It's not even news. I personally watched someone get a telling off from a security guard on the other end of a CCTV camera and a microphone in about 1996/1997.
Though that may have been in a privately owned shopping centre - don't know if this one is or not.
Don't see why some consumer organisation can't say "We don't recommend you buy (product) for (reason)", however, and you choose how much attention you pay to this recommendation.
SpamAssassin already does this - it's quite possible to set it up so something can be sent from something registered with spamhaus yet make it through the filter if everything else indicates it's not spam.
I do assume, if the study is true, that European copies of Vista won't be including Windows Media Player.
You assume wrong.
The Media Player thing didn't result in Microsoft being forced to flog XP without Media Player in the EU. However, they are obliged to make a version without Media Player available. Nobody else, however is obliged to buy it.
OEMs, not much liking the idea of customers complaining that "Joe down the road just bought a new PC from (some other major OEM), and HE got media player!" for the sake of saving approximately zero, have stayed away in droves.
I supsect this is what the "15 different versions of Vista!" is probably about. Not just to fragment the market so people who are prepared to pay more do so, but also so that if they are taken to court again, they can stand up and say "Your honour, in the current version of our operating system thare are various options available with significant variations on what software is bundled. It's hardly our fault if every OEM on the planet is only selling one or two."
The basic iPod (not nano/shuffle) has a 30G capacity, a colour screen and costs £219 from advancedmp3players.co.uk.
A quick look around the same site shows the following alternatives with similar specs:
Creative Zen Vision M 30G, colour screen: £209 Archos 404 30G, colour screen: £219. (has a far bigger screen, but is slightly bulkier) iAudio X5, 30G, colour screen: £226. (supports Ogg and FLAC, but apart from a few geeks on slashdot, who in the real world cares?)
Doesn't look hugely overpriced to me. Looks about right.
But to say that Visual Basic can't produce readable, structured code is just wrong.
Don't confuse the issue by discussing Visual Basic along with the various dialects of the language which was commonly supplied on many computers aimed at the home market in the mid-1980's. The two are completely different.
Most modern implementations of BASIC (by "modern", read "anything after about 1982" - certainly BBC Basic from 1982 did;) have implemented some form of support for procedures, FOR loops and WHILE loops.
Thing is, when Dijkstra wrote his paper, that wasn't the case. Indeed, I don't think support for any of these constructs was ever standardised, so anything which depends heavily on them is likely to be limited to one dialect.
I'm glad I get paid to work on their product because it requires so much babysitting. Thank dog I don't run it at home anymore.
Spam aside, it's not just Windows - Microsoft have created an entire culture of "You have one desktop PC and you don't need to think about anyhing more than that". There is still plenty of software today which:
Runs on Windows
Is aimed at organisations where it's a dead cert you'll want it on many computers.
Must be installed by running setup.exe and is not easily scriptable. (ie. the common switches to run setup silently don't work and there's no MSI. Yes I know about tools like AutoIT. They help, but they're not exactly ideal).
Can't be installed by simply copying files & registry entries because the installer sets up a different bunch of registry entries depending on the system it's being installed on.
Has no reliable means of rolling out across several systems.
I've actually had to explain to support folks who otherwise sounded reasonably competent that it is not practical for me to get on a plane and fly 11,000 miles just so I can insert a CD and go start, run, E:\setup.exe - and this is within the last 6 months, not 5 years ago.
Unless enough people are seriously hurt (and as far as I can tell, apart from the gross invasion of privacy and breach of lots of laws, nobody has lost their life savings or been killed), I can't see the Justice Department handing out anything more than a token punishment.
It should be criminal for phone co's to even keep these records because of the risk of abuse,
How are they going to send you itemised bills then?
This is why the US needs something like the Data Protection Act. Basically, it is supposed to ensure that the data which companies store is relevant, correct, not kept longer than necessary and only disclosed where appropriate.
It's been blamed by a few companies for doing things wrong in the past, but that's generally because they had lousy policies and hadn't actually read the legislation that the policy was supposed to help them comply with.
Which immediately rules out a lot of cheaper hardware where the install instructions say "Click through the warning that you're installing unsigned drivers".
use the OS disc that came from the factory,
Lots of companies don't provide a CD any more - just a separate partition. If you have a hard disk failure - that's your problem. (Or sometimes they will sell you the media - for a fee).
Try to take it outside of that protected area and you risk running into problems like this.
If you're going to be so anal about keeping it within such a tightly protected area, where's the benefit in using Windows?
Look to the Samba project and you'll see what generally happens - two things:
1. Subtle changes to Windows which stop projects like Samba from working - at least until such time as the Samba developers figure out the subtle change.
2. New feature(s) which, while retaining compatability with old versions, offer major advantages. This provides a major carrot for businesses to upgrade, while setting back compatability projects by at least a few years. Windows 2000 Active Directory domains are an example of this. (Granted, a Windows 2000 domain itself isn't compatable with an NT 4 domain, but Win2K and even XP will still log onto an NT 4 domain no problem).
The only way to avoid being raped by MS or Oracle licenses:
use free software
HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA!
Seriously. There exists in this world proprietary software which the IT department doesn't get much of a say in. Finance departments are great at this, as are marketing ("We need Adobe Creative Suite!" "But you only use Acrobat." "We still need Creative Suite and if you don't give it to us we'll complain to the managing director and he's not technically literate enough to appreciate your point and you know it!") and even parts of the IT department. Free clue: the helpdesk just wants a system which allows them to log and track calls, not a religion.
This proprietary software frequently only supports one or two proprietary databases.
Yes, it sucks. But it sucks a whole lot less than getting sacked because you try forcing free software on the company like a religion rather than providing what the business needs to get on with its job.
losing the ability to use cash to much of a degree is one of the downsides.
That and you're putting an awful lot of faith in your bank.
Granted, serious screwups are unusual, but a single mistake on either your part or that of the bank can very quickly be compounded (through the magic of "This charge for unauthorised overdraft, this charge for refusing a direct debit while you're in an unauthorised overdraft, and this charge for writing to you to tell you about it") so a £20 mistake rapidly becomes a £200 mistake.
In summary: When it all works properly, the system runs like a well-oiled machine and is generally a joy to work with. When something goes wrong, things get very complicated very quickly.
Has tho good old cash withdrawal and paying for things with cash dryed out?
Yes. In the UK, 99% of employers will only pay wages into a bank account. It's also quite common to pay bills, mortgage etc. through direct debit - because our banks are quite tightly regulated, this isn't a huge concern to most. A direct debit taken in error can be revoked on a moment's notice - and it's not unknown for some organisations (including mortgage lenders) to stipluate that they're paid by direct debit.
So if you happen to be a normal person with a job, a car, a house and a mortgage - having your bank account frozen is a MAJOR pain in the backside.
Besides which, if you're account is frozen, how are you supposed to withdraw cash?
Check the contract with your bank, but I'd be prepared to bet that are within their rights to call in that debt - ie. demand it is repaid in full - at any time.
Pretty certain my phone can already be set to do this automatically (Nokia 6230i).
Unfortunately at least one person in that circle has had the telephone company permanently disable caller ID from their line, and I can't set it up so "if there's no number, ring". It can be overridden on a per-call basis but anyone in my closest family/friends who needs to call me at 2am is unlikely to be in a fit state to remember that.
The fact that we continue to see CDs with ever more outlandish forms of copy protection (which, with one or two exceptions, have not resulted in a huge backlash) demonstrates very nicely that the target market for the entertainment industry either doesn't care or hasn't noticed the erosion of their rights.
Costs too much, doesn't provide value, intentionally confuses customers
Less space than a Nomad. Lame. </sarcasm>
Seriously, there is no way any movie studio in the current climate would even consider licensing material for Amazon to run a service like this without some fairly draconian restrictions like "must do everything in its power to prevent piracy; if that means phoning home every 20 minutes so be it".
Slashdot Mirror
It's not even news. I personally watched someone get a telling off from a security guard on the other end of a CCTV camera and a microphone in about 1996/1997.
Though that may have been in a privately owned shopping centre - don't know if this one is or not.
Then I probably wouldn't sue them in a country totally different to the one they're based in.
But IANAL.
Don't see why some consumer organisation can't say "We don't recommend you buy (product) for (reason)", however, and you choose how much attention you pay to this recommendation.
SpamAssassin already does this - it's quite possible to set it up so something can be sent from something registered with spamhaus yet make it through the filter if everything else indicates it's not spam.
I do assume, if the study is true, that European copies of Vista won't be including Windows Media Player.
You assume wrong.
The Media Player thing didn't result in Microsoft being forced to flog XP without Media Player in the EU. However, they are obliged to make a version without Media Player available. Nobody else, however is obliged to buy it.
OEMs, not much liking the idea of customers complaining that "Joe down the road just bought a new PC from (some other major OEM), and HE got media player!" for the sake of saving approximately zero, have stayed away in droves.
I supsect this is what the "15 different versions of Vista!" is probably about. Not just to fragment the market so people who are prepared to pay more do so, but also so that if they are taken to court again, they can stand up and say "Your honour, in the current version of our operating system thare are various options available with significant variations on what software is bundled. It's hardly our fault if every OEM on the planet is only selling one or two."
These new jobs are glaziers making glass for windows broken by boys throwing rocks
;)
IIRC, that analogy generally works best if it's the glaziers throwing rocks
That, and the iPod is grossly overpriced.
Let's find out, shall we?
The basic iPod (not nano/shuffle) has a 30G capacity, a colour screen and costs £219 from advancedmp3players.co.uk.
A quick look around the same site shows the following alternatives with similar specs:
Creative Zen Vision M 30G, colour screen: £209
Archos 404 30G, colour screen: £219. (has a far bigger screen, but is slightly bulkier)
iAudio X5, 30G, colour screen: £226. (supports Ogg and FLAC, but apart from a few geeks on slashdot, who in the real world cares?)
Doesn't look hugely overpriced to me. Looks about right.
they did something right considering their market share
/. tends to be more interested in the technical merits than how good they are at selling product, and there they tend to fall down.
Yes, they're extremely good at selling product.
However,
But to say that Visual Basic can't produce readable, structured code is just wrong.
Don't confuse the issue by discussing Visual Basic along with the various dialects of the language which was commonly supplied on many computers aimed at the home market in the mid-1980's. The two are completely different.
Most modern implementations of BASIC (by "modern", read "anything after about 1982" - certainly BBC Basic from 1982 did ;) have implemented some form of support for procedures, FOR loops and WHILE loops.
Thing is, when Dijkstra wrote his paper, that wasn't the case. Indeed, I don't think support for any of these constructs was ever standardised, so anything which depends heavily on them is likely to be limited to one dialect.
Is it really that hard to just hit delete?
When you receive so many spams that you can barely distinguish the legitimate mail, yes it is.
Spam aside, it's not just Windows - Microsoft have created an entire culture of "You have one desktop PC and you don't need to think about anyhing more than that". There is still plenty of software today which:
I've actually had to explain to support folks who otherwise sounded reasonably competent that it is not practical for me to get on a plane and fly 11,000 miles just so I can insert a CD and go start, run, E:\setup.exe - and this is within the last 6 months, not 5 years ago.
If I ever get prosecuted under that law I'll be taking my longbow to York and shooting anybody Scottish I see after it gets dark.
IIRC you have to be a native-born man of York to do that.
Unless enough people are seriously hurt (and as far as I can tell, apart from the gross invasion of privacy and breach of lots of laws, nobody has lost their life savings or been killed), I can't see the Justice Department handing out anything more than a token punishment.
It should be criminal for phone co's to even keep these records because of the risk of abuse,
How are they going to send you itemised bills then?
This is why the US needs something like the Data Protection Act. Basically, it is supposed to ensure that the data which companies store is relevant, correct, not kept longer than necessary and only disclosed where appropriate.
It's been blamed by a few companies for doing things wrong in the past, but that's generally because they had lousy policies and hadn't actually read the legislation that the policy was supposed to help them comply with.
if you treat it like a Mac.
s/Mac/server/
Only use signed drivers,
Which immediately rules out a lot of cheaper hardware where the install instructions say "Click through the warning that you're installing unsigned drivers".
use the OS disc that came from the factory,
Lots of companies don't provide a CD any more - just a separate partition. If you have a hard disk failure - that's your problem. (Or sometimes they will sell you the media - for a fee).
Try to take it outside of that protected area and you risk running into problems like this.
If you're going to be so anal about keeping it within such a tightly protected area, where's the benefit in using Windows?
Look to the Samba project and you'll see what generally happens - two things:
1. Subtle changes to Windows which stop projects like Samba from working - at least until such time as the Samba developers figure out the subtle change.
2. New feature(s) which, while retaining compatability with old versions, offer major advantages. This provides a major carrot for businesses to upgrade, while setting back compatability projects by at least a few years. Windows 2000 Active Directory domains are an example of this. (Granted, a Windows 2000 domain itself isn't compatable with an NT 4 domain, but Win2K and even XP will still log onto an NT 4 domain no problem).
The only way to avoid being raped by MS or Oracle licenses:
use free software
HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA!
Seriously. There exists in this world proprietary software which the IT department doesn't get much of a say in. Finance departments are great at this, as are marketing ("We need Adobe Creative Suite!" "But you only use Acrobat." "We still need Creative Suite and if you don't give it to us we'll complain to the managing director and he's not technically literate enough to appreciate your point and you know it!") and even parts of the IT department. Free clue: the helpdesk just wants a system which allows them to log and track calls, not a religion.
This proprietary software frequently only supports one or two proprietary databases.
Yes, it sucks. But it sucks a whole lot less than getting sacked because you try forcing free software on the company like a religion rather than providing what the business needs to get on with its job.
You've been modded funny, but I've worked in environments where that was probably the most sensible system to adopt.
losing the ability to use cash to much of a degree is one of the downsides.
That and you're putting an awful lot of faith in your bank.
Granted, serious screwups are unusual, but a single mistake on either your part or that of the bank can very quickly be compounded (through the magic of "This charge for unauthorised overdraft, this charge for refusing a direct debit while you're in an unauthorised overdraft, and this charge for writing to you to tell you about it") so a £20 mistake rapidly becomes a £200 mistake.
In summary: When it all works properly, the system runs like a well-oiled machine and is generally a joy to work with. When something goes wrong, things get very complicated very quickly.
Has tho good old cash withdrawal and paying for things with cash dryed out?
Yes. In the UK, 99% of employers will only pay wages into a bank account. It's also quite common to pay bills, mortgage etc. through direct debit - because our banks are quite tightly regulated, this isn't a huge concern to most. A direct debit taken in error can be revoked on a moment's notice - and it's not unknown for some organisations (including mortgage lenders) to stipluate that they're paid by direct debit.
So if you happen to be a normal person with a job, a car, a house and a mortgage - having your bank account frozen is a MAJOR pain in the backside.
Besides which, if you're account is frozen, how are you supposed to withdraw cash?
You jest, but that's probably a bad idea.
Check the contract with your bank, but I'd be prepared to bet that are within their rights to call in that debt - ie. demand it is repaid in full - at any time.
Pretty certain my phone can already be set to do this automatically (Nokia 6230i).
Unfortunately at least one person in that circle has had the telephone company permanently disable caller ID from their line, and I can't set it up so "if there's no number, ring". It can be overridden on a per-call basis but anyone in my closest family/friends who needs to call me at 2am is unlikely to be in a fit state to remember that.
The fact that we continue to see CDs with ever more outlandish forms of copy protection (which, with one or two exceptions, have not resulted in a huge backlash) demonstrates very nicely that the target market for the entertainment industry either doesn't care or hasn't noticed the erosion of their rights.
JUST SAY NO is just as viable an option for spyware, as it is for cocaine.
And if the "spyware" is DRM for media distribution, likely to be about half as effective in the real world.
Costs too much, doesn't provide value, intentionally confuses customers
Less space than a Nomad. Lame.
</sarcasm>
Seriously, there is no way any movie studio in the current climate would even consider licensing material for Amazon to run a service like this without some fairly draconian restrictions like "must do everything in its power to prevent piracy; if that means phoning home every 20 minutes so be it".