NBC wants to use this to discover how people view media. But if the streaming is restricted to Vista, they'll be forced to come to the conclusion that only a small minority of people use their PC's to watch television sports.
All because the vast majority of people are still using Windows XP, not Vista. Somebody at NBC sure isn't thinking straight.
I guess they figure that anyone who watches TV on a computer isn't interested in watching sports to begin with (what is known as a self-fulfilling prophesy in this case).
Honestly, why pay good money for music with DRM and/or recorded in a lossy format? I want a pristine perfect original in my hand that I can rip to whatever format/device I require. I refuse to pay for crap!
Now, if I could only buy that music UN-mastered, the way it was originally recorded (and not mangled for radio play), I'd be a happy camper. Not gonna hold my breath for that, understand, but I *would* be happy.
Added bonus: most artists get a bigger cut from CD sales than they do from the same songs purchased digitally.
I've belonged to the Sci-Fi Book Club for well over a decade now, and while I don't buy from them very often, they are a good source of inexpensive hardbacks (I've built up quite a library of hardbacks over the years). I also end up browsing the various book stores in the malls.
However.
I have the same problem everywhere I go. It seems that most of what is out there is fantasy, rather than Science Fiction. I prefer the stuff with the nuts and bolts, thank you very much, even though I *do* enjoy the occasional Dresden Files and Thomas Covenant. I don't know what it is that seems to attract people to swords and sorcery rather than hard science. Tastes change, I suppose.
Still, it makes a good book awfully hard to find. You just have to keep looking, and accept the dreck along with the gems.
As for those suggesting a trip to the local library, I take it you've never tried to find a good sci-fi book there. If you're "lucky", you might find a few (arrgh) Star Trek or Star Wars books. Most of them aren't sci-fi by any stretch of the imagination. They're more like a bit of cotton candy: tasty but insubstantial and unsatisfying.
We'll never be able to explain the GPL, now that "free as in beer" is the same as "free as in speech". This is a disaster, I tell you! Dido and Enterly will be all over this, and we'll never hear the end of it.
Next thing you know, they'll open a bazaar in the local cathedral, and it'll *all* be over.
A great deal of the problem here isn't necessarily Windows, it's the people who use it. In an attempt to make its operating system easier for the idiot to use, Microsoft has added "features" that increase the vulnerability as well, particularly the "I'm-ok-you're-ok-can't-we-all-just-get-along-and- share-our-deepest-darkest-secrets" design philosophy that's behind so much of the Windows experience.
But the vast majority of Unwashed Humanity shouldn't even be using a *light switch*, nevermind a computer! Even otherwise very intelligent people are so completely clueless when it comes to things that come to them in email and on web sites. I swear, if I sent out an email asking people to cut out their large intestine and email me a scan of its contents, most of them would happily do it, and thank me for the privilege.
I tell my family to follow two rules:
1. Everything you read on the internet and in email is a complete and utter lie from someone you do not know, which will steal all your money, rot your brain, and leave you (male or female) with an unwanted love child. You should completely delete all email before reading.
2. See Rule #1.
Microsoft advocates Trustworthy Computing. I recommend Paranoid Computing instead, because *nobody* can be trusted!
Microsoft will change their tune, you just wait and see. When Windows 8 comes out as a GUI layer on top of BSD, they'll take it seriously.
I figure it this way: Microsoft steals every other idea that comes out of Apple, what's one more?
Of course, they'll have to screw up BSD's guts so it's compatible with the vulnerabilities... er... I mean features... in older Windows software, but, hey, that's how it goes, you know? You can't make a chicken without breaking a few eggs.
Microsoft's customer is the OEMs and the resellers, not you. They don't really care if nobody ever uses Vista, so long as they keep selling it. That is why they will nod politely at petitions like this, but in they end, they will ignore all such attempts to pressure them into keeping XP. XP (and all previous versions of Microsoft Office) are now The Competition, to be eliminated from the marketplace at the first opportunity. That is why (IMHO) the next version of Office for Windows (post-2007) will not support any of the old file formats, only the new ECMA standard. If they could safely do so, they would eliminate support for XP and 2000 from Windows Networking support as well.
Even big corporations will oftentimes purchase a new OS as part of a maintenance agreement, but not use it for one reason or another, so again it's the sale that counts, not whether anybody *wants* the bloody thing.
Oh, entirely off-topic, I have yet to "upgrade" from Windows 2000 to XP, never mind Vista. The only difference between XP and Vista is that Vista is a bigger oinker, that's all.
Microsoft appears to have a core philosophy that all things in the computer should be mushed together. Every application and device driver should be allowed (and indeed encouraged) to share their innermost secrets with any process that asks. This is the reason for all of Windows' and Office's vulnerabilities. Notice the utter chaos that has ensued when Vista tightened up a few of those "I'm-ok-you're-ok" sharing paths.
One of the problems I have with the whole MS Office file design is that it includes both data and executables in the same file. There is no way to separate the two. Now, I suppose I'm out of step with the rest of the world, but those should be in separate files. As long as the data is fully documented, and has all the appropriate pieces for the purpose (style definitions, mathematical formulae), any program should be able to operate on it. IMHO, we should not be encouraging the mixture of (for example) a spreadsheet document that contains the calculations for a company's PL statement with the code (e.g., VBA) used to control data entry into that document. Simply loading the document should not put someone at risk for malware infection, because it should contain no programs in the first place. I like having powerful macros as much as the next guy, but I believe it has gone too far.If you need that much control, then write a separate program that operates on the data, and keep the data separate.
Here's a wild idea: Replace all the data files (and only data files -- no macros or exe's) on a computer with entries in a SQL database (with appropriate security, of course, to restrict sharing), so any application, from any vendor, can easily read and write it. As Microsoft proved when it tried to put SQL into the OS, this isn't as easy as I made it sound. But this may have more to do with their inability to add the old vulnerabilities into the scheme than making the whole thing work right.
Microsoft wishes to enshrine all of its past mistakes in the new format, and continue its malware-friendly development philosophy. That is wrong, and the Office 2007 file format is too flawed to be seriously considered as a universal standard (intellectual property issues aside). It's good to see a company the size of IBM fight against its acceptance.
You send a guy dressed up like a shark to the victim's place of business (Knock-knock-knock. "Candygram"), and when he opens the door, deliver the C&D letter in song (Currently in the victim's choice of Country-Western, Rock and Roll, or Traditional Blues). Why, it's genius! A whole new business model in support of America's #1 service industry, Lawsuits. Think of the possibilities!
...Listening to all the experts tell you why their opinion is the Only Real Universal Truth, then deciding they're all full of cow chips and going with your own gut feelings.
Parents who at least get involved with their kids are doing their job. Those who use technology as a babysitter while they themselves vegetate in front of ESPN or Opra need to be smacked upside their heads and made to stand in the corner until they get a clue, the slackers!
That explains why knots spontaneously form in wires and cables when you stick them in a box, but what about the way knots spontaneously come undone in your shoe laces? Perhaps in an alternate universe, shoe laces spontaneously knot themselves, and wires and cables untangle in storage. Of course, with that sort of altered physics, Homer Simpson would probably be the President of the United States.
Hey, to all the pundits like the fellow who wrote TFA, I just want to say that I'm still using Windows 2000, and use XP only when I absolutely have to. I've disliked XP from the very beginning, and haven't changed my opinion in the intervening years. Just because Microsoft came up with something even more ugly, bloated, and bollixed up than XP, doesn't make XP any more desirable than it was before.
Slashdot Mirror
NBC wants to use this to discover how people view media. But if the streaming is restricted to Vista, they'll be forced to come to the conclusion that only a small minority of people use their PC's to watch television sports.
All because the vast majority of people are still using Windows XP, not Vista. Somebody at NBC sure isn't thinking straight.
I guess they figure that anyone who watches TV on a computer isn't interested in watching sports to begin with (what is known as a self-fulfilling prophesy in this case).
.. all over town. Quick, where's my Ubik?
Take *that* you young whippersnappers! If you want to program machines, you have to learn to think like 'em.
Honestly, why pay good money for music with DRM and/or recorded in a lossy format? I want a pristine perfect original in my hand that I can rip to whatever format/device I require. I refuse to pay for crap!
Now, if I could only buy that music UN-mastered, the way it was originally recorded (and not mangled for radio play), I'd be a happy camper. Not gonna hold my breath for that, understand, but I *would* be happy.
Added bonus: most artists get a bigger cut from CD sales than they do from the same songs purchased digitally.
I've belonged to the Sci-Fi Book Club for well over a decade now, and while I don't buy from them very often, they are a good source of inexpensive hardbacks (I've built up quite a library of hardbacks over the years). I also end up browsing the various book stores in the malls.
However.
I have the same problem everywhere I go. It seems that most of what is out there is fantasy, rather than Science Fiction. I prefer the stuff with the nuts and bolts, thank you very much, even though I *do* enjoy the occasional Dresden Files and Thomas Covenant. I don't know what it is that seems to attract people to swords and sorcery rather than hard science. Tastes change, I suppose.
Still, it makes a good book awfully hard to find. You just have to keep looking, and accept the dreck along with the gems.
As for those suggesting a trip to the local library, I take it you've never tried to find a good sci-fi book there. If you're "lucky", you might find a few (arrgh) Star Trek or Star Wars books. Most of them aren't sci-fi by any stretch of the imagination. They're more like a bit of cotton candy: tasty but insubstantial and unsatisfying.
To quote characters in another Lucas movie "I've got a bad feeling about this".
Or, perhaps a better one would be: "Like a million voices cried out in horror and were silenced."
We'll never be able to explain the GPL, now that "free as in beer" is the same as "free as in speech". This is a disaster, I tell you! Dido and Enterly will be all over this, and we'll never hear the end of it.
Next thing you know, they'll open a bazaar in the local cathedral, and it'll *all* be over.
Couldn't resist the bad pun, sorry.
Null is a four letter void.
... and God just builds a better idiot.
A great deal of the problem here isn't necessarily Windows, it's the people who use it. In an attempt to make its operating system easier for the idiot to use, Microsoft has added "features" that increase the vulnerability as well, particularly the "I'm-ok-you're-ok-can't-we-all-just-get-along-and- share-our-deepest-darkest-secrets" design philosophy that's behind so much of the Windows experience.
But the vast majority of Unwashed Humanity shouldn't even be using a *light switch*, nevermind a computer! Even otherwise very intelligent people are so completely clueless when it comes to things that come to them in email and on web sites. I swear, if I sent out an email asking people to cut out their large intestine and email me a scan of its contents, most of them would happily do it, and thank me for the privilege.
I tell my family to follow two rules:
1. Everything you read on the internet and in email is a complete and utter lie from someone you do not know, which will steal all your money, rot your brain, and leave you (male or female) with an unwanted love child. You should completely delete all email before reading.
2. See Rule #1.
Microsoft advocates Trustworthy Computing. I recommend Paranoid Computing instead, because *nobody* can be trusted!
It's called talking to yourself.
I'd rather wait for one named after Bill The Cat, if you don't mind. I'll "Breathed" easier.
Microsoft will change their tune, you just wait and see. When Windows 8 comes out as a GUI layer on top of BSD, they'll take it seriously.
... er ... I mean features ... in older Windows software, but, hey, that's how it goes, you know? You can't make a chicken without breaking a few eggs.
I figure it this way: Microsoft steals every other idea that comes out of Apple, what's one more?
Of course, they'll have to screw up BSD's guts so it's compatible with the vulnerabilities
Or something like that.
Then when your laptop battery explodes, it'll take out a whole city block.
Cool!
We'll strip-mine the other planets later.
Say, think of how fast we'll put a man on Mars if somebody finds *oil* there?
They just had to look for stuff covered in all that lead paint.
Nothing, it's a non-profit.
(ducks and runs)
Would I be able to still fit my password on that yellow sticky note I keep on the monitor?
Microsoft's customer is the OEMs and the resellers, not you. They don't really care if nobody ever uses Vista, so long as they keep selling it. That is why they will nod politely at petitions like this, but in they end, they will ignore all such attempts to pressure them into keeping XP. XP (and all previous versions of Microsoft Office) are now The Competition, to be eliminated from the marketplace at the first opportunity. That is why (IMHO) the next version of Office for Windows (post-2007) will not support any of the old file formats, only the new ECMA standard. If they could safely do so, they would eliminate support for XP and 2000 from Windows Networking support as well.
Even big corporations will oftentimes purchase a new OS as part of a maintenance agreement, but not use it for one reason or another, so again it's the sale that counts, not whether anybody *wants* the bloody thing.
Oh, entirely off-topic, I have yet to "upgrade" from Windows 2000 to XP, never mind Vista. The only difference between XP and Vista is that Vista is a bigger oinker, that's all.
Microsoft appears to have a core philosophy that all things in the computer should be mushed together. Every application and device driver should be allowed (and indeed encouraged) to share their innermost secrets with any process that asks. This is the reason for all of Windows' and Office's vulnerabilities. Notice the utter chaos that has ensued when Vista tightened up a few of those "I'm-ok-you're-ok" sharing paths.
One of the problems I have with the whole MS Office file design is that it includes both data and executables in the same file. There is no way to separate the two. Now, I suppose I'm out of step with the rest of the world, but those should be in separate files. As long as the data is fully documented, and has all the appropriate pieces for the purpose (style definitions, mathematical formulae), any program should be able to operate on it. IMHO, we should not be encouraging the mixture of (for example) a spreadsheet document that contains the calculations for a company's PL statement with the code (e.g., VBA) used to control data entry into that document. Simply loading the document should not put someone at risk for malware infection, because it should contain no programs in the first place. I like having powerful macros as much as the next guy, but I believe it has gone too far.If you need that much control, then write a separate program that operates on the data, and keep the data separate.
Here's a wild idea: Replace all the data files (and only data files -- no macros or exe's) on a computer with entries in a SQL database (with appropriate security, of course, to restrict sharing), so any application, from any vendor, can easily read and write it. As Microsoft proved when it tried to put SQL into the OS, this isn't as easy as I made it sound. But this may have more to do with their inability to add the old vulnerabilities into the scheme than making the whole thing work right.
Microsoft wishes to enshrine all of its past mistakes in the new format, and continue its malware-friendly development philosophy. That is wrong, and the Office 2007 file format is too flawed to be seriously considered as a universal standard (intellectual property issues aside). It's good to see a company the size of IBM fight against its acceptance.
You send a guy dressed up like a shark to the victim's place of business (Knock-knock-knock. "Candygram"), and when he opens the door, deliver the C&D letter in song (Currently in the victim's choice of Country-Western, Rock and Roll, or Traditional Blues). Why, it's genius! A whole new business model in support of America's #1 service industry, Lawsuits. Think of the possibilities!
Now if I could just find that harmonica.
...Listening to all the experts tell you why their opinion is the Only Real Universal Truth, then deciding they're all full of cow chips and going with your own gut feelings.
Parents who at least get involved with their kids are doing their job. Those who use technology as a babysitter while they themselves vegetate in front of ESPN or Opra need to be smacked upside their heads and made to stand in the corner until they get a clue, the slackers!
That explains why knots spontaneously form in wires and cables when you stick them in a box, but what about the way knots spontaneously come undone in your shoe laces? Perhaps in an alternate universe, shoe laces spontaneously knot themselves, and wires and cables untangle in storage. Of course, with that sort of altered physics, Homer Simpson would probably be the President of the United States.
Oh, wait.
Wasn't that something they had back in the late Twentieth Century? You know, before Bit Torrent and the Internet?
Hey, to all the pundits like the fellow who wrote TFA, I just want to say that I'm still using Windows 2000, and use XP only when I absolutely have to. I've disliked XP from the very beginning, and haven't changed my opinion in the intervening years. Just because Microsoft came up with something even more ugly, bloated, and bollixed up than XP, doesn't make XP any more desirable than it was before.