When I was growing up, the only television we had was a small, black & white unit. The one show our family watched probably more than any other was "Little House on the Prairie."
Now, consider that this was set in pre-1900's. Most of the pictures from the early years of photography were all b&w too. So in my mind, Laura Ingalls and her family had a grey barn with grey cows and grey horses and they went to school in a grey schoolhouse (which doubled as a -- you guessed it -- a little grey church). Now if I were to see LHOP on a color TV, it would screw everything up in my mind.
On the other hand, every movie I've seen that's set in ancient times (The Ten Commandments; Ben Hur, etc.) I've seen in color, so I guess maybe there was only a short period in history where color was lacking. Some of these movies were made on "early" color film, so the colors aren't as bright and vivid as real life. If we look at stuff on videotape from the 70's, even there the color is not so great -- either we have better CCDs now, or there is magnetic degradation on the tape. This seems to create the sense that we live in a more colorful world today.
(Only in the last 20 years have we seen advancements in color film to the point where the color balance and saturation is really accurate. Lighting also has a lot to do with it, too.)
And then there's The Wizard of Oz, one of the very first color-separation films produced. Even though it was made in the 30's on B&W film, with proper color-combination techniques, we can see an accurate color balance, proving that things were just as colorful back then.
I get this feeling that were the rewriteable floppy disk or audio tape invented today, the RIAA would whine that it would allow users to infringe on copyrights and be in violation of the DMCA blah blah blah ad nauseum. Why aren't they suing Fuji, 3M (Imation), TDK, Memorex, etc. for this obvious attempt at undermining their profits?
Seems to be understood that AOL would naturally focus on the native AIM client, because it supports ads. So why not make a protocol that *requires* the use of ads?
Here's how to do it: the server sends out an ad, and the client has to calculate a checksum based on that ad and return it to the server. If the server fails to receive a valid checksum, the client is disconnected. Repeated violations will result in a loss of access to an account.
Now, considering this, it's certainly possible to write a client which does not DISPLAY the ad; however, there won't be any badnwidth savings.
Shoot, I ignore the ads anyway. Now if they come up with something that pops up an ad in my face every time I hit "enter" then someone's gonna die a horrible, painful, prolonged death. And I'll make them read travel brochures for sunny tropical isles while it all takes place.
Well, before the birth of Christ, most societies measured years by how long a ruler reigned... for example "in the 17th year of King Nevacudsneezer...", always resetting the calendar to 0. This made things rather inconvenient, since you had to know how long every king reigned in order to figure out how old something was.
After Jesus Christ came and went, someone got the bright idea of defining his birth (or thereabouts) as a "zero point" as most of humanity would know of Jesus and have a rough idea of when he was around.
This, however, raises and interesting paradox: reference to time before Jesus Christ both ascends and descends: at a resolution of 1 [year|decade|century|millenium|etc....], we see time decrementing as it progresses (note that we do not use a "negative" value), but at a finer scale (1 [month|week|day|hour|minute|second|etc...]) we see time incrementing.
"...Justice Harper concluded that Adam Hinkley and his father had breached Redrock's rights over the AppWarrior class libraries, but because it was "innocent", the plaintiff should not be able to seek damages against Paul Hinkley..."
Wow! Amazing! A judge that considers intent, not just the hard line of the law. We see that even though Adam did violate the terms of employment, he had no intent to cause harm to the plaintiff, and probably minimal harm was done.
This case is not unlike the kid who brings a tin of Altoids to school and gets kicked out under the drugs "zero tolerance" (read: zero common sense) policy for having something that looks like the real thing.
Or, like the time I got pulled over for speeding, the state cop told me "you weren't doing anything dangerous, you were just breaking the law." Granted, I deserved the ticket and had no grounds to object, but it still burns me that he said that.
"... but when's the last time a new technology's first big public demo was perfect?"
Not since the introduction of Windows98 and the infamous blue-screen-of-death and red-screen-of-Bill USB incident. What could be more perfect than the crimson face of a tyrant bent on overtaking the world?
With the move to the new building, the CUCL will probably (finally) get to have their very own coffee pot within their department. Hence, when Mr. Coder gets thirsty (or needs a jolt to get the neurons moving), all he has to do is glance over his shoulder to the counter and see that yes, indeed, there is coffee to be had. No more checking up on the web to prevent a wasted trip to an empty pot. Simply put, there is no need for the CoffeeCam anymore. Plus, the CoffeeCam obviously requires occasional, perhaps even often, maintenance; time which could be better spent advancing "the cause" (whatever that may be).
Certainly, CUCL could place a new cam on this new coffe pot, but it wouldn't be the same. Why not? Because the purpose, the whole reason for its existence, will be a farce. It won't exist to ease the lives of coders, but to sate the curiosity of Internet hitchikers who have nothing better to do than waste the precious bandwidth of an already-taxed not-for-profit organization of higher education.
That said, CUCL should have a CoffeeCam history page, explaining what it was, why it was, and why it is no more. This for the sake of posterity and public record.
It's a good idea to track your own credit. By law, CRAs are required to let you view the credit report they have on file. By all means do this--at least once a year.
Thankfully, I have never had anything negative (yet) on my credit report, but when I reviewed my reports a couple of years ago, they showed a couple of closed accounts as still being active, and even two entries for the same loan! That showed me as having more available credit than I really did, which could mean the difference between getting a loan and being denied credit.
Keep an eye on it. Don't let a blunder or an oversight on somebody else's part screw you. Planning on applying for a loan? Get a copy of your report (from EVERY agency) BEFORE you apply. The sooner you correct it, the less chance of somebody blacklisting you.
Been denied credit? Demand to know why, so that you can correct the error or make amends "and be a customer in the future."
A buddy of mine uses a digital preamp, D/A coverter (apologies, can't remember brand or model #s), and a pair (yes, i said pair) of Classé Omega Dual Monoraul amps piped into a pair of Magnepan Magneplanar MG 20's. For enhanced bass, the low frequencies are sent through a Krell amp to a set of custom-made 15" subs.
OK, so you're over $50k now. A little much for a multimedia PC system, but hey! Why would you ever want to sacrifice quality in your audio system?
The sad part is that the mass market doesn't know about this. Sure, there might be a blurb in the newspaper, but the Average Idiot PC User gets their news on TV. If they read the paper, they only look at the front page, the sports section, and the comics. The rest of it ends up on the bottom of the bird cage (sad: their pets are better informed than they are). This is technical stuff, and technical stuff just doesn't make in on the 6 o'clock news.
(By "Average Idiot PC User" I mean the person who uses a PC but intentionally avoids learning anything technical about it; these are the same people that will use the spacebar and maybe the tab key to form tables and columns in their word processor rather than learning how to use the proper tools which are already there.)
So one day, AIPCU will open up his credit card statement and there'll be 567 charges for playing MP3's on his computer. But he won't notice, because he never reconciles his statement to make sure all the charges are valid. He'll just pay the minimum amount due and wonder why he can never seem to get out of debt...
If AIPCU's computer doesn't have CPRM-enabled hard drives already, he'll try to install software and it will say "this software requires a CPRM-enabled hard drive." Will he gasp in horror? Will he attempt to find out what CPRM means? Hardly! AIPCU will drive down to his local CompUSA and DEMAND that the guy behind the counter upgrade the computer to a CPRM-enabled drive.
By that time it will be too late. Big Brother will have won. Big Brother isn't the Government, it's The Corporation.
We technoids have an uphill battle. We aren't the mass market. We're a niche market. The Corporation doesn't care about niche markets. Our technophobe friends are the mass market; we need to show them what kind of wool is being pulled over their eyes.
Admittedly, LILO is just a boot loader and does not affect the overlying operating system and software. BUT, I think there's a "because we've always done it that way and that's what (we think) our customers expect" attitude among the vendors, not terribly unlike why Microsoft still builds operating systems on top of DOS.
Why, just today, we *finally* got a T-1 line up that had been down for 3 weeks after a move (Vancouver, WA). Qwest was supposed to move it in one day, but first they couldn't find the new office, then they stuck it in the wrong building, then when they finally got it in the right building, it wouldn't come up... it took 3 Qwest techs and an hour of phone tag to get it working.
On the other hand, in a nearby town (Kalama, WA) they've got an independent phone company, (who's also the local ISP,) only serves two (geographically separate, go figure) towns. Their service is EXCELLENT! Plus, you can get ADSL anywhere in their service area (distributed DSLAMs), and if there's a problem, you can call the actual tech who will work on it, and it will be solved usually within an hour. As an added benefit, the switches in the CO autodetect POTS, ISDN or (there's a 3rd acronym, but I forget...). The Link.
Yeah, competition would be nice. But in most cities, Quest, Verizon, or SBC will still own the copper so we depend on them, regardless WHO our service provider is. We need competion in the "last mile" infrastructure too.
Perhaps the cable companies could start providing phone service over their lines. Surely the technology isn't far off.
Once you figure out where to put everything, you need some way of keeping track of them. When you want your Leann Rimes CD that you haven't thought about in months, do you really want to search through a thousand discs?
You could set up a computerized catalog system not unlike libraries have for books. Put a "call number" on each sleeve or jewel case. When you want to play something, look up in your database for the appropriate call number, locatate it on the shelf, and bingo! there you have it.
If you're like me, you'll be too lazy to put the disc back in order on the shelf. So instead, put a barcode on every CD. When you put it on the shelf, scan it in and then type in which shelf it's on. Then you don't have to alphebetize anything. When you want to find a disc, the computer will tell you what shelf to look on, then you only have to search through 100 CDs rather than 1000.
The biggest failing of the music CD standard: no on-disc database detailing track information, artist information, etc. If they'd thought to include this, it would be a snap to build a database. Instead, you have to type it all in manually or find an online site that has that info and hope it's complete.
oops... this is not webmoth. This is webmoth's brainy Aspie sister, who just had a major brain fart & didn't post anonymously (b/c I have no personal ID as of yet). LOL Don't blame this on Webmoth, please, who is actually a high-functioning neurotypical.;-)
I saw the word "borrowed" & not "stole." are you illiterate? Or do you have ASS-umption Disorder by ASS-uming that an employer would not be benevolent enough to help a parent of a kid w/ special needs and abilities?
BTW, I have Asperger's, too. There are actually several of us "aspies" in the computer industry. Just for the record, we may not be long on social skills, but we're certainly not short on brains-- our IQ is generally well above average.
Here in the Pacific Northwest, a construction contractor can sever a single fiber cable between Vancouver, WA and Longview, WA, and a significant portion of the region is without long-distance telephone service or internet for an entire day.
By long distance, I mean even neighboring towns a hundred miles away from the break can't even call each other. Apparently, in order to complete a call, billing and routing information must go over that specific cable.
I think when it happened back in June, the "buried cable locating service" had to pay for the repair, since the cable was not where they said it was. Still, I don't blame them for the outage; I blame the phone company for not having geographically separated redundancy.
Seems the telephone companies' idea of redundancy is two pairs IN THE SAME CABLE! The idiots!
Feel free to complain about Qwerst (formerly USWerst), Sprint, etc.
REDMOND, Wash., Apr. 1, 2000 - Microsoft Corp. (Nasdaq: MSFT) today released the details of its new Active License, which eases license administration for IS administrators.
The new Active License replaces the old End User License Agreement. The key feature of Active License is its ability to add new access licenses as necessary. Instead of having to type an installation key when installing the Windows operating system, system administrators simply type in a credit card number. This information is then sent to Microsoft, which will bill the credit card appropriately.
For users of Windows 2000 servers, this also eliminates the need to purchase add-on access license option paks. As each additional concurrent user is added to the system, the credit card is automatically billed for that access license. "The cost will be quite reasonable for each concurrent user. And there will be a price break for web servers: we are planning a somewhat lower price for each incoming HTTP connection," said Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer.
When asked how Microsoft expects to compensate for the expected loss of revenues to competing operating systems, CEO Ballmer responded, "we have integrated a module which automatically detects the presence of Linux/Samba servers in the corporate network, and bills the credit card for each connection to those servers as well. This will ensure the recovery of costs associated with the development of our proprietary Server Message Block protocol."
About Microsoft
Founded in 1975, Microsoft is the worldwide leader in software for personal and business computing. The company offers a wide range of products and services designed to empower people through great software -- any time, any place and on any device.
NOTE: Microsoft, Windows, Windows 2000, and Active License are either registered trademarks or trademarks of Microsoft Corp. in the United States and/or other countries. Linux is a registered trademark of Linus Torvalds. The names of actual companies and products mentioned herein may be the trademarks of their respective owners.
SOURCE Microsoft Corp. (NOT! You don't REALLY believe this, do you???? But I wouldn't put it past them)
/NOTE TO EDITORS: If you are interested in viewing additional information
on Microsoft, please visit the Microsoft Web page at
http://www.microsoft.com/presspass/ on Microsoft's corporate information
pages./
/CONTACT: press only, Sue Duvall, 425-637-9097, or sduvall@wagged.com, or
Rapid Response Team, 503-443-7000, or rrt@wagged.com, both of Waggener
Edstrom, for Microsoft Corp./
The notion that the strength of a trademark can somehow lead to brand confusion is ridiculous.
Quite the opposite.
Because of their advertising machine, Wal*Mart is an extremely well-known brand. It is impossible for someone to expect that typing in "www.walfart.com" will take them to the site of the world's largest retailer. Why hasn't Wal*Mart sued Walman Optical for their domain, www.walman.com? Does not walman sound similar to walmart? Would not someoneone unfamiliar with Wal*Mart's marketing machine possible confuse walman with walmart?
How can something as ridiculous sounding as "guiness-beer-sucks-manure-fly-toes.com" be confused with "guiness.com" ?
P.S.-- Sorry, Mr. LaPerriere, I guess you can be expecting a call from Wal*Mart's Legal Team.
Slashdot Mirror
When I was growing up, the only television we had was a small, black & white unit. The one show our family watched probably more than any other was "Little House on the Prairie."
Now, consider that this was set in pre-1900's. Most of the pictures from the early years of photography were all b&w too. So in my mind, Laura Ingalls and her family had a grey barn with grey cows and grey horses and they went to school in a grey schoolhouse (which doubled as a -- you guessed it -- a little grey church). Now if I were to see LHOP on a color TV, it would screw everything up in my mind.
On the other hand, every movie I've seen that's set in ancient times (The Ten Commandments; Ben Hur, etc.) I've seen in color, so I guess maybe there was only a short period in history where color was lacking. Some of these movies were made on "early" color film, so the colors aren't as bright and vivid as real life. If we look at stuff on videotape from the 70's, even there the color is not so great -- either we have better CCDs now, or there is magnetic degradation on the tape. This seems to create the sense that we live in a more colorful world today.
(Only in the last 20 years have we seen advancements in color film to the point where the color balance and saturation is really accurate. Lighting also has a lot to do with it, too.)
And then there's The Wizard of Oz, one of the very first color-separation films produced. Even though it was made in the 30's on B&W film, with proper color-combination techniques, we can see an accurate color balance, proving that things were just as colorful back then.
I get this feeling that were the rewriteable floppy disk or audio tape invented today, the RIAA would whine that it would allow users to infringe on copyrights and be in violation of the DMCA blah blah blah ad nauseum. Why aren't they suing Fuji, 3M (Imation), TDK, Memorex, etc. for this obvious attempt at undermining their profits?
Advanced Creation of Ridiculous Abbreviations Named with Inexact Meanings
Seems to be understood that AOL would naturally focus on the native AIM client, because it supports ads. So why not make a protocol that *requires* the use of ads?
Here's how to do it: the server sends out an ad, and the client has to calculate a checksum based on that ad and return it to the server. If the server fails to receive a valid checksum, the client is disconnected. Repeated violations will result in a loss of access to an account.
Now, considering this, it's certainly possible to write a client which does not DISPLAY the ad; however, there won't be any badnwidth savings.
Shoot, I ignore the ads anyway. Now if they come up with something that pops up an ad in my face every time I hit "enter" then someone's gonna die a horrible, painful, prolonged death. And I'll make them read travel brochures for sunny tropical isles while it all takes place.
~J
Well, before the birth of Christ, most societies measured years by how long a ruler reigned... for example "in the 17th year of King Nevacudsneezer...", always resetting the calendar to 0. This made things rather inconvenient, since you had to know how long every king reigned in order to figure out how old something was.
After Jesus Christ came and went, someone got the bright idea of defining his birth (or thereabouts) as a "zero point" as most of humanity would know of Jesus and have a rough idea of when he was around.
This, however, raises and interesting paradox: reference to time before Jesus Christ both ascends and descends: at a resolution of 1 [year|decade|century|millenium|etc....], we see time decrementing as it progresses (note that we do not use a "negative" value), but at a finer scale (1 [month|week|day|hour|minute|second|etc...]) we see time incrementing.
~Jon
I always got the impression that you enjoyed deleting submissions.
~J
In related news, anonymous sources indicate that Redhat will be producing a pornographic version of the world's most popular Linux distribution.
Redhat is hoping that this will generate much-needed revenue, as "the only online companies turning a profit these days are pr0n (sic) sites."
Chairman Bob Young was quoted as saying "this distribution will have such features as fleshy desktops and interactive screensavers."
This leaves us wondering, what new device drivers will be included?
--j
"...Justice Harper concluded that Adam Hinkley and his father had breached Redrock's rights over the AppWarrior class libraries, but because it was "innocent", the plaintiff should not be able to seek damages against Paul Hinkley..."
Wow! Amazing! A judge that considers intent, not just the hard line of the law. We see that even though Adam did violate the terms of employment, he had no intent to cause harm to the plaintiff, and probably minimal harm was done.
This case is not unlike the kid who brings a tin of Altoids to school and gets kicked out under the drugs "zero tolerance" (read: zero common sense) policy for having something that looks like the real thing.
Or, like the time I got pulled over for speeding, the state cop told me "you weren't doing anything dangerous, you were just breaking the law." Granted, I deserved the ticket and had no grounds to object, but it still burns me that he said that .
--Jon
"... but when's the last time a new technology's first big public demo was perfect?"
Not since the introduction of Windows98 and the infamous blue-screen-of-death and red-screen-of-Bill USB incident. What could be more perfect than the crimson face of a tyrant bent on overtaking the world?
--J
With the move to the new building, the CUCL will probably (finally) get to have their very own coffee pot within their department. Hence, when Mr. Coder gets thirsty (or needs a jolt to get the neurons moving), all he has to do is glance over his shoulder to the counter and see that yes, indeed, there is coffee to be had. No more checking up on the web to prevent a wasted trip to an empty pot. Simply put, there is no need for the CoffeeCam anymore. Plus, the CoffeeCam obviously requires occasional, perhaps even often, maintenance; time which could be better spent advancing "the cause" (whatever that may be).
Certainly, CUCL could place a new cam on this new coffe pot, but it wouldn't be the same. Why not? Because the purpose, the whole reason for its existence, will be a farce. It won't exist to ease the lives of coders, but to sate the curiosity of Internet hitchikers who have nothing better to do than waste the precious bandwidth of an already-taxed not-for-profit organization of higher education.
That said, CUCL should have a CoffeeCam history page, explaining what it was, why it was, and why it is no more. This for the sake of posterity and public record.
It's a good idea to track your own credit. By law, CRAs are required to let you view the credit report they have on file. By all means do this--at least once a year.
Thankfully, I have never had anything negative (yet) on my credit report, but when I reviewed my reports a couple of years ago, they showed a couple of closed accounts as still being active, and even two entries for the same loan! That showed me as having more available credit than I really did, which could mean the difference between getting a loan and being denied credit.
Keep an eye on it. Don't let a blunder or an oversight on somebody else's part screw you. Planning on applying for a loan? Get a copy of your report (from EVERY agency) BEFORE you apply. The sooner you correct it, the less chance of somebody blacklisting you.
Been denied credit? Demand to know why, so that you can correct the error or make amends "and be a customer in the future."
A buddy of mine uses a digital preamp, D/A coverter (apologies, can't remember brand or model #s), and a pair (yes, i said pair) of Classé Omega Dual Monoraul amps piped into a pair of Magnepan Magneplanar MG 20's. For enhanced bass, the low frequencies are sent through a Krell amp to a set of custom-made 15" subs.
OK, so you're over $50k now. A little much for a multimedia PC system, but hey! Why would you ever want to sacrifice quality in your audio system?
The sad part is that the mass market doesn't know about this. Sure, there might be a blurb in the newspaper, but the Average Idiot PC User gets their news on TV. If they read the paper, they only look at the front page, the sports section, and the comics. The rest of it ends up on the bottom of the bird cage (sad: their pets are better informed than they are). This is technical stuff, and technical stuff just doesn't make in on the 6 o'clock news.
(By "Average Idiot PC User" I mean the person who uses a PC but intentionally avoids learning anything technical about it; these are the same people that will use the spacebar and maybe the tab key to form tables and columns in their word processor rather than learning how to use the proper tools which are already there.)
So one day, AIPCU will open up his credit card statement and there'll be 567 charges for playing MP3's on his computer. But he won't notice, because he never reconciles his statement to make sure all the charges are valid. He'll just pay the minimum amount due and wonder why he can never seem to get out of debt...
If AIPCU's computer doesn't have CPRM-enabled hard drives already, he'll try to install software and it will say "this software requires a CPRM-enabled hard drive." Will he gasp in horror? Will he attempt to find out what CPRM means? Hardly! AIPCU will drive down to his local CompUSA and DEMAND that the guy behind the counter upgrade the computer to a CPRM-enabled drive.
By that time it will be too late. Big Brother will have won. Big Brother isn't the Government, it's The Corporation.
We technoids have an uphill battle. We aren't the mass market. We're a niche market. The Corporation doesn't care about niche markets. Our technophobe friends are the mass market; we need to show them what kind of wool is being pulled over their eyes.
IANAL, but I would think that they can't own a copyright on something you said. So you might as well just quote yourself on your web page.
Also, I would think that you should have the right to freely state what someone else has said about you.
If I said you were an idiot then copyrighted what I said, does that mean that you can't tell everyone that I think you're an idiot? How ludicrous!!!
Admittedly, LILO is just a boot loader and does not affect the overlying operating system and software. BUT, I think there's a "because we've always done it that way and that's what (we think) our customers expect" attitude among the vendors, not terribly unlike why Microsoft still builds operating systems on top of DOS.
Why, just today, we *finally* got a T-1 line up that had been down for 3 weeks after a move (Vancouver, WA). Qwest was supposed to move it in one day, but first they couldn't find the new office, then they stuck it in the wrong building, then when they finally got it in the right building, it wouldn't come up... it took 3 Qwest techs and an hour of phone tag to get it working.
On the other hand, in a nearby town (Kalama, WA) they've got an independent phone company, (who's also the local ISP,) only serves two (geographically separate, go figure) towns. Their service is EXCELLENT! Plus, you can get ADSL anywhere in their service area (distributed DSLAMs), and if there's a problem, you can call the actual tech who will work on it, and it will be solved usually within an hour. As an added benefit, the switches in the CO autodetect POTS, ISDN or (there's a 3rd acronym, but I forget...). The Link.
Yeah, competition would be nice. But in most cities, Quest, Verizon, or SBC will still own the copper so we depend on them, regardless WHO our service provider is. We need competion in the "last mile" infrastructure too.
Perhaps the cable companies could start providing phone service over their lines. Surely the technology isn't far off.
We're already seeing incompatible, irreconcilable differences between linuces and linuxes.
--
Once you figure out where to put everything, you need some way of keeping track of them. When you want your Leann Rimes CD that you haven't thought about in months, do you really want to search through a thousand discs?
You could set up a computerized catalog system not unlike libraries have for books. Put a "call number" on each sleeve or jewel case. When you want to play something, look up in your database for the appropriate call number, locatate it on the shelf, and bingo! there you have it.
If you're like me, you'll be too lazy to put the disc back in order on the shelf. So instead, put a barcode on every CD. When you put it on the shelf, scan it in and then type in which shelf it's on. Then you don't have to alphebetize anything. When you want to find a disc, the computer will tell you what shelf to look on, then you only have to search through 100 CDs rather than 1000.
The biggest failing of the music CD standard: no on-disc database detailing track information, artist information, etc. If they'd thought to include this, it would be a snap to build a database. Instead, you have to type it all in manually or find an online site that has that info and hope it's complete.
Hey, take it easy on CT. He did that error unconsiously. Er... I mean... subconsciously. At least he is conscious of his errors. Er... conscientious.
oops... this is not webmoth. This is webmoth's brainy Aspie sister, who just had a major brain fart & didn't post anonymously (b/c I have no personal ID as of yet). LOL Don't blame this on Webmoth, please, who is actually a high-functioning neurotypical. ;-)
I saw the word "borrowed" & not "stole." are you illiterate? Or do you have ASS-umption Disorder by ASS-uming that an employer would not be benevolent enough to help a parent of a kid w/ special needs and abilities?
BTW, I have Asperger's, too. There are actually several of us "aspies" in the computer industry. Just for the record, we may not be long on social skills, but we're certainly not short on brains-- our IQ is generally well above average.
Here in the Pacific Northwest, a construction contractor can sever a single fiber cable between Vancouver, WA and Longview, WA, and a significant portion of the region is without long-distance telephone service or internet for an entire day.
By long distance, I mean even neighboring towns a hundred miles away from the break can't even call each other. Apparently, in order to complete a call, billing and routing information must go over that specific cable.
I think when it happened back in June, the "buried cable locating service" had to pay for the repair, since the cable was not where they said it was. Still, I don't blame them for the outage; I blame the phone company for not having geographically separated redundancy.
Seems the telephone companies' idea of redundancy is two pairs IN THE SAME CABLE! The idiots!
Feel free to complain about Qwerst (formerly USWerst), Sprint, etc.
At least in Oz, they still have 40%.
Perhaps a similar generator could be attached to your waterbed, so when you and your S.O. are ****ing, the lights stay on.
Oh, yeah. You don't want the lights on. So much for that idea.
What'll they think of next?
-
-----------------------------------------------
Microsoft unveils new license
REDMOND, Wash., Apr. 1, 2000 - Microsoft Corp. (Nasdaq: MSFT) today released the details of its new Active License, which eases license administration for IS administrators.
The new Active License replaces the old End User License Agreement. The key feature of Active License is its ability to add new access licenses as necessary. Instead of having to type an installation key when installing the Windows operating system, system administrators simply type in a credit card number. This information is then sent to Microsoft, which will bill the credit card appropriately.
For users of Windows 2000 servers, this also eliminates the need to purchase add-on access license option paks. As each additional concurrent user is added to the system, the credit card is automatically billed for that access license. "The cost will be quite reasonable for each concurrent user. And there will be a price break for web servers: we are planning a somewhat lower price for each incoming HTTP connection," said Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer.
When asked how Microsoft expects to compensate for the expected loss of revenues to competing operating systems, CEO Ballmer responded, "we have integrated a module which automatically detects the presence of Linux/Samba servers in the corporate network, and bills the credit card for each connection to those servers as well. This will ensure the recovery of costs associated with the development of our proprietary Server Message Block protocol."
About Microsoft
Founded in 1975, Microsoft is the worldwide leader in software for personal and business computing. The company offers a wide range of products and services designed to empower people through great software -- any time, any place and on any device.
NOTE: Microsoft, Windows, Windows 2000, and Active License are either registered trademarks or trademarks of Microsoft Corp. in the United States and/or other countries. Linux is a registered trademark of Linus Torvalds. The names of actual companies and products mentioned herein may be the trademarks of their respective owners.
SOURCE Microsoft Corp. (NOT! You don't REALLY believe this, do you???? But I wouldn't put it past them)
/NOTE TO EDITORS: If you are interested in viewing additional information
on Microsoft, please visit the Microsoft Web page at
http://www.microsoft.com/presspass/ on Microsoft's corporate information
pages./
/CONTACT: press only, Sue Duvall, 425-637-9097, or sduvall@wagged.com, or
Rapid Response Team, 503-443-7000, or rrt@wagged.com, both of Waggener
Edstrom, for Microsoft Corp./
The notion that the strength of a trademark can somehow lead to brand confusion is ridiculous.
Quite the opposite.
Because of their advertising machine, Wal*Mart is an extremely well-known brand. It is impossible for someone to expect that typing in "www.walfart.com" will take them to the site of the world's largest retailer. Why hasn't Wal*Mart sued Walman Optical for their domain, www.walman.com? Does not walman sound similar to walmart? Would not someoneone unfamiliar with Wal*Mart's marketing machine possible confuse walman with walmart?
How can something as ridiculous sounding as "guiness-beer-sucks-manure-fly-toes.com" be confused with "guiness.com" ?
P.S.-- Sorry, Mr. LaPerriere, I guess you can be expecting a call from Wal*Mart's Legal Team.