Considering that Natal hasn't even launched yet, other groups might want to hold off and see what the reception is to Natal before they start copying it. I for one bought a Wii and was sorely disappointed in the non-precision of the wii-mote. I also have an Xbox and I fear that Natal will be just as annoying. I hope some cool uses of it are created though.
People have been using the “it’s in public” argument here, but there is a difference between in public and only easily accessible by your close neighbours, and accessible by the whole world. What if Google started coming by and scanning with an infra-red camera? Would you respond by telling people that their body heat is radiating out through the walls and can be detected from the street- therefore it’s public!? If you don’t want someone using an infra-red camera you should have built your walls differently ?! Come on. Not everything that is out in public should be open for anyone to collect and do whatever they want with.
What I want to know is - WHY is Google doing this? "Just because they can" is not enough of an answer.
I find the 3D movies darker and less vibrant. I also wear glasses so the 3D glasses overtop of my glasses is awkward, heavy and the 3D glasses are too far out from my head so they're a bit blurry. Bleh.
This is why they can get away with it; Lenders sign up as many new lending accounts as possible. They have certain % that will default or are fraudulent. They buy insurance for this risk. The insurance company sells insurance policies which it says have a certain risk (low compared to the # they sell) of actually being claimed on. An insurance policy is something that keeps making money (with a certain % risk of being claimed on). These policies are sold as investment instruments (insurance bonds) to investors. Investors like you and me. They are put into people's pension funds, 401Ks, RRSPs, wrapped into various types of funds. And bingo.... it is now you and I who are carrying the risk. Magic.
News corporations and journalists are not the same thing. Where a news corporation's primary concern is to make money by selling information, a good journalist is most interested in discovering truth and making that truth available to the public. The more people the better.
The Internet has caused a major shakeup, and from the sounds of it a break down of the entities known as news corporations. Will these die at the hands of an open web? Maybe. Most likely if they continue to stubbornly refuse to change.
However the existence of the dedicated, skilled journalist will only be at risk if he or she insists on tying their fate to the new corps. Twittered and blogged amateur 'news' only goes so far. Ultimately the most reliable, accurate and compelling sources of news will bubble to the top of the public's attention. Will news reporting be as lucrative as it once was? Probably not... but maybe it will become something that the talented journalist does as a side job rather than a full time one. Maybe a new profit model will emerge- who can know what will be needed or wanted in the future. We may reach a point where companies, organizations or individuals will pay by contract for a respected journalist to investigate and report on a specific news item for them. Who knows?
The point is, I don't see the 'death of journalism' coming, but rather the death of the current news corporation model.
Absolutely it is. I can offer a bit of a case study FWIW. I'm a technical person (programmer) and along time Windows user. I recently installed Ubuntu on my laptop to dual boot alongside Windows. I had a few bumps in the road during this process. I'm now trying to configure it and get some software equivalents to the Windows only apps I had been using. I can't even count the number of times my quest for answers landed me on an article or forum post that begins with 'open a command prompt'.
I know I can open a command prompt, but I don't want to. There's a psychological thing that makes you feel like you could mess things up easier at the command prompt. I can't imagine the frustration of non-technical people trying to do this. And this is talking about Ubuntu which as gone to great strides to make it more newbie friendly. There is still a way to go. The good news, is that it's very, very close.
For example, there are two ways to add programs - the Add/Remove programs option and the Synaptic package manager. Why two? And having to add more repositories to get access to other packages is strange to me. How would a user know to do this? Why is it necessary? I get it, but a novice might not. Etc.
Oh give me a break. It's just a cute bit of semi-interesting fun on their website- something to get people thinking about blood and they ask for a donation. Big deal. I had a look and didn't get the impression for a second that they were presenting it as fact.
And how much will it cost when ALL their water needs for lawns and parks and such need to be piped in? Not to mention that many plants need some of the water to fall on the leaves not just the roots.
What about insects and pollinators? Birds that fly south?
It's not exactly a mystery. You tend to mimic the lifestyle of your parents, and they mimic the lifestyle of their parents and so on. So if your parents placed a high priority on schooling, learning, education etc then you are likely to pass that lifestyle onto your kids. So... you might have many generations which have been too busy putting food on the table with multiple jobs or dealing with gangs or drugs or a dangerous neighbourhood and had more things to worry about than making sure their child focuses on school, gets help with homework and stays out of trouble.
And vice-versa. My parents were big on school so I was very limited in my TV/video game time. I had to read a novel each night for an hour and my homework was priority #1 after school. My sister struggled and they got her a tutor. As a result I did well in school and will pass that on to my kids.
Of course, you can have within individual families a radical shift. One parent decides they want 'a better life' for their child and makes a big shift resulting in that family breaking the cycle. But when you are looking at entire societies or segments of the population that kind of change is much slower.
Race or any other 'trait' has nothing at all to do with it other than historically. The "such and such race is inherently smarter than such and such other race" argument is nonsense, and horrendously hard to test because family and societal factors creep into your study if you are looking at a large enough study group (ie - student performance across a state or country).
You aren't the only one. I've been using TB2 for so long now, it's gone beyond stale. I hope TB3 comes with support for organizing emails into 'conversations' like gmail does.
Actually I see the option but each time I try to remove the card, it tells me that a service is still attached to the card- and points me to an EXPIRED gold membership. I have since bought and activated a pre-paid gold membership so this makes no sense. Arg!
Where is this option to remove your credit card info? I keep trying and it won't let me. I don't have anything on automatic renewal.
Re:What's the Difference Between a Computer Salesm
on
Bad PC Sales Staff Exposed
·
· Score: 3, Interesting
Yeah my sister got a virus on her new PC and brought it to the Geek Squad. They told her she needed her hard drive wiped, but she had already spoken to me and I told her to hand them this piece of paper with the name of the virus on it- and for them to get the proper removal instructions and clean it off- no formatting the HD! (I didn't have time to do it).
They came back to her afterwards and said "Gee, that was easier than we though it would be!". *face palm*
There is truth in the argument/concern that those dollars saved are dollars that are *not* going to pay other companies for non-free software. The naysayers use this as an argument against FOSS saying that it undermines the industry and therefor the economy. This is the same thing doom-sayers argue about the evils of automation and computerization. It costs jobs.
The only way things like this won't cripple the economy with lost jobs is if the money saved by things like these is not used to line the ever-deeper pockets of CEOs.
Think about it. If your company saved $1 million by using FOSS, and then used those savings to enable employees to work fewer hours for the same pay- then we are progressing as a society where computerization/automation/software are becoming true labour saving devices enabling us all to have more free time.
Otherwise it just ends up widening the gulf between the upper management and the workers/unemployed. Ultimately the first option is the only sustainable one.
The context sensitive ribbon... what 'contexts' are there exactly? I'm viewing a webpage or.... viewing a webpage. That's it! It's not like Word where I might be editing text or drawing a table, or manipulating an inserted image.
Most of FF's menus are related to the configuration of the system. And configuration of the addons. This could be a little better organized but it's certianly not broken or a priority for redesign.
Imagine trying to tell your grandma over the phone how to set an option: "Click on Tools, then click Internet Options"... oh wait... there's no more menu. "Click on the icon that kind of looks like a toolbox with a wand over it... er".
Not to mention the awesome package the cheque came it. What a great marketing piece. The people in an outrage are faking it or are morons. And to be clear, I hate many of the legitamately bad things EA does as much as the next person. This is not one of those things however.
How is sending those cheques shady? They didn't ask for a review or a mention on the website in return. Nothing was stopping those people from cashing the cheque and then doing absolutely nothing, or even writing a post on their website (or even just a letter back to EA) like so: "I received a cheque in the mail today from a company for no reason. I cashed it and bought some groceries. Thanks for the donation to my nutrition needs." The End.
The editor gets some free money without keeping it 'secret' and thus feeling guilty or something, and EA doesn't get the plug they wanted.
Geez people need to learn to laugh. It's only a bribe if you ask for something in return.
Slashdot Mirror
Considering that Natal hasn't even launched yet, other groups might want to hold off and see what the reception is to Natal before they start copying it. I for one bought a Wii and was sorely disappointed in the non-precision of the wii-mote. I also have an Xbox and I fear that Natal will be just as annoying. I hope some cool uses of it are created though.
People have been using the “it’s in public” argument here, but there is a difference between in public and only easily accessible by your close neighbours, and accessible by the whole world. What if Google started coming by and scanning with an infra-red camera? Would you respond by telling people that their body heat is radiating out through the walls and can be detected from the street- therefore it’s public!? If you don’t want someone using an infra-red camera you should have built your walls differently ?! Come on. Not everything that is out in public should be open for anyone to collect and do whatever they want with.
What I want to know is - WHY is Google doing this? "Just because they can" is not enough of an answer.
I find the 3D movies darker and less vibrant. I also wear glasses so the 3D glasses overtop of my glasses is awkward, heavy and the 3D glasses are too far out from my head so they're a bit blurry. Bleh.
I assume you can still record with a VCR by setting the date and time of the recording right?
This is why they can get away with it; Lenders sign up as many new lending accounts as possible. They have certain % that will default or are fraudulent. They buy insurance for this risk. The insurance company sells insurance policies which it says have a certain risk (low compared to the # they sell) of actually being claimed on. An insurance policy is something that keeps making money (with a certain % risk of being claimed on). These policies are sold as investment instruments (insurance bonds) to investors. Investors like you and me. They are put into people's pension funds, 401Ks, RRSPs, wrapped into various types of funds. And bingo.... it is now you and I who are carrying the risk. Magic.
Why isn't this covered by copyright? Just because I put my information on the web, doesn't mean you can reproduce it.
News corporations and journalists are not the same thing. Where a news corporation's primary concern is to make money by selling information, a good journalist is most interested in discovering truth and making that truth available to the public. The more people the better.
The Internet has caused a major shakeup, and from the sounds of it a break down of the entities known as news corporations. Will these die at the hands of an open web? Maybe. Most likely if they continue to stubbornly refuse to change.
However the existence of the dedicated, skilled journalist will only be at risk if he or she insists on tying their fate to the new corps. Twittered and blogged amateur 'news' only goes so far. Ultimately the most reliable, accurate and compelling sources of news will bubble to the top of the public's attention. Will news reporting be as lucrative as it once was? Probably not... but maybe it will become something that the talented journalist does as a side job rather than a full time one. Maybe a new profit model will emerge- who can know what will be needed or wanted in the future. We may reach a point where companies, organizations or individuals will pay by contract for a respected journalist to investigate and report on a specific news item for them. Who knows?
The point is, I don't see the 'death of journalism' coming, but rather the death of the current news corporation model.
Absolutely it is.
I can offer a bit of a case study FWIW. I'm a technical person (programmer) and along time Windows user. I recently installed Ubuntu on my laptop to dual boot alongside Windows. I had a few bumps in the road during this process. I'm now trying to configure it and get some software equivalents to the Windows only apps I had been using. I can't even count the number of times my quest for answers landed me on an article or forum post that begins with 'open a command prompt'.
I know I can open a command prompt, but I don't want to. There's a psychological thing that makes you feel like you could mess things up easier at the command prompt. I can't imagine the frustration of non-technical people trying to do this. And this is talking about Ubuntu which as gone to great strides to make it more newbie friendly. There is still a way to go. The good news, is that it's very, very close.
For example, there are two ways to add programs - the Add /Remove programs option and the Synaptic package manager. Why two? And having to add more repositories to get access to other packages is strange to me. How would a user know to do this? Why is it necessary? I get it, but a novice might not. Etc.
Oh give me a break. It's just a cute bit of semi-interesting fun on their website- something to get people thinking about blood and they ask for a donation. Big deal. I had a look and didn't get the impression for a second that they were presenting it as fact.
Why should we HAVE to worry about The Authorities overseeing our each and every transaction, as if we're all criminals until proven otherwise??
I would reply at length to this comment... but Daniel J. Solove says it best in his essay:
"'I've Got Nothing to Hide' and Other Misunderstandings of Privacy"
And how much will it cost when ALL their water needs for lawns and parks and such need to be piped in? Not to mention that many plants need some of the water to fall on the leaves not just the roots.
What about insects and pollinators? Birds that fly south?
This is not very well thought out.
Wrong. Try using FACTS.
Actually about 80% of American millionaires are First Generation Rich. Meaning they did not inherit their millions, but made it themselves.
Source: Book- The Millionaire Next Door by By Thomas J. Stanley Ph.D and William D. Danko, Ph.D.
It's not exactly a mystery. You tend to mimic the lifestyle of your parents, and they mimic the lifestyle of their parents and so on. So if your parents placed a high priority on schooling, learning, education etc then you are likely to pass that lifestyle onto your kids. So... you might have many generations which have been too busy putting food on the table with multiple jobs or dealing with gangs or drugs or a dangerous neighbourhood and had more things to worry about than making sure their child focuses on school, gets help with homework and stays out of trouble.
And vice-versa. My parents were big on school so I was very limited in my TV/video game time. I had to read a novel each night for an hour and my homework was priority #1 after school. My sister struggled and they got her a tutor. As a result I did well in school and will pass that on to my kids.
Of course, you can have within individual families a radical shift. One parent decides they want 'a better life' for their child and makes a big shift resulting in that family breaking the cycle. But when you are looking at entire societies or segments of the population that kind of change is much slower.
Race or any other 'trait' has nothing at all to do with it other than historically. The "such and such race is inherently smarter than such and such other race" argument is nonsense, and horrendously hard to test because family and societal factors creep into your study if you are looking at a large enough study group (ie - student performance across a state or country).
You aren't the only one. I've been using TB2 for so long now, it's gone beyond stale. I hope TB3 comes with support for organizing emails into 'conversations' like gmail does.
Actually I see the option but each time I try to remove the card, it tells me that a service is still attached to the card- and points me to an EXPIRED gold membership. I have since bought and activated a pre-paid gold membership so this makes no sense. Arg!
Where is this option to remove your credit card info? I keep trying and it won't let me. I don't have anything on automatic renewal.
Yeah my sister got a virus on her new PC and brought it to the Geek Squad. They told her she needed her hard drive wiped, but she had already spoken to me and I told her to hand them this piece of paper with the name of the virus on it- and for them to get the proper removal instructions and clean it off- no formatting the HD! (I didn't have time to do it).
They came back to her afterwards and said "Gee, that was easier than we though it would be!". *face palm*
There is truth in the argument/concern that those dollars saved are dollars that are *not* going to pay other companies for non-free software. The naysayers use this as an argument against FOSS saying that it undermines the industry and therefor the economy. This is the same thing doom-sayers argue about the evils of automation and computerization. It costs jobs.
The only way things like this won't cripple the economy with lost jobs is if the money saved by things like these is not used to line the ever-deeper pockets of CEOs.
Think about it. If your company saved $1 million by using FOSS, and then used those savings to enable employees to work fewer hours for the same pay- then we are progressing as a society where computerization/automation/software are becoming true labour saving devices enabling us all to have more free time.
Otherwise it just ends up widening the gulf between the upper management and the workers/unemployed. Ultimately the first option is the only sustainable one.
The context sensitive ribbon... what 'contexts' are there exactly? I'm viewing a webpage or.... viewing a webpage. That's it! It's not like Word where I might be editing text or drawing a table, or manipulating an inserted image.
Most of FF's menus are related to the configuration of the system. And configuration of the addons. This could be a little better organized but it's certianly not broken or a priority for redesign.
Imagine trying to tell your grandma over the phone how to set an option: "Click on Tools, then click Internet Options"... oh wait... there's no more menu. "Click on the icon that kind of looks like a toolbox with a wand over it... er".
This is a very good point. But isn't that was forks and different distros are for?
Not to mention the awesome package the cheque came it. What a great marketing piece. The people in an outrage are faking it or are morons. And to be clear, I hate many of the legitamately bad things EA does as much as the next person. This is not one of those things however.
EA Cheque Package Photos
How is sending those cheques shady? They didn't ask for a review or a mention on the website in return. Nothing was stopping those people from cashing the cheque and then doing absolutely nothing, or even writing a post on their website (or even just a letter back to EA) like so: "I received a cheque in the mail today from a company for no reason. I cashed it and bought some groceries. Thanks for the donation to my nutrition needs." The End.
The editor gets some free money without keeping it 'secret' and thus feeling guilty or something, and EA doesn't get the plug they wanted.
Geez people need to learn to laugh. It's only a bribe if you ask for something in return.
Someone tell me, will this book be the last??
(Please god let it be done)
Just what I was about to say.
Oh mod points where art thou?
Anyone remember the animated movie Fern Gully from over 10 years ago? I picture the villain Hexus riding on top of that thing.