for granted, mainly because most people don't have the will or desire to learn more than they have to. Take Windows for example- Microsoft has put so much time and research into making computers accessible to the point where really anyone can learn the basics relatively quickly. As far as most users are concerned, they push the button to turn the computer on in the morning, click the little picture of the blue W to open word, and click the little picture of the printer to convert what they typed on the screen to physical paper. If anything goes wrong or doesn't work in that cycle, they're generally helpless and need to call for support, because they have no desire to figure anything out for themselves, even if it's a very minor problem.
Currently with linux, more than a few things require actual thought, and some sort of understanding of how the system works to get around. Should linux developers focus on making things more idiot-proof, given that all the R & D Microsoft has put into making things easier goes to waste when some people don't understand that the caps-lock button makes all typed letters capitol? I don't think so. The reason people have no desire to learn anything about how their system works is because for the past few years, Microsoft has been telling them "oh don't worry about that, we'll make it easier in the next version of Windows/Office." Pandering to idiots only serves to increase the number of idiots using computers, and does nothing to help teach the idiots so they're no longer idiots, but experienced users. Linux is a good starting ground for that. I wouldn't expect the office accountant to learn how to recompile a kernel, but if they at least had an idea of what a kernel was, or why it's important, it goes a long way in helping to explain what's actually wrong if there is a problem.
Do you need to be a rocket scientist to use linux? No. Should you have some common sense and willingness to at least learn something about how the system works? Sure. Rather than change linux to be fit the world, why not use it as a platform to help educate/change the world so not everyone becomes an idiot?
With proper parenting, the kids shouldn't think killing/harming others is the answer. The only exception would be mentally ill kids, but they should be given special care at an early age, as soon as the illness is identified. Those seriously fucked up kids wouldn't be so fucked up if they had parents they could willingly turn to in moments of need, rather than violence.
IANAL, but how effective can any sort of lawsuit against the government be these days? Isn't it the same government that runs the courts? If the FBI feels national security is at stake by releasing the information the EFF is looking for, wouldn't they just say to the courts "oh, it's national security.. terrorists and the like, it's best if you leave us be." And the court answer would be "oh well, if it's in the name of national security, you guys are all set. Case dismissed."
Or is there any integrity left in the government at this point.
Nonlethal weapons generally can weaken people if they are hit with the beam. Some of the weapons can emit short, intense energy pulses that also can be effective in disabling some electronic devices.
On another subject, Wynne said he expects to choose a new contractor for the next generation aerial refueling tankers by next summer...
So only 1/3 of the article is actually about non-lethal weapon testing. Seems like right about where they should have given more details about the new weapons, they shift gears to talk about a new contract for refueling tankers... Kind of an awkward place to put that kind of information.
It's like "Yeah, we may do some testing of non-lethal weapons on US citizens, so we don't accidentally kill or injure people we're at war with, making us look bad. The weapons can stun people and... oh yeah! We're about to pick a new contractor for refueling tankers. Weapons? What weapons? We're taling about contracts and money now!"
"Such abilities are dangerous to existing power structures, be they governmental or religious."
Or the thought destroying combination of both. I was fortunate to have such an open school district, but in having such, it makes me question those so closed as to ban literature on those grounds. One of my favorite books was Ray Bradbury's Fahrenheit 451. Sort of makes me wonder how far off a reality like the one portrayed there really us.
And yet, close to 70% of the books listed there were part of my high school's English curriculum. Not "suggested reading," or anything else we had to read on our own, but part of the coursework over my 4 years of high school. Maybe that's just how we do thing around here, but as "contraversial" as the subject matter of each book may or may not be, I can read that list and remember the ideas presented from each book. I remember discussing the credits and demerits of each concept in an objective way as part of the class. I can't see why anyone would want to ban these literary icons from schools or libraries, when the dissection of each only lends to the ability to think freely and creatively, and develop critical thinking and reasoning skills.
I mean, million or billion dollar companies are careful to avoid these sorts of lawsuit-risking moves, simply because they're a huge target.
That may just be it there- so far the MPAA/RIAA have only really gone after the smaller targets- i.e. individuals who don't have the resources to fight back, because they know there is a very high chance of reaching a settlement without actually going to court.
If Circuit City knows this, they may know they're too big of a target. If the RIAA/MPAA are so concerned over lost revenues due to piracy, surly they won't want to spend their resources in a drawn out legal battle which may ultimately set precident for fair use, therefore pulling out their grounds for forcing settlements with the little guys.
I'd tend to think of it the opposite way. As it stands, and as someone else posted above from Eyonix, there are certain encounters in the game that require certain class abilities. There are some encounters that are made easier by having Shamans or Paladins, but rarely can both fill the same role. It's been said countless times that Paladins are a huge advantage in PvE, for the number of beneficial abilities they bring to the table, as plate wearing healers with a number of auras and dispel abilities. Shaman on the other hand, can't wear plate, don't have as strong healing abilities, and "aura" effects are provided by totems, which in recent patches are more frequently targeted by hostile mobs, and with the 10ish HP they have, are frequently destroyed.
The encounters Blizzard has come up with to date needed to be sufficiently simple such that both factions can accomplish whatever the goal is without the unique abilities of the opposite faction specific class. If both sides get the same classes (if not with the exact same abilities, at least similar), it opens the door for Blizzard to design objectives without worrying about whether a Paladin can slow mobs down (via earthbind totems), or a Shaman can shield/bubble if he pulls healing aggro, or any number of unique abilities.
I can't imagine the number of times the developers come up with a cool scenario to kill a boss, only to be met with "oh, but Shamans/Paladins can't do that, so the Horde/Alliance won't be able to do this."
WoW was my first MMORPG. The thing that drew me in was the lore and consistant storyline from the Warcraft RTS series. It wasn't just a random game I had to learn about, rather, many of the characters in game I recognized right away from Warcrafts 1, 2, and 3. Prior to WoW, I played only RTS games, with a few first person shooters on the side. But once I saw people playing and saw the characters from the RTS games in a new context, I couldn't help but jump on. Just as the Warcraft line has persisted through the years, and it's almost a decade old now, as long as the content stays fresh, people will continue to play. Every few months, Blizzard adds in new content- new items, dungeons, quests, etc. to keep the higher level populace interested- with new twists and turns to the evolving plot. Just this past Tuesday, patch 1.11 came out, with the new Naxxramas 40 man instance. Come the expansion, there will be a whole new continent with new races and stories. So long as the content is kept new and fresh, people will continue to play, especially if the given content is part of an already decade long storyline.
This is where it's a damned if you do/damned if you don't situation for the rep. On the one hand, you have that "Calls may be monitored for quality assurance" clause meaning any supervisor can be monitoring any given call, so the reps need to follow corporate policy to keep their jobs. The other hand is by following corporate policy, the actual support given is abysmal at best, and you end up with disgruntled customers. If the rep does the "right" thing and please the customer, he'll piss off a manager and potentially loose his job. If he does the "wrong" thing and folow company policy, and the customer complains to a media outlet, the company will point the finger at the rep and potentially loose his job. Sucks for both the customer and the rep, as there's no easy way around it, and it could happen to anyone.
It's interesting to see how the Swedish media reacts to all the happenings compared to how American media would react if something like that happened here. It seems the Swedish media is capable of fair and balanced reporting on the facts without any apparent political spin or control. I could easily see American media portraying the takedown of a filesharing network as a win against terrorists/child porn/drugs, and as a strictly positive thing with a 'government knows best' slant.
When it comes to a web portal, Microsoft doesn't need anyone but themselves. They control some 90ish percent of the O/S market, and the default homepage for the default browser is MSN.com. Considering the quantity of internet users who are less than tech-savvy, many just stick with the default settings (or are afraid/don't know how to change them).
386DX or higher processor (486 recommended) 4 megabytes (MB) of memory (8 MB recommended) 50-55 MB of free hard disk space One 3.5-inch high-density floppy disk drive VGA or higher resolution (256-color SVGA recommended)
Windows 98: 486DX 66 megahertz (MHz) or faster processor (Pentium CPU recommended). 16 megabytes (MB) of memory (24 MB recommended). 165 MB and 355 MB of free hard disk space One 3.5-inch high-density floppy disk drive. VGA or higher resolution (16-bit or 24-bit color SVGA recommended).
Restocking fees are a regular practice in most technology companies, and the reasoning is simple. Once a product goes out the door, there is no reasonable way to tell what happens to it. It's not known whether the customer knows how to properly care for or install a product, or if there is any damage to a product being returned. Thus, anything being returned is subject to proper testing, costing the company time, and if it's a retail package that's been opened, it can no longer be sold at full retail price (hence open-box/recertified discount items). There's no reason a company should have to incurr a loss because some customer ordered the wrong part, or didn't know how to install it, so it's only fair the customer pays his share of expense.
Internet companies like newegg are especailly vulnerable to this, as online orders are relatively anonymous, in that there's no way to verify the technical ability or knowhow of any given customer. I work for a brick and morter shop, and it's usually pretty easy to pick out the customers who know what they're doing, and those acting on advice from a friend or co-worker, with no real insight of what they need done. But online, anything flies.
Most of the time, if it's a retail/shrinkwrapped item, and it's returned without breaking any seals or plastic wrap, you can convince the company to waive the fee, because no testing or repackaging needs to be done.
But at the same time the research has great potential to save or prolong hundreds, thousands, or millions of already established sentient lives. Is not the sacrifice of a handful of potential lives worth saving a virtually infinite (as the procedures established will no doubt be kept in the realm of human knowledge until it's improved upon, or humans cease to exist) number of already established lives?
The way I see it is the caliber of the items dropped from any given boss are directly related to the difficulty of said boss. The drops from MC/BWL/AQ are so stacked with stats because of what is involved in each fight along the way. That's also why the loot is so varied- each boss drops a certain piece of every classes epic set. It encourages every class to go along with the raid, picking up their pieces if they drop, helping others if they don't. The rewards are preportional to the amount of effort put in to getting them. As such, there's no way a boss designed for a 5 man run could ever be as difficult as a 20 or 40 man boss, and therefore cant't drop as good quality loot. The only way that would be possible was if a 5 man run took the 8 hours it takes for a 40 man MC run- the effort put in gets returned as epic loot out.
My experience has been almost the opposite. I leveled up to 60 at a relatively brisk pace, absorbing the game as I went along in the solo quests. I have 2 brothers who have been playing for quite a while now (and were the main reason I picked up the game, after thinking it was a waste of time for so long). I found the solo quests got boring an monotonous after a while. There's only so many times you can do the "Go speak with X" or "Go gather 10 of item X" or "Go kill 25 of X" before it starts to get repetative, just involving more damage, or more kills, or lower drop rates for items.
With the instances/raids though, there's a dynamic that has to be present to be successful. I'll agree if publicly Looking For Group, you may end up with a group that makes the experience miserable, but at the same time you have a good chance of meeting new friends to quest with later. With both my brothers already established players on our server, I was accepted into their guild, and the end-game instances are a blast with them.
The thing that makes the raids and dungeons interesting is it's not the same old kill/gather quests, but rather a dynamic group effort requiring different skills and talents to be successful. Take Molten Core- There's a number of boss fights there, each with different strategies to take them down, from Lucifron to Ragneros. Beyond that, head into Blackwing Lair, and face even more difficult fights. As far as elite quests being a cop-out, I'd say it's the opposite. More thought and planning goes into creating an elite/boss fight than typical trash mobs. With the higher end bosses, you need a clever combination of talent, from healing, to banishing, to sheeping/sapping, to all out DPS'ing. All in all, it's refreshing to see a group come together to use each classes unique skills as one solid unit, to take down otherwise impossible enemies.
For people who don't want to join guilds or cooperate with 39 other people, there's still Blackrock Spire, Scholomance, Stratholme, Dire Maul, and a few others that can be done 5 or 10 man. Group together with some people, and if you have fun with them, add them to your friends list, and ask if they'd like to quest together in the future. Amass a few friends, and you have the beginnings of a guild of your own.
I can't sway anyone's opinion on end-game Warcraft, and it's not my intention to try. Everyone has a personal preference, and my personal experience has been thus far positive. As with any game, YMMV.
I'm hearing what you're saying, and I'm pointing out the other end of the spectrum. It sounds like you're saying because no businesses use MP3 as a distribution platform, it's not viable in the marketplace as an alternative. That makes sense from the profit department- music companies want to ensure Suzie Q won't copy her music to little Johnny's computer easily.
As far as the iPod and iTunes go, I guess I should add the disclaimer that I do not own an iPod, or run iTunes, nor plan on changing that. However, I do support the idea that the iPod is capable of playing a format other than AAC, thus it's not a lock-in. Granted, AAC is the default format for music within iTunes, and as iTunes is the primary method of interfacing a computer with an iPod, the fact remains that both are capable of managing and playing generic MP3s. My point is, default != lock-in.
And no, I don't think Apple is great and never does anything wrong. I just don't believe that because a company doesn't use MP3 as a primary format, it's not a viable format in the hands of the consumers, where it really matters.
I'm not generally a conspiracy theorist, but given all the contraversy over Diebold's products, and if their board of directors is aware of of said contraversy, could this just be a feel good measure to divert public attention from the real issues? So the CEO is resigning due to "personal reasons", but is the company really going to change, or is it more of a "See? The Bad Guy(TM) is gone, you can trust us now!" type deal.
Quantity is an important number when you factor in the methods. [Background] When my company opened it's second location, the phone company assigned us an old residential number. For the first few months of business, we kept getting calls asking for the individual who used to have this number. Besides personal calls, we also recieved a number of unsolicited commercial calls. When the DNC registry went into effect, most of the commercial calls stopped, until recently when we started getting the DirectTV calls.
The problem is, the junk calls we get now are all autodialers. The DirectTV calls especially were computer generated- we'd get at least 2 calls in the course of a day asking if we'd like to lower our TV costs by switching from cable to DirectTV (us being a business without any sort of TV at all, cable or otherwise). So they may only have a handful of people manning the phones at any given time, in the hopes that one of the autodialers gets someone to respond. The autodialers have the capability to dial every number in any given town with no labor cost, so it's not surprising the number of complaints is as high as it is.
I think the GP's post was meant to show there wasn't a lock-in. Insert whatever company you want into that statement, and it only drives the point home.
As long as the device can play any other [more open] format than the proprietary downloads, it's not a lock-in. In this case, the iPod can also play MP3s- it's not locked into Apple's format. If the iPod played only AAC, and not MP3s, it would be a lock-in. Just like it would be a lock-in if any Microsoft MP3 player only played WMAs.
If the choice is there regardless of brand, the lock-in argument becomes invalid. Whether or not any businesses choose to use the format is irrelevant- it's a publicly accepted format in very widespread use.
I remember reading about how the new Windows XP won't have to reboot as often for driver/software updates. Yet after every minor Windows Update, a reboot is required. I'm not holding my breath for this, because it seems more like a "we got it right this time, honest!" type thing than anything else. Especially with the "any file in use by Windows can't be touched" type of environment.
..And as a result of all it's cost cutting and cut-throat business tactics, Dell may eventually implode under itself. I'm not saying it will happen overnight, but like many here on Slashdot, I work "in the industry." I work for a small computer sales/service retailer, and over the past 2-3 years I've experienced a sharp increase in the number of Dell computers coming in for service, relative to the number of other brands. Granted, many were for virus/spyware infections, and the large number may be more because of larger market share. Beyond viruses though, I have seen more than enough Dell components fail, particularly the lower end/bargain models, both Desktops and Laptops. Ordinarily that wouldn't bother me, but I've heard from customers how bad Dell support is now, with the call centers moved offshore. I've had to fix Dell computers still covered under warranty because the owners got so fed up with trying to get help from the support lines.
A number of years ago, Dell built it's business up on quality parts and service- winning numerous awards for customer service, and were recommended all around. The beige box Dells in particular, which went for over $1500, were pretty solid machines. Back when profit margins were high enough to cover the costs of quality support. Now the conditions of the market have changed, and Dell has to trim the fat off what's already become an anorexic business model to stay competative. People who once came in to my shop swearing by Dell now swear AT Dell, and promise to never buy anything Dell again, after their 6 month old Inspiron 1150's LCD inverter burnt out, and Dell refused to replace it, even though it had a year warranty. Despite numerous calls, all the call center would say is insert the recovery CD and reinstall the operating system.
Bottom line- Dell became the bohemoth it is now based on reputation of quality machines. Take the quality out, and they are just another retailer. They still enjoy brand recognition, and the higher end systems aren't too bad. But they grow marketshare by offering $299 PCs, and $699 laptops to anyone who thinks any Dell is a good Dell, even if on the cheap (without understanding that You Get What You Pay For). As a result, it's userbase will slowly erode away.
Another post early on explained it in a great way. Gates may not necessarily care about consumer rights from a humanitarian perspective, but he certainly does from a business perspective.
Basically, he wants Windows to become the complete center of the digital home universe. Everything from TV, music, movies, home automation, personal management, purchases, etc will be done on and controlled by the computer. Problem is, Big Media doesn't want it's content accessible to computers unless they can be guaranteed people won't make copies and/or distribute their copyrighted works. Gates himself has nothing to gain, rather, everything to lose by caving in to high level DRM such as with Blu-Ray. He wants the computer/Windows to be the complete media management solution where people can do essentially anything with media, including stream/copy media to any computer in the house for playback. But again, the media conglomerates see that as an encroachment of their copyright, even if it falls under the category of fair-use.
Anything considered fair-use (in terms of media) is a good thing for Gates, because it means people are free to use his platform to do whatever they want with media they purchase.
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Stop assuming that everyone using Linux (or who wants to use Linux) is a Linux expert.
Expert? Maybe not. But as with anything in life, people should have some sort of fundamental understanding of how things work. Things that are easy to do now get taken for granted, mainly because most people don't have the will or desire to learn more than they have to. Take Windows for example- Microsoft has put so much time and research into making computers accessible to the point where really anyone can learn the basics relatively quickly. As far as most users are concerned, they push the button to turn the computer on in the morning, click the little picture of the blue W to open word, and click the little picture of the printer to convert what they typed on the screen to physical paper. If anything goes wrong or doesn't work in that cycle, they're generally helpless and need to call for support, because they have no desire to figure anything out for themselves, even if it's a very minor problem.
Currently with linux, more than a few things require actual thought, and some sort of understanding of how the system works to get around. Should linux developers focus on making things more idiot-proof, given that all the R & D Microsoft has put into making things easier goes to waste when some people don't understand that the caps-lock button makes all typed letters capitol? I don't think so. The reason people have no desire to learn anything about how their system works is because for the past few years, Microsoft has been telling them "oh don't worry about that, we'll make it easier in the next version of Windows/Office." Pandering to idiots only serves to increase the number of idiots using computers, and does nothing to help teach the idiots so they're no longer idiots, but experienced users. Linux is a good starting ground for that. I wouldn't expect the office accountant to learn how to recompile a kernel, but if they at least had an idea of what a kernel was, or why it's important, it goes a long way in helping to explain what's actually wrong if there is a problem.
Do you need to be a rocket scientist to use linux? No. Should you have some common sense and willingness to at least learn something about how the system works? Sure. Rather than change linux to be fit the world, why not use it as a platform to help educate/change the world so not everyone becomes an idiot?
With proper parenting, the kids shouldn't think killing/harming others is the answer. The only exception would be mentally ill kids, but they should be given special care at an early age, as soon as the illness is identified. Those seriously fucked up kids wouldn't be so fucked up if they had parents they could willingly turn to in moments of need, rather than violence.
IANAL, but how effective can any sort of lawsuit against the government be these days? Isn't it the same government that runs the courts? If the FBI feels national security is at stake by releasing the information the EFF is looking for, wouldn't they just say to the courts "oh, it's national security.. terrorists and the like, it's best if you leave us be." And the court answer would be "oh well, if it's in the name of national security, you guys are all set. Case dismissed."
Or is there any integrity left in the government at this point.
From the article:
Nonlethal weapons generally can weaken people if they are hit with the beam. Some of the weapons can emit short, intense energy pulses that also can be effective in disabling some electronic devices.
On another subject, Wynne said he expects to choose a new contractor for the next generation aerial refueling tankers by next summer...
So only 1/3 of the article is actually about non-lethal weapon testing. Seems like right about where they should have given more details about the new weapons, they shift gears to talk about a new contract for refueling tankers... Kind of an awkward place to put that kind of information.
It's like "Yeah, we may do some testing of non-lethal weapons on US citizens, so we don't accidentally kill or injure people we're at war with, making us look bad. The weapons can stun people and... oh yeah! We're about to pick a new contractor for refueling tankers. Weapons? What weapons? We're taling about contracts and money now!"
"Such abilities are dangerous to existing power structures, be they governmental or religious."
Or the thought destroying combination of both. I was fortunate to have such an open school district, but in having such, it makes me question those so closed as to ban literature on those grounds. One of my favorite books was Ray Bradbury's Fahrenheit 451. Sort of makes me wonder how far off a reality like the one portrayed there really us.
My point exactly.
And yet, close to 70% of the books listed there were part of my high school's English curriculum. Not "suggested reading," or anything else we had to read on our own, but part of the coursework over my 4 years of high school. Maybe that's just how we do thing around here, but as "contraversial" as the subject matter of each book may or may not be, I can read that list and remember the ideas presented from each book. I remember discussing the credits and demerits of each concept in an objective way as part of the class. I can't see why anyone would want to ban these literary icons from schools or libraries, when the dissection of each only lends to the ability to think freely and creatively, and develop critical thinking and reasoning skills.
I mean, million or billion dollar companies are careful to avoid these sorts of lawsuit-risking moves, simply because they're a huge target.
That may just be it there- so far the MPAA/RIAA have only really gone after the smaller targets- i.e. individuals who don't have the resources to fight back, because they know there is a very high chance of reaching a settlement without actually going to court.
If Circuit City knows this, they may know they're too big of a target. If the RIAA/MPAA are so concerned over lost revenues due to piracy, surly they won't want to spend their resources in a drawn out legal battle which may ultimately set precident for fair use, therefore pulling out their grounds for forcing settlements with the little guys.
I'd tend to think of it the opposite way. As it stands, and as someone else posted above from Eyonix, there are certain encounters in the game that require certain class abilities. There are some encounters that are made easier by having Shamans or Paladins, but rarely can both fill the same role. It's been said countless times that Paladins are a huge advantage in PvE, for the number of beneficial abilities they bring to the table, as plate wearing healers with a number of auras and dispel abilities. Shaman on the other hand, can't wear plate, don't have as strong healing abilities, and "aura" effects are provided by totems, which in recent patches are more frequently targeted by hostile mobs, and with the 10ish HP they have, are frequently destroyed.
The encounters Blizzard has come up with to date needed to be sufficiently simple such that both factions can accomplish whatever the goal is without the unique abilities of the opposite faction specific class. If both sides get the same classes (if not with the exact same abilities, at least similar), it opens the door for Blizzard to design objectives without worrying about whether a Paladin can slow mobs down (via earthbind totems), or a Shaman can shield/bubble if he pulls healing aggro, or any number of unique abilities.
I can't imagine the number of times the developers come up with a cool scenario to kill a boss, only to be met with "oh, but Shamans/Paladins can't do that, so the Horde/Alliance won't be able to do this."
WoW was my first MMORPG. The thing that drew me in was the lore and consistant storyline from the Warcraft RTS series. It wasn't just a random game I had to learn about, rather, many of the characters in game I recognized right away from Warcrafts 1, 2, and 3. Prior to WoW, I played only RTS games, with a few first person shooters on the side. But once I saw people playing and saw the characters from the RTS games in a new context, I couldn't help but jump on. Just as the Warcraft line has persisted through the years, and it's almost a decade old now, as long as the content stays fresh, people will continue to play. Every few months, Blizzard adds in new content- new items, dungeons, quests, etc. to keep the higher level populace interested- with new twists and turns to the evolving plot. Just this past Tuesday, patch 1.11 came out, with the new Naxxramas 40 man instance. Come the expansion, there will be a whole new continent with new races and stories. So long as the content is kept new and fresh, people will continue to play, especially if the given content is part of an already decade long storyline.
This is where it's a damned if you do/damned if you don't situation for the rep. On the one hand, you have that "Calls may be monitored for quality assurance" clause meaning any supervisor can be monitoring any given call, so the reps need to follow corporate policy to keep their jobs. The other hand is by following corporate policy, the actual support given is abysmal at best, and you end up with disgruntled customers. If the rep does the "right" thing and please the customer, he'll piss off a manager and potentially loose his job. If he does the "wrong" thing and folow company policy, and the customer complains to a media outlet, the company will point the finger at the rep and potentially loose his job. Sucks for both the customer and the rep, as there's no easy way around it, and it could happen to anyone.
It's interesting to see how the Swedish media reacts to all the happenings compared to how American media would react if something like that happened here. It seems the Swedish media is capable of fair and balanced reporting on the facts without any apparent political spin or control. I could easily see American media portraying the takedown of a filesharing network as a win against terrorists/child porn/drugs, and as a strictly positive thing with a 'government knows best' slant.
When it comes to a web portal, Microsoft doesn't need anyone but themselves. They control some 90ish percent of the O/S market, and the default homepage for the default browser is MSN.com. Considering the quantity of internet users who are less than tech-savvy, many just stick with the default settings (or are afraid/don't know how to change them).
http://support.microsoft.com/kb/138349/ http://support.microsoft.com/kb/182751/ - Requirements for Windows 98.
For those too lazy to click:
Windows 95:
386DX or higher processor (486 recommended)
4 megabytes (MB) of memory (8 MB recommended)
50-55 MB of free hard disk space
One 3.5-inch high-density floppy disk drive
VGA or higher resolution (256-color SVGA recommended)
Windows 98:
486DX 66 megahertz (MHz) or faster processor (Pentium CPU recommended).
16 megabytes (MB) of memory (24 MB recommended).
165 MB and 355 MB of free hard disk space
One 3.5-inch high-density floppy disk drive.
VGA or higher resolution (16-bit or 24-bit color SVGA recommended).
Restocking fees are a regular practice in most technology companies, and the reasoning is simple. Once a product goes out the door, there is no reasonable way to tell what happens to it. It's not known whether the customer knows how to properly care for or install a product, or if there is any damage to a product being returned. Thus, anything being returned is subject to proper testing, costing the company time, and if it's a retail package that's been opened, it can no longer be sold at full retail price (hence open-box/recertified discount items). There's no reason a company should have to incurr a loss because some customer ordered the wrong part, or didn't know how to install it, so it's only fair the customer pays his share of expense.
Internet companies like newegg are especailly vulnerable to this, as online orders are relatively anonymous, in that there's no way to verify the technical ability or knowhow of any given customer. I work for a brick and morter shop, and it's usually pretty easy to pick out the customers who know what they're doing, and those acting on advice from a friend or co-worker, with no real insight of what they need done. But online, anything flies.
Most of the time, if it's a retail/shrinkwrapped item, and it's returned without breaking any seals or plastic wrap, you can convince the company to waive the fee, because no testing or repackaging needs to be done.
But at the same time the research has great potential to save or prolong hundreds, thousands, or millions of already established sentient lives. Is not the sacrifice of a handful of potential lives worth saving a virtually infinite (as the procedures established will no doubt be kept in the realm of human knowledge until it's improved upon, or humans cease to exist) number of already established lives?
The way I see it is the caliber of the items dropped from any given boss are directly related to the difficulty of said boss. The drops from MC/BWL/AQ are so stacked with stats because of what is involved in each fight along the way. That's also why the loot is so varied- each boss drops a certain piece of every classes epic set. It encourages every class to go along with the raid, picking up their pieces if they drop, helping others if they don't. The rewards are preportional to the amount of effort put in to getting them. As such, there's no way a boss designed for a 5 man run could ever be as difficult as a 20 or 40 man boss, and therefore cant't drop as good quality loot. The only way that would be possible was if a 5 man run took the 8 hours it takes for a 40 man MC run- the effort put in gets returned as epic loot out.
My experience has been almost the opposite. I leveled up to 60 at a relatively brisk pace, absorbing the game as I went along in the solo quests. I have 2 brothers who have been playing for quite a while now (and were the main reason I picked up the game, after thinking it was a waste of time for so long). I found the solo quests got boring an monotonous after a while. There's only so many times you can do the "Go speak with X" or "Go gather 10 of item X" or "Go kill 25 of X" before it starts to get repetative, just involving more damage, or more kills, or lower drop rates for items.
With the instances/raids though, there's a dynamic that has to be present to be successful. I'll agree if publicly Looking For Group, you may end up with a group that makes the experience miserable, but at the same time you have a good chance of meeting new friends to quest with later. With both my brothers already established players on our server, I was accepted into their guild, and the end-game instances are a blast with them.
The thing that makes the raids and dungeons interesting is it's not the same old kill/gather quests, but rather a dynamic group effort requiring different skills and talents to be successful. Take Molten Core- There's a number of boss fights there, each with different strategies to take them down, from Lucifron to Ragneros. Beyond that, head into Blackwing Lair, and face even more difficult fights. As far as elite quests being a cop-out, I'd say it's the opposite. More thought and planning goes into creating an elite/boss fight than typical trash mobs. With the higher end bosses, you need a clever combination of talent, from healing, to banishing, to sheeping/sapping, to all out DPS'ing. All in all, it's refreshing to see a group come together to use each classes unique skills as one solid unit, to take down otherwise impossible enemies.
For people who don't want to join guilds or cooperate with 39 other people, there's still Blackrock Spire, Scholomance, Stratholme, Dire Maul, and a few others that can be done 5 or 10 man. Group together with some people, and if you have fun with them, add them to your friends list, and ask if they'd like to quest together in the future. Amass a few friends, and you have the beginnings of a guild of your own.
I can't sway anyone's opinion on end-game Warcraft, and it's not my intention to try. Everyone has a personal preference, and my personal experience has been thus far positive. As with any game, YMMV.
I'm hearing what you're saying, and I'm pointing out the other end of the spectrum. It sounds like you're saying because no businesses use MP3 as a distribution platform, it's not viable in the marketplace as an alternative. That makes sense from the profit department- music companies want to ensure Suzie Q won't copy her music to little Johnny's computer easily.
As far as the iPod and iTunes go, I guess I should add the disclaimer that I do not own an iPod, or run iTunes, nor plan on changing that. However, I do support the idea that the iPod is capable of playing a format other than AAC, thus it's not a lock-in. Granted, AAC is the default format for music within iTunes, and as iTunes is the primary method of interfacing a computer with an iPod, the fact remains that both are capable of managing and playing generic MP3s. My point is, default != lock-in.
And no, I don't think Apple is great and never does anything wrong. I just don't believe that because a company doesn't use MP3 as a primary format, it's not a viable format in the hands of the consumers, where it really matters.
I'm not generally a conspiracy theorist, but given all the contraversy over Diebold's products, and if their board of directors is aware of of said contraversy, could this just be a feel good measure to divert public attention from the real issues? So the CEO is resigning due to "personal reasons", but is the company really going to change, or is it more of a "See? The Bad Guy(TM) is gone, you can trust us now!" type deal.
Quantity is an important number when you factor in the methods. [Background] When my company opened it's second location, the phone company assigned us an old residential number. For the first few months of business, we kept getting calls asking for the individual who used to have this number. Besides personal calls, we also recieved a number of unsolicited commercial calls. When the DNC registry went into effect, most of the commercial calls stopped, until recently when we started getting the DirectTV calls.
The problem is, the junk calls we get now are all autodialers. The DirectTV calls especially were computer generated- we'd get at least 2 calls in the course of a day asking if we'd like to lower our TV costs by switching from cable to DirectTV (us being a business without any sort of TV at all, cable or otherwise). So they may only have a handful of people manning the phones at any given time, in the hopes that one of the autodialers gets someone to respond. The autodialers have the capability to dial every number in any given town with no labor cost, so it's not surprising the number of complaints is as high as it is.
I think the GP's post was meant to show there wasn't a lock-in. Insert whatever company you want into that statement, and it only drives the point home.
As long as the device can play any other [more open] format than the proprietary downloads, it's not a lock-in. In this case, the iPod can also play MP3s- it's not locked into Apple's format. If the iPod played only AAC, and not MP3s, it would be a lock-in. Just like it would be a lock-in if any Microsoft MP3 player only played WMAs.
If the choice is there regardless of brand, the lock-in argument becomes invalid. Whether or not any businesses choose to use the format is irrelevant- it's a publicly accepted format in very widespread use.
But I seem to remember hearing this before.
I remember reading about how the new Windows XP won't have to reboot as often for driver/software updates. Yet after every minor Windows Update, a reboot is required. I'm not holding my breath for this, because it seems more like a "we got it right this time, honest!" type thing than anything else. Especially with the "any file in use by Windows can't be touched" type of environment.
..And as a result of all it's cost cutting and cut-throat business tactics, Dell may eventually implode under itself. I'm not saying it will happen overnight, but like many here on Slashdot, I work "in the industry." I work for a small computer sales/service retailer, and over the past 2-3 years I've experienced a sharp increase in the number of Dell computers coming in for service, relative to the number of other brands. Granted, many were for virus/spyware infections, and the large number may be more because of larger market share. Beyond viruses though, I have seen more than enough Dell components fail, particularly the lower end/bargain models, both Desktops and Laptops. Ordinarily that wouldn't bother me, but I've heard from customers how bad Dell support is now, with the call centers moved offshore. I've had to fix Dell computers still covered under warranty because the owners got so fed up with trying to get help from the support lines.
A number of years ago, Dell built it's business up on quality parts and service- winning numerous awards for customer service, and were recommended all around. The beige box Dells in particular, which went for over $1500, were pretty solid machines. Back when profit margins were high enough to cover the costs of quality support. Now the conditions of the market have changed, and Dell has to trim the fat off what's already become an anorexic business model to stay competative. People who once came in to my shop swearing by Dell now swear AT Dell, and promise to never buy anything Dell again, after their 6 month old Inspiron 1150's LCD inverter burnt out, and Dell refused to replace it, even though it had a year warranty. Despite numerous calls, all the call center would say is insert the recovery CD and reinstall the operating system.
Bottom line- Dell became the bohemoth it is now based on reputation of quality machines. Take the quality out, and they are just another retailer. They still enjoy brand recognition, and the higher end systems aren't too bad. But they grow marketshare by offering $299 PCs, and $699 laptops to anyone who thinks any Dell is a good Dell, even if on the cheap (without understanding that You Get What You Pay For). As a result, it's userbase will slowly erode away.
Another post early on explained it in a great way. Gates may not necessarily care about consumer rights from a humanitarian perspective, but he certainly does from a business perspective.
Basically, he wants Windows to become the complete center of the digital home universe. Everything from TV, music, movies, home automation, personal management, purchases, etc will be done on and controlled by the computer. Problem is, Big Media doesn't want it's content accessible to computers unless they can be guaranteed people won't make copies and/or distribute their copyrighted works. Gates himself has nothing to gain, rather, everything to lose by caving in to high level DRM such as with Blu-Ray. He wants the computer/Windows to be the complete media management solution where people can do essentially anything with media, including stream/copy media to any computer in the house for playback. But again, the media conglomerates see that as an encroachment of their copyright, even if it falls under the category of fair-use.
Anything considered fair-use (in terms of media) is a good thing for Gates, because it means people are free to use his platform to do whatever they want with media they purchase.