MS's problem is they haven't had a real rival in years. They are so used to being the top dog they forget how to fight. It's the same way guys who work up from the bottom suddenly develope amnesia of exactly how difficult it was to get there until using "I came from the streets!" is going to help them in politics of some sort.
Things would be no better with any company having Microsofts history, but that doesn't mean MS was set on it's current course through fate or whatever else you wish to call it.
While I am inclined to agree with 5 years you must consider the world is not that fast. Take for example classic radio stations, most of them play music 20-30 or even 40 years old hour after hour. Do we write these off or take them into account in this 5 years?
5 years sounds nice but it does not apply to everything. I mean sure for films 5 years may work but music is a different beast and paintings even more so. How do you balance all of these mediums and not punish artists who get dropped from their label when their copyright ends? This is not a black and white issue, it needs to be based on something like sales for music/videos but that would encourage format switchs and 2 minutes of extra footage added every 4 years to sell yet another box set. Or shows like Family guy that didn't take off until several years later in DVD form.
So what exactly is the balancing point between abuse and no protection at all? Do we make Mickey Mouse public domain or consider he's still being used today in new cartoons and hence actively producing content and deserving of protection for it?
Could make for a very effective nail if they found a way to sound proof things. People can't see in or out of it, they wouldn't even know it was there except they could not enter/exit it. Would be absolutely perfect for prisons and such.
I love people who think they are in the right when they arn't and have power that they don't.
You will be charged like it or not, they can and will get the money out of you for a service they are provided. Going "a part is missing" is NO EXCUSE for not paying the bill. If you keep it up they'll take you to court and win, then send a nice bayliff round to remove your goods if you still refuse to pay up.
I suggest you ring up and act POLITELY to the staff and they will help you get your answering service back on. It's all good and well that you go in with your mouth running, but they are people NOT the company, if you appeal to their nature (make them feel you're greatful for their time and help) they are more than likely to help you rather than shrug you off as "that dick who shouted at me".
Remember you're a fish in a barrel, they have all the power (oh yea you have a tiny amount of money, wooo you can buy a lollipop!), even the longest rung (the call centre) have the power over if you get results or not. So if you speak to them as human beings and use a little politeness they will use their little bit (read 'a lot') of power to help you get your service back.
Goto a play like Customers_suck on Livejournal. A lot of it is "this complete back came in earlier, bitched like fuck so I acted politely and pushed her off" but there are also posts like "this nice guy came in, he was really polite and patient even though I was having a horrible day. I was exhausted but bent over backwards to help the poor chap". And maybe you'll see that your mouth and "OMG I'LL SUE YOU! DON'T HOLD ME!" infact make you the biggest bump in your little ego based road.
Be nice, it does more than stops your mouth hitting you on the ass.
I'm in the UK and due to using all avaible resouces I was able to get a wii within a week of deciding to get one. If you keep your ears open it's not so difficult.
Why do you assume anyone can take on China? They have the largest army in the world and manufactor a massive amount of stuff for the rest of the world. China has a lot more power than people assume and if you got into a war with them you would most likely lose on "fair terms" (aka no nukes, which if you used would probably get you nuked back any way).
They have a massive amount of man power and would be extremely difficult to fight considering all the manufactoring plants they have that could be turned to weapons think of everything China makes changed to make guns and basic body armour, you could fit the entire country out in weeks).
It won't be a popular opinion but all content in a war zone needs to be carefully filtered, while "we shot three arabs today" won't cause my trouble "we shot three arabs in Baghdad today" might do so. Hence anything going in or out in any form must be checked to see if it gives their operations away.
Soldiers are much like prisoners, they have some freedoms, but at the end of the day you're on someone else's time and in a place and they make all the rules, both good and bad. If you sign up (or get sent there) you play by the rules ment to keep everyone safe.
You do understand charities often have to turn people away because they lack the space and funds to help everyone right?
I find it funny how people are so black and white with homeless people yet never grasp that one day they could be in that position with everyone refusing to give them anything to even survive.
If you watch the games section you'll notice he posts a lot of worthless shit there including his own little soap box reviews.
As I recall his excuse is "I work the late shift when stories are slow and I have to use what I have", which is clearly bullshit since it is now 8pm GMT and he's posting in pretty much prime time with the same junk.
Maybe we should all change our sigs to "Zonk belongs on Digg, not/." and e-mail Taco about it every day until he gets the hint.
'hassled by a homeless guy' Nice way of putting "asked for any change". You have no idea why some of those people are there, they aren't all drug addicts and such, give them a break for at least trying to survive rather than sit and rot in a door way as they starve to death.
The point is "open source" could so easily be distorted to the point where it's a joke, yet would still be open source if the letter of the law is followed.
MS just happens to be the focus of the article and are playing word games with OSS as it is.
One could argue that such places are not exclusively there for the heroes to visit. For example we know Rohan fought Orcs while not involved in the main conflict, purely because they kill Orcs. Why not add the area and then add stuff tto the area as the plot advances?
Start out with small scale orc patrol type quests, move onto word of strangers in the area, advance to them arriving and doing the whole kicking wormtongue out thing and then they pass on and the area can become harder (less riders around for obvious reasons) but remain true to cannon.
The mines are easier still. Large ass dungeon, full of goblins and loot, areas are blocked off by giant doors (hiding the Balrog) and make it an instance, so it still feels empty for example.
They could do it, they just want to milk it and watch people flee on mass.
So basicly a guy paid a "consultant" to abuse how Google works and then when Google changed the system to stop this happening he complains that he got punished for it?
At what point is this guy any sort of victim when he knowingly exploited the system for his own gain and got caught with his hand in the cookie jar?
But then wouldn't the spammers aim under the bar of "important"? I mean sure 3 million e-mails a second is annoying but what if they cut it down to 1 a minute? Lets say you have 500 zombies, that is still a lot of spam and we know 500 is a drop in the ocean compared to what these guys have.
It's Microsoft, they'll probably release the comments in the code and keep everything else shut in. I mean comments are part of the source code, why not just release those and claim it's open source?
It's not quite a complete lie, but it's underhanded in the evil villian sort of way.
Wouldn't that depend how you define non-violent? For example is throwing a banana skin or a red shell in Mario Kart violent?
And there are a few awesome non-violent games like Kororinpa on the Wii, which is just rolling a marble around by using the Wiimote as the level (you turn it, the level turns). It's really fun and everyone I know who played it loved it, but it isn't getting much marketing so it'll go pretty much unloved compared to say Halo 3 which will be over hyped and the same as Halo 1 in every single way.
I suppose in a way we could say the Wii opens up this market, there is a lot you can do with the Wiimote that doesn't have to involve violence, hell you could have a painting game where you have to copy art starting with a stick man with a pencil up to painting full landscapes with various paint brushs. It may not be the most exciting or original idea, but then nor was DDR and look where that is now.
Oh the BBC has comedy.. it's just not funny and clearly lost it's touch. It's all chav jokes and laughing tracks over failed 1 liners.
The BBC did great comedy in the 80s-90s, but went too Politically correct to really pull it off any more. Plus why bother with a good comedy show when some stupid thing about singing or dancing will allow you to make more money by corrupt phone votes any way?
while the number of HDTVs sold has been rising steadily.
I see statements like that and wonder if it is truely rising or if it's just that HDTVs are comming down steadily in price and so rather than wanting a HDTV they just buy the best set of features (aka what the sales guy says) which happens to be the latest TV. This would explain why more HDTVs are slowly being sold while the interest level (as far as I can see) is very low even among people with HDTV consoles which would benefit from them.
But I suppose HDTV is much like Vista. We have no real control over the market, we have a market for both (HDTV and normal TVs/Vista and XP) until the makers decide the pull the plug and we're forced to one option even if we hate it.
I wish I could be as naive as you come across in this post.
Why do you assume these artists are any more compter savvy than your average person? They like MUSIC, they play MUSIC, at no point does MUSIC = IT. This is a huge stumbling block and will be pretty much forever. These guys don't understand how the internet works or how they can do this stuff. They may want to get away but if all they know is Myspace, how the hell are they going to sort out their own shit this way?
You need to remember the RIAA maybe evil bastards, but they do it and do it well. They bribe the right people and make every window into the industry covered with kittens and puppy dogs, so you just turn up, sing some songs and then turn up to set places on set days, talk crap and walk away with a lot of money. This as evil as it is, is a service, it's making it very easy for artists to do their shit, things a lot have no idea how to even start.
You assume there are alternatives though. The music industry is much like the PC market, there is one major group (MS/RIAA companies) and then everyone else. The general public don't even know there is an everything else nor the monsters that have control of their markets.
So rather than focusing on these criminals I thought we should have a pro-online music thread in the comments.
What Internet radio stations do you listen to and why? What online artists doo you purchase songs from online? What online artists do you enjoy listening to who release their work free?
Slashdot Mirror
MS's problem is they haven't had a real rival in years. They are so used to being the top dog they forget how to fight. It's the same way guys who work up from the bottom suddenly develope amnesia of exactly how difficult it was to get there until using "I came from the streets!" is going to help them in politics of some sort.
Things would be no better with any company having Microsofts history, but that doesn't mean MS was set on it's current course through fate or whatever else you wish to call it.
While I am inclined to agree with 5 years you must consider the world is not that fast. Take for example classic radio stations, most of them play music 20-30 or even 40 years old hour after hour. Do we write these off or take them into account in this 5 years?
5 years sounds nice but it does not apply to everything. I mean sure for films 5 years may work but music is a different beast and paintings even more so. How do you balance all of these mediums and not punish artists who get dropped from their label when their copyright ends? This is not a black and white issue, it needs to be based on something like sales for music/videos but that would encourage format switchs and 2 minutes of extra footage added every 4 years to sell yet another box set. Or shows like Family guy that didn't take off until several years later in DVD form.
So what exactly is the balancing point between abuse and no protection at all? Do we make Mickey Mouse public domain or consider he's still being used today in new cartoons and hence actively producing content and deserving of protection for it?
Could make for a very effective nail if they found a way to sound proof things. People can't see in or out of it, they wouldn't even know it was there except they could not enter/exit it. Would be absolutely perfect for prisons and such.
I love people who think they are in the right when they arn't and have power that they don't.
You will be charged like it or not, they can and will get the money out of you for a service they are provided. Going "a part is missing" is NO EXCUSE for not paying the bill. If you keep it up they'll take you to court and win, then send a nice bayliff round to remove your goods if you still refuse to pay up.
I suggest you ring up and act POLITELY to the staff and they will help you get your answering service back on. It's all good and well that you go in with your mouth running, but they are people NOT the company, if you appeal to their nature (make them feel you're greatful for their time and help) they are more than likely to help you rather than shrug you off as "that dick who shouted at me".
Remember you're a fish in a barrel, they have all the power (oh yea you have a tiny amount of money, wooo you can buy a lollipop!), even the longest rung (the call centre) have the power over if you get results or not. So if you speak to them as human beings and use a little politeness they will use their little bit (read 'a lot') of power to help you get your service back.
Goto a play like Customers_suck on Livejournal. A lot of it is "this complete back came in earlier, bitched like fuck so I acted politely and pushed her off" but there are also posts like "this nice guy came in, he was really polite and patient even though I was having a horrible day. I was exhausted but bent over backwards to help the poor chap". And maybe you'll see that your mouth and "OMG I'LL SUE YOU! DON'T HOLD ME!" infact make you the biggest bump in your little ego based road.
Be nice, it does more than stops your mouth hitting you on the ass.
I'm in the UK and due to using all avaible resouces I was able to get a wii within a week of deciding to get one. If you keep your ears open it's not so difficult.
Why do you assume anyone can take on China? They have the largest army in the world and manufactor a massive amount of stuff for the rest of the world. China has a lot more power than people assume and if you got into a war with them you would most likely lose on "fair terms" (aka no nukes, which if you used would probably get you nuked back any way).
They have a massive amount of man power and would be extremely difficult to fight considering all the manufactoring plants they have that could be turned to weapons think of everything China makes changed to make guns and basic body armour, you could fit the entire country out in weeks).
Maybe it's just me but I can't see the polls any more, they used to be on the right now seem to have vanished now :(
So now everyones so afraid of losing money they all buy AWMs and camp the spawn points. First one to pop their head up dies..
CS players don't need encouragement to camp, they are already camper than Graham Norton in a gay bar.
It won't be a popular opinion but all content in a war zone needs to be carefully filtered, while "we shot three arabs today" won't cause my trouble "we shot three arabs in Baghdad today" might do so. Hence anything going in or out in any form must be checked to see if it gives their operations away.
Soldiers are much like prisoners, they have some freedoms, but at the end of the day you're on someone else's time and in a place and they make all the rules, both good and bad. If you sign up (or get sent there) you play by the rules ment to keep everyone safe.
Excuse me?
I believe my tin foil hat stops you from reading my mind, so -I- know what I ment better than you.
You do understand charities often have to turn people away because they lack the space and funds to help everyone right?
I find it funny how people are so black and white with homeless people yet never grasp that one day they could be in that position with everyone refusing to give them anything to even survive.
If you watch the games section you'll notice he posts a lot of worthless shit there including his own little soap box reviews.
/." and e-mail Taco about it every day until he gets the hint.
As I recall his excuse is "I work the late shift when stories are slow and I have to use what I have", which is clearly bullshit since it is now 8pm GMT and he's posting in pretty much prime time with the same junk.
Maybe we should all change our sigs to "Zonk belongs on Digg, not
'hassled by a homeless guy' Nice way of putting "asked for any change". You have no idea why some of those people are there, they aren't all drug addicts and such, give them a break for at least trying to survive rather than sit and rot in a door way as they starve to death.
That wasn't my point at all.
The point is "open source" could so easily be distorted to the point where it's a joke, yet would still be open source if the letter of the law is followed.
MS just happens to be the focus of the article and are playing word games with OSS as it is.
One could argue that such places are not exclusively there for the heroes to visit. For example we know Rohan fought Orcs while not involved in the main conflict, purely because they kill Orcs. Why not add the area and then add stuff tto the area as the plot advances?
Start out with small scale orc patrol type quests, move onto word of strangers in the area, advance to them arriving and doing the whole kicking wormtongue out thing and then they pass on and the area can become harder (less riders around for obvious reasons) but remain true to cannon.
The mines are easier still. Large ass dungeon, full of goblins and loot, areas are blocked off by giant doors (hiding the Balrog) and make it an instance, so it still feels empty for example.
They could do it, they just want to milk it and watch people flee on mass.
So basicly a guy paid a "consultant" to abuse how Google works and then when Google changed the system to stop this happening he complains that he got punished for it?
At what point is this guy any sort of victim when he knowingly exploited the system for his own gain and got caught with his hand in the cookie jar?
This is slashdot, you have to pay the editors for advertisements here.
But then wouldn't the spammers aim under the bar of "important"? I mean sure 3 million e-mails a second is annoying but what if they cut it down to 1 a minute? Lets say you have 500 zombies, that is still a lot of spam and we know 500 is a drop in the ocean compared to what these guys have.
It's Microsoft, they'll probably release the comments in the code and keep everything else shut in. I mean comments are part of the source code, why not just release those and claim it's open source?
It's not quite a complete lie, but it's underhanded in the evil villian sort of way.
Wouldn't that depend how you define non-violent? For example is throwing a banana skin or a red shell in Mario Kart violent?
And there are a few awesome non-violent games like Kororinpa on the Wii, which is just rolling a marble around by using the Wiimote as the level (you turn it, the level turns). It's really fun and everyone I know who played it loved it, but it isn't getting much marketing so it'll go pretty much unloved compared to say Halo 3 which will be over hyped and the same as Halo 1 in every single way.
I suppose in a way we could say the Wii opens up this market, there is a lot you can do with the Wiimote that doesn't have to involve violence, hell you could have a painting game where you have to copy art starting with a stick man with a pencil up to painting full landscapes with various paint brushs. It may not be the most exciting or original idea, but then nor was DDR and look where that is now.
Oh the BBC has comedy.. it's just not funny and clearly lost it's touch. It's all chav jokes and laughing tracks over failed 1 liners.
The BBC did great comedy in the 80s-90s, but went too Politically correct to really pull it off any more. Plus why bother with a good comedy show when some stupid thing about singing or dancing will allow you to make more money by corrupt phone votes any way?
while the number of HDTVs sold has been rising steadily.
I see statements like that and wonder if it is truely rising or if it's just that HDTVs are comming down steadily in price and so rather than wanting a HDTV they just buy the best set of features (aka what the sales guy says) which happens to be the latest TV. This would explain why more HDTVs are slowly being sold while the interest level (as far as I can see) is very low even among people with HDTV consoles which would benefit from them.
But I suppose HDTV is much like Vista. We have no real control over the market, we have a market for both (HDTV and normal TVs/Vista and XP) until the makers decide the pull the plug and we're forced to one option even if we hate it.
I wish I could be as naive as you come across in this post.
Why do you assume these artists are any more compter savvy than your average person? They like MUSIC, they play MUSIC, at no point does MUSIC = IT. This is a huge stumbling block and will be pretty much forever. These guys don't understand how the internet works or how they can do this stuff. They may want to get away but if all they know is Myspace, how the hell are they going to sort out their own shit this way?
You need to remember the RIAA maybe evil bastards, but they do it and do it well. They bribe the right people and make every window into the industry covered with kittens and puppy dogs, so you just turn up, sing some songs and then turn up to set places on set days, talk crap and walk away with a lot of money. This as evil as it is, is a service, it's making it very easy for artists to do their shit, things a lot have no idea how to even start.
You assume there are alternatives though. The music industry is much like the PC market, there is one major group (MS/RIAA companies) and then everyone else. The general public don't even know there is an everything else nor the monsters that have control of their markets.
So rather than focusing on these criminals I thought we should have a pro-online music thread in the comments.
What Internet radio stations do you listen to and why?
What online artists doo you purchase songs from online?
What online artists do you enjoy listening to who release their work free?