Sounds like this could be fixed with some QOS (Quality of Service) software. Prioritize the VOIP and deprioritize things that are not of a time sensitive nature, such as email, and the call won't lag.
I didn't try it as it could have been a job ending move.
Yes, but if you did it just right (BOFH style), this job ending move could have been many times more profitable than staying at your job. How much dirt on company execs could be found with the root password?
Obviously you've never dealt with a corrupted registry. Sure, you can back them up and restore them, but good luck if the thing gets really hosed. You'll be reinstalling.
Hey, if the price is right. If I were offered $60,000 a year to mop floors, I'd do it. It would be a low stress job, I'm sure. I have a feeling this company did not want to offer college graduate level wages to the service staff, which is why this short sighted policy was removed.
Microsoft listens to their customers allright... When there's money at stake. Competition from other platforms is clearly the reason they are making this change. They aren't a dying corporation, they simply don't have the monopoly they once thought they did. I know I just fed a troll here, but this troll indirectly brought up an interesting point.
It would have been far more useful to do an expensive study on the cluelessness of marketeers and the executives who listen to them. Seriously, could these people be any more out of touch with reality?
Anyone who for whatever reason must use Internet Explorer but would like to have tabbed browsing along with control over what is displayed (sounds, flash, popups, etc.) should try Avant Browser. It uses IE's API, but has many useful additional features.
I don't think this will be possible, even if they want it to work. What if your CDs get stolen out of your car and the thief then copies them and makes the tracks available for download? Or a more realistic scenario: your friend borrows your CDs and does the same thing. It will be so hard for anyone to prove it was actually you that made the copies that the music companies will give up trying. If they were to succeed in having laws changed to make it so that you're liable for your CDs no matter what, people really will stop buying CDs from any label that uses this technique. Who wants to put themselves on the line for a huge lawsuit just so they can buy overpriced pop music?
Not to mention, you could be turned in simply because you didn't install correctly. If some n00b tries to install Windows and doesn't get their license key entered properly and some 'helpful' friend works around the activation, the user will be totally surprised when the SWAT team shows up at their door. If this happens just once, it will scare people away from buying any Microsoft products, for fear that it could happen to them, however unlikely it may be. And it will be worldwide news, since the media absolutely loves scary scandal like cases.
When IT wages are lower than construction worker wages, what will make someone want to go into IT? Sure, the work environment is nicer, but in order for someone to justify 4 or 5 years of college, there has to be some sort of payoff. The reality is, wages in the US in general are higher than they are in many other countries because the cost of living is higher. Remember, most American households are supported by 2 incomes, which I believe is not the case throughout much of the world.
Personally, the only reasons I have replaced my cell (which tends to average every 2-3 years) are because the battery crapped out and a new phone is cheaper than just a new battery, or the piece of junk just doesn't work well anymore. I think the planned obsolescense thing goes all the way back to the phone manufacturers, who don't want to build a phone so well that people end up keeping it for 7 years.
Are you seriously saying that you pull your car over to change a radio station or to turn the heat down? I'm no fan of distracted driving, but I am more than able to hit a preset button without taking my attention off of the road. Driving across flat prairie land does not take much concentration anyway.
It doesn't necessarily require an open source application to clean spyware off your computer. It just requires a company to produce software for the purpose of keeping your computer safe and running well, as opposed to creating it for the benefit of hidden advertising deals (I assume Claria gave them something for not removing their crap). The best way around this is to use multiple spyware scanning tools (Spybot + AdAware, for example). Claria probably won't make a deal with all the spyware remover companies.
I asked my lawyer friend about this, and he said the only legal purpose that these disclaimers can really serve is to prevent the sender from accidentally waiving any rights they may hold. For example, attorney client privilege is a very big deal to lawyers. They must be able to communicate in secret with their client. If an email is misdirected and falls into the wrong hands, any information could not be admitted into court as if it were publicly disclosed. Legally, attorney client privilege is still in effect. Of course the accidental recipient would still see it and there wouldn't be much you could do about that, so if something is really confidential, encrypt it. The same thing could apply to trade secrets or any other form of private communication. However, it would be very difficult to take any action against an accidental recipient, regardless of what your disclaimer said, unless you could prove that they acted with malicious intent after receiving the email.
Baystar had better dump that common stock right away. The price fell more than 7% today alone, and I can't imagine how bad its going to tank on the 10th, when SCO has to announce its earnings (the call got pushed back from tomorrow so they can have time to properly prepare their FUD). This will have to put a serious dent in their legal budget, and combined with the inevitable fall in stock price and decreasing revenues, I think the end for them might be very close.
While I agree that many people are complete financial retards, sometimes it really does make sense to rent an apartment. If you move somewhere not knowing how long you'll be there and you end up having to move again in a year, you're far better off having rented. All the expenses of buying and selling a house will more than make up for any equity you gained over a year, unless it went up in value very very fast. And if you can't afford a down payment, the financing terms will be very unattractive.
As for the cell phone, if you decide to pay for the phone and get a plan with no contract, chances are good that you will keep it for longer than than the contract period anyway, and end up paying a lot more overall. If you go with a large provider that has a decent reputation, it should not be a problem to commit to a 2 year agreement.
Car leasing, however, I don't agree with. Unless you're writing it off as a business expense, leasing seems to me like a way for people to drive a car they can't realistically afford. But if you're a yuppy that just can't imagine not driving a car less than 3 years old, leasing would probably be better than buying and selling every couple of years.
Re:where have we heard this before?
on
NYT on Spam Cops
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· Score: 3, Interesting
In this case, it is being done for different reasons. Some DMA members operate semi-legit email lists. They may annoy people, but at least they are not using some of the most harmful tactics, such as relaying messages through other people's servers and forging headers. Anti spam efforts make it very difficult to operate any kind of mailing lists, as we have discussed on Slashdot before. If the DMA can cut down on the worst offenders and eliminate some of the 'competing spam', their members' marketing campaigns will be a lot more effective. I'm not saying I am a fan of the DMA or anything, but I can understand why it makes sense for them to do this.
Now if the RIAA can succeed in getting online filesharing declared to be an act of terrorism, they can use these National Security Letters to get around that pesky court order that put a stop to their warrantless search powers.
What's that sound I hear? It sounds like the world's smallest violin playing this guy a sympathy tune. Seriously, I do not feel the slightest bit sorry for him. He knew what he was doing was wrong, kept doing it anyway, and is paying the price. This is kind of like someone breaking in to your house on multiple occaisions and finally getting caught, then finding out you had a hidden camera that identified him as the burglar all those other times too. He would claim it was unfair, that you should have warned him about the camera.
When it comes down to it, these policies really don't matter because there's no way in hell that you could prove that someone was "stiff and unresponsive". It is really unfortunate that there are asshole guys who think they can rape some girl just because she agrees to go out with them, but date rape is nearly impossible to prove even in the best of circumstances.
As scary sounding as the DMCA may be, copyright law is worse. Look at the penalties listed at the beginning of a movie in the FBI warning. Yet people copy movies all the time knowing there isn't a snowball's chance in hell of getting caught unless they're doing it on a large scale. It will be the same for DRM mod chips. A few guys will get busted selling them, but many people will use them undetected. This will be just like every other pointless and unsuccessful copyright scheme, easily defeated, inconveniencing legitimate customers, and having no effect on real piracy.
It used to be 17 years from date of issue. Its now 20 years from date of filing. This change was made to remove the incentive to drag out the filing process.
Actually, they have done just that. Try to get your music sold in stores, played on the radio, or even book a concert hall as an independent. It can only be done in a few places, since Clear Channel and a couple of other companies own most of the radio stations, concert venues, and increasingly the music stores. Is the RIAA preventing indy music from existing? Maybe not completely, but they're doing a damn good job making it hard for them. Try getting an indy radio station on the air and see how much resistance you face from the FCC (which is heavily lobbied by music industry reps). Got a few million $ to spare to cut through the red tape which was deliberately put in place to prevent new entries? Looks like you probably failed the logic portion of the SATs yourself.
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Sounds like this could be fixed with some QOS (Quality of Service) software. Prioritize the VOIP and deprioritize things that are not of a time sensitive nature, such as email, and the call won't lag.
I didn't try it as it could have been a job ending move.
Yes, but if you did it just right (BOFH style), this job ending move could have been many times more profitable than staying at your job. How much dirt on company execs could be found with the root password?
Obviously you've never dealt with a corrupted registry. Sure, you can back them up and restore them, but good luck if the thing gets really hosed. You'll be reinstalling.
Hey, if the price is right. If I were offered $60,000 a year to mop floors, I'd do it. It would be a low stress job, I'm sure. I have a feeling this company did not want to offer college graduate level wages to the service staff, which is why this short sighted policy was removed.
Microsoft listens to their customers allright... When there's money at stake. Competition from other platforms is clearly the reason they are making this change. They aren't a dying corporation, they simply don't have the monopoly they once thought they did. I know I just fed a troll here, but this troll indirectly brought up an interesting point.
Apparently the IAB did an expensive study
It would have been far more useful to do an expensive study on the cluelessness of marketeers and the executives who listen to them. Seriously, could these people be any more out of touch with reality?
Anyone who for whatever reason must use Internet Explorer but would like to have tabbed browsing along with control over what is displayed (sounds, flash, popups, etc.) should try Avant Browser. It uses IE's API, but has many useful additional features.
I don't think this will be possible, even if they want it to work. What if your CDs get stolen out of your car and the thief then copies them and makes the tracks available for download? Or a more realistic scenario: your friend borrows your CDs and does the same thing. It will be so hard for anyone to prove it was actually you that made the copies that the music companies will give up trying. If they were to succeed in having laws changed to make it so that you're liable for your CDs no matter what, people really will stop buying CDs from any label that uses this technique. Who wants to put themselves on the line for a huge lawsuit just so they can buy overpriced pop music?
Not to mention, you could be turned in simply because you didn't install correctly. If some n00b tries to install Windows and doesn't get their license key entered properly and some 'helpful' friend works around the activation, the user will be totally surprised when the SWAT team shows up at their door. If this happens just once, it will scare people away from buying any Microsoft products, for fear that it could happen to them, however unlikely it may be. And it will be worldwide news, since the media absolutely loves scary scandal like cases.
When IT wages are lower than construction worker wages, what will make someone want to go into IT? Sure, the work environment is nicer, but in order for someone to justify 4 or 5 years of college, there has to be some sort of payoff. The reality is, wages in the US in general are higher than they are in many other countries because the cost of living is higher. Remember, most American households are supported by 2 incomes, which I believe is not the case throughout much of the world.
Personally, the only reasons I have replaced my cell (which tends to average every 2-3 years) are because the battery crapped out and a new phone is cheaper than just a new battery, or the piece of junk just doesn't work well anymore. I think the planned obsolescense thing goes all the way back to the phone manufacturers, who don't want to build a phone so well that people end up keeping it for 7 years.
Are you seriously saying that you pull your car over to change a radio station or to turn the heat down? I'm no fan of distracted driving, but I am more than able to hit a preset button without taking my attention off of the road. Driving across flat prairie land does not take much concentration anyway.
It doesn't necessarily require an open source application to clean spyware off your computer. It just requires a company to produce software for the purpose of keeping your computer safe and running well, as opposed to creating it for the benefit of hidden advertising deals (I assume Claria gave them something for not removing their crap). The best way around this is to use multiple spyware scanning tools (Spybot + AdAware, for example). Claria probably won't make a deal with all the spyware remover companies.
I asked my lawyer friend about this, and he said the only legal purpose that these disclaimers can really serve is to prevent the sender from accidentally waiving any rights they may hold. For example, attorney client privilege is a very big deal to lawyers. They must be able to communicate in secret with their client. If an email is misdirected and falls into the wrong hands, any information could not be admitted into court as if it were publicly disclosed. Legally, attorney client privilege is still in effect. Of course the accidental recipient would still see it and there wouldn't be much you could do about that, so if something is really confidential, encrypt it. The same thing could apply to trade secrets or any other form of private communication. However, it would be very difficult to take any action against an accidental recipient, regardless of what your disclaimer said, unless you could prove that they acted with malicious intent after receiving the email.
Baystar had better dump that common stock right away. The price fell more than 7% today alone, and I can't imagine how bad its going to tank on the 10th, when SCO has to announce its earnings (the call got pushed back from tomorrow so they can have time to properly prepare their FUD). This will have to put a serious dent in their legal budget, and combined with the inevitable fall in stock price and decreasing revenues, I think the end for them might be very close.
While I agree that many people are complete financial retards, sometimes it really does make sense to rent an apartment. If you move somewhere not knowing how long you'll be there and you end up having to move again in a year, you're far better off having rented. All the expenses of buying and selling a house will more than make up for any equity you gained over a year, unless it went up in value very very fast. And if you can't afford a down payment, the financing terms will be very unattractive.
As for the cell phone, if you decide to pay for the phone and get a plan with no contract, chances are good that you will keep it for longer than than the contract period anyway, and end up paying a lot more overall. If you go with a large provider that has a decent reputation, it should not be a problem to commit to a 2 year agreement.
Car leasing, however, I don't agree with. Unless you're writing it off as a business expense, leasing seems to me like a way for people to drive a car they can't realistically afford. But if you're a yuppy that just can't imagine not driving a car less than 3 years old, leasing would probably be better than buying and selling every couple of years.
In this case, it is being done for different reasons. Some DMA members operate semi-legit email lists. They may annoy people, but at least they are not using some of the most harmful tactics, such as relaying messages through other people's servers and forging headers. Anti spam efforts make it very difficult to operate any kind of mailing lists, as we have discussed on Slashdot before. If the DMA can cut down on the worst offenders and eliminate some of the 'competing spam', their members' marketing campaigns will be a lot more effective. I'm not saying I am a fan of the DMA or anything, but I can understand why it makes sense for them to do this.
Now if the RIAA can succeed in getting online filesharing declared to be an act of terrorism, they can use these National Security Letters to get around that pesky court order that put a stop to their warrantless search powers.
What's that sound I hear? It sounds like the world's smallest violin playing this guy a sympathy tune. Seriously, I do not feel the slightest bit sorry for him. He knew what he was doing was wrong, kept doing it anyway, and is paying the price. This is kind of like someone breaking in to your house on multiple occaisions and finally getting caught, then finding out you had a hidden camera that identified him as the burglar all those other times too. He would claim it was unfair, that you should have warned him about the camera.
When it comes down to it, these policies really don't matter because there's no way in hell that you could prove that someone was "stiff and unresponsive". It is really unfortunate that there are asshole guys who think they can rape some girl just because she agrees to go out with them, but date rape is nearly impossible to prove even in the best of circumstances.
Shhh, they'd rather you not know that. This way, you'll believe that they actually contribute something to the process rather than stand in the way.
Making your own Cantenna is pretty easy too.
As scary sounding as the DMCA may be, copyright law is worse. Look at the penalties listed at the beginning of a movie in the FBI warning. Yet people copy movies all the time knowing there isn't a snowball's chance in hell of getting caught unless they're doing it on a large scale. It will be the same for DRM mod chips. A few guys will get busted selling them, but many people will use them undetected. This will be just like every other pointless and unsuccessful copyright scheme, easily defeated, inconveniencing legitimate customers, and having no effect on real piracy.
It used to be 17 years from date of issue. Its now 20 years from date of filing. This change was made to remove the incentive to drag out the filing process.
Actually, they have done just that. Try to get your music sold in stores, played on the radio, or even book a concert hall as an independent. It can only be done in a few places, since Clear Channel and a couple of other companies own most of the radio stations, concert venues, and increasingly the music stores. Is the RIAA preventing indy music from existing? Maybe not completely, but they're doing a damn good job making it hard for them. Try getting an indy radio station on the air and see how much resistance you face from the FCC (which is heavily lobbied by music industry reps). Got a few million $ to spare to cut through the red tape which was deliberately put in place to prevent new entries? Looks like you probably failed the logic portion of the SATs yourself.