> What's undisputed is that some ripped copies represent lost > sales. As long as the quantity of loss is anything greater than zero > (or, perhaps, some negligible epsilon), then the "not a lost sale!" > response simply fails to address the ethical challenge in the first
I dispute it. The picture is actually quite a bit more complex than that. It's true that some people who would buy CDs but find an electronic form then don't buy the CD. However, it's also true that getting exposure for artists and music can also have some effect on CD sales. What's not clear is how file sharing affects CD purchasing.
I'm not a Windows network administrator, but I play one on TV. One way we used to do this is to use Windows Active Directory with domain logons, map a share for their profile (e.g., map H:\ to \\server\username), and then do profile redirection. This basically set up their my documents and desktop to be offline files and folders. They'd connect to network in the morning, and sync. While they were connected to the network, the syncs propagated to the windows server just fine. At the end of the day, they logged off, and it synced again. When they were out of the office, they could log into their laptop and do work "offline", then when they came in later, they'd sync up. The alternative was to set up a VPN connection back to the windows server (Hamachi worked fine), and map the drive to *always* connect. This meant that they were always technically "online", though it would make for slower performance so wasn't really recommended.
Our office had a series of Dell Optiplex desktops running Windows XP. A few of them start reporting as not genuine -- even though nothing had changed. Time was spent re-ghosting machines, talking to tech support, even calling Microsoft and reading the serial keys on the labels attached to the machine. (They give you a validation code to enter into the activation window to mark the PC as legitimate. It didn't work.) Through re-ghosting and disabling automatic Windows updates (which is in itself a headache) the machines got back to a usable state, but not after a good deal of time spent troubleshooting.
WGA is a tech support nightmare that treats its customers as criminals. I wouldn't be so against it worked.
This seems kind of moot, because it doesn't necessarily solve the problem. I've gotten a couple tickets for overtime parking -- feeding the meter after the time limit. Basically, if a meter says it's only a two hour meter, you have to actually move your car in two hours. Now if a company could do that for you via SMS, that'd be really terrifying.
Yes, it's a hard to comprehend series, but that's not necessarily a bad thing. I've found that I don't really get a sense of each of the episodes in context until I re-watch them a second or third time.
I was a little annoyed at first at how much it bit content from the movies. Motoko jumping off rooftops. Motoko trying to rip the top off a tank. Motoko trying to dodge machine gun fire from a cloaked adversary inside a building. I'd seen it before.
However, being that it's based on the same source material (the manga), this can be forgiven, especially since they kept much more faithful in spirit to the manga than the movies.
Decent voice acting, decent plot lines, cyberpunkish atmosphere -- what more could you want, really?
As Blogger is one of the main blogging services used online today, it would be hypocritical of Google to both say that they are a place where people are free to blog whatever they want, and also say this is only true so long as you don't work for them. It would seem to have a direct bearing on what they deem is acceptable speech for their highly used service. One could argue that this is only in the case of their employees, but after their precedent, can other employer complaint actions be far behind?
Freeswan tried to do something like this, but gave up due to lack of support from the community. Windows 2000+ have IPSec support built in, but I wouldn't exactly call it "easy" for the end user. (Freeswan was a little difficult as well, even for semi-techies.)
I saw a lot about actual storage, and little about actually knowing what you're storing. Though it may seem impossible, it's a good idea to inventory the stuff before you file it away. That way you *know* you have that extra USB 2.0 cable filed, rather than just guessing it's in a bag buried in your closet where you keep all your computer cables.
I've undertaken a similar project, and have been playing around with organizing all this on my recently purchased iBook. (Well, at least that's how I justified it to my wife. I need this G4 iBook to get organized!) I'd been trying, rather painfully, to catalogue stuff in AppleWorks. You read that right, AppleWorks. I heard your gasp from over here. It's actually aggravating me enough that I might write a custom MySQL database to store all the data. I hate wondering, do I really have a parallel port gender changer? How long does the warranty on that Palm Pilot last? I just want quick answers. Plus, I'm looking to scan in all the assorted manuals and what not, so I can kiss all that paper goodbye. (Tip: check out the product web site -- you can often download a PDF of the manual right from there.) My struggling filing cabinet will thank me in its own way, by not threatening to fall on me every time I open the drawer. Yay, my cats' lives are spared once again!
Bonus: do your documentation well enough, and you can get a personal net worth of your assets! Somewhat. If you depreciate the values. Or something.
Detraction: you realize how much money you've wasted on various things you rarely use. It will really, really add up and make you sad. Don't let your wife / husband / significant other see it or you'll give her/him ideas of junk (like food, clothing, jewelry, a house) you could buy instead.
I understand EMusic's point of view; bandwidth isn't cheap (enough). At a $9.95 unlimited rate (or $14.95, for you three month subscribers), there's a significant cost to serving up this data. I myself downloaded about 7 gigs of data in just the first three days. Yes, I got the warning note from them on that. No, the downloads weren't automated. =) I actually wrote them an email message about that, noting that 1) I was probably exhibiting typical activity for a first month subscriber; and 2) I don't mind limits, so long as they make those limits known. Make your expectations clear, and all is well. Say it's unlimited first and then reveal that -- whoops -- it's not...that's just poor business policy.
However, iTunes this is not. You don't get the latest tracks on this service -- you get the ones *not* signed by the RIAA. Pay $0.99 a track for the latest top 40 nonsense? Sure! Pay $0.25 for B-grade music? Um...maybe. You're not usually paying top dollar for these CDs. (I'm not even touching the argument about how top 40 music is lame or all sounds the same. Go away.)
The 40 download limit for $9.95 is ludicrous. I, and many EMusic subscribers, would never pay that much. If all tracks were guaranteed CD quality, maybe. However, I've downloaded a few albums from them that were 128 CBR MP3. Yuck. They are making progress; all new stuff is encoded in VBR. Plus, without the RIAA artists, the collection feels a little...aged. Ironically, I do like the fact that they are announcing this model. Coming clean and making their expectations known is definitely the way to go. Now they just need to tweak their model.
I'm wondering how this will all turn out. I'm betting they're going to see a mass exodus, based on this new pricing scheme. I'm certainly angling that way.
I think my favorite commentary on it was from Fox news here last night, which noted that if the plutonium core exploded, then "it would disrupt the entire galaxy." This, after a perfectly fine report on Galileo. It was the last sentence of their blurb -- something to give you warm fuzzies, I guess.
I was wondering what level of disturbance would be required before the entire galaxy was "disrupted" -- simply being visible across the entire galaxy, a tremor like an earthquake, or something more sinister? Perhaps Fox needs a galactic Richter scale to better scare the masses. "It's a 0.00009 on the Asimov scale, which doesn't seem like much and we won't feel any effects; but if you were there, you'd be killed, alright!"
I haven't gotten it (yet), but QCast for PS2 with online adapters looks like a good way to access networked digital media. Now I just wonder if I can leave my PS2 online all the time without getting annoyed by the fan noise.:p
...of sitting after school in front of an Apple ][e hacking away at drawing a picture. Pen up, pen down. When I walked up to my sixth grade teacher and asked, "How do I program a computer?" she sat me down in front of Logo. All I remember (in my sixth grade mind) was thinking how setxy looked like "sexy".
Anyone see the anime series Serial Experiments: Lain? It explored this issue somewhat, by showing how a digital age allows reality to be changed by altering the digital information. (Of course, the series was set in the future, and there were some weird tie ins between human memory and The Wired, but interesting nonetheless, if a bit slow.)
The interesting thing is how the power to change information and thus history becomes available by a digital format. If the format is changeable, and data is stored on computers, what if you had a group of uber-hackers (such as, say, a government-sponsored group) who changed the information in a variety of "trusted" information repositories? Some scary implications there.
Wow, people are jumping all over this; perhaps I should stay out...nah, it's just karma.
> Maybe _my_ opinion is skewed because I happen to > know how to use a PC with a CD burner attached to it, > and I am not fanatical about the after quality of the > audio. ... > All I'm saying is that for someone who reads slashdot, > unless they have a REALLY overactive conscience or > can't get broadband or are a serious audiophile, it > makes no sense that you would actually buy music > when you can get it for free!
I know how to use a PC with a CD burner. I have burned CDs of MP3's before. (Gasp! Call the police!) I'm not fanatical about the quality of audio (I'm generally happy with 128K, though I often encode at 192, because I'm a geek and heard that was around the human threshold for notice), I have broadband, and I've often commented about (and had commented on) how I need more conscience. (I guess it goes without saying that I'm a Slashdot reader too.) Yet, I still buy CDs.
Paradoxically, I bought more CDs when I used P2P services. When Napster was in full force, I was buying a CD every week. When I stopped using Napster, I stopped. When I started playing with Limewire and Gnutella, I started buying CDs again.
Weird, isn't it?
Let's dig for a point to all this! Um, I don't think I have one. Oh, let's make one up...people are weird. Even logical, rational, otherwise sensible people. They do weird things. The argument about whether or not record sales have been impacted, positive or negative, lacks sufficient evidence either way. Why did I buy more music when P2P was around? Who knows. Either way, we need more data.
P.S. Here's another anecdote for you: I watched Lock, Stock, and Two Smoking Barrels, and liked the soundtrack so much, I went to a P2P service and downloaded it. Two hours later, I was on Amazon, ordering the CD. Anecdotes are a dime a dozen. Unless someone collects an awful lot of them, compiles them into a something statistically valid as a good sampling of people at large, and presents it in a report, they stand on their own, and can go both ways.
I also found out that alas -- my monitors did not support sync on green, so I was stuck in the same boat as many other folk: I was desperate to get Linux set up, but unable to use my monitor. The blind install was a god send.
If you happen to have to run through the blind install, make sure that you select the appropriate display setting near the end. Without thinking, I put in display=pal, which naturally didn't work for me in the states. (Fortunately, they've ammended the doc to tell you to choose pal or ntsc; when I ran through it, it only listed pal.)
The 320x240 resolution you get with a standard TV isn't flattering, making me long for an HTDV. *sigh* One can always dream.
Was I the only one who, upon checking the forums at the Playstation 2 Linux site, found that a lot of the wrong types of people are getting this kit? I'm talking about the ones wondering why this is better than installing Linux on a PC, or who have never used Linux before. If you're a complete Linux newbie, the PS2 kit will be...frustrating.
Wow, that's a bold agenda! I've actually been peddling the other way: telling management about the perils of going wireless. One of the people in my office asked me, "So, am I safe getting wireless for my house?" I sent him a three page email outlining why wireless was dangerous, as well as recommended security to implement it. (Not that he followed suit, mind you -- it would have taken a gear head to implement security properly, and he didn't seem too keen on the idea of, say, building his own firewall.)
It sounds like to make your case, you have to show that the wireless route is 1) secure, 2) cheaper / more scalable, and 3) secure. Note the repetition there.;) Passing up security for the moment, you probably have a better handle on whether or not wireless is cheaper / more scalable than wired routes. In my office, WiFi would definitely *not* be sufficient, if that were the only network available. I know that I wouldn't be very happy if I was limited down to the 2 - 11Mb/s of 802.11b at the office, especially when, say, transferring large files or routing large documents. If you have the numbers that say that the bandwidth is "sufficient", fire away!
Unfortunately, whatever proposal you present *has* to have a security focus. You *have* to make the emphasis that wireless is secure enough, and you *have* to be unyielding on the security measures necessary. The main problem with this is the fact that you are surrendering the security of closed wired networks for an open-air, wireless one. Sure, you may have convenience in terms of setting up connections, but you're going to have significant additional headaches making sure things are secure. Some thoughts? Try to get everyone to use IPSEC. Oog, it's ugly and non-simple, but it's what you would have to do if your paranoid. Just thinking about plain-text passwords flying through the ether makes me dizzy from a security standpoint. Drive-by hacking is all too easy and cheap to do. *sigh*
Of course, you're really trying to push the proposal past a manager, right? So perhaps your focus should be on how it's keeping the company on top of cutting edge, alternative technologies to proactively seek out the most cost-effective methods for maximum deployment capacity. *heh*
Whitehouse.gov can fight back against Whitehouse.com!
Document, document, document.
on
Disconnecting
·
· Score: 1
I haven't really had any problems with cancelling Internet service, even with Prodigy. Prodigy allowed me to cancel right through their prodigy.net private net! All handled via email and their web services.
I even got a local ISP to cancel my service, even though I didn't remember my password, or my credit card number, and my credit card number had changed. Isn't it weird how when your credit card number changes, the billing for the ISP keeps on getting through? Amazing.
I *have* had similar experiences, though, and can tell you that documentation is your friend. In fact, any time you call customer service, document everything you can. The time, the date, who you talked to, what transpired on the call -- everything, because you may need to send it all back, be it to a supervisor or in a lawsuit (or threat thereof). It's amazing how much more leverage you have when you can say, "Look, I've documented ten different calls here, and gotten this level of support here, here, and here." When you document, they know you mean business. *heh*
Plus, credit cards are usually your friends here. Credit card companies will do *a lot* of work to ensure that you aren't being fraudulently billed. Good documentation plus a frank phone call with your credit card company if you don't get satisfaction will bring it all together.
One final thought -- people who liked this are sure to enjoy BOFH Episode 26 -- The Bastard Gets Taste Of Own Medicine. Enjoy!
Geezum, I read things like this and suddenly I'm afraid to buy CDs anymore. You can bet I'm going to be pretty cautious of buying any Sony music. If only millions of people could adopt a similar attitude.;)
If they could just find an area saturated with on-call sysadmins, this would be da bomb.;) "No more leaving the movie house to log on to the box and kick the web server? Woo hoo!" (Oh yeah, there is that whole insecure network connections over wireless, huh? Oh well.)
Well, it's running Linux, so if they could port over a Windows emulator, they could access some really neat video game emulators like Bleem, and then you could play Playstation games on your PS2!
I tend to disagree with the findings, as it depends on what particular tasks you are multitasking. I for one, feel a benefit to multi-tasking, because I have processes that require me to wait. It's far better to be doing other work while waiting for a command line to return.
Plus, I have a tendency to multi-task and switch in pretty well. I've been noticing lately that when multi-tasking, I've been switching out mid-sentence, doing some other work, then coming back and completing a sentence. Weird.
I've bought a couple RedHat releases, 5.0 and 6.2, but they were just because I was a newbie when it came to Linux. It was nice to have a booklet on hand, even if all the documentation was available online. After having used Linux for a while, I'm unlikely to buy another boxed set of it, with high speed Internet connections keeping me up to date.
I think the more important thought on this are the associated costs. It might be simpler to set up Windows out of the box, but the application base is pretty commercial. For example, I have a CD burner in my Windows box, and I wanted to burn an ISO to CD. I fired up the software that came with my drive, and lo and behold, after about ten minutes of futzing with it, I found myself unable to burn the image. Under RedHat, I would have been up and running pretty quickly, with stuff that comes bundled with 7.1. A search turned up a bunch of shareware and commercial apps for Windows -- very little for free. (Ironically, the ISO was for Windows XP, and this little quirk was making me long for Linux.)
I've spent ~$200 for Win95, ~$100 for Win98, and around $250 for Win2K. For Linux? Probably somewhere around $60 total. Then figure in all the software I buy for Windows, that have freeware alternatives under Linux. If I were an accountant, I'd be scratching my head over this. "Why does it make sense to spend more money on something less stable?"
Slashdot Mirror
> What's undisputed is that some ripped copies represent lost
> sales. As long as the quantity of loss is anything greater than zero
> (or, perhaps, some negligible epsilon), then the "not a lost sale!"
> response simply fails to address the ethical challenge in the first
I dispute it. The picture is actually quite a bit more complex than that. It's true that some people who would buy CDs but find an electronic form then don't buy the CD. However, it's also true that getting exposure for artists and music can also have some effect on CD sales. What's not clear is how file sharing affects CD purchasing.
I'm not a Windows network administrator, but I play one on TV. One way we used to do this is to use Windows Active Directory with domain logons, map a share for their profile (e.g., map H:\ to \\server\username), and then do profile redirection. This basically set up their my documents and desktop to be offline files and folders. They'd connect to network in the morning, and sync. While they were connected to the network, the syncs propagated to the windows server just fine. At the end of the day, they logged off, and it synced again. When they were out of the office, they could log into their laptop and do work "offline", then when they came in later, they'd sync up. The alternative was to set up a VPN connection back to the windows server (Hamachi worked fine), and map the drive to *always* connect. This meant that they were always technically "online", though it would make for slower performance so wasn't really recommended.
Our office had a series of Dell Optiplex desktops running Windows XP. A few of them start reporting as not genuine -- even though nothing had changed. Time was spent re-ghosting machines, talking to tech support, even calling Microsoft and reading the serial keys on the labels attached to the machine. (They give you a validation code to enter into the activation window to mark the PC as legitimate. It didn't work.) Through re-ghosting and disabling automatic Windows updates (which is in itself a headache) the machines got back to a usable state, but not after a good deal of time spent troubleshooting.
WGA is a tech support nightmare that treats its customers as criminals. I wouldn't be so against it worked.
This seems kind of moot, because it doesn't necessarily solve the problem. I've gotten a couple tickets for overtime parking -- feeding the meter after the time limit. Basically, if a meter says it's only a two hour meter, you have to actually move your car in two hours. Now if a company could do that for you via SMS, that'd be really terrifying.
Yes, it's a hard to comprehend series, but that's not necessarily a bad thing. I've found that I don't really get a sense of each of the episodes in context until I re-watch them a second or third time.
I was a little annoyed at first at how much it bit content from the movies. Motoko jumping off rooftops. Motoko trying to rip the top off a tank. Motoko trying to dodge machine gun fire from a cloaked adversary inside a building. I'd seen it before.
However, being that it's based on the same source material (the manga), this can be forgiven, especially since they kept much more faithful in spirit to the manga than the movies.
Decent voice acting, decent plot lines, cyberpunkish atmosphere -- what more could you want, really?
Actually, it comes with an inline control for the headphone jack, allowing you to skip tracks and control volume.
As Blogger is one of the main blogging services used online today, it would be hypocritical of Google to both say that they are a place where people are free to blog whatever they want, and also say this is only true so long as you don't work for them. It would seem to have a direct bearing on what they deem is acceptable speech for their highly used service. One could argue that this is only in the case of their employees, but after their precedent, can other employer complaint actions be far behind?
Freeswan tried to do something like this, but gave up due to lack of support from the community. Windows 2000+ have IPSec support built in, but I wouldn't exactly call it "easy" for the end user. (Freeswan was a little difficult as well, even for semi-techies.)
I saw a lot about actual storage, and little about actually knowing what you're storing. Though it may seem impossible, it's a good idea to inventory the stuff before you file it away. That way you *know* you have that extra USB 2.0 cable filed, rather than just guessing it's in a bag buried in your closet where you keep all your computer cables.
/him ideas of junk (like food, clothing, jewelry, a house) you could buy instead.
I've undertaken a similar project, and have been playing around with organizing all this on my recently purchased iBook. (Well, at least that's how I justified it to my wife. I need this G4 iBook to get organized!) I'd been trying, rather painfully, to catalogue stuff in AppleWorks. You read that right, AppleWorks. I heard your gasp from over here. It's actually aggravating me enough that I might write a custom MySQL database to store all the data. I hate wondering, do I really have a parallel port gender changer? How long does the warranty on that Palm Pilot last? I just want quick answers. Plus, I'm looking to scan in all the assorted manuals and what not, so I can kiss all that paper goodbye. (Tip: check out the product web site -- you can often download a PDF of the manual right from there.) My struggling filing cabinet will thank me in its own way, by not threatening to fall on me every time I open the drawer. Yay, my cats' lives are spared once again!
Bonus: do your documentation well enough, and you can get a personal net worth of your assets! Somewhat. If you depreciate the values. Or something.
Detraction: you realize how much money you've wasted on various things you rarely use. It will really, really add up and make you sad. Don't let your wife / husband / significant other see it or you'll give her
I understand EMusic's point of view; bandwidth isn't cheap (enough). At a $9.95 unlimited rate (or $14.95, for you three month subscribers), there's a significant cost to serving up this data. I myself downloaded about 7 gigs of data in just the first three days. Yes, I got the warning note from them on that. No, the downloads weren't automated. =) I actually wrote them an email message about that, noting that 1) I was probably exhibiting typical activity for a first month subscriber; and 2) I don't mind limits, so long as they make those limits known. Make your expectations clear, and all is well. Say it's unlimited first and then reveal that -- whoops -- it's not...that's just poor business policy.
However, iTunes this is not. You don't get the latest tracks on this service -- you get the ones *not* signed by the RIAA. Pay $0.99 a track for the latest top 40 nonsense? Sure! Pay $0.25 for B-grade music? Um...maybe. You're not usually paying top dollar for these CDs. (I'm not even touching the argument about how top 40 music is lame or all sounds the same. Go away.)
The 40 download limit for $9.95 is ludicrous. I, and many EMusic subscribers, would never pay that much. If all tracks were guaranteed CD quality, maybe. However, I've downloaded a few albums from them that were 128 CBR MP3. Yuck. They are making progress; all new stuff is encoded in VBR. Plus, without the RIAA artists, the collection feels a little...aged. Ironically, I do like the fact that they are announcing this model. Coming clean and making their expectations known is definitely the way to go. Now they just need to tweak their model.
I'm wondering how this will all turn out. I'm betting they're going to see a mass exodus, based on this new pricing scheme. I'm certainly angling that way.
I think my favorite commentary on it was from Fox news here last night, which noted that if the plutonium core exploded, then "it would disrupt the entire galaxy." This, after a perfectly fine report on Galileo. It was the last sentence of their blurb -- something to give you warm fuzzies, I guess.
I was wondering what level of disturbance would be required before the entire galaxy was "disrupted" -- simply being visible across the entire galaxy, a tremor like an earthquake, or something more sinister? Perhaps Fox needs a galactic Richter scale to better scare the masses. "It's a 0.00009 on the Asimov scale, which doesn't seem like much and we won't feel any effects; but if you were there, you'd be killed, alright!"
I haven't gotten it (yet), but QCast for PS2 with online adapters looks like a good way to access networked digital media. Now I just wonder if I can leave my PS2 online all the time without getting annoyed by the fan noise. :p
...of sitting after school in front of an Apple ][e hacking away at drawing a picture. Pen up, pen down. When I walked up to my sixth grade teacher and asked, "How do I program a computer?" she sat me down in front of Logo. All I remember (in my sixth grade mind) was thinking how setxy looked like "sexy".
I was just wondering, does PS2 even have a line in? How does this grab input?
The interesting thing is how the power to change information and thus history becomes available by a digital format. If the format is changeable, and data is stored on computers, what if you had a group of uber-hackers (such as, say, a government-sponsored group) who changed the information in a variety of "trusted" information repositories? Some scary implications there.
Wow, people are jumping all over this; perhaps I should stay out...nah, it's just karma.
.02 American dollars!
> Maybe _my_ opinion is skewed because I happen to
> know how to use a PC with a CD burner attached to it,
> and I am not fanatical about the after quality of the
> audio.
...
> All I'm saying is that for someone who reads slashdot,
> unless they have a REALLY overactive conscience or
> can't get broadband or are a serious audiophile, it
> makes no sense that you would actually buy music
> when you can get it for free!
I know how to use a PC with a CD burner. I have burned CDs of MP3's before. (Gasp! Call the police!) I'm not fanatical about the quality of audio (I'm generally happy with 128K, though I often encode at 192, because I'm a geek and heard that was around the human threshold for notice), I have broadband, and I've often commented about (and had commented on) how I need more conscience. (I guess it goes without saying that I'm a Slashdot reader too.) Yet, I still buy CDs.
Paradoxically, I bought more CDs when I used P2P services. When Napster was in full force, I was buying a CD every week. When I stopped using Napster, I stopped. When I started playing with Limewire and Gnutella, I started buying CDs again.
Weird, isn't it?
Let's dig for a point to all this! Um, I don't think I have one. Oh, let's make one up...people are weird. Even logical, rational, otherwise sensible people. They do weird things. The argument about whether or not record sales have been impacted, positive or negative, lacks sufficient evidence either way. Why did I buy more music when P2P was around? Who knows. Either way, we need more data.
P.S. Here's another anecdote for you: I watched Lock, Stock, and Two Smoking Barrels, and liked the soundtrack so much, I went to a P2P service and downloaded it. Two hours later, I was on Amazon, ordering the CD. Anecdotes are a dime a dozen. Unless someone collects an awful lot of them, compiles them into a something statistically valid as a good sampling of people at large, and presents it in a report, they stand on their own, and can go both ways.
That's my
I also found out that alas -- my monitors did not support sync on green, so I was stuck in the same boat as many other folk: I was desperate to get Linux set up, but unable to use my monitor. The blind install was a god send.
If you happen to have to run through the blind install, make sure that you select the appropriate display setting near the end. Without thinking, I put in display=pal, which naturally didn't work for me in the states. (Fortunately, they've ammended the doc to tell you to choose pal or ntsc; when I ran through it, it only listed pal.)
The 320x240 resolution you get with a standard TV isn't flattering, making me long for an HTDV. *sigh* One can always dream.
Was I the only one who, upon checking the forums at the Playstation 2 Linux site, found that a lot of the wrong types of people are getting this kit? I'm talking about the ones wondering why this is better than installing Linux on a PC, or who have never used Linux before. If you're a complete Linux newbie, the PS2 kit will be...frustrating.
Wow, that's a bold agenda! I've actually been peddling the other way: telling management about the perils of going wireless. One of the people in my office asked me, "So, am I safe getting wireless for my house?" I sent him a three page email outlining why wireless was dangerous, as well as recommended security to implement it. (Not that he followed suit, mind you -- it would have taken a gear head to implement security properly, and he didn't seem too keen on the idea of, say, building his own firewall.)
;) Passing up security for the moment, you probably have a better handle on whether or not wireless is cheaper / more scalable than wired routes. In my office, WiFi would definitely *not* be sufficient, if that were the only network available. I know that I wouldn't be very happy if I was limited down to the 2 - 11Mb/s of 802.11b at the office, especially when, say, transferring large files or routing large documents. If you have the numbers that say that the bandwidth is "sufficient", fire away!
It sounds like to make your case, you have to show that the wireless route is 1) secure, 2) cheaper / more scalable, and 3) secure. Note the repetition there.
Unfortunately, whatever proposal you present *has* to have a security focus. You *have* to make the emphasis that wireless is secure enough, and you *have* to be unyielding on the security measures necessary. The main problem with this is the fact that you are surrendering the security of closed wired networks for an open-air, wireless one. Sure, you may have convenience in terms of setting up connections, but you're going to have significant additional headaches making sure things are secure. Some thoughts? Try to get everyone to use IPSEC. Oog, it's ugly and non-simple, but it's what you would have to do if your paranoid. Just thinking about plain-text passwords flying through the ether makes me dizzy from a security standpoint. Drive-by hacking is all too easy and cheap to do. *sigh*
Of course, you're really trying to push the proposal past a manager, right? So perhaps your focus should be on how it's keeping the company on top of cutting edge, alternative technologies to proactively seek out the most cost-effective methods for maximum deployment capacity. *heh*
Whitehouse.gov can fight back against Whitehouse.com!
I even got a local ISP to cancel my service, even though I didn't remember my password, or my credit card number, and my credit card number had changed. Isn't it weird how when your credit card number changes, the billing for the ISP keeps on getting through? Amazing.
I *have* had similar experiences, though, and can tell you that documentation is your friend. In fact, any time you call customer service, document everything you can. The time, the date, who you talked to, what transpired on the call -- everything, because you may need to send it all back, be it to a supervisor or in a lawsuit (or threat thereof). It's amazing how much more leverage you have when you can say, "Look, I've documented ten different calls here, and gotten this level of support here, here, and here." When you document, they know you mean business. *heh*
Plus, credit cards are usually your friends here. Credit card companies will do *a lot* of work to ensure that you aren't being fraudulently billed. Good documentation plus a frank phone call with your credit card company if you don't get satisfaction will bring it all together.
One final thought -- people who liked this are sure to enjoy
BOFH Episode 26 -- The Bastard Gets Taste Of Own Medicine. Enjoy!
Geezum, I read things like this and suddenly I'm afraid to buy CDs anymore. You can bet I'm going to be pretty cautious of buying any Sony music. If only millions of people could adopt a similar attitude. ;)
If they could just find an area saturated with on-call sysadmins, this would be da bomb. ;) "No more leaving the movie house to log on to the box and kick the web server? Woo hoo!" (Oh yeah, there is that whole insecure network connections over wireless, huh? Oh well.)
Well, it's running Linux, so if they could port over a Windows emulator, they could access some really neat video game emulators like Bleem, and then you could play Playstation games on your PS2!
Oh, wait...
I tend to disagree with the findings, as it depends on what particular tasks you are multitasking. I for one, feel a benefit to multi-tasking, because I have processes that require me to wait. It's far better to be doing other work while waiting for a command line to return.
Plus, I have a tendency to multi-task and switch in pretty well. I've been noticing lately that when multi-tasking, I've been switching out mid-sentence, doing some other work, then coming back and completing a sentence. Weird.
I've bought a couple RedHat releases, 5.0 and 6.2, but they were just because I was a newbie when it came to Linux. It was nice to have a booklet on hand, even if all the documentation was available online. After having used Linux for a while, I'm unlikely to buy another boxed set of it, with high speed Internet connections keeping me up to date.
I think the more important thought on this are the associated costs. It might be simpler to set up Windows out of the box, but the application base is pretty commercial. For example, I have a CD burner in my Windows box, and I wanted to burn an ISO to CD. I fired up the software that came with my drive, and lo and behold, after about ten minutes of futzing with it, I found myself unable to burn the image. Under RedHat, I would have been up and running pretty quickly, with stuff that comes bundled with 7.1. A search turned up a bunch of shareware and commercial apps for Windows -- very little for free. (Ironically, the ISO was for Windows XP, and this little quirk was making me long for Linux.)
I've spent ~$200 for Win95, ~$100 for Win98, and around $250 for Win2K. For Linux? Probably somewhere around $60 total. Then figure in all the software I buy for Windows, that have freeware alternatives under Linux. If I were an accountant, I'd be scratching my head over this. "Why does it make sense to spend more money on something less stable?"