Having used four or five registrars myself (Register.com, GoDaddy, Dotster, and Network Solutions/Verisign) - and working with a few others that my clients have used - I have never found a registrar with better service than Network Solutions. I can talk to a real person and rarely ever have a problem that can't be resolved within an hour of reporting it.
I had to wait three weeks for another registrar to resolve issues which should have been done within minutes. I'm not thrilled about the lax policies on domain hijacking (as we've read about recently) but those aren't limited to just Verisign.
Despite their SiteFinder crap, I'm happy to pay $35/year for the best service, tools, etc. If someone can point me in the direction of something better, I'd be open to switching. But in the five or six years that I've been managing domains, this is the best I've found.
First, I have to take issue with the claim that such technology, concepts, and products are not enough for a successful business. I think their success to this point is evidence enough of the power of this kind of product.
On the other hand, I have to agree that Comcast has the power to propel TiVo into a different level of play. With that kind of support, they'd have a huge step up on all this exploding competition. That competition is finding ways to improve upon what TiVo already has - free listings, better storage, better interface, etc. Why compete directly when you could stand on the shoulders of Comcast?
EA wants the market share. ESPN-branded games were released for $20, while EA's were listed at $50. They want to use the ESPN properties, but they really want to stop Sega from competing via the ESPN brand.
As a sports fan myself, I can attest to the once-great sports genre that has become terribly stale. Why is it that folks complain about 3D First-Person Shooters being generic, but don't bat an eye when it comes to Yet Another Generic Football video game?
Other than updated players and some minor improvements in the engine from year to year, are there any justifications for spending another $50?
I still enjoy Sega Genesis Tecmo Bowl and the early NCAA games for the PS2.
So old people have less incentive to create? And publishers have less incentive to accept IP works from the elderly because the copyright protections go away as soon as the person dies... I wouldn't be surprised if a publisher started acting like a health/life insurance provider in doing background checks before accepting a creative work.
On the whole, I agree with you... the protections should be shorter - maybe (artist's life + 20) or 50 years (whichever comes first). I would also like to see shorter periods for certain types of IP - software especially.
As doctors, sometimes they have an obligation to be able to be contacted anywhere they go. When a doctor is "on-call," they are not allowed to consume alcohol, must respond to a pager, cell, or telephone call, and must be able to return to the hospital within a certain period of time.
I'm sure the rules vary for different practices, hospitals, etc., but this isn't exactly a rare practice.
I'm not going to try and persuade you (there are plenty here that will give it a shot, I'm sure) but I'm wondering what you mean by #1... I hit CTRL+N and it opens a new browser window. CTRL+T is a new tab...
Do you mean that you want to set that action to that specific keyboard shortcut?
I'm going to take the opportunity to respond to one thing you said while ignoring most of the troll portion:
"grow up and realize that Sailor Moon and X-Men are not literature"
While I agree that most "comics" are not literature, there is a fine distinction between comics as entertainment and comics as art form. A good friend of mine presented his graphic arts thesis - a four foot high series of comic panels. I don't like the word comic because it naturally implies humor. So the term I've started to use is "graphic novels."
I don't consider serials or regular comic books to be graphic novels. But looking at something like the Pulitzer Prize winning Maus by Art Spiegelman, you see that it's not all funny or action-related. I read that when I was in seventh grade, just a year after it came out. I picked it up thinking it was a comic book... it's not.
I just read Blankets by Craig Thompson. I got sucked in and a few hours later it was all over. Most normal books don't have the emotional impact that his work does.
Graphic novels try to bridge the gap between literature and visual art. It's not often that they really succeed, but when they do it can be far more effective than a regular novel.
I did a little research on this after a dispute with my former employers.
Like non-compete agreements, not all courts support this kind of agreement with your employer. The thing is, many companies realize this and do it anyway. That's because most folks aren't going to challenge it - too expensive, time-consuming, etc. And if you want to keep your job, suing your employer isn't a great way of having a happy workplace.
It's such a grey area that you'd have to consult a lawyer and hope for a judge's favor in you wanted to win. The next Chia pet might be so unrelated and so unexpected that the court would consider it outside the realm of your contract.
(Not a lawyer, of course. But I play one on Slashdot.)
Opera won't get rich by giving it away for free... MS had something to gain by giving away a free browser.
As for security, it's worth noting that many of the security risks from IE come from the features they toss in - ActiveX, specialized (read: non-compliant) JScript - that you won't find in other, more secure browsers. It's not excusable, it's just part of the game. They shouldn't have released the browser at all without more thorough testing and review.
Like they say, you can't make a system secure unless you unplug it; by adding features, you're increasing the likelihood that you'll encounter problems.
When I was studying in Japan (just a couple of years ago), I saw nothing but MS Office anywhere... and as Wikipedia's entry on it notes, the latest version (as of July) was Ichitaro 13.
Ichitaro 5 is probably a late 80s-early 90s release. I doubt it has much, if any, market presence.
I hate to be rude, but I don't think this is the place for that kind of question. Just so I'm not mistaken for a troll or something, I'll go ahead and post something redundant like "sell yours and use your neighbor's."
I'm not a Mac user, I don't buy music online, and I don't own an iPod. But I use iTunes as my music player and library. It's amazingly easy to rip music, burn CDs, set up playlists, search my music, update metadata, and so on.
I know I sound like an Apple fanboy/PR rep/salesman/whatever but it's one of the few end-user software products I've ever been evangelical about (others that come to mind include Ad-aware, Firefox, Google Toolbar for IE, and some smaller utilities).
You're completely right... (not about my comment being stupid, but about the flip-side)
If a child can't control himself after playing video games, he shouldn't be playing them. It would be the parents' responsibility to monitor the child and make this decision.
Some people get really angry when playing games... (I'm one of them) others have a hard time ending their competition when they stop playing... (I'm fine on this part). The combination of these two factors could be enough to let a game send someone over the edge. That's not the fault of the video game (there are hundreds of other scenarios which can do this) but it should be headed off before it becomes a problem. My parents recognized that I would get in fights with my brothers if I lost a game... so they shut me off from gaming, adjusted the amounts I was allowed to play, and restricted the types of games I had. Of course, this is all anecdotal, but it certainly ends with "and I turned out fine." Fifteen years later, I am perfectly capable of enjoying a game without letting it blur the lines between video game reality and the rest of the world.
There are games that I won't let my children play until they're older... maybe 14 years or so. GTA isn't a game for anyone younger. But that doesn't stop them from wanting it. And when parents buy it for their kids, they're contributing to the problem.
My wife is a developmental psychology PhD candidate; her specialty is in parental monitoring of adolescents. I get to hear/read about this stuff from a more "scientific" perspective, and it's amazing how much we agree on this topic.
Sorry... I must have been a little unclear about that... I want more storage than the 32MB USB players, but I don't want the price tag of a 20GB iPod. So an in-between USB player with an in-between price point and an in-between storage capacity.
I also think it depends on the person's ability to allow himself/herself to be drawn in... for instance, I really enjoy movies and music - I let them affect me emotionally. As a result, I tend to get really involved in a film, the characters, song lyrics, whatever. My wife can't - she just doesn't stay that focused on them. So when it comes down to the climax of a film, I tend to appreciate it more. When it's all over, I want it to keep going. I walk out of a theatre after a great movie and can't stop thinking about the film. Video games are like this. I can get so drawn into a video game that when I die it's like I'm actually being hurt. When I stop playing, I have a hard time focusing on other things. I'm sure that contributes to my desire to keep playing...and playing... and playing...
Not at all. I don't want to spend hundreds on an mp3 player... but I want the space of an iPod. This isn't quite as much as I'd hoped, but it's close.
Creative put out a USB MP3 player that I really liked... it was a lot like this, but the storage space was sadly lacking. We're talking 32-128MB for this price range.
By the time I find a need to exceed 512MB or 1GB of storage, I'll have a chance to get back and refill/reload.
Not for everyone, but I think it's right for me. (at least, until I see pics and specs)
During Christmas break of my junior year of college, I was told I wasn't needed at work (but that they'd still pay me!) so I got to spend three weeks on GTA3. Fantastic. Nowhere to go, nothing to do, and nobody to bitch about spending so much time in front of the TV with "those damn police siren sounds blaring." Unfortunately, I also didn't do much driving during this time (no car, no need for one).
When I finally did drive, I realized I was reaching for the handbrake so I could turn around. When I saw a police car, I had the idea that it would be faster to simply use his car...
Slashdot Mirror
"what he would become."
Despised?
This astounds me.
Having used four or five registrars myself (Register.com, GoDaddy, Dotster, and Network Solutions/Verisign) - and working with a few others that my clients have used - I have never found a registrar with better service than Network Solutions. I can talk to a real person and rarely ever have a problem that can't be resolved within an hour of reporting it.
I had to wait three weeks for another registrar to resolve issues which should have been done within minutes. I'm not thrilled about the lax policies on domain hijacking (as we've read about recently) but those aren't limited to just Verisign.
Despite their SiteFinder crap, I'm happy to pay $35/year for the best service, tools, etc. If someone can point me in the direction of something better, I'd be open to switching. But in the five or six years that I've been managing domains, this is the best I've found.
First, I have to take issue with the claim that such technology, concepts, and products are not enough for a successful business. I think their success to this point is evidence enough of the power of this kind of product.
On the other hand, I have to agree that Comcast has the power to propel TiVo into a different level of play. With that kind of support, they'd have a huge step up on all this exploding competition. That competition is finding ways to improve upon what TiVo already has - free listings, better storage, better interface, etc. Why compete directly when you could stand on the shoulders of Comcast?
EA wants the market share. ESPN-branded games were released for $20, while EA's were listed at $50. They want to use the ESPN properties, but they really want to stop Sega from competing via the ESPN brand.
As a sports fan myself, I can attest to the once-great sports genre that has become terribly stale. Why is it that folks complain about 3D First-Person Shooters being generic, but don't bat an eye when it comes to Yet Another Generic Football video game?
Other than updated players and some minor improvements in the engine from year to year, are there any justifications for spending another $50?
I still enjoy Sega Genesis Tecmo Bowl and the early NCAA games for the PS2.
That line induced yet another coffee spit-take.
Thanks, EA.
We're talking about geeks here. Boobies get old. I could look at case mods all day long.
I'll tell you why it was much not work done</slurring>
So old people have less incentive to create? And publishers have less incentive to accept IP works from the elderly because the copyright protections go away as soon as the person dies... I wouldn't be surprised if a publisher started acting like a health/life insurance provider in doing background checks before accepting a creative work.
On the whole, I agree with you... the protections should be shorter - maybe (artist's life + 20) or 50 years (whichever comes first). I would also like to see shorter periods for certain types of IP - software especially.
As doctors, sometimes they have an obligation to be able to be contacted anywhere they go. When a doctor is "on-call," they are not allowed to consume alcohol, must respond to a pager, cell, or telephone call, and must be able to return to the hospital within a certain period of time.
I'm sure the rules vary for different practices, hospitals, etc., but this isn't exactly a rare practice.
I'm not going to try and persuade you (there are plenty here that will give it a shot, I'm sure) but I'm wondering what you mean by #1... I hit CTRL+N and it opens a new browser window. CTRL+T is a new tab...
Do you mean that you want to set that action to that specific keyboard shortcut?
I'm going to take the opportunity to respond to one thing you said while ignoring most of the troll portion:
"grow up and realize that Sailor Moon and X-Men are not literature"
While I agree that most "comics" are not literature, there is a fine distinction between comics as entertainment and comics as art form. A good friend of mine presented his graphic arts thesis - a four foot high series of comic panels. I don't like the word comic because it naturally implies humor. So the term I've started to use is "graphic novels."
I don't consider serials or regular comic books to be graphic novels. But looking at something like the Pulitzer Prize winning Maus by Art Spiegelman, you see that it's not all funny or action-related. I read that when I was in seventh grade, just a year after it came out. I picked it up thinking it was a comic book... it's not.
I just read Blankets by Craig Thompson. I got sucked in and a few hours later it was all over. Most normal books don't have the emotional impact that his work does.
Graphic novels try to bridge the gap between literature and visual art. It's not often that they really succeed, but when they do it can be far more effective than a regular novel.
I did a little research on this after a dispute with my former employers.
Like non-compete agreements, not all courts support this kind of agreement with your employer. The thing is, many companies realize this and do it anyway. That's because most folks aren't going to challenge it - too expensive, time-consuming, etc. And if you want to keep your job, suing your employer isn't a great way of having a happy workplace.
It's such a grey area that you'd have to consult a lawyer and hope for a judge's favor in you wanted to win. The next Chia pet might be so unrelated and so unexpected that the court would consider it outside the realm of your contract.
(Not a lawyer, of course. But I play one on Slashdot.)
Opera won't get rich by giving it away for free... MS had something to gain by giving away a free browser.
As for security, it's worth noting that many of the security risks from IE come from the features they toss in - ActiveX, specialized (read: non-compliant) JScript - that you won't find in other, more secure browsers. It's not excusable, it's just part of the game. They shouldn't have released the browser at all without more thorough testing and review.
Like they say, you can't make a system secure unless you unplug it; by adding features, you're increasing the likelihood that you'll encounter problems.
When I was studying in Japan (just a couple of years ago), I saw nothing but MS Office anywhere... and as Wikipedia's entry on it notes, the latest version (as of July) was Ichitaro 13.
Ichitaro 5 is probably a late 80s-early 90s release. I doubt it has much, if any, market presence.
Finally, someone has put out a desktop search tool that will index my JustSystems Ichitaro Versions 5.0 files!
Call your vendor, ask for help there.
I hate to be rude, but I don't think this is the place for that kind of question. Just so I'm not mistaken for a troll or something, I'll go ahead and post something redundant like "sell yours and use your neighbor's."
I'm not a Mac user, I don't buy music online, and I don't own an iPod. But I use iTunes as my music player and library. It's amazingly easy to rip music, burn CDs, set up playlists, search my music, update metadata, and so on.
I know I sound like an Apple fanboy/PR rep/salesman/whatever but it's one of the few end-user software products I've ever been evangelical about (others that come to mind include Ad-aware, Firefox, Google Toolbar for IE, and some smaller utilities).
You're completely right... (not about my comment being stupid, but about the flip-side)
If a child can't control himself after playing video games, he shouldn't be playing them. It would be the parents' responsibility to monitor the child and make this decision.
Some people get really angry when playing games... (I'm one of them) others have a hard time ending their competition when they stop playing... (I'm fine on this part). The combination of these two factors could be enough to let a game send someone over the edge. That's not the fault of the video game (there are hundreds of other scenarios which can do this) but it should be headed off before it becomes a problem. My parents recognized that I would get in fights with my brothers if I lost a game... so they shut me off from gaming, adjusted the amounts I was allowed to play, and restricted the types of games I had. Of course, this is all anecdotal, but it certainly ends with "and I turned out fine." Fifteen years later, I am perfectly capable of enjoying a game without letting it blur the lines between video game reality and the rest of the world.
There are games that I won't let my children play until they're older... maybe 14 years or so. GTA isn't a game for anyone younger. But that doesn't stop them from wanting it. And when parents buy it for their kids, they're contributing to the problem.
My wife is a developmental psychology PhD candidate; her specialty is in parental monitoring of adolescents. I get to hear/read about this stuff from a more "scientific" perspective, and it's amazing how much we agree on this topic.
Sorry... I must have been a little unclear about that... I want more storage than the 32MB USB players, but I don't want the price tag of a 20GB iPod. So an in-between USB player with an in-between price point and an in-between storage capacity.
Which is pretty much what they're offering now.
I also think it depends on the person's ability to allow himself/herself to be drawn in... for instance, I really enjoy movies and music - I let them affect me emotionally. As a result, I tend to get really involved in a film, the characters, song lyrics, whatever. My wife can't - she just doesn't stay that focused on them. So when it comes down to the climax of a film, I tend to appreciate it more. When it's all over, I want it to keep going. I walk out of a theatre after a great movie and can't stop thinking about the film. Video games are like this. I can get so drawn into a video game that when I die it's like I'm actually being hurt. When I stop playing, I have a hard time focusing on other things. I'm sure that contributes to my desire to keep playing...and playing... and playing...
Not at all. I don't want to spend hundreds on an mp3 player... but I want the space of an iPod. This isn't quite as much as I'd hoped, but it's close.
Creative put out a USB MP3 player that I really liked... it was a lot like this, but the storage space was sadly lacking. We're talking 32-128MB for this price range.
By the time I find a need to exceed 512MB or 1GB of storage, I'll have a chance to get back and refill/reload.
Not for everyone, but I think it's right for me. (at least, until I see pics and specs)
I had that exact thought once, but it was behind a beer truck and it wasn't so much "reloading" as "getting loaded."
I do this every time I go. I keep thinking there's a jetpack back there.
:(
I was banned from Movies 14 for that.
During Christmas break of my junior year of college, I was told I wasn't needed at work (but that they'd still pay me!) so I got to spend three weeks on GTA3. Fantastic. Nowhere to go, nothing to do, and nobody to bitch about spending so much time in front of the TV with "those damn police siren sounds blaring." Unfortunately, I also didn't do much driving during this time (no car, no need for one).
When I finally did drive, I realized I was reaching for the handbrake so I could turn around. When I saw a police car, I had the idea that it would be faster to simply use his car...
Don't get me started on the pedestrians I saw.