Oh. I never thought of it that way. You could have a ton of those things shoved into the front of even a small PC case.
How about a portable raid array that plugs into the front of your machine w/ multiple drives braced together as a cartridge? Get the technology up to speed a little and running 4 in a raid0 array could be a pleasing experience.
Cost and size seems to have prevented a lot of neat things from happening so far.
Cringely argues: "Ideally, the IT department ought to recommend the best computer for the job, but more often than not, they recommend the best computer for the IT department's job."
This person obviously sees only part of the bigger picture. Supporting the hardware/software is part of the total cost of ownership. If a company deems it a better deal to purchase PCs over cost of support issues, then they'll be picked. Not to mention, most users have a PC at home. Why burden them with learning a different platform at the office?
Bottom line, you can go buy a new PC motherboard, sound card, video card, etc for a few bucks. Replacing Apple parts are a bit more expensive and harder to come by.
If Apple had wanted a larger share of the office market, they should have been there to compete for it all these years. Nothing against them, but they focused almost entirely on the home user market and photoshop crowd for the past ten years, leaving PCs for the miscellanious work. You don't get your hardware stocked in offices by being innovative, you do it by being consistent and monopolistic.(:( )
This isn't a blanket assumption that PCs are the better answer for all office situations, but those are the reasons none of my shops have been Apple shops.
Please don't get all zealoty and mod happy, just an honest opinion from an honest joe who's set up more office networks than most. My karma is still recovering from the last time I posted to a Mac thread.;)
With motors and bearings getting better, the biggest, baddest drives are pushing 25k rpms now. How does a 5k or 7.2k rpm drive keep up?
Not being the one to state the obvious, but since the rest of my computer is getting faster, why should I even consider a slower soltution because it's smaller? I mean, size would matter if the case of my computer had to be larger to house it (like a big drive in a little laptop), but since a hard drive is so small in comparison, I see no push for these to be adopted in workstations.
I do understand it being used in consoles and mp3 players. Just not in a workstation. Why must you say silly things in the headlines?:)
I think Microsoft made an intelligent decision on this one. I was an avid supporter of nV and started getting the feeling that there may be some problems in their labs. Especially with the problematic nv30 being so late and lacking in innovation. ATI improved their driver support and began picking up where nV left off with the GF3.
I, more than anyone, want to see nV get over it's engineering problems and be stiffer competition. But that's not going to happen by zealotting over them.
Back in 96 I managed to get a job doing technical support at MindSpring. There were ~60 employees total, much larger than the mom 'n pop computer stores I had worked in before. About 30-40 of those employees were support and service. We ran a really tight shop there. Every effort was devoted to making sure we introduced people to the Internet in the easiest fashion. It was very rare we didn't get someone connected and surfing, and that was back in the dawn of the Winmodem on Windows for Workgroups 3.11 and a trumpet winsock. We had an in-house brew and some licensed winsock that was pretty buggy, but it was nice because the doors there were so open that you could: submit a report to the developement team, they'd investigate and usually request specific information, you get it from the customer, report back to them, and viola, a solution.
This practice was the norm right up until MindSpring's investors got a little greedy and pushed them for growth. It was about a year after that, we aquired more than we could chew and didn't have funds to hire enough support staff. Then came the temp agency employees "as a temporary solution until we can get a throttle on this growth". At that point, the starting wages went from ~$32k to $19-21k, and instead of having multiple technical interviews they'd have to pass a very simple written test. That carried on right up until early 2003, then they laid off ~3000 employees (almost all call center staff, much with many years experience and dedication) to out-source it's service to several companies. I think one of them is the same that AOL has used for it's cancellations department before. The email support and service was out-sourced to some firm in India that pays it's employees less than $4000/year.
I know this is a big-rambling bit of material. It just goes to show the impact of investors going wild has on a company. When MindSpring was small, just about everyone knew the CEO on a first name basis. We knew his vision and thought it was one worth persuing. Investors so excited to see the possibility of a wired-tommorow and the train-wreck approach used to drum up some quick funds.
Reminds me when a lot of friends dad's got laid off in the 80's because the big three had introduced robotics systems to build cars instead of factory workers. The only exception being, that was neccesary to compete in the world market. Our fiasco in the 90's seems to have been drummed up for no particular reason except to temporarily inflate our economy.
I know what you mean. Too bad most of my PSX games were backups, and useless without a modchip on the new ps2.
I know it sounds fishy, but I had a fire and all my originals were lost. Thank goodness I had backups or they would have been gone forever. Try getting an insurance company to hook you up with funds to re-purchase all your lost dvds, games, and music. They'll want to see receipts. Yah right. Meanwhile, the industry tries to keep us from making backups by paying off politicians to make those things illegal. What a grand America we live in today.
Anyway, My solution, being the owner of a PS2, Xbox, Dreamcast, PS1, and such, was to get a 3 shelf baker's rack, power strip, and video switchbox. I used wire ties to mount everything into place, and have a set of patch Svideo cables coming off the box so it can roll into any room with a TV and be used easily and without clutter or much effort.
If you try this, get a short baker's rack and don't put the xbox on the very top shelf. It's heavy and can cause for easy tippage on soft surfaces such as carpet. I would also suggest going to Home Depot or Lowes and picking up some bigger caster wheels with brakes on them. This will make a $40 rack look like a $200 rack.
A total investment of ~$80** and you'll never have to worry about console clutter again.
** $40 for baker's rack w/ chrome finish, $12 caster wheels, $20 4 port svideo/rca switchbox, $5 power strip, and a few bucks for any cables you might have lost (get used ones).
If I had it to do over again, I would get a rack with those 1.5" thick wooden shelves that sit on the chrome frame. They just look better in a house. I think they were about $10 more than the basic one like mine.
I used to buy whatever 450 watt CompUsa model I could get for $19.00. That was a big mistake.
After about 6 months use, I had one make a popping sound, then erupt in smoke. All I had in the box was dual 700 cpus, 6 scsi drives, 2 ide drives, cdrw, GF3, and a bunch of neon lights. During that time, the system would freeze up a lot, usually while compiling.
Basically 450 watts doesn't mean as much as the quality of components and how cloesly the manufacturer was willing to run them to the point of breakage.
I swapped out my burnt 450 watt for a Antec cool blue running at around 400 watts and my system is quieter and never locks up anymore.
When reading wattages of cheap PSU's remind yourself of audio equipment. Like when a brand like Sparkomatic or Jensen promises 1000 watts out of an amp only for it to sound like shiat and blow speakers. Meanwhile, a Bose amp of 75 watts would be generating more power overall and not be tearing your speakers up. The same game is played with PSU promises. They, the generic cheapies, never planned on anyone using all 450 watts of their equipment. These big number, low performance parts are meant for a consumer with a very basic system seeking comfort big specs.
That's easy. My desire to live a peaceful life and tendancy to avoid very serious situations would force me to do one thing:
Not tell anyone. Screw it.. If our nation feels it needs the DMCA so bad, then let it reap the consequences. There is no point in putting your future in jeopardy over trying to appear as smarty, ethical hacker.
This isn't Hackers or Sneakers, it's real life. Screw up and you might not have another shot of something so nice as a college education.
Silly kids these days. They always have their head in the clouds.:-)
Researchers at Brigham and Women's Hospital in Boston reviewed the health histories of 78,562 nurses and found a lower but still significant correlation: Those with one to 29 years on the night shift showed, on average, an 8 percent increase in breast cancer; those with 30 or more years showed a 36 percent increase.
Just about every study shows 3rd shift workers suffering from more adverse health problems than those who are productive in the daytime. I think this has more to do with sunlight and being in a more natural cycle. I personally think depression caused by working overnight has far more to do with these health problems. The typical health of most night-time workers I've known (over 35) have been in rough shape from mostly preventable conditions like smoking, drinking, etc.
Elizabeth Alvarez, the International Dark-Sky Association's associate director, counters with photos of bright streetlights casting deep shadows where bad guys could lurk. "Glare does not help visibility!" she says. "Too much light is blinding."
This is very true. When I grew up out in the country, I could walk outside and see several hundred feet on any night with even a slight moon. Once I moved to the city, this was not the case. So many bright lights everywhere, that where one is not appears pitch black. No way in hell could you ever manage to sneak up on me out in the woods, but in a city, it'd be about as hard as standing past where the street lamp's light is cast.
The thing that bothers me about all this extra lighting at night is the wasting of resources. I'd rather get a cut on my state and local taxes and do without the massive lighting infrastructure on my local freeways. My car has headlights that illuminate everything I need to see to drive safely and the only cost is energy my motor would have wasted anyway.
On a more reasonable note, what we really need is a few more technical hurdles overcome and move to LED lighting. The safety factor of lower operating tempuratures and saved energy would be immensely beneficial.
For a Geek news site who is typically on the cutting edge of technology reporting (well, linking), you would think "The world's biggest festival for computer enthusiasts" would warrant some hype-inducing headline ahead of time so a slashdot effect could happen in real life.
Your links back up what I was saying earlier, or intended to say, that if it's so big/. would have more focus on it before the day of the event. There would be a 'pre-registration open for Assembly 2003, make your reservations now!' article, followed by some other announcements. The links you display show same day, and after-the-fact reviews of Assembly events.
Anyway, it's not a topic that warrants much discussion. Just typing as I'm thinking today. Suggesting the mods consider the text they are posting before hitting that submit button, especially when they are knowingly submitting quotes that are a tad misguided.:)
I hate to be the proverbial terd in the punch bowl, but Assembly has been going on for more than 10 years. If it is the "The world's biggest festival for computer enthusiasts", then why has Slashdot neglected to post notification of it in previous years?
Assembly used to be very cutting edge. Back when a 386 could barely run Windows 3.11, coding groups such as Future Crew were making beautiful, fullscreen graphics demos by combining 2D media playback with 3D rendering. The results were of much greater caliber than the graphics of games in that era.
Nowadays, you have DirectX9 and multi-billion dollar companies pushing the envelope of what can be done with current hardware. So the thrill of Assembly demonstrations are not quite what they used to be. Especially since many of the demos were written for very specific hardware configurations.
On a side note, I made the local Best Buy stop playing Future Crew demos a long time ago by informing them that the copyright restricts public display for commercial purposes (ie, product demonstration) without permission.
I don't give out my document stash because it took forever to type up and I don't want to dilut their personal worth.
Go read any tech support forums on the web and replicate the typing style in a manner that is related to products belonging to the company you wish to harass. Make it wandering and difficult as possible to read without being illiterate.
Skipping commas, large fonts, emails from Outlook Express with full html code, background image, signature images, etc is great too. Most companies use an application like Remedy or Clarify to store emails from customers. These stay on record forever in some cases, nothing is better than costing them an extra 2-3MB in useless crap. It contributes to the slowdown of their ticketing system. Anyone who has worked in an enviroment like this can tell you of the countless hours wasted waiting for a ticket to open..:)
More tips here: http://slashdot.org/~Awptimus%20Prime/journ al/
I don't know about everyone else, but I will stick to whatever free content I can get ahold of.
Not unless I need very specific, proprietary content, would I ever pay to skim most of the web's nonsense. This includes general forum sites, news, link sites, even slashdot. Though entertaining, most of it is not worth paying for. Not when there is someone providing it for free.
Agreed. I do not buy CDs anymore due to the RIAA's actions in recent years. Not only it's bad business practice concerning filing suits against individuals, but it's push for hacked CDs and other devices to prevent me from making backups of my purchases.
In regards to their panic and need to sue everyone under the sun over mp3's, why do they get so upset when their public statements regarding the quality of pirated music as inferior to the CDs they sell? It would seem to me that inferior, unauthorized, copies would give downloaders an extra incentive to purchase after they download.
Aside from my dislike over their litigation happy ways, other things that contribue to my refusal to purchase CDs:
1) over-simplified, stereotypical bands and music categories. There's only ever a few songs from a few big names, with an occasional introductory band of any given category. At least that's all that ever hits the airwaves and major music stores.
2) too much urge for political control. For the RIAA to be such a small sector in the economy, it has an incredible amount of political backing. They have systematically bought votes from a great number of politicians through donations and capaign funds.
3) refusal to modernize business practice. The use of litigation and threats appear to be the means by which to keep a mid-1900's business model afloat in the new millenium. If all that money was spent on enabling technology and music, they wouldn't be sinking financially.
4) refusal to acknowledge why sales are plumetting. They scream 'piracy!' when it comes to falling numbers. But, take the percentage loss of sales in the past two years and compare it to the loss of sales for movie tickets, vacations, amusement parks, and other recreational spending.
I am certain the decline is global and due to a sinking world economy. Their sales will pick back up if they calm down, release more titles for people who aren't 16-20 years old, and wait for the economy to get rolling again.
I would suggest using semi-legitimate information when posting to their site. If you submit retarded stuff, they will recognize it and just delete it.
If you send a lot of questions about compliance and such, while trying to sound like a concerned businessman w/ a checkbook in hand, you will end up wasting them a lot of time and resources.
I often do this when a company shafts me. I have some pre-fab documents I wrote that are wordy and difficult to read, I will then add questions relating to a business transaction in them and start emailing service, support, and other groups inside said company. It's amazing how often I'll get a reply that probably took 5-30 minutes of someone's time.
Another option is calling repeatedly to different groups and waste time asking dumb questions. Back about 5 years ago when I did tech support, I recall the metrics working out to around $3/minute after my salary, benefits, electricity, infrastructure, etc were added up.
You get thousands of people to systematically converge on a company's customer service and support and they will fall apart. Actual customers will be irate at jammed phone lines and slow email responses. You will have issued a collective smackdown to be proud of.
Perhaps I should start a web site with instructions, times, and companies to hit. Sound like a plan? I could use slashdot code for it!:)
"I wonder what kind of latency you get with these.."
I would assume the same latency you would have with any application that would have taken the same network path as the 'net phone's packets?
Perhaps you are talking about an audio delay? In that case, assuming your ISP has proper routing, there should be no significant delay (around the same as many cell phones) when speaking to someone else in your same country.
I've set up vbrick devices to use two T1's bridged for LAAtlanta conferences and the delay was barely noticable.
Not since dialup on a 28.8k modem have I noticed much problem with audio communications on the web. Definitely better than the telco's international service back in the 80's. I remember talking to friends in Germany and Japan and having to stop for long periods of time between sentences to prevent cross talk.
I think this product is so-so, though. Without a subscription based access from the voip phone to a telco bridge and a real phone number, it's not going to explode in popularity regardless of it's audio quality.
Slashdot Mirror
Oh. I never thought of it that way. You could have a ton of those things shoved into the front of even a small PC case.
How about a portable raid array that plugs into the front of your machine w/ multiple drives braced together as a cartridge? Get the technology up to speed a little and running 4 in a raid0 array could be a pleasing experience.
Cost and size seems to have prevented a lot of neat things from happening so far.
Thanks for the enlightenment.
Oops! I forgot they are peaking out at 15k and thought 20-25k had already come out. Perhaps I shouldn't have been such a hippy in my younger years.
My original post needs to be crushed into oblivion as to not contaminate search engines with it's mis-information. =)
Cringely argues: "Ideally, the IT department ought to recommend the best computer for the job, but more often than not, they recommend the best computer for the IT department's job."
:( )
;)
This person obviously sees only part of the bigger picture. Supporting the hardware/software is part of the total cost of ownership. If a company deems it a better deal to purchase PCs over cost of support issues, then they'll be picked. Not to mention, most users have a PC at home. Why burden them with learning a different platform at the office?
Bottom line, you can go buy a new PC motherboard, sound card, video card, etc for a few bucks. Replacing Apple parts are a bit more expensive and harder to come by.
If Apple had wanted a larger share of the office market, they should have been there to compete for it all these years. Nothing against them, but they focused almost entirely on the home user market and photoshop crowd for the past ten years, leaving PCs for the miscellanious work. You don't get your hardware stocked in offices by being innovative, you do it by being consistent and monopolistic.(
This isn't a blanket assumption that PCs are the better answer for all office situations, but those are the reasons none of my shops have been Apple shops.
Please don't get all zealoty and mod happy, just an honest opinion from an honest joe who's set up more office networks than most. My karma is still recovering from the last time I posted to a Mac thread.
With motors and bearings getting better, the biggest, baddest drives are pushing 25k rpms now. How does a 5k or 7.2k rpm drive keep up?
:)
Not being the one to state the obvious, but since the rest of my computer is getting faster, why should I even consider a slower soltution because it's smaller? I mean, size would matter if the case of my computer had to be larger to house it (like a big drive in a little laptop), but since a hard drive is so small in comparison, I see no push for these to be adopted in workstations.
I do understand it being used in consoles and mp3 players. Just not in a workstation. Why must you say silly things in the headlines?
I think Microsoft made an intelligent decision on this one. I was an avid supporter of nV and started getting the feeling that there may be some problems in their labs. Especially with the problematic nv30 being so late and lacking in innovation. ATI improved their driver support and began picking up where nV left off with the GF3.
I, more than anyone, want to see nV get over it's engineering problems and be stiffer competition. But that's not going to happen by zealotting over them.
Nobody loses when there's a GPU war going on.
I feel your pain, jlechem.
Back in 96 I managed to get a job doing technical support at MindSpring. There were ~60 employees total, much larger than the mom 'n pop computer stores I had worked in before. About 30-40 of those employees were support and service. We ran a really tight shop there. Every effort was devoted to making sure we introduced people to the Internet in the easiest fashion. It was very rare we didn't get someone connected and surfing, and that was back in the dawn of the Winmodem on Windows for Workgroups 3.11 and a trumpet winsock. We had an in-house brew and some licensed winsock that was pretty buggy, but it was nice because the doors there were so open that you could: submit a report to the developement team, they'd investigate and usually request specific information, you get it from the customer, report back to them, and viola, a solution.
This practice was the norm right up until MindSpring's investors got a little greedy and pushed them for growth. It was about a year after that, we aquired more than we could chew and didn't have funds to hire enough support staff. Then came the temp agency employees "as a temporary solution until we can get a throttle on this growth". At that point, the starting wages went from ~$32k to $19-21k, and instead of having multiple technical interviews they'd have to pass a very simple written test. That carried on right up until early 2003, then they laid off ~3000 employees (almost all call center staff, much with many years experience and dedication) to out-source it's service to several companies. I think one of them is the same that AOL has used for it's cancellations department before. The email support and service was out-sourced to some firm in India that pays it's employees less than $4000/year.
I know this is a big-rambling bit of material. It just goes to show the impact of investors going wild has on a company. When MindSpring was small, just about everyone knew the CEO on a first name basis. We knew his vision and thought it was one worth persuing. Investors so excited to see the possibility of a wired-tommorow and the train-wreck approach used to drum up some quick funds.
Reminds me when a lot of friends dad's got laid off in the 80's because the big three had introduced robotics systems to build cars instead of factory workers. The only exception being, that was neccesary to compete in the world market. Our fiasco in the 90's seems to have been drummed up for no particular reason except to temporarily inflate our economy.
I know what you mean. Too bad most of my PSX games were backups, and useless without a modchip on the new ps2.
I know it sounds fishy, but I had a fire and all my originals were lost. Thank goodness I had backups or they would have been gone forever. Try getting an insurance company to hook you up with funds to re-purchase all your lost dvds, games, and music. They'll want to see receipts. Yah right. Meanwhile, the industry tries to keep us from making backups by paying off politicians to make those things illegal. What a grand America we live in today.
Anyway, My solution, being the owner of a PS2, Xbox, Dreamcast, PS1, and such, was to get a 3 shelf baker's rack, power strip, and video switchbox. I used wire ties to mount everything into place, and have a set of patch Svideo cables coming off the box so it can roll into any room with a TV and be used easily and without clutter or much effort.
If you try this, get a short baker's rack and don't put the xbox on the very top shelf. It's heavy and can cause for easy tippage on soft surfaces such as carpet. I would also suggest going to Home Depot or Lowes and picking up some bigger caster wheels with brakes on them. This will make a $40 rack look like a $200 rack.
A total investment of ~$80** and you'll never have to worry about console clutter again.
** $40 for baker's rack w/ chrome finish, $12 caster wheels, $20 4 port svideo/rca switchbox, $5 power strip, and a few bucks for any cables you might have lost (get used ones).
If I had it to do over again, I would get a rack with those 1.5" thick wooden shelves that sit on the chrome frame. They just look better in a house. I think they were about $10 more than the basic one like mine.
I used to buy whatever 450 watt CompUsa model I could get for $19.00. That was a big mistake.
After about 6 months use, I had one make a popping sound, then erupt in smoke. All I had in the box was dual 700 cpus, 6 scsi drives, 2 ide drives, cdrw, GF3, and a bunch of neon lights. During that time, the system would freeze up a lot, usually while compiling.
Basically 450 watts doesn't mean as much as the quality of components and how cloesly the manufacturer was willing to run them to the point of breakage.
I swapped out my burnt 450 watt for a Antec cool blue running at around 400 watts and my system is quieter and never locks up anymore.
When reading wattages of cheap PSU's remind yourself of audio equipment. Like when a brand like Sparkomatic or Jensen promises 1000 watts out of an amp only for it to sound like shiat and blow speakers. Meanwhile, a Bose amp of 75 watts would be generating more power overall and not be tearing your speakers up. The same game is played with PSU promises. They, the generic cheapies, never planned on anyone using all 450 watts of their equipment. These big number, low performance parts are meant for a consumer with a very basic system seeking comfort big specs.
I guess it reinforces 'You get what you pay for'.
That's easy. My desire to live a peaceful life and tendancy to avoid very serious situations would force me to do one thing:
:-)
Not tell anyone. Screw it.. If our nation feels it needs the DMCA so bad, then let it reap the consequences. There is no point in putting your future in jeopardy over trying to appear as smarty, ethical hacker.
This isn't Hackers or Sneakers, it's real life. Screw up and you might not have another shot of something so nice as a college education.
Silly kids these days. They always have their head in the clouds.
Researchers at Brigham and Women's Hospital in Boston reviewed the health histories of 78,562 nurses and found a lower but still significant correlation: Those with one to 29 years on the night shift showed, on average, an 8 percent increase in breast cancer; those with 30 or more years showed a 36 percent increase.
Just about every study shows 3rd shift workers suffering from more adverse health problems than those who are productive in the daytime. I think this has more to do with sunlight and being in a more natural cycle. I personally think depression caused by working overnight has far more to do with these health problems. The typical health of most night-time workers I've known (over 35) have been in rough shape from mostly preventable conditions like smoking, drinking, etc.
Elizabeth Alvarez, the International Dark-Sky Association's associate director, counters with photos of bright streetlights casting deep shadows where bad guys could lurk. "Glare does not help visibility!" she says. "Too much light is blinding."
This is very true. When I grew up out in the country, I could walk outside and see several hundred feet on any night with even a slight moon. Once I moved to the city, this was not the case. So many bright lights everywhere, that where one is not appears pitch black. No way in hell could you ever manage to sneak up on me out in the woods, but in a city, it'd be about as hard as standing past where the street lamp's light is cast.
The thing that bothers me about all this extra lighting at night is the wasting of resources. I'd rather get a cut on my state and local taxes and do without the massive lighting infrastructure on my local freeways. My car has headlights that illuminate everything I need to see to drive safely and the only cost is energy my motor would have wasted anyway.
On a more reasonable note, what we really need is a few more technical hurdles overcome and move to LED lighting. The safety factor of lower operating tempuratures and saved energy would be immensely beneficial.
I'm real life Steven Segal, baby..
For a Geek news site who is typically on the cutting edge of technology reporting (well, linking), you would think "The world's biggest festival for computer enthusiasts" would warrant some hype-inducing headline ahead of time so a slashdot effect could happen in real life.
/. would have more focus on it before the day of the event. There would be a 'pre-registration open for Assembly 2003, make your reservations now!' article, followed by some other announcements. The links you display show same day, and after-the-fact reviews of Assembly events.
:)
Your links back up what I was saying earlier, or intended to say, that if it's so big
Anyway, it's not a topic that warrants much discussion. Just typing as I'm thinking today. Suggesting the mods consider the text they are posting before hitting that submit button, especially when they are knowingly submitting quotes that are a tad misguided.
I hate to be the proverbial terd in the punch bowl, but Assembly has been going on for more than 10 years. If it is the "The world's biggest festival for computer enthusiasts", then why has Slashdot neglected to post notification of it in previous years?
Assembly used to be very cutting edge. Back when a 386 could barely run Windows 3.11, coding groups such as Future Crew were making beautiful, fullscreen graphics demos by combining 2D media playback with 3D rendering. The results were of much greater caliber than the graphics of games in that era.
Nowadays, you have DirectX9 and multi-billion dollar companies pushing the envelope of what can be done with current hardware. So the thrill of Assembly demonstrations are not quite what they used to be. Especially since many of the demos were written for very specific hardware configurations.
On a side note, I made the local Best Buy stop playing Future Crew demos a long time ago by informing them that the copyright restricts public display for commercial purposes (ie, product demonstration) without permission.
I don't give out my document stash because it took forever to type up and I don't want to dilut their personal worth.
:)
n al/
Go read any tech support forums on the web and replicate the typing style in a manner that is related to products belonging to the company you wish to harass. Make it wandering and difficult as possible to read without being illiterate.
Skipping commas, large fonts, emails from Outlook Express with full html code, background image, signature images, etc is great too. Most companies use an application like Remedy or Clarify to store emails from customers. These stay on record forever in some cases, nothing is better than costing them an extra 2-3MB in useless crap. It contributes to the slowdown of their ticketing system. Anyone who has worked in an enviroment like this can tell you of the countless hours wasted waiting for a ticket to open..
More tips here:
http://slashdot.org/~Awptimus%20Prime/jour
I don't know about everyone else, but I will stick to whatever free content I can get ahold of.
Not unless I need very specific, proprietary content, would I ever pay to skim most of the web's nonsense. This includes general forum sites, news, link sites, even slashdot. Though entertaining, most of it is not worth paying for. Not when there is someone providing it for free.
Agreed. I do not buy CDs anymore due to the RIAA's actions in recent years. Not only it's bad business practice concerning filing suits against individuals, but it's push for hacked CDs and other devices to prevent me from making backups of my purchases.
In regards to their panic and need to sue everyone under the sun over mp3's, why do they get so upset when their public statements regarding the quality of pirated music as inferior to the CDs they sell? It would seem to me that inferior, unauthorized, copies would give downloaders an extra incentive to purchase after they download.
Aside from my dislike over their litigation happy ways, other things that contribue to my refusal to purchase CDs:
1) over-simplified, stereotypical bands and music categories. There's only ever a few songs from a few big names, with an occasional introductory band of any given category. At least that's all that ever hits the airwaves and major music stores.
2) too much urge for political control. For the RIAA to be such a small sector in the economy, it has an incredible amount of political backing. They have systematically bought votes from a great number of politicians through donations and capaign funds.
3) refusal to modernize business practice. The use of litigation and threats appear to be the means by which to keep a mid-1900's business model afloat in the new millenium. If all that money was spent on enabling technology and music, they wouldn't be sinking financially.
4) refusal to acknowledge why sales are plumetting. They scream 'piracy!' when it comes to falling numbers. But, take the percentage loss of sales in the past two years and compare it to the loss of sales for movie tickets, vacations, amusement parks, and other recreational spending.
I am certain the decline is global and due to a sinking world economy. Their sales will pick back up if they calm down, release more titles for people who aren't 16-20 years old, and wait for the economy to get rolling again.
I would suggest using semi-legitimate information when posting to their site. If you submit retarded stuff, they will recognize it and just delete it.
:)
If you send a lot of questions about compliance and such, while trying to sound like a concerned businessman w/ a checkbook in hand, you will end up wasting them a lot of time and resources.
I often do this when a company shafts me. I have some pre-fab documents I wrote that are wordy and difficult to read, I will then add questions relating to a business transaction in them and start emailing service, support, and other groups inside said company. It's amazing how often I'll get a reply that probably took 5-30 minutes of someone's time.
Another option is calling repeatedly to different groups and waste time asking dumb questions. Back about 5 years ago when I did tech support, I recall the metrics working out to around $3/minute after my salary, benefits, electricity, infrastructure, etc were added up.
You get thousands of people to systematically converge on a company's customer service and support and they will fall apart. Actual customers will be irate at jammed phone lines and slow email responses. You will have issued a collective smackdown to be proud of.
Perhaps I should start a web site with instructions, times, and companies to hit. Sound like a plan? I could use slashdot code for it!
"I wonder what kind of latency you get with these.."
I would assume the same latency you would have with any application that would have taken the same network path as the 'net phone's packets?
Perhaps you are talking about an audio delay? In that case, assuming your ISP has proper routing, there should be no significant delay (around the same as many cell phones) when speaking to someone else in your same country.
I've set up vbrick devices to use two T1's bridged for LAAtlanta conferences and the delay was barely noticable.
Not since dialup on a 28.8k modem have I noticed much problem with audio communications on the web. Definitely better than the telco's international service back in the 80's. I remember talking to friends in Germany and Japan and having to stop for long periods of time between sentences to prevent cross talk.
I think this product is so-so, though. Without a subscription based access from the voip phone to a telco bridge and a real phone number, it's not going to explode in popularity regardless of it's audio quality.