Yes. I have actually done phone support, and you would not believe how dumb some people are. Many will call for support before they even turn their computer on. They want someone to babysit them through the entire process before they even try to do it themselves.
Come on, those kinds of people don't run Linux at all. The Linux problem is pretty much the exact opposite, you've got a bunch of dangerously knowledgeable users who've all tweaked their setup and expect all their special little snowflakes to be supported even though it's not.
I got someone a few weeks ago running Linux who didn't even know what distro they had. Their brother had set the machine up for them. We figured out they were using Ubuntu. This is an Internet tech support outfit and I was the second person to talk to them. We found the networking on the machine was disabled. Re-enabling restored the connection.
Sub says they had tried that with the last person they'd talked to before me a couple days ago, and it would just go back to being disabled after it tried enabling for a few seconds. The issue they were having had magically resolved itself.
I have my mom running Linux now, too. She would be smart enough to know it's Linux Mint, but she wouldn't be able to do much else.
Linux is gaining usage from people with older hardware that was running XP before support ended who don't want to or can't afford to upgrade. These people are generally not computer savvy, and a platform that is more secure and less virus-prone than Windows is a good fit if they spend the vast majority of their computing time on a web browser.
People who need boats made of artificial fiberglass or have to paint them, you mean. Native tribes and colonial explorers used wooden ships and had more naturally derived products in the sealing.
They'll probably also confiscate any computing equipment in your home on the idea it may have been used by whoever logged into the network and used it for illegal activities (they'll ignore that said equipment already had access to your network, so there would be no reason to log in to the free hotspot).
Good luck getting that equipment back. Oh, and better hope you don't have any copyright infringing files laying around on it when they do take it.
The only reason the government would want to know who the smartest people are is so they know who to add to their terror watch list (assuming they aren't part of The Party).
I bet if we investigate those 40% and the records of who added them, we'll find a number are adding their own personal enemies to the database to harass them.
really? you really believe governments are going to allow any old Joe Sixpack or 'Mohammed' to own their own nuclear reactor?
I believe it as much as I believe the government will allow the widespread use of solar power to disrupt the business model of the utilities. Power companies have lobbyists just like the cablecos. Common sense will not prevail when someone with deep pockets wants to keep them deep.
I'd believe in small-scale power systems in basements that run off natural gas, or all-in-one nuclear reactors being more likely to disrupt the power industry/grid complex than solar and stored charge. Wind power still has a chance in rural areas were people have larger backyards, though.
Kinda "duh" here, but most folks don't work in labs (or hospitals). When people talk about wearing "gloves" and working with touchscreen phones, they generally mean using their devices outdoors in the cold.
I guess the contents of the report show that their drone programs impacts privacy in ways that violate the law. So their drone program needs to be stopped.
What's that, FBI? It doesn't? Well then why don't you release the report, without any omitted material or redacting. I mean, you say the program is working within the correct boundaries. You should have nothing to hide if you're not doing anything wrong.
You're sister is smarter than you are, apparently. It would be stupid for her to pay $100 to fix the phone when she can get a new one for now additional fees unless she was actually going to change providers, which realistically, she wasn't.
His sister is still dumb because she's letting her old iPhone sit in a desk drawer and lose value every time a new generation comes out. If Verizon was really going to give her a new iPhone for nothing (but a contract extension), she should have still paid Apple the $100 to fix the screen on the old one, and then sold it immediately. Working iPhone with brand new screen -- wonder how much that would have fetched on the market.
National parks are selling commercial naming rights?
National parks aren't corporations, and national parks and operating systems on computers aren't the least bit related so you're not going to have a trademark collision.
And this is assuming I'm entertaining the notion the national park has any exclusive ownership to the name to start with.
Once in a while I end up watching a DVD on a more normal player, usually as the result of watching something at someone else's house. I am astounded at how poor the experience is. One has to wade through irritating, poorly thoughtout and slow menues, and spend ages skipping (if you're allowed) a bunch of crap before starting to watch what you want.
When I stick a disc in my player it normally will just start up to the movie for me. I've heard this problem before, part of that is player features, part of it is the specific title you're playing. Unskippable content is lame, I agree, but if I get a disc like that I can just do a direct copy of the disc contents with the protections removed and re-burn to a dual-layer blank. Now I can play it back on the player and skip content, no change in quality. Still cheaper and quieter than a second PC in the living room.
And one of my favourite features is the reverse 10 seconds button. Great after unpausing or if you failed to catch an important line of dialog. I've never seen a standalone player with such a feature.
My Sony DVD upconverting player had a feature like that. Actually it might have been a 30 second forward-back skip, but they were one-touch buttons on the remote.
Why use a regular player? Because it "just works".
Not only does MPlayer "just work", it "just works" a damn sight beter than "proper" DVD players.
If you'll read back what you're replying to, you'll see the topic was blu-ray playback, commercial discs in particular, not DVD playback. For DVD playback on a monitor with a computer attached, yeah I would just use the PC, too. Because then I can have MadVR doing chroma upscaling. DVD playback on a PC just works thanks to DVDJon. It is the particular issues that software blu-ray players have verses standard stand-alone players I was talking about..
The experience is overall smoother.
Not for DVDs it isn't. I don't own a blu-ray player...
Do you play commercial blu-rays, direct-from-the-disc on your PC? Because if you don't then I don't know why you are replying to this, since it sounds like you have no experience in what we're discussing.
I don't have software incompatibilities or system resource issues effecting my playback like can happen on a PC
Get a better OS. I use Linux. It's marvellous, you should try it.
I've tried it and play with it in virtual machines often. Have also been checking out the new KDE 5 on a USB stick. I could switch over but there are a few pieces of software I like that are Windows only. Last weekend I built a newer machine for my mom, who I've had using Linux for months now... I was forced to give her one of my own N wireless cards as the wi-fi card she had been using in Mint 16 with no issues (a Belkin 802.11g card) wont stay connected to the wireless network in Mint 17. I tried swapping in a different 802.11g card and had the same issue. It just drops after a few minutes for no reason. My D-Link N-card seems to not be effected. Since I have the old computer and her card in my possession at this point I want to try and figure out the problem, but right now I don't want to spend any more of my free time in a terminal on a PC that sounds like a hair dryer when it gets revved up.
dedicated hardware and software for a consistent, assured compatibility experience.
Consistent compatibility with all the latest "rights management" stuff? No thanks!
I'd rather have Linux and MPlayer which are actually compatible with my rights, thankyou very much.
I want to buy the movie legally in HD and be able to watch it in full quality and without an Internet connection. I'm perfectly within the rights I purchased. I don't watch videos on portable devices and even if I did I have the know-how to rip the disc and make my own encoding. Even if I want to do something outside the rights I've been granted doesn't mean I need to resort to some self-imposed boycott of the approved equipment.
I have the world's slowest blu-ray player, an original Sony. BDP-S300, I think. It lacks both ethernet and performance.
You should have waited is all I can say. Reviews for blu-ray players always mention how long it takes to load discs for a model, and those times get shorter with each generation. Panasonics used to be the fastest, but I think we might be reaching a point where everyone is starting to even out. Just like how picture quality is generally the same on all players now. You can tell when the tech started to reach maturity because suddenly blu-ray players got a lot smaller front to back (this was when the BDP-S350 or maybe 360 came out for Sony). The groundwork was laid and thermal issues were worked out, and equipment makers could focus on miniaturization and competing on features.
A modern blu-ray player isn't just about disc playback now, it's about streaming services available on it, PC file compatibility, and possibly DLNA client usage.
why use a regular player? it runs unknown code, can blacklist your devices, forces menus and ads on you and takes too long to startup.
ripped files play right away and on any vlc or video software player.
the days of NEEDING a standalone video player are long gone.
I suppose you never owned a DVD player for your TV because it forced you to sit through ads at times?
How many devices have been blacklisted in the last 10 years. And I mean blacklisted as in "too bad, you can't update the firmware on your source or display device to fix this, you have to buy new hardware, and you have no legal recourse". How many times?
Tell me about the audit you did of the code that ran the recording abilities on your last VCR. [crickets]
Why use a regular player? Because it "just works". Blu-ray players need to have their firmware updated [i]occasionally[/i], but they don't require anywhere close to the constant stream of little patches blu-ray playback software for PCs does (or blu-ray ripping software). Sometimes it's just to get a single disc to play back properly. Keep in mind that patch had to be written by the developers. What if the disc that doesn't work isn't a popular movie? Well, they may not bother fixing the issue. Or maybe they'll only make the patches available for the latest version of their software, forcing you to upgrade. You can argue that the same thing could happen on stand-alone player -- but it doesn't. I still get a firmware update every once in awhile and my player is over three years old.
The experience is overall smoother. I don't have software incompatibilities or system resource issues effecting my playback like can happen on a PC, plus a stand-alone player is quieter than a computer. It's really the same arguments as to the ways game consoles can be better than PC gaming -- dedicated hardware and software for a consistent, assured compatibility experience.
How about admit to yourself that you are not _supposed_ to be able to support yourself on a minimum wage job?
What is the purpose of having a "minimum wage" to begin with then?
If the jobs that pay this are only supposed to be for people who are co-dependant on others to meet their living expenses (especially shelter and utilities), what is the goal this "minimum" is supposed to be enabling in the people getting paid it?
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Yes. I have actually done phone support, and you would not believe how dumb some people are. Many will call for support before they even turn their computer on. They want someone to babysit them through the entire process before they even try to do it themselves.
Come on, those kinds of people don't run Linux at all. The Linux problem is pretty much the exact opposite, you've got a bunch of dangerously knowledgeable users who've all tweaked their setup and expect all their special little snowflakes to be supported even though it's not.
I got someone a few weeks ago running Linux who didn't even know what distro they had. Their brother had set the machine up for them.
We figured out they were using Ubuntu. This is an Internet tech support outfit and I was the second person to talk to them. We found the networking on the machine was disabled. Re-enabling restored the connection.
Sub says they had tried that with the last person they'd talked to before me a couple days ago, and it would just go back to being disabled after it tried enabling for a few seconds. The issue they were having had magically resolved itself.
I have my mom running Linux now, too. She would be smart enough to know it's Linux Mint, but she wouldn't be able to do much else.
Linux is gaining usage from people with older hardware that was running XP before support ended who don't want to or can't afford to upgrade. These people are generally not computer savvy, and a platform that is more secure and less virus-prone than Windows is a good fit if they spend the vast majority of their computing time on a web browser.
If it lasts for 7+ years like WRT54GL, cost of ownership wouldn't be that high, just upfront costs.
I don't believe anything made my Linksys will last that long now. And I say that as a WRT54gv5 owner, who'd also kinda like to upgrade to something N.
People who need boats made of artificial fiberglass or have to paint them, you mean. Native tribes and colonial explorers used wooden ships and had more naturally derived products in the sealing.
Thank you, man. Literally busted out laughing when I read that.
They'll probably also confiscate any computing equipment in your home on the idea it may have been used by whoever logged into the network and used it for illegal activities (they'll ignore that said equipment already had access to your network, so there would be no reason to log in to the free hotspot).
Good luck getting that equipment back. Oh, and better hope you don't have any copyright infringing files laying around on it when they do take it.
The only reason the government would want to know who the smartest people are is so they know who to add to their terror watch list (assuming they aren't part of The Party).
I bet if we investigate those 40% and the records of who added them, we'll find a number are adding their own personal enemies to the database to harass them.
really? you really believe governments are going to allow any old Joe Sixpack or 'Mohammed' to own their own nuclear reactor?
I believe it as much as I believe the government will allow the widespread use of solar power to disrupt the business model of the utilities.
Power companies have lobbyists just like the cablecos. Common sense will not prevail when someone with deep pockets wants to keep them deep.
I'd believe in small-scale power systems in basements that run off natural gas, or all-in-one nuclear reactors being more likely to disrupt the power industry/grid complex than solar and stored charge. Wind power still has a chance in rural areas were people have larger backyards, though.
If I were you, I'd go quickly.
Most of them are back in the nineties.
He only has to go 88 mph to make them, then!
"Committed to you, your privacy and an open Web"
Kinda "duh" here, but most folks don't work in labs (or hospitals). When people talk about wearing "gloves" and working with touchscreen phones, they generally mean using their devices outdoors in the cold.
I'd argue removing personal responsibility for lifestyle choices and giving society a say in them weakens America.
People unable to get coverage for cancer they developed through no fault of their own will be interested in your opinion.
At least Obamacare benefits Americans.
I guess the contents of the report show that their drone programs impacts privacy in ways that violate the law. So their drone program needs to be stopped.
What's that, FBI? It doesn't? Well then why don't you release the report, without any omitted material or redacting.
I mean, you say the program is working within the correct boundaries. You should have nothing to hide if you're not doing anything wrong.
You're sister is smarter than you are, apparently. It would be stupid for her to pay $100 to fix the phone when she can get a new one for now additional fees unless she was actually going to change providers, which realistically, she wasn't.
His sister is still dumb because she's letting her old iPhone sit in a desk drawer and lose value every time a new generation comes out. If Verizon was really going to give her a new iPhone for nothing (but a contract extension), she should have still paid Apple the $100 to fix the screen on the old one, and then sold it immediately. Working iPhone with brand new screen -- wonder how much that would have fetched on the market.
LOL. If we fired every person on Capitol Hill who wasted taxpayer money we'd have no legislative branch.
National parks are selling commercial naming rights?
National parks aren't corporations, and national parks and operating systems on computers aren't the least bit related so you're not going to have a trademark collision.
And this is assuming I'm entertaining the notion the national park has any exclusive ownership to the name to start with.
Once in a while I end up watching a DVD on a more normal player, usually as the result of watching something at someone else's house. I am astounded at how poor the experience is. One has to wade through irritating, poorly thoughtout and slow menues, and spend ages skipping (if you're allowed) a bunch of crap before starting to watch what you want.
When I stick a disc in my player it normally will just start up to the movie for me. I've heard this problem before, part of that is player features, part of it is the specific title you're playing. Unskippable content is lame, I agree, but if I get a disc like that I can just do a direct copy of the disc contents with the protections removed and re-burn to a dual-layer blank. Now I can play it back on the player and skip content, no change in quality. Still cheaper and quieter than a second PC in the living room.
And one of my favourite features is the reverse 10 seconds button. Great after unpausing or if you failed to catch an important line of dialog. I've never seen a standalone player with such a feature.
My Sony DVD upconverting player had a feature like that. Actually it might have been a 30 second forward-back skip, but they were one-touch buttons on the remote.
Why use a regular player? Because it "just works".
Not only does MPlayer "just work", it "just works" a damn sight beter than "proper" DVD players.
If you'll read back what you're replying to, you'll see the topic was blu-ray playback, commercial discs in particular, not DVD playback. For DVD playback on a monitor with a computer attached, yeah I would just use the PC, too. Because then I can have MadVR doing chroma upscaling. DVD playback on a PC just works thanks to DVDJon. It is the particular issues that software blu-ray players have verses standard stand-alone players I was talking about..
The experience is overall smoother.
Not for DVDs it isn't. I don't own a blu-ray player...
Do you play commercial blu-rays, direct-from-the-disc on your PC? Because if you don't then I don't know why you are replying to this, since it sounds like you have no experience in what we're discussing.
I don't have software incompatibilities or system resource issues effecting my playback like can happen on a PC
Get a better OS. I use Linux. It's marvellous, you should try it.
I've tried it and play with it in virtual machines often. Have also been checking out the new KDE 5 on a USB stick. I could switch over but there are a few pieces of software I like that are Windows only. Last weekend I built a newer machine for my mom, who I've had using Linux for months now... I was forced to give her one of my own N wireless cards as the wi-fi card she had been using in Mint 16 with no issues (a Belkin 802.11g card) wont stay connected to the wireless network in Mint 17. I tried swapping in a different 802.11g card and had the same issue. It just drops after a few minutes for no reason. My D-Link N-card seems to not be effected. Since I have the old computer and her card in my possession at this point I want to try and figure out the problem, but right now I don't want to spend any more of my free time in a terminal on a PC that sounds like a hair dryer when it gets revved up.
dedicated hardware and software for a consistent, assured compatibility experience.
Consistent compatibility with all the latest "rights management" stuff? No thanks!
I'd rather have Linux and MPlayer which are actually compatible with my rights, thankyou very much.
I want to buy the movie legally in HD and be able to watch it in full quality and without an Internet connection. I'm perfectly within the rights I purchased. I don't watch videos on portable devices and even if I did I have the know-how to rip the disc and make my own encoding. Even if I want to do something outside the rights I've been granted doesn't mean I need to resort to some self-imposed boycott of the approved equipment.
I have the world's slowest blu-ray player, an original Sony. BDP-S300, I think. It lacks both ethernet and performance.
You should have waited is all I can say. Reviews for blu-ray players always mention how long it takes to load discs for a model, and those times get shorter with each generation. Panasonics used to be the fastest, but I think we might be reaching a point where everyone is starting to even out. Just like how picture quality is generally the same on all players now. You can tell when the tech started to reach maturity because suddenly blu-ray players got a lot smaller front to back (this was when the BDP-S350 or maybe 360 came out for Sony). The groundwork was laid and thermal issues were worked out, and equipment makers could focus on miniaturization and competing on features.
A modern blu-ray player isn't just about disc playback now, it's about streaming services available on it, PC file compatibility, and possibly DLNA client usage.
why use a regular player? it runs unknown code, can blacklist your devices, forces menus and ads on you and takes too long to startup.
ripped files play right away and on any vlc or video software player.
the days of NEEDING a standalone video player are long gone.
I suppose you never owned a DVD player for your TV because it forced you to sit through ads at times?
How many devices have been blacklisted in the last 10 years. And I mean blacklisted as in "too bad, you can't update the firmware on your source or display device to fix this, you have to buy new hardware, and you have no legal recourse". How many times?
Tell me about the audit you did of the code that ran the recording abilities on your last VCR.
[crickets]
Why use a regular player? Because it "just works". Blu-ray players need to have their firmware updated [i]occasionally[/i], but they don't require anywhere close to the constant stream of little patches blu-ray playback software for PCs does (or blu-ray ripping software). Sometimes it's just to get a single disc to play back properly. Keep in mind that patch had to be written by the developers. What if the disc that doesn't work isn't a popular movie? Well, they may not bother fixing the issue. Or maybe they'll only make the patches available for the latest version of their software, forcing you to upgrade. You can argue that the same thing could happen on stand-alone player -- but it doesn't. I still get a firmware update every once in awhile and my player is over three years old.
The experience is overall smoother. I don't have software incompatibilities or system resource issues effecting my playback like can happen on a PC, plus a stand-alone player is quieter than a computer. It's really the same arguments as to the ways game consoles can be better than PC gaming -- dedicated hardware and software for a consistent, assured compatibility experience.
Verizon: "You can't hear us, and we don't listen to you."
for the 5 people that own any blu rays and don't just use a regular stand-alone player or game console
FTFY.
A black hat presentation was cancelled for legal considerations? Am I reading that right?
How about admit to yourself that you are not _supposed_ to be able to support yourself on a minimum wage job?
What is the purpose of having a "minimum wage" to begin with then?
If the jobs that pay this are only supposed to be for people who are co-dependant on others to meet their living expenses (especially shelter and utilities), what is the goal this "minimum" is supposed to be enabling in the people getting paid it?