Re:If people would just stop stealing...
on
European DRM News
·
· Score: 1
Hold on a second.....a minute ago you were talking about supply-and-demand, and as soon as someone called you on that, then suddenly you argument morphs into a "but won't someone please think of the forklift operators!" argument.
You sure that was me? Check again.
The artists who created the music get next-to-nothing, and the workers who manufacture and distribute the CDs get next to nothing... the bulk of the $17.99 cost of a CD is simply profit for people who contributed nothing.
I don't disagree, but that doesn't change the fact that when a company starts losing money, it isn't the guys up top that suffer. That isn't fair, I agree, but it is reality. The system must be changed.
Protecting the obscene ammounts of UNEARNED profits by middlemen who never created anything in thier lives, but who simply leech off of both artists and the public is not really something the public cares much about.
So only people who create should make money? Only software developers should get paid, not the people who support software or ship software or sell software?
You can throw words like "theft" and "piracy" around all you like, but those words actually have specific dictionary meanings that in no way apply to the current situation.
Dictionary? Who cares? This is as ludicrous as Bill Clinton's definition of Oral Sex. Let's say we make it okay tommorow to copy anything you want from whoever you like. Who do you think will be the first to start making money off of it? I imagine it would be Corporations...
*chuckle* If you're not qualified for something else, maybe it's time to crack some different books?
The phrase "Tough, Adapt or Die" doesn't just apply to Companies like MS or SCO. They apply to you and me as well.
I totally agree and am doing that. Working on my business degree right now...
I just love it when you IT people get all pompous about economists. Of course you're all the smartest people on the face of the earth, so people who've actually STUDIED economics can't possibly be right about anything, especially when you disagree with it on a visceral level.
I don't necessarily disagree with her, but it isn't a lot of comfort to know that my job will turn into some different other job that my experience has not qualified me for.
You guys sound as pathetic as the steel workers and miners where I grew up, compaining about how the corporate "man" keeps you down.
Yeah, I have seen places where the corporations have sucked the life from a city. Go through Detroit and look what happens to whole communities when corporate vampires are finished suckling.
It's a known economic fact that lower labor costs translate to lower finished goods costs. You think you'd be able to afford the latest graphics hardware and a new box everytime the next killer FPS came out if they weren't being manufactured overseas for way less than they could be made in the U.S.? You all benefit from outsourcing and globalization, but you're too fixated on your own careers to see the benefits.
Great, but if I don't have a job, how do I pay for that killer hardware?
I'm not an economist nor a meteorologist, but I give equal trust to both proffessions' particular brand of voodoo fortune telling...
W.E.P.
Re:If people would just stop stealing...
on
European DRM News
·
· Score: 2, Insightful
I think that was in relation to supply if I'm not mistaken...
What is the fair value when the supply is for all practical purpose instantaneous and infintely repeatable?
Only problem with that is...people still need to get paid. What you pay for a CD or Movie, doesn't just go to the artists. There are millions of workers living off of the money. Studio techs, salesmen, marketers(shudder), attorneys, IT workers, secretaries/clerks, warehouse workers, PHBs, etc... etc... etc...
If a company decides to sell something for a low price or starts losing tons of money to piracy, that lost revenue needs to be made up somewhere. It's not going to be the president of the company or the artist taking the paycut or losing their job. It's going to be Joe and his buddies, who drive forklifts and barely make enough to stay above the poverty line.
There's little reason for a home user (or student) to need to pay so much for MS Office (or even just Word alone) when basic functionality is all that's required
I concur, now that I have found Open Office for Windows, I only use MS Office at work.
All MS's hand waving about being able to conviently put Excel charts and such in Word documents is BS. It can be done, but not with out a lot of effort to make it worthwhile.
As my uncle used to say, "It is a poor workman that blames his tools.."
It took me all of 5 seconds to copy/paste a full spreadsheet from Excel into Word. It even showed up as a Word Table. Of course the other route is to use the insert feature, which is hardly a pain to use. I can't think of another way...
Wait, yes I can... Drag and drop. Just drag a shortcut from the desktop or a folder into word and viola, instant table with your Excel data. The same can be accomplished with a number of documents, some are not even MS documents.
You may not like MS Office for other reasons (I happen to think it is way too bloated), but that particular reason is not valid as far as I can tell.
Besides, I consider the need to be running resource-consuming programs in the background (AV software) just to prevent the OS from doing something it oughtn't do in the first place to be an issue.
The issue is viruses and unethical people, they come for all operating systems. Even your cell phone now.
mass of spam in your inbox (or choking up your mail server pipe and CPU cycles) coming from compromised Windows boxes is an issue too.
Don't think there aren't any Linux/Unix boxes out there spamming, because there are.
Bullshit. I ran this computer right here sans virus protection, Ad-Aware, Spybot, Zone Alarm, or anything else even remotely resembling security software for the better part of a year and a half on the same connection as my parent's computers (router).
Good God! I hope you have a firewall up now, especially after announcing it to everyone. You know how many Linux/Unix machines I have had to track down on the internet because some joker thought they were safe cause it wasn't Windows and now their box is mail spamming or being used as a jump station to hack into other systems?
Granted, the number is far lower than the Windows boxes, but jeezuz, get a firewall. Hardware/software, whatever...
User stupidity accounts for massive amounts of infections.
I agree, and I think running ANY system on the internet without 1. virus protection and 2. a firewall constitutes user stupidity...
First, let me assume you didn't mean what you said. What you *did* say doesn't make sense, as the only way for a system to run with less privileges would be for it to not even have a System Administrator account while leaving some other system with that authority.
I think it is pretty clear what he meant and judging by the grammatical nightmare that was your reply, I don't think you should be the first to pick nits...
Note, I only mention the grammar because of your snide beginning comment, not because I think grammar is a high priority here.
Given that, what is the deal with this SP2 bashing by the tech media?
I don't think anyone ever said this would fix every possible security problem and make Windows un-hackable, yet there appears to be a special glee associated with reporting a (shudder) security issue with anything MS. Jeezuz, give em some credit for trying...
LOL. I have had so many experiences like that. Having played many a MMORPG. I have developed a bit of a thick skin, having made it through boot camp and 4 years of the military (Something about a barracks full of people trying to live together that breeds a lot of trash-talk).
Most of these bullies are totally deflated when nobody pays attention to them. They are only words after all.
For some reason, back in the days of BBSes it didn't seem to be such an issue. Maybe it was because of the localized nature of the systems.
for someone who migrated from apple to DOS , you sure are giving linux a hard time:))
I actually preferred Apple at the time, but my job was so DOS heavy I switched. I had a PowerMac for a while sitting next to my Windows machine, but not a lot of commercial software there either (as you said).
I actually like Linux, it's small and fast. The problem I have is the commercial software issue and the hardware vendors don't seem to work as hard on their Linux drivers (if at all). My GeoForce for example is a slow and sluggish when I use Linux, but works great under Windows. This isn't a fault of Linux, but rather the drivers.
I have been coming to slashdot for years. I have only recently been posting.
I ran Linux exclusively for almost a year (othen than at work) and while there are many positives to it, I truly find it too difficult to deal with as a casual desktop machine. Something I can easily go to the store and buy a latest and greatest game for and sit down and play right away, or setup for my mother or sister to use.
But my point stands. You were a windows user in the beggining. You still are. You didn't migrate from linux, you just "gave linux a chance".
Actually I originally was a Timex Sinclair user, then migrated to Vic20 then migrated to C64, then to Amiga, then Apple, then to DOS, then to Windows, then to Linux, then to Windows.
I guess that makes me a Timex Sinclair user that's giving some other operating systems a chance...
still you do have *some* xp
I have been using computers of one type or another for 20(ish) years. For 10 of them I have administered Novell/Windows/Linux/Unix/HP-UX systems. I think I have a handle on it....
>I find it laughable that the oh so smarter linux
crowd doesn't have the first clue on how to USE word
so the "oh so smarter linux crowd" are windows-using professional journalists now ?
I don't particularly like MS Office, but it hardly takes a professional journalist or expert windows user to use Word.
It's safe to say that most linux users are actually users who *used* windows first and *then* migrated to linux. On the contrary i haven't seen any windows user migrating *from* linux yet, they actually are "bitching about features on motorcycle just because they've sat on it".
Uh, I migrated back from Linux. I jumped into it full to give it a chance. Used it as my desktop machine and on my laptop. I even installed it on my IPAQ. Now I have windows back on all these machines. Except the IPAQ, as there is no way to do this via USB or the memory card (which is how I installed it). I tried asking on a Linux IRC and got nothing but jeers.
Yes, or ctrl-z. But there is an option that turns it off.
It would be nice if this option actually worked. I don't know how many times I have set the option not to automatically capitalize, yet it still does it.
I am soooo glad to see that open office is available for Windows. I didn't know that. I will be downloading this today.
I'm not an MS basher (check some of my previous posts), but MS Office has become a bloated monster, all so they can make a few bucks adding new features that few people use. God, I miss my Amiga...
From what I can tell there are a few people here with some mis-conceptions. You don't need to sign a license to use a mail client utilizing this specification. You only need to sign this agreement if you plan to re-distribute an executable or the code to end-users.
The only difference between this and your average open source agreement, is they want it in writing and the agreement is reciprocol.
As far as the standard beeing worth anything, I'll leave that up to the more technically minded...
W.E.P.
You will be receiving a letter from my lawyer for causing the 3rd degree burns I just received after spitting hot tea all over myself. Not to mention the near choking from laughing so hard.
I will need years of phycho-therapy after this...
W.E.P.
PS - George Lucas has become a hack and should not be allowed to direct or write movies any longer.
What the MPAA is doing to these chip manufacturers sounds a lot (to me) like what Microsoft got into trouble with the DOJ for doing.
Enlighten me if I'm way off base...
W.E.P.
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Hold on a second... ..a minute ago you were talking about supply-and-demand, and as soon as someone called you on that, then suddenly you argument morphs into a "but won't someone please think of the forklift operators!" argument.
You sure that was me? Check again.
The artists who created the music get next-to-nothing, and the workers who manufacture and distribute the CDs get next to nothing... the bulk of the $17.99 cost of a CD is simply profit for people who contributed nothing.
I don't disagree, but that doesn't change the fact that when a company starts losing money, it isn't the guys up top that suffer. That isn't fair, I agree, but it is reality. The system must be changed.
Protecting the obscene ammounts of UNEARNED profits by middlemen who never created anything in thier lives, but who simply leech off of both artists and the public is not really something the public cares much about.So only people who create should make money? Only software developers should get paid, not the people who support software or ship software or sell software?
You can throw words like "theft" and "piracy" around all you like, but those words actually have specific dictionary meanings that in no way apply to the current situation.
Dictionary? Who cares? This is as ludicrous as Bill Clinton's definition of Oral Sex. Let's say we make it okay tommorow to copy anything you want from whoever you like. Who do you think will be the first to start making money off of it? I imagine it would be Corporations...
W.E.P.*chuckle* If you're not qualified for something else, maybe it's time to crack some different books? The phrase "Tough, Adapt or Die" doesn't just apply to Companies like MS or SCO. They apply to you and me as well.
I totally agree and am doing that. Working on my business degree right now...But the job goes elsewhere because someone else can do it cheaper.
Of course, part of the reason they can do it cheaper is because they can feed their families for much less than we can.
W.E.P.I just love it when you IT people get all pompous about economists. Of course you're all the smartest people on the face of the earth, so people who've actually STUDIED economics can't possibly be right about anything, especially when you disagree with it on a visceral level.
I don't necessarily disagree with her, but it isn't a lot of comfort to know that my job will turn into some different other job that my experience has not qualified me for.
You guys sound as pathetic as the steel workers and miners where I grew up, compaining about how the corporate "man" keeps you down.
Yeah, I have seen places where the corporations have sucked the life from a city. Go through Detroit and look what happens to whole communities when corporate vampires are finished suckling.
It's a known economic fact that lower labor costs translate to lower finished goods costs. You think you'd be able to afford the latest graphics hardware and a new box everytime the next killer FPS came out if they weren't being manufactured overseas for way less than they could be made in the U.S.? You all benefit from outsourcing and globalization, but you're too fixated on your own careers to see the benefits.
Great, but if I don't have a job, how do I pay for that killer hardware?
I'm not an economist nor a meteorologist, but I give equal trust to both proffessions' particular brand of voodoo fortune telling...
W.E.P.I think that was in relation to supply if I'm not mistaken... What is the fair value when the supply is for all practical purpose instantaneous and infintely repeatable?
Only problem with that is...people still need to get paid. What you pay for a CD or Movie, doesn't just go to the artists. There are millions of workers living off of the money. Studio techs, salesmen, marketers(shudder), attorneys, IT workers, secretaries/clerks, warehouse workers, PHBs, etc... etc... etc...
If a company decides to sell something for a low price or starts losing tons of money to piracy, that lost revenue needs to be made up somewhere. It's not going to be the president of the company or the artist taking the paycut or losing their job. It's going to be Joe and his buddies, who drive forklifts and barely make enough to stay above the poverty line.
W.E.P.There's little reason for a home user (or student) to need to pay so much for MS Office (or even just Word alone) when basic functionality is all that's required
I concur, now that I have found Open Office for Windows, I only use MS Office at work.
W.E.P.All MS's hand waving about being able to conviently put Excel charts and such in Word documents is BS. It can be done, but not with out a lot of effort to make it worthwhile.
As my uncle used to say, "It is a poor workman that blames his tools.."
It took me all of 5 seconds to copy/paste a full spreadsheet from Excel into Word. It even showed up as a Word Table. Of course the other route is to use the insert feature, which is hardly a pain to use. I can't think of another way...
Wait, yes I can... Drag and drop. Just drag a shortcut from the desktop or a folder into word and viola, instant table with your Excel data. The same can be accomplished with a number of documents, some are not even MS documents.
You may not like MS Office for other reasons (I happen to think it is way too bloated), but that particular reason is not valid as far as I can tell.
W.E.P.I just meant the opening. I believe he (wasn't my post) was saying the user running as an admin, not a system.
I shudder to think of some outside source administering my PC.
W.E.P.This would be more useful, if it lit up a bowl at 4:20 if the green lamp was going.
Hmmm... All I need is an automated valve and a mini blowtorch...
W.E.P.Besides, I consider the need to be running resource-consuming programs in the background (AV software) just to prevent the OS from doing something it oughtn't do in the first place to be an issue.
The issue is viruses and unethical people, they come for all operating systems. Even your cell phone now.
mass of spam in your inbox (or choking up your mail server pipe and CPU cycles) coming from compromised Windows boxes is an issue too.
Don't think there aren't any Linux/Unix boxes out there spamming, because there are.
W.E.P.Bullshit. I ran this computer right here sans virus protection, Ad-Aware, Spybot, Zone Alarm, or anything else even remotely resembling security software for the better part of a year and a half on the same connection as my parent's computers (router).
Good God! I hope you have a firewall up now, especially after announcing it to everyone. You know how many Linux/Unix machines I have had to track down on the internet because some joker thought they were safe cause it wasn't Windows and now their box is mail spamming or being used as a jump station to hack into other systems?
Granted, the number is far lower than the Windows boxes, but jeezuz, get a firewall. Hardware/software, whatever...
User stupidity accounts for massive amounts of infections.
I agree, and I think running ANY system on the internet without 1. virus protection and 2. a firewall constitutes user stupidity...
W.E.P.Can't believe this garnered an insightful.
First, let me assume you didn't mean what you said. What you *did* say doesn't make sense, as the only way for a system to run with less privileges would be for it to not even have a System Administrator account while leaving some other system with that authority.
I think it is pretty clear what he meant and judging by the grammatical nightmare that was your reply, I don't think you should be the first to pick nits...
Note, I only mention the grammar because of your snide beginning comment, not because I think grammar is a high priority here.
W.E.P.No operating system is secure...
Given that, what is the deal with this SP2 bashing by the tech media?
I don't think anyone ever said this would fix every possible security problem and make Windows un-hackable, yet there appears to be a special glee associated with reporting a (shudder) security issue with anything MS. Jeezuz, give em some credit for trying...
W.E.P.Could be useful for mass transit.
Though I doubt this is just 10 years in the future. The media is always spouting off about some technology that is "just around the corner".
W.E.P.Warning! My mind is wandering aimlessly
LOL. I have had so many experiences like that. Having played many a MMORPG. I have developed a bit of a thick skin, having made it through boot camp and 4 years of the military (Something about a barracks full of people trying to live together that breeds a lot of trash-talk).
Most of these bullies are totally deflated when nobody pays attention to them. They are only words after all.
For some reason, back in the days of BBSes it didn't seem to be such an issue. Maybe it was because of the localized nature of the systems.
W.E.P.So no big extras. So what is the draw?
How about the draw of being able to carry around a TB of data in a CD case?
W.E.P.for someone who migrated from apple to DOS , you sure are giving linux a hard time :))
I actually preferred Apple at the time, but my job was so DOS heavy I switched. I had a PowerMac for a while sitting next to my Windows machine, but not a lot of commercial software there either (as you said).
I actually like Linux, it's small and fast. The problem I have is the commercial software issue and the hardware vendors don't seem to work as hard on their Linux drivers (if at all). My GeoForce for example is a slow and sluggish when I use Linux, but works great under Windows. This isn't a fault of Linux, but rather the drivers.
W.E.P.I have been coming to slashdot for years. I have only recently been posting.
I ran Linux exclusively for almost a year (othen than at work) and while there are many positives to it, I truly find it too difficult to deal with as a casual desktop machine. Something I can easily go to the store and buy a latest and greatest game for and sit down and play right away, or setup for my mother or sister to use.
But my point stands. You were a windows user in the beggining. You still are. You didn't migrate from linux, you just "gave linux a chance".
Actually I originally was a Timex Sinclair user, then migrated to Vic20 then migrated to C64, then to Amiga, then Apple, then to DOS, then to Windows, then to Linux, then to Windows.
I guess that makes me a Timex Sinclair user that's giving some other operating systems a chance...
still you do have *some* xp
I have been using computers of one type or another for 20(ish) years. For 10 of them I have administered Novell/Windows/Linux/Unix/HP-UX systems. I think I have a handle on it....
W.E.P.I love it. An incredible piece of technology and rather than marvel at it, you're all wondering how this will affect piracy.....
W.E.P.>I find it laughable that the oh so smarter linux crowd doesn't have the first clue on how to USE word
so the "oh so smarter linux crowd" are windows-using professional journalists now ?
I don't particularly like MS Office, but it hardly takes a professional journalist or expert windows user to use Word.
It's safe to say that most linux users are actually users who *used* windows first and *then* migrated to linux. On the contrary i haven't seen any windows user migrating *from* linux yet, they actually are "bitching about features on motorcycle just because they've sat on it".
Uh, I migrated back from Linux. I jumped into it full to give it a chance. Used it as my desktop machine and on my laptop. I even installed it on my IPAQ. Now I have windows back on all these machines. Except the IPAQ, as there is no way to do this via USB or the memory card (which is how I installed it). I tried asking on a Linux IRC and got nothing but jeers.
Now I only use Linux for server applications.
W.E.P.
Yes, or ctrl-z. But there is an option that turns it off.
It would be nice if this option actually worked. I don't know how many times I have set the option not to automatically capitalize, yet it still does it.
I am soooo glad to see that open office is available for Windows. I didn't know that. I will be downloading this today.
I'm not an MS basher (check some of my previous posts), but MS Office has become a bloated monster, all so they can make a few bucks adding new features that few people use. God, I miss my Amiga...
W.E.P.
From what I can tell there are a few people here with some mis-conceptions. You don't need to sign a license to use a mail client utilizing this specification. You only need to sign this agreement if you plan to re-distribute an executable or the code to end-users. The only difference between this and your average open source agreement, is they want it in writing and the agreement is reciprocol. As far as the standard beeing worth anything, I'll leave that up to the more technically minded... W.E.P.
You will be receiving a letter from my lawyer for causing the 3rd degree burns I just received after spitting hot tea all over myself. Not to mention the near choking from laughing so hard.
I will need years of phycho-therapy after this...
W.E.P.
PS - George Lucas has become a hack and should not be allowed to direct or write movies any longer.
What the MPAA is doing to these chip manufacturers sounds a lot (to me) like what Microsoft got into trouble with the DOJ for doing. Enlighten me if I'm way off base... W.E.P.
So why even put Myth 3 in there if it isn't a myth?