"The same thing happened to all the glowing reviews of Half Life 2 (iirc) on amazon.co.uk - there were literally dozens of 5 star reviews for it (and Doom3, etc)."
Maybe they managed to get the leaked source code to work!
Re:Kinda gives a new meaning to '1337 hAx0r2'.
on
Ready, Aim, HACK!
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· Score: 2, Interesting
" Do you really think you wouldn't go to jail for aiming that thing at someone?"
You're right, they might shoot first and ask questions later.
Any moron who actually does this in public deserves the Darwin award they get.
So, rather than bitching on Slashdot, how about you all write your Attorney General and tell him why this shouldn't be allowed, and how they are grossly misinformed about P2P. If someone would be kind enough to post the email address for the Attorney Generals of all 50 states I'm sure we'd all appreciate it.
And even if I were to purchase something from you, I am STILL not a consumer. I am a CUSTOMER!
And I feel there is a difference. A consumer is someone you can just toss around, trample all over, and still demand money from because there will always be another one waiting in line. A customer is someone who you treat with respect because you want their return business.
So correct me if I'm wrong...but this seems like they are offering you a smattering of new and utterly useless features, for 20 bucks a month. It was hard to tell though as the story blurb was kind of hard to decipher. Perhaps someone can give some clarification as to why ANYBODY would do this.
Which means that when those employees do leave, it might be a good time to hit Google up for employment..errr, wait, nevermind. Don't do that! Least not until I get hired!
Now, its been pointed out that they are not offering 1 million, but several prizes adding up to that sum. And this total is obviously less than actually developing the product itself would be for them.
However, I think in the future, it is fair that OS developers get paid a large amount of money even if its not near what the company would have to pay. Its a lot for an individual, and its basically freelance work for a LOT of money. I don't really see a problem with this pricing, except with the fact that they get to keep all entries and there is no guarantee of the money.
"If Blockbuster can not trust me to return a movie, even when they can bill my credit card outrageous fees (making them rich) then they can SHOVE IT!"
You have a choice, either let them call you, or let them charge you automatically. Otherwise don't rent from there as there are other video stores to choose from. Frankly, they could care less if you tell them to shove it because they have people lined up to throw their money at them. I just told you why the need the number, and what you might be able to do about it, but I can tell you're one of those people who refuses to listen to reason. I'm sure you'll find an excuse to put down my suggestion of giving them a fake phone number as well.
For those of us who don't have any clue what Doctor Who is except for a vague idea, could someone please give a little bit of backstory on the Daleks, what they are, some links to pictures perhaps, etc? Thanks.
Well, either way people will bitch and moan. Take CatWoman for example, sure it was a completely horrible movie for more reasons than I can count, but one of the things critics found fault with was that it wasn't based off the original Cat Woman story in the least bit.
So either way, you're going to have people pissed off. At least this way you get to see old time favorites recreated with a new vision.
Well, here's the situation. They can send you a letter reminding you about your late rental, but there's no way of guaranteeing a response from that as well as you could by calling someone and actually speaking to them. Or they could just charge your credit card, its up to you.
They can get your phone number just as easily by doing a reverse lookup from your address, so its really pointless, and all you are doing is making it more difficult to inform you about important account information such as late rentals or someone else using your account.
You can ask not to receive solicitations from them, and they honor it. As much as I hate Blockbuster (even more so after working for them) they are not evil in regards to your phone number.
The difference is that the RIAA/MPPA et al want you to think that it IS theft, and thus a criminal offense. And unfortunately it seems to be working. If people had a better grasp of what the situation and terms actually were, perhaps they would get a bit more pissed at some of the actions of the labels.
What exactly would you prefer he do? He's not going to just be ho-hum about his company or his products. And he had the tech and innovation to back it up. I fail to see what the problem with this is.
You can't hate someone just because he's in marketing, he's got a job to do, which is get people excited about the company and its products, and it seems like he did a good job without relying too much on plain hype. They actually have the crap they're pushing and it seems like it will be as good if not better than they say.
"Do we have a right to privacy? Sure. Do we have a right to keep criminal conversations private? No. Is this subject to abuse? Sure. Will we be abused by criminals who conspire in private? Of course."
You forgot one more question.
"Will we be abused by FBI, lawenforcement, etc. whenever they feel like it? Of course."
You may not want your privacy, but don't ruin it for the rest of us. Its only a matter of time before things slide down a bit on the slippery slope and things that were once perfectly legal and necessary for this to remain the free country it is will become illegal. Its already started.
Now lets fast forward 5-10 years. Lets say there is pervasive wifi in every major city. Now lets say portable video players have become mainstream, most likely due to Apple releasing a video iPod or something.
Just imagine if TIVO had a service where you could subscribe to them (and you'd probably have to be a cable subscriber at home as well), and they would be able to stream or send the shows you scheduled to your PMP wherever you are. That would be seriously cool, and more than enough incentive to make me pay a lot of money for a PMP and TIVO.
As a (thankfully) ex-Blockbuster employee, perhaps I can shed some light on this.
I'm not in the least bit surprised that the employees had no clue about whether blockbuster phones you or not. This is a corporate thing, and unless they tried to call, and a number was not working and someone bothered to change it in the computer, or someone told them the number wasn't valid any more, they wouldn't give a crap about changing it themselves, so it most likely is corporate doing something.
Now, that being said, 99.9% of Blockbuster employees don't give a flying fuck about the little message that says "invalid phone number". They just press enter or whatever it was to get out of the prompt (or perhaps there isn't even a prompt, just a message in the corner, its been a while so I forget) and ring you up. It sounds like this girl was being extra careful to dot her I's and cross her T's because she was the temporary manager and wanted to do everything perfectly, which is completely understandable. Instead of getting so upset about it (I can see why you would be though) in the future, you should just find a different employee to ring you up a little bit later when the bitchy one is busy, or just give them any random phone number you want. They don't check it on the spot, and the computer doesn't either, it would just show up as invalid next time.
This all being said, they need a valid phone number in case they need to reach you regarding an overdue movie (they like to hastle you like creditors). They also need a phone number in the system to call you for a bunch of other possible reasons, such as someone unauthorized using your card, etc. I can't really fault them for that as it proved useful time and time again.
"When a company turns their consumers into their product (advertisees), it's time to quit. Every industry is slowly killing their own products and instead relying on advertisers. The result is the advertisers run the companies."
First, you are wrong. Many companies rely on advertisers to provide funding so they can provide a quality product and get more customers (which = more ad dolloars). A perfect example is Google. They are not killing their own product, and in fact it helps make it better.
And example of an industry where it kills the quality of the product would be television. The tv execs put on whatever programming will get them more ad dollars, often at our expense. Perhaps this will drive them out of business, perhaps not.
Advertising is a necessary part of the world, and plenty of businesses can sustain themselves, be quality, and profitable while relying soley on ads and using their consumers as their product.
Personally, I'd love this. When I get old, depending on my life circumstances, I would like to be put into stasis for 30-50 years or so, and wake up in the future. It would be risky, yes, but they might have technology to extend my age greatly by then, and it would be completely fascinating to just explore a whole new world like that.
I myself experienced similar feelings of deprivation while traveling in Europe. Of course I had net cafes, but those were few and far between.
I think the bulk of the anxiety I experienced from this deprivation was due to the fact that when online, I check my news everyday, use up any turns I have in games, check for new anime releases etc. While I'm away, there is a LOT of important news I might be missing, I'm giving up all those turns and falling behind, and I may miss out on anime episodes because it may get licensed or people may stop seeding it. So, I think the anxiety caused by this is pretty valid.
Thank you for missing the ENTIRE point of my post. Please point out exactly where I said that copyright infringement was neither illegal nor immoral? Oh wait, I didn't!
My point was that theft, stealing, etc, are a completely different classification of offense than copyright infringement. My point is, that if you are trying to discuss a legal issue, you need to use proper terminology, and the only proper terminology in this case is "copyright infringement".
" But on the flip side, no one is charged with "theft." They are charged with larceny or embezzelment or one of the various other versions of "theft.""
" I honestly don't understand why people like you get bent out of shape when people call infringers thieves. I mean really, what do you gain out of correcting them?"
You are correct in your first quote that larceny and embezzelment are types of theft. The reason people get pissed though over being called thieves is because theft (including the two types you listed above) is a criminal offense, while copyright infringement is a civil one. We get pissed because we don't like being called criminals, when, legally, we are not, we are people who have commited a civil offense.
"so when they arrived, the soldiers thought they might get shot if they opened their pocket for a condom or something."
Um....if a soldier is reaching into a velcro pocket for a condom in combat, I think he might have to worry about some noises louder than velcro giving away his position.
Slashdot Mirror
Maybe they managed to get the leaked source code to work!
You're right, they might shoot first and ask questions later.
Any moron who actually does this in public deserves the Darwin award they get.
And I feel there is a difference. A consumer is someone you can just toss around, trample all over, and still demand money from because there will always be another one waiting in line. A customer is someone who you treat with respect because you want their return business.
However, I think in the future, it is fair that OS developers get paid a large amount of money even if its not near what the company would have to pay. Its a lot for an individual, and its basically freelance work for a LOT of money. I don't really see a problem with this pricing, except with the fact that they get to keep all entries and there is no guarantee of the money.
You have a choice, either let them call you, or let them charge you automatically. Otherwise don't rent from there as there are other video stores to choose from. Frankly, they could care less if you tell them to shove it because they have people lined up to throw their money at them. I just told you why the need the number, and what you might be able to do about it, but I can tell you're one of those people who refuses to listen to reason. I'm sure you'll find an excuse to put down my suggestion of giving them a fake phone number as well.
So either way, you're going to have people pissed off. At least this way you get to see old time favorites recreated with a new vision.
They can get your phone number just as easily by doing a reverse lookup from your address, so its really pointless, and all you are doing is making it more difficult to inform you about important account information such as late rentals or someone else using your account.
You can ask not to receive solicitations from them, and they honor it. As much as I hate Blockbuster (even more so after working for them) they are not evil in regards to your phone number.
You can't hate someone just because he's in marketing, he's got a job to do, which is get people excited about the company and its products, and it seems like he did a good job without relying too much on plain hype. They actually have the crap they're pushing and it seems like it will be as good if not better than they say.
You forgot one more question.
"Will we be abused by FBI, lawenforcement, etc. whenever they feel like it? Of course."
You may not want your privacy, but don't ruin it for the rest of us. Its only a matter of time before things slide down a bit on the slippery slope and things that were once perfectly legal and necessary for this to remain the free country it is will become illegal. Its already started.
Just imagine if TIVO had a service where you could subscribe to them (and you'd probably have to be a cable subscriber at home as well), and they would be able to stream or send the shows you scheduled to your PMP wherever you are. That would be seriously cool, and more than enough incentive to make me pay a lot of money for a PMP and TIVO.
I'm not in the least bit surprised that the employees had no clue about whether blockbuster phones you or not. This is a corporate thing, and unless they tried to call, and a number was not working and someone bothered to change it in the computer, or someone told them the number wasn't valid any more, they wouldn't give a crap about changing it themselves, so it most likely is corporate doing something.
Now, that being said, 99.9% of Blockbuster employees don't give a flying fuck about the little message that says "invalid phone number". They just press enter or whatever it was to get out of the prompt (or perhaps there isn't even a prompt, just a message in the corner, its been a while so I forget) and ring you up. It sounds like this girl was being extra careful to dot her I's and cross her T's because she was the temporary manager and wanted to do everything perfectly, which is completely understandable. Instead of getting so upset about it (I can see why you would be though) in the future, you should just find a different employee to ring you up a little bit later when the bitchy one is busy, or just give them any random phone number you want. They don't check it on the spot, and the computer doesn't either, it would just show up as invalid next time.
This all being said, they need a valid phone number in case they need to reach you regarding an overdue movie (they like to hastle you like creditors). They also need a phone number in the system to call you for a bunch of other possible reasons, such as someone unauthorized using your card, etc. I can't really fault them for that as it proved useful time and time again.
First, you are wrong. Many companies rely on advertisers to provide funding so they can provide a quality product and get more customers (which = more ad dolloars). A perfect example is Google. They are not killing their own product, and in fact it helps make it better.
And example of an industry where it kills the quality of the product would be television. The tv execs put on whatever programming will get them more ad dollars, often at our expense. Perhaps this will drive them out of business, perhaps not.
Advertising is a necessary part of the world, and plenty of businesses can sustain themselves, be quality, and profitable while relying soley on ads and using their consumers as their product.
I think the bulk of the anxiety I experienced from this deprivation was due to the fact that when online, I check my news everyday, use up any turns I have in games, check for new anime releases etc. While I'm away, there is a LOT of important news I might be missing, I'm giving up all those turns and falling behind, and I may miss out on anime episodes because it may get licensed or people may stop seeding it. So, I think the anxiety caused by this is pretty valid.
My point was that theft, stealing, etc, are a completely different classification of offense than copyright infringement. My point is, that if you are trying to discuss a legal issue, you need to use proper terminology, and the only proper terminology in this case is "copyright infringement".
" I honestly don't understand why people like you get bent out of shape when people call infringers thieves. I mean really, what do you gain out of correcting them?"
You are correct in your first quote that larceny and embezzelment are types of theft. The reason people get pissed though over being called thieves is because theft (including the two types you listed above) is a criminal offense, while copyright infringement is a civil one. We get pissed because we don't like being called criminals, when, legally, we are not, we are people who have commited a civil offense.
Um....if a soldier is reaching into a velcro pocket for a condom in combat, I think he might have to worry about some noises louder than velcro giving away his position.