I have a Nextel phone. I opted not to pay for the ability to send and recieve text messages. 2 months in I get 2 message form Nextel advertising their add-on services, and I was charged a nickle a peice for them! Of course when I complaied they credit the charges and promised to put a block on the account so no text messages could be sent. They couldn't answer me why they had to block something that wasn't ever enabled in the first place.
Seems like a tricky revenue stream to me. How many thousands of people don't check their bill close enough to see that they are being scammed by the phone company? Outside spammers aside, the phone company IS the spammer, and profiting from it even if you don't buy the product!
I started *trying* to use Linux as a desktop 3 years ago. Couldn't do it, until just under 2 years ago. Mozilla 1.1 was quite usable, OO.org was usable, UT performed better than on Windows, My HP OfficeJet works (I don't fax from a my PC), camera works, wireless keyboard mouse works, and UPS USB monitoring works. I can browse the web, write documents, create spreadsheets, play the only game to ever hold my attention for more than a month, organise my photo's, scan, print, and all this without searching for drivers or even rebooting once during the whole installation and configuration phase.
Granted, I'm a geek, one that get's paid for it too. I like working with PC's, hardware and software. Dropping to a command line isn't something I loath, I have at least one open all the time. Can I use Linux, and I mean do any of my desktop tasks, without the command line? Yes, I can now, but not 2 years ago.
Why was I so anxious to use Linux as my desktop? Do I hate Microsoft? Do I like to "tinker" with my PC all day?
I'll tell you. When I had Windows installed, I tinkered with my PC all the time. Usualy trying to just make it do what I wanted it to do. I found myself more and more frustrated at my PC. At the same time, I had a co-located server running linux, and realized that when I wanted my server to do something I could just make it work. I needed this on my desktop PC, something that I could just make work, no matter what it was. I loved Linux on the server so I tried it on the desktop, several times, and when that last time came I keep a dual boot. Months went by and I hadn't booted to windows. And I liked it!
almost 2 years later here I am, running Linux desktops at home and at work. At work though I still have Win2k in a VMWare because there are some things I have to support that just aren't going to work in Linux, probably ever. At home I also run windows on my laptop, Linux isn't quite there yet, APCI just isn't standard enough or something, it just doens't work right.
Is Linux for everyone? no. Mostly because some people don't like change. Linux is for those that are frustrated and want something new but can't afford a Mac (and I tried a mac too, pre-OSX though, didn't like that either). Linux is for those just entering the PC market. Linux is also for smart poeple. Example: The first time my girlfriend spend the night she got up in the morning, checked her email, didn't have any problems using linux for the first time, and didn't even say anything about the PC being different. She didn't know it was Linux and didn't care. She's used it to write, and print, papers for her masters degree, all her internet needs, likes GAIM better than even AOL's AIM, and all with little or no instruction from me. To be fair, her Mom is a MacHead so she used mac's for a long time before using Windows at school. Now that she knows it's Linux she doesn't expect it be just like Windows, she knows Mac and Windows are different, Linux being different was no suprize.
Does your PC frustrate you? Willing to forget most of what you know about a PC and start over? Try Linux! Just like getting a new job, or going on a diet, or starting a new excercise plan, or anything that's supposed to be "better", you will have to make some changes. But Linux is more flexible and willing to do things the way you want, but you're going to have to find new programs to replace those Windows favorites.
It's been worth it, if for nothing other than to keep what sanity my kids let me have.
type 5: from what I remember, money to rent a dvd was sparse in college, and when cach was on hand drinking beer was way more common that dl'ing a video. so, IMO, none lost there too.
#6? well, that's just issues and I don't think it applies to CAM's.
and keep in mind we're taking about CAM's and not the better quality dvd rips or SVCD TS's, that's a whole different topic.
the ones best buy offers are pretty much crap. They don't even seem to cover as much as the manufacturer warrantee.
In general the replacement plans are a gamble. I've bought a few that I've never used, and I've bought a few that I have used, and a few times when I didn't buy one and ended up wishing I had. It's a crap shoot, sometimes it saves you money, sometimes it's a waste, I think I've done better than break even over the years which is a lot better than my casino record.
The latest one I came out good on was the plan I got my PDA. The LCD when bad in just under a year, I could have mailed it and had it fixed but decided to use the replacement plan. They (NOT best buy, they have nothing I want) didn't have a "compairable" replacement for the same price as I originaly paid so I had to wait 4 days for the claim for a store credit to be proceessed. It came through and they even gave me a prorated credit on the remainder of the old warrantee. For $30 out of pocket I got a much better PDA and a free 2-year replacement plan because it was an open box item.
So, the plans aren't complete crap, but they are a gamble. I'd probably buy one for anything with an LCD in the future.
that's when they added working code to CVS, 2 months after the patent was filed. Now we just need documentation of when they first sketched out the IDEA to make it in the first place. Then we've got prior art and furthur proof that MS is constantly stealing ideas from linux desktops.
have you seen north korea lately? well, me neither but I've seen pictures and it already looks a lot like a parking lot. there's too many poeple for the land to support, and they don't like playing with others so there's little imports and exports to generate revenue and bring in food, and due to politics there's not enough humanitarian aide to go around. The poeple are eating rats and mice and bugs cause that's what's left to eat.
the bitch is that these starving, oppressed, people have been effectively brainwashed into actually liking the leaders so they aren't willing to do anything about it themselves.
...if the MS developer in question was a co-founder of Netscape or Opera or something. I think this isn't compairable, from Google's POV he wrote the code in the first place, so unless there's a signed non-compete/transfer-of-copyright agreement between Orkut and his former partners that was previously made accessable to Google then how is Google supposed to know?
have you ever actually seen a CAM video? my $deity, it's worth NOTHING! Sneaking in is worth A LOT more than a 100 CAM copies.
In general, those that watch CAM copies fit into one of these categories:
a) wasn't going to see it in the theater or on DVD anyway but since it's there and free...nothing lost
2. already saw it in the theater X-times and wouldnt mind watching it at home sometime before the DVD comes out, and will buy the DVD when it does come out...nothing lost here either
III: Want's to preview the PG or PG-13 to determine if the little ones can handle watching it or if a sitter will be in order (you can't trust the ratings, after all LOTR and Austin Powers are both PG-13 and there's NO WAY I'm letting my 8 year old see that 1.5 hour long penis joke)... only loose sales if the movie is crap to begin with
D) just likes collecting things, probably won't ever watch it anyway...nothing lost again
in summary: CAM's don't loose revenue.
CAM movie quality is crap at best, most of them are barely even watchable, you might as well stand at the door and try to watch through the crack. Telecine or telesync caps can be near DVD quality though, and are usualy take FROM THE BOOTH by the guy that runs the camera using a $2000 camera! This is the real piracy "problem", not the kid with the $300 dv-cam.
except that it's PSEUDOCODE and "list" initialization is a language dependant thing, some langs don't need initialization, or do it automaticaly when declared (and you didn't complain about A B C D not beinf delcared) and some langs have many options as to what exactly a "list" might be, and different ways to initialize each.
feel free to be anal about actual code though, the more code nazi's the better.
Inside ear-rings? Sorry, but I've seen the photos of that corporate executive lady who spent three or four hours on her cell every day. Nice cancerous ring around the ear section of the skull.
so put a bluetooth headset in the ear-ring and the phone in a pocket or something. This way the cancer forms around the reproductive organs and we solve some population explosion prolems too!
hotmail delays and denies messages at random, I think so as to make Windows users feel at home. If everything worked without issue windows users would feel uncomfortable.
By "Linux" I'm referring to the kernel itself, along with X and the base applications
That's called GNU/Linux. Linux is the kernel, GNU/Linux is Linux plus at least the base GNU utils to make a system that does more than just load drivers into memory.
on the tech side, how is this different than setting up a corperate or school W/LAN minus the internet gateway? you have your own DNS, DHCP, WWW, BBS, FTP, IRC servers and donn't bother with a default gateway.
like asking "how do I make a cake, but without icing?", aren't there already enough docs on how to make a network?
You can get a 1000VA UPS for under $150 that's plenty big enough to run a 19" CRT, a rather power hungery PC (2+ HDD, 2+ optical, dual 2Ghz+ CPU, 460Watt PSU), a hub+router and a cable/dsl modem for at least 15 minutes.
you're gonna spend a lot more than $150 on a 400GB drive, I'd bet $150 for a UPS isn't a big deal.
A lot of the info is already gathered in databases like yahoo maps, with the exception of what the buildings look like, and you can get most of the data on a single CD such as with Streets and Trips. They could also take a route like Vindigo and let the user choose what areas to load on the device and just slowly expand the database as the market demands. The navigation part of this is old news, there are several products that can use a GPS to tell you where you are on a map and provide direction to get where you want to be, and even show you what buisnesses are near by along the way. The news here is the 3D images of the buildings to give you somehting more than a number to look for.
I asked one of the support guys on the forum if Xandros is getting a cut of the ad revenue from Opera, he didn't know. I wouldn't expect a 1st level support guy to know, but I wouldn't be supprized if they are.
The support guy also said that you are free to install Mozilla from Xandros Networks.
All the parts that are GPL the source is releases, as stated ina sibling post.
All the parts that aren't GPL are not infringing on the GPL and are closed source.
The GPL allows you to distribute GPL binaries along with non-GPL binaries.
The GPL allows for the sale of GPL binaries so long as the source is available.
The GPL does not allow using GPL code in a non-GPL binary. Xandros appears to follow this rule.
they use a chipset that is well supported in linux. From what I've heard, the MS wifi card is actually easier to make work in some Linux distros than in most versions of Windows thanks to the lovely "stable" windows drivers and the all too familiar dll hell.
The latest annoyance seems to be cell phones with the super bright LED ring flasher antena. Instead of a nice ring tome, you get a flash of lightning in your face. Who the hell WANTS to take a phone call in the middle of a movie? just turn the damned thing off. OFF! you know, use the power button!
That's because the games are GAMES, they are designed to NOT be realistic. If the "interactive teaching tool" is designed to be accurate and project historicaly acurate views (which it should HAVE to do in order be called a teaching tool) then what's the problem?
And from what I recall about history class there wasn't much teaching going on. You take notes, read the book, memorize some facts, and you'll at least pass. If you get a really good teacher (which is very rare in public school history classes) they might even require you to think a little in order to do more than just pass the class. Had one teacher that outright told us that as long as we had a D or better and didn't snore we were ALLOWED to sleep in his class!
These teachers wanting to use game engines to teach seem to care enough to actually DO something to ignite kids brains, I applaud them.
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I have a Nextel phone. I opted not to pay for the ability to send and recieve text messages. 2 months in I get 2 message form Nextel advertising their add-on services, and I was charged a nickle a peice for them! Of course when I complaied they credit the charges and promised to put a block on the account so no text messages could be sent. They couldn't answer me why they had to block something that wasn't ever enabled in the first place.
Seems like a tricky revenue stream to me. How many thousands of people don't check their bill close enough to see that they are being scammed by the phone company? Outside spammers aside, the phone company IS the spammer, and profiting from it even if you don't buy the product!
I started *trying* to use Linux as a desktop 3 years ago. Couldn't do it, until just under 2 years ago. Mozilla 1.1 was quite usable, OO.org was usable, UT performed better than on Windows, My HP OfficeJet works (I don't fax from a my PC), camera works, wireless keyboard mouse works, and UPS USB monitoring works. I can browse the web, write documents, create spreadsheets, play the only game to ever hold my attention for more than a month, organise my photo's, scan, print, and all this without searching for drivers or even rebooting once during the whole installation and configuration phase.
Granted, I'm a geek, one that get's paid for it too. I like working with PC's, hardware and software. Dropping to a command line isn't something I loath, I have at least one open all the time. Can I use Linux, and I mean do any of my desktop tasks, without the command line? Yes, I can now, but not 2 years ago.
Why was I so anxious to use Linux as my desktop? Do I hate Microsoft? Do I like to "tinker" with my PC all day?
I'll tell you. When I had Windows installed, I tinkered with my PC all the time. Usualy trying to just make it do what I wanted it to do. I found myself more and more frustrated at my PC. At the same time, I had a co-located server running linux, and realized that when I wanted my server to do something I could just make it work. I needed this on my desktop PC, something that I could just make work, no matter what it was. I loved Linux on the server so I tried it on the desktop, several times, and when that last time came I keep a dual boot. Months went by and I hadn't booted to windows. And I liked it!
almost 2 years later here I am, running Linux desktops at home and at work. At work though I still have Win2k in a VMWare because there are some things I have to support that just aren't going to work in Linux, probably ever. At home I also run windows on my laptop, Linux isn't quite there yet, APCI just isn't standard enough or something, it just doens't work right.
Is Linux for everyone? no. Mostly because some people don't like change. Linux is for those that are frustrated and want something new but can't afford a Mac (and I tried a mac too, pre-OSX though, didn't like that either). Linux is for those just entering the PC market. Linux is also for smart poeple. Example: The first time my girlfriend spend the night she got up in the morning, checked her email, didn't have any problems using linux for the first time, and didn't even say anything about the PC being different. She didn't know it was Linux and didn't care. She's used it to write, and print, papers for her masters degree, all her internet needs, likes GAIM better than even AOL's AIM, and all with little or no instruction from me. To be fair, her Mom is a MacHead so she used mac's for a long time before using Windows at school. Now that she knows it's Linux she doesn't expect it be just like Windows, she knows Mac and Windows are different, Linux being different was no suprize.
Does your PC frustrate you? Willing to forget most of what you know about a PC and start over? Try Linux! Just like getting a new job, or going on a diet, or starting a new excercise plan, or anything that's supposed to be "better", you will have to make some changes. But Linux is more flexible and willing to do things the way you want, but you're going to have to find new programs to replace those Windows favorites.
It's been worth it, if for nothing other than to keep what sanity my kids let me have.
technicaly (we love that word around here), playing the lottery is gambling too :P
type 5: from what I remember, money to rent a dvd was sparse in college, and when cach was on hand drinking beer was way more common that dl'ing a video. so, IMO, none lost there too.
#6? well, that's just issues and I don't think it applies to CAM's.
and keep in mind we're taking about CAM's and not the better quality dvd rips or SVCD TS's, that's a whole different topic.
the ones best buy offers are pretty much crap. They don't even seem to cover as much as the manufacturer warrantee.
In general the replacement plans are a gamble. I've bought a few that I've never used, and I've bought a few that I have used, and a few times when I didn't buy one and ended up wishing I had. It's a crap shoot, sometimes it saves you money, sometimes it's a waste, I think I've done better than break even over the years which is a lot better than my casino record.
The latest one I came out good on was the plan I got my PDA. The LCD when bad in just under a year, I could have mailed it and had it fixed but decided to use the replacement plan. They (NOT best buy, they have nothing I want) didn't have a "compairable" replacement for the same price as I originaly paid so I had to wait 4 days for the claim for a store credit to be proceessed. It came through and they even gave me a prorated credit on the remainder of the old warrantee. For $30 out of pocket I got a much better PDA and a free 2-year replacement plan because it was an open box item.
So, the plans aren't complete crap, but they are a gamble. I'd probably buy one for anything with an LCD in the future.
that's when they added working code to CVS, 2 months after the patent was filed. Now we just need documentation of when they first sketched out the IDEA to make it in the first place. Then we've got prior art and furthur proof that MS is constantly stealing ideas from linux desktops.
have you seen north korea lately? well, me neither but I've seen pictures and it already looks a lot like a parking lot. there's too many poeple for the land to support, and they don't like playing with others so there's little imports and exports to generate revenue and bring in food, and due to politics there's not enough humanitarian aide to go around. The poeple are eating rats and mice and bugs cause that's what's left to eat.
the bitch is that these starving, oppressed, people have been effectively brainwashed into actually liking the leaders so they aren't willing to do anything about it themselves.
...if the MS developer in question was a co-founder of Netscape or Opera or something. I think this isn't compairable, from Google's POV he wrote the code in the first place, so unless there's a signed non-compete/transfer-of-copyright agreement between Orkut and his former partners that was previously made accessable to Google then how is Google supposed to know?
have you ever actually seen a CAM video? my $deity, it's worth NOTHING! Sneaking in is worth A LOT more than a 100 CAM copies.
In general, those that watch CAM copies fit into one of these categories:
a) wasn't going to see it in the theater or on DVD anyway but since it's there and free...nothing lost
2. already saw it in the theater X-times and wouldnt mind watching it at home sometime before the DVD comes out, and will buy the DVD when it does come out...nothing lost here either
III: Want's to preview the PG or PG-13 to determine if the little ones can handle watching it or if a sitter will be in order (you can't trust the ratings, after all LOTR and Austin Powers are both PG-13 and there's NO WAY I'm letting my 8 year old see that 1.5 hour long penis joke)... only loose sales if the movie is crap to begin with
D) just likes collecting things, probably won't ever watch it anyway...nothing lost again
in summary: CAM's don't loose revenue.
CAM movie quality is crap at best, most of them are barely even watchable, you might as well stand at the door and try to watch through the crack. Telecine or telesync caps can be near DVD quality though, and are usualy take FROM THE BOOTH by the guy that runs the camera using a $2000 camera! This is the real piracy "problem", not the kid with the $300 dv-cam.
except that it's PSEUDOCODE and "list" initialization is a language dependant thing, some langs don't need initialization, or do it automaticaly when declared (and you didn't complain about A B C D not beinf delcared) and some langs have many options as to what exactly a "list" might be, and different ways to initialize each.
feel free to be anal about actual code though, the more code nazi's the better.
then you've never had customers using AOL and so have no experience in the matter.
Inside ear-rings? Sorry, but I've seen the photos of that corporate executive lady who spent three or four hours on her cell every day. Nice cancerous ring around the ear section of the skull.
so put a bluetooth headset in the ear-ring and the phone in a pocket or something. This way the cancer forms around the reproductive organs and we solve some population explosion prolems too!
hotmail delays and denies messages at random, I think so as to make Windows users feel at home. If everything worked without issue windows users would feel uncomfortable.
it's funny cause it's true
By "Linux" I'm referring to the kernel itself, along with X and the base applications
That's called GNU/Linux. Linux is the kernel, GNU/Linux is Linux plus at least the base GNU utils to make a system that does more than just load drivers into memory.
on the tech side, how is this different than setting up a corperate or school W/LAN minus the internet gateway? you have your own DNS, DHCP, WWW, BBS, FTP, IRC servers and donn't bother with a default gateway.
like asking "how do I make a cake, but without icing?", aren't there already enough docs on how to make a network?
next!
You can get a 1000VA UPS for under $150 that's plenty big enough to run a 19" CRT, a rather power hungery PC (2+ HDD, 2+ optical, dual 2Ghz+ CPU, 460Watt PSU), a hub+router and a cable/dsl modem for at least 15 minutes. you're gonna spend a lot more than $150 on a 400GB drive, I'd bet $150 for a UPS isn't a big deal.
A lot of the info is already gathered in databases like yahoo maps, with the exception of what the buildings look like, and you can get most of the data on a single CD such as with Streets and Trips. They could also take a route like Vindigo and let the user choose what areas to load on the device and just slowly expand the database as the market demands. The navigation part of this is old news, there are several products that can use a GPS to tell you where you are on a map and provide direction to get where you want to be, and even show you what buisnesses are near by along the way. The news here is the 3D images of the buildings to give you somehting more than a number to look for.
oh, and it's black too
so they think we're laughing WITH them?
I asked one of the support guys on the forum if Xandros is getting a cut of the ad revenue from Opera, he didn't know. I wouldn't expect a 1st level support guy to know, but I wouldn't be supprized if they are.
The support guy also said that you are free to install Mozilla from Xandros Networks.
All the parts that are GPL the source is releases, as stated ina sibling post.
All the parts that aren't GPL are not infringing on the GPL and are closed source.
The GPL allows you to distribute GPL binaries along with non-GPL binaries.
The GPL allows for the sale of GPL binaries so long as the source is available.
The GPL does not allow using GPL code in a non-GPL binary. Xandros appears to follow this rule.
they use a chipset that is well supported in linux. From what I've heard, the MS wifi card is actually easier to make work in some Linux distros than in most versions of Windows thanks to the lovely "stable" windows drivers and the all too familiar dll hell.
The latest annoyance seems to be cell phones with the super bright LED ring flasher antena. Instead of a nice ring tome, you get a flash of lightning in your face. Who the hell WANTS to take a phone call in the middle of a movie? just turn the damned thing off. OFF! you know, use the power button!
Seeing as there are farmers paid to NOT farm land so that they aren't flooding the market, yes, there's still room to grow soy.
That's because the games are GAMES, they are designed to NOT be realistic. If the "interactive teaching tool" is designed to be accurate and project historicaly acurate views (which it should HAVE to do in order be called a teaching tool) then what's the problem?
And from what I recall about history class there wasn't much teaching going on. You take notes, read the book, memorize some facts, and you'll at least pass. If you get a really good teacher (which is very rare in public school history classes) they might even require you to think a little in order to do more than just pass the class. Had one teacher that outright told us that as long as we had a D or better and didn't snore we were ALLOWED to sleep in his class!
These teachers wanting to use game engines to teach seem to care enough to actually DO something to ignite kids brains, I applaud them.