Since I haven't heard HD audio, I'll have to remain skeptical. All I can say is that I have not seen any videogame for the XBOX that supports anything more than DTS 5.1, so it would seem the point of having HDMI on an XBOX is rather moot.
What content currently provides HD audio? I have a Denon 4306 tuner and a Bowers & Wilkins 8xx series speaker setup so I'm completely prepared for whatever tech has to throw at me audio-wise in the foreseeable future, but I have yet to see much content in that format.
Also, I haven't found any decent tuners with many HDMI inputs on them. One or two seems typical. What are you going to do when your PS3, XBOX, HD-DVD and Blue-Ray DVD players and your cable box all require HDMI? Start plugging them directly into your television? Meh.
Anyway, the issue here is "what is the point of HDMI on the xbox 360". So far, I see none. The 360 only does 1080i on videogames. It does 5.1 on the audio. I see no need for anything beyond a high quality set of component cables for this.
First, let's acknowledge that this incident was a non-issue. Does anyone on this planet actually believe that it wasn't Sinbad or his publicist who edited the Wikipedia entry in the first place?
That aside, I'd like to point out that they are focusing on the wrong problems here.
Incorrect information that everyone knows is incorrect will swiftly be corrected. That isn't a problem. The real danger is when information is correct, but not recognized by the majority as being correct. You then end up with false information certified by the uninformed, mislead or simply incorrect majority.
The other large problem is the number of articles regarding people or subjects that are controversial and stir up emotions on both sides of the issue. The Wikipedia community becomes so bogged down in debating the subject and trying to ensure that the resulting article is completely devoid of anything even remotely biased-sounding to them that valid and reasonable information (like comments Anne Coulter made which caused a lot of controversy) are left out entirely. Some articles become incredibly bland and lacking so as to appease everyone.
It would seem that facts are facts and there should be no limit on the number or details of facts that are appropriate for a Wikipedia entry, as long as they are included in a sensible format. Instead, the attempt often seems to be to include the top ten percent of information about a subject and leaving out the rest. I presume the expectation is that the rest of the information will always exist elsewhere, so just provide a quick rundown on Wikipedia. Seems counterintuitive to the entire premise of a worldly collection of information.
I'm a huge wikipedia fan, but as I've stated - the general consensus agreeing to edit-out valid information is a greater fear of mine than the unlikely situation of invalid information somehow escaping the thousand-eyes.
What a worthless bundle. First of all as we already covered in a previous XBOX 360 Elite article, there is no benefit to using HDMI instead of a component-cable. Second, by using HDMI, you are actually submitting to HDCP (DRM, content control stuff).
So what you're really getting out of this product is a larger hard drive. Whether a bigger hard drive is worth an extra $80 to you is for you to decide. I fail, however, to understand how nothing more than a larger hard drive and a black paint job makes it elite.
I'm going to guess there will be a flood of idiots rushing out to buy it - even to replace their existing boxes - because they think HDMI is some nifty high-definition thingamajig and then they'll rush home and plug it in and convince themselves that they really do see a difference.
If you really want to make it elite, make it quieter, cooler and less prone to dying.
Bloggers are not of that caliber. They really need to get over themselves. Just because they're important in their own head doesn't mean they're important to any particular industry, company, organization, group or subject. There is nothing worse than being stuck in a room full of aspiring writers, except perhaps being stuck in a room full of bloggers who are aspiring Woodward and Bern steins.
The team first started to use evolution back in 2004 when they made the chicken robot "Henriette", yes a chicken. The chicken robot used evolution, this time software based to learn how to walk on its own. Oh no! The sky is falling! The sky is falling!
I, for one, think my brain just broke. That blurb was really long for having absolutely no content or description of what the hell about the hardware was evolving. Maybe the religious nuts were right -- evolution really is evil!
Drum up some press and hype for an earth-shattering secret announcement. Perhaps something from Apple. Hand out passes to every idiot with a blogger.com account or wordpress installed on their server. They'll feel so important and worthy that they'll definitely show up for the event.
Herd them all into the assembly hall where they would expect the announcement.
Bloggers will never be considered real journalists, just like people who sell herbal supplements will never be real pharmacists or doctors. Journalists have degrees. They are professionals. Bloggers are... well, people with an opinion and a keyboard and an inflated sense of self-entitlement.
If I was holding a press event or an industry meeting, I would invite journalists. I might extend that offer to very established and reputable bloggers that I was very familiar with if I felt particularly compelled - but I would feel in no way obligated to start sending out passes and invitations to every jackhole with more than a dozen people reading his RSS feed.
Look, I don't think that professional journalists are somehow better than the rest of the world or that their opinions matter more, but at the same time, just because you're some dick with a fucking wordpress or blogger.com site doesn't mean you're owed admission as press to anything anywhere. Get over your god damn self. You have a keyboard and an opinion not necessarily a degree and a practice sense of professionalism.
There are two things I hate. Journalists who have huge egos and think they are superior and bloggers who think they are journalists or even superior to them. I have a video camera and an idea for a movie. That doesn't make me a fucking member of the Directors Guild.
I suspect that it's simply a matter of Microsoft seeing no true benefit in cooperating and operating hand-in-hand. If there was potential benefit, they'd do it. Simple as that. I think he'll have to try much harder to plead his case to get a corporation to want to unfold its arms for anything it doesn't see as directly improving its own bottom line.
The First, Fourth, Fifth, Sixth and Eight amendments have been enormously eroded, if not entirely wiped out.
The Ninth and Tenth amendments have been seriously degraded.
But don't worry, you still have the right to arm yourself and refuse quarter to foreign troops.
If you need information on how these have been eroded, google around for information on things such as free-speech zones where the government has decided that it can not dictate the content of free speech, but that they can dictate who exercises it, when they can exercise it and where they exercise it. Also see the censorship of certain scientific and political releases for partisan reasons.
Also look into how your right to no search and seizure without probable cause has been eroded. How we have done away with many instances of due process, cruel punishment and the right to face your accuser.
And as to why people don't seem to care? Ask ten random people, in person, to list the ten amendments that make up the Bill of Rights. I bet only half will name more than four.
Agreed. This is a rather simple step to take, but one that a lot of us might not consider if we are in the position to make such decisions and efforts. OSS and Linux can be introduced in baby-steps, until the targeted person or persons is using largely open and free applications and even operating systems without really even realizing it.
We're often too forceful with our fanatical upholding of our favored philosophies and operating systems to the detriment of our own goals. Our enthusiasm can't be forced on someone else. The enthusiasm can be seeded in another person, though. And if you cultivate it slowly and carefully, they will appreciate it even grow to feel they discovered it of their own accord, which will make them more willing to promote and evangelize the experience and the products than if we forced it on them wholesale out of the blue.
The title of the article was misleading. Buying cool versus making cool. Yes, in this case making cool is expensive and they are investing in it, as opposed to the average joe just starting up their own site that becomes cool.
That said, Youtube is not a small time site. It never was. You could say that the original creators did buy cool. One of the two guys is from an affluent family and I believe his wife's father (who is some big CEO somewhere or something like that) helped invest heavily in getting youtube off the ground. It frustrates me when people talk about Youtube like it is some phenom that started from the underground by some kid in his bedroom. It was started by a couple of older guys who had a lot of money and connections and the means to make something big. It's the difference between a Subway and a McDonald's . . . neither of them is your local mom and pop sandwich shop.
Of course, we can argue all day long as to whether MySpace is cool. I think most of us can agree that it certainly is not. Same for Youtube. Both are just places for teenage self-indulgent attention whores to whine about how hard life is, shake their asses and lipsynch on video as if the rest of the world cares.
It appears to me that all NBC is doing is creating a site where you can go to get their content. Of course, you know it's going to be restricted like crazy. But having a place to go and watch NBC content (other than Heroes, what the hell is there to watch?!) doesn't make it a youtube site. Youtube is Youtube because it has tens of millions of videos by tens of millions of wannabe stars who live for attention.
Newscorp didn't go out and create their own myspace. They bought myspace. NBC isn't going out there and buying youtube. They're trying to create their own. And it's not going to work. As bad as youtube sucks ass, the NBC version will be even worse.
NBC creating their own "youtube" will be like a poor kid who has to wear clothes that his mom made for him out of scraps, while all his friends and classmates go to school in brandname. It'll be the K-Mart and Value Village of video sites.
I would have just assumed that if I was going to make a warranty claim, I would have to do so while running the supported environment. Back up the linux install and throw on a Windows install. Then send the laptop in to have the parts replaced. No big deal.
Sometimes software actually can damage hardware (I've seen bad linux distros and apps screw with hard drives until they burned out), so I don't see that it's too much of a stretch. And even if that weren't a concern, I would assume the techs that received my laptop might want to log into the laptop to run some tests or check stuff... and they would ant a familiar environment to do that through.
So, I don't really see the big story here. If they say that they don't support linux, that means they don't support linux. Period. It's not like they said "if you ever had linux installed on your laptop at any point, we will not honor the warranty EVER".
Rather than be all about the glory of me every time someone has threatened me through my site or elsewhere and then posting it, commenting on it, asking for others in the community to defend me and stand up for me, I've kept my mouth shut, forwarded the offending emails or posts to the person's ISP with a letter of explanation, blocked the account and moved on with my life.
I don't bother responding to the person. I don't post about it on the internet. I don't aim for Scoble or Slashdot to post about it. I don't look for the police to send a squad car over and post a man at my front door. And I've had far worse "threatened" than I am seeing in this story.
Often - especially for repeat offenders - ISPs will be very helpful. Especially if you have documented as much as you can about an individual. Show the server logs with timestamps and IPs. Provide email addresses, message headers, post contents and any other information you happen to have (in my case, sometimes account information that they registered with that may or may not be accurate).
But posting on the internet about it accomplishes nothing. If anything, it opens you up to more nut cases who know that you're a good target, because you'll freak out about it and give them the reaction they so desperately want.
I know there are real criminals who really stalk people over the internet and then in person and commit real rape or murder. That's horrific and when it appears to be of that nature, by all means press forward and spare nothing in the effort. But to make this much out of some lame blog troll who says they wish harm to come to you followed by some gross sexual comment and then throws out a couple of lame photoshops (I believe I saw one with panties over a head - it's not like these were photoshops of a slit throat or anything if I'm correct?) kind of diminishes people who are legitimately being threatened over the net and have completely rational fears for their safety because of realistic threats by someone.
But in the comment I read, this person didn't threaten anyway. They said they hoped that someone else did something to them. And really, the point is that you can't just go around being threatened by every crazy person on the internet who takes the time to try to offend, insult or hurt you. There are hundreds of millions of people on the internet worldwide and at any one time there are probably a dozen who hate your guts. And maybe a couple who will say so vocally. Do we really want to waste the time and resources to hunt down every anonymous lunatic who says "you're a fucking idiot and I hope you choke on your vomit and get eaten by a pack of dogs" on your blog because they disagree with your politics or religion or review of a movie or something?
Not to mention, threatening a blogger who writes about Java?! How much do you want to wager the person making those "threats" can't even get out of his chair, much less stalk someone without getting winded?
I'm not saying true threats that are truly threatening to a person in the physical world shouldn't be taken seriously. I'm just saying that there is a difference between wishing someone ill will and being crude, gross and vulgar and actually threatening to do something to them or suggesting that you could if you wanted to (ie, I know where you live) and we can't all stop the world every time someone feels something is offensive or threatening. How many times have Slashdot editors had worse said about them by name on here? How many times have they made a point of posting about it, manipulating others or shaming others into defending them and then pulling the authorities into it while they claim to be hiding in a dark room of their house with the front door and windows locked?
If this seemed like a legitimate threat and not just some crazy freak on the internet, I'd be completely sympathetic to the situation. While my view is clearly unpopular here, I am sticking to my guns that what I've seen so far does not justify this "nervous breakdown" response. There is a whole lot of over-reacting going on here and I'm sure that the dumbass who made the posts to begin with is even more proud of themselves than if she had simply deleted the posts, banned the account/IP and ignored it.
Cyber-stalk me all you like. What are they going to do, spam me to death? Pingflood my head off?
Can we please be rational about this for a minute? Seriously, making some gross sexual comments and saying that someone is a waste of flesh or whatever via the internet is not even remotely the same thing as having a death threat mailed to you at home or left via the telephone.
Further, the couple of comments I read that were left by this person were horrible, but are they really the quality of comments that should be taken seriously? Have any of us not had something along the lines of "fuck off you boring slut... i hope someone slits your throat and cums down your gob" said to us or to someone else that we've read on the internet a thousand times over? People say some very disturbing shit on the internet, but that doesn't mean that they're all out to stalk and murder and rape us. They're just creeps with big mouths.
Now, if this person were making comments about knowing where the "victim" lives or other personality identifying information to give weight to the idea that they are seriously capable of and willing to make some physical effort in the real world, then that is a different story. But Calling someone a boring slut and saying you hope someone cuts their throat - while fucking disturbing as hell - is not the same as sending them an email saying that you know where they live and they better watch themselves next time they go grocery shopping.
By the way, back in the BBS days I actually did have some creep find out where I lived and at about midnight, drove down our street, found our house, knocked on the door and asked my parents to speak to me (this was in about 1993 and I was sixteen). That was fucking creepy. I don't know who the guy was or what his deal was. Only that he was from the same MajorBBS/WorldBBS server that my friends and I hung out on. And THAT guy didn't just say some random absurd shit like the guy posting on this person's blog. THAT guy actually said "I know where you live and i'm going to come kick your fucking ass".
If you involve the authorities every time some lunatic online says you should die or something, the authorities are going to stop giving a damn and won't give credence to real people who are truly being "stalked" and intimidated instead of just chronically verbally attacked by some bored douchebag with nothing better to do than try to make you quit your blogging.
I don't know why, but my first response to reading this article was to laugh out loud.
It reminds me of Fry's Electronics. They used to (or still do?) have a dial-up internet service you can use. I'm sure it's the greatest. *cough*
Anyway, it makes a lot of sense. They got in trouble for having prices on the internet that lure you to their stores and then display a DIFFERENT site available only internally once you get there to show you that the sale item you came for actually was not on sale and that you must have been mistaken.
This way, they control your connection to the main site, too! They can watch when you go to a competitor's website and have their servers automatically re-price the competitor's product as it is sent to your browser so everyone except Best Buy seems expensive. This is GENIUS! Well done, Best Buy!
Okay, one of us has had too much caffeine... and I think I know which one.
I know I'm going to get modded to hell for my posts in this thread, but whatever. I think there is more than enough navel-gazing going on in this and other threads on this topic, so we can afford to consider other opinions.
Yes, she needs to regain some semblance of self. Based on the couple of comments I saw which were incredibly disgusting and uncalled for, I can see that she would be offended. But really. She needs to get a hold of herself. She calls it mysogyny because someone posts "fuck off you boring slut... i hope someone slits your throat and cums down your gob" on a couple of blogs? Is she new to the internet or something? Name a blog out there that hasn't had even worse repeatedly posted on them. Even directed toward specific individuals? Liberals, conservatives, religious people, atheists, people of different ethnicities and sizes and colors and shapes and views and backgrounds and opinions have things like that said to them online all the time. They don't immediately cancel all events and lock themselves in their home for fear of their life like this person claims she is doing.
I've had people completely lose it on my site. Seriously, I have witnessed people have flat out breakdowns over the last nine years when I've banned them. They'll return with dozens of accounts and post the most shocking and creepy things. They've made vile and repulsive threats. One of them has been doing this for FOUR YEARS across the internet and via email and myspace and various false accounts AND THEY ARE STILL DOING IT! All over having their account banned!
But still.. it's the internet. If this stuff were being sent via the USPS or voicemails or phone calls or something, I'd say it should be taken more seriously. As it is, ban the account and the IP and move on. If you waste your life on every skinflint like that, you'll never have time for anything else.
And by the way - what the hell is with labeling the entire tech industry as a bunch of misogynists because of this guy? The internet is anonymous. How do we know this guy isn't a burger flipper somewhere or a school teacher or a lawyer? Just because he's posting on a tech related blog doesn't mean he's some industry insider somewhere venting his sickening Freudian rage toward women or something.
Seriously, does nobody think guys like Dvorak and Malda and many others haven't had to put up with this stuff? I'm sure it happens all the time. They just don't have a nervous breakdown over it.
Regardless of how vile people can be (as I mentioned my own experiences in another post here), it's still the internet. I'm sorry, but I'm not going to take a threat on the internet serious. My information is completely publicly available and I've had people who I've banned for their behavior on my site spread offensive rumors about me on the web and even threaten to cut my head off. But what are you gonna do? It's the internet. Going to spend a few months of your life with the police and a lawyer hunting down some skinflint who's all bark and no bite?
When these things have happened to me, I didn't even bother to post about it on my site or elsewhere. Why would I? Who cares about it? So while I have sympathy for this person's situation, I also think there is a bit of attention-getting going on here. Look at me getting' threats and mean comments from nutcases! Poor me! Give me some attention intarweb!
Now, I'm sure this person in question is a talented, kind, decent person. I'm not saying they deserve any of the comments or threats they've been getting whatsoever. But really... dude... it's the fucking internet.
I've had members of my site become brutal and rather scary after I've had to ban them for fraudulent and other unacceptable behavior against other users. On more than a couple occasions, they have done things like dig up my phone number and make threatening phone calls. Call police in my state and make various absurd false reports. Spread insanely ridiculous things about me on the internet, email me and post to my website the most vile, disgusting, threatening things you can imagine.
But what can you do? Are you going to lock yourself in a bunker the rest of your life to keep yourself safe from mentally imbalanced teenagers and idiot, vindictive, insane adults?
I've had people flat out threaten to hunt me down and cut my head off if I didn't restore their banned accounts and I've had one post things across the web that are among the most vile and disgusting and insulting things you can claim about a person. But I'm not out there asking everyone to stick up for me or... well.. even wasting two seconds on it. People are dicks. Life is hard. A lot of people say a lot of shit and don't follow through. Either grow a spine or go away. There's no sense being a big baby about it because someone hates you. And if someone really has you fearing for your life, then do something about it besides blogging about it and trying to manipulate other people into sticking up for you.
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Since I haven't heard HD audio, I'll have to remain skeptical. All I can say is that I have not seen any videogame for the XBOX that supports anything more than DTS 5.1, so it would seem the point of having HDMI on an XBOX is rather moot.
What content currently provides HD audio? I have a Denon 4306 tuner and a Bowers & Wilkins 8xx series speaker setup so I'm completely prepared for whatever tech has to throw at me audio-wise in the foreseeable future, but I have yet to see much content in that format.
Also, I haven't found any decent tuners with many HDMI inputs on them. One or two seems typical. What are you going to do when your PS3, XBOX, HD-DVD and Blue-Ray DVD players and your cable box all require HDMI? Start plugging them directly into your television? Meh.
Anyway, the issue here is "what is the point of HDMI on the xbox 360". So far, I see none. The 360 only does 1080i on videogames. It does 5.1 on the audio. I see no need for anything beyond a high quality set of component cables for this.
First, let's acknowledge that this incident was a non-issue. Does anyone on this planet actually believe that it wasn't Sinbad or his publicist who edited the Wikipedia entry in the first place?
That aside, I'd like to point out that they are focusing on the wrong problems here.
Incorrect information that everyone knows is incorrect will swiftly be corrected. That isn't a problem. The real danger is when information is correct, but not recognized by the majority as being correct. You then end up with false information certified by the uninformed, mislead or simply incorrect majority.
The other large problem is the number of articles regarding people or subjects that are controversial and stir up emotions on both sides of the issue. The Wikipedia community becomes so bogged down in debating the subject and trying to ensure that the resulting article is completely devoid of anything even remotely biased-sounding to them that valid and reasonable information (like comments Anne Coulter made which caused a lot of controversy) are left out entirely. Some articles become incredibly bland and lacking so as to appease everyone.
It would seem that facts are facts and there should be no limit on the number or details of facts that are appropriate for a Wikipedia entry, as long as they are included in a sensible format. Instead, the attempt often seems to be to include the top ten percent of information about a subject and leaving out the rest. I presume the expectation is that the rest of the information will always exist elsewhere, so just provide a quick rundown on Wikipedia. Seems counterintuitive to the entire premise of a worldly collection of information.
I'm a huge wikipedia fan, but as I've stated - the general consensus agreeing to edit-out valid information is a greater fear of mine than the unlikely situation of invalid information somehow escaping the thousand-eyes.
What a worthless bundle. First of all as we already covered in a previous XBOX 360 Elite article, there is no benefit to using HDMI instead of a component-cable. Second, by using HDMI, you are actually submitting to HDCP (DRM, content control stuff).
So what you're really getting out of this product is a larger hard drive. Whether a bigger hard drive is worth an extra $80 to you is for you to decide. I fail, however, to understand how nothing more than a larger hard drive and a black paint job makes it elite.
I'm going to guess there will be a flood of idiots rushing out to buy it - even to replace their existing boxes - because they think HDMI is some nifty high-definition thingamajig and then they'll rush home and plug it in and convince themselves that they really do see a difference.
If you really want to make it elite, make it quieter, cooler and less prone to dying.
Bloggers are not of that caliber. They really need to get over themselves. Just because they're important in their own head doesn't mean they're important to any particular industry, company, organization, group or subject. There is nothing worse than being stuck in a room full of aspiring writers, except perhaps being stuck in a room full of bloggers who are aspiring Woodward and Bern steins.
I, for one, think my brain just broke. That blurb was really long for having absolutely no content or description of what the hell about the hardware was evolving. Maybe the religious nuts were right -- evolution really is evil!
Oh no, Anonymous Coward was right!
... What on earth does this have to do with blogging ...?!
Drum up some press and hype for an earth-shattering secret announcement. Perhaps something from Apple. Hand out passes to every idiot with a blogger.com account or wordpress installed on their server. They'll feel so important and worthy that they'll definitely show up for the event.
Herd them all into the assembly hall where they would expect the announcement.
Bar and lock the doors. Pump in some sarin gas.
Bloggers will never be considered real journalists, just like people who sell herbal supplements will never be real pharmacists or doctors. Journalists have degrees. They are professionals. Bloggers are... well, people with an opinion and a keyboard and an inflated sense of self-entitlement.
If I was holding a press event or an industry meeting, I would invite journalists. I might extend that offer to very established and reputable bloggers that I was very familiar with if I felt particularly compelled - but I would feel in no way obligated to start sending out passes and invitations to every jackhole with more than a dozen people reading his RSS feed.
Look, I don't think that professional journalists are somehow better than the rest of the world or that their opinions matter more, but at the same time, just because you're some dick with a fucking wordpress or blogger.com site doesn't mean you're owed admission as press to anything anywhere. Get over your god damn self. You have a keyboard and an opinion not necessarily a degree and a practice sense of professionalism.
There are two things I hate. Journalists who have huge egos and think they are superior and bloggers who think they are journalists or even superior to them. I have a video camera and an idea for a movie. That doesn't make me a fucking member of the Directors Guild.
Much more bigger . . . . . . ?
I suspect that it's simply a matter of Microsoft seeing no true benefit in cooperating and operating hand-in-hand. If there was potential benefit, they'd do it. Simple as that. I think he'll have to try much harder to plead his case to get a corporation to want to unfold its arms for anything it doesn't see as directly improving its own bottom line.
The First, Fourth, Fifth, Sixth and Eight amendments have been enormously eroded, if not entirely wiped out.
The Ninth and Tenth amendments have been seriously degraded.
But don't worry, you still have the right to arm yourself and refuse quarter to foreign troops.
If you need information on how these have been eroded, google around for information on things such as free-speech zones where the government has decided that it can not dictate the content of free speech, but that they can dictate who exercises it, when they can exercise it and where they exercise it. Also see the censorship of certain scientific and political releases for partisan reasons.
Also look into how your right to no search and seizure without probable cause has been eroded. How we have done away with many instances of due process, cruel punishment and the right to face your accuser.
And as to why people don't seem to care? Ask ten random people, in person, to list the ten amendments that make up the Bill of Rights. I bet only half will name more than four.
Agreed. This is a rather simple step to take, but one that a lot of us might not consider if we are in the position to make such decisions and efforts. OSS and Linux can be introduced in baby-steps, until the targeted person or persons is using largely open and free applications and even operating systems without really even realizing it.
We're often too forceful with our fanatical upholding of our favored philosophies and operating systems to the detriment of our own goals. Our enthusiasm can't be forced on someone else. The enthusiasm can be seeded in another person, though. And if you cultivate it slowly and carefully, they will appreciate it even grow to feel they discovered it of their own accord, which will make them more willing to promote and evangelize the experience and the products than if we forced it on them wholesale out of the blue.
Frankly, I don't care what any of you assholes think. My mom says I'm cool! :P
The title of the article was misleading. Buying cool versus making cool. Yes, in this case making cool is expensive and they are investing in it, as opposed to the average joe just starting up their own site that becomes cool.
That said, Youtube is not a small time site. It never was. You could say that the original creators did buy cool. One of the two guys is from an affluent family and I believe his wife's father (who is some big CEO somewhere or something like that) helped invest heavily in getting youtube off the ground. It frustrates me when people talk about Youtube like it is some phenom that started from the underground by some kid in his bedroom. It was started by a couple of older guys who had a lot of money and connections and the means to make something big. It's the difference between a Subway and a McDonald's . . . neither of them is your local mom and pop sandwich shop.
Of course, we can argue all day long as to whether MySpace is cool. I think most of us can agree that it certainly is not. Same for Youtube. Both are just places for teenage self-indulgent attention whores to whine about how hard life is, shake their asses and lipsynch on video as if the rest of the world cares.
It appears to me that all NBC is doing is creating a site where you can go to get their content. Of course, you know it's going to be restricted like crazy. But having a place to go and watch NBC content (other than Heroes, what the hell is there to watch?!) doesn't make it a youtube site. Youtube is Youtube because it has tens of millions of videos by tens of millions of wannabe stars who live for attention.
Newscorp didn't go out and create their own myspace. They bought myspace. NBC isn't going out there and buying youtube. They're trying to create their own. And it's not going to work. As bad as youtube sucks ass, the NBC version will be even worse.
NBC creating their own "youtube" will be like a poor kid who has to wear clothes that his mom made for him out of scraps, while all his friends and classmates go to school in brandname. It'll be the K-Mart and Value Village of video sites.
Oh, come on people. This is news?!
I would have just assumed that if I was going to make a warranty claim, I would have to do so while running the supported environment. Back up the linux install and throw on a Windows install. Then send the laptop in to have the parts replaced. No big deal.
Sometimes software actually can damage hardware (I've seen bad linux distros and apps screw with hard drives until they burned out), so I don't see that it's too much of a stretch. And even if that weren't a concern, I would assume the techs that received my laptop might want to log into the laptop to run some tests or check stuff... and they would ant a familiar environment to do that through.
So, I don't really see the big story here. If they say that they don't support linux, that means they don't support linux. Period. It's not like they said "if you ever had linux installed on your laptop at any point, we will not honor the warranty EVER".
Exactly.
Rather than be all about the glory of me every time someone has threatened me through my site or elsewhere and then posting it, commenting on it, asking for others in the community to defend me and stand up for me, I've kept my mouth shut, forwarded the offending emails or posts to the person's ISP with a letter of explanation, blocked the account and moved on with my life.
I don't bother responding to the person. I don't post about it on the internet. I don't aim for Scoble or Slashdot to post about it. I don't look for the police to send a squad car over and post a man at my front door. And I've had far worse "threatened" than I am seeing in this story.
Often - especially for repeat offenders - ISPs will be very helpful. Especially if you have documented as much as you can about an individual. Show the server logs with timestamps and IPs. Provide email addresses, message headers, post contents and any other information you happen to have (in my case, sometimes account information that they registered with that may or may not be accurate).
But posting on the internet about it accomplishes nothing. If anything, it opens you up to more nut cases who know that you're a good target, because you'll freak out about it and give them the reaction they so desperately want.
I know there are real criminals who really stalk people over the internet and then in person and commit real rape or murder. That's horrific and when it appears to be of that nature, by all means press forward and spare nothing in the effort. But to make this much out of some lame blog troll who says they wish harm to come to you followed by some gross sexual comment and then throws out a couple of lame photoshops (I believe I saw one with panties over a head - it's not like these were photoshops of a slit throat or anything if I'm correct?) kind of diminishes people who are legitimately being threatened over the net and have completely rational fears for their safety because of realistic threats by someone.
But in the comment I read, this person didn't threaten anyway. They said they hoped that someone else did something to them. And really, the point is that you can't just go around being threatened by every crazy person on the internet who takes the time to try to offend, insult or hurt you. There are hundreds of millions of people on the internet worldwide and at any one time there are probably a dozen who hate your guts. And maybe a couple who will say so vocally. Do we really want to waste the time and resources to hunt down every anonymous lunatic who says "you're a fucking idiot and I hope you choke on your vomit and get eaten by a pack of dogs" on your blog because they disagree with your politics or religion or review of a movie or something?
Not to mention, threatening a blogger who writes about Java?! How much do you want to wager the person making those "threats" can't even get out of his chair, much less stalk someone without getting winded?
I'm not saying true threats that are truly threatening to a person in the physical world shouldn't be taken seriously. I'm just saying that there is a difference between wishing someone ill will and being crude, gross and vulgar and actually threatening to do something to them or suggesting that you could if you wanted to (ie, I know where you live) and we can't all stop the world every time someone feels something is offensive or threatening. How many times have Slashdot editors had worse said about them by name on here? How many times have they made a point of posting about it, manipulating others or shaming others into defending them and then pulling the authorities into it while they claim to be hiding in a dark room of their house with the front door and windows locked?
If this seemed like a legitimate threat and not just some crazy freak on the internet, I'd be completely sympathetic to the situation. While my view is clearly unpopular here, I am sticking to my guns that what I've seen so far does not justify this "nervous breakdown" response. There is a whole lot of over-reacting going on here and I'm sure that the dumbass who made the posts to begin with is even more proud of themselves than if she had simply deleted the posts, banned the account/IP and ignored it.
Cyber-stalk me all you like. What are they going to do, spam me to death? Pingflood my head off?
Can we please be rational about this for a minute? Seriously, making some gross sexual comments and saying that someone is a waste of flesh or whatever via the internet is not even remotely the same thing as having a death threat mailed to you at home or left via the telephone.
Further, the couple of comments I read that were left by this person were horrible, but are they really the quality of comments that should be taken seriously? Have any of us not had something along the lines of "fuck off you boring slut... i hope someone slits your throat and cums down your gob" said to us or to someone else that we've read on the internet a thousand times over? People say some very disturbing shit on the internet, but that doesn't mean that they're all out to stalk and murder and rape us. They're just creeps with big mouths.
Now, if this person were making comments about knowing where the "victim" lives or other personality identifying information to give weight to the idea that they are seriously capable of and willing to make some physical effort in the real world, then that is a different story. But Calling someone a boring slut and saying you hope someone cuts their throat - while fucking disturbing as hell - is not the same as sending them an email saying that you know where they live and they better watch themselves next time they go grocery shopping.
By the way, back in the BBS days I actually did have some creep find out where I lived and at about midnight, drove down our street, found our house, knocked on the door and asked my parents to speak to me (this was in about 1993 and I was sixteen). That was fucking creepy. I don't know who the guy was or what his deal was. Only that he was from the same MajorBBS/WorldBBS server that my friends and I hung out on. And THAT guy didn't just say some random absurd shit like the guy posting on this person's blog. THAT guy actually said "I know where you live and i'm going to come kick your fucking ass".
If you involve the authorities every time some lunatic online says you should die or something, the authorities are going to stop giving a damn and won't give credence to real people who are truly being "stalked" and intimidated instead of just chronically verbally attacked by some bored douchebag with nothing better to do than try to make you quit your blogging.
I don't know why, but my first response to reading this article was to laugh out loud.
It reminds me of Fry's Electronics. They used to (or still do?) have a dial-up internet service you can use. I'm sure it's the greatest. *cough*
Anyway, it makes a lot of sense. They got in trouble for having prices on the internet that lure you to their stores and then display a DIFFERENT site available only internally once you get there to show you that the sale item you came for actually was not on sale and that you must have been mistaken.
This way, they control your connection to the main site, too! They can watch when you go to a competitor's website and have their servers automatically re-price the competitor's product as it is sent to your browser so everyone except Best Buy seems expensive. This is GENIUS! Well done, Best Buy!
Okay, one of us has had too much caffeine... and I think I know which one.
I know I'm going to get modded to hell for my posts in this thread, but whatever. I think there is more than enough navel-gazing going on in this and other threads on this topic, so we can afford to consider other opinions.
Yes, she needs to regain some semblance of self. Based on the couple of comments I saw which were incredibly disgusting and uncalled for, I can see that she would be offended. But really. She needs to get a hold of herself. She calls it mysogyny because someone posts "fuck off you boring slut... i hope someone slits your throat and cums down your gob" on a couple of blogs? Is she new to the internet or something? Name a blog out there that hasn't had even worse repeatedly posted on them. Even directed toward specific individuals? Liberals, conservatives, religious people, atheists, people of different ethnicities and sizes and colors and shapes and views and backgrounds and opinions have things like that said to them online all the time. They don't immediately cancel all events and lock themselves in their home for fear of their life like this person claims she is doing.
I've had people completely lose it on my site. Seriously, I have witnessed people have flat out breakdowns over the last nine years when I've banned them. They'll return with dozens of accounts and post the most shocking and creepy things. They've made vile and repulsive threats. One of them has been doing this for FOUR YEARS across the internet and via email and myspace and various false accounts AND THEY ARE STILL DOING IT! All over having their account banned!
But still.. it's the internet. If this stuff were being sent via the USPS or voicemails or phone calls or something, I'd say it should be taken more seriously. As it is, ban the account and the IP and move on. If you waste your life on every skinflint like that, you'll never have time for anything else.
And by the way - what the hell is with labeling the entire tech industry as a bunch of misogynists because of this guy? The internet is anonymous. How do we know this guy isn't a burger flipper somewhere or a school teacher or a lawyer? Just because he's posting on a tech related blog doesn't mean he's some industry insider somewhere venting his sickening Freudian rage toward women or something.
Seriously, does nobody think guys like Dvorak and Malda and many others haven't had to put up with this stuff? I'm sure it happens all the time. They just don't have a nervous breakdown over it.
Regardless of how vile people can be (as I mentioned my own experiences in another post here), it's still the internet. I'm sorry, but I'm not going to take a threat on the internet serious. My information is completely publicly available and I've had people who I've banned for their behavior on my site spread offensive rumors about me on the web and even threaten to cut my head off. But what are you gonna do? It's the internet. Going to spend a few months of your life with the police and a lawyer hunting down some skinflint who's all bark and no bite?
When these things have happened to me, I didn't even bother to post about it on my site or elsewhere. Why would I? Who cares about it? So while I have sympathy for this person's situation, I also think there is a bit of attention-getting going on here. Look at me getting' threats and mean comments from nutcases! Poor me! Give me some attention intarweb!
Now, I'm sure this person in question is a talented, kind, decent person. I'm not saying they deserve any of the comments or threats they've been getting whatsoever. But really... dude... it's the fucking internet.
I've had members of my site become brutal and rather scary after I've had to ban them for fraudulent and other unacceptable behavior against other users. On more than a couple occasions, they have done things like dig up my phone number and make threatening phone calls. Call police in my state and make various absurd false reports. Spread insanely ridiculous things about me on the internet, email me and post to my website the most vile, disgusting, threatening things you can imagine.
But what can you do? Are you going to lock yourself in a bunker the rest of your life to keep yourself safe from mentally imbalanced teenagers and idiot, vindictive, insane adults?
I've had people flat out threaten to hunt me down and cut my head off if I didn't restore their banned accounts and I've had one post things across the web that are among the most vile and disgusting and insulting things you can claim about a person. But I'm not out there asking everyone to stick up for me or... well.. even wasting two seconds on it. People are dicks. Life is hard. A lot of people say a lot of shit and don't follow through. Either grow a spine or go away. There's no sense being a big baby about it because someone hates you. And if someone really has you fearing for your life, then do something about it besides blogging about it and trying to manipulate other people into sticking up for you.