slow to start up and there's a lot of delay between pressing the shutter release and actually taking a picture. You can mitigate this by half-pressing the shutter release to pre-focus/meter, but that's a problem with a moving subject (like a toddler!).
Try setting the camera to "action" mode, so it continuously re-focuses while the shutter release is half-pressed.
Second issue: on camera flash is evil. Only a few compact cameras give you a hotshoe. DSLR's will give way better flash results with their bounce flash/diffuser capability. Almost every flash picture I have yields terrible red-eye. Photoshop Album can generally fix this, but not all the time. Even without red eye, you generally get a sterile, harshly lit result.
At Digital Photography Review I identified 24 non-SLR digital cameras between 3 - 6 megapixels and under $600 as having the ability to add an external flash either via hot-shoe or pc-sync connector. That seems like more than a few to me.
I've looked at a number of sample on-camera flash pictures at Steves Digicams, including ones for the A70, and see that it is possible to take pictures using the built-in flash without red-eye. Of course several factors affect whether or not red-eye will appear, so this isn't definative, but there are certainly camera configurations that make it less likely to be a factor.
That is assuming the user actually owns an external flash and a diffuser/bounce-unit, and is carrying it when the photo-op presents itself, and can manage to pull-out, mount, turn-on and charge the flash and associated diffuser/bounce-unit, and then frame and take the picture before said opportunity goes away (or, in the case of your toddler, decides to take a nap). But yes, if you have a DSLR and an external flash with a Lumiquest diffuser, particularly if its always mounted on a nice Stroboframe flip-flash bracket, the result will be much more pleasing than any direct-lighting flash setup, regardless of the camera its attached to.
I submit that virtually anyone who needs an article to decide between an SLR and non-SLR camera should start with a non-SLR. Likewise, anyone who isn't ready to buy an SLR because of the unnecessary cost, complexity and size is not going to buy and drag around another 5 lbs. and $300 of external flash, diffuser and flip-frame.
I find that most every photo editing program does an adequate job of red-eye removal, and this (or a black Sharpie brand marker) is a more convenient and appropriate option for most digital camera consumers.
As a former pro photographer, (newspaper, studio, wedding), I appreciate the advantages of an SLR, and how a pro or avid hobbyist benefit from these more costly, larger and more complex pieces of equipment. But a pro or avid hobbyist does not need to read this type of article. As for myself, I've grown too lazy and cheap to drag $2,000 and 8 lbs of camera gear around with me and go through the ritual of setting-up flash brackets and bounce cards anymore. If I need that stuff, I still have the gadget bag with over $5K of Canon gear. Instead, I use a Panasonic Lumix, which is still at the upper-end of size and weight for most consumers.
On the other hand, when the typical consumer asks "what's the best camera" what they really want to know, when questioned, is what's going to give them good snapshots of the kids and easily print quality 4x6 and maybe the occasional 8x10. For them, something with a good zoom range, relatively quick focus and release time, decent low-light capability, built-in flash that sits-up high enought to avoid red-eye in most cases, and at least 3 megapixels, coupled with a pl
Judging from your attitude and your other posts, I have to wonder if the real problem is that you just hate graphical elements and animations in general, for some unknown reason. Sorry, but you're not in the majority.
Are you sure about that? Do you honestly enjoy waiting an extra minute for a Flash intro to load when you visit a website to find some information? How does that 2 minute bit of eye-candy help you find the latest driver, or check the status of an order, or get a phone number? And why do I have to wait for the entire.SWF to download and start playing BEFORE I can click on the "Skip Intro" link?
And what about people who have vision problems? What do you think they feel about Flash-based sites? Or people who, due to company policy, aren't allowed to have a Flash player installed on their PC? All they wind up with is a big empty page.
Sure, if I go to MTV.COM or JoeCartoon or some other entertainment-focused site, Flash is an acceptable mechanism for presenting multimedia. But 99% of the Flash and 60% of all graphical content on websites I visit are wasted bandwidth and interfere with the purpose of my visit.
Unfortunately, Tivo is becoming less and less attractive every day. First of all, I feel that $13/month is too expensive, and $299 for the life of the box is no better. And why do I have to pay for a subscription for EACH box?
Then there's the controversy about skipping commercials, and the new commercials that Tivo is [planning?] showing while you skip commercials.
Finally, there's the new restrictions on what you can record and how/where/when/how-long you can save and play it.
I get maybe four to six hours a week to watch TV. I despise sitcoms and reality TV. I'd rather watch a movie or a documentary/how-to show, but the movie channels rarely start movies I would watch when I'm ready to watch them, and the prime-time programming on other channels mostly sucks. I wound-up cancelling all my premium channels because I never watched them.
So, not only should I be a good candidate for Tivo, but if others are like me, it would also boost revenues for cable/satellite premium channel subscriptions. But there's no way I'm going to lay out $400+ a year for a Tivo subscription and premium movie channels if I can't use them exactly the way I want. That doesn't include broadcasting movies to the world (I can rent a movie for less than $4.00 -- why waste my valuable and precious time trying to download one).
If Tivo and the pay TV services want my money, they'll need to stop treating me like a thief while acting like one themselves.
You cannot do this with commercial operating systems. Linux has its niche.... to support niche markets.
Not to burst your bubble, but there's tons of niche use of commercial operating systems. For example, Windows is used underneath many OEM car navigation systems and inside many satellite and digital-cable tuner boxes. My Pioneer digital-cable unit has actually thrown me a standard Windows Application Exception error dialog on more than one occasion (never could figure out how to click the OK or CANCEL buttons via the remote). Then there's the dozens of manufacturing resorce planning systems, controllers for automated milling equipment, underpinnings for engine diagnostics and even wheel-alignment systems, and the list goes on-and-on.
I'm not saying that Windows is a better platform or that people don't develop enough for Linux, but I would be hard-pressed to find an application category that doesn't tout an MS-Windows solution (but, since this is/., I'm sure there will be dozens of examples posted shortly:-)).
That all said, I've been very interested in a one-box home entertainment solution: something that's a TV, DVR, music and video jukebox and game console-like machine, to replace the clutter of separate components that currently consume too much space and power my kids' bedrooms. So I've been following the MythTV project, but the economics so far doesn't work out. Hopefully, the price of tv-tuner/frame-grabber cards will come down some day to make this a viable alternative.
Exactly, Caylx Point is the same sort of "I must run as admin" App. This is a program that is basicly nothing more than a database for mortgage companies. It has about a 66% market share. It must be run as admin, power user is not good enough to run it's activeX scripts. Also IE (only IE works) must have it's security settings changed to lower levels.
That means there is something else out there. Looks to me that the products used by the other 34% of the market have a major competitive advantage. If I were a Caylx competitor, I'd be bombarding every mortgage company on the cost-savings of my more secure product. If I were a consultant supporting customers who use Caylx, I'd do the research for my customers and explain to the how switching products will a.) make them more secure, b.) help avoid possible litigation, and c.) will save them real money by avoiding viruses and spyware.
Alternately, what I might do is setup Caylx on a Windows Terminal Server and lock that system down and firewall it so Caylx is all that can be used. Give users the required admin privs on that one system, and just normal user privs on their desktop and all other servers. When they want to use Caylx they have to fire-up the Remote Desktop Client (which can even be run from a Linux desktop) to logon to the terminal server and start Caylx.
I've done the math, repeatedly, and yes I have access to TD/IM/etc distributor pricing. There is NFW you or I could build an equivalent $2,000 machine for $800. I just spec'd out a Dell Dimension 8400 with:
Intel Pentium IV 3.6GHz 1MB 800MHz-FSB HT
1GB-DDR2 SDRAM 533MHz non-ECC
Two 160GB 7200RPM SATA HW-RAID-1
16X DVD-ROM
16X DVD+/-RW DoubleLayer
Base Radeon X300 video card (I add my own)
19in LCD Monitor
Keyboard & Optical Scrollmouse
Integrated Sound w/Dolby 5.1
Integrataed 10/100/1000TX Ethernet LAN
XP Home & Works (for fair comparison)
1 year toll-free 24x7 technical support
1 year NBD warranty
$2036 including Shipping & Handling
If you can build the same or better system, using reputable and guaranteed-compatible components and including support and warranty, for around $800, then sign me up for 20 of them. Hell, I bet you can't build the same system without support and warranty (other than each individual component mfr's warranty) for less than $1,600. I started pricing-out the components to build my own, and stopped at $1,600 before adding-in a case, keyboard, mouse or any software.
Besides, we're not discussing a $2,000 PC, but a $200 PC (with OS, keyboard, mouse, video, NIC and sound, but no monitor). And I believe the answer to this is no, not yet. I think that, with a new motherboard design, it might be possible, as long as you're willing to accept basic functionality and use the equivalent of Citrix/RemoteDesktop capability on an embedded Linux platform and rely on an ASP for all applications. But that unto itself is a very interesting concept, especially considering that most users have no knowledge or interest in such things as security, backups and maintenance.
DMCA applies only to cases whereby an encryption / obfuscation method was broken
No, that is not true. Have you actually RTF-Legislation? Perhaps you should take a peek at Digital Millenium Copyright Act of 1998, paying particular attention to Title II, where it establishes liability limits for service providers that follow the new rules. Among these rules is that the service provider "in the instance of a notification of claimed infringement as described in paragraph (3), responds expeditiously to remove, or disable access to, the material that is claimed to be infringing or to be the subject of infringing activity."
So, under Title II of the DMCA, a service provider is not required to comply with a so-called DMCA infringment/takedown notice, but if it elects to ignore or defy such a request, the service provider looses its limited liability protection under DMCA.
Furthermore, if the mirrors are an accurate repesentation of the original parody site, IMHO CNN has a valid case regarding copyright infringement.
IANAL, but this article on parody and fair use says: "The Copyright Act in Section 107 enumerates four "fair use factors" that must be analyzed to determine whether a particular use of a copyrighted work, such as a parody, is fair use. These factors are the (1) purpose and character of the use, including whether the use is commercially motivated or instead is for nonprofit educational purposes; (2) nature of the copyrighted work; (3) amount and substantiality of the portion used in the newly created work in relation to the copyrighted work; and (4) effect of the use upon the potential market for or value of the copyrighted work."
I don't know if you can consider this a commercial use: the author's site does sell advertising space, but does not charge specifically to view this parody.
The nature of the copyrighted work is the entire look, feel, layout and design of the CNN website, which certainly qualifies as a creative work as well as intellectual property.
The worst issue against the parody is that except for the article text itself, 100% of the page is copied directly from CNN.
This individual parody has nil effect on the value of CNN's copyrighted work. But the domino principal applies and the value of CNN's copyrights can become eroded, one parody at a time.
I think that Mr. Cox is going to have an uphill battle trying to get First Admendment protection for his parody in its current state. Perhaps if he spent some time developing his own similar, but oviously different look and feel for the page, he might get away with it. But in its current state, I think a judge will give benefit of the doubt to CNN.
Sorry, no mod points today or you'd get +1 Insightful.
In more developed/affluent areas, the LECs are now offering fixed-price bundles that compete very well against separate broadband/VoIP/LD packages from separate providers.
Where this makes a differences is in outlying suburban and rural markets where the CATV provider is often the only choice for broadband, and there's no local telco competition. I live in such a place, and although I'm served by Verizon, my pricing structure and options are very different from virtually anywhere else.
For $16/month I have a Vonage account as a second phone line, with unlimited inbound and local calls and 500 minutes long distance. Vonage gives me caller ID, three-way calling, voicemail, call forwarding and call accounting. My Verizon POTS line costs twice as much, includes no long distance, and half the features.
If my Cable Internet provider could clean-up their network to reduce latency and outages, and boost my upload speed a bit, I would consider dropping Verizon altogether and get two lines from Vonage. That would save me at least $20/month while providing features that Verizon would normally charge outrageous extra fees.
Actually, it's a fence erected by our surrounding solar systems designed to prevent us from hurling radioactive-laden vessels into our neighbors' backyards.
The fence also filters most forms of radio emissions so our neighbors don't have to put up with our crappy radio and TV broadcasts. A side effect is that any inbound signals that might expose life in other solar systems is also filtered into random noise.
It is illegal for an employer to consistently expect more than 40 hours per week from an "exempt" employee.
If this is illegal, I'd like to know under which laws and what the statute of limitations might be. About seven years ago I looked into the issue and could find nothing to prevent my then employer from continuing to impose ridiculous deadlines that required 50 to 80-hour work-weeks for over two years.
Salaried means that you get paid the same fixed ammount no matter how much you work, whether it be 10 hours a week or 100. Of course what ends up happening is that they shovel so much work on you to do that you end up having to work more than 40 hours a week to do what is expected of you, otherwise you get fired.
No, that is not necessarily true. Whether you are exempt from overtime really depends on how much self-determinism and supervision goes with your job. If get to select your own assignments and deadlines, are essentially allowed to work on your own with little supervision, do not have to meet any production quotas or work on a rigid schedule, then you are probably exempt from overtime.
However, if your supervisor assigns you projects with deadlines, or requires to you record your time and can penalize you for failing to meet a minimum quota, or you are required to be "at work" according to a fixed schedule, then you are probably NOT exempt from overtime.
Gee, and all this time [bzzzttt] I thought that was a Security Feature [pfftt] to address clueless users. [zzzZAAAP!] Sort-of like a bug light for IT idiots.
I havent been to a bank yet that doesn't use Lexmark Printers. That may just be because banks are cheap.
No, its because banks are traditionally die-hard IBM customers, and Lexmark is a spin-off of IBM's printer division. Price is usually at the bottom of the list for Banks.
I'm not a fan of Lexmark either, but HP seems to be doing all it can to match Lexmark in the crappy printer and software arena. Fortunately, at least the higher-end HP lasers are still decent, provided you can find a compatible driver built-in to your Operating System; using HP's printer drivers is like playing Russian roulette with 5 out of 6 chambers loaded.
If ATI's drivers were as good at NVidia's drivers under Linux, I might consider buying an ATI card.
IMHO, if ATI's Windows drivers were as good as NVidia's Linux drivers, I would be content. I own three AIW's of various vintages, the whole purpose of which is to be able to watch TV and capture analog video. ATI's Windows drivers and multimedia software is the pinnacle of garbage: poor quality video, unstable to the point of crashing the entire OS and blue-screening the machine, unable to record/play one video stream without loosing sync with the audio (on a 2.4GHz HT 512MB ATA100/7200RPM system), and an enormous, ugly user interface.
Next time its an NVidea-based graphics card and a seperate Hauppauge video-capture/tv-tuner card.
At any rate, I don't think there's a tremendous economic incentive for ATI to provide world-class Linux drivers. Remember, this is a commodity market so there's got to be tremendous volume for the numbers to work out right.
However, I think this theory is starting to break down. While the installed base of Linux is still miniscule compared to Windows, it appears to me the growth rates are getting closer all the time. Also, Linux is achieving name recognition among average consumers (partially due to all the hoopla over the SCO suits, as they say in public relations: "there's no such thing as bad press").
So, although most current buyers might not start out with Linux on their systems, the more advanced are at least thinking "I should check Linux out," and the lack of good, easy Linux support could be a consideration when selecting a new graphics card. I don't think this is so far fetched, particularly when you look at the type of consumer who even thinks about video card choices in the first place.
Then there are the custom builders, high-end resellers and other IT workers that the unwashed masses turn to for advice. Again, Linux is definately on their radar screen, and again the lack of support for Linux will weigh on the decision to recommend ATI vs. something with better support.
As for me, although every non-notebook computer (4) in my home has an ATI card in it (mostly AIW), I have never been satisified even by the Windows support ATI provides (my main machines are two notebooks: that dual-boot WinXP & Linux). So when I get my next desktop computer (hopefully around Christmas!), I am going with another video chipset. And you can be certain that good Linux support will be a priority.
Actually, American Express used to have (until April of this year) something like a one-time-use account number. It was called Private Payments, and you could generate a new, temporary account number from their secure website. Although it wasn't truly one-time use, it was only valid for 30 days and could be cancelled at any time by the cardmember.
I used it religiously for all on-line, telephone and mail-order purchases until it was discontinued. If a merchant didn't take Amex I'd shop elsewhere.
Now that PrivatePayments has been discontinued, I purchase Visa Gift Cards (pre-paid Visa cards) and use them for my small/medium-ticket on-line purchases. For major purchases I use a Visa card with fraud protection and check the account activity on-line at least once a week.
But in any event, you should never be liable for a fraudulent credit card transaction. That doesn't mean you can be careless with your account information, but if there is a fraudulent charge you're not out any money if you pay attention and dispute the charge within the specified period of time.
The real danger is ACH (Automated Clearing House) transactions against your bank accounts. Any person or organization that has the ability to perform ACH transactions (and there are plenty of third-party processors with low scruples and high tolerence of unethical behavior) can suck money DIRECTLY from your bank account. All they need is your bank routing number and bank account number. They don't need your name, address, phone number or any password or PIN (they are supposed to get your written authorization first, but there's no mechanism to check or enforce this before the fact). There is no verification or fraud protection system for ACH, as there is on most credit cards. The merchant simply asks and he receives.
And unlike credit card disputes, where you don't pay until the dispute is settled, ACH immediately withdraws the money from your account and you have to wait for the dispute to be settled before getting your money back (if ever). Since there are no limits on ACH withdrawals, (other than having sufficient funds for payment), one fraudulent charge can lead to bounced checks, overdraft fees, returned check fees and more, increasing your loss by hundreds of dollars.
There's no mechanism to opt-out of ACH or limit transactions to only approved merchants. Once a fraudulent charge is made you may be able to block further transactions by that merchant, but possibly only for a limited time and with payment of a stop-payment processing fee. The only real relief is to close the account and open a new one (resulting in administrative hassles and costs for new checks and forms).
How hard it is for a bad guy to get your bank routing number and account number depends on how use your checks. The routing and account numbers are required on the bottom of each check. It takes a few seconds for a dishonest cashier, clerk or other employee to copy this info down and sell it later. The lock-box services used by large creditors often convert paper checks to ACH transactions themselves, then discard the paper checks; depending on how discarded checks are handled, they might be subject to unwanted access. Your own handling of unused and cancelled checks also comes into play.
Between credit-card fraud and ACH fraud, its the latter that scares me the most. I've been a victim of unauthorized ACH transactions twice: once through a mistake made by a merchant and just recently through outright fraud. I am still waiting for the return of $100 due to the most recent fraud, and it will cost me more than that by the time I'm done switching to a new checking account.
I worked at a large, well-known university for 9 years, and can tell you the following:
Locked doors are important, but unless your dorms use key-cards, master keys are probably in circulation. As a staff member, I had stuff stolen out of a locked desk drawer in a locked, private office in a restricted-access building. But that's no excuse to leave your door unlocked, just don't rely on this as your sole protection.
And now for my 8 simple steps to minimize loss:
Documentation is key to recovery or reimbursement. Have a written record of all your property along with model numbers, serial numbers, purchase price and date. The quicker you can provide details to the police or insurance company, the quicker they can work on recovering your property or reimbursing you.
Always lock the door, even if you are going down the hall for a few seconds. Make sure your roommates do the same.
Out-of-site is out-of-mind. Keep your stuff in your drawer, closet, under your bed. Keep the blinds/curtains closed if you're on the ground level. Don't advertise!
Put your name, permanent phone number and drivers license number on a label under the battery and also under the memory expansion cover to help identify the system if it is recovered.
Use a good quality cable lock on computers. Make sure it fits securely on your system. Use it in your room, at the library, at LAN parties, etc.
Use computer recovery software that will "phone home" as soon as it can access the Internet or a phone line and report its location when stolen.
Make sure you have insurance to cover the loss. Check your parents homeowners policy (often computers need special riders) or get separate insurance.
Backup your stuff. This is good justification for a 40GB portable mp3 player: in addition to storing music, you can also usually copy any data you want to the filesystem.
Most of the above apply equally well to other gadgets as well as notebooks.
I fear for the death of the English language as we know it.
The English language, particularly "as we know it," is constantly evolving. Unlike Latin, English is a living thing. The rules taught in school about proper grammer are historic artifacts that cannot constrain change in the long term.
When I can look up OMFG in Webster's, then I know it's all over for civilization...
That day may come, but not anytime soon. It's just now that Webster's is adding words such as MP3, MPEG, Pleather and Information Technology (Clickity).
I've been using Mozilla since it was called "Mosaic" and released by National Center for Supercomputer Applications, and then later Netscape when Marc Andreessen left NCSA to found "Mosaic Communications Corporation" (which later became Netscape Communications Corp). It was a better browser before Internet Explorer was even a concept.
IMHO, no other single product or technology has been more responsible for launching the greed, crime and corruption on the Internet than Microsoft Internet Explorer. IE is a front-end for bloated, epileptic-seizure-inducing advertisements and a back-end for viruses, hackers and outright thieves.
I use IE only when I am forced to, which is seldom since I can run Firefox 0.93 from the USB memory stick I keep on my keychain. On the very few occasions when I encounter a site that refuses me access because I don't have Internet Explorer, I make certain to send the offending site's webmaster an email describing how his shortsighted aversion to Internet standards has cost his company a potential customer.
I have to ask you to justify that statement. I use Firefox almost exclusively (even to access Microsoft services such as Sharepoint and Outlook Web Access). The list of banks and other financial service providers I've accessed or have setup access to using Firefox includes:
ABM AMRO
AIG
American Express
CapitolOne
Charles Schwaab
First Savings Bank of NJ
GMAC
PennStar
Wachovia
Wayne Bank
There's probably several more that I can't immediately remember. Perhaps it would be more accurate if you listed the banks that gave you trouble.
install Ad Aware or Spybot Search & Destroy
This should not be an or but an and.
The real question should be "Why doesn't the antivirus software I've spent hundreds of dollars on for subscriptions and updates detect and prevent these malicious programs?" Could it be that after all these years of blackmailing users for the protection that ought to be built-in to the operating system, these companies aren't willing or able to adapt to the latest permutation of threats: the browser virus?
The newer versions of Symantec Antivirus, NAI VirusScan and others have started, but they are far behind Lavasoft and Kolla in this area when they should be the leaders. After paying $60 per PC and another $20+ per year for antivirus and updates, I don't think I should need to download, install and additional programs to detect and remove browser viruses after they've infected my PC!
Re:It's not just the shady companies
on
The Spyware Inferno
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· Score: 2, Informative
Besides spyware, what annoys me is "user agents". Quicktime, RealPlayer, and Winamp all have little TSR's that load at start-up and eat megabytes of memory for "quality assurance" and "ease of use" purposes. I don't know how many times I've tried to disable qttask.exe or realsched.exe in my start up only to have it come back unexpectedly.
Then why not use Quicktime Alternative and Real Alternative instead? They work fine for me, and don't include any spyware or other negative features that I can detect.
Slashdot Mirror
I tried the Sharpie, but now my eyes just sting...
Yes, but it did cure the red-eye problem, right? (At least in the centers.)slow to start up and there's a lot of delay between pressing the shutter release and actually taking a picture. You can mitigate this by half-pressing the shutter release to pre-focus/meter, but that's a problem with a moving subject (like a toddler!).
Try setting the camera to "action" mode, so it continuously re-focuses while the shutter release is half-pressed.
Second issue: on camera flash is evil. Only a few compact cameras give you a hotshoe. DSLR's will give way better flash results with their bounce flash/diffuser capability. Almost every flash picture I have yields terrible red-eye. Photoshop Album can generally fix this, but not all the time. Even without red eye, you generally get a sterile, harshly lit result.
As a former pro photographer, (newspaper, studio, wedding), I appreciate the advantages of an SLR, and how a pro or avid hobbyist benefit from these more costly, larger and more complex pieces of equipment. But a pro or avid hobbyist does not need to read this type of article. As for myself, I've grown too lazy and cheap to drag $2,000 and 8 lbs of camera gear around with me and go through the ritual of setting-up flash brackets and bounce cards anymore. If I need that stuff, I still have the gadget bag with over $5K of Canon gear. Instead, I use a Panasonic Lumix, which is still at the upper-end of size and weight for most consumers.
On the other hand, when the typical consumer asks "what's the best camera" what they really want to know, when questioned, is what's going to give them good snapshots of the kids and easily print quality 4x6 and maybe the occasional 8x10. For them, something with a good zoom range, relatively quick focus and release time, decent low-light capability, built-in flash that sits-up high enought to avoid red-eye in most cases, and at least 3 megapixels, coupled with a pl
Judging from your attitude and your other posts, I have to wonder if the real problem is that you just hate graphical elements and animations in general, for some unknown reason. Sorry, but you're not in the majority.
Are you sure about that? Do you honestly enjoy waiting an extra minute for a Flash intro to load when you visit a website to find some information? How does that 2 minute bit of eye-candy help you find the latest driver, or check the status of an order, or get a phone number? And why do I have to wait for the entire .SWF to download and start playing BEFORE I can click on the "Skip Intro" link?
And what about people who have vision problems? What do you think they feel about Flash-based sites? Or people who, due to company policy, aren't allowed to have a Flash player installed on their PC? All they wind up with is a big empty page.
Sure, if I go to MTV.COM or JoeCartoon or some other entertainment-focused site, Flash is an acceptable mechanism for presenting multimedia. But 99% of the Flash and 60% of all graphical content on websites I visit are wasted bandwidth and interfere with the purpose of my visit.
Unfortunately, Tivo is becoming less and less attractive every day. First of all, I feel that $13/month is too expensive, and $299 for the life of the box is no better. And why do I have to pay for a subscription for EACH box?
Then there's the controversy about skipping commercials, and the new commercials that Tivo is [planning?] showing while you skip commercials.
Finally, there's the new restrictions on what you can record and how/where/when/how-long you can save and play it.
I get maybe four to six hours a week to watch TV. I despise sitcoms and reality TV. I'd rather watch a movie or a documentary/how-to show, but the movie channels rarely start movies I would watch when I'm ready to watch them, and the prime-time programming on other channels mostly sucks. I wound-up cancelling all my premium channels because I never watched them.
So, not only should I be a good candidate for Tivo, but if others are like me, it would also boost revenues for cable/satellite premium channel subscriptions. But there's no way I'm going to lay out $400+ a year for a Tivo subscription and premium movie channels if I can't use them exactly the way I want. That doesn't include broadcasting movies to the world (I can rent a movie for less than $4.00 -- why waste my valuable and precious time trying to download one).
If Tivo and the pay TV services want my money, they'll need to stop treating me like a thief while acting like one themselves.You cannot do this with commercial operating systems. Linux has its niche.... to support niche markets.
Not to burst your bubble, but there's tons of niche use of commercial operating systems. For example, Windows is used underneath many OEM car navigation systems and inside many satellite and digital-cable tuner boxes. My Pioneer digital-cable unit has actually thrown me a standard Windows Application Exception error dialog on more than one occasion (never could figure out how to click the OK or CANCEL buttons via the remote). Then there's the dozens of manufacturing resorce planning systems, controllers for automated milling equipment, underpinnings for engine diagnostics and even wheel-alignment systems, and the list goes on-and-on.
I'm not saying that Windows is a better platform or that people don't develop enough for Linux, but I would be hard-pressed to find an application category that doesn't tout an MS-Windows solution (but, since this is /., I'm sure there will be dozens of examples posted shortly :-)).
That all said, I've been very interested in a one-box home entertainment solution: something that's a TV, DVR, music and video jukebox and game console-like machine, to replace the clutter of separate components that currently consume too much space and power my kids' bedrooms. So I've been following the MythTV project, but the economics so far doesn't work out. Hopefully, the price of tv-tuner/frame-grabber cards will come down some day to make this a viable alternative.Exactly, Caylx Point is the same sort of "I must run as admin" App. This is a program that is basicly nothing more than a database for mortgage companies. It has about a 66% market share. It must be run as admin, power user is not good enough to run it's activeX scripts. Also IE (only IE works) must have it's security settings changed to lower levels.
That means there is something else out there. Looks to me that the products used by the other 34% of the market have a major competitive advantage. If I were a Caylx competitor, I'd be bombarding every mortgage company on the cost-savings of my more secure product. If I were a consultant supporting customers who use Caylx, I'd do the research for my customers and explain to the how switching products will a.) make them more secure, b.) help avoid possible litigation, and c.) will save them real money by avoiding viruses and spyware.
Alternately, what I might do is setup Caylx on a Windows Terminal Server and lock that system down and firewall it so Caylx is all that can be used. Give users the required admin privs on that one system, and just normal user privs on their desktop and all other servers. When they want to use Caylx they have to fire-up the Remote Desktop Client (which can even be run from a Linux desktop) to logon to the terminal server and start Caylx.I call bullshit.
I've done the math, repeatedly, and yes I have access to TD/IM/etc distributor pricing. There is NFW you or I could build an equivalent $2,000 machine for $800. I just spec'd out a Dell Dimension 8400 with:
If you can build the same or better system, using reputable and guaranteed-compatible components and including support and warranty, for around $800, then sign me up for 20 of them. Hell, I bet you can't build the same system without support and warranty (other than each individual component mfr's warranty) for less than $1,600. I started pricing-out the components to build my own, and stopped at $1,600 before adding-in a case, keyboard, mouse or any software.
Besides, we're not discussing a $2,000 PC, but a $200 PC (with OS, keyboard, mouse, video, NIC and sound, but no monitor). And I believe the answer to this is no, not yet. I think that, with a new motherboard design, it might be possible, as long as you're willing to accept basic functionality and use the equivalent of Citrix/RemoteDesktop capability on an embedded Linux platform and rely on an ASP for all applications. But that unto itself is a very interesting concept, especially considering that most users have no knowledge or interest in such things as security, backups and maintenance.
DMCA applies only to cases whereby an encryption / obfuscation method was broken
No, that is not true. Have you actually RTF-Legislation? Perhaps you should take a peek at Digital Millenium Copyright Act of 1998, paying particular attention to Title II, where it establishes liability limits for service providers that follow the new rules. Among these rules is that the service provider "in the instance of a notification of claimed infringement as described in paragraph (3), responds expeditiously to remove, or disable access to, the material that is claimed to be infringing or to be the subject of infringing activity."
So, under Title II of the DMCA, a service provider is not required to comply with a so-called DMCA infringment/takedown notice, but if it elects to ignore or defy such a request, the service provider looses its limited liability protection under DMCA.
Furthermore, if the mirrors are an accurate repesentation of the original parody site, IMHO CNN has a valid case regarding copyright infringement.
IANAL, but this article on parody and fair use says: "The Copyright Act in Section 107 enumerates four "fair use factors" that must be analyzed to determine whether a particular use of a copyrighted work, such as a parody, is fair use. These factors are the (1) purpose and character of the use, including whether the use is commercially motivated or instead is for nonprofit educational purposes; (2) nature of the copyrighted work; (3) amount and substantiality of the portion used in the newly created work in relation to the copyrighted work; and (4) effect of the use upon the potential market for or value of the copyrighted work."- I don't know if you can consider this a commercial use: the author's site does sell advertising space, but does not charge specifically to view this parody.
- The nature of the copyrighted work is the entire look, feel, layout and design of the CNN website, which certainly qualifies as a creative work as well as intellectual property.
- The worst issue against the parody is that except for the article text itself, 100% of the page is copied directly from CNN.
- This individual parody has nil effect on the value of CNN's copyrighted work. But the domino principal applies and the value of CNN's copyrights can become eroded, one parody at a time.
I think that Mr. Cox is going to have an uphill battle trying to get First Admendment protection for his parody in its current state. Perhaps if he spent some time developing his own similar, but oviously different look and feel for the page, he might get away with it. But in its current state, I think a judge will give benefit of the doubt to CNN.In more developed/affluent areas, the LECs are now offering fixed-price bundles that compete very well against separate broadband/VoIP/LD packages from separate providers.
Where this makes a differences is in outlying suburban and rural markets where the CATV provider is often the only choice for broadband, and there's no local telco competition. I live in such a place, and although I'm served by Verizon, my pricing structure and options are very different from virtually anywhere else.For $16/month I have a Vonage account as a second phone line, with unlimited inbound and local calls and 500 minutes long distance. Vonage gives me caller ID, three-way calling, voicemail, call forwarding and call accounting. My Verizon POTS line costs twice as much, includes no long distance, and half the features.
If my Cable Internet provider could clean-up their network to reduce latency and outages, and boost my upload speed a bit, I would consider dropping Verizon altogether and get two lines from Vonage. That would save me at least $20/month while providing features that Verizon would normally charge outrageous extra fees.Actually, it's a fence erected by our surrounding solar systems designed to prevent us from hurling radioactive-laden vessels into our neighbors' backyards.
The fence also filters most forms of radio emissions so our neighbors don't have to put up with our crappy radio and TV broadcasts. A side effect is that any inbound signals that might expose life in other solar systems is also filtered into random noise.It is illegal for an employer to consistently expect more than 40 hours per week from an "exempt" employee.
If this is illegal, I'd like to know under which laws and what the statute of limitations might be. About seven years ago I looked into the issue and could find nothing to prevent my then employer from continuing to impose ridiculous deadlines that required 50 to 80-hour work-weeks for over two years.Salaried means that you get paid the same fixed ammount no matter how much you work, whether it be 10 hours a week or 100. Of course what ends up happening is that they shovel so much work on you to do that you end up having to work more than 40 hours a week to do what is expected of you, otherwise you get fired.
No, that is not necessarily true. Whether you are exempt from overtime really depends on how much self-determinism and supervision goes with your job. If get to select your own assignments and deadlines, are essentially allowed to work on your own with little supervision, do not have to meet any production quotas or work on a rigid schedule, then you are probably exempt from overtime.However, if your supervisor assigns you projects with deadlines, or requires to you record your time and can penalize you for failing to meet a minimum quota, or you are required to be "at work" according to a fixed schedule, then you are probably NOT exempt from overtime.
I suggest you read Overtime Pay Requirements of the FLSA before wrongfully concluding whether you are exempt or not.Gee, and all this time [bzzzttt] I thought that was a Security Feature [pfftt] to address clueless users. [zzzZAAAP!] Sort-of like a bug light for IT idiots.
I havent been to a bank yet that doesn't use Lexmark Printers. That may just be because banks are cheap.
No, its because banks are traditionally die-hard IBM customers, and Lexmark is a spin-off of IBM's printer division. Price is usually at the bottom of the list for Banks.
I'm not a fan of Lexmark either, but HP seems to be doing all it can to match Lexmark in the crappy printer and software arena. Fortunately, at least the higher-end HP lasers are still decent, provided you can find a compatible driver built-in to your Operating System; using HP's printer drivers is like playing Russian roulette with 5 out of 6 chambers loaded.Why was the parent mod'ed down? Is there no truth in what he said? Or do all negative posts about Linux automatically get mod'd down?
Oh, nevermind. I forgot I was onIf ATI's drivers were as good at NVidia's drivers under Linux, I might consider buying an ATI card.
IMHO, if ATI's Windows drivers were as good as NVidia's Linux drivers, I would be content. I own three AIW's of various vintages, the whole purpose of which is to be able to watch TV and capture analog video. ATI's Windows drivers and multimedia software is the pinnacle of garbage: poor quality video, unstable to the point of crashing the entire OS and blue-screening the machine, unable to record/play one video stream without loosing sync with the audio (on a 2.4GHz HT 512MB ATA100/7200RPM system), and an enormous, ugly user interface.
Next time its an NVidea-based graphics card and a seperate Hauppauge video-capture/tv-tuner card.At any rate, I don't think there's a tremendous economic incentive for ATI to provide world-class Linux drivers. Remember, this is a commodity market so there's got to be tremendous volume for the numbers to work out right.
However, I think this theory is starting to break down. While the installed base of Linux is still miniscule compared to Windows, it appears to me the growth rates are getting closer all the time. Also, Linux is achieving name recognition among average consumers (partially due to all the hoopla over the SCO suits, as they say in public relations: "there's no such thing as bad press").
So, although most current buyers might not start out with Linux on their systems, the more advanced are at least thinking "I should check Linux out," and the lack of good, easy Linux support could be a consideration when selecting a new graphics card. I don't think this is so far fetched, particularly when you look at the type of consumer who even thinks about video card choices in the first place.
Then there are the custom builders, high-end resellers and other IT workers that the unwashed masses turn to for advice. Again, Linux is definately on their radar screen, and again the lack of support for Linux will weigh on the decision to recommend ATI vs. something with better support.
As for me, although every non-notebook computer (4) in my home has an ATI card in it (mostly AIW), I have never been satisified even by the Windows support ATI provides (my main machines are two notebooks: that dual-boot WinXP & Linux). So when I get my next desktop computer (hopefully around Christmas!), I am going with another video chipset. And you can be certain that good Linux support will be a priority.Actually, American Express used to have (until April of this year) something like a one-time-use account number. It was called Private Payments, and you could generate a new, temporary account number from their secure website. Although it wasn't truly one-time use, it was only valid for 30 days and could be cancelled at any time by the cardmember.
I used it religiously for all on-line, telephone and mail-order purchases until it was discontinued. If a merchant didn't take Amex I'd shop elsewhere.Now that PrivatePayments has been discontinued, I purchase Visa Gift Cards (pre-paid Visa cards) and use them for my small/medium-ticket on-line purchases. For major purchases I use a Visa card with fraud protection and check the account activity on-line at least once a week.
But in any event, you should never be liable for a fraudulent credit card transaction. That doesn't mean you can be careless with your account information, but if there is a fraudulent charge you're not out any money if you pay attention and dispute the charge within the specified period of time.
The real danger is ACH (Automated Clearing House) transactions against your bank accounts. Any person or organization that has the ability to perform ACH transactions (and there are plenty of third-party processors with low scruples and high tolerence of unethical behavior) can suck money DIRECTLY from your bank account. All they need is your bank routing number and bank account number. They don't need your name, address, phone number or any password or PIN (they are supposed to get your written authorization first, but there's no mechanism to check or enforce this before the fact). There is no verification or fraud protection system for ACH, as there is on most credit cards. The merchant simply asks and he receives.
And unlike credit card disputes, where you don't pay until the dispute is settled, ACH immediately withdraws the money from your account and you have to wait for the dispute to be settled before getting your money back (if ever). Since there are no limits on ACH withdrawals, (other than having sufficient funds for payment), one fraudulent charge can lead to bounced checks, overdraft fees, returned check fees and more, increasing your loss by hundreds of dollars.
There's no mechanism to opt-out of ACH or limit transactions to only approved merchants. Once a fraudulent charge is made you may be able to block further transactions by that merchant, but possibly only for a limited time and with payment of a stop-payment processing fee. The only real relief is to close the account and open a new one (resulting in administrative hassles and costs for new checks and forms).
How hard it is for a bad guy to get your bank routing number and account number depends on how use your checks. The routing and account numbers are required on the bottom of each check. It takes a few seconds for a dishonest cashier, clerk or other employee to copy this info down and sell it later. The lock-box services used by large creditors often convert paper checks to ACH transactions themselves, then discard the paper checks; depending on how discarded checks are handled, they might be subject to unwanted access. Your own handling of unused and cancelled checks also comes into play.
Between credit-card fraud and ACH fraud, its the latter that scares me the most. I've been a victim of unauthorized ACH transactions twice: once through a mistake made by a merchant and just recently through outright fraud. I am still waiting for the return of $100 due to the most recent fraud, and it will cost me more than that by the time I'm done switching to a new checking account.Locked doors are important, but unless your dorms use key-cards, master keys are probably in circulation. As a staff member, I had stuff stolen out of a locked desk drawer in a locked, private office in a restricted-access building. But that's no excuse to leave your door unlocked, just don't rely on this as your sole protection.
And now for my 8 simple steps to minimize loss:Most of the above apply equally well to other gadgets as well as notebooks.
I fear for the death of the English language as we know it.
The English language, particularly "as we know it," is constantly evolving. Unlike Latin, English is a living thing. The rules taught in school about proper grammer are historic artifacts that cannot constrain change in the long term.When I can look up OMFG in Webster's, then I know it's all over for civilization...
That day may come, but not anytime soon. It's just now that Webster's is adding words such as MP3, MPEG, Pleather and Information Technology (Clickity).I've been using Mozilla since it was called "Mosaic" and released by National Center for Supercomputer Applications, and then later Netscape when Marc Andreessen left NCSA to found "Mosaic Communications Corporation" (which later became Netscape Communications Corp). It was a better browser before Internet Explorer was even a concept.
IMHO, no other single product or technology has been more responsible for launching the greed, crime and corruption on the Internet than Microsoft Internet Explorer. IE is a front-end for bloated, epileptic-seizure-inducing advertisements and a back-end for viruses, hackers and outright thieves.
I use IE only when I am forced to, which is seldom since I can run Firefox 0.93 from the USB memory stick I keep on my keychain. On the very few occasions when I encounter a site that refuses me access because I don't have Internet Explorer, I make certain to send the offending site's webmaster an email describing how his shortsighted aversion to Internet standards has cost his company a potential customer.- ABM AMRO
- AIG
- American Express
- CapitolOne
- Charles Schwaab
- First Savings Bank of NJ
- GMAC
- PennStar
- Wachovia
- Wayne Bank
There's probably several more that I can't immediately remember. Perhaps it would be more accurate if you listed the banks that gave you trouble.Well, that will make this week-end's pig roast faster and more fun!
The real question should be "Why doesn't the antivirus software I've spent hundreds of dollars on for subscriptions and updates detect and prevent these malicious programs?" Could it be that after all these years of blackmailing users for the protection that ought to be built-in to the operating system, these companies aren't willing or able to adapt to the latest permutation of threats: the browser virus?
The newer versions of Symantec Antivirus, NAI VirusScan and others have started, but they are far behind Lavasoft and Kolla in this area when they should be the leaders. After paying $60 per PC and another $20+ per year for antivirus and updates, I don't think I should need to download, install and additional programs to detect and remove browser viruses after they've infected my PC!