I am puzzled, but not surprised - if that makes any sense. Most of the time I hear that Microsoft is bad for being a monopoly - but now it is somehow not a big deal for Google to be one in terms of user data.
Is it only OK because it's Google and you now need to find a way to justify the love and devotion that has been poured over them for years from various sources? Or do you really believe that one company's greed is another's virtue?
Sorry - I just don't get it. I'm getting very wary of Google now. Is there some other smaller upstart with a good idea worth getting behind? And if so how long until Google sues them.
I think this is funny. It's ok for other people to video tape you and record everything you do, but it's bad for the government to do it. Of course, the government doesn't go posting your embarassing moments to YouTube either. It is very ironic that the people who condemn the government for wanting to put cameras up everywhere somehow think this is ok based on the same arguments that the pro-public camera people use. "If you're doing nothing wrong, there is nothing to be afraid of.". We have seen the enemy... and he is us.
How many miserable failures is it going to take for Sony to realize something that, at least to me, is pretty freakin' obvious and stupidly simple: people do not want to get locked into proprietary formats controlled by one company. The thing that's so maddening is that when Sony does embrace non-proprietary formats, they have wild success. Their Walkman products sold like there was no tomorrow. Their CD and DVD consumer electronics have always been well-respected.
Tell that to Apple Computer which is doing pretty well with it's proprietary format and proprietary hardware. The PS3 is too expensive. Can you even buy a BluRay DVD player stand-alone? It may or may not fail for any number of combined reasons, I don't think you can pin it on any one thing at this point.
Right now NBC Universal is in the process of doing a lot of quirky things. I heard just today they're scaling back production of their "8-9pm dramas" to make room for more game a reality-type shows because they are cheaper to produce. NBC Universal is rumored to be about to lay off 700 people as a result of dropping profits and what not. Personally, I think it's a crock of crap and is just the studio making a cash grab and trying to screw the creative types out of their money. It's been a historical theme that business people will always try to screw creative people.... however the creative types today are a lot smarter than they used to be. It should be interesting to see how it shapes out. With all of the on-demand and downloadable styles of content, I think it's prudent to make sure these businesses remain viable - but screwing the artists isn't the way to do it.
Why can people own high-power firearms that have a good chance of killing someone, whereas guided rockets are right out? Lest we forget, guns are guided by the person pulling the trigger.
In most cases, the person owning the fire arm has to have a permit or a license to carry it, or even own it. And in many states (like mine) you need to have a criminal background check.
So if we're going to make people wanting a gun go through a background check and waiting period and pay money - for something that is relatively small - then I think it's prudent that someone who has the potential to make a weapon of mass destruction go through something similar. call me strange
Well! No wonder Gmail has been in beta for about 2 or 3 years now. Development without deadlines is akin to getting nothing done. People need direction, coordination, and most of all motivation. That doesn't mean you set unrealistic or oppressive deadlines, but deadlines are necessary to keep things moving - at least for those of us living in the real world.
A communist government, which is a monopoly of it's own right, not giving people a chance to choose based on practices of which itself is guilty. The irony never stops.
I'm not saying that's the way it *should* be, but I am saying thats the way it *IS*. Old people Vote. As long as old people vote, then politicans won't throw them overboard. I agree, people should take responsibility - but unfortunately that's not the attitude of everyone nor our government.
It may be a tax on those that are bad at math, but when Grandma can't pay her pill bills because of her online (or Atlantic City) gambling addiction and then whine and scream to Uncle Sam about how bad they need prescription drugs that you and I and everyone else is going to pay for - then that will affect YOUR taxes. Say nothing of the lives that are ruined by addictive behavior. Lives whose reconstruction is usually funded by taxpayer dollars none of which came from gambling.
I'm getting tired of companies whining over how other companies write their software. Microsoft writes the program, they can make it default to their system if they want to. I agree that MS *should* allow people to choose what they wish to use in their search, but they should not be forced legaly to - thats just silly. Safari only uses Google for their search - should MSN or Alta Vista get bent about that?
Besides - who here is going to be using IE 7 as their primary browser long term anyway if they only allow you to use MSN? Right... I thought so.
Yeah I remember an article I read once about companies that put their customers through Phone System Hell just to talk to a real person. This article posted a series of phone key strokes you could press to get right to a customer service agent which was I believe 14 keystrokes.
This is absolutely true. I've bought many macintosh computers for the companies I have owned and worked for.
During lean times we would use eBay to buy computers and equipment for employees. One occasion in particular I bought a strawberry iMac as a work station for a designer advertised as new in the box only to find out the machine was two years past the date of manufacture. As a matter of policy, Apple only honors the warranty within I believe 90 days of the date of manufacture. After a few attempts to repair the machine unsuccessfully, Apple replace it with a new (at the time) iMac that had much better specifications at no charge. Just recently, they gave me a lot of good advice and support on a lemon iMac I received from MacMall.
I value customer service primarily because I pride myself on giving it - and it's nice to deal with a company then genuinely seems to care about it's customers. I'm an Apple customer for life partially because I prefer their product, but mostly because they treat me like a human being instead of a credit card number.
I wonder if they'll sit on this board or committee for a while until it's no longer to their benefit and when they pull out we'll read articles about how Microsoft's pullout could cripple the whole thing. It just seems like they join them to get their ideas and then leave when there is nothing more to be offered.
They take them to court because in America they can. In America they fight for the right to have privacy and freedom from having their information viewed by big brother. But it's amazing how afterthey sell their souls to the Chinese they willing grab the lube, drop their pants and bend over to appease the Chinese government. They willingly give it up in the name of profits... shame they can't do a little in the name of safety.
this was my FIRST reaction to this article and you said it better than I could have. Just because some guy goes to a school "around" the time of something doesn't make him an expert on crap. Where are my mod points when I need them
You could play any of the Myth series of RTS games. Each game lasts between 7 and 10 minutes so you could easily do two or three games during your lunch hour. You can also play via your intranet or via the fan-supported online game server PlayMyth.net.
Plus, these games will easily run as they're several years old. (Myth TFL is 1997, Myth II is 1998 and Myth III is 2001).
One of their main programmers was Andrew Meggs - who by the way was most well known for the whole Myth III tragedy - is it any surprise that there was much "buggy crapware"?
And according to a bunch of forum posts, it looks like as was in the case of Myth III - Mr. Meggs will find a way to blame everyone save the people deserving of blame for the quality of the produced work.
This is the second company to fold for him like this. First being the original incantation of Mumbo Jumbo... and now Troika. Perhaps we can get him to go work for EA.
I play World of Warcraft. And during my non working hours I have been playing it a lot the last several weeks because I really enjoy the game. I enjoy playing online with my friends and clan-mates and I enjoy the fantasy-based concept of the Warcraft universe even though I did not enjoy other Warcraft games.
That said, the downtime and disconnect issue with the WoW system is seriously irritating me. The other night I lost about 2 hours worth of tasks and resource building because of a server glitch. If this had been the first time this had happened then I wouldn't really think too much about it... but I've been disconnected on almost a nightly basis from the "Alleria" server. So much so that I'm about to the point where I'm going to demand that Blizzard move me to a more stable server or I may deactivate my account until they get their act together.
Which... honestly, really sucks because it's a good game and I'm willing to pay the $15 a month to play (even though I once said I'd never do that because it was too expensive). I just want what I am paying for. I don't think that is unreasonable for any customer to demand. If we're paying, then we deserve consistent, stable servers. I understand the task of trying to run a server with heavy load at times and I can't imagine the logistics of trying to accommodate 1.5 million gamers - but they should have been prepared for this... and increasingly I'm of the opinion that they were not.
Have you ever used Hymn? No? Well I have - and it doesn't do nearly what you think it does. It does NOT remove the DRM... it disables it, but all of your identification stuff is there.
If you Hymn an iTune, it is likely to be broken again in any update to iTunes.. not only that, but iTunes is programmed to recognize Hymn-ized tunes... and won't let you re-authenticate them. As a result, you have to go BACK to a previous version of iTunes, then convert the song again before it will play. This is a major pain in the ass... A friend of mine just had to do this to about 50 of his purchased iTunes that he ran through Hymn... and vows never to ever use it again.
HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA
HOHOHOHOHOHOHOHOHOHOHOHO
HEHEHEHEHEHEHEHEHEHEHEHEHEHEHEH
After all the bitching they did regarding iTunes music store and things of that nature - I am glad that this happened. With any luck, the music industry will lose faith in them and they will completely fold.
Even iTunes doesn't have a viable method of removing the copy protection aside from simply burning the songs to CD... **AFTER** you've bought them
I'm going to sign up for napster now to get my free songs before the get put out of business. This is wonderful news for we iPod owners.
It's also safe to say that if you have a house fire or what not, your 300 CD's are wiped out too and you'd have to re-buy them. Do you expect the record store to just give you the 300 CD's that you lost in a fire? That is what insurance is for - and it may be that your lost iTunes are covered by your homeowners or renters insurance policy. Same is true for theft, whatnot.
Incidentally, I bought a bunch of songs using a computer at work... and then got fired. Apple was happy to automatically unauthorize that computer for me. They DO those kinds of things for their customers - you just have to ask them.
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I am puzzled, but not surprised - if that makes any sense. Most of the time I hear that Microsoft is bad for being a monopoly - but now it is somehow not a big deal for Google to be one in terms of user data. Is it only OK because it's Google and you now need to find a way to justify the love and devotion that has been poured over them for years from various sources? Or do you really believe that one company's greed is another's virtue? Sorry - I just don't get it. I'm getting very wary of Google now. Is there some other smaller upstart with a good idea worth getting behind? And if so how long until Google sues them.
I think this is funny. It's ok for other people to video tape you and record everything you do, but it's bad for the government to do it. Of course, the government doesn't go posting your embarassing moments to YouTube either. It is very ironic that the people who condemn the government for wanting to put cameras up everywhere somehow think this is ok based on the same arguments that the pro-public camera people use. "If you're doing nothing wrong, there is nothing to be afraid of.". We have seen the enemy... and he is us.
How many miserable failures is it going to take for Sony to realize something that, at least to me, is pretty freakin' obvious and stupidly simple: people do not want to get locked into proprietary formats controlled by one company. The thing that's so maddening is that when Sony does embrace non-proprietary formats, they have wild success. Their Walkman products sold like there was no tomorrow. Their CD and DVD consumer electronics have always been well-respected.
Tell that to Apple Computer which is doing pretty well with it's proprietary format and proprietary hardware. The PS3 is too expensive. Can you even buy a BluRay DVD player stand-alone? It may or may not fail for any number of combined reasons, I don't think you can pin it on any one thing at this point.
Right now NBC Universal is in the process of doing a lot of quirky things. I heard just today they're scaling back production of their "8-9pm dramas" to make room for more game a reality-type shows because they are cheaper to produce. NBC Universal is rumored to be about to lay off 700 people as a result of dropping profits and what not. Personally, I think it's a crock of crap and is just the studio making a cash grab and trying to screw the creative types out of their money. It's been a historical theme that business people will always try to screw creative people.... however the creative types today are a lot smarter than they used to be. It should be interesting to see how it shapes out. With all of the on-demand and downloadable styles of content, I think it's prudent to make sure these businesses remain viable - but screwing the artists isn't the way to do it.
Why can people own high-power firearms that have a good chance of killing someone, whereas guided rockets are right out? Lest we forget, guns are guided by the person pulling the trigger.
In most cases, the person owning the fire arm has to have a permit or a license to carry it, or even own it. And in many states (like mine) you need to have a criminal background check.
So if we're going to make people wanting a gun go through a background check and waiting period and pay money - for something that is relatively small - then I think it's prudent that someone who has the potential to make a weapon of mass destruction go through something similar. call me strange
Well! No wonder Gmail has been in beta for about 2 or 3 years now. Development without deadlines is akin to getting nothing done. People need direction, coordination, and most of all motivation. That doesn't mean you set unrealistic or oppressive deadlines, but deadlines are necessary to keep things moving - at least for those of us living in the real world.
Running Vista on a Macbook would be like putting a lawnmower engine in a corvette.
A communist government, which is a monopoly of it's own right, not giving people a chance to choose based on practices of which itself is guilty. The irony never stops.
I'm not saying that's the way it *should* be, but I am saying thats the way it *IS*. Old people Vote. As long as old people vote, then politicans won't throw them overboard. I agree, people should take responsibility - but unfortunately that's not the attitude of everyone nor our government.
It may be a tax on those that are bad at math, but when Grandma can't pay her pill bills because of her online (or Atlantic City) gambling addiction and then whine and scream to Uncle Sam about how bad they need prescription drugs that you and I and everyone else is going to pay for - then that will affect YOUR taxes. Say nothing of the lives that are ruined by addictive behavior. Lives whose reconstruction is usually funded by taxpayer dollars none of which came from gambling.
I'm getting tired of companies whining over how other companies write their software. Microsoft writes the program, they can make it default to their system if they want to. I agree that MS *should* allow people to choose what they wish to use in their search, but they should not be forced legaly to - thats just silly. Safari only uses Google for their search - should MSN or Alta Vista get bent about that?
Besides - who here is going to be using IE 7 as their primary browser long term anyway if they only allow you to use MSN? Right... I thought so.
Here goes... Why doesn't Microsoft dedicate resources to finish Vista instead of doing things that are already being handled well by others.
Yeah I remember an article I read once about companies that put their customers through Phone System Hell just to talk to a real person. This article posted a series of phone key strokes you could press to get right to a customer service agent which was I believe 14 keystrokes.
This is absolutely true. I've bought many macintosh computers for the companies I have owned and worked for.
During lean times we would use eBay to buy computers and equipment for employees. One occasion in particular I bought a strawberry iMac as a work station for a designer advertised as new in the box only to find out the machine was two years past the date of manufacture. As a matter of policy, Apple only honors the warranty within I believe 90 days of the date of manufacture. After a few attempts to repair the machine unsuccessfully, Apple replace it with a new (at the time) iMac that had much better specifications at no charge. Just recently, they gave me a lot of good advice and support on a lemon iMac I received from MacMall.
I value customer service primarily because I pride myself on giving it - and it's nice to deal with a company then genuinely seems to care about it's customers. I'm an Apple customer for life partially because I prefer their product, but mostly because they treat me like a human being instead of a credit card number.
I wonder if they'll sit on this board or committee for a while until it's no longer to their benefit and when they pull out we'll read articles about how Microsoft's pullout could cripple the whole thing. It just seems like they join them to get their ideas and then leave when there is nothing more to be offered.
They take them to court because in America they can. In America they fight for the right to have privacy and freedom from having their information viewed by big brother. But it's amazing how afterthey sell their souls to the Chinese they willing grab the lube, drop their pants and bend over to appease the Chinese government. They willingly give it up in the name of profits... shame they can't do a little in the name of safety.
this was my FIRST reaction to this article and you said it better than I could have. Just because some guy goes to a school "around" the time of something doesn't make him an expert on crap. Where are my mod points when I need them
You could play any of the Myth series of RTS games. Each game lasts between 7 and 10 minutes so you could easily do two or three games during your lunch hour. You can also play via your intranet or via the fan-supported online game server PlayMyth.net .
Plus, these games will easily run as they're several years old. (Myth TFL is 1997, Myth II is 1998 and Myth III is 2001).
I can tell you're likely not married. She's been a trooper about putting up with the constant mess I've made of things in my current house.
And BTW - I'm wearing my Slipknot tee now.... so NYAH!
This smells of bullcrap. Apple isn't going to punish it's customers for a mistake on the part of their vendors.
Beside - how would apple know if you didn't register the software prior to Friday.
Either way - sounds like FUD.
One of their main programmers was Andrew Meggs - who by the way was most well known for the whole Myth III tragedy - is it any surprise that there was much "buggy crapware"?
And according to a bunch of forum posts, it looks like as was in the case of Myth III - Mr. Meggs will find a way to blame everyone save the people deserving of blame for the quality of the produced work.
This is the second company to fold for him like this. First being the original incantation of Mumbo Jumbo... and now Troika. Perhaps we can get him to go work for EA.
I play World of Warcraft. And during my non working hours I have been playing it a lot the last several weeks because I really enjoy the game. I enjoy playing online with my friends and clan-mates and I enjoy the fantasy-based concept of the Warcraft universe even though I did not enjoy other Warcraft games.
That said, the downtime and disconnect issue with the WoW system is seriously irritating me. The other night I lost about 2 hours worth of tasks and resource building because of a server glitch. If this had been the first time this had happened then I wouldn't really think too much about it... but I've been disconnected on almost a nightly basis from the "Alleria" server. So much so that I'm about to the point where I'm going to demand that Blizzard move me to a more stable server or I may deactivate my account until they get their act together.
Which... honestly, really sucks because it's a good game and I'm willing to pay the $15 a month to play (even though I once said I'd never do that because it was too expensive). I just want what I am paying for. I don't think that is unreasonable for any customer to demand. If we're paying, then we deserve consistent, stable servers. I understand the task of trying to run a server with heavy load at times and I can't imagine the logistics of trying to accommodate 1.5 million gamers - but they should have been prepared for this... and increasingly I'm of the opinion that they were not.
Have you ever used Hymn? No? Well I have - and it doesn't do nearly what you think it does. It does NOT remove the DRM... it disables it, but all of your identification stuff is there.
If you Hymn an iTune, it is likely to be broken again in any update to iTunes.. not only that, but iTunes is programmed to recognize Hymn-ized tunes... and won't let you re-authenticate them. As a result, you have to go BACK to a previous version of iTunes, then convert the song again before it will play. This is a major pain in the ass... A friend of mine just had to do this to about 50 of his purchased iTunes that he ran through Hymn... and vows never to ever use it again.
HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA HOHOHOHOHOHOHOHOHOHOHOHO HEHEHEHEHEHEHEHEHEHEHEHEHEHEHEH After all the bitching they did regarding iTunes music store and things of that nature - I am glad that this happened. With any luck, the music industry will lose faith in them and they will completely fold. Even iTunes doesn't have a viable method of removing the copy protection aside from simply burning the songs to CD ... **AFTER** you've bought them
I'm going to sign up for napster now to get my free songs before the get put out of business. This is wonderful news for we iPod owners.
It's also safe to say that if you have a house fire or what not, your 300 CD's are wiped out too and you'd have to re-buy them. Do you expect the record store to just give you the 300 CD's that you lost in a fire? That is what insurance is for - and it may be that your lost iTunes are covered by your homeowners or renters insurance policy. Same is true for theft, whatnot.
Incidentally, I bought a bunch of songs using a computer at work... and then got fired. Apple was happy to automatically unauthorize that computer for me. They DO those kinds of things for their customers - you just have to ask them.