Writing your congressman can only do so much...Why, as geeks, can we not post the link to the RIAA website and all donate our clicks all at the same time, and really make a difference. Just think of the difference we could make with every RIAA article that is posted.
It's amazing that after decades on computer manufacturing that supply and demand has had the effect it seems it should have had earlier. This is ideal for so many applications and the demand has been there for years. Only now are we getting the components, and only those components, for an affordable price.
Indians have a british-indian accent.Try calling support (Belkin) in India. I have. I talked to 4 indian support agents that didn't understand my problem, and after trying any suggestion that I could understand from them I was still clueless. I finally called again and got some texan with a thick accent, and he understand everything first time and problem was resolved. Is that any indication as to their coding level, not really, but it is of their communication level.
Re:I have said it before and I will say it again..
on
In Pursuit Of A Spammer
·
· Score: 2, Informative
Stopping -or at least reducing bulk/junk mail is easy. You need to fill out a form at your post office and get on the mail preference list with the Direct Marketing Association. Check out these links to how to use the USPS and the DME to help you.
I agree DRM caused a lot of problems with Intuit. Mainly the fact that people can't read a license agreement, or don't want to adhere to it, was the reason that most of the people called me when I worked for TurboTax support.
The license is clear in the fact that it can only be installed, at least in it's full, non-trial, version, on one computer. If people don't want a product like that, then they shouldn't waste good money on it. Seems simple. Some called in with valid complaints about the system saying that they had only installed it on one computer and now the program is asking to be activated every time they use it. Most of the problems had more to do with antiquated computers running win95 than anything. Other times the problem was resolved rather fast or the product was refunded fully and an apology was made for it's inability to work on their system. I guess some of that is shoddy programming, not the use of a DRM application.
One other problem that many complained about with activation errors had to do with the customer trying to install the application on a network. This too had been warned of in the license. Some say that once they try and install it they have already opened the box and cannot return it after seeing the license, but once again, the refund is available.
I wonder how many of these people that complained actually tried to get their money back through the no questions asked 100% satisfaction gaurantee.
It's quite obvious that windows was developed for the end user in mind and might lead the market for many years to come in the PC market.
On the other hand Linux was built for the developer in mind and strangely enough still leads the market in the server area...Don't you recall the recent slashdot article that quoted the microsoft exec saying that windows 2003 is still playing catch up with the thing linux has had since it's arrival?
Different users in mind. Different leads in different markets
Keeping a telemarketer on the phone playing games with them, lecturing them pressing a button or whatever else has been suggested really doesn't work well.
Having worked on the phones way too much in a college infested town, I realize that even though these techniques may hurt the company and cause the telemarketer to hate his job even more it doesn't usually reduce the calls you get. In fact the ruder that you are the more likely that a telemarketer will get his only form of revenge on you by dispositioning the call as a no answer or not avaliable. This can cause the dialer to call you back within minutes with an unsuspecting new telemarketer on the line ready to give his pitch and annoy you again. Sure this makes the telemarketing company lose money, but you will not beat the odds in the end.
Besides suing the company that calls you, the only way to gaurantee that you don't get called again is to ask to be put on the do not call list. This actually blocks the number on the dialer, and telemarketers would be much more likely to do this to a sensible and nice person who asks for them to please not call them. The average telemarketer hates his job and understands that people hate their calls. They hate getting calls too, so they will empathize with the one person that is actually decent and nice.
As long as there are broke college students that will do anything to pay for their pizza, tuition, and books these marketing companies will always have cheap labor.
your degree would have been worthless anyway if you weren't flexible enough to use your technical knowledge to apply it to business. Even if the IT field it going downhill, capitalism isn't...not yet at least
That's exactly my point. Most people do choose. And many of them choose cheaper products and don't just get the best machine out there like most of us geeks do.
BTW, I only wish I had as fast a computer as you think. My PII will do for now.
The apple product might be a superior product, especially since they have continued to see the good in thier competitors and improve upon it, but for the average user, this isn't going to bring them over just yet. The price seems to be the determining factor for most, uninformed of course, buyers. These are the same consumers that wouldn't upgrade their hardware because they believe they lack the need.
If only they would start to release the software on third party hardware like the rumors suggest...
Unlike many americans, I am a minority. I know what it's like to be one of the few. I am white but have lived for two years in Panama in a city largely dominated by caribean black people. Most of them didn't want to be called black. Don't tell them what they want. I have a black friend here in the US that wants to be called black, but that doesn't mean everyone does. If you want to be called black, then fine us that, but not everyone does.
this is great. We all have seen this coming, but how is the industry going to take this and implement it. My bet is it won't. The only way that it will take hold is if you can find some small application that will take and apply it.
Because there is a trend. Studies find trends. These trends then are used to prepare and help those that are affected by that trend. You can also benefit from this trend. Maybe the results of this study aren't as helpful or universal as you would like, but it seems like something straight out of a sociology textbook. It's a valid study... take the good out of it and use it. Now you have a good reason to buy that big fancy monitor that you've always wanted.
it's absurd to say that women shouldn't do those tasks because they're not as good at them.
It's even more absurd to draw inacurate conclusions from a gender based study. I think that this article was meant to help those that don't have as great an ability in these areas, not to discriminate against them. If 8 out of 10 women, lets say, had impaired abilities in the areas tested by this study, and we find that it is easily fixed by a larger monitor, then obviously we've helped those 8 women.
No one is implying that women should be limited to, or from, any task. Studies find trends. These trends can then be used to help the society as a whole.
some women can't give birth. So cut this evolutionary psychology crap and judge people for who they are
so I guess we should just stop assuming women can give birth? I'll also stop assuming that if two african-american parents have a child that he will also be african-american. Genes are real. They have effects. You can't try and make this a political correct situation just by saying it isn't so.
We can say a lot about Americans. That they are stupid egomaniac boars don't know anything besides their own country, that their education system is horrible beyond repair, that they think with their cruise missiles,...
Or we can say a lot about you, who obviously has an ego and thinks that they know more about other countries than everyone else. It might be true in many respects that the US educational system has many follies, but it is revered by many, including the japanese (whom seem to many as the paragon of education), as an amazingly supportive system that fosters creativity. The sheer amount of inventions and ideas coming from the United States far outsells the physical exports from the US. Sure there are problems with our educational system, but why then are we the only nation that exports more services than physical goods.
Oh, but now you'll say that's my ego, but I'm not saying we're better because of that. I'm just trying to say look at things before you form such an opinion. Things aren't so black and white.
The US gov't doesn't care at all about the Iraqi people, just money. First thing we need to change about the way things are going is cut the proposed 73 billion dollar funding to support the war and help surrounding nations back to 45 billion dollars, so that we don't help anyone else out but ourselves. Do you read the newspapers? Most of the funding goes to the troops fighting and for materials, but almost a 1/3 goes to help other nations. The funding for reconstruction in Iraq isn't even considered in that funding.
Second, if the US didn't care, then why are they planning rebuilding Iraq and why do they care about not hitting vital systems to the iraqi people?
Third the US obviously cares more about the Iraqi people than their own republican gaurd who uses their own citizens as sheilds and mines the ports that the US is trying to use to send in relief and supplies for the iraqi people
You are not the only one that has lived in latin america, and most of the people that I know in Panama were pretty happy to act independant and want to kick the US out of the canal zone until they realized their nation would be losing most of it's tourism and other industries major consumers with the absence of the military. They all admit that if the US had never come in they'd still be getting sick with malaria, have horrible highways, have a horrible water supply, and wouldn't be one of the most industrialized and modern countries in all of latin america.
The US might be in most of the endeavors for itself and might put it's own interests first, but don't even try to act like they don't care about the iraqi people. That's just about as insane as the iraqi representative to the UN saying that the US is trying to exterminate the people of Iraq.
If the US didn't care at all, I would imagine that they would bomb all of Iraq to utter destruction kill every citizen they saw and only secure the oil wells and create military compounds around them. That would be easiest, cheapest, and the greatest return on the investment.
Locksmith: Sorry, your house is built so that you cannot change the locks. You must bulldoze the entire house and rebuild it with a new version, which includes better locks.
So are you saying that microsoft is telling the NT server community to also buy new hardware, rip out all the wiring, and start from scratch?
Yeah, the lock analogy has more to do with letting things in and out of an existing structure, sort of like a server does. And yes I know that it isn't perfect. But the lock analogy was closer than demolishing a whole house...
If you compare the rate of change involved in a standard house lock compared to the rate of change in technology aka software/os then you would see that the analogy may be off, but not by much.
So much changes in technology, as Moore's law predicted, that you cannot help but admit that innovations in household products seems to be going in slow motion. And 200 years in household innovations (at least as house locks go) is more similar to what the difference is in the 2003 server and the year that the NT was released.
RTFA. I don't know much about chinese law enforcement, but when the article says that it has to be manually verified and then approved by a senior official I don't think the chinese version of 911 would get by.
Plus, if someone wants to prank you, I'm sure that all these ads take plenty of time and money to produce and post. You can imagine that the police are going to waste all their money calling every phone number ever seen on the streets and bathroom stall, so they are going to go after the biggest posters first.
Why would you wan't to buy a
computer when you can build a much better computer than any "mainstream retailer" for a lot less money
($400-$800).
I guess I really don't know much about hardware. Where did you find the parts for this laptop that you can build for $400? The operating system may be free with linux (which is one reason I love it)but dell buys in huge quantities everything that it uses, and I haven't been able to find a laptop for less - with operating system or not. Have you? If you can build me a laptop for $400 dollars show me the specs and i'll buy.
the user will still pay out the ass to get windows over linux
A large number of users buy a computer with windows xp installed. I've been looking recently and can't find a cheaper "mainstream" retailer that sells linux boxes cheaper than windows. In fact I just bought a laptop. Dell had the cheapest one that I liked, and it came with xp. Finding anything comparable with just linux on it I found I would be paying out the ass to get linux over windows.
Sometimes windows is cheaper, and definitely easier to find on new computers...plain and simple
I've been checking into a new isp for a while. Out in Utah, highspeed is limited to attbi, qwest dsl, or earthlink dsl. Earthlink doesn't offer a phone service so that is going to eliminate them from the competition. With only two fighting for my money, the prices are going to sky rocket even more.
The lack of competition is going to hike the prices, but it isn't going to last long. Cable dsl is not going to be affected directly by this, and with time more lines - fiber optic in my area - will be laid.
It sucks for us, but there's validity in the argument. Why should they be entitled to use my property without me making a profit off it? If they laid the lines and paid for them theirselves, they should have the rights. I mean we're not in China now, we do have rights.
...besides necessity is the mother of invention, and wouldn't you like something better anyway
The truth of the matter is, if you can't get Explorer to work for you - which is pretty much sit back and do nothing - how did you learn how to post?
I've had linux crash on me as much as I've had XP crash on me. Sure, it's still windows and there's problems with it, but you need to figure your hardware out, before you start blaming a simple and stable product that my grandmother could figure out.
Slashdot Mirror
Writing your congressman can only do so much...Why, as geeks, can we not post the link to the RIAA website and all donate our clicks all at the same time, and really make a difference. Just think of the difference we could make with every RIAA article that is posted.
It's amazing that after decades on computer manufacturing that supply and demand has had the effect it seems it should have had earlier. This is ideal for so many applications and the demand has been there for years. Only now are we getting the components, and only those components, for an affordable price.
Indians have a british-indian accent.Try calling support (Belkin) in India. I have. I talked to 4 indian support agents that didn't understand my problem, and after trying any suggestion that I could understand from them I was still clueless. I finally called again and got some texan with a thick accent, and he understand everything first time and problem was resolved. Is that any indication as to their coding level, not really, but it is of their communication level.
junkbusters.com
or dmaconsumers.org
ha ha ha..."refers something"? Oh my!
The license is clear in the fact that it can only be installed, at least in it's full, non-trial, version, on one computer. If people don't want a product like that, then they shouldn't waste good money on it. Seems simple. Some called in with valid complaints about the system saying that they had only installed it on one computer and now the program is asking to be activated every time they use it. Most of the problems had more to do with antiquated computers running win95 than anything. Other times the problem was resolved rather fast or the product was refunded fully and an apology was made for it's inability to work on their system. I guess some of that is shoddy programming, not the use of a DRM application.
One other problem that many complained about with activation errors had to do with the customer trying to install the application on a network. This too had been warned of in the license. Some say that once they try and install it they have already opened the box and cannot return it after seeing the license, but once again, the refund is available.
I wonder how many of these people that complained actually tried to get their money back through the no questions asked 100% satisfaction gaurantee.
It's quite obvious that windows was developed for the end user in mind and might lead the market for many years to come in the PC market.
On the other hand Linux was built for the developer in mind and strangely enough still leads the market in the server area...Don't you recall the recent slashdot article that quoted the microsoft exec saying that windows 2003 is still playing catch up with the thing linux has had since it's arrival?
Different users in mind. Different leads in different markets
Having worked on the phones way too much in a college infested town, I realize that even though these techniques may hurt the company and cause the telemarketer to hate his job even more it doesn't usually reduce the calls you get. In fact the ruder that you are the more likely that a telemarketer will get his only form of revenge on you by dispositioning the call as a no answer or not avaliable. This can cause the dialer to call you back within minutes with an unsuspecting new telemarketer on the line ready to give his pitch and annoy you again. Sure this makes the telemarketing company lose money, but you will not beat the odds in the end.
Besides suing the company that calls you, the only way to gaurantee that you don't get called again is to ask to be put on the do not call list. This actually blocks the number on the dialer, and telemarketers would be much more likely to do this to a sensible and nice person who asks for them to please not call them. The average telemarketer hates his job and understands that people hate their calls. They hate getting calls too, so they will empathize with the one person that is actually decent and nice.
As long as there are broke college students that will do anything to pay for their pizza, tuition, and books these marketing companies will always have cheap labor.
your degree would have been worthless anyway if you weren't flexible enough to use your technical knowledge to apply it to business. Even if the IT field it going downhill, capitalism isn't...not yet at least
BTW, I only wish I had as fast a computer as you think. My PII will do for now.
Yeah I know I'm dumb, but what does this mean? I'm too curious to leave it alone...
If only they would start to release the software on third party hardware like the rumors suggest...
Unlike many americans, I am a minority. I know what it's like to be one of the few. I am white but have lived for two years in Panama in a city largely dominated by caribean black people. Most of them didn't want to be called black. Don't tell them what they want. I have a black friend here in the US that wants to be called black, but that doesn't mean everyone does. If you want to be called black, then fine us that, but not everyone does.
this is great. We all have seen this coming, but how is the industry going to take this and implement it. My bet is it won't. The only way that it will take hold is if you can find some small application that will take and apply it.
Because there is a trend. Studies find trends. These trends then are used to prepare and help those that are affected by that trend. You can also benefit from this trend. Maybe the results of this study aren't as helpful or universal as you would like, but it seems like something straight out of a sociology textbook. It's a valid study... take the good out of it and use it. Now you have a good reason to buy that big fancy monitor that you've always wanted.
It's even more absurd to draw inacurate conclusions from a gender based study. I think that this article was meant to help those that don't have as great an ability in these areas, not to discriminate against them. If 8 out of 10 women, lets say, had impaired abilities in the areas tested by this study, and we find that it is easily fixed by a larger monitor, then obviously we've helped those 8 women.
No one is implying that women should be limited to, or from, any task. Studies find trends. These trends can then be used to help the society as a whole.
some women can't give birth. So cut this evolutionary psychology crap and judge people for who they are
so I guess we should just stop assuming women can give birth? I'll also stop assuming that if two african-american parents have a child that he will also be african-american. Genes are real. They have effects. You can't try and make this a political correct situation just by saying it isn't so.
Or we can say a lot about you, who obviously has an ego and thinks that they know more about other countries than everyone else. It might be true in many respects that the US educational system has many follies, but it is revered by many, including the japanese (whom seem to many as the paragon of education), as an amazingly supportive system that fosters creativity. The sheer amount of inventions and ideas coming from the United States far outsells the physical exports from the US. Sure there are problems with our educational system, but why then are we the only nation that exports more services than physical goods.
Oh, but now you'll say that's my ego, but I'm not saying we're better because of that. I'm just trying to say look at things before you form such an opinion. Things aren't so black and white.
The US gov't doesn't care at all about the Iraqi people, just money. First thing we need to change about the way things are going is cut the proposed 73 billion dollar funding to support the war and help surrounding nations back to 45 billion dollars, so that we don't help anyone else out but ourselves. Do you read the newspapers? Most of the funding goes to the troops fighting and for materials, but almost a 1/3 goes to help other nations. The funding for reconstruction in Iraq isn't even considered in that funding.
Second, if the US didn't care, then why are they planning rebuilding Iraq and why do they care about not hitting vital systems to the iraqi people?
Third the US obviously cares more about the Iraqi people than their own republican gaurd who uses their own citizens as sheilds and mines the ports that the US is trying to use to send in relief and supplies for the iraqi people
You are not the only one that has lived in latin america, and most of the people that I know in Panama were pretty happy to act independant and want to kick the US out of the canal zone until they realized their nation would be losing most of it's tourism and other industries major consumers with the absence of the military. They all admit that if the US had never come in they'd still be getting sick with malaria, have horrible highways, have a horrible water supply, and wouldn't be one of the most industrialized and modern countries in all of latin america.
The US might be in most of the endeavors for itself and might put it's own interests first, but don't even try to act like they don't care about the iraqi people. That's just about as insane as the iraqi representative to the UN saying that the US is trying to exterminate the people of Iraq.
If the US didn't care at all, I would imagine that they would bomb all of Iraq to utter destruction kill every citizen they saw and only secure the oil wells and create military compounds around them. That would be easiest, cheapest, and the greatest return on the investment.
Yeah, the lock analogy has more to do with letting things in and out of an existing structure, sort of like a server does. And yes I know that it isn't perfect. But the lock analogy was closer than demolishing a whole house...
So much changes in technology, as Moore's law predicted, that you cannot help but admit that innovations in household products seems to be going in slow motion. And 200 years in household innovations (at least as house locks go) is more similar to what the difference is in the 2003 server and the year that the NT was released.
Plus, if someone wants to prank you, I'm sure that all these ads take plenty of time and money to produce and post. You can imagine that the police are going to waste all their money calling every phone number ever seen on the streets and bathroom stall, so they are going to go after the biggest posters first.
Why would you wan't to buy a computer when you can build a much better computer than any "mainstream retailer" for a lot less money ($400-$800). I guess I really don't know much about hardware. Where did you find the parts for this laptop that you can build for $400? The operating system may be free with linux (which is one reason I love it)but dell buys in huge quantities everything that it uses, and I haven't been able to find a laptop for less - with operating system or not. Have you? If you can build me a laptop for $400 dollars show me the specs and i'll buy.
A large number of users buy a computer with windows xp installed. I've been looking recently and can't find a cheaper "mainstream" retailer that sells linux boxes cheaper than windows. In fact I just bought a laptop. Dell had the cheapest one that I liked, and it came with xp. Finding anything comparable with just linux on it I found I would be paying out the ass to get linux over windows.
Sometimes windows is cheaper, and definitely easier to find on new computers...plain and simple
The lack of competition is going to hike the prices, but it isn't going to last long. Cable dsl is not going to be affected directly by this, and with time more lines - fiber optic in my area - will be laid.
It sucks for us, but there's validity in the argument. Why should they be entitled to use my property without me making a profit off it? If they laid the lines and paid for them theirselves, they should have the rights. I mean we're not in China now, we do have rights.
...besides necessity is the mother of invention, and wouldn't you like something better anyway
I've had linux crash on me as much as I've had XP crash on me. Sure, it's still windows and there's problems with it, but you need to figure your hardware out, before you start blaming a simple and stable product that my grandmother could figure out.