Last year I was contracting to IBM when they were doing their whole services push, with their fancy ads and claims that their pictured mythical device that integrates everything application and all their data doesn't exist and your should blah blah blah... Some of us were quite amused by some of the ads and what they were saying. We could never take the WebSphere astronauts seriously:)
Basically from what I remember, you hand over your IT infrastructure to IBM who provide all of your services, like email etc etc on an on demand basis allowing you to rent more computing power when you need it and then slacking off on its use when you don't need it, etc etc. On paper it seemed to make sense. But not for many apparently. But thats what "spin" is for.
They were having a hard time selling it from what I recall. Large companies with their own IT infrastructure were unwilling to just hand it over to a third party and rely on them to manage it in the way they want. Alot of promises but not many success stories to go round. Perhaps things have changed now, but its going to be a hard sell.
I think this model of software use would be more appealing to smaller businesses that don't want to manage their own IT infrastructures because of cost or whatever. But those that have established IT departments may not want to just hand over many critical functions to a third party.
Its not naive, it was actually a joke... thats why i put a smilie at the end... I'm not entirely sure why I was modded insightful, but them's the breaks. At least I elicited some discussion which is all good in my books.
I will take my karma and smug knowledge that I don't hide as an AC no matter what I post...:)
In Australia every store that I've seen that searches people has a sign at the entrance, that says one of the conditions of entering this store is that you agree to allow your bags to be searched upon request.
I don't know the legal status of such things and what exactly will be the consequence of not allowing the search to take place and what legal recources I have. I really don't much care to hire a lawyer to find out for me either. Recently police powers to search have been increased, but its not exactly like I confuse those misleading security guards psuedo police uniform hybrids with police officers.
I understand your point of view. It has become quite common in Australia for stores to insist on checking your bags for stolen goods (however common sense tells me that if your bags are checked for stolen goods then thieves will simply hide their spoils somewhere else).
I get quite sick of being expected to hand over my bags for inspection or wait in a queue to leave a store. I'm not a thief and I don't expect to be treated as one just because I had the audacity to walk into their store. So whever there is a queue or something I just walk around it and leave. Sometimes I'm stopped sometimes I'm not. It's a somewhat arrogant attitude to take, but honestly I don't care. I am not a thief and thats all that matters to me everytime my integrity is called into question be store owners and their security.
Nowadays when I am carrying a few bags and whatnot, or my bag I take to work and I'm thinking of going into a store where I will most likely be searched, then I simply don't go in. Which means that they are potentially loosing sales.
I understand that Australian businesses are losing big money to thieves but I don't care to be treated like a criminal. Besides thieves are very adaptable and find ways to beat the systems in place, and stores seem far to slow to respond to changing circumstances.
This reminds me of when I was at a checkout at christmas time. There was a christmas display with these motion activated toys that would sing christmas carols and other poorly rendered tunes and singing. You know the ones, dancing santas, talking christmas trees, and that god awful singing fish!
The checkout person was about ready to throttle the next person/child that was about to activate the toys because of the never ending barage of small petty annoyances.
I can easily see an ad system that talks to consumers when they walk past on the street to become very annoying to consumers. A person may be able to remain calm and cool with being exposed to a few of them, but I have little doubt that advertising industries will try to vie for peoples attention to the point where it will almost become like harrasment to just walk down a street.
Thankfully, in my country at least, advertising is regulated and I wouldn't imagine such things happening soon. Then again after a few "going postal" incidents talking billboards might just not be in our future:)
My XP Pro is protected like yours as well. But I did do the upgrade and didn't suffer many negative effects. I had to turn off the firewall and a few unneeded services that were activated but all in all it wasn't a particularly traumatic experience.
The biggest problem I had was trying to actually get the update through Windows Update. I did set Windows Update to automatically download it (but not install) but that didn't work for 3 whole days after SP2 had been released. So I tried to use Windows Update manually but the Windows Update site was so busy that I was told that I couldn't download it and would have to try again later. That amused me no end for some reason. All in all Windows Update reported i needed 75 Mb of patches, instead downloaded 111 Mb of patches, turned on a crappy firewall and some services that were not worth running.
However I know what I'm doing when it comes to maintaining my Windows box. I have a Linux box too so don't bother telling me to go use Linux instead:)
Payment with a valid credit card with a U.S. billing address
Oh good the recording industry strikes again, creating artificial markets in a bid to increase their profits. Who says borders won't exist in our beautiful digital future. Yet again us backawater australians will have to wait before we get the chance to legitiametly buy digital music without some credit card billing address shenanigans. Still no doubt it will be cheaper to buy the US music than our own. Perhaps us poor Australian consumers can contract our ACCC into breaking their licensing backs...
Why doesn't the site just block non American IP address ranges and be done with it! So much for our "free" trade agreement...
Its certainly not a new problem. The poor design of the shared directory selection in Morpheus and other P2P apps certainly led more than a few people to share their entire hard drives.
Many internet users don't seem to understand what risks they have on their computers in exposing sensitive information. Hopefully education and a few high profile blunders will make people realise was risks they may have and take appropriate action.
More and more it looks like people really should get a license before using the internet:)
From the pictures of it that I have seen, the case surrounding the screen has no buttons or anything embedded on it, so personally I would like to see more screen and less case.
I know there are size constraint issues and all but I think its "cool" factor would go up quite a few notches with that change.
What struck me about Bill's interview and the discusson about time frames and rewrites (or the denial of them as it was), was that just perhaps Windows is not structured in a way that isn't conducive to large over-arching changes. I would look at this as having difficulty in seeing what is actually the operating system and what is actually applications that sit on top.
I get the impression that for every new version of Windows, they are just having to keep on doing (or perhaps redoing) too much work creating these huge delays and whatnot. They have alot of work to do to fix security AND make Windows usable for MAH and PAH at the same time. I just can't help but get the feeling that the way they are going about creating Windows is part of the problem they have in maintaining it and releasing newer versions of it.
Perhpas I am just interested in seeing Windows evolve rather than just re-inventing itself again and again. Perhaps I'm now thinking of different operating systems.
P.S. I am a Windows user that just happened to install Linux on his old spare PC recently and might have a Apple sitting in the corner;)
Its for cinemas outrageous prices for food that I don't, under any circumstances, buy any of their food, period. Since my local cinema is in a shopping centre (mall for you Americans) there is a whole host of other places to buy delicacies from which we are allowed to take into the cinema. Even if they didn't (like another cinema I went to) then the girlfriends handbag makes for a perfect place to stash something to eat. Cargo pants work a treat as well:) Its not like some 15 year old kid is going to start searching adults bags.
Am I a soul sapping bastard for denying them their revenue on tickters subsidized by candy bar food? Well my conscience is clear, if they can't make money on me by my purchasing a ticket then tough luck. Welcome to business. Make the companies that provide the films start being a bit more reasonable. If the A list actors wern't getting their $20 million checks then there might be room for a bit more quality film making in the biz that could sell more tickets.
Every now and then there is a video game ad at a cinema, and all of them that I have seen have looked bad. Washed out, pixellated beyond all belief. Most if not all of them have been console games since their mass production and pop culture status is much more assured than PC games and makes them more suitable candidates for cinema.
I'm not in any means saying that plagarizing is the right thing to do, but I think its pretty easy to tell which of the writeups are just quotes from the article itself. Many articles have a foreward for readers to read, so that they can tell if they will be interested in reading the article, which is what I see "quoted" most of the time. But when people do that they should cite the original source so that kudos go to the right people. Its just the polite, and right thing to do.
I've seen my own comments just copied and reposted by AC's for no apparent reason. Oh well I don't really care about that, but all to often people get carried away with the free spirited sharing of the internet. Just because information can be passed around like candy, doesn't mean that some common decency shouldn't be applied and people get credit where credit is due.
I think it improves the "quality" of the information as a whole.
Yes I very much expect this to be the case. However for once, for a major release, I won't have to be bothered with putting the CD in my drive when I wan't to play it. That will truely be refreshing, as will not having to wait for the box's to hit shelves in Australia. Though Doom 3 coming out on August 3rd was a nice suprise, take that Europe!:)
Considering that the entire product is software based and in the users possession, the term "uncrackable" becomes relative. I would imagine that the "online" experience could very readily be crippled without properly registered software but the "offline" experience could most probably be very playable.
Until of course cracked servers exist for the cracked clients and then all bets are off.
Now all thats needed is for them to announce the price for the online version. I mean surely they will knock a couple of dollars off for not having to ship a box with media in it to stores...:)
I wish I could! Goddam I'm an Austrlian that just installed Linux and now they are after me...! I knew I should of put on my tinfoil hat while I was installing it...
There is a track on the GameCube game F-Zero GX called Mobius Strip and its a great level to drive/levitate on. You build up hellish speeds on a quietly undulating track, that just happens to be, you guessed it, a Mobius Strip.
Well luckily in Australia music sales revenue has been going up not down... oh, but we don't talk about that... never mind!
It looks like however that the RIAA will need to be taken, kicking and screaming into the new age of music. An age where hopefully more quality music will be produced and less populist blond breast augmented voice modified bimbo' won't be ruling the charts. Oh and a place where they might not be particularly relevant anymore.
I've been finding it harder to do the try before you buy thing as many stores I go to don't let you try before you buy for some bizarre reason. I find it bizarre because I would of thought that music stores would want to encourage people to buy music not make it harder for customers to pick something they would like. And the stores that do usually charge some quite unreasonable prices on their CD's for the priviledge, or simply don't have a good range of music to listen to.
But of course, its all the customers fault that they are demanding more than they are getting, and when they don't get it they then take it. Thats a rather naive however, there are people that will always steal music, software etc because they see it as better than paying. I don't but hey thats just me. Those people, I have no problem with them having to defend their actions in court. However this situation we are in is infact many shades of grey and not just black and white with such simple examples as those I have described. The RIAA members steal from artists too, that is documented in places that I can't be bothered finding.
Bah I can't be bothered wondering if what I've just written makes any sense. I'm going to bed!:)
An XBOX and XBOX Live can be used to chat to people. Its hardly the be all and end all of VOIP communication, and you are kind of stuck with needing some big cumbersome equipment, but still its cheaper than telephoning those people on the otherside of the country (when you heartily ignore the infrastructure costs into setting up an XBOX on XBOX Live):) I look at it as a perk to something I wanted anyway for entertainment purposes. Besides my ADSL is used for far more than XBOX Live:)
I hardly ever use my landline for anything now except ADSL and the odd local phone call, and its free message bank facility.
Slashdot Mirror
There are more than enough needy causes that could do with such a boost to their funds.
Basically from what I remember, you hand over your IT infrastructure to IBM who provide all of your services, like email etc etc on an on demand basis allowing you to rent more computing power when you need it and then slacking off on its use when you don't need it, etc etc. On paper it seemed to make sense. But not for many apparently. But thats what "spin" is for.
They were having a hard time selling it from what I recall. Large companies with their own IT infrastructure were unwilling to just hand it over to a third party and rely on them to manage it in the way they want. Alot of promises but not many success stories to go round. Perhaps things have changed now, but its going to be a hard sell.
I think this model of software use would be more appealing to smaller businesses that don't want to manage their own IT infrastructures because of cost or whatever. But those that have established IT departments may not want to just hand over many critical functions to a third party.
I will take my karma and smug knowledge that I don't hide as an AC no matter what I post... :)
It all ends when the world abolishes money and robots perform all our manual labor! In the end we should all be better off :)
I don't know the legal status of such things and what exactly will be the consequence of not allowing the search to take place and what legal recources I have. I really don't much care to hire a lawyer to find out for me either. Recently police powers to search have been increased, but its not exactly like I confuse those misleading security guards psuedo police uniform hybrids with police officers.
I get quite sick of being expected to hand over my bags for inspection or wait in a queue to leave a store. I'm not a thief and I don't expect to be treated as one just because I had the audacity to walk into their store. So whever there is a queue or something I just walk around it and leave. Sometimes I'm stopped sometimes I'm not. It's a somewhat arrogant attitude to take, but honestly I don't care. I am not a thief and thats all that matters to me everytime my integrity is called into question be store owners and their security.
Nowadays when I am carrying a few bags and whatnot, or my bag I take to work and I'm thinking of going into a store where I will most likely be searched, then I simply don't go in. Which means that they are potentially loosing sales.
I understand that Australian businesses are losing big money to thieves but I don't care to be treated like a criminal. Besides thieves are very adaptable and find ways to beat the systems in place, and stores seem far to slow to respond to changing circumstances.
The checkout person was about ready to throttle the next person/child that was about to activate the toys because of the never ending barage of small petty annoyances.
I can easily see an ad system that talks to consumers when they walk past on the street to become very annoying to consumers. A person may be able to remain calm and cool with being exposed to a few of them, but I have little doubt that advertising industries will try to vie for peoples attention to the point where it will almost become like harrasment to just walk down a street.
Thankfully, in my country at least, advertising is regulated and I wouldn't imagine such things happening soon. Then again after a few "going postal" incidents talking billboards might just not be in our future :)
The biggest problem I had was trying to actually get the update through Windows Update. I did set Windows Update to automatically download it (but not install) but that didn't work for 3 whole days after SP2 had been released. So I tried to use Windows Update manually but the Windows Update site was so busy that I was told that I couldn't download it and would have to try again later. That amused me no end for some reason. All in all Windows Update reported i needed 75 Mb of patches, instead downloaded 111 Mb of patches, turned on a crappy firewall and some services that were not worth running.
However I know what I'm doing when it comes to maintaining my Windows box. I have a Linux box too so don't bother telling me to go use Linux instead :)
Oh good the recording industry strikes again, creating artificial markets in a bid to increase their profits. Who says borders won't exist in our beautiful digital future. Yet again us backawater australians will have to wait before we get the chance to legitiametly buy digital music without some credit card billing address shenanigans. Still no doubt it will be cheaper to buy the US music than our own. Perhaps us poor Australian consumers can contract our ACCC into breaking their licensing backs...
Why doesn't the site just block non American IP address ranges and be done with it! So much for our "free" trade agreement...
Many internet users don't seem to understand what risks they have on their computers in exposing sensitive information. Hopefully education and a few high profile blunders will make people realise was risks they may have and take appropriate action.
More and more it looks like people really should get a license before using the internet :)
I know there are size constraint issues and all but I think its "cool" factor would go up quite a few notches with that change.
I get the impression that for every new version of Windows, they are just having to keep on doing (or perhaps redoing) too much work creating these huge delays and whatnot. They have alot of work to do to fix security AND make Windows usable for MAH and PAH at the same time. I just can't help but get the feeling that the way they are going about creating Windows is part of the problem they have in maintaining it and releasing newer versions of it.
Perhpas I am just interested in seeing Windows evolve rather than just re-inventing itself again and again. Perhaps I'm now thinking of different operating systems.
P.S. I am a Windows user that just happened to install Linux on his old spare PC recently and might have a Apple sitting in the corner ;)
Am I a soul sapping bastard for denying them their revenue on tickters subsidized by candy bar food? Well my conscience is clear, if they can't make money on me by my purchasing a ticket then tough luck. Welcome to business. Make the companies that provide the films start being a bit more reasonable. If the A list actors wern't getting their $20 million checks then there might be room for a bit more quality film making in the biz that could sell more tickets.
Every now and then there is a video game ad at a cinema, and all of them that I have seen have looked bad. Washed out, pixellated beyond all belief. Most if not all of them have been console games since their mass production and pop culture status is much more assured than PC games and makes them more suitable candidates for cinema.
I would say yes! Going by all the antics that happen in these forums, there is some truth to what you say. :)
I've seen my own comments just copied and reposted by AC's for no apparent reason. Oh well I don't really care about that, but all to often people get carried away with the free spirited sharing of the internet. Just because information can be passed around like candy, doesn't mean that some common decency shouldn't be applied and people get credit where credit is due.
I think it improves the "quality" of the information as a whole.
Yes I very much expect this to be the case. However for once, for a major release, I won't have to be bothered with putting the CD in my drive when I wan't to play it. That will truely be refreshing, as will not having to wait for the box's to hit shelves in Australia. Though Doom 3 coming out on August 3rd was a nice suprise, take that Europe! :)
Until of course cracked servers exist for the cracked clients and then all bets are off.
tick.... tick... tick.. tick.
I wish I could! Goddam I'm an Austrlian that just installed Linux and now they are after me...! I knew I should of put on my tinfoil hat while I was installing it...
There is a track on the GameCube game F-Zero GX called Mobius Strip and its a great level to drive/levitate on. You build up hellish speeds on a quietly undulating track, that just happens to be, you guessed it, a Mobius Strip.
I wait in breathless anticipation for the replies for this post! :)
Of course, you can "update" them also with mod chips, but I don't think that that is what you had in mind :)
It looks like however that the RIAA will need to be taken, kicking and screaming into the new age of music. An age where hopefully more quality music will be produced and less populist blond breast augmented voice modified bimbo' won't be ruling the charts. Oh and a place where they might not be particularly relevant anymore.
I've been finding it harder to do the try before you buy thing as many stores I go to don't let you try before you buy for some bizarre reason. I find it bizarre because I would of thought that music stores would want to encourage people to buy music not make it harder for customers to pick something they would like. And the stores that do usually charge some quite unreasonable prices on their CD's for the priviledge, or simply don't have a good range of music to listen to.
But of course, its all the customers fault that they are demanding more than they are getting, and when they don't get it they then take it. Thats a rather naive however, there are people that will always steal music, software etc because they see it as better than paying. I don't but hey thats just me. Those people, I have no problem with them having to defend their actions in court. However this situation we are in is infact many shades of grey and not just black and white with such simple examples as those I have described. The RIAA members steal from artists too, that is documented in places that I can't be bothered finding.
Bah I can't be bothered wondering if what I've just written makes any sense. I'm going to bed! :)
I hardly ever use my landline for anything now except ADSL and the odd local phone call, and its free message bank facility.