It's exactly because I CAN control who sees my info and media that I like Facebook. If just anyone could view my profile- I would not have the amount of stuff up there that I do, and I'm conservative with the sharing compared to some of my friends- they have every tidbit about their lives and past on their profile. I at least try to keep any unique-to-me-only data off there. Of course it doesn't help when other people post pictures of you and tag them without asking you if it's ok first... *puts on tin foil hat*
I can't wait until they start putting VibrantMedia ads into your text... spell-as-you-go, grammer-as-you-go, ads-as-you-go!! Those hover over word ads must be the worst thing on the web. Proof that companies have no clue what pisses off customers/visitors.
I am a 20-something movie fan and I try to see at least one movie at the theater per week. I visit both Silver City and Famous Players. But I visit the Silver City one more often. I have noticed a decline in the customer experience at these theaters in the last year or two, and in light of the movie industry trying to compete with home viewing of DVDs and pirated movies, I would think that you would be interested in improving the user experience... instead it is declining.
Currently a regular movie pass costs me $10. I consider this cost to be barely reasonable considering what I get. Let's assume the movie is good. I'd like to suggest some improvements for the theater experience itself.
The cleanliness of my local cinemas is declining. The seats- particularly at SilverCity are starting to smell. The floor is always sticky (I know that many guests are slobs- but you should have cleaning staff sufficient to handle this). The washrooms are sometimes dirty and the motion sensing taps often don't work well.
Some of the movie screens have rips or holes in them which draw the eye during the movie. Some cup holders have no bottoms so your drink falls through. Did I mention that the theaters are developing a smell?
For my $10, the slide show while I'm waiting for the movie contains more advertisements then it used to- what happened to the trivia? The trivia while you wait is an excellent idea- but there should be enough that I don't see it repeat- and much fewer advertisement slides. Then, before the movie starts I'm forced to watch several commercials. When this was first introduced I felt it was ok if it helped keep ticket prices down, and if the commercials were highly entertaining (example the Toyota Matrix commercial). But now the commercials are often extremely annoying (example- the Scene Card commercials- come on, a pair of shoes talking to a sweater?). If there are many commercials or if they are of poor quality, my tolerance of them drops drastically.
The price of food continues to increase and there are no less-expensive options. People who just want a water and small popcorn should be able to do so for under $5. At the current prices I usually just skip buying snacks. For those guests who do buy snacks- I usually hear them grumbling about the rising prices- this is generating ill-will for you at a time when you should be wooing customers.
I've noticed that at my local cinema, you often downgrade from 2 ticket-rippers (one for each wing of theaters) to only one ripper with a rope across the whole room. My first impression of this is that you're cheaping out so you can get away with one less employee. The lines at concessions are also very long because there are not enough cashiers. More ill-will.
I've noticed that you have several large screens in the main concession lobby. These should be showing upcoming movies during the evening show times- but these screens are usually dark when I look up at them.
I remember in the past, a cinema employee would come in before a packed movie to introduce the film, and tell us some facts about it like the cast, or the budget, or where it was filmed. They would crack some jokes, get people pumped for the movie and thank us for coming. Now, it seems like the only time an employee comes in to introduce the movie is to tell everyone to turn off cellphones, shift to the middle seats, or to crab at the audience about not putting feet on the seats, not recording the movie, etc. Where's my welcome? Where is the thanks for coming?
My movie experience is often interrupted by audience members who are rude, loud, throwing food, or kicking seats. I would appreciate better policing of these obnoxious guests- they spoil my experience. On a similar note, the volume of movies seems to continue increasing- much louder and I won't be able to handle it.
I remember that during one movie (maybe it was the last Lord of the Rings?) the theater allowed members of the local Medieval Re-enactment Society to come
It seems like my local theaters - Cineplex Odeon and Famous Players are more interested in cramming as much over-priced food and annoying commercials/ads down my throat than they are in giving me a positive theater experience. My local cinemas are getting up there in years and the seats are starting to smell. A few screens have little tears that you can't stop noticing, and the floors are always sticky. They've even consolidated the 2 ticket rippers that were at the 2 "wings" of theaters into one ticket ripper with a big rope across the main room so everyone has to go by this one ticket ripper guy. Ooo.. you saved $6.85 per hour by using one guy instead of two! Sheesh.
If they worked on user experience, then they wouldn't have to compete with the grainy crappy videotaped copies. In fact, I'm going to email some suggestions to them just for the heck of it.
If I want to crack open my PSWii360, voiding the warranty and muck with the innards, since when can they stop me? This is news to me. Does this apply to old radios I used to open up and tinker with? Just silly.
I have a Wii, and while the motion control is nice in some instances (Wii Sports, Trauma Center), it sucks for first person shooters. There, I said it. I have Call of Duty 3 and even with setting the remote sensitivity all the way down, it still sucks for fine aiming, doesn't return to center so you end up looking at your feet a lot, and god forbid you need to scratch an itch or reposition your hands.
Also, with the current nunchuck+remote setup there are WAY too few buttons within reach of your fingers and you have to stretch your hand up and down the remote to reach other buttons- which of course messes up your aim. Nunchuck has joystick plus 2 buttons. On remote you can reach the trigger, A button and down arrow without moving your hand. That it. Now you tell me how to fit: jump, crouch, run, grenade, flashlight, swap weapon, binoculars,... all onto those few buttons.(yuk)
I know many people love the remote for FPS games- and that's cool too, but I BEG all the game companies out there (are you listening EA?) to give us the option of remote, OR classic controller. Choice is good!!
I've started to integrate Google Analytics into some of my sites but I started to get nervous about tying my sites so closely to google. Plus many people block the analytics cookies. So I doubt I'll give Microsoft a second glance. However I have tried the Sourceforge project phpMyVisites which is really good, but has a bug that makes it less usable to me, and I can't seem to fix it.
Does anyone know a good free/open solution other than phpMyVisites that will give this kind of analytics/search referrer data?
I know that this kind of data is of only limited usefulness... but I have to give my clients what they ask for...
Every time I express indignation about the latest blow to our privacy by the US and/or Canadian government, nearly ALL my friends and family have that exact argument: "I'm not worried about it, I have nothing to hide."
It drives me crazy because it's NOT about whether you have some dirty little secret you want to hide. It's about freedom. That's what privacy really is. Freedom that we are supposed to be guaranteed under the Charter/Bill of Rights.
Given the track records of both the Canadian and American governments, do you really trust them with the power that this information gives them over your lives? It's not just about terrorists. In Canada, the health care system is publicly funded. So, what happens if data mining turns up some unhealthy habits- like say you order takeout every night, or that you engage in dangerous sports.
How many people make minor upgrades to their house or property without the proper permits? Underage drinking, failing to file 100% of your online or out of state/country purchases on your tax return, etc. Most people do some kind of softly-illegal thing that the government would love to know about. And since the MPAA has the government wrapped around their finger, how about they peak into your life too.
It may seem paranoid to list these things- but forget for a minute that the government can be corrupt sometimes. Imagine we have a perfect government. You still don't want them knowing everything about you- for the same reason that you don't live in a house with glass walls, and for the same reason you don't want your portable phone being picked up by your neighbour's baby-monitor. Privacy is important and precious. It deserves more than the apathetic attitude of "I have nothing to hide"... because anyone who says that is a fool or a liar.
The visual pollution of advertising is continuing to spread to every corner our eyes could possibly rest at. Now, even the place I go to relax and ESCAPE is going to start bombarding me with ads. In game "product placement", blatant ads in the console, and more. Just great. Movies have been getting worse and worse for this- in the movie and big ones before the film.
Many products I buy come plastered with stickers for extra services or features. I pick them off when I can. Then once you step out side it's everywhere.
I can tell you a big reason why DVD sales of TV shows are so popular. No ads.
Many years ago, ads on TV and even shows named after products were getting out of control. There was a big public out-cry and things were toned down. I wonder how long until another such outcry happens again.
It's such a blight on the outdoor world and on my free time.
Cleaning out a virus/trojan problem has become close to impossible for the average person. Most people and even actual computer service shops just format and re-install.
I have only moderate PC service skills and this weekend my family's computer popped up a AVG warning that a Trojan was detected. This is not my computer but it shares my net connection via wireless. When I saw that detection warning I pulled the plug on it's net connection and then investigated. My brother had been downloading wma to mp4 converters. And bingo! On top of that, no one was keeping the AVG up to date or doing regular scans. Apparently everyone assumes I'll clean up their messes for them. Pisses me off.
So, guess how hard it is to clean out a Trojan these days? Guess what, your anti-virus is useless! It may detect the virus, and clean it, but it re-installs itself.
Get ready for a loooooong process involving:
-Disable system restore and remove all restore points. -Reboot in safe mode, run anti-virus/spyware scan. -Use Autoruns or any other startup/running processes program. -Write down what is being run on startup and what is currently running. -Hop on Google to find out which of those are legitimate processes. -Remove the bad-uns. -Look for a cleaner program for your specific Trojan/Virus. Careful to get it from a reputable site. -Run the special cleaner program in safe mode and regular mode. -Grab output from HijackThis and use google to research any suspicious entries. -Do all this without connecting the infected computer to the net. (PAIN!!!) -Profit!!!! (I couldn't resist saying that)
So, then you cross your fingers for a few weeks waiting to see if your AV pops up another warning. All the while doing manual updates of your anti virus. Keep it in quarantine a while longer. Then, cautiously re-connect to the web and HOPE it's clean. Then YELL at your family to stop downloading crap, and make a "nice" desktop wallpaper in msPaint to drive home the rules.
*sigh* it's a huge pain, especially for people like me that need to research every process because they don't know what's legit or not. Not to mention that my sister does her online banking on that computer, and I've had to tell her to go change her passwords, get a new CC number, and inform her bank to put a watch on her account for any suspicious activity.
Quote from TFA: "It would be an insult to all those record stores who have supported Prince throughout his career,"
how have they been "supporting him"? Did they sell his records at a loss? Oh wait, they were charging a markup and making a profit! Looks like they were supporting themselves by selling products that people want to buy.
Nonsense. Let the guy do what he wants- it's his music.
I was under the impression that Vista sales are really low. And I can hazard a guess that those with Vista are so busy trying to get their old hardware and software to work, that they are unsure whether a bug is a real bug or a run of the mill compatibility problem.
So, I wouldn't be surprised that the number of bugs reported is lower than usual. Wait till the use of Vista grows- then the anti-MS hackers will start really pounding Vista.
The core problem is that general use of the internet is slowly requiring more and more bandwidth as sites get fancier and more media heavy. Then there's VOIP and other web applications. Gone are the days of mostly text websites with a few pictures or maybe some Flash. It's not specific sites like YouTube that are the problem.
The ISPs and governments need to start facing the facts that the Internet in general is starting to require more and more bandwidth period. They need to upgrade their hardware and stop talking about laying fiber across the continent, and just do it already.
The Internet is evolving to strain the infrastructure originally put in place for it. The solution is not to stifle that growth, but to upgrade infrastructure to keep pace or even prepare for the future of video on demand and whatever other fun stuff comes next.
Are there a lot of people who, for example stay logged in to Google while checking email, searching the web, looking up maps etc? I log out every time. No personalized search for me thank you very much. Speaking of... lemme clear my cookies. hehehe
This is one of the core beliefs/tenants of Buddhism- that we are all inherently good and that helping others is the path to true happiness. So, it's actually old wisdom, not a new discovery.
I personally lean toward the open source option... but how do CutePDF and PDFCreator stack up against each other in terms of stability, features and bugginess?
I often copy all the relevant text from several sites on a topic I'm researching... paste it into a text document then save it to my hard drive. I save pics that way too. Instead of grabbing the whole page. Makes for easy printing if I want a hard copy.
Slashdot Mirror
It's exactly because I CAN control who sees my info and media that I like Facebook. If just anyone could view my profile- I would not have the amount of stuff up there that I do, and I'm conservative with the sharing compared to some of my friends- they have every tidbit about their lives and past on their profile. I at least try to keep any unique-to-me-only data off there. Of course it doesn't help when other people post pictures of you and tag them without asking you if it's ok first... *puts on tin foil hat*
I can't wait until they start putting VibrantMedia ads into your text... spell-as-you-go, grammer-as-you-go, ads-as-you-go!! Those hover over word ads must be the worst thing on the web. Proof that companies have no clue what pisses off customers/visitors.
Dear Cineplex Odeon,
I am a 20-something movie fan and I try to see at least one movie at the theater per week. I visit both Silver City and Famous Players. But I visit the Silver City one more often. I have noticed a decline in the customer experience at these theaters in the last year or two, and in light of the movie industry trying to compete with home viewing of DVDs and pirated movies, I would think that you would be interested in improving the user experience... instead it is declining.
Currently a regular movie pass costs me $10. I consider this cost to be barely reasonable considering what I get. Let's assume the movie is good. I'd like to suggest some improvements for the theater experience itself.
The cleanliness of my local cinemas is declining. The seats- particularly at SilverCity are starting to smell. The floor is always sticky (I know that many guests are slobs- but you should have cleaning staff sufficient to handle this). The washrooms are sometimes dirty and the motion sensing taps often don't work well.
Some of the movie screens have rips or holes in them which draw the eye during the movie. Some cup holders have no bottoms so your drink falls through. Did I mention that the theaters are developing a smell?
For my $10, the slide show while I'm waiting for the movie contains more advertisements then it used to- what happened to the trivia? The trivia while you wait is an excellent idea- but there should be enough that I don't see it repeat- and much fewer advertisement slides. Then, before the movie starts I'm forced to watch several commercials. When this was first introduced I felt it was ok if it helped keep ticket prices down, and if the commercials were highly entertaining (example the Toyota Matrix commercial). But now the commercials are often extremely annoying (example- the Scene Card commercials- come on, a pair of shoes talking to a sweater?). If there are many commercials or if they are of poor quality, my tolerance of them drops drastically.
The price of food continues to increase and there are no less-expensive options. People who just want a water and small popcorn should be able to do so for under $5. At the current prices I usually just skip buying snacks. For those guests who do buy snacks- I usually hear them grumbling about the rising prices- this is generating ill-will for you at a time when you should be wooing customers.
I've noticed that at my local cinema, you often downgrade from 2 ticket-rippers (one for each wing of theaters) to only one ripper with a rope across the whole room. My first impression of this is that you're cheaping out so you can get away with one less employee. The lines at concessions are also very long because there are not enough cashiers. More ill-will.
I've noticed that you have several large screens in the main concession lobby. These should be showing upcoming movies during the evening show times- but these screens are usually dark when I look up at them.
I remember in the past, a cinema employee would come in before a packed movie to introduce the film, and tell us some facts about it like the cast, or the budget, or where it was filmed. They would crack some jokes, get people pumped for the movie and thank us for coming. Now, it seems like the only time an employee comes in to introduce the movie is to tell everyone to turn off cellphones, shift to the middle seats, or to crab at the audience about not putting feet on the seats, not recording the movie, etc. Where's my welcome? Where is the thanks for coming?
My movie experience is often interrupted by audience members who are rude, loud, throwing food, or kicking seats. I would appreciate better policing of these obnoxious guests- they spoil my experience. On a similar note, the volume of movies seems to continue increasing- much louder and I won't be able to handle it.
I remember that during one movie (maybe it was the last Lord of the Rings?) the theater allowed members of the local Medieval Re-enactment Society to come
Amen!
It seems like my local theaters - Cineplex Odeon and Famous Players are more interested in cramming as much over-priced food and annoying commercials/ads down my throat than they are in giving me a positive theater experience. My local cinemas are getting up there in years and the seats are starting to smell. A few screens have little tears that you can't stop noticing, and the floors are always sticky. They've even consolidated the 2 ticket rippers that were at the 2 "wings" of theaters into one ticket ripper with a big rope across the main room so everyone has to go by this one ticket ripper guy. Ooo.. you saved $6.85 per hour by using one guy instead of two! Sheesh.
If they worked on user experience, then they wouldn't have to compete with the grainy crappy videotaped copies. In fact, I'm going to email some suggestions to them just for the heck of it.
Mod Chips are illegal?
If I want to crack open my PSWii360, voiding the warranty and muck with the innards, since when can they stop me? This is news to me. Does this apply to old radios I used to open up and tinker with? Just silly.
I wonder if that's only in USA...
I have a Wii, and while the motion control is nice in some instances (Wii Sports, Trauma Center), it sucks for first person shooters. There, I said it. I have Call of Duty 3 and even with setting the remote sensitivity all the way down, it still sucks for fine aiming, doesn't return to center so you end up looking at your feet a lot, and god forbid you need to scratch an itch or reposition your hands.
Also, with the current nunchuck+remote setup there are WAY too few buttons within reach of your fingers and you have to stretch your hand up and down the remote to reach other buttons- which of course messes up your aim. Nunchuck has joystick plus 2 buttons. On remote you can reach the trigger, A button and down arrow without moving your hand. That it. Now you tell me how to fit: jump, crouch, run, grenade, flashlight, swap weapon, binoculars,... all onto those few buttons.(yuk)
I know many people love the remote for FPS games- and that's cool too, but I BEG all the game companies out there (are you listening EA?) to give us the option of remote, OR classic controller. Choice is good!!
I've started to integrate Google Analytics into some of my sites but I started to get nervous about tying my sites so closely to google. Plus many people block the analytics cookies. So I doubt I'll give Microsoft a second glance. However I have tried the Sourceforge project phpMyVisites which is really good, but has a bug that makes it less usable to me, and I can't seem to fix it.
Does anyone know a good free/open solution other than phpMyVisites that will give this kind of analytics/search referrer data?
I know that this kind of data is of only limited usefulness... but I have to give my clients what they ask for...
Every time I express indignation about the latest blow to our privacy by the US and/or Canadian government, nearly ALL my friends and family have that exact argument: "I'm not worried about it, I have nothing to hide."
It drives me crazy because it's NOT about whether you have some dirty little secret you want to hide. It's about freedom. That's what privacy really is. Freedom that we are supposed to be guaranteed under the Charter/Bill of Rights.
Given the track records of both the Canadian and American governments, do you really trust them with the power that this information gives them over your lives? It's not just about terrorists. In Canada, the health care system is publicly funded. So, what happens if data mining turns up some unhealthy habits- like say you order takeout every night, or that you engage in dangerous sports.
How many people make minor upgrades to their house or property without the proper permits? Underage drinking, failing to file 100% of your online or out of state/country purchases on your tax return, etc. Most people do some kind of softly-illegal thing that the government would love to know about. And since the MPAA has the government wrapped around their finger, how about they peak into your life too.
It may seem paranoid to list these things- but forget for a minute that the government can be corrupt sometimes. Imagine we have a perfect government. You still don't want them knowing everything about you- for the same reason that you don't live in a house with glass walls, and for the same reason you don't want your portable phone being picked up by your neighbour's baby-monitor. Privacy is important and precious. It deserves more than the apathetic attitude of "I have nothing to hide"... because anyone who says that is a fool or a liar.
The visual pollution of advertising is continuing to spread to every corner our eyes could possibly rest at. Now, even the place I go to relax and ESCAPE is going to start bombarding me with ads. In game "product placement", blatant ads in the console, and more. Just great. Movies have been getting worse and worse for this- in the movie and big ones before the film.
Many products I buy come plastered with stickers for extra services or features. I pick them off when I can. Then once you step out side it's everywhere.
I can tell you a big reason why DVD sales of TV shows are so popular. No ads.
Many years ago, ads on TV and even shows named after products were getting out of control. There was a big public out-cry and things were toned down. I wonder how long until another such outcry happens again.
It's such a blight on the outdoor world and on my free time.
- Half-Life, Half-Life2 (plus episode 1) (PC)
-Resident Evil 4 (GC)
-Duke Nukem 3D (PC)
-Beyond Good and Evil (GC)
(And the rest in no particular order:)
-Super Mario Bros 3 (NES)
-Eternal Darkness (GC)
-Goldeneye 007 (GC)
-Rise of the Triad (PC)
-Dark Reign (PC)
-Commander Keen 4 (PC)
-Ocarina of Time (GC)
Cleaning out a virus/trojan problem has become close to impossible for the average person. Most people and even actual computer service shops just format and re-install.
/spyware scan.
I have only moderate PC service skills and this weekend my family's computer popped up a AVG warning that a Trojan was detected. This is not my computer but it shares my net connection via wireless. When I saw that detection warning I pulled the plug on it's net connection and then investigated. My brother had been downloading wma to mp4 converters. And bingo! On top of that, no one was keeping the AVG up to date or doing regular scans. Apparently everyone assumes I'll clean up their messes for them. Pisses me off.
So, guess how hard it is to clean out a Trojan these days? Guess what, your anti-virus is useless! It may detect the virus, and clean it, but it re-installs itself.
Get ready for a loooooong process involving:
-Disable system restore and remove all restore points.
-Reboot in safe mode, run anti-virus
-Use Autoruns or any other startup/running processes program.
-Write down what is being run on startup and what is currently running.
-Hop on Google to find out which of those are legitimate processes.
-Remove the bad-uns.
-Look for a cleaner program for your specific Trojan/Virus. Careful to get it from a reputable site.
-Run the special cleaner program in safe mode and regular mode.
-Grab output from HijackThis and use google to research any suspicious entries.
-Do all this without connecting the infected computer to the net. (PAIN!!!)
-Profit!!!! (I couldn't resist saying that)
So, then you cross your fingers for a few weeks waiting to see if your AV pops up another warning. All the while doing manual updates of your anti virus. Keep it in quarantine a while longer. Then, cautiously re-connect to the web and HOPE it's clean. Then YELL at your family to stop downloading crap, and make a "nice" desktop wallpaper in msPaint to drive home the rules.
*sigh* it's a huge pain, especially for people like me that need to research every process because they don't know what's legit or not. Not to mention that my sister does her online banking on that computer, and I've had to tell her to go change her passwords, get a new CC number, and inform her bank to put a watch on her account for any suspicious activity.
I really wish these virus writers would fry.
No wonder people just format and re-install.
Quote from TFA: "It would be an insult to all those record stores who have supported Prince throughout his career,"
how have they been "supporting him"? Did they sell his records at a loss? Oh wait, they were charging a markup and making a profit! Looks like they were supporting themselves by selling products that people want to buy.
Nonsense. Let the guy do what he wants- it's his music.
I was under the impression that Vista sales are really low. And I can hazard a guess that those with Vista are so busy trying to get their old hardware and software to work, that they are unsure whether a bug is a real bug or a run of the mill compatibility problem.
So, I wouldn't be surprised that the number of bugs reported is lower than usual. Wait till the use of Vista grows- then the anti-MS hackers will start really pounding Vista.
Internet2 is a trademarked non-profit organization name. The network they are making is called the Abilene Network.
Very, very well said. As a Canadian I completely agree with you.
(mod parent up!)
The core problem is that general use of the internet is slowly requiring more and more bandwidth as sites get fancier and more media heavy. Then there's VOIP and other web applications. Gone are the days of mostly text websites with a few pictures or maybe some Flash. It's not specific sites like YouTube that are the problem.
The ISPs and governments need to start facing the facts that the Internet in general is starting to require more and more bandwidth period. They need to upgrade their hardware and stop talking about laying fiber across the continent, and just do it already.
The Internet is evolving to strain the infrastructure originally put in place for it. The solution is not to stifle that growth, but to upgrade infrastructure to keep pace or even prepare for the future of video on demand and whatever other fun stuff comes next.
Are there a lot of people who, for example stay logged in to Google while checking email, searching the web, looking up maps etc? I log out every time. No personalized search for me thank you very much. Speaking of... lemme clear my cookies. hehehe
Amen! My local Zellers is dump. The WalMart down the street wins hands down. A shame since I'd rather "shop Canadian" if I could stand it.
My local Chapters is not so bad... but amazon.ca has some sweeet selection.
Is it different in the US than Canada?
I already pay a tax on my internet bill. And I also get charged sales tax when I buy online from amazon.ca for example.
*confused* Don't Americans have any taxes like these?
This is one of the core beliefs/tenants of Buddhism- that we are all inherently good and that helping others is the path to true happiness. So, it's actually old wisdom, not a new discovery.
Very good point. I was thinking he should send them down to the New Orleans area. Or developing countries.
Wow.... well said. Very well said.
I personally lean toward the open source option... but how do CutePDF and PDFCreator stack up against each other in terms of stability, features and bugginess?
Thanks for the suggestions by the way!
Can anyone recommend a good PDF printer driver application so people who can't afford Acrobat can still print to PDF?
I often copy all the relevant text from several sites on a topic I'm researching... paste it into a text document then save it to my hard drive. I save pics that way too. Instead of grabbing the whole page. Makes for easy printing if I want a hard copy.