Cool Technology with no practical use
on
Why Wave Failed
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· Score: 1
When Google couldn't figure out a functional use for Wave, and kind of threw it out for the public to find a use for it, the writing was on the wall.
Real time typing... Awesome you get to watch people hunt and peck, correct spelling, rethink what they are writing, etc etc. Does any of that help their communication? No.
Drag and drop files. Useful, but no auto-verisioning / checkin checkout makes it no more useful than emailing the file.
Open to develop widgets. Awesome, now I can add 25 different choose your own adventure bots to add into your wave. Still widget writers can't find a functional use.
People talking about it being great for communication that needs to be more formal than IM, yet more real-time than email, and more dynamic than a wiki. So there is a use. How much of people's daily communication would fall into this category? I don't think the percentage of most people's daily communication that could fall into this category made it worth their time to learn wave.
New Technology with no practical application may be cool but it's not technology.
Why can't I do a print preview, print selected, or adjust orientation in Chrome? This is basic functionality that every other browser does just fine. I'm glad that 18 months after print preview being requested in chrome, that it's been catagorized behind things like domain specific zoom level memory. Way to prioritize things Google....
This is not true. How useable would Facebook be without requiring a password to log in? Yes it would be easier to get in, but you would lose any trust in the application as anyone could be posting as anyone else. A system should be as secure as the data you are trying to protect within it.
Though now that I think about it, I'm wondering: why aren't smart cards used more in corporations? Wouldn't it be convenient for people to log in with the same ID they use to get into their workplace building or floor?
Just a thought...
Enterprise Single Sign On projects always starts with this same (what I would argue flawed) logic.
It would be very convenient for me if my house key also started my car, opened hotel doors and my rental car when I travel, and opened my safe deposit box at the bank. Does this sound like a good idea? Moving systems to a single authentication system can make sense, but most of the time getting a true single sign on requires you replicate password changes to systems that cannot change their authentication source and then you end up with the weakest link (say a messaging client that stores the password as an md5 hash) having the key to accessing your most guarded systems (i.e. payroll systems).
You are only looking at one factor to a password policy. The effectiveness of a password policy is the correlation of all of the factors.
Password composition (min characters, character set requirements) - Helps make dictionary attacks more difficult.
Password expiration (change your password every x days) - Helps eliminate shared accounts, prevents compromised accounts from staying compromised forever.
Authentication Lockout (temporarily locking an account after x number of incorrect attempts) - protects against brute force and dictionary attacks.
Attestation (verifying account is needed and authorizations associated to it are correct every x months) - protects against abandoned accounts.
While you can argue whether some of these policies in and of themselves are effective, when combined into a single policy they are far more effective than the sum of their parts.
For example, your argument that automated hacking tools make password expiration useless is only valid if you don't also have a password lockout policy as well.
They did kind of talk about this with the Home Server offering. Basically they talked about being able to add storage and have it available from any machine in your home network, and even the ability to move content from one machine to another (xbox to Home Server to... ewwww Zune.
From the keynote:
Windows Home Server for homes with multiple PCs, Xboxs, want storage available at all times. Coming out 2nd half of this year. "Features: automated backup, connectivity to all PCs, Zune, Xbox, and remote connectivity, if you're somewhere else, can come in and get files in secure way. No complexity. If you want to grow capacity, just plug new storage in, lots of expandability, software automatically detects it. Can get terabytes of data on this device."
-----------------
If this can be done easily and SECURELY, this would absolutely rock. However this is Microsoft we are talking about, so I'm not so sure about this one...
6:20 (PST) - The connection is spotty as hell, but Ryan and I are here at the Bill Gates keynote, which should be starting shortly. Stay tuned for updates -- at least barring a failure of our EV-DO lifeline.
6:22 - They're asking us to take our seats
6:25 - Over the PA: "Ladies and gentlemen, the keynote is beginning in five minutes."
6:33 - Eight minutes later: "Ladies and gentlemen, the keynote will begin in two minutes." See, even Microsoft's keynotes can't launch on time... We kid, we kid!
6:36 - Lights are dimming, looks like we're about to get going. It's starting. A visual history of CES is playing on the giant monitors next to the stage.
6:39 - Gary Shapiro, President of the CEA is on stage. He's giving the usual spiel about all the industry leaders who are speaking this year.
6:41 - "It is my great privilege to introduce Bill Gates as a featured speaker."
6:44 - They're showing highlights from past Gates keynotes - this is the 10th year he's spoken.
6:47 - Another video, this one showing hip young people using Microsoft technology. Zunes a-squirting!
6:49 - Bill Gates is walking out on stage. "Good evening, I've always loved coming back from Xmas to go right into the most manic environment ever. Are you going to keep giving the keynote, but not sure about after that, might be talking more about infectious diseases."
6:50 - "It's amazing to see the progress over the course of the year. The digital decade is truly happening. 65% of homes have digital cameras. More broadband penetration. 40% of homes have multiple computers."
Portable devices proliferating, growing part of the PC market, connections with WiFi and 3G, getting information wherever you go."
6:52 - "What are some the metrics we have here. Devices with high fidelity. Six megapixel cameras and up. high definition screens that make you drool. Now it connects up to high def cable, PC, games. All taking advantage of that capability. Network bandwidth has gone up. Processors opening memory capacity up to 64bit."
Graphics revolution let's us represent reality on screen. Seeing in games, VR, presentation richness that all these great devices deliver. It's really quite phenomenal. Storage space, people are talking terabytes, or even petabytes of storage."
6:53 - "We have amazing hardware, love walking the floor, who has the biggest LCD, the biggest hard disk. But we need to deliver on promise of digital decade. Delivering means more than just great hardware. CE defined as much broader industry."
6:55 - "An enviroment where people want to do things across multiple devices with many different people. Delivering on connected experiences, where people are productive, where they're mobile, playing games, that's key element that's missing. For Microsoft, it's a big big milestone, foundational products are moving into the marketplace. First of that is Vista, lots of hard work. Most important release of Windows ever, highest quality, we've ever done."
6:56 - "Vista and the PC continue to have a central role, all these devices have to work together. Vista is a big project, rather than talk about features, rather talk about what we've been through."
6:57 - "Process we've been through, Beta 2., out to 2 million people, RC out to 5 million, in depth went in and interviewed people in seven different countries. Biggest investment ever into a piece of software, by the far the most used piece of software, any improvements can save time and enable people to do amazing things."
With Office, new UI, connect up to Office Live services, richness improved by UI. Features users couldn't find, now they can find. New UI was a risk, but it's worke
the TCP/IP stack and Other things that Microsoft stole from BSD...
I think you may not understand the BSD license. Maybe you should do a little research and see what a truely free license looks like. I get so tired of the constant lip service from the Linux crowd about the importance of Free and Open Source Software when everything in the Linux world is GNU GPL based. If these people truely believed in releasing code to be used freely by others, they would be releasing it under a BSD style license instead of the GPL.
Correct, but bias can and does show up in how people cherry-pick statistics to "prove" their point, and in the language people use to state their conclusion.
Wal-Mart has indeed made a policy of annihilating unions, shutting down entire stores to do so. It has crushed suppliers into a no-win situations.
From the language you use to relay these facts, you are also attempting to portray the company as some sort of evil monster. If you are trying to just state facts, then this kind of bias is completely uncalled for.
It has dropped wages overall
Wages have gone up, but comparing them selectively against other wage increases, their wages haven't gone up as much, which leads to the "dropped wages" arguement. While it may be a valid criticism, without stating the context of these dropped wages you are being factually incorrect as wages have gone up if you compare them to a baseline of zero.
It has pumped manufacturing overseas. It has passed health care costs onto the taxpayers.
So it is factually correct so say that Walmart has passed their healthcare costs onto Taxpayers? So what portion of Walmarts annual healthcare bill does Walmart turn over to to government to be paid? None of it of course. Now through their scheduling practices they, like a multitude of other companies, have minimized the number of workers that they are required to provide Healthcare for. While a result of that fact may be more healthcare cost fall on the shoulders of taxpayers, you are stating this as if it is Walmarts fault. If you are going to blame this on something though, it would probably be more fair to blame the problem on our labor laws, as changing Walmart's practice on this would not fix the multitude of other companies that use similiar tactics.
These are things that are real. They are not opinions.
Bias is not an opinion. Bias is an unfair act of judgement based on personal prejudice. By your personal dislike for the practices of Walmart, you have shown bias in how you have stated these "facts".
So the job of an editor is to change a person's statement to view what the editor believes they mean versus what they actually said? Let me edit your post in this fashion and lets see what happens...
The only reason comments like those are made is so he can have references and future employers won't be less likely to hire him because he will feel freely to badmouth his them if he leaves. Nothing can be more fake than comments like those so I don't see how the slashdot editors failed at all. We were just being protected from the necessary babble ensuring nobody is mad and everyone can still find work.
...while still enforcing the idea of Free (as in Freedom) software
The GPL has never been about Free as in Freedom, that would be the BSD license.
The GPL is free as in free to hang with the cool kids as long as you dress the same way and say you like the same stuff. It is the equivalent of teaching someone how to fish, but only if they promise to not only give away any fish they catch, but also to teach anyone else who walks by for the rest of their lives how to fish as well. While you can argue the merit of the restrictions, by definition, restricting something's use is restricting the user's freedom. The GPL is not about freedom, it's about The Open Source Movement(TM)
If you want to release your code freely, use the BSD license and release it freely to all. Releasing it with such ideological and restrictive clauses as the GPL possesses, is more of a "as long as you believe the same stuff I do and march in line with the other penguins" kind of a thing.
Per The Register article here, they are moving to Sharepoint, which is a big step up functionality-wise from Office, and is a whole world of functionality from what StarOffice could offer.
Document and team collaberation, automatic versioning, task managment, Document consolidation, Sharepoint may turn out to be Microsoft's killer app for businesses. Sets up easy, and can be rolled out to non-technical users thoughout the business to create and maintain their own departmental sites. I
It depends on what I need.
If I am going on a long trip, I use MS Street and Trip as it can configure the route for things like speed limits for different roads, road construction, fuel stops, rest areas, hotels, etc.
If I am looking for a service though, yahoo maps and their yellow pages service kick butt compared to Google's map / local service.
If I want good satalitte imagery and a truely staggering amount of information, I use PortlandMaps.com. While it is local to Portland, Oregon, this has anything and everything I could ask for. Crime maps, Satalitte / Arial imagery down to 6 inches (much closer than Google's). Property value, planned road improvements, Public works, sewer and water lines, school districts, Census information. They give me information that neither google nor microsoft could provide nationwide, let alone worldwide.
Microsoft isn't the only copycat company. Google has come up with what ideas of their own? Did they invent the search engine? No, they just made a better one. Did they create the first News aggerator? No, they just automated it. Is maps.google.com the first mapping service? No, and it's isn't nearly best out there (at least not yet). Free toolbar that blocks popup adds? Not the first. Software to archive photos? Already been done.
Google does the same thing Microsoft does. They take other people ideas and try to make them profitable for themselves. They are both highly successful at this, Google just tends to make a better product while they are at it.
We already have PortlandMaps. You can see crime maps, tax maps, appraised value, bus routes, upcoming road improvments, much better satallite imagery... Google Maps has nothing on these guys. Every city should have something like this.
Had you read the Parent Post, you would have noticed he was talking about problems he/she had installing it in the second half of last year. It was in reply to the grandparent post's claim that Linux has been 64 bit for 2 years.
My god that IIS 6 is insecure! One unpatched non-critical vulnerability, and 3 total in 2 and a half years is completely unacceptable. Good thing we have safe and secure Apache. One wait, Apache has more.
And the non-mainstream comment? I'm not sure what you are implying, but saying IIS is unfit to be used as only 20% of the market uses it, is akin to claiming Linux and Mac OS X as unfit for desktop use as combined they still have less than 20% of the market share. Your logic seems a bit fuzzy.
This is basically what every MMORPG does....and it's a crock, because it's basically paying the company to use YOUR resources.
Plenty of people are willing to use the bandwidth they pay for to download games (be it legally for open source software, or illegally for liberated/copyrightinfringement software).
It's a whole different kettle of fish when your bandwidth goes to pay for THEIR costs.
A fairer scheme would be that they'd give you the internet connection for free in exchange for you subscribing to their service
While I shudder to think that anyone would try to liken their downloading of copyrighted music and movies to the civil rights movement, I'll bite on your analogy.
What would Rosa Parks' actions have accompished by themselves? Absolutely nothing. She wasn't the first person to be arrested under those laws (see people like Claudette Colvin). Change in the law came because of people like Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. and Jo Ann Robinson starting the Montgomery Bus Boycotts. It didn't happen overnight either. It took well over a year of boycotting to finally get the laws changed.
My point is, if you want to change something, take action to make the change. Simply ignoring a law and continously breaking it will not change the law, and will not protect you from it.
In this age of consumerism, I doubt we'll ever get to the point where a large enough segment of society is willing to sacrifice the entertainment they receive from music and movies for a year or longer in an attempt to fix the problem.
Sounds like someone is a little too infatuated with their Minmei doll.
This dancing robot thing has come out way ahead of schedule. Minemei isn't even scheduled to win Miss Macross until December 2009, so the Zentrati shouldn't get their first dancing Minmei dolls until 2010 sometime.
Slashdot Mirror
When Google couldn't figure out a functional use for Wave, and kind of threw it out for the public to find a use for it, the writing was on the wall.
Real time typing... Awesome you get to watch people hunt and peck, correct spelling, rethink what they are writing, etc etc. Does any of that help their communication? No.
Drag and drop files. Useful, but no auto-verisioning / checkin checkout makes it no more useful than emailing the file.
Open to develop widgets. Awesome, now I can add 25 different choose your own adventure bots to add into your wave. Still widget writers can't find a functional use.
People talking about it being great for communication that needs to be more formal than IM, yet more real-time than email, and more dynamic than a wiki. So there is a use. How much of people's daily communication would fall into this category? I don't think the percentage of most people's daily communication that could fall into this category made it worth their time to learn wave.
New Technology with no practical application may be cool but it's not technology.
Supporting 10 Linux desktops in 10 browser tabs? I like the sound of that."
or you know you could just be a good unix admin and use ssh.
Why can't I do a print preview, print selected, or adjust orientation in Chrome? This is basic functionality that every other browser does just fine. I'm glad that 18 months after print preview being requested in chrome, that it's been catagorized behind things like domain specific zoom level memory. Way to prioritize things Google....
http://www.google.com/support/forum/p/Chrome/thread?tid=29ea05faa34bade4&hl=en
Increased security always decreases usability.
This is not true. How useable would Facebook be without requiring a password to log in? Yes it would be easier to get in, but you would lose any trust in the application as anyone could be posting as anyone else. A system should be as secure as the data you are trying to protect within it.
Though now that I think about it, I'm wondering: why aren't smart cards used more in corporations? Wouldn't it be convenient for people to log in with the same ID they use to get into their workplace building or floor?
Just a thought...
Enterprise Single Sign On projects always starts with this same (what I would argue flawed) logic.
It would be very convenient for me if my house key also started my car, opened hotel doors and my rental car when I travel, and opened my safe deposit box at the bank. Does this sound like a good idea? Moving systems to a single authentication system can make sense, but most of the time getting a true single sign on requires you replicate password changes to systems that cannot change their authentication source and then you end up with the weakest link (say a messaging client that stores the password as an md5 hash) having the key to accessing your most guarded systems (i.e. payroll systems).
You are only looking at one factor to a password policy. The effectiveness of a password policy is the correlation of all of the factors.
Password composition (min characters, character set requirements) - Helps make dictionary attacks more difficult.
Password expiration (change your password every x days) - Helps eliminate shared accounts, prevents compromised accounts from staying compromised forever.
Authentication Lockout (temporarily locking an account after x number of incorrect attempts) - protects against brute force and dictionary attacks.
Attestation (verifying account is needed and authorizations associated to it are correct every x months) - protects against abandoned accounts.
While you can argue whether some of these policies in and of themselves are effective, when combined into a single policy they are far more effective than the sum of their parts.
For example, your argument that automated hacking tools make password expiration useless is only valid if you don't also have a password lockout policy as well.
Hmmm... proxy settings button is greyed out??? Beta Safari, you are dead to me...
They did kind of talk about this with the Home Server offering. Basically they talked about being able to add storage and have it available from any machine in your home network, and even the ability to move content from one machine to another (xbox to Home Server to... ewwww Zune.
From the keynote:
Windows Home Server for homes with multiple PCs, Xboxs, want storage available at all times. Coming out 2nd half of this year. "Features: automated backup, connectivity to all PCs, Zune, Xbox, and remote connectivity, if you're somewhere else, can come in and get files in secure way. No complexity. If you want to grow capacity, just plug new storage in, lots of expandability, software automatically detects it. Can get terabytes of data on this device."
-----------------
If this can be done easily and SECURELY, this would absolutely rock. However this is Microsoft we are talking about, so I'm not so sure about this one...
There was a ton more announced than what is listed in the headline...
From http://www.engadget.com/2007/01/07/live-from-the-b ill-gates-keynote/
6:20 (PST) - The connection is spotty as hell, but Ryan and I are here at the Bill Gates keynote, which should be starting shortly. Stay tuned for updates -- at least barring a failure of our EV-DO lifeline.
6:22 - They're asking us to take our seats
6:25 - Over the PA: "Ladies and gentlemen, the keynote is beginning in five minutes."
6:33 - Eight minutes later: "Ladies and gentlemen, the keynote will begin in two minutes." See, even Microsoft's keynotes can't launch on time... We kid, we kid!
6:36 - Lights are dimming, looks like we're about to get going. It's starting. A visual history of CES is playing on the giant monitors next to the stage.
6:39 - Gary Shapiro, President of the CEA is on stage. He's giving the usual spiel about all the industry leaders who are speaking this year.
6:41 - "It is my great privilege to introduce Bill Gates as a featured speaker."
6:44 - They're showing highlights from past Gates keynotes - this is the 10th year he's spoken.
6:47 - Another video, this one showing hip young people using Microsoft technology. Zunes a-squirting!
6:49 - Bill Gates is walking out on stage. "Good evening, I've always loved coming back from Xmas to go right into the most manic environment ever. Are you going to keep giving the keynote, but not sure about after that, might be talking more about infectious diseases."
6:50 - "It's amazing to see the progress over the course of the year. The digital decade is truly happening. 65% of homes have digital cameras. More broadband penetration. 40% of homes have multiple computers."
Portable devices proliferating, growing part of the PC market, connections with WiFi and 3G, getting information wherever you go."
6:52 - "What are some the metrics we have here. Devices with high fidelity. Six megapixel cameras and up. high definition screens that make you drool. Now it connects up to high def cable, PC, games. All taking advantage of that capability. Network bandwidth has gone up. Processors opening memory capacity up to 64bit."
Graphics revolution let's us represent reality on screen. Seeing in games, VR, presentation richness that all these great devices deliver. It's really quite phenomenal. Storage space, people are talking terabytes, or even petabytes of storage."
6:53 - "We have amazing hardware, love walking the floor, who has the biggest LCD, the biggest hard disk. But we need to deliver on promise of digital decade. Delivering means more than just great hardware. CE defined as much broader industry."
6:55 - "An enviroment where people want to do things across multiple devices with many different people. Delivering on connected experiences, where people are productive, where they're mobile, playing games, that's key element that's missing. For Microsoft, it's a big big milestone, foundational products are moving into the marketplace. First of that is Vista, lots of hard work. Most important release of Windows ever, highest quality, we've ever done."
6:56 - "Vista and the PC continue to have a central role, all these devices have to work together. Vista is a big project, rather than talk about features, rather talk about what we've been through."
6:57 - "Process we've been through, Beta 2., out to 2 million people, RC out to 5 million, in depth went in and interviewed people in seven different countries. Biggest investment ever into a piece of software, by the far the most used piece of software, any improvements can save time and enable people to do amazing things."
With Office, new UI, connect up to Office Live services, richness improved by UI. Features users couldn't find, now they can find. New UI was a risk, but it's worke
the TCP/IP stack and Other things that Microsoft stole from BSD... I think you may not understand the BSD license. Maybe you should do a little research and see what a truely free license looks like. I get so tired of the constant lip service from the Linux crowd about the importance of Free and Open Source Software when everything in the Linux world is GNU GPL based. If these people truely believed in releasing code to be used freely by others, they would be releasing it under a BSD style license instead of the GPL.
It is NOT BIAS to conclude that a thing is true.
Correct, but bias can and does show up in how people cherry-pick statistics to "prove" their point, and in the language people use to state their conclusion.
Wal-Mart has indeed made a policy of annihilating unions, shutting down entire stores to do so. It has crushed suppliers into a no-win situations.
From the language you use to relay these facts, you are also attempting to portray the company as some sort of evil monster. If you are trying to just state facts, then this kind of bias is completely uncalled for.
It has dropped wages overall
Wages have gone up, but comparing them selectively against other wage increases, their wages haven't gone up as much, which leads to the "dropped wages" arguement. While it may be a valid criticism, without stating the context of these dropped wages you are being factually incorrect as wages have gone up if you compare them to a baseline of zero.
It has pumped manufacturing overseas. It has passed health care costs onto the taxpayers.
So it is factually correct so say that Walmart has passed their healthcare costs onto Taxpayers? So what portion of Walmarts annual healthcare bill does Walmart turn over to to government to be paid? None of it of course. Now through their scheduling practices they, like a multitude of other companies, have minimized the number of workers that they are required to provide Healthcare for. While a result of that fact may be more healthcare cost fall on the shoulders of taxpayers, you are stating this as if it is Walmarts fault. If you are going to blame this on something though, it would probably be more fair to blame the problem on our labor laws, as changing Walmart's practice on this would not fix the multitude of other companies that use similiar tactics.
These are things that are real. They are not opinions.
Bias is not an opinion. Bias is an unfair act of judgement based on personal prejudice. By your personal dislike for the practices of Walmart, you have shown bias in how you have stated these "facts".
I agree that it is a terrible name. Now if you'll excuse me, I drank too much soda and need to go take a wicked Nintendo.
The only reason comments like those are made is so he can have references and future employers won't be less likely to hire him because he will feel freely to badmouth his them if he leaves. Nothing can be more fake than comments like those so I don't see how the slashdot editors failed at all. We were just being protected from the necessary babble ensuring nobody is mad and everyone can still find work.
Hmmm... Maybe it does work.
...while still enforcing the idea of Free (as in Freedom) software
The GPL has never been about Free as in Freedom, that would be the BSD license.
The GPL is free as in free to hang with the cool kids as long as you dress the same way and say you like the same stuff. It is the equivalent of teaching someone how to fish, but only if they promise to not only give away any fish they catch, but also to teach anyone else who walks by for the rest of their lives how to fish as well. While you can argue the merit of the restrictions, by definition, restricting something's use is restricting the user's freedom. The GPL is not about freedom, it's about The Open Source Movement(TM)
If you want to release your code freely, use the BSD license and release it freely to all. Releasing it with such ideological and restrictive clauses as the GPL possesses, is more of a "as long as you believe the same stuff I do and march in line with the other penguins" kind of a thing.
Per The Register article here, they are moving to Sharepoint, which is a big step up functionality-wise from Office, and is a whole world of functionality from what StarOffice could offer.
Document and team collaberation, automatic versioning, task managment, Document consolidation, Sharepoint may turn out to be Microsoft's killer app for businesses. Sets up easy, and can be rolled out to non-technical users thoughout the business to create and maintain their own departmental sites. I
It depends on what I need. If I am going on a long trip, I use MS Street and Trip as it can configure the route for things like speed limits for different roads, road construction, fuel stops, rest areas, hotels, etc.
If I am looking for a service though, yahoo maps and their yellow pages service kick butt compared to Google's map / local service.
If I want good satalitte imagery and a truely staggering amount of information, I use PortlandMaps.com. While it is local to Portland, Oregon, this has anything and everything I could ask for. Crime maps, Satalitte / Arial imagery down to 6 inches (much closer than Google's). Property value, planned road improvements, Public works, sewer and water lines, school districts, Census information. They give me information that neither google nor microsoft could provide nationwide, let alone worldwide.
Microsoft isn't the only copycat company. Google has come up with what ideas of their own? Did they invent the search engine? No, they just made a better one. Did they create the first News aggerator? No, they just automated it. Is maps.google.com the first mapping service? No, and it's isn't nearly best out there (at least not yet). Free toolbar that blocks popup adds? Not the first. Software to archive photos? Already been done.
Google does the same thing Microsoft does. They take other people ideas and try to make them profitable for themselves. They are both highly successful at this, Google just tends to make a better product while they are at it.
We already have PortlandMaps. You can see crime maps, tax maps, appraised value, bus routes, upcoming road improvments, much better satallite imagery... Google Maps has nothing on these guys. Every city should have something like this.
Had you read the Parent Post, you would have noticed he was talking about problems he/she had installing it in the second half of last year. It was in reply to the grandparent post's claim that Linux has been 64 bit for 2 years.
My god that IIS 6 is insecure! One unpatched non-critical vulnerability, and 3 total in 2 and a half years is completely unacceptable. Good thing we have safe and secure Apache. One wait, Apache has more.
And the non-mainstream comment? I'm not sure what you are implying, but saying IIS is unfit to be used as only 20% of the market uses it, is akin to claiming Linux and Mac OS X as unfit for desktop use as combined they still have less than 20% of the market share. Your logic seems a bit fuzzy.
So you're saying that two frozen light optical supercomputers aught to be enough for everybody? Mr. Gates... Is that you?
Plenty of people are willing to use the bandwidth they pay for to download games (be it legally for open source software, or illegally for liberated/copyrightinfringement software).
It's a whole different kettle of fish when your bandwidth goes to pay for THEIR costs.
A fairer scheme would be that they'd give you the internet connection for free in exchange for you subscribing to their service
If you need another mirror, you can try my site.
Tell that to Rosa Parks.
While I shudder to think that anyone would try to liken their downloading of copyrighted music and movies to the civil rights movement, I'll bite on your analogy.
What would Rosa Parks' actions have accompished by themselves? Absolutely nothing. She wasn't the first person to be arrested under those laws (see people like Claudette Colvin). Change in the law came because of people like Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. and Jo Ann Robinson starting the Montgomery Bus Boycotts. It didn't happen overnight either. It took well over a year of boycotting to finally get the laws changed.
My point is, if you want to change something, take action to make the change. Simply ignoring a law and continously breaking it will not change the law, and will not protect you from it.
In this age of consumerism, I doubt we'll ever get to the point where a large enough segment of society is willing to sacrifice the entertainment they receive from music and movies for a year or longer in an attempt to fix the problem.
If you don't like the law, work to change it. Don't think that you can get away with breaking it because you don't believe in it.
Sounds like someone is a little too infatuated with their Minmei doll.
This dancing robot thing has come out way ahead of schedule. Minemei isn't even scheduled to win Miss Macross until December 2009, so the Zentrati shouldn't get their first dancing Minmei dolls until 2010 sometime.