My previous laptop and desktop machines both came with the POS Windows ME installed. The desktop was relatively stable but the laptop crashed repeatedly for no discerable reason. Fortunately, the laptop came with a coupon to upgrade to XP for $10. Due to a mix up, I ended up with several upgrade CDs which I used to install XP on both machines. From that point, I never had a single crash on either machine for nearly 4 years. When I upgraded to new hardware this year, I've had a few problems with the new Dell laptop but my new desktop has been rock solid. Except for the continual need to apply updates (which I do regularly), I've been very pleased with XP. I also own a Mac G4 iBook running 10.3.9 which I actually prefer to use but when I need to run Windows, I can do so without concern for crashes.
They appear to have broken the law. You said you support anything the board does to prevent the leaks from happening. Please explain how one might infer something other than you support their breaking of the law.
As to the remainder of your witty rejoinder, sticks and stones...
If I worked for HP and depended on their stock options for (a good portion of) my retirement, I wouldn't be the slight bit muffed by management doing whatever it takes to stop leaks that may end up hurting the company through the loss of valuable trade secrets, technology, etc. That's the board's job - to raise the stock.
Ok, for the sake of argument, let's assume that you would stop short of approving the murder of the leaker(s). Just how far, short of that, would you still feel good about: knee-capping, breaking the bones in one's hand with a hammer, kidnapping a family member, burning down their house, torturing their cat, etc.?
Remember, you are protecting trade secrets here and the value of your HP stock is at stake.
I hope you think this is absurd but your comment is stupid. It is not the board's job to break the law and it is not within their purview to do anything necessary to protect the stock.
Unfortunately (for Google), this is probably a lost cause. When a product or a service becomes so dominant that its very name comes to represent the entire genre, that battle is already lost. Siccing a whole herd of lawyers (that's what multiple lawyers are, right? A herd? Any way, I digress) on offenders won't put the genie back into the bottle. Xerox, Kleenex, Frisbee and other companies and company's products have gone through with little success. People still refer to the name as the generic identifier.
Archeologists working in the southwest of the US (and elsewhere I presume) have done almost exactly that. In Chaco Canyon in New Mexico, there are a number of sites that have been located but not excavated. I imagine funding plays a role in these not having been dug up but the stated rationale is that these sites have survived 700 years while being buried. What better way to protect them and leave them for future study when, presumably, techniques have advanced to better study them.
Its unfortunate that this approach wasn't in use early in the 20th century. So many historical sites were looted and destroyed in the name of science but primarily for the treasures contained which could be displayed in museums and private homes. These places are literally priceless and any actions taken which violate them should be carefully considered.
In no way, shape, or form will I allow that POS software from Real Networks touch a single bit on my computer. If Firefox tries to push it on me without an ability to reject it, I will stop using Firefox.
First symptom: CEOs who use nonsensical marketing-speak like "paradigm shift" when what they really mean is "going out of business - everything half price".
Does anybody consider advertising-overload to be a real problem? I feel like a female dog in heat wandering around the neighborhood with every male dog trailing behind. Everywhere I go, I get a sales pitch and now companies like ABC want to force me to watch. I've reached the point where I instinctively tune out what is being force fed to me to the point of being rude and obscene when dealing with people who try and unsolicitedly sell me something face-to-face or over the phone.
Yeah, ABC may be successful in doing this either through technology, litigation, or bribes to congress but it sure as hell is gonna piss me off even more and continue to make me even less receptive and more resourceful in avoiding this crap.
always fall back on the knee-jerk reaction. It won't work either but it has that crunchy mouth-feel that makes its seem like you're biting down on something substantial when, in fact, you're only eating rice cakes.
But the nightmare scenario has always been there: since the number of ISPs available to most consumers are limited, that monopoly power could be used to force choices on consumers. The market could be used to reward innovative ideas that require breaking net neutrality, but monopolies break markets.
If a choice is forced down one's throat, it really isn't a choice, is it? But I agree with your first statement. Any time Congress attempts to create legislation for something that they have zero knowledge about, it turns out worse than if they'd done nothing at all. Witness the inane comments from the esteemed Senator from Alaska, Ted Stevens, and his "tubes".
Mothers Against Cell Phone Jerks Who Talk On Their Phone Whilst Driving Thus Not Paying Attention To The Road
Seriously, are there statistics that clearly point to an increase in accidents due directly to someone using their phone? My guess is no. Still doesn't make Dialin' 'n Drivin' a good thing to do.
Since when is being "in the way" grounds for arrest in a public, non-life threatening situation? If the parking lot was signed for customers only or, in some other ways, was restricted and the individual had been requested to move his car by someone in authority, there are legal grounds for his removal (tresspassing, for example, not consuming WiFi signals). But if it was a public parking lot with no clearly specified time limits then where is the violation? Furthermore, why just the WiFi. I assume he was also consuming the aromas emminating from the coffee shop. Why was he allowed to get away with that?
Yes, the guy sounds like a leech but I still don't understand the reaction here. Unless there is some other real violation here, my guess is he'll walk.
I certainly don't dispute what you're saying about regulated vs unregulated businesses. However, in reality, there is no real regulation by the gub'mint any more. Our "so-called" representatives have been bought and paid for by those same businesses and, miracles of miracles, regulation has gone away to be replaced by "market forces". Unfortunately for those without paid-for access to a congressional whore, this results in the kinds of actions being taken by ATT/SBC/PacBell/ATT who do it because they know that they can get away with it. Write your representative daily if you want. Ask your friends and neighbors to do the same. It ain't gonna mean jack. There simply isn't anybody Washington that cares.
Companies are in business to make money for their owners, i.e., the stockholders. Providing a service for a fee is how they do it. If the company chooses to ram a 12-inch inanimate carbon rod up the collective asses of their customers, it's within their charter to do so. It is then up to the customers to decide whether the service for a fee being supplied by that company is worth having a 12-inch inanimate carbon rod shoved up their ass.
The article indicates that it was a design flaw that caused the failure. In fact, the problem was that on-site construction crews modified the plans without consulting with the structural engineers. As a result, steel rods and bolts that had been speced to carry the loads with large safety margins were asked to essentially carry twice the designed-for loads. Coupled with dancing on the walkways that introduced harmonic motions, the nuts holding the walkways failed, dropping tons of concrete onto the crowds below. Needless to say, the modifications made to the design were totally unauthorized. Post-mortum studies indicated that, had the design been implemented correctly, the walkways would have been safe.
Yes, I know its distribution was limited but OMG what a piece of shit! Word 5 was zippy (for its day), wasn't overloaded with unused features, and conformed to the Mac interface standards. Word 6 comes along (on 24 floppies, no less), takes hours to install, took 5 minutes to launch, and would crash repeatedly. Worst of all, MS tried to implement a Windows look-and-feel on the Mac and ended up with what I consider the absolute worse piece of software I have ever used. I even seem to recall MS apologizing for later, but that may have happened during one of my 'nam flashbacks.
They call him Flipper, Flipper, faster than lightning,
No-one you see, is smarter than he,
And we know Flipper, lives in a world full of wonder,
Flying there-under, under the sea!
Everyone loves the king of the sea,
Ever so kind and gentle is he,
Tricks he will do when children appear,
And how they laugh when he's near!
They call him Flipper, Flipper, faster than lightning,
No-one you see, is smarter than he,
And we know Flipper, lives in a world full of wonder,
Flying there-under, under the sea!
Rewriting 60% of a product as big and complex as Windows is a task almost as big and complex as its original implementation. And the job isn't done with the coding being finished. It still requires testing and re-testing of 100% of the result. And adding staff to the job is only going to cause more pain and hurt (a la, Brook's Mythical Man Month).
This article has to have misstated the issue. Not even MS is arrogant enough to believe they can pull this off.
There are dozens of mp3 players out there that work just fine. The only reason to own an iPod is to be 'cool'. If no one in France is buying iPods some other brand will become the choice of the "buy it to be cool" crowd. So its no great loss for France.
Oh, please! France is a country. It contains thousands (millions?) of people who've purchased an iPod and who would find it a very great loss to have Apple pull out because the legislature passed some silly law regulating what Apple can do with their own product. Put another way, if your government decided that you can no longer get your car serviced at your favorite mechanic because they don't also service other brands of cars, you would probably find that to be a great loss, I'd imagine.
I, on the other hand, would find that to be no great loss.
Slashdot Mirror
My previous laptop and desktop machines both came with the POS Windows ME installed. The desktop was relatively stable but the laptop crashed repeatedly for no discerable reason. Fortunately, the laptop came with a coupon to upgrade to XP for $10. Due to a mix up, I ended up with several upgrade CDs which I used to install XP on both machines. From that point, I never had a single crash on either machine for nearly 4 years. When I upgraded to new hardware this year, I've had a few problems with the new Dell laptop but my new desktop has been rock solid. Except for the continual need to apply updates (which I do regularly), I've been very pleased with XP. I also own a Mac G4 iBook running 10.3.9 which I actually prefer to use but when I need to run Windows, I can do so without concern for crashes.
As to the remainder of your witty rejoinder, sticks and stones...
Ok, for the sake of argument, let's assume that you would stop short of approving the murder of the leaker(s). Just how far, short of that, would you still feel good about: knee-capping, breaking the bones in one's hand with a hammer, kidnapping a family member, burning down their house, torturing their cat, etc.?
Remember, you are protecting trade secrets here and the value of your HP stock is at stake.
I hope you think this is absurd but your comment is stupid. It is not the board's job to break the law and it is not within their purview to do anything necessary to protect the stock.
So, suck it up, Google. This means you've won!
Its unfortunate that this approach wasn't in use early in the 20th century. So many historical sites were looted and destroyed in the name of science but primarily for the treasures contained which could be displayed in museums and private homes. These places are literally priceless and any actions taken which violate them should be carefully considered.
Stop with the Terry Schiavo treatment on this franchise and LET IT DIE!
Bad move, Mozilla. Bad move.
First symptom: CEOs who use nonsensical marketing-speak like "paradigm shift" when what they really mean is "going out of business - everything half price".
Sometimes, they fill up and it can take days for the internets to arrive.
Yeah, ABC may be successful in doing this either through technology, litigation, or bribes to congress but it sure as hell is gonna piss me off even more and continue to make me even less receptive and more resourceful in avoiding this crap.
So now what is AOL gonna do when one of these free accounts wants to cancel? Offer 6 months of double-secret free service?
always fall back on the knee-jerk reaction. It won't work either but it has that crunchy mouth-feel that makes its seem like you're biting down on something substantial when, in fact, you're only eating rice cakes.
It only makes 'em madder.
If a choice is forced down one's throat, it really isn't a choice, is it? But I agree with your first statement. Any time Congress attempts to create legislation for something that they have zero knowledge about, it turns out worse than if they'd done nothing at all. Witness the inane comments from the esteemed Senator from Alaska, Ted Stevens, and his "tubes".
Seriously, are there statistics that clearly point to an increase in accidents due directly to someone using their phone? My guess is no. Still doesn't make Dialin' 'n Drivin' a good thing to do.
Yes, the guy sounds like a leech but I still don't understand the reaction here. Unless there is some other real violation here, my guess is he'll walk.
I certainly don't dispute what you're saying about regulated vs unregulated businesses. However, in reality, there is no real regulation by the gub'mint any more. Our "so-called" representatives have been bought and paid for by those same businesses and, miracles of miracles, regulation has gone away to be replaced by "market forces". Unfortunately for those without paid-for access to a congressional whore, this results in the kinds of actions being taken by ATT/SBC/PacBell/ATT who do it because they know that they can get away with it. Write your representative daily if you want. Ask your friends and neighbors to do the same. It ain't gonna mean jack. There simply isn't anybody Washington that cares.
Companies are in business to make money for their owners, i.e., the stockholders. Providing a service for a fee is how they do it. If the company chooses to ram a 12-inch inanimate carbon rod up the collective asses of their customers, it's within their charter to do so. It is then up to the customers to decide whether the service for a fee being supplied by that company is worth having a 12-inch inanimate carbon rod shoved up their ass.
Roboto: Yes Master.
Me: Bring me another beer.
Roboto: Yes Maste... Errrpp. Ping. Hmmmm. Bug-a-bug-a-bug-a. Error. Error. Experiencing General Protect Fault 0xE00FD033. Must... Kill... Humans...!
Me: Arrrrggghhh. Damn you Bill Gates! Damn you to Helllll...
The article indicates that it was a design flaw that caused the failure. In fact, the problem was that on-site construction crews modified the plans without consulting with the structural engineers. As a result, steel rods and bolts that had been speced to carry the loads with large safety margins were asked to essentially carry twice the designed-for loads. Coupled with dancing on the walkways that introduced harmonic motions, the nuts holding the walkways failed, dropping tons of concrete onto the crowds below. Needless to say, the modifications made to the design were totally unauthorized. Post-mortum studies indicated that, had the design been implemented correctly, the walkways would have been safe.
Strangely, I haven't trusted MS since.
They call him Flipper, Flipper, faster than lightning,
No-one you see, is smarter than he,
And we know Flipper, lives in a world full of wonder,
Flying there-under, under the sea!
Everyone loves the king of the sea,
Ever so kind and gentle is he,
Tricks he will do when children appear,
And how they laugh when he's near!
They call him Flipper, Flipper, faster than lightning,
No-one you see, is smarter than he,
And we know Flipper, lives in a world full of wonder,
Flying there-under, under the sea!
This article has to have misstated the issue. Not even MS is arrogant enough to believe they can pull this off.
I can't wait! Anybody want to buy a used iPod? This just sounds so much better.
Oh, please! France is a country. It contains thousands (millions?) of people who've purchased an iPod and who would find it a very great loss to have Apple pull out because the legislature passed some silly law regulating what Apple can do with their own product. Put another way, if your government decided that you can no longer get your car serviced at your favorite mechanic because they don't also service other brands of cars, you would probably find that to be a great loss, I'd imagine.
I, on the other hand, would find that to be no great loss.