> They claim these messages were only pssible due to the "special nature" of the prototypes but thats pretty hard to swallow so you have to wonder how many GPS enabled cell phones have back doors to enable GPS tracking without the user's permission.
Let's think this through here. Siemens here used special messages to track Siemens' phone.
Sounds like the phone was stolen ``without the user's permission" and ``the user" was using their own backdoor to retrieve their rightful property.
Now even though in this case they attributed this feature to a security feature unique to the prototype, why the hell do you think the phones of the future will be keyed so that this "Big Brother" is the one who has access and not you!? Why wouldn't they make it so you have to send, say, an md5 hash of a user-chosen password to it to enable this feature, since this would be a popular feature--Lose your phone? Recover it using GPS technology!"
I can imagine your reaction in 1985 when someone told you that they had an answering machine that allowed remote playback of messages: ``What? Now BIG BROTHER can call me anytime and enter secret CODES and listen to all my messages! The CIA will be calling me anytime now to SPY on me!"
Since Google uses GET, it simply places the search term in the <a> tag for each of its sections. That's not being done with JavaScript. As for the Javascript present in my sample above, it calls this function:
function q(el) {
if (window.RegExp && window.encodeURIComponent) {
el.href=el.href.replace(new RegExp("q=[^&$]*"),"q="+encodeURIComponent(documen t.gs.q.value));
}
return 1; }
Maybe someone who likes JavaScript can help with that one.
And maybe someone who likes useless variables can tell us what the point of the "ie=UTF-8&oe=UTF-8" that's tacked onto every search but seems to serve no purpose--whatever "ie" and "oe" are, they must default to UTF-8 anyway since stripping them does no harm.
I don't think you're giving the Xbox enough credit. First off, I think the OP was referring to a "back in the day" time when PC's cost more money. *rereads your post* oh yeah, you noticed that too. I'll bet the Xbox does outperform the PC he bought for $2000+$500 back in those days.
Second, it was widely rumored at the Xbox's introduction that it was being sold at a loss. So it's probably not a $149 or even $200 machine. I'm sure the loss margin is smaller now, of course, than it was at its introduction.
Many search engines use JavaScript to put the focus on the search text-field upon loading the page, because (a) non-savvy users don't understand the concept of focus so they would be confused if they typed in "www.google.com", clicked "Go," typed their search terms, and found that they didn't appear in the search field. And (b) even many savvy users find the saved click convenient.
Not sure what the rest of Google's script is doing, though--but I know that's in there. A necessary evil if you ask me.
Once again, my point is unshaken. The reason those legacy boxes are still out there is that they have very specialized functions and in many cases, hardware. They are generally not used as regular workstations and having files shuttled to and fro.
Did the bank teller ask you for a floppy disk in order to complete your transaction? If she did, well then, that would help your case.
I still think my USB key is more useful. It allows me to have Ad-Aware, a virus-scanner, Firefox installer, and a Jabber client with me on my keychain wherever I go. Try that with floppies.
If you work in a facility that has mainly old PC's, then of course floppies might be useful on occasion! By all means use them! But they're still just as obsolete as EDO RAM, 5400RPM desktop hard drives, and parallel ports. That's the only point I've been trying to make.
The sibling (ScottSpeaks!) hits the nail on the head that the floppy actually lacks compatibility with many modern systems. Who cares if it works in an ancient one if it doesn't work in your main system, which is usually involved in every important file transfer. There's no floppy drive in my PowerBook (and I'd be pissed if there was one, because that's extra, useless weight and bulk).
> Yet no one seems to really be able to offer something as good in return...
It's called the Internet. I don't even hang out with anyone on dial-up, let alone completely non-Internet-enabled so even the roundabout method of e-mailing a file attachment works like a charm, especially on tiny, sub-1.4MB files like those that fit on a floppy. Ten seconds.
And if you say "what if that computer's net connection is disabled and it needs to be booted/repaired/given a file and a floppy drive is all it has..." remember my original point, that a floppy (and perhaps a USB floppy drive if your other computers are all modern) belongs in your repair kit, not in every computer made. EDO RAM falls in this same category.
>...write-on-the-fly CD-RW, USB flash sticks or ZIP disks, are severely outnumbered and handicapped by the competition among various vendors trying to impose their own proprietary products.
I haven't noticed this problem...my replacement was the USB sticks, and I also haven't really found a non-compatible computer recently. If you're going to be dealing with computer so obsolete that it has no USB ports, well then, either it's yours (upgrade!) or it's a special occasion (in which case burning a CD would be cheaper (50 were US$8 the last spindle I bought), faster on both ends (floppies are dog slow, although I spotted a "2x" USB floppy drive the other day at work), and worth the five seconds to fire up Nero.
Oh, but don't ever plug a non-write-protected USB key into an XBOX (while running its non-hacked OS). It will say "There was a problem with a memory card. It has been erased." Ouch.
> My laptop has an LCD screen, but I don't get confused when I go into Windows display properties and see an icon for a CRT.
Ah, but Microsoft has updated the Windows control panel icon for Displays. And they've done so at a point in time (2001) when CRT's are still hugely common (and useful). Compare the CRT to a floppy, and the floppy is far more obsolete.
I just asked my non-geek roommate, "What's the last time you used a floppy disk?" And he thought for a minute and said, "I can't remember!" That's how yesterday the floppy disk is. Sure, it's needed to boot a computer that's so old it can't boot from CD, but that just means a rescue floppy has a place in a PC maint/repair kit, along with spare jumpers, and a Windows 95 install CD. It doesn't make it any less obsolete.
> - Assigns: Shortcuts basically. Windows only gets halfway with its shortcut - I can't include the shortcut in a filename, I can only use the shortcut on its own (eg, c:\shortcut\dir_inside_shortcut) - was this fixed in XP?
Okay, as for shortcuts... Windows shortcuts (".lnk" files) are still broken in the way that you described. However, the NTFS filesystem supports symbolic links, called "NTFS Junctions," although Windows provides no facility for creating them, and additionally, it's not able to tell them from the original file at all. (Meaning if you delete a symlink to a file or directory within Window's file manager, it deletes the original!)
You can create symlinks on Windows (if your disk is formatted NTFS) with a program called Winbolic.
So anyway, a symbolic link does work the way you're describing, so that you can do: \path\to\something\symbolic_link\folder_insid e_ori ginal\file.ext
On a Unix-based OS like Linux, *BSD, and Mac OS X, of course, you can also create symbolic links--without third party programs. The ln command is what you use. Also, I can vouch specifically that although Mac OS doesn't provide a GUI for making symbolic links, it does understand how to handle them, if you, for example, delete a link. I'd expect the same of Linux and *BSD.
Dial-up is a very poor value anyway, if in order to use it, you have to pay for a landline you wouldn't otherwise have a need for..
Cost of land-line after the many US taxes: ~ $20/month Cost of average dial-up Internet service: ~ $20/month Total cost: $40 Total utility: Very little, assuming you have no use for the land-line (this includes me). Sluggish speeds.
Cost of cable Internet in most areas: $45/month Total utility: More, since you aren't wasting half your money on an overpriced landline phone. Better speeds.
I, for one, use VOIP (Packet8) over my cable connection. Great unless Comcast's network is acting up (which means about 1 day out of 4 I can't use it, lately, but they're working on it.)
> they can add it to Internet Explorer and the new TLD will exist literally overnight.
Er, this has already been done. By a little spyware firm called new.net. They sold fake domains on their made-up TLDs, and people infested with their spyware got sent to these domains whenever they typed in a URL containing one.
Pissed off a lot of us geeks because it was basically messing with your computer's DNS settings in a big, nasty way.
Note: Going back to put the link in this post I discovered that they were still in business! I had thought they went under a while back. I know I wouldn't pay for a fake domain that only clueless people would be able to go to...oh wait, actually... that's the ideal customer base--morons!
To my surprise, ".mobile" is not one of their fake TLD's.
> those users aren't able to download good, free virus scanners like Grisoft's AVG.
Do you really like AVG? Free it is, but I really dislike its interface and think it looks exactly like a really cheap program.
I like AntiVir better; also free, and has a good interface, and doesn't look like it's so...free.
But yeah, it is a bummer that the users have to go to a lot of trouble without net access, because the easiest solution is to just install a copy of Anti-Vir or AVG.
It'd be cool if they'd give infected customers access to only one (preferably mnemonic) IP, and NO DNS servers, so the support call would go like this:
Caller: My Internet Explorer doesn't work. And my computer is slow too. Why? Tech: Do you have anti-virus software running? Caller: No/I don't know. Tech: Open Internet Explorer and type this address in the little box where you usually type www.yahoo.com: 12.12.12.12 Caller: It says here to download these four programs and then I will have my access restored. Tech: That's right. Bye. ---- Page on HTTP server at 12.12.12.12: ---- You have been infected with: VARIOUS VIRUSES AND SPAMBOTS !
You need to download and run these programs to clean and protect your computer:
Link 1: FREE VIRUS SCANNER (AVG/AntiVir/whatever)
Link 2: (detect based on user-agent:) Either: Little app that enables XP's firewall Or: free firewall software
Link 3: FREE COMPUTER SPEED-UP TOOL (translation: spyware remover) Ad-aware personal with the latest definitions
Link 4: Little custom app that verifies all these apps are installed and running, that a complete virus scan has cleaned all viruses and does a challenge-response authentication on 12.12.12.12 on some nonstandard port, signaling ISP to automatically re-instate customer. Pops up note to restart their computer to re-gain access.
Okay, I see your point. Sorry for branding your question as stupid. I just didn't see where you were going with the supplier having to be convinced to sell their product, but you were thinking of the pricing negotiations.
Word on/. is that margins on the actual bare microdrives are super thick, and Hitachi was glad to throw Apple a bunch for well below retail. Seeing as how that's a lot of microdrives. I'm sure Apple shared their market research with Hitachi and said, "Look, we'll eat our hats if we don't sell about 100,000 units of these babies just in pre-orders. You want in on this action?"
I think $28,000 is cheaper than "a few million dollars" (source: story). In fact, even ten of them would be cheaper. In fact, even forty. Or probably even a hundred.
Actually, the 2.0 firmware used a battery indicator that consisted of the familiar battery outline with three bars inside it. As the battery became depleted, the bars would change from black to gray. I hated that, because it took a lot of effort to discern that. The 2.1 firmware changed it to a more granular sliding scale inside the outline, where each column of pixels changes from black to white as the battery depletes. Much better, in my opinion.
> Night blindness!...White display at night? How much of a worse idea can you get?
Actually, it's not a problem for me at all; it looks fine day or night. I've never had the slightest problem, and you can bet I'd complain as bad as my eyes are, if there was a problem. Have you ever even used an iPod? Okay then. Moving on.
> And I'd go for the lighter product. Which isn't the iPod.
You're right, if by "lighter" you mean "27% heavier." I like how they list the weight without the battery, too, as in "I'm going to travel light this time. I'll just take the Zen without its battery."
What newbie is going to be using gcc or cvs?? I think man ln or man mkdir is more representative of man pages a newbie might need. Those are only 3-4 screens.
Hey cheapskate. Maybe if you subscribed to Salon you wouldn't have that problem. Independent news sites like Salon are going to disappear if they get no revenue. Maybe next time you visit salon.com, it'll say "Thanks to our former subscribers for the support. Due to our operating costs going through the roof but only four people subscribing, we've been forced to go out of business. This domain was bought by Fox News in bankruptcy proceedings. Click here to go there now.
If you're too cheap to pay for anything, you have to be satisfied with things like ad-supported internet access (see NetZero) and ad-supported news (like salon's day-pass, and fucking TV, where's the complaining about CNN?). Yes, the ads are more intrusive than they were in 1999. The venture capital investment is gone and advertisers won't pay jack for barely-there banner ads. Now they want your full attention for a moment. So WTF is salon.com supposed to do, just say, "Everything is free! No ads! When the bandwidth bill comes, we'll just mail them some monopoly money"??
If ad-supported websites didn't exist, the only people who could afford to publish on the Internet would be the conglomerated media who make their money from--say it with me--ad revenue from TV (etc.). Get it yet?
Wow, imagine that, a little blue 160 x 104 display.
You know what would be really cool? a 160 x 128 display. White backlit. Oh, wait, that's already on the iPod. Oh, and it's 4-bit instead of 2-bit (I don't have a Zen so I can't confirm that it's 2-bit, but it looks that way to me). Cool.
Slashdot Mirror
> They claim these messages were only pssible due to the "special nature" of the prototypes but thats pretty hard to swallow so you have to wonder how many GPS enabled cell phones have back doors to enable GPS tracking without the user's permission.
Let's think this through here. Siemens here used special messages to track Siemens' phone.
Sounds like the phone was stolen ``without the user's permission" and ``the user" was using their own backdoor to retrieve their rightful property.
Now even though in this case they attributed this feature to a security feature unique to the prototype, why the hell do you think the phones of the future will be keyed so that this "Big Brother" is the one who has access and not you!? Why wouldn't they make it so you have to send, say, an md5 hash of a user-chosen password to it to enable this feature, since this would be a popular feature--Lose your phone? Recover it using GPS technology!"
I can imagine your reaction in 1985 when someone told you that they had an answering machine that allowed remote playback of messages: ``What? Now BIG BROTHER can call me anytime and enter secret CODES and listen to all my messages! The CIA will be calling me anytime now to SPY on me!"
And maybe someone who likes useless variables can tell us what the point of the "ie=UTF-8&oe=UTF-8" that's tacked onto every search but seems to serve no purpose--whatever "ie" and "oe" are, they must default to UTF-8 anyway since stripping them does no harm.
I don't think you're giving the Xbox enough credit. First off, I think the OP was referring to a "back in the day" time when PC's cost more money. *rereads your post* oh yeah, you noticed that too. I'll bet the Xbox does outperform the PC he bought for $2000+$500 back in those days.
Second, it was widely rumored at the Xbox's introduction that it was being sold at a loss. So it's probably not a $149 or even $200 machine. I'm sure the loss margin is smaller now, of course, than it was at its introduction.
Now I'm off to buy me an Xbox!
Many search engines use JavaScript to put the focus on the search text-field upon loading the page, because (a) non-savvy users don't understand the concept of focus so they would be confused if they typed in "www.google.com", clicked "Go," typed their search terms, and found that they didn't appear in the search field. And (b) even many savvy users find the saved click convenient.
Not sure what the rest of Google's script is doing, though--but I know that's in there. A necessary evil if you ask me.
Living in Satellite Beach, Florida, it isn't hard to guess where my vote is going!
If you live in Florida, I find it hard to believe you ever know where your vote is going!
> What are you talking about? This is not a case of domain squatting.
New.net and YOUCANN are TLD squatting.
One is spyware. Both are moronic and not taken seriously by anyone outside of spammers and people in serious denial.
(Disclaimer: I am not the OP.)
Once again, my point is unshaken. The reason those legacy boxes are still out there is that they have very specialized functions and in many cases, hardware. They are generally not used as regular workstations and having files shuttled to and fro.
Did the bank teller ask you for a floppy disk in order to complete your transaction? If she did, well then, that would help your case.
I still think my USB key is more useful. It allows me to have Ad-Aware, a virus-scanner, Firefox installer, and a Jabber client with me on my keychain wherever I go. Try that with floppies.
If you work in a facility that has mainly old PC's, then of course floppies might be useful on occasion! By all means use them! But they're still just as obsolete as EDO RAM, 5400RPM desktop hard drives, and parallel ports. That's the only point I've been trying to make.
> First- is 192kbps a low bitrate? What music download service gives you a better MP3 bitrate than that? Heck, which one matches that?
He's probably a FLAC-head--"Lossiness is not to be accepted! Give us 768kbps! 1Mbps! Only huge files are acceptable!
To bitch about 192kbps...stupid.
And as far as "well-known" artists: Word. There are plenty of good artists that are on independent labels. Grandparent is just a troll.
> The $20 engraving, which actually is about what you'd pay at your local mall, is where they make some margins back
/. anymore, so I'll try to be nice. You're incorrect. The engraving is free. Try it yourself. Big margin there, eh!
...the iTunes store, are where the money comes from.
Wow. I try not to be harsh on
>
Once again, you're wrong.
Next time consult the Internet before posting. You'd think that'd be easy enough seeing as how you're already on the Internet to post.
Oh, but I agree with you that accessories are profitable.
The sibling (ScottSpeaks!) hits the nail on the head that the floppy actually lacks compatibility with many modern systems. Who cares if it works in an ancient one if it doesn't work in your main system, which is usually involved in every important file transfer. There's no floppy drive in my PowerBook (and I'd be pissed if there was one, because that's extra, useless weight and bulk).
...write-on-the-fly CD-RW, USB flash sticks or ZIP disks, are severely outnumbered and handicapped by the competition among various vendors trying to impose their own proprietary products.
> Yet no one seems to really be able to offer something as good in return...
It's called the Internet. I don't even hang out with anyone on dial-up, let alone completely non-Internet-enabled so even the roundabout method of e-mailing a file attachment works like a charm, especially on tiny, sub-1.4MB files like those that fit on a floppy. Ten seconds.
And if you say "what if that computer's net connection is disabled and it needs to be booted/repaired/given a file and a floppy drive is all it has..." remember my original point, that a floppy (and perhaps a USB floppy drive if your other computers are all modern) belongs in your repair kit, not in every computer made. EDO RAM falls in this same category.
>
I haven't noticed this problem...my replacement was the USB sticks, and I also haven't really found a non-compatible computer recently. If you're going to be dealing with computer so obsolete that it has no USB ports, well then, either it's yours (upgrade!) or it's a special occasion (in which case burning a CD would be cheaper (50 were US$8 the last spindle I bought), faster on both ends (floppies are dog slow, although I spotted a "2x" USB floppy drive the other day at work), and worth the five seconds to fire up Nero.
Oh, but don't ever plug a non-write-protected USB key into an XBOX (while running its non-hacked OS). It will say "There was a problem with a memory card. It has been erased." Ouch.
MS Word for Mac has a Save icon on its toolbar.
...It's a Zip-100 disk.
> My laptop has an LCD screen, but I don't get confused when I go into Windows display properties and see an icon for a CRT.
Ah, but Microsoft has updated the Windows control panel icon for Displays. And they've done so at a point in time (2001) when CRT's are still hugely common (and useful). Compare the CRT to a floppy, and the floppy is far more obsolete.
I just asked my non-geek roommate, "What's the last time you used a floppy disk?" And he thought for a minute and said, "I can't remember!" That's how yesterday the floppy disk is. Sure, it's needed to boot a computer that's so old it can't boot from CD, but that just means a rescue floppy has a place in a PC maint/repair kit, along with spare jumpers, and a Windows 95 install CD. It doesn't make it any less obsolete.
> - Assigns: Shortcuts basically. Windows only gets halfway with its shortcut - I can't include the shortcut in a filename, I can only use the shortcut on its own (eg, c:\shortcut\dir_inside_shortcut) - was this fixed in XP?
d e_ori ginal\file.ext
Okay, as for shortcuts... Windows shortcuts (".lnk" files) are still broken in the way that you described. However, the NTFS filesystem supports symbolic links, called "NTFS Junctions," although Windows provides no facility for creating them, and additionally, it's not able to tell them from the original file at all. (Meaning if you delete a symlink to a file or directory within Window's file manager, it deletes the original!)
You can create symlinks on Windows (if your disk is formatted NTFS) with a program called Winbolic.
So anyway, a symbolic link does work the way you're describing, so that you can do:
\path\to\something\symbolic_link\folder_insi
On a Unix-based OS like Linux, *BSD, and Mac OS X, of course, you can also create symbolic links--without third party programs. The ln command is what you use. Also, I can vouch specifically that although Mac OS doesn't provide a GUI for making symbolic links, it does understand how to handle them, if you, for example, delete a link. I'd expect the same of Linux and *BSD.
> Even before the click through debacle. Now that we have seen how that littel beauty worked...
What ``click through debacle" are you referring to? Please forgive my ignorance.
I think Bastian meant, easier to use than a handheld. That would make more sense, and I'd agree with that. But you are right about the portability.
The write-up said she was ditching her land-line.
Dial-up is a very poor value anyway, if in order to use it, you have to pay for a landline you wouldn't otherwise have a need for..
Cost of land-line after the many US taxes: ~ $20/month
Cost of average dial-up Internet service: ~ $20/month
Total cost: $40
Total utility: Very little, assuming you have no use for the land-line (this includes me). Sluggish speeds.
Cost of cable Internet in most areas: $45/month
Total utility: More, since you aren't wasting half your money on an overpriced landline phone. Better speeds.
I, for one, use VOIP (Packet8) over my cable connection. Great unless Comcast's network is acting up (which means about 1 day out of 4 I can't use it, lately, but they're working on it.)
> they can add it to Internet Explorer and the new TLD will exist literally overnight.
Er, this has already been done. By a little spyware firm called new.net. They sold fake domains on their made-up TLDs, and people infested with their spyware got sent to these domains whenever they typed in a URL containing one.
Pissed off a lot of us geeks because it was basically messing with your computer's DNS settings in a big, nasty way.
Note: Going back to put the link in this post I discovered that they were still in business! I had thought they went under a while back. I know I wouldn't pay for a fake domain that only clueless people would be able to go to...oh wait, actually... that's the ideal customer base--morons!
To my surprise, ".mobile" is not one of their fake TLD's.
> those users aren't able to download good, free virus scanners like Grisoft's AVG.
Do you really like AVG? Free it is, but I really dislike its interface and think it looks exactly like a really cheap program.
I like AntiVir better; also free, and has a good interface, and doesn't look like it's so...free.
But yeah, it is a bummer that the users have to go to a lot of trouble without net access, because the easiest solution is to just install a copy of Anti-Vir or AVG.
It'd be cool if they'd give infected customers access to only one (preferably mnemonic) IP, and NO DNS servers, so the support call would go like this:
Caller: My Internet Explorer doesn't work. And my computer is slow too. Why?
Tech: Do you have anti-virus software running?
Caller: No/I don't know.
Tech: Open Internet Explorer and type this address in the little box where you usually type www.yahoo.com: 12.12.12.12
Caller: It says here to download these four programs and then I will have my access restored.
Tech: That's right. Bye.
----
Page on HTTP server at 12.12.12.12:
----
You have been infected with:
VARIOUS VIRUSES AND SPAMBOTS
!
You need to download and run these programs to clean and protect your computer:
Link 1: FREE VIRUS SCANNER (AVG/AntiVir/whatever)
Link 2: (detect based on user-agent:)
Either: Little app that enables XP's firewall
Or: free firewall software
Link 3: FREE COMPUTER SPEED-UP TOOL (translation: spyware remover)
Ad-aware personal with the latest definitions
Link 4: Little custom app that verifies all these apps are installed and running, that a complete virus scan has cleaned all viruses and does a challenge-response authentication on 12.12.12.12 on some nonstandard port, signaling ISP to automatically re-instate customer. Pops up note to restart their computer to re-gain access.
Okay, I see your point. Sorry for branding your question as stupid. I just didn't see where you were going with the supplier having to be convinced to sell their product, but you were thinking of the pricing negotiations.
/. is that margins on the actual bare microdrives are super thick, and Hitachi was glad to throw Apple a bunch for well below retail. Seeing as how that's a lot of microdrives. I'm sure Apple shared their market research with Hitachi and said, "Look, we'll eat our hats if we don't sell about 100,000 units of these babies just in pre-orders. You want in on this action?"
Word on
I think $28,000 is cheaper than "a few million dollars" (source: story). In fact, even ten of them would be cheaper. In fact, even forty. Or probably even a hundred.
> I always [hated] it when I couldn't read my...
Actually, the 2.0 firmware used a battery indicator that consisted of the familiar battery outline with three bars inside it. As the battery became depleted, the bars would change from black to gray. I hated that, because it took a lot of effort to discern that. The 2.1 firmware changed it to a more granular sliding scale inside the outline, where each column of pixels changes from black to white as the battery depletes. Much better, in my opinion.
> Night blindness!...White display at night? How much of a worse idea can you get?
Actually, it's not a problem for me at all; it looks fine day or night. I've never had the slightest problem, and you can bet I'd complain as bad as my eyes are, if there was a problem. Have you ever even used an iPod? Okay then. Moving on.
> And I'd go for the lighter product. Which isn't the iPod.
iPod weight (40GB model): 6.2 oz (176 g)
Zen weight (30GB model): 7.9 oz with battery; 7.2 oz without battery
You're right, if by "lighter" you mean "27% heavier."
I like how they list the weight without the battery, too, as in "I'm going to travel light this time. I'll just take the Zen without its battery."
> Try man cvs or man gcc if you don't believe me.
What newbie is going to be using gcc or cvs?? I think man ln or man mkdir is more representative of man pages a newbie might need. Those are only 3-4 screens.
Hey cheapskate. Maybe if you subscribed to Salon you wouldn't have that problem. Independent news sites like Salon are going to disappear if they get no revenue. Maybe next time you visit salon.com, it'll say "Thanks to our former subscribers for the support. Due to our operating costs going through the roof but only four people subscribing, we've been forced to go out of business. This domain was bought by Fox News in bankruptcy proceedings. Click here to go there now.
If you're too cheap to pay for anything, you have to be satisfied with things like ad-supported internet access (see NetZero) and ad-supported news (like salon's day-pass, and fucking TV, where's the complaining about CNN?). Yes, the ads are more intrusive than they were in 1999. The venture capital investment is gone and advertisers won't pay jack for barely-there banner ads. Now they want your full attention for a moment. So WTF is salon.com supposed to do, just say, "Everything is free! No ads! When the bandwidth bill comes, we'll just mail them some monopoly money"??
If ad-supported websites didn't exist, the only people who could afford to publish on the Internet would be the conglomerated media who make their money from--say it with me--ad revenue from TV (etc.). Get it yet?
Now, Mr. Troll, get back under your bridge.
> Did I mention the nicely backlit display? Wow!
Wow, imagine that, a little blue 160 x 104 display.
You know what would be really cool? a 160 x 128 display. White backlit. Oh, wait, that's already on the iPod. Oh, and it's 4-bit instead of 2-bit (I don't have a Zen so I can't confirm that it's 2-bit, but it looks that way to me). Cool.
And I'll post using the login New Here and say "No, I'm New Here."
And I'll keep thinking it's funny each time I do it.