If your not sure who you should report this kind of stuff too (local or RCMP), you can make use RECOL.ca(Reporting Economic Crimes On-line). They can direct your complaint to the proper force/department.
In terms of the RCMP, it's usually the Commercial Crimes Division (they'll then bring the Tech. Crime guys in as needed).
I was just going to mod you down, but this is so dumb I need to reply.
The parent tells the guy to learn about MS activation/support policies before spouting off and you reply with this? Is it it a toll free call? What do you think? Here let me help. I searched for 'product activation' at the MS web site and this is from the first hit.
To activate Windows XP over the telephone, you can simply call a toll-free* number displayed on your screen.
I'm not fan of this change in policy, but damn, at least lets have some intellegent discussion about it. How this got Modded up I don't know (I notice it has dropped by one as I reply to this though).
Wait a sec, I think you are mixing things up, Cable DVR != Cable OnDemand.
Cable DVRs (hardware wise) are much like any other PVR (TiVo or home grown), they have a hard drive, and some software that runs them.
There is no delay, and the data is stored on *your* cable box. So the hours of storage is based on the HD size, not some storage space segment on the Cable company's servers.
So it's not a telephone answering maching verses voice mail thing. It's more of a luxury vehicle vs. a Ford Tempo kind of thing.
Long live TiVo, ReplayTV, etc. BTW, check out www.eklecticsystems.com for an IR blaster. He's selling on eBay all the time (lots of people are). I bought one for my TiVo, works fine (says it's compatible with ReplayTV).
2. To design a spacecraft right takes an infinite amount of effort. This is why it's a good idea to design them to operate when some things are wrong .
3. Design is an iterative process. The necessary number of iterations is one more than the number you have currently done. This is true at any point in time.
Of course, this will probably not affect any TV which uses cable, but should affect antennas.
I guess, until they invent a more powerful portable power supply, a twelve gauge shot to the power pole insulator will remain the most effective option.
True. What's really needed is a FOB which provides a substantial, localized (say 50 foot radius) EM burst. This would provide the desired 'off only' capability.
Yeah, I see what you're saying (and I'm kind of disgusted by it), but does this really apply to the record industry? If they were to act as one (being the sudo-monopoly that they are) and all labels refused to sell to WalMart then how are they going to lose customers?
I see how other products (like toothpaste) are trapped by competition (if I don't sell it to WalMart at the demanded price then others will). However, if a whole (required) product line was pulled by all suppliers, then what?
People would still want to buy toothpaste.
I bet you're right, I'm sure they'll lose customers. I'm not sure at what level though. Even if it is one in five, big deal, they are being asked to cut their margins by 19% already and they are turning themselves into an unvalued commodity in the process.
Though I suppose the $9.72 deal would only be for WalMart, I'm sure that they will gain more and more market share very quickly because of this price. What's next, drop it to $8.00?
If they can afford to drop your product line entirely (represents only %2 of their revenue), then they can afford to force your price down to zero. Better to find an exit strategy now. See the Rubermaid example.
So what's keeping him up at night? I'm sure this is naive, but why does the record industry allow WalMart to sell music if they are so bad? (I assume there's a distribution contract, but this must expire at some point)
Hmmm, I have one partner who is destroying all my other partners, providing no real benefits to me, and is now forcing me to wreck my margins in favor of theirs. Sure they sell a lot of my product, but record sales are actually down since they got in the game, and big deal, if they aren't selling my goods others will, and people will still buy.
It's not like if they stop supplying to WalMart they're going to lose those 1 in 5 customers. The benefits are pretty clear, they'll be doing their other partners a favor allowing them to compete (partners which provided marketing push for them) and they'll have more of their products on the selves.
I would think that this type of tactic would cross more that a few easily enforced legal limits. From there it would be easy to shut down an offending spam house.
Isn't it strange how Slashdot's outsourcing stories are always about India and China?
They're never talking about shocking evidence of contracts with e.g. Canadian or Irish technology vendors.
When people mention India or China, I don't tend to think of it as a racial thing (maybe I'm just naive though). I think these two countries get the most heat because they are just so huge (economically, and manpower wise), and they're really still in an incubation period. The impact these countries have had will be nothing compared to what's to come. Hey, they're smart, aggressive people who are getting more and more involved in the world economy. It's pretty worrying for a lot of industrial sectors, but at the same time, there's hopefully a ton of new opportunity on the other side to be exploited.
...not that I know what these opportunities are. If I did, I would be rich in a few years... Sigh.
I agree, it was made much harder with the actual URLs removed. I think the point of the test though was see how people faired based on the look (logos, etc) and obvious content. There are the things that your *average* user looks at to determine legitimacy (not reverse lookups, urls, etc).
I got caught marking a PayPal one as fraudulent (the one where some one had made a payment), which the article says happens 20% of the time. My misread was based on the long and ugly URL with a cgi call in the middle. In real life, if I had been expecting a payment, I would most certainly have been less skeptical.
So yeah, the test isn't perfect, but it's interesting to see (from all the previous posts) just how bad tech savvy users do when they are faced with the same knowledge base as a regular user.
And it is ridiculous to claim that a closed development environment will make it any different.
Agreed, this shouldn't be about open or closed source, both are susceptible to sabotage (Open maybe gives you a better chance to catch it). I don't think you can ever guarentee the 'cleanliness' of software, unless the DOD develops absolutely everything themselves.
FUD as it may be, he makes a valid point. All counties should pay attention and inspect the software they are using.
The real FUD is that he acts like the US gov. doesn't do this already. Of course they do, they invented this tactic:
In January 1982, President Ronald Reagan approved a CIA plan to sabotage the economy of the Soviet Union through covert transfers of technology that contained hidden malfunctions, including software that later triggered a huge explosion in a Siberian natural gas pipeline, according to a new memoir by a Reagan White House official.
I completely agree, I was shocked to read that this was not already the case. When I was in China, and when I send e-mails to China, I just assume the government is watching everything (you have to register with the police every time you travel to a new city, why wouldn't they monitor surfing?).
One upside to this software may be that perhaps Internet cafes will be open a little more often. It seems like a couple/few times a year the government decides that inet cafes are bad, and shuts them down across the country for a few months.
What's interesting is that when this happens Hotels (at least the international ones) are allowed to provide access to the net. So will hotels in Shanghai have this software installed, or are they exempt because they've naturally always had this kind of software installed?
I think the biggest real world difference is the risk to daily business activities. Whether this is perceived or real can be argued. In the end IT staff can do all the research and testing they want to ensure OO can read and write Office formats, but the best way to be sure is to use a Microsoft product (that OO created word doc you sent to the lawyers at the deadline better be compatible (and yes, I know you shouldn't be sending the actual word file, but this is the real world, with real users)). For a little/lot of money you protect your business and your job. I know real compatibility doesn't even truly exist between versions of MS products, but it exists 99% of the time).
A reasonable suggestion for OO advocates to propose is the use of a mixture of installs. For instance, in our case, developers and other technical staff can use OO for almost all daily activities (if they need full Office features, there's a computer they can make use of for a few hours). The marketing and management staff use Office exclusively to ensure compatibility with clients, etc.
It's a confidence thing. As a company uses OO more and more, hopefully this kind of set up would be required less and less.
Of course, the down side of this is the cost of supporting two products (which for smaller companies is fairly negligible).
Familiy Guy - is back in production of Fox! Yay! (airing early 2005)
Futurama - isn't. Booo! The article says the production costs are too high. (...but stay tuned)
"Thus, the act presents WhenU with the impossible choice of either foregoing constitutionally protected advertising and spending significant sums to comply with the act (thereby reducing the effectiveness of its business), without any guaranty that it will avoid liability in doing so, or else being subjected to millions of dollars of claims by private litigants."
This might just be the most effectively written new law in recent memory. Here's hoping it holds up.
Slashdot Mirror
If your not sure who you should report this kind of stuff too (local or RCMP), you can make use RECOL.ca(Reporting Economic Crimes On-line). They can direct your complaint to the proper force/department.
In terms of the RCMP, it's usually the Commercial Crimes Division (they'll then bring the Tech. Crime guys in as needed).
I don't know about that, but if you put a magnet on his head he starts playing folk songs as he wipes you HD.
The parent tells the guy to learn about MS activation/support policies before spouting off and you reply with this? Is it it a toll free call? What do you think? Here let me help. I searched for 'product activation' at the MS web site and this is from the first hit.
To activate Windows XP over the telephone, you can simply call a toll-free* number displayed on your screen.
I'm not fan of this change in policy, but damn, at least lets have some intellegent discussion about it. How this got Modded up I don't know (I notice it has dropped by one as I reply to this though).
Cable DVRs (hardware wise) are much like any other PVR (TiVo or home grown), they have a hard drive, and some software that runs them.
There is no delay, and the data is stored on *your* cable box. So the hours of storage is based on the HD size, not some storage space segment on the Cable company's servers.
So it's not a telephone answering maching verses voice mail thing. It's more of a luxury vehicle vs. a Ford Tempo kind of thing.
Long live TiVo, ReplayTV, etc. BTW, check out www.eklecticsystems.com for an IR blaster. He's selling on eBay all the time (lots of people are). I bought one for my TiVo, works fine (says it's compatible with ReplayTV).
2. To design a spacecraft right takes an infinite amount of effort. This is why it's a good idea to design them to operate when some things are wrong .
3. Design is an iterative process. The necessary number of iterations is one more than the number you have currently done. This is true at any point in time.
Some would prefer 11, that's a whole other topic.
A temporary solution, but you can still use the old version for the time being by going to an international google site, say Google Canada.
I guess, until they invent a more powerful portable power supply, a twelve gauge shot to the power pole insulator will remain the most effective option.
True. What's really needed is a FOB which provides a substantial, localized (say 50 foot radius) EM burst. This would provide the desired 'off only' capability.
I see how other products (like toothpaste) are trapped by competition (if I don't sell it to WalMart at the demanded price then others will). However, if a whole (required) product line was pulled by all suppliers, then what?
People would still want to buy toothpaste.
I bet you're right, I'm sure they'll lose customers. I'm not sure at what level though. Even if it is one in five, big deal, they are being asked to cut their margins by 19% already and they are turning themselves into an unvalued commodity in the process.
Though I suppose the $9.72 deal would only be for WalMart, I'm sure that they will gain more and more market share very quickly because of this price. What's next, drop it to $8.00?
If they can afford to drop your product line entirely (represents only %2 of their revenue), then they can afford to force your price down to zero. Better to find an exit strategy now. See the Rubermaid example.
Hmmm, I have one partner who is destroying all my other partners, providing no real benefits to me, and is now forcing me to wreck my margins in favor of theirs. Sure they sell a lot of my product, but record sales are actually down since they got in the game, and big deal, if they aren't selling my goods others will, and people will still buy.
It's not like if they stop supplying to WalMart they're going to lose those 1 in 5 customers. The benefits are pretty clear, they'll be doing their other partners a favor allowing them to compete (partners which provided marketing push for them) and they'll have more of their products on the selves.
Sorry, I'm eating up karma cause I'm pissed at /.
Couldn't agree more. Thanks so f*cking much.
Actually Sierra is in no position to sell to any customers.
Did Steam lead to the end of Sierra? No, but it probably didn't help.
Thank goodness for Tierra.
I would think that this type of tactic would cross more that a few easily enforced legal limits. From there it would be easy to shut down an offending spam house.
It's not perfect, but it's worth a shot.
Isn't it strange how Slashdot's outsourcing stories are always about India and China? They're never talking about shocking evidence of contracts with e.g. Canadian or Irish technology vendors.
Err, how does less than two weeks ago sound?
When people mention India or China, I don't tend to think of it as a racial thing (maybe I'm just naive though). I think these two countries get the most heat because they are just so huge (economically, and manpower wise), and they're really still in an incubation period. The impact these countries have had will be nothing compared to what's to come. Hey, they're smart, aggressive people who are getting more and more involved in the world economy. It's pretty worrying for a lot of industrial sectors, but at the same time, there's hopefully a ton of new opportunity on the other side to be exploited.
I agree, it was made much harder with the actual URLs removed. I think the point of the test though was see how people faired based on the look (logos, etc) and obvious content. There are the things that your *average* user looks at to determine legitimacy (not reverse lookups, urls, etc).
I got caught marking a PayPal one as fraudulent (the one where some one had made a payment), which the article says happens 20% of the time. My misread was based on the long and ugly URL with a cgi call in the middle. In real life, if I had been expecting a payment, I would most certainly have been less skeptical.
So yeah, the test isn't perfect, but it's interesting to see (from all the previous posts) just how bad tech savvy users do when they are faced with the same knowledge base as a regular user.
And it is ridiculous to claim that a closed development environment will make it any different.
Agreed, this shouldn't be about open or closed source, both are susceptible to sabotage (Open maybe gives you a better chance to catch it). I don't think you can ever guarentee the 'cleanliness' of software, unless the DOD develops absolutely everything themselves.
FUD as it may be, he makes a valid point. All counties should pay attention and inspect the software they are using.
The real FUD is that he acts like the US gov. doesn't do this already. Of course they do, they invented this tactic:
In January 1982, President Ronald Reagan approved a CIA plan to sabotage the economy of the Soviet Union through covert transfers of technology that contained hidden malfunctions, including software that later triggered a huge explosion in a Siberian natural gas pipeline, according to a new memoir by a Reagan White House official.
This was reporter on /. a while back too.
This has been around for a while, but I'm still impressed by it.
Boy do I hope the lava wins.
I completely agree, I was shocked to read that this was not already the case. When I was in China, and when I send e-mails to China, I just assume the government is watching everything (you have to register with the police every time you travel to a new city, why wouldn't they monitor surfing?).
One upside to this software may be that perhaps Internet cafes will be open a little more often. It seems like a couple/few times a year the government decides that inet cafes are bad, and shuts them down across the country for a few months.
What's interesting is that when this happens Hotels (at least the international ones) are allowed to provide access to the net. So will hotels in Shanghai have this software installed, or are they exempt because they've naturally always had this kind of software installed?
I think the biggest real world difference is the risk to daily business activities. Whether this is perceived or real can be argued. In the end IT staff can do all the research and testing they want to ensure OO can read and write Office formats, but the best way to be sure is to use a Microsoft product (that OO created word doc you sent to the lawyers at the deadline better be compatible (and yes, I know you shouldn't be sending the actual word file, but this is the real world, with real users)). For a little/lot of money you protect your business and your job. I know real compatibility doesn't even truly exist between versions of MS products, but it exists 99% of the time).
A reasonable suggestion for OO advocates to propose is the use of a mixture of installs. For instance, in our case, developers and other technical staff can use OO for almost all daily activities (if they need full Office features, there's a computer they can make use of for a few hours). The marketing and management staff use Office exclusively to ensure compatibility with clients, etc.
It's a confidence thing. As a company uses OO more and more, hopefully this kind of set up would be required less and less.
Of course, the down side of this is the cost of supporting two products (which for smaller companies is fairly negligible).
Familiy Guy - is back in production of Fox! Yay! (airing early 2005)
Futurama - isn't. Booo! The article says the production costs are too high. (...but stay tuned)
Katie Sagal had the Futurama and 8 Simple Rules gigs going on simultaneously for a year or so.
She started Futurama in 1999, and 8SR in 2002. . I'm pretty sure she had a few months overlap be for the cancellation was announced in Feb 2003. /p?
"Thus, the act presents WhenU with the impossible choice of either foregoing constitutionally protected advertising and spending significant sums to comply with the act (thereby reducing the effectiveness of its business), without any guaranty that it will avoid liability in doing so, or else being subjected to millions of dollars of claims by private litigants."
This might just be the most effectively written new law in recent memory. Here's hoping it holds up.