I thought if any P2P service is meant for legal downloads only, it'll be more than 20-30% faster?
With the size of Microsoft, it can set up a BittoBot farm, which automatically replicate new content across all hosts (internally, so it's as fast as copy-and-paste), then feed everything through a few fat pipes.
If money is not an issue, and world domination (or just the the Lord of the Data) is the ultimate goal, it should be fairly easy for MS.
I guess that sums up why VCR and VHS tapes are still selling, because while DVD players are pretty advanced and cheap right now, DVD recorders are still expensive to most households, and what are consumers going to do with their precious VHS tapes?
What is required is a VHS+DVD recorder with easy to use interface to transfer VHS to DVD, that'll be the first step to move consumers away from VHS.
I'm moving all my CDs to DVDs. It's pretty easy to do that with a software, and let's not forget that my DVD writer is also capable of reading old CDs, that's why I didn't think so much while buying a DVD writer.
I suppose if technology moves too quickly without sufficient transitional period, older technology might get a chance to stay longer.
Maybe Star Wars should be released in beta? This way nobody can really argue who shot first.
For a guide/manual book, beta is probably a good idea because the ultimate goal is for readers to make use of the book easily.
For a story book, instead of releasing beta of a pseudo-complete book, author should release it chapter by chapter, and change the story direction based on reader feedback, in another word, Plot-Beta rather than Writing-Beta.
So if RIAA sent you a bouquet of flowers with a cute, humorous, handwritten greeting card personally signed by the PR manager informing your court appearance date, it wouldn't be so bad?
I don't think there is anything wrong for a listed company to protect its interest, control its IPs and maximize its profit, but the fanboy twist is totally unnecessary.
Sorry I didn't RTFA, but $6 to $10 isn't a lot to include in the total price, so this recycling-tax should be prepaid before it gets out of the shop. I think it'll be more difficult to enforce payment during the disposal.
This extra cost is likely to go unnoticed because a single CPU/RAM/HDD price drop can easily cover that amount.
One common problem with prepaid tax (like petrol) is they took the money, used it on something else, and turned around to say they don't have enough money for roading/accident management.
Hence it's important for the authority to not only impose the tax, but also acknowledge it, so that consumers can simply put the computer/TV out on the street for collection and the authority must fulfill its duty to dispose them appropriately.
Drunken driving accidents increase in winter because every senselessly drunken teenager not properly educated by their parents will be wearing branded non-sensored gloves.
And will the car come to a stop if a person only starts drinking (and got drunk) after the car's moving?
And will those drunken teenagers just steal some non-sensored cars which they're not familar to drive with?
I think this "invention" is as good as the censorship card on cable TV, or that running shoes that power the TV. However the only "reactive invention" that I would like to see is a law punishing parents who cannot educate, manner, guide and monitor their children.
If I had to go to jail when my kid killed someone under the influence, I would have had one kid instead of five, and spent more time on that one kid. If I can't afford the time, maybe I am not qualified to have kids at all?
Actually while we are at it, maybe XBox 361 or PS4 can have a built-in features where parents create home work and children must complete them to get to the game?
Does the company use one-way scrambling or will there be another device to unscramble the scrambled voices in case PHB wants that feature?
And in an open office organisation, everybody will "tune in" if one suddenly starts whispering. So is this device used as always-on or when-required basis?
If it's always-on, the tantalizingly familiar yet incomprehensible waterfall of voices can be equally annoying.
Does that mean I'm stuck with Firefox, and cannot utilize Microsoft's intelligent autoupdate which automatically downloads security patches once every 3 days?
This raises an interesting question - Why/How can Firefox, which runs happily on W2K and others, offer better security, while IE cannot do the same on an OS developed by MS itself?
I'm sure Firefox will be laughed at if it said it could not develop a browser for Windows because some of the security work in Firefox relies on operating system functionality in Linux that is non-trivial to port to Windows.
setting up Skype for phone service, as soon as he can import a microphone and speakers
Is there a software which turns text into audio for Skype, and turns audio from Skype into text? Can the normal text-to-speech software do that for Skype?
To him it'll be like an IM client, but the other party might enjoy talking/listening instead of typing.
I think there's a major difference between your proposed cheap word processor and a handheld game/organizer, which is the output requrement.
I'm sure you would like to move your documents somewhere, maybe to a desktop for final processing, printing and whatnot? So maybe a USB, IR or a memory slot so that you can transfer data effortlessly?
Although these "expansions" are not expensive, they still cost money. So it's commercially inviable to produce it, because "for a little bit more" one can probably produce a PDA or mobile phone.
And what's wrong with the pencil/paper solution? Paper is a non-volatile memory so you don't have to worry about system crashes or forgetting to save your documents.
From my experience with PDA, you'll write/type about as fast on a PDA as you would on a piece of paper
Seriously though, instead of writing down the password, why not using what's already written on the hardware?
For example, I'm only reading Slashdot from this particular computer, and I'm using a IBM E94 monitor, and there is this Sellotape dispenser on my desk with 1531 written on it. So my Slashdot password can be easily remembered as IBM!1531@E94#, or simply ibm1531e94 for those systems that cannot accept special characters.
See? it's so easy to remember a long and good password, and nobody's going to find out how many items you use and how you combine them to make up your password.
The good password requiremnt is not helped by the fact that users are also required to change it every xx days, so not only you need to remember a strange password, you have to remember a different one every couple of days.
There a joke about the increasing frequency that a user is required to change his password nowdays, eventually crackers just need to keep on trying the same password and the system will change to match it.
Slashdot Mirror
Most murders killed their victims within 2 minutes.
What if someone "Save As" illegal images into "Temporary Internet files" folder?
I thought if someone knowingly viewed some illegal images, he should at least have the commonsense of clearing the cache!
Green Hat
I thought if any P2P service is meant for legal downloads only, it'll be more than 20-30% faster?
With the size of Microsoft, it can set up a BittoBot farm, which automatically replicate new content across all hosts (internally, so it's as fast as copy-and-paste), then feed everything through a few fat pipes.
If money is not an issue, and world domination (or just the the Lord of the Data) is the ultimate goal, it should be fairly easy for MS.
Are all the original writers, actors, actress etc. still available and willing to continue?
Futurama might be picked up (via DVD-only release) but if the original bunch is no longer there, the "feeling" will be different.
Fingers crossed no headroom, and especially legroom is sacrified.
Slashdot of course. Imagine all the searchable insightful posts.
There's a poll in the article asking " Are you planning to replace your VCR with a DVD player? "
I guess that sums up why VCR and VHS tapes are still selling, because while DVD players are pretty advanced and cheap right now, DVD recorders are still expensive to most households, and what are consumers going to do with their precious VHS tapes?
What is required is a VHS+DVD recorder with easy to use interface to transfer VHS to DVD, that'll be the first step to move consumers away from VHS.
I'm moving all my CDs to DVDs. It's pretty easy to do that with a software, and let's not forget that my DVD writer is also capable of reading old CDs, that's why I didn't think so much while buying a DVD writer.
I suppose if technology moves too quickly without sufficient transitional period, older technology might get a chance to stay longer.
Maybe Star Wars should be released in beta? This way nobody can really argue who shot first.
For a guide/manual book, beta is probably a good idea because the ultimate goal is for readers to make use of the book easily.
For a story book, instead of releasing beta of a pseudo-complete book, author should release it chapter by chapter, and change the story direction based on reader feedback, in another word, Plot-Beta rather than Writing-Beta.
If you're using a public machine, you shouldn't do any financial activities like banking, paypal etc., at all.
Sensitive information should be transmitted separately, for example, credit numbers via email and expiry date via phone.
I thought you meant:
An exchange for Schappelle Corby's grass, that'll worth a lot in USA?
So if RIAA sent you a bouquet of flowers with a cute, humorous, handwritten greeting card personally signed by the PR manager informing your court appearance date, it wouldn't be so bad?
I don't think there is anything wrong for a listed company to protect its interest, control its IPs and maximize its profit, but the fanboy twist is totally unnecessary.
Sorry I didn't RTFA, but $6 to $10 isn't a lot to include in the total price, so this recycling-tax should be prepaid before it gets out of the shop. I think it'll be more difficult to enforce payment during the disposal.
This extra cost is likely to go unnoticed because a single CPU/RAM/HDD price drop can easily cover that amount.
One common problem with prepaid tax (like petrol) is they took the money, used it on something else, and turned around to say they don't have enough money for roading/accident management.
Hence it's important for the authority to not only impose the tax, but also acknowledge it, so that consumers can simply put the computer/TV out on the street for collection and the authority must fulfill its duty to dispose them appropriately.
While all these powers are good, if one cannot successfully reproduce offsprings, any geeky genes are likely to disappear.
PDAs and mobile phones is expected to pressure battery manufacturers to improve their products
Battery manufacturers are expected to pressure PDAs and mobile phones fanboys to stop producing inefficient and power-hungry products.
I'm not entirely sure if this is really stuff that matters. The fact that MS drops it probably means it doesn't matter.
Who wants to be bet that there will be a MyClassicWindows Theme that changes XXXX back to MyXXXX just for the sake of it?
Drunken driving accidents increase in winter because every senselessly drunken teenager not properly educated by their parents will be wearing branded non-sensored gloves.
And will the car come to a stop if a person only starts drinking (and got drunk) after the car's moving?
And will those drunken teenagers just steal some non-sensored cars which they're not familar to drive with?
I think this "invention" is as good as the censorship card on cable TV, or that running shoes that power the TV. However the only "reactive invention" that I would like to see is a law punishing parents who cannot educate, manner, guide and monitor their children.
If I had to go to jail when my kid killed someone under the influence, I would have had one kid instead of five, and spent more time on that one kid. If I can't afford the time, maybe I am not qualified to have kids at all?
Actually while we are at it, maybe XBox 361 or PS4 can have a built-in features where parents create home work and children must complete them to get to the game?
I would rather not, because he might be saying "If you can hear me, you're fired!"
Does the company use one-way scrambling or will there be another device to unscramble the scrambled voices in case PHB wants that feature?
And in an open office organisation, everybody will "tune in" if one suddenly starts whispering. So is this device used as always-on or when-required basis?
If it's always-on, the tantalizingly familiar yet incomprehensible waterfall of voices can be equally annoying.
Does that mean I'm stuck with Firefox, and cannot utilize Microsoft's intelligent autoupdate which automatically downloads security patches once every 3 days?
This raises an interesting question - Why/How can Firefox, which runs happily on W2K and others, offer better security, while IE cannot do the same on an OS developed by MS itself?
I'm sure Firefox will be laughed at if it said it could not develop a browser for Windows because some of the security work in Firefox relies on operating system functionality in Linux that is non-trivial to port to Windows.
Slashdot? Like everybody else here?
setting up Skype for phone service, as soon as he can import a microphone and speakers
Is there a software which turns text into audio for Skype, and turns audio from Skype into text? Can the normal text-to-speech software do that for Skype?
To him it'll be like an IM client, but the other party might enjoy talking/listening instead of typing.
I think there's a major difference between your proposed cheap word processor and a handheld game/organizer, which is the output requrement.
I'm sure you would like to move your documents somewhere, maybe to a desktop for final processing, printing and whatnot? So maybe a USB, IR or a memory slot so that you can transfer data effortlessly?
Although these "expansions" are not expensive, they still cost money. So it's commercially inviable to produce it, because "for a little bit more" one can probably produce a PDA or mobile phone.
And what's wrong with the pencil/paper solution? Paper is a non-volatile memory so you don't have to worry about system crashes or forgetting to save your documents.
From my experience with PDA, you'll write/type about as fast on a PDA as you would on a piece of paper
Now my password is even more secure!
So true, by open-sourcing your password, you don't need to worry about security anymore.
Seriously though, instead of writing down the password, why not using what's already written on the hardware?
For example, I'm only reading Slashdot from this particular computer, and I'm using a IBM E94 monitor, and there is this Sellotape dispenser on my desk with 1531 written on it. So my Slashdot password can be easily remembered as IBM!1531@E94#, or simply ibm1531e94 for those systems that cannot accept special characters.
See? it's so easy to remember a long and good password, and nobody's going to find out how many items you use and how you combine them to make up your password.
The good password requiremnt is not helped by the fact that users are also required to change it every xx days, so not only you need to remember a strange password, you have to remember a different one every couple of days.
There a joke about the increasing frequency that a user is required to change his password nowdays, eventually crackers just need to keep on trying the same password and the system will change to match it.